Rome was amazing!

Well, we are back safe and sound from Rome just in the nick of time too. There was a huge subway crash this morning, killing at least 1 and injuring a bunch more. We were right where that happened too. Yikes! Where do I begin? I guess we'll start with day 1 and work to today.

Thursday morning we were up with the sun and headed to Bratislava to spend some time in the city and catch our plane to Milan. The city center is nice and we enjoyed ourselves. For those of you who haven't seen the movie Hostel, watch of it and think of us We made it to the airport pretty easily, boarded and were on our way to Milan. We had a short time in Milan before catching our flight to Rome. Landed in Rome at 2245 at the airport in the middle of nowhere! Bought a bus ticket to the main train station and it didn't leave until 2345. Took almost an hour to get to the train station, we got off with no idea where our hotel was. Wandered around a bit desperately trying to find it, finally found it at 0100, checked in and crashed. Friday morning we were up at 0700, showered, ate breakfast, got our bearings, made a POA, and set out to meet up with my Aunt Sandy and her best friend Mary, our whole reason for coming to Rome. We walked around past the colosseum, through the Forum and to the Pantheon to meet up with them at 1200. 1203 they saw us, we toured the Pantheon together and set out to get them some food after there long journey over here. It was amazing seeing them and actually meeting up with them in a city as large as Rome. The four of us had some pizza for lunch, walked around for a couple more hours. We got our tickets for the Canonization Sunday (the reason all of us were there) threw our coin in to Trevi fountain and had some dinner. They were whopped so they called it a night while Lynsey and I walked around a bit more. We finally retired to our room around 2100 after getting some groceries to snack on.

Saturday morning we were up at 0600 to get a good jump on the day. By 0700 we were ready, feed and on our to St. Peter's and the Vatican. We arrived around 0800 only to see a couple thousand of our closest friends already there waiting for something. St. Peter's was closed until 1300 so to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel we went. Our tour book told us to arrive early to avoid the crowds but not today. There was already a line atleast 500 m's long that seemed to go on forever behind us once we got in line. A couple hours later, we were finally inside. I know both my dad and Lynsey's dad would have loved the line and all the people But once inside we went straight to the sistine chapel along with everyone else. It was absolutely beautiful inside. Everything was painted. There were drapes painted down the walls that looked so life like it was crazy. The amount of time and effort put in to it was well worth it thats for sure. We took a lot of pictures inside, well actually Lynsey did, that don't even come close to showing just how beautiful it is. We spent a couple hours inside and ventured back outside to check the line to St. Peters. Yeap, just like the line to the Vatican, a couple thousand deep. No thanks! Ate a little lunch and ventured for some more exploring. We honestly walked the entire city Saturday from 0700 to 2030 when we got back to our room. We saw it all. Toured the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus and a bunch of other beautiful sights. We showered, packed our bags and crashed at 2200 only to be up again at 0500.

Sunday was the whole reason we were in Rome. Mother Theodore Guerin, founder of both Sandy and Mary's college, Mary of the Woods in 1840. Check out the link for more info and pictures of event. ( http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/10/15/pope.saints.ap/index.html ) Lynsey and I got up at 0500 to get our stuff ready and be out the door before 0600. Sandy and Mary were staying in a different hotel with the tour group they came over with so we were planning on meeting them in front of the Vatican before the event. Lynsey and I checked out, stored our bags at the train station and caught a bus to the Vatican. We arrived at 0645 to find a line already pretty long. Lynsey jumped in line and I went to meet them at our rally point. We didn't meet up. The gates opened at 0800 and everyone rushed in. We managed to get great seats in the second row of the second grouping. After awhile I set out to find them. I found them and we made our plan to meet up after the event. The event was amazing. So many people and we were only 30 feet from the Pope when he entered. Thanks to everyone pushing and shoving, I couldn't get a great picture. Mother Guerin and 3 others were canonizied (made Saints) during the event. The entire square in front of St. Peter's was full and people were standing outside as well. The whole event lasted almost 3 hours with the Pope waving goodbye to all of us. Quite a sight. The 4 of us meet up and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together. We had lunch and it honestly took an hour + for us to get our food. It was a joke but all we could do was laugh about it. When you're with good company, time doesn't matter. We saw a few more sights, got our bags and caught a cab back to the hotel, but not before Mary and Sandy got McDonalds. They were both craving regular food and McDonald's was gonna have to do! HAHA. We spent the night on the floor of there hotel room. Shit location but nice hotel. Right outside there hotel was a junk yard, a trailer park and a looney bin. NICE! Even had a metal gate to pull down over the sliding glass door on the 7th floor!! The floor felt great after another very long day.

Monday we were up at 0400 to catch a taxi to the airport. Got there, checked in, boarded and got to Milan with no problems at all. This is where the long day starts. So, as stated before, we were thinking about heading to Salzburg, Austria for a few days because we have nothing to do here. Well, we were waiting for word from a lady back in Brno about rescheduling an appt she made for us that day. We finally got word that she rescheduled it for Thursday so we boarded a bus to Milan train station to head to Salzburg. Yah, great idea. Next train left at 1730 (it was 1300) and arrived in Salzburg at 0410 the next morning. 11 hours on a train that should normally only take 6, yah right! We got back on the same bus we just got off and headed back to the airport, just in time to check in for our 16500 flight back to Bratislava. The security line was a mile long so we ate, and then jumped in. After almost an hour in line and having to take every thing out of our bags, we were finally through. 1700 came around we still didn't have a plane or anyword on our flight. Yah, it was delayed until 1845! Great, we are gonna miss the only bus back to Brno now. HAHA! We finally leave as the sun was setting which was beautiful and got to Bratislave around 1815. Got right on the bus to the train station and waited around until 2234 for a train to Brno. Got on, slept the majority of the way and got back to Brno around 1215. Caught a cab and were in bed by 0100. LONG DAY!

Overall, the trip was amazing. I'm so glad we got the oppurtunity to see Mary and Sandy in Rome as well as the canonization. It was a once in a lifetime event that's for sure. Thank you Mary and Sandy for getting us tickets and everything. And Grandpa Hall, thank you for the letter and everything else as well. It really means a lot. Rome is a huge city with so much history and so many people it can get overwhelming. Take a couple days and venture around Rome with a map and enjoy the thousands of years of history that surrounds you on every corner. I'm glad I got to share it with Lynsey as well as Mary and Sandy. Check out some of the pictures Lynsey choose to post. We took a lot so these are just a few. Stay tuned for more from our exciting world. I'll let ya'll know about our internship and classes when we found out more! Until next time, CIAO!!