European update 7/11

Didn't have time to write last night, so this is technically Saturday
morning. A few notes I forgot to mention before-did I mention the water
system here? It's been a little difficult to use the faucets and showers,
because the hot is really hot and the cold is cool, and there's hardly a way
to get in between. The water itself, I'm not sure about; it's not
chlorinated, which was odd at first but I now like, but it may be doing
strange things to my hair. Or it may be the climate itself. Either way, my
hair's getting rather dry and brittle. Which reminds me, I remember reading
about culture shock a while back, and about how the first stage is the most
violent and tends to manifest in "well, at least in my home country we ____"
to everything new. I think we had that the first couple days. Now we're in
the "everything's different, but we'll survive" stage.

We had gelato a couple days ago, which was not as different as it's
sometimes made out to be, but definitely an improvement over American ice
cream. Despite that, it's struck me as humorous how our vacation is making
us all lead healthier lifestyles; we're eating good Mediterranean food and
no junk, drinking water all day long, walking many miles a day including
stairs (cardio), and getting mostly good nights of sleep. Europe is not only
amazing, it's also good for us. ;-) Also, a note from yesterday, all three
girls purchased rosaries at the Vatican...it just seemed like a souvenir one
should get, you know?

Now on to yesterday (Friday). That was quite a packed day, though it didn't
seem like it would be at the start. We found out that not only is Michelle
Obama in Rome (and visiting landmarks right after we do), but apparently
Barack Obama met the Pope. Which means that this whole time, we've been
within a few miles of both of them. Yesterday morning, our first stop was
the National Museum of Rome. I wasn't the most fond of this; the marble
statues and mosaics got repetitive after the first two floors, though some
were gorgeous, and the giant Roman coin collection was not as interesting as
the stained glass in the same area. After this, we only had two more things
in our day, and both were in the same area and a long way off, so we took
the short walk back to our apartment to wait an hour.

After that hour, we took the subway a few stops, and then walked up to the
Roman Hard Rock Cafe. Since there are branches of those also in Venice,
Paris, and London, we're going to make a stop there at each point along the
trip just to have a neat little theme. We were supposed to catch a bus for
the last couple miles up to the Pantheon, but buses here are not as obvious
as the trains and subways, so we missed ours twice and got frustrated and
decided to just walk it. That was a good decision in hindsight, though, as
we discovered the wonders of walking through Rome. The area near the
Pantheon/Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps is the Rome you think about when you
think of Rome, not the gritty utilitarian slummy side that we've been in for
the past few days. It's neat and well designed, and everywhere you look
there are "old rocks", as Doodle coined them-a building with columns and
amazing architecture that's at least a few hundred years old. We took a few
detours on this walk, and discovered some ruins that now serve as a cat
hospice (we counted twelve), and also Il Vittoriani. The latter is a massive
palace with amazing statues. It also holds the Italian Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, a spectacularly carved sarcophagus surrounded by eternal flames and
guards. Definitely a good random find, since Rick Steves didn't mention it
anywhere.

But finally we made it to the Pantheon itself and...wow. We were all awed
for a few minutes just coming up to the rear of it, because there's no way
pictures could ever capture the size and grandeur of it. The back looks like
it's from the first century or so; very old brick, not so much design. But
it is probably large enough to hold the DC Capitol dome inside it. Then we
walked around to the front, and again, stood in awe of it. The columns are
simply massive, more so than any others we've seen, and then you walk past
into the interior, and it's almost as good as the Sistine Chapel in both
size and decoration. We saw the tomb of Raphael, and also the one of the
first king of Italy.

After the Pantheon, which was at about 5:30pm, the only thing we had left in
the day was Rick Steves self-guided nightwalk. Since it started around the
Pantheon, though, we couldn't go anywhere until 8:30pm. So we just sat
around the fountain for a couple hours, mostly bored, though I brought a
book. We did hear some lovely street music, though. Then we ate at the
nearby McDonalds, partly for fun and partly (at least for me) to eat
something that wasn't Italian food for the first time in four days. Finally,
finally, we started walking towards the beginning of the nightwalk. We made
a slight detour at an internet cafe (very cool idea, very cool in reality)
and then started on the nightwalk itself.

Rome is a great place at night. We paused to watch a magician, some mimes,
an artist, all in one of the piazzas. There were some monuments, and some
fountains that don't look very large on postcards but are incredibly large
in person. Trevi Fountain, especially. The whole place must be the size of
the Capitol Building in Olympia...and it's just a fountain! This is the part
of Rome that says "I'm old, I'm bold, I'm beautiful, and I'm huge: stand in
wonder." And we did. Only in Europe. (On a minor note, it's also only in
Europe that you can see a sign that points to a McDonalds...and then in
smaller print below mentions that, oh yeah, there's also this Pantheon thing
thataway.)

By the end of that, though, we were glad to find a subway stop and take a
ride back to our apartment's area instead of having to walk it. These first
days haven't necessarily had lots of activities per day, but each one has
been wearing on us. Especially on the feet. By the end of the day, we can
all barely walk. We've been trying to spread out our breaks more, but even
so, we've decided that our last day before the train to Venice (Saturday)
will only have one activity and then we'll probably just relax for a while.

Love to all,
Merry K

__________________________________

Hello all,

Wow, what a day. I think this was the best day yet. Here are the highlights:

We visited the National Museum of Rome and had a relaxing morning. There
were lots of cool old statues, mosaics, sarcophagus' and a great coin
collection.

We headed on over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. It was odd to have a menu
in English. :) All of us agreed to try and go to all the Hard Rock Cafes in
each place we go to. There are ones in Venice, Paris, and London. We will
have more meals cooked by our dear MerryK with supplies that we can buy at
the market for dirt cheap. Yum yum.

After lunch we missed our bus...twice. I know, but it worked out for the
better. We decided to give up on the bus and walk down to the Pantheon
instead. Out of nowhere we see all these cool buildings and take little
detours. It was amazing. We were in a completely different part of town.
Where our apartment is seems to be the slum area, but this place was where
you would want to go on your honeymoon. Some of the buildings were HUGE!

During our long and enjoyable walk, us girls realized that we were finally
getting over our culture shock. I really have never understood culture shock
until now. Frankly, I believe you must experience it before you can fully
understand what it is like. The first day when we got here I did NOT like it
at all. I had no idea it was going to be this different. But then I slowly
got used to it as time went by. Yesterday was the first day that I actually
LOVED this area and we all believed that the culture shock time was over.

The Pantheon was a great place! That building is huge! They don't build
things like that anymore. It fit the phrase, "Do not judge a book by its
cover" perfectly. Outside the building was all run down and the inside was
spectacular to see. Huge and decorated with the most beautiful marble walls
and columns. We sat out in the square for a long time, ate at McDonald's
(saving money since we went to the Hard Rock), attempted to upload pictures
at the Internet cafe....ugh, still no luck, and then headed out for our
night tour.

Man, does the city come to life when it is dark out! There were clowns,
sword eaters, singers, accordion players, beautifully lit fountains, and
many more wonderful sites.

We were all extremely exhausted when we got back to the apartment. So much
so that today all we are doing is going to the train station to validate our
tickets and go see the castle.

What a day!

Hugs to all,

Ladybug