Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Day 6: Accidental Discoveries
We spend our first day in Girona relaxing, but also going on a long walk without even meaning to.
Tuesday 1st November, 2016 - Girona
Eesh! We have gotten so lazy since we got to Girona. It's been great, sat on the couch in our cozy little flat, playing 3DS and watching Brooklyn 9-9 before going out for tea. It does mean that I am now two days in arrears for the journal, but it's been nice to relax a bit.
The first day we had in Girona started with the usual morning ritual; Kara stayed in bed while I went out hunting for food. I followed the instructions that the local guy gave me the night before. After a bit of an extended outing where I overshot my target and found myself wandering in alleyways, I brought home more bread and chocolate croissants. I also had spent a long time attempting to track down a can on Heinz beans for Kara, fearing that a croissant wasn't going to cut it, but with no joy. I had a nice breakfast with my fresh cheeses and sausage along with the fresh bread I'd bought.
Breakfast of champions! (We split these, I should state for the record.)
Girona is full of quirky little places like this creperie with a van parked inside it.
Once we were ready to go out, it was past noon, so we ventured out into the old city part of Girona. Our first stop was at a church hall on the cobbled streets leading up to the cathedral that has been featured in Game of Thrones. Inside the hall was an exhibition of model soldiers, but the strangest thing was that alongside the brilliantly pained miniatures of Napoleon and Spanish soldiers, there were Star Wars dolls, models of Asterix & Obelix, as well as an entire Warhammer fantasy Skaven army. It was quite surreal to find them in a church hall. It turns out that this exhibition was our first glimpse at the festival that takes place in Girona at this time of year.
It was utterly bizarre to find this collection inside a 12th century church.
As we proceeded through the old town, we found ourselves at the start of the wall that enclosed the medieval town. Without meaning to, we'd set out on quite a long walk, surrounded by other tourists on a very warm afternoon. The view from the wall gave us some spectacular shots of the town and the surrounding area. Girona is way bigger than I thought it was!
The gardens and old wall of Girona.
They even had cacti! Very cool.
More of the gardens and walls.
Views of Girona from the wall are brilliant!
After a quick descent through the University area, we found some snacks for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out in the flat. While the food we've had in Barcelona was very good, our reluctance to try Tapas has hurt our options in Girona. We've been "playing it safe", sticking to Italian and western cuisine, and Girona has an understandably thin range of decent eateries that cater to our "child's menu" palates. We set out to go to "Marylin's Diner" and when we arrived, I was already getting the feeling that the food wasn't going to be great. It was basically a burger van where you go in and sit down, but at least we didn't have to pay too much.
The night picked up on the way home, as we walked back via and enormous fun fair that was set up for the festival. I had noticed a giant ferris wheel from the wall in the morning, but the trees had covered the rest of the amusements. The fair was set up along boulevards, with a police presence to deal with traffic. Besides the (often copyright infringing) rides, there were weird lottery or bingo stalls that had the tackiest crap for prizes. There were also shooting galleries, pizzarias and churro stands. To make up for a disappointing dinner, we shared a pizza and tried churros for the first time. They taste quite bland, but they have a nice and crispy texture. I think we'll stick to crepes.
As we chilled out in the flat that night, we heard bands nearby, saw drumming processions and just before bed, a horde of cyclists flew past, ringing their bells and singing. It looked like Girona wasn't such a quiet little place to visit after all.
Girona really was the turning point of the holiday, with Kara and I just deciding that we'd still see all the cool things we could in Girona, but the pace could slow, allowing us to relax and not do very much at all, relatively guilt-free. Of course, this meant sleeping in, watching Netflix & generally just lounging around, but on our first day, we really just wanted to "get a feel" for Girona.
