A Roamin' Holiday

Thursday I flew into Rome where I met up with my cousin Jennifer, her husband Jamie and their two kids, Kaitlin and AJ. Jamie is in the army and the family is currently station in Germany while he serves in the Middle East. He was home for Thanksgiving, so they decided to take trip to Italy; Jen asked me to join then and that's how I got to be in Rome for the holidays. Well, that and FDC extended my time over here...haha
Anyway, we rented an apartment about 10 minutes walk from the Vatican City (the Pope's home) and a 3 minutes walk to a wonderful gelato shop. I arrived just in time for dinner and we set out to a local favorite for an Italian Thanksgiving. Jen and I ordered the same thing, but look at how big my bowl is compared to hers. She took a better picture of it; I'll have to steal it from her. We topped our Thanksgiving off by getting a scoop of gelato on the way home.






Friday we woke up and headed to the Vatican City for an audience with the Pope, or maybe it was to see the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is an entire room covered from wall to wall and across the ceiling by Michelangelo and took him 4 years to complete. We were mainly interested in seeing the chapel, but these Italians are tricky; in order to get to the chapel, you have to wander through all these corridors/museums. It was pretty cool though, there was a lot of mythical and historical statues throughout these hallways. After a while, we started goofing around with our pictures, which was probably disrespectful and sacrilegious to them. For that, I sincerely apologize.






Finally we made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was breathtakingly amazing. The intricacies of Michelangelo's designs was incredible. The walls and ceilings had paintings of the twelve apostles and various scenes from the Bible. The front wall was a painting called The Last Judgment. When we got in the room, there were like 300 hundred people all murmuring in awe at the paintings and one guard standing in the front saying, "SHHHH (as if the murmuring would wake the paintings) NO PHOTO." So I sneaked a photo. It's not a very clear shot, but it's hard to break the rules.





From the Sistine Chapel, we walked through St. Peter's Square, took a picture of the intimidating-looking guards and stopped for overpriced lunch. After lunch, we took the metro to a museum that showed the ancient bath houses. When we got there, we found out that the baths were currently closed for renovation or something. By this time, it was about 5 and the sun was starting to set, but we weren't ready to call it a day yet, so we headed to the Spanish Steps, a common hang out place for couples and young people. By this time, the museums had all closed and it was too dark to do much sight-seeing so we headed back to the apartment.







Ok, so there were two metro stops within walking distance of our apartment. Now, in MY mind, we took the one to get to all these places, so it would make sense to ME to use this same stop to go back to our apartment, since we already knew where it was. However, the other metro stop was apparently a fraction closer to our apartment, so we got off on that one. Unfortunately, we came out from underground completely disoriented and what could have been a 10 minute walk home turned into an hour and ten minute walk home. We actually walked almost a complete circle around the walled part of the Vatican City. That's where the picture of me running up the wall was taken. We had two scoops of gelato that night.


Saturday we headed out to see the Colosseum. Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of the US Embassy and to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe of Rome. It is my new goal to eat at as many HRCs in foreign countries as possible. Too bad I didn't know there was one in Athens. I could have eaten there once a week. Ha.



In order to get to the Colosseum using the metro, we had to change lines at the Termini stop. The Termini stop is known for its pickpockets and many people have been robbed here; Jennifer's friends had recently taken a trip to Rome and had lost money at this station. But we decided that if we just tried to blend in and look like we knew where we were going, we wouldn't have any trouble. First, Jamie, Jen and I all have blondish hair and the kids have red hair--we didn't blend in. Second, we got off the first line at Termini, turned right when we should have turned left and walked in a complete circle...We did make it out without any problems though.





We got to the Colosseum wandered around there for quite a bit. I must say, those Romans built a pretty impressive structure (able to seat 50,000) and while there was a lot of cruelty that took place at the Colosseum, I almost wished I could have seen a gladiator fight. There was also a museum at the Colosseum and we spent so much time here that we didn't make it to the other two attractions located close by. I've forgotten what the names of these were anyway and we were about to sneak pictures of these buildings from afar.










After we left the Colosseum, we decided to walk around the area. We would up walking to/across the Tiber River and into the old Jewish ghetto. Before WWII, the Jews were forced to live in this part of Rome and every time it rained, there was no wall holding the river back, causing the ghetto to flood. Post war a wall was built and this part of the city is actually quite nice. From here, we went to see another cathedral, the name of which I cannot remember. (I will ask Jennifer and then hopefully update my blog with more information instead of "I can't remember or I don't know" haha, sorry.)






