Rome day 2

View from the dome on the top of the Vatican

St. Peter's foot being rubbed smooth

Day 2 in Roma began with a visit to the Vatican. It was spectacularly large and full of amazing sculptures. We have seen many great chapels but this one scores really high. They had the option of an audio tour that they said focused on the spiritual aspects of the cathedral and a real tour that talked more about the architecture of it. I thought it was interesting that anyone could only appreciate the building for its architecture when the spiritual side of it all was the reason that it was even built. I find it really cool to learn about other religions and why they do things. It is funny though that sometimes religions, including our own, don't even know why they are doing something. For example, people were queueing up to rub the foot of a statue of Saint Peter and when we asked the man watching the statue why, he said it's just tradition.

Inside the Vatican

After having a look at the inside we decided to make the climb up to the very top of the dome. It cost more for an elevator up so we walked the 550 stairs, just like we did at the Eiffel Tower. It was hard because the stairs kept getting steeper and smaller. The dome obviously tilts inward so the walls to our left as we climbed kept curving in on us. Well lets just say if you are an ounce overweight you couldn't get up these intense stairs. Good thing Nath and I are SO fit! Anyway, we finally got up to the top and the view was worth all the leg cramps we suffered for the next few days. View of Rome from on the top of Vatican. Like!
Next we took a break at a McDonalds for some lunch. The worker there was crazy. He was under the impression that we would have to pay to have ketchup packets with our meals. Outrageous! Well, after a ridiculously ketchup-free meal we made our way to the biggest green spot on our map.


The park was nice and big and had tourist trap bicycles for rent. Did we fall for that? Nope. We came across some Segways for rent as well and kinda did that thing like... “Do you want to?” “Oh, I don't know...Do you?” “Well, maybe but... I don't know.” Then I saw Nathan looking at them just as longingly as I was. Sold. We jumped on our Segways and enjoyed the ride. You see, we only have had three movies with us on this month long trip. One being a personal favourite, Paul Blart: Mall Cop. In this movie Kevin James is on a Segway 90% of the time. It was great to try a Segway out for ourselves. We did our best Paul Blart impression and did various synchronised routines too. They are really fun and pretty quick. We both marveled at how no one really has one. But all we would have to do is look at each other to know the reason why. Everyone looks so ridiculous on them! We couldn't watch each other ride one without laughing out loud, or LOLing, if you will. :)
Enjoy the video below of our sweet moves on the Segways-

Hundreds of locks all over the bridge

As I mentioned in the day 1 blog, Lovers often come to the Castle Saint Angelo bridge with a lock that has both persons name on it and attach the lock to the bridge and throw the keys into the water signifying their love is forever. We walked our way back toward Castle Saint Angelo looking for a lock that we could fasten to the bridge just outside of the Castle. The walk was once again fabulous. It was so fun wandering the streets of Rome at dusk. Everything is just so lovely. Just before the bridge we found a vendor selling locks. Done. We realized though that we didn't have a sharpie to write on it with. We asked someone and they were more than willing to help. He must have loved the idea of the “love locks” because he was very kind and helpful. It seemed like everyone believes in the magic of Rome. We wrote our names and the year on the lock. We found a good spot on the bridge to fasten our small lock and made a video of the occasion. It was just going dark as we fastened the lock and through the keys in the river. So romantic!
The night was still young so we headed for Trevi Fountain. This site was what I was most excited to see so when we got close Nathan covered my eyes and took me all the way to the front of it. I opened my eyes and there it was. So lovely! We threw a coin in which is said to mean that you will come back to Rome. I hope so I absolutely loved it! By the end of day 2, Rome had been our favourite place to visit. Oh how I wish things could end there but alas there is a little bit more...

