The time for travel and adventure is almost over.

I've been working on this one for a while. It's a bit delayed but I still have some more stories to tell before I'm finished writing. 

School is over. I had evidently forgotten how the end of school actually works. I was expecting children to be there on the last day so I could hand out prizes and things. Lots of hugs, maybe a few tears. After all everyone knows I won’t be here next year. There were only 5 students at school so they got all the cool stuff I had to give away. No one cried and I barely got to say goodbye. It was an interesting last day at school. I also went to Kenneth’s school in the afternoon to watch their end of the year performance. It was pretty cool and there are some very talented children in our village.  

On Saturday, the 16 of June, Kenneth and I left for Turkey. We hitched a ride with the 10^th graders who were going on an excursion to Batumi. This means that we got to see some more of Batumi. We went to the botanical gardens and wandered around there for about an hour. Then we headed to Gonio fortress (I went there back in February). We couldn’t have spent more than 20 minutes there. The kids just weren’t into it which was fine with me but only because I had already been there. After that they drove us to the border, we said our goodbyes and made our way into Turkey.

We walked across the border and then had to catch a small bus to Sarpi and from Sarpi we had to take another small bus to Hopa. In Hopa we caught a large bus to Trabzon. The ride was fine and it took just over three hours to get there. We wandered around for a while and then it was time to meet our host. We decided to try out Couch Surfing and find someone in the cities we visit to host us. We met our host, he took us to the hotel where he works (he is the GM) and we had dinner. Later he took us out around the city, up to the park on the hill; we sat on the beach at night and had an all around good time. The next day Kenneth and I got up early to go visit our must see location just outside of Trabzon. We went to see Sumela Monastery. The day before we bought our seats for the van that would take us there. We ended up being in a van full of young people. It takes about an hour and a half to get there and we stopped for snacks (bought some delicious cherries). The monastery is set into the side of a cliff. I don’t know what could have compelled them to build a complex there but the view was amazing. It was so peaceful. The sad part was that most of the paintings had been defaced in some way. Wandered around the complex for a bit and then headed down the hill to where we were supposed to meet our van to pick us up. It was a good day trip and I’m glad we did it. From there we returned to Trabzon and at 7PM we hopped on the bus to Ankara. It was an overnight bus. 

We met our couch surfing host in the morning to drop off our stuff and then we headed out into the big city. It isn't a great city for tourists but we had a good time wandering around. We saw Ataturk's Mausoleum and visited the top of an old citadel. We walked a lot. We had a good two nights hanging out with our host and his friends. 

 

We left early on Wednesday to go to Cappadocia. The bus trip wasn't too bad. We drove past the Salt Lake of Turkey. Half of the ground next to the lake is white because of the salt. It's really interesting. Cappadocia was amazing. On our first full day we rented a scooter and visited lots of places took some cool pictures. I also tried to climb up some rocks, failed miserably and temporarily removed my fingerprints.  One of my best favorite parts was waking up every morning at sunrise to watch the hot air balloons rise up over the rock formations. Totally made the entire trip worth it. We had a great 3.5 days and finally made our way back to Georgia to finish out our last few weeks there. 

I'm an AUNT!

So I have been on a few adventures lately but this piece of information takes the cake! So here are some pictures. I'm excited. I am enjoying my final days in Georgia but I just can't wait to get back and see this little one. Her name is Evangeline Marie Dugger. Evie for short(so I've been told). She was born on the 18th of June. Very exciting.

Evie

Evie and Grandpa(my Dad)

Evie and Grandma(my Mom)

Gotta love the hat!

 Yep. She's cute. Gotta love it and I think it's going to be great time.

It's June and the end is approaching.

I’ve been pretty busy for the past month. I don’t know what happened but the time just flew by. I’ve been on a few adventures recently so I hope you have time to read them.

