Too Much To Do in France

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been so busy with France that I wasn't actually awake enough during my free time to post. I'll summarize the last few days here for your reading pleasure.

Friday morning, we spent our last hours in Berlin, seeing Gendarmenmarkt, Unter den Linden and Alexanderplatz again before entering a train to Schonefeld airport. By 5PM, we were on a plane to Paris-Orly, and we arrived at around 7PM. Orly Airport is much close to downtown Paris than Charles de Gaulle, but actually farther from our destination, L'Isle Adam. While we waited for our ride at the airport, the parking situation was absolutely crazy. Cars were parked in the middle of the road, and even in the marked police lane. In America, your car would be towed if it was just sitting on the road in front of arrivals for more than a minute. Anyways, our ride was one of our friends from L'Isle Adam, an hour away, and where we stayed for three days, and are going to for another two. L'Isle Adam is a small town north of Paris on the L'Oise river. It is a classic example of a French town, with a market, cathedral, large town hall, and a river full of restaurants. There are also historical parks and attractions, since the town's history dates back to the Dark Ages.

The next day was our first full day in France, and we spent it in Verdun. Verdun is another small riverside town, but with a much larger historical significance. It was the site of the most tactical French victory in the First World War. We were going to go to a "Reenactment" of that battle scheduled for 10:30PM, so we decided to spend the day there. We arrived by 4PM, and visited a museum about World War I, where I learned a lot about the war. Before, I only knew much about World War II and the Cold "War". Next we visited the Ossuary/Cemetery, where the bodies were buried. Then, we traversed through some of the terrain the soldiers dealt with, realizing that it wouldn't be very comfortable to spend entire weeks there in combat. Lastly, we visited one of the actual fortresses used during the year long battle.

Before watching the show, we wanted a good dinner, so we spent a while searching for a restaurant. We drove for over an hour searching the area and found nothing not completely occupied. We eventually settled in central Verdun where after 30 minutes of walking, we just told a local restaurant we'd take the next table. By the time we were seated, it was 9PM, less than 90 minutes before the start of the show. We were cutting it close. I had really good Margarita Pizza and French apple pie (Tarte aux pommes) for dessert. We were on the road by 10:10 and we eventually did get on time. Because we arrived "late", we didn't have to wait long for the show to starts like many of the visitors who came early to claim their reserved seats.

The show itself was pretty good. It gave me a good idea about how the average citizen felt about the war, and how everyone wanted peace throughout the entire thing. The actual battle scenes weren't as thrilling as they were symbolic, giving the performance more of a story feel than a light show. At midnight when it ended, I could tell that World War I is the war in France that is remembered more than any other, because of its huge impact. France wasn't as involved in WWII as they were in WWI. The only complaint I had about the show was the live translation system via headphones. It was hard to use since I heard French and English at the same time, and it was similar to trying to hear someone over someone else talking, but I was still easily able to get the premise of the story. By 3AM we were back in L'Isle Adam and sleeping before the next, not-as-busy day.

The next day, Sunday, was filled with surprises and pure luck. After a large breakfast, we drove to Paris, and found one of the closest parking spots to the Eiffel Tower I've ever seen. After waiting about 2 hours in lines, we saw the magnificent few of Paris from the top, and could even see our car since it was so close. Next, we wanted to take a stroll down Champs-Elysees, the famous street that leads from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place du Concorde. We picked the wrong day for this. We had no idea whatsoever that that day just happened to be the last day of the Tour de France, in which thousands of people would be lined up to see the bikers pass by for a matter seconds up and down Champs-Elysees. After finding a very close parking spot in extreme traffic jam conditions, we walked down towards the street, and were just in time to see the rush of bikers and the support vehicles that followed them. Whereas most people plan to visit Paris to see the Tour de France months in advance, and wait by the street early in the morning, we, out of pure luck, stumbled upon it at the perfect time, and saw this famed bike race as a complete, but very pleasant surprise.

Because the streets were so crowded from all of the people leaving, strolling down the street was impractical, and we decided to return to L'Isle Adam early. In L'Isle Adam, after a short rest, we went to eat at the L'Affiche restaurant, where I had the best sautéed pork in my life, mainly because of the unique coconut milk tomato sweet and sour curry sauce.

The next day, today, we went to Paris again, but this time just to walk around. Within 5 hours, we walked down Champs-Elysees, the Seine River, the Louvre, had a nice lunch in a very authentic French quarter, saw the Notre Dame, Pompidou Centre, Place Concorde, and countless other sights. It was comparable to the Berlin walking tour, but without the guide. It had a much better feel than riding the double-decker tourist buses that would only let you see the sights from afar for seconds at a time, and not being able to traverse in the picturesque mini streets (This is what we did in Barcelona last year). By 6PM, we were picked up and returned to L'Isle Adam by around 7PM.

For dinner, just hours ago, we ate at a Cuban place, owned by the same owners of the L'Affiche restaurant we ate at yesterday. I had some pretty good Fajitas, and tried my first Creme Brulée. The Creme Brulée would've been better had I not been so stuffed. We returned "home" at 10PM, where I'm getting ready for one more day in Paris, before leaving Wednesday. I probably won't post again until back in America, but until then, Au Revoir!

Two More Days in Berlin

These last two days have been very tiring (it's getting repetitive now isn't it), but I've been through so much that it doesn't really matter. I'll start by giving yesterday's summary, then moving on to today's events. We first had breakfast at a cafe close to our hotel known as the Einstein Kaffe. It was quite expensive, but much better than the 26 euro fee at our hotel. We then wanted to visit the first museum of our trip, the Deutsch Technikmuseum. It is comparable to the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC, but with airplanes, boats, trains, and a brewery. Despite there being signs everywhere in both German and English, and the WelcomeCard book stating that the museum was also in English, we still asked to make sure there would be English. The lady at the ticket booth nonchalantly said yes to our question, so we decided to go in.

Almost everything turned out to be in German, and hard to understand. We tried to not let it ruin our visit, and just decided to look at the exhibits. Eventually on the upper levels, there were some English descriptions, and many of the exhibits were enough of a spectacle on their own. We then continued into the museum's second building, where we saw an old train garage with a rotating circular track directing trains into the garages, as well as an old brewery, where we got an insight into how beer is mass produced. As we left the museum, it began to get quite hot outside. We decided to continue doing indoor activities. After a short train ride to Potsdamer Platz, Berlin's Times Square, we visited the eye-catching Sony Center. This "building" is really 4 or 5 buildings around a fountain, with a mountain shaped roof over it.

Part of this complex is the German Film Museum, which we decided to pay a visit to. I must say, it is quite an extensive and interesting museum... If you're a German interested in the history of German film. The museum was pretty boring for us, but we saw how it could be very interesting for a German. Before visiting our last museum of the day, we decided to pay a short visit to the largest remaining section of the wall in central Berlin, which has a brand new Nazi Police, or Gestapo Museum which shows how Jews were persecuted and prosecuted from 1933-1945 in Nazi Germany.

