Vatican City

I set off bright and early this morning to see Vatican City. I knew the crowds of people would be pretty intense, so I had planned to be at St. Peter’s Church at 7am, right when it opened. It proved to be a bit difficult to get up that early… but I managed to arrive at 8:15am.
St. Peter’s Square was almost empty!! It was amazing!! I have seen photos of the square completely packed with thousands of people, so the sight of a nearly empty square was awesome!
The square is surrounded by a wall of columns, topped with statues of saints. A giant obelisk stands in the middle and St. Peter’s Church is at the far end.


Right in front of the church were hundreds of rows of chairs, all empty when I was there. I can only assume they would be completely full of people when the Pope is scheduled to make an appearance.

After the security check all tourists passed the clothing police. All the women pulled their scarves and their pants/leggings (if wearing a short skirt) out of their purses to cover themselves up in preparation for entry.

The inside of the church is very spectacular and impressive.

This was the site of St. Peter’s tomb in the 2^nd century. The original church was erected in 349 AD, but was falling down by the 15^th century. Because of this, Pope Julius II (in 1506) started the construction of the present church, which took over a century to complete. It contains works from all the great Roman Renaissance and Baroque architects and artists including Michelangelo and Bernini.
When I arrived I first went to find Michelangelo’s Pieta, one of his most famous statues. He was only 25 when he created it (in 1499).

Down the middle of the church, on the floor, are markings of the lengths of various other churches all around the world, showing how much larger St. Peter’s Church is in comparison.
I then went down to the altar to see Bernini’s canopy above the Papal Altar, which he created in 1624. Only the Pope may say mass at the Papal Altar.


The dome is also very impressive, designed by Michelangelo, though it was not completed until after his death.

The church looked so magical with the light shining in through the windows:

I left the church and walked towards the Vatican museums. By the time I got there it was 9:15am and there was a pretty long lineup! I was super lucky at St. Peter’s Church as there was no line there. Fortunately the museum line only took about 15 minutes.
The Vatican Museum is very large, and has many many different galleries including Egyptian and Assyrian art, Greek and Roman art, Etruscan and Italic art, early Christian and medieval art, 15^th-16^th century art, and modern religious art.
I went through all the galleries, but I will only point out a few key things that I saw and enjoyed.
The Cortile della Pigna is a large bronze pinecone outside in the courtyard of the museum. It used to be part of an ancient Roman fountain in the courtyard of the old St. Peter’s Church, before it was rebuilt.

I also really enjoyed the Gallery of Maps, which is a collection of 16^th century maps. The one below is a map of Italy.

But definitely the most memorable room was the Sistine Chapel. It was larger than I had imagined it, and it was incredible. The walls are completely covered in frescos by Signorelli, Botticelli, Roselli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino and of course, Michelangelo, who painted the chapel ceiling and the fresco The Last Judgment on the altar wall.
Michelangelo’s ceiling:


Michelangelo’s painting The Last Judgment:

After the Vatican museums I thought I’d go back to my hostel to rest before going out exploring again. I got back to my hostel and discovered an annoying surprise. Before explaining the surprise I need to give you some background about me and traveling.
I planned out my trip and my luggage (ie. backpack) so that if anything was stolen or lost it wouldn’t be a problem. I only brought clothing/jewelry/shoes/etc that I wouldn’t be devastated if I never saw again. Since I would be traveling for 2 months alone (for the most part), and would be staying at hostels, I knew there was a possibility that my backpack, purse, computer, camera, etc would be stolen. I planned it so I could continue my travels without any of those items (if I needed to). Even my camera and computer, as everything important on my computer (ie. photos, hostel/flight bookings, etc) I have been uploading to my online storage so I can access without my computer. And for extra precaution I have a computer lock which I used to secure the computer to my bed frame in my sketchy hostel while exploring the city today.
The only items that would put a considerable damper on my trip and complicate my travels to the max if lost are my passport, my source of money (ie. bank cards/visas), my euro-rail pass (worth $900 CAN, and non-refundable if lost/stolen since I didn’t buy insurance for it) and my Contiki tour voucher (my “ticket” for a 10 day Contiki tour I am starting in a few days). These items fell into the “guard with my life” category. Because they were so important I knew they needed to be separate from everything else, somewhere really really safe, where no one but me could find them.
My dad gave me one of those money belts that go across your stomach under your clothing. I was never a big fan of them, and I’ve never used them before, but I thought I’d give it a shot today. I put my passport, euro-rail pass, Contiki voucher and a few hundred Euros in the pouch. I wore a loose fitting dress (so the pouch would not be visible under my clothing), and went off on my day exploring the Vatican.
It was a hot hot day, the temperature was severely high and the sun was strong. Needless to say I was sweating pretty badly. Long story short, when I arrived back at my hostel and took out the pouch, all of my important documents were soaking wet!! I had sweated completely through the pouch and soaked my passport, euro-rail pass, Contiki documents and all my extra Euros!! With the help of my hairdryer I managed to try everything off, but I now have some very curly, sweat-stained looking documents!
I have learned a very valuable lesson from this: when using the belly pouch (if I decide to use it again), ALWAYS put your belongings into a zip-lock bag before placing them into the pouch to ensure maximum protection from sweat.

