Yes we Vati-CAN: Easter with the Pope

Relevant song title + great guitar playing

As you should've been able to gather by now, I've been in Rome the last week.
Easter was last Sunday.
Last Sunday was part of the last week.
Therefore, I was in Rome during Easter.
Rome is where the Vatican is located.
The Vatican is where the Pope and Catholicism are based.
Easter Sunday is a big deal in Christianity and it is celebrated at the Vatican.
I was there.
It was pretty great.

I realized I'd be in Rome during Easter about a month ago, and the crazy idea of, "what if I went to the Vatican on Easter?" popped in my head. It was nothing but a crazy idea until the night before, when I actually made plans to go with some people from the program.

Imagine this face burning into your eyes
when reading the "Very Lutheran" paragraph

Let me contextualize this a bit by saying that I am very, very protestant (i.e. not Catholic). To say I was brought up in the Lutheran church would be an understatement. My grandfather was a minister for over 50 years, and my aunt and great-grandfather also spent time as ministers. The rest of my maternal family has also been heavily involved in the church for many years. The answer to the question, "how Lutheran am I?" is "VERY LUTHERAN," flashing and blinking in all caps to the point where a hallucination of Martin Luther's face starts to appear between the flashes. (If you didn't know this about me, don't feel bad. I don't like to tell a lot of people)

Despite my obvious biases, I thought it'd be fun. Plus, Catholicism is close enough to Lutheranism that I feel comfortable participating in a lot of it.

Tickets to Easter Sunday mass were free, but you had to reserve them well in advance. People with a ticket could sit in a large area of seats that had been set up in front of the Vatican steps. Anyone else was welcome, but it would be standing room only. Since the plan came together late, we assumed we'd be amongst the crowd. It'd be crazy, but worth it.

I met up with the group at the lovely hour of 6:45 AM, knowing we'd have to get there early if we wanted a good seat. What made it worse is that Europe has Daylight Savings a couple weeks after America, so this year, it happened to land on Easter Sunday, which meant I had even less time to sleep. We stopped for a cappuccino and a croissant and then walked to the Vatican.

The line for the second round of security

We arrived about 8:00 and waited in a line in the long street that led to St. Peter's. Security was everywhere. I had brief, morbid thoughts about a terrorist attack here in the wake of Brussels, but I sincerely doubted security would let anything like that happen at such a high profile event. If anything, it was probably stricter now than it would've been otherwise.

There was only one entrance into St. Peter's plaza and our bags were checked before we went in. We were then shown to another line on the left side of the plaza, in and around the big columns. When we made our way through that line, we had to go through an airport-style security station, where they checked for any metal and X-rayed our bags.

"IT'S TOMMY
TROJAN!" I said
several times, but
no one laughed.

We got through security and, in trying to find a place to stand, were escorted into one of the seating areas. We didn't have tickets, but none of us said a word and there seemed to be no objection. I was happy we didn't have to stand for like 4 hours straight, but I was also shocked that we actually got seats. I thought we'd have to get there at 5:00 AM or something ridiculous like that to get so close. I even started to think it was a mistake. To go to the bathroom, you had to leave the seating area, which meant getting your ticket marked for re-entry by the Vatican's security guards, which, by the way, look like this----------------------------------------->
Since I didn't have a ticket, I just held it in, fearing I wouldn't be let back in if I left.

Our seats. Not bad, right?

The service started about 10:15. Content-wise, it was pretty much what you'd expect from an Easter Sunday service at any church, but on a massive scale and with a huge budget and the Pope.

One of the criticisms I have of the Catholicism is that its worship services are not very participatory. What I mean by that is it's a lot of watching and listening. You don't really get to do anything except for a couple musical responses and prayers. It seems more like I'm watching a performance than worshipping anything. Normally, this makes things dull, but in the context of being at the freaking Vatican, the performance-style worship works perfectly and adds to the spectacle.

The Pope led a procession out the Holy Door (yes, it's really called that) and around the altar, spreading incense before being escorted to a throne-like chair in the back, where he sat for a good portion of the service. He came out again to the altar during Communion, but otherwise remained in the chair. The service was led from a pulpit at the bottom of the staircase. We couldn't see it, but it was shown on the video monitor.

