Day 31 - goodnight Germany, goodnight Italy, goodnight Abby, goodnight moon

6-13

Today was all about Mr. Luca, Abby’s future nephew. It was his baptism today so we got up, Hendrik made us some fauna cooking and we went over to the church about 100 yards away. We sat through a German service and had communion and sang German hymns. At one point Abby and I couldn’t figure out what hymn we should be on so I was trying to discreetly peek at Hendrik’s younger brother’s (Fabi) hymnal just to find that the whole family was trying to do the same thing and failing to find where we were. That made me feel a little better about our blunder. The church we were in is actually the church Abby is getting married in and it was really pretty. I was a little impressed because it is really decorated inside. It really is a very small village where they live which just made me wonder more at the church. It was interesting to think that this is what they put their money towards. It didn’t have anything hugely spectacular about it but it had little cherubs with musical instruments and paintings of the disciples and was just pretty elaborate considering the small town churches I’m used to seeing. I thought it was great how they decided that was where the money should go: into making the church a beautiful place where people could come and have a little slice of wonder to remind them of God. I know our money now goes to sound systems and projectors and such which are functional and really practical but I wonder if maybe they had a better idea back then.

After church we went over to Werner and Traute’s (Hendrik’s parents) and kind of sat around talking for a while. One of Hendrik’s grandfathers knows English pretty well and so he and Abby and I talked. He is the one who insists that everyone speak to Abby in German so that she’ll learn and so he would speak to me in English but when he addressed Abby it was always in German. That made me laugh. He was really sweet though and when I said I knew Spanish he recited this Spanish poem to me. After mingling for a while we went over to the place where Ab’s reception will be and had lunch there in celebration of Luca’s baptism. It was really good food. I sat next to Ana (Thomas’s girlfriend) who knows English really well and we talked during the meal and after for a bit. I feel so bad because they all want to know stuff they just don’t know how to ask it and if they do I am not sure how much they will understand of my answer. I started to get really drowsy—in my defense we were there for almost 3 hours I think—and so when we made the transition from there back to the house I slipped off to the apartment for a nap. I slept for a while and then woke up, checked in online for my flight, and then Ab walked in the door. We started packing up our stuff at that point. She flies to Portugal for work tomorrow at 6am, my flight isn’t until 9 so I will get to sleep in a little longer but not too much. We had time after packing so we heated up a pizza and ate it. Then we got some pretzels out and watched The Family Stone. I like that movie but it stresses me out I just feel so bad for her most of the time. Now Ab and Hendrik are asleep and I am getting this all down and then I will go to bed too.

This is my last night in Europe and I am really going to miss it. I have really enjoyed staying with Ab and Hendrik and getting to know Hendrik a little better. I am sad to leave for a lot of reasons but a lot of it has to do with all of the things I’ve found out about myself on this trip. I kind of like who I am here and the freedom I have to think and realize different things. Waking up with a purpose and an adventure for the day wasn’t too bad either—whether it was scaling a cathedral, climbing ruins, playing on rocks by the sea, or trying to follow a German conversation. I think that, like always, when a happy season is over in our lives there is a little bit of longing for things to stay the same. I know, deep down, that it would not be good for me to live this way but I can really see the draw of it. I’ll get over my moping as soon as I get some sleep I suppose but I really do hope to return to Europe outside of my sister’s wedding for some reason or another. I guess there is just something eye-opening about being away from one’s home culture that shows you the good things but also some of the flaws. I guess it’s so long and thanks for all the memories and ruminations (how’s that for a word of the day?).

Day 30 - Seeing Hamburg

6-12

So we got up late again today which was wonderful and I showered. We had some rolls and then went out to catch the ferry over to the dock area. We got on and got there and got tickets for a boat tour. We went on the boat tour and I got to see the harbor and a lot of big ships. The guide was pretty funny but it was just really cool to learn about how everything works. It was great because you could tell German was his first language by these small things he did wrong. My two favorites were 1) when he saying wery, wessel and vater instead of very, vessel and water and 2) when he said tug boats could go, “forwards, backwards and sidewards too.” I thought about how silly it was that we say sideways instead of sidewards.  There are all these big container ships that come in here and everything. They also have ships come here to get repaired because they can lift ships out of the water no matter how big they are and that makes it way easier for them to fix them. I also learned from Abby that there is a tug boat ballet here and I was very sad that I was not going to get to see that. They are apparently very precise little boats and so they can do that sort of fun thing with them. I believe they have now won the award for Sara’s favorite boat. After the tour we went to this Russian submarine turned to museum and got to go inside and see that. Those things are really cramped in those! It was really cool, though. They gave us a little thing that had all this info about it: how deep they went, how hot it was in there, that kind of thing.

After that we got some lunch and I tried some currywurst. It was delicious. I thought the curry would be a lot stronger, like unbearable strong, but it wasn’t. Then we went down to by the old warehouse district and the new development, I think it’s called Hafen City maybe. That was really cool. They are building this new concert hall but it also has a hotel and apartments in the building and they had this big display thing up telling about all the research that’s gone into making this building amazing. They had it in German and English so I got appreciate it too. After walking down by the old warehouses, which are really pretty old buildings, we went over to the ferry and rode it back. I was definitely struggling to stay awake on that ride. We finally got back to the car and decided to go back home so we could all take naps. Once we got here I couldn’t fall asleep though so Abby and I got started on supper. I made some bruschetta which was a little too garlicy because the recipe I’d looked up told you how much garlic to put in by the number of cloves and all we had was powdered garlic. That mixed with the fact we burned the bread made that a little bit exciting but it tasted alright. After that we had some pasta that Ab made and it was really, really good. We were kind of just hanging out while Hendrik cleaned up—he and Abby have this arrangement where whoever doesn’t cook does the dishes—when Thomas came in. Thomas is Hendrik’s big brother. It was funny because he asked about me and all I heard was, “…schwester?” and so I had to pop out and meet him. He was nice. It is sad because they all know English but they are a little shy about speaking it with a native, which I can sympathize with because I feel the same about Spanish, it just makes it a little awkward since I don’t know any German. He was really nice and I was able to follow a lot of the conversation even though it was in German.