First Impressions of Rome

I left Vienna on June 28^th to fly to Rome. The temperature in Rome was much much warmer than in Vienna. The temperature difference was extremely noticeable walking with my enormous backpack, as I was suffering pretty intensely with sweat and heat.
I had booked a single room (with an ensuite bathroom) at the Hostel Pink Floyd, and I set out to find it. The directions on HostelWorld.com told me that check-in was at Hotel Hollywood. I arrived there (sweaty and gross from carrying my backpack plus a purse plus a 2^nd, smaller backpack which I was carrying across my front) and the man at the front desk gave me 5 keys. One for the outside gate, another for the door of the building, another for the elevator, one for the apartment and the last one for my single room. It turns out that this Hostel Pink Floyd isn’t really a hostel, it’s a room in an apartment within an apartment building.
My room was really nice, queen size bed, big bathroom, TV, personal fridge and AC (the last two I still haven’t figured out how to get working…). The only downside (apart from the broken AC) is the lack of internet. Luckily I found an internet café down the street that offers internet for 1 Euro per hour (which is super cheap considering the Amsterdam airport was charging 3.50 Euros per 15 minutes).
The next day, June 29^th, I decided to go exploring the city to see the amazing sights. I first got lost in Termini Station (the main train station, similar to Union Station in Toronto, which connects the trains with the metro lines and the buses). Luckily a nice male police officer helped me out and pointed me in the right direction.
My first stop was the Spanish Steps. These steps have a combination of curved areas and straight areas, giving it a very unique look.

I then made my way over to the Piazza Del Popolo:

From there I wanted to see the Trevi Fountain, on my way over I walked past the Piazza Colonna, and finally found the famous fountain. This fountain is one of the more recent additions to the city, as it was built in 1762. Even though this doesn’t really sound too recent, it is when comparing it to the Colosseum, which was built in AD 72.


It was absolutely packed full of people!! Everywhere I went in Rome was packed with tourists!! I was a bit surprised, only because in Vienna there were significantly fewer tourists than I had predicted and I never waited in line at any of the major tourists spots. This led me to conclude that maybe because of the poor economic situation around the world people were traveling less. I still think this is true, but clearly Rome is a more popular destination than Vienna, and thus no matter what the economic situation is, there will always be tons of tourists in Rome.
I then wandered over to the Pantheon. I was really disappointed because it was closed!! I didn’t know this, but today is a religious holiday, and therefore the Pantheon was not open to tourists. There was a huge line at the front doors, which at first totally confused me. I finally asked someone what the lineup was for, and they explained that there is a small crack in the door where you can see the inside. People were lining up for their turn looking through the crack! I decided not to join the line, and I promised myself that I would return a few days later to see the inside of this famous landmark.
While I was there I took a photo of the outside:

Piazza Navona was my next stop. It consists of a church, a palace and 3 fountains. Unfortunately part of the piazza was under construction.


From there I went to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II. I’m not sure exactly what it is used for, but it is a beautiful, enormous and impressive building!

From there I walked past the Roman Forum (I didn’t enter it as I am doing a guided tour of it later this week) and found the Colosseum!!
It is such an amazing sight!! It is so large, and spectacular!! It’s incredible to believe that it was built in 72 AD and it still stands today!! This is where deadly gladiator combats and wild animal fights were staged (it reminded me of the movie “Gladiator”). I did not enter the Colosseum as it is also part of my guided tour for later this week.

