So I'm going to give you a combined recap of London and Rome since London was the 20th of November to the 23rd and Rome was the 28th to the 1st of December. I did way too much traveling in November I was in Ireland probably 15 days out of the 30 of that month. Yes I took advantage of my time here pretty well to discover the continent. Though there are still a good number of places I haven't gone. And others that I want to return to explore more. I can't post up any photos just yet of these since my photo library program is down. However when I get home I'll fix it and post them for you to see. I just don't feel like calling tech support right now when I'll be home in a while. I know this post is long overdue but I've been pretty busy packing and getting the internet to work and I needed a few days to recover from all the traveling.
Claire came with me to London-we were going to stay with a elderly couple-John and Peg Vint. Peg was a native of Ireland but she married John a native Londoner. So Ireland and England finally were united in peace. :) John is pretty close to being 90 and I think Peg is pretty close to being in her 80s. Though the two don't really look much older than their 60s and move around very well for their age. I was a bit worried that driving around with them would be one of those hold your breath and hope to god you don't die experiences but they can drive like normal people and age hasn't caught up with them that they pull one of those scary driving things that your grandparents do that makes you want to take away their keys. We flew into London Heathrow which is a pretty big airport all things considered. We were picked up by John and Peg and we drove around the Windsor garden grounds, and through a few little old cute villages before heading to their house in Slough. Unlike the cracker jack box houses that are slapped together and hideous as can be in the states the houses here are small but each has their own individuality. All are very nice little houses. John and Peg were very kind to us to let us stay with them-we met them on the Aran Islands back in August and they offered to take us around London and told us to come visit them for a long weekend. I couldn't believe they'd actually were serious about it considering they just met us. But they became fast friends with us and yes there is that huge age difference but I seem to get along with people older than me pretty well. One of my friends tells me it's because I'm "such an old lady". Figures you go wandering about graveyards, knit and watch black and white movies and don't go out past midnight and you're pegged as an old lady for life. Oh well. I don't mind I never was one of those super trendy in the high fashion kids who only hung out with young people. I do spend time with people my own age but I find a lot of my friends are older. I know my roommate seemed to feel a bit awkward with it, not really knowing how much to share or not or how to really deal with the fact of a age difference to warrant a very different perspective on life. But they took very good care of us and showed us all the sites and I got a full history of the city and things in it. John thought he was rambling too much but I had no problem listening and asking questions of him. He was like one of those history audio books that never ended. I really liked it. Peg did the same but she told us a lot about Ireland since she knew more on that. In turn we told them about our lives and experiences. I tried mince pie for the first time, drank more tea than I ever had in one weekend, ate more food than I probably needed to in one sitting but it was all amazing. I really liked London-there was quite a bit of it I didn't get to see that I wanted to but that was fine I have something else to take me back again. I saw Windsor Castle, most of Slough, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, the Tower of London, Parliament, Big Ben (which is actually the name of Parliament but eventually was attached to the clock hence the name), went on the London underground, saw a good deal of Eaton, and went through numerous parks.
The Brits are pretty interesting on the whole, I didn't come across any telling me to go back home Yank or that they hate me for the Boston Tea Party so it appears they're pretty much over that now. Unlike some of our southern counterparts (hint hint subtle hint). They have loads of antique shops and ship out loads of it to the States for our own antique shops and still have plenty to fill up whole castles with and then some. But don't get me wrong I love antiques and it's probably a good thing I wasn't allowed any time to stop in there or I'd never have made it back to Ireland with all of the stuff I would want. If you ever wanted to know who came up with crazy uniforms I'd probably say the Brits because the boys going to school wear what you'd think looks like a tux to school. Or a conductor of an orchestra. One of the two. On the whole they're all very helpful and nice and always ask if you're on holiday if you're there. (That is if you're an American). I ran into some of the Queen's soldiers collecting donations for the troops and kids for Christmas so I donated all my spare change to them. I sort of wish they were around the airport before I left I had about 5 pounds worth in coins to dump off. Very polite and nice I felt bad for them in a way since in a week or so they had to ship out again and they'd be gone for Christmas. Funny thing though most of the English are more than ready to let Northern Ireland go.....