Nathan with roses in his backpack at the Trevi Fountain

We loitered around the city a bit after seeing the Fountain because everything just looks cooler at night. Well because of our meandering we decided to just take a later train than we had planned. Well when we got the the train station at about 11, the place was deserted. Just one man sitting at what we thought was our platform. We asked him about the trains and he said, “Fini.” I don't know very much Italian but I know what that means...Done! Over! Final!... or in our case, You are DOOMED!
We had missed the last train out of Rome. We were staying outside of Rome to save a little money so walking was out of the question. Nathan quickly came up with a good plan: take the metro as far North as we can (because we knew that was the general direction we would want), then take a cab and pray we had enough money on us to pay the cab driver. So we headed off for the metro, but soon found out our tickets that last for 108 minutes had just barely run out so we would have to purchase another ticket... yeah that wasn't going to happen. I won't post on the internet about breaking the law. You can fill in the details... Next we were on a metro heading north.

We only had 50 Euros with us so we were nervous about the cost of a taxi. We got off the metro as far north as we could then asked the man in the ticket office about taxis. He gave us a look that was very somber and said “Expensive!” At this point we had come to face the fact that we may have to give up our first born son to a taxi driver just to get home. There was a taxi waiting just outside the station. When we asked him how much to get back to our “hotel,” he said 20 Euros! We asked again just in case, but sure enough it cost only 20 to get back. Miracle! We got back fine and life is good. Heading to Venice the very next day.

Rome day 1

 

Inside the Colosseum

We took the train into Rome our first morning. It only cost 1€ and it was about a 30 min ride. Bargain! (I know I say 'bargain' a lot and one might be thinking that our trip has been cheaper than we thought. This is not so sadly. With the expensive tolls and massive amounts of European chocolate required we are just about on target.) We got onto the train not sure when to get off to get to our first stop, the Colosseum! I waited as Nathan walked along the train listening for someone speaking English. He couldn't hear anyone speaking it but he did hear something tell him to talk to a certain woman. He took a chance, and asked her if she knew English. She did! She began telling him how to get there when other people began to join in, trying to help. Most didn't speak English so she translated them for Nathan. After turning some woman down who offered to have us follow her around Rome, we followed one of their directions and made it to the Colosseum. It was right next to the underground. It was amazing!

This was the one place Nathan was really excited to see, you may even call it his Eiffel Tower :) First thing we did was go souvenir crazy. There are so many vendors selling little things around all the big tourist spots. We bought a bracelet for me, it has a picture of the Colosseum and says I heart Roma! We also got a magnet of the Colosseum for 2€, and 10 postcards for 1€! I know what you are thinking... Bargain! :)

The line was so long to get in if you just want to walk around it. We wanted the audio tour so we skipped the hour long line and payed 5 Euros more to listen to the audio. Worth it to pay the money just to skip the line, or queue, as some people might say. :) The inside was just amazing! The stadium was really well thought out. They had numbered sections to sit in just like we do now. It is crazy to see this place in real life and think about how many people were killed here in the craziest ways. Death by hippo! Dang!

Laying on an ancient Roman pillar

Right next to the Colosseum is a section of ancient Rome that has been preserved. We were able to walk around this pretty massive section of Rome that has always just been there. It had these cool Roman looking trees, thousands of carved stones, pieces of old columns and things just lying about. It was so interesting to be somewhere truly ancient!

Panthenon

We got lost, yet again, trying to get out of ancient Rome. When we finally made it out we decided the Metro was useless, they were no where near any tourist spots, so we walked! I am so glad we did. We walked by some of the coolest things. We didn't always know what the places were called, only that they were amazing. The whole city is just adorable and old. We went into the Panthenon. It was this cool circular church that has a huge hole in the ceiling. I wonder what they do when it rains?

Fountain and Obelisk

We then made it to a square that had thousands of artist painting and selling their artwork. There was of course a huge fountain and obleisk in the center. I think every important building or place in Rome has a fountain and oblesisk in front. Here we stopped for some gelato. The man outside his shop claimed that he had the best gelati in the universe. Well who can pass that up?! It was really really good, but we soon found out how outrageous his claim was because we stumbled upon hundreds of other gelati shops soon after.


