Italian Exploits Part 2

For those of you who are not up to date, this is the forth post about my Christmas Vacation so check out previous posts if you are interested.

Ok... So I left us in Florence... well, we took the train to Rome, and after finding the way to our flat we... actually i don't remember exactly when we did things anymore... I suppose I waited too long for all of this writing.  Oh well, our flat was in an interesting part of town.  It was kind of sketchy to say the least.  We were on the 5th (or 6th if your canadian) floor and right in the centre of the staircase was a tiny little elevator.  It fit two people comfortably.  Needless to say we all got well acquainted with stairs in Rome.  Our place was nice and roomy and finally a place with 2 queen sized beads instead of one queen and 3 single beds.  (I feel that it should be noted that Mom and Dad were very nice and let us have the queen in Florence)  We were really close to the metro and we used it a lot.  They said that they kept trying to get more metro lines going but every time they would start digging new tunnels they would find more ruins.  Which kind of 'ruined' things (haha!).  

One of the first things we did in Rome was go to the Colosseum.  While we were looking for the end of the line a guy came up and asked us if we wanted to join their tour.  It included the Colosseum and some other ruins (I apologize, i can't remember their names, just that it was the centre of rome back in the day).  We took it and the tour turned out to be very good!  Both of the guides were very interesting and fun to listen to.  The Colosseum is a really cool place and we were sad that we couldn't see it in all of its glory.  I don't think Evan will ever forgive the Catholic church for stealing all of the marble from the Colosseum!  I learned (and saw) that there were tunnels below where the games would take place and there were trap doors to let live things out (and dead things in...)  the floor was covered with sand which is where we get the term 'arena' (because arena means sand).

At the end of our Colosseum tour we were given the option to join another tour the day after.  It was of the Vatican, which was one thing we were planning on seeing anyway.  We joined the tour and are kind of sad that we did because it was much more boring than our first one.  It was a three hour tour and more than half of it was spent outside of the interesting places, looking at pictures and models of the interesting places.  I understand that talking is forbidden in the Sistine Chapel but that is only one place!  We skipped come cool rooms because we 'didn't have time' (duh!).  Anyway, the Vatican was really cool and the Sistine Chapel was way different than I though it would be.  It's just a huge rectangular room.  I though it would be more like the churches and cathedrals I have seen.  Michelangelo's Paintings of the creation on the ceiling are fantastic!  Saint Peter's Basilica is supposedly the largest christian church in the world.  It is amazing!  You know all that missing Marble from the Colosseum?  Its there!  There are beautiful sculptures everywhere, lots of memorial tomes, and even the remains of a dead pope under some glass so you can see him.  (Kinda creepy if you ask me...).  When all is said and done, the tour had its good points but I think we would have preferred to see the vatican on our own time.  Maybe its good we didn't see everything, because it gives us a reason to come back!

Other places that we went to in Rome are the Spanish Steps (and the really expensive designer shops in front of the steps), Trevi Fountain (and nearby we bought a water-colour from an artist of the Colosseum), the Pantheon, Plaza Navona, and i probably missed a couple of places but those are the important ones.

One day in Rome, Dad rented us a car, and us 'kids' drove it down to Pompei.  We spent the day exploring the ancient city.  It was fascinating being able to see how the volcano destroyed everything, yet preserved it much better then if it hadn't happened.  You could easily imagine people walking down the streets, eating at the little cafeterias and sitting at the out-door theatres.  They found people shaped holes in the volcanic rock where people curled up and died.  I wonder if the people were blissfully ignorant of what was happening until the last few moments, or if they knew that they were doomed and also knew they couldn't do anything...

... Anyway... on to less depressing matters.  We returned to Rome late-ish that night and Mom, Dad and Dave left really early the nest morning.  Evan and I didn't leave until that night so we left our bags at the train station and did some more exploring.  We know that we would like to go Back to Rome some day because it is such a huge city with a rich culture and history.  I don't think it is possible to see all there is to see!

On our way back home to Sanxenxo we stopped at Barcelona and Spent a couple of nights at the sketchiest hostel I have ever been in.  To be fair it is the first hostel I have ever stayed in, at least it was cheep and we had our own room.  I can, however, say that the bed was the worst I have ever slept in (or didn't sleep in) and Evan says there were cockroaches in the bathroom in the morning.  We really enjoyed Barcelona, but were disappointed to discover that we arrived on '3 Kings Day'  which meant that everything was closed.  We explored though and have decided that the public transportation in Barcelona kicks butt.  We managed to catch a water fountain light and music show which was very impressive.

By the time Evan and I made it home to Galicia, we really missed the friendly people and familiar language.  I never thought I would say that I missed Spanish, but Italian was like starting from scratch all over again.  We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to go to Italy and we are already looking forward to a return trip... (in the far distant future)

Holiday Adventures Part C "Italian Exploits 1"

Well... I can't say I envy those of you in Alberta at the moment.  I see so many Facebook statuses that are complaining about the freezing cold and almost as many that describe what happens when car meets ice.  Know that you have my condolences, but also know that it hasn't been crazy warm here either and we don't have central heating.  We just have little heaters attached to the wall and the main one is lacking an extension cord so we just wear lots of layers.  Plus if we don't open the window at least for a bit every day, it gets way too humid in our apartment!

