A Taste of Another Life

     The night before - oh I was extremely anxious. I didn't sleep one minute that night. Right when my alarm hit the time I set it for (4:00 AM), I jumped immediately into the shower and got ready to begin my journey. My mother drove me an hour later to our meetup point in Orion, then we set off in vans to go to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. No one could sleep in the vehicle I was in due to the sheer excitement we had. We moved through customs and got on a small plane to JFK to board our larger plane for the 8 hour flight to London. The flight would be overnight so we all tried our best to sleep but the best I could muster was about 1 and a half hours before we got there at approximately 7 AM. As we arrived, I could tell we had mixed feelings as we hadn't showered and were completely weathered from the trip. But our guide had other plans for us which included a full day of traveling. We hop onto a coach where our guide starts explaining things and we drop off our luggage in a dark, damp, cob-web infested cellar. It was under our hotel because our rooms weren't done. The place was layered in brick and cement and was most likely a scene for multiple murders from the looks of it. We meet up with other groups from other schools at this time and set off for our own group's journey to the London Eye. We took the "tube" or metro so we had to walk from the station to the London Eye. As we walked up to it, we could just see how tall it really was. We walked up and down the Thames riverside while our guide got our tickets and while we were walking we saw various street performers. There were dance groups, "statue" men, illusionists, you name it. Finally we got onto the London Eye and saw the entire city from above. We looked over to our left and saw Westminster. Right in front of us was the Commonwealth Official Building, then to the right was the giant Telecom tower for London's phones and radio signals. It was almost monolithic except for the fact that we were almost as high as it - in a giant Ferris wheel. The day came to a close as we were all extremely tired yet filled with such hopes for what the next day would give us.

    I'm pretty sure I could speak for everyone when I say we all got a wonderful nights sleep. I didn't notice anyone getting jet lag so the trip was going to be a good one. We got on the coach once again and took a driving tour with our lovely local guide who was a older women but she was absolutely "British" in every sense. She had a posh, Londoner accent which completely fit her personality. We hopped off the bus and she led us to Buckingham Palace - Her Royal Majesty's residence in addition to Windsor Castle. This day would be quite a bit different from the last one. Our small group would be split up - and by that I mean I was going to Windsor Castle while the rest of the group was staying behind in London. The two other travelers from Chicago also joined me so at least I knew some people as we went to the Castle. We took an hour bus trip outside of the city with a rambunctious local guide talking along the way. He seemed to genuinely love his job and he was extremely easy to listen to. As we got near to the castle, we could spot the massive structure in the distance. The tower walls overshadowed only by the towers of the castle. We visited the little shops and learned how to bargain with our local guide as he had some playful chatter with the local salesman on the corner of the Castle. The entire castle (the sections we were allowed to go through) was covered in English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and, considering the royal family is German, German artifacts. There were muskets and swords lining the walls in an elegant display of the United Kingdom's former military dominance. Iron-clad armor was guarding the doors while each royal family crest lined the gallery room for all to see. It was extraordinary, and in a way quite humbling. You could see the history before the powerful UK, yet now the US has taken that spot. It helped me realize something - how long before we have rooms displaying our former strength? We drove back and met up with our group again only to go on a walking tour with another local guide but this time it was quite interesting. We went on a Jack the Ripper tour. We saw where two victims were slain, possible suspects that were him and the same tavern he allegedly was at (also saw two people making out in the alley by the tavern on the Jack the Ripper informational paper...). and got ready for the next day. We had a train ride into the heart of Paris slated for tomorrow and of course Paris is one of the most recognizable, if not the most recognizable cities in the world.