The Pope is the guy in gold in front of the man with red pants.

The crowd was enormous. I was close to the front in a seat, but behind the seating section, it was standing room only throughout all of Vatican City. It was absolutely packed around the fountains and down the street. It was the definition of a sea of people, and it very well might've been the biggest crowd I've ever seen anywhere.

A taste of the crowd

The crowd was also extremely international. I saw and heard Italians, fellow Americans, Germans, Koreans, Russians, and Chinese people sitting around us and flags from Spain and Latin and South America in the crowd behind us. It reminded me how truly wide-spread Catholicism is. You'd be hard-pressed to find many ethnic groups and nationalities that weren't represented.

The Church was obviously aware of this in planning the service. One of the coolest parts was the prayers, which were all read in all different languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Russian, Greek, and Chinese, while the rest of the service was in Latin or Italian. I absolutely loved this and it was so cool to see the Church trying to represent the diversity of its followers. The word "catholic" means "universal," so the Church seems be trying to live up to its name.

The music was amazing. Everyone they had sing at the pulpit had a beautiful voice. While the audience could respond or sing along, the singers they had were the main attraction. I got chills at least a couple times listening to some of their voices. I mean, you have to be really good to sing at the Vatican on Easter, right? The choir also sounded great, but some of its quality was lost because it wasn't well-mic'ed.

After the service was over, the Pope was escorted to his Popemobile (as it should be called) and rode through the crowd in pathways security had cleared. He rode up and down the crowd for a good 20-30 minutes, making the rounds twice. I wasn't near one of the clear pathways, but I was still able to see him really clearly. At closest, he was about 40-50 feet away from me, which is still a lot closer to a Pope than a lot of people have been.

The Pope at his closest to me. I cropped the picture, though, so he was a little farther away than it looks.

Pope Francis delivering his sermon. iPhones
don't zoom well.

Once he was done, he returned to the Basilica and disappeared for a few minutes. He then appeared on the top balcony of the Basilica and delivered a sermon. It was in Italian, so I didn't get everything, but I heard the words, "violenza,""terrorismo," and "Jesu'," as well as "Belgium" and the names of several countries where there had been violence, so it was about violence in the world, and he related it to Jesus' love at the end, I think. He had a calm, wise, and gentle voice. It sounded... papal, if that makes sense. He finished his speech to great applause and afterwards, the crowd slowly dispersed.

I'm so happy I decided to go. What was once a crazy idea turned out being one of the coolest experiences I've had. I feel like even the most die hard of atheists would enjoy it, just for the grand spectacle if nothing else.

And I may have been a heathen as a protestant going to Catholic mass with the Pope, but it's ok, because I made sure to represent us with a shirt I bought specifically for the purpose of wearing to the Vatican:

First Impressions of Rome

Setting the mood...

I can't believe this is only my 4th day in Italy. I've done so much it's felt like I've been here for at least a week, if not longer. Here's my first impressions and notes from my first few days in Rome:

Roman parking is creative, to say the least

-Romans can and will park anywhere: Romans are hilariously opportunistic behind the wheel. Parking turns into a game of trying to find a space wherever possible. This results in people parking right around the corner of an intersection, parking a car in the opposite direction of another on the same side of the street, or parking mere inches away from one another. I've also seen a line of cars parked in the center divide between lanes on a street. Someone I was with pointed out that a good portion of the cars have dents from being hit. 

-The stereotype of everyone riding motor scooters is accurate: They are all over the place. It's no joke.

-The size of all the buildings and monuments is ridiculous: This isn't just the churches (which you can read about here) or the Colosseum, but even the modern government buildings are huge. Texas, in its pride in being big, has nothing compared to Rome. I'm convinced the Romans don't construct anything small. Except...