After this, the last museum we went to was the DDR Museum near Alexanderplatz. This was a very interesting museum that gave us an idea of what life was like in the communist East Germany (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). We saw artifacts from the time, a car from the era, an apartment room similar to what would exist at the time, and learned a lot about the restrictions, economic lives, and recreational lives of DDR citizens. For my father, it was almost a reality, as he spent a good portion of his life growing up in Communist Poland before escaping.

We left the museum after purchasing some books about the Wall. There was also some DDR music we saw, but it was overpriced at that store. Because we still wanted this music, we went to a big media store on Alexanderplatz. Very quickly, we found what we were looking for, but we also noticed that American music there was much cheaper than it is in America. We went crazy, and got quite a few CDs of both German and American music. It was sort of like the international stores talked about in the DDR museum, where tourists in the DDR could purchase western goods for cheaper than in the west.

The last thing we wanted to do that day was visit the TV Tower and have dinner at its 360 degrees rotating restaurant. Our VIP tickets allowed us to skip the lines and go directly up, as long as we showed up between 6:10PM and 6:20PM. At the top, we got some dinner while we admired the surrounding landscape of Berlin. The food was actually very good, authentic German cuisine, despite reviews saying it is mediocre. I found my bacon-wrapped pork fillets with potato noodles very good, and it was made even better with the ever-changing view of Berlin from the EU's tallest structure. The only problem I saw was that there were no window-side tables for groups of two, but it was fine, as it was easy to see beyond the table next to us. We also had an opportunity to see the entire view again from the observation level one floor below the restaurant.

As soon as we returned the surface, we went to the hotel exhausted, and took a dip in the swimming pool. It was quite refreshing for us, to the point where we decided to go back for a night stroll near the Brandenburg Gate. There, we took some pictures in front of the Gate, as well as the Reichstag, which we would visit the next day. Before going back to hotel, we wanted to have a small, additional dinner (Although the portions at the TV Tower were very good, they were quite small), so we stopped by a traditional Berlin Doner Kebap kiosk. Here, I had my very first Doner Kebab, a wrap of minced meat, sauces, and vegetables. It was extremely good, and I must say, doners are now one of my favorite foods. When we returned to the hotel, it was nearly midnight and I was in no mood to write a blog. I went immediately to bed.

Today, we visited quite a few significant places, and also had a guided tour of two authentic Cold War bomb shelters. We started our day by taking a train to Potsdamer Platz and having a nice breakfast at a cafe we discovered there yesterday. Next, we continued our train trip to the Gesundbrunnen station where the offices of the Berliner-Unterwelten (Berlin Underground) are located. Here, we bought tickets for a guided tour of Cold-War fallout shelters, but the tours were about an hour and a half from the time of purchase. We thought it would've been a good idea to visit and get to the top of the Reichstag in that gap. That was a poor calculation, since after the 15 minute train ride, and 5 minute walk to the station, we discovered that the line was almost 2 hours long. We slowly turned around and walked in the other direction, very surprised.

After returning to Gesundbrunnen, we still had quite a bit of time before our tour would start. To counter this, we had a second breakfast at a small cafe outside the station, and by the time we were done, it was time for our tour. The tour was quite intriguing. We saw two fallout shelters. The first we saw was located in the Gesundbrunnen metro station, and was built to hold 3,000 Berliners for 48-hours after a nuclear attack. This one had no electricity or plumbing other than glow in the dark paint, and water tanks. It wouldn't have been the best place to hide in an attack. The second shelter was located in the Pankstrasse station and was much larger and well-equipped. This one could shelter 4,000 people for 14 days. It had a kitchen, generator, and powerful ventilation system with a filter from poison gas or radiation. This one also had real beds and could also actually be used today, given that the warning of an attack was given 3-6 months in advance.

In these shelters, we also learned about who would end up in these shelters (Women and Children), and about the ghost stations of the metro (unused metro stations in the East that had Western trains going through). These were quite famous, since Eastern soldiers had to guard them so that Easterners couldn't escape through metro tunnels. The East even illegally blocked off the emergency exits to prevent escapes. The last thing that was discussed was the whole philosophy of the shelters. Questions like "Would you rather die instantly from the fireball, or slowly and painfully from radiation?" or "What do you do when you leave the shelter and there is no one at the surface?" were posed. We left the museum from a normal door leading directly into the metro station, and it was cool because we realized that there can be quite interesting things behind the doors in a normal subway station.

The rest of the day consisted of us snacking and visiting two famous places. First, it was the Reichstag (Parliament building). We went to the dome, where we had a panoramic view of Berlin comparable to the one atop the TV Tower, although from a lower elevation. The second place we visited, after taking a short dip at our hotel pool, was the Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. This museum gave an extensive history of the Berlin Wall, displayed many of the ingenious escapes across the wall (suitcases, kayaks, tunnels, gas tanks in cars, hang gliders, hand-made submarines, and even hot air balloons), as well as the tragically halted escape attempts. The only problem with the museum was that it was extremely overwhelming, and seemed to have an endless amount of rooms with walls of text about a certain escape or historical event. We eventually left after seeing about 2/3 of the museum. By then, it was about 10PM, so we had a Doner Kebab dinner before returning to the hotel, where I am now a writing a double blog entry.

Tomorrow, I'll be taking a plane to Paris, France after a final morning in Berlin. There, we will spend the last 5 days of the trip.

5 Days in Poland, and Berlin Day 1

These last few days have been a rest from our sightseeing extravaganza in London, but as we came into Berlin, we started off with an exhausting day. First I'll briefly sum up the events of the last 5 days before I tell you about what we did today in Berlin.

On Thursday morning, the day after the Queen musical in London, we woke up early to catch a train to Stansted Airport. From this relatively new, but busy airport, we took a budget plane to Bydgoszsz, Poland. As soon as I entered the plane, I new why we got our tickets so cheaply. The seats were mostly made of plastic, aside from the pillow and cushion, the seats didn't recline, there were no nets for magazines or trash, and there were advertisements all over the baggage compartments. Nevertheless, it was our only option to get to Bydgoszcz from London, and it was at a good price. For the next five days, I spent some time with my grandparents, met with some friends at a restaurant, explored museums in the city, and saw several concerts on a pier market from a boat, ranging from blues to jazz. Bydgoszcz has this island it calls "Venice of Bydgoszcz" which is supposed to have a Venetian feel to it. It also has an old sawmill that is currently being converted to a hotel for the downtown area. If the city plays its cards right, Bydgoszcz could be the next big tourist stop in Poland, with an opera house, theater district, concert hall, art/history/archaeology museums, and a tourist hub (Venice of Bydgoszcz).