When Thomas headed out we went ahead and went to this fair thing. They have them all the time here and it was sort of like our county fair except with just the rides and carnies and stuff. The crowd seemed a lot shadier and I don’t know why but I was glad that I was there with Ab and Hendrik and not just there. There weren’t really a whole lot of rides either which was not what I was expecting. We got lost on the way there, well we just drove the wrong way but we made it and it was interesting to get to go out and see how theirs are different than ours. Hendrik bought tickets to play this game. In this game you get a bunch of ticket things and you unfold them to see if you get any points. So some have 1 point, 2 points, 5 points or no points and you get like 50 tickets for a set amount. So you count up your points and you can get a prize. For any of you who are from the Grand Island area and know of Skate Island, the prizes were on par with that sort of thing. So if you got a lot of tickets you could get a cool prize and if not, like us, you get a small stuffed McDonald’s-kid’s-meal-type duck. I got really sleepy on the way home from that even though we were only there for about a half hour. When we got back to the apartment we flipped on the TV and Along Came a Spider was playing in German. So I managed to stay up for that. That was about it for today. 

Day 29 - Wedding prep and a bike ride

6-11

I’ve decided that the crummy weather is simply following me now. It was finally nice yesterday in Venice as I was leaving and now it is rainy here. I just want to wear my shorts again! It did clear up by the afternoon which was nice. We got up later because we were up so late making our cupcakes. We went to a bakery for an appointment about Abby’s wedding cake. When we got there the man we were supposed to meet wasn’t in and that was frustrating for Abby because she really was excited to discuss cake stuff. So we went looking for a gift for Luca (Abby’s future sister-in-law’s son) for his baptism party thing. We tried one mall and after wandering around looking for the build-a-bear shop we realized it was in the part of the mall that was under construction. So that was 0 for 2 for the morning.

So after that we went and got some lunch at this Italian place that was really good. Then we found a different build-a-bear and got a bear and a soccer jersey. It was pretty cute. Then we went to see the man who is in charge of the place where the reception is going to be. That was when I met Hendrik’s dad, who speaks very little English, and he, Hendrik and Abby then talked to the man in German for about 20 minutes. It was so funny just to watch. Abby is getting really good at her German but by the end she had abandoned it and would ask Hendrik a question and he and the other guys would talk and then all start saying, “Ya, ya, ya” at the same time at which point Hendrik would turn to Abby and tell her something.  I was amused and had a spezi to drink while I watched. A spezi is a mix of Fanta and coke. It was pretty good actually.

So then we came back to their apartment and saw that Nadine (Hendrik’s sister, the one with the baby) was over at his parent’s house which is just across the way so we went over to see Nadine and Jan and their baby, Luca. He was super cute and this was when I met them and Hendrik’s mother. She was really nice. I felt so bad because I don’t know like any German and they all try so hard to talk to me in English. I just feel like I should make more of an effort. Maybe I’ll try and learn some before the wedding…in August. We’ll see how that goes. We then came back to the apartment and decided a bike ride sounded good. So Hendrik went and brought his mom’s bike back so that I could ride that and we went out. We rode out to this village nearby called Kranz from which you could see Blankenese (a rich-ish/nice neighborhood across the river from where we were that has lots of white houses). It was actually really nice out by then so it was really fun to sit outside for a bit. We rode past some orchards and fields with raspberries and cranberries. Those were so pretty. I like the houses here a lot. I have decided my future house will be made of brick. It is really coming along, this house in my head.

We got back and they decided we would have schnitzel for supper. So Hendrik made us some schnitzel and we had potatoes and they broke out some white wine afterwards. I had a glass and it was actually probably the best that I’d had so far. I couldn’t decide if that was because it was higher quality or because I am developing a taste for white wine. Most likely a mix of both I would imagine. Anyway, we all sat around and talked after that and I sorted through some more pictures—there are just a lot of those things, I am starting to wish they would just sort themselves. That was really, really nice because I don’t think that I have ever sat down and had conversations with Hendrik even with Abby. It was a nice day. Ok, that’s enough for now.

Day 28 - Switching countries and Family members

6-10

So I managed to lug my butt out of bed this morning for our last morning of sight-seeing before we had to catch the Alilaguna (the water bus) to the airport. We got on the vaporetto to go down to the Frari church and our boat driver must have been friends with the other one coming from the other way because all the sudden the other one honked at us, “Beep bip bip beep beep.” And our driver honked back, “Beep beep.” It kind of made my morning. So we went down and saw the Frari Church which was beautiful with lots of pictures. There was one relief of the crucifixion and there were baby angels around it crying. They were so adorable! They were rubbing their little eyes and looking all sad just like real babies. I thought that was pretty great even though it wasn’t by anyone famous. We tried to go to the Scuola San Rocco but it was closed until 2 so we had to nix that idea and decided to go to a museum called the Ca’ Rezzonico. It had a lot of pictures and some 17^th century furniture. My favorite picture was where this guy put all sorts of physical impossibilities into the picture to make it more picturesque. The best part was that if it hadn’t been pointed out to me, I never would have noticed. I think the big one was that he put shadows coming off onto the Grand Canal from buildings on both sides of it, it really did look great that way though.

After all of that fun we headed back up to San Marco square. The weather was beautiful today, unlike every other day, and so it was jam packed. After muscling through the mob, we got over to our side of the square and went to see the little church our vaporetto stop is named for. It had these enormous pictures all over the walls and into part of the dome. They were so big! We ended up getting kicked out because they were about to start a service but we got to see it for about 10 minutes. It was my last Italian Church that I got to see. Sad day. We trooped over to the pizzeria near that hotel to grab some lunch and then got one last gelato before grabbing our bags from the hotel and heading for the Alilaguna stop. We got there with plenty of time and I got the tickets no problem and then I, our fearless leader, led us onto the platform to wait 5 minutes for the boat to come. We waited and I saw an Alilaguna going to right way but it didn’t stop at our platform, it stopped at the one next to us so I dismissed it saying, “THIS is the platform, I know it, another must be coming.” Wrong. That was our boat, and we missed it. The next one didn’t come for another half hour but we were on the right platform for that one. The really sad thing is that I had checked out the correct platform and everything earlier, before we went to San Zaccaria (the little church we went to last) and I still managed to choose the wrong one. Silly Sara. Good thing we had plenty of time so the extra half hour wasn’t a big deal. We got through security with minimal issues and waited the hour for our plane to get going.

