Segovia + Madrid Mishaps

Hi Again! I know what you're thinking...I haven't posted in a few weeks, and now TWO posts in ONE day?! Can you believe your luck?!?!?! Well, you're not dreaming, so here is a recap of my field trip to Segovia and a silly little weekend in Madrid!

So, last Friday, our school sponsored a field trip to Segovia, a small town about 2 hours away from Toledo. After our long journey, we met up with our tour guides, one of which happened to be our history professor! Those of us in his class were pretty pumped to see him since he is such a great professor, so we made sure to be placed in his tour group. Our first stop was the Alcazar, which is an old castle that is now used as a museum and archives site. Legend has it that this specific castle served as the inspiration for the castle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast"...you be the judge:

(ok, that's not a great picture of it, but the resemblance was uncanny, I swear!)

Anyhow, we went into the Alcazar, which was really interesting, since it was filled with suits of armor and rooms that were used by some of the royalty in Spain's history. I found it all to be pretty interesting, and the building itself was the perfect size - it wasn't so huge that by the end of the tour, I was worn out and bored. After the tour of the castle, we had the opportunity to climb to the top of the castle's tower, which was quite the undertaking. There are 152 steps to the top of the tower, and of course, no elevator. To make matters worse, there is only one staircase, so all of the people huffing and puffing their way up have to share space with all of the people on their way back down. On top of all of THAT, the staircase is super narrow...and a spiral. There are no little platforms for a person to stand on to allow another climber to pass, so it is a pretty trecherous endeavor. Hannah and I were some of the first to make it to the top, although neither of us were terribly pleased with ourselves upon our ascent, mostly since our legs killed and our lungs were on fire. It did have some pretty great views, though. Since we were the first up, it would make sense that we would be the first to begin our journey downward. Well, I am surprised I didn't fall to my death, since the staircase was filled with people heading upwards, so we had to take the inside track of the spiral staircase, meaning instead of having 10 inches to step on, we had a solid 2 or 3 inches. Amazingly, we survived!

After the Alcazar, we walked around the city a bit, seeing the church where Isabela was crowned Queen and the Plaza Mayor. We then headed to Segovia's most popular destination: the aqueduct. This is one of the longest aqueducts in the world, going on for about 5 miles, and it has been standing for 2000 years! On top of all of that, those who were in charge of designing it had the wherewithall to put little curves in the route the water takes so as to cut down on its speed; otherwise, the water would hit the end and splash out, losing precious drops. The most jaw-dropping aspect of the structure, for sure, was the fact that it has been standing for 2000 years, WITHOUT THE USE OF ANY CEMENT. That's right, the only things holding this puppy together are friction and force and pressure, and other terms I don't exactly understand. I don't even know very much about structures and force and whatnot, and I still was amazed. Here's a picture for you all:



After gazing at that marvel for a bit, we had lunch and then headed back to good ol' Toledo. That evening, I attended a play for my literature class which was pretty enjoyable, minus the fact that the theater was about 10000 degrees! After the play, a few of us went out for sodas with our professor, which was quite the experience, but definitely a ton of fun.

On Saturday, all of us packed up and prepared to spend the next 24 or so hours in Madrid. My friend Kate (from Paris) and her friend Cassi (also from Paris) were in Madrid for the weekend visiting, so I had made arrangements to meet up with them. The Toledo group made it to Madrid and when we went to check in to our hostel, we discovered that the reservation had been made for the night of the 14th (Friday) as opposed to the night of the 15th (Saturday). On top of that, that hostel was booked up for Saturday night, so we were left with no place to sleep. And guess who was in charge of the reservation? Yup, yours truly! So, I did what any self-respecting young lady does when something goes awry, and I cried a bit. Thankfully, my friends were all super understanding and brushed it off, which allowed me to get past my huge gaffe before I had to meet up with Kate and Cassi.

