Roman Dust Beneath My Feet

Day 9
(Heads up this is a rather long post, so if you don't have time, come back later and enjoy it all then.)

Waking up to the sun coming through the windows is lovely not to mention gives you a very early start on the day.  After our free and very European breakfast was eaten we hoped on a bus and headed to the ancient world.

The Colosseum is sight to behold beyond anything I have seen before.  So old that you can almost feel the very souls of all those who have walked those paths (and by the way Roman roads are so uneven I can't imagine them ever being comfortable to walk or ride on).

Aubrey wanted a piece of the ancient stone, but they were all to big to fit in our bags and sneak them home.

As we walked around this circle of stone you wonder how this could still be standing, how could they build with such magnificence that it remains to capture our fascination.  And then you remember the horribly grotesque reason that this place was created and all the tragedies that occurred on this land.  Making light of it helps quite a bit....meaning Aubrey wanted to take a gladiator picture of her killing me, but too many people were in the way, so we just imagined it.

May I recommend to all tourists to get up early and visit things before they get too hot and overly busy.

I also discovered that everyone has an Arch of Triumph, or at least every country.  This one is called the Arch of Titus.  I don't know who made the first one, but they are everywhere, including directly across from the Colosseum (Colosseo in Italian).  It was small and cute but really neat to see the carvings.

We moved on to the Roman Forum.  I would never have believed how big the ruins are if I had not seen it myself.  Granted I alone would have thought that they were even bigger because in a maze like that I certainly would have gotten lost: Dad always said I have absolutely no sense of direction, but luckily Aubrey has an epic natural sense of direction and took good care of us from day 1.

Columns seem to be a well surviving piece of architecture and stuck up everywhere. Makes you wonder...

How tall am I compared to the piece of column?

A gorgeous countryside.

One of my day notes/thoughts was: What kind of a people can do all this and then just disappear?  I wonder what will be left of our world for the future?  How long will we last?

What will I be remembered by and what for?

Never forget the wonder of life!

The Palantine, or as I finally realize--the Palace, is right next door to all of this.  The leaders certainly knew where to put themselves, dead center.  My main thought however was that no wonder rich people were carried around in liters...it is a lot of walking and just plain exhausting.  But I did like the flowers and gardens.

You may see umbrella pines, a specialty of Rome and very interesting to see 

(certainly not like the pines in my front yard.)

You can still see so much of how things were.  Living the history I have studied is more than a dream, fulfilling and joyous.

Last before lunch was the Circus Maximus which is also in this general area, but not at all what I expected in comparison to what I had already seen.  Very simple, but I could still hear the horses' hooves; can you?

The only respite to the beating sun...But the graffiti was fun too.

On the bus home we saw this...

Outside the window you could also see azalea bushes that made me think of home.

Joy of joy and genius of creation: Siesta

P.S. I have never been so dusty in my entire life.  I looked tan, yep me.

In the evening we went back out and explored the Basilica of St. Angelo 

(which is the evil lair of in "Angels and Demons").  

I have not much to say except it was simply breath-taking in view and scope.  It hadn't been in our plain but we saw it on our bus into the city and wanted to explore.  I never can get over just how perfectly the old world has come together in the modern city of Rome.  Behind the castle was a children's playground and concert area and scarily a hookah picnic table club area.  

Every turn an experience...

An ancient Aqueduct! that still has water running through it--too cool.

See what I mean about the view, it is just like a dream or a painting.

The Vatican, a whole other country within this very city.  

How many times can you say you have seen an entire country at one time?

 Angels mark the way.

Could not have had a better friend to share this experience with that my best friend Aubs.

Our excited faces :)

Dinner was the best pizza I have ever had! At a cute little restaurant.

The rest of the evening we wandered around the city and found neat places.  It is amazing to me how safe we felt wandering the roads in the dark of night simply because everywhere you go there are little cafes and shops and people.  Just amazing to see the difference in different countries and cities.

Cool open market square.

I was very proud of myself that I didn't buy anything from all the sellers.

The toys that light up and throw up in the air and then float down like a helicopter were the most tempting especially when the very smart man had it drop directly in our path.

Unfathomable beauty. Touched my artistic heart with great joy.  

If any have wondered if a trip like this was worth it, I have no doubt as I hold on to my precious memories.

And finally good-night.

