Leaving Rome

It seems like forever since i've blogged. While in reality it has only been five days, so much has happened during that time I feel like forever is not a bad description of the time that has elapsed. Unfortunately our camera is out of battery so I cannot equip this post with ample pictures to supplement my descriptions of what has taken place, though someday I will put them up here. Since I was able to last blog we have been to Athens, Corinth, Patras, Bari, and Rome. Everyone of these cities has multiple stories of its own I wish I could go into' but unfortunately my time in this internet cafe will not allow it. I'll try and put up a few highlights though.

For one, a definite highlight of the trip so far would have to be sitting on top of Mars Hill and looking down at the rest of Athens. The entire Acropolis was just amazing. We also got to go to the school of Socrates and Aristotle.

Bari has an incredible Norman castle that dominates the city and coastline. That was pretty incredible to look up at and see.

I must say though, of all the cities we have visited so far, Rome has been by far the most glorious. While the coloseeum was certainly one of my greatest goals to go see on this trip, it was much more sobering than I anticipated. Caleb said it felt like we were sitting in a giant graveyard. We sat there for a good 45 minutes, just thinking about how the place that we were had been a site of so much bloodshed. It was very creepy to be honest. Of all the ruins that we have seen so far, the Colosseum was by far the most impressive, and yet, this massively inspriring structure was erected entirely to the depravity of man. How sick and disgusting that the greatest and most advanced civilization on earth (never have I felt so strongly in agreement with Chesterton) could be a gateway for such base iniquity and wickedness. My only thought upon leaving that place was: "Lord have mercy on me lest I fall."

We visited a number of other amazing sites in Rome. Each of them would be worth a blogpost in it's own right, but unfortunately time will not allow. We saw Trajan's Coloum, the Pantheon, and much else, but everything was topped by getting to go to St. Peter's Basillica. I had no idea that it was so massive and impressive. The courtyard alone was just awe-inspiring, but once you get inside, words cannot describe it. It was amazing. There were people all around us crying. We even got to go underneath through the crypt to see the tombs of the Popes. Theres nothing but a little rope seperating you from the tombs of the men who were the faces of Christianity to the world for hundreds of years. The men who called crusades, excommunicated kings, led revivals, even Pope John Paul II's tomb was there. Not to mention Peter. It was an incredible experience which may be my highlight of the trip so far.

Caleb and I were planning on going to Venice today but we changed our plans and our going to visit a family friend who is a missionary in Paris. We will be there until the weekend and are very much looking forward to getting to explore that city as well. We leave at six today and are taking an overnight train which will hopefully be very comfortable :). Hopefully I'll be able to keep this updated over the next few days, and if I can find a way to charge our camera, hopefully pictures will soon follow.

Thanks for staying with me.

To Paris we go...