Sierra, Christie, and Flan branched off, seeking out symphony tickets, while Hannah and I went to meet Cassi and Kate. For the rest of the day, we toured around with the Parisians, including a bizarre series of events at the Royal Palace. It was a gorgeous day, so the 4 of us were sitting on a fountain when a Japanese man came up, camera in hand, speaking something that I couldn't quite understand. I assumed he wanted us to take a picture of him, or of him and his friends/wife, but nooooo, he instead wanted to take a picture WITH us. It was so odd! To make matters stranger, once his wife finished taking the picture, the two of them swapped positions! When all was said and done, we probably posed for about 10 pictures with random Japanese tourists. On the plus side, one Japanese woman told us "you girls so pretty" and then gave us some flavorless Japanese candy, so at least we walked away with that.

After that little charade, Hannah, Kate, and I parted ways with Cassi, who was meeting a friend, and the three of us shopped the afternoon away, which, as always, was great fun. Of course, I was in charge of finding the shopping area, and I had the street name written down. However, we were without a map, so we asked for directions and then followed the metro to the stop that matched the street name. Welllllll it turns out there is a street with this name, and a neighborhood with this same name. We took a 30 minute metro ride out to the neighborhood only to quickly figure out we were a bit off. When we asked for directions again, a nice lady explained the mistake we had made, and then we rode the metro about 25 minutes back. It turns out, we just needed to go to the next metro stop past the one where we started. Basically, we could have walked to the shopping street in about 10 minutes, instead we spent a solid hour on the metro. At least it was clean, and we all laughed it off. Another great success on my part! Once we finally hit the shopping area, we hit our stride! We all enjoyed a moderate bit of success before becoming completely exhausted and plopping down for some ice cream. We killed a bit of time there before going to a cafe to kill more time there, eating dinner, before finally killing more time at a crepe shop. Once we had depleted all of our "eat and kill time" options, Hannah and I parted with the Parisians to catch a bus back to Toledo since we had no beds to our name in Madrid. Although it was a brief little day with Kate, it was still so worth it, hostel debacle and all.

On Sunday morning, Hannah, Sierra, and I headed BACK to Madrid to do a little shopping, since there is a very reasonably-priced market on Sunday mornings in the city. Now that the semester is coming to a close, everyone has a better handle on who still requires souvenirs, so we all decided that another trip to the market would be beneficial. Although it was colder, more crowded, and a bit less successful than our journey in September, we still walked away with purchases in hand, and made it back to Toledo in time for lunch.

All in all, Segovia was fun, and our time in Madrid was like "the little weekend that couldn't" (at least for me)! I want all of you loyal readers to know: when I screw something up, I reassure myself by thinking that at the very least, that tale will be good fodder for my blog :)

My Big Fat Greek Weekend!

Hi Everyone! Sorry the updates have been few and far between...the time just slips away before you even realize it! Anyhow, here is the much-awaited post about my weekend in Athens...

Hannah and I started our Greek weekend by celebrating the fact that our flight didn't leave Madrid until about 11:00, so we, for the first time in three weeks, did NOT have to drag ourselves out of bed at 4:30, nor did we have to pay for a taxi to get ourselves to the bus station. Just like always, we took the bus to Madrid, and then took the God-foresaken metro ride from the bus station to the airport. For whatever reason, those who designed the city of Madrid and its metro system decided it would make perfect sense to put the bus station and the airport as far away from each other as humanly possible, and every time we travel, Hannah and I spent a fair amount of time on the metro, grumbling about the stupid layout of the city. Nevertheless, we made it to the airport and got through security, blah blah blah.

We normally fly out of terminal 4, but this time we had the pleasure of flying out of terminal 4-S. Not all that different, but the good news is the 4-S terminal had an American newsstand and a Starbucks, so we were pretty much jumping for joy. I was glad to find the newsstand, since this was only a few days after the election, so all of the magazines were plastered with Obama's face and I was able to actually read some American coverage of the election!

Sidenote about the election: prior to November 4, when a person in any country (Spain, France, or Italy) found out I was an American, he or she immediately wanted to know, "McCain or Obama?" (keeping in mind, of course, that neither name was pronounced correctly, but at least they tried, I guess!) I got a very warm reception when I told them I was supporting Obama. During Election Night (since I am 6 hours ahead of the East Coast), I stayed up watching the results come in on Spanish CNN and I kept looking at various American news websites for updates. I ended up staying up until 5:00 AM to see the historic event arrive, and although I was quite the zombie the next day, it was so so worth it! It was kind of interesting to be in a different country during the end of the campaign season, since I got to witness a different perspective of the entire thing. I kid you not, "El País", the Spanish national newspaper, devoted its first 21 pages of the edition on November 6 to coverage of the election. I was stunned! I don't even think a lot of American newspapers have that much coverage!