On May 23^rd I had puppies! Well I didn’t but my Georgian dog did. I knew she was pregnant but wasn’t sure when to expect them but along they came. I only noticed because she was making a lot more noise than usual so I went to go check on her. I didn’t notice anything different at first. She had dug a hole, which was weird because I had never seen her do that before and then I noticed she kept staring down the small incline where she was tied up. That’s when I noticed a wiggly, furry and brown puppy in the grass. It had rolled down the hill even though she tried her hardest to dig a hole to keep it from rolling away. Poor little guy. That night when I went to bed she only had 3 puppies the next morning there were nine of them. 9! That’s an insane amount of puppies. They are all so cute though. Unfortunately two of them died within a day or two but that still left us with seven. They aren’t quite three weeks old yet but my host mother felt compelled to give two of them away already because our dog was getting so skinny (really she just needs to be fed more). It happened while I wasn’t home. I got pretty upset at her for that because they aren’t old enough to leave. She said it was fine because they were able to eat bread soaked with milk… I’ll just leave it at that because it’s really frustrating to talk about the lack of care for animals in Georgia. Here are some cute photos though.

They were two days old here.

Here they are at almost three weeks.

Too cute. Pink noses, blue eyes and little brown mustaches.

May 26^th is Georgian Independence day. It is the day when they left the Transcaucus Federation in 1918. They also have another day in April that marks the day they left the Soviet Union. It’s kind of an interesting concept to have two independence days but the one in May has more fanfare. In honor of this day there was a big military parade in Kutaisi. Now Kutaisi is not the Capital city but they just opened the new parliament building there so that is why they got all the fun stuff. I went to Kutaisi and met up with my “family” that lives there. We had a late lunch then headed out to see the parade and the new parliament. It was a cool to see all the different branches of the Georgian military and a variety of vehicles. The best part were the flyovers at the end. They had planes that streamed red and white smoke and to end it all they had a helicopter fly down the middle of the road and drop confetti. That was awesome. It was a really fun day and I enjoyed pretending to be a Georgian waving my flag around. I stuck around for the concert and the fireworks and then I went back to my family’s house where I spent the night. 

These are the Lazika tanks. Made in Georgia.

Fly over!

This is the side of the new parliament building

 The next week was a fairly boring at school and as my host mom put it there won’t be much learning going on in the final weeks. I did end up skipping Friday to go to Lanchkhuti with some of my students to watch them play soccer in an area tournament. They ended up in 3^rd place and one of my 6^th graders received a small trophy for scoring the most goals in the tournament. It was fun to support them. The next Wednesday, June 6^th, I went to the graduation party for the 12^th graders from Kenneth’s school. They start at school and their teachers talk to them for a bit and then we all pile into vehicles and go to the party. It was the same kind of party like a wedding except I knew a lot more of the people attending this time so I didn’t feel as uncomfortable when they wanted me to dance. It was fun and really enjoyable but we stayed out late. I’m glad I didn’t have school the next day. Instead I spent the next day packing to head out to Tbilisi. The minister of Science and Education invited all of the departing teachers to a ceremony where we would receive our certificates of completion. My program, TLG, provided the transport and hotel accommodations for the night. The ceremony was on Friday. It was nice seeing people I hadn’t seen since training but also bittersweet. It was the last time I would see most of those people and had to say goodbye to old friends. After the ceremony Kenneth and I hung out with some new friends and wandered around Tbilisi with them. We didn’t do too much but eventually we left Tbilisi to head to Kashuri for the night.

The next day was a great adventure. We woke up early to meet up with the 11^th graders from Kenneth’s school to go on an excursion (field trip) with them to Vardzia. Vardzia is another cave city/monastery in Georgia. That was about all we knew about the trip so we hopped on the bus and went along for the ride. First stop was the Borjomi Water Park. No not water park with slides and things but rather a park where Borjomi mineral water is found. It’s really pretty and they have rides and things for children. You can even fill your own water bottle with Borjomi. The fountain we found was warm Borjomi water and that was something else. It was definitely only for mineral water enthusiasts. It was okay at first but after it sat in the bottle for a bit it became really potent. We eventually poured it out and refilled with normal water. We left there after a little while and made our way south. We stopped at an old castle and old church before arriving in Akhaltsikhe (New Castle). We stopped at a small café for lunch. This sounds pretty normal but rather than sitting inside and ordering food, the food just started pouring out of bags from the bus. I think each kid brings something and it just gets shared. It was all really good food.

