So we're actually in Goa, India currently but there is such a huge divide between Italy/Greece and Egypt/India that I've decided to split those locations into two separate blog posts.
So, without further ado, here's the lowdown on Italy and Greece!
We started our Italian adventure in the canal-rific city of Venice. Let me talk for just a minute about Venice. It's a weird place. Undeniably beautiful and certainly romantic and all that. However, the town has become so incredibly mega-touristic that, apparently, soon there may not be any actual Venetians there. That's right, a city wholly composed of restauranteurs, street hawkers, and clean up crews that come in from their homes outside the city to serve the whims of the hordes of tourists. Now, this information I'm imparting to you was derived from a second-hand source, so do your due diligence and go check it out. Regardless of whether it's specifically true or not, it's obvious that Venice is totally geared to tourism. That in itself is little surprise, given the city's (warranted) awesome international reputation and the great sights.
We arrived in Venice from Vienna via a train/bus combo. The train trip was frickin' sweet. Beautiful landscape everywhere as we made our way through the Austrian and Italian Alps. It was like watching The Sound of Music through the window of our train car. We switched to a bus with about 3 hours to go in the journey (a nice, new double-decker tourist bus, I might add) and rolled into the Venice bus station as the sun was beginning to set. We had booked a hotel in advance, so spent most of our time wandering the streets, looking for good Italian eats and checking out the super cool canals. In a nutshell, we saw St. Mark's square and accompanying cathedral, we dined on the best damn gelatto ice cream money can buy (Italians make a damn fine ice cream, I tell you what) in a secluded park, walked around the various canals, and strolled via beach boardwalk halfway around the island.
We debated long and hard about whether we wanted to take a gondola ride. Well, the desire was unquestioned. Of course we wanted to take a gondola ride. I mean, when you go to New York you check out Times Square, when you go to Sydney you go to the Opera House, when you go to New Mexico you eat the green chile, when you go to Mexico you get murdered by drug lords......wait, what? Anyways, we decided that $100+ per person for a 40 minute ride wasn't right for our budget. We had some consternation about that decision but haven't really had any active heartache about it since, so apparently it was fine.
After Venice, we flew on a short flight to Rome. As a quick side note, flying was cheaper and easier than pretty much any other mode of transportation, usually at least, in Europe. Everyone seems to be under the (mistaken) notion that trains are cheap in Europe, or at least cheaper than planes. Not true. There are some Eurail Passes available that could provide decent bang for the buck but they are either very restrictive (3 adjoining countries, for example) or very expensive. It sucks because not only are planes far worse for the environment, we also really wanted to experience more train action in Europe! When last I was there, trains were easily the most affordable and flexible method of travel. This is no longer the case. Probably doesn't help that I'm a decade past qualifying for a student discount, either.
So, yeah, Rome. Rome, Rome, Rome. Rome was INCREDIBLE. I had no idea what to expect other than more art action. I just didn't know that Rome was this amazing. It's like a massive city built around the most beautiful archaeological sites and monuments in the world. On your left is a nightclub, on your right is a bar, and in front of you is ---- The Pantheon! We tried to build in as much tourist stuff as we could during our Rome stint, but it's just not possible. Rome has all the luxury and frills of a modern city, except that some of the world's most beautiful places are sprinkled right in the middle of downtown. We checked out the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Vatican City, among some other things.
Pantheon --- This used to be a temple to the old Roman gods but has since been converted into a pseudo-Catholic church. In reality, it's a tourist destination but a wonderful one. Some very famous Italian artists are buried there, including Raphael (remember him from the Prado?) and Caracci. Most striking to me was the incredible dome, also called the rotunda. The center of the dome is open to the air, allowing for a ray of sunlight to beam down into the middle of the structure like some sort of beacon from Gawd. Amazing stuff.
Colosseum --- Have you seen Gladiator? Yeah, well we just saw the real thing so hah! All kidding aside, this structure is where the blood-crazed ancients carried out gladiatorial bouts with bears and lions and such and even reenacted naval battles using a sophisticated water tunnel system with levers and gates. The thing is incredibly advanced for when it was built. There is an entire, now exposed, underground system beneath the floor of the arena where the participants were made to wait and also where, again if you remember the tigers in Gladiator, other surprises awaited the victim/hero/fighting dude. This place is HUGE and also houses an impressive collection of old Italian artifacts and stories about the history of the structure and surrounding Rome. Again, this is pretty much right downtown.