Back to my Greek weekend (or my Greekend?), Hannah and I had managed to snag ourselves some exit row seats, which was exciting since it means extra leg room, yaaaay! I am not going to lie, I was secretly worried that this would be the flight where something would go awry and I would be responsible for helping people...fortunately, not the case. We even got a meal on our flight, which was exciting, too! Thus, we were all rested and recharged and ready to take Athens by storm by the time our flight landed.

We caught the airport express bus to take us into the heart of the city, which ended up taking about an hour. Surprisingly, the sun had completely set by the time we got off the bus at about 7:00, so we were a little skittish about being in a strange place with no bearings after dark, but we obviously survived. We managed to find our hostel and then headed out for some traditional Greek food for dinner. We had minced meat and spices, which we both agreed was....ok. At least we tried, right? Then we tracked down some delicious-looking pastries only to be heart-broken to discover that they were anything but delicious. They had some weird molasses-like coating which made them feel like an absolute brick in your stomach, so that was a disappointing experience. On our way back to the hostel, a man asked me for change for a euro, and I just brushed him off, and then Hannah wisely pointed out that that request was absurd, since a 1-euro piece is already a coin, so why would he need coins in place of a coin? We then put the pieces together and assumed his intentions were not that honorable, so we decided to call it an early night and play a few hours' worth of 20 Questions in the hostel before going to bed. Not exactly the most wild and crazy first night in Greece, but it was a blast nonetheless.

On Saturday, we woke up early and had our eyes on the prize: The Parthenon! We figured it was pretty close, since Athens isn't terribly large, but we still didn't have very good bearings, so we decided to take the metro. We walked about 5 blocks to the metro stop only to have the metro take us about 7 blocks in the opposite direction...therefore, we could have saved ourselves a bit of time and money by walking the 2 blocks in the other direction, but oh well. It wasn't really until our last few hours in Greece that we realized the Parthenon was directly behind our hostel...since we couldn't see in that direction, we had no idea! Anyhow, we got to the Acropolis (the giant hill that the Parthenon is on) and trekked up. It was really warm, which was nice, but when you are walking up and up and up under the direct sunlight, it was REALLY warm, and we were both icky by the time of our ascent. Along the way up the hill, we saw a few ancient ampitheaters and temples, and then finally saw the Parthenon. It was so gigantic! It was pretty amazing to see this structure that is so old still standing in relatively good shape. Fun fact: the Parthenon is in ruins because the French used it to store gunpowder, and then the gunpowder exploded. Nice job, Frenchies.



After touring around the Parthenon for a few hours and taking in the views of the city, we walked down to the ruins site of Ancient Agora, which was pretty cool, too. However, along the way, we had to walk down a set of stairs in the Temple of Nike. These steps are made of marble and have 1000s of people walking up and down them every day, so they are pretty smoothed down. I was walking down the steps, when all of a sudden, my foot slipped out and I started to fall toward the foot of the staircase. Hannah's contribution to helping me was a super-loud gasp which attracted the attention of many people standing nearby. Somehow, thankfully, I was able to catch myself (almost) and basically just bopped down on the step, and then hopped right up again. No injuries, aside from my sore ego (just like the metro in Rome). I was pretty embarrassed, so after that little episode, Hannah and I booked it away from there and toward the other ruins. We toured around the other sites for a little bit, but in all honesty, they have a tendency to kind of blur together in my memory, since they all have very long and hard to pronounce Greek names, and they look relatively similar, with columns and ruins and white marble, etc. After so much time looking at ruins, Hannah and I decided to have some lunch.

