the States: colorado: mt crested butte

My flight from Chicago to Colorado Springs was delayed by nearly two hours, argh. At least I had just one flight, I didn't have to worry about a connection. The airport in Colorado Springs is fairly small, it didn't take long for me to get through. Thankfully they have free wifi, (I'm not sure what I would've done without it,) so it was easy to order an uber to take me to the place to pick up my rental car. (Yes, I could've rented from the airport, but the fees are higher, which I find ridiculous - especially since they get sll the cars from the same places, give or take.)

Picking up the rental car in the city was annoying, since the guy insisted I give two American phone numbers, even though I was using an American credit card and Indiana drivers license. He insisted, something about the possibility of needing to reach me, even though that would never happen. I had to give my home phone number (which is rarely, if ever, actually answered by a human being,) and the phone number of my first host in Colorado. Argh. I should've made up random phone numbers.

When my friends Matt and Anita (friends from when we all lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen; those friendships last a lifetime no matter where we are) moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, they posted pictures of their hiking routes, (and surrounding natural beauty everywhere they looked,) I immediately knew I wanted to visit. When I found out they were moving to New Zealand in the middle of this US summer, I knew my chances to visit would be limited. The chance to see them in Crested Butte was one of the reasons I came back to the States this summer.

The drive from Colorado Springs to Crested Butte was beautiful. There were valleys and mountains and curving roads and ranches and more. There were quite a few places I was tempted to pull over the car and take photos, but that would've made the drive last even longer than the four hours it was supposed to take.

The weather wasn't great, and several times I could tell the clouds were blocking even more stunning views.The best part of the weather not being so great was the giant rainbow that came out just a few minutes before I got to Crested Butte.

I could see it in my rearview mirror, it took up the whole mirror at one point. I did pull over and take a photo of that, but I"m pretty sure the photo doesn't didn't do it justice.

Anita and Matt actually lived in Mt Crested Butte, which is the ski resort area just above Crested Butte. Basically this means they had ski lifts in their backyard.

I arrived around 1900, they helped me move the car to the free parking lot, and bring my stuff up to their flat. I got to meet their dog Oli, who has all kinds of energy and loves to play. Except for taking Oli for a walk, we stayed inside the rest of the evening.

I was actually cold, which was quite a change from the last week and some in the Midwest. I'd completely forgotten that Mt Crested Butte sits at 9000 some feet, so it's always a bit colder. In my head I always equate summer with heat, which was definitely not the case.

It was really nice to sit around and have a catch up with people I've known for years. I hadn't seen Matt since I lived in Garmisch, and I hadn't seen Anita since the summer of 2014 I think. Heaps has happened to all of us since then. Dinner was homemade by Anita, a slow cooked meal. YUM.

I slept on the pull out couch, and slept well. Oli woke me up around 0600 by making sure I was still alive (she gets really close to your face, which is a bit creepy unless you've been warned ahead of time,) before going for her morning walk. I officially woke up around 0800, I think.

Breakfast was a smoothie, yum. Then all three of us got hiking stuff ready, and were out the door a wee bit later than intended, but oh well. They'd given me options for hiking trails, but since I didn't know anything about the trails, I said I just wanted pretty views. They chose a trail called Painter Boy, which ended up being amazing.

I basically took pictures every thirty seconds or so, at least that's how it felt. Every time I turned my head I thought 'oh wow' to myself. If you live surrounded by this beauty all the time do you ever take it for granted? I hope not. We walked through aspen groves, through fields, and more. I got to see mountains in the distance, wildflowers, the 'eyes' on aspen trunks, and more. Matt and Anita seemed to know the names of everything.

If the trail had been more than double the length I would've been a happy camper. Oli seems to like being in photos, so more than a few times I got out the camera she would sit and pose, it was quite funny.

During the hike sometimes the three of us chatted, and sometimes we stayed quiet. I really enjoyed not hearing the sounds of modern human life. That is, I loved hearing birds and the wind, not cars and music. It was a great few hours.

We got back to the flat in time to decide we were hungry.