One of our favorite parts of the day was walking down this tiny street. It had lots of really cool specialty shops on the cute cobblestone road. We felt like locals just out for a walk. The buildings were so tall on either side it was almost claustraphobic. It was pretty fun. We took that road to Castle Saint Angelo. It's a really interesting building, almost just like one big castle tower. On the bridge leading to it we saw the locks that Micol was telling us about in Como. She said that a movie started the tradition that young couples come to the bridge with a lock. They write their names on both sides of the lock and lock it to the bridge wall and throw the key into the river symboling that they will be together forever. I am a bit of a romantic so I wanted to come back at sunset the next day and do it because we didn't have time to do it now. We were on our way to the Vatican!

Locks on the bridge

 We walked over to the Vatican and just stood in the square in front of it that of course had a fountain and oblisk. Love those things. We just looked at the outside because of another forever long line to get inside. We decided to go in first thing the next day. Walking around Rome all day made us all tuckered out so we headed for the train station. We rode back having finished our first day in the Eternal City!

Au revoir France, Ciao Itay!

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The beach!!

We made our way to Marseille the next day. It was supposed to take 5 hours but instead took 8! Traffic was pretty bad. Luckily Nathan had bought me a movie to watch in the car. Baby Mama! I love that movie and I am quite excited to own it now... in french. Haha! It of course has the english version too :)

We made it to Marseille, a french city by the sea. We got there so late we couldn't go to the beach. We just headed straight for the hotel, kind of, we got lost along the way. The G.P.S. we have is good for getting us to a general area but a specific point is near impossible for it. This was my first hostel experience. It was really small and the bathrooms were shared and down the hall. Good times.

We woke up bright and early and headed down to the beach for a bit. There were a lot of surfers out on the waves. It renewed my desire to become a pro surfer. One day.... 

Super fancy casino in Monte Carlo

On our drive we stopped off in Monte Carlo/ Monaco! It was so cool. The whole city is just dripping with money. The cars, the buildings, and the people are all very fancy. We ate at a pretty nice place for lunch. Little did we know we would get charged for drinking water! Ridiculous!  We also drove the formula one race circuit while making squealing car noises.

We drove again that day continuing to make our way to Como, Italy. I met Nathans second cousin, Will and Wills girlfriend Micol at the family holiday in Knowle Manor. Micol is Italian and lives in Como, Italy. We made our way there to spend a night with Micol and her mother. We arrived later than we thought, as usual! Micol's mother, Stefania, made us a traditional Italian meal. It was delicious! They were absolutely wonderful hosts! Micol helped us decide how to get down to Rome, our next stop. The trains were really expensive so we decided to drive. They helped us find a good route through Florence! We spent the night at their house and the next morning Micol took us around Lake Como. There were lots of mansions and other neat houses along the shore. We even saw George Clooney's house on that drive. We went back to their house for lunch before taking off. Stefania made us a tasty pasta. I have to get that recipe! It was all so very good. We were sad to go. They were such great company.

Lake Como

The drive to Rome took quite a long time. It was supposed to take 5 hours but took 8 again. Oh dear! We arrived at our next hotel... turned out to be a campsite and we were in a shed that had just enough room for a bed. Haha! That's what we get for paying 30 Eros a night. :) It was not so bad in the end. We just needed a place to rest our little heads while spending the next two days exploring ROMA!

Stefania, Me, Micol

Stefania, Nathan, Micol

Just around the river bend!

We left Sainte Foy after a week and a half of chilling out. We headed 2 hours east to Souillac. The drive was great. The countryside of France is so charming. We drove in the evening and the little towns were lit up and looked gorgeous right along the Dordogne River. We drove to Souillac to begin our canoeing journey down the River. We arrived at night and couldn't find anywhere to check in to the campsite so we just set up camp anyway because we are rebels. :) It was super hard setting up a tent at night. Dislike. It was like spending lots of time building a wabbly home I didn't even want to sleep in. I do like saving money though so I was a bit torn. Anyway, it was fine of course. 

