Ben Murrell

Today, I’m going to Venice (Venezia). Train was at 8:50 and I’m on it now – it’s about 5 hours. The reservation was 15 euros and Ididn’t realize till I got on that it’s Eurostar (high speed). This train is like the one on Mission Impossible I & I’m in a tunnel right now. Hopefully I ride on one later that is like on James Bond or Harry Potter [[I eventually did, but not until the Czech Republic]]. I’ll arrive in Venice around 1:30 and get a hostel, then explore the City – everyone says it is beautiful. Hopefully I meet some fun people at the hostel – it’s a small city. I’m going to miss the fountains in Rome. ALso, I wish I had more time so I could go to Barcelona. A guidebook would be nice, and a daypack / small backpack to carry things with me would be nice too.

I bought a Venice guidebook in the trainstation then explored a bit, but it was very hot and I had my backpack still, so I bought a 36hr waterbus ticket and made my way to the Giudecca island of Venice. On the way, I found people going to the same hostel. After I checked in and put the sheets on my bed, I made my way out to the San Marco Basilica. It was closed but a lot of stuff was still going on (around 6). I kept close to the area and got back to the hostel around 6:45 then went to the supermarket. I got some bruschetta and brought it back and ate it. Then I went back and bought a bottle of vino rosso. On the way back I saw 3 girls sitting by the water having wine so I took a shower and went out. When I got out there were about 20 people out there. We sat from 7:45 – 11:30 and during the time some people came and shot a short film. At 11:30 we set out for Campo Margherita but we never found it (gave up around 2:30). We did manage to hang out with some girls who were studying abroad in Florence and we almost got one of them to jump into the canals (haha, Shannon). It was fun to be in Venice and walk around holding hands/etc because during the day everyone was doing it.

My room had 14 beds and was almost full when we got back at 4am (long waterbus ride). The guys I hung out with (after the big hostel group) were Brian, Aaron (Vermont), and Matt(New Jersey) – they were all traveling alone also. The girls were a mix of Pennsylvania and Illinois, plus one from Canada. Venice has a population of about 80,000 so I started thinking of it a bit like Lee’s Summit.

[[End my hand written section, begin commentary]] This was my first day in Venice. I started to have the same ups and downs I had in Rome – I was euphoric to be traveling, to be in Venice, to be in Italy; but at the same time I was starting to feel really lonely & like I’d made a huge mistake to come alone. On the way to the supermarket when I saw those people sitting outside by the canal, I decided that I was going to be one of them. No more feeling lonely – I was going to make friends everywhere. On days when I arrived in new cities and didn’t know anyone, I’d be comfortable with the fact that I’d explore the city alone, then come back to the hostel and meet tons of people anyways. That’s how it worked for the rest of the trip – I talked to everyone, I met everyone. I’d walk into big groups of people who were traveling together and we’d be friends going out to dinner an hour later. I decided I’d be what Matt & Manny were for me in Rome to everyone else everywhere else. And that’s what I did.

Also, it turns out tons of people travel alone. I haven’t traveled with other people, so I can’t really say I liked it more or less than traveling with other people. I can say that I enjoyed the freedom of being able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. If I wanted to stay an extra night somewhere, I could. If I wanted to leave early, I could. If I wanted to sleep in, I could. All I had to worry about was me which was pretty liberating. I would have loved having people with me that I knew, but at the same time, I probably ended up meeting more people as a result of traveling alone.

I woke up at 8:30am and I had to check out of my hostel and back in by 10:30am because I had to change rooms (this is what happens when you book hostels one night at a time – you get shuffled around because they’ve already sold the bed you’re currently in). Got ready and decided to go to the Vatican with Lonnie, Oscar, and Daniel.

The line to get into the Vatican - started on the left!

We got to Vatican City at about 10:00am. The line looked long but we got in by 10:30am to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was an awesome place, very massive and striking.

Me in St. Peter's Basilica

Saw Michelangelo’s Pieta statue. After exploring the Basilica, we went to the Cupella (Dome). 500 circular stairs later, we were at the top of the Vatican and could see all of Rome – got some good pictures!

The view from the Cupella

After that, we went to the Vatican Museum (where the Sistene Chapel is). It was 12 euros to get in. It closed at 4:00pm and we got there at 3:30pm – it took about 10 minutes to get through the line to buy tickets (once in, we had till 6:00pm). There was a ton of cool art (sculptures, tapestries, maps, rooms). My favorite I think were the Rafael rooms. I saw Le Penseur (The Thinker) – I didn’t know this was there! And I had my MegaMinerAI shirt on (with the Zombie Thinker) – had Daniel take my picture with it. Finally around 6 we got to the end (the Sistene Chapel). Magnificent.

When we left the Vatican we were famished – hadn’t eaten since 9:00am and that was just a cappucino and a croissant. We went to McDonald’s because Oscar was craving it – I had a Big Mac (6.20 euro) & Oscar got everyone cheeseburgers. Afterwards, we went to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon

It was closed because of Liturgy or some service, so we went & got gelato (Italian icecream). When we retured, the Pantheon was open and we went in. It was very cool. After that, we went to the Fontana Trevi and threw in coins. Then the Spanish Steps. Finally went home at about 9 and showered, then hopped on the net, then went to Buffeto’s Pizza. Lonnie and I ate with a guy from Naples and a guy from NYC – it was interesting.

