There and Rome Again: A UD Romer's Tale, by the Wandering Sapphire.
Now.
Where to begin?
Ah, yes!
"Concerning 10 Day"
UD students have been living and studying on the Rome campus for many hundreds (okay dozens) of days, though they are not quite so content to ignore the wonders of Europe at their doorstep. That is why 10 Day exists. 10 Day consists of travel and freedom for UD Rome students. They are given 10 days to travel with their friends to whatever cities and countries they please. The following is a partial account of the happenings of the Wandering Sapphire:
Day 1 - Thursday, 18th
Thursday evening. I can't afford 10 Day. I almost don't even want to do it. My nerves have been on edge all day, worrying about the costs of 10 day. But I'm doing it anyway, only because UD Rome campus shuts down and forces you to travel. My company consists of myself and two other girls (I'll leave them unnamed for the time being). We're using Eurail Passes, so we will be traveling by train. This evening turned into a mess since we didn't realize that we had to reserve our Eurail passes so far in advance. Bad planning on our part. We're fairly flexible with planning locations and trips, so it's not going to hurt too much if we miss something. Proposed itinerary (in order):
1) Lourdes
-visit Grotto/church
2) Germany (we'll find stuff to do near the Kaiserslautern area where my friends live)
3) Paris
- Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame
4) Chartres
-Chartres Cathedral
5) Perugia
-Chocolate Festival
6) Rome/Vatical City
-Papal Mass
Not a bad itinerary, huh? Let's see how things turn out. In the first place, two of us had wanted to visit Barcelona and the other wanted to visit Prague, but before 10 day even started, we knew it wouldn't work out with our 5-day Eurail pass, which meant we could only use 5 days of traveling however spaced out we wanted. One of the girls and I reserved and bought our tickets for the night train to get from Rome to Genoa, Italy. The third girl in our group missed the reservation and found she would have to wait until the following morning to catch the first train to Genoa. We took the night train so as not to waste our tickets, but not before promising to wait up for our friend in Genoa. It was a very interesting experience sleeping on a train overnight, sharing a tight space with three other women who all spoke different languages. We ended up communicating with each other in a mixture of English, Italian, Spanish and a bit of French. We managed pretty well if you ask me. The night was not as restful though as I frequently woke up out of fear of missing our stop in Genoa. We eventually made it the following morning, both tired.
The REAL Day 1 - Friday 19th
This is the official first day of 10 Day for UD students. We just left a little early. We two girls sat groggily in the station, taking turns dozing and waiting for our friend to show up on the first train from Rome, which was scheduled to arrive roughly at 11:15am. Sure enough, it arrived on time and we met up, ate a light lunch (or at least I did), then continued on our train rides to get to Lourdes. I won't bore you with the details of the all-day train rides. It was pretty tiring, stressful, and occasionally nightmarish when we were making sure we arrived on the right platform, had the correct train number, etc. I was so exhausted by evening time that I ended up skipping dinner. I may have eaten an apple I had stockpiled from the cafeteria back on campus the day before, but I can't remember. By the end of the day, we reserved a night train to take us from Nice, France to Toulouse where we would connect to the train to Lourdes.
Day 2 - Saturday 20th
The night train worked out perfectly as we arrived to a wet and rainy Lourdes at around 7am, with enough time to eat a light breakfast and reserve/purchase our tickets to get from Lourdes to Paris for the following day. We were originally planning on leaving Lourdes on Sunday morning so that we would arrive in the afternoon in Paris, but those tickets were 99 euros! Not happening! We'd already used up two of our five days worth of travel, so things were getting tight. Somehow, miraculously, we were able to get a train for about 18 euros per person. This train would leave Sunday afternoon around 5:30pm or so and would arrive in Paris about 45 minutes after midnight. This meant that we would have to rough the night out in the Paris train station before getting to our place at the monastery guest house we were trying to reserve (more on that later). It wasn't the most ideal plan, but it was better than spending nearly 100 euros. We moved on to looking for our reserved hostel which we found quite easily. Lourdes is fairly small, but has that big city feel in certain areas, although it isn't altogether overwhelming. After quickly settling into our rooms, we decided that it was time we had a break from traveling and stress and go check out the grotto. It was closed. Gated off. Locked. The river was swollen and rushing with murky water, flooding the grotto and so no one could go visit that day. It was incredibly unfortunate, but we prayed that we would be able to see it the following day. I bought a 50 cent "Mary bottle" (maybe 6-8 ounces worth) to collect some of the spring water to show a bit of trust that we would see it the next day. To alleviate some of that pain of not seeing the grotto that day, we did get to see St. Bernadette's house as well as attend the anticipatory Mass (in French, of course!) at her parish, which was a grand church. By the end of the day, specifically after Mass, I realized that this was becoming a spiritual journey, not merely a 10 day sightseeing adventure. After having seen a large statue of Our Lady of Lourdes just outside our hostel window, I went to bed saying the Chaplet and the Rosary, feeling a bit better about not having seen the grotto that day and recognizing God's providence in having out train leave later the next day so that we might be able to see the grotto the next morning.
Day 3 - Sunday 21st
I'm staying hopeful, even thought it's raining outside. Skip breakfast. On to the grotto. And...well, the river was still flooded, but not as badly as it was yesterday. The gates were still closed. However, people were going along the gate all the way up to the church, which was high enough away from the river. We followed the people and found that the side gate was open, allowing pilgrims to visit the church and such. We looked through the gate overlooking the river and saw how the river had flooded the grotto. A great deal of it was still a few feet deep in water, so there was no way we would be able to see it, at least not more than the last four or five rows of benches. "All I ask now, Lord, is to take home some of the water from the spring as my family requested." Just then I see people going by with some of those liter jugs and "Mary bottles" filled with spring water. How...? I inquired about the water to a passing Spaniard woman, who directed me to long line of people who were waiting to access the fountain just across the street from the church. Apparently there is a pipe system that directs some of the spring water up from its source and delivers it to the street level for the public. Perfect! We had plenty of time, so I waited in line a good half hour before I finally collected my bottle of water. A very memorable moment involved some Spanish women who were carrying their liter jugs for collecting the water and were waiting in line behind me. They asked me if the small "Mary bottle" was all I was going to collect the water in, to which I replied, yes, but I added that that was I was happy to receive even just that little bit. I was rather touched when they admired me for deeply valuing such a small amount of the spring water. After collecting the water, we went shopping for our lunch and dinner meal at the grocery store (which we'd done exactly the same the day before). All of our meals in Lourdes consisted of French bread, salami slices, and saved apples from the UD campus. It was super cheap, but when that's all you've got, you'll take it.
We then waited at the train station for a couple of hours, and noticed that we had somehow ended up in first class (it showed up on our boarding passes). It was a really nice upgrade. Unfortunately, our train only moved a a few dozen meters before stopping and having everyone get off since it could not go anywhere due to something being in the tracks. Good grief! Everything that could go wrong kept going wrong for us. We later figured out that the water from the river had become so bad it had flooded the tracks up ahead. So we could no longer take the train from Lourdes to Bordaux to Paris. We would have to go in the opposite direction, back to Toulouse and take a night train to Paris. This was definitely a blessing because we still had first class on the train to Toulouse and we received a night train to Paris without having to pay anything extra. They even gave us two collation boxes of snacks and food for having switched trains on us and having left so late. This provided us with enough food for breakfast the next morning and an abundance of water. This night train was also tight, but a little easer to sleep on since our stop in Paris was the end of the course, so we wouldn't have to worry about missing our stop. Still, sleeping on a train is not very restful or deep. Sleeping in Lourdes was definitely more restful.
Day 4 - Monday 22nd
Perfect timing! We arrived in Paris around 7am with enough time to organize some 12 euro train tickets (praise God!) using our Eurail passes to get from Paris to Kaiserslautern, Germany for Wednesday. Next thing was to find the monastery guest house for staying the next two nights in Paris. We found it soon enough, but unfortunately, the nuns who took care of the reservations (which were all done by email, which we'd done) would not be there until 8:30pm, and it was only 2pm. This meant we would have to drag our luggage around Paris all day, which we unfortunately had to do. It wasn't too bad for me since I had brought only a backpack, but after so many minutes, the backpack starts to become heavy and puts a strain on my back. Darn, I knew I should have packed only 4 outfits instead of 6, even if they were layered. With so much stress, worry and adrenaline, I grow tired. That was me for the rest of the afternoon, worrying that we might not get our room in the monastery guest house since we had not received a reply to our email in regards to staying there for 2 nights. I discovered on this trip, however, that whenever I'm anxious or nervous like that and I say the Rosary, my nerves cool off quite a bit if not completely. I must have said all twenty decades of the Rosary by the end of each day since Lourdes, if that helps to describe how anxious I was.