We woke up the next morning pumped to go conoeing...RAIN. It was rainy and cloudy but we were out there so we thought we would do it for one day instead of two because the rain was set to continue the next day. After a while of discussing we decided why not risk it and go for two days. For some reason this completely discusted the woman who we were renting the canoe from. Nathan said two days instead of one and she sighed and looked upset. We thought about saying, “No no, I think you misheard us, we didn't say we are going to kidnap your children and sell them as slaves... We said we just want to rent a canoe for two days!” Haha! We laughed about that joke all day. Good times. We took a bus to Meyronne and canoed all the way back down to Souillac. It took us about 4 hours. It was B-E-A-utiful. There were really neat cliffs and castles along the river.

We made it back to Souilliac and the canoe company has a waterpark and since we rented canoes we got into the park for freeeeee! Because it was cloudy we also ended up being the only ones there. One section of the park had inflatables and we jumped on them. Then we went to conquer the waterslides that were pouring ice water down them. It was really fun and Nathan managed to keep his body from freezing long enough to go on the slides a couple of times. We recored lots of videos of us at this park. It was cool to be the only ones there.

We woke up the next morning to lots of rain. We debated skipping out on canoeing but that's not our style. We canoed from Souillac to Carlux. The woman told us that our stop on the river was just before the 3^rd bridge. The trip was supposed to take 3 hours and we arrived at the 3^rd bridge after an hour and a half. There was also no campsite just before the bridge so we just figured we would carry on. We also came to many forks along the river. I was pretty convinced that all hope was lost along with us. On the bright side, the sun came out for the rest of the journey. After some time we stopped to munch on some apples. (To see Nath accomplish an amazing feat, see video below) During our break we relaized that our bus would be waiting for us at the campsite in 1 hour. Seeing as how we didn't know where on the river we were we paniced and hurried further down it. We saw lots of houses and became sure that a bridge was just around the bend. It wasn't. It was the bend after that one that had our campsite. Hooray! Overall it was another good day, minus the slight anxiety of possibly being lost. 

 

We made it back safe, sound, and hungry. We got a very nutritional dinner from the super market. Pie and cake. In our defense the store was closing and we had to make a quick decision. We enjoyed this food while watching scubs on the free wifi the campsite had. That night we both slept really bad. It was our 3^rd night in the tent and our bodies were already aching from the canoeing. It is time for a hotel again :)

We are now heading to Marseille, France. I'm thinking we should hit the beach :) Inabit!

Nothing...

 

We did nothing but enjoy ourselves.

This is the Dordogne River just by Fay's home, where we spent the next 10 days.

The McDonalds where we went to get internet and food! Once Nath tried to order a sprite in french and the worker gave him fries. Good times! :)

Finished Season 5!

We ate lots of cheese and crackers!

Dune de Pilat! The largest sand dune in Europe! We climbed all the way up and then back down sans towel, camera and footwear!

The Para Olympics was the background sound as we played scrabble

One of our fave games

THE favorite game! Played this way too much.

One of the shows we watched endlessly

We ate large amounts of fresh french bread purchased just down the street. One night we made french onion soup to go with it. It was delicious, and cheap!

We visited Nathans grandparents old house, Le Malpas, in Montazeau, France.

 We figured it would be easier to share what happened during our South of France time with pictures, most of which we were too lazy to take in real life. It was wonderful to hang out and do whatever we wanted, just Nath and I.

Next we get a closer look at the Dordogne river as we canoe it...

It begins in Paris

We left for Paris after a couple nights stay in London. We took the ferry from Dover to Calais. On the ferry ticket stub was a free voucher ticket to Disneyland Paris!! Well who can pass up an offer like that? Not us apparently. We bought the second ticket on board for 20% off! BARGIN!!!