Rome

Day 8

Or they call it Roma…

New experiences began as soon as we stepped off the plane and onto the first bus: personal space does not exist at all, if I didn’t know any better I would have felt violated.  After being on a plane for two days and the then the bus the best thing ever was getting to our hostel (an old convent) and taking a cold shower before we headed out to see the sights.

You will never believe how easy it was to use the public transportation in Rome, especially with the three day metro pass.  I recommend getting one.

We began by seeing the Spanish Steps and I have to say, I was underwhelmed.  I thought they would be bigger or something.  Granted it was hot and there were a lot of people around, but I was not wowed.  

I was far more interested by the fountain at the bottom of the steps where people were refilling their water bottles.  Did they want to get digestional problems?  Then I saw two policemen standing by and watching and thought that if it was unsafe they would stop everyone, so we tried it too. It was the coldest, freshest water I think I have ever had.  We later discovered that they came from original aqueducts of the city from Roman times and still are used today.  They made staying hydrated in the Italian heat much easier.

Now one of the great wonders and beauties of Rome is the fact that around every corner is a building with hundreds and thousands of year old architecture.  

We accidentally found the Pantheon and many beautiful churches.  

They are interwoven into the city just as anything else because that is how the city began.  You never see what we would consider a new and modern building, but that is what gives it the old world charm. 

However, it also made it terribly difficult to find anything.  Nothing sticks out above all the others so if you miss the correct corner to turn you can miss the whole thing.  We moved on to the Trevi Fountain, or tried to.  But once we did find it, it was incredible--and busy!  So many people packed into a very small space, but boy was it worth it all the way.  My mind kept hearing Frank Sinatra singing "Three Coins in a Fountain which one will the fountain bless," and seeing the old time actors running around and empty square.  I wish I could have done the same.

On our way home we stopped to eat, realizing that a lot of places weren't open yet as Europeans eat later dinners than we usually do, and got the best food.  Sitting down was also very nice.

Once back at our hostel we crashed.  We took a second shower of the day and slept, wrote in our journals, and emailed our families.  

What a fabulous day, but how exhausting.

Dusseldorf, Germany

Day 7

AirBerlin was our transportation of choice and I found them very nice, they gave you socks, an eye mask, a tooth brush, ear plugs, and a very nice meal.  But after 6 hours the first leg of our flight was over and we had a 22 hour layover in Dusseldorf, Germany.  Now what would any good traveler do, but go out and explore. 

Now my first experience with passport security is one I may never forget.  I walked up to a German polizei officer and handed him my passport and told him I was going out into the city just for the day.  He was not only crusty but downright scary, like a dog growling at you.  Then as soon as I mentioned we had a long layover, he allowed me to pass with a stamp and a comment to Aubrey that she had more stamps in her passport than me. 

We were truly comforted by the first sight we saw was a Cartier.  American commercialism is everywhere.

It was our greatest pleasure to find an adorable little park just down the road from the train station where we were able to take a lovely nap by a lake full of ducks.  The only drawback would have been all the bugs that flew around us.

Once we had taken our rest we walked quite a bit until we found the Rhine River and a row of the cutest little European houses.  

We even watched a little German family playing together.  Right beside it was the historic part of Dusseldorf and it was so quaint.

Apparently Germans are extremely patriotic as well.  There were flags hanging out of apartment windows all over the city; I am not sure if it was for the Euro Cup or the Olympics or both.

When we returned to the airport we still had the whole night to while away.  We found food and benches without armrests so we could lay down and stretch out directly behind a statue of a giraffe (we named him Geoffrey) giving us a lovely view. 

But wouldn’t you know that there were absolutely no flights out all night so there were very few people to disturb us which of course meant that every time someone did come by I twitched and had to make sure they weren’t going to touch our stuff meaning I slept basically none and barely got to rest my eyes.  Finally it was through security and onto our final short flight to Italy.

This is a random little addition, but I couldn't help it.  I saw this sign and just thought, "Ich ben ien Berliner."  Thank you to JFK and the random funny tidbits of history.

Washington D.C.

Days 1-6:

My adventure began as I got off the plane at Dulles Airport to a drizzly rain and waited for Aubrey and her mother to pull up in the car.  I already felt at home with all of the green trees and the smell of that sweet and warm southern rain on the air.  Their home is nestled in the woods and furnished in such a way that no one could question who lives there.  