We saw the Eiffel Tower, though it wasn't so enjoyable due to fatigue. We tried locating a McDonald's since we knew they had WiFi as we needed to get a translation in French down to explain our situation to the nuns. We knew there was one near the monastery, but we couldn't find it. God kept sending us one angel after another, often in the form of an older Frenchman or woman who would either point us in the right direction or even walk us to our destination. He did it this time and so many other times, always right when we needed help. Once we ate dinner there at McDonald's (yes, it tastes exactly like the American McDonald's burgers) and got our translations down, we headed back to the monastery. Stairs...so many stairs. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the luggage we'd had to carry. An angel or two helped us carry some of the luggage part of the way up the steps. Anyway, once we had reached the guest house right on time, we met with one of the nuns, who practically interviewed us before giving us the room, asking questions about where we were from, what we were doing in Paris, what we were studying, what we wanted to do in life, and of course, if we loved Jesus. "With all my heart!!" Or at least, that was my reaction after such a difficult four days with finally a really REALLY good thing coming. The nuns told us that they usually only allow people to stay for just one night, but because we'd asked and because they had room, there were going to allow us both nights for 9 euros the first night, including breakfast, and 7 euros for the second night (no need for new bed sheets), also including breakfast. They explained to us that they had breakfast as 7:30am, Monastic Office at 8am, and a 10pm Mass every night with adoration following, and we were welcome to adoration for an hour...two hours...four hours..."however long you like," said the nun. YES!!! I can barely describe how happy I was.
The guest house was used as a kind of retreat house of sorts, with the dining room downstairs, the rooms on the second floor and on the third floor was a passageway which connected the guest house to the church, which was most grand. It was beautifully decorated with candles everywhere along the sides, a massive sanctuary, a huge echoing dome and fantastic acoustics. They had a 10pm Mass, which we attended despite our tiredness, as we felt we owed God a special thanks for getting us through so many difficulties and hardships during the first four days of our trip. After that Mass, they kick people out unless you have the red slip that was provided to you when you signed in to stay at the guest house. It is a most amazing feeling when just you and a handful of other people are in a huge church, sitting in silence with the Eucharist exposed for adoration all night long. It was particularly nice when they turned out all the lights in the church except for the ones illuminating the golden monstrance, altar, and podium and a gentle light illuminating the first few rows of seats. It was incredibly tempting to stay up for several hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, but I was tired and we had a long day ahead of us, so I kept it down to a Rosary of thanksgiving and some prayers of adoration. Needless to say, I went to bed extremely happy, feeling much more at peace. But I still have a long way to go on my faith journey. I can hardly wait for the Monastic Office in the morning...and breakfast. Only one of my meals on this trip so far had been satisfyingly filling. The rest always left me hungry and anxious for the next meal. But I guess 10 day is all about survival. Let's see how we fare in our real day of exploring Paris tomorrow!
To be continued...
[photos to come soon]
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Ireland: Bliss and Disaster
Ireland is the place to be! It is home to the friendliest people in Europe (and maybe the entire world), it has a rich history, people talk with the most amazing accents, and it’s all GREEN!!!!
We (that is me and three other UD students, whom I will leave unnamed for now) flew via Ryanair to Dublin, Ireland on Friday the 12th in the morning. We landed around lunchtime and took the bus from the airport to Dublin’s town centre (<< yes, I am going to spell everything UK style on this particular post.) It was cold in Ireland, but we’d expected as much. It was like autumn weather, in the 50s and 60s in Fahrenheit, and we were able to see all the green of the grass and the hills AND enjoy the changing colors of the leaves on the trees. We walked around for awhile, passing the famed Trinity College, before stopping for a mid-afternoon lunch (I wonder what that would be for a hobbit?) and had traditional fish and chips. Yum! After that, we set about searching for a hostel. Now, I had joined this Ireland-bound group as a kind of “tag-along” so they were making all the decisions. I just wanted to see Ireland before it got too cold and before the semester was over. I had thought that they had previously booked a hostel, but apparently they hadn’t. They’d expected to just pop in on a hostel and be granted a room, based on past experiences. What we didn’t know was that there was this huge soccer game going on between Ireland and Germany, and every single hostel was completely booked and had zero vacancies. After awhile, two of us finally ended up with a room (I was one of them), and the other two of our party decided to rough it and pull an all-nighter wandering the pubs, internet cafes, and streets of Dublin which wouldn’t be too bad considering how safe it felt for the most part. After we were settled on that, we went out for dinner at a pub which, to my surprise and delight, was laid-back and had really great live music and singing for the last half hour we were there. I didn’t order anything because I was still filled from lunch, but I finally decided to try an Irish coffee, which I found out consisted of coffee and whiskey.
Eeeeeps! First time having hard liquor in my drink! Panic!!!
No. I was actually surprised at how delicious it tasted. It didn’t take too long until the whiskey made its presence known in the drink very prominently and boldly. Thankfully that forced me to drink it nice and slow, as I tend to drink a cup of coffee in 5 minutes time. I think I was able to stretch it out over 45 minutes time without completely finishing it. Once it got cold, it wasn’t very pleasant to drink. But I did finish about three-fourths of the drink. Not bad! After hanging out at the pub for about four hours, we went back to our Bed & Breakfast for the night.
Next morning was breakfast and a ride to the Dublin Heuston train station. From there, we headed off to Limerick, and from there transferred to Ennis. The whole time on the train was very delightful and relaxing. It was a great way to view the scenic countryside of Ireland, which was exactly what I’d come to see. We even spotted a rainbow over the greenery, and I could even see where it touched down. The train was a perfect choice of transportation for the best sights!
When we arrived to Ennis, we planned to take the next bus to Doolin, our end destination, but we were disheartened to find that the next bus to Doolin was not going to arrive until much later in the evening, and it was barely 2:40pm. Desperate, we found a couple of taxis next to the Ennis train station and asked for help. One of the guys finally took us to Doolin for about 15 euro per person, which is apparently a really good deal, based on the experience of the other students I had joined. This was my first time ever in a taxi cab, and it was a great first experience. The cab driver was a delightful man who craved conversation. When we didn’t talk, he talked. He asked plenty of questions and answered every last one of ours. The 30 minute drive was almost like a guided tour/history lesson of Ireland. He even drove slightly further than we needed to be in Doolin to show us some really gorgeous cliffs where massive waves would crash up against them, half the time splashing higher than the cliff, which I estimated to be maybe 100 feet tall, maybe more. He told us that this particular set of cliffs was exceptionally dangerous due to the fact that the waves would sometimes splash so high above the cliff that if you were too close, the water would get you and pull you over the edge, dooming you to drowning. As sad as that was to hear, it was just jaw dropping to see the waves exploding that high up against an already tall cliff. Just before dropping us off at our pre-booked hostel (yes, we wised up this time), the cabby connected us with a friend of his (also a cab driver) who also owned a pub there in Doolin, and he said that he could take us back to Ennis the next morning for 12,50 euro, a little less that what he was charging us. He even gave us his friend’s card and number and made sure we were all set to go before dropping us off at our hostel. Doolin, by the way, is a charmingly small town that has about three sections to it, with long stretches of road between the clumps of pubs and shops in each section. It was a very rural area which I started eyeing with great interest. Rural…peaceful…Irish…seaside nearby…hmmm. Don’t worry, I’m coming back!
We stayed at the Rainbow Hostel, which I HIGHLY recommend if you’re staying in Doolin. It was my first hostel ever, and I was exceedingly pleased. It was very cozy and warm with great rooms, and very large kitchen and an extremely nice staff. The guy who checked us in was particularly welcoming. He showed us around, made us feel right at home as if we were the only people in the hostel, and even offered us a lift to the Cliffs of Moher, (a 5-8 minute ride up the roads) which was precisely where we’d wanted to go. The only condition would be for us to walk ourselves back into town. It would be about a 2 hour walk. Sounded like a plan to us!
After settling in to our hostel, the guy drove us to the Cliffs of Moher, but not before pointing out a small but really awesome castle (looked like a kind of tower in the distance) on the way up the road (remember this castle-tower as it becomes important later), and a path that ran along the cliffs, which we could take on our way back and possibly save time instead of walking on the main road for 2 hours. The road he pointed out wasn’t complete, but by the way things looked, we would easily make it back into town in less time than the road would have taken us. After making a mental note of the place to get onto that scenic road, we visited the gorgeous Cliffs of Moher. These are unlike any seaside cliffs you’ll ever see. If you liked the ones from Capri, prepare to have your mind blown! The stone on the cliffs was considerably darker and less jagged, but still rugged, and the upper portions were covered with long, flowing, vivid green grass. You mustn’t come too close to the edge, as tempting as it can be sometimes, but when you can get close enough, the views are spectacular. Words can barely describe the cliffs’ majesty and awe-inspiring wonder. Many times, when I was close enough to the edge to see the long drop down toward the sea, I wondered how amazing it would be to sprout wings, leap off the edge of the cliffs in a thrilling nosedive, and just fly like the seagulls were doing. How epic that would be. Keep on dreaming…
After dozens of photos, singing Danny Boy while overlooking the cliffs and checking out the small castle-tower on the cliffs, we headed back to Doolin.