Once we reached the hotel we were freakishly hungry and knew of no where to go so we stayed nearby checking out the restaurants.It was all in french so we just guessed and ended up eating at the most delicious japanese restaurant.

The next day was our first full day in Paris. We started off with the Eiffle Tower. I was so excited! I saw the Eiffle tower from the plane to England a month ago and had been dying to see it up close ever since. You know how some places just don't live up to your expectations? Like this thing you have been waiting to see is a lot less impressive and smaller than you thought it would be? Well, that is not the Eiffle tower at all! It is so much more detailed and incredibly larger than I thought it would be! It is absolutely amazing!

After that we saw the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty large and impressive too. As we took pictures some guy came up to Nathan who had found a ring on the ground. It was too big for him so he gave it to Nath and began to walk away, then came back asking for money probably thinking his act of kindness deserved payment. Well we told him we didn't have any money and so he took the ring back. A week later Peter, Nathan's bother, sent us an e-mail warning us of scams that may happen on our trip, including the ring one! Apparently it had happened to him as well. When the guy gives you the ring he is marking you as a pick-pocket target for his cahoots. Good thing we didn't keep the ring!

Inside Arch de Triomphe

Last thing we did was travel across town to this giant shopping, Galleries La Fayette. Then we realized we were heading the wrong way and just decided to carry on home. We needed our rest for tomorrow: Disneyland day.

We took a train the next morning to Disneyland!!! It took us a while to get going on the rides because our first choice, Space Mountain: Mission 2, broke down just as we were about to get on. Fine, no matter, they gave us a fast pass for any ride at any time. Bargin. So we went to our next choice, My favorite ride ever! Tower of Terror!(Always reminds me of Kati Fischer, she loves this ride too) The lines for everything had been so long that we used our fast pass right away just to get on a ride. Well, fast pass fail. It still took about a half hour to get on the ride. After dropping from a massive hight, we were energized and took off to ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indian Jones, Haunted Mansion and so on. We did finally get on Space Mountain and it was amazing! It was a real coaster, with a loop and corkscrews, in a scarily realistic representation of space. Loved it. All and all, you can just never go wrong with Disney.

The next day we recovered from walking and running and standing massive amounts at Disneyland. We took it easy all day and spent the evening at the Eiffel Tower. At the start of every hour after 7pm the tower lights up in a speckatular show for 5 minutes. We just sat on a blanket, drank fancy sholer, and played cards while waiting for the lights to begin. Once they did we just watched in awe and listened to Owl City.

Outside the Louvre,  I was tired

 

Inside the Louvre glass triangle

Statues

Our last day, the morning was spent at the Louvre. We saw aphrodite (the sculpture missing the arms), along with thousands of other pictures that were nice but lets be honest, we don't know art so it wasn't thrilling by any means. It was still enjoyable though. We saved the best for last.. the Mona Lisa! There were lots of other people around it and you had to stay back about 5 feet, but it was really cool to see in real life. After the Louvre we went to Notre Dame. It was neat just to say we saw it. It honestly looked a lot like the many amazing churches around France. We have seen lots of churches. :)

We were just really worn out by the time we left Paris so we were excited to get to the South of France to spend a week just hanging out. It has been so long since we have been able to do absolutely nothing. So on to the next Adventure!

Wedding Day!

I woke up that morning feeling really calm. Everyone kept asking me how I was doing and if I was nervous. Getting married didn't actually seem real, even though it was just hours away. I had been waiting for this day for so long that I never felt like it would really happen I guess. I got ready with the help of my bridesmaids, then Aaron came to pick me up and from then it was just fun. I also remember traffic on the way to the church! I was so anxious to get there and it is like 2 minutes from the house I was staying at but it felt like it took forever. I may have to check with Aaron about the actual length of the car ride.