The plane was on time, which made me happy because I had a 50 minute layover in Munich and I really didn’t want to miss my second plane. We got fruit cups on this one with funny little utensils. It had a fork thing on one end and a spoon on the other and a knife smaller than the combo thing. So we landed and all the sudden I realize the plane has stopped in the middle of the tarmac and there is a stair thing coming towards the side of the plane. All I can think is, “Awesome, I have 30 minutes to find my plane and I have to spend half of it playing frogger with airplanes.” Which, of course, was not the case, they brought out a bus thing and once everyone was off the plane totted us to the terminal. My connecting flight was actually in the same part of the airport as where they let us off so it really was a fairly stress-free connection. It helped that I had Mom there worrying for me so I was able to stay calm and unfrazzled in an attempt to make her worry a little less. I got to the gate before they even started boarding and got on the flight 15 minutes later to sit in my window seat. We landed in Hamburg on time and I got of the plane eventually. My seat was at the back so it took a while. Then I got my bag which is just such a joy to find on the luggage carousel because it is so bright I never have to worry about missing it! I got the bag and then I went out the exit and found Abby and Hendrik waiting out there for me. Ab insisted that Hendrik roll my suitcase for me which was nice but then when he went to haul it into the car I suddenly felt really self-conscious about every kilogram in it. He just made some comment about how it really was lighter than Mom’s and I wasn’t sure if he was making fun of me for how heavy it was or if he was being 100% serious. I still haven’t really decided.

So he went off to a celebration party for his soccer team and me and Abs went to the supermarket to get groceries for the week. You know, I don’t think I gave myself enough credit for how much Italian I had picked up until I was looking at all of the shelves of mysterious products. I swear all I could see were umlauts. Luckily Abby wasn’t as helpless as me—though I did manage to spot the Rosemary (Rosmarin) in the spices shelved alphabetically. I know, I’m pretty spectacular. Oh, funny note. On both of my flights they spoke German. All German I have every learned abandoned me as soon as I got anywhere near a German speaker. I was racking my brain for a please, thank you, good day, anything. By the end of the second flight I was starting to remember danke, guten tag, guten morgen. At least I didn’t do anything where I needed to apologize to someone else on the plane. So we finished up at the market and came home. Abby was telling me about how she had to make this dessert for her future sister-in-law’s baby’s baptism party thing that we are going to on Monday and she was worried because the brownie mixes here taste really awful to her.

So at 11 at night, we started making cupcakes: chocolate and raspberry. We are unsure if either taste good but we decided that we’d have to ask Hendrik anyway because the brownies she thought were so gross were a hit with his friend. After making the desserts I showered and went to bed.

I realized while I hate the stress of flying I really love the view from the plane. Seeing the German countryside as we flew in was really neat. There were crop fields sort like at home but here they have so many trees, densely packed trees. It was so pretty. The best part of the flight was looking out at all the clouds. They just look so soft and cold. On the way home from the airport Ab pointed out the shipyards and this place where they make airplanes. There was a beluga plane that had a huge head thing above the plane (that is a really bad description but I really just need my hands on this one..) so that it can fly plane part to this factory. It was really funny looking but I thought it was sort of cute. Ok. Enough for today. Night.

Day 27 - Padua and our Last evening in Venice

6-9

Today we got up and got breakfast and hurried out to get to the Doge’s Palace to buy tickets and get in before the crowds hit. We made it—it really would have been pathetic if we hadn’t, we are staying 10 minutes away—and got in and got to see the rooms used for the official stuff and the Doge’s private rooms and the dungeons. The Doge was basically like our president except he had a little less power and was a little more important as a symbolic figure-head. For instance, when a Doge died (he was elected for life because he had so little power it didn’t matter) everything in the justice system came to a screeching halt until a new one was elected. I liked seeing all the rooms and paintings. They really put a lot of thought into their décor. The different paintings were specifically for the room to show that whatever virtues were linked with whatever council thing used that room. The Doges were all best friends with the virgin Mary from what I could tell. I just think that people used to put a whole lot more meaning into the way they designed things. When we went to see the dungeons though we got to cross over the Bridge of Sighs, which was fun. Mom and I didn’t even realize when we were crossing it. All the sudden we were in the dungeons and we decided we must have crossed it at some point. We paid better attention on the way out.

After all that we went to the Correr Museum which basically had a lot of statues and pictures. Big surprise, right? There were a few I liked a lot actually. There was one of Psyche and Cupid and a statue of Daedalus and Icarus with him tying a wing to Icarus’s arm. I liked it but at this point I was stressed out because I didn’t know how we were going to do everything I was hoping to get to today. Eventually, I just gave up worrying about it because I wasn’t enjoying very much. But we left to Correr Museum and leaped onto the vaporetto, which took us down to the train station, where we bought tickets and literally hopped on the train a minute before it left. It was a short ride to Padua, or Padova as they call it here, and we were soon navigating the tram system. Mom long ago gave up trying to figure out how we should get to where we are going and, other than a few minor detours trying to take new routes from the hotel, I believe I have been pretty adept at navigating these things. Charts are my forte I guess. Mom really has been a good sport about the times I have taken us slightly out of our way just for the sake of a new alley-route.

I was at Padua. So we went to the Scrovegni Chapel, which is like Da Vinci’s Last Supper except on the walls and ceiling of a whole chapel instead of just one wall. It tells the whole story of Christ from birth through Pentecost and then the final judgement is depicted on its own wall. There are the 7 virtues on one wall and the 7 vices on the other. There is a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus which is noted for the fact that she’s holding Him on her hip and her body is actually in the S shape that position requires in the real world. It was really cool. We had to go into this chamber and it got acclimated so that we could go in and not ruin the painting’s special climate-controlled room. I really enjoyed the chapel, though. I was very glad we managed to get tickets so last minute. After that we looked around the painting gallery next to it and I was actually just beginning to enjoy the paintings (which had moved from Madonnas with Babies to mythical scenes and other story-type scenes) when Mom started to get arted-out. So we finished up there really fast and went off to see the Basilica of St. Anthony.