The walk was very windy and cold. As we proceeded down the long, winding road, we tried hitchhiking. Didn’t work. That’s probably because when you’re hitchhiking in Europe, you’re supposed to ring an invisible bell to indicate you need a ride, not “Gig ’em” because the Irish might not understand that. Anyway, after a good 20 minutes or so, we found the path the guy pointed out to us. Half of us were a little reluctant to take the road, but we finally made the decision to take it rather than go on the longer road we’d taken up. It was what UDers refer to as an “adventure”: going out and doing something exciting and unusual, regardless of the conditions. For the first half of that path, I’ll admit, it was great fun. In fact, I would equate it to a Lord of the Rings-esque kind of adventure, running along the path on the grassy cliffs overlooking the rolling waves. We even hummed a few bars from LOTR. An occasional fine drizzle would pass by, but we didn’t have to worry much about the rain, thankfully. The sights were really incredible!
Now things turned rough when we began to loose daylight an hour and a half into the walk. We reached the end of that unfinished path and proceeded on the wider dirt path that continued onward before daylight went completely out, but because we were running out of light, some of the people in our party grew nervous that we wouldn’t be able to see where we were going, especially since we were nearing those dangerous cliffs with the rogue waves. They suggested cutting through one of the fields and climbing up the hill toward the main road. Half of us resisted for awhile, but we finally decided on doing it, especially since we could see the silhouette of the castle-tower from earlier up ahead and up the hill. As long as we could reach it, we would find the road, no matter how dark it became. We jumped the fence, and trust me, my conscience was going mad in crossing into private property, and made our way through the field, which we could barely see in the nearly complete darkness that there were cows in that field, off to our far left. And where there are cows, there might be a bull as we had seen a warning sign for another property a good 2 or 3 kilometers back or so. So far, so good. No bull. Then things went downhill…fast. Turns out the area of the field in which we walked was more akin to a marsh than a field. Within 50 steps into the field, we found ourselves struggling through tons of squishy mud with rainwater and…wait for it…manure! Yes, you read that right. Manure. The classic manure that never fails to yield gorgeous green fields. And we were knee deep in all this stuff! I literally lost my shoes five or six times in the attempts to get through that stuff as the suction of the mud and…that infernal stuff…was pretty strong if you didn’t work it right. I felt bad that people had to follow after me and fish my show out of the muck. At one point, I was so frustrated I almost gave up and decided to just ditch my shoes. But those were the only ones I had brought with me on the trip and it would be foolish to leave them behind in the cold. Stuck in the muck? Falling? Sorry lads, you’re going to have to catch yourself with your hands. YECH!!! Thankfully, after five minutes of horror, we moved out of the marshy area and found a highly unstable stone wall, marking the end of that field, but it was also lined with thorns. We balanced our way across the top of the wall for a few minutes until we could walk on the ground right up against it, away from the thorns, though a couple of us (myself included) became caught in the thorns and sustained a small cut or two. Once that dreadful wall was over, we decided to move back into the field we were in. The ground in this area looked far more promising, and either way, it was the only way we could go to get closer to the castle-tower. Wrong! More infernal muck and manure! At this point, I’d learned how to keep my shoes on and get myself unstuck without help, but it was the worst thing I’d ever done. If you know me and my tactile sensitivity (and it’s terribly strong), you’ll know that I was absolutely dying in that mess. It was all I could do to keep from screaming and scaring the nearby cows, who were probably looking at us like, “What the heck do these kids think they are?” But seriously, we were praying that there was no bull nearby, or we were toast. All of us were literally living out Dante’s inferno, the lowest most horrible place for anyone to be. It was cold, dark, wet and slightly rainy, mud and murk, manure, thorns, and we were all exhausted, hungry (we hadn’t even eaten lunch), dehydrated, and half our group was on minimal sleep from the night before. Dante got it right: the inferno IS cold.
As for me, God must have been having a field day, thinking, “Okay Kathleen, I’m going to save you from some of the horrors of Purgatory and give you some, shall we say, temporal punishment. I think I’ll have you walk through this.” I think I’ve been spared a few billion years from Purgatory after this experience. Out loud, several times, I begged my guardian angel to guide our footing and get us back to the main road. When we lost all daylight and could no longer see each other, I broke out into a Hail Mary. I repeated that prayer until I reached the place where I could hear our group forming back together on more solid ground next to a wall. One of the students said “What’s Europe’s 911 number?” (I don’t think they were kidding) and it rang a bell for another student, who pulled out his small phone, which thankfully provided us with some light to guide our footing. We didn’t call the fire squad or anything, but we were able to find the other part of the wall that stood between us and the faint silhouette of the castle-tower up the steep hill, which we still needed to climb. We started a rosary as we walked along the treacherous wall, almost pressing ourselves up against it to avoid the mud and manure as much as we could, and one of the students had her foot painfully lodged between two rocks a minute into the walk. Just as we were announcing the first joyful mystery, our first joy appeared to us: a break in the wall! We climbed through and started climbing up the steep hill which lacked muck and manure (THANK GOD!!!). The way was somewhat slippery, wet, and horribly tiring. Mount Purgatory from Dante.
We’re getting somewhere! Then came the most glorious cry from the student who had reached the top first: “I found the road! We’re here!” It was enough to spur the rest of us onward and climb over our last hurdle, an electric wire fence. Carefully, we made our way over the fence, and once on the other side, we looked heavenward and found ourselves staring up at the realm of the stars. Dante’s Paradiso! In the darkness you could make out thousands upon thousands of gorgeous stars and even the milky way if you looked carefully. It was glorious! We were overjoyed. I was hysterical. I was laughing with joy and crying with relief. We all praised God for getting us out of that seemingly endless rut, which I think lasted a good 30-40 minutes. As we passed the castle-tower, we continued our rosary in thanksgiving, and myself continuing crying quietly. I was soooooo happy to be out of there.
It took us another half hour to get down the main road, into town and up to the front door of our hostel, equating to about 3 hours worth of walking. “I will NEVER stray from the main path ever again,” said I. We also couldn’t get in through the front door since we would track all that horror in with us and there were people sitting inside that front lobby, but I remembered from earlier that there was a side door to the hostel, which was next to some big mud carpets and was right beside our room. Asking my guardian angel for assistance and guidance, I went to check to see if it was open, although it seemed highly unlikely. I think my guardian angel unlocked the door for us because it opened. Later it was locked. Maybe a coincidence, maybe divine providence. Whatever the case, I’m just glad we made it in without spreading much “dirt” into the place. We showered right away. By the time we were done almost an hour later, it was about 9:40pm, but we were all very hungry.
We went to check out the local pubs for food, but they’d all stopped serving food at 9:30pm. We finally checked a small, cozy bistro and sat down. They’d already stopped serving food as well and this was the last night of their season (they would be closing down for the season), but the lady there didn’t want to send us away hungry (we probably looked exhausted and frazzled), so she offered some vegetable soup and brown bread with butter which we eagerly accepted. At this point, we didn’t care what we ate, we just needed sustenance. Soup sounded amazing though, especially when we were cold and tired. The bread and butter was fantastic, especially the butter, which is probably the best I’ve ever tasted. Then the generous bowl of vegetable soup was soothing, warming and incredibly delicious. We all ate quietly for awhile, casting knowing glances and grins at each other because we knew that this was EXACTLY what we were thinking about that we could be doing when we were going through the icky inferno of mud and manure. After a delicious dinner at a shockingly good price, we went back to the hostel. Taking turns, we rinsed our shoes and trousers of the filth. It turned out to be a long and arduous process. The tortures of tactile sensitivity continued for me as I cleaned out my impossible shoes. Thankfully, a cozy warm bed awaited me, and we crashed and burned warmly with relief at having such a nice place to stay.
Next morning we called the referred taxi guy and enjoyed some coffee and tea and freshly baked scones made by the staff. After thanking the people at Rainbow Hostel a dozen times over, we rode the 30 minute taxi ride up from Doolin to Ennis train station with yet another great cab driver. We caught an earlier train, thank God, but one of the girls and I had lost our train tickets for the return journey. Fortunately, since we had previously paid for the journey, we were allowed to ride up to Limerick and there we would have to get new tickets, which we did. Thank heavens for student discounts because the price could have been a lot worse. The ride from Limerick to Dublin was mostly studying for our Art & Arch midterm for Monday.
Once in Dublin (and didn’t arrive in time to catch any Mass, unfortunately), we ate lunch (which sufficed as dinner as well for me) at a sandwich place then went to check out Trinity Church and go see the famed Book of Kells. Besides the elated (and hysterical) crying upon reaching the starry road the night before, this was the one time I cried tears of wonder and joy. The glorious pages of the Book of Kells were right there, just on the other side of the glass, only inches away from me. Ever since I’d heard of its existence, I’d been wanting to see it. And now, the time had come. It was fantastic! All the legends and stories about the book--the dyes used, the illumination, the work that went into the details, and even Pangur Ban the cat...they were all real!
