Rome is Where the Heart is.

Well this is it.

It has been one hell of a semester.

Yes, I do still have to blog about my trip to London and this past week (when my Mom and Uncle Ken visited me), but I have been so busy between finals and being Miss Tour Guide USA in Rome that I have not had time to blog. When I do post those, they will hopefully be below this one, so this will be my last post.

I came to Europe 108 days ago, not knowing what to expect. Prior to this, I had been out of the country once (to an all-inclusive resort, aka: an American colony). However, a little over a year ago, I decided that not knowing what I was missing out on (in traveling the world) was not a good thing. Yes, I didn’t know what I was missing out on, but in this case, ignorance was not bliss. As I have quoted once before, “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page” (St. Augustine). So this is the end of my book, for now, but it already consists of chapters that no one else can understand.

Tomorrow I will be boarding a plane back home and my study abroad experience will be over.

I am so grateful for the experience I have had.
Over the past 108 days, I traveled from NJ to JFK Airport, over Canada to Dublin to Rome, where I then ventured to Vatican City, Tuscany, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, through Austria to Munich (Oktoberfest), Venice, Paris, Florence, laid over in Zurich, Switzerland, Amsterdam, laid over in Frankfurt, Germany, then went to London, and Paris again– not to mention all of the amazing places I have visited around La Cittá Eterna.  Counting the layovers, that’s 10 countries.

I have learned so much in each of these places, especially in Rome, where I have had the time of my life and have learned so much, academically, culturally, linguistically, and historically. I would like to thank my parents, grandparents, and family members who have all made it possible for me to have this experience.

Thank you, grazie, danka, merci, dank u, cheers, and gracias. No matter how many languages I can say “thank you” in, it cannot even express how grateful I am.

 

Arrivederci, e ciao, Roma.

Baci.

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” – Matthew 16:18

Last Monday, my New Testament class was fortunate enough to get a Scavi Tour, under St. Peter’s Basilica, in the excavation site. This tour is extremely difficult to book, as my teacher had to book it 3 months in advance. 

Upon entering, we were able to see what the excavation site would have looked like prior to the church being built on top. Here’s a little history for you:

Simon was renamed Peter by Jesus. As we learned in class “new name, new mission” (this is why the Popes change their name. They select it after a pope or saint that they want their ministry to focus on.). Jesus came up with the name Peter for him, because “Petra” in latin means “rock,” and he is the rock of the church. Peter and Paul went on spreading the Word, until they were put to death, after being arrested. At the time, Christianity was illegal in Rome. Since they were under the Roman empire, they were brought to Rome. Nero, who had set fire to the city in hopes of rebuilding it, blamed the fire on the Christians, to pass the blame away from him, since they were a new group in town, if you will. In Nero’s Circus, there were gladiator fights and other events, and instead of a halftime show, they would kill Christians. Peter was crucified to set an example. He chose to be crucified upside-down, because he felt unfit to be killed in the same way that Jesus had. Nero’s circus was located here: 

The green is Nero’s Circus, the gray is St. Peter’s Square/Basilica, with the brown semi-circle in the middle being the altar. Nero’s circus was upon the Vatican Hill (named before the Vatican). It was here that Peter was crucified. At night sometime after his crucifixion, Christians secretly cut him down by his feet and buried him right outside the circus, where some others were buried. For years, people visited this site to kneel and pray to St. Peter, who did not bring the religion to Rome, but rather was the first Pope, appointed by Jesus to build a church. A little structure was soon built over his tomb, so people knew where to go. When Constantine legalized Christianity, he commissioned the building of a few (I forget the exact number) of basilicas in Rome, including the Vatican. Taken from a website to confirm what I was about to say (and I’m too lazy to rephrase it), “He leveled a cemetery on Vatican hill and built a vast martyr basilica on the spot where tradition located the grave of St. Peter the apostle.” So instead of leveling the cemetery by disturbing graves, he filled in dirt over the hill. There was an altar placed over the alleged site. However, until Pope Pius XII, this spot was not confirmed other than a piece of graffiti on a wall that said “Peter is here.” So in 1939, he had the guts to allow excavations to take place to confirm that Peter was, in fact, under the alter. If this failed, this would look really bad, but it was important. Also, since this was during WWII, he only allowed workers to work at night, and they couldn’t use power tools, because it would look sketchy that the vatican was digging underground during that time. They found a tomb, but after analysis of the bones inside, they found the bones of two middle aged women and a rat. Later on, in the 1968ish, an archeologist noticed a piece of the wall that held St. Peter’s tomb was missing, and asked if they knew where it was. It was in a drawer somewhere in the Vatican, and this little piece held the information they needed. St. Peter’s bones were found, or at least the bones that had substantial evidence to be his bones. They were found wrapped in purple cloth with golden threads (symbolizing royalty) and Pope Paul VI, who was pope at the time, declared that there was substantial evidence that it could be St. Peter. It’s never actually been confirmed, but based on the cloth and the DNA analysis that said they were the bones of a 1st century robust man who lived until his 60’s or 70’s (which was VERY uncommon for the time), it’s pretty substantial. 

