I promised much more of the wonderful Swoboda to come, and here she will be.
We walked the rest of Rome in a bit of a daze, actually being there was unbelievable. In Rome, I ate the best carbonara pasta of my life, I believe I will be looking for another like that one until the day, when I am very old, have lost my wits and gone grey at the seams, I die. It was literally the best food I have tasted. And at a very good price too. Nobody cook me cabonara again, as I now have very high standards of what it should really taste like. Pizzas another story, I have tasted the wonders of a Roman pizza, never really want to go back, but will have to just lower my expectations for that one . How sad.
I walked inside the Colloseum, and as everybody has said before, IT IS HUGE. The thousands of tourists that had flocked there to see the great building were overshadowed by the mightiness of the construction. The sheer size of it almost put me off, of course it didnt though, it is one of the greatest monuments of all time.
We also went to the Vatican, the first place that Sharnee got left behind. After lining up for hours to take the most boring tour on record, we decided to go and visit Saint Peters Dome. Once again we lined up for over an hour, and met some of the most extraordinary people in the line. One such person was a texan cattle rancher with cousins living in both Brisbane and Sydney. He had a lot to tell us about our fine country. Another was an English lady with a young child, who seemed very interesting in listening to our accents. She knew where Sharnee was from immedietly, but couldnt work out whether I was from a part of England or not. The only reason she would believe I was Australian was because I knew all the slang in the book, and told her I was from Adelaide, a city not usually chosen by fake Aussies. It turned out to be a very enjoyable line up.
Saint Peters Dome is beautiful. Even with so many people there it felt nearly empty. I found the decorations covering the sheer size of it all captivating, and got a cramp in my neck from constantly looking around so as not to miss anything. We were told to walk around by ourselves, (in groups of three of course) so that the more religious of us could pay their respects. We were to meet at four out the front, so that the group would be able to walk to the top, together. At ten to four all but three of us had gathered, and Swoboda said that it was time for us to leave. I mentioned to her that Sharnee, Caeser (an exchange from Ecuador) and Pixie were not there, and she mumbled something under her breath in German. Then she began to walk off.
I thought that maybe she hadnt understood me, as she was walking the group towards the line up to walk to the top, and so I said it again, this time in both German and English. Then, just to make sure she had the idea, a boy repeated it to her. She shrugged it off and kept walking. Once we made it up the total of 320 steps to the top of the dome, Swoboda said 'oh, where are three of my students?' It had finally dawned on her that we had left them behind. Her next reaction was 'maybe we should go and get them. But dont rush, it doesnt really matter'. It had already taken us 40 minutes to walk to the top, and would take us that amount of time to get back down to the bottom. In total, the three kids spent two and a half hours waiting for us, but Mrs Swoboda didnt care. When we got to the bottom after seeing the most amazing view of rome possible, we could not find them anywhere.
Her reaction to this was 'Lets wait another twenty minutes, and then we should just go back to the hotel. They will find their own way there': We searched for them for that twenty minutes, and just as we were getting ready to leave, one of the group members spotted them sitting on a stone, hiding in the shade from the sun, looking very frightened. Sharnee was ready to murder Swoboda.
They spent three hours lost in the Vatican, without phone contact with anyone within Rome.
The next time Sharnee was left behind was at the train station that evening. The trains were crowded, as they always were in Rome, and so getting yourself on was a skill in itself. The boys were teasing Sharnee and another boy, and not letting them on the train, saying 'haha, dont get left behind'. Well, the doors closed, and Sharnee and the boy werent on the train. What a surprise.
When we told Swoboda this, she said 'Oh. Well, that doesnt matter, they will find their own way back to the hotel.' She expected us to be ok with leaving them at a random train station in the middle of a foreign city. Mr Dunser, the other teacher stepped off the train looking exasperated and went to find the two. Swoboda didnt care.
That night the class decided to play a prank on her, testing whether she really deserved to be leading us through Rome. We knew the way from the train station back to the hotel, and so walked as slowly as possible, and let Swoboda walk ahead. She crossed roads without us. She walked down alleyways without us. She got around a kilometre away from us without even noticing that we were missing. Finally she did, and we joined her again. Then we repeated the exercise. This time, when she looked around, we each hid behind a tree, bin or other object, so she didnt know where we were. Her reaction? To walk back to the hotel without us. She had no care in the world for her 18 students.
