A few weeks in Roma and Abroad...

SO - It's been a WHILE! I'll try to fill everyone in, but keep it as short as possible! (I'm not too good at that though... we'll see!)

As of my last real post, I've been to 3 other countries! Yay! The week of St. Patrick's day was any ordinary week in Roma: class and walking, practicing Italian and eating lots of delicious food!

For Easter weekend, I headed up north to Salzburg, Austria to visit with McKenzie, who is studying there with the U. of Redlands program. Saturday morning I got up bright and early to get to the train station by 7:30am. I arrived in Salzburg at 7:00pm! It was a long journey, but definitely worth it!

The house on the Monchsburg

A snowy walk back to the house

Sledding!!!

McKenzie is a good sledder, and I'm jealous. Haha

Me, with our snowman, Herman! We built him the old-fashioned way.


The Salzburg skyline from the Monchsburg. So beautiful!


The Festoon by night!


DELICIOUS apple strudel!!
We came to this restaurant several times...

So after seeing the sights of Salzburg (and many from the Sound of Music!) I headed back to Rome Tuesday night and arrived Wednesday morning (obviously night trains are a bad idea...). I made it back to Rome in time for class Wednesday and then Wednesday night met up with another friend from Redlands who was visiting Rome for a while. We got some dinner and hung out with the other Lexia girls at Campo.

Megan is studying in London at Caines (sp?).
It was so great to see her and catch up on everything!!

The following weekend was the start of our spring break. My friend Tiffany was supposed to come down for the weekend from Copenhagen, Denmark, but something went wrong with her train reservations from Paris. It was still a great weekend though because McKenzie decided to come back to Rome!!! She arrived at 9:00am on Friday, March 28th and left at 7:45am on Sunday. We hung out and did all the touristy stuff she hadn't been able to do before - like throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain or climb the Spanish Steps. We also went to the beach because the weather was GORGEOUS and neither of us had been to a beach in so long.

At one of my favorite churches in Rome (formerly the Baths of Diocletian)

The Spanish Steps!

Near the top of the Spanish Steps.

The Italian Coast!! (In our matching sweatshirts!)

Collecting really cool shells!
And I did go in the water a bit, and it's MUCH colder than it looks!!

So, Monday morning's when the real adventure begins! I left for Sofia, Bulgaria at 4:00am in order to make it to the airport by 7:00am. I arrived in Sofia at around 11:00am and met up with Mrs. Lazarova's friend, Svetlana and another guy who spoke English. They took me from the airport to the newspaper office they both work for. We hung out there for an hour or so because they had a meeting, then got some lunch (which was delicious! But I don't know if it was traditional Bulgarian food... I don't even know what it was called!) After lunch Svetlana and some of her colleagues took me to my hostel. When we arrived however, Svetlana said that it was too expensive and not nice enough for the location and price, and that I would stay at her house with her. However, we ended up walking to two other hostels (Svetlana doesn't speak very much English, and I- OBVIOUSLY- don't speak much Bulgarian, so there was some lack of communication there!! Haha) and I ended up staying in the last one we visited, and I paid less and had a better location! So thank goodness Svetlana was there to make sure I wasn't ripped off!

After checking in to the hostel, Svetlana and her colleagues had to go back to work, so I unpacked and checked out the map of Sofia. I decided to take a nice walk around the city until around 9:30pm when I would meet up with some of Svetlana's younger and English-speaking colleagues.

The gorgeous Bulgarian National Theater


The crest of Parliament (I think!)


The 40 meter tall statue of Sofia, the patroness of the city.


St. George in Rotunda.
The oldest building in Sofia, still used for services (I went to one!!)


Me, skipping down the yellow brick road.
The bricks were a gift from the Austrian king for the wedding of the Bulgarian king.


A very large church that I can't remember the name of at the moment.
There is a crypt/museum with religious icons from throughout the centuries.
It was really interesting.


Until Bulgarians see the first bird returning for spring or the first bloom of a flower, they wear these red & white bracelets. Then they tie them onto a tree when they do see a bird or flower. Many of the trees were literally dripping with these bracelets. It looked really cool.


I have no idea what this thing was, except for AMAZING!!!
It was like apple pie with walnuts... mmmmm!!


The guards at the President's house. I liked their uniforms.


Formerly the Bulgarian Royal Palace, now an art gallery.

And now, Greece!