Waterfall in Borjomi park

We paid the café a little money for use of the space and then we got on the road again to finally arrive in Vardzia. There were a lot of really beautiful things on the road there. Great nature. We finally arrived and it really lived up to expectations. It was all carved out of the side of a cliff in the 11^th and 12^th century. Monks still live there. You hike up for a while on a road and then you start your hike across. There was a surprising amount of tourist infrastructure: handrails, real steps, lighting inside the caves and even a sign or two in English. There was a part where you could walk up an around the caves and come out at another part where you could meet the rest of your group if they were less adventurous. It was so cool. I liked it a lot. I had been looking forward to going there and I think it was even better with a bunch of students. 

Vardzia cave city from a distance

Ready for the close up!

From Vardzia we stopped at another castle called Khevtvisi. Another old castle with a good view. Next stop was Abastumani and the observatory. Unfortunately we arrived at 7PM and it doesn’t get dark until around 10PM. We still went inside and looked at the 40cm telescope and toured the small museum. It was interesting but not as cool as it could have been. This is when the real adventure began. We were to spend the night in Khulo a small town in the mountains that was about 60km from where we were. However, the road was terrible and it was dark and as we got closer the fog closed in. It took 3.5 hours to arrive. Upon arrival we still had to find a place to sleep. 23 people and no plan for a place to sleep, just hoping there was room somewhere. We did find a place, ate a very late dinner and went to sleep after a long exhausting day.

Cable car in Khulo, you can barley see the other station if you know where to look

The next day we got up to leave Khulo but before doing that we rode the cable car across the valley. The cable was 1.2km long and it took about 8 minutes to arrive on the other side. It was another nice view, we stayed as long as the car was waiting and then went straight back. We took a bit of a detour down the way to go see some things. We saw a bridge that they call Tamar’s bridge. It’s an old stone bridge and Tamar was a queen of Georgia. I didn’t get the story behind it but it was a pretty, old bridge. We drove past a memorial to avalanche victims in 1989. It wiped out a small village (17 people), most of them being from the same family. It made me wonder why other people would continue to live near there is they knew that could happen. After that we went to the village where our bus driver grew up. We had some of our own food but the family also cooked up some delicious things. One of them was a dish call borano. It is mashed potatoes, cheese and butter all cooked together in one delicious bowl of amazingness. It is a specialty from that region. After many thanks we left the house and made our way to Batumi. The road from Khulo to Batumi is 1000 times better than the road from Akhaltsikhe to Khulo so it only took just over an hour to get to Batumi. We were let off the bus and the kids were let loose and told to come back at 9PM. It was nice to wander around Batumi a bit but I had seen most of it before and fairly recently. The kids were late arriving back. We watched the fountain show and then went to a khinkali restaurant for dinner. Half the kids didn’t want to go (because that meant going home soon) but the other half was hungry. So we ate and then went home. I got into my house around 1:30AM. I had some things to do so I didn’t get to sleep until almost 3 but I still woke up and went to school the next day. 

Batumi fountains at sunset.

Delicious Khinkali(Georgian dumpling)

I was tired but I made it through the day and I made it through our final English club. There were only two students but we made them write some things down in English and then we sealed it up and told them not to open it for 5 years. We’ll see if they remember but the idea was that they would have a sample of their English now and in the future they would be able to look at it and laugh.

I got another package today from home. I had to go pick it up and I knew I had to be back in the village by 12 for the 4^th grade send-off. I didn’t make it back in time. I rushed around to get everything done but you can’t rush transit. I arrived just in time to see the last 2 minutes and everyone crying. I got flowers and that’s about it. I went home to get some rest. It had been a long hot day.

It’s the last week of school and attendance has been at record low levels. I don’t have many students to start with but this has just been ridiculous. Here a some photos of my kids(and co-teacher). I tried to take candid shots but that didn’t work out so well. I have very few students, 35 in grades 1-6. So don't be surprised.

These are two of my 6th graders, the other 3 were MIA today.

Hello 5th grade! Again I'm missing about half of them but don't they look cute.

