More Italy and Greece.

It’s fantastic that I have a ton of long train rides. Because if I did not have them, I would not have time to write on my blog. Currently I am riding a 5.5 hour train ride to Athens. :D And it’s about 100 degrees outside, 55% humidity, and there is no working air conditioning. Like I said on facebook, Sweat has become a normal part of my wardrobe.

Going to sleep at night is hard. I’m learning how to sleep completely spread out. My legs spread apart because I don’t want them to touch each other, and my arms not touching my sides, and my fingers not touching each other.

Cold showers feel so good. I haven’t turned on hot water since leaving Germany.

Funny story. We’re in a little room thing on a train and there’s a little thermostat thing and we cranked that baby up to “max” and then we’re dying of the heat. When my conductor man comes to check our tickets he saw us sweating to death and changed it to min. Either we had it on max heat and he decided to help a poor soul out, or he’s trying to pull a {non funny} practical joke on us by turning whatever cool air there is off. As of right now, it’s still just as hot and we’re currently fanning ourselves with paper. :D  beth said, “We’re going to have buff arms after this!”

So, I’ve done a million and a half things since my last novel of a post.

Italy. It’s pretty fantastic. My favorite part of my trip so far.

So, here goes “a whole nuther” bulleted list.

·      Naples- Kind of a dirty city. I think Berlin was worse though. At least it didn’t smell as bad.

·      Shipped a package home full of 2 jackets, my long sleeve shirt, some things I bought here, etc. It was a trial. Because the post office spoke minimal English and I speak minimal Italian. I’m limited to  “salud”, “Gratzie”, “exschoosy” {no idea how to spell that}, and that’s about it. So I’m pretty well versed now.

·      Met up with Beth’s cousin, Jack, who is studying to be a priest at the Vatican. He came to Naples with us and it was fantastic because he speaks Italian, and he could get us around a bit.

·      We went to a pizza place in naples that Julia Roberts once ate at. It was a popular place and was pretty good. Also, did you know that Naples is the birth place of Pizza?? Cool, eh?

·      Skyped with Quinton

·      Took a train ride to Pompeii.

·      Pompeii was stellar! It was really cool. Not temperature wise. It was so hot. And the wind would blow every once in a while which felt so nice, but because we were all sweating the dirt got stuck all over us so we looked really tan, when in actuality, we were all just disgustingly dirty.

·      Went to the ocean. And everyone was making out along the side of the ocean. So I got some pretty nifty pictures to add to my “PDA in Europe” facebook album.

·      Swimming in the ocean!! It felt soooo good to be in cool water!

·      Saw a few baby crabs.

·      There was lots of trash in the ocean but I didn’t care because for the first time in a week I didn’t feel hot. :D

·      Went to a restaurant by the ocean and watched the sun set.

·      It was delicious with fresh shrimp. :D

·      Took an interesting train ride to Rome. Here’s how it went: couldn’t get to our little cabin area on the train because a psycho Italian lady was blocking the doorway with her panting dog. This dog was panting harder than I’ve ever seen or heard a dog pant. I felt like I needed to pass out listening to it. This lady was talking to herself and to the dog and no one could understand her. We finally made it on and there was a family from asia somewhere and the mom had her bare nasty gross looking feet and rubbing them on the seat across from her where her son was sitting. The dad was chowing down on this giant loaf of cake. And by chowing I mean chomping. Like a cow. I swear he said to himself, “I’m going to chew as loudly and as disgustingly as I can”. Then psycho dog lady puts a muzzle on her dog that is panting. So now the dog can’t pant and then I was even more concerned for it’s well being. So the dog looked like it wanted to die and the owner was talking to herself like she was crazy. Then the asian dad got done with his cake and the son got his loaf of cake out and ate the same way!!! Then it was mom’s turn and the son spilt his huge juice bottle thing all over beth’s seat and pants.  And the mom started yelling in chineese and the son got ticked and yelled back and then there was a massive amount of TP involved to try and clean it up and dog lady wouldn’t shut up and beth’s pants were wet. And then we were in Rome.