That is apparently a big deal. We went in and saw St Anthony’s Tomb and looked at all of the scenes depicted around it. Then we went over by the reliquary—which I requested not that we skip the close up of—which included St Anthony’s tongue, lower jaw and vocal chords. I think those things are so gross. There were these two cute little old ladies who were walking into the reliquary as we were leaving and they were freaking out. They both had their hands over their mouths and this look on their faces like, “I can’t believe we are actually seeing this!” I thought they might cry out of joy. They were so cute. So we found the cloisters next and after seeing the gorgeous ones they had I have officially decided to make my house have a cloister. (If I ever make this house it is going to be some hodge-podge of awesomeness.)

So we left the Basilica and went looking for another place that was supposed to have really good architecture and be pretty and all that good stuff but when we found it the doors were closed. Which was odd because the hours posted said that it was open. We gave up and Mom said that she kind of wanted to try and get back in time to climb the campanile tonight so I gave up going to the Botanic Garden which was nearby. It was a sad moment for my heart but it had been raining all day and I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t start up again. So I consoled myself by saying that I would look up the closest amazing garden when I got home and drive half-way across Nebraska to look at it but for today it was time to head back to Verona. So after a little excitement at the train station—all the trains headed to our station seemed to be getting delayed really bad—we got on a train and made it back. We hopped on the vaporetto back to San Marco to try and make the campanile but we just didn’t quite make it and so we looked at some of the vendors instead.

We were going to try and make Vivaldi’s Four Seasons string concert tonight but I knew Mom had wanted to eat at this café in the plaza so we did that instead and I got my classical-ish fix from the different bands that play in front of some of the cafes in the square. After we ate, I remembered that I wanted to go see this bookstore that I’d read about called Acqua Alta (High Water) and it’s this shop full of books that are in bathtubs and boats and such because the owner is “prepared for the high waters” that come through and flood Venice some times. Mom trusted me to guide us, which was a huge act of faith since whenever I try to navigate this particular area of alleys I get all mixed up. We didn’t end up walking in circles this time and we made it to this little shop about a half hour before it closed. I ended up getting a good deal on some little poster things and it was funny to see the books stacked helter-skelter. I was glad that we got back in time to stop there. Now it’s just us sitting here in the hotel packing for our flights tomorrow. We are going to see a few churches in the morning and it will be interesting to see how we manage it all. Hopefully the flights go smoothly tomorrow and I will be talking about saying goodbye to Mom and hello to Abby. Night.

Day 26 - Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?

6-8

So today we went to Verona and Vicenza. We got off to an ok start but when we got to the train station ended up getting tickets to a train that left in at 10 so we waited around for an hour in the station and then went on the regional train so it stopped at every stop. It was a long ride. When we finally arrived we started down the path Rick Steves suggests and got to most of it. We went to the Roman Arena there and then headed up the strip and saw Juliet’s balcony and statue. I actually thought it was really cool to see even though I don’t really like the story Romeo and Juliet that much. Something about the hope and love that that place seems to symbolize to so many people. I think that’s ironic, by the way, that Juliet’s house would be a place of hope for lovers. Juliet had terribly crummy luck when it came to love. Yes she found it but do you know how that story ends? I still thought it was fun to see the balcony and all the letters to Juliet and the locks on the gate and the graffiti.

After Juliet we went and saw a couple of churches there and found Dante’s statue. We went up a tower (using the elevator most the of the way to save Mom’s knees) and got a pretty good view of the city. It wasn’t too spectacular compared to some of the others that I’ve seen here but Verona is small so I’ll give it a break. The first church we went to was Sant’ Anastasia and it had little hunchbacks holding the bowls of holy water! I thought that was SO funny. What really made me laugh though was Mom. She said, with a straight face, “Look at those hunchbacks holding the water. That was to wash their hands in, right?” At first I couldn’t decide if she was kidding so I laughed at her and said, “I am pretty sure that is holy water.” To which she replied disappointedly, “Oh, it would have been nice to wash my hands.” I just got this mental picture of her washing her hands in holy water and it still makes me laugh. Silly Mom. 

We got to the old bridge, Ponte Pietra, they have that was bombed in World War II and went across that to find the Roman theater. With the theater there was a monastery that you could go up into, it was a museum now but I liked seeing the refectory and cloister and little monk rooms. The cloister was gorgeous and the terrace was also stunning. The monk’s rooms were surprisingly about the same size as my dorm room was or close to it. But the view they had was amazing. I might become a nun if I could have that view and that cloister and be able to do stuff for God all the time. 

After the theater we decided to go to the Duomo here and look in that. It was really nice, it had a really cool painting by Titian of Mary’s Assumption. I am just going to throw this out there but I am a little sick of seeing Mary everywhere. I realize she is the mother of Jesus but really. I walked into a room with like 20 “Madonna con il Bambino”’s (that’s Mary with baby Jesus) and I just feel that’s a little much. I mean, Jesus deserves that, He’s kind of a big deal but I just don’t feel Mary should get THAT much attention.

ANYWAY, now that that rant is out, after all this we finally stopped for some lunch/supper. It was probably about 3 or so (Mom has been a real trouper about my eating schedules—I just get so into what we’re doing that I’m not even hungry) and we got some calzones. Mom got a fruit cup which she promptly spilled all over the side walk as soon as we sat down. So we got Mom another fruit cup and then went off to the train station. We decided to stop in Vicenza on the way home even though we knew everything would be closed. It’s the home of Paladio (who I mentioned a few days ago), the same Paladio who designed a nearby church that was really popular—sprouted a whole new style, any of this ringing a bell? Anyway, it’s kind of a nice place to go architecturally, it’s a pretty small town otherwise. They have an Olympic theater which was really huge and Paladio designed it towards the end of his life. We got to see the outside which was not inspiring but we saw it and then we saw a townhouse-type building he designed but it looks like a huge villa. It was actually really neat. We also saw the Duomo there. It was pretty simple on the outside. The inside probably would have been a lot cooler but again, by the time we got there everything was closed. So we came home on the train (I am now a pro at using trains here) and got home and I am just glad the day is done because I am going to pass out now. Padua tomorrow; should be lots of fun.

Oh and it was, of course, sunny and warm today. Mom and I had given up on the warmth and gone for layers which we ended up hauling around all day. I had broken out the jeans and my one long-sleeved t-shirt but Mom had a vest and a long sleeved shirt and a scarf and all sorts of nonsense. It was nice to get a little warm weather again though. 

