Category Archives: On The Road

Well, I made it. I don’t know if I’ll be taking many pictures in Perugia. It’s hard enough trying to figure out how to get to the conference venues and how to get around town quickly. I ended up renting a car. Yep, that’s right, I’m driving a car around Italy! It’s actually not so bad. Everything is VERY well signed. Most Americans would be astonished by how well documented every intersection is. Plus, all of the cars are tiny. I don’t have to worry about being crushed by a giant Semi-truck or an F-350 here. And people don’t drive as fast as they have reputations for. Taxi drivers, ok. But the general public, not too bad. I haven’t gone above 80 kmph yet.

Why does traveling by yourself suck so much? I know some people really get into it, but I’ve never liked it. I don’t like sitting quietly among strangers having fun and chatting with each other. I don’t like sitting by myself in a restaurant when everybody else has somebody to enjoy their meal with.

I know some people feel that there is a strength of character found in being alone in a crowd. That the ability to sit quietly all day long is a skill of some sort, and that being able to eat a meal by themselves shows their true independence and self-confidence. I don’t feel that way. I am capable of doing all of these things, but I don’t like to.

I would rather have somebody with me occasionally than be by myself all of the time. I would rather share a view or a meal than revel in my independence. And I’d much rather have somebody there to back me up when things get sketchy or difficult, than have to face the world alone.

Just because I’m capable of traveling alone, doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Well, we made it to Venice (Venezia). But, I’ll save that trip write up for another day. Tonight, we’re taking a night off from walking and relaxing in our hotel room, playing with their internet (for 4 Euros an hour).

So now, I want to write about our time in the Vatican. We ended up visiting Vatican City (the smallest country on earth!) at least once in some form on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

On Sunday, it was to see St Peter’s Basilica. This was our first introduction to the conservative Catholic area, and it was interesting. The architecture was incredible, as you’ll see in our photos. The place was huge, and the detail was stunning. Wow. The church was quiet, even with thousands of people filling it, and sunlight filtered in from airy stained glassed windows through the humid air. We saw Michalangelo’s original Pieta, though none of my pictures turned out for all of the crowds in the way. The frescoed ceilings were awe-inspiring, and the sculptures and paintings gracing the walls were masterpieces, each and every one.

But, and I hate to say this, the signs of sexism in the Catholic faith are not so subtle. I was physically stopped before leaving the security gate (a hundred feet before the door to the building) until I put my shirt on covering my shoulders and upper arms. True, the rule is the same for both sexes, but it really seemed to be unevenly enforced on that hot July Sunday. While I saw plenty of men walking around in shirts with no sleeves, or shorts hitting at the knees, any woman with ruffles instead of sleeves was physically stopped or escorted from the premises. I saw one little girl (probably 9 years old) pulled away from her family because her knees were showing under her skirt!

At noon, we spilled out into the square with the other two thousand people in the area to wait for the Pope to emerge and bless the crowd. Right on time, he stepped to the window, and went through a quick blessing in Latin. The calls and responses were shown on the jumbo-tron TVs around the square, and everybody cheered and screamed and chanted like they were at a Purdue football game.

After the blessing, the Pope said a little something in several languages. “And to the pilgrims here today who speak English!” Followed by hysterical cheering by the English speakers. I think for us he said that regardless of our sects, as Christians we should all work together for peace. He also said a message in Spanish, French, Italian and German. And he sounded as though he spoke all of the languages fluently and familiarly.

The Vatican Museum (and Sistine Chapel) were closed that day, so Mark and I headed off to other adventures. We showed up at around 11am on Monday to see the museums, but the line was, actually, over a mile long. It wrapped around two full sides of the country! We waited for about 45 minutes and then gave up and headed back to Rome.

Tuesday we got up early, and when we arrived at around 8:30a, the line was quite a bit shorter. It only took 2 hours to get us into the museum. I haven’t posted the shots from that day yet, but there weren’t a lot. Flashes were strictly banned in many areas of the museum, and the one time I tried to get out my tripod, I got yelled at in Italian.