Welcome to 3rd grade. Only one was missing and I got my co-teacher in a picture for once.

This Friday is the last day of school. On Saturday I’m going to Turkey for a week. The plan is to see Trabzon (again), Ankara and Cappadocia. I’m excited for this first half of my Turkey adventure. When Kenneth and I get back from that we are going with his family to the Svaneti region (upper caucus mountains). I imagine we’ll be going a few more places too before leaving Georgia but those haven’t been planned just yet.  Stay tuned for more fun adventures.

April and May: Davit Gareji and Nokalakevi

It’s been a good and kind of busy month. Towards the end of April I picked some flowers with my host mom. Later they pickle them and then eat them. They kind of taste like a pickled pepper of some sort. We call them jonjoli. I don’t know if it exists at home or not. I don’t care for it very much but most Georgians love it.

After my trip to Italy I had to go to my bank here in Georgia to get a new ATM card. They told me to come back after 10 days and it should be ready. I did make the trip back and fortunately it was ready. I had to wait around for about an hour for the system to start working again but this is Georgia.

On the last weekend in April I took the train to and from Tbilisi. Saves lots of money on hotel and transit, woohoo! I went to Mtskheta and Ananauri. Cool, old churches. I went on an excursion with my teaching program. We went to Davit Gareji. It is a series of old cave monasteries. It’s pretty awesome. It’s on the edge of the Kakheti region. You can also cross into Azerbaijan at certain points. It’s a bit of a disputed border area so you can cross back and forth between the two countries without a visa. So now I can say I’ve been to Azerbaijan too, thanks to the Soviet Union drawing a line down the middle of a monastery complex. It’s been in the news recently because of the border dispute. Maybe one day they’ll get it sorted out but probably not any time soon.

Ananauri churches

Davit Gareji Cave Monastery Complex

Cave church

 

Sitting on a rock in Azerbaijan

After school I’ve been helping my host mom sew new curtains for the house. I get to turn the handle while she feeds the cloth through. She’s also been busy working in the garden planting vegetables and such. I’ve also been reading a lot on my iPod. I finished Siddhartha and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer last week; I’m working on Moby Dick right now.

Our lovely antique sewing machine!

I went on a second excursion with my teaching program during the first weekend in May. Had to go to Batumi first but that's no problem. I like Batumi. It is a nice coastal city and it is quickly becoming very up to date and even better. We went to Nokalakevi and Martvili. Big old castle/fortress then and old church and monastery complex, then there are some waterfalls near the monastery so we got to eat lunch there. It was another good trip. It’s always nice when you can sit around and talk in English and not worry about vocabulary because everyone is going to understand you, even if you decide to verb a noun.

Nokalakevi remaining fortress walls

Small church at Martvili

I got a package from home on the 8th. Girl Scout cookies for the win! A couple other nice surprises as well. In other news my brother shipped out for Coast Guard basic training on the 9th. I’m proud of him and excited by the new adventures he will be having. He’ll finish up just before I get back home so that will be nice.

I went to a wedding in the village this past weekend. I had some fun and was forced to dance yet again. They seem to think that foreign guests should always be forced to dance no matter what. I had to leave a little earlier than I wanted because my host sister got bored. I would have stayed but when your car leaves, you leave too unless you want to walk.

I sat through a lively conversation between my host sister, Salome, and host mom, Aniko, about the guy my sister is “talking” to. He lives and works in Tbilisi. Aniko thinks there is this other boy in a neighboring village that would be great for Salome. The two guys couldn’t be more different, from what I’ve seen and heard. Aniko seemed very opposed to the Tbilisi boy. In the end it came down to Aniko not wanting to be left alone in the village as she gets older and because she only has on daughter left unmarried she must try to keep her close as possible. This did not sit well with Salome. In Georgia it’s typical for the sons to grow up, get married and continue to live at home to take care of the family. Aniko had four daughters so no one to stay unless they wanted to. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with this kind of situation.

School is just four weeks from finishing. The 12^th graders at Kenneth’s school are finished with school and are now sitting for their exams. The 1^st graders are also finished with their lessons as of last Friday but they were still at school today. I don’t know why they “finish” early. It doesn’t make any sense especially if they are still coming to school.  This is just one of many confusing things in Georgia.

