Inbetween the Ruins

One of my early posts said that life is made up in the details, and I'm going to have to say that is what made the past few days for me really great. Sure the epic sights of Rome were incredible, but the small details, the people I met, and the little things that happened are what made the trip for me. Wanting to remember better I wrote down notes after each day. Failing to bring a journal or even a pen, I had to borrow a pen from the Hostel and take notes on the back of my flight information. The folded back of my flight sheets hold why I loved Rome better than my imperfect memory can. Obviously you know that I saw all the famous tourist sights of the city, so I am going to recount the little stories that made Rome unique for me.

On Friday after walking around for most of the day I went to the Colosseum to see the Pope's procession at the time recommended to me by the person behind the desk at my hostel. He was a little off, I was 3 hours too early, so I decided to continue walk around. I hadn't gone into anything that day because I didn't feel like waiting in lines, but one of the things I walked by earlier with a large line was now vacant, and still open. Paul's prison, from where he wrote a significant part of the New Testament. I went down there with no one else around. Being down there alone was quite an experience that I won't try to explain here. After walking around some more I found myself resting in a park above the Colosseum watching the sunset above it. When I finally returned to get a place for the Colosseum but was unable to meet my friends because of how fast it filled up. But I did find myself to this elderly American/British couple. The British man was one of the most interesting people I've met in a long time, and I couldn't have been happier to share my first Pope experience with them. He had gone to Cambridge in the 1950's, he had been to Arkansas once, and drove highway AR 1 and said some of the small towns reminded him of Western movies. This was about 40 years ago. He had also lived in Madrid for a while, working during the Franco era doing something with manuscripts, he was a professor of Latin and Greek. He told me lots of stories of Spain during this time period, being the first person I've talked to about this time period I was very willing to listen. I could tell that this couple has lived quite a life, with more experiences than I could imagine or begin to understand. They were incredibly friendly to me and he even translated some of the Pope's speech for me.


I feel very fortunate for meetings such as this one. There was no reason that we should have met, as I was looking for my friends, but we did and this is something that really improved my trip to Rome. I am also starting to realize that if I record every event such as this one that I won't sleep tonight, so I am only going to mention a few more things. I would go on to see the Pope once more for Sunday Mass in the Vatican, which was something very unique. At times I felt like I was at a fair, while others I was at a religious ceremony I did not know the rules to. But all in all that was another great Pope meeting.

On Monday I had another little adventure. Most of my Rome trip and visits were planned on the spot. After visiting the Capitol Museum, I sat down, read my guide book, and decided I would go to the Roman Catacombs. According to my map they didn't seem too far away, about the same distance from where I was as the Hostel is to the Colosseum, about a 20/25 minute walk. This is when I discovered that my map had several imperfections, one of which being that it wasn't drawn to scale. After an hour's worth of walking through streets not on the map I was about to give up at turn around. Suddenly I saw a sign saying Catacombs this way! Only 1500 more meters! A little while later I found the catacombs, which were certainly worth the trip. It was a great tour, but of course only consisted of more walking.

When it was over I started the hike back. In a short hour and a half I was back to the Circus Maximus, the closest metro. I decided I would spend the euro and take it back to the hostel. After I bought the ticket and went to the platform I realized I was on the wrong side. I searched my side for stairs to the next and found that it was one of those one entrance ones with no way to the other side. I would have to pay another euro to get to the side I needed. Being in a very one track state of mind, I decided that the metro of Rome did not deserve another euro for having poor service and not being well labeled for the common tourist. I continued the walk on foot. I made it back to my hostel after a 2 hour walk, sore and tired. I had a nap before exploring that night and meeting my Italian friend Alessandro later.


The great memories didn't even stop at the airport, where I was to meet a Chinese business man that has been traveling all over Europe and parts of Africa for his Telecomunications business in China. He had never been out of China before working for this company, but is now very well traveled, with many experiences. He along with the people from my first night are examples of how easy it is to meet people from all over the world, in places that aren't there own. All of this had me thinking somehow, but I don't really know exactly how. I know that doesn't make much since, but to me it does somehow. But for now I'm finished with thinking, I haven't slept much this week and tonight won't be too different. I am afraid this is going to be a difficult school week, although it is only two days long for me. These will be an intense couple of days.

