Paestum and Pompeii

Finally the day was here when we got to study my favorite part of history, the Greeks. We met Anna at the same time as the day before and headed off to Paestum. Out of the whole trip Paestum was my favorite place because it was so magical and peaceful and only like three people were there. Here are the pictures of Paestum.

Paestum, one of three extremely well preserved temples.

Best preserved temple in the whole world.

Another temple





Pompeii

Pompeii was absolutely incredible it was so big and so many things to look at, but like the old saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words so here goes.

This is the coliseum at Pompeii. Well this is the end for this semester thanks for reading my every step.

Italy

How many people in the world can say that they got to see an Airbus A380 take off, see the Saudi Arabian king, see the best preserved Greek temple in the whole wide world, see the ancient city of Pompeii, and meet and get a picture with an Italian film star all in one trip? I know of at least three people who can, the Sullivan family. The first part of our trip was very eventful. We got on the plane and prepared to take off. We taxied out from the gate and I happened to spot the notorious Airbus A380 getting ready to take off. Alas I did not have my camera so I could not take a film, but here is one I got off the internet about one. Click the blue link AIRBUS CLICK HERE.

This airplane dwarfs a 747 its huge. Well after that I personally thought that it would not get any better than that, but i was wrong. We had INCREDIBLE views of the alps going over into Italy, and luckily I had my camera then.

Notorious Mt. Blanc

We finally landed in Rome, and this was a little airport might I add, so it was deserted, it was like a ghost town. Our car was not very impressive, it definitely was not a Ferrari. So we motored on down the road to our beach paradise of Sorrento. Here are some maps which I marked with the area we stayed in. If you have problems seeing the pictures just click on them to see what i wrote.

Just look at the red circle towards the southern part.

This shows all of the cities we went to.

We got to our hotel in Sorento and crashed for the night. We woke up the next day to prepare for our excursion to Capri, the Island off the coast of Italy.

We took a boat to Capri which was about a 45 minutes to get there the island was really busy and there were a lot of tourists (don't you just hate tourists). But as you can see it is a gorgeous island. The emperor of Rome, Tiberius, ruled his empire from this island. He ruled it from a castle called the Villa Jovis, we actually hiked up to the top of the hill and there were magnificent views from the top.

Villa Jovis

We decided to have lunch on the top. We had Italian made sandwiches, I had a local soda called Lemon, and my dad and mom had wine. It was getting late so we hiked down and started to search for desert, and just our luck they were making an Italian movie there and I got a picture with one of the stars (I don't know her name).

While they were shooting the film they wanted us to be extras in the movie. The Italians told us NOT TO LOOK AT THE CAMERA. So of course during the whole entire shoot I was looking right at the camera. We did not get to stay very long to watch what they were doing, so we took the jet home.

We got back from Capri and honestly we were super exhausted, so we went to this incredible little pizza place called pizza franco. My mother shockingly reminded me that we had to meet our guide at our hotel at seven in the morning, so we had to check our e-mail and hit the hay.
We woke up the next day and we went to eat breakfast. We met our guide named Anna and we made our way to Napoli one of the most dangerous cities in Italy. Even though Naples is so dangerous our guide definitely "tamed the lion." We left Sorrento on a big boat and went across the bay. First stop when we arrived there was these fabulous churches. We learned about neopolitan culture and a lot about baroque style of painting. While we were out and about in the city we stopped at this incredible little ally way of (if you know what santons are) Italian remake of santons. Of course we took like an hour on that street, and we even bought some too. Around this time we were getting really hungry, and Anna took us to this awesome pizza place in Naples (even though we had pizza last night this was still delicious). The dough was salty, and the ingredients were fresh it was great. (I did not take any pictures of the churches because I thought that you were not supposed to take pictures). After that we headed over to the archaeological museum. Here are some pictures of what it was like.

The perfect statue, this was the inspiration.

I did not take many pictures because I did not have my camera the whole time. Tune in to the next post for Paestum and Pompeii.

Chamonix and Swiss

The day my dad got home we went on a wild excursion to the very touristy the very good ski area that lies right right in the shadow of the enormous Mt. Blanc. It was so high that I couldn't even see the top. It took forever to get there but we finally did dog and all. To tell you the truth I think he was very content, who wouldn't be if you got to scarf up peanut after peanut that dropped on the seat of the car. It was rather cold , but worth it. After we got settled in to our very log cabin like room, we went out to dinner (without the dog ). We stopped at a nice little (again log cabin like) restaurant. There I got the most delicious... well I don't know what but it was good. It was pasta with melted cheese and ham on the inside, ohhhhh my gosh it was soooo good. After having our stomachs full of melted cheese we had to go walk our critter (who is sitting here reading my every word and he says hello). While out for our strole I felt deprived of a delicious desert that I could have had at the log cabin restaurant so I got a delicious crep. Then we went to bed.
I bet you guys don't really get the point of this trip because it so far has had no historical impact on my schooling so far. To tell you the truth I didn't really get it either. But it was still really cool.

