Wine and Sunburns: Week 7

Now, last week I was abroad and did not have my computer with me so that’s why I am making multiple posts on the same day. But, believe me I had a good reason. It may have been due to the fact that I was in Rome and Athens for a full week and a half.

Let me back up to Italy. We first arrived and placed our bags in our hostel which I was slightly worried about but it turns out it was a very safe hostel. At least the other people who stayed with us were. Anyway, we went to Vatican City where we saw the Vatican museum, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. I think it was one of those things that I thought would always be really cool to see and didn’t think it really existed. Long story short, it was surreal when I saw it in person. I kept thinking there’s no way that I am here right now. After visiting those, we went to have dinner and had traditional Italian pizza and the house wine. I cannot stress enough how good this wine is. One of the highlights of my trip was in fact the wine because it was that amazing. Either way, next day. We went to Naples in order to see Pompeii. We had to take a train from Rome to Naples and then Naples to Pompeii. The Naples underground is a headache by the way, and we might have taken a couple wrong trains before we got to Pompeii. Doesn’t matter, we got there. I don’t know how much I was expecting to see but I was surprised there was still a lot of structures existent despite the eruption. What was also neat to see was the graffiti left on some of the buildings. Which we were told that typically it would be the latest gossip on the town or to slander someone’s name. Then we headed back to Rome for the night because we had the Forum and Colosseum the next day. Again all very much the touristy things that you have to see once in your life. We were also able to see the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain that day. After seeing all these glorious sights, we were very tired so we took a day to rest before travelling to Athens.

Considering how much we had packed into Rome, we considered Athens our vacation. This is where we went to the national gardens and saw the tropical trees along with the swarm of turtles in the gardens. I should also mention there are many cats in Athens. Almost every time you walked down the street, you can see a well fed cat. These cats are very safe and are well taken care of either by tourists or the general public. So, when we saw all of the sights of Greece just imagine a cat there too. Anyway, after the gardens we wandered over to the Temple of Zeus at least what’s left of it. Pictures don’t capture these sights by the way. In Rome and Athens, all of these sights are way bigger than you imagined. The following day we went to a Greek island where yes because I am very pale got sunburnt. It wasn’t too terrible because we weren’t out there too long but still. Again, cats very rampant on this island. And when I wasn’t in the water I was playing with a cat. Okay, last day. I went to the Acropolis. Which does seem a little strange on our last day, but again we were taking things a lot slower. There’s a lot more than just the Parthenon on the hill by the way. Parthenon, yes very cool. But, you can’t skip the museum because that’s truly where a lot of the Acropolis has gone. A lot of it had been detached from the various buildings but they were able to preserve it in the museum for us to see. However, on the hill, you could see an amazing sight of Athens that was worth it to climb.

I did skip a lot of days in here, but again they were just us relaxing and not doing too much. And, the things we did see I tried to cover it as much as I could because this is the end of our short vacation.