Vatican City --- I am thinking of renaming our blog to "Chasing the Pope". We Poped it up once again in Vatican City, even getting to witness (via huge screen TV in St. Peter's Square) a live Pope-cast. We tried to get to the window where he was speaking live but had a hard time finding it among the seven hundred gazillion gawkers. Vatican City is home to one hell of a museum, creatively called the Vatican Museum. This place houses works by Caravaggio, Da Vinci (heard of that dude?), Raphael, and Fra Angelico, among many others. The tour that we took of the museum ended up in --- drum roll, please --- the Sistine Chapel! Not the Sixteenth Chapel, as it is so fondly referred to by the, uh, uninitiated. So I'm sure most of you know that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. What you might not have known is that he didn't know how to paint when the job was commissioned. He was a sculptor. So, yeah, he got offered the most massive job in the history of the painting world and took four years off in order to learn technique, particularly that of fresco painting. This painting was meant to last for centuries and it has. It got cleaned not too long ago (1999) and looks as bright as the day it was done, one can cheerfully assume. Pictures are not allowed in the Chapel itself, so I can't show you what I'm talking about here, but the place is almost overwhelming. There are six huge fresco paintings on each side. One side is the story of Moses and the other the story of Jesus. The front wall where the altar is located displays The Last Judgment where there's a cool part where sinners are being dragged down to hell (I dig that kind of stuff....sue me). The ceiling, probably the most famous part of the chapel, shows just about everything Biblical that you can think of. Yes, there's the amazing part where God is reaching for Adam's finger (The Creation of Adam) that you've seen a zillion times before.
So, without further ado, here's the lowdown on Italy and Greece!
We started our Italian adventure in the canal-rific city of Venice. Let me talk for just a minute about Venice. It's a weird place. Undeniably beautiful and certainly romantic and all that. However, the town has become so incredibly mega-touristic that, apparently, soon there may not be any actual Venetians there. That's right, a city wholly composed of restauranteurs, street hawkers, and clean up crews that come in from their homes outside the city to serve the whims of the hordes of tourists. Now, this information I'm imparting to you was derived from a second-hand source, so do your due diligence and go check it out. Regardless of whether it's specifically true or not, it's obvious that Venice is totally geared to tourism. That in itself is little surprise, given the city's (warranted) awesome international reputation and the great sights.
We arrived in Venice from Vienna via a train/bus combo. The train trip was frickin' sweet. Beautiful landscape everywhere as we made our way through the Austrian and Italian Alps. It was like watching The Sound of Music through the window of our train car. We switched to a bus with about 3 hours to go in the journey (a nice, new double-decker tourist bus, I might add) and rolled into the Venice bus station as the sun was beginning to set. We had booked a hotel in advance, so spent most of our time wandering the streets, looking for good Italian eats and checking out the super cool canals. In a nutshell, we saw St. Mark's square and accompanying cathedral, we dined on the best damn gelatto ice cream money can buy (Italians make a damn fine ice cream, I tell you what) in a secluded park, walked around the various canals, and strolled via beach boardwalk halfway around the island.
We debated long and hard about whether we wanted to take a gondola ride. Well, the desire was unquestioned. Of course we wanted to take a gondola ride. I mean, when you go to New York you check out Times Square, when you go to Sydney you go to the Opera House, when you go to New Mexico you eat the green chile, when you go to Mexico you get murdered by drug lords......wait, what? Anyways, we decided that $100+ per person for a 40 minute ride wasn't right for our budget. We had some consternation about that decision but haven't really had any active heartache about it since, so apparently it was fine.
After Venice, we flew on a short flight to Rome. As a quick side note, flying was cheaper and easier than pretty much any other mode of transportation, usually at least, in Europe. Everyone seems to be under the (mistaken) notion that trains are cheap in Europe, or at least cheaper than planes. Not true. There are some Eurail Passes available that could provide decent bang for the buck but they are either very restrictive (3 adjoining countries, for example) or very expensive. It sucks because not only are planes far worse for the environment, we also really wanted to experience more train action in Europe! When last I was there, trains were easily the most affordable and flexible method of travel. This is no longer the case. Probably doesn't help that I'm a decade past qualifying for a student discount, either.
So, yeah, Rome. Rome, Rome, Rome. Rome was INCREDIBLE. I had no idea what to expect other than more art action. I just didn't know that Rome was this amazing. It's like a massive city built around the most beautiful archaeological sites and monuments in the world. On your left is a nightclub, on your right is a bar, and in front of you is ---- The Pantheon! We tried to build in as much tourist stuff as we could during our Rome stint, but it's just not possible. Rome has all the luxury and frills of a modern city, except that some of the world's most beautiful places are sprinkled right in the middle of downtown. We checked out the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Vatican City, among some other things.
Pantheon --- This used to be a temple to the old Roman gods but has since been converted into a pseudo-Catholic church. In reality, it's a tourist destination but a wonderful one. Some very famous Italian artists are buried there, including Raphael (remember him from the Prado?) and Caracci. Most striking to me was the incredible dome, also called the rotunda. The center of the dome is open to the air, allowing for a ray of sunlight to beam down into the middle of the structure like some sort of beacon from Gawd. Amazing stuff.
