Perugia, Rome, London

After Venice, I had my last weekend off before my month of traveling kicked off. I decided I needed to see as much of Rome as possible, which ended up being smashed into one day because of several factors: bad alarm clock, sickness, and a little miscommunication. Anyway, Friday, I went to Perugia which is the capital of the Umbria region. I got up at 6 to catch a train to go to the biggest chocolate festival in the world. I had tried to go on Monday because my classes were canceled, but the only train I could catch ended up being canceled as well, so I went back home and slept all day.

So Friday I tried again and was successful. We had a few issues once we got there because no one in Perugia speaks English and I was the only one in the group that spoke Italian. We managed to find out that the festival was in the city center, but they didn't have any maps of the city. We tried following signs, but we noticed that we were snaking up a hill and there were stairs that looked more direct. I ended up asking someone for directions and she literally said, "See that street there? Turn left, go up the stairs, cross the street, go up those stairs, and then the next set of stairs you see, and then you'll find a piazza with buses. Go up the stairs on the other side of the piazza" Here's a warning: use a stairmaster before coming to Italy. It will help you out.

The chocolate festival itself was pretty cool, but most of the stuff is easily found in Italy, anywhere. I bought a few things, but I'm saving most of it. The only things I bought to eat there were cinnamon hot chocolate and a white chocolate apple. Both were very very good. The festival had a few giant chocolate sculptures (a cow, a chessboard, a key) and some interactive stuff. All I know is that by the end of the day, all I wanted was bread and olive oil.

The next day was Saturday. We went to the Catacombs of San Callisto, which were cool. They don't let you go down there alone, so we had a priest from New Zealand show us around. Apparently one of the popes picked his order as the ones to watch over the tombs. The catacombs were in the middle of nowhere. We literally walked through a field to get there (because I misjudged the bus exit). Apparently there are sheep that run wild in that part of Rome. I want to go back. On the way home we stopped at the mouth of truth and took pictures. It was pretty cool, but I guess the only reason its so famous is because of Roman Holiday.

When we were about to transfer buses at Piazza Venezia, I decided I wanted to go to the Capitolini Museum that was five feet away. I really liked it because of all the statues. A lot of the artifacts at the museum were taken from the Roman forum, so it was nice to see them and know the context that they used to be in.

On Sunday I had every intention of going back to the Vatican museum, but I accidentally slept til noon and by then I felt it was too late and I had to do laundry and other things. Also, I hadn't been feeling well since I had returned from Venice, so it felt good to relax a little. Luckily I made a full recovery by Thursday, because thats when I set off for London.

Let me tell you some things about Ciampino airport, and Ryanair. They don't communicate. My flight left at 6 am on Thursday morning, and Ryanair opens its ticket counters two hours before any scheduled flight, so logically I should have been able to get in at 4am. I, be the nervous traveler that I am, left my dorm in a cab at 3 am because I wasn't sure how long it would take. I ended up being locked out of the airport for an hour because Ciampino didn't open until 430. I waited a lot that day.

The flight to Stansted was only 3 hours, and I slept through all of it. I'm getting good at sleeping on planes. I got into London around 8 (time difference) and hopped on a train to get into the city. Once I got off the train, I had to figure out the tube to get to my hostel. It wasn't that hard, compared to New York, but it cost 4 pounds! That was about $6.50 when I was there. I pay 2 in New York, and one euro in Rome. It kind of prepared me for London to be expensive.

I got to my hostel all right after wandering around Chelsea for awhile (I didn't read the directions correctly) and dropped my bags off. It was about 10 at that point, and they wouldn't let me check in until 2, so I sat in a cafe for an hour and then got bored and started walking around. One of the reasons I went to London was to see my friend from Wagner and he was supposed to meet me around noon, when he got out of class, which is also why I traveled alone. Chelsea and Kensington are very pretty, but a lot like the upper east side. I felt very safe, even when I got lost (got distracted by a side street) but I liked wandering around by myself. I haven't done that much in Rome because I'm always with someone. London is almost as confusing as Rome to navigate though, because I had to use a bus map to find my way back to where I was supposed to meet my friend Bryan.

Thursday we didn't really do much, but he took me to the Thames and we saw the London Eye. I had left my camera in my bags at the hostel, so I went to check in around two, and by the time we got moving again after eating lunch it was starting to get dark. So we went to Picadilly circus and Soho and an indoor market that I forget the name of. It felt a lot like New York, but older, obviously. We rode the double decker buses.

Friday we did more sightseeing. We wanted to go into the Tower of London, but it cost 20 pounds to get in and there was a really long line so we just looked at the outside. It wasn't what I thought it would be because the actual tower is pretty small. It looks like a castle. After the tower we walked across the London bridge. I liked it, but I wished we could have gone up into the actual building part of it. We took a bus to the Globe theater but didn't go in because it was closed, so we ate fish and chips and mushy peas instead. It was great.

We went to Hyde park after that because I wanted to see the fall leaves. It was beautiful and made me miss New York a little. Central Park is lot better, but it was nice to have some serenity for a few minutes. I made Bryan chase geese.

Saturday was my last day because I left very very early Sunday morning. It rained all day, but we stuck it out to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. Of course we kept all the big stuff for the day it rained, but it worked out alright. At the end of the day we went on the London Eye. None of my pictures turned out because of the rain, but it was very very cool.

Overall I really liked London. I want to go back when the weather is nicer (if it ever is) and actually go in some of the places I saw. There's a possibility that I could end up there for gradschool, and I'm completely okay with that.