Tuesday 7.13: Total Eclipse of My Heart

Since I was young, I have been taught to make plans and to follow through. When I have a lot of work, it's great because it keeps me focused and if I get tired of doing one thing, I can look forward to checking something else off my list. And that's one of the reasons I've been glad to have this List, so I have a little bit of direction, goals to complete while in Greece. I'll admit though, the best times come when bits of the List are completed completely on a whim.

Normally, when we get back from work, we cook, eat, talk, sleep. It's fine with me because I get tired after work, especially from sleep debt and the fact that I've been working extra hours without break these couple of days. Occasionally, Dionysis will call us to hang out and catch up and occasionally, we'll go, but weekdays are generally reserved for stocking up for weekend trips, and the like. This wonderful Tuesday, we discovered that Eclipse was playing in the open air theater at Zappion until Wednesday. Now, I've been asked before why #19 on the List is "See a movie in an open air theater" and not "See a play in a real theatre." There are two reason for this. One, I didn't think I was going to be able to see a play in a real theater. That costs money that I wasn't sure I'd have. Two, the open air theater is a integral part of Greek culture, especially of Athens culture. A lot of the time, when people go to see a movie, they bring their beers, bring their cigarettes, and go sit out in the coolness of the evening and watch the movie with their friends on the big screen in the open air. There aren't any open air movie theaters in LA as far as I know and even if there were one at Yale (people have projected stuff onto the side of LDub), I wouldn't go out in the middle of winter to watch it. So, even having seen Oedipus at Epidaurus, I fully stand by #19 as a part of Athens that people coming should definitely experience, especially if coming here for any extended period of time. Also, the American movies are still in English.

So on this fine Tuesday, we scorned dinner, went and got ourselves some 1.80 Euro gyros [how do you pronounce this??] and ambled down to Zappion, which is where we went our first second day in Athens and saw the book fair. Here's us with our humungor yummy yummy gyros.

Here's the theater as we approach it:

And so we went in, with a bottle of wine, and took our seats. Although none of us are Twilight fans (I actually abhor the writing in the books, and because the dialog in the movies is exactly the same, I'm not really a fan of them either), we are fans of shirtless Taylor Lautner [I'm allowed to say this because he's 18 now] and we thought, what a great apartment/suite-bonding time!  So we take our seats...

And actually, before I knew it, the movie had begun. As in, I didn't know it had begun until a couple minutes in. When Jacob came on screen, a little squee went up in our row.

He's depressed because Bella is with Edward. I can't believe I just wrote that line. *facepalms*

When he was shirtless for the first time, I swear our row cheered. People probably looked at us funny.

Now, I'm not an advocate for taking mind-altering substances to make your world better, as we all know that after the effects go away, your world is not better. BUT. I'll say that the wine and the happy being with Marj and Shivani made the movie significantly better than it was. Yeah, the dialog was still horrendous and the cinematography wasn't all there either, but, some quotes:

• In the tent in the snow where Bella is shivering and cold and Jacob is STILL SHIRTLESS and offers to warm her up. Jacob to Edward: "Face it, I'm hotter than you." <-- Truth
• In the tent in the snow where Jacob is spooned around Bella warming her up. "You'd warm up faster if you took your clothes off...survival 101."
• After Jacob uninvitedly kisses Bella and she whacks him for it. Jacob to Bella's dad: "I kissed Bella...and she broke her hand...punching my face." *fave*

Anyways, looking back on this entry, it's much more superficial than my previous ones in terms of physical superficiality. And that's the way the night went. I'm not going to pretend that we're not all superficial sometimes. And I'm not going to pretend that the evening wasn't one of the most awesome I've had in Athens. It was a much needed fun-filled, relaxed night out where we were just happy. And I'm ok with that. So,

19. Watch a movie in an open air theater.

Sunday 7.11: Lindos means beautiful

Early Sunday morning (read: 7 AM) we wake up from what's not nearly a long enough sleep, check out, eat, and book it to the bus station to get to Lindos, which is an hour away from Rodos, in the middle half of the island. Waking up bleary-eyed and seeing this view was absolutely stunning.

You can tell that there is a Western European/Turkish influence on the town, which retains the whitewashed look, but isn't quite the same as the blues and whites of Mykonos.

