Day 8--Rome and Florence

View Rome - Day 8 in a larger map


View Florence - Day 8 in a larger map

We woke up early so that we could stay a little longer in Rome to finish seeing the things we were unable to get to yesterday. The first thing we went to was the Vatican so we would not need to wait 2 hours in line. We got there just as it was opening so there was no one else there and we were able to take unobstructed pictures of the Basilica. Within the Basilica there were priests giving mass to some o the public. You were also able to go to confession there. There were many preserved popes from past generations in glass coffins where the small masses were taking place. We visited the main alter of the church were the main services are given. I knelt at one of the prayer pews to “pray”—aka take a better picture—and Justin put money in the ‘Offerte’ slot on the prayer pew so my sin would be forgiven. However, he probably should have put in the money for himself for taking a picture of himself in front of the Pope’s alter and saying he’d photoshop the Pope in later.
After this, we walked nearly a mile around the Vatican to the Vatican Museum as it was about to open. We really only went in to see the Sistine Chapel. It ended up that we had to walk nearly a mile, going through many different pieces of religious artwork to get into the chapel. Once in the Sistine Chapel, Justin snuck pictures of the wall and ceiling despite guards yelling at everyone else for taking photos as there was a huge sign that said no photos. There was also a sign that said no talking so many people got yelled at as well. At least Justin was smart enough to make sure the flash was off—unlike some other dumb tourist that left his flash on and the guard made a bee-line for him in the crowd. Once we left the Sistine Chapel we realized that it was actually attached to the Basilica and the exit of the Sistine Chapel was just a few steps from the entrance of the Basilica.
After the Vatican we went to check out of our hotel and collect our bags to finish walking around Rome. Luckily, they allowed us to leave our bags at the hotel for the afternoon after taking them out of our room.
From there we went to the Roman Forum and the Palatino. We walked through the Palatino, from which there is a nice view of Rome and all the underlying Roman Forum. We finished walking through the Roman Forum and headed back to pick up our bags and catch a train to Florence.
We arrived in Florence around 2:40. We then proceeded to play a game of Where’s Waldo—though in this case it was ‘Where’s David.’ The map we had—and all the maps we saw—did not have the Accademia on them as tourist attractions. Because of this we thought it may have had another name and searched the city. Based off of the map we had claimed that the David di Michelangelo was in the Piazza della Signoria and when we got there we discovered that David was outside and the fake one. (Apparently, all the tourists thought it was the real one.) After this we thought it might be in the Piazzale Michelangelo because there was a very large picture of David over this location on another map we saw. However, after walking nearly a mile and a half up a very steep hill, we discovered that this too was not the true David. There is a green statue of David up there in a viewing area.
We decided to go into the Ufuzzi because we couldn’t figure it out. We only spent about 30 minutes there because there wasn’t anything we recognized. We went into another building and asked about David. The women here directed us to where David was—on the other side of the city. We started on our walk and passed Il Duomo. So we stopped and took some pictures. When finally found the Accademia and David Justin once again snuck pictures where he wasn’t supposed to. He got a couple pictures of the Slaves and one of David.
We then left and went back to Il Duomo because there was a taxi port there. We walked around Il Duomo then took a taxi to the train station to wait for our overnight train.