It seemed that we were on the right side of the river, as we were close to the "old parts" of town, with the modern shops and things being across the river. Kara was still quite exhausted from the previous day, and I was at the mercy of my stomach, so I went out for quite a long time to explore the narrow, cobbled streets of the eastern side of the river Onyar. It was a nice sensation to be able to wander around, not looking to buy anything but breakfast (and maybe some Heinz beans) and just get to know the area. While Barcelona is a metropolis, the area we were living in was conveniently placed next to some little shopping marts, as well as little bespoke shops, owned by local artists etc. It was nice to walk along a high street that didn't make me think of the homogenised high streets I've seen so much of on my travels. Girona has personality in spades, and that made the act of just randomly wandering seem much more enjoyable. I know I would have spent longer walking around if it wasn't for the language barrier that stopped me looking in book shops, as Girona has some lovely ones!
I had read quite a few tourist guides that had recommended the city walls as a good thing to view while you visit Girona, and with me being a fan of nice walks and historic sites, it seemed like a no-brainer, but Kara was wearing footwear that wasn't cutting it, and by the time we realised we were on a long walk, as opposed to just a recce around the town, it was too late. It's probably just as well as we saw the wall when we did, as the weather was nice, and although it was quite busy with lots of people milling around, it was never that uncomfortable. The pictures above really speak for themselves in how beautiful and well maintained the wall is around the town. We got very close to parts of the cathedral, including the other side of a curious door half way up a wall, which we eventually got to see the other side of when we visited the cathedral itself a few days later.
The evening was a great experience, with us being quite ill-prepared for the festivities that Girona was putting on. We wandered over to the other side of the river to find food, and discovered that the market stalls extended way past the Placa dei Indepencia, with so much foot and road traffic present just outside the immediate centre of the city. We continued walking towards a loud and well-lit area to discover that there was an enormous fun-fair that had set up across a considerable patch of land. It was much the same sort of thing that you'd get at "the shows" in Scotland, with naff teacup rides, dodgems, haunted-houses & quite a large number of air-rifle and darts-based games.
Prizes at the fun-fair were suitably naff.
Despite a rubbish dinner, we enjoyed wandering around the fair. It actually made me think of American teen movies, where the guy and the girl eat at a diner and then go and do something free and cheap. I don't know if it's the weird hormones they pump into whatever animal I'd just had a burger made from, but I recall being profoundly satisfied with things, just wandering round a strange town with its traditions that I didn't know with the woman I love. When the time arose, Kara decided to try churros, and I decided to buy a pizza from what was presumably a band of travelling folk who set up a three-sided booth where you can see them roll out the dough and make the pizza in a wood-fired oven. It was quite a unique sight, so I decided to give it a go, having my second dinner and firmly underlining how much I was eating on this trip. Still, it didn't matter, as long as I was spending time like this with Kara, I was happy.
Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Day 3: Sleeping Cats & Circling Sharks
We spend the day looking at wildlife, from a sleepy cheetah to happy looking stingrays and a sad white rhino.
Friday 28th October, 2016 - Barcelona's Old Town
So we started off today with a plan and it actually seemed to pay off. Despite getting out the door around 11, we got a full day of being stereotypical tourists and it was a great day!
I started with one of my new favourite pastries; a "Caracola" which resembles an ice cream cone with chocolate and sprinkles at the top. It is a great way to start the day with two types of chocolate!
A chocolate "Caracola" ie: part of a "nutritious" breakfast for me in Barcelona.
Kara was falling apart almost as soon as we started today, so we got the Barcelona Metro a couple of stops to reach the Zoo. It was an inauspicious start, as we took a wrong turn and ended up walking all the way around the Zoo itself. We saw some really good graffiti, as well as some that was bloody awful.
It was a bit strange to see political graffiti in English.
Some very cool artwork, with an almost polygonal style.
The Zoo in Barcelona is a very impressive arrangement of buildings, covered areas and enclosures, with a very diverse range of animals. As soon as we entered the Zoo, we spotted a bunch of Zebras, just hanging out, eating hay and poopin'. I immediately recalled that at Edinburgh Zoo, you have to climb a giant hill to get a glimpse at a Zebra. It only got better from then onwards, with a sea world - style show where Sealions performed tricks for bucket-loads of fish. We watched a Komodo Dragon sun itself, a brown bear snoozing, a sleeping tiger...ok so there was a lot of sleeping animals, but we also got to see an elephant get a grooming, a family of gorillas playing, orang-utans swinging around and a Chimpanzee couple having a very intimate grooming session while another ate its own poop. It was..."unpleasant". The range of animals we saw today must have rivalled the likes of San Diego. We even got to see a sad and lonely white rhino, which just made me wonder what it would be like to be a member of a species on the brink of extinction.
