The Great Escape

Hey all!

Back in Tully Cross, and let me just say that it’s great to be back home. We only have seven weeks left here. That’s so crazy and slightly depressing at the same time. But before I get all sentimental, let me tell you about the rest of my tour of Europe.

Tuesday evening we spent the night in the Barcelona Airport, which I can say without a doubt was the most miserable experience of my life. I caught a cold while not being able to sleep which made our plane ride horrible. We took off on time and landed in Rome early in the morning and we figured out our way to the hostel which took us almost two hours to get to by bus and Metro. We finally got there and our room wasn’t ready yet, so we got the lay of the land and then came back and crashed for four to five hours easily. We woke up feeling somewhat rested and made plans to meet up with some of the other AQ students who had been in Rome since the start of Spring Break. They took us out to a restruarnt they had been to near the Vatican and we got the biggest calzones I’d ever seen. After that we got delicious gelato; so much better in Italy than in Spain. Once we’d stuffed ourselves full of carbs and sugar and felt like true Italians, we parted ways and crashed at our hostel as we entered a food coma.

The next day we met up with a Seminarian that Brittany’s uncle was able to hook us up with. He met us in St. Peter’s Square which was definitely cool to check out. Kyle gave us some information on the city and some tips on getting around and staying safe, etc. He then invited us to the Seminary for a Vigil Mass on Saturday which we agreed to. After that we took the information he gave us and planned the rest of the week in our hostel, grabbed dinner down the road, got gelato and turned in for the evening.

St. Peter's Basilica from down the road.

We woke up in the morning planning to conquer a good portion of Rome. We started off at the Spanish Steps. It was weird because we were trying to find the Steps on the map and we turned the corner and there they were. It was slightly amusing. After checking out the steps and the church at the top of the Steps, we navigated our way toward the Trevi Fountain. I threw in a 1 Euro piece, so my wish had better come true; although there was someone fishing the coins out of the fountain. I hope he didn’t get mine… Anyway, after making our wishes we went toward the Pantheon. It was nice to put my Humanities knowledge to work. It was raining that day so the rain was pouring through the dome hole which was cool. After the Pantheon we also conquered the National Museum of Rome. Lot’s of sculptures in there and not much else. It was cool to look at, but I’m an art kind of guy. After all of that, we were extremely exhausted so we headed back to the hostel for a break. For dinner, we went out with Maggie and Jacquline who were still in Rome to a resturant that Alexa had recommended to me. The restuarnt had about 100 different types of pasta. It was so delicious and right near the Trevi, so we got to see that lit up at night and get some gelato too. Yum.

Saturday was our night out with the Seminarians. We started off by meeting Kyle at the college, which was somewhat difficult to find. Kyle gave us a brief tour of the Seminary and we got to go up to the roof and get some really cool pictures of the city. It was probably one of the best views of the entire city. After that we attended a vigil mass with some of the guys from the college and then four of them took us out to dinner near the college and treated us to a full Italian meal. We tried digestives at the restaurant for the first time, which was basically alcohol. I got Sambuca to represent the Abid family. It was strong and disgusting. Never again. After dinner the guys also treated us to gelato. We had an awesome night with them, not to mention a FREE night. We were all satisfied and slept easy that night.

Our very generous Seminarian friends after our night out on Saturday.

The next morning, Allen, one of the guys from the night before, sent us a tentative schedule of what we should try to hit up for the rest of our time in Rome. We had a pretty general idea of what we wanted to do already, but it was nice to actually have it down and planned out. We went to Vatican City and saw the Pope speak in the morning as he always does on Sundays. After that we went ventured to two of the four Basilicas that kind of surround Rome. We went to St. John Outside the Walls and St Mary Major. We had already seen St. John Lateran because it was right down the road from our hostel, so all that was left was St. Peter’s. St. John Outside the Walls was my favorite Basilica. I was so massive but not hugely overwhelming like some of the other Basilicas that we had seen. That evening we tried to meet up with some of the AQ students who were studying abroad in the Rome Program, but had poor directions and couldn’t make it out there, so we settled for pizza and gelato, of course.

Monday we finally made it to the Colloseum which was probably the highlight of my Rome experience. I was so utterly impressed to be standing inside of the structure that it hit me how lucky I was to be in Rome and experiencing everything that I was taking in. After we toured the Colosseum, we went across the street to the Roman Forum and the Palentine. There were some oranges in the Forum that we picked, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. They were disgusting. Serves us right I suppose.

I'm a fool.