From there, we began the long trek home. We weren't close to any metro stop and Jamie said, oh it's only 10 minutes. Yeah it was only 10 minutes until the next 10 minutes. Again we walked forever, only this time I think Jamie knew where we were going. I sure didn't, but as long as one of us did, I guess that's all that mattered. We ate McDonald's that night and had two more scoops of gelato.

Sunday, Jamie and Jennifer drove me to the airport where we said our goodbyes and they headed on to Venice. I got to go back to Gdansk. Haha. My flight home was rather uneventful, which was fine by me. This weekend, I plan on seeing what Gdansk has to offer and next weekend, I will spend my Saturday flying across the Atlantic where I will be united with my cousin Jami in Chicago who will bring me home to all of you! Thanks for reading this uber long post. Much love!

Warsaw

Friday I left sunny and warm Greece and headed for foggy and chilly Poland (seriously, it was like a 20 degree temperature change). I'll be working in Gdansk for the next three weeks, but I wanted to see as much as Poland as I could, so I stopped in Warsaw for the weekend. Originally, I was hoping to take a train from Warsaw to Auschwitz to visit an old concentration camp turned museum. However, I had a hard time communicating what I wanted at the train station, so I x'ed that idea and decided to see what the city of Warsaw had to offer.

Across from my hotel was the Palace of Culture and Science, constructed according to Stalin's instructions back in the day. It is the tallest building in Poland and is home to the Museum of Technology and Art. I tried to go visit, but apparently this building is home to many things, including a theatre and restaurant and much more and I couldn't find the right entrance for the museum, so I skipped that.

Saturday, I decided to walk to Old Town. Old Town is a section of Warsaw that was heavily bombed/destroyed in World War II. After the world, the people worked to recreate the old area, rebuilding the city based on prewar pictures and paintings. I stepped outside my hotel on Saturday wearing only a sweater. I had looked up the weather before leaving and it said 50 degrees, which I reasoned isn't that cold. I walked around for maybe 10 minutes before returning to the hotel to grab my coat and then go across the street to the mall to buy a pair of gloves. Guess my skin's not so tough after all.


Before leaving the hotel, I had asked the concierge for directions to get to Old Town. His directions? Walk straight until you get to the palm tree, then turn left. Turns out, there really is a palm tree in Poland. I stopped at an Italian restaurant on the road to Old Town for a quick lunch. I ate 8 pieces of pizza by myself and I regret nothing. I found Old Town no problem and spent the better part of the day wandering in and out of churches and up and down streets, trying to see everything, but not forget the direction I came from.




I saw the tomb for the unknown soldier. The tomb is guarded by soldiers and I totally lucked out. I just happened to stumble upon this right as the changing of the guards was taking place. In fact, I kind of followed the soldiers to the tomb. This tomb is at the entrance to a park, which would have been exceptionally pretty if it hadn't been winter and the trees hadn't been bare. I tried to take some creative/pretty shots anyway.


In Old Town Square, there is a statue of Zygmunt. It's the second oldest monument in Poland and a popular meeting spot for the locals. Near the statue, there was a guy playing a grand piano. I'm kind of confused as to how he got the piano there, but I thoroughly enjoyed his playing, so I'm not complaining. Also near the square is the Royal Castle. You can take tours of it, but I got there too late, so I decided to go the next day. Turns out admission is free on Sunday, so I guess it worked out pretty good for me!



After walking around for four hours, I headed back to the hotel, stopping to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe of Warsaw. Nothing like getting your Americanized food fix.


Sunday, I headed back to Old Town to tour the Royal Castle. They let you take pictures, which actually kind of surprised me. However, you had to turn your flash off. My battery started running low and I made the mistake of turning my camera off. Of course, when I turned it back on, the flash went off and I strongly scolded in Polish. I apologized profusely in English, but I don't think it did any good??





After the Royal Castle I found another section of Old Town that I hadn't discovered the day before. There were a lot of people out selling their wares. A lot of them were selling pictures and they were really pretty. If I'd had a way to get them home safely, I might have bought some, but alas, I only have so much trust in the airlines.




I stopped at a cafe for some hot chocolate and to write on postcards. I have no self control so I ordered a hot chocolate with caramel syrup and cheesecake. (Originally I was going to order toast, but he was out of toast, sooo? I tried.) Apparently I'm not as young and unhealthy as I used to be, because I couldn't handle all the sweets. I left there and headed to find some vegetables and salt. I found a Subway. Sadly, they did not have a 5-Zloty Footlong. Zloty is the Polish currency and is currently 0.36 of a dollar. That would have been one cheap sandwich, but these people knew how to account for the exchange rate.

After "detoxing," I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Gdansk. I haven't seen much of the city yet, but it seems like a nice place. Thursday, I head to Rome for the weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Much love!