Being the Third and Final section of my Week One adventures

Last day in Rome
We woke up the next day before our check out to once again pack our stuff and find that not everything fits in our backpacks; more clothes were to be put on, but not until later. We went downstairs and paid 3 euro for a delicious breakfast, which turned out to be French toast. This was especially a delight for me, because I hadn’t had this delectable treat in a long time.
Afterwards we found out we could leave our backpacks down below in a basement to be watched until our return. This pleased me because I didn’t relish the idea of walking about the Vatican with my entire life on my back, like I did with the Louvre. So excitedly we exited The Yellow to journey to the inner depths of the Vatican.
We took a subway  (thank God) to the Vatican. We walked to the entrance and found that the “extremely long line” only took us fifteen minutes to get through and then we were in Saint Peter’s Basilica. This was a marvelous Church to be sure, all of the portions of the church dedicated to the various saints. The highlight however, was in the center of the Church there was the place were Saint Peter was buried.  (If anyone has watched Angels and Demons outside the Basilica is where the crowds are gathered and then the guy who plays the young soon to be pope guy ends up playing a dramatic part where at this exact spot.) This was rather cool, and we saw the outside, and later went down underneath to see his actual stone tomb. Very exciting I must say, as when I was a child I always liked Peter the best out of all the apostles. (Maybe it was because I liked how he was always in trouble and forever asking questions.) I would say that was the most amazing thing that I saw. (If I ever put my pictures up on facebook, then you can see them Haha, later I will add links on my blog to them.)
In the actual underground passage where Peter was buried there were many Popes as well. Although, I am not Catholic and could not tell you who is the Pope right now, sad but true. So basically it was like a tourist from another country who had never studied American History before, who goes on a tour of all the President’s graves, just not as impactful as if they were an American. That is how it feels not to be catholic. It was a bit sad but we didn’t go to the top of the Basilica, the line was long and it cost some money that we didn’t feel like spending, one might think this is a poor excuse for not seeing a view, but alas thus is life, you don’t always take every opportunity to see every sight that is available to you. ☺
After this we decided to go see the Sistine Chapel, which I might add, was a price we were willing to pay. Although finding this proved harder then if might seem. For anyone who has not been to the Basilica the Sistine Chapel is not in the little area right there next to the Basilica it is about a ten-minute walk away. We headed in the right direction; however, we decided to follow a tourist group. Somehow we missed the Entrance to the Sistine Chapel and went about eight minutes past it until I asked a member of the group and not only did they not speak English, but they looked puzzled why I would ask them if I was going to the Sistine Chapel. So I ended up going to a gelato shop and asking where the Chapel was and the man pointed me in the general direction. Eventually we made it. Now I would like to say something at this point. Many of us purchased ISIC cards (International Student ID Cards), which are supposed to give you discounts to a lot of museums and random places. Nobody up until this point would give us discounts. (Luckily mine was used in Egypt and therefore it was just an extra bonus to bring on the trip and mattered not if helped me.) So therefore it was very joyous when they gave us a discount for our ISIC Cards, so it was exciting that they weren’t a complete and total failure.
So something else that I want to make everyone aware of, you cannot just walk into the Sistine Chapel, you have to walk through what seems like fifty exhibits of random artwork and artifacts. Including: Egyptian and Japanese art, and about fifty millions paintings of random scene of holy wars, maps, and apostles. So it took us almost a half hour to get to the actual Chapel. This included by passing some of the exhibits. Finally we made it to the Chapel. (Which by the way there was no line.) We entered into the chapel, and wow it was fabulous. It was a bit dark and there were over a hundred- one hundred and fifty people in there. Every so often you would see a tourist raise their camera and one of the guards who were mingling in the crowd would yell and I mean yell “NO PHOTO! NO PHOTO!” I found it ironic after ten minutes there was a loud announcement where the guards stood at the front saying “NO PHOTOS and SILENCE IS TO BE RESPECTED, THIS IS A HOLY PLACE.” Like I said before they yelled it. So I decided to be rebellious and took a picture of the ceiling oh God reaching out to touch Adams finger ☺ I do not regret this. Especially since four other strangers around me did the same thing.
