Adventures in Italy: Vatican City and Paragliding Norma, Part 2

The next morning we checked out of our hotel early and set out for our morning Vatican Museums tour (8am exclusive tour with Italywithus.com). Normal admission to the Vatican Museums is at 9 a.m., but I’d read that the crowds were so dense it was hard to appreciate the grandeur, so we elected to splurge a bit for the pre-admission ticket at 8. Frankly, I can’t imagine the 9 a.m. crowds because by 8 the place was already an absolute zoo! And we were there in the low season! 

Unfortunately, our headsets didn’t work and our guide was a bit obnoxious so I can’t recommend the company, but I still would recommend getting the early tickets since it saved us lots of time in lines and the crowds got worse and worse the longer we were there. 

Sadly our itinerary didn’t allow time for the Vatican City paintings exhibits (definitely have to go back), but we did wander (fairly quickly) through some of the Vatican Museum's sculptures and tapestries before arriving at My Man's favorite exhibit: the Gallery of Maps, which outlined with stunning accuracy the breadth and power of the Vatican's dominion (all the better to intimidate supplicants).  In addition to the maps along the walls, the ceiling's frescoes are amazing.

My favorite room was the Raphael room.  I loved seeing the paintings and imagining the rivalry between the two starkly contrasting personalities of Rafael and Michelangelo.  

I especially loved the symbols of diversity--whether indicative of a progressive Pope (as our guide indicated) or of Rafael himself (as I am more inclined to believe), it was wonderful to see the culmination of various religious symbols and philosophers and races brought together to represent enlightenment. 

By the time we got to the Sistine Chapel, we were shoulder to shoulder with other people staring up at Michelangelo's masterpiece on the ceiling and at his Last Judgement on the alter wall. It is really amazing to see in person. I recommend Steve Rick’s audio guide for both the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica (our tour guide left us right before the chapel). After a sufficient time of neck-kricking staring at the ceiling and walls (although really, there are so many paintings and stories in this room you could really spend hours), we reluctantly headed out to see the Basilica. (No pictures allowed in the Chapel, but here is Wikipedia's complete gallery of the ceiling and here is the Last Judgment.)  And here's one picture of the iconic Adam by open source pics: 

Just before heading into the Basilica from the Sistine Chapel, we passed by these mosaic gems depicting the life of Christ.  Nearly hidden, they were stunning in their vibrant simplicity.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the entire Vatican City experience for me, was to see Michelangelo's Pieta’, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica after just having seen his fresco masterpieces (in spite of his adamant claim that he was a sculpture, not a painter) and then gazing up at the dome he designed as his last artistic triumph. To consider the man who so completely epitomizes the renaissance, re-making himself again and again as an artist to such acclaim from the beginning to the end of his life, is truly inspiring. 

The sheer scale of the art in the Basilica is another jaw-dropping experience. Until you are there, you simply cannot appreciate the hugeness of it all. The “little” cherubs are bigger than a person and everything gets bigger from there. It’s simply stunning (and a little much, honestly). 

For me, the entire experience was inspiring and fascinating and wonderful, but too busy and gaudy to be sacred. Give me a quiet mountain top or forest glen, and there is where my soul renews.

And that is exactly where we headed next. After stopping for one last pizza in Rome, we grabbed our rental car and headed for the hills of Norma. 

Our little AirBnB apartment was literally perched on a cliff (the balcony stuck out over the drop off) and it was impossible to drive to (we meandered on foot through tiny rock alleyways to find it), but it was enchanting. The bed faced full-window walls on three sides and the sun shone in brightly.

We dropped off bags and headed straight for the paragliding launch at the Norba archaeological site. There, a herd of sheep grazed, families picnicked, the sun shone, the grass and wildflowers smelled enchanting, and the half-ruined stone castle stood sentinel on the hill behind us. 

My Man launched into the sunset and soared as I soaked in the last of the day’s sunshine and my soul expanded. As much as I loved Rome, I loved the quiet hills of Norma even more.  In fact, we loved Norma so much we were tempted to ditch the rest of our trip and just stay there!  To find out what we decided, you'll have to read Part 3 . . . 