Eddie (from Naples) insisted that Roman Pizza sucked, but that Buffeto’s was the best in Rome.

The pizza at Baffetto's

We didn’t get done there till 12:45 or so. Tried to take the bus back, but it was packed so we walked about 25-30 minutes to the Vatican to catch the metro. Met 2 guys from Ohio while waiting. Got to bed at about 2:30am. My new roommates were Febian and Richard from Finland and Nichole from South Africa. They were all going to sleep before I left for pizza and weren’t up the next morning when I got up to leave.

As promised, I’m now transcribing my journal from the trip onto my blog. On my first day, I just made a bulleted list of stuff I did and people I met – for the rest of the journal I wrote out paragraphs/pages each day. I’m going to go ahead and translate the bullet points into a paragraph for this post

I landed at 8:00am on 05/21/2009 – my flight left from Atlanta at 4:15pm. I managed to sleep about two hours while sitting by two crying babies in the middle of the middle section of the Airbus A330-300. In spite of how much I slept, I didn’t feel tired at all – the excitement of being in Rome kept me going all day. The first thing I did was pull some money out of the ATM.

My first euros

The ATM’s in Europe are much more interesting than the ones in the USA – they give 5′s, 10′s, 20′s, 50′s, and 100′s! It was always a surprise to see what I’d get when I pulled money out. I rode the train from the airport to the main train station in Rome (Termini) and found my hostel which was literally across the street from the train station. I had booked one night there from KC before I left so I’d know I had a place to stay for my first night away from home. I stayed in Pop Inn which ended up being a good and a bad thing: I was right by the public transport hub, but it was noisy at night and there was no AC so we had to leave the windows open. It turns out you can sleep through anything after a bit of drinking though

After I checked into my hostel, I got tortured with a blow torch I started walking to the Colosseum. It took about 20 minutes to get there… I rounded a corner and I could see a bit of it between two buildings. It was amazing. That’s when I really realized I wasn’t home anymore – I was in Rome, traveling. The whole day sort of went like this – I’d see something really awesome and be semi-euphoric, then I’d crash and start to think, “Oh my god, I’m here, alone, I’m lonely, what in the hell have I gotten myself into for the next 10 days.” I started to get around the feeling of loneliness in a few ways: I started talking to my video camera, I started asking people to take my picture, and I just smiled.

Me and the Colosseum

Anyways, I made my way to the Colosseum, got some water, then got in line to enter the Roman Forum. I wandered the ruins for a few hours with an audio guide, then I headed over to the Colosseum. I grabbed a panini along the way and ate it on the steps of the Colosseum. I took a tour of the Colosseum which was interesting, but for me the big pull of the Colosseum was just seeing it from the outside. The inside was neat, but I probably would have been fine just staying outside and walking around it. The tour ended around 5:00 and I started to walk back to my hostel. I was tired and thirsty so I decided it was time to figure out how to ride the metro/subway. I went into the Colosseum metro station and bought a ticket and rode the metro back to the Termini station quite painlessly. Rome only has two metro lines and they connect at Termini, so it was a good place to learn how to ride the metro.

When I got back to my hostel, I had to get the key to my room (it was too early when I checked in in the morning). This took a while, but when I finally got it, I went back into my room and unpacked some of my stuff. While I was unpacking I met Matt and Manny, two guys in my room from Connecticut. It was their last night in Rome and they were going to be catching a ferry to Athens the next day. Meeting them basically set the tone for the rest of my trip – they were really friendly and shared lots of good info with me about riding trains, taxis, places to stay, things to see, etc. They invited me to go out with them that night, and I went and took a shower. When I got back, another guy had gotten into the room (Lonnie). Lonnie was an older guy that seemed young – it was his divorce trip basically. We all left after everyone was ready and went to a bar right by the hostel where they spoke no English. Had a few drinks there, then headed out to find the Travestere area where there was supposed to be a lot of cheap food/drinks and things to do. We took the bus out to Travestere and had dinner. During dinner we met an Italian lady that let us try her food, she was really nice.

Me in the Roman Forum with the Arch of Septimius Severus

After dinner, we walked out to the bar area and went into a bar where two Italian guys were singing American songs with terrible accents. Naturally, we started belting it out… naturally. It got boring after a while so we left and ended up on the Travestere Steps. While we were on the steps, I got my first taste of gypsies constantly trying to sell stuff to people. Stuff like roses, glow sticks, necklaces, and way overpriced beer. We hung out on the steps for a few hours and I met a Spanish guy (Alejandro) who I got to speak Spanish with a little bit. He was in Rome for the Barcelona/Manchester soccer match that was taking place in a few days. I met his girlfriend and his Italian friend, Ruis. To get home, we took a taxi. Our plan was to not expose the fact that we spoke English and just say “Termini!” over and over to avoid being ripped off. It was funny, but I think the guy figured us out, – the fare was still pretty cheap to get home. When we got home, we saw two guys fighting and detoured around them then got some late night pasta and went to sleep around 3am. When we were getting to bed, we woke up the other two guys in our room who ended up being from Singapore (Daniel and Oscar)… oops!