After the Forum we had lunch back at the Seminary and then received a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica from one of the Seminarians, completing our tour of the four Basilicas. St. Peter’s was extremely impressive. The Dome stands higher than the Statue of Liberty if that puts it into perspective for you. We also got to go underneath the Basilica and see Pope John Paul II tomb, which was a somewhat moving experience. They’ll be moving his body up to the actually Basilica soon as he’s being Beatified on either May 1 or 2. After the tour we were worn out, so we spent the evening in our hostel figuring our Paris and catching up on American TV shows.

Tuesday was our final full day in Rome. We woke up early and made it back out to Vatican City to tour the Dome of St. Peter’s, a separate part than the Basilica. The Dome was, as I said, higher than the Statue of Liberty. It was a narrow path to get up to the top, so I began to get a little claustrophobic. There was literally one point where you had to bend sideways to make it through the stairs up. That freaked me out. But the views at the top were definitely worth the exhausting trip. After that we made our INTO Vatican City. We got to tour the museums and check out a lot of really cool artwork. We even found some of the pieces that we studied from Humanities. I felt cool actually knowing what the different pieces of art were. The high point of the museums had to have been the Sistine Chapel. The artwork in there was really impressive. You’re not supposed to take pictures in there (they typically take your camera away) but I managed to sneak one picture in of the wall. SCORE! The rest of the day was spent packing since we had to check out of the hostel early the next morning. We did have one last night on the town for a true Italian meal topped off with gelato and wine. Delicious.

The art in the Sistine Chapel. You're not supposed to take pictures because it ruins the art, but I wasn't using a flash so it didn't harm it, so it's all good. It was really crowded and loud in there, but it was still cool to see.

The next morning we were up at 5:00 to make it to Ash Wednesday Mass with the Seminarians on time. The morning was rough, and cold, but attending mass and seeing the guys one last time was worth it. They then gave us tickets to the Audience with the Pope at St. Peter’s. We ended up being about 50 feet away from the Pope. My camera was dead, but I got a few pictures on my iTouch before it filled up. The Pope spoke in about eight different languages, English of course being one of them. The entire event was cool; more or less an informal celebration than anything else. After the Audience with the Pope we headed toward the airport to depart Rome for Paris.

Upon arrival in Paris we were once again overwhelmed with a culture shock. We had to take over an hour bus ride to actually get into Paris and from there, figure out the overly complicated Metro System. There were 14 different Subway Lines that went throughout the city; much different than any other city I’ve tried to navigate. We got on the line we needed, only to have it shut down a few stops later. We transferred a few times and finally got off at the right stop and found our hostel. After a long and extremely tiring day, I was happy to find my bed.

We woke up in the morning well rested, but longing for our cottages back in Tully Cross. We finally had a hostel that served breakfast, which was extremely nice to have. After breakfast, we made plans to meet up with the other guys who were in Paris as well. Once we met up with them, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower and took some pictures and hung around for a little bit. After we got some crepes (DELICIOUS) the girls did some shopping and I went off with the guys who showed me around to some places they had already found. We went to some random touristy shops and then found Notre Dame. I was really impressed with the Cathedral. It was much different than anything we saw in Rome. I think I liked Notre Dame better than the Basilicas in Rome in all honesty. After Notre Dame, we met up with the girls again, grabbed dinner, and then we parted ways for our hostel and had a relaxing evening.

Friday was our last day in Paris, so we got up early and hit up the Lourve, the world’s largest art Museum. I loved it. The best part was the Italian and Spanish art. I could easily have spent a week in there looking at everything but we settled for the better part of the morning/day. And we got in for free, which is always a plus. After the art tour we went back to Notre Dame for a little while and then did some window shopping. We finally made our way to the Eiffel Tower again where we simply sat there for an hour or so before calling it a night and heading back to pack our things. The next morning we were up at 4:30 a.m. to catch our bus to the airport and head back to IRELAND.

We tried to hang around until the Tower lit up at night, but some of us got tired so we went back before it got dark.

As much as I enjoyed touring Europe, it has been very nice to be back in Tully Cross. The week has been fairly easy so far, just getting back into the swing of things. Today is of course St. Patty’s Day and we are about to head to the parade in Clifden before starting our Irish festivities. It’ll be a great time, I’m sure.

That's all I've got for now. Next week we take an overnight trip to Bunratty and then we have our extended weekend, which is still up in the air. I have a week to figure it out. Hah. Until then...

Peace. Love. Rome. Paris.

Rob