-Everything is very compact: It's a paradox of Rome that the buildings are massive, but everything in and around them is small. Romans don't seem too concerned about space. The streets are all narrow. The widest I've seen had, I think, two lanes in either direction. The cars are also tiny (lots of Fiats and Smart Cars), and a lot of the businesses are holes in the wall. The city, aside from the main streets, is a network of small alleys instead of proper streets, which makes navigating way more difficult than a lot of other places I've been. There are also instances where you'll be walking down a small alley and you'll hear a horn honk and you turn around and there's a taxi or a truck right behind you that's trying to get through, so all the pedestrians have to move to the side and it rolls through with a couple inches to spare. This has happened several times, so I can only assume it's a common experience

Gelato is amazing

-The city is cheap if you don't eat at the Tourist traps: This is the biggest and most pleasant surprise about Rome. Sure, when you're near the Colosseum and you see a glitzy sit-down restaurant, it's going to cost you like €15-20 for a meal. However, I try to avoid tourist restaurants and in doing so, I end up spending €6-8 per meal, including drinks. What's also dangerous is that most gelato places only charge €2 for a small cup and two flavors. I've already had it 3 times, and yes, it is delicious and worth it.

-The city is surprisingly walkable: Maybe I'm just from LA, which is impossible to walk, but I thought a city of such size and age as Rome is would be more spread out. Everything in the center of town is a 30 minute walk max from everything else. This makes it easy to plow through landmarks, as there is always another one right around the corner from the one you just saw.

-You don't just get water at restaurants: Normally in America, when you order food at restaurants, they bring you water right away or give it to you free of charge. Though Roman tap water is perfectly good and safe to drink, they never serve it at restaurants. You have to buy a bottle.

-They don't care about graffiti unless it's along a major tourist route: I'm staying at a student apartment in the Trastevere neighborhood, which is southwest and across the river from the center of town. Every wall that could be graffitied, is. It's rampant here and also in the backstreets and alleys downtown. I'm not sure whether it's too rampant to do anything about it or nobody cares, but it's all over the place. However, the major streets and touristy areas all have spotless walls, so maybe it's a matter of emphasis.

-Paninis > regular sandwiches. Fight me if you disagree: Paninis are amazing and have become my lunch of choice. Every bar (coffee shop) has them and they're delicious and dirt cheap.

-Pretty much everyone smokes: It's impossible to walk anywhere without walking past at least a couple smokers, especially at night. It's what I imagine walking in 1950s New York was like. My favorite smoker was a guy who was duel wielding cigarettes, one in each hand. He may be slowly killing himself, but he's doing it in style.

Piazza Navona

-The city's 2000 year history mashes together: The best example of this is Piazza Navona, which is a Renaissance plaza built on top of the ruins of the ancient Roman stadium, which is now a tourist destination with upscale touristy restaurants, gift shops, and gelato bars everywhere. There are also streets you'll be walking down and there will be a random Roman ruin just sitting there. Once you get off the main streets, there are buildings that seem to be built off ruins of older ones. One part of a wall will look significantly older than the rest and other times, the first two floors will look old and the floors above will look much newer. 

-Most people speak some English: The first night I was here, I decided, probably against better judgment, to go out on my own in search of dinner. I went into a place and tried to order lasagna. All I know how to say in Italian right now is, "ciao" and "grazie," and you can't exactly order food with "hello" and "thank you." I stood there contemplating for a while before awkwardly pointing to the menu and saying "lasagna." The worker then asked if I wanted a drink. I couldn't understand him, so my mind reverted and I told him in Spanish that I needed a moment. He shot me a brief look of, "what the hell?" and then asked me if I spoke English. Though the English of a lot of people is broken, most of them understand enough for you to get your point across, though I feel like an arrogant, entitled American if I don't even try to speak Italian. Despite this,

-There's less of a culture shock than I thought there'd be: Maybe this is easier for me than others, but visiting Rome feels exactly like the times I've visited other cities. Places I've been like DC, New Orleans, and San Francisco are all markedly different than LA in their own way, and Rome feels like it has the same amount of difference. The cultural differences aren't as drastic as some people make them out to be. It's been a lot less culture "shock" and more of a culture "Hey, that's different. Alright."

