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| one week later... (three and a half since we left)...
16 pounds heavier (backpack, that is, thank goodness!) plus one full shopping bag...
several pounds lighter! (me, that is. I think we sweated it all off in Italy...)
rather lighter (wallet, aagh) which may or may not be related to the aforementioned heavier bags. I had a rude awakening when adding up for customs and have resolved to keep a strict, strict ledger.
Rather tired-er (my body thinks it is 5:30 am and my brain is trying to convince myself that it's really 11:30 pm).
I am home!!! Oh, the happy delight to hug my grandmother and to see my little puppy's heart practically jump for joy (well, she was jumping, anyway) when my mom and I walked in (especially my mom).
Now I'm waiting up for Lisa to tell her goodbye before she leaves for DC. Argh, I really thought I was done with goodbyes...it kept rolling. First everyone at school after graduation, then Regina, Mariel, and the Rathmells the next day, then Megan and Margee after the road trip, then Julie at home, now Lisa (at least for a while). I am planning on travelling again very soon, be sure of that!
I was going to post this morning (well, yesterday morning? who knows now) but unfortunately the computer froze and I was good-morning-ed with a blue screen of death. In Italian. It was somehow more comic than tragic in another language, however.
After our 2 1/2 days on Rome, we headed last Tuesday to Florence for a day, day tripped to Siena for a day, then back to Florence, and then to Venice for a half day, then trained to Rome (late!) for a half day, then left this morning. Yesterday morning. Yep.
Next trip, I will become a lichen, firmly attached to one location. Although it was nice to get a taste of everything.
I will describe more later, but need to dash and nap (??) before Lisa comes. I'm so excited to finally give graduation presents  which I seriously postponed because of expected European shopping (a good move, apparantly).
Der Vater, nomen tuum intellego!! Thank you for reading and posting, and I will do my best to answer about Vienna, etc. and Roman churches next post.
Feeling cozy,
Hannah | | |
| From Roma...
Feeling much, much bettertoday after my ripping headache of the last
two days (which would be OK then start throbbing once we started
walking much). So I pushed on and saw a ton of amazing things along the
way. Today I feel positively perky again, and love the feeling.
Before I forget, I need to mention my first gelato (yummyyyy). In honor
of Regina, I ordered Kiwi with Banana and Strawberry, which was very
delicious. Good call, Regina! Item 2 is, thank you to Der Vater for
your continuing comments, but I am afraid I dont know your real
identity?
There is no way that you could see everything here in a week (unless
you were the Kamikaze tourist that our guidebook describes and saw the
churches before 8 am and then go from there). TONS and tons of stuff
that you just have to see. But with only 4 days, something has to
give...
Yesterday morning we decided it would be a super great idea to see the
Vatican museum when it was free. The guidebook said it would be busy.
Weeeeellll, we got started way too late, and there was the biggest line
I have ever seen (around about three corners) and we decided that
waiting would be ridiculous and to try the next day. So we headed to
St. Peters (by the way, sorry about the lack of apostrophes, but I cant
find them) which is just down the street, thinking that we might be in
time for 10:30 mass (it was about 10:10 or so). We met with another of
the longest lines we had ever seen and stuck this one out, with the
result that by the time we made it into the church, we were
tremendously sweaty and tired. St Peters was worth it (its so funny,
these lines are absurd, but the end is completely worth it). It was
huge (To quote the guidebook, "calling it vast is like calling God
smart") and beautiful, and we wandered about with the guidebook and saw
(and became slightly obsessed with) the Baldacino (Berninis huge canopy
over St Peters grave - well, huge is a bit of an understatement) and
his altar and Michaelangelos dome and it was gigantic and about the
time of the mass (we didnt exactly make it) you couldnt even get close
to the front where it was roped off for the mass because there were so
many people. Side note: Dr. Bushey, your wonderful class has made this
trip WAY cool and I thank you enormously. Right about now, its a
constant, oh there it is!! and I get very geeked out. To continue: we
ended up in a side Chapel of the Sacrament (about the size of a regular
small church) and sat in a mass in Italian - I could follow only a
little bit because of singing parts of the mass in Latin. It was very
cool to tell people, "pace" during the sharing of the peace.