I finally got my plane tickets home. I’ll leave Georgia on July 10^th but I have a week layover in Turkey so I’ll be arriving in Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA on July 18^th! I’m excited to be coming home but I know I’ll be sad to leave and I’ll cry. No maybes about it. I just hope I can hold it together long enough so my family doesn’t have to see me. I’ve only seen Georgian children cry when fall down and hurt themselves and the adults only seem to cry at funerals. It doesn’t seem to be something they do here.

My time in Georgia has overall been really great. Of course there are good times and bad times but that is just life. My experience is different from other teachers that I’ve talked to but then again I’ve yet to meet anyone with a truly similar story to anyone else over here. We all come for different reasons and we all stay for different reasons. This is my life and I wouldn’t change it for anything. The time that I spend alone (more than I’m used to) I try to use for reflection and self-improvement. I know I won’t ever regret this decision and I can only hope that I continue to grow and improve during the rest of my time here.

Easter in Italy

 This has nothing to do with living in Georgia but rather my trip for Easter. It is also a long post so take your time, feel free to come back multiple times to finish reading.

My trip began with a bus from the village into Tbilisi. Kenneth and I met with our friend Clement for dinner at the Indian restaurant that we found the last time we were in Tbilisi. From there Kenneth and I chose to take the bus to the airport, the last one for the night. This saved us 20 lari but we learned that it was not worth it. We squished our way onto the bus and then continued to be squished further and further in. I could barely breathe and I didn’t have to hold onto anything because I was so squished in. All I could think of was those videos in Japan where they have people to shove more people onto the subway than should probably fit. I ended up not feeling so well towards the end of that trip to the airport. I did end up making a run to the bathroom to see my dinner once again and I have a feeling I won’t be eating any Indian food for a long time.

Our flight took off on time. I slept through most of it and then slept some more when we got to Istanbul while we waited for our next flight. We finally arrived in Italy, caught the bus to the train station, found the metro to our hostel and headed out. Unfortunately on the way I was careless and my wallet was stolen. My credit cards and money all gone. I still had my passport and thankfully I was safe but it was so inconvenient. We made it to our hostel, checked in and I emailed my parents to tell them to cancel my cards (fortunately I added them to my account before I left home). I am so very fortunate to have the parents that I do. Kenneth had enough money to pay for both of us for a few days and a few days later they deposited money into Kenneth’s bank account and we withdrew money from the ATM. Great idea and it saved time and money instead of trying to wire me the money. And now a shout out to the great people who saved me lots of frustration:

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR BEING SO AWESOME!!! I LOVE YOU!

After getting that figured out we filed a report at the police station and then headed to the Coliseum for Stations of the Cross. The square in front of the Coliseum was full of people. We were handed service booklets as we went through security. Several people read through the stations, in Italian. There were some responses in Latin. There was also a short commentary on each station done in Italian. The Pope gave a speech and blessing at the end of the service. Even though I didn’t understand everything it was still an amazing experience. We were very hungry at the end and we found some below average pizza to eat on our way “home”. By the way our home for the next week was a tent. Now hold your thoughts for a moment there. It was actually pretty nice. It was a platform tent, with a door that locked and a linoleum-covered floor (not just wood). You could hear your neighbors as if they were in the room with you but other than that it was fine. Transit was an adventure everyday but I’ll get to that later. We crashed in our tent and slept well.

