Pompeii

Posted on Monday, April 10th 2017, 0:17 by Alexandra

This was a very special day! In 18500 steps, we have seen some stuff, but it is everything around the sceneries we have seen today that will make this day memorable. Okey, sure, Pompeii was really awesome to see, but today was the perfect example of how much of a struggle it is to pursue a lifelong dream.

Okay, let’s start from the top, by renting a car. We had booked a car through http://www.rentalcars.com, got a really good price and that should have been the first warning bell. Renting a car is NEVER easy and you never get away with a good deal (except when I was on Puerto Rico and got several hundred dollar cheaper, during Christmas, for some reason). But before we could get to the car rental place (GoldCar) at the airport, we had to get to the airport. We left a bit late from the apartment and were a bit stressed. We had approximately 4.5minutes at Termini (the train station in central Rome) after we arrive by Metro to buy tickets and find the track. We actually managed, but the train saw us running and held the doors for us. Crazy! The train arrived 15 minutes late for some reason, but we still made it to 10am. Luck! When we get there and are presenting passport, drivers license and credit card… oh wait, we only have debit cards… Nope nope, no car. They told us Sicily by Car accepted debit cards, so we called RentalCars.com and made them change our reservation. She was very helpful, but she couldn’t rent it until 12:00. I talked to the guy at the desk and he said that it was weird that we got a car, when they didn’t have any. He had to make several phonecalls, change our insurance thingy, I had to transfer money and talk to RentalCars.com again. So, at 11:am we had a car (we must have been his most annoying customers today) and was driving south toward Pompeii. We got a Smart ForFour, not too bad actually. For a smart car it is decent size (all the cars here by the way are tiiiiiny). At 3pm we arrived in Pompeii after paying A LOT on road tolls. We spent so much money today on this trip.

So, finally down at Pompeii we realized the archeological site was huuuuge! We got an audio tour but were told to only go to 3 regions out of the 9 because we only had a little bit more than 3 hours, 6 would be needed, at least, for the whole site. We were tired, so it was enough for us.

We went through most of Region VII, VIII, I, and II. It was really cool. I am surprised at how well preserved it all was! I guess a lot of it was restored, but it didn’t say exactly what was restored. I think most of the walls where the original though, which is what made the whole site seem like a real city. There was a Forum, there were some of the casts of people (I honestly thought there were more, or maybe they were in the Regions we didn’t go to?), there were baths and lots of houses and temples. Even a temple of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Nature. I am not going into details about stuff, because I would probably get most of it done. But I wish I could have seen it when it was a living city. It seemed like a really pretty place. And the baths with incredible architectural solutions to saunas and hot baths. Impressive! There was also an amphitheatre, supposedly the oldest one, and definitely the most well-preserved one. Colosseum was built on flat land and just up ~50 meters. Before, they built theatres on slopes (amphitheatre means double theatre), and this was built the same way. But instead of building it on a oval slope, they dug a pit and from ground level you have to go down to reach the arena.

The pictures are not sorted unfortunately. I am too tired to name them all now, but I will eventually! Here is also a link to a sphere photo I took at the amphitheatre.

When we were done we had to fill up the car and we managed to do it without speaking a single word in English. We were too tired to try and find a cute restaurant in Naples (most of them were in small street like in Rome, and with the car, it would have been too much of a hassle), so we decided to go to McDonalds so we could get back to Rome quickly). We found a very native shopping center where I think we were the only tourists.

2.5 hours driving, not without bumps, before we arrived in Rome. First, I turned off the GPS too early, so Jesper missed the correct entryway to the freeway, so instead of missing a toll station, we went through TWO (4 euros total) when first going the wrong direction and then going back in the right direction. Then we had several cars flashing their high beams and making weird things with their hands at us. It took as a long time to realize it had something to do with our lights. I am not sure what exactly, but they stopped after Jesper turned on a thing on the wheel. To make up for Jespers mistake earlier during the drive, I forgot to tell Jesper what exit to take from the freeway, which resulted in driving around a bit and 1.30 euro extra in the toll (it was 14:50 on the way down and 16:30 on the way up, it is just a price you pay when you are driving between Rome and Naples, for some unknown reason). We got back okay, we had spent tons of money today, Pompeii by car was expensive!!!

