It's not about our travels, but it is good news - they posted results from the bar exam this morning and I passed!!!
A friend told me that they were posting results sometime after midnight, but I decided not to stay up. Even so, despite the fact that I felt pretty confident that I passed, I did not sleep well at all. Amusingly, when I looked at the results in my dreams, I passed there, too. So, apparently my subconscious was pretty confident.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
London Again
On Tuesday morning, we flew from Rome to London, giving us one last (part of a) day in London. We spent it shopping. Mostly, I thought Debbie would enjoy seeing Harrod's, since they are (according to their website) the world's most famous department store. It did not disappoint, although we didn't actually buy anything there. We did buy a few things at H&M, around the corner. We also had a snack at Starbucks.
After the shopping, we met my English cousin Greta for dinner. (I sometimes call her my long-lost cousin, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't think of herself as lost, so I'm trying to break the habit.) In keeping with tradition (Greek time), she was a half hour late. We forgave her, of course, and proceeded to have tapas in Soho.
Like me, Greta is shy and retiring, so we didn't talk much. We basically spent 3 hours staring at each other. It was awesome. :-)
After the shopping, we met my English cousin Greta for dinner. (I sometimes call her my long-lost cousin, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't think of herself as lost, so I'm trying to break the habit.) In keeping with tradition (Greek time), she was a half hour late. We forgave her, of course, and proceeded to have tapas in Soho.
Like me, Greta is shy and retiring, so we didn't talk much. We basically spent 3 hours staring at each other. It was awesome. :-)
Gallery of Self-Portraits
As promised, here's a collection of the self-portraits I took on the trip. This was Cookie's request in one of the comments. Note how my technique improves as the trip goes on.
London, in front of Buckingham Palace:
London, in St. James' Park (with the London Eye in the background):
Rovinj:
In the Roman amphitheater in Pula:
In Murano, Venice:
Gondola ride in Venice:
In Florence, with the Ponte Vecchio in the background:
Siena, in the Piazza del Campo:
San Gimignano:
Rome, in front of the Fountain of Triton in Barberini:
Rome, in front of Trevi Fountain:
In the Roman Forum:
In the Roman Forum, with the Colosseum in the background:
In the Colosseum:
Rome, in the Piazza Navona:
Vatican City, St. Peter's Square:
So, what do you think? What's your favorite?
London, in front of Buckingham Palace:
London, in St. James' Park (with the London Eye in the background):
Rovinj:
In the Roman amphitheater in Pula:
In Murano, Venice:
Gondola ride in Venice:
In Florence, with the Ponte Vecchio in the background:
Siena, in the Piazza del Campo:
San Gimignano:
Rome, in front of the Fountain of Triton in Barberini:
Rome, in front of Trevi Fountain:
In the Roman Forum:
In the Roman Forum, with the Colosseum in the background:
In the Colosseum:
Rome, in the Piazza Navona:
Vatican City, St. Peter's Square:
So, what do you think? What's your favorite?
Rome Day 3
Day 3 in Rome was also the last full day of our trip, so we weren't able to do as much touristy stuff as we would have liked. We did spend an excruciatingly fun 1.5 hours in the Italian post office trying to ship some of our stuff back. Thus, the glaring omission in our day, which just means that we're going to have to go to Italy again. Next time, I think we'll start in Rome and work south.
For the touristy (i.e. fun) part of the day, we went to Vatican City. Here we are in St. Peter's Square.
Debbie in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
And me in front of the fountain.
Happily, there's no charge to get into the basilica. Of course, that means it gets pretty crowded, but what can you do? Here is the view of the interior from just inside the front entrance.
Michelangelo's Pieta is just to the right of the entrance (and behind bulletproof glass).
The Basilica is in the form of a cross. (Byzantine style, I think.) Here is a view of the cross, from near the altar.
Since we missed out on climbing the dome in Florence, I insisted on climbing up into the dome here. Some of the people reading this know how much I like a good stair climb, but Debbie insisted that we take the lift for the first part of the climb, reducing it from 550 stairs to a mere 320. The lift doesn't really take you all that far, as you can see from this picture, which is after the lift and before the stairs.
The first stage gets you up into the interior of the dome. They have a fence up, so I couldn't really get any good pictures below. Here I am, though.
The remaining 250 steps from there were about as much fun as you might expect. I didn't take any pictures on the inside. The view from the top was very nice, though. For example, the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums (in the background just behind Debbie).
And me, with a view to the east.
And that was it for the day. Both the post office and the Sistine Chapel have ridiculously limited hours, so we had to skip the Chapel. Next time we're in Rome...
Anyway, the remainder of the day was packing and shipping stuff. We flew back to London on RyanAir the following morning.
For the touristy (i.e. fun) part of the day, we went to Vatican City. Here we are in St. Peter's Square.
Debbie in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
And me in front of the fountain.
Happily, there's no charge to get into the basilica. Of course, that means it gets pretty crowded, but what can you do? Here is the view of the interior from just inside the front entrance.
Michelangelo's Pieta is just to the right of the entrance (and behind bulletproof glass).