The major attraction in Lindos was the Acropolis of Lindos, which was fortified like a castle. A lot of it, including the Temple of Athena Linda was reconstructed for tourists. There's not a lot to say about the town of Lindos other than the fact that it's absolutely gorgeous. The view from the Acropolis is better than the view from the Acropolis in Athens because of the clear waters and small towns and natural coves. And of course historically, the Acropolis had its stoa and propylaea and there was even a little cave like thing that was probably a corridor once upon a time. We only spent a few hours there, climbed the Acropolis, had a pretty good lunch on a rooftop and talked about where we wanted to go in our lives.

The afternoon went super awesomely. We played a game on the bus ride back (some version of Contact where you have to get from the "Outer Circle" to the "Inner Circle" or something) and kept playing until we got our luggage and made our way to the airport. We got back to the airport in time for the 4:40 PM flight which would have gotten us back to Athens around 6 PM. Unfortunately, there were only 3 seats left on the plane (we had standby tickets) and 5 of us. Because Marj had to wake up early in the morning and it was Naz's last night in Athens, Shivani and I stayed behind. We walked around Rodos, almost got to see a movie but couldn't because the time would have meant we missed the 11 PM flight (the only one left that day), so we had some Chinese food and chatted about life and love until roundabouts 9 PM. Now, this was the tricky part. We got back to the bus station in the town center at around 9:30, thinking the bus would get us to the airport at around 10. Problem was, the only bus to the airport left at 10:00 and with people getting on and off at just about every stop, we had to run to the ticket counter. Luckily, the airport was small, but we had some problems getting our tickets which made it all the more frustrating that the one person who knew the airline and worked with the airline and could have explained our situation was off in Athens watching the last World Cup game.

But at last, we were back in Athens, and asleep before our heads hit pillows [literally we slept on the bus ride back].

There's a saying, "All roads lead to Rhodes." This is obviously a take on "All roads lead to Rome," which is actually true.  No matter how you swing it, Rhodes is an island and there's not a road to lead to it unless the Greek government decides to magically procure the funds to built a land bridge all the way to practically Turkey. Would I have thought to go to Rhodes had I not been told to? Probably not. Would I have taken a ferry there by myself one weekend? Probably not. Was I glad I went? Definitely. Would I do it again, even the sleep deprivation and the getting back to Athens at 1 AM? Oh yes. This was one of the most relaxed weekends I've had, minus the travel heart attacks. Huzzah for impromptu trips that turn out to be awesome.

High and low fives,

Angela

Saturday 7.10: All Rhodes lead to a Castle in the Sky

When I first told Dr. Parr, my faculty adviser, that I was going to Greece, he said first that I would have a smashing time, next that it would be unbearably hot, and third, that I should go to Rhodes. So far, I have had a smashing time, the heat has actually been bearable in places where I could take a good shower, and I have finally gotten myself to the place where all roads lead.

However, upon first arriving in Greece and looking up the feasibility of island hopping, it seemed like if I were to go to one or two islands on the weekend, it would not be to Rhodes. After all, it is one of islands farthest from the mainland (only 11 miles away from Turkey, actually) and would be very hard to get to by ferry if we were only going for a weekend. This is considering anyone would even want to skip out on the fun in Mykonos and Santorini to take a 10+ hour journey to Rhodes. However, while we originally planned to go to Santorini this weekend, the plans fell through and our backup was to go to Rhodes, with airplane tickets provided by Aegean (1 hour flight ftw).

A little background: Rhodes is the largest of the Greek islands, around 50 miles long and 24 miles wide at its widest point. It's closer to Turkey than it is to Greece, so the vegetation and climate is also more akin to that of Asia Minor than to the Mediterranean. It was famous in ancient times for the statue of Colossus [the sun god, Helios], marking entrance to its port, and because it was so big, it became known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Unfortunately, supposedly due to a number of earthquakes and other disasters, the statue fell and basically disappeared from the face of the earth (perhaps around the time Atlantis, if there was one, disappeared) and all that's left are the stories about this gigator statue that inspired the design of the Statue of Liberty.

Today, Rhodes is known for its medieval town (Old Town) complete with castles and knights, Lindos, containing the Acropolis of Lindos, Butterfly Valley, water parks, an ostrich farm, and it's beautiful beaches. Seeing that we really only had 1.5 days on this huge island, there was no way we could do everything, but I think we made a pretty good run for it.