Getting There is Much, Much Less Than Half the Fun

           Let's set the mood with some Black Keys.

            Whoever said “getting there is half the fun” is a filthy liar, or at least had a very different experience of travel. Here's how my weird day unfolded:

            4:35 AM (CA time)—I stayed up packing last night, so I ended up getting only 3 hours of sleep. Despite my best efforts to squeeze in a few extra minutes of sleep, I accepted my fate and woke up. I reluctantly got out of bed 5 minutes later, and, scrolling through facebook, learned of the terrorist attack in Brussels. I know the odds of me being involved in something like this, even if it did happen in Rome or Madrid when I'm there, are slim to none, but it was definitely an ominous note to start the day off on. 

           I made it to LAX in about an hour with a surprisingly reasonable amount of traffic. There were thankfully no lines at the airport. 

To my delight, it actually WAS sunny
in Philadelphia (It's Always Sunny in
Philadelphia is one of my favorite shows)

           8:45 AM--I sat next to one guy from the program on the flight, so I talked with him a little, but I knocked out for a good 3.5-4 hours of the flight. I was so tired that it came easily.

            1:30 CA time/4:30 PM Philadelphia time—Arrived in Philadelphia. Outside the exit, I met with a bunch of other people from the program and we walked from gate A6 or so to A18, which were a surprisingly large distance apart.

            4:45 PM (PA time)—Still walking to the new gate, I saw a woman in workout clothes jogging through the airport. Is it sad that this is the first thing on a list of “things I’ve never seen before” for this trip?

I immediately went in search of food. I got a crappy, overpriced slice of pizza and a chicken breast covered in sauce with a slice of cheese on top that could loosely be called "chicken parmigiana." Coming back, I dropped the chicken and saw $4.50 splatter on the floor along with that sauce. It was a tragedy. We left Philadelphia about 6:50 PM.

            7:40 PM PA time/12:40 AM Rome time—For the first time in years, I was served a free meal on a flight. It wasn't bad for what it was either.

Proof of the 2:15 turbulence, on the GPS
on the TV on the seat in front of me

2:15 AM Rome time—I managed to sleep for about an hour and a half, but woke up again because of an announcement about turbulence over the ocean. According to the GPS map on the screen in front of me, it was right over the place where the Titanic crashed, so it was a little eerie.

2:32 AM—I was definitely awake now. I had coughing lady to my right and snoring man behind me. I wasn't sure which one I wanted to be around less, since they were both making it hard to sleep. I really want to whip out my phone and check facebook and/or scroll through reddit to pass the time, but I couldn’t because I’m on a plane. #problems

3:50 AM—Just under halfway and it’s become really difficult to sleep. My mind says sleep, but every other part of my body wants to be awake, since I was really only awake for a few hours today (or yesterday. I dunno, time is weird). It’s harder too because comfort has begun to matter. I couldn’t fall asleep purely on tiredness, like I did on the first flight or even earlier in this one.

4:00 AM—The guy next to me needed to get out to use the bathroom, so I used this as an excuse to get up and walk a bit. It felt amazing. Spent 10 minutes just pacing up and down the aisle, moving my body in any way I could in such a small space. Unfortunately I think woke several people up in the process, including coughing lady and snoring man. Crap.

5:00 AM—It was less “sleeping” and more “closing my eyes and hoping to find a comfortable position” at this point. I gave up on sleeping and decided to do some writing instead. I also managed to freeze the TV screen in front of me, which had a map of where the plane was, so it no longer gave me this information, nor could I turn it off.

7:00 AM—Got a surprisingly refreshing sleep for a little over an hour. I woke up to a bright cabin and free continental breakfast. I feel pretty rested and a lot less terrible than I did when I fell asleep. They offered coffee, so I tried it. I honestly didn’t know it was possible to make coffee taste like literal garbage, but apparently it is. Like, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a worse cup of coffee, or even if such a concept is possible. I really wish I was exaggerating about this. Not even cream and sugar could save this steaming drink that tried to call itself "coffee."

