Florence and Visit to Uncle Peter's

Now let the song begin! Let us sing together 


Of sun, stars, moon and mist, rain and cloudy weather,

Light on the budding leaf, dew on the feather,

Wind on the open hill, bells on the heather, 


Reeds by the shady pool, lilies on the water: 


Old Tom Bombadil and the River-daughter!

       One of Tom Bombadil's songs from The Fellowship of the Ring

Hello everyone!  Sorry about the lack of posting last week.  I am now posting about the rest of my spring break travels (or at least the last ones out of the country).  This will be relatively brief.  And the poem at the beginning is not that related to my travels.  But oh well.

So, Florence!  Florence was very cool.  And I mean that literally.  It was freezing.  I had been hoping to get some sunny Tuscan warmth over my spring break, but not a chance!  We hardly ever saw the sun, and two out of the four days we were there, we got snow flurries.  Not exactly pleasant.

We had a very nice hostel.  The four of us travelers, me, Allison, Ryan, and Melissa, had a room all to ourselves.  That turned out to be very nice.  Here's Melissa walking through the hostel doors.  Looks pretty fancy, right?  Well, everything in Florence looks fancy.

Here's some pictures of us at dinner.  Note the large amounts of wine about to be consumed by Allison and Ryan.  Allison was fine, but Ryan was a little happy afterwards.

I spent the entire time we were in Florence thinking about my friend Mary, because I knew she would love it there so much.  Lots of very interesting architecture, completely different from what I had seen before.  And lots of little shops with very expensive things in them, like this shop right outside our hostel that excited me very much:

I didn't buy any hats though.

Instead of giving you a day by day, hour by hour retelling of our sightseeing, I'm just going to give you some highlights.  This is somewhat because there is too much to tell, somewhat because we saw so many things that I lost track of everything we were seeing (don't worry, I saved all the tickets so I can remember later), and somewhat because I didn't take pictures of everything.  This was because 1) it was too cold for me to really want to take my hands out of my pockets and 2) you aren't really allowed to take pictures inside any of the museums.  So, you will not be experiencing all of the Renaissance art that we experienced.  I will instead take a brief moment to describe it to you:

Lots of naked people.  This, I got used to fairly quickly.  And LOTS of pictures of Mary.  And almost always in one of the three scences:  the annunciation by the angel Gabriel, Mary holding baby Jesus, or Mary being crowned queen of heaven.  You see this to the point that you hardly stop and look at any of the Mary paintings anymore.  Except to notice how little exposure these artists must have had to real live human babies.

So, some Florence highlights:

The first thing I must mention is the gelato!  Gelato is a wonderful dessert that tastes somewhat like ice cream, except richer and with less fat (apparently the fat coats your tongue and keeps you from tasting the full flavor of real ice cream).  We ate gelato six times in four days.  It was brilliant, as the Irish like to say.  Here's a gelato display:

And here's me, Melissa, and Allison eating gelato:

The day we arrived in Florence, we went to a few museums.  It turned out that it was International Women's Day!  That meant that Allison, Melissa, and me got free tickets into the museums!  But poor Ryan still had to pay.  Why don't we celebrate this in the US?

Us holding our free tickets:

Anyone who goes to Florence sees the Duomo.  Duomo is the Italian word for "home," not "dome" as many people think it is.  The dome on this church is the largest dome made of bricks, according to Wikipedia.  It is really very huge.  At the time it was built, it was the second largest dome after the pantheon.

Here's some views of the inside.  We got a tour for free from an Asian student on some kind of exchange program.  The scene painted on the underside of the dome is the Last Judgement.

Outside the Duomo is the Baptistry.  The baptistry is from an earlier time period, and you can tell by the art on the inside of the dome.  It is full of scenes from Bible stories.

We saw Michelangelo's David as well.  That was very awesome.  It really is an amazing statue.  Besides being absolutely huge,  it's just amazing how natural his pose is, and yet how intense he looks.  He has a very intense expression on his face.  No pictures allowed, though.

We also went to the Piazza della Signoria.  That is the very famous piazza with lots of famous statues (Michaelangelo's  David used to be there, but they've got a copy there now so they can keep him safe inside).  The statue called Rape of the Sabines is there too.  It's silhouetted in the picture below:

You can see the Rape of the Sabines statue on the right in the picture below:

 

On our second day there, we went to the Uffizi, which is the Italian for "offices" because it used to be a big government office building.  Now it's a big art gallery.  There was lots of art there, including paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, and the Birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli. But again, no pictures!  Here's a view of the outside:

There was also a nice view of this very famous bridge from the inside on the top level:

We walked across it later, and it had lots of jewelry shops on it.  But before we did that, we had to drop Ryan off at the hostel, because he got sick.  Poor Ryan.  Then we headed across the bridge, to the Medicci Palaces.  The Medicci were a really rich family in Florence who paid for just about everything you see in the city (as in, almost all of the art and almost all of the buildings).  I have a completely new definition of "rich" and "showy" after seeing the rooms in this palace.  They were ridiculous.