Saturday: Old Town and New Town

Freshly back from my trip to Epidaurus, I showered, packed, and headed out the door an hour later at 3:00 AM to catch our 5:20 flight. With Shivani, Marj, Ray and I was Ray's friend Naz, sort of a breath of fresh air into the group. Marj, Shivani, and I had gotten close enough that we could basically look at each other and tell what the other was thinking, but it was nice to have an outside perspective on everything. That being said, our first hours together consisted of napping whenever possible; on the bus, on the flight, on the bus to our hotel, etc. We arrived in Rhodes at 6:30 AM, made our way into the town of Rodos at a darn dratted early time. We were lugging all our stuff around, but still managed to be blown away by the blue of the water in the early morning.

See those mountains shrouded by mist a little bit? We're about 90% sure that's Turkey. Anyone up for a swim?

Gradually, we made our way to the hotel (Europa Hotel), but it was so early in the morning that they didn't have our rooms ready yet (this also may have been because we had booked our rooms at 2 AM that day...) so we dropped off our stuff. Ray and Naz took off to the beach, Marj and Shivani went shopping and I took a nap at the pool in the shade. Great nap until little kids started coming the pool and yelling. In the end, we all went to the beach and got...tanner. :D I felt like the little Coppertone baby in my beachwear. Because I got there a little later, it didn't make much sense for me to find a bathroom and change and go swimming. Boo...the water was quite fantastic, but: hot sand! hot sand!

After checking into the hotel, our original plan was to go to Lindos for the afternoon, but that didn't quite work out because we would have only been able to spend a couple of hours (read: 2 hours) there, which didn't seem quite worth it for the hour of travel there and back, so we decided to visit Old Town instead. Great call.

Here we are at the gates of Old Town, the medieval town of Rhodes. When I say medieval, I mean with knights and castles and everything. Very western European. I say this to you, Chris Kizer. :D And when I say castles, I mean castles. With moats and everything.

As we were walking about in the moat, we found a little side entrance that we were probably not supposed to go into, but we did anyways...

It led into the main castle area of Old Town and we explored the museum and the history of Rhodes. They didn't let us take pictures in the lower exhibits, but there were influences from the Romans, Egyptians, eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and it was a big culture mush, which was awesome. The entire upper floor of the castle had been destroyed in the earlier history of Rhodes, and the Romans rebuilt it as a summer palace for Victor Emanuel III. They imported all these mosaics from the nearby island of Cos, and even got some pieces from East Asia (yeah China/Japan).

Now, I realize some of you might be thinking, Angela, whatever happened to the List? Well, due to the little detour I took in Rome, it's been on the back burner, but, while we were walking through the tourist town part of Old Town, I finally found one of the things I had been looking for since coming to Greece. If you remember back to my Italy posts, there were a bajillion beautiful fountains. But Greece isn't known for its fountains and there aren't many that are that impressive. But when I saw this one, I was like: this is going to be my wish fountain. So,

It's a very Turkish fountain, I feel, but it was the most beautiful one I had seen in Greece. Note how those birds on the fountain don't move at all...pigeons here are like squirrels. Not afraid of anything.

9. Make a wish on a coin thrown in a Greek fountain.

THE LIST LIVES! Of course I won't tell you what wish I made. Otherwise, it wouldn't come true!

Super tired and sleepy, we then stumbled back to New Town, which was a surprisingly modern town with a lot of shopping. Deciding that food would probably be awesome, we stopped by this restaurant, L'Escargot, by the coast. We ended up watching the sunset while enjoying a great meal and some really great conversations (including Harry Potter/LotR/Disney/movies discussions). It was one of the most chill exploratory days I have had in a while, and watching the gorgeous sunset was really great way to end the day.

Friday 7.9: A Tragedy

So I'm still not sure exactly how this happened, but sometime between the hours I was at the Rome Fuimicino Airport and I got home, Liz, Shivani and I decided to go watch Oedipus Rex at the ancient theater in Epidaurus. And somehow, while I was still recovering from the epicness that was Rome, Liz organized, got all the tickets and transportation sorted, and before I knew what was going on, I just....went to Epidaurus.