After the service, the place had cleared out (relatively at least) and
my mom suggested that it would be best to climb the dome right away
instead of waiting (I naturally wanted to). I began the climb (4 euros
without the elevator, worth every penny) which first took me in a broad
circular stairway with very shallow steps around the elevator. Next,
slightly more normal sized steps took me to the roof (which was a
definite WOW) of St Peters and I could see the backs of the statues at
the front of the basilica (interestingly enough, with electrically
charged wire running on and around them. Security is tighter than I
supposed!). Pictures were taken (this is a normal thing, by the way. I
have a new digital! and am afraid I am notoriously abusing the system
of taking a few pictures until it turns out right. This is with the
result that even with deleting the "bad" ones yesterday my 512 MB card
was out of memory with some 700 pictures. Which, I felt was absurd so
spent time in line today, more on that later, deleting the
duplicate-ish and less than amazing ones. I mean, how many landscapes
and pictures of the same castle does one need?). There was another
"normal" circular staircase in here somewhere, too...Next, the ascent
to the top of the dome began...first, with zig zag stairways, straight,
but with each one a staircase width further in because of the curve.
Then, when everyone thought they had reached the top, there was the
smallest staircase I have ever seen, with very narrow steps spiraling
up with a rope to hold onto in the middle for balance because the steps
are joined to the outside supports and not an inner. Fortunately there
are separate up and down stairs! We burst forth from the claustrophobia
into a huge panorama of Rome - no one is allowed to build higher than
St. Peters, so you can see everything from up there. I took a panorama
pictures then happily decided to wander over to the left side of the
walkway around, where theres a view down into St Peteres
square...amazing. It looks incredibly small from the top, and the
people literally like ants. I tried to make the height with my fingers
and they were too small to do even that. Climbing back down was
enclosed, until I unexpectedly (well, with the glory of the view, I had
forgotten about this part) walked around the walkway of the top of the
dome inside the church. Glorious, and you could hear echoes of the
singing for mass underneath. All the things I had thought were
paintings at the top of the dome were actually mosaics, which is just
crazy.
Climbing the dome was about 332 steps besides the elevator steps (which
is, I heard, about 500) and was one of the best and most awesome things
I have ever done. Should you go to Rome, this should be one of the
first things you do. Although it is very hot...I would try the morning
instead of noon
On the way back out I passed a long line waiting to see the tomb of
John Paul II. I met my mom back at our convent room, and we headed back
out. We wound up in the area of the Colloseum and visited St. Peter in
Chains church with Michaelangelos Moses (wonderful), barely making it
before a scheduled wedding in the church (which brings up the question,
who exactly do you have to be or how much do you have to pay to be
married in the church that has both Moses and Peters Chains??). After
wandering about to try and find a restaurant in our book, we found it
...Scene: hot and tired travellers wander around the corner and are
moderately stunned by a "you found us! ah, Ricky Steves!" (the
guidebook author) and then are brought out free drinks and free snacks
etc. We are supposed to send her a postcard from the states - they were
insanely nice and we bought insanely to much food (but ate it all).
During dinner, a German lady caught a guy on the street who had tried
to steal her camera (weve had no problems, thank the Lord). After
dinner, we wandered around the outside of the Colloseum and after a
misadventure with stupid bus lines that apparantly dont exist, strolled
by the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. I definitely tossed in my
coin over my shoulder, as did Mom.
This morning we got going a little later than we should have and waited
in the Vatican Museum line forever (my mom was sweet and held the place
while I went back to the vendor market across the street that we had
seen the first night in Rome). The museum was wonderful, amazing, and
mind blowing. Michaelangelos figures were so real they looked as though
they would fall right off the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We spent
the afternoon there and then ate in a little pizza place, then caught
the right bus to the Forum area, where we barely made it in before the
last entry and walked about for about an hour. How wild to see the
place where Julius Caesars body was burned, and where Cicero spoke, and
where emperors lived...