Lunch was a bit of a let-down, since I was pretty aggravated with the environment. In many places in Europe, I have had the experience of sitting outside a cafe, enjoying a drink or meal, when street vendors and beggars come directly up to your table and will not leave you in peace until you are borderline rude to them. It is a pretty frustrating process, since you never really feel at ease at the cafe. It seemed like every 5 minutes or so, another person was coming up to the table, and the meal was anything but relaxing. Additionally, my ham and cheese sandwich had ham, cheese, and 1/2 pound of mayo, so that was less than appetizing. Since Hannah and I were a little unenthused by our lunch experience, we decided we had to soothe our wounds with some shopping! Coincidentally, we then stumbled upon the shopping district of Athens and spent the rest of the afternoon there, looking at the regular stores in addition to the 100s of touristy stores that all sell basically the same amount of stuff. During the middle of the afternoon, we headed over to the Olympic Stadium, a recreation of the stadium used in the 1896 Olympics. This wasn't the stadium where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were held in 2004, but some events were held in the stadium we visited. It was all decked out in Greek flags and Olympic Rings, and it was especially exciting to see it that day, since the Athens Marathon was being held, and the finish line was inside the stadium. Thus, the entire stadium area was very well decorated and a really cool place to see!

After the Stadium, we headed out for some dinner, and we decided to try some traditional Greek food again. We picked a random cafe and this time, the results were much better. On top of the good food, our waiter quickly ascertained we were Americans, and it turns out, he was born in Wisconsin! Therefore, during the entire meal, every time he came back to the table for refills or something like that, he would just go on and on about how much he loves America, and how great it is, and how Europeans are so cold and uninviting while Americans are very warm and friendly. He apparently was moving back to Wisconsin relatively soon and was enthralled with the idea of us being from his idea of heaven-on-earth. We chit-chatted with him, since it was one of the few interactions I have had in Europe where someone is pleased to discover our homeland, and then at the end of the meal, he gave us free dessert, so all in all, it wasn't a bad series of events! After dinner, we did a bit more shopping and then called it a night, having had a much better 2nd evening in Athens than the 1st.

On Sunday, we slept in a bit and then checked out of the hostel, but kept our bags there while we toured around the city a little bit more. We headed over to the Temple of Zeus, which now consists of a few columns in a field, but it was still fun to see. We then explored one of the rustic little neighborhoods and had some brunch. I snagged some baklava which was really really yummy, and then we headed out to the airport. To get to the Athens airport from the center square of the city, you can take a bus or the metro. Well, for whatever reason, we were told the bus wasn't going to our stop that afternoon, so we decided to take the metro. It was a little confusing, since all of the signs were in Greek and English, and then there were also signs for regular tickets and airport tickets, so we had to wade through many lines of text to make sure we were buying what we actually needed. All of the guidebooks we had really emphasized that you NEED to have your ticket with you (and it NEEDS to be the right type of ticket) and it NEEDS to be validated for that journey, or else you'll be slapped with a hefty fine. Well, the "validation" process consists of feeding the ticket into a machine, the machine beeps, and the ticket shoots back out at you. You have no way of telling if that beep was "good job, you did it right, carry on" or if that beep was "you're an idiot and screwed it up, therefore this ticket hasn't been validated". Hannah and I fed our joint ticket through 2 machines and hoped that was enough, then hopped onto the metro.

The ride to the airport was about an hour, as the airport was the last metro stop on the line. At the 2nd to last stop, 2 men in suits with badges hopped onto the train and not-so-politely demanded that all passengers exhibit their tickets. I woke Hannah up so she could dig ours out, and then nervously waited while the men with badges surveyed the situation. Thankfully, it appears as though we succeeded in the ticket puzzle. However, there were 2 other girls on the metro who were clearly American and had purchased regular metro tickets as opposed to airport metro tickets. I was certain that the men with badges would say something to the effect of "don't let it happen again" or "when we get to the airport, you need to pay the difference". Instead, the not-so-polite demands continued, and he demanded to see both of the girls' passports. He issued them a fine! It was 4o euros, which I thought wasn't too bad, until I realized that it was 40 euros per person. Granted, that amount won't ruin your bank account, but definitely bites a big one. I genuinely felt bad for the girls, since their faces definitely displayed a combination of their shock, fear, and disappointment. Oh well!