My first day in Rome was a huge change from my week long stay in Vienna. The very friendly and forward Italian men are very different from the reserved Austrian men! My long day of walking had reminded me all about the ways of the Italian men, and I spent most of the day trying to ignore their forward comments and open invitations.
I was exhausted from walking all day in the heat!! I decided to call it a day and go back to my hostel to rest.

Austria: Danube Valley, Melk and Mozart Concert

On the morning of June 27^th we woke up bright and early to start our boat tour of the Danube Valley, along the Danube River. During the tour, and during our whole stay in Austria so far, we saw many castles, and we learned that there are over 2000 castles in Austria. We also learned that over 40% of Austria is covered in forests. The Danube River is the 2^nd longest river in Europe, running over 2000km long, and going through 10 countries.
We were really lucky we picked today for our tour because, with the massive rainfall in the past few days, the river flooded the surrounding towns, and everything was closed and no tours were running. Today was the first day everything was back in operation.
We took the boat from the town of Spitz, north-west of Vienna, to the town of Melk along the area called the Wachau. Wachau, if pronounced badly, means “cow”. A nice waiter corrected our pronunciation while laughing at our descriptions of how beautiful the area of the cow was.
There are many vineyards and hills in that area, and the area is called the “Thousand Buckets Hill”. This is because it produces enough grapes to make 12000 gallons (or 1000 buckets) or wine in a season. The photo below shows a hill with rows of grape vines along it:

The view of the countryside from the boat was just beautiful, so much vegetation!

We passed by the banks of the town of Willendorf. This town is famous because it is the location where the statue “Venus from Willendorf” was found. The figure is 35,000 years old and is only 4.4 inches tall. It was found in 1908 and it is now housed at the natural history museum in Vienna.
We then passed the ruins of the medieval fortress Aggestein, built in the 12^th century. It is said that they made their prisoners jump to their deaths off the high cliffs.

After that we passed by the Schonbuhel Castle. It was originally built in the 12^th century, but then was rebuilt in 1819-21.

We loved the boat ride, it was such a peaceful and relaxing way to view the beautiful country of Austria.

We finally arrived at Melk, our final destination. Melk is a small town along the Danube most famous for its baroque Benedictine abbey, founded in the 11^th century.



Inside the abbey was a museum of paintings, furniture and artifacts. One of the weirdest things we saw in the museum was a reusable wooden coffin. I forget when exactly they were used, but they were not accepted by the Austrian people, so after only a few years they were taken out of use.
They function somewhat like a normal coffin. The dead is put inside, and the funeral takes place. The coffin is then lowered into the ground, and a latch is pressed to open the bottom. The body falls out into the grave and the empty coffin is used for the next funeral. How disturbing!!

The abbey had many beautiful rooms including the Marble Hall:

The library:

It also had a beautiful view of the countryside and town:

That evening we had tickets to a Mozart concert, where all the musicians dress in typical Mozart era clothes.
The concert hall was beautifully decorated, like everything else we’ve seen in Vienna and Austria.


The concert was really good, and it was a great last night in Vienna and a last night with my Mom before she left for Toronto and I left for Rome.

Vienna: The Opera

The opera Aida was scheduled to play at the Staatsoper, Vienna’s Opera House, the evening of Friday June 26. I had tried to buy tickets online a few weeks ago while in Toronto, but all the “cheap” tickets were sold out, and all that was left were tickets 160 Euros each. We decided that 320 Euros was WAY too much money, so we sadly accepted the idea of not attending an opera in Vienna…
…Until I was walking by the opera house a few days ago when a lady approached me asking if I wanted opera tickets for a good deal. She directed me a few blocks away to this shop on the 2^nd floor of another store (yes I was a little skeptical…).
The man at the shop offered me 2 opera tickets for a very cheap price. He showed me a seating chart, and pointed out where the seats were: the 1^st row of the very top balcony on the very left hand side. Without thinking twice I purchased them.
I told my (very excited) mom about the tickets, but warned her we were very very high up on the balcony. I’m not sure she fully believed me when I described the location of our seats until we got there! We were directed up stairs, then more stairs, and then even more stairs! We finally found out seats:



The opera house was beautiful! Just spectacularly decorated, both inside the auditorium and outside in the hallways and staircases.