So we went along this scavi tour, walked down the side of the original Constantinian basilica was (they built up from that), saw some pagan mausoleums that were buried along the way, and eventually saw the original structure that marked Peter’s tomb, the original alter that was above his tomb (that the present day altar is on top of), and we walked around to see the hole in the graffiti wall, where Peter’s bones were in a plexiglass box. Pretty cool. 

Today, we went to the ending of the Year of Faith mass, declared by Pope Benedict, but fulfilled by Pope Francis. For the first time in history, St. Peter’s relics were on display to the public. We showed up to the square at 6am, and surprisingly, the line wasn’t that long, even when we entered. We got as close as we could to the front- 4th row. We didn’t care about being at a barricade, since this was a mass, and Pope Francis wouldn’t come around on the Popemobile until after the mass. We celebrated mass so close to St. Peter’s relics and the pope. 

Check out this article on the mass:
http://www.ucatholic.com/news/relics-of-st-peter/

We were given booklets to follow along with mass, but it was just the text of the words that were being spoken- aka in Italian or Latin. However, I was able to understand a lot of what I was hearing, because I was able to read and recognize words! That, and for what I didn’t understand, I often could piece it together with words I did know and put them in context with the mass to figure out what part of the mass they were at. 

I have photos from today, but I have not uploaded them yet. However, there are much better photos than the ones I took on that article. We were not allowed to take photos in the scavi tour, so there are none of that. 

I’m slightly embarrassed I just found this article, because it literally says everything I just wrote. I swear I found this article afterwards… Anyhow, there are some pictures included from the Scavi tour. The article is written by a father who studied at the NAC (North American College), which I went to for a prayer service and dinner with a few friends. A recent PC grad is studying to be a priest there, and invited us to come. Anyhow, here is the article with photos. If you want to skip over the reading, it just confirms everything I have already said.

http://thecatholictraveler.com/expert/vatican-scavi-tour/

So, there ya go. Today I celebrated mass with the first pope and his 265th successor!

It’s not a bad life I have here…

 

Amsterdam

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”
– Anne Frank

I boarded my plane from Florence via Swiss Air (which I loved… mostly because they fed me). For the first time, I had headed to the airport alone, and I was flying alone to meet my roommate from PC at the airport, where we arranged to meet at her flight’s baggage claim. This was the first flight that I’ve ever flown that was also delayed by about 40 minutes. Usually, that wouldn’t be bad, but I was originally supposed to leave at 7:05 to arrive at 8:15, but with this delay, we took off around 7:45. Funny, because I had a layover in Zurich, Switzerland, and was supposed to board at 8:35 to take off at 8:55. This didn’t stop me from sleeping for the entire plane ride (except when they came by with a sandwich-like pretzel (bun) with butter in the middle, juice, and swiss chocolate), but as soon as I landed, I was definitely in panic mode. However, when I got off the plane and onto the ground, there was a man standing in front of a bus holding an “Amsterdam” sign. They were going to take care of us. I boarded the bus, and thankfully, double checked with the people around me, who were strangely going to places like Munich. I hopped off the bus, to find out that I was supposed to stand with the man. Good thing I did that. He shuttled the 7 or us over to the next plane, that was now delaying itself to wait for us. Bless their souls.

Within a few minutes, we were up in the air again, on the way to Amsterdam. This time, they fed us cold-cut chicken and mustard sandwiches on a baguette, I got my apple juice again, and swiss chocolate. We landed within 5 minutes of our originally scheduled landing time, which was fantastic. I went through the huge airport to baggage claim, and found her, no problem. We took a cab with her two friends from her program in London, and arrived at the hotel, where we planned our next day and crashed.

