im going to begin this post with a bit of an introduction. today, we went to the vatican museum. it was super exciting and i have a lot to recount for all of you. another very exciting thing happened today, however. i'm completely done booking my trips! after 349823904823 years ive finally finished booking every single weekend til its time for me to go back to new york. so this post will begin with a recount of my day with some pictures and then a detailed schedule of where I will be every weekend so yall can look forward to hearing about each thing.
lisa, collin, and i left corso trieste a little before noon and headed over to the vatican. yup, we left italy for a little while. anyhow, we got to the vatican in record time and decided to hit up i musei vaticani (the vatican museums) because we figured that would probably be the first of all the things to close. It was just as i remember it- SO much art and filled with so many people that you can barely enjoy yourself. The first statue we encountered that really struck my fancy was the Laocoön which, according to collin, is pretty much THE statue that everyone tries to copy. this is the best i could do when trying to capture it though there are so many k people's heads in it.
we pretty much tried to speed through the vatican museum since it was so crowded and there were like 324233429842390482 people all smelly, sweaty, and mostly American. this is the ceiling of the map room. to be honest, one of the things that impressed me most about the vatican museum is that there are no boring areas. every single wall and ceiling is completely covered in ornate art, whether it be statues, wall carvings, or frescoes.
another very famous fresco is Raphael's School of Athens. my handy little guide book that i spent hours choosing in barnes and noble was quite useful today because it served as out tour guide throughout the vatican museum so that we didn't have to pay for one. anyhow, here's the school of athens.
within the vatican museum there are also many pieces of art that make you think, hm someone mustve really wanted to give something but couldn't quite figure out what to give. well here's the perfect example. randomly, we come across this statue of two swans that were deemed the mute swans of peace.
after a few hours, we finally finish the museum and then head out to grab a bite to eat. afterwards, we walked over to Piazza San Pietro to take pictures of the square and basilica. this is me and collin in front of the basilica
we decide to head over to the tombs of the popes before actually entering the basilica. off to the side, theres this random entrance to a room under the basilica where you can see where all the popes are buried, including saint peter. when you first enter the tombs, theres a statue of St. Peter. I don't know why but I decided to take a picture with this dude.
of course, I was most excited by seeing the grave of PJP2 but actually getting to see the burial site of st. peter was pretty amazing. this is both the covering of PJP2's grave as well as the lil room he occupies.
PJP2 has pretty prime realty down there cause he has a pretty, lit up lil room quite close to St. Peter himself. Here are some pictures of St. Peter's Tomb. this is the area that is directly underneath the high altar and it didn't use to be open to the public.
After finishing up in the tombs, the three of us decided to hit up the Basilica. Of course, the first thing you admire when you walk into the basilica is the pieta. a beautiful statue, this area of the church is ALWAYS crowded! well anyhow, here's a picture to remind everyone what this magnificent statue is.
another very popular picture is that of the high altar of St. Peter. Here's me and lisa with the altar.
I, luckily, got to experience a lot of things today while at the vatican. First, there was confession. I didn't confess simply cause my last experience was a lil painful and awkward but collin did. i also got to experience mass in the church. last time i was there, I didn't get to experience this. Though Benny wasn't presiding during this mass, it was kind of cool to experience a Mass that was being celebrated on the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica. The mass was in Italian, but surprisingly I could still understand the main idea of the readings. anyhow, here's a picture of the window above the altar, all lit up during sunset.
so after we finished there, i sent some postcards to my sister and mom since the vatican's postage is different from the rest of the world. we then headed back home since we were all so so tired from being such tourists for the last 4 or so days. at this point, we finished booking everything! it's so nice to have all this stuff just be finished and done with and not have to worry about any of it anymore. I'll end this post with a detailed calendar of what the next 3 months are looking like for me.
oct 5- ITALIAN COOKING CLASS woot. im learning how to cook! our program provides two separate cooking classes and mine is this coming thursday. i can't wait to learn how to cook real food.
oct 6-8 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN forgive me for repeating to those of you who have already read my past entries, but this will be my second time in stockholm this year and i can't be more excited!
oct 13-15 BARCELONA, SPAIN finally going to spain! i wish i could go visit jess in madrid, but unfortunately i only have enough time to make it to barcelona. so so excited for sangria and paella. (battaline is coming on this one which makes it doubly exciting!)
oct 20-22 NAPOLI, THE AMALFI COAST, AND POMPEII last time i came to italy, we skipped everything south of rome. lame, i know, but now is my chance to experience all of that stuff. we already took care of sorrento and capri last weekend, but now its time do get the rest done.
oct 27-29 BRUSSELS AND BRUGES, BELGIUM brussels! though i never knew much about it brussels has always been one of those places i wanted to go to. and now i finally am! also props to my sister, the big AC, for recommending Bruges, we're going to be in brussels for almost 3 full days which i think is more than enough to see everything we need to in brussels, so we will be heading out to bruges for one of the days to make our fall break a bit more productive.
