Thursday, June 25, 2009

Greece and Italy

notes from my trip. not the best writing ever but whatever.

June 12, 2009
Plane over North Canada close to Greenland

On the plane to Chicago I sat next to Mrs. Malm. It was pretty fun. I am super tired! There are some really annoying people on this plane. I think they are going to Vienna, I heard them talking about it. I am sitting next to Adam Berndt. He gave me his cheese when they gave us dinner. So, I guess you can listen to poetry on this flight. I think that's weird. I KNOW I won't be able to sleep on this flight. Okay, maybe I will, but I will be very uncomfortable. Right now I am listening to a some-what sucky song. Well, it's not bad, it's just not that great. I watched the movie She's just not that into you. I liked it. I am tired. I think I will attempt to sleep.

June 13, 2009
Hotel Titania
Athens, Greece

Today we saw many things. We first saw the Old Olympic Stadium.Then we went to the Parliment building and the tomb of the unknown soilder. At the Olympic Stadium (I think) there were some bitches forcing you to take birdseed and take a picture of you with the birds and make you buy it. After all of that we went to the Acropolis. I really liked it there. The Parthenon was smaller than I imagined it. I absolutely adore the Erecthion. Then we ate lunch and went shopping. I bought a magnet and a statue of a Karyatid. After that we went back to the hotel and I took a two hour nap. Then we all learned some Greek dances and went to dinner. The place we ate at had live dancing and music. The dancers invited us up on stage to dance with them. It was tons of fun. They also had baklava for dessert! Opa!

June 14, 2009
Hotel Titania
Athens, Greece

We started off the day with a Catholic Mass at Saint Denis. Then we went to the national Archaeological Museum. I saw the Statue of Zeus and the Mask of Agamemnon. Then we went to Monastirake Sq. and had some gyros. After that some of us went to the ancient agora and the stoa. It was very pretty there, many olive trees and beautiful statues. after we were there, we went to the beach. I had a lot of fun swimming. The water was such a pretty blue. As we went back to the Hotel, Gabe lost his passport. He seemed very calm about it. Had I lost mine, I would be bawling. When we got back to the hotel I hung out with Gabe, Adam, and Dalton. We Chelsi, Caitlyn, and Callah went to the top of the hotel to get a grand view of Athens. You could see everthing from up there. It was amazing.

June 15, 2009
ELLI T. Ferry
Ionian Sea

Today we went to Delphi! On the way there I bought a book that is a guide to the ruins. It is in Italian, but the pictures have a laminent part that shows what the ruins looked like in ancient times. I can make out what some of it says. After we saw the ruins we went to a cute, little cafe and I had an "eggplant shoe" and some Lemonade. Then we went back to Delphi to the museum to see the charioteer statue. I thought it was amazing. We only had two minutes to see it, so Adam, Strand, and I decided we would come back next year. Strand suggested we sell kidneys to pay to come back, but I thought she said kitties. I mentioned we had unneutered cats on my block and she started to laugh. We decided it would be best to sell both. The ferry we are on is very nice. The sea is not making me feel sick at all. Tomorrow we will land in Brindisi just like Valerius the hottie from Ecce Romani. The food we had was good, but there was too much of it. I played Yatee for the first time and got a Yatzee in my first game! I am excited for Italy!

June 16, 2009
Hotel Carlton International
Sorrento, Italy

There are so many lemons here! I had Lemoncello, Lemoncello with cream, Lemon slushie, Lemonade, and Lemon Soda. I also bought some lemon purfume. It is very pretty here. Our hotel room has a view of the sea and the towm. There are many vulgar things in the gift shops, however, tomorrow we are going to Pompeii and Capri.

June 17, 2009
Hotel Carlton International
Sorrento, Italy

Pompeii was very intereting. The frescos are so beautiful. There was a groupof dogs that followed us. It was cute. We gave them names and back stories. After Pompeii we took a ferry over to Capri. It was very beautiful there. We took a boat tour of the whole island and went into the blue grotto. After that we hiked up to Villa Jovis, Tiberius' Villa. It was so pretty there.

June 18, 2009
Hotel Nova Domus
Rome, Italy

We went many places today. At the Colosseum we had the same guide that we had two years ago, Heidi. Then we went to the Forum. I really like the Forum. Then after dinner we went to the Trevi Fountain. I LOVED that. It was dark out so all of the staues were lit from underneath. Them we stopped for some gelato. I had Tiramisu and Hazelnut, but I also tried some of Bob's Lemoncello gelato. It was all very delisious. Then we went to the Spanish Steps and I got some very nice soveniers. The Metro System in Rome is surprisingly nice. It is not as nice as DC's ofcourse, but it is still quite clean, and I did not see anything too sketchy. Although there were some Italian guys pantsing each other which was pretty funny. I think some thing is wrong with my wrist. It hurts whenever I put pressure on it.