The museum had an incredible collection of ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek and Etrusian artifacts. I really enjoyed these sculptures. Of course, the museum is known for it’s huge amounts of renaissance art, and we saw tons of it. We saw graphic depictions of the martyrdoms of most major saints: crucifixion, upside-down crucifixion, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, shot full of arrows (St. Michael seems to be a favorite far and away), bitten by poisonous snakes, tied to an anchor and dropped in the ocean, beaten with sticks and tied to a brick and thrown in the ocean, and Mark thinks he saw somebody eaten by dogs.

The Sistine Chapel was amazing, but as I stared at it, I started to get angry. There are 4 women represented among the hundreds of male figures. One is, of course, the Madonna. Another is the pagan prophetess Sybil, whom Michalangelo painted with a very masculine body, several times on the walls. The others are Eve in the garden of Eden, and the snake giving her the apple. Yes, the snake has the tail wrapped around the tree and the body, head, arms and breasts of a nude woman, handing the apple out to her sister Eve.

It’s not pointed out in any books or by many tour guides, but the differences in the representation of women between ancient ‘pagan’ art and the classic Christian scenes is, well, day and night.

One more quick post from Rome. We are hopping a train to Venice tomorrow, so this might be my last night with internet access for a little while.

I’ve managed to resize and upload all of the photos from our first day in the city. They are up in the gallery now. That’s a lot of shots from one day’s wanderings, but they are probably the bulk of my picture-taking so far, as well. Many of the museums here don’t allow any photography at all, and my giant camera is not something I can sneak out for a shot or two. Too bad, but it makes me remember to look at the world around me as well. I’ve spent so much time “framing”, sometimes I forget to just look.

The ancient city center in Rome is really fantastic, and I hope you enjoy all of the shots of old stuff. This was all from Saturday. We left the apartment at around 11am, and managed to loose track of our two other travel companions within 10 minutes. That seems to be the way it is around here. If you’re not physically tied to a person, expect to loose them every time you walk into a new building. It wasn’t a big deal, as we had a plan for the day, and could all meet up at the apartment in the evening.

We probably walked 20 miles that day. I learned that the city was supposedly founded around 700 BC (relatively recent compared to ancient Greece and Egypt), and that architecture for the first 700 years or so was mostly concrete faced with brick. Thus the oldest buildings and ruins are not marble, but stacks of very well-laid bricks. We saw the Trajan Markets, the Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum that afternoon, all of which are large brick buildings.

The Romans did not face buildings with granite or marble very much until the first century BC, which is the time of the republic, and in 44 BC (when Caesar declared himself emperor and dissolved the senate) became the age of the Empire. So, we also saw plenty of columns and marble ruins about in the “Forums” area. Beautiful carvings, worn away statues, and delicate reliefs littered the grass of the area. It’s weird walking through there. There’s no fence or gate, or any designation that this area is any different than the city government offices that are built next door. Just a lot of old columns sticking out of the ground, and the occasional tablet with Greek letters chopped into it peaking out of a clump of grass. People were sitting in the grass around the ruins, and plenty of them were sitting on the old statuary. There’s so much old stuff around in Rome, it just doesn’t seem to phase anybody any more.

The shot below is probably my favorite from the day. We found this cave behind an iron gate below the hill which holds the houses of various Caesars and famous ancient Romans. The trickle of water from the top made a lovely echo in the quiet chamber. The built up minerals on the walls looked like the insides of many of the old caverns we have in the US. I’ve never seen stalactites hanging from stone carvings before this. It was beautiful.

Well, it’s been a busy first three days! I’ve finally gotten the internet to work, so I was able to upload just a few pictures to the gallery. Enjoy!

So far, Mark and I have had a ton of adventures. We’ve seen amazing (and some disturbing) things. We’ve been lost on the subway, confused about busses, and probably walked over 20 miles. We’ve been blessed by the Pope, and through ancient pagan ruins. I’m learning Italian. I’ve used a bidet. And Mark’s favorite part so far: the macaroni and cheese (and bacon) dinner at the fancy restaurant next to the Pantheon.