When they asked me what kind of food I wanted I said I'd be happy with anything, but if I had to choose, it would be Indian/Asian. (Yes, I know, Asian food is not just one type.) They were happy with this, as they knew of an Indian/Thai place that their other friends probably wouldn't want to visit. (I like spicy food, many people don't.)

The food was good, and plenty hot, but not in the way I think of Indian hot. It was hot, but not the kind that sticks with you and has you breathing fire hours later.

From there we walked the main street of Crested Butte. It is not a big town, and the downtown area basically consists of one street. The other streets are nearly all residential, there isn't much to the town. There are shops selling everything from outdoor gear to Turkish rugs. Why would anyone come to Crested Butte to buy a Turkish rug?

I gave in to temptation and ended up buying ice cream. Basil black raspberry or something along those lines. Not bad. Matt almost bought mini donuts, but didn't want to wait in the queue. We also stopped at the grocery store, where I might have gone a little overboard by buying chewy chips ahoy cookies, tortilla chips and hummus, yogurt, and ice cream.

Instead of going home, we drove out the other side of Mt Crested Butte, following the road to another valley area. Another set of 'oh my goodness, WOW' moments. The clouds were what Anita called "moody," and were rolling through really fast. I could see the colours of the layers of the mountains, the green of the trees and grass, the colours of all the wildflowers, etc... If there had been a trailhead there, I would've been gone for days.

Unfortunately, the moody clouds brought rain all too fast, so we hopped back in the car and drove home.

The rest of the evening was spent continuing to chat about anything and everything. It's nice to have relationships that grow up: that is, we met when there was a lot of partying and not much responsibility; now we're 'adults' and are aware of a whole lot more. Of course there was reminiscing about events in Garmisch, and we were all thankful social media did not exist back then. What happens in GaP stays in GaP.

The next morning we had smoothies again, then hopped in the car. Anita and Matt were paying attention to the weather, and knew we'd probably only have hiking weather in the morning, so we had to get going.

I have no idea how long the drive was, but it was gorgeous. They pulled into a National Park (or is it a forest? I don't know.) and found the parking lot. This trail was called Three Lakes, for obvious reasons.

The first lake was called Lost Lake. It definitely wasn't lost, nor were we. Maybe the person who named it was lost? I have no idea.

It had clear water, and since there was no wind at the moment I was able to take a couple photos with great reflections of the mountains behind the lake. Oli really wanted to go in the water, but settled for posing for a photo with us instead.

To continue on the trail we had to cross a bunch of logs, I was a bit worried about falling. I'm not known for my great levels of balance. I survived! The next nifty spot was a waterfall. There wasn't a lot of water, but when we looked up we could see that it actually started pretty high up. Beautiful. If we'd been sure the weather would hold out for longer we probably would've climbed up the waterfall a bit higher. 

From there we crossed on a sort of plateau-weg, basically a flat trail section across one part of a mountain. The views of the last lake we'd see were amazing from here. If this area of Colorado isn't heaven, it's pretty close.

The second lake on the trail was called Dollar Lake. It wasn't big, but was still pretty. The fish were hopping, and Matt wished he'd remembered his fishing pole. I was okay with not standing around for too long, because there were heaps of mozzies too.

The last lake was apparently not an actual lake. At least, that's how I understood it. It was Lost Lake Slough, which means it is the drainage for Lost Lake. Except that the way I saw it, it was a completely separate body of water. Just as gorgous as everything else I'd seen on this trail, of course. More moody clouds made for some pretty photos.

The trail ended all too soon, but the weather was visibly coming in so we hopped in the car and drove home. I'm sooo jealous Matt and Anita have been surrounded by so much beauty. 

Again, after hiking we were hungry. Instead of going down the mountain to the town of Crested Butte we simply walked out the door and around the corner to a burger place. They were huge, I was proud of myself for cleaning my plate.

Even though we had food for dinner, none of us was hungry at any point during the evening. Well, not for a meal anywho. I ate more than half the bag of chewy chips ahoy cookies, hee hee.

The next morning it was time for me to go. I was sad to say goodbye, but I know I'll see them again, hopefully next time in New Zealand!!