They had an awesome garden in the back.  We had a lot of fun exploring it.

There were some great views of the city:

Allison being silly:

We found some cool things in the woods.  It felt very explorer-like.

We also found a friend!  I don't know if you can tell, but this kitty is very, very pregnant.  She was about ready to pop.  Holy cow.

We also went to this church, Santa Croce:

Inside were lots of graves.  Here's the grave of Michelangelo:

And here's the grave of Galileo:

We went to the science museum and saw Galileo's telescope too.

A few other highlights:

Michelangelo's Deposition, or Florence Pieta.  The man holding Christ's body, Nicodemus, is thought to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo.

A cool ceiling in one of the museums:

Ireland on a really old map!

After Florence, I took the train to Geneva, Switzerland to visit my Uncle Peter, Aunt Laurianne, and cousins Antoine and Christopher.  A view from the train:

I had to change trains in Milan (all by myself!) and I spent my two spare hours hanging out in a McDonalds with all my luggage.  Here's the train station.  I was very impressed with it, personally.

My uncle has an awesome house in Switzerland.  It was an old farm house that they fixed up themselves.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  Like a model home.  They're moving to London soon for Uncle Peter's new job, but they're keeping the house and renting it to other people.

Now, before this trip, I hadn't seen these cousins of mine for six years.  Christopher, who was 4 the last time we saw each other, didn't really remember me.  However, we got along fantastically.  He tried to teach me how to pronounce French words, which I was not very good at.  We also spent a good amount of time chasing each other around the house, throwing beanbag balls at each other.  Antoine, who was 8 last time we saw each other, remembered me, but boy, has Antoine changed.  For one thing, he is  now taller than me (surprise surprise).  For another thing, he is a cool dude.  He's got the long messy hair thing going, and he wears very fashionable clothes.  He is also very intellectual.  We spent a brief amount of time talking about philosophy, such as whether or not everyone sees colors the same way and the problem of the existence of evil in a world ruled by a good God.  Basically, I have really cool cousins.  I only got to see them for the weekend, but I was so sad to leave.  I actually cried when they left for school on Monday.  :(  Here's a picture of them.

I got to spend a lot of time with Uncle Peter.  Here are some pictures of our trip around Geneva:

This is me in front of the four fathers of the Reformation.  The tall one right above my head is John Calvin.

We also went to the Reformation museum, which was pretty cool.  You could see Bibles that Luther used, listen to a dinner debate about predestination that Calvin had hosted at his house, and listen to hymns like "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" while sitting on real wooden pews.


I thought this was pretty awesome.  Toddler-sized chess pieces.

I also went on a walk on the top of the Saleve, the mountain that looks over Geneva.  There was still snow up there, and it was beautiful.

Me and Tante Lolo (with Uncle Peter's shadow):

Finally, I flew back home.  It was a bummer leaving.  It had been really nice to spend time in a big fluffy bed, in a real house, with a real family, eating real meals for a weekend.  Oh, and some elderly British lady offered me wine in the airport terminal (she and her friend had ordered some from the bar).  Here's a view out the plane window just before landing in Dublin.  In the bottom of the picture is the Howth peninsula, the place I went earlier in the semester (there's a whole blog post about it).  I could actually see the places that I'd visited from the air.

The end!

Trip to Western Ireland, Part 3

In western lands beneath the Sun 


The flowers may rise in Spring, 


The trees may bud, the waters run, 


The merry finches sing. 


Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night 


And swaying beeches bear 


The Elven-stars as jewels white 


Amid their branching hair.

Though here at journey's end I lie 


In darkness buried deep, 


Beyond all towers strong and high, 


Beyond all mountains steep, 


Above all shadows rides the Sun 


And Stars for ever dwell: 


I will not say the Day is done, 


Nor bid the Stars farewell.

Hello!  I am back.  I haven't been keeping to my "one post a week" promise I made at the beginning of the semester, but I have been rather busy.  Kyle just left (unfortunately), and before he was here, my family was here.  Before they came, we went on another class trip, and before that was spring break, and before that was the West Ireland trip.  So, now I'm going to finish the West Ireland trip, and hopefully I'll get to the other things next Sunday.