Our last hours in Bydgoszcz were this morning. After a short night, we woke up at 4:30 AM and caught a taxi to the main train station. We then proceeded to get onto a train that probably had the worst quality on any train I have ever been on. The seats were completely plastic, and the coaches were noisy and dirty. A subway train would've been more comfortable for this 2-and-a-half hour trip to Poznan. Poznan is one of the largest cities in Poland, after Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, and Wroclaw. Poznan will be hosting many of the games for the Euro 2012 Football (Soccer) Tournament. Because of this, the station we arrived in was undergoing extensive remodeling, and we had to resort to eating breakfast at a nearby McDonald's.

We then entered the train to Berlin and we were very, very pleasantly surprised. The coaches we had were formerly first-class coaches, with 6 cushioned seats in an air conditioned, box, and it was the most comfortable train ride I've been on, despite it being three hours long. When I went to get myself a snack, I passed through the first-class coaches, and they looked surprisingly less comfortable than our own coach. At noon, we arrived at the impressive Berlin Hauptbanhof, which was recently designed in 2006 to be an all-glass construction. Here we purchased our Berlin WelcomeCard, which includes unlimited rail travel through the city plus discounts at many attractions around the city. Before going to any attractions though, we needed to first check in to our hotel to drop off our bags and rest for a few minutes before going out into the city.

We decided to start out our Berlin stay with a guided walk through the center of the city. Starting from the Hackesher Markt Square by the Spree River, we saw sights such as the TV Tower, Red Town Hall, Museum Island, Various Churches, Various Embassies (Soviet Russian being the most prominent, along with the new U.S. embassy), Universities, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (Parliament), Holocaust Memorial, Potsdam Platz, Hitler's Bunker, HQ of the Nazi Luftwaffe (Airforce), longest remnant of the Berlin Wall downtown, Checkpoint Charlie (most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin), and the Gendarmanmarkt. Our tour guide, throughout the tour told us the functions and histories of the buildings and sights, and how many of them were destroyed during the war and rebuilt in recent years. Throughout the city, he also went over histories of Berlin's involvement in both World War II and the Cold War, and so many more interesting facts about the city and its history. I also learned also how most of the famous sights of Berlin were actually in the formerly communist east, and not in the always capitalist west. By the time we were done with this tour, it was 6 PM and time for us to eat dinner. We needed some rest from walking in the incredibly hot and dry weather. The Thai restaurant we chose, Cha Cha, was quite mediocre, and I do not recommend for anyone travelling to Berlin. We waited long for the food, after having to remind the waiters to serve us, and the once we got the food, it wasn't exactly good.

Our plan for the night was to go on a night tour of Old Berlin. Our WelcomeCard told us to wait outside of Nikolai Church, the oldest church in Berlin. This is located in the medieval area of Berlin, known as the Nikolai Quarter. At 8PM, when we were supposed to depart, there was no one waiting. We later found out that it is a tour that must be reserved, and apparently, no one had done so that day. We decided not to let this ruin our night, so we walked through this medieval district (reminiscent of many other old districts in various cities around the world), into Alexanderplatz, the main square of East Berlin.

In the center of this square is the Fernsehturm Berlin, the large communist-built TV Tower that has remained the symbol of Berlin for 40 years. Around the plaza were some communist-style buildings, and a surprising amount of Dunkin Donuts. We counted 3 in the area just around the rail station. As we hung out at this major square, we noticed that there is still propaganda about the unification of the Germanys, since it was still controversial within some groups of people. After it started getting late, we took a subway train back to our hotel, and searched around for a convenience store. We looked everywhere within what seemed a mile radius of the hotel (we even saw a different metro station that we didn't get off from) but found nothing. When we returned to the hotel disappointed, we saw a convenience store in the hotel building that we had missed. It was relatively expensive, but still better than finding a supermarket far from our hotel.

I'm now in the hotel room, writing this entry, and quite tired. I haven't slept for 20 hours, and we're not exactly sleeping in tomorrow, so the next few days may be a little rough but definitely worth it. I'll keep the blog updated for the next days as we stay in Berlin.

London Day 3

Today was the most exhausting and exciting day of the entire trip so far (seeing as it's only been three days). We've done so much that I'm going to have trouble remembering everything we did. First, we had breakfast at our hotel, which was so filling, that our next "meal" was dinner. Anyways, we took a tube train down to the London Bridge, where we would walk along the river to the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was where all of Shakespeare's plays were originally produced, but it rotted away after Shakespeare's death. In recent years, there were efforts to rebuild it, in the original style: Wooden walls reinforced with oak branches and wood bolts, topped with a thatch roof. It is actually the only building in London that is allowed to have a thatched roof, as they were banned in 1666, after the great fire that destroyed most of the city. This new theatre opened in 1997, and Shakespearian plays run all year in the evening, and tours such as the one we went on run all year in the morning.

After touring the theatre, we crossed the Millenium Bridge, a footbridge built in 2000 to celebrate the new millenium. At the other side of the bridge was the St. Paul's Cathedral. We wanted to go inside to climb to the top where we would have a panoramic view of London, similar to the London Eye. We were shocked by the admission just to enter the church. It was 12.50 Pounds! That's almost $20 to see a church and climb to the top. Luckily, our London Pass covered our admission. After the exhausting climb up 528 steps, most tightly packed and in spirals, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of London, where we could see almost every famous landmark in the city.

After leaving the church, we took a double-decker bus to the London Bridge (not the Tower Bridge). The London Bridge area has quite a few "haunted" attractions, as the area during the medieval times was quite violent. Luckily, one of these attractions, the London Bridge Experience, was covered with our London Pass. It was however, not the most exciting part of our trip as they advertised. The first three-quarters of the tour consisted of a walk through a replica of the arches of London Bridge, with informational performances by some actors. These actors had some pretty lame jokes, many awkward pauses, and the audience was rather... unmoved. The last part of the tour was a walk through the scare attraction, the London Tombs, where we walked through this path with scares such as (fake) dead bodies in the dark, guys covered in blood makeup popping out at you, claustrophobic encounters in the dark, and insane men bringing running chainsaws inches from our necks. I guess it was worth the time if you have a London Pass, but not worth the $30/person they charge at the door.

After the 1.5 hour "experience" we started walking to the Tower Hill pier where we would take a guided boat cruise down the Thames, it started to lightly drizzle, but we didn't really worry about it. Part of our walk to the pier included walking across the famed Tower Bridge. Right as we were in the middle of the bridge, we heard sirens, and many confused tourists, and crowds of people flocking to the ends of the bridge. It turns out that they would be raising the bridge to let a boat pass. What a perfect time for this to happen, right while we were walking by. We were actually the last 2 people to be let across before they closed the gate. We watched as the bascules were raised in under 90 seconds, allowing the large pirate-style sailboat to enter.

