Paestum

Paestum, Paestum, a similar city to Pompeii, but with a different fate. Strangely enough, the only answer archeologists can find for this city was that it was just abandoned around the same time as Pompeii's demise. Some say the deforestation around this city made them go elsewhere for food, but to leave an entire city, it's buildings, it's homes, pottery, jewlery, and everything else discovered here? weird.The treasures of Paestum (aside from the farm that makes the world's best mozzarella cheese which I'm eating as I type) are the three temples that still stand there

. 

Built in 800BC the builders stacked t

he stone in such a way that no mortar was used, and it's been standing there for the last 2800 years, withstanding two major earthquakes that knocked down most of the buildings in Pompeii pre-volcanic incident. Amazing! Like, nothing has been restacked like 

in rome, or placed in a certain way... it's the oldest standing post-and-lintel structure in the world! 

Not only was the fact that they're standing impressive, but the sheer mass of the temples was hard to take in. They were huge! I'm sure the pictures don't do it

 justice... and no one was ever allowed to enter any of then (Temple of Athena, Temple of Hera I, Temple of Hera II) EVER except for the priest. 

We studied some of the construction techniques

 and I wont' go into it, but you should wikipedia it or something, cause it's really interesting. Or i'll tell you when i come home... yay! right??

Also, we stayed the night here in Paestum in a lovely little place called Hotel Calypso, right on the Mediterranean coast! So beautiful. It wasn't really warm enough to swim, but we had a huge bamboo bonfire (with very poor structural integrity) at night, and spent the morning walking the shores. 

What a great time. Luckily, i'm not tired yet! I'm soooo excited for these next two weeks. Laura and I are dancing around our room as week pack! (literally). I don't have time to upload more pictures on Flickr, but as soon as i get back I'll probably have to spend three days doing it, haha.

Ok I love you all, and can't wait to tell you all these stories in person!

Pompeii

800 BC, 2800 years ago Pompeii was first settled. I'll save the extensive history of this port city, however it's really interesting. The archeological findings here really have only been uncovered over the last 100 years, and it's proven to be the best preserved ancient city on earth. 

This is because in 17 AD the entire city was petrified, frozen in time by the explosion of Mt Vesuvius. In a few short hours, the city and all 

its inhabitants that didnt escape to the sea were

 dead, frozen in time in the exact position they died in. There are actual bodies that have been uncovered in tortured positions, some couples, some mothers with children... really haunting. 

It was so powerful to walk through this city that still had door knobs in some case and window frames, and have a feeling like you could relate to the people that lived there. I mean, we are all so

 human, no matter where we are or when we lived. These people who lived 2800 years before us inhabited this little city and got up every morning to go to work in order to feed their families. They all felt hunger, a sense of family connections, the need for a higher power to make some sense of life for them; they sinned the same way, and sought forgiveness the same way. So crazy to think about, how human we are. 

Ok so that was dramatic, but it was such a strange experience! The scenery was absolutely amazing, with Mt Vesuvius (or what's left of it) just looming in the background. 

I could honestly go on and on about every one of these pictures, but I'm just doing a quick post on this weekends' trips! 

Next up, Paestum!

Biking Borghese

Sunday, (late post) Laura and I went on an adventure to enjoy the beautiful day. We started off by heading to the vatican to say hey to the pope when he stuck his head out to bless the crowds at noon.

 After checking out some gift shops, we headed

 up to Piazza del Popolo with it's twin churches.

 Off to the side 

of Popolo is the lookout of

 Villa Borghese. You

 have to climb up a ton of staircases and ramps, but at the top is an awesome

 view of the city, especially of the twin

 churches that look out on to Popolo.

At the top of the hill sits Villa Medici (one of several villas that sit on the Villa Borghese grounds). This whole area of Villas at the top has been turned into a HUGE park area (probably 

not as big as central park, but the same environment with lots of little monuments, playgrounds, and even a zoo inside). 

We decided the best way to see the whole park was to rent bikes, so for only 4 euro we toured the park on our city bikes! It was really nice- great weather for biking, and we got to see so much more than we would have on foot! 

After our biking adventure, and having a little caffe latte at the

 cafe, we headed back down to Piazza del Popolo and shop-hopped our way home through the stores along Via del Corso. Such a nice day!

Just so you know, I probably won't be posting for a while now, because this Saturday we leave for Pompeii and Paestum! 

I hope everyone is well, I love you all!

Frascati

In celebration of the festival of San Valentino, Adam and I took the day to venture through a little town about an hour outside of Rome called Frascati. Famous for it's white wine (the Frascati) and it's awesome views of Lazio (the province Rome is in,) Frascati is also the home of several Papal Villas, including the place Pope Benedict spends his July and August.

Getting off the train at the base of one of the Dolomite mountains, we began our decent, one staircase at a time up through the

 little town. You could literally walk along the edge of the whole town which hung off the side of the hill, and see the entire province of Lazio with the snow capped mountains in the background. It was sooo beautiful! 

The best part about the day was not having a map. We just wandered around the hills and the town, finding all these little treasures. We started

 hiking up the mountain at one point in search of a villa we'd heard about, and happened upon a different villa, Villa Tusculana which now happens to be a very exclusive hotel and even center. We helped ourselves to a walk around the grounds and the views were absolutely amazing. You could actually pick out isolated little hill towns in the distance. It was so beautiful! 

