Beware the Krampus!

The full cultural experience. Advent in Gaming. Our entire quiet, sleepy Kartause has been transformed today. Every nook and cranny is filled with booths of local Austrians selling their wine, bread, cheese, honey, pottery, glass-work, wood-work, candles, flowers, ornaments, needle-work, art, and crafts of every kind. They have taken over our class-rooms and court yard. They will be here until right before we leave.

The highlight of the day, however, was just after dark. The courtyard filled with expectant people, me included. The Krampuses are coming.
I had been warned about the Krampuses. Fr. Seraphim showed us a video he made about them the other day in history class. So I had worked up some excitement.
I was not to be disappointed. They puffed smoke into the courtyard. Creepy music began. They knocked at the courtyard gate. They busted through the gate and spilled into the courtyard to the most epic music ever, if not exactly what I would have picked: theme music from Chariots of Fire. I was dying laughing.
No one that speaks English can tell me exactly what the Krampus is. They have been around since ancient times, of that much is certain (and by the smell of them, the costumes, made of real fur, are aparently originals) Apparently a Krampus is some kind of evil spirit that whips the people and eats the bad kids just before Santa Klaus comes. That way, I guess, Santa doesn't have to bother with making a list. Saves him some trouble with procuring the lumps of coal, too, I guess.
They are hideous to look at. A real feast for the eyes.
Tolkien might have had this in mind when he first started writing about orcs

Why is the baby not screaming in terror? A few children did get afraid, but most Austrian children just don't have a healthy amount of fear. American kids cry when they see the Easter bunny. But this ain't no Easter bunny.

This one demonstrating his whipping procedure. He had a horsetail and he wasn't afraid to use it. He was the one who got me three times. And by 'got' I mean singled me out in the crowd, and chased me down with steady assuredness. No amount of hinding behind guys or slipping through the crowd helps. You think you've lost him and then suddenly you feel his furry grip with the bear-like claws and he drags you away like an ogre. They have this really good tactic of completely enveloping you in this big bear hug, lifting you off the groud so you don't know which way is up and your autonomic nervous system begins to kick in. You dare not scream because that only gets you a mouth full of the beast's hair, which is probably from some yak 50 years since eaten. So you laugh. There is nothing else to do and everyone else is laughing at you. You laugh until you are let go and then you run, during which you are picked up by another Krampus.

I have to admit, it must be enormously fun to be a Krampus.

Caitlin getting mauled

This was the only one who wasn't terrifying. Kinda cute in fact. And he had no arms to beat you with or pick you up with.

Three smiling faces: conceals the slight terror that is gripping our hearts. Everyone else is smiling, so it must be okay. We keep smiling till we turn around, and then we gulp hard.

They are completely silent, as in no roaring, except for all these massive cow bells and gourds filled with beans to make noise-makers. It is actually a slightly creepier effect.

At the end, someone lights a torch and they all congregate in the middle of the courtyard, after about 15 minutes of harrassing the crowd. They all settle down and kneel down and remove their masks. And the show is over. What exactly the last part means....speculation on the part of Fr. Seraphim that it is the light of Christ?? Would research it, but they just don't have that kind of information readily available, or Fr. Seraphim would have found it out.

Christy tried on a sweaty smelly Krampus mask

This is what happened to the bad little girl

Book Mountain

This snow-ball fight got a little out of hand

Pfarrkirche Gaming

How green is my valley

Laura and Brendan

Caitlin, Rob, Paul, Jon

JP

Paul, Rob, and Jon having an 'epic' moment

That is my home down there. I can see my bedroom window.

Liz taking it all in

Check out the aquaduct

Caitlin having one of those moments....

I am really happy

Diana left snow-angels like Gretl leaving breadcrumbs

Laura, Liz and Brendan take a little break.

Whiskey to warm the heart. And because it is cool.

Diana signing the Book Mountian Book. Look for my signature on November 23rd, 2008, if you ever go there.

That is a cell phone tower. Now zoom in to the top. That is two boys near the top. I started climbing and got about 1/3 of the way up, and I had enough of the view that I wanted. It doesn't look so bad, but then you get up there and realize it is icy and the wind is blowing like the dickens because it is completely unprotected, and I realized the only joy I would get from this is the ability to say that I could do it, which is not exactly worth it to me.

At the top of every peak, there is Cross.

Somewhere up there are Jon and Rob.

sliding down is always more fun than climbing up

What does snow inspire you to do?

