Vatican City

Backwards photo taking


Last night a guy from Croatia insisted on getting everyone in the lounge to drink something that’s name sounded like “bosco”, it was a mixture of coke and red wine, which sounds awful but tastes about as good as cheap sangria. The guy kept insisting that people drink more and if your cup was low he insisted on refilling it.

To get into the Vatican and the museum you have to have your shoulders and knees covered and if you don’t you have to either change or add a shawl to cover yourself. Luckily since the current style for guys is to have knee length shorts I was able to get in with sagging my shorts a little so that my knees were covered. Once inside the Vatican church I saw a large woman with enormous breasts breastfeeding her son with much more breast exposed then necessary. None of the guards said anything; I guess your breasts can hang out as long as you keep your knees and shoulders covered.

The best order to visit things in Vatican City is probably to climb to the top of the Vatican, explore the church, see the catacombs and then go to the museum. It costs 5 Euros if you walk the whole way up the steps and 7 Euros if you take the elevator part of the way. I really wish they had one set of stairs for fat/old/slow people and another for me. On the way up and on the way down I got behind really slow people that wouldn’t move or let me pass. I know that I am a hateful person, but at least I am aware of it and honestly I am okay with it.

The views at the top are breathtaking and definitely worth the 5 Euros, in my opinion. The steps down drop you off inside of the Vatican church. Then I went to the catacombs, where they have a lot of popes and saw the catacomb of John Paul II. His seems to be the most modest and simple of all the catacombs, I don’t know if they are waiting to build it up or if his will always look that way.

Next I headed to the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. I was able to use my student ID and get in for only 8 Euro instead of 14 Euro for normal people. There are signs pointing towards the Sistine Chapel, but they pretty much make you walk through the entire museum to get to the Sistine Chapel because they know that’s why most people come. The museum is ridiculously enormous and has so many pieces of art, it is pretty incredible. I think if you were to try to speed walk through the entire museum it would easily take you over an hour. The Sistine Chapel is a giant room with paintings on all the walls and the ceiling. The famous painting of God reaching out his hand to Adam, was in the middle of the ceiling but much smaller than I had expected, all of the other paintings on the ceiling were the same size. I don’t know if I would have paid any more attention to it than any other paintings if it weren’t famous. I suppose the same is true of celebrities though, if you see them on the street and you don’t know who they are, you don’t look at them long, but will stare at them and tell people if you know someone is famous.

On the way back to my hostel in the metro I saw several old women with trolls in their armpits, it makes me laugh every time I see that.

I have had the same contact lenses in since I was in India and they are two week disposable lenses. They have been bothering me for a while now and today while at the Vatican City they decided to stop working and I have been forced to throw the pair away. I guess it is for the best, but now I only have 4 contacts left for my entire trip, including the two in my eyes right now.

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09_01_2009 Vatican City Small