Toussaint Trip to Greece and Italy
*My roomie's comp crashed after I loaded my trip pics so my pics will be a little later than my posts!*
Back ! Wow, what an eventful little trip that was. I guess I’ll start from the beginning.
Friday night (22 oct) Kristin, Jamie and I took a night train to Rome. We got couchettes which are like a room with 3 bunkbeds on each wall (6 in total). Kristin and I took the top 2 bunks b/c we thought they looked fun… we had a Japanese family on the bottom 3 bunks and when my feet dangled over the edge of my bed the Japanese mother wrinkled her nose at us and said “stinky”. We thought that was hilarious b/c I had showered like one hr before that and there was no stink. The family went to bed at 9pm and we couldn’t sit in the dark so after much debate whether they had the right to turn off the lights, we decided we just wouldn’t stay up all night like we originally planned. Anyway, the journey was long and VERY hot and a little scary. I had heard lots of bad things about the dangers on trains and especially, night trains in Italy so I had Jamie and Kristin all paranoid about theft or gassing of our train car. I kept all the passports and money in my money belt and slept on it which made me even hotter.
We arrived in Rome at like 6:30 am and hung out at the train station for a while till stuff opened and it was light out. We decided to hit up the Vatican that day and arrived at the Vatican museums about 10AM. Woah, we walked up the longest line of our lives (like 5 city blocks) and but luckily the line moved quickly and we got in after an hour and a half. The Vatican museum is supposedly the largest museum in the world which I believe b/c it was exhausting, we walked and looked at beautiful art for what seemed like miles of walking. The museum was very crowded but we listened in on tour groups so it was a little more informative. Finally after 3 hrs of walking, we arrived in to the corridor of the Sistine Chapel. They made us put away our cameras and we were not allowed to speak. Walking in that room was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was sooooo amazing. People were so excited they could barely obey the silence rule and so the guards had to keep clapping their hands and saying silence. I sneaked some pics with my flash turned off but they didn’t turn out unfortunately. Next stop was Saint Peter’s Basilica. We saw the big outdoor area where the Pope does his weekly services and there must have been a nun convention b/c there were nuns EVERYwhere. They were cute though. There were nuns that looked younger than Kristin and I and it made us wonder how someone as young as them could know they wanted to devote themselves to a life of servitude. The Basilica was beautiful and we ended up sitting in on a little mass service for a few mins. We didn’t stay long b/c Kristin is atheist and I am not catholic so I had no clue what was going on. Jamie was just tired so we finally left. On our way out, we walked by a priest being interviewed by a very Italian looking reporter. He was wearing a blue snazzy suit and I decided to stare him in the eye to see if I could trip him up. It kinda worked- he looked confused, hehe. Next we ate at the world’s worst restaurant and so for dessert, we had some gelato to make up for it.
That night we took another night train to Brindisi, on the east coast of Italy. This time we had a first class cabin room with only our 3 beds. An employee woke us up with espresso which was fun. Poor Jamie got the top bunk and only had about one foot between his head and the roof of the train while lying down. We arrived in Brindisi in the pouring rain and bought ferry tickets to Corfu island in Greece. The ticket outlet promised that a shuttle ran every 30 mins to transport us to the ferry terminal but really it only came after 2 hrs so we sat, soaking wet and cold. Finally a dirty old bus came for us and took us to the terminal. On the ferry, which was like a small cruise ship. We met up with a guy from Vancouver (like Kristin) who went to Acadia (like me). He had met up with a 50 something yr old woman from Trinidad and we were all going to the same hostel on Corfu. The boat ride was brutal but Kristin gave me some gravol so I was fine. The crew told all the passengers to lay down b/c if we stood up we would surely get sick. We all got rocked to sleep until we woke up to the horrible sound of a man LOUDLY vomiting only 2 couches from us. That was it for Kristin and she got sick. I stayed okay, thank goodness. We arrived in Corfu where a shuttle from the hostel was supposed to pick us up. The shuttle driver told us she forgot the keys to the bus so we had to go in the back of her truck. It smelled like fish and we were packed in like sardines and it was a funny ride b/c the woman was whacko. We arrived at the Pink Palace to a huge party. As part of the check in process, you have to take a shot of pink Ouzo (Zambuca). It was a big shot and I spilled mine haha but it was a good start to our time at the Palace… TBC
Back ! Wow, what an eventful little trip that was. I guess I’ll start from the beginning.