Saturday morning, we woke up, ate the complimentary breakfast at the hotel (in case you can’t tell, I love my food… and traveling/trying new foods. This will be evident throughout this post.). We were going to go to the Heineken Factory, which was right across from our hotel, but it was more money than we wanted to pay, so we decided to bypass it and go to the Van Gogh Museum. On the way, we passed the “I AMsterdam” sign, which was empty for once, since it was only about 9 in the morning. We took several photos on it while we could, of course. Climbing up the letters was harder that I thought it would be (I often forget I’m short), but we figured it out.

Afterwards, we went to the Van Gogh museum. It was unreal. In front of all of the paintings/drawings, there was a little barrier (like a lot of museums), but it was maybe a foot away from the paintings. If I leaned over the little maybe 2.5 foot barrier bronze fence thing, I could essentially touch the works of Vincent Van Gogh. You could also see his name signed, bright and clear, which was just weird to see in person. I guess it just makes it more human. Seeing his works reproduced do not do his work justice. Seeing his brush strokes in person was fascinating. One could see the depth and layers and color mixtures in them, as well as the texture of the paintings. They’re certainly not flat. At one exhibit, we were able to look at a chunk taken off his paintings under a microscope. I wish I could have taken a photo of that, because the paint mixtures were astonishing.

BRUSH STROKES. (See full painting below- I took a close up of the bottom left corner).

We then ventured to the Red Light District, which is actually a very nice area, but it was very interesting how different Amsterdam is from any place in the world. We just walked around the city and explored a bit. Amsterdam is beautiful; it’s very similar to Venice. At some points in time, I didn’t know how it doesn’t have the reputation that Venice does. The canals are throughout the city, and there’s more to do than in Venice. The entire town was very cute, and EVERYONE rode bikes. It’s a very eco-friendly town, and it’s adorable. Example A:

Venice?

We wandered to a notorious pancake place… I can’t figure out what is so good about Dutch food, but their specialties are foods like pancakes, waffles, and I had delicious apple pie there. Their pancakes were similar to a crepe, but a little sweeter, and I got mine with apple slices in it. I think their flour is something special, I don’t know.

From there, we wandered to the Anne Frank museum. No photos were allowed out of respect for the museum, which is fair enough. This was also an unreal experience. We entered the old jam factory on the ground floor, where her dad worked prior to going into hiding. We watched video interviews with Meip, who had taken care of them with meals and hospitality while they were in hiding, and who had also worked in the factory. The house they hid in was in the back of the factory- not on top, like I had originally thought. There was a back house that was attached, that cannot be seen from the front. We turned a corner, and there was the bookcase that had hid them for so many (I think 8? years). The bookcase was still the original one, with the original, now yellow, books on them. It’s propped open now, but we had entered the house the same way that Miep had, as well as the Nazis upon arresting them. This photo was taken from Google:

Before:

What you cannot tell from looking at the first photo is that, yes, you can enter and go upstairs, but you could also enter and go left, where there was a ground floor level, where their kitchen was and living room. It wasn’t a little attic, but almost a whole house. Well, it was small for a house and living quarters were relatively tight, but I expected it to be much smaller. The house was cleared out after the Franks and Von Pels were captured, and Otto Frank, who survived Auschwitz, wished it to stay that way. Photos were taken of refurbished rooms for the purpose of giving the viewer an image of what it was like, but after they refurbished the rooms for the photos, they gutted it again. The windows were all blacked out, like it was for them. We saw artifacts, such as Peter Van Pel’s birthday present (a board game) and some photos of celebrities that Anne liked to look at.

At the end, there was a video taken of Anne’s best friend, who she hadn’t seen since she went into hiding. I forget for what reason, but she was put into a camp that was different than the others (I believe her nationality was more respected because of them being allies with the Germans, although she was Jewish). When Anne was in Bergen-Belson camp, her friend saw her at the fence that bordered it, and they were reunited. However, at this time, her sister Margot had been killed, and Anne said she had no one. Little did she know, her father was still alive in another camp. Anne died one month before the camps were liberated. Her friend said that if Anne had known there was a reason for living, she would have been stronger.

This is a picture of the Anne Frank House from the outside:

From there, we went to get some of the best apple pie I’ve ever had. It was at a well known place, and it was very different than anything I’ve had in the US. It had almost a banana bread filling, but not banana. It was just cakey. And it had apples, obviously. Mmmm.

This is me in a shoe.