Rome: I never have been more freaked out going somewhere than Rome. Paris wasn't much of an issue because I was going to stick to the more touristy areas and the French know the value of an American dollar so they know enough French. The Romans well bless their hearts they still think they own the world in a sense. I'm sure not all Romans feel this way but most of the ones I ran into seemed to come off that way. Perhaps it's because the recession but either way I had never been around so many people that were just downright rude as the Romans. Even the ones harassing you to buy a umbrella when you told the guy just two steps behind him no was rude. And stay away from the guys dressed up as Roman gladiators if you don't want them trying to seduce you to be their next Roman princess. Or make you pay 5 euro for taking a photo with them. I can photoshop you in when I snap your photo from away into my posed photo. So I will keep my 5 euros thank you very much :) The Vatican was sort of my last stop I knew if I could walk in there and not be axed down for not being a proper practicing Christian I could go anywhere without worry. Of course I sort of forgot about the whole Pope-not-liking-Harry-Potter thing. Guess who walked up to the security thing wearing a Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sweatshirt? Me. I almost thought if anything they'd have put that on the sign about dress codes since they already put you can't wear skirts or tshirts, have sharp blunt objects but you can carry a huge umbrella. I could've sworn NO HARRY POTTER would've fit in there somewhere. Emily noticed I was wearing it and was about ready to just up and leave me. She promised if I got kicked out she'd act like she had no idea who I was. I was definitely feeling her love....not really. I went through the security and they didn't say a thing in fact the guy running the machine was spacing out and the one watching the metal detector was smoking and talking on his cell phone. Great security. I feel bad for the nuns, priests and Pope. These guys are a joke.
I got in even with my Harry Potter sweatshirt-success! I started to think they either didn't notice or just didn't really give a flying flip. Either way I was happy I didn't have to attempt to have a discussion lost in translation in Italian since I don't know any. First off we went into the Pope's tomb-and they weren't kidding it is like a tomb. It is deep below the Vatican and holds the remains of Popes going back even before the 13th Century. All held in large marble or stone casings sealed shut for eternity. Each one appears to be larger than the next and more elaborate as to the designs and sayings on them. The more recent ones are massive and bodyguards stand by the latest Pope since they figure someone would want to get smart and try to steal the body. After going out of the Pope's tomb we ended up in this large open area where the Pope does mass and where Pope Peter is buried. He's got this massive wooden structure decorated in gold ivy and other designs looming over his tomb. I've never seen such large ceilings they had to be over 100 feet if not more. I felt like a tiny little thing there. Everything is covered in gold, marble, mosaic tiles, massive statues and paintings, phrases in Latin that I don't understand; the whole place was so lavish it was a bit overwhelming. We also went up over 600 steps I think in all it had to be about over a few thousand by the time we got back down. Though the view at the top was worth seeing even though it was quite windy. No tall sky scrapers just a lot of old rustic styled and those clay tiled roofs. The air was warm up there, certainly a lot warmer than it was back in Ireland. After getting back down again and feeling a wee bit lop sided from walking sideways down the stairs, we went into the big atrium area and took some more photos before heading on a few hour search to get to the Sistine Chapel. You'd think it would've been pretty easy to find when we found it labeled on the map. Oh no. Not the case. Even with signs that pointed to well nowhere, we still didn't find it. After asking directions we still didn't find it which makes me think the directions sucked just about as much as the map did. We came to the conclusion that it must've been housed through some other museum part and it required extra payment to see. We gave up and decided to walk around and see the Castle which appears in Angels and Demons. We saw a few super skinny super models doing a photo shoot on the bridge in massive dresses. I was thinking maybe a prom shoot but then again it wasn't anywhere near prom so maybe a really strange wedding dress. It was a pretty dress don't get me wrong but corsets are just bad news. After a few more hours of wandering and seeing the other sights of Rome like the Colosseum, Fountain de Trevi, the Pantheon and a few others the next day we got back on the plane and flew to Ireland over the Alps which was a very pretty thing to see. You want some snow capped mountains that trump all the others the Alps surely do that. After arriving back through the mists I saw the green rolling hills, spray painted bottomed sheep and knew I was back in Ireland. After that we hopped on a bus back to Galway and crashed. Success.
So that's London and Rome I know it's a bit shorter in the sense of not covering every detail but really it's a lot to cram in and make it short enough for all of you to read :)
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