So, I left off when we were still in Kenmare, on Saturday evening.  Sunday morning, we woke up and got on the bus.  We were headed to Dingle for lunch, and then back to Dublin.  There were many beautiful views:

We stopped at Lady's View, a place to view the beautiful landscape.

Me and Melissa!

Then we got back on the bus.

Look, I'm a ghost!

Soon, we stopped at a place called Inch Beach.  I have no idea why they called it "inch" anything.  The place was massive.  It sits at the end of the ocean inlet between the Kerry and Dingle peninsulas.

It was very beautiful, but also very windy.  Here's Julianne and Stacey:

Look at the shells!  There were so many of them.  They look like little butterflies. I took some home.

We then got back on the bus, and soon we were in Dingle.  Someone saw a little structure way on top of a hill, and wondered aloud what it was.  I promptly replied, "A beacon of Gondor!"  See for yourself:

 

Dingle is an adorable town.  It is in the Gaeltalcht, an area where Irish is spoken as a common language.

We all got fish and chips for lunch.  Here's Sam, Jackie, Andrew, and Ryan:

And here's Kayla, Molly, Mary, Melissa, and Sam not looking at the camera.  He's ordering his fish and chips.

Stacey and Julianne rode the statue of Fungie, the dolphin that, since 1983, has greeted every tour boat that has gone out into the Dingle bay.  We didn't go on a boat tour, so we didn't see Fungie, but the statue was nice.

After another stint on the bus, we stopped at a nice place to look at the cliffs.  Here I am, with a little sheep in the background.

Allison, Ashley, and Kaitlyn:

Patrick, coming down the steps to the lower level of the cliff viewing area.  Melissa is smiling at me in the background, that sneaky person.

Do you see a little, tiny beach nestled in the cliffs in the picture below?  Well, guess what we did next?

We went to the beach!  This picture is viewing the beach from the opposite cliffs to where we were before.

Just in case you needed to be warned, don't walk off the cliffs.

This is what the cliffs looked like from half-way down to the beach.  Very impressive.  Note the raised pool of sea water.

Me on the beach!

This beach had a little stream running onto it.  I spent the entire time we were at the beach exploring this thing.  Water trickled down the cliffs from above and formed little ribbons of water that sinks into the sand as it crosses the beach.  It's flowing all the time, and yet it looks like it just ends!

We got back on the bus and continued along the Dingle peninsula.  From a distance, we saw Skellig Michael.  Skellig in Gaelic means "splinter," and this island pokes out of the water like a pointy splinter. Long ago, monks built a monastery on top of the island, living in beehive huts.  You can tour the island today, but it's difficult to get to, and no one lives on the island anymore.  Now it's mostly a bird sanctuary.  There it is in the sea:

We passed lots of little lambs!  Aren't they precious?  Kevin even stopped the bus driver so we could get out and have a closer look.

However, the moms were not happy.  This mom took her lambs away promptly.

Our last stop of the day was at the Gallarus Oratory, a very old Christian church (perhaps as old as the 6th century).  It is built entirely out of stone.  It's a very special place, to think that Christians worshiped here in this building, out in almost the middle of nowhere, centuries ago.  We spent some prayer time in the oratory.  It felt very powerful.  Around 40 of us were able to fit snuggly inside.  I was near the front door, facing the back and only window.

The front door has two special stones on either side of it, possibly on which one could place lanterns or decorations.

Here's the back window from the inside, with Molly standing by it:

And here it is from the outside.  It gets quite narrow.

Kevin told us that any girl who is able to fit through the window will be married within the year.  We stood around awkwardly for a few seconds.  People looked at me, but I told them that our wedding is more than a year away!  I didn't want to mess anything up.  Finally, one girl, Nicki, offered to try.  At Kevin's direction, some tall boys went around to the back of the oratory to help her get through.  She made it easily, and so did Melissa, who volunteered afterwards.

In the shadow of the oratory, there's an area covered with stones.  We weren't told what it was, but I'm guessing it could have been a grave.

Here's a close-up of the standing stone:

It's carvings like these that suggest to archeologists that the circles on celtic crosses are something more than just a good way to hold up the arms of a cross.  This cross doesn't need any kind of support, since it's just a carving, and yet the circle is still there anyway.  The markings below the cross are interesting as well.  Very ancient-looking.

So, after this, we got back on the bus, stopped only for dinner at McDonalds (where I did not eat healthy food, sorry Mom), and arrived back in Dublin.  All in all, I really enjoyed the Western Ireland trip.  It is such a wild, beautiful place.  That's why I brought Kyle there when he visited last week.

The end!