Back From Europe

Being outside of this insane asylum where the most disturbed run things was a much needed break. Traveling through England, France, Italy, and Greece was amazing as ever and only reinforced my desire to live outside of 'merica! for a duration no shorter than two years. During the days and early evenings I traveled with a group of six girls ranging from 16-17 years old. They were all fun to hang around with and our personalities meshed well.

At night, I would often venture out alone through the cities and small towns across Europe. Every night I would meet strangers and strike up conversations over local wines and sometimes foods. Nearly every person I met wanted to talk politics. The message that I received everywhere was that people are afraid of the United States and see it as a threat to peace. I even met a group of Canadians that feared for their natural resources should the US ever look Northward. It was pretty sad. I also received numerous questions about American gun culture. I explained to a Greek man and his friends that Americans do not often look at the greater good and instead tend to focus on individual impact and responsibility. The Greek man said that he understands that, but wondered if I realized how many innocent people are killed violently every year because of my desire to shoot guns for fun in the desert. An Italian couple that I met on the beach in Sorrento had dreams of traveling to America to study some day. Another Greek couple told me that they had never met a rude American. Everywhere I went I was treated with respect and never had the impression that "they" hated us. Every person that I talked to explained to me that they loved Americans as individuals but distrusted the US government. With the exception of the girl that I caught naked with an Italian man in a rubber boat after having only been acquainted for about ten minutes all of my girls were excellent ambassadors and destroyed negative stereotypes of Americans and in particular American women. I have so much to write about but will spare you all of the details. Instead, I will try to list the things that I saw/did over the past 15 days along with some photos.

* London: The Tower, The Crown Jewels, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Darwin's tomb (yes, he is entombed in a church), Newton's tomb, Wicked, the Camden market, Big Ben, the tower bridge, some amazing Iranian food and wine in a little hole in the wall cafe near my hotel, the Chunnel.
* Paris: Notre Dame, The Louvre, Eiffel Tower in the evening, a short trip down the seine river, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles.
* Florence: Piazza del Duomo, Michelangelo's tomb, Michelangelo's David, abundance of free time were the seven of us wandered around Florance and had giant Italian meals in interesting restaurants off the beaten paths.
*Pisa: um, the leaning tower, and a beautiful baptistery
*Rome: The Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain
*Vatican City: Aside from being overcharged for everything the Vatican was beautiful. The Sistine Chapel is amazing, the sculptures and art are beautiful.
In the official Vatican store, yes there is an official Vatican store, you can buy a rosary for 18 Euros and for an additional 6 Euros you can buy a blessing upon the rosary where a uninspired looking religious person dips it in special water, makes a special sign, and presto! you have a blessed and "magic-y" bauble. I know this sounds terrible and to many of my friends this is very serious business. As an outsider it looked like more of a crass economic venture than a spiritual one. Also the amount of stuff that the Vatican sells is amazing. My favorite item (which three lucky people will receive as Christmas gifts this year) is the attractive priest pin-up calendar. Father March is especially attractive with his brooding stubble and his "what would you like from me" glance. Again this is sanctioned by the Vatican, I am not making this up. They also sell Pope ashtrays which even I thought was inappropriate. Being in Europe and especially the Vatican had a "viewing the man behind the curtain" effect on me.
We also visited the Catacombs where many of the early martyred Christians were entombed and which also served as a secret place to worship for the early Christians of Rome.
St. Paul's church was my favorite along with Notre Dame. It was huge, beautiful, and quiet. Seeing Paul's tomb was humbling. St. Peter's was also incredible but extremely decadent and crowded. St. Peter's Basilica was the most opulent place I had ever seen. Masterworks of art adorned nearly every square inch of the place.
*Sorrento: Beautiful hotel on a quiet beach where we relaxed for two days eating good food, drinking good wine, and drifting in the Mediterranean.
*Pompeii: We climbed Mount Vesuvius which had exploded and destroyed Pompeii. We also visited the ruins of the city and saw the dramatic casts of the people and animals.
*Overnight Cruise across the Aegean to Greece. Very fun with an all night disco. When I arrived at the disco at 11:30 with my group of girls the Greek dj was playing "Party All the Time" by Eddie Murphy. I felt like a crazy person as I was the only one amused by that song.
*Meteora Region: This is a place where monks would build monasteries on high cliffs or live in caves in order to escape the evils of the world (along with the Ottoman Turks). A beautiful place with dramatic, shear, grey mountains. It reminded my of a much larger and much more dramatic Garden of the Gods.
*Athens: More swimming in the Med., the Acropolis and Parthenon, the Plaka, a ghetto carnival that had rides with no seat pads, gypsies, gypsies, and more gypsies, excellent food, hospitable people, Mars Hill, first Olympic Stadium.