Tonight were planning on taking another stroll by the Campo del
Fiori...am being encouraged to make this short....lets see, Rome also
has the craziest motorcycle drivers ever...its an adventure to cross
the street...great success in souvenir shopping today too! Am now
carting a ridiculously large bag from the Vatican store across the
Forum and Rome.
Reading? something I finished earlier on the trip, actually - a story about Lucy's stay in Florence (no joke, a lovely book).
There, I found the apostrophe key.
Off to Florence tomorrow
Best love,
Hannah
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| Dear everyone,
I do exist! Sorry not to have posted for so horribly long, but weve
been on the move and I havent gotten a chance to. This is likely to be
short as well, as Im sitting in a (very hot) Italian internet cafe with
my Mom behind me saying about how dark its getting etc etc
We arrived in Rome !! !! this morning on the overnight train...nice
people in our compartment - a student from Mississippi who is at a
Goethe Institue in Munich, and a German guy whose second job is to
drive BMWs that Americans have bought in Germany (I guess about 20 000
dollars cheaper than in the US, for all those of you who have ever
wanted to get one) from Rome (after the purchasers European vacation in
their new car) back to Germany so that the car can be shipped
back to the states.
As we got nearer and nearer to Rome, I felt like our vacation was
finally starting...it was the great butterfly excited feeling. I
decided that having my first big overseas trip to Turkey has
irrevocably made my idea of a good vacation. It seems that the less
like America a place is, the more I like it as a prospective vacation
spot. Italy (so far) is much less normal than Germany (maybe its
because neither my Mom nor I speak Italian) and therefore it seems more
vacation-ish. Am I crazy? ( Although, perhaps in contradiction to this
theory, I next want to travel to London. But then to India or
something, who knows )
After finding bus tickets and reserving our train to Florence, we
successfully navigated across Rome on the Number 40 bus (I was glad to
read that it was 1)faster 2) fewer tourists and 3) therefore fewer
pickpockets, not that we have any pockets to pick) to St. Peters
square, where, after a bit of an adventure with climbing up the wrong
set of stairs and shouting phrases from our Italian phrase book at the
empty open windows, finally found our convent (yep) at the next door. I
swear, the number was correct on the stairs. the convent is nice, and
clean, and the sisters are very nice...it is sans air conditioning,
though. We took a siesta right away after showers as it is very very
hot here and it was a long and hot bus ride carrying our backpacks.
Then we decided to head about...we explored the Pantheon area (its
amazing, and huge!!! and escaped being turned into a quarry because it
was already turned into a church), and several churches in the area,
including Gesuand St. Ignazia, a lovely Baroque church with a fake
dome.
Tomorrow were visiting St Peters and on Tues. the Forum. I love Rome
already and am really tempted to get my hair cut like Audrey Hepburn in
Roman Holiday. Or, not exactly like hers, but the idea anyway...
The guy is closing up his shop, so I ill have to run...
reading? My Project Gutenburg Wodehouse that I printed off before I
came. Laugh out loud funny, as always, although I think the poor people
on the train thought I was fairly insane.
love,
Hannah
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| Gruss Gott!
This is an uber-quick post...
Since we last ...um...talked (??) my mom and I have visited...
Wittenburg (yes, Luther Stadt), Eisenach (yes, Bach's birthplace), Leipzig (yes, Bach's major job!), Salzburg (yes, Mozart's birthplace etc. and Sound of Music land) and Munich.
While I hope to do some good catch-up work in a few days, I'm limited on time at the moment and will briefly recount today, which included the intellectual and philosophical activities of shopping and beer. Really. Did you know that monks were the first to figure out the beer thing? And, also, that I haven't figured it out? Munich is tremendously famous for its beer (Hofbrau Haus etc.) and this was my first official glass. Or, half liter. Or, a little less than half liter, the way my mom and I almost made it. No bottoms up, I'm afraid. At least it was waaay better than the Turkish beer I tasted.
