London, My Favorite City Part 1

The weekend after Rome and Assisi, Mary Emily and I flew to London.  Ryanair got us there and back on time, intact, and cost-effectively.  Needless to say, they have my recommendation. 

We ended up spending a night in the Salzburg airport, in order to catch our flight the next morning, which was actually a lot of fun.  The three of us stayed up late hanging out and playing games to pass the time.  After that we took turns sleeping until security opened. 

We arrived in London about the same time we left Salzburg because of the time difference.  I have never been so grateful to hear people speaking English.  It seems like spending large amounts of time in countries predominantly filled with non-English speakers makes people anticipate difficulty communicating wherever they go.  It was shocking and nice to realize that I would be able to communicate with pretty much anyone in England. 

Anyways, Stansted Airport is a long way outside of London, so we had to take a bus in.  The bus driver was hysterical.  He gave us all a talk on how to behave on the bus that was absolutely packed with sarcasm and humor.  From here I knew this was going to be a great and memorable trip. 

When we got off the bus we had to figure out the metro system in order to reach Hostel 639 where we were staying.  The metro in London is actually really simple and straightforward, which was a big plus.  The hostel on the other hand was unnecessarily complicated to check into and pay for.  I don’t highly recommend it for a few reasons that I will talk about later. 

After we managed to check in, the three of us wandered around London without too much aim taking pictures the whole way.  It was a lot of fun.

Mary and I in front of the Tower of London.

A view of the skyline around the Tower of London from the River Thames.

The Tower Bridge over the River Thames.

Here is some sort of battleship (or possibly a destroyer I’m really not sure) that was in the river.

The new London Bridge.

Me next to a Spartan statue that we just happened to bump into while we were out exploring.

The ship of Sir Francis Drake (or at least a replica, we never really figured that out (probably a replica)).

The Tate Modern Art Gallery.  We ended up not going inside for various reasons, but we can chalk it up to a dislike for modern art and not a lot of time.

A little brewery that we passed that just happened to share my mom’s maiden name.

The London Eye.  Another thing that I really wish we had the time and money to go check out.  The one major downside to London is that almost everything is extremely expensive.  I think that riding the London Eye ran around 15 or 17 pounds (between 30 and 34 dollars).

The British Parliament.

My first picture of Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey.

A closer shot of Big Ben.

 

                 

Mary, Emily, and I outside of Big Ben.

 

Alan Brooke, Master of Strategy.  Reminds me of my friend Alex.

We went to King’s Cross Station to look for platform 9 and 3/4… Sadly we couldn’t find it.

Assisi

After our Rome trip we departed for Assisi.  It was an unpleasant ride to say the least.  I was almost thrown up on at least once or twice, because a bunch of people caught the flu during the last day in Rome.  Aside from that, the way there was rather scenic. 

Assisi itself was probably the second most beautiful place that I visited over here.  It is perched on a hill with a tremendous view of pretty much everything around it.  Unfortunately it was a very touristy place with lots of cheesy knick-knack shops lining the streets.  Regardless, it was a nice place and it was really cool to be where both St. Francis and St. Clare used to be. 

Most of this part of the trip was down time.  We wandered around Assisi, took pictures, visited Basilica’s, and spent a few hours at St. Francis’s hermitage. 

The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli.  This is the basilica that was built around the Portiuncula of St. Francis.  It is in a town below Assisi.

The Basilica di Santa Chiara (the Basilica of St. Clare).  This one is actually in Assisi and it houses the remains of St. Clare and a lot of her things.

 

           

Mary and I sitting in an alleyway in Assisi after dark.

 

They grow olive trees in and around Assisi; they are pretty much everywhere.

Mary and an olive tree.

This is St. Francis’s mountainside hermitage.  It was one of the nicest and most peaceful places that I have ever visited. 

A superb use of English.

Sunset in Assisi. 

Here is another shot of the sunset.  The church here is the Basilica of St. Francis.  It was a really nice church, but like most in Italy you can’t take pictures inside.

Fortunately I am finally starting to catch up with the blog, my next post will be about London (aka my favorite big city ever). 

Rome Part 4 The Stairs

Okay, I swear that this is my last post concerning my first trip to Rome.  I just completely forgot about one of the coolest things that we did while we were there.  We got to climb the stairs that Jesus climbed on His way to meet with Pilate before being crucified.  The stairs were obviously moved considering that Jesus wasn’t in Rome, but it was really cool regardless.  We climbed the stairs on our knees according to pilgrim tradition.  Next to the papal audience I think this was the best part or Rome.  For me, it was the most spiritual and important part of the trip. 