Day 25 - The Islands

6-7
So today we got started a little later than I’d hoped. We got breakfast and headed out and saw the Rialto market. There were huge fish everywhere, flowers, fruit, vegetables, raw meat, all sort of good stuff. After the market we rode a traghetto, which Mom has been wanting to ride so much, and it was actually pretty sweet. There were two guys in stripped shirts that got us across the canal and they were bantering with each other and just having a good time in general. We went and saw La Salute church which was a church erected to St. Mary of health after the plague went through here. It was really sweet. It is in an octagon/circle pattern which I have decided is just a great way to build a small-ish church. After that we were walking around and went to Santa Maria del Giglio church. We had to pay to get in but the art was nice and it was pretty quiet and warm in there.

Oh, I forgot to mention, God found it necessary to have rain today in Venice. He also thought it would be nice for it to be windy and 65. I didn’t love that. He did give us an hour or two of sunlight which happened to be while we were in the second church. We decided to go out to the islands anyway because the weather forecast doesn’t look like it will get any better before we leave. So we started out going to Murano. We got off the vaporetto and were walking down the street when we saw this door open so we peeked in and it was a glass blowing workshop! There were 4 or 5 guys just working away heating up glass and blowing it right there! It was really fun to watch. The glass just moves like putty.

After that we wandered and found the glass museum which was full of all sorts of neat things. There were glass roosters and glass garden things (like models of gardens made of glass) and just an abundance of glass. Side note: after today I am convinced that there is something in my face that makes older men want to tease me. I don’t know what it is but it is definitely there because even here in Italy an older guy made fun of me today, in Italian! I understood what he was saying but I really wish I just knew why they choose me every time! It was fine and I laughed but I couldn’t even reply to him really because I don’t know Italian. After that we found a place to eat where I had some spaghetti and Mom got spaghetti and scampi. It was pretty good, not amazing but good enough for a late lunch. After lunch we went back the way we came and watched those guys work some more. Then we left for Burano.

Burano’s houses made my day. I just thought they were pretty cute. There were a lot of lace shops and some glass things and the colorful houses and that’s about all there was to Burano but I liked it. It was a little less crowded and a little more relaxed—this could be due to the raininess of the day but I actually don’t think so. We debated on not going to Torcello but decided we might as well since that is where Venice started originally. So we went out there and walked to the church. Only 20 people live on Torcello so there weren’t a lot of people moving around. We saw the church, which was closed when we got there, and it actually was really fun to see even though we couldn’t go in. I think Torcello might have been my favorite of the three. I liked the others but this one was just so not crowded and peaceful. Some of the weeds growing around there reminded me of home and I liked that it wasn’t overrun with tourists and tourist-shops.

After Torcello the real adventure began. We went back to Burano and when we got there a boat was pulling in and I had to make a quick decision about whether it was the right one or not and I decided it must be so we got on. Then in took us to some stops I didn’t recognize and then we stopped at one I did and I thought, “Oh good, I was worried that we would get stuck at some random stop there for a second.” No sooner had I thought this than the speaker said, “final stop” at that place and I panicked. So we are hustling off and I am freaking out inside (on the outside I looked totally cool and collected, maybe a bit perplexed but the inner turmoil was hidden) and all the sudden this angel of a man with a piercing through his lip told the lady in front of us that to get to San Marco (our stop) you should just get on that boat right over there. So we did and we made it and God is good for putting that man there and making me a natural eavesdropper. So now we are back finally. We didn’t go see San Michele which is the cemetery island, but that is ok because I am exhausted and it was really cold out today. We did stop for gelato on the way home in place of supper and I paid this reasonably attractive Italian guy for the gelato and he told me grazie and ciao and then he winked at me. One of the cool winks too, not one of the dumb ones and I don’t even care that that is practically part of his job, it made my night. Ok. Now it is time to sort pictures and figure out what is going on tomorrow. Night.

Day 24 - Tours, finding the Ghetto and an evening on the Grand Canal

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I am in love. It is official. I wasn’t sure it would happen but it has and I am so excited! We got up and had some breakfast and then started out for our day. We went to Accademia which is an art museum. It really wasn’t very big so we went in and saw some pretty interesting pictures. Some of them were better than others. There was one by Hayez, who I think did Il Bacio which I saw in one of the museums during class, and I liked that one. There was another one that had different scenes Renaissance from life, like two people dancing, playing music, looking at a dress, etc. That was Mom’s favorite. We walked over to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection after that. This one had more modern art in it. It had a few Picassos and Dali’s in it and I liked some of the stuff but there was a lot that if there hadn’t been an info card next to it I never would have guessed what I was supposed to see in them. There were some cool sculpture things. There was this huge mobile that was as tall as me and had all these pieces of metal of various sized dangling from it and it was perfectly balanced. After looking at torque problems in physics I appreciated that a lot more. There was another mobile that I liked that had shards of glass and pieces of porcelain hanging off it. I guess I was just digging the mobiles today.


After that museum we started back for the San Marco Plaza where we were supposed to meet our guided tour. We ended up stopping at the hotel to grab umbrellas and so Mom could lighten her purse. It did end up raining on us during our tour so we were very glad for this stop later. We saw San Marco’s Basilica and the Golden Altarpiece that they have in there. It was really impressive. It was nice that we went to the mass last night though and saw all of the mosaics lit up. We learned that they are made of glass with little leaves of gold in them and that’s why they look that way. I was rather stunned by the floor though. It was also made up of mosaics and the cubes they used on that were maybe the size of my pinkie nail. I can’t imagine trying to lay all of that out in the geometric patterns they had going on in there. They said it took 30 years to build the church and then 400 to decorate it. It took them longer to decorate that church than the US has been a country!


I also learned that Venice was once its own country. I thought that was pretty sweet. Basically, the more I learned about Venice today the more I thought it was just a really amazing place with this insanely captivating history. After our tour of San Marco the tour went out into some of the back alleys (every street here is an alley) and got to just see some stuff that was off the usual tourist path. When we finished with that—it rained on us the whole time—we had a grand canal boat tour scheduled so we skipped over to that and got into a nice, roofed boat where we went down the canal and got to learn more about Venice and its history and the buildings that are along the canal. We finished this tour and then stopped at the hotel so Mom could put up her feet for a bit and then we started off to see if we could go up the campanile. I got us lost because I wanted to try a new way I thought I had figured out from the map and after making a huge loop we just went the usual way. Due to this error of mine we did not get to the campanile before it closed so we’ll have to do that another day. So instead we rode the vaporetto down to see the Jewish Ghetto. We went down there and found it even, men with yarmulkes and everything and then left because that part of Venice isn’t on my map and I was worried about getting lost.