Pray...preferably in old Carthusian Monasteries?

Make a snowman?

This one was built by the Cassidy boys before Mass. Quite apropriate that the mural on the wall behind reminds us of the time passing away. Remember your death, o man of snow. Life is short, and eternity long.

Pick Misteltoe?

All that for this little weed? You should have seen what we went through to get this little thing down from the tree.

Cook? Something like Chili, corn-bread, apple-cake, fried apples and onions, and home-made hard egg-nog?

Our Spar run: going down the recipe list to make sure we got it all.

Liz and Caitlin trying to figure out which one of these packets contains chili powder. If only one of us knew German.

Fight? A little case of cabin fever? already?

Study?

Swim? Okay, enough of that studying business...time for a jump in the creek.

A display and proof of manliness and super-hero powers, so I am told. I still have a lot to learn, I guess. To me it looks like a like a bunch of idiots running around in shorts in the snow. But amusing, of that I agree.

Winter Wonderland

Last night was one of those perfect nights. It started with everyone in the kitchen playing games and instruments and making cookies. It progressed into a wild snow-ball fight with the first snow of the year, and ended with a movie in the audi max on the big screen, snuggled up in blankets. Rob making his superhero cookies

John Paul trying to teach Paul the flutist's pout

Caitlin, Liz and I made Rob some cookies, and cookie dough. We normally wouldn't be so eager to do so, but this once Rob deserved it. We mentioned we wanted chocolate. Spar closed in 15 minutes. Rob up and sprinted, in the freezing falling snow, all the way to Spar and returned with a giant Milka bar. That is an unprecedented act of chivalry unknown to mankind thus far. He has earned himself a place in a history book as far as we are concerned

Liz repairs Rob's pants. Rob plays in the snow. Rob returns pants with a big hole. Liz fixes Rob's pants again.

Rob's cookies....noticing a theme?

Last night was the first snow of the year. We got some 3 inches. A glorious and quite vicious snow-ball fight naturally ensued.

Getting in the holiday mood

The creek that some boys have jumped in every single day that they have been here, and you can bet they will again today.

This is my HOUSE! My window is the third from the right on the roof.

The Professor kids playing in the snow....might have to borrow some sleds from them later.

FUS Austira has got Talent!

My whole body hurts from laughing so hard. The talent show just got over. I was to the point of tears almost at times. You woouldn't get most of it. But trust me, hilarious.
Sorry, the pictures are pretty dark I didn't want to use my flash. Sr. Monica, Dr. Cassidy, Sr. Grace Ann and Sr. Faustina

Some of the Cassidy kids

Cassidy boys

My violin has talent...in Eva's talented hands.

Bob, John Hummel, and Horatio in an eat-off competition

Tierney and Danny and Grace doing a really funny original compostion/skit

Bethany and Katie probably were the funniest of all. A catholic spoof on that girl your hair is ridiculous youtube clip that went around last semester.

Josh, Mitch doing a yoda-ling song of their own

a well-studied Prof. Asci, played by Willie. Brain and Braun.

Vince and Dr. Minto

Fr. Ron, Mark, and Prof. Siefert

Cory and Doug, MC's

Laura, getting lost while trying to put her duvet cover back on her bed.....

Ellie did an incredibly good impression of Fr. Ron

This was cheating a little. Kalpakgians shouldn't be allowed to do impressions of other Kalpakgians....it is too perfect.

RD's Vince the ever fashionable man of many scarves, Diana as joyful Katie Hess, and JP as coffee slurping cynical Dr. Minto. Bravo.

Running around Rome like we own the place

Castel San Angelo

The most beautiful mosaic I have ever seen. I think. That might be just because I am so in love with the Pieta of which it is a copy.

I freaking love the pantheon.

Does that strike anyone else as just a little ironic? Pantheon, McDonalds: 50 meters.

This was one of life's finest moments. I was standing in front of the Pantheon, eating a huge italian sandwhich that I got for a euro and a half, enjoying the music of a three-generation band (don't know where the other two generations got to in this picture) playing some of my favorite classical peices, enjoying the day with 3 of the best girls in the world, and knowing I have a place to sleep and dinner tonight (not always a given when travelling). Caitlin and I looked at each other and heaved a big sigh...we were both realizing how golden the moment was.

No comment necessary.

And just in case that nutella was making you hungry...

