Page 5 of 5
Vienna, Austria
Leave me lying here cause I don't want to go
Vienna was pleasant, a nice, urbane place to be. Parks, fountains, flowers, Hapsburg palaces, nice subways and trams and, most importantly, some damn fine pastries.
You can’t say Austro-Hungarian Empire without Hungary, so I decided to use my Eurail pass for a quick, trip to from Vienna to Budapest, one that would only leave me with two and a half hours in the city but, as it turns out, that was more than enough. Of all the places I’ve visited on this trip (I’m up to ten countries so far), Budapest may be my least favorite. It was interesting, with really fast escalators on the subway and nice buildings and river views. but every single time I stopped to take a picture, I was absolutely just hounded by beggars. So that wasn’t great, but I also had two incredibly good pretzels there- they had this drippy batter glaze over them that was super salty- so I guess it all balances out in the end.
I have never really been that much of a Renaissance guy, I’ve always been a bigger fan of gothic cathedrals with all their pointy stone arches and buttresses. But I think that Florence could make me a Renaissance believer after all. The Duomo is so impressive that it deserves three pictures taped together, even during a time when I’m still rationing film.
All of Florence was actually as impressive as everyone always says. And Rick Steves was right once again, the gelato there was absolutely amazing. The more I see in Europe, the more that I realize that Rick Steves is always right about everything. That man is a genius.
We’re in Rome, which is good because that’s where my flight home leaves for in a few days. Here in Rome there were also two big trip developments. The first one is that I gave up hostels and switched to a hotel here (hostels are fine in small doses but get to be a bit too much after a while) and, more importantly, they sell APS film here. Which is good news since I ended up blowing a whole roll here at the Roman Forum, where the ruins of a fallen empire are everywhere.
I took a long day trip south to Naples and then even further south to Pompeii, where it is absolutely jaw droppingly amazing how much still survived after 2,000 years of time and a volcano. It is almost as if the whole city below four or five feet was preserved, and the sidewalks and streets and chariot ruts are so, so cool. I had always wanted to see this place and, like just about everywhere I’ve visited on this trip, it did not disappoint.
My first trip to the Vatican started with a walk through the Vatican Museum, where there are so many priceless works that it makes you think that instead of asking for money and donations all the time, maybe the church could just sell one of those paintings and feel like a million people with the profits. And I snuck a (bad) picture in the Sistine Chapel, although it turned out to be the last picture on the camera roll, causing the camera to get very loud as it rewound the film. And the picture came out terrible, which may just be proof that there is a god after all.
After my Vatican Museum adventure, I headed over to St Peter’s Basilica, walked up the dome, stood on the roof, took a lot of pictures and was as impressed as you might expect.
Seventeen days, ten countries (eleven if you count the Vatican, which you shouldn’t) hundreds of pictures and now, just like that, it’s all over. I’ll soon be on another Northwest flight headed back home. These seventeen days felt like a lifetime, just about every minute was packed with things to do and, even then, I’m headed home with the feeling that I could have, no, I should have spent more time at almost everywhere I was. I think if I had a month, or six months or more that I still might feel that way. There is a reason that people go to Europe, and I haven’t even left yet and I’m already thinking about what I’m going to see the next time I’m here.