Rome wasnt all fun and games though, we saw two dead bodies while on that trip. One man was fatally stabbed on the street outside of the train station, and we walked past the body as it was being attended to by police, and the other was within the train station, also stabbed. We saw him while he was still alive, but he died as he was being attended to by ambulance officers. Rome is full of wonders, but is also full of dangers. None of us were robbed, luckily, but we did see some people being robbed. Sadly, there was nothing we could do. We informed the victims, but by that stage, it was much too late to save their goods.
Even though there was that downside to the magestic city, Rome was still the best experience of my life, to date.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
ROME - Part three - The beauty
As it was so long ago, I now remember Rome as a week of beauty. I remember walking the streets with my smiling classmates thinking of how it was the best week of my life to date, and I still regard it as that. It was a week of pure bliss.
My absolute favorite part of the Rome trip did not even occur in Rome.
On an hour long train ride to Ostea, the most amazing site we visited, every single person in the class (and a few other happy travelers) fell asleep. Only me and a good friend were left awake. We sat next to each other, chatted and laughed and secretly took photos of our sleeping friends. Even the two teachers were asleep, something we were not all that surprised about. Stepping off the train in Ostea was like stepping into another world. Everyone was refreshed and vibrant from their afternoon siesta (as by that time it was 12pm) and we walked into the area smiling and ready to take whatever the day had offered.
Ostea is actually a small beachside town outside of Rome, a popular place for many tourists to visit on their travels. The site we visited was a city of ruins, stretching for over a kilometre in each direction. The Disney movie, Hercules, was set in that place, and we could easily pick out areas that the producers had taken from.
Our first need upon arrival was food. We all sat down in the shade and ate a picnic lunch of whatever we had chosen for ourselves in the supermarket that morning. The Austrians ate sausage, bread and cheese, and the Australians ate vegetables, fresh fruits and bread rolls. Unlike their wrong definition of a true Aussie (surfing, meat pie eating, beachside living) our definition of Austrians is completely correct. They eat any meat, especially in the form of sausage or schnitzel, love cheese and bread, and every one of them (well almost) loves to drink a good beer or two.
We played hackey sack with a soft pinecone until our ankles were sore, and then went to listen to the information about the area we were in, given to us by the amazing Swooooobbbsssyyy. To be honest, nobody listened, at all, and instead we spent our time playing games with the rounded rocks found at the bace of the ancient wall we were sitting on.
When the special teacher had finished her conversation with herself, we went for a stroll through the ruined town, and chose a spot to lay in the sun and tan ourselves while listening to another speech, this time given to us by an interested student. This time, instead of listening, people began to drift off to sleep. My friend and I began to have competitions on playing the grass flute, and he and I ended up teaching the rest of the students how to do it. Some of them were quite good by the end of the day.
We also sat in an ancient ampitheatre and listened to stories of great plays performed there. As the ruins were open to everybody, and people were free to walk where they liked, we spent the rest of the day in free time, running across ancient rooves, climbing up and down ancient walls and searching through ancient houses. The sun was out and we were free, a perfect day.
My camera never left my hand throughout that day, and in the space of just five hours, I had accumulated over a hundred photos to add to my memory of the amazing time I spent in Ostea. If there is one place I want to go back to, it would be there.
To be continued
My absolute favorite part of the Rome trip did not even occur in Rome.
On an hour long train ride to Ostea, the most amazing site we visited, every single person in the class (and a few other happy travelers) fell asleep. Only me and a good friend were left awake. We sat next to each other, chatted and laughed and secretly took photos of our sleeping friends. Even the two teachers were asleep, something we were not all that surprised about. Stepping off the train in Ostea was like stepping into another world. Everyone was refreshed and vibrant from their afternoon siesta (as by that time it was 12pm) and we walked into the area smiling and ready to take whatever the day had offered.
Ostea is actually a small beachside town outside of Rome, a popular place for many tourists to visit on their travels. The site we visited was a city of ruins, stretching for over a kilometre in each direction. The Disney movie, Hercules, was set in that place, and we could easily pick out areas that the producers had taken from.
Our first need upon arrival was food. We all sat down in the shade and ate a picnic lunch of whatever we had chosen for ourselves in the supermarket that morning. The Austrians ate sausage, bread and cheese, and the Australians ate vegetables, fresh fruits and bread rolls. Unlike their wrong definition of a true Aussie (surfing, meat pie eating, beachside living) our definition of Austrians is completely correct. They eat any meat, especially in the form of sausage or schnitzel, love cheese and bread, and every one of them (well almost) loves to drink a good beer or two.
