Sooo something strange happened to me today... which Elise feels is something that merits a blog entry :) ... and then i was like oh crap I hadnt updated my blog in a while so i quickly did an entry recapping parts of my trip to italy. I still havent blogged about my time in florence... hopefully i do that soon.
ANYWAYS ive been back in Stirling for a few days ... and today I went to stirling castle again just for the heck of it :) Ive been there a dozen times...
anyways on my way back to campus, iwas waiting at the bus stop and some girl said my eyes were cool... which was nice of her tosay... but then SHE asked me if I was a vampire... and it started to get weird.
She started talking to this poor guy waiting at the bus about where he was from and he was from China, then she got into this inappropriate convo with him about the law in china where people are only allowed one child or else they have to pay a tax like 12000 dollars... and shes started being like if I had to pay a tax for one of my bairns i would just kill it ... then she started talkin about what if someone had twins... did people have to decide which twin to give up if they couldnt afford two... it was really graphic.
ANyways... I got onto the bus and she kept starring at me... it was creepyyyyyyyyy... some people are strange... stranger than I AM! DUN DUN DUN
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Italy
Over October Break I decided to hop on a plane to Italy for the week :) <3 I decided to travel alone because the last time I was in Italy it was a grade 12 trip, which was amazing... but the people I traveled with never wanted to go to museums/or archaeology sites and mainly just wanted to shop so I refused to endure that again... :) SO this time I got to do everything I wanted, and it was sooo relaxing :)
I landed in Ciampino Airport in Rome around 930 pm Saturday oct 29. I quickly came to realize that a lot of people in Italy don't speak English... so resorted to using a lot sign language, and choosing words I thought might have stemmed from latin ahaha It didnt really work, but a nice gentleman guided me for 15 min to my very obscure bus stop which would lead me to my hostel :) IT was very nice of him because he ran around more than I did talking to bus drivers trying to figure out where my stop was. What was weird though was his friend who must have been 50 years old, he told me he was a mistro teacher (I assume music teacher) and he said I was beautiful and gave me his phone number. THat was my first strange experience in Rome. I would quickly realize that Italian men are 1000X more Romantic """ or pervy """ than the French... ahahah.
Anyways I made it to my hostel alive, it is located just out outside of Rome city centre, in a quiet area around 11:30pm.
I met a lot of nice people in that hostel :) Who gave me a lot of good advice on how to get to Pompeii cause they all seemed to have made night trips to Napoli area for that specific reason.
The next morning I woke up around 5am... suprisingly awake and ready to go. I walked 20 min to the metro and went straight to the Coloseum :) I was there so early I missed the line :)
It felt so surreal revisiting the places I visted when I was younger. Only this time I wasnt on a fast paced tour so I had time to actually learn something and enjoy the sites. Apparently the day before I arrived in Rome the Coloseum had been closed because it flooded! But when i got there I saw no evidence of floodin and the weather was amazing.
STRANGE experience #2:
After the Coloseum I headed to the Forum, and passed the Constantine Arch and then something really strange happened. A tour group of people from Hong Kong pulled me aside and starting taking photos with me with the constantine arch in the background. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life! I felt famous, they literally stood in line and one after the other and took pics with me! I gave one of the ladies my camera to proove that this happened! It was actually really embarrassing though cause as I looked around I noticed Italians were looking, and some were laughing... IT's like they thought I was one of those gladiator actors that stand outside the coloseum to take photos with tourists. Yea it was embarrassing, THANK GOD I managed to escape... but then two of the chinese guys followed me and gave me their buisness card and asked for my phone number... luckily I dont have a phone number in the UK and I also already had my ticket for the forum so i was able to skip the line and escape these guys FOR EVER. The rest of the day though i was checking behind me all the time to ensure they were NOT there... stalking me.