June 19, 2009
Hotel Nova Domus
Rome, Italy

Our tour of The Vatican was amazing! We had a very good guide. We saw Apollo del Belvedere and the Laocoon group. We also went to the Raphael Rooms and saw the School of Athens. I love that piece. The we went into the Sistene Chapel. I could have stayed in there forever. The Last Judgement blows me away. After that we went to the Pantheon. Then we got some gelato. I got Kinder Bueno, Caffe, and Cioccolato Fondente. After a little shopping Hannahlee, Savannah, Kaia, Maddie, and I went and sat on some steps and a little later some other people came and sat with us and we decided to look for some place interesting. Gabe looked up and said that it looked like we were in San Ignazio Sq. I freaked out and ran into the church which I guess surprised a lot of people. That Church is amazing, another place I could spend a whole day in. It was such a plesant surprise. Later we ate dinner near Piazza Navona. After that some of us wanted to go to San Maria del Popolo. I was very sad to see that it was closed, but from 9 to 11 the Electric Company was celebrating 100 years of service or something. They had dance and singing, and acrobats. They also had a water screen to project a movie thing on. Before the show we played big fat pony and oboeshanotantotan with some girls from Germany. The finale was so spectacular, there were fireworks and amazing music. Today was a great day, but my feet are dead.

June 20, 2009
Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Florence, Italy

The first thing we did today ws go to Tarquinia. It is a cute, little, medival town. We went to the musuem wnich was kind of boring, but there were some interesting things there like the winged horses. Then we stopped for some gelato. I had Nutella and Caffe. Then, after a walk around the town, we went to the Necropolis, the Etruscan Tombs. They were pretty interesting and the landscape there was beautiful, but it smelled pretty gross in the tombs themselves. Then we went on to Florence. We went to Mass in the Duomo! That Building is amazing. The ceiling of the dome is so intereting, it shows the levels of the universe with Hell, Earth, Purgatory, and Heaven. In the hell portion it depicts Satan eating a body. I stared at that throughout the whole Mass. Then we went for dinner. I shared Chianti Classico wine with some people and it was very good. We had tiramisu for dessert and it was delicous! After that we got somemore gelato. I had ciocolato extranoir, caffe, and vagnilia. The vanilla was delicous; It had real vanilla bean in it! After that we walked around Florence. We saw Cellini's Perseus. I again freaked out. It is such an amazing piece. It is such an amazing piece. We saw the Arno River and the city scape around it is so beautiful. On a less attractive note we also saw a river rat. When we went back to the hotel I turned on the shower and it sprayed all over me and the bathroom. I opened the door and Kelly, Jocelyn, and Rachel burst out laughing. Tomorrow we are going to the Academia and the Uffizi. I will probably faint at the sight of one of he works of art. Everything here is so amazing!

June 21, 2009
Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Florence, Italy

YAY Accademia! It was a long walk but definatly worth it. We saw a Plaster version of the Rape of the Sabines and some Medival/ Early Renisannse art. I also saw a copy of Titian's Assumption. Then We moved on to the room with the Bound slaves a Pieta and the David. David is such an amazing piece. You could see his veins and his muscles. He is gorgeous. Michelangelo was one of the only sculptors who didn't make a plaster mold first. It is such an amazing piece. After the Accademia we went to lunch and I had some spaggetti and gelato. I had Cioccolato, Caffe, and Creme Caramel. It was delicious. Then Maddie, Savannah and I rode a Merry-Go-Round at the Piazza della Repubblica. I also neglected to mention that we went to the Piazza della Signoria again and saw Cellini's Perseus and the original Rape of the Sabine. Women after a while we went to the Uffizi which was incredible. We saw Giotto, Botticelli's Allegory of Spring and Birth of Venus, The Portinari Alterpiece, (which was a lot bigger than I expected it to be) Leonardo's Annunciation, Baptism of Christ, Raphael's Leo X with two Cardnals and Julius II, Titian's Venus of Urbano, and Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck. Then we went to the the first floor and saw Gentileschi's Judith slaying Holofernes, and Caravaggio's Bacchus, Abraham and Issac, and Medusa. I absolutly LOVE Caravaggio. There was a Caravaggesque painting which had very interesting lighting; it looked like there was a candle below the painting. After dinner some of us went to Grom gelateria again. The vanilla is so delicious. Tomorrow we go home and I really don't want to. I want everyone I care about to come here. Florence is probably my favorite city. This was an amazing trip!

4 comments:

Brie said...

Cute!
I enjoyed this, Dogfarts.
I especially liked when you were so excited about the lemons XD

Laura said...

the lemons are amazing

Josh Boe said...

You seemed to enjoy your time there! It was interesting reading about what you did! It makes me want to go there some day! Im glad you had a good time!

Brie said...

Sarb plz update
I need some Sarb