Day 7--Rome

View Rome - Day 7 in a larger map

We had a 6:30 train taking us from Venice to Rome. For the beginning of the trip we thought we lucked out and had no one sitting next to us at the table we were at. Though eventually 2 people showed up and we had to share the space. We were able to take a few pictures of the Italian country side but we both were sleeping for a good portion of the ride.
When we got to Rome our room wasn’t ready yet but we were able to drop off our bags. We found the street our hotel was on easily enough but it took a few attempts to actually find the hotel itself. You have to ring the bell to be let into the hotel and it looks like it’s part of an apartment complex. We dropped off our bags and set off to find the many things we wanted to see.
We went out looking for what transportation we wanted to use for the day and decided on one of about 8 hop-on-hop-off buses. We got on the bus and started taking pictures of the city as we passed things—which was significantly harder than the bus in Dublin or the water-bus in Venice because of the bumpy streets. The first stop we got off at was for Vatican City, We found the line to enter the basilica and decided to try either later today or early tomorrow because the line was huge. We stuck around Vatican City for awhile taking pictures of everything—that was on the outside that is. We got back on the bus so we could find our next attraction to see. This ended up being Fontana di Trevi.
On the way to the fountain we saw a tower depicting the story of Marcus Aralias. After getting a few pictures we finally found a pharmacy that carried really expensive sunblock—but we needed it so had to get it. After applying the sunblock we used one of the many small fountains that allowed water to run and into the street—we assumed they were for hand washing but we’re not too sure.
From there we preceded to the Pantheon. There we were able to go inside and get a few pictures of the inside. This is also where Justin started talking about the movie Angels and Demons—talking about a movie I have not yet seen but want to. We walked to the site where Julius Caesar was killed. This site is one of the oldest archeological dig sites that…..unfortunately we can’t remember what the that was.
The Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II was our next walking stop. There we climbed the steps of its neighbor Campidoglil. Then we attempted to walk through the Roman Forum but found out we were at the exit ended and had to walk all the way around it to be able to do so. When we finally reached the bottom of the forum we decided to go to the Coliseum instead. However, we were unable to pass through the metal detectors because we had disposable razors from purchasing them earlier. At that point we decided to go back to our hotel and officially check in and drop off the disposable razors so we could actually get into the Coliseum.
Before the Coliseum we went to the San Pietro in Vencoli. Here was one of Michelangelo’s famous statues—unfortunately we were not able to understand which one but we saw it and took pictures anyways. Next we went to the Coliseum we were able to explore the upper and lower deck. It’s too bad the dungeons are closed off to the public for safety reasons because that would be cool to see. The ticket into the Coliseum included entry into the Roman Forums but when we arrived at the entrance we were about a minute too late to get in. So we will be making a stop at the Roman Forums in the morning before heading to Florence.
We then got back on the hop-on-hop-off bus to ride it around to see the other sites we hadn’t yet gone to before the bus route ended for the day. We saw the Archo de Constintino near the Coliseum. There was also an old aquaduct to be seen near the Palitino, Circo Massimo which was once used for chariot races, Castel sant’angelo—to this Justin again started talking about Angels and Demons—we also went by Arapacis which is an alter completely encompassed by a glass building. You are still able to go see the alter but the glass is there to protect it. We got off the bus at Piazza del Popolo. In this piazza there were fountains and statues. After a few minutes we returned to the bus stop and continued our ride.
Once back on the bus we saw Fontana del Tritone. Then continued on to see the Piazza della Repubblica and ended our bus ride there. We got dinner of McDonalds for something quick to eat before heading to the subway to go to the Trinita dei Monti. This is apparently a very popular place to hang out at night. After this we went back to the hotel for a little while before heading to the Coliseum to see it at night.
After which we decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep and right about our daily activities because we did not want to get wine or anything to eat.

Day 6--Venice

View Venice - Day 6 in a larger map

Justin had an awkward night of sleep because he was just a little too tall for the bed. When he extended straight his head had to be bent in order to fit in properly. I, on the other hand, am shorter and was therefore able to fit in better.
When we got to Venice we went to find our hotel to see when check it was. Luckily our room was ready early and we were able to get rid of our bags earlier than planned. We decided to get a 12 hour water-bus pass to get around the city. We got on it once and just rode it around taking pictures around the whole city (we took close to 200 pictures each today). After riding around we went to Piazza San Marco. There we went into the Basilica di San Marco which we weren’t allowed to take pictures in. We walked around Piazza San Marco then took a full lap around Venice. Luckily we were able to sit in the front of the water-bus and see everything as we passed.
We then tried to go to the Accademia. There was construction on the outside so we were unfortunately unable to see the outside of it and once we entered found out the “Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci is not on display for the public. Since we didn’t know of anything else in the Accademia we decided to skip it and get something to eat by the Rialto Bridge. We found somewhere that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to eat at—it was pizza. We walked around the Rialto Bridge looking at the different shops then decided to look at Murano Island for the glass blowing. Unfortunately we miss judged how long it would take to get there (nearly an hour) and did not arrive in time before everything closed. So we went back to the Rialto Bridge to find our souvenir for the day. We found souvenirs that were made using Murano glass. I had to use all my will power to not stop and buy a new purse. At this point in time the majority of things seemed to be closing up—around 6pm. We decided to find something to eat but ended up at our pizza place again.
After eating we continued to explore the different side streets and ended back at Piazzo San Marco and got some gelato while listening to the different restaurant bands. I had to eat most of the gelato myself because Justin did care for it because it’s like ice cream. We then found some more shops which included Louis Vutton and Channel—it’s a good thing we hadn’t found them while they were open otherwise I might have made Justin go in just so I could look at the purses for awhile. We continued roaming and decided to see how much a gondola ride would be. Since we decided it was too much and neither of us care for wine we went with the water-bus and Bacardi Breezes—with some more pizza.
Throughout the day we were noticing that our arms were getting a little pink. By the end of the day my arms were very red and Justin’s nose was as well. Thought for the day…buy sunblock. We then ended our night with catching up on our daily entries of what we have been up to and getting some sleep.