8:15 AM—The guy sitting next to me finally opened the window for the first time 8 hours, so I got my first view of foreign waters, and I only caught glimpses of land a minute or two before we landed.

My first view, albeit a crappy one, of Italy from the plane

The first thing I noticed in the airport is just how much better than LAX it is. It’s clean, organized, and it feels relatively pleasant to be in, none of which can be said about LAX.

I walked through the airport and as I was about to go to the baggage claim, I had to go up to a window. A lady unenthusiastically stamped my passport and I walked right through. 

I was going to write a whole separate post about how traveling to Europe in the wake of a terrorist attack was, and make a big deal out of the heightened security and how customs took an especially long time and how the security was hyper-present and relate this all to the human condition and the world's political situation.

Nope.

At the baggage claim, I was talking to a couple people on the program and asked, "so when do we go through customs?" and they were like, "that WAS customs." I'd heard horror stories about customs taking hours and involving long lines and gigantic pains for everyone involved, so I was shocked at how quick and nonchalant everything was.

Even security seemed lax. I saw two security guards in the entire airport. I really thought security would be airtight with a major police presence and customs would be especially strict, but apparently not, at least not in the part of the airport I saw.
This was one of the weirdest days of my life, both because of that and the things time does to you. I was only awake about 8-9 hours out of what was essentially a 16-hour day because of the 8 hour time difference between California and Rome.

So the story ends a little anti-climactically. I've been here a full afternoon and evening now, but I need more time to write something interesting about it, so I'll leave it here.
 In one of the two words I know in Italian, Ciao.

Hey People, I'm Traveling. This is a Blog. I Will Write in This Blog*

           Since travelogues that aren’t continued after a week seem to be all the rage, here’s mine. I actually might keep it up though because I need an excuse to write and I also might repurpose it as a dumping ground for my writing at some point, or possibly during the trip. I dunno, we’ll see. I’ve been thinking of doing that for a while now.

First, let's set the mood. Why not introduce people to good music along the way?          

Anyway, to the point:

Holy shit.

That’s all I can really say right now. I've never left the country before, and tomorrow I leave for Europe for 3 months.

In lieu of actual vacation pictures, here's a stupid
thing I made a couple months ago to annoy a friend

            I don’t know how many times I’ve told people, “I’ll be spending 5 weeks in Rome and 5 weeks in Madrid and then exploring for a week after. I’m really looking forward to it. Should be a lot of fun,” but it’s become the mechanical response to any questions I’ve been asked about it over the last few months. I’m glad people care, but it’s also frustrating because I can’t really tell them anything because I haven't done anything yet. Conversations turn into me reciting my itinerary and subsequently getting barraged with new information about these locations. I truly appreciate the new information, but I feel the conversations are one-sided because I don't have anything to reply with other than stuff like, "wow, that sounds cool. I'll have to check it out."

            Next time you see me, I'm sure I’ll actually be able to give you something of substance.

            It’s a lot to take in. I’m still recovering from the insanity that was Winter Quarter at UC Davis and I don’t know if it’s really hit me yet. In all honesty, what I want most is to lay around my house or my apartment for a few days and not have to stress about anything. The planning will be worth it, but it's also a lot of stress.
           As excited as I am, I'm also nervous. I don't know what to expect and leaving for 3 months to a place I've never been with people I've never met is a major breach of my comfort zone, no matter how good of an experience I know it'll be.

            I leave LAX tomorrow at 8:45 AM and arrive in Rome Wednesday at 8:15 AM local time. So I'm going to be in transit for an entire day (though a lot of that is time difference). Of the things I'm looking forward to, this is not one of them. Since I imagine extreme levels of boredom tomorrow, I'll try and throw something entertaining together.
            I'll try to keep this updated as I can, though I may not post about it on social media unless I think it's really good. I hope at least some of you follow along.

            *Good God that title was terrible. It's better than those cheesy, "A new chapter of my life" or "the beginning of an adventure" type titles though, right? I want to avoid cheesy, cliché, and overly-sentimental crap at all costs while I'm doing this because that all pisses me off to no end.