You can tell the Browers are well traveled and enjoy a diverse amount of things.  Without any delay I was introduced to the last member of the family I hadn’t met, Garrison, and the darling little historic center of Ellicott City, where they live and able to enjoy antiquing as I never have before.  I loved being with the wonderful Brower family and felt an immense gratitude for their putting up with me and more than that welcoming me into their hearts and home.  The place and the people were adorable in all their uniqueness.

The very next day my tour of the city began and I have to say I was impressed with all I saw.

Our nation’s capital, the center of the government today, an imposing city of sights to see: 

I saw a great many of the famous sights (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII Memorial plus the Capital, White House, Supreme Court, and Library of Congress­) as I traveled around this great and historic city of ours, but I want to focus on the two that stuck with me, the Arlington Cemetery and the Jefferson Memorial.

First the Arlington Cemetery, although not on my original list of what I wanted to see was very moving.  There is a phrase in my major I have often heard, 

“One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”  

As terrible as that sounds it is often the case that we become detached from the sorrow when it isn’t a face or a name but a number of those that died.  I have tried to teach my students this difference as we learn of the terrible price of war and discuss what is actually worth going to war for.  This cemetery brought that lesson home for me.  Every name has a marker, has a place, and they go on as far as you can see.  I remember thinking just how real all those numbers became to me as I looked at the names on some of those markers.

And as I saw the reverence that is in attendance as the military guard the grave of the Unknown Soldier my heart was touched that the sorrow was very real for a great many families affected.

I would like to put in my gratitude here for all those that have served and are serving our country at this time.  Whether we feel the cause is always just and perfect these men and women risk their lives to bring freedom and joy to our lives and the lives of so many around the world and I honor you from the very bottom of my heart.

Second you may think it odd that the Jefferson Memorial would have been so poignant, but as much as the building is beautiful and the statue is almost overbearing in size it was the inscription that touched my heart.  It reads:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

I love how deeply these men felt their cause was just and how aware they were of the role that the Lord played in their future.  And the fact that tyranny can be over more than the physical state of an individual but over the mind of us is such a beautiful concept that I feel it had to be remarked upon in this post.  How blessed we are to have had men prepared and ready to give of themselves to create such a blessed and God-fearing country as this.

Since my personal history obsession has been World War II beginning around the age of seven (for more exact information we may have to ask my mother or better yet Rachel when she started giving me home school history lessons on the subject), we went to the Holocaust Museum.

I am sure you are all aware of the horrors that were experienced in those years by the men and women who were hated by Hitler, but I encourage you all to go and see, allow yourselves to be surrounded by the reality of what happened.  For myself I simply remember thinking, "So many faces."  That is what makes history more than the dusty books on a shelf, but real and intense to the heart of our human existence.

I would also like to share with you a poem they had in one room and leave it at that:

"We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers

from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam.

And because we are only made of fabric and leather,

And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the Hellfire."

The rest of my time in Maryland with the Browers was planning and prepping for the weeks ahead where we would have very little internet, time, or contact with those at home and traveling with a girl like Aubrey means everything must be checked and double-checked: bless that girl from the bottom of my heart for all the planning she did, but she really seemed to enjoy it so I don't feel too bad for not doing more myself.  Needless to say we were well prepared when we drove up to NYC's JFK airport and handed them our passports (never done that before, it was so exciting) to leave the country.

(Oh and we learned to always trust the TomTom, she knows more than you do about traffic up ahead.)

My Big Adventure

I am back from across the pond.....

How happy am I?  But I have absolutely no idea how I am going to explain what an experience this has been to me.  I have filled an entire journal full with all the thoughts and details about the entire month of changes.  The story will be shared in installments of at least 4 or 5...there are so many things to share I will have to be very selective and still give you the essence of the trip.  Loved every minute.

Many great things to check off my bucket list.

Tomorrow...Tomorrow....

I love you tomorrow!

I am sitting in my bed as I have been far too much in the past couple of days, no I am not sick, I simply have been very lazy and had rather little to do, but no more.  Starting tomorrow I am on a 3 week vacation to the world of my dreams: Washington D.C., Italy, France, and England.  I have been reading and studying and learning about these places since before I can remember. (I should ask Rachel when she actually started teaching me history lessons.)  Now I have been truly blessed to be able to see them in person and experience the thrill of a life time.  I have no idea how to express my gratitude to everyone for helping me get ready: planning, borrowing, and lists of "Must Sees".  I feel more prepared than I could have ever thought and am just ready to get on that plane and go!

I promise the next post will be far more interesting and accompanied with pictures full of two very happy girls, here we go Aubrey!