St. Peter's Basilica

Benedict XVI's Papal coat of arms in the private papal gardens below. The explanation of it is really cool . I will save it for some other time.

That's me....400ft above Rome, enjoying the early morning sunshine of a Sunday morning on the Dome of St. Peter's.

Caitlin and Andrea and I

This was really funny. There was some 60 or so FUS students that got up early and headed into Rome. I got off the metro and looked behind me to see this endless stream of them....all of them girls. As we went past this open gate to the west of the Vatican, every girl at once, as if on a cue whipped out their camera and took a picture of these 3 Swiss Guards. I was laughing hysterically at the sight, and even the well-practiced Swiss Guard's shoulders were shaking a bit.

The Jubilee Doors

I think there ought to be a sign like this outside every church in the world. What a cute way to get the point across! Modesty for dummies.

Caitlin getting a glimse at the world from the Vatican

Ahh. Rome.

Step over step, step over step, about 500 of them, all the way to the top of the highest dome in Rome. Not for the weak-hearted or claustrophobic

The Sistine chapel that I am saving for the next trip to Rome. I can't believe I spent 6 days in Rome and never saw Michelangelo's ceiling! That's just how much there is to do in Rome!

That is masses of angels painted on that dome.

For all the Saints.... Some of the 140 some saints that look over the square. These things are massive, though they don't look so big from the square.

I went to Mass, actually two, in the very front row in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday morning.

Bernini's Bronze Baldaccino (sp?)

The Chair of St. Peter!

Three guesses. Was my favorite hunk of marble in the world before I saw it...after seeing it, my opinion still stands

There have been only two saints with glasses, it seems, and every time I see a statue of them it cracks me up. Josemaria Escriva and Maxmillian Kolbe. Something about marble glasses on a statue just 'tickles my fancy' as Prof. Cassidy says.

When in Rome......

Drink abrosial hot chocolate for breakfast. Climb 500 steps up to the cupola on St. Peter's just after sunrise and see the city. Michelangelo's Pieta. Mass in St. Peter's. See the Pope. Run into your brother-in-law's sister. Gelati. Wandering in ancient ruins. Bernini's great sculptures. very big very old churches. Outdoor Bocelli concert. Pizza by the Kilo.

All in a day's work in the Eternal City.

I stuck out my bottom lip when I saw this on a phone booth. Wishing I could.........

Frescoes in San Clemente

Bernini's Moses is pretty cool.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Streets of Rome at night

Also in San Clemente, which happens to also be one of the 25 house-churches of Rome, where it all started. Catacombs of saints beneath the house, a church built on top of the house, and this church built on top of that church! Churches have onion layers in Rome.

The ceiling of St. Mary Major, gilded with the first shipment of gold from the New World.

Bernadette told me about this free concert in piazza popola. I had to skip a free dinner at the hotel but really, now: free Andrea Bocelli conert or free dinner?

It was so cool. Thousands and thousands of Italians, crammed into an this ancient piazza, everyone belting out national Italian songs (it was celebrating Fallen Day, November 4th, a national holiday celebrating the 1918 armistice that ended WWI) with their own blind Bocelli, of whom they are not a little proud. It was not only a great concert, but a great cultural experience. A real "when in Rome do as the Romans..." moment, you know?

We pushed forward in the massive massive crowd as far up as you could go; just behind the seats reserved for military officials.

That is Andrea Bocelli, folks!

Eva, Cate, Lexi and me eating pizza on the Spanish steps after the concert; Horatio i think is taking the picture...we lost Emily and Jeff somewhere in the massive crowd.

At the end of the concert, they threw red, green and white confetti on us.

Liz

My roomie Laura and I chillin' in St. Peter's square

Laura....the diligent student....but really, what better place to study theology of Christ?

Gelati and two very happy girls

Two happy girls trying to eat each other's gelati

His toes were so warn away by so many kisses that they were gilded in bronze

Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Theresa of Avila (one of those many "hey, we talked about that in art class" moments). The picture is not at all doing it justice...I don't know why I am even putting it up on here.

I love light. I like it even better when it appears on camera the way it looks to the eye. Look at the way the single slender beam seems to come from the rose window right to Christ's head.

I like marble too.

Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. It was really pretty. St. Catherine of Siena's tomb was there.

Ancient Rome

You can see on the facade of this temple-turned-church were the dirt level used to be (see how high the door is?) back when this used to be a caw pasture, before they excavated it out to reveal the tomb of ceasar and temples and courtyards and such.