I wouldn't mind returning to the Crested Butte area of Colorado, not at all. 

the States: illinois: chicago and the burbs

The start to this time in Chicago was a bit more stressful than usual, what with Kelley's phone needing to be dealt with immediately. After she and I came back from Indiana, we talked with Jon and figured out what we do that evening and how to do it.

Fortunately, there was an Apple store not too far away, so that was the first stop of the evening. It being an Apple store it was also a bit of a playland for lots of adults. (Side note: these stores turn into total chaos when a new iPhone version comes out, do NOT go shopping for anything Apple during that time.)

Kelley was told she would be called soon, and she needed to show up within 15 minutes of the call. We also needed to do some grocery shopping, and that was too far away to guarantee getting back within 15 minutes. So Jon and I went off to do the shopping at Walmart while Kelley waited in the Apple store.

Grocery shopping with a list of items needed by Kelley at work is an adventure. Normally I'm not a fan of places like Walmart, but her list was so varied that this is one of the few places that has everything on the list. Plain Greek yogurt, coloured aquarium rocks, vegetable oil, bird seed, etc... It was fun, and we cleaned out the plain Greek yogurt section.

We got back to pick up Kelley with perfect timing, only having to wait about 10 minutes. From there the two of them picked up dinner (I was still full from my Fair Oaks stop earlier in the day,) and we drove home.

The next day I did a whole lot of nothing. When Jon and Kelley left for work (at different times,) I was either still asleep or on the couch watching a marathon of Law & Order: SVU. When they came home, I was on the couch, still watching episodes. Cable TV is great.

Somehow, I managed to do the same thing two days in a row. I'm sure whateva show I was watching was different, but I was still sitting on the couch much of the day. Now I'm fully aware of how it is sooooo easy to gain weight in the States. It's a lot harder to be active, to move around. It's a lot easier to sit around and not do much of anything.

On the 8^th of July I decided I should actually do something, or see something. At some point I'd searched on a travel app and found that there is a cafe named after me in Chicago, so that seemed like something I should do.

I went with Kelley to work, then hopped on a metra train from there. When I use the name Chicago, I'm referring to the city, and usually to the suburbs as well. It's a HUGE area. Only people from this area, when talking to other people from this area, make the distinction as to which suburb or neighborhood they're talking about.

I could've taken a train from their suburb, but the timing was far less convenient. About an hour later I got off the train at Clybourn station, and started walking. (Google maps told me I could catch buses from the metra station, but I wanted to walk.) It took me a while, but I got to Eva's Cafe easily enough.

I wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be. Other than the name on the sign out front, there wasn't anything with 'my' name on it. No cups as far as I could see. After asking how it was made, my chai latte came in a paper cup with a generic logo, not an Eva's Cafe logo. Darnit. While I was waiting I asked how the name is pronounced, and found out that the owner says it the same way I do, but most people in the shop say it with a long E sound, because that's what Americans do. Argh.

After my drink I kept walking, and made my way to downtown Chicago. I aimed toward Lakeshore Drive, one of the most identifiable parts of the city.

There are tiny beaches there, but I'm glad I hadn't brought my bikini because the place was super packed. How is that fun for anyone? I've been on crowded beaches before, but at least the beach itself is big, or has something else going for it. This was just small, and crowded. I wouldn't even have been able to lay down and soak up sun!

There is a road along the lake, (Lakeshore Drive,) and there is a path along the road. The path is for walking, running, cycling, etc... That's where I walked. My original plan had been to follow the path to Navy Pier, but I didn't leave myself enough time.

While I was walking I noticed at least one group of people I'm assuming were a bachelorette party group.

Instead of walking out to Navy Pier, I walked under an underpass. There was a sign under there, something about creating or building a new Chicago. I like this Chicago well enough thanks, no need to change it.

At this point I realized I would be cutting it really close on time to make the train I wanted. In other words, uh oh. I walked quickly, but it ended up not being quite fast enough. I shouldn't have taken so long in 'my' cafe.

Downtown Chicago is a land of skyscrapers, the skyline is on many a postcard or photo. There is a river running through this part of the city, which is turned green every year on the 17^th of March, and was turned blue after the Cubs won the World Series of baseball. There are shops and cafes and offices and construction.