Our group starting the climb.

Here is a better view of the stairs themselves, they were encased in wood and glass.

Here is a shot from the top.  I was one of the first FUS students to complete the climb.

Here’s another, I think this one is a bit clearer.

Rome Part 3 The Papal Audience

For me and most of the other Franciscan students our audience with the pope was probably the highlight of our entire ten day break.  We got up pretty early and hopped on the metro to the stop outside of Vatican City.  We got to the audience at least an hour early in order to find good seats, most of us ended up being about as close to the stage as general tickets can get you. 

A small group of our students happened to find a priest or seminarian (I’m not sure) who one of them knew from the United States.  This priest/seminarian had a few extra VIP tickets, which he gave to the group.  They ended up in the front row almost directly in front of the pope.  Even though I wasn’t in the group it was really cool. 

The audience itself was really cool.  Pope Benedict XVI addressed us on the subject of Lent in several different languages.  All in all, it was a great experience. Here are some pictures, I’m sorry that they are all of poor quality.

This is the Paul VI Audience Hall, as seen from my seat. 

This is about the clearest picture of the stage that I could get, the pope wasn’t there yet.  If you are wondering about the really scary background art thing, I guess it is supposed to be Jesus at the Resurrection.  I guess it was constructed for Pope Paul VI who apparently really enjoyed modern art.

Mary and I at the audience.  Our friend Matt is the guy who looks angry in the background.  I think he did that intentionally, but I don’t remember. 

This is the Pope during the audience, once again I’m sorry for the poor quality of the picture, my zoom wasn’t very good and it was having a hard time focusing…

This was about the closest thing that I could get to a picture of Pope Benedict XVI.  They had these giant screens on both sides of the stage. 

Rome Part 2 Almost Everything Else

Most of the Rome trip was spent with walking tours and free time.  We mostly visited churches and holy places for the tours, and a few other places on our own.  There really isn’t a whole lot to say without pictures, so this will pretty much pictures and explanations from here.

The tomb of St. Justin Martyr, St. Stephan, and St. Lawrence.  The tomb is located at The Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls.  I am particularly fond of St. Justin Martyr, so I thought this was really cool.

I bet you can guess what this is.  We went to the Coliseum early in the morning.  Our first serious walking tour started here.

This is some sort of arch near the Coliseum.

Ancient Roman ruins.  They are all over the place.  Also, if you are ever in Rome and you are frustrated by their inferior metro system you can blame it on the ruins. 

The altar in the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains.

These were the chains that bound St. Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, and Rome.  As the story goes, the two sets of chains miraculously fused together when they were given to Pope Leo I.

I don’t remember what this is, but I remember it being significant.  Once I figure out what it is I will post again.

We eventually ended up going to the Vatican Museum.  It was fun, but there really wasn’t a whole lot their aside from statues like these and the Sistine Chapel.  I didn’t get to take any pictures of the chapel, but honestly I was surprised by how small it was. 

Here are some more statues from the Vatican Museum, I thought Gram might find this funny.

We went to Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls later that evening.  It was an interesting church, on of the nicest looking churches that we visited in Rome.  St. Paul is buried here, except for his head which was moved to another church that I visited later.

This is the chain that bound St. Paul before he was executed.

St. Paul Outside the Walls from outside.

Later in the evening a few of us rode buses out to the Trevi Fountain.  According to legend, if you throw a coin in the fountain you are destined to return to Rome some day. 

Of all of the ridiculous nonsense that we have been through over here, getting to and from the Trevi fountain has to have been the worst.  The bus system is really difficult to figure out, and it is much worse when you have to deal with some of the weirder natives.  We encountered some strange people on the way there and many more on the way back.  Most notably, we had a clearly insane man come up to us at a bus stop.  He started screaming something about Nazis at us in Italian.  Naturally we got away from him as quickly as possible at the cost of us missing the first bus that we could catch back to the hotel.  I wasn’t exactly very happy about that. 

The fountain itself really wasn’t bad.  This is me in front of it.

Here is Mary by the Trevi Fountain.

The school took us on another walking tour the next day.  We visited the Spanish Steps.  I guess they have almost nothing to do with Spain. 

Mary and I at the Spanish Steps.

The Pantheon.  Once a pagan shrine, now a Catholic church.

The inside of the dome in the Pantheon.

Emily trying to be funny in a picture of me in front of the Pantheon.

The Basilica of St. John Lateran. It’s a big one. 

The skulls of Saints Peter and Paul are in the golden busts of their faces.

This is the largest single piece obelisk in the world.  It is just outside of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.