THE FORUM
was amazing! Peacefull, compared the bustling crowds beyond the gated ruins. The weather was sooooo incredibly warm :) I LOVED IT THERE. A major theme happening in the Forum and the Coloseum is exhibitions on the notorious emperor Nero. This is because there is a current archaeology excavation on Nero's Golden House/ Palace, occuring near one of the forum exits. Nero was emperor between 54-68 AD, and was known for his cruelty: the murder of his sister and mother and blamed for burning down Rome in 64AD (the exhibitions sort of de-myth this accustation, arguing that he had nothing to do with the fire). Anyways he ended up building a blinging palace called the golden house or Domus Aurea and an incredible artificial lake... which stood mainly where the Coloseum is today. The Domus Aurea caused Nero to be extremly unpopular with the people... probs because it was built over what used to be a residential area before the fire of 64AD. Faced which rebellion Nero ended up committing suicide and the next Flavian emperors opened the palace to the public and built the coloseum over Nero's artifical lake.
PRETTY AMAZING history dun dun dun.
I am so excited for next semester at UVIC, because I am going to be taking four courses on ancient Rome and Greece :) one of the courses focuses specifically on the old city of Rome <3 I am also taking an Italian language course :) which I recently enrolled while I was on this trip <3
Returning to my account of my first day back in Rome :) I spent most of the day in the Forum wandering around exploring the palatine hill. I also took a short train ride that day to the circus maximus... where people walk their dogs and run today. It used to be where chariot races with quadrigaes like red VS BLUE! and gladitorial combats took place beginning in the 6thCentury. I believe it was surrounded with marble seating like the coloseum.... and was covered as well.
After that I believe I headed home. The next day I explored around the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, did some shopping, and visited all the churches I ran into along the way.
I went into the Panthenon and just sat and relaxed.
It was an amazing day.
The next day I got up really early and went to the Vatican. Stood in a huge line and once I got in, I entered like a circuit, I felt like a cow going into the slaughter house, being pushed along by the sea of people. It was sooo crowded... everyone was there just to see the sistine chapel cause no one really looked around at anythign else... I think they probs did what i did. Once they saw the sistine chapal at the end of the circuit they went back and did the circuit again. Yes... i did two rounds around the vaticin museum :) ahahhah The second time around it was less crowded... and I was able to actually focus on the other artifacts in the museum.
The rest of the day I wandered around the city again going to more churches...
STRANGE experience 3:
Soooo... this whole time I have been in Rome... I have had alot of occurences where men ask me for my phone number... or called me Bella... or say ciao bella? and then I just keep walking past them cause it's sort of inappropriate and creepy the way they do it.
ANyways after going to the Vatican i was very exhausted so i decided to just relax in one of the amazing churches in Rome. I sat in one of the seat and closed my eyes and wa sjust minding my own buisness when a girl came up to me... and told me to move over... when all the other seats were practically empty. Then she started talking to me... and asking me if i was catholic adn where i was from and then she tried to tell me about the art of the ceiling ... and then she asked me for my phone number! And i'm like this is creepy...she sounds like one of th e italian men only shes ... a girl. So i told her I dont have a phone number and shes like oh do you have facebook... and i was like ... I guess i cant give her my facebook and just not add her so i did... and im like I g2g and she's like if you are ever in rome message me and ill show you around !!!!!!! I WAS in a church for crying outload it was creepy. So she ended up adding me whilst i was in napoli and her friends list was all girls... who were barely wearing any clothes! IT was disturbing... so that was my 3rd strange experience in Italy.
I really did not ant to leave Rome at all :(
NAPOLI
BUT after three nights in rome I packed my bags and headed off to Napoli.
THE TRAIN kept breaking down, and it was so hot. Luckily I got to sit beside a really good lookin italian... no joke he was like a roman god! He didnt speak English though... this will be an occuring theme throughout my trip :( meeting really goodlookin guys who cant speak english and making me wish to GOD i spoke italian :(
ANYwAYS... I had told the hostel I was staying at id be there around 12pm but... i didnt get there until like 2/3pm. Also... no one I spoke to at the train station knew where i was staying. Then these nice german tourists over heard me say I was staying at the hostel Capri.. and they were like oh we are staying there too follow us! SO i followed them... and they had led me to the ferry which goes to the island of CAPRI and im liek AHHHH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (All this is occuring whilst im carrying a huge backpack in the boiling hot italian weather) so I was fed up, I was not goin to the island of capri! So i stomped towards some taxi drivers and was like please drive me to this hostel! and theyre like NO! and i'm like ahhh :( WHY :( and then theyre like because it is just across the street right there... and then the heavens opened and I ran to the hostel... quickly got my key and showered ... because I really smelled bad.
