Photo EXTRAVAGANZA! part 1

Since I have been really slow about updating my blog, (and I was going to do this anyway) I have decided to put up a gallery of the pictures that I took that haven't made it into my blog. I was going to do just my favorite ones, but I am coming across some that are of me that I didn't post for some reason or another.

So, I will start off with a few pictures and whenever I am lagging behind blog-wise, I will put up some of my favorite pics! Enjoy...

On the London Eye- my hair was short! (Jan)

View from the Eye

At Leeds Castle (Jan)

Leeds Castle

Eurotrip: Rome... to Austria

Day 6 - Rome! Vatican day

Today was the day Sarah's sleeves made us miss our train to Austria. If you remember when I was at an internet cafe in Austria, I mentioned her sleeves... well now I have the time to tell you what happened!

After waking and packing our stuff we dropped it off in the back room of the hostel, then went right over to the train station to get tickets for that night to Austria. We decided to do the 5 euro sleepers for the overnight train, got our confirmation and then we caught the Metro over to the Vatican museum. There was no line at the time (and we kind of snuck around it anyway) and then once thru security, went directly over to the student ticket place (also no line) and so we were in the museum in a snap! (Unlike last time where it took FOREVER!). We then just spent a few hours strolling thru, wondering why the Pope owned so much art and taking fun pictures. For a little while, we sat by a fountain and wondered why people throw money into them. Then we wondered where the heck the Sistine Chapel was... because we followed signs forever thru the entire city of Vatican-ania, up some stairs, around a corner, thru this hallway, down more stairs, across walkways... until we finally ascended the last staircase.

We entered a dim, very large and surprisingly noisy room. It was crowded, wall to wall, with people (not surprising) who were talking (huh?) taking pictures and videos (what?) with flash! I think the most surprising part was the booming voice over the speakers announcing that this was a place of worship and please do not take any photos or videos (which everyone was completely and blatantly ignoring). Sarah and I had a whole plan about how to cover each other while we took pictures, assuming the museum people would be more aggressive and vigilant about enforcing the no photo policy, but we needn't have bothered. We both snapped a picture (covertly, just in case) and then moved on pretty quickly. The Sistine Chapel was... not what I expected. It was a lot bigger and all the people taking pictures was off-putting (as well as the loud announcements).

After finally finding our way back out of the museum, we decided to eat at a pizzeria. It ended up costing us a whole lot more than we expected (tho we did sit down there to eat- must have been a killer service charge!). We got enormous gelatos to top it off then sat in St. Peter's Sq, in the sun for a while. Since we were in the area, we wanted to check out the basilica. So, we waited in a long line which was really hot (we were in the sun) which was also full of old ladies who were literally pushing and cutting to get thru the line to get in!

Once we got thru the metal detector, we started noticing that people we breaking out sweaters and long-sleeved tops. Sarah adjusted her sleeves and hair and we got up to the Decency Police tent and walked thru! We were relived-- until we heard "Bella! Bella... mi scusi!" We pretended not to hear them but then it was obvious they were yelling at us, so we turned around and they pointed to a little sign with pictures and then at Sarah and told us she was not allowed to go in. They told me it was alright if I went in and if Sarah wanted to come in, I had to go purchase her a covering that they conveniently sold in some shop. One of the Decency policemen pointed vaguely inside, so Sarah took a seat and I attempted to find this store to BUY Sarah something that was appropriate to wear into the Basilica. Problem: there was no store. None that I found, anyway. So I snagged some toilet paper (just in case) and went back out. Sarah pointed to another woman who was indecently attired (she was wearing a tank top- what was she thinking?!) and said that one of the Decency policemen had gone somewhere to get the other lady a covering. We waited and watched (Sarah didn't like the toilet paper idea) and eventually, the three original policemen were replaced or wandered off. So we seized our chance- when none of them were looking, Sarah got up, arranged her sleeves and hair to cover her shoulders and we leisurely strolled up the stairs.

We paused for a moment and looked out at St. Peter's Sq and then once we felt brave enough, I blocked the patrolling Decency watchmen's view of Sarah and we walked into the Basilica! I'm glad we went in, because it was pretty awesome- it was so huge inside! The ceilings were high, there were beams of sunlight shining in and there was enormous columns down the nave. I tried to identify the style of the building and name some of the architecture but it wasn't English... so I had little luck!