And we ran into Barry Weiss, which is pretty funny to me. Sarah (my roommate) and I somehow discovered that we were both obsessed with Storage Wars, and we began to play the simulated game on Facebook last semester. No one else that I know watches it, except for Sarah and my family. I saw him, and said to her, “That looks like Barry from Storage Wars…” (which is also funny, because I never watch TV or movies, and probably couldn’t identify Kim Kardashian if she was standing right in front of me. I certainly do not even know what her sisters look like, never mind what their names are. I don’t follow celebrities, just Storage Wars…). Anyhow, Sarah was like “Oh my God… he does!” We walked closer and heard his voice, and he was undoubtably him. A waiter saw us bugging out and was like “Ooohhh take a picture!” (somewhat mocking us). Barry’s friends also saw us, and asked if we wanted to come in closer, at which point I was like, “Excuse me, I don’t want to bother you, but would you mind getting in a picture?” He was very nice and said of course, and was like “Yeah! Just selfie it! That’s the best way to take a picture!” when I held up the camera to take a picture, but a lady who worked there took my camera and took it for us.

We went back to the hotel from there for the night. Upon arriving at this hotel, we saw the staircase and was amazed. It was the steepest stair case I have ever seen. However, Anne Frank’s stairs were like this too. I think it’s just how the Netherlands do things. The picture below doesn’t do justice… I was standing up straight and one leg is 4 steps up from the other leg.

The next day, we just did a lot of wandering. We got in line for the Rijksmuseum, but the line was too long. We stopped at a diamond museum though, which was pretty cool. There were lots of diamonds. They were big.

We then checked out Vondel Park, which is the park that Central Park is modeled after. After, we ate a delicious waffle with chocolate ice cream on it. The waffle was so so good, as was the ice cream that I haven’t had in a long time.

Eventually, I found my way to the train station and got back to the airport. Amsterdam was a very quaint city. It was simple with the bikers and the houses all looked like gingerbread houses all smushed together, all on canals.

I end with a very irrelevant quote that is only relevant because Anne Frank said it and I like it.

“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
– Anne Frank

“Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.” -Dante Alighieri

Last Friday, I finally made it to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, as it was another included excursion with my program.

Let me start off by saying that I hate, hate, hate audio tours. If you hand me a walkie-talkie looking speaker and give me the ear bud, I will automatically be put into a bad mood. In Florence, I was in less of a bad mood, but I get very aggravated listening to someone lecture as we walk around the city looking at things I care less about than the things I would tour on my own. Plus, by the end, it was 2:00 and I hadn’t eaten a thing all day, so I wasn’t paying the most attention.

So, in case you haven’t picked up on my tone, we started off the day with an audio tour. We walked around, stopped in a few churches, and went to the Academia Museum, where we saw the Statue of David. We passed by the infamous Duomo, but didn’t go inside until after lunch.

We went to our included  lunch and had probably about 4 or 5 different dishes.

After lunch, we finally had time to explore on our own, which I wanted to do all along. However, I only had maybe an hour and a half.

First, we went to the Basilica of Santa Croce, which, according to Wikipedia, says, “It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile, and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories.” It is also the world’s largest Franciscan church. There’s also a memorial for Dante Alighieri there.

It was cool to go into, but I didn’t want to pay to get into a church because I don’t agree with that, so we went in the separate line that allowed us in to pray. We couldn’t walk around too much, but we were able to see the basilica a bit.

After this, we went to the Duomo. I was shocked how bland it was on the inside. We walked in, and the walls are white and bare. I notified my friends that the dome was decorated to illustrate Dante’s Divine Comedy. That part was amazing. The whole church was simple, until we arrived under the magnificent fresco and were able to identify characters and instances from the series. I immediately identified Charon (The Ferryman of Hades), the skeleton from Greek Mythology that carries souls across rivers that divide the living world from that of the dead. Satan was also chewing on Judas (and maybe Brutus and Cassius, but I only noticed one of his three heads).

All in all, Florence was pretty cool. I would have liked to look more at museums and explore on my own, but at the same time, I was fine doing it for a day. I’m glad I’m studying in Rome; it’s just bigger with more to do and to explore to, in my opinion. Florence was pretty small and intimate.

From the Duomo, I left, got my postcard (I’m getting one per place that I go to), hopped in a taxi, and boarded a flight to Amsterdam!

It was definitely a jam packed day, but it was cool to see the birthplace of the Renaissance. Pictures to follow.