So we stopped at a little place on the way back to the vaporetto for supper and then hopped on the fast boat back up the canal. This is where I actually fell in love. I really had been enjoying the day but seeing the sun set and the lights come out. It was beautiful. The rain had cleared out after our boat tour and it was chilly but gorgeous. I got a lot of pictures while we were on the vaporetto. We came home and here we are, getting ready for bed and the big day tomorrow. It is supposed to rain but I am going to ask God to hold it off in the afternoon while we are out seeing the islands. We’ll see if my will and His line up or not. It will be amazing either way so I’m not too worried. Night.

Day 23 - The Mom/daughter fun begins

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After that night, I didn’t end up waking up until 11 this morning. That was good because I was really short on sleep and on temper last night and that’s just a bad way to spend this week of vacation. Mom had grabbed some rolls from breakfast for me so that I could sleep later. I showed her all the gifts I’d bought and gave her hers. We found out internet is not free here so I’ll just get this all posted when I reach Abby’s I’d imagine. I might use our free 30-minutes to try and post some of these mid-week. We decided to take today to just decide what we want to do the rest of the week. My passport was still locked in the safe. The poor guy who came to help had no idea what to do. He called and got the combination for it but then even with that couldn’t figure it out. So when he went to call again I put in the code and got it open. That was a relief. Then I decided I wanted to wash my clothes so that they would have plenty of time to be drying. That took a while and my clothes are now hanging all over the room and I am sleeping in damp pajamas.

After getting the laundry figured out we decided to head over to San Giorgio to go up in the bell tower over there and see the views of Venice. So we got a vaporetto pass and went over. We saw the church San Giorgio Maggiore which was built by Paladio and created a whole new style called Palladian. It’s really symmetrical and apparently has a lot of “mathematical perfection”. We got see the choir area where they still do Gregorian chants today. That was cool it was really echoey. After that we rode the vaporetto back to Venice and went wandering around Piazzeta San Marco. We found some gelato and looked at some shops, found a café Mom wanted to find. She wants to sit there some time and listen to the different music groups that the cafes in that place all seem to have. I am excited for that night. We went to mass in the basilica because Mom heard that is the only time they light up the mosaics in there. Mass was tough. I swear, put a man with a soothing voice talking in the same room as me and I am out every time. It was a struggle to stay awake, especially since it was in Italian but the mosaics were beautiful.

We shot out of there and came back to the hotel to find my clothes still pretty damp. I mapped out our week tentatively and we sat on the terrace under an awning while it sprinkled. Then we came here and Mom has been reading from her guidebook while I have been hunting through mine making sure we are going to be able to get to all the stuff we marked. There is a surprising amount of stuff to see and all of it is open from 10 'til 5:30. This wouldn’t be a problem except I really want to go see Verona and Padua now. We’ll make it, I think, and if we don’t get to everything it won’t be a big deal. I really am excited for those side trips out of Venice as well as the churches and things we’re planning on finding within it. Well it’s off to bed we have a fairly early start!

Day 22 - Oh flying, how you stress me out

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So at 550 my alarm went off for me to make sure Linsey and Alaina were up so they could get on the bus by 630 to go to the airport. They got up and were moving around just fine. The room was freezing but that’s because we don’t really understand the thermostat in here. So they headed off and I attempted to go back to sleep. It didn’t really work. Then I finally gave up and got up and started naming pictures that I hadn’t gotten to yet and just missed Linsey and Alaina a lot. It was so sad to be there alone. I am glad Mom is meeting up with me because traveling along after already having traveled for 3 weeks is not appealing to me at all right now.

I tried unsuccessfully to take two naps. In between attempt I went ahead and had some time with God. I read 1 Peter 1 and was really intrigued by verse 17. I thought it was interesting how it talks about God being impartial. I realized that I have always heard about God’s love and so somewhere along the line I developed this mentality of Him being this big loving Father (which He is) who forgives my sins because He loves me. It really doesn’t work that way at all. We find comfort in the fact that God will judge everyone in the end but I never thought about Him judging me. I kind of thought when my turn came He’d look at me and say, “Oh Sweetie, there you are! You just go on through.” Which is so dumb of me! Everyone will be judged, including me. What will go down is that God will look at me and see my life exactly as it was, no bias, just as it was and He will frown and be sad because He loves me but that doesn’t matter and that’s when Jesus will come in and claim me and say that He’s going to cover all of my sins. How scary will that moment be, though, when I am standing there, bare, before God with Him looking at my life in all of justness. I felt one of the strongest sentiments of fear toward God. I have been belittling Him and acting like a spoiled child and I just realized how disrespectful some of my actions have been toward Him.

I ended up going to work-out with Catherine (the TA) and I was going to attempt a third nap but instead got caught up in exchanging pictures with her and Ryan. So at 3:20 I realized I needed to hurry and grab some lunch or I wouldn’t get any. Ryan and I ended up going out and we found this pizza shop it gave us these huge pieces of pizza for a pretty good price and so we got those and figured we wouldn’t have to worry very much about supper after those. We got back and I put my stuff away and then it was time for me to head out. I walked to the metro stop (which I had walked to earlier to make sure it where it was) and got my metro pass, got on, and went to the termini. From there I got a train ticket to the airport, walked down a never-ending line of train platforms and found my train where I sat in a Harry Potter-style train. By that I mean that it had 6 seats in a section with dividers between. The other trains haven’t had the divider things and they had tables. I sat with a British woman, a youngish couple, and 2 Italian ladies. I passed by hay bales and corn-like weeds and thought of Nebraska. I got to the airport and waited in line to check in my bag, that took about an hour and then I breezed through security. I found the gate my plane was leaving from and made it there with 15 minutes to spare before boarding was supposed to start. With my free time I located a bathroom, used it, and filled my water bottle from the sink. Boarding was delayed a bit so I ended up having plenty of time.