Day 5--Paris

View Paris - Day 5 in a larger map

Today we had a day in France before having to leave for our overnight train to Venice. We woke up early, checked out of our hotel and set off for the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the very top of the Eiffel Tower and were able to see much of the city. There were even places around the top that showed what direction and how far away the different major cities around the world were. It took us about an hour and half to get to the top of the tower, and that was in the early morning when there was no queue to wait and get tickets. When we were leaving, the lines just to buy tickets were past the “30 minutes from this point sign.” There were also the armed guards out patrolling under the tower—which makes you feel really safe about going up the Eiffel Tower.
After leaving the Eiffel Tower we looked for the subway but got very lost and made a very large circle and ended back where we started. Once we found where we were and went to the Louvre. Luckily, once there we were able to check our very large bags and walk around without them for awhile. We only used my camera because we thought the picture was signifying no pictures so we were just going to take in mine—but then we realized that the picture meant no flash photography.
While in the Louvre we saw, Mona Lisa, Aphrodite, Psyche and Cupid, The Dying Slave, St. Mary Magdalene, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Coronation Crown of Louis XV. We looked at many other paintings and sculptures but these were the ones we most recognized. When walking out of the Louvre we walked by the inverted pyramid.
By this time we had more or less figured out the subway system and went to the Arc de Triomphe. Once at the arc it took us some time to actually figure out how to get to it without running out into very busy and very heavy traffic. We did eventually see the underground tunnel that would allow us to visit it.
We decided to leave a little early to find our train—which turned out to be a good thing. The ticket said to go to Paris-Bercy, but that didn’t make sense so we checked in the train schedule book. The train timetable book said that the train was to leave from Gare de Lyon. We had to look around for a bit to find the Paris International area but it still wasn’t on the time boards. When we asked someone where to go we found out that we were at the wrong train station. We really had to be at a train station called Bercy—which was farther down the line. We got there with about 20 minutes to spare—but not before France tried to kill me. Not once, but twice, the turn stiles tried to eat my because my bags were too long to completely finish walking through them. The turn stiles had sliding doors that on two occasions slid closed before I was fully through and caught my bags in the way.....luckily Justin did not capture a picture of this.
The train we had to catch was a sleeper car that took about 13 hours to go from Paris to Venice. All of the people in our car spoke French so we really couldn’t talk to them. And we had to sleep on the bottom bunk which wasn’t so great because the head dividers hung down.

Day 4-traveling to Paris

View Paris - Day 4 in a larger map

Today we left Edinburgh on a train at 5:50am headed for London. We went arrived at King’s Cross station as a stopping point on the way to Paris. We needed to get our tickets from London to Paris on the train that goes under the water. This train travels a top speed of 120mph.
Once arriving in Paris we needed to find our hostel—Luna Parc Hotel. We didn’t have a map and Justin quickly looked at one of the maps in the train station so we could find our way—and it was really quickly because we had to turn around a few time. But we did get here. It was around 9 that we got to the hostel so we went to find something to eat and see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We ate a French restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. Justin attempted to order penne pasta with tomato sauce a basil but ended up with tomatoes on pieces of mozzarella—at least he tried something other than a burger.
After eating we walked to the Eiffel Tower and took many pictures—and had to dodge many people trying to sell us mini-Eiffel Towers or flowers. As we were walking away from the Eiffel Tower I noticed through some trees that the Eiffel Tower was flashing so we ran back to take even more pictures. I also tried taking some video but I’m not too sure how well it turned out.