We also got to see the old library (which was apparently used in one of the Star Wars films for the Jedi archives). Pretty neat! Even better were the books that were displayed there, like the original Plutarch’s Lives! WOW!! And the bust sculptures lining the library included all the great historians, philosophers and writers, like Shakespeare, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Milton, Newton, and so many others who made me want to high five everyone. What an exhilarating experience in less than an hours time. After the others went souvenir shopping for awhile, we boarded a the bus and headed back to the airport, I the impatient one, despising cutting the time close to departure. I was determined to be on time, even if I was the only one of our group to board the plane. The others said I just blasted through the airport as if with rockets or Mercury’s wings, leaving them far behind in the dust. See? I didn’t earn the nickname Sonic (the Hedgehog) for nothing. We all made it on time and had a safe flight back to Rome. The nighttime views flying over Rome were particularly magnificent. Way far off in the distance (like really far away) was a lightning storm (which arrived on campus almost 6 hours later), and down below were the sparkling lights of Rome. We were close enough so that I could see the Vatican, the Coliseum, and more!
I know I titled this as "Bliss and Disaster" and I think you'd agree. While there were some cloud nine moments, there were some cloud negative niners. Altogether, though, this will go down in history as one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever taken! I woke up this morning thinking back on it, and it felt more like a dream; a long beautiful dream mixed with occasional nightmares, but nevertheless an incredible dream. I will definitely go back to visit Ireland someday. Two and a half days simply isn’t enough.
We (that is me and three other UD students, whom I will leave unnamed for now) flew via Ryanair to Dublin, Ireland on Friday the 12th in the morning. We landed around lunchtime and took the bus from the airport to Dublin’s town centre (<< yes, I am going to spell everything UK style on this particular post.) It was cold in Ireland, but we’d expected as much. It was like autumn weather, in the 50s and 60s in Fahrenheit, and we were able to see all the green of the grass and the hills AND enjoy the changing colors of the leaves on the trees. We walked around for awhile, passing the famed Trinity College, before stopping for a mid-afternoon lunch (I wonder what that would be for a hobbit?) and had traditional fish and chips. Yum! After that, we set about searching for a hostel. Now, I had joined this Ireland-bound group as a kind of “tag-along” so they were making all the decisions. I just wanted to see Ireland before it got too cold and before the semester was over. I had thought that they had previously booked a hostel, but apparently they hadn’t. They’d expected to just pop in on a hostel and be granted a room, based on past experiences. What we didn’t know was that there was this huge soccer game going on between Ireland and Germany, and every single hostel was completely booked and had zero vacancies. After awhile, two of us finally ended up with a room (I was one of them), and the other two of our party decided to rough it and pull an all-nighter wandering the pubs, internet cafes, and streets of Dublin which wouldn’t be too bad considering how safe it felt for the most part. After we were settled on that, we went out for dinner at a pub which, to my surprise and delight, was laid-back and had really great live music and singing for the last half hour we were there. I didn’t order anything because I was still filled from lunch, but I finally decided to try an Irish coffee, which I found out consisted of coffee and whiskey.
Eeeeeps! First time having hard liquor in my drink! Panic!!!
No. I was actually surprised at how delicious it tasted. It didn’t take too long until the whiskey made its presence known in the drink very prominently and boldly. Thankfully that forced me to drink it nice and slow, as I tend to drink a cup of coffee in 5 minutes time. I think I was able to stretch it out over 45 minutes time without completely finishing it. Once it got cold, it wasn’t very pleasant to drink. But I did finish about three-fourths of the drink. Not bad! After hanging out at the pub for about four hours, we went back to our Bed & Breakfast for the night.
Next morning was breakfast and a ride to the Dublin Heuston train station. From there, we headed off to Limerick, and from there transferred to Ennis. The whole time on the train was very delightful and relaxing. It was a great way to view the scenic countryside of Ireland, which was exactly what I’d come to see. We even spotted a rainbow over the greenery, and I could even see where it touched down. The train was a perfect choice of transportation for the best sights!
When we arrived to Ennis, we planned to take the next bus to Doolin, our end destination, but we were disheartened to find that the next bus to Doolin was not going to arrive until much later in the evening, and it was barely 2:40pm. Desperate, we found a couple of taxis next to the Ennis train station and asked for help. One of the guys finally took us to Doolin for about 15 euro per person, which is apparently a really good deal, based on the experience of the other students I had joined. This was my first time ever in a taxi cab, and it was a great first experience. The cab driver was a delightful man who craved conversation. When we didn’t talk, he talked. He asked plenty of questions and answered every last one of ours. The 30 minute drive was almost like a guided tour/history lesson of Ireland. He even drove slightly further than we needed to be in Doolin to show us some really gorgeous cliffs where massive waves would crash up against them, half the time splashing higher than the cliff, which I estimated to be maybe 100 feet tall, maybe more. He told us that this particular set of cliffs was exceptionally dangerous due to the fact that the waves would sometimes splash so high above the cliff that if you were too close, the water would get you and pull you over the edge, dooming you to drowning. As sad as that was to hear, it was just jaw dropping to see the waves exploding that high up against an already tall cliff. Just before dropping us off at our pre-booked hostel (yes, we wised up this time), the cabby connected us with a friend of his (also a cab driver) who also owned a pub there in Doolin, and he said that he could take us back to Ennis the next morning for 12,50 euro, a little less that what he was charging us. He even gave us his friend’s card and number and made sure we were all set to go before dropping us off at our hostel. Doolin, by the way, is a charmingly small town that has about three sections to it, with long stretches of road between the clumps of pubs and shops in each section. It was a very rural area which I started eyeing with great interest. Rural…peaceful…Irish…seaside nearby…hmmm. Don’t worry, I’m coming back!We stayed at the Rainbow Hostel, which I HIGHLY recommend if you’re staying in Doolin. It was my first hostel ever, and I was exceedingly pleased. It was very cozy and warm with great rooms, and very large kitchen and an extremely nice staff. The guy who checked us in was particularly welcoming. He showed us around, made us feel right at home as if we were the only people in the hostel, and even offered us a lift to the Cliffs of Moher, (a 5-8 minute ride up the roads) which was precisely where we’d wanted to go. The only condition would be for us to walk ourselves back into town. It would be about a 2 hour walk. Sounded like a plan to us!
After settling in to our hostel, the guy drove us to the Cliffs of Moher, but not before pointing out a small but really awesome castle (looked like a kind of tower in the distance) on the way up the road (remember this castle-tower as it becomes important later), and a path that ran along the cliffs, which we could take on our way back and possibly save time instead of walking on the main road for 2 hours. The road he pointed out wasn’t complete, but by the way things looked, we would easily make it back into town in less time than the road would have taken us. After making a mental note of the place to get onto that scenic road, we visited the gorgeous Cliffs of Moher. These are unlike any seaside cliffs you’ll ever see. If you liked the ones from Capri, prepare to have your mind blown! The stone on the cliffs was considerably darker and less jagged, but still rugged, and the upper portions were covered with long, flowing, vivid green grass. You mustn’t come too close to the edge, as tempting as it can be sometimes, but when you can get close enough, the views are spectacular. Words can barely describe the cliffs’ majesty and awe-inspiring wonder. Many times, when I was close enough to the edge to see the long drop down toward the sea, I wondered how amazing it would be to sprout wings, leap off the edge of the cliffs in a thrilling nosedive, and just fly like the seagulls were doing. How epic that would be. Keep on dreaming…After dozens of photos, singing Danny Boy while overlooking the cliffs and checking out the small castle-tower on the cliffs, we headed back to Doolin.