This komodo dragon was completely unfazed by our presence.
Not Pictured: Poop eatin' chimp.
The orangutans had 4 or 5 adorable adolescents and babies.
It was great to see a white rhino, but he looked so sad.
We also ate our worst meal of the holiday so far at the Zoo. They were able to screw up something as simple as a hot-dog and fries, but the worst bit about it all was the flocks of pigeons and pea-hens that milled around, making us nervous about what kind of animals had walked across the table or what was about to brush against my legs.
As we wandered around, we noticed that there were a bunch of families driving around in golf karts. We found out at the end of the visit that you could rent a kart to get around the whole Zoo. It's unfortunate that we hadn't considered this before, as it would have saved Kara a lot of walking. On the other hand, we were very happy to discover that Barcelona has the same system of fountains in public spaces that Italy had. It makes sense, as "Barcino" was an old Roman settlement, so it shares some cultural origins with the Italian cities that we visited in 2014. The Zoo was peppered with the small fountains, and I took full advantage.
I haven't seen elephants for years. It was nice to see the keepers looking after them, checking their feet for sores etc.
One of the zoo highlights had to be seeing the family of gorillas playing together. We stood and watched for 15 minutes.
After we finished up at the Zoo, we took a trip back to Port Vell, the quayside where the Barcelona Aquarium is located. We decided to make today all about Zoology, so we finished off the day with a trip to the Aquarium, which was in the midst of decorating for Halloween. Kara enjoyed the slightly mesmerising view of Sand Tiger Sharks and Stingrays lazily drifting around in their giant tank.After a day at the amazing Zoo, I was a little bit underwhelmed by the Aquarium, but it was still very cool to see.
This seahorse was the most amazing colour. It looked like it was electrified.
Obligatory tourist selfie by the massive tank, containing scores of sharks and rays.
Kara was very excited to see the sand tiger sharks as they patrolled their tank.
After a busy day on our feet, we walked back towards the old town, towards the restaurant I'd planned on going to yesterday for some top-notch Italian food. The name "Sports Bar" was a bit worrying, but I will overlook a bar's aesthetic if they have a proper wood-burning pizza oven.
"Sports Bar" do fantastic pizzas. Even the plain dough of the crusts was delicious on its own.
Fortunately, there was no football on the TV, and we were rewarded for our long walk with the best pizza I've had in a long time. From what I could tell, the place is owned by a family from Naples, and all the staff are native Italians. This gave me a chance to swap my non-existent Spanish for my conspicuously absent Italian. The pizza was a great combo of slightly burnt dough, wood fired and misshapen, with a light but flavoursome sauce that gave me a meal so tasty that I even ate Kara's crusts without a second thought. That means we've eaten great food every day since we arrived, and that makes me supremely happy. Tomorrow, the plan is to head North to Sagrada Familia, but it's the weekend, so God only knows what sort of crowds we'll be dealing with.
This was a great day for us. It was so exciting to see all the rare and exotic animals that live at Barcelona Zoo. We were a little bit dubious to hear about a "sea-lion show" given the "Seaworld" vibe the name had. I haven't seen Blackfish, but I would rather never be able to see an animal outside of documentaries than know that the animal is suffering just so I can see it through a pane of glass for five minutes. Because of this, Kara and I spent a bit of time googling to see what Barcelona Zoo's reputation was for this kind of stuff, and we were pleased to see that (like most modern western zoos) they take conservation and animal welfare very seriously, beyond the need to keep animals healthy for entertainment purposes. The sea-lions were very entertaining, performing tricks, diving into the water and moving so fast, it's incredible to think of how slow and lumbering they could be on land. Their trainer also had a pair of boxes, filled with small fish, that she used to treat the sea-lions when they'd performed well.