In the papers we got before going here to stay in this apartment, it said where there was a garage nearby. We drove there, looked nice enough. The guy didn’t speak any English, after a lot of hand gestures and a little bit of Google Translate, we gave him the car keys and told him we would be back at 9am. I hope this ends well for us, cross your fingers for us!

Long and crazy day with many events even if we only had one thing on the agenda. Pompeii was really cool, it was much more than I expected. I think it would have been nice to have a real guide there. For next time; I want to climb Mount Vesuvio!

We have packed most of our stuff, cleaned as best as we can, and are ready to leave the apartment tomorrow by 9am. On tomorrow’s agenda is driving around outside of Rome and going to Ostia, both the beach and the archeological site. It will be as warm tomorrow as today, about 22 C. On the freeway down it was as hot as 26 at one point! By the way, Italy in the spring is so beautiful! So many mountains, so much light green, we even saw a snowcapped mountain top. We only saw this from the car, but so pretty!

A touristy day

Posted on Saturday, April 8th 2017, 0:08 by Alexandra

My left foot hurts pretty bad, not under, but on top! It hurts all the time, but sometimes it gets really bad and I almost stumble because it feels like the skin on top of my foot is peeled off, except there is nothing visible on the foot. It is super weird and a fairly big bummer. I will survive, and a little pain is not gonna stop me from enjuying this vacation! I untied my shoelace after dinner and then it got kinda okay.

19,600 steps today (accumulative ~58,000), even though we didn’t leave the apartment until 1pm. Since we were gonna stay out longer today for some night time photography, we decided to spare our feet and sleep a little longer today. We made lunch, canneloni, planned the day and went out.

Our first thing was to print the voucher for Colosseum. It took us a long time to find a place to print it and we were redirected from several tourist information centers who just sent us to another one. We finally find a place, the guy inside only spoke Italian, but it worked out and we have now the voucher. It says on the voucher that it MUST be printed, and that it won’t suffice with a mobile device. I have read that before, but I don’t want to take any chances this time.

Our next stop for the day was The Museum and Crypt of the Capuchins (Convento dei Frati Cappuccini). Since the Capuchins Monks are a current religious group, the museum kinda felt like a try of conversion. I did not find the museum particuarly interesting, but I learned a few things, that for example Capuchins means small hoods (because the monks and friars had small hoods). The crypt was why we went there. Several rooms with skeletons. We saw the one in Paris and thought it could be cool to have seen something similar in Rome. But no, nothing similar at all. In Paris the catacombs were used as burial sites since diseases were spread in the cematary’s. But here, the bones of previous monks (around 4,000 it said) and Christians were placed in architectural designs. For a crypt, it felt weird that it was aboveground with windows. It also felt really tacky to “glue” skeletal parts on the ceiling and on the walls. It felt disrespectful and honestly a lot crepy! If you compare it to the catacombs in Paris where they just stored the skeletons of, I can’t remember, but MANY, deceased ordinary people. Sure, there were some formations, but it was different. We were not allowed to take photos in there. But use Google, you will find something on how it looked!

We then walked on to the Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti). Like with the Trevi Fountain, there were too many people there. And our last stop in the daylight was Hard Rock Cafe. We had burgers, Jesper ordered a couple of drinks, we shared a desert and got our 18th glass. I can’t believe I have been to 18 Hard Rock Cafés around the world. Crazy.

It then got dark, and Jesper wanted to try his photographing skills. We first walked to Fontana di Trevi. There were as many people there in the dark as during the day. It was pretty though, and I got some good photos. Jesper was too tired to look at his more closely.

We then walked to Forum Romanum, took some pictures there and lastly walked to Colosseum. It is hard to take good pictures in the dark. But it was pretty there. I am really excited for the tour we are doing there tomorrow.

Vatican City

Posted on Thursday, April 6th 2017, 23:02 by Alexandra

Last night we had a little bit of a freakout, we hadn’t booked any tours before coming here, so we looked into it last night. Our plan was to go to the Vatican today, Colosseum on Friday, and Pompeii on either Saturday or Sunday. We have one of those three things figured out. We booked a tour to both Vatican City and Colosseum, but today we found out the Colosseum tour was already full so we had to book it for another day. I think we knew that it would be full-booked, but we still didn’t book anything in advance. So I encourage you all planning to go to Rome, book everything in advance, at least Colosseum! We have rebooked the Colosseum tour for Saturday morning, I just hope that one is not full as well. Otherwise the only option I know of is early on Tuesday morning, on the day we are leaving. Let’s cross our fingers for Saturday!

