Europe: the Whirlwind Tour

So I just got back to Arahal last night. I had an incredible trip! I flew Ryanair from Madrid to Rome. The interior color scheme of Ryanair flights sort of makes you feel like you're on a U of M team plane. I flew into Ciampino, the small airport in Rome, and got to the train station, Termini, because my hotel was close to it. I had a little trouble finding it at first but everything worked out ok. All my previous big-city experience had been with other people so being by myself in a completely foreign city was a new and slightly intimidating experience. The next day, I met the CCC group at the other airport, Fuimicino, and spent the next three days touring Rome with everyone. It was really nice to see people I had known longer than 2 weeks. The best way to sight-see is with friends.

We went to the Colosseum, Forum, Ostia, catacombs, Mamertine Prison and many other places. It was a lot of fun to wander around Rome and find cool things to do. We found a place with really good gelato on Via Del Corso when we went to the Trevi Fountain. It was amazing to see so many famous places. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is mind-bogglingly immense. One particular highlight for me was seeing the Sistine Chapel, after seeing pictures of it my entire life. They truly do no justice. The amount of detail and the size of the building can't really be portrayed in a photo. I also loved seeing the Colosseum. It was really sobering to think of the incredible amount of life lost in that place (5,000 animals and 2,000 people in the first 100-day inauguration ceremony alone). Our guide told us that there weren't many Christians killed there but I think she was operating from a slightly revisionist paradigm. It was an amazing 3 days!

 Let me take this opportunity to talk about pizza. I had previously subscribed to the opinion that pizza as I knew it was pretty much at its culinary apogee, there wasn't much that could be done to make it better than it was. I freely admit now the error of this belief. Steve, Brendan, Ethan, Emily, Lenny and I went searching for a good pizza place on the last day of our Rome foray. We eventually found a small restaurant tucked away somewhere and ordered pizza. It was a revelation. The pizza I had was topped with cherry tomatoes, mozzerella, basil and rocket (hard to describe, but delicious). Absolutely astounding.

I left Rome when the others did and went to Florence (Firenze) for a day. Too short a time! I was able to climb to the top of the Duomo and view the entire city. It was a little hazy but still beautiful. The hills around Florence looked pretty much the same as the background of the Mona Lisa. I had real spaghetti and it was delicious. I tried to go to the Galeria Academia but, like the Uffizi Gallery, it was closed because it was Monday. I spent the rest of the day walking around Florence. I also found Dante Alighieri's house but, sadly, it was also closed. Obviously, this only served to feed my already strong distaste for Mondays.

The next day I  got up early and went to the Ufizzi Gallery and spent time looking at such incredible pieces of art as Botticelli's  "Birth of Venus" and DaVinci's "Annunciation". It was incredible! I then had a little time left over so I went to the Galeria Academia and saw Michelangelo's "David" and several other unfinished sculptures. It was an great experience and I'm glad I had time to do it. I then headed to the station to catch the train to Bern.

Instead of getting to Bern around 6, which my Eurail timetable led me to believe was possible, I didn't get there until 9:30. This wouldn't have been such a problem had my phone not been out of minutes (apparently, though Vodafone serves the entire continent of Europe, minutes can only be purchased in the phone's home country). I was supposed to meet my friend Tracy in the town of Lyss at 6 and didn't have any way to contact her until I got there. I tried the number on a phone in the only grocery store in Lyss that was open but for some reason it didn't work. By this time it was about 10PM and starting to snow. Someone I talked to told me there wasn't a hotel in Lyss. Great. For the first time in my life I was considering trying to find someplace warm in an alley to spend the night. I went back to the grocery store and asked the guy there and he gave me directions to the hotel (which was in Lyss after all; just goes to show, you can't trust McDonald's employees). I checked in an went to the YWAM base that Tracy's going to discipleship school at the next day. In retrospect, that was pretty fun.

Switzerland was gorgeous but all good things must come to an end. I went early to the station in Bern because my timetable told me the only day train to Barcelona left at 8:30AM. Apparently (surprise, surprise) my timetable was wrong again and there wasn't any direct train. The guy said he could get me trains as far as Perpignan, France but then I'd be on my own from there. Not what I wanted to hear. I had to wait 2 hours in Bern and catch the 10:30 to Geneva, Geneva to Lyon, and Lyon to Perpignan. In Lyon I just barely had time to go to the ticket office and get tickets for the trains from Perpignan to Barcelona. The lady told me there wouldn't be any available seats and was really surprised when there were. I wasn't. I'd been praying the entire day and I know many other people were too. I finally got to Barcelona around 11 and caught a taxi to the hostel, which was super nice and seemed more like a hotel. One of the more stressful travel days I've ever had.

Barcelona was fun. Got to go to La Sagrada Familia, the architectural masterpiece of Gaudí. I found out that I like traditional cathedrals more than new ones. I spent 2 days just exploring Barcelona, especially the Barri Gótic, the medieval neighborhood. One of the other guys in my room at the hostel and I went and found a place to watch the United match and then the Barça match after it. We met up with an Aussie and talked football for 4 hours. Then we all went and got tapas. Briefly, my favorite one I had was a slice of baguette with Iberian ham on it, on top of which was placed at thick slice of brie cheese and then more ham. It was delicious. We also had a Barcelona specialty, octopus with salt and pepper on boiled potatoes. Pretty much blew my mind! In the morning I took the train from Barcelona to Madrid and saw more snow on that trip than I'd seen all of 2010 in KS. Then I headed from Madrid to Sevilla, where Manolo and Juan met me at the airport.

So now I'm back in Arahal. My trip was amazing, but I'm glad to be back among friends. I guess I'm more of a people person than I thought. Sorry this turned out to be so long and so late, but thanks for reading!