The layout of the Zoo was pretty good, too. A lot of the more "impressive" animals (sorry birds) were in the central area of the park, but there was always something cool to see, just around the corner. I think my personal highlight was the great apes. Seeing chimps, orangutans and gorillas was such a treat, as they behave in such a familiar way, and unlike many of the other animals in the park, they were active and interacting with each other, as opposed to sleeping!
The reptile house was also very cool, with snakes, turtles, caymans & even some small crocodiles to look at. There were some carp swimming around in with the crocodiles and I found myself thinking "they must be on constant lookout" because there was nothing between them and a hungry croc.
The Aquarium was good fun, but Kara was beginning to get quite sore and tired from all of the walking around. She hung around in the gift shop while I went to find the ticket kiosk and buy our way in. It was already getting fairly late by the time we got in, but it was still quite busy, especially as the staff were busy putting together some decidedly amateur but well considered halloween decorations, including a creepy corridor with a flickering TV showing static reminiscent of Poltergeist (which was the movie Kara and I had a late-night feast to the night we got married).
Of course, I end the journal by gushing about how much I enjoyed my pizza. The "Sports Bar" may have a very different vibe at a time when they're showing sports, but from what I could tell, their evening crowd is couples who want to drink wine (or in our case - fizzy juice) and eat amazing Italian food. The staff are lovely and friendly and the food is reasonably priced. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants Italian food in Barcelona.
"Tombs, temples & time travel" - Days 7, 8 & 9: Rome - Edinburgh
A retrospective of our last few days in Rome before we head home.
So this post won't take the form of the previous ones, as it's going to be a retrospective on our holiday. As I mentioned in the previous post, I just didn't have the time to keep up with the journal when I had to cook in the evenings. So I stopped writing after describing the Colosseum at night. It was unfortunate that it wasn't fully lit up, but I guess there wasn't much we could have done about it.
Day 7 had a very busy itinerary, including visits to...
The Trevi Fountain The Pantheon The Palatine Hill & Forum Complex The Crypt of The Capuchin Monks
We managed them all, though. I am glad we did, but by this point the incessant heat and the 8 til late days with a diminished food intake was really starting to weary us both. I was also missing my beloved CPAP machine, as it really helps me to get a good night's sleep. The first stop we wanted to make was the Palatine Hill & Forum as the ticket for the Colosseum included them as well. We wanted to make sure we got in before the ticket expired.
The first mistake we made was by going via Circus Maximus. When we visited Rome, this area was under some serious renovation by the looks of things. From the street beside it, all we could see was a dusty field. What this route also did was put us on the wrong side of the Palatine Hill. After a little bit of confusion with the city map, we'd been out in the baking sun for well over an hour before we were back on the right track to get in. It wasn't a great start to the day, but it got a bit nicer when we found ourselves at the top of the Altare Della Patria, which we had seen from lower down the night before. It was quite ostentatious, but I was just happy to find a water fountain to fill our water bottle from and cool off slightly. From up here, we were able to navigate to the entrance to the Palatine Hill.
There is very little cover on the hill, and it's well...a hill. This made it quite hard going for Kara who darted between the shade like some kind of diurnal ninja. While it was nice to be amongst some of the ancient Roman parts of the city, it was difficult to relax with the heat and the endless throng of tourists that was busy taking pictures of themselves next to things. I'm not one for picture taking, if I'm being honest. Kara is the one who took all of the photos you'll see in this blog (except the ones of her, I would have taken those) as she is much more of a "visual" person, while I enjoy writing down my thoughts. I subscribe to the notion that if I'm busy taking a picture, I'm not really there enjoying the view. As ironic as it sounds, coming from someone who assumes that his thoughts will be read, it annoys me to see people taking selfies with beautiful landmarks before moving on, not bothering to really appreciate what they've taken a picture of. It just seems a little conceited, is all. Anyway, the peddlers were all selling selfie sticks, so I guess that should tell me something about what tourists get up to on holiday. Each unto their own, I suppose!
