I had another surprise of a sunny day once I got to Pisa. Unlike Venice getting around in Pisa was a straight shot to the leaning tower. I had been told the city was small. Apparently it has not expanded much since the ancient city walls have encompassed it in 1155. Even the Roman's thought Pisa was an old city.
 |
| Santa Maria della Spina |
 |
| Arno River |
 |
| My first sighting of the tower! |
 |
| How could architectures make such a mistake? |
It wasn't a mathematical miscalculation, but rather more of a geographic one combined with the lack of understanding of accompanying a monument with a proper foundation. The ground was too soft, and foundation too inadequate resulting in the sinking in of the ground. For the amount that the ground sunk it is more remarkable that engineers were able to stabilize the structure. The best idea the architects came up with in the 1990s was to remove tons of dirt from the raised side. .
<This might be a very dangerous place to stand in 200 years when the tower will be declared unstable again.
 |
| The illusion of forced perspective. Although unlike everyone else.. I have managed to straighten out the tower slightly, or my back pack was not the perfect tripod for the camera. |
 |
| Cannoli for dessert to celebrate Easter |
 |
Dolcepisa's napkin:
Didn't notice anything strange at first.
|
On the way back I stopped in a little cafe, Mangio Italiano for a Greek salad. Tomato and mozzarella cheese go so good together. As I ate there, I met a couple from Norway. I talked to them for a while. The woman is involved with social services, and the guy majored in finances, but now works with the engineers at a small
oil company. I asked if the engineers got under his skin much, and his significant other laughed while he deliberately took another bite of his
meal. (Answer was yes- naturally) He has me convinced to at least look into a summer internship for a one of the companies in Norway: Conoco Phillips, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Statoil, Shell, BP. Norway has a chain of BP which also has companies in the US- a plus in case my interest in Norway is only limited to summers where it is not too cold, nor raining for 70 days straight. (The record is somewhere around 90, they were so close to beating it last year! If it wasn't for one day they would have reached 110 days? so I was told.) Any opportunity to come pack to Europe is good for me though!
Here's my hostel : Hostel Pisa (They all have such original names!) All decked out for Easter.
Happy Easter all by the way- friends and family I miss you! I hope you had a fun time decorating eggs and preparing baskets for the Easter bunny. Europe has a better grasp on the holiday though, I must say! While America celebrates it by eating (chocolate) bunnies [Something tells me the Easter bunny might find that strange- when's the last time you ate a chocolate human?] Europeans have chocolate eggs.
The next day it poured. A perfect day to be flying back. I met another man while I was waiting for the plane, who ended up being a biotech engineer with the Chemical company BASF. He is just finishing up a two year employment in Germany and will be heading back to the US with his wife and child. I found it inspiring that working abroad might work even with a family, to add, BASF also has head quarters in New Jersey. What are the chances of running into to good references for Chemical companies in the past two days? One of the many rewarding things of traveling and finding new networks of information! The sun came out in time for us to board the plane.
Time's going quickly- and I presume this will be my last out of town adventure until after finals. Adeu! I will see some of you in 23 days from now (15.4.12), others in 26, and even more by July.
No comments:
Post a Comment