“I do believe we each have a duty to humanity to move our ass out into the world and experience some perspective. Television and the internet are nothing like the real thing. We need firsthand experience. The world would be a much better place for it.”

Just another perspective:

https://medium.com/architecting-a-life/215fd34c606d

(Click the link ^^^)

Santa Sabina

Yesterday, we had a site visit at Santa Sabina, up on the Aventine Hill. This church has been around since the 5th century AD, and the hill overlooks Vatican City. We went to mass here two weeks ago, but I didn’t get a chance to blog about it, so this will be a combined blog.

2 weeks ago, Father Dominic Izzo, who from America and is in charge of the North American Dominicans (from my understanding), gave us a tour and said for mass in St. Dominic’s cell. For those of you who haven’t caught on, Providence College is run by the Dominican Order, founded by St. Dominic. It was in Santa Sabina where he lived (we had mass in his room) and prayed. It was also here that Pope Pius V chose to live instead of in the Vatican where popes traditionally live (similar to Pope Francis). He was also a Dominican who chose to wear his Dominican Habit (white robe) when he became Pope instead of their traditional red habits that made them look like Cardinals, which began the trend of the pope wearing white habits. Yesterday, we also visited his room. 

The doors leading into the church are solid wood with carvings on them, still standing in what looks like perfect condition, from 412 AD. Here, on the top left hand corner of the doors, is the earliest depiction of the crucifixion scene, displaying 3 “criminals” (Jesus in the middle) with their arms spread and feet crossed below them. The somewhat strange thing (well, strange to you and I, but not for the 5th centurions), is that there is no cross behind them. There are triangles above them to differentiate the 3 separate individuals, but the figures are kinda floating in mid air. This is because the cross was a sign of crucifixion (duh), but that was a sign of execution. In the 400’s, crosses weren’t accepted in art like they are today. We have come to accept it as a sign of martyrdom or as a sign of Christianity, but, as my teacher described it, at the time, wearing a cross on your necklace would be like wearing an electric chair charm on your necklace. Or a syringe. Or a noose. Because they are known as execution tools, we just don’t do it. Same with those times- crucifixions were still going on, and therefore, weren’t socially acceptable to wear, draw, carve, etc. It was kinda gory. 

After Santa Sabina, we went to the Knights of Malta keyhole next door.  There, you look into a keyhole, and directly in front of you is St. Peter’s Dome. It’s really hard to capture a picture because of the lighting, so I found this one off google: http://travelphotos.everything-everywhere.com/Europe/Italy/Rome/Keyhole-Knights-of-Malta-2/534807682_LT4qQ-S.jpg

You can see other images here.

Romping Around Ruins (Pictures of the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum)

I feel tall:

Thanks for the visual, Lady!

An old track/stadium of some sort on the Palatine Hill:

The Huts of Romulus:

Arch of Titus:

A Roman Saturday

Every once and a while it’s nice to stay in Rome, sleep in my own bed, and do some exploring.

This morning, I woke up 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet my friends at the 24-Hour bakery (croissants are only $0.30 there and it’s great), after mindlessly pressing my snooze button several times. Anyhow, I got dressed, got in contact with them, and they told me how to get where we were going. They were one metro stop west of me, so by some miracle, by the time I got on the Metro (20 minutes after waking up), I saw them pass in a car and I was able to travel with them. Woohoo.

We then continued on to a cemetery, where the Master of the Dominican Order was giving mass outside. It was a beautiful day- no jacket needed yet in Rome (knock on wood)! I believe he came to talk to PC a few weeks ago, but as PC Friars, it’s definitely cool to hear mass said by the Head of the Order. It’s kinda a big deal.

Afterwards, we met him and shook his hand, and told them that we went to Providence College. After, three nuns approached us and said, “Did you say you went to Providence College?” They spoke perfect English, which I didn’t expect, since the mass was in Italian. But alas, they were from the US and knew some of “our people,” and we talked to them for a while about our stay in Rome. They then invited us to get cappuccinos across the street, so we continued talking to them and a priest who was originally from Houston (who was bragging about his Texas Citizenship if and when they secede from the union).

