Rome Days 3 & 4 and Rome - Vienna

Well, I made it to Vienna in one piece. I'm sitting at the hostel right now waiting for Andrew, so I thought it was a good time to write a blog entry. The day before yesterday, it was raining when I woke up. I think the rain has been following me because it rained everyday I was in Switzerland, then it was sunny when I got to Rome, then it rained again the next day. I think I've had as many rainy days as sunny days at least. So I thought it would be a good idea to go to the Vatican that day and stay indoors. When I got off the subway, there was a line all the way down the wall of the Vatican and around the corner! I stood in line in the rain with my little umbrella while all these guys kept trying to get me to go on a tour to skip the line. It was tempting, but I didn't really want to pay for the tour, or stand around and listen to someone who loves the sound of their own voice, so I waited for about an hour and finally got in. I walked around the museum, which was relatively uncrowded. They had a bunch of displays on the different popes and the history of the Vatican. It was really interesting. After about an hour, I bought an overpriced pasta lunch... you'd think at the Vatican of all places that they wouldn't rip you off for the food, but I guess supply and demand even applies in God's holy places ha ha. I stole some plasticware to make up for it. By stole, I mean I just grabbed a couple from the huge stack that they were freely giving out. Anyway, I was ready to go see the Sistine Chapel. Now I remember that it was a long walk from the sign that pointed to the Sistine Chapel, and the actual Sistine Chapel, and so I thought I was prepared for it. I remembered a little bit shorter than it actually was. It took about an hour and a half from when I set out for the Sistine Chapel to actually get there. I spent about 20 minutes in there because it was really cool, but by that time I was really tired, so I didn't spend as much time as I would have. I think that might have been their point in the walk because so many people want to see it. It was kind of funny because they had an "enforcement officer" or whatever who would shout at people who tried to take pictures, then he would demand silence when people tried to talk over his shouting. He would also yell at people who tried to sit on the stairs too. It was pretty funny. Anyway, I got out of the chapel and, after grabbing some gelato, I headed over to St. Peter's Basillica. I had forgotten how big this place was! I walked in and after my eyes adjusted to the light, I just said, "Wow!" It was very cool. I spent about an hour in there, and I actually hadn't realized that Peter was the first pope. I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, apparently all the popes are buried there, and they are pretty sure that Peter is buried there too. The reason they think that is because someone found a stone that said "Peter is here." Now why they think it was the apostle Peter, I'm not sure. For all I know, it could have been some kid whose name was Peter that wrote "Peter is here" but whatever. Anyway, after a good long day at the Vatican, I decided to go back to the hostel. When I walked in, there was a guy in there in nothing but his dark green briefs. It was a little bit shocking at first, but I guess I got used to it? I left to get something to eat and walk around, and when I was ready for bed, I came back in to the room. The guy had put some pants on, but when I got ready for bed, he stripped down to his underwear again. It was kind of gross. He got on his phone and was talking in Italian I think, so I just decided to listen to a podcast on my ipod. Then, one of our other roommates, a French kid, came in and wanted to go to sleep. I had finished my podcast, which was about 45 minutes long, and this guy was still talking on his phone! We turned out the light and tried to go to sleep (I had put my earplugs in), and the guy didn't stop talking for about 20 minutes until the French guy finally asked him to stop so we could sleep. It seemed like the guy hadn't even realized we were there because he was very considerate after that and got off the phone and went to sleep 5 minutes later. It was really weird. Anyway, he then got up at 5:30 the next morning and left, and I never saw him again. He was a weird guy.

Anyway, the next day, I stored my luggage at the hostel and went to the Pantheon. It was really cool. It used to be a shrine to Athena, but now it's a catholic church. It has a huge hole in the top of it for some reason, so the sun was shining through, and it made a really cool effect throughout the room. From there, I went to the Roman Forum ruins. I bought my ticket and realized that it was also good for the Colosseum, and there was no line at all! That was a nice way to save some time. After spending a couple of hours in the ruins, I headed over to the Colosseum. Apparently, they are in the process of restoring the Colosseum to it's original state. I think that's a pretty cool idea. What I want to know is, who was the architect for the Colosseum? And, who was the guy that said, "Ok, we're going to build this huge building and we need a lot of people... so all of you guys come and help." Kind of a bizarre thought to me, but whatever.

I had an ok night train here. The passengers were really nice, but there were two babies (7 months and 2 years) that were there with us, so it wasn't exactly a peaceful night. After the kids and mom went to bed, the dad (who was from California) offered to buy me a beer in the restaurant car. I took him up on the offer, and while we were there, he told me stories about his job (he works for the US State Department fixing databases for top secret people). It was fun and interesting. We arrived in Vienna, and I got off the train. I had to take a tram from one train station to the other. I didn't see where to buy the tram passes, and I just saw everybody getting on the tram, so I followed suit. I later found out that you were supposed to buy the tram passes in the station, but I didn't get caught... thankfully. So I got on the train, and while later the guy said something in German over the speaker system. A bunch of people got off, but a bunch of people stayed on too. Then I heard one of them saying in English that they thought the train was done. He then asked if anyone remaining on the train spoke German. None of us did, but we all thought everybody else did. It was pretty funny. So the driver came back and told us that we had to get off. He then told us how to get to the other train station. So we got on the train he told us to, and finally got to where we were supposed to. We never got checked for tickets, and I don't know where I would be right now if they had. After getting to the station, I followed the directions to the hostel and was able to check in alright and everything. I took a nice hot shower, which I hadn't done for 48 hours, and took a walk around Vienna just getting my bearings. I made sure that Andrew's train was getting into the train station that was close to me, and he was, so I am about to go meet him there. I think that's everything up to this point. If I think of anymore funny stories, I'll let you know :)