Campania

I just got back to Rome from my week in Campania.  I had a great time and saw more than I could have imagined.  Pompeii and Herculaneum were some of the most remarkable places I have ever been.  It rained a bit while we were in Pompeii, but that didn't stop us from seeing as much as possible.  I am completely exhausted, but it was totally worth it.  The food, as usual, was unbelievable as well.  I won't waste your time telling you every detail, but rather I will just post a selection of pictures and add captions.

Tiberius' cave in Sperlonga.  Essentially this is a manmade cave used as a dinning room for the Emperor Tiberius.  There were originally statues everywhere, but more spectacular anymore is the view.

View out into the Bay of Naples:

This is a thermapolium in Pompeii.  Essentially these are roadside shops that serve food - including hot food.  This is a picture of the countertop with storage containers built into it.

Wall painting from Pompeii.  These are literally everywhere.

Here is another picture of a thermapolium, but with a nice view of what the storage containers look like.

This is a carbonized wooden partition from a house in Herculaneum.  Wood hardly ever survives and so this is extremely impressive.

View from the atrium of a house out towards the street.

Mt. Vesuvius looms in the background.

Amphitheater at Capua.  The superstructure didn't survive so well, but this was actually the second largest amphitheater in Italy (behind only the Colosseum).

I left out a lot of details, but I'm rather tired and have a ton of work to do.  I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted to because it rained quite a bit, but oh well.  Hope all is well on your end.

Best,

Adam

No internet

I am leaving tomorrow for the area of Campania in Italy.  This is the area that includes Pompeii, Cumae, and Herculaneum   We will be there for a week and I will not have internet access while on this trip so I will be sure to take a lot of pictures and update you when I return to Rome.

It's been way too long

Well I could make up all sorts of excuses about why it has taken me this long to update my blog,  but I will save you the time and just say that I have been very busy.  Anyway I've been having a great time and since I last posted have been all over the place.  Besides seeing more than you can imagine in Rome, we spent a week in Sicily and then a group of us spent fall break split between Dublin and Amsterdam.  A week and a half from now we go to the Campania  region of Italy (think Pompeii area) and spend a week there.  I can even imagine trying to recount everything we have done and so I think for the most part I will just add pictures and include a brief caption.  I have a thousand stories from this trip, but I think stories are best shared over dinner or a beer so when I see you next we can talk as much or as little about this stuff as you want.

About to walk through an aqueduct

Round temple to Hercules:

Bridge still in use from the 60's BC

View of the Forum Romanum

Temple at Paestum:

Temple in Agrigento

Theatre at Segesta (wonder why they built a theatre here?)

Temple at Segesta

View from Palermo

On tap from the Guinness factory

View from the top room at the Guinness factory

Irish countryside

Possibly the coolest staircase ever.  This is in the Farnese Palace outside Rome

Colosseum

Me at the arena level of the Colosseum

View from the top

Well at least now I have given you a few pictures from the past weeks, and I will try to be more vigilant about keeping this up to date.

Best,

Adam

Photography

I have received a lot of positive feedback both from people following this blog and some of my newfound friends about some of the pictures I have taken.  First, I would like to thank everyone.  It's really nice to see that you appreciate my pictures.  Secondly, I have a few tips and other general things to say on the subject. Photography is something that has interested me for quite some time and I really enjoy pursuing it as a hobby.  I think I enjoy it so much because it is a combination of technicality and beauty.  It is math and art fused into one entity.  The exposure is equally as important as the composition.  A photograph can't be good if one is lacking.  While I have taken classes in photography, that is not where I have learned the most about taking good pictures.  Becoming proficient at taking good photographs comes from experience, and that simply means going out and taking pictures.  In the digital age of photography it doesn't cost anything to take lots of pictures and so it is really easy to practice.  I have shown you a tiny fraction of all the pictures I have taken on this trip.  Others of them were just as good as the ones I put up, but many of them were trash.  Here are a few tips and general rules that will get you better pictures:

1. Composition > Camera.  By this I simply mean that what you take a picture of is more important than what you use to take the picture.  Sure having a higher end camera can lead to better pictures, but only if you know how to use it.  This also means that you can take good pictures with a standard point and shoot digital camera.  Try for just one to take a picture from a different perspective than normal.  Anyone can see a building from eye level.  What does it look like from another building?  Or the ground? Or relative to something else of a different size?

2. Take the time to take a picture.  I constantly see people walking and taking a picture at the same time.  You can't possibly end up with a good picture if you are moving a lot.  It will be blurry and tilted in some way.  It doesn't even take 30 seconds to stop and take the picture.