oct 29-Nov 2 GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND woohoo, scotland! i've never been and it's definitely one of the places i've wanted to hit up. unfortunately, i had never made it before since there were so many other places for us to go, but now i can finally do it and not worry about how much it costs.
nov 2-5 PARIS, FRANCE can't wait to see marissa! i know paris wasn't necessarily one of my top places to visit, but collin has never been there and i would love to go again as well as share a bed with marissa. baby.
nov 10-12 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY so i know i was supposed to go in october in order to meet up with my aunt and uncle, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out. october became completely booked really quickly so we pushed budapest back to november. so so excited to goooo.
nov 16-19 PARIS, FRANCE and AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS so i know i didn't really wanna go to paris as badly as it may seem, but im heading out to paris for a day and then out to amsterdam with my jumbos <3. so marissa decided to take the train from paris to amsterdam since its cheap and quick and she didn't want to travel by herself. it worked out with my schedule and wasn't really all that expensive so i decided to fly out to paris, stay for a day, take the train with Marissa to amsterdam, spend the weekend with marissa and jessie, take the train back to paris, and then fly back to roma sunday night. it's gonna be a tiring weekend but it'll be so so worth it.
nov 24-26 DUBLIN, IRELAND my birthday! i get to spend my birthday in dublin! isn't that kinda crazy? i definitely think it is. my cousins, A France and K Rod, are going to be in dublin that weekend so i figured i would coordinate my trip with them. i know i won't get to see them too too much but hey, it'll make up for the fact that i have to miss thanksgiving in new york like i like to enjoy every year. (this trip will be a wonderful mix of me, collin, battaline, and my lovely roommate superior jessie.)
dec 1-3 WARSAW, POLAND that's right, Poland. i know, also kinda random but you know who's from poland? PJP2. hehe yeah i know i'm a huge loser. anyhow, poland was a country i also wanted to hit up while i was on this side of the pond and it ended up i had a free weekend in december that coincided with cheap flights to poland. our hostel is called oki doki lol. (battaline's coming on this one too!)
dec 6-9 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC woot prague. it's finally happening. for a pretty long while i was positive that prague wouldn't happen because flights were so so expensive and the ones i could get were at awful times and whatnot. anyhow, after a bit of maneuvering and a whole LOT of research, collin and i found flights for under 70 euro so that we could spend 3 days in prague.
dec 14-16 ROMA, ITALIA yup, i decided to spend my last weekend in rome to really be able to enjoy the city for my last weekend before heading back to new york.
dec 20- ISLE OF STATS, NEW YORK that's right, december 20 i will be back on staten island and back in action. hopefully start working december 21?
ok that's all i got for all of yall for now. hope you enjoyed this one <3
lisa, collin, and i left corso trieste a little before noon and headed over to the vatican. yup, we left italy for a little while. anyhow, we got to the vatican in record time and decided to hit up i musei vaticani (the vatican museums) because we figured that would probably be the first of all the things to close. It was just as i remember it- SO much art and filled with so many people that you can barely enjoy yourself. The first statue we encountered that really struck my fancy was the Laocoön which, according to collin, is pretty much THE statue that everyone tries to copy. this is the best i could do when trying to capture it though there are so many k people's heads in it.
we pretty much tried to speed through the vatican museum since it was so crowded and there were like 324233429842390482 people all smelly, sweaty, and mostly American. this is the ceiling of the map room. to be honest, one of the things that impressed me most about the vatican museum is that there are no boring areas. every single wall and ceiling is completely covered in ornate art, whether it be statues, wall carvings, or frescoes.
another very famous fresco is Raphael's School of Athens. my handy little guide book that i spent hours choosing in barnes and noble was quite useful today because it served as out tour guide throughout the vatican museum so that we didn't have to pay for one. anyhow, here's the school of athens.
within the vatican museum there are also many pieces of art that make you think, hm someone mustve really wanted to give something but couldn't quite figure out what to give. well here's the perfect example. randomly, we come across this statue of two swans that were deemed the mute swans of peace.
after a few hours, we finally finish the museum and then head out to grab a bite to eat. afterwards, we walked over to Piazza San Pietro to take pictures of the square and basilica. this is me and collin in front of the basilica
we decide to head over to the tombs of the popes before actually entering the basilica. off to the side, theres this random entrance to a room under the basilica where you can see where all the popes are buried, including saint peter. when you first enter the tombs, theres a statue of St. Peter. I don't know why but I decided to take a picture with this dude.
of course, I was most excited by seeing the grave of PJP2 but actually getting to see the burial site of st. peter was pretty amazing. this is both the covering of PJP2's grave as well as the lil room he occupies.
PJP2 has pretty prime realty down there cause he has a pretty, lit up lil room quite close to St. Peter himself. Here are some pictures of St. Peter's Tomb. this is the area that is directly underneath the high altar and it didn't use to be open to the public.