Friday night (22 oct) Kristin, Jamie and I took a night train to Rome. We got couchettes which are like a room with 3 bunkbeds on each wall (6 in total). Kristin and I took the top 2 bunks b/c we thought they looked fun… we had a Japanese family on the bottom 3 bunks and when my feet dangled over the edge of my bed the Japanese mother wrinkled her nose at us and said “stinky”. We thought that was hilarious b/c I had showered like one hr before that and there was no stink. The family went to bed at 9pm and we couldn’t sit in the dark so after much debate whether they had the right to turn off the lights, we decided we just wouldn’t stay up all night like we originally planned. Anyway, the journey was long and VERY hot and a little scary. I had heard lots of bad things about the dangers on trains and especially, night trains in Italy so I had Jamie and Kristin all paranoid about theft or gassing of our train car. I kept all the passports and money in my money belt and slept on it which made me even hotter.
We arrived in Rome at like 6:30 am and hung out at the train station for a while till stuff opened and it was light out. We decided to hit up the Vatican that day and arrived at the Vatican museums about 10AM. Woah, we walked up the longest line of our lives (like 5 city blocks) and but luckily the line moved quickly and we got in after an hour and a half. The Vatican museum is supposedly the largest museum in the world which I believe b/c it was exhausting, we walked and looked at beautiful art for what seemed like miles of walking. The museum was very crowded but we listened in on tour groups so it was a little more informative. Finally after 3 hrs of walking, we arrived in to the corridor of the Sistine Chapel. They made us put away our cameras and we were not allowed to speak. Walking in that room was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was sooooo amazing. People were so excited they could barely obey the silence rule and so the guards had to keep clapping their hands and saying silence. I sneaked some pics with my flash turned off but they didn’t turn out unfortunately. Next stop was Saint Peter’s Basilica. We saw the big outdoor area where the Pope does his weekly services and there must have been a nun convention b/c there were nuns EVERYwhere. They were cute though. There were nuns that looked younger than Kristin and I and it made us wonder how someone as young as them could know they wanted to devote themselves to a life of servitude. The Basilica was beautiful and we ended up sitting in on a little mass service for a few mins. We didn’t stay long b/c Kristin is atheist and I am not catholic so I had no clue what was going on. Jamie was just tired so we finally left. On our way out, we walked by a priest being interviewed by a very Italian looking reporter. He was wearing a blue snazzy suit and I decided to stare him in the eye to see if I could trip him up. It kinda worked- he looked confused, hehe. Next we ate at the world’s worst restaurant and so for dessert, we had some gelato to make up for it.
That night we took another night train to Brindisi, on the east coast of Italy. This time we had a first class cabin room with only our 3 beds. An employee woke us up with espresso which was fun. Poor Jamie got the top bunk and only had about one foot between his head and the roof of the train while lying down. We arrived in Brindisi in the pouring rain and bought ferry tickets to Corfu island in Greece. The ticket outlet promised that a shuttle ran every 30 mins to transport us to the ferry terminal but really it only came after 2 hrs so we sat, soaking wet and cold. Finally a dirty old bus came for us and took us to the terminal. On the ferry, which was like a small cruise ship. We met up with a guy from Vancouver (like Kristin) who went to Acadia (like me). He had met up with a 50 something yr old woman from Trinidad and we were all going to the same hostel on Corfu. The boat ride was brutal but Kristin gave me some gravol so I was fine. The crew told all the passengers to lay down b/c if we stood up we would surely get sick. We all got rocked to sleep until we woke up to the horrible sound of a man LOUDLY vomiting only 2 couches from us. That was it for Kristin and she got sick. I stayed okay, thank goodness. We arrived in Corfu where a shuttle from the hostel was supposed to pick us up. The shuttle driver told us she forgot the keys to the bus so we had to go in the back of her truck. It smelled like fish and we were packed in like sardines and it was a funny ride b/c the woman was whacko. We arrived at the Pink Palace to a huge party. As part of the check in process, you have to take a shot of pink Ouzo (Zambuca). It was a big shot and I spilled mine haha but it was a good start to our time at the Palace… TBC
posted by Meghan @ 2:17 p.m.
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