From our seats we had a wonderful, birds-eye view of the orchestra:

One thing I found just genius was our individual subtitle screens. Each seat had a small screen for subtitles in either English or German. I’ve never seen anything like it! It was amazing! Much better than the large screen of subtitles above the Toronto Opera House stage.

The opera was fantastic. Absolutely beautiful and magnificent. I loved it!! The story of Aida takes place in Egypt, so the sets and costumes resembled Egypt during a beautiful and prosperous time. Memories of my trip to Egypt came out and added to my enjoyment of the performance.
My mom and I watched the entire performance while leaning forward over the balcony, because if we sat back on our chairs we could only see the subtitles and top rows of the balconies directly across from us!! It was then when I really began to miss and appreciate much more our orchestra level seats at the Toronto Opera House!!
Despite our seats, we thoroughly enjoyed the opera! It was the most amazing one I’ve ever seen! A very wonderful and memorable night!

Vienna: The Woods and Subterranean Lake

On the morning of June 26 we went on a prearranged tour of the “Vienna Woods”. We wanted to get a peak at life outside Vienna in Austria. The Vienna “woods”, or more accurately described as the Vienna forests, are on the outskirts of Vienna and consist mainly of coniferous trees, and a lot of hills.

Driving through Austria is absolutely beautiful. Wherever we were driving we would always see old ruins or castles:

We first drove through the town of Baden, famous for their thermal baths. Unfortunately we were unable to stop and try them out.
We then went to the Mayerling Chapel. This was the site of a tragedy in 1889. Mayerling used to be the location of the Crown Prince Rudolf’s (son of Emperor Franz Joseph 1830-1916) hunting lodge. He was unhappily married, so he had a lover: Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was only 17 at the time (I think he was in his late 30s). On January 30, 1889, at approximately 6:10am the Crown Prince shot his lover, and then himself.
There have been many speculations over the years as to why he would do such a shocking thing. The Crown Prince had very liberal ideas, very ahead of his time, thus creating a lot of political conflict, as well as conflict with his father. It is suspected that these conflicts, in addition to his unhappy marriage and his family life led him to this fate. The Imperial family ordered all documents or evidence surrounding his death be destroyed. When the autopsy revealed his cause of death (suicide), the doctors were ordered to proclaim him mentally unfit or out of his mind at the time of his death so he would be granted burial in the Imperial vault. His father ordered the rooms where the tragedy took place to be destroyed, and thus a chapel was built in their place.
Photos of this chapel are shown below:

Our next stop was the Holy Cross Monastery, a beautiful monastery still in use today by 75 monks. We had a chance to walk through the medieval building.

I really enjoyed the wood carvings and stained glass windows.
We then went to Lake Grotto in the Hinterbruhl (Lower Austria), near Molding. This lake is exceptionally unique, as it is the largest subterranean lake in all of Europe, and it is all manmade. It used to be a gypsum mine, which took 60 years to build, until in 1912 an explosion caused 20 million liters of water to flow into the passages and tunnels, creating the lake. During the 2^nd world war it was used as a protected area to build the world’s first jets.
When we arrived we were told we would have a guide to take us down for a boat ride. We were also warned about the 9 degree Celsius temperatures in the former mine.
The guide walked us down the long, cold, dark and damp passageways and tunnels with a little boom box CD player. It was used to play descriptions of the mine in different languages (Spanish and Italian), for our listening pleasure.

The boat ride was beautiful and peaceful. It was really dark, but was illuminated by some lights, strategically placed to maximize the beauty of the lake.

I met a really nice couple at the lake, the girl was wearing a sweater and was wrapped in a blanked (which can be rented for 50 cents), while her boyfriend was in a T-shirt. When I asked if he was cold, his response was “Oh no, I’m Canadian!”. Oh how I love my fellow Canadians!!
Later that day, we decided to go shopping!! I realized this was probably my only chance to shop on the whole trip because of my strict backpack weight restrictions. Whatever I buy I must carry with me for the next 2 months. Except, since my mom was going back to Toronto on June 28, she could carry all my purchases back with her!! So we hit the shops and both came out successful with some clothing and jewelry.