Anyway, we booked through the official website of the Vatican Museums and picked a tour of the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and the St. Peter’s Basilica. It was interesting, the tour guide had been in the Vatican for 50 years or something, as a guard and something else. Pretty cool. He knew a lot. What was not so fun about it was that we were not alone. There were approximately 1,340,292 other people there. It was hard to see anything, you could hardly see the floor you were walking on! Too many people. I also wish we could have stayed a little bit longer in the Sistine Chapel to watch the paintings a little bit longer. So many details everywhere! St. Peter’s Basilica was really cool! Church architecture is, but I am kinda bummed that I don’t remember too much from the World Architecture class I took at Cal Poly 2.5 years ago. Probably a third of that course was about ancient Rome. I feel kinda lost here in general and don’t know much about the pretty old buildings I take lots of pictures on. And honestly, I am too tired to try and do any research on it now afterwards. It is still pretty, and as a fan of architecture, I really enjoy this city.

After the Vatican we were already tired (it was around 12:30pm). We found a cute restaurant called Polese and had pizza there. I had a proscuitto pizza and it was incredible! The crust was the thinnest I have ever seen!

We then walked along to Pantheon which was incredible. I remember the professor talking a lot about it and it felt really cool to be there and see it with my own eyes. But like I said before, I don’t really remember exactly what it was. I think something about it withstanding WWII, but still being damaged from it?

Our next stop was Fontana di Trevi. We found the people before the fountain. Crazy many people there! But the fountain was so pretty! If there weren’t that many people there, I would have loved to sit there with a gelato in the sun, just watching the water.

We walked 19,000 steps today (accumulating to 39,000 in two days) so we took many breaks, right after the fountain we sat down for a Swedish fika with ice cream, coffee, and something sweet.

The last thing we did for the day was trying to find the GAP store so I could buy a new pair of favorite jeans. I bought a pair of True Skinny jeans in San Francisco some years ago but they have been worn so much that I feel that it is time to get a new pair. 600 SEK for a pair of awesome jeans was so cheap! I also bought a pair of more fancy pants for 300 for future situations when my normal style of clothes does not fit the occasion. I wish we had GAP in Sweden.

Then we just walked around, found a square (Piazza del Popolo), saw a staircase up to a house where it looked like a great view (Piazza Napoleone I). We will go back there tomorrow when it is dark to get some real nice photographs. My soles didn’t hurt today, but my calves when we got back, and the top of my feet has been hurting since this afternoon. So much walking! We have decided to take it a bit slow tomorrow, sleep until 10am, plan our day with museums and such, Hard Rock Café in the evening and some photographing in the evening.

Here, enjoy a bunch of pictures from today (only mine, not Jesper’s, I might post some of them when we get back home).

All the roads lead to Rome

Posted on Wednesday, April 5th 2017, 21:38 by Alexandra

I wouldn’t say that I am out of shape, but I am definitely out of shape when it comes to walking and standing up. It is out of season for Liseberg, so I am not used to this much walking. Today we reached 20,600 steps, crazy amount of steps!

So it wasn’t a bump free ride to go to Rome. Six hours before our flight took off last night, Jesper realized that his passport had expired a month earlier. He paid a huge amount of money to get a provisional passport (it is extremely pink!). The flight was more than half empty, I don’t think I have ever flown with that few people on board. It only took 2.5 hours, I finished Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows (amazing ending to the story, the review was not that well-written, I apolgize, I might change it someday when I am not as tired as I am now), slept a little bit and watched a thunderstorm over the Alps somewhere, really cool to see lightning from above the clouds.

Our second bump arose at the airport in Rome at 11pm when our pre-booked taxi driver didn’t show up. There was a miscommunication we learned this morning, they needed a reconfirmation from us that the price would change since our apartment was outside the city limits, but at the end of our confirmation email it also said that they were happy to have confirmed this with us. So we got to the apartment a little bit later than we planned, but it worked out very well anyway. There was a shuttle service at the airport with fixed prices 20 euro per person. Very friendly and helpful people.