My Big Fat Greek Adventure, Part 1: Thessaloniki, Mt. Olympus, & Meteora

We weren't planning on traveling for Spring Break, afterall, it feels like we just arrived to Kyiv! But then there was a crazy deal on airfare and a bit of research showed that spring in Greece is the best time to visit (if you want to avoid the heat and crowds), not to mention that Funny Guy is a walking encyclopedia of Greek mythology (thanks Rick Riordan), so we decided, why not?!

Athens is less than 3 hours from Kyiv, but it took us a bit longer to fly up to Thessaloniki where we rented a car to drive down to our Airbnb rental in Leptokarya, at the base of Mount Olympus.

We stopped for dinner on the beach before heading to the house for bed.  That was when we discovered that Darling Daughter had forgotten to bring her sweatshirt.  And I had grossly underestimated how cold the wind chill would be.  Still, it was beautiful and we soaked in the waves, the castle up on the hill, the sunset.  We were really in Greece!

The next morning, we split up.  We dropped My Man off to meet a group of paragliders, then the kids and I drove up into Mt. Olympus National Park to hike part of the Mt. Olympus summit trail.

 The weather was cool and threatening rain, but we set off anyway, undeterred.

Originally I'd hoped to hike from the trailhead in Prionia down to Litochoro, but realized that might be too ambitious for the younger kids.

Instead, we opted to hike from Prionia on the E4 trail to the old Monastery and then back.  It was perfect and allowed plenty of time for stopping to climb rocks, look at bugs, and take pictures.  (For someone with even smaller hikers and two adults, it would be possible to drop off hikers at Prionia, then drive back down to the monastery and leave the car there, hiking up to meet the rest of the group to make the hike even shorter.)

The trail was gorgeous, along a raging creek, through forest, with lots of rocks to climb and flowers to admire and interesting terrain.

By the time we got to the monastery, sadly ruined by Nazis in WWII, but undergoing some renovations now, Funny Guy was starting to tire and the rain that had been threatening all day began to fall more seriously.

Cold, wet, and a little tired, we opted to head back on the road for a shorter trip and were rewarded by seeing several dramatically colored newts (which Young Man gallantly scooped from the road to save from unhappy martyrdom by the cars).  One was so grateful for the help that he climbed right up Young Man's leg.

The kids were real troopers and didn't complain at all in spite of the cold rain.  I guess it was a small price to pay to hike on Zeus' mountain.  It may have helped that we played one million games of I Spy and Contact and laughed and laughed and laughed.  I may also have resorted to a super secret stash of Cadbury chocolate eggs, AKA energy capsules, to help ward off melt-downs.  By the time we got back to the car, this was our view:

Still, when asked if they would do it again, all three kids gave a resounding "YES!" and so would I.  In fact, I hope I have the chance to go back some day and hike the full trail, hopefully not in the rain.  

Meanwhile, the weather hadn't cooperated for My Man either.  He and the other paragliders had a chance to check out the launch and got one quick flight but then the rain interrupted any plans to fly more so My Man was forced to enjoy a delicious lunch with a gorgeous ocean view.

By the time we got back home, though, the sky was starting to clear, so we joined My Man to head back up to the local paragliding launch.  At the top of the hill there is an old church, more than 600 years old actually.  "That's older than the United States!" My Man exclaimed.  His instructor laughed and said, "Everything in Greece is older than the United States!"  As if to prove the point, My Man ran off the mountain, then flew off toward the beach, circling around a beautiful old castle along the way.

That evening, Funny Guy and I took a walk to the beach, where we spent the rest of the evening watching the sun set and practicing skipping rocks into the calm water.  It was beautiful.

The next morning, the kids and I had to leave before the crack of dawn to drive inland to Meteora, a collection of old monasteries perched dramatically and sometimes precipitously on giant rock outcrops.

After some interesting GPS instructions, we managed to arrive just in time to join our hiking tour.  It was fantastic.