There were more patrolling Decency police inside, so after having a little look, we swiftly got out of there. The Vatican inspired a deep conversation about religion and how very interesting it all is. We pondered and grabbed more gelato on the way back to the train station. We got to the Metro and noticed that we were going to just barely make it. It was one uncomfortable ride. We were crushed in with about 50 million other people-- all the weight from so many people combined with the fact that we were in a hurry made it for a long, aggravating ride.

We got to Termini and bolted out. We ran thru the station- not even joking!- and twice I had to go back for Sarah since I was pretty much sprinting (so we got separated) and I knew where we had to go (and she didn't!). We were both mad and sweaty at this point (I couldn't believe she wasn't keeping up with me; she was mad that I kept leaving her behind) and so I ran as hard as I could back to the hostel, about 4 blocks from the train station. Our train was scheduled for 7:05 or so and I was running to the hostel around 7:03.

Well, as you can tell, we missed the train. We had those huge backpacks on, sweating our butts off and could not find the platform. I checked for our train on the big sign and in my frenzy saw that it was leaving at platform 18- which was on the opposite side of the station! Ever the optimists (even though it was something like 7:14) we ran over- and found platform #17 next to #19. We made reservations for a train that doesn't exist! I remember thinking. But then I spied a tiny sign that pointed to #18 400 meters down the track. I couldn't see a train, but being crazy, I ran that 400 meters down to platform 18. Where there was no train.

Sweating, fuming and panting, I threw my bags down and tried not to cry. Of course in my head I was blaming it all on Sarah even though I was the one that owned a watch and didn't plan for a horribly slow Metro ride. So, after I calmed myself down we tramped the 400 meters back down the platform then over to the ticket booth to find out when the next train to Austria was. We made another 5 euro reservation and went to a new train station, 3 stops away on the Metro. We decided to go right there so as not to be late (we had about an hour and a half to kill). We had a rough night- our 9:55 train finally showed up at 12:30, poor Sarah sat in gum (twice!) and when we finally got on, the compartment that we reserved our seats in already had 3 people and a little kid in it.

Story of the Ensuing Train Ride to be continued...

Eurotrip: Day in Pompeii

Day 5 - Pompeii

Well, well- Pompeii. What a day trip this was! I thought it would be a great idea to see this famous Italian city while in the country, so we squeezed it in to our itinerary. The info guy made it seem easy enough- he told us which train to take to Napoli (Naples) and then from there, since there are no direct trains to Pompeii, we had to get on a metro....


I think in the end, the city of Pompeii was worth all of what we went thru that whole day (I took over 60 pictures!), so I'll begin my story:


The sun rose bright and warm on this fateful day in southern Italy... (ok, I'm done with that style of story telling). We got up and busted out to breakfast, which was pretty amazing, as a matter of fact. We boarded our Napoli-ian train, no problems and enjoyed our 2 hour ride there. We found our way to the public transport system and then things got crazy.



We went up to the ticket booth and asked the guy which ticket to buy to get to Pompeii. The man spoke very poor English and we spoke no Italian (this was a problem). He asked if we wanted one way tickets and I responded, no we want return tickets (to save us the hassel of buying more ticktes on the way back.) Ok, he said, 9 euros. I paused for a moment then gave him my 9 euros and he handed me two 4.50 euro tickets for the subway thing. Super! I thought. Sarah also gave the man 9 euros and waited for her tickets. Which the man didn't give her. Sarah calmly inquired if she could also have her tickets. He pointed to mine and said, no, those are yours. At this point, we were confused but also flustered, so (looking back I see I stupidly) and with out question, gave Sarah one of my tickets. We thought something was weird about that transaction and it was only later that we realized that THAT MAN CHARGED US BOTH DOUBLE! And probably pocketed 9 euros. Evil Italian subway man...


We were like, whatever, let's just get to Pompeii, shall we? So we went thru the turnstile thing (Sarah saw one that was broken or something and was just open, so she and about a million other people went thru that one) and got down to the subway place... and realized that there were NO maps or signs whatsoever. Right before the turnstile there was a map telling us which line to go on, but once pass the turnstile, when that information would be useful, there were no maps and no signs. And 4 lines of subway train things.


