mattthegoon

i suppose i've gone long enough without updating my journal...i have been meaning to do it now for a few days, but as it turns out, i just lived through a hellish few days. i figured that now, since i'm awake, and not a complete fuckcase, that i might as well throw something down.

rome was nice as usual...we took a tour, which is a huge fucking mistake, and i'll explain why in a second...but yeah, so we rode a bus up to rome. it took about two and a half hours to get there, and i spent about half the time reading (goblet of fire) and about half the time sleeping. so when we finally arrived, we walked to the vatican, which was only a few blocks away, and found that the line into the city (or country...whatever) was wrapped around the block.
we stood in line for an hour.
from here i will give you the highlights...
-the vatican museum lobby has disgusting bathrooms
-i would have liked to look around at some of the art, but we were rushed through so fast, i only caught a faint blur.
-i would have liked to hear about the art that we did see, but the tour guide was really meek and quiet, and i couldn't hear a word.
-the sistine chapel is spectacular...really really beautiful, but smaller than i thought. and i would have rather have walked around it by myself, in silence, taking it all in...it lost some of the magic being in there with about 500 other people.
-the food in vatican city is really expensive (even just pasta and tomato sauce)
-the pope is running a huge racket...you can find anything with his picture on it inside the gift stores in vatican city right outside st.peters bacilica (sp?)...from pens, to fridge magnets, to posters, to mail order blessings. lame.

all in all, it was a good experience...there is nothing worse than being rushed through a museum, but i got to see the sistine chapel...i can always say that.

i hope everyone is doing well...