Once we arrived at the pier, we purchased a ticket for a cruise to Westminster where the House of Parliament and the London Eye are located. The tour guide was very interesting, and made fun of the many buildings and bridges we passed, making great jokes while giving us the information we wanted to know. One problem we did have though is that a pouring rain started while we were on the boat, but it was fine, since there was a covered area too. As we docked into Westminster Pier, the weather miraculously cleared up in a matter of seconds, and the deep gray skies turned into blue. We tipped the tour guide and then walked towards 10 Downing St, where the Prime Minister lives. On our way, we saw a War Museum featuring the Cabinet War Rooms, we decided to go in, and we found out (surprise) that our London Passes gave us free admission. We went through these very interesting rooms, left the way they were at the end of World War II. The Cabinet War Rooms were essentially where the Prime Ministers and the Commanders of World War II in the British Army lived and planned their offenses. It was built under a 15 foot thick slab of steel-reinforced concrete, built to withstand a direct impact of a 250 kilogram bomb. It was actually never bombed, but provided shelter for the constantly bombed city of London in World War II. An interesting room was the map room, where there were world maps on the walls with pins representing attacks and battles of the war, that were placed by the commanders themselves, and left untouched for over 70 years.

We exited the museum, and then made a circle, where we found ourselves near Westminster Abbey. We decided that we should go inside, but when we found out that the famed place of worship cost 15 pounds ($22) per person to enter, we just walked away. Since we had to get to a theatre to watch the musical we bought tickets for, we started to walk towards it. On our way, we passed 10 Downing St, the home of the Prime Minister, and through the theatre district of London. Once we arrived at our theatre, we still had about an hour before the show, so we settled down at a neighboring restaurant. There, I had the best, juiciest, and scrumptious bacon cheeseburger I've ever had (at the hefty price of $15 of course). By the time we were done eating, we walked next door into the theatre.

The show "We Will Rock You" was the first "real" musical I've been to, and it sure was one I won't forget. The cast played many of Queen's greatest hits, with accompanying dances and light shows, and even played an encore of Bohemian Rhapsody. It was very, very impressive, worth every penny we spent on the tickets. By the time the performance was over, it was 10:30, so we took a tube train back to our hotel, via a metro station located conveniently outside of the theatre.

This visit to London is sure one I won't forget and I'm going to leave on a few remarks. First, the weather in London is COMPLETELY unpredictable. If the weatherman says it'll be sunny, expect either heavy rain, a cloudy sky, or a beautiful day, as even the forecast only a few hours before the actual weather occurred was completely off. I think the weathermen would be better off finding more useful jobs. Second of all, something scary has been happening to me. After spending only 3 days in London, my mind already thinks in English with a British accent, and cars driving on the wrong side of the road seems completely normal. Hopefully three days in America will do the opposite. But, that won't be for another two weeks, as tomorrow, we'll be flying to Poland, and in the days that follow, we'll visit Germany and France as well. Bye, and I'll be probably writing again in a few days, once something interesting in Poland happens.

London, Day 2

Today was yet another exciting day. We covered a lot of ground in and outside of London, so I'll summarize what we did. First, we had breakfast at our hotel. Next, we took a subway train from our hotel to London Paddington station, on our way to Windsor Castle. From Paddington, we took a train to a London suburb known as Slough, where we would take a train to Windsor. At Slough, there were high speed trains dangerously passing through without stopping. It was such an issue that some workers had to yell to save the lives of the people who mistook the incoming trains as their own train.

Once we arrived at Windsor Castle, we used our London Pass for free admission. Windsor Castle is the residence of the queen on weekends, and is the largest castle still occupied by a monarch today. Our audio tour took us through the the castle courtyard, historical state apartments and reception halls, and the castle's chapel, the St. George's Chapel. Something very interesting at the castle was one of the royal guards, the guards who have the large wigs and guard most royal places in Britain. They are quite famous for being able to maintain a straight face without laughing, just focusing all attention at their jobs. The guard that we saw on duty however seemed to be easily distracted. We saw a group of tourists try to flirt with the guard, who ended up making him laugh. We exited the castle and walked through the "Royal Shopping" center, which was basically a mall in fancy medieval style buildings. We then took trains back to London.

In London, we first decided to visit the Tower Bridge. There is a common misconception that the London Bridge is the bridge with the two towers and the walkway above a draw bridge. That is false however, that is the Tower Bridge, while London Bridge is a bridge downstream that has no real significance. In the walkway, we had a nice of view of the Tower of London, and the City of London, containing London's most prominent skyscrapers. We then took a tour through the historic engine rooms that powered the draw bridge with steam from the 1890s to the 1970s. Since the drawbridge has moved to an electrical system, the old engine rooms were put on display. We then took a short walk to the HMS Belfast, a British battle cruiser that served in World War II. It is now sitting in the Thames River next to the Tower Bridge.

We came a little too late for the 2-hour audio tour, and didn't really learn much about the history of the ship or the details of the chambers, but by just walking through its many decks and chambers, we got a feel for what life was like on board. We then continued to walk across the southern bank of the Thames River, passing through an historic London Prison converted into a museum. We saw some of the awful torture mechanisms used in the time and posed in each one, pretending we were the unlucky victims. We continued our walk, seeing some famous attractions along the river, such as the Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, the Houses of Parliament, and the Big Ben.

We ended our walk at the iconic London Eye, the world's largest ferris wheel. We bought a ticket, and since there were some clouds, the wait time for the ride was less than 5 minutes, and we experienced one of London's most famous attractions in under an hour. The London Eye was quite interesting while giving a very good view of the entire city, especially the houses of parliament. It was not however something completely outstanding or thrilling, and more of a thirty minute visit to an observation deck. By the time we were out of the London Eye, we were exhausted by walking a fair length of the Thames and visiting many famous attractions on the way. We took a subway train from nearby Waterloo station towards our hotel. The London Underground is more of a maze than a train system, as stations are often closed, and connections at stations are confusing and lengthy. It is however still the only reasonable way to get around the city quickly, as the roads are always packed. On our walk back to the hotel, we looked for a restaurant, and noticed a local restaurant giving away an offer to get two burgers for the price of one. We ate there, and I was quite impressed with the quality of the burger. My Dad got a Thai Chicken sandwich which also was very good.

By the time we got back to our hotel, we had spent around 12 hours in and around London. Today, we covered pretty much every major attraction in central London, and thanks to the London Pass, we saved quite a few pounds/dollars on transportation and admission. Tomorrow, we will finish our tour of central London by visiting the London Bridge Experience (a haunted tour of the crypts below the famous bride), St. Paul's Cathedral, The Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We will finish our visit to London by attending a West End (London's Broadway) musical called "We Will Rock You", featuring the music of Queen. The day after, we will be flying to Bydgoszcz, Poland, where I will spend some time with my grandparents, and not do as much sightseeing.

