As a traveler I think the most important phrase is “Thank you.” That was what I learned to say before each country we traveled to. Even if you can't speak the local language and talk in English or gestures, it is nice to be able to thank someone in their native language. Second most important for me is “I'm sorry” or “excuse me”. That is very useful when on crowded buses or trains and you have to push by someone to get off. Third is probably “where is the bathroom?” or simply “toilet?” which gets the message across.
Anyway, here is how to say “Thank you”, in every country we visited, at least how it sounded to me. Please don't get too offended if I mangled your native language, I was trying 🙂 :
Taiwan (mandarin), China: Shi-shi
Korea: Gamsameeda
Egypt (Arabic): Shockram
Zurich – Switzerland, Vienna – Austria (German): Danke
Geneva – Switzerland (French), France: Merci
Spain: Gracias
Italy, Vatican City: Gratzie
Hungary: Kusonome
Czech Republic: Dekuji
Poland: Dziekuji (very similar to Czech)
Norway: Takk (pronounced like talk)
Denmark: Tack (like tact)
Iceland: this is the one I didn't learn. Supposedly it is similar to Danish (tack) but they add several syllables to differentiate from Denmark. Just saying “tack” is frowned upon, so I went with “Thank you” which everyone understood.
The next day I wanted to visit the Vatican. Yanmei was still exhausted from the visit to Rome so she decided not to come, after all it is just a museum and church. I booked a tour at 8:45am so I left early. Unfortunately without Yanmei to navigate I made a mistake at the confusing part and got on the highway, which took me way off course. I pulled over and started to use my phone as a GPS. I thought it took me to the parking garage, but it turned out to be the wrong garage for some shopping center. I left there and eventually found the outdoor parking area we used the previous day, but it was completely full.
By then I knew I'd missed the tour and I was super frustrated. I was going to give up and go back to the hotel when the tour company called to ask where I was. When I explained, they said there was another tour at 10:15am I could join. So I circled around again to try to find the parking garage and ended up in a garage for IKEA. Then I switched to the backup plan which was to drive closer to Rome and park in the lot for a large mall near a metro station. I finally made it to the tour office outside the Vatican just in time for the 10:15am tour, over 1.5 hours late from what I'd planned. Thankfully the rest of the day would be a major improvement on the morning.
Courtyard of the museum with St. Peter's in the background
It was another skip-the-line tour, and it was worth it because the line was huge. Also our guide was very good and I think that is really helpful in a place like the Vatican museums. First of all he was American, which helps. One of Yanmei's complaints about guides we've had from Cairo to Barcelona is they usually have strong accents and she can't understand them, so she feels like she doesn't get any value out of it. I'm think she would have been able to understand the guide today, oh well. Second he had a lot of good knowledge and mixed in some humor as well. Third he skipped all the crappy modern art sections and focused on the classical and Raphael rooms.
A roman sculpture on display since 1506, said to be Michaelangelo's favorite piece. He used the hair and face from this for Christ's in The Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine ChapelAnother classical piece Michaelangelo admired. He based Christ's torso in The Last Judgement on this.Hall of Maps. You can see how crowded it was.
No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel, although I saw several people sneaking them. As I said in the post about the Louvre I don't see much point in photographing artwork. However I'm glad I took pics of the two statues above because now I can compare them after seeing The Last Judgement and see he really did use those as inspiration.
Christ from The Last Judgement. Photo from Internet.St. Peter's square being set up for some big event
That completed the tour, then I had free time to go into St. Peter's basilica. I was tired from the stress and all the walking so I decided not to take the extra tour to the top of the dome. I did go down into the crypt though. Also saw Michaelangelo's La Pieta.
Pope John Paul II's remains on the main floor
Finally I decided to head back to the hotel, but not before one quick stop along the way.
The Spanish Steps, currently ruined by the car billboard at the summit
Now I feel like I've completed my goals for this trip. Completed the big three, Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, Sistine Chapel.
I'm kind of surprised Yanmei doesn't enjoy Rome more. Every time you go around a corner there is another monument, fountain, church or historic building. She has been here before, but she told me she was sick for several days so didn't get to see much. But when I got back to the hotel she said she had a nice time walking around exploring the small town and shopping a bit. I actually think we're both getting somewhat burnt out on traveling and sightseeing, but I couldn't pass up the Vatican today.
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