On the flight back, we again had exit row seats, so that was exciting for the 2nd time (it obviously doesn't take much to excite us, huh?). There was a guy in his mid-20s sitting next to me, and throughout the first half of the flight, he spoke to me in a combination of Greek, Spanish, and English, mostly when he needed help getting his tray out or asking for the time. About 2/3 of the way through the flight, he got out his fanny pack and was rooting through it for a bit, very secretively, but I thought nothing of it. He then got up and went to the bathroom and was gone for about 10-15 minutes, so I figured there was just a line for the stall. However, when he came back he REEKED of cigarette smoke. It was such a strong smell! He then immediately put on a sweatshirt and popped about 10 mints. Sure enough, within 5 minutes, the flight attendant came up and asked if he had smoked. He claimed not to understand her question, although he seemed pretty good with his English when he spoke to me. She then made the motion of smoking, and his response was this: "(10 seconds of silence)....no?" The flight attendant walked away, but I was just in shock. I was shocked that he smoked in the first place, I was shoked that she couldn't smell it on him, I was shocked that she bought his answer (it was honestly like a 5-year-old denying something after thinking if it would be better to tell the truth and get in trouble or take a chance and lie, potentially getting in more trouble or no trouble whatsoever), and I was shocked that he was getting away with it! Oh, Europe...the land of the cigarettes.

After that little escapade, Hannah and I made the now-routine trek from the airport to the bus station and successfully completed our big fat Greek weekend. It was fun, but at the same time a little sad, since it was our last international journey together.

More updates to come soon, I swear!

Hasta luego,
Jill

Weekend at Benny's (as in, Pope Benedict XVI)

Greetings from Spain!

I realize I have been a bit lax on my posting, so get excited for a barrage of posts in the upcoming days (hopefully...)!

On the weekend of October 31 to November 2, Hannah, Flan, and Christie, and I went to Rome. Hannah and I flew out separately from the other two to meet them there. We, once again, woke up at the absolute crack of dawn to take a cab to the bus station, a bus to Madrid, the metro to the airport, and then the plane to Rome. About 85% of those travels were spent with at least one of us in a comatose state. We arrived in Rome without problems and then managed to catch the train from the airport into the city after breaking into a near sprint in order to catch the one that departed about 10 minutes after our plane landed. We arrived at the city, no problems, and checked into our hostel, which turned out to be our very own apartment as opposed to a dirty multiple people hostel. That was a pretty nice surprise. Unfortunately, Hannah and I didn't have much time to enjoy this fact, as we had made arrangements to have a "skip the line" entrance to the Vatican Museums at 2:30, so we had to book it over there to meet our group.

We successfully navigated the metro system with one tiny "oops". Two stops were marked as the Vatican Museum, and Hannah and I zoned out on the metro. When I snapped to attention, we had arrived at the 1st one, which I assumed was ours, so I hopped off and insisted Hannah come with me. She then insisted that I come back onto the train and consequently pulled me back onto the train just as the doors were shutting. Essentially, my one arm and my face was completely smushed between the doors, and Hannah couldn't get them open, so it was altogether embarrassing and painful. We managed to pry the doors open, get me back onto the train, and complete the ride without any additional issues, aside from my bright, burning red cheeks. I had been in Rome for about an hour before looking like a big fat dumb tourist. Oh well...

We tracked down our group outside the Vatican Museum entrance and got right into the museum without any obstacles. This museum is HUGE, GIGANTIC, AND OVERWHELMING. In all seriousness, the amount of artwork in the museum was ridiculous. Some of the display rooms looked like storage units for statues or busts rather than actual museum exhibits. We walked and walked and walked, following the signs for the Sistine Chapel. Along the way, we saw some notable paintings from Raphael, including The School of Athens which was pretty cool to see in person. We saw the Hall of Maps, which had paintings of maps of Italy throughout its history, which was also interesting to observe. Finally, we arrived at the heralded Sistine Chapel, and it was a lot different than I expected. In all honesty, I thought the ceiling would consist only of that famous painting with God and Adam nearly touching fingers. In reality, this painting was about 1/100th of all of the art in the chapel. There were creation scenes all over the ceiling, and the art was just overwhelming. I wish I would have had binoculars to see the details, especially after learning that Michelangelo became frustrated with his assistants and decided to fire them all, completing the vast majority of the work himself! We technically weren't allowed to take pictures in the chapel, and by technically, I mean large Italian men would bellow at you if you did, but I managed to snag a few pics AND avoid being the target of an Italian bellowing, so all in all, I call this trip to the chapel a success.