After asking several unhelpful people, we finally spoke to some Canadians who were going the same way and we got on a train. Which was the wrong one. But some guy was nice enough to help us out and tell us which place to switch at, so eventually we arrived at Pompeii.


This is how we felt trying to get there -->

So, as you can see from some of my pictures above, it was a really cool place. We spent the whole day there and could have spent more time, because it was absolutely huge. We probably didn't even go thru half of it, either!

A lot of it was the same thing, over and over; doorways, columns, walls and piles of rubble. At the very end, as we were trying to find our way out, we passed an enormous collection of all the stuff they unearthed. Most of it was huge jugs. We listened in to a little tour group as they talked about... the 3 plaster cast bodies! (These people were covered with ash from the volcano erruption.) It was creepy and surreal to see them- there was a sleeping man, a pregnant woman and a guy sitting with his hands over his nose and mouth. They didn't have any features, like ears or noses, and their hands and feet were like blocks. It was very, very weird!

Then, the Necklace Incident occurred (it's the entry below. It's a mini epic story that I thought deserved it's own post).

We got safely back to the central train station, got some dinner and then were kicked out of our seats on board by a frantic American woman (there was about 6 of them traveling together and she was loudly complaining that she thought it was ridiculous that even tho they booked their seats together, they were scattered throughout the carriage). We found a compartment with 6 seats in it, so we just sat there instead and had a pleasant ride back to Rome.

So I guess I would recommend to anyone who wants to visit Pompeii, do your research beforehand so you don't get ripped off and/or lost and avoid the necklace lady at all costs. Unless you really want a Vesuvius volcanic rock necklace.

I Don't Want to Buy These Necklaces, Lady

The Necklace Incident of Pompeii

After we exited the archaeological site, Sarah and I got some postcards at little stands by the side of the road (I got mine for free). We also stopped at a table with a lot of jewelry on it and then I lost 23 euros. Here's what happened:

The second I stopped to ogle the shiny baubles, this tiny, very old, kind of scary looking grandma came over and said "Hello, lady, come look at my shop!" I was like, "Ok!" and then the next half hour found me standing there, with handfuls of necklaces that she kept giving me to inspect. She would describe what they were all made of, like "This one is made of volcano rock from Vesuvius. Natural! Na-too-rel!!" and "This one, pearls from Capri, for Mama! Mama! You give to her, Mama like this one!" It was very funny, but at the same time not really funny at all-- I was too polite or scared to just say, no thanks and walk away. Plus, Sarah wasn't helping me get away either. It wasn't her fault since I didn't tell her to say something like, "Oh crap, we have to catch our train! LET'S GO!" like I was secretly hoping she might do.

Sarah, fortunately for her, didn't get sucked in and stood off to the side fending off the old lady and the other people around the table (who were probably related to the scary old lady) and who were trying to get her to buy stuff too. She kept telling them that she was a student and too poor to buy anything. Good technique, I thought.

Eventually, after looking at tons of necklaces for a long time, I asked her how much they were. I was holding a "natural Vesuvius volcanic rock" and another one with the same supposedly volcanic rock with pearls "for Mama." She took them out of my hands, wrapped them up in a bag and put it back in my hands telling me it was something outrageous like 75 euros for both of them. But she lowered the price for me to about 50, and I kind of just stood there in shock. There is no way I am paying that much, I thought. After standing there for awhile, looking at Sarah, looking at the package in my hands and pretending to search my backpack for my wallet, she patted my hand and said, "I like you, 45 for both." I found my wallet and peeked inside and saw I had two 20 euro notes and a 5. But I had to get dinner later, so I pulled out a 20 and pretended to look for more. After awhile, the scary lady who had been puttering around and organizing her table, but still watching me and Sarah came back over and said, "Ok, you are pretty-- 35. That's a good deal!"