It was all good and fun until I was waiting to go into the chapel by my dad. Then it was all so real! It was finally happening!!! I held back tears as Ruth began to play “Maestro,” the song I had chosen to walk into. It was so beautiful. She did a fabulous job. I walked in with my dad and I think Naomi may have mouthed for me to slow down. I was so excited to see Nathan around the corner I didn't even really wait for her to adjust my train around the turn. I saw Nathan meet my eyes and he seemed to have the breath knocked out of him. I was very pleased by that reaction. :) I am sure I had a similar one because he looked so perfectly handsome.

The ceremony went really well. Abby and Hanna were wonderful flower girls, well, I'm assuming because they walked in before I did. Same with my bridesmaids, Melissa, Mary and Becca. Rocky gave a great speech and managed to keep the embarrassment minimal considering I have lived with his lovely wife and kids for a long time, ensuring that he knows interesting things about me... :) Nathan had Paul Wilkinson speak. He did well too. I won't forget the acronym he taught us, LCC. Love, communication, and something else. :)

We wed after the speeches. “I do” and all that good stuff. The rings were tough to get on! We were both quite nervous and therefore had puffy fingers. We then signed the register. While we were doing so Nathan and MY nieces and nephews sang “Families can be together forever.” It was so cute! I loved it and I love them! I really do absolutely adore my new nieces and nephews. After their number Melissa and Matt sang “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds. It was brilliant! They are so talented. I love when they perform. The Bishop gave some further words of wisdom and then we walked out of the chapel to another beautiful piece by Ruth. This one was an original written by her.

Nathan and I waited by the doors of the chapel as everyone walked by to congratulate us. Everyone was so friendly! Even though they didn't know me, everyone hugged me and quite a few kissed me! I felt very welcomed and in the end I feel like I had already met most of those who attended our wedding. That was one great blessing of coming to England a month early, I recognized a lot of people.

Everyone walked outside and made a line on both sides of us preparing to throw lavender at us. Nathan and I waited at the start of the line as everyone got into throwing positions. It was actually pretty scary. You should have seen little Jonas's face as he held that handful of lavender. The photographer gave us the thumbs up and we began to walk through. We got hammered by lavender. Some of the little ones even threw the cones that the lavender was in at us. All and all, very funny and I am sure we got some great pictures from it!

We began taking endless pictures while everyone else headed inside for the reception. The hall was awesome--- literally! Nathan's sisters are beyond amazing. They really understood how I wanted it to look in the hall and it turned out better than I could have ever expected. I am completely indebted to them! Best of all---- they found me Peonies!!!

The food was great and the speeches were perfect. My dad has never had to give a speech at a reception before but he did a fabulous job. Peter, the best man, gave a speech as well that was so funny and yet really did help me understand Nath a little bit better. Nathan's speech, of course, was my favourite. I was happy to hear that I have made the knot in the back of his head go away. That has been my goal since I first met him and he told me about it. I am so glad that he is so happy to be with me. Life is so so so good.

After the reception we were off to the temple. We got into Aaron's car and there was a bottle of Shloer and champagne glasses. Nice. It was a quick drive to the London Temple. We got there and realized my temple dress was in my parents car so we had to wait for them but after that we were on track. It was a wonderful sealing ceremony. I am so glad to be with Nathan not just in this life but for all eternity. I am so happy the temple allows families to be together forever.

I am now a part of the Mulligan family. Like! I speak for Nathan as well as myself when I say how grateful we are for all their love, help, and support throughout this journey. Everything has turned out better than we could have ever thought.

I am also very grateful to our Heavenly Father and all that He did to help everything work out. There were many times we fasted and prayed to ask for help over one thing or another and never once did we feel alone or hopeless. There were times when we were not sure things would work out the way we wanted but with a bit of faith, they always did. 

To learn more about how families can be together forever visit www.mormon.org