We played hackey sack with a soft pinecone until our ankles were sore, and then went to listen to the information about the area we were in, given to us by the amazing Swooooobbbsssyyy. To be honest, nobody listened, at all, and instead we spent our time playing games with the rounded rocks found at the bace of the ancient wall we were sitting on.
When the special teacher had finished her conversation with herself, we went for a stroll through the ruined town, and chose a spot to lay in the sun and tan ourselves while listening to another speech, this time given to us by an interested student. This time, instead of listening, people began to drift off to sleep. My friend and I began to have competitions on playing the grass flute, and he and I ended up teaching the rest of the students how to do it. Some of them were quite good by the end of the day.
We also sat in an ancient ampitheatre and listened to stories of great plays performed there. As the ruins were open to everybody, and people were free to walk where they liked, we spent the rest of the day in free time, running across ancient rooves, climbing up and down ancient walls and searching through ancient houses. The sun was out and we were free, a perfect day.
My camera never left my hand throughout that day, and in the space of just five hours, I had accumulated over a hundred photos to add to my memory of the amazing time I spent in Ostea. If there is one place I want to go back to, it would be there.
To be continued
ROME - Part two - The arrival
Arriving in Rome at 7am, sore and tired (the beds were not the most comfortable, no matter how harry potter they were), we got lost while walking to the hotel. When I say we, I really mean Swobsy. She really wasnt the sharpest tool in the shed. She will appear often in this recount. Instead of taking us four minutes to walk from the train station to the hotel, it took us well over an hour. Thankyou, Swobodabada.
We were meant to spend that hour at the hotel, with ample time to have a shower, change our clothes, eat a second/third breakfast and then make our way out into the wonders of Rome, but instead we had to dump our bags and run. No matter, we had everything we needed, just looked like death warmed up.
First we walked to the Capital - and listened to the teacher go on (in German) about what happened there. I still have no idea about it. Sharnee and I decided to buy ourselves a tourist guide to carry with us. I bought another, better one to send home to the family, so they could take a look at the places I saw while in ROME. At that point, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the German language, but I could not understand one word from Wobbly. The only thing I understood from her all week was the time, and thats not very helpful if I didnt know where I was supposed to be at that time.
After that we continued our walk across the beautiful town that is Rome. Walking was something we were never short of while there, if Rome didnt have such wonderful pizza, pasta and ice-cream, I am sure each of us could have lost a few kilo on that trip.
The next few sites that we viewed were stunning, as all Roman sites are, but none really stuck out to me as my absolute favorites. They were to come later in the trip, when we were all over the initial shock and awe of the place and more interested in learning the details of what happened where, why and how.
The tourist guides proved very handy as the week continued onwards, I learnt a lot more from them than from anyone in our group, especially than what I was able to gather from Swobodabadabada's useless grasp of English and farmer like dialect. The word Swoboda became a sort of frustration release for us, the more dabadabada's added, the more stress let go.
To be continued
We were meant to spend that hour at the hotel, with ample time to have a shower, change our clothes, eat a second/third breakfast and then make our way out into the wonders of Rome, but instead we had to dump our bags and run. No matter, we had everything we needed, just looked like death warmed up.
First we walked to the Capital - and listened to the teacher go on (in German) about what happened there. I still have no idea about it. Sharnee and I decided to buy ourselves a tourist guide to carry with us. I bought another, better one to send home to the family, so they could take a look at the places I saw while in ROME. At that point, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the German language, but I could not understand one word from Wobbly. The only thing I understood from her all week was the time, and thats not very helpful if I didnt know where I was supposed to be at that time.
After that we continued our walk across the beautiful town that is Rome. Walking was something we were never short of while there, if Rome didnt have such wonderful pizza, pasta and ice-cream, I am sure each of us could have lost a few kilo on that trip.
The next few sites that we viewed were stunning, as all Roman sites are, but none really stuck out to me as my absolute favorites. They were to come later in the trip, when we were all over the initial shock and awe of the place and more interested in learning the details of what happened where, why and how.
The tourist guides proved very handy as the week continued onwards, I learnt a lot more from them than from anyone in our group, especially than what I was able to gather from Swobodabadabada's useless grasp of English and farmer like dialect. The word Swoboda became a sort of frustration release for us, the more dabadabada's added, the more stress let go.
To be continued
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