Saturday, January 17, 2009

Eurotrip - Day 1 Part I

18th Dec 2008 - Part I Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City

My family and I started our trip to Europe.. Landed at Rome Airport... God... The airport... 'Nicer' than KL LCCT.. But not as crowded.. Haha~ The immigration officers were watching youtube and google-ing when we were going through.. They didn't even touch our passport.. Waved their hand signalling us to pass after peeping on our passports for 1 sec.. So disappointed that we didn't get the stamp to prove that we have arrived Rome... =.=" So inefficient and lazy... =.=" No wonder so many refugees in Europe..
Must take photo after we got on our tour bus.. Haha~
Our first stop... Vatican City... Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.. They only have population of about 800 people... Not 800 mil... 8 hundred! Haha! Amazing huh... Their population are mostly pope, sisters, reverand, priest etc etc... Haha~ I also don't remember what else... The tour guide told us a lot.. But... Cant expect me to remember everything she said.. Cause that was about a month ago.. Haha~
St Peter's Square.. The Christmas tree was from Switzerland that year... (Now 2009 already.. Yeah.. So its that year = 2008 ^^) The tour guide said.. Every year.. Each country in Europe take turns to send a Christmas tree to St. Peter's Square before Christmas for decoration.. We were there 'too early'.. Didn't have the chance to see the complete decoration of the Christmas tree yet..


Behind us is the beautiful St Peter's Church...
Amazing architectural design by the ancient Romans.. In the middle of the night when everyone was in their slumber.. I tip-toed and walked to the square and counted the pillars... There are 284 columns and 88 pillars in a quadraple row... From this precise angle of the photo above.. You would only see the front row of pillars... But actually there are another 3 pillars behind each of these pillars.. I also counted the distance between the pillars.. Amazingly.. The distance between each pillars are the same!



Then we went into the church... ^^ All the statues in the church is amazingly wonderful and beautiful.. ^^ The whole building were artistically and scrupulously designed.. The design of every corner of the church made me amazed and were really eye opening.. Enjoyed taking photos of all these historical artwork..My sister immediately met some Japanese fans who wanted to take photo with her when we got into the church...
Two non-catholic saints praying... Haha~ Yeah.. We are not catholics.. We are Christians.. But we were really awed by the amazing design of the churches in Europe.. @@

There are tombss down there.... Public were to keep a certain distance from this part.. No idea why... So couldn't take close up photo of the area... But I saw it is really pretty down there too.. @@No.. He is not the pope... He is a priest... Haha~ Not that lucky to see the Pope laa...
Seee....... So niceeeee kannn~~~ >.<
Pontifical Swiss Guard... They were sent by Switzerland to take charge of the Pope's safety.. They have SPECIAL uniform tuhh... Looks weird.. But coooooL!!! ^^ Pity its winter.. So can't see their uniform properly.. >.<
Saint Peter.. Holding the key that signifies the key to the kingdom of heaven..
Even its only a less than 2 hours visit to Vatican City.. But this is where my visits to all the amazing churches in Europe started... And how awed and amazed I felt about the historical background and the architecture of the European countries I had visited during that period.. Enjoyed taking photos of all these historical architecture with the regret that I do not have a better camera and a PDA to mark down and capture all these memorable places I have visited.. Had to seek for assistance from the web to refresh my memory... >.< style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Saint Peter's Basilica....

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