I believe that next on the schedule is to describe our trip to Italy.  If you haven't read the previous to posts, you might want to, but it's up to you.  It was an awesome trip, and it was very cool to see so many places that we have read about in books, seen in movies or (in Evan and Dave's case) explored on video games.  It was pretty cold the entire time we were in Italy, most nights it got below freezing and we would find a little ice in the mornings. (I know... poor us...)  We had Gelato a few times and it was good but I'm not sure if we found the really good stuff.  I don't really care though, because I had Nutella Gelato.  My life is complete.

The first city we traveled to was Venice.  It was probably the best place on the trip to go as far as shopping is concerned (unless you want a leather jacket, then go to Florence).  Venice is famous for their Murano Glass, which we saw a lot of and I think it would be really cool to have a sculpture one day, but they are sooo expensive that I kind of doubt in the likelihood of this happening.  They also had a lot of shops selling quills and stationary and wax seal kits.  I kind of regret not getting one of those wax seals.  How cool would it be to send a sealed letter to somebody?!  There was a huge variety of masquerade masks.  I bought a cheap one but unfortunately, it didn't make the trip home.  I wore it on New Years Eve in Florence though!  While we were in Venice we saw the Grand Canal and St. Mark's square/ cathedral (which you could go into for free, but you had to pay if you wanted to see any of the 'extras' like St. Mark's tomb).  After that we toured the Doge's Palace.  Practically every wall and ceiling in The Doge's Palace was a piece of art (and there were a lot of rooms).  It was a very interesting place.  The palace contained a fantastic weapons collection and Evan thought he had died and gone to heaven, also we got to see the dungeons and you could see the graffiti from hundreds of years ago.  Florence was really cool to explore, it was like being transported to another time.  Crossing the little bridges over top of the waterways that serve as roads and squeezing through the tiny, twisty streets was an entirely new experience for me.  Venice is a really cool city, but I think it was my least favourite of the three.  Not because I didn't like it, but because after a day it all the streets and shops started to all seem the same while Florence and Rome had a little more variety to offer.

After Venice, we took a train to Florence.  Florence was a great place, the apartment we stayed at was fantastic, in every way... especially location.  It was a block's walk to get to Uffizzi Gallery, which was an experience!  It was so strange to go to an Art museum that was so crowded!  I was trying to imagine that many people at an art gallery in Edmonton.  Then I realized that I have only been to the University of Alberta's art Gallery.  I resolve to go to more when I get back.  I must say though, one reason that this gallery was so packed was because there were so many famous pieces of art.  There were tonnes of beautiful statues too.  It's kind of funny because the statues and people in the paintings often lacked clothes, but when you go to the Vatican, most of the statues had little leaves covering the 'essentials' that were added afterwards.  We spent new years day in Florence which is when I wore my red mask everywhere.  There were four different squares that had four different types of concerts going on.  We went 'square hopping' but my favourite was the alternative band that had a trombone :).  People kept setting off firecrackers which had such huge bangs, that you would feel them deep in your stomach.  It scared us the first few times but they went off so often that we got used to it.  The problem is, that the idiots didn't stop for the entire night!  That was the only point that I regretted our central location...  There were lots of cool buildings to see but most things were closed on New Year's Day.  One day I think I would like to go back and see more of the museums and churches.

I will stop here because this is getting pretty long so I'll talk about Rome next time.

Holiday Adventures Part B

For those of you who haven't read part A, go ahead and skip down to it and come back to this later.

The reason this took so long to come out was I had it mostly written and I left it on the computer and Evan decided it would be good idea to restart the computer, so I felt a little discouraged.  then I figured out i could get it back but I read it and it was terrible.  So here you go, a slightly less terrible version.

Anyway... the trip... So after we made it back to Galicia, we rented a car and drove to Sanxenxo from the airport.  I was super happy to see Evan again!  It's strange to go even 5 days without seeing him.  We didn't waist any time showing them around.  I have to say that it is a great experience seeing a place for the first time and falling in love with it, but its so cool to be able to share that place with someone else!  It was like I was seeing everything again for the first time.  We traveled along the coast, pointing out all the different beaches that we have surfed at.  Once we made it to "a Lansada", (see pics below) we explored the ruins that are on one end of the beach for a while and then we walked a ways down the beach.  While we were there there were tonnes of surfers catching waves, so we told Mom and Dad to imagine that they were us. (except we aren't as good lol) and we had a blast looking for shells.  The beaches here are perfect because you have really soft sand most of the time but there is always a line of shells running down the beach so you get to find treasures.  Unfortunately, there gets to be a lot of garbage washed up too, because people are pigs!