More later!

All of my pictures from my week-long trip are up in the gallery.

I finished my trip to Japan yesterday. Due to the international date line, I got back to Colorado two hours before I departed Japan. Neat-o! Traveling that far is always quite a taxing day.

Traveling around Japan via mostly train was quite challenging, as I am mostly illiterate concerning signs. I had good help almost every step of the way so it went quite well.

During my short little trip, I was astounded to see how young the Japanese population is, as well as the astounding number of men (and very young men) in business suits. I liked that part a lot. It made the day seem more civilized and refined. The trains were very impressive. They were smooth, fast and quiet and incredibly clean. The very best trains are the Shinkansen high-speed train. These are the 200 mph electric trains that cover the distances between the major cities. If I had the choice between a one hour commute to work by car or by train, I would take the train every time. On one morning trip, I got 15-20 minutes of toying with my laptop because I wasn’t driving. It was really nice.

For dinner the first night of non-travel, we went to a Korean BBQ. We ordered some kind of flat-rate-drink-for-90-minutes item and took good advantage of it. Beer, Sake and Shochu all around and all tasty. The food was very good. It was a meal of cut meats that you grill at your table over a small charcoal pit. After lots of eating and drinking I was quite finished and retired to my room. I would characterize it as a big drinking night for me, yet I did not suffer a hangover for it. Those clear liquors are quite strong, but less painful the next morning. I was a bit dehydrated, but had none of the headache or tiredness that I am accustomed to when I overindulge.

I was on my own for the second evening and found a restaurant with pictures on the menu and pointed. It was beef-like, though of a texture which made me think it was a part of the cow that I have never had before. I couldn’t even start to guess what I ate that night, but it had a nice sauce.

During my trip, I had two means of calling home: a pre-paid phone card and a Vonnage flash drive phone. The pre-paid calling card was useless. I had printed every page of instructions from the web site and this thing was useless. However, the Vonnage flash drive phone was awesome. Every hotel that I stayed in had some form of free internet and as long as I was on the internet, the phone usually worked and all calls were dialed as if I was in Colorado.

On the third day, I saw a fantastic Buddhist temple. It really felt good to be amongst all the buildings and wandering the grounds. We were only there for perhaps a half hour (had a schedule to keep), but it was worth it. On the third evening I moved to a different hotel with nicer rooms and a hot springs on the premises. Unfortunately, I got in fairly late and was traveling early the next morning, so I was unable to take advantage of it. Next to the hotel there was a very beautiful river, but at this point, it was dark and the batteries in my camera had died, so I was unable to take any more pictures until I replaced them.

The final day was a partial day of sightseeing before my flight. We used a train to to get to Tokyo station and then had the incredible experience of rush hour on the local Tokyo trains. It resembled a rugby scrum in business suits. First the train gets packed with people. Then about 10 more people just push onto the train followed by another 15 that I just didn’t believe were going to fit. I think people actually had to exhale to pull it off. At each stop 15 or so people had to unclog the door to let others off and then quickly reclaim the door blockage to get to the next station. We did this three times before arriving in the vicinity of Tokyo tower.

At Tokyo tower, we took in some tourist activities. I purchased some souvenirs for Kate as well as saw some of the sights that are in the lower levels of the tower. We saw a wacky wax museum as well as some Japanese history and demographics. Japanese people have been getting much taller lately! Unfortunately we were unable to go up into the tower because this is the season for school children to see it and the lines were tremendous. Having used most of our time, we were unable to do part II of our morning tourism which would have taken us to see the grounds of the emperor’s palace. So, we headed to the airport a bit early and hung out (sumo on the big-screen TV) until our flight left. It was quite exciting. And then came the super-long flight home…

Ok, the photos from the last day of our trip are up in the gallery!

On our last day on the island, Mark and I packed everything up and checked out of the condo. Because we knew that we’d be sitting on airplanes all night long, we figured it would be best to try to stay clean and dry for the day. We hadn’t spent much time exploring the waterfalls on the east coast of the island, so we spent our last day taking in some beautiful places.