    We went to train station and boarded our train to ride from London to Paris. The only thing that was cool about that was when we rode under the English channel in a concrete tunnel. The train ride was quite boring as most people were tired as trying to sleep, but Madi S. and I kept talking and watching the beautiful French countryside once we got into France. The little french villages were quite petite and looked Victorian. They were mostly red roofed houses with a catholic church smack dab in the middle of each village. We passed many, many villages that looked like they all followed the same template. On arrival, we were whisked to the streets of Paris. First impressions weren't that good - graffiti everywhere, dirty streets,  not-so-looking friendly people walking up and down the streets plus our coach driver was an hour late to pick us up so we sat around on the side walk for an hour. We get into the coach and drop our luggage at our hotel then off we go again! This trip certainly didn't allow for many breaks! We took the Parisian Metro (more dirty than London's) over the Seine river to see Notre Dame. While not religious, I certainly can enjoy the magnificent Gothic architecture that went into it. The flying buttresses that stuck out the side, the patterned windows, and the gargoyles all gave a feeling of richness and elegance. It was certainly a nice change from the initial impression we got. A nice, old french lady was guiding around a flock of pigeons. There had to be upwards of 75 pigeons following this lady with her bag of breadcrumbs. We watched in utter delight as she put some breadcrumbs on someone's hand and the pigeons would jump up onto them. One of the Chicago travelers, Mike, along with Madi S. and Mrs. Kershaw's brother, Eric did this as well. Except they put the breadcrumbs on-top of their heads to attract the birds up. It sure did work. The birds flew with such haste to the their heads. It was quite the sight. Afterwards, we went for dinner and headed home to prepare ourselves for another day. It started off poor but ended on a high note and we hoped that high note would last the rest of the trip.

     The next two days was looking to be even better. We got on a bus with another local guide, a petite french lady who seemed enthused that we were traveling with her. We took the coach and hit up the highlights of Paris such as the Nationale Assemblie and the outside of the Louvre (which we were to visit later). We saw huge Egyptian Obelisks in the center of some of the squares. Paris definitely got a better opinion from most of us that next day considering we saw the city we always wanted to see. We went to the Louvre to see the masterpiece of the Mona Lisa and other extraordinary artistic pieces such as the Wrath of Medusa. There was many, many fat babies in pictures though. There were also many naked men, including some wrestling, in the Greek section of the Louvre. Mrs. Kershaw was eyeing them up the entire time. Though, we were to be split up again as some of us wanted to go to Versailles (The Sun King's Palace) while others would go shopping near the Arc de Triumph. So we boarded a coach near the Arc de Triumph and continued our merry way to Versailles, the legendary palace of decadence and elegance wrapped into one while coated in gold. We got there and visited the gardens first while half of our group was touring. The garden grounds were massive. Everything was made out of the finest marble, probably imported from Africa, and the sculptures were definitely fit for a king. We walked down into one section of the garden and figured out later that we had only covered about 15% of the entire garden within an hour to an hour and a half period. I honestly thought how the palace could match up it's own gardens but it sure did! Of course, the palace isn't air conditioned so we tourists were packed into each room in a cluster of sweaty foreign travelers ranging from every ethnicity. We were guided through the building and saw all the rooms coated in a gold plating, the furniture looked about as expensive as my entire house for one of the objects. The stories were true. Versailles is the epitome of elegance that I have seen in my life so far, maybe rivaled only by Dubai in the modern world. We went back to the river Seine enjoying ourselves to a delectable french cuisine. We boarded a boat under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and went up and down the Seine as the sun had set over the Parisian paradise. The lights started glowing from the streets, as the richness and fullness of the city was fully coming to life. From the boat we interacted with locals who were more than happy to interact with us as well. Don't believe the rumours that French people hate tourists, they most likely hate ignorant tourists but we certainly weren't with our guide. It was an amazing end to a fantastic day The next day was going to be our last and we hoped it was going to be wonderful. We woke up only to realize that the coach was going to be late, so many people went back to bed. Yet our guide, Gwen, got another call saying he'd be another hour late. He was certainly unhappy and our morale for that start of the day was pretty low. We got onto the coach and did another run through of the city and ended up at the train station for our overnight ride to Florence, Italy.