THENNNN i went on an amazingggggggggggggg bus tour around the coast of Napoli. I believe it was called Le Vedute De Golfo... BEAUTIFUL views of Capri Island... and Vesuvio I actually cried when I saw Vesuvio... because I had no idea i would actually ever make it all the way to Naples on this trip... I had also been reading about Pompeii since grade 7 and it was one of the reasons why I have fallen in love with history and Archaeology <3 SOooo yea... thank god the bus tour wasnt crowded. After that tour I managed to get onto the last tour which was called Luoghi dell' arte ... it was less pleasant... it went through the old city of napoli which is so polluted and falling apart.. i had to hide my face in my scarf. in fear i'd get lung cancer.
BUT I really liked that city. I wish i had more time to go and visit the archaeology museum :(
... also Italian men certainly have some really amusing/ flattering pick up lines thats for sure ...
ANYWAYS I headed back to my hostel... attempted to work on my literature essay due at the end of the week... and then I went and had dinner down the road :) It was amazing.
OOo then I met some really nice people who were studying Geology in Napoli they were super awesome.
POMPEII
THE NEXT day it was pouring rain... the sun disapeared and I decided it was a good time to head to Pompeii.
I missed my stop by an hour cause I couldnt see past the rain!!!!!!! :( I had to talk to the bus drive using sign language again and being like RuinS? Pompeii archaeology site? Pompeii ruins? and then hes like "OHHHhhhh ruins! ci... " and then he's like pointing at the ruin and probably sayng to me in italian... the site is probably closed or flooded are you sure you want to go in this weather... I can just assume that is what he was saying...
ANYWAYS I finally reached my destination and then the ticket office lady forwarned me that i wasnt allowed to refund my ticket if i did not like the weather conditions... but I didnt care.
Visiting pompeii ending up being the highlight of my trip despite the weather... maybe its cause i'm used tothe rain living in Scotland?
BUT there were alot of covered places like the villas and baths in pompeii and 2000 year old brothel... which was dry from the rain :)
INTERESTING FACT: So there is a section in pompeii like the red light district and on the ground as you enter that part of the city are penis symbols... pointing towards the brothel. NO JOKE... it forwarns people where the brothel is...and then theres also a fountain with a lady who has a penis in her mouth. Then in the brothel there are still mosaics of ... people having sex. In pompeii a lot of signs are expressed through images because a lot of the people were foriegners speaking different languages... i just couldnt believe how graphic these images can be!
I landed in Ciampino Airport in Rome around 930 pm Saturday oct 29. I quickly came to realize that a lot of people in Italy don't speak English... so resorted to using a lot sign language, and choosing words I thought might have stemmed from latin ahaha It didnt really work, but a nice gentleman guided me for 15 min to my very obscure bus stop which would lead me to my hostel :) IT was very nice of him because he ran around more than I did talking to bus drivers trying to figure out where my stop was. What was weird though was his friend who must have been 50 years old, he told me he was a mistro teacher (I assume music teacher) and he said I was beautiful and gave me his phone number. THat was my first strange experience in Rome. I would quickly realize that Italian men are 1000X more Romantic """ or pervy """ than the French... ahahah.
Anyways I made it to my hostel alive, it is located just out outside of Rome city centre, in a quiet area around 11:30pm.
I met a lot of nice people in that hostel :) Who gave me a lot of good advice on how to get to Pompeii cause they all seemed to have made night trips to Napoli area for that specific reason.
The next morning I woke up around 5am... suprisingly awake and ready to go. I walked 20 min to the metro and went straight to the Coloseum :) I was there so early I missed the line :)
It felt so surreal revisiting the places I visted when I was younger. Only this time I wasnt on a fast paced tour so I had time to actually learn something and enjoy the sites. Apparently the day before I arrived in Rome the Coloseum had been closed because it flooded! But when i got there I saw no evidence of floodin and the weather was amazing.
