I loved St. Peter's Basilica. But pictures are worth 1000 words, so here's the best of my pics from St. Peter's.
And here's a video I recorded while standing on one of the foci of the ellipse of St. Peter's Square. All the chairs were set up for the Wednesday audience (we were there on Tuesday), and John and I had to hop the fence to get to the focus, at which point all the columns on one side of the square line up.
After traversing Europe, I am back in the wide open spaces of South Dakota! After a hectic finals week combined with moving out of our flats in London, the trip across the Atlantic was long.
Many of us did not sleep the night before we left, having to finish packing, clean our flats, eat leftover food, and be ready to leave by 5:45am. After spending about 5 hours in Heathrow, our flight left at noon-ish and followed the sun on a 9-hour flight, thus arriving in Chicago at 3pm local time, exhausted.
I picked up a connection to Sioux Falls without much hassle. My baggage, however, decided to hook up with a hot pink tote from Atlanta and spent the night in O'Hare, only to stumble through the door this morning, shamefacedly averting my gaze. I am happy to report, however, that after a preliminary physical, it didn't appear to have contracted any diseases or suffered any physical damage from its wild night away from home.
All is well in South Dakota and I'm having a good time relaxing and spending time with the siblings. I will be catching up on posting pictures and blogging about some of my trips during the second half of the semester. Here's hoping a happy holidays to all!
I attended a retreat this weekend on the Isle of Wight, which is a 4-hour bus + ferry ride from central London. We stayed at a retreat house in the middle of the island, situated in 'Paradise Valley.' The place was quaint, and the bathrooms, kitchen, and scenery reminded me of Brazil. Gently rolling peaceful green hills were a welcome respite from London's regular rectangular tyranny. Although it rained quite a bit, we were still able to explore the nearby areas during the brief spells of sunlight. We walked to a nearby castle and took a trip to 'The Needles,' a geological formation off the tip of the western end of the island. It was incredibly windy at the outcropping, and we all got soaked on the walk back to the bus, but we also saw a glassblower at work making vases and basked in the warmth of the hot glass, which ameliorated the situation somewhat.
Anyway, this next coming week entails lots of work for me as classes are wrapping up before finals. Pretty soon I'll be home in South Dakota, and we're all feeling the pressure to see more of London as our days here draw to an end.
I'm heading to Dublin for the weekend right after class today. Going to go see the sights and some good friends who are studying abroad in Notre Dame's Dublin program. Should be wonderful.
Incidentally, since Fall Break I rotated into a new and different Arts class. 'Intro to London Theatre' was replaced by 'English Composers'. The first class last week was wonderful; we listened to some Gregorian Chant/Jazz by Jan Garbarek, 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis, and the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. My favorite piece was 'Spem In Alium', but I enjoyed all the pieces enough to borrow the CDs from the professors and put them all on my iPod.
Tallis' 'Spem in Alium' is a 40-voice polyphonic piece from the 1500s, and it is haunting and amazing. After this weekend I'll find a clip to post and share.
I've posted pictures from most of Rome, including the Vatican museum but not including St. Peter's Basilica or the Square.
UPDATE: Sagrada Familia is a cathedral in progress, also by Gaudi. My pictures are here, and embedded.
Parc Guell is an interesting park-on-a-hill in Barcelona by Gaudi. It has lots of organic-looking columns and structures.
Anyway, the album is here, and also embedded below.
After travelling Southern Europe for nine days, I arrived in London from Athens on Sunday night after 10 hours and 3 connections on Alitalia. We visited Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Athens. s I'll soon be posting pictures from and accounts of the different cities we visited. I took more than 800 pictures on the trip, so I'll be spending sometime cutting that down to a more manageable size and posting the good ones.
We arrived in Roma yesterday and took naps, then went out for pasta and gelato. Today we hit up the Colosseum, Michelangelo's Moses, St. John Lateran, and the Roman Forum. Tomorrow is the Vatican, Trevi, Spanish Steps, and a sunrise breakfast on a hill overlooking Rome, though not necessarily in that order.
Barcelona was great. Visited Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, a park and a church by Gaudi, a famous Spanish artist with very organic and somewhat droopy style. Reminded me of Dalì and Dr. Seuss. Pictures inside Sagrada were wonderful, even if it isn't finished and won't be for a long while.
FYI, Spanish is the second language of Barcelona, the first being Catalon (not sure on spelling), a regional dialect close to Spanish.
Well, I'm off to eat a pasta dinner!
Well, I should be packed, seeing as friends and I are leaving for a 9 day traversal of southern Europe tomorrow. But no worries, I'll get around to it. Be prepared for plenty of pictures when I get back!
Tomorrow we're heading to Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Athens. I'm excited!
But first I have to write a 1000 word review of two of the plays I attended for class.
W00t. Pack. Sleep. Alarm. Shower, Tea, Toast. Class. Fall Break!
In the meantime, here's an ominous picture of London's omnipresent CCTV system. London is the most CCTV'ed city in the world, thanks to IRA terrorism in the 80s. You see these little things all over the place.