What's Going On!

I apologize for not updating in a while. I have been kind of busy lately and when I haven't been busy I've been tired. Therefore blogging has not been a top priority, but now I am so this is what has been happening the past couple of weeks.

Two weekends ago I went up to San Sebastian in Northern Spain, very close to the French border. On the way up we stopped at Burgos for lunch. Burgos was a city I have never heard of before, but there was a large wall around the city, impressive bridges, and an incredible Cathedral. This made me realize something: I'm definitely in Europe. I can go somewhere I never knew existed and find history as old as my country. Plus I really know I'm in Spain, because every town/city is famous for it's cathedral. They are all very important and impressive... and everywhere. But nonetheless each one has something special that makes you appreciate it.

Well San Sebastian, one of the "most beautiful beaches" of Spain was a little under the weather. It was too cold to go out on the beach and one night it was raining so much it felt like a hurricane. But one night we did discover a large sail boat that had washed up on shore. From the distance it appeared like a haunted ship. When we left on Sunday we made a stop at Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim. The building was art itself, as all Guggenheims are and the exhibits actually did a pretty good job matching it. There was a large exhibit from the artist responsible for the Beijing Olympics firework show, Cai Guo-Qiang. Also another Japanese artist, who's name has escaped me, who had an animation style of art, and some more very strange things. I also walked into a video room and found
the music video to Kanye West's Good Morning playing. I think this video is somehow connected to the Japanese artist, but I don't quite know...

Haunted Beach?

Well after that trip I had one week of school before Semana Santa. I surived that and on Thursday I traveled to El Escorial, about an hour an a half outside of the city. This monastery, circa 1570, served as a place for many kings of Spain. It now is used as a tomb for many of them. This day I saw the most kings and royalty of my life, unfortunately all of them dead. After paying way too much for some bad nachoes and reading my guidebook, we decided to take what was said to be a 3 km hike to La Silla de Fillipe II, where he had a seat carved into the mountain watched the construction of El Escorial. After getting lost due to the poor direction in the book we decided to ask an old lady on the street the best way there. It was from her that we learned it was about 4 km. But she did give us some better directions. After walking about 1/2 km we found a sign knocked over hidden in the grass. Thank you Spanish signs. We then decided it would be a good idea to ask someone which way this was really pointing. We asked this old man who was the gate man at a golf course nearby. He gave us directions and told us it was about 4 or 5 km from here. Apparently the closer we got, the futher away we really were. After hiking quite a while we finnaly made it to our destination. For a king, it was a pretty lackluster seat, but after worring that it maybe impossible to find due to infinitely growing distances, it was a much welcome chair.

The Royal Seat

The next night I went to see Franz Ferdinand, which was amazing. And Troy and Eric visited from Bristol, which was very fun as well, making for a very enjoyable start to the weekend.

Ahh Franz Ferdinand!

The next few days were spent relaxing for the most part. Then on Tuesday a few of us went for a long planned hike in the Sierras de Madrid, about two hours from the city by train. But in this distance which was probably only about 50 km, the temperature went from warm spring weather, to the middle of winter. As the train to Coros scaled the mountain we got a little excited when we saw a bit of snow, but then after going through a short tunnel we realized that we were going to be dealing with quite a bit. We were in the snow covered mountains and hiked through snow for most of the way. At times it became a foot or more deep, but most of the time it was pretty manageable. Until the end when it started to snow a little bit, which eventually turned to hail and made it difficult to see. And to think, I was afraid of dressing too warm for this trip. It was one of the most unique hikes I've been on. Sometimes it seemed as if the trail markers were playing hide and go seek with us, others it seemed like mother nature just wanted us to be cold, but all the time it was in the presence of beautiful snow covered mountains all around. It was certainly a great hike.


And today I made another day trip from Madrid and traveled over to Segovia to view the Roman aqueducts and the Castle. It is rumored that this is the castle of which Disney Castle is modeled afterward. The aquaducts were amazing and the castle was everything I imagined. I would tell you more but I've become very tired and need sleep.

I leave Friday morning for Rome. I'll be spending Easter with the Pope, so I hope that it all goes well, I know he is expecting me. I'll update you more when I have some good Roman stories!