No cliches please

Greetings from Morocco! Oh no. Wait. That's not true. I am actually in Vienna. So check this out. Apparently BYU decided about a week and a half ago that Morocco was too dangerous for us to visit, so they had us go to Vienna instead. Vienna's great and all, don't get me wrong. But here is what I don't get. For the past two and a half years, Northern Africa and the Middle East have undergone multiple revolutions, and some of the countries are still plagued by civil war. But only now, two weeks before we are set to go, does BYU have an issue with that. Why they didn't have a problem with that several months ago, I just do not understand. Let me fill you all in on Rome now.

Monday was our day at the Forum and the Colloseum. Some random dude from Baltimore named Brent was working as a tour guide, and he asked us if we wanted a guided tour of the Forum. We said yes, so for 20 euro we got a guided tour of the Forum, and we got tickets to the Colloseum, so we did not have to wait in the forever long line. May God bless Brent because that line for the Colloseum was ridiculous, and we just got to walk right in.

Wednesday a couple of us went to the beach in Sorrento. For those of you unfamiliar with your mythological history, that is the place where Hercules buried a nymph. Random trivial information for the day. We had to wake up at 4:30 to catch the bus at 5:40. I don't know how many of you have experienced a foreign beach, so allow me to share my impressions with you. Bikinis and speedos are encouraged, no matter the age, shape or size. Bottoms are required, but tops? Tops are optional. Now you may be asking yourselves, But Andrew, why do you say that? Well I will be more than happy to elaborate. As we walked onto the beach, I noticed that there were an overwhelming majority of men in speedos. That kind of threw me off because a speedo looks just like a bikini bottom, and therefore, from a distance, it is possible to confuse a man wearing a speedo with a topless woman. However, there was one person lying down wearing nothing but a bottom that I just assumed to be a man because no woman would be lying topless on a public beach. Wrong. I realized that this person was indeed a woman when I walked past her. She also happened to be a rather attractive woman. I always thought it was just old people that would get naked at beaches. Speaking of which, I have never seen so many older women in bikinis. Usually women in the states switch back to one pieces after a certain age, but in Italy they will rock that bikini well into their sixties and seventies. Anyway, enough about women and their choice of clothing or lack thereof. For lunch, we got a private boat to take us to a different beach and eat at the restaurant that was there. Jealous yet? There were a bunch of booths set up for tours, and we were talking with one of the women there about what to do, and she said she had a friend who owned a restaurant on a different beach. We thought that sounded great, so she called him up, and he came and picked us up and took us to his restaurant. It was sweet. He even offered us complementary shots, which of course we politely refused. We ended up getting back to our hotel in Rome at about midnight.
Thursday was our day in the Vatican. The entire group did a guided tour. Our guide was a small, blonde Italian woman who was the very definition of spitfire. She was great. The Vatican is freaking crazy. I can't imagine how much it is worth. There was a lot of original art there painted on the walls, so that was pretty cool. We went to St. Peter's as well. I don't know which is crazier, the Vatican or St. Peter's. You just have to see it for yourself to understand. I did see Michelangelo's Pieta. It's incredible, but a lot smaller than I imagined.

Friday was our last day in Rome. We just took it easy because we had pretty much seen everything we wanted to see, and we were just so burnt out. The longer I am on this trip, the easier it is to burn out. I haven't gone this hard since I was on the mission. Blitzing through countries like this really takes its toll. Kinda weird to think that I only have about 10 days left. Vienna has a really classy feel to it. The language barrier is the hardest here of all. At least with French and Italian, there were some similarities with Spanish and English, but German is in its own category. I guess opera and prancing ponies are the things to check out here. No joke, they actually have ballerina horses here. Not exactly my cup of tea, but hey, when in Rome, right?