Background on Epidaurus: The huge ancient theater has pretty much perfect acoustics and you can hear a match being struck from anywhere in the audience. The soft limestone muffles the audiences' murmurings while amplifying the actors' voices, so no one has to be miked. The epic mountains behind the theater is the backdrop for whatever play is being put on, so there is no need for a curtain or painted scenery, and even now, despite the light pollution from the lights at night, the stars are still bright and twinkling in the night sky.

To get to Epidaurus theater, there are special bus tickets that you can purchase for 10 Euro that take you straight to the theater. The last bus left from Terminal A at 5:15 and because I was a little bit late in getting out of the house, I had to really book it to Terminal A. I finally decided I would try to get a taxi, but 5 taxi drivers passed me by because they didn't know where the terminal was. This was a mystery to me because it's one of the two long distance bus terminals in Athens, and if you're a taxi driver, you should probably know where it is because lots of people take that bus out of the city. I even had the address and the name of the terminal written down for them and one of them told me to speak English when talking to him. Excuse me? I wasn't trying to speak Greek. *huff*

But I finally got a taxi driver who was totally sweet and drove fast to get me there as fast as possible. We cut it really close but I got there at around 5:12, three minutes before the bus was to leave. The important thing was that I got on the bus, and, from the night before, I conked out almost right away and awoke in the mountains of Epidaurus.

The occasion for the play was that it was part of the Hellenic Festival going on in Greece right now, full of art, music, and culture. So, there were a lot of people there to see the play. First, before anything, we ate these epic hot dogs, where they punch a hole in a baguette (with a machine like this). If you can't really tell, they stick the baguettes on these stake things, with the approximate diameter of a hot dog. This machine simultaneously toasts the buns and when they come off, ketchup and mustard are squeezed directly into the hole; then, the dog is dropped in. It was a super efficient way of preparing what were giant hot dogs, probably the most efficient thing I've seen in Greece all summer. In addition, there was none of the awkward extra bun situation, where the hot dog is just slightly short of the bun and you're left with that little bit of extra bun that you don't really want to eat but also don't really want to waste. This was the perfect fit of hot dog, bun, and condiments. The only drawback is that you couldn't control the number, kinds, or amount of condiments that went into your dog, but it was worth it. Also, this guy's windbreaker totally made our wait in line worth it.

After consuming our delicious hot dogs, we made our way up to the theater. The most amazing thing about this theater is that it's mostly stayed intact since the 4th century. And it doesn't look like it's been refurbished much. The 15,000 seats have been cleaned, for sure, and in some places, where the limestone had broken away too much, it had been replaced for continuity of the theater, but otherwise, it looked much like the one we had seen in Delphi. And it was full of people.

Because we had bought our tickets a little late in the week, we sat in the Upper Tier, in General Seating. This means, first come, first serve the best seats, and I'll just say that we got some pretty great seats. Here's the view of the stage

And the theater

And the three of us!

We made some British friends, one of whom geeked out with Liz about Classics. I think she missed having someone to geek out to Classics about since none of us are Classics majors, and being in Greece, didn't have anyone to really share her excitement with her. Most of the people on our trip are history majors, but focused on Western Europe in the post medieval period, so it's not really the same. And then you have me, who doesn't really like history to begin with (though this trip has changed a lot of my appreciation for it) and doesn't know anything about ancient Greece. She's constantly having to explain things to me and I am so grateful that I have her to do so. 

I think I would feel as she does if I went with a bunch of CogSci majors to explore CERN or something. Sure, they're nominally science majors so they can appreciate the amazingness of the LHC, but they don't have the same physical science background that you need to truly get what an advancement in particle physics technology this is. Being a chemistry major, particle physics was always my favorite part of physics (the only part I actually liked, in fact), so the LHC is just mindblowing to me, but I can see how if you didn't know the physics behind it [and I still don't completely know], something would get lost in translation. But I digress. I was just really happy that Liz found someone to squee with for a little while.

