25.06.08

Where did I leave off? Last night consisted of meeting new people from all over the world. Our new roommates are from Canada, and they are traveling across Europe while their currency is doing well. After talking with Katie (the UD alum in my room), I discovered that she lived in the exact same UD house her senior year... THE 107 Evanston. Honestly, I still cannot believe it. I also met Germans, a student from Boston College, and a group of university-bound Spaniards. Ryan and I played a card game with the Spaniards for at least an hour. The object of the game was to get four of a kind, and I believe its name was "Muro" or "Murro." It was a great way to utilize my Spanish, which greatly improved after living in Spain.

This morning, our group returned to the Vatican to see Pope Benedict give his weekly address/blessing. I would estimate between 9,000 to 12,000 people were there to see him. At 10:30, he drove around the entire crowd in his car. I came about 35 feet away from him. He also was wearing this cool red cowboy hat. The pope spoke in about 6 different languages thorough out the ceremony. It was about one hour in length and concluded with a blessing and him leading an Our Father. Afterwards, Benny and I met up in the Papal apartments to discuss my canonization. He said that he may need to pull some strings with the cardinals, but I am on my way to become "St. Bubba" very soon.

Next, we walked to the beautiful Pantheon. This architectural marvel was truly breath-taking, and it made me think of how intelligent the Romans were to construct this masterpiece. This was awesome!

I grabbed some pizza for lunch, and we traveled to the famous gelato store, Giolitti's. My gelato cone, banana and chocolate, far surpassed the gelato I tried earlier in the trip. This place offered a higher quality gelato made with the actual ingredients instead of artificial flavoring. I still think gelato is overrated, but my favorite gelato is definitely from Giolitti's.

Walking through the city, the group made several stops at various stores and junk shops. It was, again, very warm today. Now, I need to pack up my bags for our flight tomorrow afternoon. Bryan, Ryan, and I are flying back to Madrid for one final night, and then catching our flight back to the States on Friday morning. I assume that we will have internet in Madrid, but, if not, this may be the final entry from Europe!