Since we have free internet we thought we should do a "bonus" unexpected post. Let me tell you a little bit about last night. Chris and I came to our free internet spot, as usual. Since it was raining we could not just sit on the curb so we had to sit under this canopy outside a cafe'. We thought we should buy something since we were using their canopy. I was cold and ordered a hot chocolate. Because nothing warms you up like a hot glass of hot chocolate especially when it is raining. We are waiting for the guy to bring it out to us. Finally this beautiful cup of warmth arrives...Chris and I take one look at it and just start laughing. This was the real deal..they dont mess around here. You ask for Hot Chocolate and that is exactly what you get...a cut of melted chololate in a little cup. It was like being at the melting pot but with nothing to dip in the chocolate!
Another food experience happned this morning at breakfast. Chris and I put what appeared to be cereal in a small bowl, filled it with room temperature milk and enjoyed this free breakfast in our hostel. After the "cereal" was about gone, Chris said I am pretty sure this is supposed to be oatmeal! I looked closely and sure enough it was oatmeal we were eating cold. What do ya do!?
Alright we are getting ready to leave Florence in about 2 hours to head to Assisi. We have not decided if we are staying the night there or moving on. It just depends on how much we find to do there. Also since we are heading to a new city, it is quite possible we might not find internet. So dont be alarmed if you do not recieve and update tonight. If we find an internet cafe' we will hope on and type till our fingers fall off!!
Oh...yeah Happy Halloween. Chris and I are dressing up as American tourists today! We heard at the MPCC there were people dressed up as the Youth Staff. Alissa I am really excited to hear about how you dressed up like me, the question I have is who was Chris?
Love ya,
Chris and Lyndsey
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Do You Need an Umbrella?
We decided, last night to stay in Florence another night because we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to see since we went to Pisa for most of yesterday! We found another hostel to stay in for tonight. This one has probably been the nicest and yet the cheapest. We actually have our own bathroom…what a luxury☺
Today it has been drizzling on and off all day. We cannot be too bummed because up until now we have had blue skies and sunny, when the forcast said every day we were supposed to have rain. We were not exactly sure as to how to go about this day, with the rain and all. So we decided to…eat! We made our way to the free WIFI place and grabbed a favorite pastry and sat under a canopy outside. We stayed there for awhile until I started to get a little chilly. Now here is the thing when you backpack, you don’t have much room to pack for every occasion. My wishful thinking was that I would not experience rain or cold. So neither Chris or I were prepared for this weather we had today. So what did we do…? We went back to our hostel put on another layer of clothes and just walked in the rain. (No umbrella, nothing although many people tried to sell us one.) This meant what we were wearing around today was about all the clothes we packed for 14 days. We are now warm and ready to experience what Florence has to offer.
We began as any American would…with a meal. We found this cafeteria place that appeared to have GREAT prices. We are so excited because this pasta and pizza looks amazing, unlike any other place we had seen before. We get in line and you attempt to tell the lady what you want. This is always fun when we do not speak an ounce of Italian. Well when we got to the cashier to pay for our inexpensive lunch, we quickly learned we really cant read Italian because we thought the prices were cheaper than they really were. With food on our trays we looked at each other a bit confused and…walked to a table. Our cheap meal turned out to be quite expensive, but very very tasty.
Our first place of destination was to the Basilica di Santa Croce. This is a gothic church where Michelangelo, Galieo & Machiavelli are buried in tombs. This church has so much cool history about it, but I will keep it brief. Families could be buried in this church, so as you walk around there are slats about 4feet by 3 feet as part of the floor. People are actually buried underneath. Some of them have tiny hooks so as members of the family died they lifted the top covering and put them in there. When we got to Michelangelo’s tomb…his tomb is not buried in the ground it sits on a fancy platform. The crazy part is he is not actually in there. Right next to his tomb display is one of those slats and that is where the rest of his family is buried. He did not want to be buried with the rest of his family, but against his will when he died he was put in with his family. Some time later they thought they should put him in a separate tomb but keep him in this church. So they opened up the covering and tried to figure out which one he was. (I would not enjoy to be that person). They could not figure out which one was him so they left him in there and made an empty tomb for him. In the tomb is where most people think Michelangelo is buried and not in the ground with his family, because they didn’t have a tour guide like we did!!! I also got a picture of Chris with this huge table because that is where they laid Michelangelo’s body when he died so people could mourn his loss and bring flowers..etc. That is sooo stinkin crazy!