I ended up missing the train I wanted by just minutes, so I found another that would get me close to home. (I'd originally planned to go back to Kelley's work.) Thankfully, that train ran on time and there were no delays in route. Kelley picked me up at the station, it didn't take long to get home.

That evening we went out with friends of Kelley and Jon to the neighboring town of Libertyville. The food was pretty good, but I still have a hard time finding a small taco to be worth $5. Oh well, I'm glad I went out with them. After eating they dropped me off at home and went to a microbrewery with fun sounding beers. I was exhausted, (doing very little somehow managed to exhaust me,) and since I couldn't have any of the beers, I opted out.

The next day we all took our time getting moving, just because we could. Eventually we got ourselves together, and started the day with Portillo's for lunch. I know I've said previously that I don't like to support national chains, but this one I do support because it started in Chicago. Kelley spent some of her younger years near the very first Portillo's. There are franchises in other states now, but it is still seen as a Chicago place. Despite being crowded most of the time, everything is always efficient, and you never have to wait long to get your food. Obviously I didn't need the lemon cake shake, but it was soooo good.

After lunch we drove to another suburb called Bartlett. Not too long ago I'd seen a picture online of a Hindu temple near Chicago, and the photo was beautiful. I wanted to see this temple for myself, Kelley and Jon were curious as well. It's always good to be a tourist and get to know your own area a little better.

Go figure, we visited the temple over a weekend that was a holiday for this temple. Kelley had looked online and seen that there would be services all day, so we hadn't expected to be able to go inside. We didn't realize that would be police managing traffic on the streets nearby, and the need for parking far enough away to require a series of shuttle buses!

After going through the temple we chatted with someone who told us as many as 15,000 people were expected each day of the weekend. Wow.

The temple is gorgeous. There is a gate near the front, with heaps of carvings, with a couple elephants carved out and standing in front of the gate. This isn't the kind of gate you drive through, it is the kind of gate you walk through to enter temple grounds. Not too far behind the gate was a long fountain with blue water.

Behind the fountain was the actual temple itself. More beauty, heaps of it. The man we talked to afterward said the whole thing had actually been made in India, then shipped here in 44,000 pieces.

I'm amazed it was all put together this well after being shipped so far. The entire building was carved with really intricate designs.

The visitors center is next door, this is where we found out we could go in the temple. I had to borrow a wraparound skirt, as my dress wasn't long enough. We took off our shoes (there were several places for all the shoes that had to be taken off,) and went downstairs into a tunnel that came up into the inside of the temple.

The inside of the temple was just as amazing as the outside. It wasn't big, but the carving everywhere was stunning.

The ceiling itself was a series of mini cupolas, each carved with a different design, with the center one being the biggest and most intricate. Along the edges were places for different Gods. There were columns every so often, holding up the roof I assume. In front was a GIANT display of some of the offerings brought by pilgrims over the weekend. A buffet for the Gods I suppose.

Obviously, I'm not Hindu, or Indian or Pakistani so I wasn't wearing a sari, but it felt as though nearly everyone there was. Such beauty and colour in that clothing.

Getting out of the visitors center was easy enough, but figuring out how to get to the area for the shuttle bus involved going back through the visitors center, all the way to the other end of the building on a different level. While making this walk we passed the cafeteria, where we could've had a lassi or other yummy food.

The exit at the back of the building brought us to the sidewalk where a couple volunteers were directing traffic (before parking in the lots where shuttle buses picked up, nearly everyone drove around the temple area first,) to keep accidents from happening. Given the number of people there, I was thrilled to have the volunteers. It was kinda funny to watch them yell at someone who felt he could cross the street when he felt like it instead of waiting like the rest of us.

We hopped on the shuttle bus, which took us to near where we were parked. This was actually at a nearby high school, and the shuttle buses were school buses! In other words, the holiday weekend for this temple was a really big deal, and took a LOT to organize and support.

After that we went home. Later in the day we went grocery shopping, which I always love to do.

That night I reread the directions for the application for my Russian work visa and realized I needed a blood HIV test, not an oral swab. This was not a fun realization, since it happened in the evening, and I had no idea how to go about doing this. Kelley gave me a suggestion, and I thought I had it sorted to happen the next day.