I arrived in Athens at around 2:00pm on Wednesday, checked my bags in the airport, and hopped on a bus to the city center.

Hadrian's Gate


The Plaka! GREAT shopping!!


This one speaks for itself...


Hooray for self-timers!!


The Temple of Olympieion


The Athenian Skyline


The Temple of Athena Nike


The Parthenon!!


I love this. It says the Parthenon restoration project was launched in 1983!!

And after about 6 hours in Athens, I headed back for a horrible night in the airport, as my flight to Santorini didn't leave until 4:30am Thursday. At any rate, I made it through the night, and arrived in Santorini at about 7:30.

My hotel, Stelio's Place


The beach, literally 30seconds from my hotel.


The mountains behind my hotel


Me, Fira, and the volcano!!


Fira!!


Me and some donkeys at the steps to the caldera!

And now, Sunday, April 13th, I'm off to a hotel for a week, because a film company is filming in our apartment! We are also getting a fancy dinner at some restaurant on Tuesday, all paid for by this company. Pretty sweet deal! Then I leave Friday night for a weekend in Paris with McKenzie! It will be spectacular and I can't wait!!! Hope all is well back in the States or wherever you are!!

Love,
Becca

PS - For more pictures of Bulgaria & Greece:

Bulgaria: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031620&l=db163&id=46001576

Greece: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031622&l=1e3ec&id=46001576

The internet is down at my apartment! :( I'll update when I can & hopefully it will be up and running again soon!!

Love,
Becca

SPRING IS IN THE AIR!!! (Although, now I've jinxed it and it's cold outside!)

Greetings! Hope all is well on the home front!

The Roman front continues to be spectacular - especially because the days are getting warmer and the trees and plants are blooming!

So, last week:

I had my last Italian class (wah!!) it was a sad affair... haha, not really. But I was disappointed.

I really need to work on SPEAKING!

After lunch, Tom from Germany and I went shopping and then I just strolled around by myself for a little... where I stumbled across the Colosseum (I really saw it from about 10 blocks away and decided to go see it up-close!) I also strolled around looking at the Forum and all the other ruins in the area. Despite being completely overcast, it was a very nice day.

After this, I went back to the apartment and did some reading and internet-surfing while waiting for my pre-arranged meeting time with McKenzie! 6:15pm Came about and I left for the Trevi Fountain (where I was told to meet McKenzie). I got there around 7:oopm (hooray for public transportation!) and stood staring at the fountain and all the tourists in search of anyone that looked familiar from Redlands. An hour went by without seeing ANYONE. I decided that maybe McKenzie had wanted me to meet her at her hotel, so I headed in that direction. Once I got to Termini, I went searching for her hotel, which, I later decided, did not exist. I didn't have my cell phone with me so I couldn't get a hold of any of my Lexia friends to just meet up with them (I was supposed to call when I'd found McKenzie & inform them of our plans for dinner and the rest of the evening...) So, I trekked home for my phone and in hopes that McKenzie had tried to email me with a change of plans or something -- but not so! I jotted down the phone number for the hotel, called, but she wasn't in. So, I decided to just head over to meet up with my Lexia friends who had some real Italians making pizza! I was starving and irritated so this sounded WONDERFUL. I got to Mike's around 10:00pm and had a couple slices of amazing, homemade pizza, when I decided to call the hotel again. It went through and McKenzie's roommate answered - apparently McKenzie was downstairs trying to call me! So, her roomie ran down stairs to get her and apparently, they had gotten stuck in traffic so their whole day was late. She doesn't have a cell phone or anything, so obviously, she couldn't get a hold of me. At any rate, we found her hotel on the map, and I set off to find her!

I got to her hotel in about 5 minutes from Mike's. It was SO great to see her! Especially because I hadn't seen her for 3 months!! I didn't realize it had been so long! Needless to say, we were both screaming at each other about a mile a minute about what we'd been doing and everything, it was quite entertaining. We returned to Mike's where she met everyone, we ate some pizza and visited with everyone. Then we decided to head over to the pub, Druid's for a bit. Where we sat around some more talking and enjoying the company. Afterward, I walked McKenzie back to her hotel and decided that I would meet up with her and the rest of the Redlands group the next day to join in some of their tours.










