Dia daoibh!
Is mise Jimmy. Is as Meiriceá ó dhúchas mé ach tá mé i mo chónaí in árasán i nGaillimh.
Sorry; I'm trying to use the Irish I know in more everyday situations, so why not start with this blog? (enquire further for translations)
So...it's been a little over two weeks since I last posted, and I figure I should probably fill you in on some Irish life. Galway is as gorgeous as ever, but you don't want to hear me rant about the beauty of Ireland for another twenty posts; you wanna' hear some crazy stories.
Well...in order for the crazy to begin...I have to take you to a little place I like to call "Rome". Now, let me fill you in on what I thought Rome was: a bunch of loud, hand-gesturing individuals handing you pizzas, pastas, and gelati as wine flooded the cobblestone streets. Lots of individuals riding mopeds as you waved happily at them as they drove by. Basically, what I'm trying to say is I had the quintessential ignorant foreigner view of Rome. This weekend made me realize how off my impression was. Now, before I begin, I want to say overall that Rome is an amazing city and the experiences we had were wonderful, but there were some interesting...slightly negative experiences (but who doesn't have those?). First thing I noticed about Rome: a LOT of graffiti. And not like the cool artistic kind, but a lot of random tags with people's names, Italian phrases, cuss words, and phone numbers. I was slightly surprised.
In terms of food and drink, Rome houses! I ate my body weight in pizza and pasta and drank my share of wines galore. Every restaurant we went to provided us with really hospitable service, wonderful food, and great atmosphere over all; if you ask any of us on the trip, food and drink probably are our fondest memories of the city. Also, who can deny all of the wonderful historical sites we saw. In 2 days, our group managed to see the Colosseum, The Arch of Constantine, The Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, AND The Spanish Steps!! The Colosseum is pretty stellar, I'm not gonna' lie. You walk out of the metro station and facing you is the overpowering, towering masterpiece of the arena; it's a pretty breathtaking site. The Arch sits right next to the Colosseum, so you get a great 2-for-1 deal of Italian historical madness. Funny enough, the Arch was one of the sites I was most looking forward to and was one of my favorite stops on the trip. I always looked at it as the smaller, not-as-appreciated-or-well-known brother to the Colosseum. The Arch is absolutely HUGE; all of my pictures in front of it look like I'm an ant about to be crushed. Anyway, the Colosseum is amazing to get a view of that part of town and to immerse yourself in a pretty fundamental part of Western Civilization (man, I hated that class).
The Trevi Fountain, at both day and night, became our sanctuary on the trip. Our goal was to eat gelato at the fountain at night time as the crowds began to die, and that's exactly what we did (but more on that in a moment). The Trevi Fountain rocks because (1) you get to make a wish, (2) gelato shops ALL around it, (3) Lizzie Mcguire movie was filmed there (okay, so that one I don't actually care about but that was a shout out for a friend). So many people come to see the fountain; it feels like braking through a maze of people just to see the water! But, I completely recommend anybody going to Rome to go check it out. Oh! And we went again later at night to have some gelato and I must say the fountain only gets more beautiful as the day goes on. The Spanish Steps are beautiful also; we arrived at the top of the steps and didn't even realize at first we were standing on them! You can look out and see so much of Rome's city from the very top, and we happened to catch the steps as the sun began to set so it pretty much felt like your typical romantic comedy film. The steps are definitely a hike, but it's so worth it to see both the top and bottom view. Looking up from the bottom, all you see is the beautiful construction of the steps as they lead up to what looks like Heaven (but it's really just a metro stop).
And, of course, how can I forget the freakin' Vatican?? Let me just say this, criticize as many do about the wastefulness and elaborate nature of the Vatican...it's pretty damn beautiful! Now, I am not the biggest fan of over-excess in the world, but I definitely recommend going to see the Vatican at some point. We sneaked some photographs in the Sistine Chapel, gallivanted in St. Peter's square, and one of my friends almost managed to take out a nun while she was looking at the basilica. And, as we were leaving, we saw a rainbow arch over the square.
Okay, sorry, long and unnecessary rants (and I promised I wouldn't rave about beauty anymore...sorry...). So, here are some crazy stories. One thing about Rome that gets annoying is the amount of people on the street who will literally just approach you and get in your face about buying things, selling things, stealing things, etc. At the metro station on our first day, some dude walks up and begins trying to help us buy our train tickets and take our money and work the machine for us. We were all in such shock of what happened that at the end when he asked us to pay him for his services, we didn't have time to process what had just occurred. On the Spanish Steps, I had a guy approach me by grabbing my arm and beginning to tie strings around my finger as he rants about each string meaning love, luck, and something else. I had been warned about people trying to pickpocket with these distractions, so luckily everything I needed was in my inner jacket pockets and not in my back pockets. As the guy wraps, he begins to do the demonstration to another friend of mine. As I am about to walk back up the steps and away from this one guy, another creep comes along, taps me on the shoulder, and tries to do the same thing! I showed the guy my string and tried to walk away, but he proceeded to follow me asking me for ten euro for their help. I said no, but the man continued to pace right behind me as I tried to walk away. In a frustrated confusion, I offered the guy a euro and then proceeded to (I will admit in a slightly rude way) cut him off and tell him he didn't deserve anything more than that, and that euro was pushing it. Luckily, the guys backed off and we managed to leave unharmed.
Later that night...
I was walking back to my hostel with the group. We walk up behind these two guys who looked like they were going to a club for the night; very unassuming people. At one point, the guys slowed down and I ended up accidentally bumping into the one. I apologized as I turned to leave, and I felt a hand pull on the back of my shirt and try to feel for a pocket. Quickly reacting, I knocked the guy's hand away and gave him the biggest death stare this side of the hemisphere. He proceeded to walk ahead and then he and his bigger friend cut off the sidewalk into the middle of the road, staring at me as they walked away. I was in mid conversation with my friend as all this happened, and the moment was so fast that nobody realized what was just happening. After asking me why I got so quiet, I explained the situation and told the group to keep possession of all their stuff. Luckily, that was the last of our creeper problems while in Rome.
Overall, Rome is a great city with a lot of European character and charm, but I do advise that anybody going just always be aware, and always know where your things are. This should be the case everywhere, but Rome gave me a nice reminder of the beauty of safe traveling.
Phew! If you read all that..God bless you. Tomorrow marks the official half-way point of our trip, and I have a lot of mixed emotions. But that will come up in my next post which I'm probably going to write in ten minutes.
With Irish Blessings,
Jim Jam
No comments:
Post a Comment