STRANGE experience #2:
After the Coloseum I headed to the Forum, and passed the Constantine Arch and then something really strange happened. A tour group of people from Hong Kong pulled me aside and starting taking photos with me with the constantine arch in the background. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life! I felt famous, they literally stood in line and one after the other and took pics with me! I gave one of the ladies my camera to proove that this happened! It was actually really embarrassing though cause as I looked around I noticed Italians were looking, and some were laughing... IT's like they thought I was one of those gladiator actors that stand outside the coloseum to take photos with tourists. Yea it was embarrassing, THANK GOD I managed to escape... but then two of the chinese guys followed me and gave me their buisness card and asked for my phone number... luckily I dont have a phone number in the UK and I also already had my ticket for the forum so i was able to skip the line and escape these guys FOR EVER. The rest of the day though i was checking behind me all the time to ensure they were NOT there... stalking me.
THE FORUM
was amazing! Peacefull, compared the bustling crowds beyond the gated ruins. The weather was sooooo incredibly warm :) I LOVED IT THERE. A major theme happening in the Forum and the Coloseum is exhibitions on the notorious emperor Nero. This is because there is a current archaeology excavation on Nero's Golden House/ Palace, occuring near one of the forum exits. Nero was emperor between 54-68 AD, and was known for his cruelty: the murder of his sister and mother and blamed for burning down Rome in 64AD (the exhibitions sort of de-myth this accustation, arguing that he had nothing to do with the fire). Anyways he ended up building a blinging palace called the golden house or Domus Aurea and an incredible artificial lake... which stood mainly where the Coloseum is today. The Domus Aurea caused Nero to be extremly unpopular with the people... probs because it was built over what used to be a residential area before the fire of 64AD. Faced which rebellion Nero ended up committing suicide and the next Flavian emperors opened the palace to the public and built the coloseum over Nero's artifical lake.
PRETTY AMAZING history dun dun dun.
I am so excited for next semester at UVIC, because I am going to be taking four courses on ancient Rome and Greece :) one of the courses focuses specifically on the old city of Rome <3 I am also taking an Italian language course :) which I recently enrolled while I was on this trip <3
Returning to my account of my first day back in Rome :) I spent most of the day in the Forum wandering around exploring the palatine hill. I also took a short train ride that day to the circus maximus... where people walk their dogs and run today. It used to be where chariot races with quadrigaes like red VS BLUE! and gladitorial combats took place beginning in the 6thCentury. I believe it was surrounded with marble seating like the coloseum.... and was covered as well.
After that I believe I headed home. The next day I explored around the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, did some shopping, and visited all the churches I ran into along the way.
I went into the Panthenon and just sat and relaxed.
It was an amazing day.
The next day I got up really early and went to the Vatican. Stood in a huge line and once I got in, I entered like a circuit, I felt like a cow going into the slaughter house, being pushed along by the sea of people. It was sooo crowded... everyone was there just to see the sistine chapel cause no one really looked around at anythign else... I think they probs did what i did. Once they saw the sistine chapal at the end of the circuit they went back and did the circuit again. Yes... i did two rounds around the vaticin museum :) ahahhah The second time around it was less crowded... and I was able to actually focus on the other artifacts in the museum.
The rest of the day I wandered around the city again going to more churches...
STRANGE experience 3:
Soooo... this whole time I have been in Rome... I have had alot of occurences where men ask me for my phone number... or called me Bella... or say ciao bella? and then I just keep walking past them cause it's sort of inappropriate and creepy the way they do it.