Good Friday at the Coliseum

We woke up early on Holy Saturday (the 7^th) to go to the Pontifical North American College (the office for the North American Catholic church) to pick up our tickets for Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square. While we were there we also got tickets to the Easter Vigil service inside of St. Peter’s and an orientation on where to enter, what time to arrive and so on. We weren’t expecting to get tickets to the vigil but we were excited. During the day we saw the Trevi fountain and of course threw in our coins in hope of returning to Rome. We visited the tomb of the Unknown Soldier which just happens to be inside a gigantic monument to WWI. We stopped in at the Pantheon and saw the tomb of Raphael. We walked from there to the Piazza Navona and then on from there to the Campo di Fiori(one of the food markets in Rome). We went into the French church of San' Luigi dei Francesi and saw an original Carvaggio(Baroque painter). Who needs art museums when you can go into churches for free? Around 3PM we made our way to St. Peter’s to stand in line for the vigil. The service wasn’t until 9 and doors wouldn’t open until 7:30 but we knew we needed to arrive early to get good seats. We made friends with the families around us, one from Indiana and the other from New York. We took turns holding place in line so we could go to the bathroom and get food as needed. It was a mad rush once the gates opened and the worst part was the nuns pushed the most. You didn’t even have to walk because the crowd would carry you in. We got seats right on the aisle towards the back of the church so that we could see the Pope up close and personal. The mass was really amazing and I’m so happy that we were able to get tickets. The service was mostly in Latin but they also did readings in Italian, Spanish, English and German. It was amazing to see the light spread from the Paschal candle throughout the Basilica. I just read a translation of the Pope’s homily, (http://www.news.va/en/news/love-is-stronger-than-hate-the-popes-homily-easter) and I wish I had understood that at the time, but better late than never. We left the service exhausted and we tried to get to the metro but took the “scenic route” and then we ended up taking a taxi back to the camping village after walking for far too long and trying to flag down too many full taxis. It was a relief to finally get to sleep after a long day.

It's the Pope! On Easter (well just after midnight on Saturday)

After making the decision that we didn’t need to be close to the front for Easter Mass because we had a good view the night before at the Vigil we slept in a little bit. We waited for the bus outside of the campsite but there were way too many people so we would be very late if we waited. Instead we took the campsites shuttle bus close to Vatican City and walked from there. There were so many people waiting to get into the square so we walked around to the far side(from the metro entrance) to enter the square because the line wasn’t as long over there. We didn’t get a real chair but we sat on the railing of the fountain on the left side of the square if you are facing St. Peter’s. Being that we weren’t in the church the atmosphere was very relaxed. Lots of people talking, kids playing and just general outside behaviors. I’m glad that wasn’t the only service we made it to because it was very distracting. Again readings were done in many languages but Latin being the language of the service and Italian being the language used during the homily. After the service was over the Pope went to the big window and delivered Easter greetings in 60 or so languages. I even heard Georgian. It was a great experience. After that we went to eat and found an average lunch to eat. We walked a lot around the area of St. Peter’s. We walked to the Castle Sant’Angelo and didn’t go inside because the line was so long. We walked from there across the river and just kind of wandered. We found a couple of really cool churches and an awesome gelato shop. (Insert gelato shop name). They had a window to the kitchen where you could watch them make the gelato. We stood there watching the guy make gelato while we ate ours. I was trying chocolate wine and cheese-flavored gelato (that’s two flavors). Good separately but I wouldn’t recommend them together. We continued to walk and walk. We made our way back to the Piazza Navona and on the way we found a church that was going to have a saxophone concert the next evening. We made an early return to the campsite to get a little bit of rest.

The next day, Monday the 9^th, was a national holiday and we decided to go to the Coliseum. Everywhere was just buzzing with people. The line to get in wasn’t too terribly long we probably didn’t wait much more than 30 minutes to get in. I visited the last time I was in Rome but it was still so cool to go in again. They also have a museum like part that explained a lot of the things.

The Coliseum

The Roman Forum

 From there we went to the Roman forum and Palatine area (It’s included in your Coliseum ticket). Here’s a hint if you ever visit Rome: Go to the Forum first, get your ticket and then you can skip the line at the Coliseum because you already have a ticket. Wished I’d known that before. It was interesting to walk where the Romans walked and try to envision what it must have looked like when it was all new. We also saw Caesar’s grave. From there we headed to the church we found the night before for the Saxaphone concert. There were about 10 saxophones. There were some very small ones and some very big ones. I’d never seen those sizes before and I was shocked. The sound was also cool because they weren’t jazz saxophones. I can’t explain the difference but there was one. We finished off our day with a visit to the Piazza del Popolo and the Via del Corso(shopping street).