·      Found our hostel. {easiest one to find yet}

·      Trevi fountain

·      Made a wish and threw in a coin

·      Took some pictures of people taking pictures

·      Bought a few things for my family.

·      Saw the tomb of the apostle phillip

·      Got a tour of the st Peter’s basilica from Jack. He knew pretty much everything there is to know about this beautiful building and it was so great that he could take us on a tour there! I found out so much more info and saw so much more of it than I would have if he wouldn’t have been there. It was great. He was wearing his collar thing to show he’s a priest student and so people wanted to talk to him a lot and such.

·      St peter’s is beautiful!! The Vatican is beautiful

·      Met the pope

·      Just kidding I didn’t. but I saw his room from the outside of the building

·      Jack took us to his favorite restaurant and it was divine. Got some fresh pasta and drank a few gallons of water from the fountains for drinking. He told us that a lot of the water comes from the ancient roman spring under the city. It’s good water.

·      He took us to his “seminary” where he lives and we got to overlook the whole city at night time from the top of the building. It was beautiful! Took a few thousand pictures.

·      He took us to his favorite gelato shop- Frigidarium. And got 5 scoops of gelato ranging from flavors called Mozart, pistachio, frigidarium, and a few other flavors that I’d never heard of, dipped in dark chocolate. Yum yum yum.

·      Took a bus home. On the bust there were three little kids under the age of 7 singing “yellow submarine”. Adorable.

·      Turned the fan on cause the air conditioner was broken {naturally} and the blade of the fan flew off of the fan. Not kidding. It sounded like this. Bzzzzzz bangbangbambamclunkzzzzzzzz z zzzz. And then the fan motor part was freaking hot and we turned off the fan and tried to fix it. It didn’t work. So we slept fanless in a tiny room with nasty bathrooms with water pressure of a leaking faucet. Haha.

·      The next day we went to st paul’s cathedral. Jack took us there too. And then we were all sad because he had to leave to go to somewhere cool to go on a pilgrimage or something of that nature. In a few weeks he’s going to India to work at the mother Teresa home of the dying.

·      St paul’s was cool too. All these churces are amazing!!

·      We then went to the Vatican museum and it was the largest museum I’ve ever been to. I’m sure there are larger, like the Louvre in Paris, but this one was crazy!

·      Just to walk down the main hall through the whole Vatican area would take a half an hour. That’s without stopping and going into any of the rooms and museums off to every side. There’s a lot of famous art work there too!

·      The ceilings of the Vatican museums are incredible! I would walk into a new room and gasp at the architecture and paintings and intricate designs of the ceiling alone!

·      Sistine chapel. Oh my lucky stars. Michelangelo was a rock star. He painted that whole thing by his self. There was soooo much to see in that place and so many pieces of work in it that I learned about in art history classes that I didn’t know where in it. And we were in the Sistine chapel about an hour I’d say.

·      All around the Vatican museum was sooo cool! And we were there probably 5 hours.

·      Got some gelato again.

·      Saw the Spanish steps and the American {navy, I think} band was playing on them! There was a bride there as well, and the music was great.

·      Ate a quick dinner

·      Did my laundry and it dried faster than any laundry I’ve ever done before. Hopefully this is the last time I’ll have to do my laundry by hand abroad.

·      Went to bed {and our fan worked. The hostel people fixed it…. But it broke again and so we ended up being fanless again.}

·      Woke up early to be at the roman forum right when it opened. Nope, the whole city was on strike. So we looked at the forum from a distance and then walked around the coliseum because that was closed too and got some pictures and had a million men try to make me buy their flowers. Too bad I didn’t have a man with me to buy me flowers. Next time. Next time I’m in Italy I full on plan to have a man with me to hold my hand while walking down the romantic cute little streets, buy me flowers from all the people selling them, have a “Lady and tramp” experience while eating spaghetti, and make out at every possible public area because “when in Rome, do as the romans do.”, right? Sorry, that was random.

·      Took a little break and then we went and did things that didn’t involve the strike.