We were finished looking around the church and there is this beautiful garden area we wanted to take pictures of. I was taking pictures in Chris’ direction not really paying attention to what he was doing. He on the other hand was very aware that I was taking pictures in his directions so he decided to strike a pose. He was leaning on his forarms gazing out into the beautiful garden, just awaiting for me to snap a picture of him. So I did…then he tried to act like he didn’t do it on purpose…but we all know he was posing. We were cracking up laughing!!!!
We eventually left Santa Croce and went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia this is where Michelangelo’s most famous work is, David. As Chris and I were walking there, we were anticipating an elaborate museum big intersection and all the works. As we are walking, after we get our daily Gelato on a cone, we begin down this side alley street. We thought well it must be past here…ohh no. The museum was definitely and little entrance into a plain building complex. We would have walked right past it if it was not for the line of people. We get inside and we are anxiously making our way to the David. And we finally arrive the moment we have been waiting for. Ohhh boy this thing is ginormous. It was absolutely breathtaking, you can see David’s sling with some stones in his hand. WOW! We were not sure if you could take pictures, once we saw a few others we decided it would be fine. We though we will turn our flash off to be curtious and help keep this sculpture preserved. As we are taking pictures this lady comes up to us and sternly tells us “pictures are forbidden” AH…oppps. So we didn’t take anymore, but we do have a few cool ones of David.
That is about the extent of our day…Chris took a nap (big surprise huh?) I looked at all our pictures and now we are off to eat some more Carbs. What will it be like to have to eat vegetables again?
Tomorrow we are taking an early train to Assisi. Assisi is the little quaint village in the mountains where St Francis of Assisi was born, did ministry, had encounters with Christ, died and is buried there. We'll get to see his tomb and his church. Chris is really really excited as he really has a lot of respect for St. Francis. The train ride is always an experience! We are really excited about Assisi, although we are not sure where we are staying once we get there. But that is part of the adventure, and boy has this been a great adventure!
Love you guys!
Today it has been drizzling on and off all day. We cannot be too bummed because up until now we have had blue skies and sunny, when the forcast said every day we were supposed to have rain. We were not exactly sure as to how to go about this day, with the rain and all. So we decided to…eat! We made our way to the free WIFI place and grabbed a favorite pastry and sat under a canopy outside. We stayed there for awhile until I started to get a little chilly. Now here is the thing when you backpack, you don’t have much room to pack for every occasion. My wishful thinking was that I would not experience rain or cold. So neither Chris or I were prepared for this weather we had today. So what did we do…? We went back to our hostel put on another layer of clothes and just walked in the rain. (No umbrella, nothing although many people tried to sell us one.) This meant what we were wearing around today was about all the clothes we packed for 14 days. We are now warm and ready to experience what Florence has to offer.
We began as any American would…with a meal. We found this cafeteria place that appeared to have GREAT prices. We are so excited because this pasta and pizza looks amazing, unlike any other place we had seen before. We get in line and you attempt to tell the lady what you want. This is always fun when we do not speak an ounce of Italian. Well when we got to the cashier to pay for our inexpensive lunch, we quickly learned we really cant read Italian because we thought the prices were cheaper than they really were. With food on our trays we looked at each other a bit confused and…walked to a table. Our cheap meal turned out to be quite expensive, but very very tasty.
Our first place of destination was to the Basilica di Santa Croce. This is a gothic church where Michelangelo, Galieo & Machiavelli are buried in tombs. This church has so much cool history about it, but I will keep it brief. Families could be buried in this church, so as you walk around there are slats about 4feet by 3 feet as part of the floor. People are actually buried underneath. Some of them have tiny hooks so as members of the family died they lifted the top covering and put them in there. When we got to Michelangelo’s tomb…his tomb is not buried in the ground it sits on a fancy platform. The crazy part is he is not actually in there. Right next to his tomb display is one of those slats and that is where the rest of his family is buried. He did not want to be buried with the rest of his family, but against his will when he died he was put in with his family. Some time later they thought they should put him in a separate tomb but keep him in this church. So they opened up the covering and tried to figure out which one he was. (I would not enjoy to be that person). They could not figure out which one was him so they left him in there and made an empty tomb for him. In the tomb is where most people think Michelangelo is buried and not in the ground with his family, because they didn’t have a tour guide like we did!!! I also got a picture of Chris with this huge table because that is where they laid Michelangelo’s body when he died so people could mourn his loss and bring flowers..etc. That is sooo stinkin crazy!