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| Cliffs of Moher |
The walk was very windy and cold. As we proceeded down the long, winding road, we tried hitchhiking. Didn’t work. That’s probably because when you’re hitchhiking in Europe, you’re supposed to ring an invisible bell to indicate you need a ride, not “Gig ’em” because the Irish might not understand that. Anyway, after a good 20 minutes or so, we found the path the guy pointed out to us. Half of us were a little reluctant to take the road, but we finally made the decision to take it rather than go on the longer road we’d taken up. It was what UDers refer to as an “adventure”: going out and doing something exciting and unusual, regardless of the conditions. For the first half of that path, I’ll admit, it was great fun. In fact, I would equate it to a Lord of the Rings-esque kind of adventure, running along the path on the grassy cliffs overlooking the rolling waves. We even hummed a few bars from LOTR. An occasional fine drizzle would pass by, but we didn’t have to worry much about the rain, thankfully. The sights were really incredible! |
| The long road back |
Now things turned rough when we began to loose daylight an hour and a half into the walk. We reached the end of that unfinished path and proceeded on the wider dirt path that continued onward before daylight went completely out, but because we were running out of light, some of the people in our party grew nervous that we wouldn’t be able to see where we were going, especially since we were nearing those dangerous cliffs with the rogue waves. They suggested cutting through one of the fields and climbing up the hill toward the main road. Half of us resisted for awhile, but we finally decided on doing it, especially since we could see the silhouette of the castle-tower from earlier up ahead and up the hill. As long as we could reach it, we would find the road, no matter how dark it became. We jumped the fence, and trust me, my conscience was going mad in crossing into private property, and made our way through the field, which we could barely see in the nearly complete darkness that there were cows in that field, off to our far left. And where there are cows, there might be a bull as we had seen a warning sign for another property a good 2 or 3 kilometers back or so. So far, so good. No bull. Then things went downhill…fast. Turns out the area of the field in which we walked was more akin to a marsh than a field. Within 50 steps into the field, we found ourselves struggling through tons of squishy mud with rainwater and…wait for it…manure! Yes, you read that right. Manure. The classic manure that never fails to yield gorgeous green fields. And we were knee deep in all this stuff! I literally lost my shoes five or six times in the attempts to get through that stuff as the suction of the mud and…that infernal stuff…was pretty strong if you didn’t work it right. I felt bad that people had to follow after me and fish my show out of the muck. At one point, I was so frustrated I almost gave up and decided to just ditch my shoes. But those were the only ones I had brought with me on the trip and it would be foolish to leave them behind in the cold. Stuck in the muck? Falling? Sorry lads, you’re going to have to catch yourself with your hands. YECH!!! Thankfully, after five minutes of horror, we moved out of the marshy area and found a highly unstable stone wall, marking the end of that field, but it was also lined with thorns. We balanced our way across the top of the wall for a few minutes until we could walk on the ground right up against it, away from the thorns, though a couple of us (myself included) became caught in the thorns and sustained a small cut or two. Once that dreadful wall was over, we decided to move back into the field we were in. The ground in this area looked far more promising, and either way, it was the only way we could go to get closer to the castle-tower. Wrong! More infernal muck and manure! At this point, I’d learned how to keep my shoes on and get myself unstuck without help, but it was the worst thing I’d ever done. If you know me and my tactile sensitivity (and it’s terribly strong), you’ll know that I was absolutely dying in that mess. It was all I could do to keep from screaming and scaring the nearby cows, who were probably looking at us like, “What the heck do these kids think they are?” But seriously, we were praying that there was no bull nearby, or we were toast. All of us were literally living out Dante’s inferno, the lowest most horrible place for anyone to be. It was cold, dark, wet and slightly rainy, mud and murk, manure, thorns, and we were all exhausted, hungry (we hadn’t even eaten lunch), dehydrated, and half our group was on minimal sleep from the night before. Dante got it right: the inferno IS cold.
As for me, God must have been having a field day, thinking, “Okay Kathleen, I’m going to save you from some of the horrors of Purgatory and give you some, shall we say, temporal punishment. I think I’ll have you walk through this.” I think I’ve been spared a few billion years from Purgatory after this experience. Out loud, several times, I begged my guardian angel to guide our footing and get us back to the main road. When we lost all daylight and could no longer see each other, I broke out into a Hail Mary. I repeated that prayer until I reached the place where I could hear our group forming back together on more solid ground next to a wall. One of the students said “What’s Europe’s 911 number?” (I don’t think they were kidding) and it rang a bell for another student, who pulled out his small phone, which thankfully provided us with some light to guide our footing. We didn’t call the fire squad or anything, but we were able to find the other part of the wall that stood between us and the faint silhouette of the castle-tower up the steep hill, which we still needed to climb. We started a rosary as we walked along the treacherous wall, almost pressing ourselves up against it to avoid the mud and manure as much as we could, and one of the students had her foot painfully lodged between two rocks a minute into the walk. Just as we were announcing the first joyful mystery, our first joy appeared to us: a break in the wall! We climbed through and started climbing up the steep hill which lacked muck and manure (THANK GOD!!!). The way was somewhat slippery, wet, and horribly tiring. Mount Purgatory from Dante.
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| This was pretty much all I could see when we finally saw the lights of the city...blured with tears! |
It took us another half hour to get down the main road, into town and up to the front door of our hostel, equating to about 3 hours worth of walking. “I will NEVER stray from the main path ever again,” said I. We also couldn’t get in through the front door since we would track all that horror in with us and there were people sitting inside that front lobby, but I remembered from earlier that there was a side door to the hostel, which was next to some big mud carpets and was right beside our room. Asking my guardian angel for assistance and guidance, I went to check to see if it was open, although it seemed highly unlikely. I think my guardian angel unlocked the door for us because it opened. Later it was locked. Maybe a coincidence, maybe divine providence. Whatever the case, I’m just glad we made it in without spreading much “dirt” into the place. We showered right away. By the time we were done almost an hour later, it was about 9:40pm, but we were all very hungry.
We went to check out the local pubs for food, but they’d all stopped serving food at 9:30pm. We finally checked a small, cozy bistro and sat down. They’d already stopped serving food as well and this was the last night of their season (they would be closing down for the season), but the lady there didn’t want to send us away hungry (we probably looked exhausted and frazzled), so she offered some vegetable soup and brown bread with butter which we eagerly accepted. At this point, we didn’t care what we ate, we just needed sustenance. Soup sounded amazing though, especially when we were cold and tired. The bread and butter was fantastic, especially the butter, which is probably the best I’ve ever tasted. Then the generous bowl of vegetable soup was soothing, warming and incredibly delicious. We all ate quietly for awhile, casting knowing glances and grins at each other because we knew that this was EXACTLY what we were thinking about that we could be doing when we were going through the icky inferno of mud and manure. After a delicious dinner at a shockingly good price, we went back to the hostel. Taking turns, we rinsed our shoes and trousers of the filth. It turned out to be a long and arduous process. The tortures of tactile sensitivity continued for me as I cleaned out my impossible shoes. Thankfully, a cozy warm bed awaited me, and we crashed and burned warmly with relief at having such a nice place to stay.
Next morning we called the referred taxi guy and enjoyed some coffee and tea and freshly baked scones made by the staff. After thanking the people at Rainbow Hostel a dozen times over, we rode the 30 minute taxi ride up from Doolin to Ennis train station with yet another great cab driver. We caught an earlier train, thank God, but one of the girls and I had lost our train tickets for the return journey. Fortunately, since we had previously paid for the journey, we were allowed to ride up to Limerick and there we would have to get new tickets, which we did. Thank heavens for student discounts because the price could have been a lot worse. The ride from Limerick to Dublin was mostly studying for our Art & Arch midterm for Monday.
Once in Dublin (and didn’t arrive in time to catch any Mass, unfortunately), we ate lunch (which sufficed as dinner as well for me) at a sandwich place then went to check out Trinity Church and go see the famed Book of Kells. Besides the elated (and hysterical) crying upon reaching the starry road the night before, this was the one time I cried tears of wonder and joy. The glorious pages of the Book of Kells were right there, just on the other side of the glass, only inches away from me. Ever since I’d heard of its existence, I’d been wanting to see it. And now, the time had come. It was fantastic! All the legends and stories about the book--the dyes used, the illumination, the work that went into the details, and even Pangur Ban the cat...they were all real!
We also got to see the old library (which was apparently used in one of the Star Wars films for the Jedi archives). Pretty neat! Even better were the books that were displayed there, like the original Plutarch’s Lives! WOW!! And the bust sculptures lining the library included all the great historians, philosophers and writers, like Shakespeare, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Milton, Newton, and so many others who made me want to high five everyone. What an exhilarating experience in less than an hours time. After the others went souvenir shopping for awhile, we boarded a the bus and headed back to the airport, I the impatient one, despising cutting the time close to departure. I was determined to be on time, even if I was the only one of our group to board the plane. The others said I just blasted through the airport as if with rockets or Mercury’s wings, leaving them far behind in the dust. See? I didn’t earn the nickname Sonic (the Hedgehog) for nothing. We all made it on time and had a safe flight back to Rome. The nighttime views flying over Rome were particularly magnificent. Way far off in the distance (like really far away) was a lightning storm (which arrived on campus almost 6 hours later), and down below were the sparkling lights of Rome. We were close enough so that I could see the Vatican, the Coliseum, and more! |
| Farewell, Ireland! Great Emerald of the sea. |
Friday, October 12, 2012
10 Days in Greece
Greece was unbelievably amazing! I wish I could write extensively on the experiences, but since I am limited on time (you probably are too), I’ll keep the days short and cover the highlights.
Day 1
5am wake up call. Drive away in charter buses from campus at 6:30am and set off for a 7+ hour drive to Bari. Enjoy the charming countryside of Italy, take a few pit stops along the way, and make a visit to St. Nicholas’ relics (yes, THE Santa) located in a lovely church in Bari. Let’s stop to smell the flowers for a moment, literally! Phenomenon goes that if you go up to where St. Nicholas’ relics are kept and take a sniff, you’ll smell roses. No one knows exactly why. Sure enough, that’s exactly what we smelled. Pretty miraculous! Moving on to port around 4 or 5pm-ish…we boarded the Superfast I, a really neat (and obviously fast) ferry from Italy to Greece. We left maybe two hours later, set our watches forward one hour for Greek time, and sailed on through the night. I thought I’d never got to bed after watching that spectacular full moon shining over the water and listening to the sound of the waves with a wind that was strong enough to actually make my hair blow like it does in the movies (light or even moderate breezes can’t do that to the amount of hair I have).