A New Trip

It's been only 4 months since I went to Italy, and I'm on the road (or in the air) again. This time, I'm going to be visiting London, England, Bydgoszcz, Poland, Berlin, Germany, and Paris, France. In fact, I'm currently in London now, and I'll tell you about how I spent the last day and a half. Sunday evening, we (my Dad and I) departed from Boston to Iceland, where we would connect to London after a 5 hour flight via a 3 hour flight. We were eventually in Heathrow Airport at around noon, but because of low sleeping time and time change, we were completely exhausted. Despite that, we decided we do some sightseeing anyway. Using our London PASS, we took the one hour train ride from the airport to our hotel near Downtown London. Here, we got our first impression of the London Underground, and it was pretty lousy. The trains were old and dirty, and the ride was bumpy and incredibly noisy. It is however the only real way to get around London as their famed double-decker buses are always stuck in traffic that goes slower than average walking speed. After checking into our hotel, we decided to visit the Tower of London. The name "Tower of London" is misleading, as it not one tower, but a castle-like fortification consisting of many small towers. Basically, the fort was the home of the kings of England for nearly 500 years until being moved to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. When we entered we noticed a guy giving a free guided tour of the fort, so we decided to follow him and his crowd.

It turns out, he was one of the royal custodians and guardians of the fort, and he gave quite a humorous tour of the whole complex poking fun at British culture and telling stories about kings and executions. After the one hour tour, we decided to walk around the complex ourselves, seeing torture devices, the royal treasury (containing crowns and coronary artifacts from the last 1000 years), and the royal armory (containing weapons and armory that were stored to defend the fort from attacks). We left the Fort at around closing time, and before continuing on our sightseeing walk/ride around London, we stopped by the London Bridge, which we will visit again tomorrow. After seeing the bridge, we took a subway train to the corner of Hyde Park so we could see Buckingham Palace (The queen's residence). On our way, we noticed that the pedestrian crossings also included equestrian crossing signs and buttons (for cavalrymen). Apparently, those who rode horses were not satisfied with just a picture of a man walking, but also wanted a picture of man on a horse crossing. At Buckingham palace, we saw the Royal Guard defend the Palace, as well as the crowds who flocked to see them. We then walked through Hyde Park, which is London's version of Central Park, famous for its large open field used for hosting music concerts. Hyde Park will also be a venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Lastly, we decided to ride a double decker bus on London's famous shopping streets, Oxford and Regents. Since there was so much traffic, the bus was almost as slow as the pedestrians on the sidewalk. We ended our ride at Piccadilly Circus, a famous intersection that serves as London's Times Square. After spending some time there, we took the subway back to our hotel, but before going back, we had dinner at a small Japanese kitchen. There, I had some very good fried chicken and rice, and my dad had some sushi. We then returned to the hotel, and I wrote this blog entry. I will be back tomorrow with its interesting events, but for now, goodbye.

Return To Rome

Saturday (2/20/2010)

At 6AM this morning, the boat I was sleeping on had an annoucement that woke everyone, including me, up. It was announcing that we would arrive in Naples by 7:15. We shuffled out of the boat and due to it being dark and rainy, rather than going to Sorrento as we had planned, we drove immediately to Rome, nonstop, and arrived at around 9:00AM. We first returned our rental car, which took 1.5 hours due to crazy traffic in the city, and lack of proper signage. We then checked in to our hotel, and went to have a brunch at a snack bar. Since Rome welcomed us with sun, unlike Naples, we decided to continue exploring. We first saw the cathedral of Christo Salvatori, and then we went to the Spanish Steps a second time, to see the sights, and to take pictures in the sun. We then went again to the Vatican City, but this time, we waited in line to enter the cupola of the St. Peter's Basilica. After waiting about 30 minutes, we rode up an elevator, climbed around 300 steps and arrived at the highest point in the Vatican. From there, we could see all of Rome and the Vatican. The views were breathtaking, and we spent at least 20 minutes up there. We then descended to explore the roof of the cathedral, and then walked around the inside of the cathedral for the last time. After our last visit to the Vatican, we slowly went back to our hotel via Metro. After relaxing for about 2 hours, we ate at a traditional Italian restaurant that was absolutely packed, and had a 5-course dinner that lasted almost 2 hours. We went back to the hotel and almost immediately went to sleep after a seemingly short, but tiring day.

Sunday (2/21/2010)

Today was our last full day in Italy. We woke up, had our hotel breakfast, and had a goal of visiting the sights of Rome we haven't yet seen. We first took metro to the Basilica of St. Paul. We entered during the Sunday morning mass and walked around. We saw the tomb of St. Paul, as well as the portraits of all of the popes since St. Peter. There are only 7 spots left for portraits, which leads some people to believe that the end of Christianity or of the world is soon to come. After we left the basilica, we visited the Pyramid of Cestius, which is a pyramid in the middle of Rome. It looks very misplaced, but is still interesting. From there, we took the metro to Circo Massimo, which is the remains of the world's first Stadium, but all that remains is a grass field with a sandy bottom. We walked its length to a strange church with a large tablet which will supposedly chop your hand off if you put your hand in it. I would've put my hand in it if not for the line, which was at least 30 minutes long, so it was simply not worth it. We then went to a real Roman cuisine restaurant (Cuchina Romana) to have "Dinner" which is eaten between 12-3PM. There were all sorts of weird dishes, such as bools tail, tripe soup and some other items from the insides of animals. From the restaurant, we went to the Piazza Repubblica downtown to see an extremely old church with contemporary sculptures and features. From there we visited the Campo di Fiori, in which flowers are sold during the day, and then we walked by the Tiber River through the Ghetto, where many of Rome's Jewish people lived when pope Paul VI separated them from Romans. We also saw the Great Synagouge of Rome, which is Rome's largest. As we walked through the ghetto, we also saw many more Roman ruins, including Julius Caesar's death location. Lastly, we visited the Trastevere, the area of Rome behind the Tiber River, and had some pastries at a nice cafe in the main square of Trastevere. From here, we wanted to return to the hotel, but we didn't know which bus to take. We ended up taking a huge circle around Rome, but finally managed to reach the hotel in time to have a good night sleep.

Tomorrow, we'll be taking a taxi to the airport in the morning, and flying out to Philly at 11AM, and arriving in Providence by around 5PM.