Before we knew it, the sky had darkened and the lights came out. The cast entered wearing these weird translucent robes, and at once, I knew this was going to be a more modern version of the play. And it was. If you can tell, the stage was made of these white blocks, and during the performance, the chorus would move these blocks to create a stage with holes in it, to give the play a more dramatic effect. Certainly an interesting interpretation. Although I'm not as familiar with Oedipus as some of the compadres, I was able to follow the story generally with Liz prompting me in my ear [the play was in the original Greek] and when Oedipus came out with his eyes gouged out, that was possibly one of the most epic and gross moments of the play. Even sitting from so high up, I was a more than a little grossed out; even now, thinking about it, I'm getting a little queasy but that may just be from the gigantic coffee I had this morning. 

The most amazing thing, though, was seeing everyone come out and start talking and singing. Without microphones. And being able to hear them. Let me explain: In the spring of 2010, Kelsey and Max decided to put on Man of La Mancha, a play/musical, and somehow I got roped into being in it and doing costumes. Because we basically had no budget and all of us were super busy, (me with Phoenix and Danceworks and the AACC and schoolwork), we did the whole thing with no sound system except the live orchestra, no light system except those that came with the venue, and no stage (the part of Stiles Dining Hall that we used was on the same level as the audience). And because we had an orchestra full of brass and woodwinds and percussion and no microphones, it was really hard to sing/talk over them. There were a lot of moments during rehearsal where, sitting in the front row, I couldn't hear anyone singing straight at me. Much of this was due to the acoustics of the dining hall, which really doesn't need acoustics anyway because it's a dining hall, and the loudness of the orchestra, and as a result, the lack of microphones hurt us a little bit. But don't get me wrong; the final product was AWESOME almost solely because of the energy of the cast. But I digress again. This was the reason I was so appreciative of the acoustics of the theater was that I was sitting super far up and yet, I could hear everything be said. Now if only I could understand it...

Let me just mention how gorgeous Jocasta's dress is. For reference, Oedipus is on her left.

The ride back to Athens was a little nervewracking if only because it took us a while to find the right bus. People were rushing everywhere and no one was particularly helpful, but at last, we got on a bus and made it. The time back to the apartment: 2 AM. Time to leave for Rhodes: 3 AM. Get ready...

Thursday, 7.8: A Balthazar Prom

Although every night is party night in Greece, for some reason, Thursday nights are super super popular. I can understand in college, if you don't have Friday classes, or if you've just finished a super hard-to-study for midterm or something that Thursday night might just be the perfect going out night. [Aside: I can even better understand Wednesday night dance parties at Toads because you know what Wednesday is...Hump Day] But for everyone else who has to work on Fridays, it doesn't seem to be a great night to let loose.

Anyways, all the Bulldogs in Athens were invited on a Thursday night to Balthazar, a fancy-ish place to meet with/eat with the former and current presidents of the Yale Athens Club, alumni, and prefrosh from Athens. We dressed up all fancy and arrived at around 9:15 (the Greeks eat late and party hard, apparently) and had the most delicious meal. The appetizers and wine was flowing and there were meatballs and french fries (big in Greece) and little fillets of fish and salad and delicious bread and then! The actual food arrives. Salmon with sweet and sour sauce with a salted brown rice to balance it out. And then dessert!! So much dessert! It was a sampling of little things, notably a chocolate mousse cake, a strawberries and cream thing, coffee ice cream, and a selection of fruits. I didn't think of taking food pr0n pictures while I was there because it was a sort of a fancy place with fancy people, but maaaan was it delicious.

The conversation was also as great as the food. Alex, the former president of the Yale Athens Club was there and we had extensive conversations about conversations, meeting people, joining senior societies, doing what you love in the world, and where you want to go in life. And while the "do what you love" bit is a little corny, he said it in such a sincere way that it didn't seem that way. We also met Phil, a prefrosh going to Yale. Super excited about that. :D

All in all it was a great dinner night, although the conversation didn't stop flowing until close to 1 AM. This was a little problematic for the archeological students who had to get up at 5 AM and for me who, though I had to get up at 8, was still recovering from sleep deprivation in Rome (totally worth it). But all in all, it was a good night to remember. So good in fact, that we took prom style pics in our getups. :D

Monday 7.5: Bones of Monks

Finally, it was the last day in Rome. We said goodbye to our hostel, and our host, who was super nice and helpful with all of our questions and gave us food and everything and set out.

