Blogs from Vatican City, Europe - page 3

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…the moment of truth. Before we left Father John gave us the priestly blessing of safe travel. We arrived and tried to get some recon at 5pm. The mass began at 10am Sunday. We determined they would close the square and got a good camping spot on Via del Conciliazione, which I kept confusing with colazione the Italian word for breakfast, after talking to three guards with three different stories. It started to rain as set up our camp and within a half an hour the police showed up and decided to shut down the street as well. They herded people who were already camping there before us out and they were not happy about it. Many traveled very far to get an opportunity to see the Pope canonized not one but two influential popes in ... read more

Rome... it was so good. Arrived at the train statio, walked about 5 minutes to my hostel, checked in, then walked around the area i was in for a while. after, i met two brothers from hong kong, and and english fellow. We hung out that night after eating free pasta. We went to a the colloseum and a few nearby places and saw the city by night. we got gilato which is so much better than american icecream. The next day I went to the the Colloseum and the surounding area again but got to in the places, I ran into Justin and Cameron, which were to ausies I ran into in Monaco at a restraunt, and then again when i was leaving Monaco, so the third time I gave them my name so they ... read more

These days are starting to all blur together. It was strange how dead the bar was last night but I guess the locals don't party too hard on a Wednesday. I talked to mom yesterday for the first time in a while. Gave her a massive Internet hug. love ya mom. I will never take for granted how there are no gypsys in Canada. Literally everywhere. All selling the same shit. Like, no I don't want your cheap ass Louis Vuitton purse and stop calling me playboy! Remember I said I did laundry at 2 in the morning the other night? Well I had a bit of a scare. I didn't grab my clothes because this girl from our tour said she would hold onto them for me. Well it turns out she only had my ... read more

Ciao! Sorry we skipped a day, as you'll see, friday was quite an eventful day... It was our last day in Paris. We started the day at the Arc de Triumphe and then walked down the Champs Elysees. It was gorgeous and super cool, considering all that has happened there. We went through the Place della Concorde and saw the obelisk, where Marie Antoinette and others lost their heads. We also met a few pickpockets, but outwitted them all! We finally came to the louvre, where we planned to spend our last few peaceful hours. Right. At the desk, we were informed that our pre-ordered tickets needed to be picked up back at Champs Elysees, so Sophie and Dad raced back over to pick them up. We finally were able to enter, but our visit was ... read more

Thursday, 27th October 2011 Our final stop in Italy and for the whole of the Europe trip was the journey to Vatican City, home for the Roman Catholicism. Vatican City is actually located within the western part of Rome City, reachable via a simple Metro ride from where we stayed if not for the events that followed. This morning, after getting our water supplies from the Conad Supermarket at the basement of the Rome Station, 3 of us were walking towards the Metro direction when we heard a loud commotion. Before we knew it, a group of some few hundred people came charging towards our direction. Our natural reaction was two-fold :- 1) To give way to the "fastest runners" among the pack and retreat to a corner for safety since we wouldn't know where they ... read more