Sicilian Adventures

Here is what happened for the past two days:

Thursday (2/18/2010)

Today, nothing at all went as we had planned, but we still had an excellent day. First, we had our typical hotel breakfast, and then we drove off to Mt. Etna where we were going to have an excursion to the crater. We noticed that throughout this trip, we experienced all 4 seasons of the year. Winter in Rome the day it snowed, spring in Rome and Naples, summer in Palermo and Sicily, and fall on the slopes of Mt. Etna. It was quite amazing. When we arrived at the excursion center near the top of Etna, it was buried in at least 3 feet of snow. When we went inside the info center, it turned out they would be closed for weeks, due to the recent snowfall and wind. We were disappointed, but we took amazing pictures from the incredible views on our position in Etna. There was even a world cup for skiing occurring on the mountain at the time. We descended down the mountain and set our GPS for a river gorge that we would walk through. On our way, we stopped at a sleepy little town called Zafferani. It was very small, but had a nice, cozy feel to it. We stopped by a pastry shop and had the best pastries and coffee in the entire trip, and we stopped by a little grocery store, and purchased the cheapest water we’ve ever gotten in Europe, €0.25 per bottle (from the typical €1-2).

We followed our GPS for a while, and got some excellent views of the Sicilian landscape, but we felt like we were going away from all cities, and we just saw farmland and real Sicilian towns. When our GPS said we arrived, we were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Our GPS got us lost. What happened was we accidentally reset the GPS to the wrong address, and it took us to the end of a paved road. We were 10 miles from our real destination. We drove back to the gorges we wanted to visit, and it turned out it was closed, due to too high waters. What a bummer, the second thing that was closed contrary to our plan. We still had some excellent views of the river gorge, and took some great pictures. We were then going to drive to Taormina, to visit the ruins of an Ancient Greek amphitheatre. We joked that they would be closed for some ridiculous reason, like “out of paper tickets” or “suspected earthquake”, but we knew that it would be one thing that would go according to our plan. When we arrived in Taormina, the very troubling thing to find was parking. We looked everywhere, we drove through the entire city twice, taking little curving streets with 360 degree turns, but we still failed to find public parking. Very few people, even young people, speak English so even getting directions is a puzzle. When we finally found a parking garage, we were relieved, and rolled in to pick up a ticket. The machine said “Garage Full”. We were flabbergasted, as it was February, but it turns out that public parking was closed for the winter, even though there was summer weather. We finally found another parking area right outside of the city limits, but had an elevator to the city center. We took it and finally arrived on Taormina’s main street.

It was a nice, cozy little town with astonishing views of the surrounding landscape. When we arrived at the ruins, it was 4:35PM. They were closing the gate that was adorned with a sign that read a 4:30PM closing time. Our plan was once again ruined. We still enjoyed a wonderful view of the landscape and a stroll through the nice old town. The buildings there were all very neat and unique. We finally drove back to our hotel in Giardini Naxos where we relaxed for a couple of hours before going out for dinner. We ate at a pizzeria/pasta place, and since we were the first to dine (most Italians start dinner at 8:30ish), the owner let us take my pizza out of the oven for pictures. The pizza was some of the best I’ve ever had, preceded only by the pizza in Monaco last year. We then walked back to our hotel and pretty much immediately went to sleep.

Friday (2/19/2010)

Today was a long, but successful day. It started with a large breakfast. I had 5 croissants, yet still managed to be hungry later in the day. We checked out of our hotel in Giardini Naxos, and then drove back to Taormina to visit the ruins that we failed to see yesterday. Since we knew exactly where it was, we weren’t lost, and got there just in time. We took another stroll through Taormina’s nice main street, and arrived at the Ancient Greek amphitheater. Even with Mt. Etna covered with clouds, it was still an enlightening experience, learning about the origins of the theater, and also seeing the breathtaking views of Giardini Naxos, Taormina, and Scylla. If it weren’t a little foggy, we could’ve seen mainland Italy from the theater. After that, we left Taormina, and had a non-stop ride through the Sicilian inland to Palermo. It was about 2-and-a-half hours long, and the views were decent, besides the clouds. We passed through the city of Enna, in the geometrical center of the island, at over 3,000 feet in altitude. When we arrived in Palermo, it was sunny and quite hot, so we were quite lucky. I can’t imagine how hot it must be in the summer. We parked in the port, and started to walk through Palermo towards the opera house. My brother and I had a quick, late lunch at a McDonalds, and we then walked down another street. A man with a horse carriage stopped us and offered us a ride through the sights of Palermo for “trenta euro” which we thought meant €30. We accepted the ride. It was interesting to ride in a horse carriage with crazy Italian drivers swerving around us, including a bus which was trying to trample our horse. We stopped at the famous buildings in Palermo: the cathedral, fountains, opera house, theater, and a mosque that was converted to a church. When we finished the tour, the man showed us the brochure with a price tag of €80. We were confused, because we thought he meant €30, but after negotiation, we were able to pay €40. We spent the rest of our time eating at a nice Italian pizzeria/pasticeria, and then drove to the port where we embarked on our ferry, departed, and slept.

Now, we're going back to Rome, spending a few days there before returning to the U.S. on Monday.

Naples and a Boat

It’s been a long 4 days since I last posted, so I’ll summarize them here. Also, I've heard that people are having trouble accessing the website for the blog, which has all of my posts from previous trips, and will (soon) have pictures from this one. Simply go to http://aceurope.blogspot.com , and everything will be there.

Sunday (2/14/2010)

Today, we got up, had breakfast, and went to get a rental car. We reserved with Hertz, one of the largest rental companies in the world, 2 months in advance, and when we got there, he said he has a car for us. He wanted to give us a SmartCar, which seats only 2 people, while we need to seat 4 plus luggage. When we explained that we couldn’t take it, and we ordered a car for 4 people, he said we’d have to wait a few hours. We immediately cancelled the order, went to a neighboring car rental service and ordered a car for the same price and better insurance in just minutes. This car was also our first test with Italy’s crazy drivers. We made it safely to the hotel, and from there took the two hour drive to Sorrento, a town near Naples which had our hotel. On our way, we stopped at a rest area on the highway. I ate some pretty good pizza, and my parents said that the coffee was excellent. When we arrived at our hotel, we were impressed. It had an extremely nice view of Vesuvius, and the rooms and lobby were very large and nice. It is probably the best hotel I’ve ever been to. In the afternoon, we visited a nice village 5 minutes away called Vico Equense. You could walk every street within 20 minutes and had a square with a nice fountain. There were restaurants and pastry shops everywhere. When we walked in a restaurant for dinner, we were informed that they don’t serve food until at least 7PM. Disappointed, we returned to the hotel to relax and returned to Vico Equense at 7:30. We had a nice dinner and for dessert we searched all around the town for some excellent pastries which we ate for the next few days.