The Forum was quite impressive, with some old temples and tombs, including one for Julius Caesar. It's a strange notion as a history nerd, to be standing close to something that was built to commemorate a character from thousands of years ago that you've been reading about since you were a child. The only other time I've felt like that, I was in Dunfermline Abbey at my best friend's wedding. I was the best man so we were milling around, waiting on the guests to arrive, so I was lucky enough to get into some of the areas that most of the public do not. Underneath the pulpit, lies the tomb of Robert The Bruce; one of Scotland's most famous historical figures. Gave me shivers just thinking about it, and it was already a nervous day for me! (Truth be told, I was more nervous than the groom seemed to be on the day!)
So our morning had been a bit of a bust, but we had been able to do what we'd wanted to do. From here, we jumped aboard the metro and headed up to the Spanish Steps, which was not only close to our next site, but we also had some business to attend to in this part of town, printing our boarding cards for the trip home on Wednesday! It was here that we spotted some amazing graffiti of the Pope, that we didn't snap a picture of, but I found an image of it online.
Once that was done, and with Kara running purely on gluten-free cereal bars and a couple of kinder chocolate bars that I was force-feeding her, we entered the Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. Now, the museum itself is quite interesting. It shows the origins and some of the distinctions of this particular branch of Catholicism, which extols many of the virtues that many priests don't seem to stick to as much these days; such as poverty and humility. My understanding was that their sect spends a great deal of their time and resources helping the poor and needy, following the footsteps of Saint Francis Of Assisi. As a real bonus for Kara, there was a Caravaggio painting in here, although there are conflicting reports on whether the one in there is his original or not. I will stick some pictures from google in to show you all what the crypt looked like, as we were not allowed to take pictures.
It's a morbid place, as you'd expect. I've never been anywhere quite like it, but my obsession with ancient cultures prepared me for coming (almost) face to face with real mummified remains. Kara is obsessed with skeletons and skulls in particular. She is a tattoo artist and we have a definite "dead stuff" motif in parts of our house, which is quite funny when you consider that the other parts are Star Wars and comic book prints. Part of me wonders if it would be funny to invite Jehova's witnesses into the house just to see their faces when they see all of the semi-satanic imagery that adorns our walls; snakes, skulls, goat's heads etc... Anyway, the upshot was that Kara was fascinated with the display on offer here. I was just trying to picture the kind of psychopath that would literally nail vertebrae into the roof and walls to make the patterns that we witnessed. Kara and I did two passes on here, while Kara soaked it all in. It somewhat kills the ambience when you reach the end as there's a gift-shop, selling notepads and the like.
As we stepped out into the sunlight, I was glad to be back in the modern age. Skulls and skellingtons don't bother me, but the message of the crypt is to emphasise that time is fleeting. They have a tombstone in one of their rooms that reads...
"What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..."
So, feeling a tad drained, both spiritually (yeuch, I hate to use that term but it feel right in this context) and physically, we headed off to get lunch. We found a place called Pizza Ciro and found the food to be ok, but the service wasn't great, and it was quite pricey. Still, it wasn't too bad, and it was nice to not have to worry about food until we got home.
From lunch, we wandered on towards the Trevi Fountain. This was even more disappointing than Ponte Vecchio, but not because it looked boring. The whole fountain is under renovation. Quite considerable renovation, judging from the scaffolding and dust sheeting that was in place. There were bits of Oceanus that could still be seen, but other than that there wasn't much. There is a small replacement "fountain" that is just a pool of standing water, where people who want to throw a coin into the fountain can do so. The superstition is that those who throw a coin into the fountain will return to Rome. Kara and I threw a coin into the little pool, but it was a real disappointment. The Pantheon was next on the list, and fortunately it isn't too far from the Trevi Fountain. It's also free to enter, which is nice.