Monday I went with Kelley to work again, then walked to the place I thought I could get my test done. It turned out, they needed a doctor's order to do this test. Of course, I didn't have this kind of order. Since I don't live in the States, I don't have a doctor, let alone the ability to get an order. Argh.

The front desk manager felt sorry for me, and let me use the phone. I tried calling family members, hoping they could somehow help me out, but the American medical system is beyond ridiculous. I walked back to the library, where Kelley set me up with one of the reference librarians, and lent me her phone.

After calling a gazillion numbers (and dealing with waaaaay too many of those stupid automated menus which never had the option I wanted,) I finally figured out where to go.

I had to wait for the next metra train, but eventually took that and two buses to get to the medical clinic. At the clinic my blood test was done really fast, yay! From there I walked to Union train station, not as short a walk as I'd originally thought, whoops. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long for a train going home.

The train brought me home, the walk from the train station wasn't long. It was a stressful day, and my last in Chicago, booo.

The next morning Jon drove me to the airport, which was amazing. Of course, I found out my flight had been delayed, argh.

I will always be happy to come back to Chicago and the surrounding area.

indiana: kokomo

After all the transit time of the past several days, it was really nice to sit and relax. Kelley's parents are fantastic, and they've always made me feel at home each time I've been able to visit. As soon as Kelley said she and Jon would be in Kokomo that weekend I was happy to join them.

I arrived mid afternoon July 3^rd. To get there I had to drive from Chicago, which was easy enough. (Thank goodness I wrote down the directions from google maps instead of just hoping my phone would keep the map.)

Since I knew ahead of time that I'd be in Kokomo over this weekend, I had scheduled an HIV test needed for the application for my Russian work visa. I did this, which only took 20 minutes, then drove to Chez McCoy.

It felt like coming home, in that I parked the car, walked in with my bags, and immediately took them up to 'my' room. I love that house.

We didn't do much for the rest of the day, which felt great. I was able to pick a book off the shelf and read for a while, and after dinner we all watched tv for a little while. I ended up falling asleep in front of the tv and had to drag myself up to bed in the middle of the night after waking up on the sofa. Hee hee.

The next morning was a lovely slow wakeup, though my first wakeup was really early in the morning. Stupid jet lag.

It was July 4^th, a major holiday, and I completely forgot. I've never been big on holidays, so this was fine with me when I remembered the next day. We did nothing to celebrate, though I did eat a couple cupcakes with red, white, and blue frosting.

Around noon we drove to a place called Wilson Farms, which sells homemade food, including a lot of Amish baked goods.

There was plenty I wanted to buy in that store, but somehow I held back and only got a few items. I'm a sucker for anything pie.

On the way back to the house I saw another place with pie, so we stopped there as well. Lisa's Pie Shop is apparently famous for pie in a jar. Who knew? Not me, so of course I had to try. This being Indiana, also on display were the many ribbons won at various competitions for their pies.

That night I fell asleep in front of the tv again. I'm also blaming the early falling asleep on jet lag.

The morning of the 5^th, Kelley dropped her phone on the kitchen floor a few minutes before we were supposed to head out the door to meet some friends for breakfast. The screen stayed on the phone, but it was shattered. (A beautiful spiderweb sort of shattered, but this was not the time to appreciate beauty.) She figured out she was able to make calls and text, but not much more than that. At that point we knew we'd have to leave Kokomo not long after brunch in order to get back to Chicago and get to an Apple store.

We met up with Anita and Chris and had a wonderful catchup. I first met them on the trip to Ireland, and we've stayed friends ever since. They are part of the Flat Ryan project as well, so when I pulled my Ryan out of my purse and put it next to theirs we all laughed. I'm sure the waitress was wondering a bit when she looked at the table and saw two large printouts of Ryan Gosling's face.

We ate at a local chain, which is what I always prefer when going out to eat. Why support a national or international company that already has plenty of money when you can support local?