The next day we woke up and packed up, we (including the dog) were going to Switzerland, Martini to be exact. In this city of Martini there is an art museum with a very interesting art exhibition of Marc Chagall, but before we went to see that exhibit we stopped to fill our tummies with hot chocolate and croissants. After we were all content with our breakfast, we went to the car museum that was just underneath the main exhibit. These cars were fabulous, oh my gosh its a shame we did not take any pictures of this. They had sooo many cars, they even had one the oldest factory produced car!!!!! They had Rolls Royce's, they had martinis, they had brands of cars that I had never even heard of. My parents finally had to force me out of that room (I was pretty bummed). After seeing that exhibit my standards were pretty high for the rest of the museum. Being the sports person that I am I was not overly impressed with the paintings (art really isn't my thing). My dad and I had to literally force my Mom out of that exhibit so we could go out side and see the sculpture (so for all of you people out there who know my mom well and know she is a sculpture herself you can imagine that she was not overly bummed about leaving the paintings). I have to say that the sculpture was really cool (all though some of it rather strange). I can honestly say that the whole family enjoyed the sculpture part of the museum. We finally left the museum and went to I nice swiss restaurant where I ordered a very strange combination toppings on a pizza, it was salmon, cream, olive oil, and tomato sauce. I have to tell you it was delicious, the guy who ran the place came up to me and said that was the wierdest combination of a pizza that he had ever heard of. Well that pretty much wraps this trip up.

p.s. due to me bing behind and pressured for time you might have to check out my moms blog site for picutres sorry.

Le Routour du mon pere

The day was finally here. Dad comes home. I have to say that I have been counting down the days since he left. We arrived at the airport with the dog and we walked in. We had lots of trouble. But finally we got to the spot where we were supposed to be and I was so rambunctious and I could tell that the doogie (dog) was to because he was figgiting (if dogs can figit). We had to wait through two planes arriving until my dad's flight came in, but even then it took him forever to get out of the baggage claim because his bag was the last one off. He came out and I gave him the biggest rugby hug that you could imagine. After that we went on a wild excursion that my mom thought up the day my dad got back. Check out the next post for that.

St. Antoine

My mother and I one Saturday afternoon decided to go to a little Halloween market at the abbey of St. Antoine. We got there and had a little picnic and then walked up to the fair. If some of you got our Halloween card, that was from St. Antoine. There was everything from beautiful birds to wooden German toys. If any of you are here for Halloween then we HAVE to go.

The return of Carlos

Finally that day was here when Carlos, our gardener, came back to France. His mother did not want to go with us because she "gets car sick." So we went on to the train station and waited. We got worried because a train that came from Paris had just left by the time he arrived and we thought that he had slept through his stop. Finally we called him and he was motoring down the railway with in ten minutes of Valence my mother and I both breathed a sigh of relief. He came through the doorway with the biggest smile I have ever seen on anyone. On the way home he would only stop talking to breath and to listen to our questions (fyi. Carlos does not talk much). His mother was working at a ladies house when he says he wants to drop buy and say hello. We take them back to there house and they invite us in for a drink and well thats about it.

Katarina stop buy

One night my mother and I are sitting watching a movie and all of a sudden we get this phone call. It just so happens to be our long time friend Katarina Ferrati and she announces that she will be coming over the next day. So she arrives and we head down to lunch. We have a very nice lunch with pizza and spaghetti. Then we come back up to our house and I get to work and Katarina and my mom start to work on French conjugations. The funny part of this is that Katarina plans this whole day out for my mom and her on Wednesday and we schedule stuff for later that month (you kind of have to know Katarina to get how funny this is). I bet she would change a month of planning just to hang out with us.

my first rugby match

I finally got my license so I would be able to play for my rugby team. Just to tell you this blog post will be short because well my playing time was kind of short. But here is a picture of what I did get to do.

Ok maybe I just took a picture of my head and put it on the body of one of my favorite rugby teams New Zealand. But back to the rugby match. I got in for a total of 5 minutes and then I hit some really big guy and made him stumble, I would call that a pretty good accomplishment for my first match.