As with all of Rome, the piazza where the Pantheon sits is packed with people all the time. The Pantheon is a beautiful old building, and I was very excited to see inside. The exterior is gorgeous, with all of the massive pillars and traditionally Roman architecture that one would expect. The interior is quite nice too, but I was disappointed to find that the Pantheon, like many other ancient Roman buildings, has been converted into a space for Catholic prayer and all of the ancient Roman iconography has been replaced with christian imagery. I just wanted to go outside to see some more of the exterior, as it represented the ancient Roman past that is harder to find in Rome than one might think. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but I was happy to have visited.
From here, we headed back home to have dinner and figure out what to do the next day.
Day 8
We had toyed with the idea of visiting the Vatican. If you've read the previous blogs, it's easy to see why this might have stuck in my craw. We were really having to watch our finances and it didn't look like The Vatican would be cheap. We decided to take my Aunt and Uncle's advice and take a day trip to Ostia Antica. Knowing it was our last day before leaving for home, we knew we wanted to at least see the outside of St. Peter's Basilica, so we took a little metro ride to the Vatican, before fist bumping as we saw the massive queues and considered the high price of entry. We were harassed by admittedly, a mixed bag of tour guides, ranging from dodgy as hell to quite charming, as we approached the square where the Pope normally addresses the public. It's a lovely open space, but not when it's filled with a winding snake of tourists, waiting to get in. Kara took a few pictures and we set off for an afternoon in Ostia Antica.
After a 20 minute train ride, we were right outside of the city and it was a nice feeling. Kara is from a very small hamlet in rural Perthshire and Edinburgh is the biggest city I've ever lived in. We are not "city people" really. We don't overly enjoy many of the benefits that living in the city offers, and Rome is humongous. It was refreshing to be back out in the middle of nowhere, which looking back; is something that I appreciated about Maranello. People do say that when visiting Italy, it's important to see the little towns as well as the big cities. They're absolutely right, and Ostia Antica turned out to be a real treat for both of us.
By day 8, I had acclimatized to the heat somewhat, while Kara was still having a really hard time with the heat. Ostia Antica has many old ruins and intact walls, but it's largely open streets and little cover. We had a bit of a hard time while we were there, but there were lots of water fountains and we were able to find the on site cafe, where we ordered Kara some potato wedges. At this point, I was making sure we had sufficient bus-fare to get to the airport the next day, so Kara got food and I tried not to stare at the plate and lick my lips. I wasn't sure how long it would be before I was seeing passers by as giant walking turkey legs, like in Tom & Jerry cartoons. I was saved by one of Kara's more interesting food habits, which anyone who has eaten in her company will be familiar with. The infamous "potato cull" where even the slightest discolouration or "defect" will lead to a "rejected pile" which I hungrily gobbled up.
I really don't have words to describe how incredible the location is. Ostia Antica is an ancient harbour town that used to supply Rome. It has a naval history, plus the site contains remnants of many of the buildings that most Roman towns had back in the period the town is meant to have been at its peak. (400BC - 200AD) There are some incredible building remains that have been uncovered by archaeologists on the site, including bakeries, temples, tombs, houses, baths and I'm guessing the gigantic amphitheater didn't take a lot of digging to discover. This place was everything I wanted from a visit to Rome; a reflection of an ancient culture, with no doubt that what you were seeing was a genuine version and not something that was assembled in the 17th century. There was no graffiti and the sheer scale of the town really shows the layout and function of the place. There are mosaics that I'm guessing operated as advertisements for different shipping companies, while other depicted sea animals and elephants, presumably to emphasize the exotic nature of their expeditions. I think Kara could tell how much I was enjoying the place, as she persevered despite feeling really bad out there in the sun. We didn't quite finish seeing the whole place, but we were there for hours. There really is so much to see, and if you are a history nerd like I am, it's definitely what you're coming to Rome to see. It's cheap to get out there and visit, so do it.
We took the train back home and I did some cooking, before we did some provisional suitcase packing and got an early night. The train to Ciampino got us there on time, and despite a fairly significant setback, we arrived at the tiny airport terminal on time and in one piece. From here, the only other point to mention is that if you get a window seat on the right side of the plane and you're flying back to the UK from Ciampino, you get an amazing view of Rome from the sky. We were able to pick out so many of the sights that had seemed to huge from the ground, including the Colosseum and parts of the Vatican City.