It was fun to hear Anita and Kelley talk about people they knew in the Kokomo community, and to hear more of the local goings on.
We went back home and packed up and got on the road soon enough. The drive back to Chicago was easy for me, since I wasn't driving. I dozed off, even though I tried not to do so. Kelley took pity on me and stopped at Fair Oaks so I could have another of their shakes. Yum. That's always a good way to start or end a trip to Indiana.  

vatican city, and italy: rome

Getting from Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria to Rome, Italy was easy but was annoying. First, a bus to Zell am See. Then a regional train to a small town. Then a two hour wait. Then a train that departed on time but arrived in Rome two hours late. Argh. The only good thing about being late was the bag of goodies they gave me in an effort to say sorry. Granted, the goodies came as we were getting off the train, which didn't help much in terms of my stress level while I was on the train.
I'm pretty sure that every time I've arrived or departed Italy by train, there has been a delay. Plus Italian train stations are not great. 

When I went to Egypt over the winter holidays I met a guy named Eric on my cruise on the Nile. He was currently living in Rome, so of course I had to visit. He met me at the train station and showed me how to get to his flat. I love public transport.

It was impossible not to notice the heat and humidity, which was far worse than what I'd had the past 10 days or so. Plus Rome is a big city with a gazillion people going every which way, with plenty of noise to match.

We got to the flat, which was directly across the street from the entrance to the Vatican Museums. Wow. It was great fun to watch people in the various queues. Basically, that was what I did for the rest of the day. The weather wore me out even though I wasn't really out in it. Eventually Eric and his flatmate Ramona (also American,) made a huge salad for dinner, and we watched a movie by streaming it from Eric's computer.

The next morning I got up and tried to figure out what I would do during the day. Eventually I was able to decide that I wanted to go to the Vatican Museums, then go for a walk with Eric and Ramona. I bought my ticket to the museums online, which made it so I didn't have to wait in the long queue.

The Vatican Museums are huge, and filled with art. Lots and lots of art. Much of it religious, but not all of it. Many of the ceilings were amazing. I'm not a huge art museum person, so I was definitely arted out by the time I was done. It took me nearly three hours to walk through everything, and I didn't even look that closely at much of it.

My favourite room hands down was the map room, which has a stunning ceiling. Plus when I walked through there I looked out the windows and realized that sometime I'd like to go back and take a garden tour.

I know it sounds crazy, but I don't love the Sistine Chapel. Yes, the artwork is amazing, but it isn't really my style. Plus, you see it at the end of your tour through the museums, so I was tired of art. Also, you're in there with what seemed like millions of your best friends, and no one is moving quickly. There are wide doorways through the rest of the museums, but getting into, through, and out of the Sistine chapel involves narrow doorways. Argh.
A Japanese company paid for the renovation of the ceiling years ago, and part of the deal is that they now hold the copyright, so you're not allowed to take photos.

That doesn't stop a lot of people, but it's really annoying that the reason for the photo prohibition isn't religious or respect, it's greed.

I loved the giant spiral ramp you go down to get out of the museums.

I walked back across the street to the flat, and ended up relaxing for a while because it rained on and off for several hours. Everytime we thought it would be good to start walking, it started raining and/or thundering again.

Eventually the rain stopped, and we went out. They showed me a great church, Santa Maria Theresa. Huge and Catholic. (Of course, this is Rome.) I loved it.

We saw a number of other churches, all slightly smaller but still beautiful. Even though I know heaps of people live in Rome, I still wonder how all of the churches survive. We also saw a few fountains, and went over a couple bridges.

Eventually it was time for us to split up for the evening. I'd made plans to meet up with Shanna, a girl I met when she stayed with me in Kyiv about a year earlier. She and I found each other in a piazza and chose a nearby cafe. It was awesome to catch up with her, and find out what was going on in her life. We also planned a future meet up in another country.

From there I walked home, and fell asleep pretty fast.

The next morning Ramona cooked oatmeal for breakfast for everyone, and I started walking around 1130. I walked along various streets, taking photos of all kinds of random things. It goes without saying that I stepped into a few churches.

One of the minor sights along the way was a pyramid. Apparently they're not just in Egypt, I had no idea. This one was only open for scheduled tours a few days a month, and it had to be scheduled ahead of time.