We were finished looking around the church and there is this beautiful garden area we wanted to take pictures of. I was taking pictures in Chris’ direction not really paying attention to what he was doing. He on the other hand was very aware that I was taking pictures in his directions so he decided to strike a pose. He was leaning on his forarms gazing out into the beautiful garden, just awaiting for me to snap a picture of him. So I did…then he tried to act like he didn’t do it on purpose…but we all know he was posing. We were cracking up laughing!!!!
We eventually left Santa Croce and went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia this is where Michelangelo’s most famous work is, David. As Chris and I were walking there, we were anticipating an elaborate museum big intersection and all the works. As we are walking, after we get our daily Gelato on a cone, we begin down this side alley street. We thought well it must be past here…ohh no. The museum was definitely and little entrance into a plain building complex. We would have walked right past it if it was not for the line of people. We get inside and we are anxiously making our way to the David. And we finally arrive the moment we have been waiting for. Ohhh boy this thing is ginormous. It was absolutely breathtaking, you can see David’s sling with some stones in his hand. WOW! We were not sure if you could take pictures, once we saw a few others we decided it would be fine. We though we will turn our flash off to be curtious and help keep this sculpture preserved. As we are taking pictures this lady comes up to us and sternly tells us “pictures are forbidden” AH…oppps. So we didn’t take anymore, but we do have a few cool ones of David.
That is about the extent of our day…Chris took a nap (big surprise huh?) I looked at all our pictures and now we are off to eat some more Carbs. What will it be like to have to eat vegetables again?
Tomorrow we are taking an early train to Assisi. Assisi is the little quaint village in the mountains where St Francis of Assisi was born, did ministry, had encounters with Christ, died and is buried there. We'll get to see his tomb and his church. Chris is really really excited as he really has a lot of respect for St. Francis. The train ride is always an experience! We are really excited about Assisi, although we are not sure where we are staying once we get there. But that is part of the adventure, and boy has this been a great adventure!
Love you guys!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Deaf Elephants...
No longer sleepless in Italy...it is a beautiful thing. Last night was officially the first night we did not wake up in the middle of the night. I was so proud of Chris for staying asleep because that meant I got to sleep! Before I continue, I realize Chris has left out some major details about the culture in Italy. This info is important to fully understand what life is like here. Okay first people do not drive cars here (news to me) they drive mopeds and ride bicycles (bicycles at night with a headlight is quite humorus!) So you have to keep looking forward because you could get ran over by a bicyclist flying down a hill that is not going to move for you. Second thing if people do drive a car here they absolutely love to use their horn. There is a constant honking sound in the distance, it is quite funny. I would think they have to replace their horn every few weeks or so. Last but certainly not least...most people here walk around with a trail of smoke following them. Yes that is cigarette smoke, I have never seen anything like it, I am sure to have a few cigarette burns by the end of this trip. Okay on to the good stuff...
We woke up today full of enerergy and ready to experience our first train ride to another city. We trucked to the train station around 7am. We were early, so we were strolling around, trying to avoid the clouds of smoke, when we see our train. We are feeling pretty good, all is going smooth. We hop on our train, never looking closely at our train ticket. We see this cozy area to sit in when we hear a lady say she thinks we are in her seats. Who knew there we assigned seating on the train. We then look at our tickets to discover we are supposed to be on cart #154 and currently we are on like 170something. We look at our watch and realized if we hop off this train we just might not make it back on b/c this thing is pulling away any second. So we did what anyone else would do....we ran for it. Yes backpacks and all (thanks Chunk and Matt)...sprinted down what seemed like a mile to make it on just as the doors closed. SHEEWWW!
So we made it to Florence...found our hostel got checked in and dropped off our backpacks then decided we wanted to go to Pisa today. So back to the train station we go. We find our train and sit down. The next thing we know there is this kid passing out calendars. He gave one to Chris and I briefly looked at it...I will repeat briefly. The only part of the back I read was "I am deaf" I knew the front had a picture of an elephant (the calendar part). So I quickly put 2 and 2 together. Awee this poor elephant is deaf, and he is trying to raise money to support these animals. Once I said this outloud to Chris I realized that was not right. He busted a gut laughing and just kept repeating "Ohh I wish Matt Reagan was here!" So apparently the elephant was not deaf, but the boy was...I dont know. All I know is Sarah Reagan would have agreed with me right!?