So that was our trip. We arrived back in grey, chilly Scotland a few hours later and I was so glad to feel that cold breeze. We faced issues that were predictable to a point, especially feeding someone who has real trouble with finding food even in their home environment. I don't think gluten-free dining on its own would be particularly tricky in Italy, although it definitely pays to be prepared. It's also very expensive to feed yourself in Italy, even if the quality and quantity of food seemed to be better than in the UK. Just research the gluten-free options and you shouldn't have too difficult a time, although be prepared to have a regular meal that just happens to not include pizza or pasta, just in case you can't find a place. (For all we know, Milan has no places that do gluten-free pasta or pizza!)
I hope you have enjoyed reading this travel blog as much as I have enjoyed recounting our adventures. It's largely a personal project for me, but it's also nice to be able to passively describe our trip to family and friends! From here, it's likely that this blog will take a left-turn into nerdy territory, but I hope some of you might stick around for that.
Arrivederci!
-Ross
"Murder, mayhem and mozzarella" - Day 6: Rome
We tour the Colosseum and Kara finds her dream pizza.
Journal Entry 11.00 pm
Apartment in Roma
As we've been going at full-speed to do as much as possible this holiday, we decided to slow down this morning to plan our day and take advantage of the laundry facilities. At the moment, our flat is strewn with (clean) underpants and socks while our less personal items hang in the courtyard outside. The neighbours seem nice enough, even if my snoring probably keeps them awake, worrying about what animal sacrifice I am making to some dark power. I am sans-CPAP for the trip and I can feel myself becoming more tired as my quality of sleep deteriorates.
I took a walk to the local corner shop today, as Kara had only eaten junk food since Florence and I was beginning to worry. Despite a fair bit of confusion and feeling bad about my "Italiano", I was able to buy some bananas (green - the way Kara prefers them) and some potatoes. If there's one kind of food I know will be appreciated, it's potatoes. I snagged myself some bread and salami, as well as what seems to be Parmesan dairylea. After an approximation on a "continental breakfast" I hunt out the washing while Kara wrestled her hair into place. After discovering how to work the air-con, I was quite happy with the morning.
We stepped out and into the hot sunlight and I could've sworn I heard Kara hiss her disapproval. We wandered up and down via Casilina, looking for bus tickets. Our expreience today has taught us that people just get on and don't care for actually buying tickets. This bus had air-con! Never before have I been so comfortable on a packed bus. There is a couple that we saw at a restaurant last night, as well as on the bus into town today and on the far side of Rome at the end of the day. It's kinda creepy.
From the bus, we went shopping at Termini. Not the best idea as it's hella expensive, yo. We did find some snacks for Kara as well as the basis of some gluten-free dinners, so that's a weight off my mind. Sun-tan lotion was €20 so we resolved to find it cheaper, somewhere else. I hope they do factor 1,000,000 for Kara. She hates the idea of tanning.
After a short stint aboard the Roman metro, we arrived at Colosseo! The Colosseum was one of the biggest factors in me wanting to come to Rome and it's an impressive building that demands your attention as soon as you climb out of the metro station. A quick check online before we left the apartment meant that we had reserved our tickets. I was very glad of this, as the line to buy a ticket looked hellish. We went the wrong way round the Colosseum at first, just trying to glimpse parts of the building that were truly ancient or perhaps catching a minute of an English-speaking tour guide as they described what they were looking at. Many of them seemed to be obsessed with the ancient Roman toilets.
After a little while, we got going in the right direction. The Colosseum hosts some fantastic museums, showing finds from the excavations nearby, as well as descriptions that help to bring the place to life. The place was understandably mobbed, though. It was sad to see such a beautiful old place covered in graffiti. Much like at Giotto's bell-tower, I found myself getting pissed off at other people's ignorance and lack of respect. During the visit, I discovered that the Colosseum was consecrated as a mark of respect for all of the Christians "martyred" there.
