Christmas break was spectacular. The last day of school I went Christmas caroling with the kids, we watched a Christmas movie, and we were free! I went home crashed and slept in the next morning. The next night was Christmas eve so I went with Anabel to her mothers house to celebrate with her family. There was a huge dinner and lots of fun conversations to be had. For Christmas we went and ate lunch at her mothers again and after did a gift exchange and played some games. I left early to go talk to my family on skype which was awesome. Christmas overall was pretty fun here.
On the 27th I flew out for Paris! I arrived around 9 pm and took the metro to what I thought was my stop. As it turns out there are two hotels by the same name in Paris and the one I was booked at used this to trick customers into reading good reviews about the other hotel. I was at the wrong hotel. I took the metro back and then had to take a taxi to find the place. When I got in it was after midnight so they charged me extra... Grr. The room had no shower and there was one bathroom per floor. I was displeased... But it was okay and I felt safer then I would have in a hostel alone.
I spent my first day figuring out the metro, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and visiting La Museo de la Arme. The Eiffel Tower is fantastic and is so much bigger than I thought. The museum was also very interesting. It had all of the weapons, uniforms, and other items from the Napoleonic War through WWII. I really liked being able to get close to all of the huge machine guns and take a better look at guns I've used in video games :) The museum is also home to Napoleon's tomb. I walked in expecting it to be grand... But it was fantastic. It's a huge cathedral like building complete with gold edging and beautiful frescos. There are important peoples tombs with beautiful statues surrounding a circular section where the floor dropped away. If you took the stairs down you got to see Napoleons tomb. It was about the size of two and a half hummers put together. The walkway around it was fantastic, the tomb was beautiful. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to get good pictures.
I spent the rest of the week until Saturday exploring Paris. Seeing beautiful cathedrals, catching mass in the Notre Dame, and enjoying the lights at night. Saturday I met Brittany, a girl from Sagunto that I met when I visited Valencia, at one of the metro stops. We spent the day going up the Eiffel Tower and watching the sun set at the top. The lights are gorgeous, and the view from the top is astounding even if it is too cold to feel your fingers.
As that night was new years we met the rest of the Sagunto crew and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. We were a little disappointed that the only fireworks were ones launched by bystanders, but it was still awesome to be in Paris for New Years!
The last full day I was in Paris I went to the louvre. I was supposed to meet Brittany but my alarm didn't go off and I ended up being about two hours late. Luckily she didn't wait for me. When I arrived the line was huge. It stretched across one large square, though a door and then across another large square. It was a surprisingly fast moving line however and I got in after only about an hour. I loved the Louvre and spent the better part of the day there just strolling around. It is so big that even just walking randomly I never had to see the same exhibit twice. I saw beautiful paintings and sculptures that I have always wanted to see, spent an hour staring at a ridiculously realistic painting of a battle by some German dude I've never heard of, and fought my way to the front of the Mona Lisa crowd to get my blurry glass glare picture. I saw so many beautiful things I will always remember. I loved the louvre!
When my stomach could no longer stand it I left the louvre and grabbed supper before heading to La Defense. I didn't really know what to expect but people had told me it was cool. Basically it's a giant building in the shape of a hollow square. It was pretty cool but after the Louvre I was having a hard time being impressed. I did manage to take what I feel is my best picture ever though, so that was cool!
The next morning I flew to Rome. My plane was delayed an hour but when we landed they played victory music and announced "another on time flight, our flights are on time over 90% of the time giving us a better record then any other European airline." I laughed, if an hour late is "on time" no wonder they have such good numbers!
I only had to wait in the airport for about 30 minutes when Carries plane from Madrid landed. We took a taxi which took us to the wrong hotel so we had to walk 3/4 of a mile. No big deal we hoofed it to our hotel and checked in. I was blown away. We weren't spending very much to get an absolutely fantastic place. Two rooms,two beds, and best of all I had a shower again! :)
We caught the bus, which was apparently free... We didn't really figure it out but no one ever paid so whatever... To the metro and went straight to the colosseum. It was closed but we walked around it and took pictures. Then we headed off for the Trevi fountain but got sidetracked walking through the free section of the Roman Forum. After we got back on track we followed the one sign, I literally think there is only one, in the direction it pointed. There were multiple turns, y splits, and alleyways, but we persevered and soon found ourselves sitting in a restaurant eating pizza and gelato. I know sidetracked again but we got hungry from all the walking. After eating we finally got to the Trevi fountain. Gorgeous! I threw a coin in to ensure my return to Rome, took some pictures, and we took off. We felt like wandering and we ended up at the Spanish steps, I wasn't sure why they are famous, and I'm still not sure even after reading the wikipedia page, but they looked cool and there were tons of street vendors. We walked up the steps and saw a cool cathedral with some priests and nuns singing in it. On the way back down we were accosted by a flower peddler. "You are so beautiful!" he said, to Carrie if that wasn't obvious... "Do you love her?" to me. "nope we're just friends..." "but she is so beautiful!" "yep" "have a flower for free!" "we don't want a flower" "for free!" "no" It went in like that for a while. If you take the flower they follow you and ask for a small contribution.. It's rather annoying.