After the Sistine Chapel, we headed over to St. Peter's, the main church of the Vatican. This, similar to the Museum, was gigantic and overwhelming. We saw Michelangelo's Pieta, which was securely locked up behind glass after a lunatic took a hammer to it in the 1970s. We got to walk around this massive church, which is more than 2 football fields long (fact courtesy of Jenna Lusk). It was gigantic, and everything was beautiful and/or gigantic as well. Coincidentally, we met up with Flan and Christie there, and the four of us headed out into the rainy Roman day to continue our adventures.

Christie, Hannah, and I stopped at a cafe near the Vatican for a little pick me up, and our waiter was ridiculously enthusiastic in addition to surprisingly knowledgeable about the United States and American pop culture. He knew Pennsylvania, and then started asking if we were Amish from Lancaster. Once he determined we were more Pittsburgh than Philadelphia, he started rattling off the sports teams, saying that the Steelers were good and the Pirates were bad. It was such a shock to be talking Pittsburgh sports in Rome! He also found it necessary to compare Christie to Demi Moore, although he could never seem to remember the name "Demi" so he decided instead to call her "Michael Moore" until we corrected him, as Demi Moore and Michael Moore are a bit different, to say the least. He then called her "Denny" about 1000 times, including shouting it to her from the opposite side of the cafe. It was definitely a surreal experience, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.

After dinner, the three of us met up with some of Christie's friends who are studying abroad in Rome, and we had amazingly delicious pasta and gelato for dinner. Afterwards, we walked around a bit and saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps at night, which was very nice. Unfortunately, Hannah and I had been up since about 4 AM, so we were ready to call it an early night.

On Saturday, Hannah and I got up and went straight to the Colosseum, which completely took me by surprise, since we literally ascended from the Metro Station, and THERE IT WAS. It was so huge, and really amazing to see in person. We waited in line and then toured the inside, which was well worth both the wait and the admission price. They had reconstructed 1/5 of the floor of the colisseum, where the gladiators and beasts would fight, but they left the other 4/5 undone so that we could see the ruins of the holding pens where the competitors were kept before actually fighting on the floor. The stadium held 50,000 at is peak, and after being inside, I am honestly surprised that that number is so low. The stadium was completely gigantic and just made you feel like a tiny little ant as you stood inside of it and gazed all around you. After the Colisseum, we headed over to the Roman Forum, and waited in line for an obscene amount of time, since the European notion of "a line" largely consists of people going wherever they want, whenever they want, regardless of who was there first. Additionally, there was a bit of a bottleneck as the admission gate had one worker who had to scan everyone's ticket, and the scanner was a bit antiquated, so each visitor's interaction with the worker was probably a full minute. Before entering in line for the Forum, we had decided to see the Forum and then grab lunch, since we were already hungry by that point in time. Well, by the time we actually got into the Forum, we were starving and pretty frustrated, so our time in the Forum was pretty brief. We toured around and saw tons and tons of ruins, way more than I initially expected, and then decided to call it a day and head out for lunch. We stopped at a little cafe, had some more delicious pasta, went to the Trevi Fountain to see it during the day and had some more delicious gelato (notice a trend?). We then walked over to the Pantheon to see Rome's best-preserved ancient building. It was pretty intimidating of a building, very huge and dark and manly, I guess. After the Pantheon, we were ready to shop, which was a moderate success. Hannah and I both managed to track down some pretty good souvenir stuff and then had less success shopping for ourselves, as all of the stores were packed to the brim with other shoppers. We decided to cut our shopping trip short and then went back to the hotel for a nap.