So, Saturday, I was up and out the door at 11 in order to meet McKenzie at the Colosseum metro stop for a trip to St. Paul's Outside the Walls. It was MASSIVE!! What I liked the most was that it had pictures of all the Popes lining the walls... apparently some people believe that when they run out of room for the Popes' pictures, the world will end. Haha. Who knows?!


After this, I brought McKenzie back to my place to show her my digs! She also checked her email and such (and good thing, too, because she didn't know we were registering the next week!!). We also tried to plan out the rest of her time here when she was not with the Redlands group. Then we headed to Campo de Fiori to meet up with some Lexia people and to do some shopping (I had already picked out some shops that I knew McKenzie would LOVE! We bought some souvenirs and then went to the "Drunken Ship" (a bar at Campo where Marlene, Lizz, and Nina were waiting for us) where we shared our first alcoholic beverage together since both of us turned 21 (it's really not that exciting here though, because you can get a beer or some wine anywhere and not get carded - it's weird!). McKenzie, Marlene and I were starving so after a little while we went off in search of sustenance! We found a nice little place off of Piazza Navona and then returned to Campo afterward. We hung out there for a little longer, but McKenzie was going to go to Mass at St. Peter's the next morning, so we headed home early and decided that I would meet her again the next day at St. Peter's at 12 to be blessed by the Pope and do some more tours with the Redlands group.

12:00pm Sunday, I hopped off the bus and ran for St. Peter's. Little did I know just how MASSIVE this piazza is... and everyone wants to be blessed by the Pope! My pictures really don't give a proper idea of how many people were there - ie: When I went through the gates, I stopped dead and had a mini-panic attack thinking about how in the world I would ever find her with SO many people!

But anyway, I took a shot and started weaving through the people. It was a beautiful day! (As you can see in my pictures!)

The Pope went through his shpeel (I know, I know, Heresy!) and I recorded him when he started talking in English (he addressed everyone by language, it was pretty cool...) but he didn't say anything about the
U of R!! I was quite disappointed! (He says something like, "Welcome to all you [language] speakers! In particular .... ") But apparently because Redlands isn't a Catholic group, it would be inappropriate to have him address us in particular (whatever!!).

When he finished talking, people began pouring out of the piazza and I just walked in circles trying to find McKenzie, and by some miracle, I found her!! We got a wonderful lunch of Nutella crepes and then headed into St. Peter's Basilica before leaving with the Redlands group for the next stop (Castel San'Angelo).





St. Peter's is one BIG CHURCH!! We saw this sculpture to the right, by Michelangelo, and various other sculptures and frescoes by amazing artists. Anyone could EASILY get lost in this place! It was unreal...





This is the list of all the Saints of the Catholic church (the most recent Saint was initiated - or whatever it's called- in 2005).

Here's a mosaic from St. Peter's, B.A.!!

The Swiss Guards in full garb!!
I LOVE their uniforms!

Piazza de S. Pietro from the Church (Imagine this completely swarming with people, if you can. Then imagine trying to find someone within the crowd!! Crazy!)

Afterward, we went to the Castel San'Angelo (the castle the Pope used to vacation at, as well as where he would retreat during threatening times). One thing I must admit - I am glad I'm here with Lexia because I would be SO upset that I only had 10 days to tour Rome!! The trip to the Castel was only a brief description from the outside - as there was not enough time to do a full tour within, which I will be doing with the Lexia group soon.





(Church in Piazza Navona, I don't remember the name)

From here we crossed the Tiber, going back into the 'Centro Storico' (historic center)
to see Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

When McKenzie's professor finished the lightning-fast tour, we were free to go and do whatever we wanted. McKenzie and I went into the Pantheon for a bit, but it was full of people, we could hardly move around! It was beautiful though - not at all what I was expecting! It looks just like any other post-antiquity/Renaissance-style church inside. You would never guess from within that it has such ancient history.

The Dome of the Pantheon

The hole in the Dome - still open to the elements.

The main altar of the Pantheon.

We decided to head back over to Campo de Fiori, to see if one of the shops that was closed the day before was open and for some more exploring and much needed gelato! And later met up with everyone for dinner at Mike's.