Day 3--Edinburgh

View Edinburgh - Day 3 in a larger map

Last night we took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead . We got into Holyhead around midnight and had to hang around the port/trainstation until about 4am local time for a train that would get us to Edinburgh. This ended up being quite the adventure because the train we had planned on taking was cancelled and we needed to find a different route. While at the train station we met a new friend named John who is taking the summer to backpack throughout Europe. He was also traveling to Edinburgh from Dublin. Luckily, John had looked up and written down a more varied route to Edinburgh.
Once we had finally figured out the trains and having changed trains about 2 times we were on the 3 hour train ride where we’d be able to get some sort of sleep—seeing as how sleeping in the train station was not possible. We walked up the Royal Mile looking for our second hostel of the trip—Castle Rock. This is where John left us looking for his own place to stay. Castle Rock was right under Edinburgh Castle and we had a great view of the castle from the bedroom window.
After having lightened our backs by dropping off our back packs we continued up the Royal Mile towards the castle. We bought our admission into the castle and began to explore. We saw many different things in Edinburgh Castle. There was: St. Margaret”s Chapel, Mons Meg, Dog Cemetry, David’s Tower, The Royal Scots Dragoon Gaurds Regimental Museum, and Argyle Tower—just to name a few. At one o’clock there was the firing of the cannon. Everyone gathered around to watch the cannon be fired from the castle. We also saw the end of the changing of the guard.
After we had explored the castle it was time to find something for lunch—we stopped at Deacon Brodies Pub. At this point it was time for a much needed nap. After waking up we continued to explore Edinburgh. We walked along the Royal Mile window shopping at the different stores that lined the street. We were able to hear some bag pipers playing on the street as we were walking along. We decided to get something light to eat before exploring a haunted walking tour. While looking for a place to eat, we met 2 more new friends from Kentucky. These girls, Blaire and Stacey, sat and had a drink with us while we were grabbing something to eat. We then had some time before the haunted tour so moved on back to Deacon Brodies for another drink with Blaire and Stacey. Blaire and Stacey decided to join us on the haunted tour only after Blaire had convinced Stacey it was a good idea—Stacey was a little scared of the idea.
We got our tickets and headed out on the tour. After the second or third stop Stacey was just not having fun so they bailed on the rest of the tour and we continued on. The tour went down into the vaults were we heard ghost stories of different beings believed to be inhabiting the vaults below ground. Some of the inhabitants were thought to be friendly while others had a more sinister feeling to them. One o the more friendly ghosts is the shoemaker—said to be a protector of the people entering the vaults. The shoemaker is the one who causes a cold breeze around the ankles of visitors because he is admiring the different footwear of the newcomers.
Once we had heard a sufficient amount of ghost stories it was time to head back towards the castle for a night time picture then back to the hostel so we could get some sleep before catching our 5:50am train to London.

Day 2--Ireland

View Ireland - Day 2 in a larger map

Today we got up early and packed up our things from Jacobs Inn and headed out to roam around Dublin for a few hours. On the way out we grabbed a breakfast of toast from the hostel. We picked up our bus tour tickets then set out walking for Dublin Castle because we had a few hours before the bus left. We walked around the grounds of Dublin Castle taking pictures of the castle and the grounds. Dublin Castle isn’t really the stereotypical castle—it’s more a government building.

Once we had taken a sufficient amount of pictures we headed back to the bus stop so we could take a South Coast Tour of Ireland. This tour took us through the mountains and along the coast line. As we were traveling the bus driver we telling us about the different historical landmarks that we were passing—as well as giving his own personal commentary of random facts. Such as the ‘Finger Rock’ so named because it resembles a “universal symbol.” Later in the trip the driver took us around a round-about a few times because he thought it wasn’t fair that the left side couldn’t see the same rock as the right side did. We made an unscheduled stop at a beach where we were able to eat our Subway and go on the beach for a few minutes.