From there, half of the group went to look at the church, while I went with my friends who are visiting back to town. They were visiting the Vatican and Vatican Museums today and Coliseum tomorrow, which disappointed me because it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and I still hadn’t been inside the Coliseum. On a whim while on the metro back, I decided that I was going to go the one metro stop over to get a sandwich. This then turned into the idea that I would get a sandwich, then stop by our PC guy friends’ apartment and see if anyone wanted to explore with me (2 of them didn’t come this morning). I decided to skip out on the sandwich, and with no phone service, I surprised the boys by showing up at their door. I asked my friend Zach, who also hadn’t visited the Coliseum, if he would like to join me because it was such a nice day. By some miracle (second of the day here), he had just gotten ready and was about to go do some free things by exploring some things on his own, because he didn’t have enough money on him to go to the Coliseum. So I caught him just at the right time, told him I’d spot him, and right then and there he was willing to come with me. Good timing, Lauren.

We went on our way and got the ticket that let us into the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum. After waiting in a decent line, we finally got inside. It was actually smaller than I expected, but it was very cool. Him and I attempted to figure out where the original flooring was, and how they used to flood it for naval battles, how it was a church,  how it was a stadium, where the seats would be, etc. We saw some ancient stairways that would have lead up, had people not stolen parts of the building. For those who don’t know, the Coliseum isn’t deteriorating because it’s ancient, it looks like it’s falling apart because people used to recycle materials in ancient Rome to build new buildings. Several columns in many buildings were originally part of another, and I heard that the marble circles in the floor of the Vatican are sliced columns from, well, older columns. This is extremely common among Roman buildings. The only reason why the Pantheon is still standing is because it was converted into a church, and the Roman fellows weren’t allowed to play with it then. That’s why the front of it looks different than the discolored, somewhat unaesthetic back.

I had a dream last week that I was on my way home from the airport and started crying because I missed Rome, but I also forgot to visit the Coliseum, so at least that situation can’t (fully) happen now.

From there, we went onto the Palatine Hill. Not only did it have great views in places, but it was set up like a park almost with walkways and benches just casually around some ruins. Some of the coolest ones we saw were the Romulean Huts. This is what Rick Steves, renowned travel book writer and father of my boss for my internship, had to say about it:

From there, we went to the Forum, which was attached behind the Arch of Titus. I’ve already been there with class, but it was nice to re-see everything not being pressed for time or trying to take notes, while listening to someone lecture, while trying to sightsee. Once, again, we saw where Caesar was cremated (flowers were once again left on the place), and obviously so many other ruins. Like Pompeii, there were spots on the ground that we could make out indents from chariots in the ground.

So my day was pretty spontaneous, but it all worked out very nicely. I then went home, made a sandwich, and I’m headed out to dinner with some visiting friends in an hour.

Last night, I took one of them out, and I forget that they know nothing about the location of things in Rome. They had been here for about 3 hours at this time. So we hopped on a bus, and he asked what some building was and I was like, “Oh, that’s Castel San Angelo… oh yeah, and if you look to your right, you’ll see the Vatican.” He turned his head and declared that he’s never leaving Rome. The road that lead to the Vatican is on our bus route, and it never ceases to amaze me how casually we pass by it. I’m not too casual about it, trying to snap a picture every time before the bus turns, but for Romans, it’s so normal.

Cheers to wine and the bruschetta I’m about to stuff my face with! Ciao!

Pictures from today are to follow, once I get my act together and upload them to my computer.

That Time I Met the Pope…

Hey guys,

It’s me again.

I am still in awe, and I just found this on Youtube. I’m so grateful that this moment of my life was captured on video (and on camera, as you can see I am quite the paparazzi). So here’s a taste of my morning before classes on 10/16/13.

I hope you enjoy!

“He who travels has stories to tell.” – Corcoran’s Sacre Cœur, Paris, France

I absolutely loved Paris. Let’s just say that Mom and Dad would have trouble keeping me in the states if I spoke French. So be prepared for a long post…

I booked the trip through the company I am interning for, and I’m so glad I did. There were 12 of us the first day and 16 the second, so we all got pretty close. We actually almost visited 3 of the kids we met who are studying in Perugia, Italy this weekend because there is a chocolate festival there, but we didn’t get around to it. 

I arrived Thursday night and met a friend who graduated PC in the spring and stayed at her apartment. In the morning, she took me to a bakery near her that has won awards for having the best croissants in Paris (or France?)… so it was delicious. 

Upon beginning the program Friday morning, we first went to Sacre Cœur, a church that is on top of a hill that has a great view of Paris. It was such a hike up the stairs! It was foggy, but it would have been a nice view. It was built at a time where the town around it was huge for partying, and it was built to remind people to behave, pretty much. Ironically, we went to a bar on top of that hill every night. 