Anyway, the next day we woke up early and traveled to pick david up from Vigo.  The poor kid was so tired but we dragged him around anyway.  We were already halfway to the fort and celtic remains (see pics below).  We had a breakfast of yummy pastries and hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate here is very thick and rich.  It is very close to melted chocolate. Aka; I love it!  Also the pastries here are very good, they are similar to ones at home except for one called a "napolitana" which is very common here but i have never seen it at home.  It is made of flakey dough and has chocolate (Nutella textured) filling.  Anyway, forts that are like castles are always cool to see and Dave powered through.  The celtic remains we fun, we did a bit more exploring than last time (because the tape stopping you from exploring was mysteriously missing this time).  I found a piece of pottery that I hope is really old but you can see the finger markings one one side which is cool.  We were sad because the little museum at the top of the mountain was closed.

After driving along picturesque coasts to arrive back home we settled in for a relaxed christmas.  Christmas was great,  church was only sacrament meeting, and we were able to introduce my parents to a few friends.    We didn't even open presents until late.  We had the crackers that mom made (which always have fun treats!) and Evan and I had a couple of presents from home.  Thanks to Christy (Evan's mom) for the Canadian ties!  My goal is to find the perfect occasion to wear mine.  And thanks to Christine & James & Boys for the peanut butter and KD powder and everything!  We have already plowed through one jar of the PB.  I think I'm malnourished from only eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches!  Also, thanks to everyone else for the pictures and cards!

We spent some time in the old part of Pontevedra and in Santiago de Compostela.  We showed them all the places we thought were cool like the Cathedral and some more ruins we also did a bit of shopping of course.  Evan only had one thing in mind though... a knife.  He found one, its a special kind with a special name and maybe if I'm lucky he will comment below what it is.  It sure looks fancy anyway.

Mom, Dad and Dave lucked out because the weather was very well behaved while they were here, it hardly rained at all!  It was really cool to share our little piece of heaven with my family.  So you all know, any other friends or family have an open invitation to do the same!

Part C; "Italian Exploits", coming soon!

Holiday Adventures Part A

This is probably the strangest Christmas I have ever had.  At least, when one combines the facts that there was no snow, no Christmas tree, (almost) no presents, no pumpkin pie and, well... the list could go on for a while.  However, even though it didn’t really feel like the kind of Christmas I am used to, there was a lot of family and friends and good times.

My holidays were broken up into three weeks, the first week was when my parents flew me down to Alicante to visit with them.  Those of you who were following my Facebook status back then will know that that was quite an adventure.  It all stemmed from the fact that I left my house with the most important thing you need when you go traveling; a passport.  I rode three different buses to get from Sanxenxo to the Airport in Santiago so going back to get it before the plane left was out of the question.  I just have to say that I was crazy lucky and somehow they let me on the plane down with the promise that the people in Alicante wouldn’t be so kind.  I had to make sure that I got my passport in time to go back.  You can imagine that I was pretty stressed out to get it in time but luckily it all worked out and I learned my lesson.  The problem is I’m pretty sure I have learned the lesson of not forgetting things before.  Multiple times.  We will see if it actually takes this time.

Southern Spain was great!  I was so excited to see my parents, but trying to find something to do was very difficult.  We drove into the beach town that was near our place and it was like a ghost town in the middle of the day.  It was so strange!  I kept expecting to see a tumble weed.  The water was pretty much the same temperature as here (which is freakin' cold) so no swimming and the weather didn't' really warm up to t-shirt weather until the last day.  Plus, every tourist place we could find was closed for the week we were there!  We finally found a zoo that was open.  It was pretty deserted which was much nicer then a crowded one in my opinion.  It was called “mundo mar” which basically translates to “sea world”.  They had lots of monkeys and birds and stuff but the best part was the dolphin show.  I have seen dolphin shows, but this one takes the cake.  The tricks were by far the most impressive I have ever seen and there were cute guys :D  After Mundo Mar there was the chocolate factory.  We took a tour of the Valor chocolate factory which was pretty interesting.  We learned how chocolate is made and we got to see the machines and packaging process.  There really aren’t many people needed.  Oh, and they had a secret research lab which I wanted to go into sooo bad!

That was pretty much all we could find that was open, but one other memorable thing we did was we went on a walk.  We tried to follow the directions that the hotel staff gave us... but they were terrible!  They were obviously a translation from Spanish to English... (at least that is our excuse) anyway, I’m pretty sure we weren’t supped to go the way we went, but it was so cool!  We found a cave!  It was at the top of this big steep hill and it wasn’t very big but it was really neat.  I could imagine people living in there, there was a raised platform that looked perfect for a bed.  There were a couple of fissures that went deeper but  we wouldn’t have been able to fit.  We also found some ruined buildings and some old wells.  One well was so deep that it took a rock almost five seconds to hit the bottom (yes we timed it) As it turned out, even though there we some close calls on that steep hill, I’m really glad that we didn’t find the right path.

I will continue writing about the vacation, but it's too much for one post.