Where in the World Is Matthew?

Pyramids & Cairo, Egypt

Photo Essay

Rome

See our photo essays on

• St. Peter's Square, 
• St. Peter's Basilica,
• the Vatican Museums, and 
• strolling around Rome, including wine as cheap as bottled water and a tour of the famed ruins of the Colliseum.

Walked 7 Miles Around Cannes, and Took Cold Dip in French Riviera, in December!

Photo essay, including Matthew's efforts to create photos as well as French award-winner. Click.

Pompeii and Vesuvius, Near Naples

Matthew hasn't had a chance to post his pictures of hiking up Mt. Vesuvius and looking down into the still smoldering volcano, but here are Jim and Alex's impressions and pictures of Pompeii, near Naples:

Pompeii, Italy, Buried Under Volcanic Ash for 1700 Years, Comes Alive With Tourists, and Google's Street View »

Vatican, Colliseum and Italian Wine Are Awesome, But Rome Is Really Expensive and Service Sector Seemed Surly, Inefficient

By Jim Buie

I have read that there is sadness in the heart of every Italian because he knows that whatever he and his countrymen do, they will never accomplish as much as their ancestors accomplished in the Roman Empire. By one measure, Rome's future is behind it. The government is corrupt, there's widespread scofflaw mentality among the people, and some economic sectors seem hopelessly disorganized. That said, Italian food, wine, art and art appreciation, and some automobiles are still more advanced than most of the world.

Overall, I'd say that in my 36 hours in Rome, my impression was of a country in decline and decadence. 

On the plane to Rome, the swarthy Italian in front of me stood to fetch his laptop from the compartment above, carelessly dropped his suitcase on my head while I was eating, and -- get this -- not a word of apology!

Rome airport was poorly marked and difficult to find our way.  At baggage claim, while we waited forever for our bags, this creepy-looking guy sat down too close to me on a bench while I was trying to access Internet to make a Skype call. I thought he might be trying to pilfer my credit card. I purchased Internet use for 3 Euro; ($5), but it doesn't work. My jacket dropped from atop my suitcase to the floor to a mud puddle inside the terminal. Vagrant sitting next to me let out a big fart.

Hiking One of the Ancient World's Wonders: Cappadocia, Turkey's Grand Canyon

Slideshows:

• Brothers
• Family Time in Cappadocia
• Wagon Ride
• American Corporations in Turkey

This Contract Has Been Mind-Boggling

Quick, random thoughts:

I've been crazy busy with cast change, rehearsals, and time with friends....

Bangkock was amazing, as were overnights in Hong Kong.  That place has a great night life.  At 8pm every night they have a light show where about 25 buildings on the waterfront change colors and have really powerful laser lights that dance to music that is played over the ship's PA system.  Its pretty spectacular.   

The Japanese and Chinese acrobatic shows are incredible.  Humans are not meant to do any of the stuff that they do! 

The Great Wall of China was very interesting, makes me want to come back and hike / walk the entire 4,000 miles of it.

I’m also looking forward to going to Russia in a couple of weeks.

I have my own room here with a double bed, large TV, surround sound system and 2 windows.  You can’t beat that!  Work is busy now, but will be easy in Alaska.  I’m ready for lots of days of crazy hiking and mountain biking!

Asia!

I'm at the airport in Kansas City getting ready to fly to Minneapolis, then to Tokyo (where I have a 90-minute layover), then to Bangkok, Thailand! My friend Bank (he was an exchange student at my house when in high school) has arranged for his fiancee to pick me up, and I'll be staying at a nice hotel for a couple of days, before embarking on the Diamond Princess for CHINA. Then in May, the Diamond will make Vancouver its base as it sails to and from Alaska for the summer. This is a six-month contract, my most adventurous yet!

Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii and Santorini: Like Nothing I've Ever Seen

A few days ago I went to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.  The town of Pompeii is amazing!   It’s like walking back 2,000 or more years in time.  Today I’m renting 4 wheelers again in Santorini.  Santorini is one of my favorite places.  It’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen.

Stonehenge

I went to Stonehenge today from the Princess Cruise Line port of Southampton.  It was great. I bought a couple of books about it.   

We had to rent a car to get there. I was the designated driver. It is weird driving on the left side, and of course driving a stick that is backwards, (manual cars are significantly cheaper to rent then automatic over here) shifting with the left hand, driving on the left side of the road, passing on the right, sitting on the right side of the car with the merge lanes and slow lane on the left.  There weren’t many stop lights either, mostly turnabouts.  Which confuse Americans.  The road wasn’t very well marked.  Overall the whole day of driving was confusing, but we made it there and back without any scratches and only a couple of tire marks left on the pavement. 

It was worth the effort as Stonehenge is one of the places that you have to go to if you can.   It doesn’t look all that magnificent until you start to think about what it took to make it.  And that parts of it are 5,000 years old.  But when you realize what you are actually standing on and around, it’s amazing.

If you look closely you can see people in one of the pictures -- this will give you an idea of how big the stones are. One third of the stones are underneath the ground as well. 

How did they erect them?  The wheel wasn’t invented yet! 

It cost 7 pounds – about $13.50 U.S. to get in and there was a audio tour included.

Email from Dad

Dear Matthew,

I've been to Stonehenge -- as a 14-year-old, with Mima, Gramps and 18 other students from Scotland County, including Aunt Tes and Bruce. We spend five weeks in England, based in the Southwest town of Exeter.

Back then, you could walk right up to the stones at Stonehenge. But some people would scrawl graffiti on the stones so I don't think they allow tourists to touch the stones like they used to, do they? Here are a couple of pictures of me and Bruce at Stonehenge:

 

I don't need to go to Stonehenge again, because I've been to FOAMHENGE in Virginia. It's a replica of Stonehenge made of styrofoam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foamhenge

And I don't need to go to Europe because here in 'merika we have Busch Gardens a-muse-ment park near Williamsburg -- the best of Germany, Ireland, England, France, and Italy -- especially roller-coaster rides.

Anyway, your post about Stonehenge inspired me to dig up my own diary entries from when I went there, Saturday, July 5, 1969. How have things changed? I wrote:

"LONDON -- We got up around 7:30, lugged large suitcases to lobby, that will go on the bus to take us to Exeter. For breakfast, we had corn flakes in lukewarm water (this is common in England, I'm told -- they don't believe in milk in cereal or cold drinks), ham and tomato and toast. We stopped briefly in downtown London to exchange money -- I gave them a $5 bill and they gave me 2 pounds six pence in return.

"We were running late, so didn't have time to sightsee in London and skipped Runnymede. But we did stop at Stonehenge, about two hours from London, to eat our (yucky) bag lunches. No one knows exactly how the stones got there -- they've been there for thousands of years.

"From the bus, the colorful English hillside looked enchanting, like something out of a fairy tale or the Wizard of Oz. Long, square BRIGHT YELLOW fields of mustard, green and purple fields of clover...

"I picked up the London Times, with only one article about the U.S. "USSR Warns Nixon Not to Visit Romania." I think he's going anyway."

Mima (Lil Buie) wrote that she she could easily imagine the climactic scene from Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" being played out at Stonehenge. More about the famous novel and the setting of Stonehenge here:

http://www.greycat.org/papers/tess.html

Love,

Dad