Exploring Venice

Greetings from Venice!!! So I am in the middle of my European back packing adventure. It was funny because you hear of students going on back packing trips throughout Europe to “find themselves” and I am not sure since I am in the real world with a job and all if I can say that I am out here trying to find myself. But I do pray that this alone time with God will help me to clear my head and look towards the future.

The trip thus far has been uneventful in a good way, God has watched over me with safe travels and health so for that I am thankful. Venice is absolutely amazing, and has found its place on my top five cities in the world for sure. I would rank them in no particular order of Cape Town (South Africa), Bagan (Myanmar), Rio De Janero (Brazil), Venice and of Course North Richland Hills (Texas. And Abilene has to rank up there close!!!!

After arriving early in the morning around 9:30am of course my room wasn’t ready but I was able to talk them into giving me a room with air conditioning (you would be surprised at how many of the hotel rooms in Europe do not have air conditioning even the nicer ones.

Venice as I am sure you know has no streets big enough for cars and therefore there cars are boats. They have a fantastic public boat system where you can jump on and off just about anywhere to get to where you need to go. But really unless you are going from one side of Venice to another or one of the close by islands there is really no need to even do that just walk. It’s funny at night when I am walking down ones of the canal walkways or sitting at a restaurant I would see smaller personal boats cruising by with teenagers in them with some florescent light bulbs inside and load music making them kind of personalized. But I had to wonder if I was raised in Venice and not North Richland Hills Texas which means I would not have gotten a Z71 pickup I wonder what type my first boat would be? My guess probably something fast (you know me something really impractical knowing that you have to go slow with all of the traffic and winding canals in Venice, kind of like me getting a half ton 4 by 4 pickup truck to drive everyday in the city)!!!!

I think one of the reasons I feel in love with Venice is simply because it is a classy city. In all ways, which I really can’t at this time think of another city in the world that pulls it off half as much as Venice does. Take the architecture for example. It has its own personality during the day and is transformed at night. Saint Marks square is amazing. During the day it is full of hundreds of tourists taking photos, enjoying the surroundings and feeding the pigeons. Now this is really funny to me. For several reasons first of the last meal I had at Magi (my driver in Egypt) house one of the many entrees served was Pigeon. But there they are in Saint Marks square hundreds of them being feed by the hoards of tourists. So much so they are climbing all of the tourists on their arms their heads every where. I wish my nieces were here they would for sure have a good time playing with them. But I like Saint Marks square even better a night, which is probably a sight that is not seen by almost all of the tourists coming here via cruise ship because they always leave before dinner time. But it transforms there are these three bar/restaurants strategically located apart from each other in the square with each one have a band stand with a five piece band playing all kinds of classical music. The waiters in real tuxes (not those cheap banquet looking ones) and serving a variety of drinks on silver trays. Being a waiter in Europe is usually a career not just something that is done in college so there is a distinction that is clearly made here the waiters that have been working there for years get to wear the black bow tie and the ones that are newer probably easier to say middle aged are wearing white ones. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of party that is thrown when they get to change colors of their ties?

There are all kinds of ways of getting around the canals though there are the water taxis or private boats zooming around, the gondolas slowing moving down the canal some times with a guy singing and another guy playing the accordion. But once you get towards the area where it gets more open it is amazing with all of the boats zooming by, the gondolas gentle floating around and the super yachts docked alongside. It really makes me feel like I am in middle of that old James Bond movie. Speaking of super yachts I saw the biggest one I think that I have ever seen. It had tons of security around it and one day they were even taking boats out from the side of the interior of the boat for people to go ashore. I also saw the MV Voyager which has now been renamed the Grand Voyager which is the sister ship to the MV Explorer which is the one we took around the world for Semester at Sea. It is an identical shop besides the paint which it is now all white but pretty cool to see it.

I took one of the boats over to Merano today. It is also amazing you can see the island from Venice and Merano is where they make the glass objects. Everything from Bowls, to sculpture and jewelry. It is pretty cool watching them blow them into shapes and seeing the final products the chandeliers are amazing and a price tag that goes along with it. Later I headed back over to Saint Marks square and when headed back to the hotel I was walking right in between all of the fancy stores like LV, Gucci and Channel. There was some famous or big wig Asian in Channel because there was lots of private security with them but I didn’t recognize them.