We arrive in Pisa. A quaint town. We walked to the leaning tower of Pisa...soo stinkin cool. It is so funny to see a tall building leaning while all the other ones around are straight. Chris and I had a ton of fun here at the tower taking funny pictures. About 30 pictures later we walked over to this grassy area and here Chris decided to take a mini photo shoot of me in this grassy area. Okay I love photo shoots and all, but right now I have greasy hair & the same clothes I have been in all week....not ready for a photo shoot. But we laughed about it later! The wall that used to be around Pisa is still partially there. The wall was very ancient looking...many tall archs...and holes. There was not that much more to see here except a few cathedral that cost euros and we are running out fast! We figured we saw St. Peters Cathedral yesterday...were good!
We hike back to the train station and make our way back to Florence. We headed to our hostel to drop some things off and then head to dinner. When we got to our hostel there were like 8 girls staying in the other room there. We started chatting with them. A few of them were from Cali so we chatted with them about our upcoming adventure. They told us about this cool place to go...they told us the name, but all we remember is beaches! We are going to go there but we are not sure when. We chatted with them for about 45 mintues or so and then headed to dinner. Chris always asks me what I am in the mood for dinner...I never really know how to respond to that questions because they only have pasta, pizza and bread here. So...we ended up at a buffet imagine that. There was this place that had a happy hour buffet and a drink were only 6 euros. WOW! We marched right in there and tried to find the catch, but thankfully there was not one. We ate a little pasta..a little bit of pizza..peanuts...this mix of something I am not really sure what is was but we see people eating it before a meal, sandwiches (they only contained tomatoes and mozarella cheese...I think one had a meat)...and the best part the dessert. They have these cresents that are amazing...they taste like a cresent with icing and a little hint of butter...some are filled with vanilla others with jam. Ohh so good!
So that brings you up to now. Currently Chris and I are sitting well...I am not sure where. Dont worry mom it is not a dark alley there are some street lights! We are typing....breathing in the fresh smell of smoke...and listening to the sounds of mopeds and foreign languages...its GREAT!! No really it is so cool. Yes we did find WIFI which means we have pictures posted on facebook. If you are not sure what facebook is ask someone...the younger crowd will know!
Ohh...Chris is taking after my showering technique (which is about every other day). He has not showered since Saturday morning. I am so proud!!! Like husband like wife.
We are not sure if we are staying in Florence tomorrow night or heading somewhere else. We will let you know. We love you all so much and we are very excited to come back and share pictures and stories with you. We absolutely love reading your comments, keep them coming!
Much love
Chris and Lynz :)
We woke up today full of enerergy and ready to experience our first train ride to another city. We trucked to the train station around 7am. We were early, so we were strolling around, trying to avoid the clouds of smoke, when we see our train. We are feeling pretty good, all is going smooth. We hop on our train, never looking closely at our train ticket. We see this cozy area to sit in when we hear a lady say she thinks we are in her seats. Who knew there we assigned seating on the train. We then look at our tickets to discover we are supposed to be on cart #154 and currently we are on like 170something. We look at our watch and realized if we hop off this train we just might not make it back on b/c this thing is pulling away any second. So we did what anyone else would do....we ran for it. Yes backpacks and all (thanks Chunk and Matt)...sprinted down what seemed like a mile to make it on just as the doors closed. SHEEWWW!
So we made it to Florence...found our hostel got checked in and dropped off our backpacks then decided we wanted to go to Pisa today. So back to the train station we go. We find our train and sit down. The next thing we know there is this kid passing out calendars. He gave one to Chris and I briefly looked at it...I will repeat briefly. The only part of the back I read was "I am deaf" I knew the front had a picture of an elephant (the calendar part). So I quickly put 2 and 2 together. Awee this poor elephant is deaf, and he is trying to raise money to support these animals. Once I said this outloud to Chris I realized that was not right. He busted a gut laughing and just kept repeating "Ohh I wish Matt Reagan was here!" So apparently the elephant was not deaf, but the boy was...I dont know. All I know is Sarah Reagan would have agreed with me right!?