ANyways after going to the Vatican i was very exhausted so i decided to just relax in one of the amazing churches in Rome. I sat in one of the seat and closed my eyes and wa sjust minding my own buisness when a girl came up to me... and told me to move over... when all the other seats were practically empty. Then she started talking to me... and asking me if i was catholic adn where i was from and then she tried to tell me about the art of the ceiling ... and then she asked me for my phone number! And i'm like this is creepy...she sounds like one of th e italian men only shes ... a girl. So i told her I dont have a phone number and shes like oh do you have facebook... and i was like ... I guess i cant give her my facebook and just not add her so i did... and im like I g2g and she's like if you are ever in rome message me and ill show you around !!!!!!! I WAS in a church for crying outload it was creepy. So she ended up adding me whilst i was in napoli and her friends list was all girls... who were barely wearing any clothes! IT was disturbing... so that was my 3rd strange experience in Italy.
I really did not ant to leave Rome at all :(
NAPOLI
BUT after three nights in rome I packed my bags and headed off to Napoli.
THE TRAIN kept breaking down, and it was so hot. Luckily I got to sit beside a really good lookin italian... no joke he was like a roman god! He didnt speak English though... this will be an occuring theme throughout my trip :( meeting really goodlookin guys who cant speak english and making me wish to GOD i spoke italian :(
ANYwAYS... I had told the hostel I was staying at id be there around 12pm but... i didnt get there until like 2/3pm. Also... no one I spoke to at the train station knew where i was staying. Then these nice german tourists over heard me say I was staying at the hostel Capri.. and they were like oh we are staying there too follow us! SO i followed them... and they had led me to the ferry which goes to the island of CAPRI and im liek AHHHH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (All this is occuring whilst im carrying a huge backpack in the boiling hot italian weather) so I was fed up, I was not goin to the island of capri! So i stomped towards some taxi drivers and was like please drive me to this hostel! and theyre like NO! and i'm like ahhh :( WHY :( and then theyre like because it is just across the street right there... and then the heavens opened and I ran to the hostel... quickly got my key and showered ... because I really smelled bad.
THENNNN i went on an amazingggggggggggggg bus tour around the coast of Napoli. I believe it was called Le Vedute De Golfo... BEAUTIFUL views of Capri Island... and Vesuvio I actually cried when I saw Vesuvio... because I had no idea i would actually ever make it all the way to Naples on this trip... I had also been reading about Pompeii since grade 7 and it was one of the reasons why I have fallen in love with history and Archaeology <3 SOooo yea... thank god the bus tour wasnt crowded. After that tour I managed to get onto the last tour which was called Luoghi dell' arte ... it was less pleasant... it went through the old city of napoli which is so polluted and falling apart.. i had to hide my face in my scarf. in fear i'd get lung cancer.
BUT I really liked that city. I wish i had more time to go and visit the archaeology museum :(
... also Italian men certainly have some really amusing/ flattering pick up lines thats for sure ...
ANYWAYS I headed back to my hostel... attempted to work on my literature essay due at the end of the week... and then I went and had dinner down the road :) It was amazing.
OOo then I met some really nice people who were studying Geology in Napoli they were super awesome.
POMPEII
THE NEXT day it was pouring rain... the sun disapeared and I decided it was a good time to head to Pompeii.
I missed my stop by an hour cause I couldnt see past the rain!!!!!!! :( I had to talk to the bus drive using sign language again and being like RuinS? Pompeii archaeology site? Pompeii ruins? and then hes like "OHHHhhhh ruins! ci... " and then he's like pointing at the ruin and probably sayng to me in italian... the site is probably closed or flooded are you sure you want to go in this weather... I can just assume that is what he was saying...
ANYWAYS I finally reached my destination and then the ticket office lady forwarned me that i wasnt allowed to refund my ticket if i did not like the weather conditions... but I didnt care.
Visiting pompeii ending up being the highlight of my trip despite the weather... maybe its cause i'm used tothe rain living in Scotland?
BUT there were alot of covered places like the villas and baths in pompeii and 2000 year old brothel... which was dry from the rain :)
INTERESTING FACT: So there is a section in pompeii like the red light district and on the ground as you enter that part of the city are penis symbols... pointing towards the brothel. NO JOKE... it forwarns people where the brothel is...and then theres also a fountain with a lady who has a penis in her mouth. Then in the brothel there are still mosaics of ... people having sex. In pompeii a lot of signs are expressed through images because a lot of the people were foriegners speaking different languages... i just couldnt believe how graphic these images can be!
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