The Basilica is in the form of a cross. (Byzantine style, I think.) Here is a view of the cross, from near the altar.
Since we missed out on climbing the dome in Florence, I insisted on climbing up into the dome here. Some of the people reading this know how much I like a good stair climb, but Debbie insisted that we take the lift for the first part of the climb, reducing it from 550 stairs to a mere 320. The lift doesn't really take you all that far, as you can see from this picture, which is after the lift and before the stairs.
The first stage gets you up into the interior of the dome. They have a fence up, so I couldn't really get any good pictures below. Here I am, though.
The remaining 250 steps from there were about as much fun as you might expect. I didn't take any pictures on the inside. The view from the top was very nice, though. For example, the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums (in the background just behind Debbie).
And me, with a view to the east.
And that was it for the day. Both the post office and the Sistine Chapel have ridiculously limited hours, so we had to skip the Chapel. Next time we're in Rome...
Anyway, the remainder of the day was packing and shipping stuff. We flew back to London on RyanAir the following morning.
The Awesomest Thing on Our Trip
As we came out of the Forum, we heard Italian music blasting from somewhere. We went looking for it, because it sounded like something fun was happening. We found the source of the music in front of a church in the square. It looked like this.
That's a wooden tower with a papier-mâché facade. And there's a band perched on the tower, with all their equipment, amps, speakers, etc.
The band was doing traditional music, I think, including Volare (which we also heard a gondolier singing in Venice). They also did a traditional Italian version of "Obladi Oblada" and of "The Sound of Silence". Sometimes, a big crowd of people would pick the tower up and bounce them to the rhythm. In two hours, they moved about 50 feet. Anyway, it was just one of those wonderful things that you run across on a trip, if you're lucky. I took a short video to give you an idea.
That's a wooden tower with a papier-mâché facade. And there's a band perched on the tower, with all their equipment, amps, speakers, etc.
The band was doing traditional music, I think, including Volare (which we also heard a gondolier singing in Venice). They also did a traditional Italian version of "Obladi Oblada" and of "The Sound of Silence". Sometimes, a big crowd of people would pick the tower up and bounce them to the rhythm. In two hours, they moved about 50 feet. Anyway, it was just one of those wonderful things that you run across on a trip, if you're lucky. I took a short video to give you an idea.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Rome Day 2
Our second day in Rome started badly, as we spent 40 minutes wandering around Termini Station trying to find the people that sold tickets for the shuttle to the airport. During that period, I had the time to ponder some of the negatives of Italy, like the damned smoking and the inadequate signage. After a long search, we finally found the tourist information people (surprisingly difficult given the fact that this was the train station), who directed us to what we were looking for. It was, of course, on the exact opposite side of the train station. Happily, the day was about the get better.
We next headed off to the Colosseum area to see the sights of ancient Rome. Of course, it was pretty crowded.
It was getting near lunchtime, so we decided to save the Colosseum for later and instead to walk through the Roman Forum (which is free) and look for some food on the other side. The Forum was pretty great - like the Agora in Athens, but better preserved.
The other side of the Forum has one really enormous monument that I unfortunately don't remember the name of.
It was a hot day and it looked like a lot of stairs, so we skipped the climb. We did take a break to get panini from a street vendor. It was at this point that we saw the single awesomest thing we saw on the whole trip, which is so awesome that it deserves its own post.
After lunch, we walked down the main road to the Colosseum. It was Sunday, so the road was closed to traffic.
There was still a sizable line for the Colosseum so we tried a trick from the guidebooks and went to the Palatine first, because they use a combined ticket. The Palatine is supposed to be where Rome was founded and was the site of the palaces of several Roman emperors. As a lucky bonus, tickets were free because that day was a "European Day of Patrimony" (or something to that effect).
There was a pretty cool fountain halfway up the hill.
And ruins at the top.
There was also a tunnel that Nero built under his palace. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of it. After that, we went to the Colosseum.
Apparently they used the arches in ancient times to store really large beach balls.
In the evening, we went to the Centro Storico for dinner. That area was the center of Rome around the 1500s and 1600s. (Possibly later, too. Sorry to be so vague, but we shipped the guidebook back with some of our other stuff. It's somewhere between here and Italy right now.) We took the bus down to the Piazza Navona at twilight.
Then we had the best pizza of our trip. Sadly, that was the only time we made it to that area. On our next visit, we're going to have to spend more time there.
We walked back to the hotel after dinner and took some pictures of St. Peter's Basilica as we crossed the river.
We next headed off to the Colosseum area to see the sights of ancient Rome. Of course, it was pretty crowded.
It was getting near lunchtime, so we decided to save the Colosseum for later and instead to walk through the Roman Forum (which is free) and look for some food on the other side. The Forum was pretty great - like the Agora in Athens, but better preserved.
The other side of the Forum has one really enormous monument that I unfortunately don't remember the name of.
It was a hot day and it looked like a lot of stairs, so we skipped the climb. We did take a break to get panini from a street vendor. It was at this point that we saw the single awesomest thing we saw on the whole trip, which is so awesome that it deserves its own post.
After lunch, we walked down the main road to the Colosseum. It was Sunday, so the road was closed to traffic.