Tuesday the 10^th was a great adventure. We woke up at 5AM to catch the first bus into the city. The plan was to take the 6:13AM train to Florence. We got to the train station. Bought our tickets (time printed was 6:11AM) and ran to the train. Of course it just had to be on the track farthest away from where you buy your tickets. The whistle was blowing and Kenneth just stepped onto the train when it started to pull away. We rested for a bit and sat next to a nun on the train. The conductor came through and this is where it gets bad. We forgot to validate our tickets. The fine for this is 50 Euros. We told him we didn’t have the money (you have to pay on the spot) and that we just barely caught the train so he just asked for our passports and went on with his business. I asked him what we had to do now and he said just get to Florence. I understood that to mean we would have to go to an office and explain the situation there and hope they were merciful. After the money troubles I had already had this was the last straw for me and I just broke down and cried on the train. Couldn’t help it and couldn’t even enjoy the train ride because I was so upset. We arrived in Florence and made our way to the customer service center. We explained what happened on the train and they told us they didn’t think we had to pay it. The conductor obviously had mercy on us and believed our story. It isn’t a great way to start a day but after something like that happens thing happens things can only get better. I’d like to think that our nun friend (we talked to her some after I finished sobbing) was like a sign to show us everything would be okay. She had actually gotten on the wrong train (the slow one rather than the fast one she had paid for) and we sat next to her. Things happen for a reason.

We started our day at the tourist info office. Busiest place I’ve ever seen. We had to wait in line just to get a map. First stop was Il Duomo. It is a beautiful church on the outside and the inside is cool but not quite as stunning. We walked around a lot. Wandered into several more churches and the next stop was Santa Croce church. It is not only a church, but also a museum and the burial place of such important figures as Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli. It’s like a giant cemetery inside a church. There are people buried all over the place. There are people on the walls and in the floors. It’s also a really pretty church but I’m a fan of cemeteries so getting a church and cool type of cemetery (with important dead people) all in one was great. They had some artworks on display in a separate area so you could get up close to things that you normally can’t. No touching of course. It was worth the money to go in. I still say that you don’t need to visit the art museums if you go to enough churches. From that church we went on a search for lunch. After lots of walking past tourist places with food that really didn’t look good I noticed a little shop FULL of people who weren’t speaking English. That’s always a good sign. It was this great little sandwich shop that was run by a father and son. So yummy. It was a gastronomical experience.

Il Duomo

Ponte Vecchio(Old bridge)

After that we walked around some more. Saw the famous Ponte Vecchio, walked past the Palazzo Pitti we found the church of Santo Spirito. Really plain church on the outside, I’d call it Mexican mission style but lots taller, but really beautiful inside. There was also a wooden cross that was carved by Michelangelo when he was only 17. Joys of being in Florence is that all(well most) of the important Italian artists were from here. We walked around some more. Wandered into a random church and were met by a very enthusiastic volunteer guide. He knew a lot and talked very quickly in English about everything. It was really great but the only thing I can remember is that he liked to say masterpiece and probabably. Yes, I wrote it that way on purpose. Just say it out loud and you’ll smile. Prob-a-bably. I wish I could remember the name of the church or where it was but no. We then stopped by another tourist office and asked them where they would go for a cannoli. They said there was a Sicilian gelato and dessert shop on the next street that should be good. It was good, very good. The put parmesan cheese in their filling and it wasn’t too sweet. It was great. We stopped quickly at a grocery store to get dinner for our train ride home and then headed back to Rome. Once in Rome we realized they were doing work on the metro (only after 9PM) so we would have to take a substitute bus to get home. Busses are not an effective substitute for a metro system. It was very crowded and noisy and it often couldn’t stop to let more people on because the bus was full. We also just made it back just in time to catch the last connecting bus to the campsite because it took so much longer than the metro would have. Such a long day, such good sleep.