Maria's flight was about two hours before mine, so I had some time to mill about Rome for awhile so I decided to use my metro pass to the fullest and go the Capuchin Crypt, under the Church of the Immaculate. It was harder to find than I expected because the church didn't really look like a church from the side. Even though it was right in front of the metro station, I missed it and walked a whole circle around before realizing where it was.

What had happened was that the Capuchin friars, so named for their capuche (hood) attached to their habits, left their friary in St. Bonaventure in 1631 and came to live at the current one. They then transported the bones of the deceased friars from the old cemetery to the new one and instead of just burying them, they arranged them along the walls of the crypt.

There are six rooms:
1) The Crypt of the Resurrection, where parts of the skeleton frame a picture of Jesus being resurrected.
2) Mass Chapel, the only room free of bones; for a quiet prayer, where people can have Mass
3) The Crypt of the Skulls
4) The Crypt of the Pelvises
5) The Crypt of the Leg and Thigh Bones
6) The Crypt of the Three Skeletons

The last four are exactly what they sound like. Along with many, many skulls, pelvises, etc. where also some full skeletons that were surrounded by these pieces. And it's not just a random conglomeration. These are fully arranged, thought out decorative art forms. The experience was really surreal and worth the little detour. It only takes a few minutes because the rooms are very small and while you may be there awhile just contemplating the bone structure of all these skeletons, it's a simple corridor that would only take a little while out of your time in Rome. Definitely a must see. There wasn't much I could do in terms of picture taking, since you're not supposed to take pictures inside the crypt, but I do have this for you.

After this detour, I took the Leonardo Express and slept my way to the airport, onto the airplane, and, after a two hour delay, back to Athens. It was a truly an epic weekend. I saw many things I did not think I would get to see for a while to come and I saw them with someone I can relate to, who can remember these things with me. The weekend left me physically and mentally exhausted; my brain is still recovering, even now, but I'm sure in August, when all my international adventures have come to a halt, that I'll look back on these moments and be able to synthesize everything that happened over the past couple of months. Nevertheless, the adventures don't stop here.

Buona Notte,

Angela

Sunday, 7.4: Gladiators and Grappa

How can one go to Rome and not see the Colosseum? As we were on the Metro, Maria and I contemplated whether or not the Colosseum would be bigger than expected, especially since the Vatican had been so much bigger than we thought. We decided eventually that the Colosseum would probably seem smaller than we thought on the outside, but bigger on the inside, kind of like the Tardis [plug for Doctor Who]. The moment we stepped off the Metro and suddenly came upon the structure, we turned to each other and said at the same time, "It's bigger on the outside."

Because it was. I'm not sure exactly how big I thought it would be, but it was bigger. You really can't tell the scale on these things from pictures, but I'll try.

See all the little itty bitty people next to the giant arches? It's still going to be bigger if you go to see it.

We wandered the Colosseum for around an hour before finally moving on to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Both of these were bigger than I thought they would be and more walking, but in comparison to the sheer vast size of the one building that was the Colosseum, they didn't have quite the impact on my sense of size. Palatine Hill consisted of the house of Augustus, in Maria's words, the hottest emperor ever, his wife's house, some other people's houses, and a garden overlooking the Roman forum. We didn't get the audio guide here so I didn't really have a great perspective on what was going on on Palatine Hill. All that I knew was that it was really hot; the sun was beating down on us and my upper lip was getting all tingly. Every part of me would have been drying up had I not been sweating out all the ions in my body. But with the few areas of shade and water fountains to refill, the trek up the [what was probably not a huge] hill was worth it.

Roman Forum from above:

From the front, with awkward hands and an awkward guy in the background:

The temple of Saturn, which was super epic (one of my favorites from the Forum):

Then, though we were super sleepy and tired, we dropped by the Campidoglio, basically the Capital Hill of Rome, but also a museum with art from many periods of Rome's history. I can't comment too much on the quality of the art there partially because we went through it very quickly and partially because I was half asleep, but since I was using the Roma Pass for this museum, I didn't mind too much that the quality wasn't as great overall as compared to the Vatican or the epicness of the Colosseum. There were some pretty great sculptures though, including:

A replica of Marcus Aurelius (the real one was also inside but this one actually looked more epic since it wasn't as degraded

Romulus and Remus with their wolf mother

And a gigantic body parts of Augustus (these were originally cast in bronze, but there were more of the body parts in the courtyard so I used all of those)

Also, because I do realize it's really hard to tell the scale of these things (even with the window in the background of the foot, here's a picture of his hand, for comparison.