As we headed back down the mountain into the town, we found a beautiful little park where we played for a while. We also found this really amazing fountain that was fed by a natural stream

 coming out of the hills. At the top of the hill was one fountian, and it fell down through a series of waterfalls to another fountain. So cool. The fountains were gated off, however we found that if you walk through the woods towards them, there was a break in one of the gates... Being the vagabond college-aged tourists that we are, we naturally went in and explored. Luckily, at the bottom of the scummy fountain, we spotted a necklace that Adam so kindly fished out for me with a stick (the depth was no match for his Longenbach arms and a tree branch) The necklace smells like death, but after i boil it, i'll be a wonderful keep-sake with a great story behin

d it! A necklace found in the fountain of a Papal Villa in Frasacti.... not something you usually get for valentine's day!.... awesome. 

After walking around town for a while, and starting to recognize people from passing them several times we had dinner in a local pub, then headed back to rome on the train. It was a beautiful day- I'm so excited for our next adventures now! And to actually see the alps... hard to believe!

Anyway, thanks for checking in, i love you all!

Upcoming Itinerary

three weeks of travel, coming up! i dont' really know what i'm in for, but as for now i have a set three weeks of travel ahead of me, from February 21st through March 15th! whew, i guess that's almost a month! The gist of this excursion is a week of city-hopping with my architecture class, a week of independent travel (spring break) and then a week long design project in Capri, followed by a weekend of family in Slovenia. 

The itinerary is as follows:

Feb 21-22: Pompeii, Italy (yes Gideon!)

Feb 23-25: Florence

Feb 26-27: Venice

Feb 28- Mar 1: Lake Como, Italy

Mar 1-2: Interlaken, Switzerland

Mar 3: Geneva, Switzerland

Mar 4-5: Barcelona, Spain

Mar 6-7: Nice, France

Mar 8-13: Capri, Naples, Italy

Mar 14-15: Slovenia (the motherland) with my mom, her sisters, and cousin Missy!

like i said, i have no idea what i'm in for! but luckily we've already got hostels booked for everywhere we're travelling, we bought the plane tickets and the major train rides, and we at least know the time tables for the minor trains in between! luckily some of the hostels have laundry service... i'll be living out of one bag that whole time! haha... good thing i cut all my hair off, i can leave out the conditioner.

so this is my upcoming adventure, i'll be sure to post about it whenever i can, if not during the trip!

Brussels and Brugge of Belgium

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! We had a solid two weeks of classes with a lot of work and not much to post about. however.... this past weekend my friends and I travelled to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium for four days! the traveling was really exhausting... its not a very easy place to get to! so after a taxi ride to the airport, flight to Belgium, bus ride to the metro station, and taxi to the hostel, we finally could settle into one of the strangest cities i've ever seen. 

the

 brief history of Belgium basically shows the poor little place being conquered and over thrown about nine significant times in the last century, so the architecture and planning of the city is really chaotic. the buildings are so interesting, which is why my pictures are mostly of buildings again, haha. Most are done in the gothic style (the really ornate ones) but a lot of the city has been covered with modern high rises. its really a strange mix. 

The food was sooo good. (unfortunately not so good for you...) I learned quickly to say (spelling might be off) "je vu dre le gaufr, si vous plea! merci bo quo!" (I would like a waffle please, thank you very much!) and also "combien fait ce coût?" (how much does this cost?) The waffles were really amazing... you just got them at the store windows along the streets for like 1,50 euro. Also, i think its safe to say that Belgians do coffee better than Romans! they give you a little cup with

 sugar cubes, heavy cream, a little waffle wafer, and plop a nice little chunk of Belgian chocolate right in. SOO good. And if i liked beer, i'd comment on some great Belgian drafts my friends had,

 one bar offered over 2,000 types! So A+ for Belgian cuisine on a low budget. 

On saturday, after rooting through a huge flea market, (more like a land-fill of treasures, similar to the stuff we find at the auction at home multiplied a hundred times) we took a train out to Brugge, which is about an hour away. It was really beautiful, a lot cleaner than Brussels, but also has had it's historic nature preserved and restored for tourists. It was a very picturesque view of the medieval city life with some of the most intense fine masonry i've ever seen. 

Aside from our little adventure to Brugge, we also made a trip up north of the city to the site where the 1950's world fair was held. Here still stands "the Atomium" which is a giant (and i mean giant) construction of a Hydrogen Atom which is now a museum with a restaurant in the top ball. It was the craziest space i've ever been in! Each of the nine balls was a museum room

, one with a children's day care, and one with a snack shop. each of the arms connecting the balls were escalators, so you slid right through them from ball to ball! Apparantly at the time Brussels thought that having this monument would attract enough visitors to make Brussels the center of Europe, trumping the eiffel tower! They weren't so lucky. haha.

Anyway, the weekend was great, the weather was very chilly, and i've gotten a little cold from it. But im resting and am starting to feel better already. I really appreciate the warmth of Rome now!

Oh i forgot to mention we found a little Irish Pub that showed the Super Bowl! we stayed there from midnight to about 4am watching, but had to leave to get to the airport right as Arizona made that last touchdown, so we didn't see the last two minutes! which stinks cause it was a really boring game other than that, and we only got corny local belgium commercials in between. but go steelers anyway!

Click HERE for more photos from the trip

Ok i love you all, and hope you're all well!