Anyway it was quite amazing and I can see why the Pope used John Tetzel to sell indulgences to Peasants to fund this project, it turned out great results. We spent about twenty minutes staring at the masterpiece and then left. It was time to go to our new hotel. (By the way it takes forever to leave this is not a walk in walk out Chapel, the Vatican attempts to suck you in and make you stay there forever. I will not become a Catholic Statue!)
It was time to return to The Yellow and gather together my life. We took a subway back and collected our backpacks and I gave thirteen little tiny hard candies the chance to make their new home my coat pocket. WE walked three blocks and found the bus station, and thus our Rome adventure ended and our Ciampino adventure begun.
We got dropped off at the airport and wishing we could just go home, and not have to spend the night in this little off the way town, we called the Hotel to see if there was a shuttle coming. There was in fifty minutes. So we waited, and waited, I listening to Harry Potter Seven on my Ipod and about five minutes before they were supposed to come we went to the pick up spot. No shuttle to the Cappella Hotel. We waited ten more minutes, and I am telling you every sort of shuttle imagined came but not our shuttle. The anxiousness level of our group rose, and all we could think about was a comfortable bed waiting us.
However, during our wait the most curious thing happened. A truck drove into the parking lot, and it had two large speakers at the front. All of sudden a loud blare horn type noise, similar to a car alarm came belting out of the speakers. Hundreds of birds flew out of the tree, but the regular birds stood there ground and the tree still had several birds in it. The truck changed their tactic and turned to jungle noises, which were frightening enough for the birds, and to us as well (just kidding..sort of.) I cried, tears of mirth not sadness, because it was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen, and still the Capella shuttle did not come.
I made Phil and Kristen wait until twelve minutes past where the Hotel had said the shuttle would arrive, and then they decided to take a taxi. I was reluctant, especially when the prince would be twenty-five euro (ugh) but no one wanted to wait at this airport anymore so we got it.
Just like a watched pot never boils, and life doesn’t always go how you would expect, our taxi cab entered onto the highway just as the Cappella shuttle made its way to the airport. Annoyance is too tame of a word to describe how I felt, livid, possibly would be a good word. I was spending a good eight-euro to drive one way to a hotel, when I could have waited three more minutes to get a free shuttle ride to the same destination. Yet we were already one the highway and could not easily turn around. So I was stuck paying the eight-euro.
Although, we did make it to our hotel. After checking in we decided to walk around to see if we could find food. Nada. We found two little rinky-dink places, one being Chilean food (in Italy? What is that? Take about a culture gap.) There was nothing to be found and my blisters on my toes were about to claim their own area code in a second because they had grown so enormous and painful and I was limping back to the hotel. So we just had dinner in the hotel lobby. It was quite nice.
I had ravioli of sorts and Phil and Kristin had Pasta as well. It was a quite dinner, with live piano, until suddenly a bunch of High School Italians showed up. They started dancing and playing their own music, and took turns singing. One boy sounded like he could be on the Italian American Idol and we were all impressed. They danced well too, and it was great fun to watch. We never figured out quite why they were there, but it was fun watching them.
Afterwards we went up to our hotel room. Kristen and I both took turns running a bath, and it was glorious. My blisters met their demise and my feet felt better. Meanwhile we took turns watching Italian MTV watching Mumford and Sons’ “Little Lion Man” Music video, and Italian dubbed “Tru Blood.” Quite disturbing actually, not my favorite show, but what do you do when your options are limited.
We slept well but had to get up at five forty-five and caught our six thirty shuttle, which left a six forty, we had learned Italians are not on time like the Germans. Then made our way to the Ciampino Ryan Air Airport. It consisted of checking in, security, waiting, and plane ride, landing in Frankfurt-Hahn. Feeling relieved to be back in Germany, we took a bus from Hahn to the Frankfurt train station, and took about a four and a half our train (with some transfers) back to Regensburg.
We arrived greasy, hungry, and I was wearing splotched spectacles. Yet we arrived and the Jugenherberge or Youth Hostel never looked more inviting. We were home. At least our home away from home and I wanted nothing more then a hot meal, a shower, a fresh pair of contacts, and of course a nice warm bed. Travel week one was now just a memory.
This concludes Travel week one. Be sure to look for Travel week two: Ireland, Wales, and England. Soon to follow!