Day 2
Wake up super early to more darkness on the water, but arriving to port. Amazing first breakfast in Greece. More bus rides (WOOHOO! ROAD TRIP!!!) I was a little more positive about riding in the bus than most of the students were. Road trips are exciting…particularly in Greece because of all the amazing mountain views. Literally everywhere you go on the roads, you can see mountains. More than half the time, we drove on them or in the valleys with mountains towering on either side of us. I could have taken thousands of photos. We visited a Dodona, an archaeological site with a theater and several temples (or at least their remaining foundations). We stopped for lunch in Metsovo before moving on to Meteora, where visited an orthodox monastery. This monastery, along with at least for or five others, are nestled safely atop some unbelievable cliffs. You’ve never, and I mean NEVER, seen cliffs like these. It was so peaceful there and the sound of the wind in the cliffs was unlike any wind I’d ever heard. I think most of us left that place thinking, “I want to be a monk/nun.” From Meteora we traveled to Trikala and stayed at a hotel (we even arranged to have Sunday vigil Mass celebrated in the restaurant dining room in the hotel). Trikala was a really charming town. I will end this day by saying though that both lunch and dinner were very delicious. This food pattern remains consistent in Greece. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the food, even when I thought I wouldn’t like it (I can be pretty picky sometimes).
Day 3
Sunday = bus rides…all day. Well, at least for the first half of the day. We left Trikala and headed toward Delphi. We made a stop along the way at the site of the battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the 300 Spartans died fighting. There isn’t really much to see there except for a large memorial with a few statues, but we made sure to take pictures. From there the road to Delphi was bittersweet. The mountain views were spectacular, but that was the problem: we were driving through the extremely curvy roads of the mountains for about 2 hours straight. That’s right, 2 hours of 180s and 360s and stuff. It didn’t matter what any of us did, we couldn’t avoid the car sickness. Oh, and lesson learned: when you’ve been driving on roads like that and everyone’s nauseous, DON’T back up the bus, because that’s going to really make everyone feel worse. We stopped for lunch a few miles away from the center of Delphi, but all of us thought it crazy to try to eat when we all felt sick. We got over it pretty quickly though. The rest of the day was spent in Delphi, after checking in at the hotel, exploring the historical sites, even climbing up part of Mount Parnassus up to the place where the Pythia herself would sit, inhale the vapors coming out of the ground (those weren’t there anymore), and give the oracle of the god Apollo. It was pretty amazing. The mountains were soooo picturesque. I even managed to go out far enough into the darkness to see them at night by the light of the full moon, which was quite enchanting. Delphi had that small-town feel at the edge of a mountain. It’s a place I’ll never forget.
Day 4
Missed the early-morning hike to the top of Mount Parnassus to watch the sunrise on the mountain range, and I’m really regretting it right now. People who sent said it was probably their best experience on the Greece trip. *grrrr now I’m really jealous* Well, I saw it by moonlight and very few people did, so that’s got to count for something, right? *nice try* Anyway, we visited the museum in Delphi where we saw lots of archaic and some classical sculpture and artwork. We left Delphi and moved on to Athens, but not before stopping at Hosios Loukas, an Eastern Orthodox Monastery. If there was one lesson we learned about the difference between the Eastern and Western parts of the Catholic Church on that trip, it was in 3 words by Fr. Thomas: East. West. Schism!! Haha! Anyway, it was a very peaceful place to be. Once we arrived in Athens some hours later, we visited the Pnyx and the Areopagus, where I was able to participate in a student reenactment of a section of Aeschylus’ greek Tragedy, Eumenides (lines 674-807 if you’re interested). I played the part of Orestes. You’ll have to go read that part of the play to see what I said. I think it went pretty well, considering it was my first time acting…outside of vacation bible school so many years ago, but that doesn’t even count. Anyway, we enjoyed a nice evening in Athens, which, as I just forgot to say, was actually a super hot spot for pick-pocketing, like Rome times 10. I escaped all theft though. Let’s keep it that way.
Day 5
Another whole day in Athens! What a city! We spent the morning as a class exploring the Agora, Agora Museum, Acropolis including the oh-so-famous Parthenon, and the theater of Dionysus. I have to say it was pretty epic standing so close to such an amazing building, even if a lot of it was restored. The rest of the day was free time. I stuck with a small group. First we headed off to the Acropolis Museum where we saw tons of incredible ancient sculpture and fragments from ancient architecture. Lots of it was archaic, but there was some early and high classical material as well. I really enjoyed that trip to the museum, and that ticket was reimbursed by UD. Lunch was on our own, but I was on a quest to not spend a single penny on this trip, and I managed. I already had a couple of meager snacks in my bag to tie me over and I took only what was going to be thrown out from the lunch plates of the friends I was with. It sufficed until dinner. Between lunch and dinner, we explored the local area of Athens. Athens has a population of around 5 million and the city is unbelievably huge (we could see so much of it atop the Acropolis), but we only saw a tiny portion of it, but that was fine with me. We window shopped for most of the time, getting in touch with the culture and learning a few phrases from some of the kindly shopkeepers. Particularly in Greece at that point, we had to keep a low profile because of all the riots going on and the bad name Americans had amongst the Muslims. We didn’t run into any trouble, thank God, and I’m so glad we met so many nice people. I really have a new appreciation for foreign languages after seeing how happy it made the locals to hear foreigners speak their language. I mean, I know that locals like that in any country, but to actually see their faces light up when you say even a couple of words to them in their own tongue was just priceless. Now I want to learn as many languages as I can. At least at this point, I could actually read a decent amount of Greek. I studied the Greek alphabet enough to familiarize myself with the symbols and sounds, but not necessarily all of the sound combinations. I’ll be working on that for the rest of the trip, that’s for sure. Dinner with UD again and bed. Athens has been fantastic!
Day 6
Greece trip is half over and I’m already sad about leaving. Enjoy it while you can! We visited the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which featured some of the most incredible Greek artwork you’ve ever seen. I even saw some of the old sculptures/frescoes we’d studied back in Art & Arch I in Irving as well as the Art & Arch of Rome class we’re doing right now. I swept through the entire museum in about 2 hours time, which is simply not enough time to see everything. It was so sad whizzing through so many amazing rooms, but I did stop every once in awhile to see my favorite pieces. This stuff never ceases to amaze me. After that trip, we moved on to Mycenae and visited the Lion’s Gate and Tomb of Clytemnestra. That, next to Delphi, was probably one of my most favorite archaeological sites of the visit. The view from the top of the site was, once again, jaw dropping. From Mycenae we moved on to the seaside town of Nafplion where we stayed at a hotel for two nights. Did I mention, all of these hotels we stayed at were 3 or 4 star hotels and each meal is 4 courses, every time. I mean, UD Rome is spoiling us big time! We did take a late afternoon/even walk along the sea cliffs and visited the pebbly beach with clear-green water. It was breathtaking! I’ll be coming back tomorrow!
Day 7
This is a particularly good day. For the morning, we visited the archeological site of Epidaurus a half hour drive away, the site of the Sanctuary of Asclepius the god of healing in the ancient Greek world and home to the extremely famous theater of Epidaurus. In this huge theater which seats…oh, I think it was something like 50,000 people, there is a disc in the center of the gravely stage on the ground and if you stand on that disc, tilt your head up and speak, the result is phenomenal. Your voice carries perfectly through the entire theater so that every seat can hear you and you can even hear your own voice bounce back at you, not like a super delayed echo, but like a slight microphone echo, but cooler! Why? Because you don’t need a microphone to sound cool in Epidaurus! I didn’t know what to say, so since it was still morning time I stuck with the morning greeting in Greek: “Kalimera!” That was about the coolest thing ever, hearing my voice jump right back to me. My reaction was pretty priceless too. I quickly and shyly walked away from the disc with my hand over my mouth and my eyes wide open, “Whoa! That was incredible,” was all I could say.