The guide had grown up in the area and knew every legend, story, and trail.

He pointed out interested old trees, told stories about the wild boars in the area, and pointed out good photo ops.

He put up with the sibling squabbling that accompanied our three kiddos and told so many good stories that Funny Guy forget to get tired until the 5-hour tour was finished.

We saw several of the old monasteries and went inside the Great Meteoron Monastery.

Although I probably would have explored more extensively if I'd been there on my own, the kids were ready to head home after our tour, understandably tired out after two days of hiking.  It was a great outing, though, and we all highly recommend the Visit Meteora tours.  The day was beautiful, warm and sunny, no evidence of the previous day's rain, so after we got home, we prepared an early picnic dinner to eat outside.  After a few minutes, we heard My Man.  What?  The kids started looking around to see where he was.  I looked up.

Sure enough, there he was soaring high above our picnic on his way to a beach landing.  Funny Guy and I hopped in the car to go pick him up.  Incredibly, he was finishing an epic cross-country flight from the other side of Mt. Olympus!

It was the longest flight of his career, and arguably the coolest.  I couldn't believe that he managed to fly directly over our house from so far away!  And landing on the beach, with the beautiful red poppies waving in the breeze and the beautiful blue ocean behind was really the perfect ending.

My Man pointing to Mt. Olympus (where he started the flight) and then to the beach where he landed.

Sadly, it was the last paragliding day until the end of the trip, but it was a flight to remember.

That evening, My Man and I visited Platamon Castle, then ate out at a traditional Greek Taverna with the other paragliding pilots who were visiting from Switzerland.  Just bring us your very best, they told the restaurant owner when he came to get our orders.  What arrived was a sampling of mouth-watering salads, cheeses, and meats.  The five of us feasted and feasted and still couldn't finish it all.  It was the perfect ending to the first segment of our Greek vacation.  If we had had to leave Greece and go home right then, it would have been worth it.  Lucky for us, however, we still had almost a week left!

The next morning we drove up to Thessaloniki, traded our rental car for a spot on the train, and headed down to Athens for our Big Fat Greek Adventure, Part 2.  

Slices of Life: Summer in Paradise

Funny Guy's final field trip was to Sun Center waterpark in Lamphun, a quarky waterpark/amusement park that is still partly under construction. But these first graders didn't care about the semi-disarray. They jumped right in and splashed and laughed the morning away. 

After lunch, they got to try out several of the rides. Funny Guy's favorite was the mechanical bull. Though it threw him both times, Funny Guy "yeehawed" and whooped and even held on with just one hand as it lurched around. Definitely a great way to end the year.

On the last day of school, there weren't any sad faces on these three!  We celebrated with icecream on the way home.

One of our first summer outings was a bike ride over to the soccer field at Payap University. We played soccer, watched clouds, read, and rode bikes until we were completely drenched in sweat. Then we rode home to shower off and go swimming. Definitely a great first day of summer break.

Another fun outing was lunch with friends at Nic's Restaurant across town. It's the world's greatest restaurant where you can get great food, gluten free cake, and smoothies and the kids can play for hours on the bamboo boat, climbing tower, swings, or trampoline.  Definitely a great place to meet up for a play date!

Darling Daughter missed friends already, so invited them over for swim parties and sleep overs right away. I knew I'd be starting work soon, so we crammed in as many as we could that first week of summer.

I also spent lots of time outside with Funny Guy, walking Mochi, biking around the neighborhood, or walking to the pond to feed the fish. Sometimes when it's so hot, it's easy to get lazy and stay inside all day, but we always love it when we get outside.

Our first Friday Fun Day was supposed to be a trip to Sticky Falls, but I was over-confident with my navigational skills and didn't look up directions. We'd been there once before and I was sure I'd be able to drive there again. I took a wrong turn, though, and by the time we realized it, correcting it would have taken almost 2 hours. Luckily, the kids were good sports and decided we could try out this place instead. 