I am not quite tall enough to pull off being a goddess. I have no neck.

Mark and the Colloseum. While I am singing the praises of our RD's, our Res Life Director deserves as much. Mark is just amazing. He gives the best tours, too, although you have to keep up with his long stride. I cannot say enough good about him really, so I shall just leave it at that. I am just so thankful for him and his energy and genuine concern and interest in all of the students.

Arch of Triumph. It is so sad to see it and realize all that is means. Jews to this day will not pass beneath it. It commemorates the Romans conquering Jerusalem and making off with the holy objects.

The Jewish built the Pyramids, they built the Colloseum.

The one thingy, that we learned about in art class that I really like but can't think of it's name. I think emporer Trajan built it, maybe, but it has a whole history bas relief etched round and round it.

Mother-house church of the Franciscan TORs in Rome: Sts. Cosmas and Damian, right on the Roman forum in an old temple. It was before this mosaic of Christ and his sheep that Thomas Merton experienced his conversion.

The Tarpeian rock. Lots of bad people, and some not so bad people, got thrown off of this tower.

Olives. I have a new love for olive trees after these ten days in Italy. Like my Austrian love of Sunflowers.

Ruins of Ceasar's private little circus

Vestal Virgins (private joke, I think)

Caitlin's fresh-olive face.

My room-mate Amanda and I sneaked away Tuesday mornign from the bustling city of Rome to a smaller port town on the outskirts, where St. Maria Goretti lived. We didn't get to her actual house, because it was a bit out in the country, but we saw her tomb and a little museum and enjoyed the beach and searched for crabs.

Basilica where St. Maria Goretti's tomb is.

Me, wishing I had brought a change of clothes so that I could go swimming in that deep blue sea. It was warm water, comparatively

Liz and self overlooking the Roman Forum

A shot of Amanda Keena and Jackie Roesler and our awesome RD Katie Hess. They were trying to do a serious picture, and Katie just couldn't do it. I know that feeling.

Just a quick tribute: Katie and Vince have been the most incredible RD's possible and have made this semester so much better than it already was. They have gone way above and beyond and I have so much respect for them. If only all RD's were just like them!

The sacred stairs Jesus walked during his passion that St. Helen had moved from Jerusalem.

St. John Lateran, home parish of the Pope.

The picture is really bad, some guy took it for us and didn't steady the camera enough. It is a pity, because those three girls are some of the prettiest girls I know. My childhood best friend, Kristine, Bernadette (my borther-in-law's sister) , and Caitlin's childhood best friend Shelagh. Bernie and I found each other at Sunday Mass in St. Peters, then Caitlin and I went over to Christendom's campus to chat for a bit on Tuesday night, and we all went out for coffee/champagne on Wednesday night. Some of the best couple hours of my trip, really. It felt almost like talking to family (well, Bernadette could almost be considered family anyway). After going all semester without being able to talk to any family or old friends, it was just what i needed.

St. Paul's outside the walls.

Dinner in an authentic Italian restaraunt, it was fantastic. Clockwise from left are Phil, Alley, Brendan, Liz, Caitlin, Paul, John Paul, and Rob making the funny face. Late night Gelati followed, and some aimless wandering in the streets of Rome.

I see my Papa Benedict

We ambitious Franciscans got up at 5 am to make sure we were the first in line to see the Holy Father for the Wednesday audience. Completely unnessasarily. But Franciscans can have fun even when standing in a line for 6 hours at 7 degrees Celsius. Caitlin and I cuddling to stay warm.

It was still dark when we arrived.

A few hard core couples seeking to have their marriage blessed got there almost as early as we did.

Willie leading the crowd in some good old Steubie praise songs in St. Peter's as we await the Pope. The nuns up front we immensly enjoying it and were cheering us on.

Not zoomed in. This was my view of the pope as he approached in his pope-mobile.

JP being obnoxious, as I am trying to listen to the Holy Father. Actually most of the boys were getting obnoxious, so that I was on the verge of spontaneous combustion into laughter at any time. Fr. Brad was setting the example, 'translating" his own own version of the Pope's message for us, which had more to do with sausages than anything.

This picture was not zoomed in either. This was actually how close I was to the man. A second before this, he blessed us and looked right at us but I wasn't thinking of my camera right then. I can't say that I really made direct eye contact or anything, but I did see him, the direct successor of saint Peter, up close enough to see the wrinkles in his face.