Our first stop on Wednesday was Vatican City and the Vatican Museums. The line was long but not nearly as long as I remember it being. Another time saving hint if you ever go to Rome: Go to the Vatican City post office and you can buy your entry ticket to the museums so you get to skip the line! Again we didn’t learn this until much later. We took our time and perused all of the galleries that we could. There is just so much art that after a while it becomes very overwhelming. We made our way down the endless length of hallway to finally arrive at the Sistine Chapel. You have to find a way to sit and look, otherwise you just might break your neck. You can only take mental pictures and I have enough to last a lifetime. It’s absolutely worth the wait and the walking down endless hallways to make your way. On the other side of the Sistine chapel they have a modern art exhibit with works by Dali, and several other well-known modern artists whose names I just can’t remember at the moment. We sat down in the cafeteria and enjoyed our bagged lunch before heading off to see the Spanish steps. We also stopped in the AS Roma store to see if there were still tickets for the game tonight. There were and the best part is that women get half price tickets! I counted 136 but supposedly there are 138. We were using today to finish off the list of must see in Rome. On the way to the Hard Rock (not a must see but rather a must purchase) we stumbled across the Capuchin Bone Chapel. The only reason we noticed it was because there was a line. It had been on my list of maybe see if there is time. It was so cool. Again another place you can’t take pictures but you should google it. From there we went to the Basilica St. John in Lateran. Very big and ornate, lots of marble and gold. Just next door to the basilica you can find the Holy Stairs. The stairs were taken from Pilates house in Jerusalem. There are drops of blood on the stairs that are believed to be the blood of Christ. The stairs are marble but have been covered with wood from the walnut tree to protect them. The only thing about these stairs is that you can only go up on your knees. After a moment of consideration I decided to take the challenge. It was a prayerful and focused journey up the 27 (maybe 29) steps. It was worth the effort and it left a mark on me spiritually. It’s the kind of journey a pilgrim should make. After that it was time to head to the soccer game. We took the tram to the stadium, found a little café that was full of people and bought some delicious pizza. We ate it as we walked to the stadium (the 1960 Olympic stadium). We made it through security, walked past the track field, which had awesome marble statues representing all the different sports. The game was great. AS Roma won and that made it even better. 3-1. They were playing Udinese. It was another long day. We took a bus directly from the stadium to our metro station corner where we still had to take another bus to get to the campsite, as usual. 

Vatican Museum Courtyard

Spanish Steps

AS Roma Match

The following day was our last full day in Rome. We started our day with our official tour of the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica. We had already been inside but we weren’t able to look around at much. We walked past the giant bronze doors. We saw Michelangelo’s Pieta and I was still as fascinated by it this time as the first time I saw it. We saw a replica while we were in Florence but nothing can do the real one justice. Then we stopped momentarily at the Chapel of St. Sebastian where Pope John Paul II is now entombed. We walked around the whole Basilica and saw lots of amazing art, many tombs of former Popes and more pilgrims than you can count. We ran into the Pastor of the church from Kenneth’s high school. Just goes to show you the world really isn’t that big. We left the church and just to the right (as you are exiting) there is a new area and it’s all about the history of the bible. They give you a guidebook that you have to return at the end but it explains everything. You start at the beginning and you get to see parts of the Dead Sea scrolls (so cool). Then you get to see lots of old torahs. There is a station that is all about the Gutenberg bible and how movable type changed the way the word of God moved around the world. I even got to print my own page of the bible using a replica of Gutenberg’s machine. The only problem with that was the ink was going to take two days to dry and I still had the rest of the day to walk around Rome. After that we took a bus to the Trastavere neighborhood to find some lunch. We had a nice lunch with wine for 10 euros apiece. First time we splurge on food and it’s our last day in the city. Then we walk from there across the Isola Tiberina (an island in the middle of the Tiber river) until we reach the Vittorio Emmanuel monument once again. We take the metro and find the Episcopal Church in Rome. They just happened to be having a choral concert later than afternoon so we wandered around a bit more and then headed back for the concert. It was nice music but I unfortunately was very tired and having a hard time staying awake. So rather than fall asleep during the concert we left to return to our campsite for the last night.

La Pieta by Michelangelo

My very own page of the Gutenberg bible

We woke up kind of early the next day, packed our things and checked out. We went to the grocery store across the street to get food for the trip home. Then we took the shuttle to the airport and that was that. We left Italy without a problem and arrived back in Georgia just in time to experience our second Easter. Hopefully I’ll go back again someday.