Monday (2/15/2010)

Today was a long and adventurous day. We woke up early with the plan to climb Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that towers over Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento. To do so, we drove up towards the car park before the summit, seeing some beautiful views of Naples and the surrounding area, as if we were in an airplane. When we reached the last view bends in the road as it was getting steeper, we reached the snowcap (which rarely occurs on Vesuvius), and our 2WD rental car refused to drive up, so we had to walk the remainder of the route, about 1km. When we reached the car parking area, we were disappointed by the news. The summit was closed due to icy weather. We were not permitted to walk the remaining 30 minute walk. We walked back, grabbing some igneous rocks from the various historic lava flows on the way down and when we got to our car, it was stuck in the snow we parked it in. It took 3 people to push the car out of the snow. We drove down the mountain and then decided to visit the ancient ruins of Pompeii. It was a mindblowing 5 hour adventure, walking through the city that was once buried by ash and rediscovered. We saw so many things: bathhouses, forums, temples, houses for the rich, theaters, a large stadium/amphitheatre, gardens, and even a YMCA of their time. We left the ruins exhausted, and returned to our hotel to relax. We went to Vico Equense for dinner, but instead of the usual 5 minute drive, there was unexplainable traffic that took us 45 minutes to get there. I can’t imagine what would happen in the summer. We had a decent dinner, returned to the hotel, and went to bed after this long day.

Tuesday (2/16/2010)

Today was the first day of the entire trip where we got to sleep in because tit was rainy, so there wouldn’t be anything interesting to do. I woke up at around 11AM, and we packed up pretty quickly, caught some last good views of Vesuvius, and drove off to Naples where we would spend the rest of the day. When we arrived in Naples, we did not get what we expected. It turns out it is a dirty city, but that wasn’t the bad part. What was bad was the drivers. IT was ridiculous. 6 cars would be side by side in the 3 lane roads, motorcycles would be slaloming through the traffic, and traffic lights were only suggestions, and almost never followed. We also got lost on our way to the port, where we would park. After about an hour and a half of crazy driving, we reached our parking space, and went off to to find the underground city of Naples. That was an adventure--getting to the underground city. We got lost in dark alleyways that could somehow fit cars racing at 50 mph, and the rain made it that much worse. We finally arrived at the city at 1:55PM. Perfect timing. The guided tour in English began at 2:00PM, and it was extremely interesting. We explored an ancient Roman amphitheatre that was discovered in the cellar of an apartment, and we explored the underground wells that people use in Naples. Those with claustrophobia or arachnophobia should not come to this place, as it is filled with small spaces, and spiders in those places, but it didn’t bother me. And don’t worry about rats. The snakes ate them. We left the underground city at around 4:00PM and started our walk back to the port, which was so much easier now that we knew a better route than Naples’ dark alleyways. At the port, we got lost, trying to get to our ferry, but by 6:30, our car was parked in the garage, and we were experiencing our first overnight voyage on a large vessel with cabins and a restaurant. Falling asleep was difficult, not because of the rocking up and down 10 feet at a time, but the annoying disco music playing two decks below us while normal people were trying to fall asleep. Anyways, it was somewhat of a shorter, crazier day, than the usual long and relaxing ones.

Wednesday (2/17/2010)

Today was a long and very tiring day. I woke up at about 6:00 AM in the ferry with an announcement that we’ll be arriving at 7:15AM. Rather than sleep in, I decided to get myself ready and watch the sunrise over Sicilian hills and Palermo, on the aft deck of the boat (The back, for those of you who have never been on a boat). We arrived and left the ferry at around 7:30AM. We spent about an hour through the dirtyish streets of Palermo (not as bad as Naples), in search of the Capuccini Catacombs. It turns out it didn’t open until 9AM. We spent the next half hour browsing the nearby cemetery. We could tell that they buried the very wealthy, because some people and families had an entire chapel built for them. We entered the catacombs as soon as they opened, and I have to admit, it was creepy. The bones of hundreds of men, women, and monks were displayed, with incredible preservation techniques. There were bodies hundreds of years old, yet the skin and hair still remained. The creepiest one though was a little girl, who looks like she is just sleeping, but actually died 90 years ago. The guy who invented this preservation method died, taking his secret with him. We left Palermo and had a very long road trip from one coast of Sicily to the other. We had two main stops, first, about an hour in, we stopped at Caccamo, which housed a medieval Norman castle, with breathtaking views of Sicilian mountains and valley. Our second stop was a cliff in Milazzo, where we were supposed to have views of Stromboli and the Aeolian Islands, but we couldn’t find how to get to the lighthouse. Nevertheless, we still got a great view of Sicily and the surrounding area. The remainder of the ride was countless tunnels through the Sicilian mountains, with the occasional breathtaking views of the valley between them. We finally arrived at our hotel at Giardini Naxos, which started as a Greek colony in Sicily, became a fishing village, and is now a popular tourist resort city. We took a stroll through the city, and from the port, we got our first and breathtaking view of Mt. Etna, the mountain that towers over Sicily, and the one that we’ll ascend tomorrow. We returned to the hotel to relax, and went out again for dinner in a traditional Sicilian (Which is not that different from Italian) restaurant, and finally came back to the hotel to sleep after such a long and crazy day.

Now, tomorrow, I'll be climbing Mt. Etna, and from there, the trip will be done in reverse. We'll drive back to Palermo, take a ferry to Naples, try climbing Vesuvius again, hopefully it'll be open, then we'll drive to Rome, and from there we'll fly back home.

Rome!

Hi, it's been a really long time since my last post. I nearly forgot about my blog until today. I'm going to describe to you the first few days of my trip to Italy. These are the first 5 days of the trip, starting on a cold afternoon in Providence:

Flight (2/9/2010 - 2/10/2010)

Today, I left school early after 3 periods and went straight to the airport in Providence. A huge snowstorm was expected for the Providence and Philly area, so we decided to leave one day early. Since the storm was already arriving in Philly, our flight to there from Providence was delayed an hour. In Philly, we had dinner at a Chinese fast food place before stepping on to the plane bound for Rome. The flight, which left on time was the most sickening of my life. There was incessant turbulence, malfunctioning TVs, and bad food. I was extremely lucky to find empty seats in the back to lie down and sleep. sort of. When we landed in Rome, I could tell, because of the clapping, which you usually don't hear when a plane has landed. We stepped off the plane and realized our worst fear of the trip, rain. We went into passport control, and found out a very useful fact about Italy. People at "work" just talk to their friends and pay no attention to what they're doing. We found that out when passport control didn't even look at our faces, and blindly stamped our passports, while chatting with other passport controllers inside his booth. We left the airport in a private taxi, and learned another thing about Italy. The drivers are absolutely insane. The highways have no speed limit (that is abided by), a red light means nothing to drivers, and crossing a street as a pedestrian is a perilous adventure. We saw a motorcycle that literally drove down the streets of Rome in a blur, going at least 100 mph. We were relieved when we reached our hotel, paying the driver who was very calm in the whole ordeal his €60.