Colosseum --- Have you seen Gladiator? Yeah, well we just saw the real thing so hah! All kidding aside, this structure is where the blood-crazed ancients carried out gladiatorial bouts with bears and lions and such and even reenacted naval battles using a sophisticated water tunnel system with levers and gates. The thing is incredibly advanced for when it was built. There is an entire, now exposed, underground system beneath the floor of the arena where the participants were made to wait and also where, again if you remember the tigers in Gladiator, other surprises awaited the victim/hero/fighting dude. This place is HUGE and also houses an impressive collection of old Italian artifacts and stories about the history of the structure and surrounding Rome. Again, this is pretty much right downtown.
Vatican City --- I am thinking of renaming our blog to "Chasing the Pope". We Poped it up once again in Vatican City, even getting to witness (via huge screen TV in St. Peter's Square) a live Pope-cast. We tried to get to the window where he was speaking live but had a hard time finding it among the seven hundred gazillion gawkers. Vatican City is home to one hell of a museum, creatively called the Vatican Museum. This place houses works by Caravaggio, Da Vinci (heard of that dude?), Raphael, and Fra Angelico, among many others. The tour that we took of the museum ended up in --- drum roll, please --- the Sistine Chapel! Not the Sixteenth Chapel, as it is so fondly referred to by the, uh, uninitiated. So I'm sure most of you know that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. What you might not have known is that he didn't know how to paint when the job was commissioned. He was a sculptor. So, yeah, he got offered the most massive job in the history of the painting world and took four years off in order to learn technique, particularly that of fresco painting. This painting was meant to last for centuries and it has. It got cleaned not too long ago (1999) and looks as bright as the day it was done, one can cheerfully assume. Pictures are not allowed in the Chapel itself, so I can't show you what I'm talking about here, but the place is almost overwhelming. There are six huge fresco paintings on each side. One side is the story of Moses and the other the story of Jesus. The front wall where the altar is located displays The Last Judgment where there's a cool part where sinners are being dragged down to hell (I dig that kind of stuff....sue me). The ceiling, probably the most famous part of the chapel, shows just about everything Biblical that you can think of. Yes, there's the amazing part where God is reaching for Adam's finger (The Creation of Adam) that you've seen a zillion times before.
"Dude, pull my finger!"
Ah, one last thing about Rome. We stayed in an apartment that we rented for a few days online. The apartment, I kid you not, had a section of the old Roman wall in it. It was encased behind glass right in the living room behind the couch. If that's not cool to you, you need to get your coolness detector adjusted.
After Rome we flew on to Athens, Greece. Greece, if you've been even passingly checking the news, is going through some pretty serious economic troubles right now. The government has responded to the poor economy by pissing everyone off through austerity measures. Once again disaster capitalism is in full effect, with international corporations benefiting from Greece's troubles once Greece denationalized industries and sold off national interests to private companies. The Shock Doctrine, which everyone should read, is now being enacted in Greece. Massive protests have been happening in Greece for quite some time about these measures and we were affected a little ourselves when a 24 hour strike took place in the public transportation sector. No buses, no trains, no taxis, no nothing. We had to take a taxi to our early flight leaving Greece (taxis came off strike even though the rest did not). Expensive, but not a huge deal.
So while in Greece we stayed in another apartment and spent our time eating the great food (hot damn, do I love gyros....plus, Leann had some ice cream that almost gave her an orgasm) and checking out the sites. Now, Italy was very cool and I thought that the stuff there was old. That stuff was practically out-of-the-box new compared to what Greece had to offer. Most of our couple days was spent doing two things --- going to the Acropolis and surrounding archaeological stuff, and going to the island of Aegina.
Acropolis --- The Acropolis is actually a whole series of badass buildings and sites situated on a hill overlooking the city of Athens. The most famous of these buildings is, of course, the Parthenon. Also up on top are The Erechtheum and The Propylaea and a bunch of other awesome, old buildings. The earliest of the buildings were begun to be built in the 6th century BC. Crazy, right? There are also a whole host of archaeological sites surrounding the Acropolis hill, including the Agora theater and a Temple of the Sun.
Aegina --- An hour long ferry ride will take you from the the port area of Athens called Piraeus to the island of Aegina. We shopped, ate lunch, soaked in some rays, and took a dip in the water. We wanted to roll on to the tiny island of Agrisi but storm clouds thwarted us.
OK, I'm running out of time in this Internet cafe here. Today is a national holiday celebrating Mahatma Ghandi's birthday (yay!) and is also a dry day in the whole country (boo!). No booze for you, India! We are excited to fill you in on Egypt and India but will have to try and make that happen elsewhere. We'll also try to get some more pictures up on Flickr as well.
Another quick shout out to my brothers at Bataan Park, who are now three time defending national Guts champions and will be heading to Kyoto, Japan to represent the United States at worlds next year. You guys rule.
Hope all my New Mexico brethren enjoyed the fair and are enjoying the balloon fiesta! It sucks to miss Autumn in New Mexico, but we're making do out here in tropical paradise.
Check in with ya soon!
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