I am excited about dinner tonight, my hotel has told me of what they call a true Italian restaurant with lots of locals so I am going to head there later. The food has been pretty fantastic thus far and I have been eating lots of pizza and pasta!!!

OK well I guess that’s all for now. I am headed next to Florence but I am extending my stay here in Venice to get some more time to enjoy the city.

All for now.

Ciao,

Chad

When in Rome!!!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do….or something like that. After arriving really late at the main bus and train station by my hotel I was then given the task of actually trying to find it. It was kind of funny because there wasn’t really a lot of people around but sure enough there was a taxi soon to come by and take me on my way. Which was only a couple of streets over.

The very next morning I headed to the center center part of town getting out of the Metro and right in front of me there it is the Coliseum. Pretty cool to think of how old it is and the history (which at the time I didn’t know that was behind it). I decided that exploring by foot just wasn’t going to cut it so with my map with the main tourists sites highlighted I jumped on a bus that was the same number that the hotel told me would take me to a couple of areas in the city with really good food. It wasn’t before long that I had passed over the river and obviously had arrived at a really high end part of town with beautiful huge villas with all of the architecture one would expect from a grandiose Roman Villa. This was about how my trip continued throughout my stay in Rome. There is just so much to do and see that I basically continued on with my map in hand jumping on and off of buses throughout the city seeing the sites.

It is aprearently Tourist season in Rome, (like Rome actually has a low season I am not sure if that is possible) but anyways as they say it is tourist season in Rome. I am not sure why, the kids are all about to be back in school and the weather is hot. But for some reason hundreds of thousands of us decided now is the perfect time of year to come and explore what the city has to offer. This is though so of the most fun I had watching the people from so many different cultures and nationalities all looking like tourists.

The people as a whole do not speak very much English and the locals you see just walking down the street rarely if ever both to try and speak any English or help you find your way they simple say I don’t speak-a-the-English!!! This being said it was actually kind of funny I actually caught myself numerous times turning to Arabic when people would say they didn’t speak English. I mean back home I would in the past turn to Spanish, and at the office so many people speak a little Arabic so it is almost spoken as a joke of sorts. But boy did I get some funny looks because Arabic was truly foreign to people as you could tell on their faces when I would try to use another language.

There were so many interesting things even just culturally in Rome that I experienced. Such as there are rarely connivance stores as we know them carry everything from Chips to minor car accessories, or house detergents. In Rome its all about the serious food and serious drink. So in what would be our equivalent to a typical connivance store they have a bar that usually always has two or three people at it. And when I say bar it typically is not alcohol they are drinking. Usually coffee or such and always a small glass of water. But there are no chairs and people don’t seem to plan on staying for long. You would just come in have a "quick cup of coffee" and be on your way. No to go cups, or machine made drinks here.

I got to admit one of the biggest things as I am sure as most people when coming to Italy what I was most excited about was the culinary aspect. I am a self proclaimed "foody" and I was really excited to eat genuine Italian food. Wonder how it would be like compared to that of "The Olive Garden". While on the plan over here I was thinking in a way that is kind of a funny name Olive Garden, I mean Olives and Italian food, I mean ok maybe olive oil but anyhow. While also on the plane I was talking to this person from Rome asking them if they had been to the states and if they had eaten at our famous Olive Garden restaurant, they said yes to going to NYC but no to this Olive Garden (let me say at this point I love Olive Garden and will continue to be a patron of this restaurant just using this as an example because when I think of Italian food and America it is the name that comes to mind)……..anyhow I was asking about restaurants and the do’s and don’ts. They told me don’t eat around the tourists sites and a true Italian would never eat at any restaurant that had photos of its food outside. So I decided that this was a pretty good rule of thumb for my trip. My first true Italian meal was at this little restaurants (I actually never saw the restaurant or kitchen itself as it was only some tables outside under a covered area). I asked the waiter if they had lasagna he said hold on one second and yelled out to this man in plan clothes, who replied no. This happened to be the owner. I decided to have pizza. It was fantastic, with big chunks of Garlic that really made all the difference. The pizza was interesting though because it didn’t have any cheese on it (later I did have a pizza with some cheese and some are served covered in cheese but it is not a requirement as I had thought) and it also was not sliced. The food was excellent with a nice white wine to go with and the price was not your typical tourist trap meal. Later the owner came by to check on me, and I was for sure happy with my true Italian meal. Others have varied; dinners are a lot more formal and I have to admit would be a lot more fun if I had family or friends to experience it with. All of the waiters are career waiters wanting after you order your pasta what you going to have for your meal. And one of my favorite things are that the pasta sauces are called that it’s called "Gravy". Another memorable meal was had with a fantastic Chianti a true Italian wine and as the waiter called it the house Tiramisu.