Some of the FUS grad students who live in Rome joined us

ASSISI

Okay, Assisi may possibly rival even Austria. It was so nice after the crazy rush and bustle and graffiti and scandal of big city Rome. The perfect climax to a semester's travels. A place of beauty and peace all around. Cass and John warned that I would fall in love with Assisi, but I was skeptical...of course you fall in love with the town in which you were engaged. But no, truly Assisi stands on its own merit as one of the loveliest places on Earth.
Cobblestoned streets, happy, quiet, friendly Italians. Churches everywhere. Adoration everywhere. Franciscans everywhere.
Olive trees and Pomegrantes. And perhaps the best part: three square Italian meals a day with sumptuous amount of bread soaked in fresh dark olive oil, endless pasta paired with endless wine. The best I have eaten all semester no doubt! It makes one appreciate St. Francis' austere fasting even more, with food like that available!

Garments of St. Clare and Francis

Enjoying the sunrise over Italy, in perfect peace and solitude, up near the Castle Rocca Maggiore above Assisi. Cannot be beat for a good way to start the day.

Look at that Perugian countryside. It looks like this nearly all the way from Rome. I drove in the van with just Fr. Ron and Jill and we took the back roads all the way, which afforded better views of castles on hills and such.

Flying Butresses!!!!!!!!!!! I love those!!! And its not even Gothic.

Hitchhiker maddonna

The original San Damiano Crucifix of St. Francis. Saw the original Port, too.

I wandered for a while in the olive groves on the hills around Assisi. I watched the farmers harvesting the olives for awhile, shaking the olives into these big burlap sheets, and stacking up crates full of them. I decided I want to grow olives when I grow up.

My favorite street in all Assisi. It was tough decided because every one looks picturesesque.

Basilica San Francesco

The whole town is full of little shops that are so much fun to look through. Cheeses and wines and hams, like this one, or olive-woodworkers, artists, potters, toy shops, hat shops, embroidery shops, cooking shops, little lead soldier and chess set shops. And way too many souvenier shops making lots of money paradoxically, off of Il Poverello.

Assisi at sunset

The woods near the hermitage. I saw evidence of wildboar everywhere there, but never actually one, but I was hoping. If I were I wild pig I would want to live there too. However, as a person, St. Francis' monks had it kinda hard in the cold hard little caves there.

Who needs St. Francis when you have Fr. Brad? Oh, Fr. Brad......

Cory helping Paul Hess out with his (AWESOME) new hat y favorite image of Santa Chiara in all Assisi

On the last night in Assisi, Liz and I went back up to the castle for one last look at Italy. The lights down below were gorgeous, the wind was blowing, it is was so beautiful and peac

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Even in Assisi, the same as in Rome: Take an old Roman temple, put a statue of Mary where once a statue of a god/ess, and voila: instant church at half the price and work!

Caitlin and Liz and I walked past this portrait in a window, then did a double take and rewind, and each of us looked at each other and said: Look, it is an Icon of prof. Asci when he is not happy with your mid-term results! I walked into S M Maggiore and a bunch of Assisian school kids were practicing Christmas Carols with the parish priest!
The rest of these were from the bus on the way home, just snapshots of the Alps, you know....

And the knee-deep sea of the Venetian lowlands

The Saints Go Marching....

The Kartause kids had their All Saints Day Party Yesterday, and I intruded for the sake of nostalgia. I wanted to put a skirt on my head and pretend I was some obsure holy virgin martyr too: only propriety held me back. I hate being grown-up. I am not even a big kid anymore! The All Saints day party used to be the highlight of my fall as a kid. I remember laboring for weeks and weeks on the perfect saint and costume. Do you girls remember the year we were sick in Oregon and we missed the homeschool party? I was so bummed! And then we had our own party, and Dad even dressed up in a bathrobe and had cornflakes falling from his eyes? I have a picture up in my room of all of us (except dad, who took the picture apparently), in very holy postures, Katherine trying not to laugh and failing and me not even trying. Caitlin and Kika Asci

Francesca (Kika) Asci as St. Elizabeth

A blurry Mrs. Asci doing the Limbo

trick-or-treating in the dorm

My buddy, Aris Kalpagkian, (I think he is dressed as a saint-eating-colloseum-tiger). Aris calls me 'suitcase', with a lisp. I feel privileged - any girl in my position would be.