The apartment is a little bit outside the city limits and very nice. There are two big balconies. One much bigger than the other one and the “small” one is bigger than most standard balconies in Sweden. Pretty great. Unfortunately, there are only singles bed, and I was afraid of falling down between them during the night.

Today we slept until 10am, went out to the grocery store (crazy store where the aisles wouldn’t fit more than one person, and there were also a ton of easter eggs, we couldn’t resist and bought one, it was basically just a big Kinder Egg, delicious and with a super big Star Wars toy inside) to buy breakfast, then had breakfast in the sun on the balcony. The whole day has been around 20C and a little bit cloudy. Perfect for walking around a big city. We left the apartment at 1pm approx, bought a week pass for the metro and buses and went to the city where our promenade started. We didn’t have any plans for today, just walk around, look at things, and plan for tomorrow, tonight instead. So we walked, and walked, and walked, and took lots of pictures. I actually only took 65. Jesper borrowed his dad’s professional camera and has taken most of the pictures.

I am honestly not sure what we photographed today, there are so many old and special buildings. I might write descriptions other days.

So here comes a bunch of pictures from today.

Ramses crawled inside one of our bags before leaving yesterday.

Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa

Posted on Sunday, January 17th 2016, 23:50 by Alexandra

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

Ten hours at a mall, not sure if I want to do that again, but it was a fun day! We didn’t do too much shopping, but we bought a few things, a cork globe where we can pin where in the world we’ve been, a box of cool Arabic postcards, a shot glass from the top of Burj Khalifa, a thermos I can bring to school, a deck of cards all in gold, a fridge magnet, flip flops to Jesper, and a new shirt for me and I will get to why later.

We also got a couple of birthday presents for Jesper’s younger sister. We walked around for hours and hours, it is ridonculously big!! But I think we manage to at least go everywhere, even if we didn’t go into many stores. We had lunch in one of the food courts, Johnny Rockets, haha! When it comes to food, this trip is more American than Arabic.

At 6pm we had booked to go up to the top of Burj Khalifa. We got a briefing beforehand with tea and some snacks, went through security and then took the elevator up to the 125^th floor in only 60 seconds. That is pretty fast!! Then we took another elevator up to the highest floor people go to, 148, the floors up until 160 is only for telecommunication and maintenance and something. The whole tower is 828 meters high, but less at where we stood. I can honestly say that I didn’t feel any difference between the Eiffel Tower and Burj Khalifa, both are so high up that it feels unreal and that everything below is photoshoped. It was pretty cool up there though and we saw a little from the first fountain show of the day at 6pm (we got up to the top a little earlier than our reservation). We then saw the whole 6:30 show on the 125^th floor where we stopped for a bit.

After that we decided to watch the fountain from the ground so we watched the 7:30pm one after some restroom brakes and some of the shopping. We got a great spot, I filmed and took pictures and it was kinda exactly like the Bellagio Fountain in Las Vegas. I didn’t see it coming, but in the end of it, the water came right at us, there were no warning signs that we would get wet, so I wasn’t expecting it at all and was watching somewhere else when the shower hit me. Jesper saw it coming, backed away but didn’t tell me. I got soaked through! It was worse than SeaWorld… When we walked back to the mall I heard some Swedish people behind me say something about me being soaked, haha! We got the new shirt at Holister and then went to Cheesecake Factory to have dinner. It tasted kinda the same, but not really, or maybe my memory is piedestaling the food, or it’s different because this is Dubai, not California. I think I was too tired to eat as well, but we got the leftovers boxed up so we have dinner for another evening as well, yay. It was good!

Then we saw some really fancy pancy cars outside the mall, took a taxi and came back to the hotel at around 10pm. Tomorrow we have to get up a little bit earlier since we are going to Atlantis The Palm tomorrow and it opens at 10am and since we don’t want to waste spending time outside on the warmest day of the week (it will be around 27C tomorrow) and because we were inside all day today, we want to be there as early as possible.

This is Dubai Mall, crazy big!! In the lounge at the top we got served snacks and drinks. Level 125. A gold car. PANO_20160117_192719 IMG_20160117_203147 A Tesla!! A matte black Lamborghini.