Wine and Religion

Staying at a hostel for me is a true nightmare, but is a necessity since I can stay three nights there for the cost of one night at a hotel. The set up isn't really all that bad because I always make sure to get a room that has the bathroom ensuite rather than communal where you have to walk down the hall in the middle of the night should the need arise. The rooms themselves are fairly small in this particular hostel, Rome's The Yellow, about 20' by 10' with two sets of bunk beds and two sliding storage racks underneath each set to keep your belongings. I am also in a mixed dorm room which means that of the four of us, you can have any mix of guys and girls. But all of this doesn't really bother me. I don't spend a lot of time in the room, the bathroom is sufficient and the area is generally quite clean. But, the time I do spend in the room is for sleeping and I am a very light sleeper. That means if someone even walks down the hall outside of the room, I wake up. Having someone snoring in the bunk below you with no rights to hit them and tell them to roll over (like say, a significant other) keeps me up all night despite my best efforts of blaring Enya in my earphones and pulling a sleep mask over my eyes. The result is a version of myself running on about five hours of sleep and in desperate need of a café (espresso). Today is going to be a good day though - I am off in search of two things. One, an airplane approved wine box so I can actually get these bottles of wine over the Atlantic (after of course paying the ridiculous bag fee to do so) and two, viewing the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum. 
The first task proves to push my patience to the brink of a full out spoiled American tantrum that would sound something like "Good God people, could you spread these stores out a bit further and make this as complicated as possible? Have you Romans never heard of Target?!?!?" But, after a trip to Mailboxes Etc with no luck, a trip to a large wine store with some luck and then back to Mailboxes etc to package everything up, I have gerryrigged two six pack airplane approved boxes (they don't sell full twelve bottle boxes) from the wine store into one larger Mailboxes Etc box which will allow me to check only one additional bag. Two hours and 23 Euros later (for BOXES) I have a successful solution to my wine problem. Now, it's off to the Metro to visit the Pope. 
Tour guides of Rome know that there is a specific street that most people walk down to get to St Peter's Square and to the Vatican Museums, so there are always throngs of people scattered along the way trying to thrust some flyer into your hand or hard sell you into taking one of their tours, because, as they exault, their tours are so special. I had one guy start talking to me about how long the line was to get into the museums (which I knew wasn't true, I had checked availability online the night before) and I was annoyed at how adamant they were about the notion that I was being the stupid tourist not knowing what I was doing and they therefore could save me. Trust me, I have this covered, now get away from me you lying sack of {insert appropriate expletive here}. Inside the museums though (after no line to get in, of course), it is a completely different atmosphere then the chaos outside. Last year I was in St Peter's Square but missed out on the museums because we were there on a Sunday. Not this time - I haven't seen the Sistine Chapel since I was in ninth grade and my opinion of said world renowned site could use some updating (rather than my current memory of it which is, "Wow. Tall ceiling. Neat colors. Cool.") 
There are many amazing parts to the museum and it is with great awe that I walked through each, marveling at the sheer antiquity of the pieces still preserved as well as the skill required to create such everlasting artwork. The best is saved for last though and going into the Chapel, armed with my audio guide, is truly a breathtaking experience. Piece by piece, the black box I hold up to my ear breaks down the sections of the ceiling and the paintings along the sides. And with each explanation, I begin to feel smaller and smaller, dwarfed by the presence of greatness in both the artwork and its subject. Many of the religious scenes depicted can be interpreted in several ways, depending on your faith.  It could be the hard line of the Bible, a looser view of a Quaker or just marvel at amazingly skilled craftsmanship. I think everyone that walks into this hall is affected in different ways and while I am only one person with fairly loose religious beliefs, I can say that the number one thing on my mind was the mortalityy of man and the immortality of his artwork or legacy. This chapel may not live on forever, but it's stood in this place for 500 years, much longer than its creator, Michelangelo. Many of the pieces in the museum have been recovered from thousands of years ago. Civilizations of huge sizes, like the Roman empire, have come and gone but while the individuals have passed on long ago, what they leave behind still affects us today. But these are huge masses of people - what affect can one person's legacy among millions, now billions, possibly have? With a humbled ego, that familiar question is the one I leave the Chapel with and have been chewing in it in some way ever since (and long before today). 
With my culture meter up to 11 on a scale of 1- 10 and my body completely out of caffeine and sugar, I head back to the hostel and make preparations for my impending trip. In less than 24 hours I'll be in Greece, a destination I know little to nothing about, but seemed like a good idea at the time I was booking the flight. The logistics, as I mentioned, are a nightmare, and appear to be getting worse. Costs to go in between islands are much higher than I ever anticipated and the thought of hunkering down in such a large city like Athens is not appealing, so I find myself in a quandary. With all of that in mind, be on the look out for my next post because I'm sure it'll be quite amusing considering all I am armed with for this leg of my trip is a few shirts, a pair of jeans, some basic necessities and my iPhone. First order of business after landing: buy a guide book, preferably in English, or maybe even a map. Now where would one find one of those......