Friday, 23 May 2008

Rome day 1-2nd May 2008

I seriously need to reflect on my luck each time I embark on a trip. Why do I say that? Here comes the story of how I spent $150/- for cab to the airport to catch my flight. Remember I blogged quite a bit on 1st May claiming that I would be away for 2 weeks and how my blog will become mundane once again? So I ended up going to bed @ 2 a.m. Yvonne and I were supposed to get up at 3 a.m to catch the bus to the airport @ 4 a.m since our flight was an early one @ 7 a.m. Somehow, I didn't hear the alarm go off and I only woke up @ 5a.m!! Screwed! The check-in desk closes 40 minutes prior to the flight which means we have exactly 1hr 20mins to get to the airport and the shuttle bus takes up exactly that time. So ended up we had to take a cab. The airport is 10 miles away from the city and the driver asked for a price of 1,600 SEK. I got him to turn on the meter instead but along the way, he kept trying to convince me to pay a fixed charge. When the meter was on, he was driving at a speed of 120 km/h but when I finally gave in and agreed on a price of 1,250 SEK upon countless bargainng, his driving speed shot to 190 km/h! Volvo is a great car. The mechanism of the car is so good that I didn't feel like he was driving at 190 km/h. :) We were pretty lucky as we arrived at the check-in desk 2 minutes before it closed. *Phew*

I felt pretty guilty because it was my fault that I fail to wake up. I am never like this. I wasn't someone who have problems waking up. Somehow, my friend was understanding because she knew she had to bear part of the responsibility since she didn't have her alarm on and relied totally on me... But anyway, we made it to Rome! :)

Trust me, ROME IS INSANELY HUGE. We checked in at the hostel the moment we arrived, settled our train tickets to florence and of course had lunch since we skipped breakfast in a hurry. It was an Italian trattoria recommended by the hostel staff. It was honestly good. I am never a tomato-based pasta lover but that meal kinda changed my preference. I never knew tomato-based pasta could be so good! However, they were rather skimpy on the amount of ingredients they put in the pasta. I guess the Italians place more emphasis on the sauce rather than the ingredients.
The delicious authentic Italian pasta~
Piazza Santa Maria. It's a Cathedral.

Headed straight to the Colosseum next. Trust me people, get to the Colosseum at least once in your lifetime. I've always been amazed by this amphitheatre since young and it's like a dream come true when I stood right in front of him. Think about it. They didn't have any building technology almost 2,000 years ago yet they are able to build such a grand architecture. The Romans are really impressive people. However, we cannot neglect the number of lives lost in construction, the gladiators who fought and died etc. If you'd watched the show, the gladiator before, you will understand. I personally like the show because I am a huge fan of Russell Crowe. :)

Colosseum Exterior From all angles!

Colosseum in the evening... Isn't it beautiful? Tell me how you feel... The photos itself is already mesmerizing enough isn't it? I have a lot of them... It's just too beautiful....

You're supposed to pay to take photos of them but with my prior experiences with Checkpoint Charlie etc, haha....no worries. :)
Colosseum Interior!


Part of the building was bombed during WWII though but it still looks magnificent. The queue to get in is simply too long. We didn't want to wait so we kind of paid 4,50 EUR extra to get the audio guide and the fast-track ticket. It was photo-taking all inside, around and from afar the colosseum....But we didn't take a guided tour and the audio guide wasn't that comprehensive so I couldn't talk much about the history etc. Read up on it on your own if you are interested. I will when I get back to Singapore. :)

The Arena of the Colosseum.
The footpaths that led to the seating gallery inside the Colosseum.
Where the ferocious animals are kept. This is it's original look.
The lowest point that you can get in the Colosseum. Below is the home to the gladiators and animals. All of them have to pass through that hidden tunnel you see opposite to get up to the Arena. There's actually a story behind this photo. It's a palladium and I hopped onto it to take a picture. I have one standing up but it's with Yvonne so I can't show you. This cutie walked by and he saw me taking photo on the palladium. After I came down, he hopped on to take a picture too. haha... You can capture the Colosseum from a good angle from this palladium actually. So we took a photo together. :) His mom was smiling to me after we took the photo. He's damn cute! He's got the whole typical Italian look going on. I think he will make a good model. :)
We also covered the Arc of Constantine, the Palatino Hill, the Roman Imperial Forum, the National Monument of Victor Emanuele II, Campidoglio. In summary, the whole Rome historical sites were covered that day. It was freaking tiring by the time we ended the day at 7:30 p.m. The thing is that there are a million columns of victory or some people call it pillars in Rome. Every single stone and corner of Rome has some sort of History or story behind it. But, it's a place worth visiting for sure. :)

Arc of Constantine.
Up the Palatino Hill shortly.. Roman Imperial Forum. Display of life of the Romans back in the olden days.
A miniature of the Colosseum. :)
More of those archaeological remains..


Campidoglio

National Monument of Victor Emanuele II. :)
Street Artist. Isn't it beautiful??

The next cool thing is that the hostel that we stayed in had a pizza party at 8:30 p.m every night so we headed back for it to save on dinner. hahaha... The pizza wasn't that bad considering the fact that it's free!

Anyway, we met 2 really cool Canadians, Scott and Phil during our stay. They are from British Columbia and they are just a year or 2 older than me. They didn't go to college, they didn't have much education but they earn big bucks. One of them works with poisonous gases and the other handle oil drilling equipment. They are people I've never met in my life before. All these while, people whom I mix with are usually students. They bought me a few beers and shared with me about how their life back in B.C is like. I thought it was really interesting. But when it was my turn to share, I was at a total loss for words. What have I been doing all my life? Study, Chill, Work, Tutor a bit, Travel. That's it. But I don't feel ashamed. To me, God created man in such a way that we compliment someone in this world. if everyone were like them, they wouldn't appear interesting anymore.

To share with you guys, their working hours are really harsh during winter. They work non-stop for 3 months during winter up to 14 hours a day. After that, they travel for 2 months or so from spring into summer. They get back to work in Summer again then take a break for Autumn or so. Don't be shocked by their income. One of them told me he can earn up to 7,000 CAD a week! If you compare it to those professional sports player, that's really nothing but their career goes into long run unlike those psp. There's a lot more. Women in their town don't really have to work. They just stay home and take care of kids, handle the household chores. Men are the ones who bring the money in. Those lads are filthy rich. They bought 10k CAD for a 5-week vacation. That's almost my living expenses for 5.5 months in Stockholm! haha... Furthermore, men in their town are judged not by the cars they drive or the house they stay in but rather OWNERSHIP of a TRUCK. Distances between houses, towns are huge so cars are not practical when it comes to moving around. Also, the weather gets really cold like -40 deg cel into winter and the amount of snow accumulated can get up to 40-50 cm. That explains why you need a truck and not a car. :)

So Yvonne started to match-make me with one of the guys, saying that I should totally marry him and I shall officially become a tai-tai. That would also mean the next time she decides to go to Canada, her food and lodging would be taken care of. But I love EUROPE more.

Something I like about traveling - meeting people from all walks of life. :)

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