We returned to Nafplion for another afternoon of free time. I was immediately off to the marina, the sea cliffs and the beach from the day before. I went alone this time, and it worked out perfectly well. The walkway along the sea cliffs is decently quiet, but well traveled by many. And would you believe it? There were stone steps that led from the walkway down to the bottom parts of the sea cliffs right next to the water. I must have visited at least half of those stairs (there were so many of them) and just sat for a time on the rocks next to the water, enjoying the sun over Nafplion and watching the storm pouring on the mountains on the other side of the gulf (I guess a few miles across) the water. Pretty epic sight! And the sound of the waves against the sea cliffs was unlike any sound I’d ever heard live. I’m talking about that sound you only hear in the Planet Earth series or National Geographic, where the water has eroded away so much of the rock next to the water that its become a deep cavity, creating a kind of ledge with some space over the water (in this case, just 2 or 3 feet). But that sound caused by the waves in that cavity is so deep and thunderous, you hear and feel those vibrations at the back of your head. And I was sitting right next to it!! After exploring the sea cliffs for what must have been a good 4 hours, I finally walked down to the beach next to the cliffs, the same pebbly beach from yesterday. Lots of the UD students were there again as were the professors. Even Dr. Hatlie himself went swimming with the students, much to their delight. That man is really something else! I didn’t exactly go swimming, but I did wade in the water up to my thighs. I spent more of my time browsing through the many gorgeous rocks and shells on the beach. There wasn’t very much sea glass, but the rocks and shells made up for it. I collected about a handful’s worth of pebbles/shells/sea glass for Greek souvenirs. In all sincerity, those natural pieces of Greece mean a great deal to me. So I basically enjoyed Greece at the most basic, natural level, but it was in that simplicity that I found the most valuable things that everyone else overlooked when they went shopping and stuff. I really enjoyed collecting the natural wonders that God himself made. It made my connection with Greece that much more intimate.
As evening came and the waves picked up, I went back to the sea cliffs where the waves were crashing up against the rocks and shooting magnificent sprays anywhere between 15 to 30 feet high into the air. If the waves had been bigger, I can only imagine how much more epic that would have been. But there I sat, an arm’s length away from where the water shot up like geysers. I like to think of these as the ocean’s fireworks. A couple of these fireworks managed to hit me, making for quite an exhilarating experience. Before it became much darker, I went back to the hotel for dinner. UD provided nearly all the meals, but two were on our own. This was the second one. I pulled out what I had stockpiled from breakfast/lunch: an apple, a few thick slices of slightly dried bread, and a packet or two of Nutella along with some stockpiled water. It was actually probably one of my most favorite meals in the way that I was able to enjoy the nighttime view of the city from my hotel balcony while listening to nice music and enjoying the Greece in a simplistic way.
Day 8
Must we leave?? Okay fine. We left Nafplion, but not before stopping to visit Alexander the Great’s Palamede Fortress overlooking the sea and Nafplion. Great place for pictures and lots of cool steps and tunnels. From there we left for Olympia and stayed at a hotel there. Olympia is really small (population about 1,000), but still has its charm even though there’s not very much to do there. We did visit the Archaeological museum there for awhile and it was really great. I’m really going to miss seeing all this amazing artwork in real life. That evening after Mass and dinner, there was a Greek Folk Dance Presentation by the hotel pool. The Greek dances wore some really neat outfits for the first half of the presentation, then left for a wardrobe change, and came back for round two. After some dancing, they invited the UDers onto the stage to dance. They were very patient in trying to show 50+ students how do dance on such a small stage at the same time in a circle. It was great fun and an excellent way to end the last night in Greece.
Day 9
We visited the archaeological site of Olympia, including some of the temples (to Zeus and Hera) and the very first Olympic race track. Yes, we had our Olympic games on the track, including an all men’s and an all women’s footrace and a relay race. I am proud to say that I participated in the UD Olympic games on the same track where the very first Olympic races were held so many years ago. Really awesome feeling! After that we left Olympia for Patras, where we visited the more contemporary orthodox church of St. Andrew the apostle. The relics of his skull were there too, so that was pretty neat to see. After that short visit, we boarded the Superfast VI, a much larger ferry than the first one, complete with disco and a pool (which was drained though). I was actually there on the starboard side of the boat the moment we left port. And that was the last I saw of Greece.
Day 10
It was all studying for midterms on the boat from the time we boarded, but it was nice to do it with the ocean in the background. We even had Mass right there on the boat in the upper level of the disco, with a huge “bay window” view of the ocean as our backdrop. That’s probably the most creative place we’ve ever had Mass, or so said Fr. Thomas. I’d tend to agree. We arrived in Ancona later that afternoon and then it was a good 4-5 hour bus ride home to campus. It’s been a great experience! And I won my challenge of not spending a penny in Greece. I think that through this self-imposed challenge, I increased my appreciation for the values of simplicity and poverty.
I’ll never forget this amazing 10 day adventure.
Day 1
5am wake up call. Drive away in charter buses from campus at 6:30am and set off for a 7+ hour drive to Bari. Enjoy the charming countryside of Italy, take a few pit stops along the way, and make a visit to St. Nicholas’ relics (yes, THE Santa) located in a lovely church in Bari. Let’s stop to smell the flowers for a moment, literally! Phenomenon goes that if you go up to where St. Nicholas’ relics are kept and take a sniff, you’ll smell roses. No one knows exactly why. Sure enough, that’s exactly what we smelled. Pretty miraculous! Moving on to port around 4 or 5pm-ish…we boarded the Superfast I, a really neat (and obviously fast) ferry from Italy to Greece. We left maybe two hours later, set our watches forward one hour for Greek time, and sailed on through the night. I thought I’d never got to bed after watching that spectacular full moon shining over the water and listening to the sound of the waves with a wind that was strong enough to actually make my hair blow like it does in the movies (light or even moderate breezes can’t do that to the amount of hair I have).
Day 2
Wake up super early to more darkness on the water, but arriving to port. Amazing first breakfast in Greece. More bus rides (WOOHOO! ROAD TRIP!!!) I was a little more positive about riding in the bus than most of the students were. Road trips are exciting…particularly in Greece because of all the amazing mountain views. Literally everywhere you go on the roads, you can see mountains. More than half the time, we drove on them or in the valleys with mountains towering on either side of us. I could have taken thousands of photos. We visited a Dodona, an archaeological site with a theater and several temples (or at least their remaining foundations). We stopped for lunch in Metsovo before moving on to Meteora, where visited an orthodox monastery. This monastery, along with at least for or five others, are nestled safely atop some unbelievable cliffs. You’ve never, and I mean NEVER, seen cliffs like these. It was so peaceful there and the sound of the wind in the cliffs was unlike any wind I’d ever heard. I think most of us left that place thinking, “I want to be a monk/nun.” From Meteora we traveled to Trikala and stayed at a hotel (we even arranged to have Sunday vigil Mass celebrated in the restaurant dining room in the hotel). Trikala was a really charming town. I will end this day by saying though that both lunch and dinner were very delicious. This food pattern remains consistent in Greece. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the food, even when I thought I wouldn’t like it (I can be pretty picky sometimes).
Day 3
Sunday = bus rides…all day. Well, at least for the first half of the day. We left Trikala and headed toward Delphi. We made a stop along the way at the site of the battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the 300 Spartans died fighting. There isn’t really much to see there except for a large memorial with a few statues, but we made sure to take pictures. From there the road to Delphi was bittersweet. The mountain views were spectacular, but that was the problem: we were driving through the extremely curvy roads of the mountains for about 2 hours straight. That’s right, 2 hours of 180s and 360s and stuff. It didn’t matter what any of us did, we couldn’t avoid the car sickness. Oh, and lesson learned: when you’ve been driving on roads like that and everyone’s nauseous, DON’T back up the bus, because that’s going to really make everyone feel worse. We stopped for lunch a few miles away from the center of Delphi, but all of us thought it crazy to try to eat when we all felt sick. We got over it pretty quickly though. The rest of the day was spent in Delphi, after checking in at the hotel, exploring the historical sites, even climbing up part of Mount Parnassus up to the place where the Pythia herself would sit, inhale the vapors coming out of the ground (those weren’t there anymore), and give the oracle of the god Apollo. It was pretty amazing. The mountains were soooo picturesque. I even managed to go out far enough into the darkness to see them at night by the light of the full moon, which was quite enchanting. Delphi had that small-town feel at the edge of a mountain. It’s a place I’ll never forget.
Day 4
Missed the early-morning hike to the top of Mount Parnassus to watch the sunrise on the mountain range, and I’m really regretting it right now. People who sent said it was probably their best experience on the Greece trip. *grrrr now I’m really jealous* Well, I saw it by moonlight and very few people did, so that’s got to count for something, right? *nice try* Anyway, we visited the museum in Delphi where we saw lots of archaic and some classical sculpture and artwork. We left Delphi and moved on to Athens, but not before stopping at Hosios Loukas, an Eastern Orthodox Monastery. If there was one lesson we learned about the difference between the Eastern and Western parts of the Catholic Church on that trip, it was in 3 words by Fr. Thomas: East. West. Schism!! Haha! Anyway, it was a very peaceful place to be. Once we arrived in Athens some hours later, we visited the Pnyx and the Areopagus, where I was able to participate in a student reenactment of a section of Aeschylus’ greek Tragedy, Eumenides (lines 674-807 if you’re interested). I played the part of Orestes. You’ll have to go read that part of the play to see what I said. I think it went pretty well, considering it was my first time acting…outside of vacation bible school so many years ago, but that doesn’t even count. Anyway, we enjoyed a nice evening in Athens, which, as I just forgot to say, was actually a super hot spot for pick-pocketing, like Rome times 10. I escaped all theft though. Let’s keep it that way.
