Rome and the Pope...

You'd think I'd be done talking about European vacations, since it was two and a half weeks ago, but you're wrong for two reasons:
1) I'm a slow poster, forgetting my usual Sunday post, and
2) Nothing that exicting has been going on otherwise. It was either bitching about high gas prices or talking about the cradle of western civilization...
(Note: Conspiracy theorists maintain that I'm still rubbing in the fact that I got to go to Europe and you didn't)

I must admit that although it didn't quite have the shock and awe factor of seeing some of the amazing sites the first time, Rome is freakin awesome. It was very easy to convince me to skip conference presentations on topics that I don't work on anymore, given mostly be people with accents that are impossible to understand, to see some of the world's best sites.

I did get a chance to have perhaps the best meal of my life, especially if you factor in variety and the pure quantity of food, at the Northrop Grumman reception. They rented out this little restaurant, and every course was fantastic if I can remember them all:
1)Antipasta tray - mainly grilled vegetables
2)Garlic bread and bruschetta
3)Salads
4)Cheese stuffed Ravioli
5)Chicken, Beef, and Sausage (the best sasuage ever) skewers
6)Four-Cheese Calzones
7)For dessert, some sort-of pudding...my memory starts to get blurry at this point as I think I had about a whole bottle of red wine by then

Throw in an Italian accordian, trumpet, and tamborine band and you get a fun evening.



The other very memorable experience was that I got to see the Pope. Now, I'm not Catholic, and I wasn't even planning on going...but it was still pretty cool. I have to thank my friend Andrew, also at the conference, who hooked me up with essentially a "back-stage" pass. He knew a priest who knew a nun in Rome, and the next thing I know is I have an orange ticket to attend the general audience the Pope gives in St. Peters square on most Wednesday mornings. Instead of being among the throngs of 20,000 plus people in the square we were within about 15 feet from where the Pope was speaking. As proof, I took this snapshot when Pope Benedict rode by our section in his popemobile:



I imagine it will certainly rank as one of the most unique experiences in my life

Espana, Part Dos...

Last time we talked, we discussed the bull fight. Although this was probably the most memorable part of the Spain trip, there are still many other tales to tell...waking up hung-over in Spanish alley, nude beaches in Southern Spain, luge lessons, and even some stories that I didn't make up.

After we hit Madrid, we took a "train" to Toledo (No, not the one in Ohio). The reason I put train in full-arm quotes is because even though you buy a "train" ticket, the last leg of the journey is by bus. This created some confusion as to if we were at the "train" station or the bus station, but eventually a friendly Spainard pointed us toward our hotel. We liked Toledo and it had a beautiful Cathedral, but it was probably the least memorable town of our trip. We did find it interesting that all the tourist shops in Toledo sold Medieval paraphenalia including swords and daggers (good stuff for the Blades and Booze party).


Next up, Sevilla, a city we both liked a lot. I fell in love with tapas here; we found two outstanding tapas places that still make my mouth water (the Sangria was pretty good too). Another great Cathedral was here, and of course we saw the famous Flamenco dancing.


Finally, we picked out a little Spanish town called Ronda. The goal here was pretty much just to take in the beautiful scenary and take lots of pictures. A breath-taking ravine divides the city into a modern half and an old Moorish half. Instead of blabbing on I'll let a few pictures finish the story:

Spain and El Toro...

After my two week absence, I'm finally back with a new blog entry. In accordance with the comment to the last entry (which I apparently made after falling asleep), my main objective today is to make you, the reader, feel short and otherwise inferior to me. The good news is that after this big vacation, I have lots of material to meet this objective...you tiny indolent bastard.

Well, Spain was a blast, and probably the most interesting thing we saw was a bullfight in Madrid. My take on it is that if you get past the fact that the killing of a bull is turned into a mass spectacle, its pretty damn cool to watch. Each bullfight is pretty much the same format and in one "show" there are 3 different matadors (with helpers) who each fight two bulls. There are basically three acts in a bullfight:

Act I: The Horse Guy Stabs the Bull

The matador and his helpers do some of the signature cape work at this point, but because the bull is at full strength they keep running behind these wooden barriers. To combat this problem they get this guy on a horse with armor to stab the bull in the neck like so:

(Note: Apparently in the early part of the last century the horses didn't wear armor...they lost like 10 horses a night back then)

Act II: Quick Guys with Decorated Sticks Stab the Bull

I think these guys had the most dangerous job description: just run up the bull stab him with these sticks and then run a away before you get killed. They moved so fast they even came up blurry in this picture -


Act III: The Matador Finishes the Bull

At this point the bull is pretty tired, albeit a little annoyed. The matador finally takes the stage alone with this signature red cape, and does several of the famous Ole passes:

When the bull is really tired, the matador goes for the kill with his sword like so:



That's the bullfight in nutshell. Although the standard format for the bullfighting did get reptitive, it was alwasy exciting when the risky matador would get knocked down or his outfit torn:


Overall, a very cool experience. The rest of Spain will have to wait until the next entry...