Our scheduled stop was for Powerscourt Gardens. Going here we saw—the Italian Gardens, Tower Valley, Japanese Gardens, Winged Horses, Triton Lake, and a Pets Cemetery. We were able to walk around the gardens for about an hour and a half. After which we boarded back onto the bus and headed back towards Dublin. The bus driver continued to tell us jokes and stories to keep us amused through-out the trip. The South Coast Tour took us about 4 hours and 30 minutes to complete. The gardens were beautiful and the bus driver had the whole bus laughing with his jokes. On the way back into Dublin we were also entertained by our bus driver’s singing.

Once we were back in Dublin and had unloaded the bus we set back out to explore Dublin for a bit. We traveled back to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. However, we decided that the line was too long to wait in to see it. So we sat in one of the Trinity College court yards and took some more pictures and rested from walking with our huge backpacks. After a little sitting we set off to go take a picture will Molly Malone and her cart. Molly Malone is very famous and there is an Irish song about her.

We continued walking for a bit, and decided to look and see if we could grab something to eat while watching Irish Dancers. Unfortunately we were unable to watch because we didn’t have time to get to our ferry for Holyhead. So we grabbed burgers at Eddie Rocket’s. Then we did the touristy thing and took a picture straight up of the Stire. We then sat and people watched before needed to go to the ferry. While people watching we saw a guy dancing in the street with his headphones while he was waiting for the bus.

We took a taxi over to Dublin Port. There we checked in and waited to be boarded. I have now taken my first ferry ride.

Day 1--Dublin

View Dublin - Day 1 in a larger map


The flight seemed really long, but that's probably because it was hard to sleep for the few hours it was dark from Chicago to Ireland and there wasn't anything to watch because the movie player wasn't working right. But we finally landed and could start the adventure. We took a bus from the airport to the city center and started our way around town. We first ended up at Trinity College where we were able to walk around the grounds and begin taking a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, the Book of Kells exhibit wasn't open yet because our fight was early so we moved on to our next destination.

After exiting Trinity College we decided to get tickets for a hop-on-hop-off double decker bus so we could faster explore the city and get around easier. We rode the bus around a good portion of the route taking pictures of many historical and famous land marks in Dublin. A few of these included St. Patricks Cathedral, the Guiness Factory, the Dublin Zoo, and many places of government.

Our first jumping off point was at the Jameson Distillary. Here we were able to take a tour of a replica of what used to be the Jamesson Distillary. I was chosen to be a voluntar for taste testing and comparing of different whiskey. I tried a scotch whiskey (Johnny Walker), an American Whiskey (Jack Daniels), and finally Irish Whiskey (of course, Jameson). After that I got a certificate and recieved my drink of Jameson which Justin had already recieved while I was taste testing.

We continued our journey on the bus around the route stopping at the Christ Church Cathedral to take pictures but decided we'd prefer to enter St Patrick's Cathedral and walked over that way. There we entered the Cathedral and continued taking more pictures.

After all this exploring--and not sleeping much on the plane--we decided it was about time to get in a nap and check into our hostel--Jacob's Inn. After the much needed rest it was time to head back out and grab dinner and explore Temple Bar. We ate dinner at the Badass Cafe then walked around people watching and listening to street performers. After more exploring of the area it was time to take a rest and grab a drink and listen to some Irish Music. We decided to listen to a band at the Oliver St. John Gogarty Temple Bar.

A little more walking around and we found our way back to Jacob's Inn to get ready for our next day.

"Happy Birthday Dad!" - Justin

Almost there...

We'll be on a plane in less then 24 hours headed for Ireland!! 10 countries in 17 days (technically 11 countries because Vatican City is considered it's own country). Just the final little things left to do....print out confirmations, charge batteries, recheck that everything is packed. I can't wait to start to use all the new gadgets that have been bought for this trip--not to mention proving that I can actually live out of a back pack for 2 weeks (some people have their doubts lol).
Don't worry, Justin and I will keep everyone posted on the AMAZING things we're doing and will take a million pictures of everything (nothing like making all our family and friends jealous of us).
Take off at 7:15 pm! :)