Day 5
Another whole day in Athens! What a city! We spent the morning as a class exploring the Agora, Agora Museum, Acropolis including the oh-so-famous Parthenon, and the theater of Dionysus. I have to say it was pretty epic standing so close to such an amazing building, even if a lot of it was restored. The rest of the day was free time. I stuck with a small group. First we headed off to the Acropolis Museum where we saw tons of incredible ancient sculpture and fragments from ancient architecture. Lots of it was archaic, but there was some early and high classical material as well. I really enjoyed that trip to the museum, and that ticket was reimbursed by UD. Lunch was on our own, but I was on a quest to not spend a single penny on this trip, and I managed. I already had a couple of meager snacks in my bag to tie me over and I took only what was going to be thrown out from the lunch plates of the friends I was with. It sufficed until dinner. Between lunch and dinner, we explored the local area of Athens. Athens has a population of around 5 million and the city is unbelievably huge (we could see so much of it atop the Acropolis), but we only saw a tiny portion of it, but that was fine with me. We window shopped for most of the time, getting in touch with the culture and learning a few phrases from some of the kindly shopkeepers. Particularly in Greece at that point, we had to keep a low profile because of all the riots going on and the bad name Americans had amongst the Muslims. We didn’t run into any trouble, thank God, and I’m so glad we met so many nice people. I really have a new appreciation for foreign languages after seeing how happy it made the locals to hear foreigners speak their language. I mean, I know that locals like that in any country, but to actually see their faces light up when you say even a couple of words to them in their own tongue was just priceless. Now I want to learn as many languages as I can. At least at this point, I could actually read a decent amount of Greek. I studied the Greek alphabet enough to familiarize myself with the symbols and sounds, but not necessarily all of the sound combinations. I’ll be working on that for the rest of the trip, that’s for sure. Dinner with UD again and bed. Athens has been fantastic!
Day 6
Greece trip is half over and I’m already sad about leaving. Enjoy it while you can! We visited the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which featured some of the most incredible Greek artwork you’ve ever seen. I even saw some of the old sculptures/frescoes we’d studied back in Art & Arch I in Irving as well as the Art & Arch of Rome class we’re doing right now. I swept through the entire museum in about 2 hours time, which is simply not enough time to see everything. It was so sad whizzing through so many amazing rooms, but I did stop every once in awhile to see my favorite pieces. This stuff never ceases to amaze me. After that trip, we moved on to Mycenae and visited the Lion’s Gate and Tomb of Clytemnestra. That, next to Delphi, was probably one of my most favorite archaeological sites of the visit. The view from the top of the site was, once again, jaw dropping. From Mycenae we moved on to the seaside town of Nafplion where we stayed at a hotel for two nights. Did I mention, all of these hotels we stayed at were 3 or 4 star hotels and each meal is 4 courses, every time. I mean, UD Rome is spoiling us big time! We did take a late afternoon/even walk along the sea cliffs and visited the pebbly beach with clear-green water. It was breathtaking! I’ll be coming back tomorrow!
Day 7
This is a particularly good day. For the morning, we visited the archeological site of Epidaurus a half hour drive away, the site of the Sanctuary of Asclepius the god of healing in the ancient Greek world and home to the extremely famous theater of Epidaurus. In this huge theater which seats…oh, I think it was something like 50,000 people, there is a disc in the center of the gravely stage on the ground and if you stand on that disc, tilt your head up and speak, the result is phenomenal. Your voice carries perfectly through the entire theater so that every seat can hear you and you can even hear your own voice bounce back at you, not like a super delayed echo, but like a slight microphone echo, but cooler! Why? Because you don’t need a microphone to sound cool in Epidaurus! I didn’t know what to say, so since it was still morning time I stuck with the morning greeting in Greek: “Kalimera!” That was about the coolest thing ever, hearing my voice jump right back to me. My reaction was pretty priceless too. I quickly and shyly walked away from the disc with my hand over my mouth and my eyes wide open, “Whoa! That was incredible,” was all I could say.
We returned to Nafplion for another afternoon of free time. I was immediately off to the marina, the sea cliffs and the beach from the day before. I went alone this time, and it worked out perfectly well. The walkway along the sea cliffs is decently quiet, but well traveled by many. And would you believe it? There were stone steps that led from the walkway down to the bottom parts of the sea cliffs right next to the water. I must have visited at least half of those stairs (there were so many of them) and just sat for a time on the rocks next to the water, enjoying the sun over Nafplion and watching the storm pouring on the mountains on the other side of the gulf (I guess a few miles across) the water. Pretty epic sight! And the sound of the waves against the sea cliffs was unlike any sound I’d ever heard live. I’m talking about that sound you only hear in the Planet Earth series or National Geographic, where the water has eroded away so much of the rock next to the water that its become a deep cavity, creating a kind of ledge with some space over the water (in this case, just 2 or 3 feet). But that sound caused by the waves in that cavity is so deep and thunderous, you hear and feel those vibrations at the back of your head. And I was sitting right next to it!! After exploring the sea cliffs for what must have been a good 4 hours, I finally walked down to the beach next to the cliffs, the same pebbly beach from yesterday. Lots of the UD students were there again as were the professors. Even Dr. Hatlie himself went swimming with the students, much to their delight. That man is really something else! I didn’t exactly go swimming, but I did wade in the water up to my thighs. I spent more of my time browsing through the many gorgeous rocks and shells on the beach. There wasn’t very much sea glass, but the rocks and shells made up for it. I collected about a handful’s worth of pebbles/shells/sea glass for Greek souvenirs. In all sincerity, those natural pieces of Greece mean a great deal to me. So I basically enjoyed Greece at the most basic, natural level, but it was in that simplicity that I found the most valuable things that everyone else overlooked when they went shopping and stuff. I really enjoyed collecting the natural wonders that God himself made. It made my connection with Greece that much more intimate.
As evening came and the waves picked up, I went back to the sea cliffs where the waves were crashing up against the rocks and shooting magnificent sprays anywhere between 15 to 30 feet high into the air. If the waves had been bigger, I can only imagine how much more epic that would have been. But there I sat, an arm’s length away from where the water shot up like geysers. I like to think of these as the ocean’s fireworks. A couple of these fireworks managed to hit me, making for quite an exhilarating experience. Before it became much darker, I went back to the hotel for dinner. UD provided nearly all the meals, but two were on our own. This was the second one. I pulled out what I had stockpiled from breakfast/lunch: an apple, a few thick slices of slightly dried bread, and a packet or two of Nutella along with some stockpiled water. It was actually probably one of my most favorite meals in the way that I was able to enjoy the nighttime view of the city from my hotel balcony while listening to nice music and enjoying the Greece in a simplistic way.
Day 8
Must we leave?? Okay fine. We left Nafplion, but not before stopping to visit Alexander the Great’s Palamede Fortress overlooking the sea and Nafplion. Great place for pictures and lots of cool steps and tunnels. From there we left for Olympia and stayed at a hotel there. Olympia is really small (population about 1,000), but still has its charm even though there’s not very much to do there. We did visit the Archaeological museum there for awhile and it was really great. I’m really going to miss seeing all this amazing artwork in real life. That evening after Mass and dinner, there was a Greek Folk Dance Presentation by the hotel pool. The Greek dances wore some really neat outfits for the first half of the presentation, then left for a wardrobe change, and came back for round two. After some dancing, they invited the UDers onto the stage to dance. They were very patient in trying to show 50+ students how do dance on such a small stage at the same time in a circle. It was great fun and an excellent way to end the last night in Greece.
Day 9
We visited the archaeological site of Olympia, including some of the temples (to Zeus and Hera) and the very first Olympic race track. Yes, we had our Olympic games on the track, including an all men’s and an all women’s footrace and a relay race. I am proud to say that I participated in the UD Olympic games on the same track where the very first Olympic races were held so many years ago. Really awesome feeling! After that we left Olympia for Patras, where we visited the more contemporary orthodox church of St. Andrew the apostle. The relics of his skull were there too, so that was pretty neat to see. After that short visit, we boarded the Superfast VI, a much larger ferry than the first one, complete with disco and a pool (which was drained though). I was actually there on the starboard side of the boat the moment we left port. And that was the last I saw of Greece.
Day 10
It was all studying for midterms on the boat from the time we boarded, but it was nice to do it with the ocean in the background. We even had Mass right there on the boat in the upper level of the disco, with a huge “bay window” view of the ocean as our backdrop. That’s probably the most creative place we’ve ever had Mass, or so said Fr. Thomas. I’d tend to agree. We arrived in Ancona later that afternoon and then it was a good 4-5 hour bus ride home to campus. It’s been a great experience! And I won my challenge of not spending a penny in Greece. I think that through this self-imposed challenge, I increased my appreciation for the values of simplicity and poverty.
I’ll never forget this amazing 10 day adventure.
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