The departure of a father

The night after our Roman transformation we slept the night near the Lyon airport. The next morning we woke up and we went off to the airport to say our tearful goodbyes. Once we got there we parked and my Mom and I were very curious about how we get out of the airport parking lot. We went to this nice lounge and got a very nice breakfast. Finally it was time for Dad to go, I probably said good buy to him about 7 times. He went through the security doors and we walked off. With in the first five minutes we (as my mother would say) were looking for the best view in the airport, which in other words means we were lost. We found our way back ok, and even had time for a photo shoot.

Gaul

For those of you who do not know the city of Vienne, it is a city outside of Lyon that was once a huge Roman city. So naturally we had to go. This was the first trip we took our four legged friend on, and honestly I do not think he was content. He had to stay in our four wheeled vehicle the whole time, and occasionally got out to walk around a parking lot.

Yes, I took my rugby ball. I have gotten very attached.

Our first destination was the very modern looking museum of an ancient city in Gaul. This museum was INCREDIBLE, you actually got to run around and climb on ancient Roman ruins. Here are some pictures.

Me sitting on Roman couch people would lay and eat here

Corinthian column

My ancient jungle gym

Probably one of the few pictures you will find of my Mom and Dad (together) luckily I caught them in the act ;-)

The most interesting thing I deduced from this ancient Roman city is that the Romans really new how to live. For example the Romans had public baths that were not only for cleaning but they also had gyms for working out and they had a neat system to heat the baths. Another example, their houses had basements and to get to them you would go through a tunnel, break your back getting through the little door, and probably not help your back by doing whatever you needed to do down there. While in the out door section I accomplished 3 things.
1. Successfully saw an ancient Roman city with out hurting myself or any other of my fellow explorers
2. Probably climbed on, over, around, and through every single wall in that city.
3. Saved a kitten from the jaws of death
The second section of the museum was the indoor part where they had artifacts and models from the Roman society. Here are some pictures (that we probably were not supposed to take).

This is a painting of two Roman wrestlers

Wonderful mosaic


A model of a Roman port with a sea monster

Wonderful mosaic 2

This museum also has the biggest mosaic in the world, but by that time the man said no pictures. The next post is of this same trip, just a different experience.

Turin and Brionson

Our second excursion out of our little department of Isere was to Turin, Italy to see the ancient Egyptian artifact museum. The voyage to Turin was gorgeous. We were in a valley high up in the alps and the clouds rested right up on the tips of the mountains.



Ok so maybe not right up on the tips, but you get what I'm trying to say. Also on the way to Turin we went through the tunnel that leads from France to Italy, that was pretty cool. After you peak over this hill on the auto route you can see the city of Turin.
Turin is a gorgeous city and if I had the choice I would stay there all year. It has such a great atmosphere and the architecture is gorgeous. We did not have our faithful GPS Marge, so we got lost within the first five minutes of entering the city.
After navigating the cities every nook and cranny we finally stopped at our hotel in a really sketch part of town. To put an image into your mind about how sketch sketch is here is a description for you. It was grubby, as soon as you walked out of the nice part, the only thing you could here was drunk Italians, there was a guy dressed as a girl who would stand on a corner of a street and then would disappear with random guys. Oh and our hotel, do not stay at the Hotel du Mondi in Turin. I wish I had taken a picture for your benefit. If you have ever stuffed three people into a cardboard box then that is pretty much how big our hotel room was. Oh and the view was... hard to describe, so here it is.

If your lucky you can see what our neighbors are having for dinner. So the hotel might have been a bad choice.

After we got settled in at the hotel we ambled over to the museum. We got are tickets and went into the first room. The first room stunned me and it was kind of a forshadower of what to come. Here are some of the better pictures I took while in the museum.

Egyptian picture

The head of Cleopatra

Egyptian Pharoh

Egyptian Pharaoh making an offering to the gods.

Me posing in front of a really cool sphinx with my Wake Forest shirt on.







After the museum we went to get some gelato an Italian specialty. That night we went to a very nice restaurant where I hit on the waitress.


Day 2
The next day we woke up and packed up from our crummy hotel singed out and went on our way back to France. We drove up the mountains and we came upon this great little town called Clavier where we ate lunch and where I played soccer. Then we motored on down to Brionson the highest city (key word) in all of Europe. When we arrived there we settled into our hotel and then we took a nap, then my Dad and I took a walk up into the old city. The view was gorgeous and we learned a lot of history, like there were 3 cities and they all supported each other in times of war. Also Brionson was a very important city because it regulated trade from France to Italy or vica versa. That nuit we went to the hotel restaurant and met a man who was biking from England do Sicily because he did not like to fly. He is now my dads official hero.

Day 3
On day 3 we woke up to a very nice breakfast, then we flew the coop. On the way home we had to stop like a million times to take really neat pictures.

Until next time folks, sorry if there are TO many pictures, this was one of my favorite trips.

W.