*Vee: Here's a pic of your souvenir from Rome that McKenzie found for you:

Monday was a fun and exhausting day. I had lent my phone to McKenzie so that she could call Marlene when she was finished with her tours with the Redlands group, and meet up with me! She was very adventurous and found her way to my school from the Vatican museums with no problems!! She came in a little after our lunch break and sat in for our afternoon lecture. After class, I took her to the Isola Tiberina, the Jewish Ghetto (mainly the Jewish bakery, which is AMAZING!), and the Trevi Fountain (which she had been to before, but hadn't thrown a coin!!). After the Trevi, we wandered a bit, got some delicious gelato, served to us by a deliciously handsome Brazilian named Diego, who REALLY wanted to take McKenzie out after he was finished with work (I don't know why she didn't go for it!!) But anyway, we did some souvenir shopping and more wandering.

I tried to take her to the Crypta Cappucini and the church with Bernini's famous opera, but by the time we got there, they were both closed!! Oh well... after looking at the outside of Bernini's church (that's not what it's called, but that is what I'm going to refer to it as), I took McKenzie to a Sicilian Bakery nearby (which is also AMAZING!) where she got a cannolo (singular of cannoli) and another type of pastry for her long drive to Assisi the nest day (Tuesday).

We had a lovely dinner, just the two of us, at our regular spot (Il Tavolinetto) and then met up with Lizz at Druid's for a fairwell toast. While we were there, we met a very nice pair of guys - one Italian and one Greek. We talked with them for a while, and the Italian quizzed Lizz and I on our Italian skills (I won't reveal our grades...) and the Greek guy, Nikolaus, told me various places in Greece to visit (mainly clubs and good restaurants) after looking at McKenzie's list of tourist spots. Around 12am, we headed home, I walked McKenzie back to her hotel and said goodbye and discussed last minute plans for me to visit her in Salzburg (hopefully next weekend?)

Tuesday morning McKenzie was scheduled to visit the Villa Borghese gallery in the morning, and then head off to Assisi in the afternoon. As for me, I had a Lexia lecture with Tom in the morning and then a passagiata with Silvia to

the Church of Trinita' del Monti (at the top of the Spanish Steps), the artist's street, and the Orsini chapel within the church at the Piazza del Popolo.

We looked at some artwork that is quintessential of Mannerist style, some Caravaggio, da Volterra, Veit, and others.

The next day was calm (I was totally exhausted from what I like to call, 'the grand-un-grand tour of Rome' as it was all the cool stuff in Rome McKenzie wasn't going to see with her group). We had class in the morning and afternoon and then came home to rest.

Thursday we didn't have any class, for some reason (I think Tom had to teach at John Cabot that day?). So Marlene and I slept in, and went to the park near our house in the afternoon to do some reading and lounging. We considered going to a DaVinci exhibit in the Piazza del Popolo, but it was the one I had seen in Chicago and that had come to the Palm Springs Air Museum!! How strange is that? I KNOW.

Finally on Friday we made it to Ostia Antica - the ancient Roman port city. It was a glorious day and I have way too many pictures and too much information to put everything up here (Tom is an amazing tour guide - he is literally a walking encyclopedia).

Rome's first and only pyramid, built to house the tomb
of Caius Cestius during the times of Augustus.

One of the gates through the Mura Aurelia (Aurelian walls, which surround Rome)

Lizz, Me, Nina enjoying the sun.

Tombs

The original walkway of Ostia Antica.

Mosaic floors of one of the dozen or so baths within the city walls.
€

Mosiac floors again.

Mosaic entry to a grain shop.

The whole group - all 7 Lexia kids with Tom and some of his John Cabot students.

Pretty walkway.

Hot air was pumped through the hallow terracotta pipes into the saunas of the baths.

One of the drains of the baths.

The whole Lexia group, minus me.
(Lizz, Mike, Marlene, Scott, Hanna, Nina, two other kids I don't know)

Blooming tree!!

Overview of the whole area.

After our field trip, we had dinner at Mike's, visited our friend Lizz who started working at the Drunken Ship in Campo de Fiori, and then ended the night at Druid's for a farewell toast to Tom from Germany, who left Saturday for Munich.

Saturday Marlene's friend from Macalester came in from Prague (where she is studying) and we took her around a little to various sites in Rome (Similar to my grand-un-grand tour for McKenzie, but she's got four days without pre-arranged tours).

Well, I've tried to make this entry more bare-bones than my last entry... it's still really long though. Hahah, oh well!

I'm hoping to make it to Salzburg this coming weekend, and then the weekend after that is the start of Spring Break!

Ciao ciao everyone!!
Love,

Becca