I was so uncomfortable at this point, I was sweating. I didn't want a necklace, I didn't want to spend that much and the lady was being really pushy. I was also about to put my acting skills to the test and try to get her to accept the least amount of money possible. Plus, I was in way too deep to back out now. So I offered her the 20, which she immediately took from me and said, "Just 15 more. I will take American money too." This lady was so aggressive! I told her I didn't have any American money and pretended to look around my backpack for more. At this point, I wanted my money back and was getting desperate just to get out of there, but she had my 20 euros clutched in her fist and Sarah was standing there basically grinning at me and no help whatsoever. The scary lady hadn't forgotten about Sarah and said, "ask your friend for money" which stunned me, but seeing her reach for some cash, I stopped her with a "put that away" thru gritted teeth. Still sweating, I looked thru my change and found 3 euro coins and told the lady that was all I had. My wallet had a few pockets in it, and hiding the one with the rest of my money, I showed her the empty pocket. It's all I have, I insisted.

After asking for just "10 more euros," and then eventually "just 5" and then "whatever you have," she took the 3 euros and said, "Ok, I like you, you look Italian" she let me go! After I had paid, the lady turned to Sarah and basically threw 2 necklaces at her! She told Sarah she could have them "special price" for 25 euros but her husband, who had been trying to get Sarah to look at stuff, pipped in and said, "no- 15! You are student, you poor- I know!" and so Sarah gave in and got hers for 15.

I put mine on right away, determined to get my 23 euros worth. Sarah thought the whole thing was hilarious and reckoned that the scary grandma probably ripped us off just like the ticket guy and the necklaces we bought were actually plastic or something!
Oh well, at least it's a good story....

What did I just buy....?

Eurotrip: Rome

Day 4 - on the train to and then Rome

We woke up at 9AM after a pretty decent night's sleep, and at 9:30 (our supposed arrival time) we were only in Florence! We didn't really mind since we had our own compartment, so we just chilled out until we finally got to Rome around noon. Once off the train, we headed straight to the hostel I picked from my 5 options (one of my smart moves was instead of booking a hostel in each place, just printing out a few options in each city, just in case we decided to spend more or less time there). There were 2 Chinese ladies who checked us in and one of them led us over to the actual hostel building, which was about 5 blocks away. We were given a set of three keys (reminds me of Venice...) and once we finally got into our room, we dumped our stuff and changed into cooler clothes.

We decided to dive right in, so our first destination of the day was the Colosseum! We got a slice of pizza on the way and sat by a fountain with a lot of other people (including a horde of gypsies!). We actually met a guy from California who was around our age and just wandering thru Italy for a few months! He was pretty nice and pretty chatty and he talked to us until we were done eating. Then, we wished each other luck and Sarah and I kept going. We popped into a souvenir shop...

before
after

... and I got myself some rad Euro-goggles! (Also known as sunglasses). Now, more suitably attired for sunny Italy, we went towards the Palatine, since California-guy recommended we buy our Palatine and Colosseum combo-tickets from a place other than the Colosseum (to avoid big lines). We either walked right by the building or he circled the wrong one on the map, because we didn't buy a ticket. There was a tour going into the Palatine at the same time as us... and we just joined them. We pretty thoroughly checked out the Palatine and soaked up some rays, then decided to check out the Colosseum. And then we had to buy our combo tickets (so Mom, we were forced to be honest) so I guess it all worked out for them. The line was not long at all, and we got right in.

Next stop was the Trevi Fountain. I threw in my money this time and some old guy took our picture and gave us both more change to throw in. He insisted- because apparently it was really lame to just pretend to throw money in, even if we were just posing for a picture. In the end, we were a little too quick with our throwing-the-money-over-our-shoulders because he had to take another one... of us pretending to throw in money!

We found our way to the Spanish Steps, climbed to the top, looked around for a minute, then headed back to the hostel. We got dinner on the way and I purchased a very expensive bottle of Fanta-- 4 euros!!! (Obviously I would never have even dreamt of getting a soda that was more expensive than my actual dinner... but there were no prices for drinks, unfortunately for me.)

Since it was still kind of early, when we saw a clothing store that looked pretty inexpensive, we decided to pop in. We actually spent a little while in there, trying on all manner of crazy European clothes! Everything was a little too crazy, so after laughing a lot in the changing rooms, we kept on going. Eventually we got back to the train station and then asked an info guy about getting to Pompeii. He printed out a sheet for us, then we went to an internet cafe for about 30 min.

