Which brings us to the final leg of our trip; a visit to the major cities of southern Europe - many of which I had briefly seen already during my semester abroad about 6 years ago. After all the incredible language and cultural barriers we had fought though during our Asiana tour of the previous month, these weeks of travel would seem virtually like home! In lieu of that, I'll save the play-by-play sight-seeing and just show mostly a slide-show highlight reel of the incredible buildings and historical sites along the way and include a few of my favorite 'lesson-learned' stories mixed in there as well.
MOSCOW
Our first day outside of Asia in over 9 months made us want to run right back.
As we flew from New Delhi to Rome, we would have to make a 55 minute layover in Moscow, Russia. We flew and landed comfortably and had barely noticed the 30 minute delay that we had somehow ended up with. Once inside, we were directed on a 10 minute walk before finally lining up to get through customs. I still have not understood why lay-over airports have to run you back through customs and security - after all, you've obviously done both before boarding the previous flight, right? Anyways, at this point, we were starting to worry that it would be really tight to make our connection, yet the airline employees were pulling
other passengers in front of us in a line that was barely moving anyways.
When we finally got to the front, we gave a short, chubby Russian woman our passports and she stated very matter-of-factly, "You miss the flight. Go sit there." Our flight was not leaving for another 15 minutes and we were transferring within the same airline. Still, they had not and would not hold the flight, and it was too far to walk in 15 minutes (or so she decided) so our connection was broken. The woman behind the counter couldn't understand why we were upset and acted as if she were doing us a great favor to put us on another flight 11 hours later. There was nothing even resembling an apology from the airline nor even anyone to complain to about the incident. The look on her face and cocky tone of voice implied that she was annoyed with 'the rich American snobs' throughout the process of brushing us off.
So there we would sit in one of the least foreign-friendly international airports in the world for our entire first day in Europe. There were no power outlets anywhere and one restaurant we tried to eat at - in the international lay-overs area of a MAJOR Eastern European airport remember - accepted Russian Rubles ONLY; no foreign currency or any kind of credit card. To add insult to injury about the whole situation of the day, we would later find out that our second flight (the one we had missed) had been delayed by just over 20 minutes and we could have easily made it in time no matter where it was in the airport if she would have let us run.
Lesson learned: All of us saw only Moscow's airport and the people in it, and all agreed almost instantly that it was enough to eliminate all desire to ever return to Russia! It's tragic for us to be so quick to judge, but that's what happens naturally for millions of people that enter or pass through your country in your airports every day. First impressions truly are strong and lasting; airports should be staffed with friendly, helpful, competent people and facilities that accommodate travelers!!
Perhaps the more important - bigger picture - lesson: We can make make a huge difference in the day and mood of every single person that we encounter - for better or worse. Smile and treat people with respect especially if you're forced to deliver bad news from time to time by your job. We are all
ambassadors of our respective countries and really;
of the world!
ROMA
Finally, we landed in Rome and waited for our bags at the terminal... to no avail. We got passed around to 3 different desks before someone could finally tell us that our bags were still in Moscow but would arrive about 2 hours later - a nice exclamation point to the incompetence of Aeroflot Airlines. Luckily, our host and good friend in Rome (who we knew from Korea), Francesco, was patient enough to have spent his entire day trying to pick us up. He was super cool as always and finally got us to his house around 11 pm where we would find out that we had a whole own apartment in the basement of his parents' house! They stocked the fridge and cupboards for us and told us to feel at home. We had no problem taking them up on that offer!
We slept comfortably until 10 or 11 am every day that we were at their house. We would spend our days exploring the larger-than-life monuments and unbelievable beauty of the city. The Italian people have seemed to view every building as an artwork and a chance to display the greatness of the nation for centuries and so the Roman tourist map is littered with incredible sights and there is almost no way to get to them all even in a week. We certainly gave it our best shot though!
 |
| Government building right in central Roma. Every building, no matter when it's made, is created as a work of art. |
 |
| Hanging out at Fontana Trevi (or Trevi Fountain) with my big time ba-bay! :) |
 |
| Needing no introduction, Il Colosseo Roma. |
 |
| Fantastic interior of St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City. |
 |
| Castel Sant'Angelo just outside of Vatican City. |
 |
| Along the Tiber River which runs all through Rome and The Vatican. |
 |
| The famous Spanish Steps - shopping and social gathering cultural area. If you look carefully, you can see Sarah and I right in the middle of the picture.... doing the YMCA?? |
 |
| The ancient Roman Forum is a huge complex of ruined temples, basilicas, and arches. It was the ceremonial, legal, social, and business center of ancient Rome. |
If you remember back to the early days of this blog, we were lucky enough to have met Francesco and Omar - two Italian engineers temporarily working in Korea - during the first part of our stay in Daejeon. They were some of the first good friends I made in during my Asian adventure and they were more than gracious as our hosts and in Rome! Francesco's family repeatedly cooked dinners for us and even threw me a little birthday party! We were so lucky to have gotten to know these guys and I can't wait to cross paths again somewhere in the world!!
 |
| Broey with Francesco (left) and Omar (right) practicing their hug-five to enhance the previous Italy picture. Old pros here! |
 |
| A family get together with first homemade dinner in a loooooong time. They even brought a little cake for my birthday! :) in order left to right; me, Joe, Francesco Caruso, Mr. Caruso, Mrs. Caruso, Ana Caruso and Omar. I guess Sarah took this picture then. |
 |
| Our huge, fully stocked apartment the Caruso family gave us to use for as long as we wanted just outside of Rome. |
 |
| Old friends together again! Drinking (very strong) homemade herbal liquor at Omar's apartment near the city center, Rome. Sure hope these guys can make it to the wedding!! |
We bid a farewell from Omar, but brought Francesco along with us for the next leg of the trip. Destination: Cinque Terre (or the 'Five Towns'). Cinque Terre is a collection of tiny little towns built directly into the seaside cliffs and valleys along the north shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The area has been declared a national park which means that most kinds of development are not allowed. They are connected by walking paths, scenic hiking trails and an impressive train system that plows directly through the mountains along it's 5K shoreline. Since the towns have all been protected from modernization, they seem as though they are frozen in time; and so, exempt from the fast-paced, step-on-your-neighbor mentality that's thrived these past few decades. This place will make a photographer out of anyone!!
 |
| Riomaggiore. Like most of the area, built directly into the old fashioned hill-sides. |
 |
| Everything shuts down shortly after sunset, leaving a quiet and peaceful village that reminded me of an Italian version of 'Leave it to Beaver'. |
 |
| Just the guys on our walk over the beach port of Monterrosso; the western-most of the five towns. |
 |
| And with that, after 7 countries and 2 full months, we parted ways with Cousin Joe as he would head back to Rome with Francesco for his return flight to the US of A. I could never imagine a better '3rd wheel', brother!! |
 |
| Sarah and I stayed another night to enjoy a couple more of the towns. I think I'll call this shot, 'Vernazza Kitty'. |
 |
| Each town had just one main road decorated with family businesses that led to it's plaza and port for people to hang out in. This is Riomaggiore's port just before we would head to the train station. |
We had been in Italy for about 10 days which was enough to make us feel like moving on if we wanted to get everything done in our only 3 weeks of Europe. The next stop was set to be Interlaaken, Switzerland; however, we had been starting to get concerned. We knew that Switzerland was going to be expensive, but really didn't understand how true that would prove to be....
 |
On our train out of Cinque Terre and Italy.... but not to the destination we had planned when we got to the train station! I guess that's why it always pays to be flexible!..... Next stop, Nice - in the French Riviera!
|
No comments:
Post a Comment