     Not one of us realized how good or bad the train ride was going to be. We boarded the train and looked into the compartments. My god. They were horribly cramped and made for six people to be stuffed into one. There was one redeeming feature though and that was there was AC. Except there wasn't. The AC didn't seem to work for our compartment. Now, I'm not one to cause trouble but I heard Mrs. Kershaw call for the top bunk, so when she asked which one I wanted I of course said top bunk to agitate her (which it did for a little while...). Though, remember things like that always come to bite you back in the ass. In my glorious triumph of agitation, I forgot some basic principles of science - such as heat rising. That coupled with no AC equals me soaked in sweat throughout the train trip. Yup. It was disgusting. Worst part it, we couldn't even shower the next day because our hotel wasn't ready. So we had to go out once again extremely dirty, if not even more disgusting than the plane trip, through 95 degree weather in Florence. I think the lesson I learned was is to not cross Mrs. Kershaw because she has some sort of dark powers that will make your life a living hell. Honestly, Florence was beautiful as we visited the Duomo and saw the baptistry across the rode from it. I thought no church could rival Notre Dame but I loved the architecture of the Duomo and it's huge rotunda. Mike, Vanessa (the other Chicago traveler) and I went on a walking trip to a recommended spot by our guide to take pictures at Piazza de Michelangelo So we walked there and looked up the stair case. It looked like I died and was finally sent to hell because it sure felt like it. There was over 90 steps, probably 2 feet thick each and we were disgusting and sweaty and wanting to die. We got up there, took the pictures and said screw it. We got a taxi back to the Duomo, the meet up point. I will say that the taxi's AC felt like I was being blessed by angels after burning in the pits of hell for a day. So that was nice. We road back to the hotel and got ready for the next day (which included a very, very long shower.)

     Now, our next destination wasn't really an "it" factor for any of us. We hardly knew of it, or even heard it at all. It was Assisi, a small mountain village filled with many churches because it was where St. Francis of Assisi, the church reformer, was born and entered his ministerial life at. The churches were quite nice and the streets were lovely, but nothing beat the Assisi view. You could peer down the alley between two houses to look onto the surrounding golden fields of wheat as they waved in the wind. It was a very calm day for us and it certainly put us in a better mood after the disgusting mess that was Florence. (We only spent 3 hours here that's why there's so little to write about!)

     We drove three hours from Assisi to Rome in our coach when we arrived to the city, it was starting to get dark so our guide was eager to get us set up in our hotel. We got lost for a while but after climbing up a mountain with a lake in the center of it, we arrived at our hotel which was across the mountain from Castel Gandolfo - the pope's summer residence and Joseph Ratzinger's current residence (the former pope who abdicated). It was a beautiful hotel on the edge of the mountain with a wonderful view of the lake. The sun had already set once we got there but it would've been extremely radiating to see the sun set over the mountain. We ate and went to sleep to prepare for our last day of our European trip. We were only in Rome for one day so we were gonna hit everywhere we could. We went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, entered the Vatican to visit the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. If you were Catholic, this sure was the place to be. The Colosseum was massive, a monolithic achievement based on the time period it was made. It was still massive yet it was hard to comprehend that it's just a shell of what it used to be. The Roman Forum was an arrangement of decrepit stone blocks that somewhat outlined the shape of the old Roman government buildings. Once we entered the Vatican, we saw the art and the evolution of art as we walked through the building. There was a hall just lined with Christian Tapestry which represented scenes from the bible that we at least 6 feet high and 10 feet long. There were as many as the eye could see down this hall way. When we got into the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's work was stunning as was his backstory as our local guide told us about him. We exited the building right below the balcony where the Pope does his weekly masses and where they are revealed to the world as the next Bishop of Rome. We took a right and saw the Swiss Guard change and entered St. Peter's basilica. This was the largest church I had seen this trip though I still favored the Duomo. After we left, we went to Trevi fountain and tossed our coins per tradition. We boarded our coach for a night trip to see the Colosseum lit up at night as well as hit up some other places in Rome we didn't have time for since we were there a short time. We headed back to the hotel and didn't sleep that night considering we wanted to start fighting any jet lag we would get back home early, so we all planned to sleep on the plane. We hop from Rome to Amsterdam and Amsterdam back to Chicago.

     It was truly an exciting and beautiful trip and couldn't have happened without Mrs. Kershaw and Ms. Ashcraft 'looking' after us. It also wouldn't have been fun without our extraordinary and fabulous guide, Gwen. We had our ups and down but everyone got along most of the trip. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend part of my summer.

*I want to put an author's note here considering we ate some AMAZING cuisine as well ranging from Fish & Chips in London to the perfection that is Gelato in Italy, but I felt I didn't want to cram so many details into the trip so I focused on the sites firstly. Also, Mrs. Kershaw told me to write about how wonderful she is and how perfect she was throughout the entire trip. So there's that.