It was great. We rented tubes (though the creek was too shallow to do much more than float lazily), hunted for crawdads, caught fish, and built a rock dam. We picnicked and read. It was an idyllic summer afternoon, and by the time we headed for home, the kids were thanking me for my mistake.

My Man hasn't been able to do much paragliding here, but there was one day of magic in June. He invited his whole section from work to come up and the wind cooperated perfectly.

He took off and flew, eliciting oohs and aahs and gasps and applause from the large audience below.

We could see a great storm in the distance, but it never got too close and the wind was enough to keep My Man flying until sunset forced him to land.

My Man took the boys to the archery range a few times across town. Since they already have the bows and arrows, it's only a few bucks each time.

There aren't many places that we can walk or bike to safely from our house, but there is one icecream shop that isn't too treacherous a bike trip and the kids absolutely love to go. They have some of the best icecream in town and the bike trip makes you almost feel like you've earned it.

The Consulate hosted a concert by a symphony quartet from Stanford University that My Man had to emcee. We brought the kids for the cultural experience and everyone enjoyed it. Unfortunately, however, no one was inspired to start practicing the abandoned violin at home.

One of our next fun outings was to Huay Tung Taow lake for a picnic lunch and swimming. About halfway through we were joined by a friendly bird who begged chips and fruit for the rest of the morning.  Young Man and Funny Guy also caught a couple crabs and pipe fish for their aquatic habitat.

And then it was time for me to start work!  I was bummed to be starting just a week after the kids got out of school, but so excited to be starting work at my first "real" job--not quite fair considering I worked at our business for years and also as a copyeditor and proofreader, but I'd never worked at an office or with a face-to-face boss! 

I get to commute to and from work with My Man and most days we get to eat lunch together. I love what I do as the Consulate's Management Assistant, helping with a large variety of projects. I organize events, help out with grants, work on environmental issues, organize English classes, and more. It's definitely busy, but it has been working out well and I am so happy I made the choice to start working.

Just a typical grocery shopping trip. Luau anyone?

Happy Father's Day My Man!  The kids made breakfast in bed, awesomely creative cards, and very cool presents, including this awesome rope dragon we got at the walking street market. 

 

I already wrote about our awesome 4th of July weekend and some of our other Friday Fun outings, but here are some more of our highlights from July:

Since I didn't work Fridays over the summer, we continued to have fun outings every Friday. For one, Darling Daughter and I attended a Consulate community activity to an interesting temple and lunch. It was a rainy day, but it was a fun outing and the hot chocolate was amazing. 

Another Friday Fun Day was a trip to the umbrella factory where we got to watch how they make the traditional fans and umbrellas here, from making the paper to the bamboo skeleton. They also have several artisans there who paint the umbrellas and fans, or anything else you have, including the clothes you are wearing!  Darling Daughter had her shorts painted, Funny Guy got a sword, and Young Man and I had our phone cases painted. It was great.

When Minions came to town, we decided to organize a big outing to go and had almost 50 people show up!  It was seriously one of the stupidest shows ever, but it was fun to get together with friends.

We discovered an airsoft place not far from our house and have gone a few times, including this time for one of Young Man's friend's birthday parties. Seriously can't think of a better place for an airsoft battle than a jungle full of abandoned cars, well, unless it is a place without mosquitoes and 90% humidity. . . .

 

And then it was already the end of July and practically the end of summer (well, the end of summer vacation anyway, since it's really always summer).  Even though the kids didn't want it to end, they all admitted that it was a great summer, full of fun and adventures and just enough relaxing. They had swim lessons twice a week at our pool, Friday Fun Days and weekend adventures, and lots of books, movies, bike rides, bug hunts, board games, and Studio C the rest of the time. Darling Daughter dabbled with baking and produced some stellar desserts. Funny Guy started a YouTube channel teaching kids how to duplicate his awesome Lego creations, Young Man invested in a soccer goal for our front yard, and they all enjoyed walking and playing with Mochi (our adopted dog for the summer). 

All in all, I'd have to say the Thai summer of 2015 was a resounding success.