Rome and More

Shana Tovah Everyone,
Sorry for not writing for ages…things here are pretty busy. I’m now in my fourth week of classes and have my first test tomorrow. Ahhhh! Things are starting to go by pretty quickly, so before I forget what I did here’s a little update…
The last Friday in September I went with Andrew for a day to El Escorial – a monastery and palace about an hour out of Madrid. It was incredibly interesting and was pretty much like a museum inside. A lot of Spanish royalty are also buried there. The architecture of the building is fantastic – overall a wonderful daytrip from Madrid. That night I went to Shabbat services at (I think) the only synagogue in Madrid…that happens to be pretty close to my house. There were Sephardic services and then a free dinner for the younger people. I met some Jewish Americans a few days before that when I bought my High Holiday tickets. One guy is from Piedmont! Small world!
That Sunday I ventured to a bullfight. While pretty brutal and gruesome, I actually really enjoyed watching it. There was one older man there, probably 90 years old; who I’m sure has not missed a bullfight for at least half a century. He stood next to us and played his harmonica the whole time. At the end of the fight, I asked to take a picture with him. He obliged and asked me which country I was from. When I said Los Estados Unidos he started playing “America” on his harmonica and vigorously began listing off famous Americans in this order: George Bush, Obama, McCain, Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Judy Garland. I laughed…pretty hard – and got a good picture out of it that you can see in the Madrid 2 album.
The next day was my birthday, and after 6.5 hours of class I went to the bus station to pick up my friend Ariel who was visiting from her studies abroad in Tel Aviv. I had to run home to make the Rosh Hashana services that night, which lasted a good 25 minutes. Since I told Sebi I didn’t need dinner that night (thinking that the services would last a few hours), I met up with my friends at the famous and ever popular tapas bar El Tigre. We had a few drinks and tapas and then went to this bar that is made to look like a cave…where drinks come down from the stalactites! Since it was my birthday, they gave our party a free bottle of Cava! A fun night for sure.
For the rest of the week, I prepped for my trip to Rome, which I left for on Thursday afternoon (Oct 2). I flew straight to Fiumicino Airport, and took the train to Termini station, where I took the metro to my hostel. In my room there were two Canadians (who REALLY spoke like Canadians) and a Spanish girl (who I got to speak to in Spanish). On Friday morning I decided to take a walk in the morning before I met my friends studying there in the afternoon. I walked about 10 minutes and ended up at the Coliseum…so I went in and walked around, as well as over to the Roman Forum and Palatine to see all the ruins. That was pretty sweet.
In the afternoon I went to meet my friend Julie, who lives right near the Vatican. We walked around that area and then into “downtown” Rome where we saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and then went to go see a movie in English. That night we went to a nice neighborhood and ate at this bar where you order a drink and have access to a buffet of appetizers. Of course I had a blast.
Saturday morning I met Julie and my other friend Claire at the Vatican and we were going to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel in the morning, but the line was way too long. We walked over to St. Peter’s Square and saw a massive gathering of people…who were waiting to see the pope drive by. We waited. We watched. We saw Mr. Benedict himself. During that time, it started raining and hailing. I had to buy a big red touristy poncho from guy on the street. I think pictures of that will come soon. We then went to the old Jewish Ghetto in Rome just in time to see Shabbat services get out. We walked around the Jewish quarter, but since it was Shabbat, nothing was open…it was still cool to see, though. We walked back and it started pouring again…but this time there was no line for the museum…so we went in to see the Sistine Chapel – boom!
Later that evening we went out to a really authentic Italian restaurant…what a great meal! After, we went to this plaza to get gelato and there was this hilarious street performer who was just making fun of people in the crowd the whole time. It was pretty frickin sweet. Sunday morning I flew back to Madrid with a connection in Milan. Now back in Madrid I’ve gotta finally study for my test. It’s 10pm. Yikes.
Looking ahead…I’m going to Paris the 16-19th…and then I just booked hotels for my trip to southern Spain/Gibraltar/Morocco the 23-26th. I hope to go to London Oct 30-Nov 2, but we’ll see. And then Israel for December 14-21 I still have to book. How busy, but fun!
I hope everyone has a meaningful Yom Kippur…and keep it real for the security guards in my family.

PICTURES:

End of Madrid 1 Album (Bullfight):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277900&l=6f3bd&id=3624742

Madrid 2 Album (My Birthday):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2285358&l=7d43a&id=3624742

Rome 1 Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286414&l=8406b&id=3624742

Rome 2 Album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286431&l=8abd5&id=3624742