We finally extricated ourselves from flower man and headed down the steps following the Christmas lights we ended up walking through the expensive part of town. Armani, Prada, 400€ underwear... You get the drift. I did end up buying a scarf for 7€ from a street vender, but no Armani for me. Maybe someday... Anyway it was quite cool to see the shops and quite revolting to see the price tags.
We walked until we found a big square with an obelisk in it, were approached by another flower man, and then made our way back to our metro stop. We would have gotten back to the hotel with just enough time for a cup of tea before except for one miscalculation. We forgot to look for visual landmarks at our bus stop. Due to an entire bus full of only Italian speaking people we figured out that we missed our stop and needed to get off the bus and go back the other direction, so we got off the bus. It was a small mostly empty looking little town with only a few people standing around talking. We were confused, cold, and tired and standing outside in an unfamiliar place at night isn't a good place to be in that situation. Luckily after about an hour of waiting our bus came and all was well. We definitely made sure we knew our stop the next night.
The next day we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the colosseum again. We waited in line and finally got in. It is marvelous. I was so impressed to be standing where so many people had fought and died. It floored me to think of the cruelty that had occurred where I was looking. The history excited me though. I really liked the place... I like gladiator stuff :) After the colosseum we walked through the roman forums. The old pillars and building were fantastic. I couldn't believe some of the carvings that have survived. Even just random notch decorations on the walls are still there, I would have thought they would have eroded away long ago! After the Forum we walked to the Pantheon... I think. I'm having a hard time remembering which day we saw it on but this is the only day that makes sense to me so... The Pantheon was pretty cool. From the outside is very impressive, from the inside it's a leaky roof with lots of cool church stuff and statues on the wall. The architecture is really cool, but it was weird having random catholic statues in there, I would have liked to see it back when all the mythological gods were still in there. After the Pantheon we took lots of pictures, got some food, walked around, and headed to the hotel making sure to look for our bus stop this time.
The next day we woke up got breakfast again and headed to the Vatican. We dodged the people telling us the line was two hours long and that we needed to buy a tour guide to skip the line, walked two blocks, and waited ten minutes to get into the Vatican Museum. It was almost as awesome as the Louvre. It had collections from all over the world. It showcased ancient Egyptian religions and Greek mythology right next to the Christian history. If there were competing religions in the world at the time displays would sometimes be set up to show the differences between the beliefs at the time. Christian artifacts on the right, pagan on the left. I was highly impressed with the museum but it all culminated at the Sistine Chapel. I have seen pictures and drawings of the chapel but nothing can compare with seeing it in person. The paintings are beautiful, the metaphors brilliant. The people look like they are going to pop off of the ceiling. Carrie and I sat in the chapel for over an hour just looking and listening to our audio guides about each painting. It was definitely one of, if not the most, amazing things I have ever seen in my life. After the museum we moved on the St. Peters Cathedral. We walked around the square for a little while and took pictures while the sun was still up, then joined the line and entered the church. The decor was amazing. Everything was golden or marble and simply beautiful. We walked around and looked at everything before noticing that a mass was starting. There were security guards who were keeping people out, but I asked them if we could go in and they randomly said yes. So we got to see a mass in the Vatican. It was really cool even though we had to stand the whole time and it was in Italian. Mark that off of my list of things to do in life.
After the Vatican it was late and rainy so we headed to the hotel. The next day was our last full day, and also catacomb day! We headed out in the morning and took the metro to the Baths of Caracalla which after all the architecture and grander we had been seeing wasn't all that impressive although it awesome on it's own. After that we caught a bus to the catacombs. It was required to go down with a guide, which is probably a good thing as we learned that there are four floors each with over two kilometers of floor space, and it's all narrow dark twisting passages. I would definitely have gotten lost. The tour was very informative. We got to see where popes and saints were buried and where a pope was beheaded. We even got to see a place where Christians hid during the persecution. I had never seen anything like this and although it was necessarily cool architecture or impressive statues, it was neat to see and sense the history of the place. I wish I could have done a little bit more exploring then the tour allowed for. :)
After the catacombs we walked around downtown. We tried to go to the first Christian church in Rome and actually walked for around an hour trying to find it, but when we got there it was closed and not lit up so that was a fail. Carrie had a really early flight so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. I flew out the next morning and arrived safely back in Zaragoza. And that was my awesome break!
I am so thankful to be here in Spain where it is amazing and where I can travel to amazing places for decently cheap prices. I'd like to thank everyone that donated so that I could come here again. I am having a great time and loving the work I am doing at the school.
Random Fact:
Today I saw a kid mix unflavored yogurt with his blackbean soup and then slurp it down like he'd made a banana spilt. Que Asco!
Random Fact 2:
Nerf Football = Way to peg annoying kids with a ball and have them enjoy it.