The Vatican was an experience as my hotel told me I needed to get there early they said leave around 8am or else I would have to wait 2 hours. I arrived about that time and the line is amazing I am not sure how to describe it or if I have ever seen one this long. There was a typical Western family right behind me with three kids complaining about the waiting the mom reading the guide book and the dad talking about how he was sick of the people asking him if they wanted a private tour. The line ended up taking an hour and forty five minutes. Again I was not sure what I was expecting from my Vatican tour, I for sure wasn’t expecting the 13 Euro or $18USD admission fee with the thousands of people in line I mean this place had to be making more then six flags, I had heard that the Catholic church was the richest corporation in the world and now I can see why. So the tour (minus the tour guide) is a set of long winding halls connected with stair cases full of all kinds of sculptures and statues. With amazing paintings on all of the ceilings (each of which had been commissioned from a Pope throughout the years). Interesting collections of sculptures too like really random things like one filled with a hole bunch of animal statues usually all made out of marble or similar stone. All in all an interesting tour I mean some of the rugs or tapestries if you want to call them were huge works of art that were hundreds of years old and each telling a different religious story. As I was walking into the Vatican I heard someone saying that they were curious to see if anything had changed at the Vatican besides there own perception or experience of it since the last time they were there was almost 25 years ago and almost everything on display is at least a couple hundred years old. Which made me wonder if God blessed me with the opportunity to return what my own perception, thoughts or experience there would be.

I explored more of the city and funny enough by this point my feet have gotten completely sore and exhausted so every once in a while I would just jump on the bus if nothing else just to sit down.

Onto the Coliseum complex and the memorial for the fallen soldier which were defiantly two of my favorites. Starting with the memorial for the fallen soldier and I am sure that there is a special name for it but I can’t remember it. This is the huge white memorial in the center of town right next to the coliseum with the Roman soldier on the horse in the center above a million stairs and at the very top on both corners the two chariots with the horses. This is truly a masterpiece and a national treasure for Italy. They built it over a hundred years ago so pretty new compared to the Coliseum and a lot of its surroundings. This huge statue of the Roman soldier on the horse was interesting the sculpture who was commissioned to build it as the story goes got in several arguments with the architect in charge of the overall building of the project in terms of its size and how realistic it looked. The sculpture ended up taking almost like 10 years to do and half way through the original guy who was commissioned to build it died so it had to be taken on by someone else. Finally it was complete and today is simply amazing.
From there you can make your way to the ruins where the center has a natural spring coming out from the side of the mountain. There is an ongoing joke that people play on tourists…..where they ask the tourists don’t they think that water is expensive in Rome…..some people answer of course not wanting to look dumb as if the bottle water in Rome was more expensive then else where in the world. But the reality is like this spring in particular and throughout the city there are these little faucets in different shapes and sizes in the street or attached to buildings on the side of the road that are constantly running cold water for people to be able to fill up a water bottle or rinse there face. This came in handy because it was soo hot especially in middle of the day I was constantly drinking tons of water.

Anyways the most impressive part to me in this area is the Coliseum. One of the new wonders of the world and a magnificent piece of art that you can still see today. Amazing though you wouldn’t know my looking at it today but when it was originally built on the outside and inside it was interially white from the type of stone that was used today it is not this color. The story behind it is equally interesting the Emperor at the time and of course I can’t remember his name had this lavish estate that was rather large built on land that he had claimed from his people on this estate was this lake where the Coliseum was built. To give back to his people and be seen as a nice guy he donated the lake back to the people and order that the Coliseum be built. So the lake was drained and it was built but where the water was is where they actually housed the animals and slaves and things that would be fighting or entertaining the crowds in the stands.
And I have got to say that walking into the mezzanine entering the Coliseum was pretty chilling to say the least. It was almost if you closed you eyes while you were waling in you could almost smell and here the crowds and picture the people entering and cheering back in the day.