Day 1 (2/10/2010)

We were at the hotel at 9:00 AM, and I decided to take a short nap. Short turned into 4 hours and I woke up at 1:00PM, ready to experience Rome. We had a lunch at a local pizzeria, which is pretty much fastfood for Italy, and took a bus to a Leonardo da Vinci museum, getting lost several times on the way. The museum was quite interesting, displaying some of da Vinci's inventions that we take for granted today. We also saw his visions lived, such as his tank (yes, leonardo da vinci invented the armored tank. He also invented the bicycle, the music box, winch, crane, and water skis, not to mention countless other things.) After the museum, we took another bus to the Vatican, to see the St. Peter's Basilica, there was no line, since it was around 5:30. The basilica was huge and amazing. Just one of the small areas of the church (1/15) was bigger than my local church. We left, tired from the long day, and got lost in the conufsing bus/tram system. If we knew about the subway, our life would be so much easier. We went to bed early, to catch up on the sleep we missed over the last few days. It was a long day, which felt even longer because there was no adequate sleep for 2 days.

Day 2 (2/11/2010)

Waking up was difficult, even after 12 hours of sleep. After struggling, we ate a hotel breakfast and made our way to the bus stop. We took a bus to the Vittorio Emanuelle. We arrived at what looked like a capitol building, but it was actually a gigantic monument to the unknown soldier, and when I say gigantic, it is the largest building in Rome, at least double the size of the Colloseum. After a while, we went to the Rome capital museum. I have never been overwhelmed by so many sculptures from ancient times. This museum had literally thousands of statues each with their own history, and it took us hours to get through the museum. The museum was also the site of the great temple of Jupiter, which was the center of Ancient Rome. The ruins that still exist today are 1/5 of the foundation, and for that, they were huge. We left the museum to go to the Foro Romano, which was the roman forum, the political seat of ancient Rome, and made our way to the Collosseum, where we spent several hours. The collosseum is quite massive, and was quite impressive. A guided tour told us the history of the arena (the word "arena" comes from sandy area, and the collosseum stage floor was always sanded.) and what it was like before it was destroyed to build churches. We also saw the ruins of the underground/backstage area, which was where elevators were invented and where the animals were kept. After that, we took a bus to the Pantheon. We got lost, but a McDonalds sign saying (McDonalds Pantheon, 50 mt.) led the way. We've noticed that every famous place in Rome has a McDonalds next to or in front of it. It was as if McDonalds was invading. The Pantheon was interesting, especially since it rained, making a huge puddle on the floor (the Pantheon is a temple with a hole in the roof, giving it natural light). From the Pantheon, we took a short walk to the impressive Trevi fountain, then we took our first subway train back to our hotel, getting slightly lost on our walk back to the hotel. By the way, subways in Rome are extremely deep. I guess they had to go under the ruins so they don't destroy them. After a short break at the hotel, we ate at a nearby traditional Italian restaurant. I had some ravioli. After returning to the hotel, we almost immediately went to bed, as the day was very tiring.

Day 3 (2/12/2010)

Today was a day that made history in Rome. I woke up slowly, and saw snow outside. It was really a spectacular sight, seeing as Rome hasn't had snow in 25 years. These were just small snowflakes, and it seemed like nothing major though. We went to the subway and tried to buy tickets from malfunctioning machines and finally managed to get onto a train towards the Vatican. We would be visiting the Vatican Museum, a sort of Louvre for Rome. When we got off the station, after 10 minutes of travel, the snow was spectacular. There was almost an inch of accumulation, and seeing palm trees covered with snow was quite a sight. We waited in a 30 minute line to get into the museum, and experienced for the second time, Italians who don't pay attention when they work. We were putting our things through the x-ray machine at the Vatican security. The security officer, instead of looking at the screen to see what we were taking in, he was sitting opposite to it, chatting with other slacking workers. I could've snuck in a tiger and they wouldn't notice. The museum was very overwhelming, and we decided to just go towards the Sistine chapel. It's too bad that the signs to the Sistine chapel lead you throughout the entire museum, concluding at the chapel. It was quite interesting though. We saw Egyptian and Etruscan artifacts, more statues, and a hall of maps. It felt like the Google Maps of the 15th century, since every square mile of Italy was covered in the seemingly infinitely long hall. The Sistine chapel was the last stop, and probably the most impressive. After this long and overwhelming trek, we took a subway to the Colloseum, so we could visit Pallatino, the hill which held ruins of ancient Rome. It turns out that is was closed due to snow. All of that time of travel for nothing. We decided to visit the Spanish Steps. Before spending time there, we visited the world's fanciest McDonalds (it was quite impressive), and then we climbed the spanish steps. The sun arrived just in time as the rainclouds cleared up. After some time there, we walked down Rome's expensive street (comparable to 5th Avenue, Champs-Ulysses, Banhofstrasse, etc.). Compared to those streets, it was quite cheap (only €2,500 for a handbag, others charged as much as €30,000), but it was an interesting walk. To end the day we went to a museum with seasonal exhibitions. Their current exhibition was an interesting astronomy and particles one. We left for our hotel and stayed there until about 8:00PM, when we took a stroll and went to a famous pasta place for dinner. I've never had so many ravioli in one sitting, The meal was huge, and brought us quickly to sleep back at the hotel.

Day 4 (2/13/2010)

Today was the first day of no rain, and real sun. We went to Pallatino, and they let us in with our previous ticket, since it was closed the day before due to snow. The ruins were spectacular, and it ended with some spectacular views of the Roman Forum and collosseum. After that, we decided to revisit the giant building, Vittorio Emmanuele, and take an elevator to the top, where we got an amazing view of the city, with free telescopes. From there, we walked to Piazza Navona, where a Chinese New Years parade was in progress, and where painters from all over the city converged. From there, we walked to the Tiber river, and took a scenic stroll to St. Peter's Basilica seeing the Castel St Angelo on the way. We were planning to go the cupola of the basilica, until we saw the line simply INTO the basilica. It was at least 1-2 hours long, and went through the entire plaza. We realized how lucky we were the first day to not have to wait in line to see the basilica. We took the subway back to the Collosseum to take some good pictures in the sun. After this, we visited what was supposed to be a nice plaza, but was crowded because of a concert for the last day of Carnevale. We walked from here to a church with one of the strangest crypts in the world, the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. The crypt was decorated with the bones of over 4,000 Italian monks, and was very strange to walk through. We left after quickly browsing through, and went to a small Italian fast food place where I had a sandwich before heading back to the hotel. For dinner, I ate at the same local pizzeria as the first day and finally came back to relax, and to recall everything we did to write this entry.

Edit: I understand that there are some format problems with this entry, just try to deal with it, there's nothing I can do to fix it.

What's to come

We're leaving Rome tomorrow for the Naples area, where we will see Mt. Vesuvius, and from there,

we will visit Sicily and see Mt. Etna and Palermo, and our trip will conclude when we return to

Rome for two days and then fly home. Stay tuned for more entries, they will come.