We then went on to see Moulin Rouge, but only the facade. We toured around Paris a lot that day, seeing little things here and there, like the Jewish/Gay neighborhood (where we got the “world’s best falafel”) and the location of the (former) barbershop that inspired Sweeney Todd. 

We went to Notre Dame, where we also went to mass on Sunday, but didn’t go up to the top (we didn’t know we could), but the architecture was amazing. The gargoils are not only a way to “scare off evil spirits” (an element of gothic architecture because of the dark time it was associated with), but was also a draining system. Water actually flows out of their mouth when it rains. 

On the way back, we crossed over one of the 3 “lock bridges.” Lovers (or maybe friends? I’m not sure) put locks all over the bridge, because they cannot be removed [easily]. There’s thousands. It’s really cool. 

We went to the Pantheon, which houses the tombs of many famous French men (and Madame Curie). We didn’t go in, but men such as Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Voltare, Marat, and Monnet are buried there. 

 

At 5, we skipped the line for the Eiffel Tower and got to go up to the 2nd floor. By then, it was sunny and clear- but definitely windy up that high! Our guide pointed out several landmarks: Sacre Cœur, the Arch of Triumph, the building where Napoleon is buried, Notre Dame, the “Statue of Liberty” that America gave France as a “thank you,” and a few other buildings. It was a great time to go, because the sun was still up, but it was setting.

Arch of Triumph:

 

Sacre Cœur:

Where Napoleon is buried (yes, that is real gold):

We then went to dinner with a pretty set prefixed menu (we had a few options for the main course) with the deal we were getting. We all got to try escargot, and we had bread with melted goat cheese over it, duck with mashed potatoes (delicious- tasted like chicken but fell right off the bone), and chocolate cake.

After dinner we wrapped up the day with the tour. We walked back past the Eiffel Tower, now lit up, and it was amazing. One thing I really appreciated about it was that it was dimly lit. Staring at it, much unlike a skyscraper, didn’t hurt your eyes. It wasn’t fluorescent lighting. It had a nice ambience about it. As we started walking towards, it started sparkling. Lights were flashing like a bunch of photos were being taken in a dark arena. Apparently it does so every hour (or half hour?), and it’s been doing that since the year 2000. 

One of our friends we were with left a few pieces of jewelry at the hotel her and my other two friends stayed at the night before, so we headed there to go get it. Why were they in a hotel? Funny you should ask… the night before, they were supposed to stay in a hostel attached to a convent that was really cheap- the catch was that they had to do a prayer hour in the middle of the night. No big deal. Apparently the other catch was that they had to check in by 9:45, which they knew, but they didn’t get in until 10:20. So the hostel said it was too late and they couldn’t check in. Oops. 

So being the brilliant PC kids that they are, they figured that the Irish Pub that was right there must have people who spoke English. Alas, they did. One bartender was born in France, grew up in Jersey, went to JWU Providence, and then moved back to Paris. Another was half Irish, half English. They let the girls use their computers, they called hotels for them, walked them there, etc. 

So in order to repay them, we went back every night. So naturally we stopped on the way back to the hotel to get the jewelry. We made friends with the bartenders, and they loved us and gave us deals, so we promised to go back the next night, too. 

We met up with another friend who is from PC studying in Paris, and one friend and I went with her while the other two went to the hotel. The three of us wandered around a bit and had wine on a bench near the Arch of Triumph, before making our way back to our hostel (that was booked through my program… but it was really nice!). 

 

The next morning we woke up, took advantage of the free hostel breakfast, and ate with our new friends from the day before. We met our tour guide there. He had a pedometer on his phone, and told us that we had walked about 13 miles the previous day- and that didn’t include the wandering that we did after the tour… So figure 15 miles of walking in one day. Needless to say I was already exhausted by Saturday. But I am a college student and I run on empty like it’s my job. 

We then headed towards the Louvre. We only were able to spend about 2 hours here, so it may have been rushed a little, but we did get to see a lot.. Obviously, including Mona. We also saw some Jacques Louis David, which was cool because I did a paper on him my sophomore year, and we saw Napoleon III’s apartment. I’m not sure if it was originally located in the Louvre or if it was just recreated there with his stuff, but either way. The Louvre used to be a palace before it was a museum, and before Versailles. It was massive. We also saw the Ancient Egypt exhibit. And a mummy.