After finishing up in the tombs, the three of us decided to hit up the Basilica. Of course, the first thing you admire when you walk into the basilica is the pieta. a beautiful statue, this area of the church is ALWAYS crowded! well anyhow, here's a picture to remind everyone what this magnificent statue is.
another very popular picture is that of the high altar of St. Peter. Here's me and lisa with the altar.
I, luckily, got to experience a lot of things today while at the vatican. First, there was confession. I didn't confess simply cause my last experience was a lil painful and awkward but collin did. i also got to experience mass in the church. last time i was there, I didn't get to experience this. Though Benny wasn't presiding during this mass, it was kind of cool to experience a Mass that was being celebrated on the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica. The mass was in Italian, but surprisingly I could still understand the main idea of the readings. anyhow, here's a picture of the window above the altar, all lit up during sunset.
so after we finished there, i sent some postcards to my sister and mom since the vatican's postage is different from the rest of the world. we then headed back home since we were all so so tired from being such tourists for the last 4 or so days. at this point, we finished booking everything! it's so nice to have all this stuff just be finished and done with and not have to worry about any of it anymore. I'll end this post with a detailed calendar of what the next 3 months are looking like for me.
oct 5- ITALIAN COOKING CLASS woot. im learning how to cook! our program provides two separate cooking classes and mine is this coming thursday. i can't wait to learn how to cook real food.
oct 6-8 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN forgive me for repeating to those of you who have already read my past entries, but this will be my second time in stockholm this year and i can't be more excited!
oct 13-15 BARCELONA, SPAIN finally going to spain! i wish i could go visit jess in madrid, but unfortunately i only have enough time to make it to barcelona. so so excited for sangria and paella. (battaline is coming on this one which makes it doubly exciting!)
oct 20-22 NAPOLI, THE AMALFI COAST, AND POMPEII last time i came to italy, we skipped everything south of rome. lame, i know, but now is my chance to experience all of that stuff. we already took care of sorrento and capri last weekend, but now its time do get the rest done.
oct 27-29 BRUSSELS AND BRUGES, BELGIUM brussels! though i never knew much about it brussels has always been one of those places i wanted to go to. and now i finally am! also props to my sister, the big AC, for recommending Bruges, we're going to be in brussels for almost 3 full days which i think is more than enough to see everything we need to in brussels, so we will be heading out to bruges for one of the days to make our fall break a bit more productive.
oct 29-Nov 2 GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND woohoo, scotland! i've never been and it's definitely one of the places i've wanted to hit up. unfortunately, i had never made it before since there were so many other places for us to go, but now i can finally do it and not worry about how much it costs.
nov 2-5 PARIS, FRANCE can't wait to see marissa! i know paris wasn't necessarily one of my top places to visit, but collin has never been there and i would love to go again as well as share a bed with marissa. baby.
nov 10-12 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY so i know i was supposed to go in october in order to meet up with my aunt and uncle, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out. october became completely booked really quickly so we pushed budapest back to november. so so excited to goooo.
nov 16-19 PARIS, FRANCE and AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS so i know i didn't really wanna go to paris as badly as it may seem, but im heading out to paris for a day and then out to amsterdam with my jumbos <3. so marissa decided to take the train from paris to amsterdam since its cheap and quick and she didn't want to travel by herself. it worked out with my schedule and wasn't really all that expensive so i decided to fly out to paris, stay for a day, take the train with Marissa to amsterdam, spend the weekend with marissa and jessie, take the train back to paris, and then fly back to roma sunday night. it's gonna be a tiring weekend but it'll be so so worth it.
nov 24-26 DUBLIN, IRELAND my birthday! i get to spend my birthday in dublin! isn't that kinda crazy? i definitely think it is. my cousins, A France and K Rod, are going to be in dublin that weekend so i figured i would coordinate my trip with them. i know i won't get to see them too too much but hey, it'll make up for the fact that i have to miss thanksgiving in new york like i like to enjoy every year. (this trip will be a wonderful mix of me, collin, battaline, and my lovely roommate superior jessie.)
dec 1-3 WARSAW, POLAND that's right, Poland. i know, also kinda random but you know who's from poland? PJP2. hehe yeah i know i'm a huge loser. anyhow, poland was a country i also wanted to hit up while i was on this side of the pond and it ended up i had a free weekend in december that coincided with cheap flights to poland. our hostel is called oki doki lol. (battaline's coming on this one too!)
dec 6-9 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC woot prague. it's finally happening. for a pretty long while i was positive that prague wouldn't happen because flights were so so expensive and the ones i could get were at awful times and whatnot. anyhow, after a bit of maneuvering and a whole LOT of research, collin and i found flights for under 70 euro so that we could spend 3 days in prague.
dec 14-16 ROMA, ITALIA yup, i decided to spend my last weekend in rome to really be able to enjoy the city for my last weekend before heading back to new york.
dec 20- ISLE OF STATS, NEW YORK that's right, december 20 i will be back on staten island and back in action. hopefully start working december 21?
ok that's all i got for all of yall for now. hope you enjoyed this one <3
posted by el cruz at 11:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home