·      Ate a cannoli. A piece of heaven, people. A piece of heaven.

·      Went to a cathedral and saw some cool art work.

·      Literally ran across town to get to the pantheon because we heard it was open again. Made it in and it was awesome!

·      Took some pictures of a horse decked out in Italian gear.

got my picture taken with a cowboy!!!!!!!

·      Ate some more gelato.

·      Ate dinner at ristorchicco. Got lasagna. My stars I love Italian food.

·      Went to old bridge gellateria and ate more gelato. So much gelato!

·      Got to take the bus home because the strike was over!

·      Packed

·      Said a tearful good bye to a city I loved.

·      Flew to Greece. Saw the coliseum from the airplane

·      Marveled at the pretty water of Greece.

·      Got off the plane and it was even hotter than Italy.

·      Walked up some hills at mid day heat with a 30 pound backpack to get to the hostel. Chugged a bunch of tap water that I’m not so sure I was supposed to drink.

·      Did you know, you can’t put TP down the toilet in Greece? That was interesting…

·      Took an hour nap.

·      Ate dinner at sunset on top of Thessaloniki that overlooked the whole city and ocean. Beautiful. This city is where the “Thessalonians” part of the bible comes from. It’s really old.

·      Greek food is delicious. So flavorful and carnivorous.

·      Counted 12 cats in one tiny yard. They don’t believe in fixing their feline friends here. I heard 3 cat fights last night and continuous meowing the whole time we’re at the hostel. Haha. But the hostel was fetchin’ adorable. And the lady who worked there was so incredibly sweet and helpful.

·      This morning I ate Greek breakfast. A Thessaloniki sweet bread, some other warm pastry thing, and a cereal thing and a cake thing.

·      It’s weird to be in a place where everything building looks like it’s a sorority or fraternity because of the Greek letters. I don’t know how to pronounce anything I see. It’s bizarre to not even recognize letters that are in words.

·      And now I’m going to go take a nap on the train if I can fall asleep.

I’m so excited for Greece. I can tell that I’m going to love it. And I loved Italy.

You guys, sometimes I just wish you could just see my face and see how incredibly happy I am and how extremely grateful I am to be able to do this. One of my favorite things in the world is being able to follow my dreams. To set a goal for myself and then accomplish it.

This trip has made me so grateful for a lot of things I take advantage of back at home {like free public bathrooms, drinking fountains, washing and drying machines, a kitchen, my car calvin, more than 2 pairs of shoes [which I only have 1 working pair now because the others fell apart and got holes and my one pair now is being held together, wait for it, with masking tape. haha], a wardrobe to choose from, smelling good, cooled house, etc.} and even more grateful for the gospel. I miss being able to go to church 3 hours every week in a language I understand. I miss having worthy priesthood holders around me. But, this trip has made me rely more on the Lord and put my trust and faith in him almost more than I ever have before. It’s helped me realize also that I want to share what I believe and especially the part of our gospel that teaches families are forever with people who don’t know about it. It’s made me grateful for so much. The more I learn about the world, the more grateful I am to have what I have, to believe what I believe, and to have the standards that I have.

It’s kind of a bitter sweet thing to be going home in a week. I’m so blasted excited to see my family and especially my little niece who’s doubled in age since I’ve seen her. {but I found out yesterday that my other niece, Caitlin, has to go to her mom’s house till right before I leave for school in august! So I can’t even see her! Which seriously made me want to cry! So, I’m hoping her mom will let me take her to ice cream and have an aunt/niece play day and so I can give her the souvenirs I bought her} I’m excited to call my BFF betsy up and ask her all about her wedding plans and take her bridal pictures, hang out with Lauren and catch up on her life, and send a mass text to everyone I know and ask them how they are. Haha. Oh, and I’m excited to have a giant dollar dr pepper from mcdonalds too.

But, it’s bitter because this trip has definitely made me want to go other places. I’m for sure going back to Italy one day. And I’m sure I’ll want to come back to Greece to.

Well, I’m really going to try to sleep on this hot train now.