There was still a sizable line for the Colosseum so we tried a trick from the guidebooks and went to the Palatine first, because they use a combined ticket. The Palatine is supposed to be where Rome was founded and was the site of the palaces of several Roman emperors. As a lucky bonus, tickets were free because that day was a "European Day of Patrimony" (or something to that effect).
There was a pretty cool fountain halfway up the hill.
And ruins at the top.
There was also a tunnel that Nero built under his palace. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of it. After that, we went to the Colosseum.
Apparently they used the arches in ancient times to store really large beach balls.
In the evening, we went to the Centro Storico for dinner. That area was the center of Rome around the 1500s and 1600s. (Possibly later, too. Sorry to be so vague, but we shipped the guidebook back with some of our other stuff. It's somewhere between here and Italy right now.) We took the bus down to the Piazza Navona at twilight.
Then we had the best pizza of our trip. Sadly, that was the only time we made it to that area. On our next visit, we're going to have to spend more time there.
We walked back to the hotel after dinner and took some pictures of St. Peter's Basilica as we crossed the river.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Rome Day 1
We left Tuscany by train that Friday, cursing it for not understanding that there should be no rain on our vacation except in approved locations (i.e. London, where it's inevitable). Rome came through for us, though. Of course, first we took the afternoon off to recover from all the rain.
Saturday, we set out with one goal before all others - find the church that Christina (my sister) told us about that has all the art made from bones. Inconveniently, that was all she remembered about the place. She couldn't remember its name or where it was. Luckily, Lonely Planet Italy is just that kind of book, so it came through for us. So, we were off that morning to the Chiesa della Concezione de Cappuccini to see some "bone art".
Rather than take the direct route, we decided to test just how walkable Rome really is. We were staying at Pensione Paradise, which is fairly close to the Vatican. So, on Saturday morning, we started out by crossing the Tiber and going to the Piazza del Popolo.
From there, we walked down the Via del Corso and then over to the Spanish Steps.
The area around the steps includes what one book called the "most expensive street in Rome". You can't exactly tell in the next picture, but on the left side of the street are, in succession, the Dior store, the Gucci store, and the Bulgari store. Needless to say, we didn't buy much there.
From the Spanish Steps, we walked down to the Piazza Barberini, where we saw the Fountain of Triton, by Bernini.
Then we went to the church with the bone art. The art is actually in the crypt below the church and is made from the bones of 4000 Capuchin monks who died over a several century period. It's almost too weird to describe, and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Pretty much everything there was made from bones, including the light fixtures and picture frames. Some rooms had more scapulae, while others mostly used arm or leg bones. Liberal use was made of vertabrae. I was glad to have Debbie along, so she could identify which bones were which.
I think I'll leave it at that. The whole thing sits somewhere between fascinating, macabre, and gross, and describing it is weirding me out a little bit, so I guess I'll move on.
After a quick lunch, we proceeded on to do some shopping. As always, I won't bore you with the details.
Our last activity of the day was to visit the Trevi Fountain, sculpted by Salvi. It's really cool, in an over-the-top kind of way, but also really, really popular.
At that point, I had a raging headache and our feet hurt (also it was starting to rain, and we'd had enough of that), so we took a break for the rest of the day.
Saturday, we set out with one goal before all others - find the church that Christina (my sister) told us about that has all the art made from bones. Inconveniently, that was all she remembered about the place. She couldn't remember its name or where it was. Luckily, Lonely Planet Italy is just that kind of book, so it came through for us. So, we were off that morning to the Chiesa della Concezione de Cappuccini to see some "bone art".
Rather than take the direct route, we decided to test just how walkable Rome really is. We were staying at Pensione Paradise, which is fairly close to the Vatican. So, on Saturday morning, we started out by crossing the Tiber and going to the Piazza del Popolo.
From there, we walked down the Via del Corso and then over to the Spanish Steps.
The area around the steps includes what one book called the "most expensive street in Rome". You can't exactly tell in the next picture, but on the left side of the street are, in succession, the Dior store, the Gucci store, and the Bulgari store. Needless to say, we didn't buy much there.
From the Spanish Steps, we walked down to the Piazza Barberini, where we saw the Fountain of Triton, by Bernini.
Then we went to the church with the bone art. The art is actually in the crypt below the church and is made from the bones of 4000 Capuchin monks who died over a several century period. It's almost too weird to describe, and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Pretty much everything there was made from bones, including the light fixtures and picture frames. Some rooms had more scapulae, while others mostly used arm or leg bones. Liberal use was made of vertabrae. I was glad to have Debbie along, so she could identify which bones were which.
I think I'll leave it at that. The whole thing sits somewhere between fascinating, macabre, and gross, and describing it is weirding me out a little bit, so I guess I'll move on.
After a quick lunch, we proceeded on to do some shopping. As always, I won't bore you with the details.
Our last activity of the day was to visit the Trevi Fountain, sculpted by Salvi. It's really cool, in an over-the-top kind of way, but also really, really popular.
At that point, I had a raging headache and our feet hurt (also it was starting to rain, and we'd had enough of that), so we took a break for the rest of the day.
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