As we entered the predictably tacky gift shop, Kara started to feel overcome by the heat and a lack of food. We decided to take a trip to the other side of the Tiber to look for "Mamaeat"; a gluten-free pizzeria. On the way, we passed a great and impressive monument called the "Vittoriano" which is the largest monument in Italy. It is enormous. We found it just as the sun was starting to dip, and the white marble that covers the entire area shone beautifully. We crossed the Tiber on the Ponte Palatino and found ourselves in narrow but busy streets that reminded me of Firenze.
Mamaeat is not particularly easy to find, but if you're a coeliac in Rome, it's a place you have to visit! Kara exclaimed "It's like eating real pizza!" I don't think she'll forget it soon. With the sun setting, we decided to find a spot to see the Colosseo lit up at night. Sadly, it didn't happen. We spent most of our time telling the string and selfie-stick peddlers to go away. It's breast cancer awareness month so a section of the Colosseum was lit in pink, with a large pink ribbon displayed on the side.
The somewhat abrupt end to this journal entry is due in no small part to my transition to becoming the chef for our trip. Our apartment kitchen was tiny, but I was able to prepare a few meals for our later days in Rome. Sadly, this meant that the journal was forgotten as it was late by the time I'd eaten. So from this post onwards, I suppose it'll mostly just be a retrospective as I try to remember the rest of our trip!
Our apartment was quite nice. On our first night, someone had let off fireworks for a full five minutes and it sounded a bit like gunfire. Kara and I were a tad nervous, but the area didn't seem too bad. Rome is covered in graffiti, and our street was no exception, but I don't think it strictly means a rough neighbourhood. Our little apartment complex had three small houses next to each other, sharing a courtyard with a lovely tree in it. The opportunity to do some washing was definitely appreciated. The heat and humidity on our trip had really meant that we were quite gross and had to quarantine some of our clothes in the suitcase. (I say we, but it's mostly me, let's be honest.) It was also refreshing to not be getting up at 8am to rush out of the accommodation, as we had been on the move during the whole trip. Finding out how to work the air-con was like figuring out how to turn the lights on in terms of morale and significance. I suddenly felt so much more comfortable.
Public transport in Italy is very different to over here. The buses in particular were some of the worst experiences of the whole trip. If there's a minimum capacity for a bus, we definitely overstepped it by quite a margin in Italy. It's literally elbow to elbow on there. If you can fit in there, go for it. I saw people trying to navigate towards the exit, only to be blocked by people who wanted to help but couldn't move themselves. Quite a stressful scenario to be involved in! The metro is quite similar, but I guess the London tube is similar. It's not nice to be the sweaty tourist in that scenario, though.
The Colosseum deserves its place in the list of the world's most recognizable buildings. It's an imposing sight, even amongst the many incredible examples of ancient architecture around the city. The only thing that makes me less enthusiastic about looking at it, is knowing that it's been renovated and put back together on numerous occasions over the years. It was very exciting to see little notice boards that told you to look at certain features so you could see that a
particular area was indeed ancient Roman. This included parts of frescos and yes, the toilets. The tour-guides were very enthusiastic to describe how Rome's old sewerage system worked and this made the ancient Roman toilets very popular. This led me to believe that perhaps they were one of very few sections that were relatively untouched since ancient times. The place is wonderful, though. Despite the massive number of tourists and the graffiti all over the place, I still had a great time looking at what the Colosseum had to offer a history nerd like me!
"Mamaeat" is a "must" for coeliacs in Rome. The pizza looked and smelled incredible, with the gluten-free pizza looking the way you'd expect any regular pizza to look. I just had a regular one, but I would never have guessed that Kara's was gluten-free too. Kara tells me that Mamaeat's margherita pizza (she doesn't really do pizza topping either) was the best she had on the entire trip, which makes it the best pizza she's ever had. This is high praise from a very discerning customer.
I will cover the rest of the trip as a retrospective, but don't worry; there's only two days left.