Eventually I got to my first sight of the day: St Paul's Cathedral is huge. Peter and Paul were the two apostles that made it to Rome, so it's fitting that they have two huge cathedrals named for them. I was surprised I hadn't heard of St Paul's previously, I'm glad Eric mentioned it.

To get into St Paul's I had to put my bag through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. That was unexpected, to say the least.

I really liked this church too. The ceiling was amazing, and the sanctuary area was calming. I was surprised that it felt so calm, because it was big, and there were plenty of other visitors around.

The church itself is shaped like a T, with the main altar just before the spot where the two lines meet. On the back of the cross of the T are several smaller chapels. The long part of the T is actually three lines, created by columns. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of describing what I saw, oh well.

After taking a ridiculous number of photos, I left. I walked back toward the pyramid, and not long after turned onto another street. This took me up a hill, which left me huffing and puffing and sweating. Heat and humidity, I tell you.

Near the top of this hill I stepped into another church, which was being prepped for a wedding. Very cute.

I kept going, and noticed a queue of people, standing outside a gate. I had no idea what it was for, but I joined the queue. As each person stepped up to the gate, they bent down a little and looked through a keyhole.

The view through the keyhole is straight through the gardens of the Knights of Malta (or something along those lines,) and right to the dome of St Peter. I have to admit, it was pretty stunning.

Since the view is through a small keyhole I didn't bother trying to take a photo, though a few people did. My iphone would not have come close to doing it justice. I wonder if the gate is ever open to let people into the gardens?

After my view through the keyhole I kept walking, to another church. There were other visitors in this one, but it didn't look as if it is currently used as a place of worship.

The altar area was in decent shape, but the rest of the church was fairly empty.

The grounds of this church had a nice park, and since it is on the edge of a 'cliff' there were great views to the rest of the city. After looking through both the church and the park, I kept walking. The road led downhill, and eventually to circus massimo.

I should've read up ahead of time in order to know what this was, but judging from the long lines in the dirt I'm guessing racing of some sort took place here? (I should do some research.) There isn't much there now.

After this area I was starting to get hungry, so I had a sandwich and ice cream from a nearby shop. Amazing what a little food can do when you're tired.

More walking brought me to more ancient stuff. This is Rome after all, where you're bound to trip over something old if you're not paying attention. I took a couple photos, and kept following the road which curves and goes upward.

At the top of this bit I had the choice of two long-ish sets of stairs. One led to a monument in a platz in front of an official looking building, the other led to a church. Of course I went up both of them, sweating all the way.

Both were crowded with tourists, so they weren't much fun.

I don't know why I forgot ahead of time that this would be the busy season for Rome and tourism. I'm not sure the city ever has a quiet time of year, but there are soooo many visitors in June. Maybe it just seemed like too much to me because of the places from which I'd just come, which were so much quieter. Maybe it's because I've been living in Ukraine for six years, and there aren't nearly so many international tourists there. Everywhere I went in Rome it felt like I was with millions of people. Argh. I know I'm just contributing to the numbers by visiting at this time, but just because I am a tourist doesn't mean I like the rest of them.

These two areas at the top of sets of stairs were just behind the Altare della Patria which also had a giant set of stairs. I went down the church stairs, circled around, and went up the Altare della Patria stairs. It's huge.

As far as I could tell, one poor lady had the job of yelling at tourists not to sit on the steps. That would not be fun, and would be never ending.

From there I walked straight up via Corso, all the way to the other end, at the piazza del Popolo. The street has shops and churches, not much else. It's pedestrian mostly, but I was able to get through the crowds fairly quickly.

In the middle of the piazza del Popolo there is an Egyptian obelisk, complete with heiroglyphics carved into the stone. I could probably look up what it says. Ancient empires came together more often than people know.

Since this was Rome, of course there were churches here too. At my count there were three alone around this platz! I went into one, skipped another, and the third was closed for mass. The outside of one of them is currently being redone, so there is a giant sign advertising Samsung there at the moment, I think it looks awful.

From there I walked home, which was a relatively easy walk. I got to cross a bridge, and be hassled by touts who wanted me to buy a scarf to cover my legs in the Vatican Museums. (When they wouldn't stop picking on me I had to point out that I'd already been there.)