Paul Hess and Vince dropping the limbo stick

Prof. Healy (Art), having a chat over some cheerios with with one of the Cassidy boys in a markered beard and one of the Asci boys dressed as Pier Giorgio.

Ave's Barbara enjoying two saintly little girls

Elijah, or just Eli. Probably one of the cutest kids on the face of the earth.

And now, more pictures of my Kartause. I know, ya'll are probably getting sick of my same old view out my bedroom window, but it still gets to me every day that I am here, and sometimes I just can't help but grab my camera and immortalize the moment in some way.

Monday morning, I opened my eyes at twenty past six, and thought I woke up in a perfect dream for a moment, then realized that no, this dream was real life. I really do live here! I really am a princess in this castle! I grabbed my camera to capture the moment. It doesn't, but you get the idea. The air itself I swear was a golden pink and is utterly indescribable - a color like the ones Elizabeth's Eger's sister describes, but is rarely if ever seen.

And these while I was reading philosophy in my bedroom, sitting on the windowsill- enjoying the still warm November air, smelling the smoke from the woodstove that heats the water in the building, and just soaking up the sunshine. Ahh, life is good.

The leaves are almost entirely fallen. Book mountain in the background, is nearly barren of the stunning color of three weeks ago.

Napoli * Sorrento * Pompeii

Headed down south for the weekend. It was a toss-up between Swizterland and S. Italy. I didn't make up my mind till the last minute. I shall have to save the mountains and snow some later date, because I boarded a train for Napoli. And what a train ride: what was scheduled to be 18 hours ended up being 24+. The Italiano Treini are deplorable. Always late and unreliable and poorly maintained. But it was an interesting trip: we rode half of it talking to Jan, a Romanian bouncer who warned us that we would most certainly be mugged, possibly wake up in an ice-bath without half our organs in the morning, and possibly be murdered in the city of Napoli, based on the fact that we were blondes and American. He also said some things about O'Bama that are not safe enough to be repeated online. But he was amusing, and he liked us, and gave us each a few lei as a souveneir to remember him by.
Contrary to the warnings, we had a wonderful time in Naples, although we spent little time actually in Naples. We stayed at a great Australian hostel, ate some incredible margherita pizza which was fired right in front of us, went to Mass friday morning at the Carmina Cathedral, made our way to Pompeii, found Phil, went to Sorrento and had a fabulous afternoon and evening in that Mediteranean city, ate some more incredible food, and made it safely out of the city with all our members and money. Pompeii was absolutely incredible and so worth it. We spent almost 4 hours there, still didn't see everything. It was so cool.

Ancient crosswalk, with wagon weel rut marks in the stone street.

That is me, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, sitting on a wall that was built over two thousand years ago.

Workers at the excavation site

A Pompeiian fastfood stall

An orange tree that provided us with our lunch

Mars

A rather sloppy but still very striking and well preserved Venus that has survived an earthquake, a volcano, millions of tourists, and 1939 years

These British boys were so funny. They had the stongest accents and we were imitating them all weekend afterwards (Hey, that's not fair - he got one and I didn't!). The one kid was posing like a gladiator, or so he thinks, for his friend.

the Ampitheater

Sorrento waterfront - kind of out of place...pictures got out of order.

A rather unfortunate sombody who was in the wrong place at the wrong time August 24th, 79 A.D. It is incredible. Michelangelo sculpted a statue of a man out of raw Marble. Mt. Vesuvius made a raw man into a statue.

I will always remember Napoli for its homeless dogs. They are everywhere. 9 of them kept us company and entertained us the whole night in the Napoli train station.

But my favorite dog was not wild, but a German shepherd at Phil's hostel. She wanted people to throw large rocks for her like Mindy used to. She was quite smart too - by the time I left, after playing with her for half an hour while Phil and Jon laid in the hammocks on the lawn, she had learned three words in English: come, and down and sit. Thats more than I can say I learned in that amount of time in Italian.

Phil eating tentacle! But wait, where did Phil come from? We knew Phil was going to be in Capri and Naples for the weekend. He had set out the night before us. But I didn't really think there was any hope of seeing him. Napoli is gigantic, and we had no plans to meet him. Boarding a train from Pompeii, there he was. The poor guy had been through the ringer: he had left his passport and Eurail and other important stuff on a train, and had quite a time of it for the past 24 hours when we found him. But at that point, things were starting to look up for him and he was getting things ironed out. After the afternoon and evening with us, he went on to Capri and had a wonderful time, for which I was very glad. And I was very happy to have bumped into him - it was quite fun.

