2 weeks down. 17 weeks to go.

Day 15. After 2 weeks...the adventure continues. I would say that the last few days have been some of the most relaxing so far, and though not nearly as many sights, equally if not more enjoyable.

Rome, Italy (cont.)
Day 3. After hitting the main sights in Rome pretty hard the first two days, we took day 3 considerably slower. Waking up a bit later, we walked through the actual city encountering a castle, the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, and The Spanish Steps. The Castle was pretty sweet. Drew made the appropriate comment that it looked sorta like Helm's Deep, just without the mountain behind it. It was built progressively by the Pope(s) interestingly enough. During the time of the Papal States, the Pope would use this castle to protect its borders. I thought it oddly ironic that the Catholic Church participated in a significant amount of warfare. Following this sight, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain, which was cool, though not nearly as big of a deal as it has been given off to be. There were these newlyweds on their honeymoon that Drew got to take a picture for though. The Pantheon, I'm sad to say was closed. But we did stand in this line to look through the crack in the door, heh. It looked like it would be pretty awesome on the inside though. Finally, we made it to the Spanish Steps were we took some pictures and had gelato on the steps. Thus ended our leisurely stroll through the city of Rome.

Pompeii, Italy. This was my favorite place up to this point. I mean, c'mon...an entire city brought to its demise by a volcano, and so amazingly preserved (people included)...how much better does it get? So the night before we decided to take a day trip to either Pompeii or Naples, and this girl we had met, Anna (who is an Aussie traveling through Europe for 12 weeks for her graphic design job!), was going to Pompeii, so we went with her. And it was sooo much bigger than I thought it would be! We walked almost around the whole thing, and saw ruins such as the basilica, temples to Apollo and Venus, stadiums, ampitheaters, and preserved victims of the volcanic eruption! That was a little creepy, no doubt, but it was so much cooler than looking at those mummified Popes. Following this incredible visit, we had some lemonade from these mammoth lemons and headed to Naples.

Naples, Italy. If there was ever a city that was the opposite of what I thought it would be...it is this one. Hearing that it was such a tourist place, I did not expect how dirty the city would be. Anna wanted to go to the beach, which Drew and I had no problem agreeing to, so we walked forever down the coast, which was mostly a marina for cargo ships and cruise ships. Along this walk we encountered numerous homeless sleeping near the sea, including this roasted cat on the sidewalk. This was the first time we had really seen an abundant homeless population in Europe, and my heart fell. Not only for the people in Naples, but for the homeless back home in Tulsa that I wouldn't get to help during this crazy time of transition with the YMCA moving and all. Anyhoo, we made it to the "beach," which turned out to be a bunch of big rocks on the coast that people were sitting on. Then the Anna lost her shoes to the great abyss...unfortunate. She ended up just riding in the train all the way back to Rome in her bare feet, refusing Drew's chivalry.

Florence, Italy. Our hostel here was way on the outskirts of the city, but in its own park/foresty area, which allowed for some nice quiet walks and lots of thinking/discussion and frisbee time. The Duomo area, which is the central part of the city, was pretty cool. There was one of the world's largest cathedrals, which had this big 'ole dome, the Duomo, which we scaled. The journey up the 432 steps was rough and congested with people, but the sight at the top was incredible. We also saw the baptistry, where Dante was baptized, and Dante's house...be proud Mrs. Pile. On the second day, we leisurely strolled through the city and went shopping, major market places in Florence, then at like 7pm my dad's texts came in, really delayed for some reason telling us to check out this historic bridge. So we did, and it was incredible. We got there right as the sun was setting, so both Drew and I have like 30-50 photos each of the bridge and the sunset.

Cinque Terre. Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. On the advice of Calley, Drew's cousin for those who have not been reading, we took a day trip to Cinque Terre, which after the unfortunate train events that occured, ended up in like a 2 1/2 hour stay, but it was still amazing. Essentially, Cinque Terre consists of these 5 villages along the coast of Italy, that are dazzling. So we spent the little time there at the beach, finding colorful rocks, swimming, and relaxing. Then we hurried back to catch our night train to Switzerland.

Night Train from Italy to Switzerland. This deserves its own paragraph. A) We paid extra for the sleeper coach, excellent idea. B) The host was super nice...100x nicer than the first one we had. C) We had the opportunity to share our faith with our roommates. This guy and girl, Gabriel and Jordan, respectively, were couch surfing there way through Europe, which including sometimes sleeping at the beach. Jordan was from Canada, and had gone to a "religious" school, she called it, and didn't really enjoy how Christians told her she was bad and going to hell. Gabriel was this guy from small town Germany, who I guess had done like foreign exchange at Jordan's school in Canada, and now they were just hanging out enjoying Europe together. Anyway, we ended up having this like 2 1/2 hour conversation about religion and our faith. It was a really cool opportunity that just plain got me excited. It was cool to see Gabriel's face perk up everytime one of us said something he thought was valid. Be praying for them that the seed we planted landed on fertile soil.

Grindelwald, Switzerland. So you know how I said Pompeii was my favorite up till that point? Well, here is where that changed. Drew hardly got any sleep on the train, because he offered to take the top bunk, which was crazy hot, so when we got to our hostel, which is in the Swiss Alps, he took a nap...which left me to explore and catch the incredible views. First off, the cool air was a delight compared to the hot sun we had been encountering in Italy. Secondly, I could've satt and looked at the mountains all day...well, i guess we did that anyways. So while Drew was napping, I had like 4 hours where I just sat on this super comphy lawn chair overlooking the city and at eye-level snow-capped mountains writing in my journal and reading the Bible/praying. It was an incredibly refreshing morning, which I suppose any morning is when spent soaking up God and all His splendor. After Drew got up, we decided today would be just a chill day, so we walked through the town a little bit...got some lunch and chocolate ;). And then later we went to an outdoor pool and laid out on the soft, brilliantly green grass. Dinner was not as good as one would hope, but the view makes up for it. Tomorrow will hopefully bring an incredible day, we'll see what happens!

Uganda in less than a week!!!

Peace and Love,
Joshua