From there we went to the Arch of Triumph again, but only spent a few minutes there before having a few hours of free time, which, of course, we spent wanting to shop and eat. France’s food is just so good. So we went to a place that our guide suggested, stopped and got some macaroons on the way, and got some grub. 

We met back at the hostel at 5:30 to head towards our bike tour. This may have been my favorite part of the trip, just because it’s so different than anything I have done and/or would have done on my own. My bike’s name was Yvonne, which was funny, because there’s a youtube video that mentions it, and I kept thinking that I wanted to meet someone named Yvonne there so I could quote the video (Awful quality video, but this is the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpQXhjll7MM). Our guide was from New York, and he was really cool. We went several places, and his accounts were fun to listen to. He would point out buildings and explain the history, but tell it like, “So Napoleon was like, ‘Hey guys, I’m going to take over this now, and the French were like ‘Okay, but that’s not cool.’ So they excommunicated him.” He also told us how in the building with the gold dome where Napoleon is buried, Napoleon’s tomb is located down from the viewer, so rumor has it that when you look down at the tomb, it’s like you’re bowing down to him. Now when Hitler came to visit Paris, this building was noted to be his favorite part, as Napoleon was one of his idols. However, he had someone put in mirrors before looking at the tomb, so he could see it without bowing down to him. We learned some cool stuff along the tour. We then rode on to a bridge that had the Eiffel Tower in the distance, and it was located right next to the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed (I didn’t even know she was killed in Paris till that second). We saw a statue/memorial for her, and rode on. We then parked our bikes, and boarded a boat for a night river cruise, which was also awesome. We passed several people having picnics/drinks alongside the river, which was cool to see, just because life seems so much simpler in Paris. We passed Notre Dame, some lock bridges, the Eiffel Tower, and some other historically significant places. There was a voice recording that played when we passed things, but that was boring, so we listened to our guide when we would pass something interesting. He also provided us all with a few cups of wine and an Eiffel Tower keychain. We then docked and rode back, stopping at the Eiffel Tower and learning a few more things. It was originally built for the World’s Fair, and was also originally supposed to be temporary. People hated that it was there- the French don’t like skyscrapers. So houses that had a view of it were worth less, because it blocked their view of Paris. Could you imagine? Also, there was a man who invented some type of winged suit and wanted to prove that it could work, so he told the press to come and watch him jump off in his suit. You can imagine what happened next (spoiler alert: the suit didn’t work as well as he thought it would). 

After finishing the tour, we had our first crapes. We mostly all got banana nutella crapes, which was delicious. Then a group of us headed back to see our friends at Sacre Cœur. At closing, I walked up to the bar and our friends told us we could stay, so we did. 2 hours past closing, just talking, joking around, and hanging with our new friends. They were fun. It was a great time and a friendly welcome to Paris. One of the bartenders even walked us all back to our hostel, then split a cab with our friends who are studying in Paris, and then paid for the cab. 

 

Sunday morning, we went to mass at Notre Dame. We didn’t understand much, but it was cool. 

Afterwards, we went to Sainte Chapelle, a former church with amazing stained glass work. One website notes: “The most visually beautiful aspects of the chapel, considered the best of their type in the world, are its 6,458 square feet of stained glass windows of the upper chapel, surrounded by delicate painted stonework.”

Finally, we met up with our PC friend again and wandered the city, with intents to shop, but everything is closed on Sundays. So we just saw cool things instead. In Rome, it is currently 77 degrees, so it’s not quite “fall” here. It was amazing to see everyone enjoying the outdoors and colored leaves around Paris. It’s fall there, and their parks are beautiful. Since everything is closed on Sundays, families just head to parks or just walk around, and again, I appreciated the simpleness of that. There was just a certain charm that Paris had. People would be roller blading or biking to get around, and people stopped and spent time with their entire family outside. It was cute. I loved it. And I didn’t really witness the French-Hate-Americans stereotype. 

It was nice to experience fall with the leaves and everything. It wasn’t too cold (certainly colder than Rome), but it was nice. Paris was so different than cities like Rome and New York- I haven’t seen so many [cute] children running around in a really long time! The pace of life seemed a little slower, which was nice for such a cute, simple city. I think I also enjoyed this trip so much because of the tour group I was with; they really did a great job and we got to see everything. The metro was easy to use, but it was nice that we had someone else navigating for us, plus he was cool. 

So that’s basically my weekend in Paris. Everything there was just perfect for us; I loved it.