For dinner that night I had ice cream with strawberries. Yum. And we watched another movie being streamed from Eric's computer.

The next morning Eric and I were up really early, this is something he does regularly. We were out the door of the flat at 0410, to go for a walk before the city wakes up. Eric has walked many times and knows the streets to follow to get to many of the major sights, it was nice to just follow someone, and not have to dodge other tourists.

We started by skirting around the platz in front of St Peter's basilica, which is all lit up at night. It's also blocked off and guarded, so you don't get to wander through there in the middle of the night.

We kept going a bit further, to Castel San Angelo, which was also lit up. The bridge leading to/from the castle is fairly iconic, it's on a lot of postcards. It was lit up as well.

Our next area was the piazza Navona, which has a big church on one side, and an interesting fountain in the middle. Obviously the church was not open for visitors at that hour.

More walking brought us to a government building, protected by guards. It was blocked off with actual barriers, I wonder what it was. (I could look it up, I know.)

It wasn't far from the government building to the next sight, the Pantheon. It didn't look that big to me, but when Eric described it I understood the feat of engineering the building is, and how amazing it was to have been done so far back in time. The ancient empires were really fantastic in all they created and built without the benefit of modern technology and assistance.

From there we walked to the Trevi fountain. It's really big, you can't get the whole thing in your camera frame without getting pretty far back, which pretty much guarantees you'll get people in your photo.

We were there before dawn and I already counted two couples and two proper looking photographers, (judging by the size of their lenses and tripods.) Is there a time of year when you're less likely to run into someone else at that hour? The fountain was lit up, which was nice.

From the fountain we walked down via Corso, all the way to the Altare della Patria. Since there was very little traffic at that hour I was able to take a couple panoramic shots of the whole thing without anyone else in the photo, yay!

We veered off to the left of the stairs and followed that street through a whole bunch of ruins, the Roman Palatine. Some of the ruins are being rebuilt to look like what archaeologists think they looked like back then; I have really mixed feelings when this is done to something ancient. You can always tell when something has been rebuilt, but if you leave ruins alone they fall apart even more and eventually you have nothing left.

This road leads straight to the Colosseum. When you think of Rome, the Colosseum is probably one of the first thing that pops into your mind. Gladiators fighting to the death, massive crowds of people cheering them on, etc... The architecture and engineering for this massive building is really impressive.

At this point Eric and I got on the subway, but we split up because I got off a few stops earlier than he did. I wanted to see the Spanish steps, he wasn't much interested. I got off at my stop, and followed the signage to the steps.

When I saw someone was already there I was a bit disappointed, but immediately I realized it was a couple having wedding photos taken, which I could see straightaway were beautiful. I snuck one photo of the back of the bride, looking up the steps. I definitely didn't mind waiting for them.

They left pretty quickly, and then I did have the steps to myself. It was actually a bit of a surprise to have them to myself, since it was now dawn. Somehow I expected a few others to be there as well. Fortunately one other couple came along, and we took photos of each other on the steps. I guess sometimes other tourists aren't so bad, just not in big numbers!!

It was an easy walk home from there, where Ramona again made oatmeal for all of us. We watched a movie, then went out shopping as a trio. It was my last day in Rome, and they needed food. We stopped at a store that sells fresh pasta, which was amazing. Each day they have something different, you never know what you'll get until you arrive at the store.

As we were walking along I asked Eric and Ramona if they'd noticed the gold coloured markers on the sidewalks. Since I'd seen these in Austria and Germany I knew what they were, and what they meant. They are called stolpersteine (I think,) and are put in front of buildings from which people were deported during World War II.

The markers have a name, as well as other known information, like the date of deportation, where they were sent, if they died, and if so, when. Never forget, never again.

We also visited a local market for fresh veggies, which was fun. In the early evening Eric and Ramona made the meal, which I loved. How stereotypical that I was having fresh pasta as my last meal in Rome?

After eating I went for one last walk. I'd hoped to get to one last church, but it ended up being too far. Not too far for me to walk, but too far in the time I had to do the walk. Oh well. I headed back to the flat, showered and packed up, then headed to the airport.

I wouldn't mind coming back to Rome, but I want to do it at a different time of year.