The flight was uneventful. They did, however, give me a sandwich, which I was not expecting. I figured I’d get some pretzels and munch on my roll that I stole from breakfast. It was pretty good. We landed and Mom was waiting at my gate so we walked down to our other flight’s gate. This one was delayed a bit too so we had a little time and I again found a bathroom and filled my water bottle. Then we were off. On this flight they gave me a kit kat bar! I wish the US airlines would take note of this. You could also ask for wine or beer as your complimentary beverage, not that I was interested but still.

We made it to Venice at about 12:15am, finally got our bags by 12:45 or so and began our search for transportation. The water taxis were all gone so we ended up grabbing a land taxi which took us to Rome Plaza and then we took the 1:29am night vaporetto to the stop near our hotel. Then we got lost on the way to the hotel but a couple of random Italian guys ended up helping us fix our wrong turn and finally we arrived at the hotel. We were given a key and went to the first floor where our room was supposed to be. We came to an opening with tables and no rooms with numbers on them. So I ran to the next floor up to see if we were off, we weren’t and Mom finally ended up trying to open one of the unmarked doors to find that there was a numbered door behind it. We found ours, got in and turned on the air. I attempted to put my passport in the safe, just to lock it with an unknown combination, and then I gave up and went to bed. The time as I lay there was 10 to 3am. What an awful, awful last leg of the journey.

Day 21 - On the road again!

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We got up and had our last breakfast at the farmhouse. That was yummy and sad all at the same time. I had frosted flakes which were just amazing but I was surprised how much I enjoyed them because I haven’t had them for years. Then we loaded onto the bus and drove for 4 or 5 hours. I was determined not use my iPod today and so I ended up finishing my book that I brought and reading my Bible and just reflecting on some things in my life. I am glad these long bus rides are over because they give me way too much time to see how much needs to change in my life. Haha. We did make one rest stop on the way and at that gas station I found this cat thing. One of those with a motion sensor, most of the other toys played a song but this cat had this evil, evil laugh. It was actually a little maniacal sounding, really. At first I was shocked and then the second time it did it I started laughing and each time I heard it, it sounded funnier and funnier. I was laughing like crazy, who would give their child a toy like that? Alaina started laughing at me and one of the guys was actually really bothered by the cat thing so I shut it off and we left.

We finally got to the hotel and everyone got their room keys and we all raced to the bathrooms. We get to do whatever we want today and all Dr. E wanted was for us to make our flights tomorrow. So we went hunting for some lunch. Alaina and Linsey wanted to go to a cheap t-shirt place we found last time we were in Rome and so we went that way. We got a really good deal. Alaina got 2 shirts and Linsey and I each got 1 so that we could do the 4 for ten euro deal they had going on. That was my t-shirt for me from Italy. Then we continued looking around and just perusing the markets and shops on our way back to the hotel. We are staying on the opposite side of the city center this time so it’s a little bit different view of things when we go walking.

Then we just hung out in the room for a while before going exploring again for supper. Everything seems to move so slowly now that class is done. I feel like we should be hurrying to get to the next site just to realize I’ve seen most of them here. Alaina and Linsey packed up for their flight back to the States tomorrow. I am all packed up for my flight to Venice tomorrow. Linsey and I actually ended up spending a lot of time playing solitaire because we don’t have free internet at this hotel.

We went out for supper and ended up finding this pasta place pretty close that was really good. We were all thrilled because it was the first time we had found good pasta outside of a group meal. It really hit the spot. So then we ended up coming back to the hotel so Alaina could write some postcards and we could just hang out until we went to bed. While we were just hanging out in here, Dr. E came by with our prizes for winning the scavenger hunt. We got to choose between gelato and a secret souvenir so we chose secret souvenir and ended up getting these Rome pencils and little calendars and awesome postcards. We were pretty thrilled.

They are all leaving at 6:30 and so I will be all alone here with just one other boy. He is going to France on a train at 8 pm and my flight isn’t until 7:20. So I get to navigate the metro again and the train station and then I’ll get to the airport. It shouldn’t be a big deal and everything should go smoothly but I’ll leave early just in case. I am a little worried about making my connection in Germany. I only have 75 minutes so if my first flight is delayed I might miss it. Apparently missing a flight here is a bigger deal than at home because you don’t have as many customer rights. I am just hoping I don’t have to deal with that mess. I am a little worried about my flights in general though because I have pretty tight layovers on all of them. I am sure it will work out I just can’t help being a little anxious. 

Day 20 - Buffalo cheese! Oh and Pompeii. :D

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So we got up kind of early and ate some breakfast. Then we started for Pompeii which was about a 1.5 hour drive from the farmhouse. We got there and they had these huge lemons! HUGE! I mean, like as big as my head huge! It was incredible. I gave my presentation on Pompeii while we were waiting to get our tickets and that was really good. I thought it went well and that people thought it was interesting. I thought it was interesting. I wanted to know when the coliseum was built because a lot of the brick work was similar and I thought that was super cool. I was so excited to be there and see it all but I was so disappointed because there weren’t really very many good souveniers to get there. Oh, and my camera died about 1 hour into it. We were there for a total of 4 hours so that was super sad but Alaina took some pictures for me.

Then we drove back towards Paestum and stopped to see the Paestum excavations which were actually Greek temples. It was really neat to get to see the difference between those temples and the ones we saw back in Rome. We were done after that. No more class. She is going to check our sketches and maybe journals on the long drive tomorrow and we still have a test thing but for the most part we are finished.

My nose and allergies have been going crazy today. It was so sad, I was using my hankie like all day long and still felt stuffy. I took my medication that I brought but it just must have been a rough day. We came back and I unloaded my suitcase and repacked it. All of my clothes have this odd smell to them. I can’t wait to clean them all. My roommates and I went out for a walk and found some lemon trees. So they grabbed a couple lemons and we ate them like it was an orange. I am sure our faces were precious.

We had a group dinner tonight then and it was by far the best food. We had this bruschetta type stuff with bread and tomatoes and onions and stuff and—because we asked for some—we got some buffalo mozzarella cheese which is what this farm is known for. It was wonderful. Then we got these mozzarella stick things which ended up being mashed potatoes which was also spectacular. Then they gave us some pasta with cheese something and some sort of vegetable and then we got chicken. THEN it was time for dessert (I know, I am going to feel so deprived when I get back to the States) which was, of course, splendid. After dinner we went around and told our favorite memories from the trip. That was fun.

