And-i-rew: October

So this entry is to prove to you all that I actually did something in October. There is a lot of confusion (and jealousy) out there about the fact that I haven't started classes yet. So here's the deal: I go to school in Israel, a decidedly Jewish state, which tends to adhere to Jewish laws as well as a somewhat socialist view on things. This means that, at the same time the populace observes the standard Jewish holidays, there is also a weird mix of worry about the proletariat and the hoi poloi. This means that 1) I basically have all of October free because of Jewish Holidays (Succoth, Yom Kippur, etc) and 2) there are strikes on seemingly all the time by both students and facutly here. But before you all start thinking that I'm not going to be getting an education here, let it be known that the International school of which I am a part, doesn't close down for strikes, sadly...

Anyway, so since my semester doesn't start til Nov 2, I decided to do some fun stuff from the end of Sept to the middle of Oct. And to prove it to y'all, here are some pictures I took along the way:

My first stop on my trip was Rome. See the Colosseum behind me? Dead give away, huh?

So I saw all the fun stuff in the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, which was pretty neat. Problematic though, cause it's impossible to get a good picture anywhere inside the places, cause either you can't use a flash, or the lighting is just bad...

This was an interesting building, it's called the Pantheon, because it was a temple to all the Roman gods before it was converted to a Christian church some time a long time ago...

And this is me at the Trevi Fountain...too many tourists...5 pm is the worst time to go there. It seems like that's what all the tour groups do right after all the museums/churches close...

2nd stop on my Italy trip was Florence.
I really liked this city, it was really relaxed and seeing all the art was amazing. I am now officially cultured.

This is me at an overlook across the river from the main squares of the city. In the background you can see the Duomo, the Ufizzi and a few other towers of churches, etc. Definitely a city worth visiting if you haven't. The art alone is reason enough.

Here are just a few of the pieces I thought were cool:

This last one on the right is my favorite. It is an unfinished Pieta by Michealangelo, that was meant to be on his grave. Pretty cool.

Next stop was Venice for 10 hours while waiting for a train to Slovenia. So I wandered around and saw some pretty cool stuff.

So, first we have Jaws, then we have a gondolla (ps- it's really hard to get a good composition on a moving water taxi on the venetian canals) and then we have the winged lion which is a rather old symbol for St. Mark. All 4 of the Evangelists have symbols such as this, Matthew is a winged angel/person, Mark is winged Lion, Luke is a winged ox, and John is a winged eagle. You can see these 4 symbols all over Christian churches and just not notice them if you don't know what they are. Anyway, Mark is the patron saint of Venice, so the Lion was all over the place.

After that I took a midnight train to Ljubljana. That was an experience. While waiting for the train, I started talking to an Australian girl who was going there, and I ended up showing her some sights in Ljub cause I lived there and all. Which was pretty cool, I think she felt rather intimidated cause I spoke Slovene and it didn't help when we sat down on the train and right next to us were 3 Israelis going to Slovenia on a summer trip and I talked them up for a while in Hebrew. Pretty random to run into them there...

Slovenia was amazingly beautiful as always. I saw a lot of the people I know from long ago and it was great to be there for General Conference sunday, cause it meant that the members from all the other branches came down to watch in the new chapel.

Here are a couple pics of the new chapel. And this is Lake Bled to the right. And below is a view of a valley up in the north, which is part of the Triglav National Park.