Quickly, we stumbled back to the hostel to clean up and get ready for Mass (Maria's Catholic and St. Peter's Basilica was right there) and we made it...a couple minutes late. This was my first Catholic Mass so it was a really interesting experience for me. Earlier in the summer (and I should have blogged about this, I realize), I had gone with Max and Kelsey to a Jewish service and it was very interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two. Both were very ceremonial; the order in which things were done and way certain parts of the service were carried out had their time and place. Though I had no one to explain what was going on to me during the Jewish service, I was lucky enough to have Maria whispering in my ear during Mass. Because all Catholic masses are conducted the same (in different languages around the world), it didn't matter that the service was in Italian (not Latin; I was mildly surprised, but not really). I knelt when they knelt, stood when they stood, sat when they sat, and everything the priest was doing was translated to me. When everyone stood to take the communion wafer, I went and got blessed and I was very glad that I took part in this experience. The mass was very peaceful and there was an atmosphere of concentration and piety. And when we came out, the sun had dipped behind the church, putting everything in a glow. Hastily thrown on church outfit:

After wandering around the courtyard for awhile, we went back to the hostel and took great naps. And then, we went out looking for some fun.

We had heard that Trastavere, across the river, was a really happening place at night, so we took the tram and crossed the river, but everything seemed very sketch. This may have been because it was only 10 PM and nothing was happening yet, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed down to the bank of the river where there were booths of people selling jewelry, clothing, food, and even 5D movies!

As you can see, the bank is lit up with these little shops and there were a lot of people milling about there which gave the place an energetic glow. What made it all the more awesome was this guy.

Yeah...not sure what he was advertising for, but very entertaining nevertheless.

We then went on one of the many bridges connecting the two banks and just people watched for a while. We found that there were many more groups of single guys walking around then there were groups of girls. And it wasn't just groups of teenage guys. There were men of all ages, those in their 20s, their 30s, even their 40s and 50s crossing the bridge looking for a good time. There were also couples, holding hands, deep in conversation, which begged the question: where were all the hot chicks, man?

Maria and I hypothesized that because it was only around midnight that the girls were already somewhere drinking, or something because there just weren't that many single girls crossing the bridge. There were also the guy couples crossing the bridge together. Most of them probably weren't couples; they didn't look it, but probably had a solid bromance going on, and would probably being each other's wingmen when the time came. The only questioning bros we found were these two guys that seemed straight at first, then started taking pictures of each other on the bridge holding a soda can. There were also jump shots. Don't know what that was about. Also, there were two corn vendors on the same bridge that started getting into a pretty heated "bro"-like conversation. People watching is fun.

We then hit up Campo del Fiori again hoping to run into all the college kids now that it was our last night in Rome and there really wasn't anywhere for us to be besides the plane in the morning. But the plaza was unusually empty. We think perhaps that the Italians don't party like the Greeks do on Sunday nights, and that the rest of the kids on summer vacation had probably split as well. It was rather sad, so Maria got a glass of grappa, a traditional Italian spirit made from pomace, the seeds, stalks, and other discarded parts of the grape vine and we sat and watched the plaza and the people in it for awhile. We then got approached by Antonio, an Italian-American and met his friends, Paolo and Ben and had some great conversation with them. They were working in the US Embassy in Rome for the summer, so that was pretty cool and we learned that Antonio was 1) a dinosaur 2) a vampire and 3) Jamaican. Hmm....

As the night wore down, Antiono split to go to Mood, this discotech club that we had found one night but didn't seem that interesting, Paolo split to go to sleep, and we followed Ben and some of his friends to what promised to be an Irish pub, but was closed. So Maria and I just wandered the streets of Rome until 4 in the morning talking about civilizations and whatever else you talk about in the wee hours of the morning. The really cool thing was that we saw all the monuments that we saw during the daytime under the glow of the lights and the dark of the sky. If it weren't for the fact that the night ended with us rushing back to the hostel because we walked through a sketch park and everything was way too quiet, it would have been the perfect last night. See for yourself:

Gorgeous.