The first waterfall of the morning was Wailua Falls, just northwest of Lihu’e. These falls were huge, and raging, and right off the side of the road! Basically, I took these shots while dodging traffic of all the tourists driving by and gawking. I understand the gawking, it’s a beautiful waterfall!

The next waterfall on our tour is called ‘Opaeka’a Falls. Don’t ask me how to pronounce that, I have no idea. These were further from the road, and required the telephoto to get the shot above. There were houses built above it, and the area surrounding was again, relatively urban and busy. Because we’d spent so much time in crowds and traffic, we decided that our last waterfall would be more remote.

To get to Ho’opi’i Falls, we had to park on the shoulder of a quiet, forested neighborhood street, and then hike down into the rainforest for a half-mile or so. As we got deeper into the jungle-like area, we started hearing voices and a “pop-pop-pop” noise. Down by the river, there was a big group of guys playing paintball in the woods. We were a little worried about walking through their battlefield, but they called a cease-fire as soon as they saw us, and we walked through unscathed.

Once we got down to the waterfall, though, we seemed to be all alone. I waded across the river with my camera, and then climbed through knee-deep dense logs and ground cover (boy am I glad there’s no snakes in Hawaii!) to get to the best shot on the far side of the falls. While I was setting up, two boys came back and started diving into the pool below the falls!

We hung out with them for a little while, and I tried to get some shots of them jumping, but the light was too slow to catch the action. After a while we cleaned up and hiked out. A nice dinner, and then we headed to the airport. The trip home was epic, but the trip was awesome and well worth every minute on the plane! We had an incredible time.

Here’s a selection of shots from the gallery dedicated to the pictures I took of surfers on that afternoon at Polihale beach. I highly recommend clicking through all the way, and checking out the original/largest size of each of these shots. Enjoy!

Check out more pictures of this beautiful beach in my gallery.

After a surprisingly tasty lunch sitting outside at a little burger stand that obviously catered to surfers, Mark and I did a little shopping in Waimea. The town was having a huge festival that day, and traffic was starting to look icky. But every street corner was filled with people selling arts and crafts. It reminded me a bit of any one of the many small-town art fairs I’ve been too, except everything here was made out of teak, taro or types of tea and palm leaves. I met three hilarious ladies who lived in Waimea and were all generally of south pacific descent. I spent a fun-filled half hour hanging out with them, talking about what it’s like to grow up and live on a small, sunny island in the middle of a great big ocean. And I spent a lot of money on their handmade photo-albums, straw hats and shell jewelry.

The drive to the beach was quite a bit rougher than the guy at the lu’au had suggested on the previous night. The paved road around the island ends at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (interesting…) and then it’s five miles on a bumpy dirt road through a huge sugar cane field to get to Polihale State Park. The Mustang was not particularly happy about this road, and we ended up driving very near to 5mph all the way out there. Thus, after almost an hour of bumping and josteling down the road, we parked, and were treated to one of the most beautiful, quiet and pristine beaches I have ever seen.

The beach was beautiful. There were surfers around, a few people fishing near an old wreak of a tank (probably from before WWII), and just a couple families dotting the beach in the distance. The waves, though, were pretty big and intimidating at first. I had wanted to check out a reef in the area for possible snorkeling, but it turns out it was a reef break, and huge 8ft waves were crashing down on the rocks and coral. Not a good place for snorkeling. We had to hike around a bit, until we found a sandier break coming off the southern edge of the reef. This turned out to be the place. Fantastic boogie boarding!!

Mark was able to fight the strong current in the area for longer than I, though. I got out and watched him for a while, and then I had some fun setting up photos of yoga poses on the beach.

In the evening, I brought out the big camera and the long lens, and I started taking rapid-fire shots of surfers enjoying our break. I think these turned out so well, they got their own gallery and will soon get their own blog posting.

We stuck around for the sunset, which was, of course, beautiful. Then, we drove out, all the way back to Poipu, cleaned up quickly, and made it in time for a fantastic late dinner at the local Poipu Broiler. Another wonderful day of vacation!