3.  Fill the frame.  Pictures that leave a lot of blank space tend to be washed out by light and the subject is oftentimes hard to see in detail.  Zoom in or get closer.

4.  Always have your camera with you.  With a point and shoot that is really easy, but sometimes you might think its annoying to carry around.  One night while in Menorca we went out to dinner and were slowly making our way back to the residency.  We were on one of those typical Mediterranean streets that are narrow, winding, and just beautiful.  It was lit by these street lights suspended from the outside walls.  We passed a couple walking the opposite direction.  The woman was on a bicycle and her husband/fiance/boyfriend was slowly pushing her as he walked beside her with his arm across her back. After we passed them, I turned around and noticed that they were the only two left on this street.  It wasn't something I could have ever set up, but I didn't bring my camera.  It would have been the best picture compositionally that I would have taken on this trip, but I couldn't.  Always bring your camera because you never know when the once in million pictures come around.

I have a thousand more tips and millions of things that go through my head before I take a picture and I would love to share them all with you, but I won't bore the majority of you.  If you ever want to talk photography or have questions on anything of that sort please ask because I love to talk about pictures and the art of taking them.

Anyway I will be sure to post about Rome again soon.  We have a site visit tomorrow so that might give me some good content.

Best,

Adam

Rome

First I ought to apologize for the lack of information I have put up over the past week or so.  I've been rather busy here in Rome and between meeting new people, exploring the city, learning about Roman History, and translating lots of Greek I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and update my blog.

Anyway as I have already mentioned I have been very busy while in Rome and much of that comes from traveling around.  As a part of my program I take a class titled The Ancient City.  Essentially this course uses Rome as a classroom.  We have a lecture on Monday (usually about 3 hours long) about what we will be studying and seeing for the upcoming week.  Tuesday we are out all day.  Usually about 8-5 we are on site.  The course is set up as a history course and so the early weeks deal with the earliest sites.  Thursday is another half day on site.  The rest of my time during the week is spent between language and art history.  It is a lot of work and can be very tiring at points, but it is very rewarding.  It is pretty unbelievable to learn about the early Forum Romanum one day and then to spend the next looking at the actual remains.

Yesterday we went to a few sites outside of Rome.  We visited Tarquinia and Cerverteri, which are located north of Rome in the area of ancient Etruria.  The Etruscans were early inhabitants of Italy and interacted with the early Romans quite often.  There is not much left of their ancient cities (most lie under modern towns), but they have unbelievable necropoleis.  The bulk of information we have about the Etruscans comes from their necropoleis.

Here are some pictures:

The pictures are of tombs from Tarquinia.  The necropolis has tombs dating from the 6th-5th centuries BC.

Inside of a tomb at Tarquinia.  The deceased were laid in sarcophagi on the floor with the walls painted like this:

One of the more impressive ones:

Sorry if the picture quality is a little lackluster, but I had to take them through a plexiglass door.

I will try to be better about updating and adding more pictures.

Adam

London

I finally have some time to catch up with posts now that I am at my semipermanent residence of Rome for the next four months.

First let me explain a little about what I did in Paris since I had very little time when I posted the pictures.  I only had about a day and a half, but I felt like I did almost everything I wanted to.  Notre Dame was spectacular.  The cathedral is absolutely massive and the architecture is incredibly well crafted.  The Pantheon was one of my favorite stops.  It houses the tombs of many of the most famous French men and women.  The Curies are buried her as is Voltaire and Rousseau to name just a few.  The Louvre was outstanding.  I spent over 5 hours inside and came nowhere close to seeing it all.  I spent the bulk of my time in the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sections which had unbelievable collections.  Versailles was surpassed any expectations I could have possibly had.  The palace was enormous and the gardens were beautiful.

I have a few more pictures from Paris that I want to put up.  Some are at night.

View from the top of the Arc de Triumph:

Sacre Coeur:

The Louvre:

Arc de Triumph at night (long exposure):

Eiffel Tower at night:

I really enjoyed Paris, but then I was off to London.  London, like the other cities I have visited, was great.  There was so much to see and do, and yet only had two and a half days.  I should mention, before I start talking about the city itself, that I took the train from Paris to London.  It was really nice to see a bit of the countryside of each of the two countries since I spent the vast majority of my time in the cities.

Some of the highlights from London:  Parliament, Westminster Abby, Tower London, Tower Bridge, The British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Imperial War Museum.  Westminster Abby is one of the best cathedrals I have ever been in.  The architecture is good, but what is most impressive is the history.  Many famous British Kings and Queens are buried here along with other famous Brits such as Newton, Darwin, and Chaucer.  There are also monuments to other famous Brits who are not entombed here.  By far my favorite part was poet's corner.  In this section are monuments and tombs for the best British authors in history.