My first taste of authentic Neapolitan seafood: a calamari pasta dish at a little private restarant in Sorrento. Clams and squid and tomatoes and herbs and pasta drenched in olive oil. Very strong local red wine, served from the tap in a flask. Italian music. A little old man waiter, Luigi, who was like an Italian version of Chuck, who tried to trick me into drinking balsamic vinegar.

Roma: a stolen glance

So, here we are, arriving in Roma on the morning of Saturday, November 1st. We have Napoli behind us, that is a start. We intended to take the first treni toward home when we got there. Turns out we are stuck there until 17:00, the earliest we can get a connection to Wien.
Stuck in Roma! Are you kidding me? Bring it On! We first stopped for a little refreshment - a coffee and pastry shop. While we were there some 8 or 9 nuns came in for a shot of bean juice to jumpstart their day. That was the first thing I noticed about Rome: it is infested with nuns. I should have kept a tally.
Then we started walking - walked all day - saw a huge amount of Rome on foot. Later we traced our routes and we snaked all over the city.
It was a great preview: we are going there as a school next Friday anyway - spending 4 days there, so we felt like we were sneaking a look at a Christmas present early. Walking out of Roma termini, we agreed that we would at very least save the Coloseum and St. Peter's for when we all go together. We just had to save that much as a suprise. There ought to be plenty in Rome to look at without going there.

Caesar

Art booths in Piazza Nuova, what used to be the site of Chariot races

Castel Sant' Angelo

All Saint's Day Mass in the Gesu. My favorite church in all of Europa this far, and that is saying a lot.

They had a mirror set up so you could look at the magificent ceiling for as long as you liked without getting a crook in your neck.

Noon, November 1st, 2008 - Feast of All the Holy Saints in Heaven. This is my view: the Holy Father Benedict XVI, direct sucessor of St. Peter. I tried to stay away from the Vatican until Thursday, but St. Peter's pulls you like a magnet (or attracts like a bug-light) and there is no resisting. We realized afterwards that without intending to we walked almost straight to it from the Roma Termini.

We got there at ten minutes till the angelus. They were just throwing the rug out the window: could it really be? Is the Holy Father really about to meet us here? Yeah, on a morning that I had planned to be on a train going home, I was standing in St. Peter's square looking up at Papa Benedict!

(I did not zoom in with this picture, so this is how close we actually were.)

The crowd of some 140 saints, the church tirumphant, in marble, all unique, crowded around the church militant in the square below on their collective feast day.

A 5 kilo jar of Nutella. That is 11 pounds. But I wouldn't put it past Andrea and Liz.

Coming out of Mass at the Gesu, there was a marathon being run, and one of the older guys was singing Italian love songs as he ran and stopping to dance with pretty women!

The Egyptian Obelisk is Vatican Square

The view from Ponte St. Angelo

Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II

St. Peter

Yep, that's the Pantheon!!!! It was locked at the moment- I will go to Mass there next week though - Mass in what was built to be Roman temple to all the gods!!!

Trevi fountain

A candid shot of a metal man street performer taking a cigarette break and counting his change. (Kyle, he has a water bottle just like the one you used to have)

Santa Maria degli Angeli. Michelangelo's last work. It is in the Ruins of Diocletian's public Bathhouse.

In the Bath/Santa Maria degli Angeli, there was this cool calendar of the constellations that stretched diagonally across the whole floor.

There was a free organ concert on this thing that we just missed.

Piazza della Republica as the sun was setting.

MMMMmmm!!!!!!!

The picture is dark, but we saw a little baby girl being baptized in Santa Maria degli Angeli

Probably one of the most beautiful Icons I have ever laid eyes on.

This morning, we checked off the last day on our Eurail pass. I am a little glad of it, although also saddened. I walked back in the gorgeous November beauty the 3 km. from the Kienberg-gaming trainstation, comparing stories with other students about their weekend adventures and watching them stick out their thumbs and get picked up a couple at a time. I wanted to walk this one last time, taking it all in: the feeling of a shrunken stomach, three days without a shower, two without a bed, sun on my face, blisters on my feet, camera full of pictures, my little bag that I thought I packed so lightly and yet at this moment feeling so ridiculously heavy, and a heart full of memories: walking back to this beautiful Kartause that I call home.