Sunday, April 19, 2009

Do as the Romans

Last Monday, my parents and I bid Spain farewell and boarded a plane that was Rome-ward bound. After checking into our hotel, we immediately head out to explore this new land. We quickly stumbled upon the Trevi fountain in all its glory.


After that, we got some pizza and the almighty gelato. I also noticed that Italy is really in to selling Pinnochio stuff.


Then we headed over to the Spanish steps. Why there are Spanish steps in Italy is a question that I do not know the answer to. We went the first day and there were at least one billion people there. I went back later in the week and there were still a ton, but not quite a billion.
It was here where I also bought my "I heart Roma" t-shirt.


The next day was spent at the Colosseum and right next to it on the Palentine Hill. The Colosseum was just as awesome as I thought it would be.




I 'm not sure, but I think this bird was doing some sunbathing. It definitely wasn't dead.


Before coming to Rome, I had never heard of the Palentine hill, but it too was amazing. The whole are was just covered in ruins. I actually felt like I was in Ancient Rome, even though every thing was in ruins...

They had a nice view from atop the hill.



The highlight of the next day was most definitely the Pantheon.

Here's the interior. Pretty cool.


We also went to the Campidoglio museum which was full of neat things. Like feet!

...and other things.


Friday we went on a day trip to Pompeii. Pompeii was the ancient city that got totally covered when Mount Vesuvius errupted. This place was amazing! Everything in the city was preserved really well.

When the archeologists were unearthing the city, they found empty spots where people had been killed in the eruption, then covered in ash. They filled the holes with plaster and once it hardened, they had a cast of what they looked like.


They even found a dead dog!

So basically Rome was amazing. Next up: Venice!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Our final journey...

Our group's final journey together. We've had some good times as you may have seen. Here are a few pictures from our trip the past week:


Oh, Doner Kebabs...


Santiago de Compostela cathedral where all of the pilgrims hike weeks to get to.



I like roofs. What can I say?

This is the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca. In the movie, Vantage Point, some terrorists blew it up. Luckily they fixed it before we got there.

???



The --supposed-- Holy Grail!



Friday, March 20, 2009

Las Fallas

Back to Valencia! A trip that lasted less than 24 hours, eight of which were spent on the bus. Las Fallas, meaning "The Torches" in Latin is a crazy Spanish fiesta, The focus of which, is the creation and destruction of ninots, which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The statues are everywhere. There must have been hundreds of them all over the city.





Hurrah for matching bracelets!







"Mark, what do they do with all the statues?" Well friends, they set them all on fire! They begin to burn the smaller ones at about 10 o'clock, then move on to the larger ones.

This is the grandaddy of the ninots that burned in the fiesta. We staked out our spot to watch at about 10:30. It didn't start till about 1am but it was well worth the wait. It all began with some amazing fireworks then the actual ninot was set ablaze. The subsequent inferno was enough to melt your face off(almost).






Hot, hot, hot!

(Muchas Gracias to my father for letting me use several of his pictures)