We arrive in Pisa. A quaint town. We walked to the leaning tower of Pisa...soo stinkin cool. It is so funny to see a tall building leaning while all the other ones around are straight. Chris and I had a ton of fun here at the tower taking funny pictures. About 30 pictures later we walked over to this grassy area and here Chris decided to take a mini photo shoot of me in this grassy area. Okay I love photo shoots and all, but right now I have greasy hair & the same clothes I have been in all week....not ready for a photo shoot. But we laughed about it later! The wall that used to be around Pisa is still partially there. The wall was very ancient looking...many tall archs...and holes. There was not that much more to see here except a few cathedral that cost euros and we are running out fast! We figured we saw St. Peters Cathedral yesterday...were good!
We hike back to the train station and make our way back to Florence. We headed to our hostel to drop some things off and then head to dinner. When we got to our hostel there were like 8 girls staying in the other room there. We started chatting with them. A few of them were from Cali so we chatted with them about our upcoming adventure. They told us about this cool place to go...they told us the name, but all we remember is beaches! We are going to go there but we are not sure when. We chatted with them for about 45 mintues or so and then headed to dinner. Chris always asks me what I am in the mood for dinner...I never really know how to respond to that questions because they only have pasta, pizza and bread here. So...we ended up at a buffet imagine that. There was this place that had a happy hour buffet and a drink were only 6 euros. WOW! We marched right in there and tried to find the catch, but thankfully there was not one. We ate a little pasta..a little bit of pizza..peanuts...this mix of something I am not really sure what is was but we see people eating it before a meal, sandwiches (they only contained tomatoes and mozarella cheese...I think one had a meat)...and the best part the dessert. They have these cresents that are amazing...they taste like a cresent with icing and a little hint of butter...some are filled with vanilla others with jam. Ohh so good!
So that brings you up to now. Currently Chris and I are sitting well...I am not sure where. Dont worry mom it is not a dark alley there are some street lights! We are typing....breathing in the fresh smell of smoke...and listening to the sounds of mopeds and foreign languages...its GREAT!! No really it is so cool. Yes we did find WIFI which means we have pictures posted on facebook. If you are not sure what facebook is ask someone...the younger crowd will know!
Ohh...Chris is taking after my showering technique (which is about every other day). He has not showered since Saturday morning. I am so proud!!! Like husband like wife.
We are not sure if we are staying in Florence tomorrow night or heading somewhere else. We will let you know. We love you all so much and we are very excited to come back and share pictures and stories with you. We absolutely love reading your comments, keep them coming!
Much love
Chris and Lynz :)
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Abs at 1am & our day with the Pope
WOW! Thank you guys so much for your comments, its so encouraging to log on over here and see you guys writing us!! (Amy & Greg, you are going to have to teach pa how to leave a comment for us:)
Well, another sleepless night in Rome! We went to bed wore out at 10pm, I was thinking I would be able to sleep through the night because I was so tired. I woke up completely refreshed and ready to go, got up looked at the clock and it was 1am!! DANG IT!! All I could think to do was do an ab workout to try and work off all of the incredible Italian food weve been eating. That woke Lynz up and she was dying laughing so we watched another church planting video, then she went back to sleep. I then spent the next 3 hours reading a book called, "Simple Church", great read if you are interested! I finally fell back to sleep around 530am, I slept great for another couple of hours, then woke up to get our day going.
Our day started with a 4 or 5 mile hike across Rome to the Vatican. Holy Cow! We saw some amazing sights. The Vatican Museum was among one of the sights, which contained the Sistine Chapel, which Michaelangalo spent a good chunk of his life painting...breathtaking! We then made our way over to St Peters Square, which was really cool to see in person. We went inside St. Peters Cathedral and words can not even begin to describe what we saw. It was a mix of awe because of the beauty and awe because, I feel like they put so much emphasis on these men...it kind of made me uncomfortable. They literally had bodies on display of former popes. We also went down into the basement to see the tombs of some former popes, including Pope John Paul II. There were people crying and praying at his tomb...yikes :)
Anyway, we also saw the place where Peter is buried. All of this to say it was quite an amazing day...and the architecture and the food never get old either. We did miss the Pope though, but it just so happens that we will be back in Rome the day before we leave and the Pope will be addressing the crowd at St. Peters Square, so we will get to see him then. We got great pictures today, we just cant find wireless to upload them, but if we do find wireless we will get them uploaded.
We love you guys, thanks for following our adventure and dont forget to leave comments, we love that!! ;)
Sorry for rambling, Im hungry, so we better go eat now and then across to the train station to make sure we know when our train is leaving Rome for Florence tomorrow. Lynz just got our hostel booked online for tomorrow night in Florence.
