On the train from Rome to Florence

Met some interesting people last night. SC was sleeping off a knee injury and I decided to hang around the hostel common room. First I met a guy from Ireland (rather, when I asked him where he was from, he said "I'm Irish").

SC says, "cows". We are passing through the Italian countryside.

I talked to the Irish guy a bit, he showed me his sketches (he is starting to draw and has filled a sketchbook so far), and I learned that he is 26, came to Rome about a month ago looking for work, and is sketching things. Also that he wishes he could go take a train around the States and end up in California. He asked if I could find him a job in San Francisco, and whether you could surf in San Francisco.

SC says, "sheep." This train ride is a lot more scenic than the Caltrain.

The Irish guy left to use the shower and an older guy came in. We started talking, and he turned out to be a pastor from Los Angeles who came to Rome because "Obama is killing babies" (by allowing the government to pay for abortions). Later the Irish guy came back, and between his ADD and the pastor's moralizing, it was a very awkward conversation indeed.

This train is going really fast. Also it reminds me of that Chemical Brothers music video. Star Guitar, I think. Which reminds me - it would have been good to bring earbud headphones, especially for those audio tours.

Eventually our conversation turned to showing each other YouTube videos. The Irish guy showed us some poems by J.W. Waterhouse that he liked, and the pastor showed us a video of him shouting down Obama at a rally in Massachusetts. He also had videos of him preaching on the Capitol steps. And then we learned that his reason for coming to Rome was to convince the Pope to excommunicate Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, and that he'd been escorted out of St. Peter's square a few days ago when he started shouting at the Pope.

So, yeah. I admire his guts for attempting that--exercising your right to free speech in the States is one thing, but after seeing the monuments built by past Popes (or Pont Max, as abberviated in the inscriptions) and the wealth of art collected in the Vatican museum, I'd be very concerned about my personal safety if I were to get on the bad side of the Pope. Also it's kinda interesting to see that you can do something that outrageous (like shouting down Obama, or the Pope) and all that happens is you get escorted out of the premises with no charges.

On the other hand, I looked up the news articles about his protests, and none of them had anything to say about his message, just his delivery. Heckler disrupts Obama's speech. Vatican police escort shouting man out of St. Peter's square. No mention of his anti-abortion message or the hypocrisy he perceives in pro-choice Catholics.