St. Paul's was another great cathedral and had even more tombs to famous Englishmen/women.  One of my all time favorite English writers, William Blake, is buried here.  What is best about St. Paul's is that you can climb to the top of the dome (528 steps up) and have some really good views of London.

It just so happened that I was able to meet up with three other members from my excavation here in London.  Two, like me, were passing through for a little while before heading elsewhere for the semester.  The other lives just outside the city in one of the suburbs.  We all met up and went to a showing of Les Miserables.  The play was very good and it was great to have a one week reunion.

Here are some pictures from my short trip:

Westminster Abby:

Tower Bridge:

Big Ben at night (long exposure - the blue is and ambulance)

The Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.  I must say a few things about these.  For those of you who do not live in the classical world a brief background is necessary.  These marbles were taken by Lord Elgin while he was excavating the Acropolis from 1799-1803.  At that time he had permission from the Ottoman Empire, which was in control of Greece, to remove them.  Since Greece has gained independence they have asked for them back, seeing as they never gave permission for them to be taken.  While it was probably a good thing they were taken originally because otherwise they would be in much worse shape today (if they survived at all).  Now that Greece has erected the new Acropolis Museum, it would seem best if they were returned to their original home. Having seen the new museum in Athens, I can't imagine a better house for these remarkable marbles.  The situation is much more complicated than what I have just described, but for the sake of brevity I have simplified it.  If you would like to know more about it or have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to give you more info.

Trafalgar Square at night (long exposure):

At some point soon I will update you with what it is that I am doing here in Rome, but for the moment I will end this enormously long post.

Best,

Adam

Paris

I finally have a little time to catch up a bit on updating you all with what I have been up to.  I am currently in London and leave tomorrow for Rome where I will be based for the remainder of the semester.  Earlier this week I was in Paris for three days and had an amazing time.  There was so much to see and do and I think I came close to doing as much as humanly possible in the little time I was there.  I was able to visit Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysees, Versailles, Sacre Couer, and of course the Louvre to name just the main attractions.  So many of these surpassed any expectations I could have possibly had.  If I get more time at some point I might try to be more specific, but for now here are some pictures.

Versailles:

Arc de Triumph

Pantheon:

Winged Victory of Samothrace (in the Louvre):

I've got to run now, but I hope all is well back home and at BC,

Adam

Barcelona

I finally found some time to update this and add some pictures.  Barcelona was one of the coolest cities I have ever been to.  The architecture is very distinct and there is so much to see.  Given that I only had about a day and a half, I'm sure I missed some, but I crammed as much as I could into that short time.  I don't usually play favorites, but I do think that my favorite part of Barcelona was the Cathedral.  We went to mass there on Sunday and it was great.  The music was fantastic due to the acoustics.  Everything we did was great.  Here are some pictures:

On the roof of Casa Batllo (a house by Gaudi):

In the Park of Ciutadella:

Plaza Catalunya:

Long exposure of the massive column erected in memory of Christopher Columbus (the blue streak is a police car and the white are headlights from other cars):

Tonight is my last night in Paris.  I've really enjoyed it and seen a ton.  I will be sure to update soon with pictures.

Best,
Adam

Barcelona

N.B. I only have 5 more minutes of free internet and it is on a public computer so there is no way I can upload photos.

Anyway, Barcelona has been amazing.  The buildings are unbelievable.  I have walked all over the city since I only had about a day and a half, but I think I managed to see most of the major attractions.  I'm running out of time.  I promise I will put up pictures at some point, but I figured I would at least give you an update.  Off to Paris tomorrow morning.

Adam

Last days in Menorca

Today (Friday) was my last day on the wonderful island of Menorca.  I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the island and I wish that tomorrow I was waking up to excavate rather than to leave, but oh well.  I can't, however, complain about my upcoming days since I will be in Barcelona, Paris, and London.  I don't know what type of internet access I will have so it may be a few days before my next post.  Anyways, for as much I am disappointed about leaving, I am just as excited (if not more so) for the next part of my journey.

Yesterday a group of us decided to rent bikes and ride to some places we had not been to on the island.  They were really cheap (only 7 euros for the whole day) and rode about as cheap as they cost.  At one point someone had two flat tires and some of the other tires were headed that way.  After a call and some broken spanish over the phone, we were able to get someone to come out and fix them.  While at first it seemed like an inconvenience, it ended up working as a perfectly good lunch break.  It has hot and we were beyond sweaty when we finally reached the beach we were looking for.  It would have been breathtaking had we drove there, but given the mechanical problems and physical labor, nothing could have looked better.  Here are a few pictures:

Hope all is well,

Adam