After our rest, we headed out for dinner, which was more pasta at another completely random cafe. That was one of my favorite parts about Rome...you could eat ANYWHERE (or at least all of the places I saw looked at least good if not great) and walk away very satisfied. During the meal, my Mom texted me the halftime score of the Pitt-Notre Dame game, and I read it out loud to Hannah. Shortly thereafter, an elderly couple at the table next to us asked me to repeat what I had said, and they turned out to be Notre Dame fans! The wife explained that the husband had been unhappy that he had no way of tracking down the score, so they were excited to have me as an unanticipated source of ND information. It always amazes me how small the world is...I definitely did not expect to be discussing Notre Dame football with anyone in Rome, except maybe Hannah! After satiating ourselves with super yummy and super carb-y pasta, we had gelato...again...and it was delicious....again. We then headed back to the hostel and watched "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in Italian, which was interesting to say the least.

On Sunday, we woke up and were set on going to mass at St. Peter's. I was a bit nervous, since I had a tiny rolling suitcase, and some public locations won't let you in with luggage, as a safety precaution. We decided to take a chance, and I made it through the metal detectors without any problems, and then I found a luggage storage room which was a blessing, since it was free, there was no line, and the people were super friendly, which is not something that can be said for every European I have encountered thus far. Some, yes, others...not so much. We then headed into mass, which was pretty long, but it was really kind of awing to be at mass in the Vatican. The processional had tons of bishops, priests, and even cardinals, and the choir was absolutely amazing. Hannah and I left the church feeling pleased with having successfully gone to mass in one of the most famous churches in the world when we noticed a huge group of people in St. Peter's Square. There was also some sort of barricade holding the crowd back. I thought it might be for the next mass in the Basilica, but then Hannah noticed everyone peering up at a window in one of the buildings surrounding the square. From the window sill hung a deep red cloth that looked pretty darned Papal to me. We decided to wait it out for a little bit, and sure enough, within about 5 minutes, Pope Benedict XVI came to the window and spoke to the masses. He prayed the angelus with the crowd, in Italian, and then provided a blessing in Italian. As Hannah and I were secretly wishing we understood Italian, he switched to French, which led us to secretly which we understood Italian OR French. Then, he switched to English, and a large section of the crowd cheered. I'll be honest, his English had such a heavy accent that I didn't even notice it was English until Hannah told me...yikes! He welcomed us and then provided a blessing, which I managed to catch on my camera. I am pretty sure Papal blessings that are captured on digital camera and then uploaded to a blog still count, so you should all feel very spiritually touched after watching this: (note...he switches to German toward the end, so don't be confused)


We then left, hearing a Spanish blessing in the background. I actually had an easier time understanding his Spanish than his English, which I guess means either (a) I am getting better at listening to Spanish, or (b) his English was RIDICULOUSLY accented, to the point of being difficult to understand. I vote A.

We were all spiritually fulfilled after being blessed by the Pope himself, so we decided to be fulfilled stomach-wise, as well, and had some more pasta and gelato before catching the train back to the airport. The only real notable point in our journey home occurred when Hannah declared she had to go the bathroom upon our arrival to the train station (fyi: this sort of declaration from Hannah is not terribly rare, and I'll leave it at that.). However, when she sought out the bathroom, it was nowhere to be found, and we had to board the train, so she was not pleased. We then had a 30 minute train ride and went straight to security after getting to the aiport. Hannah carries a tin water bottle with her, and at this point in time, it was completely full of water. Not surprisingly, this did not pass the "3 ounces" rule for liquids on carry-ons, so she was presented with the options of throwing away the entire bottle or returning to the very beginning of the security line to pour out the water. She wasn't pleased with either of these choices, so she decided to return to the other side of the metal detector, chug her water, and then go through security for the 2nd time. I had assumed she was just going to pour her water out, so after a few minutes, I started looking around to see where she was. I was surprised to find her chugging away at her water, bouncing from foot to foot with a pained expression on her face. Of course, adding insult to injury, when she passed through the metal detector for the 2nd time, some piece of metal caused the machine to beep after she had had no issues the 1st time through. She then had to be patted down by a lovely Italian security guard, all the while she is bouncing up and down, hoping not to lose bladder control in the airport. Once she passed through security, she scurried as fast as anyone can scurry to the nearest bathroom. It was definitely a comical series of observations from my point of view.

So, all in all, Rome was pretty much amazing, and all the sites were huge and overwhelming while all of the food was delicious!

Love from Spain,
Jill

(I realize this post doesn't have many pictures, so you will just have to check out my albums on Picasa!)