Anyway, so we ate at the Viktualien Platz (or the vittles market, as it is rather loosely translated), on which lovely shady trees cover oodles of beer drinking brat munching folks. I am branching out (no pun, really??) once again in my food consumption, as three of the four dinner items were things I formerly despised (sauerkraut, mustard, and beer). Brats are pretty darn tasty though. But you weren't really that interested in my food consumption...
While we're on the topic of food...(heh heh, you thought I was done!) it has become my personal mission to try every kind of Ritter Sport chocolate. This greatly appeals to me (as I am of the Unitarian chocolate philosophy) and would not to Regina (who is as Orthodox as they come), as it comes in a gazillion flavors (I talked about this last time, didn't I?) and my favorite thus far is Amarettini, an homage to Italian culture (or some such thing. it's just sosoo tasty) - chocolate in the handy quadrant with little amaretto cookies. I just picked up and Erdnuss (peanut) and cornflake square, and also a chocolate creme square, which I think I'm going to like alot.
OK - Munich. We also shopped, including getting wrapped up in a silk shop (sorry) and leaving with more stuff than money. Lovely items were procured with the help of a very sweet saleslady who must have been a inadvertant color me beautiful natural, including one rather diva-ish looking top, Cate. We also stopped in what must have been the German equivalent of Neiman Marcus, not realizing it was going to be rather out of our price range, and spent a lot of time drooling over 1000 Euro and up dirndls (traditional costumes gone wild in this store) and gorgeous 500 - 900 Euro suede pants and jackets. I felt moderately underdressed. Oh well, no one offered to help us - I guess they thought so too.
We stopped in a lovely church as well (Peterskirche) where I saw the most scary relic. A reclining skeleton (with painted in eyeballs, which is what I think made it so scary) resided in one of the side graves, on display for all. I'm not sure I would like going to church, sitting in the back, and feeling like a skeleton was watching me...but the church was lovely.
Never mind about the uber-quick part now. Tomorrow we're off to Mathausen concentration camp, Melk, and thence to Vienna, where I will post again (hopefully with adventures of gate-crashing the Vienna Opera!).
Thank you for your posts and e-mails - I once again feel very loved even though I'm far away from you all.
Tschuss!
Love, Hannah | | |
| Dear friends,
Although you'd never know it from reading my blog, I did make it all the way back from Istanbul last June... Apparantly the only rule on this blog is that I cannot write from the States. Well, at least not yet. My life should presumably be exciting when I'm not a gazillion miles away over the bounding main, too. Anyway, enough of that for now.
I bring you (well, write you) greetings from Leipzig. My mother and I are on a three and a half week whirlwind tour by train of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and we start in Germany. Tomorrow we're heading to Austria, but more of that later. {tangential comment one: I'm working on getting back into the blog thing, so be patient.} After happily remembering the trick about changing the keyboard to English, not German, I'm typing y's and not z's - they're switched on a German keyboard with the addition of these guys: öäü and wow, I can't even figure out how to make the Euro marker.
We flew into Berlin on Wednesday morning, and charged through the city to try and forget jet lag. I had gotten about 3 ish hours of sleep on the flight and was doing mostly OK - my mom was a real trooper as she hadn't had any sleep. I commended her and said that I'd have been passed out somewhere by 10 am if I hadn't slept. Which is true. We first attempted to find a hotel that a nice Polish lady that my mom befriended on the plane had told us about. This was a decided failure, as we were turned around and weren't exactly sure which was was which. As long as I know where north is, I'm fine (shout out to Megan, Iste, and Bill Bryson there). I figured out where was where finally, but we still didn't know where the hotel is. It was during this episode that I learned my first lesson.
Lesson number 1: My mother truly has no sense of direction, which I am discovering is very trying on both of our nerves. I decline to do a Mrs. Bennet imitation ("Oh, my poooor nerves"), but it's very frustrating. My mom would I think be perfectly happy to navigate a city by asking people every half block where the thing is she wanted to find. I think that this is inefficient when you can read the street sign half a block up and find it on a map. Anyway, this is partially my fault - I should have recognized the lack of direction problem literally years ago. So I really have no one to blame but my unobservant self. We have decided - I navigate, she translates. (Which is also a problem! when she gets directions in German.....aaaaa....)