Im sure you will have more run on sentances and bad grammer to read tomorrow, not to mention I still dont know how to use this european keyboard. Lucky for you, Lynz told me she is writing tomorrow.
Love you guys!
Sleepless in Rome
Well, another sleepless night in Rome! We went to bed wore out at 10pm, I was thinking I would be able to sleep through the night because I was so tired. I woke up completely refreshed and ready to go, got up looked at the clock and it was 1am!! DANG IT!! All I could think to do was do an ab workout to try and work off all of the incredible Italian food weve been eating. That woke Lynz up and she was dying laughing so we watched another church planting video, then she went back to sleep. I then spent the next 3 hours reading a book called, "Simple Church", great read if you are interested! I finally fell back to sleep around 530am, I slept great for another couple of hours, then woke up to get our day going.
Our day started with a 4 or 5 mile hike across Rome to the Vatican. Holy Cow! We saw some amazing sights. The Vatican Museum was among one of the sights, which contained the Sistine Chapel, which Michaelangalo spent a good chunk of his life painting...breathtaking! We then made our way over to St Peters Square, which was really cool to see in person. We went inside St. Peters Cathedral and words can not even begin to describe what we saw. It was a mix of awe because of the beauty and awe because, I feel like they put so much emphasis on these men...it kind of made me uncomfortable. They literally had bodies on display of former popes. We also went down into the basement to see the tombs of some former popes, including Pope John Paul II. There were people crying and praying at his tomb...yikes :)
Anyway, we also saw the place where Peter is buried. All of this to say it was quite an amazing day...and the architecture and the food never get old either. We did miss the Pope though, but it just so happens that we will be back in Rome the day before we leave and the Pope will be addressing the crowd at St. Peters Square, so we will get to see him then. We got great pictures today, we just cant find wireless to upload them, but if we do find wireless we will get them uploaded.
We love you guys, thanks for following our adventure and dont forget to leave comments, we love that!! ;)
Sorry for rambling, Im hungry, so we better go eat now and then across to the train station to make sure we know when our train is leaving Rome for Florence tomorrow. Lynz just got our hostel booked online for tomorrow night in Florence.
Im sure you will have more run on sentances and bad grammer to read tomorrow, not to mention I still dont know how to use this european keyboard. Lucky for you, Lynz told me she is writing tomorrow.
Love you guys!
Sleepless in Rome
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Hi Friends!!!
We finally got to the internet...we cant find wireless, so we are in a little internet station. The good news is I will be able to update our trip, the bad news is we wont be able to upload pictures yet.
HORRIBLE NIGHT, INCREDIBLE DAY!!
The trip started out a little rough. When we arrived in Boston to catch our connecting flight to Paris, before heading on to Rome, we found out that there was a major strike in Paris with Air France and our flight had been cancelled. No worries though, they put us on a flight that went through Dublin, Ireland (so that was kind of cool). We finally arrived in Rome yesterday around 1130am (Rome time) which is 530am Indy time. We were stinkin tired...we decided we had to take a nap before going out and exploring. After our nap, we walked around the city and explored. We ate dinner at a nice little outdoor restraunt, we shared a Pizza. Later that evening we grabbed some Ice Cream, called gelato. We crashed at 730pm because we were so tired. I (chris) woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go, so I woke Lyndsey up and said lets go. She asked me what time it was, so I grabbed her watch and said 725am. I started to head towards the shower, when she looked at the watch and said "you have it upside down, its only 2:05 in the morning." Ok this would normally be a great thing, that I still have 5 hours left to sleep, but not last night...i was wide awake with no place to go, as was my bride. So we laid in bed and watched church planting training dvds for the next 4 hours.
This morning, we headed off to explore...this started an incredible day. We first visited the Collisium. It was amazing, words can not begin to describe how awesome a site this was. We saw Palantino Hill (where the Caesers (emporors) lived), the Circus Maximus, then we saw what so far has been the highlight of our trip. We visited and went down into the tiny dungeon (prison) where Peter and the apostle Paul where held. Its crazy to think that I stood and sat in the same tiny dungeon as these great men of faith. We most recently visited the Scarla Santa, which are said to be the stairs that Christ walked up to meet with Pilate and then walked down to be crucified. Constatine the Greats mom is said to have brought the stairs to Rome from Jerusalem in the early 300s. Facinating stuff!
Tomorrow is sure to bring some incredible memories as well as we head to St. Peters Square at the Vatican.