On a side not although there is not a lot of police presence I have got to give it to the Police in Rome they do a good job keeping the riff raft out of the city. It was so funny watching throughout the city there is these groups of individuals from Africa standing alongside random sides of the streets sometimes just holding this large sheet filled with things over their shoulders and looking out real seriously. And other times standing in a row in the sun side by side with the sheet all laid out and designer purses nicely laid out in some kind of orderly fashion. That being said I am not sure the penalty for these people for selling these knock offs but it must be good cause they sure have these guys scared.

I guess my last note about Rome will be about a memory I had. I remember back in college (2005) that when the Pope died and watching on TV all of the hundreds of thousands of people that were lined up to pay their respect and the huge open air court yard type area with the building with the balcony where the new Pope came out onto when he was selected. I realized that I hadn’t seen this. So I went back after it. It is even bigger in person and has two huge fountains you can enter the main cathedral from her e where the Pop gives Sunday Mass at as well as next to it is where they have all of the Popes buried. I went through and saw all of them with notes next to them with dates and names and stories about the individuals. Then I headed into the Cathedral which really was amazing the art work and the enormously high arched ceilings and the statues. They were currently having an afternoon mass at the very back and I walked in and listened. Although I couldn’t understand any of it, not knowing if it was in Greek or Italian but it was interesting anyways to attend a mass service at the Vatican. I can’t even begin to describe the enormity of this Cathedral it really was impressive.
Well I will leave it with that.

As I finish up typing I am currently in Venice and loving it. It is in the run now if I continue to love the city over the next couple of days as much as I have now for my top 5 favorite cities in the world.

All for now.

Ciao

Chad

Barcelona and Beyond!!!!

Hola from Barcelona, well actually that is a lie I am on a plane half way between Barcelona and Rome so maybe I should be saying Ciao from Rome. Anyways Barcelona was an interesting city and sine I actually flew in and out of Girona I guess I can say I have seen a little bit of Spain.
I was fortunate to have well traveled parents and a hip father for that matter that told me where the coolest area in town is to stay. It is in the heart of the city in an area around this main street called Las Ramblas.

But first let me say that I can’t drag luggage through a subway without remembering Evan’s and my trip to Washington DC where we lugged like four pieces each through one of the busiest subways in the US. But that’s a whole nother story.

Barcelona is of course not what I expected although I am not sure exactly what that is. Las Ramblas is a long street with all kinds of stuff going on. From street performers doing crazy things or just dressed funny and standing still to flower stands, to even pet stands. OK that’s one that I have never seen is pet stands in middle of the street.

Since Barcelona recently hosted the Olympics here they have a fantastic public transportation system which is great because I bought a pass and was able to explore a whole bunch of the city. I guess for sure one thing that I was really caught off guard by was these huge pig legs that they have dried and are hanging in every restaurant, bar or grocery store. Which was quit different because this is not the kind of thing I am a custom to in the Middle East. In fact it made me really wonder what a Muslim visiting the country would think of.

So what else to talk about. Oh the typical Spanish dish Tappas!!! I know in Texas some restaurants open and serve Tappas and it is very trendy although going against the grain because Texans like big portions and Tappas are anything but. But anyways, I can not say that I support the whole Tappas idea from mainly what all I saw was food that was prepaired that was a little over a bit size or two along a bar like setting in all of the restaurants. The problem here is that they are all like cold. And for those of you that have been here or for that matter my Spanish friend Vivan your going to say no wait a minute there are hot Tappas and yes there are but a lot of the restaurants hot Tappas are in warmers in front of the counter as well. So I guess as you can tell I am not a Tappas fan, give me a home cooked meal or at least made to order meal for that matter.

So onto the Sangria Familia which is the famous church designed by Gaudi that is on every post card that you get from Barcelona. After like several hundreds of years they are still building on it. It was kind of funny like the Sphinx in Cairo from all of the photos you see for some reason you have this larger then life impression of what it is going to look like. But you get there and it is big but not the size for some reason you had put into your heads. It was kind of funny because it is located in this neighborhood with a kind of small park next to it. And some how in all of the post cards there is this perfect photo of it . Well I had a little trouble getting like half of it in my photos and you can forget about being able to get back enough to be able to be in the photo with it. But anyways I was just a little surprised to say the least.

Well on to the beach exploring their own style of board walk and beach where you can watch the cruise ships come in and out of like South beach in Miami. I enjoyed a traditional Spanish glass of Sangria and felt like a true Spainyard well as much as one as a white boy from Texas can. But you get the point.

Well I guess thats all for now. I will do an update later about my time in Rome.

Chad

PS - I have added a bunch of new photos so check them out