OK. soo...yes, we were in Berlin, trying to find a hotel. We finally decided, in my mom's immortal words, to "hang it" and to try one of the little Zimmers (rooms) in the Rick Steves travel books. Which are great and funny, by the way - check one out of the library if you feel led. We found it (trumpets resound) and a lovely 80-year old lady ran it. HUGE room, and an interesting decor - nothing actually matches, but everything goes together. Kind of like our family room - I felt at home. We got bus directions out of the Rick Steves book, and proceded to take the bus tour across the city and along Unter den Linden, along a historic street of linden trees. We saw the outsides of the Reichstag and the Berlin Cathedral (it was closed and I didn't get to climb to the top - next time) and the Brandenburg gate. It is really hard to imagine that the entire city was tremendously bombed less than 100 years ago - it's beautiful. We also (drumroll) visited the Pergamon museum, where we saw the Pergamon Altar (shout out to Dr. Bushey!), beautiful and huge ruins of ancient Greek friezes. About a third of the altar was reconstructed, and they'd have to build another gigantic museum to even attempt to hold a life size. So now I've seen Pergamon and the altar! I guess the Sultan told the German excavators that they could have the "big rocks" that they wanted to take home, since there were lots of rocks around. mmm hmm...
During our second day in Berlin, after we ate our yummy breakfast (more later) we visited KaDeWe (a huge department store with a gigantic food store on the 6th floor - the cheese smelled reallllllly strong, woah), had an unfortunate episode getting on the wrong bus line and missing the Berlin Philharmonic tour, visited an out of doors exhibit on the Topography of Terror (the bombed out basements of the Third Reich government buildings turned into an exhibit - with a really good English audio guide- the question I kept wanting to know was How did the whole thing snowball and no-one try to resist until it was basically too late to prevent disasters?), and visited the Museum of the Wall by the former Checkpoint Charlie. I am afraid I knew (and probably still know) an unforgivably small amount about modern European politics. This, however, will change when I get back home. One of the reasons, I think, that travel is so interesting is that you always find tons and tons of things that you know nothing about. And then of course you want to find out and are interested in these things.
Like German food, for example (ok, maybe not the best example, but work with me here!). My absolute FAVORITE thing since we've been here is spargel, yummy delicious white asparagus that is in season. It sounds weird (yes, Megan and Margee, I'm at it again) but is really really tasty. In cream soup, for example. Or on toast with ham and cheese in a little cafe. Or with new potatoes in hollandaise. Pizza Hut has a Spargel Lover's pizza here (!) that I want to try, too. My other favorites - Quark (a kind of yogurty substance that is a little more cream cheesey? it's so yummy) and Ritter Sport chocolates. You can get these at import stores and schmancy grocery stores, but I've never seen White Chocolate with Blood Orange chocolate yogurt before. And, boy is it delicious.
Ok, we were in Berlin - that night (Th.) we determined to try for Berlin Philharmonic tickets, even though they were ausverkauft (sold out). I waited in line for rush tickets (we were just too far back in line for these) and met a nice German student and French lady, and my Mom stood outside trying to look pitiful with a sign that said "American lady wants to buy 2 tickets" in German" - she was totally successful and we got in. Sir Simon Rattle conducted, Mitsuko Uchida played Ravel's Piano concerto in G (I wished you were there, Robert and Susan!) and the program also included Schubert's no. 8. Afterwards I pouted (cf. Megan Ramey) and my Mom let me stay and wait with some German music students for Simon Rattle's autograph, which he was very indulgent and gave to us !!!! It was a very memorably geeky moment
I have to run off - we've also been in Wittenburg, Eisenach, and Leipzig, as I mentioned before - will say more later - will write those who have sent me such lovely e-mails back - love you all and bye for now,
Love, Hannah | | |
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