Eurotrip: Paris to Rome

Day 3 - Paris

Today Sarah and I got up when the alarm went off (yay!) and after breakfast, we checked out of the hostel. We stowed our backpacks in the luggage room then headed over to the Eiffel Tower. Even though it was a bit misty, we were determined to have a picnic at the base, rain or shine. Thankfully, it stopped precipitating once we got there and Sarah and I decided to save a buck and have some extra fun by climbing up the first 2 stories of the Tower. The first étage (story, for all you non-French speakers) had the best view of Sacre Coeur- you could really tell that it was on a big hill from the altitude we were at- and when the sun shone on it, it turned bright white! We rested for a bit then kept going. The next story was pretty much the same deal, so we just bought our tickets for the elevator to the very top. By the way, those steps are crazy- not that they were flimsy or anything, but it was not the greatest feeling walking up 700+ stairs and being able to see the ground through penny-sized holes in each step!

We waited in line for the final elevator and when we got close to being let thru the turnstile, Sarah discovered that she had misplaced her ticket! This is a typical Sarah thing (she was my roommate for a year and she lost her keys or cell phone practically everyday!) and so she sat down next to the line and checked every pocket in her coat and bag until she found it. I decided to just go ahead since I knew she'd catch up eventually, so I crammed into the elevator with a bunch of people and we zoomed to the top! That was another scary minute since there are big windows on all sides and all I could think about while we were moving was "tower of terror!"



I scrambled out of that thing first and took a stroll around the enclosed part of the top level. Sarah and I met up and we popped out to the outer platform and into the wind! We took a bunch of "wow-look-at-my-crazy-wind-swept-hair-on-the-Eiffel-Tower" pictures (which were a lot of fun). The strange thing was on 2 sides it was very windy, allowing us to take our pictures and on the other 2, no wind at all! Weird!



" wow-look-at-my-crazy-wind-swept-hair-on-the-Eiffel-Tower" after photo


After our fun, we had to get going so we could do our picnic and then catch our train. We felt that a baguette, cheese and wine would be a very appropriate lunch for our romantic picnic, so off we wandered thru the nearby streets in search for an open food place. It was a little late for lunch and we eventually became aware of the fact that every food store, including big supermarkets, were closed. However, we came across a bakery (baguette- check!) and finally, right when we were beginning to think our lunch was going to be just some bread, we found a tiny convenience store. We picked up some cheese, grapes and some 3 euro wine and headed back towards our picnic spot. We had wandered quite a ways away, and grabbed a bench at the far end of the park (by the Ecole Militare). It was at this point we discovered that the wine had a cork. Bad news for us since neither of us had a corkscrew!


After our romantic picnic (come on- in Paris, right by the Eiffel Tower!) we headed back to the hostel, but I got us kind of completely lost on the way (failed the navigating part of this trip). It should have taken us 20 minutes, but an hour later, we had our stuff and we on our way to the train station!

On to Rome!

Since we were unsure about how to get to Rome without it taking under 24hours, we asked the info desk guys (who were extremely helpful) and they booked us on an overnight train straight to Rome! Needless to say, Sarah and I were elated not to have to switch trains at 4AM then hop on a ship like we originally planned! All we had to pay was 25 euros to book a sleeper bunk and we were good to go! We headed to the station our overnight train left from, which was thankfully not a very far walk. On the way, we rested a few times (very necessary with the huge packs we were carrying) and once some guy came up to us and after being very friendly and chatty, asked us a very startling question. The conversation: dude: "Are you enjoying Paris?" us: "Yep." dude: "Do you guys smoke hash?" us:"Um... no." dude: "Ok, enjoy France!" and off he went! We were both like, did that guy just try to sell us drugs?!? We beat it after that and got to our station with about 45 minutes to wait.

Once there, we ate some more of our leftover picnic and Sarah contrived to get our cheap wine open. It was terrible. We chucked it after a few sips (I think I was hoping it would get better or something, but no, it didn't). Our train showed up and Sarah and I found our compartment. It was so awesome! We went crazy once we got there, claiming the top bunks, lowering the shades, moving the ladder around and taking pictures. We were also excited not to have any roommates (and none showed up the whole trip- bonus!)