We love you all and cant wait to see you in a couple of weeks.
Please comment and let us know how you are doing.
Mom...how are you and Jazz getting along? :)
More updates to come, Lynz and I are going to grab some Pasta and Wine now!
Love Much
HORRIBLE NIGHT, INCREDIBLE DAY!!
The trip started out a little rough. When we arrived in Boston to catch our connecting flight to Paris, before heading on to Rome, we found out that there was a major strike in Paris with Air France and our flight had been cancelled. No worries though, they put us on a flight that went through Dublin, Ireland (so that was kind of cool). We finally arrived in Rome yesterday around 1130am (Rome time) which is 530am Indy time. We were stinkin tired...we decided we had to take a nap before going out and exploring. After our nap, we walked around the city and explored. We ate dinner at a nice little outdoor restraunt, we shared a Pizza. Later that evening we grabbed some Ice Cream, called gelato. We crashed at 730pm because we were so tired. I (chris) woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go, so I woke Lyndsey up and said lets go. She asked me what time it was, so I grabbed her watch and said 725am. I started to head towards the shower, when she looked at the watch and said "you have it upside down, its only 2:05 in the morning." Ok this would normally be a great thing, that I still have 5 hours left to sleep, but not last night...i was wide awake with no place to go, as was my bride. So we laid in bed and watched church planting training dvds for the next 4 hours.
This morning, we headed off to explore...this started an incredible day. We first visited the Collisium. It was amazing, words can not begin to describe how awesome a site this was. We saw Palantino Hill (where the Caesers (emporors) lived), the Circus Maximus, then we saw what so far has been the highlight of our trip. We visited and went down into the tiny dungeon (prison) where Peter and the apostle Paul where held. Its crazy to think that I stood and sat in the same tiny dungeon as these great men of faith. We most recently visited the Scarla Santa, which are said to be the stairs that Christ walked up to meet with Pilate and then walked down to be crucified. Constatine the Greats mom is said to have brought the stairs to Rome from Jerusalem in the early 300s. Facinating stuff!
Tomorrow is sure to bring some incredible memories as well as we head to St. Peters Square at the Vatican.
We love you all and cant wait to see you in a couple of weeks.
Please comment and let us know how you are doing.
Mom...how are you and Jazz getting along? :)
More updates to come, Lynz and I are going to grab some Pasta and Wine now!
Love Much
Monday, October 22, 2007
Coming Soon...
This Thursday, October 25, my beautiful bride, Lyndsey, and I will embark on one of the coolest adventures of our life. We will be leaving Indianapolis around 1pm enroute to Boston, from Boston we will be flying into Paris to catch our final connecting flight into Rome. Once we arrive we will be backpacking Italy for 2 full weeks, exploring God's amazing creation with just our backpacks and our EuroRail train passes. No reservations, no definite plan, just an idea of where we want to go and what we want to see. We're going to try to save as much money as possible by taking the train overnight to avoid the cost of lodging (thanks to Mike Lotz for that tip) and when we do stay in cities, we'll be staying in hostels (dorms) rather then hotels.
Our Possible Schedule:
Days 1-5 - Rome & the Vatican
Days 6-7 - Venice
Days 8-10 - Florence, Milan, Pisa
Days 10-11 - Naples & Pompei
Days 12-13 - Sicily
Day 14-15 - Rome
The great part is, we have the freedom to go where we want, when we want. So if we really like a city, we'll stay there a day or two longer and if we don't like a city, we'll head down the road. Hopefully we'll find a couple of really cool, coastal towns with great Italian food along our journey.
Our hope is to find wireless internet at least every other day, so that we can update this blog with pictures and stories. We are so excited to discover what God has in store for us on this trip and to share this adventure with all of our family and friends.
Our Possible Schedule:
Days 1-5 - Rome & the Vatican
Days 6-7 - Venice
Days 8-10 - Florence, Milan, Pisa
Days 10-11 - Naples & Pompei
Days 12-13 - Sicily
Day 14-15 - Rome
The great part is, we have the freedom to go where we want, when we want. So if we really like a city, we'll stay there a day or two longer and if we don't like a city, we'll head down the road. Hopefully we'll find a couple of really cool, coastal towns with great Italian food along our journey.
Our hope is to find wireless internet at least every other day, so that we can update this blog with pictures and stories. We are so excited to discover what God has in store for us on this trip and to share this adventure with all of our family and friends.
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