I have always had a bit of a thing for old buildings but now I realize that I have fallen in love with arches. It will be so lame to go back to the US where there are few arches and no old buildings—at least not compared to here. I hope that I will be able to go someplace with lots of old buildings and arches someday in my life. But this trip has been good for me. It gave me time to figure out my purpose for the summer and readjust my attitude. I am really excited to be back in the States and get started on the things I have waiting for me. I still have another 10+ days so I this will be my vacation but when I get home it’s back to work. 

Day 19 - Back to the Mainland and off to the Farm

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So this morning at 9 Linsey turns to me and groggily asks, “Is it time to get up?” 

I look at my watch and reply, “What time are we meeting?”“9:45”

“Yep. We should get up then.”

So we get up and get ready in 15 minutes. Then we take another 15 minutes to pack everything. Then we head up to breakfast. After breakfast we go to the Massimo Theater to take a tour. We get there right at 10 and get our tickets. We then take the Italian tour instead of the English tour because we couldn’t wait 15 minutes because we had to get to the airport by 12 so we didn’t really understand a word. It was fine though because this British woman would turn and tell us a brief summary of what was said in the tour. That was nice of her, huh?

After the theater we got our bags and loaded onto the bus to go to the airport. We got to the airport and went through security and then had a little time to waste before we got onto the flight. During this time I hummed various songs seeing how long it took before Alaina was humming them too. It was really funny because she usually didn’t even know the song. I enjoyed that game a lot. I think I got 3 different songs stuck in her head between the beginning of our tour of the theater and the time we got off the plane. Soon we were on the flight settling in. This time we didn’t get a delay and so there was nothing special about takeoff or landing. We got off the airplane in Rome and hopped on our bus with good old, grumpy, smokes-in-the-bus-during-breaks Franco. We were only supposed to have a 4 hour drive to Paestum but with traffic it ended up being more like 5.5 hours. It was pretty nice though. I got a lot of reading done and just had some time to think and reflect on what I read. It was just so awesome to be able to kind of sort through some thinking. There is just tomorrow left really for the trip. We just drive on Friday and then we leave. It seems so crazy that it’s done.

We are staying at a farmhouse. It’s like a hotel but it’s in the country and we are in nice cabins. There was a queen bed and the girls decided to give it to me since I slept on the cot the first week. This is a water buffalo farm though. We won’t get to see any which is sad but all I can think of is that VeggieTales song, you know the one, “Everybody’s got a water buffalo, yours if fast but mine is slow. Where do they come from I don’t know but everybody’s got a water buffalo-hoo!”

Well, I have to present tomorrow. We are finally going to see Pompeii! I am so excited! I need to look over my notes again and make sure that it all works out when I go to say it. Night.

Day 18 - Under the sea!

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Today was so much fun! So we got up to breakfast which was delicious and the headed out to see some of Palermo. We passed through an open air market where I got to see fish whose heads were as big as mine! There was also this huge swordfish whose nose was as long as my arm and all of them were cut open so you could see their meat and blood. It was really cool. There were vegetables and fruits and other stuff further down the street and it made me want to be able to shop like that someday. You know, the kind where you wake up early and go and get what you need from a bunch of little stands all near each other instead of Walmart.

 Then we went to the Palace and saw a chapel in there. It was so cool because the walls were covered with pictures which we later realized were all mosaics. That was really impressive. Then we went to see some more of the palace and what I think were the old defense walls that are now like in the basement. I really liked the palace a lot. After the palace we went to the cathedral here (each city only has one cathedral no matter how many churches) and went in. I liked this one quite a bit too. It was also simple but had some really pretty frescoes on the ceiling way in the back. There were just two which I thought was nice. We sat there kind of taking it all in for a while. I asked Dr. E about how she got started doing all of this and we kind of just relaxed for a bit.

After that it was time for lunch so we headed off toward the sea and grabbed some food on the way. I ended up, after much indecision and a lot of back tracking, with a slice of pizza that had hot dogs and ham on it. It was good, odd but good. During the walk to the sea I saw a hibiscus tree which made my day. It reminded me of our hibiscus back home since it was the same color and they just look so pretty here. There were huge rocks by the sea and so I decided I wanted to climb on them and put my feet in. Erdogmus just told us to be careful so I ditched my shoes and went looking for a good rock; which I found and proceeded to splash my feet in the cool water. Alaina and Linsey ended up joining in on the fun and we found rocks to stand on in the water and cool off a bit. It was so great, clambering from rock to rock finding new creatures and stuff and getting a little bit wet. I will admit that I scraped up my toe and pinkie finger pretty bad at one point and was worried the bleeding wouldn’t stop before I had to put my shoe on. But I had plenty of time and with some hand sanitizer got my pinkie all cleaned up and my toe stopped bleeding in time. So I cleaned the toe out really well when we got back to the hotel and am really glad that my body is used to this kind of treatment from me.

We were supposed to go to a theater after that but it closed at 3 and we walked up at 2:59 so didn’t happen. I think we are going to try and go in the morning before our flight. So we had free time until our group supper. Linsey and I mostly just relaxed. I got a little pink today but hopefully that will go away for the most part by morning. After napping, we went on a walk and found this huge market that was just selling clothes and shoes and stuff and walked around. They had terry cloth towels with lace on the edge which I thought was odd. I am sure that I’ve seen that before it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me; mixing the two.

We had a group dinner and I finished half a glass of white wine, ate octopus, swordfish and risotto with shrimp. I am so proud of myself for trying it all. I actually thought the octopus was pretty good I just didn’t love the sauce it was in and the fact it was cold, and the swordfish was one of the last things so I was getting full. We had a delicious dessert which was similar to ice cream but not quite the same. Then we had some limoncello as a digestive after all that. Some of the kids went out after that as this is our last night in a town before we return to Rome. I decided after the day I’d had and the fact that I got sun-burned that it was better for me to just come back and sleep. Tomorrow we fly again back to the main land and then drive to Paestum where we are staying in a remodeled farmhouse. I don’t know if we’ll have internet or not. I am going to finish my book—whose ending will delight me, as it always does—and go to bed. Good night, Friends!