December 12, 2008
Hey everyone!
So im officially down to my last week in Florence. I have so many mixed feelings it's crazy, and I thought I'd write about them haha.
Basically, I love Italy, the people, architecture, coffee, language, gelato...the list could really go on and on, and I'm also soooo excited to go home!
The part that’s so hard for me to grasp is that I won’t be able to come back to Italy for several years, and there are so many things I’m going to miss. And I guess that’s all part of life, learning, and growing. It doesn't really feel like I only have a week left here in Florence. Honestly, if I learned the language I could really see myself living here for a longer period of time, there’s something so amazing about living in another culture and learning the lifestyle.
So to start, I’m going to miss my 5 amazing roommates so much! All of their personalities are so fun and every day is like a new adventure. I think if I was to write about all of the things that have happened to the 5 of us or that we’ve each individually experienced, the list would be 10 pages long! Some of these are: Katie and I have both been pooped on by pigeons, Hannah and I have both slipped on the cobblestone and fallen flat on our butts, Kristen has managed to brake 5 different umbrellas, whereas the rest of us have been able to use the same umbrella we bought in the beginning, those are the less fortunate but very funny stories…oh Hannah had her foot run over by a car, and I was backed into by a van...like I said Endless! I’ll try and write more as I remember them. I’m also going to miss our apartment, the Residence La Contessina, and the amazing family that owns the place. They’re so sweet to us. The mom is always bringing us up cakes that she’s baked. And when we were leaving the country to travel they would tell us “always remember you have family in Europe.” I’ll also miss the pizza boy, Danieli, down the street. He’s become one of the girl’s and my favorite people. He hardly speaks English and we speak very little Italian but he’s always there in his pizza window waving to us and blowing kisses everyday as we walk to and from classes haha. There’s also my amazing cooking teacher who is hilarious and says things like “put the cake in the hoven so it can bakery.” I’m going to miss that haha. It’s going to be weird not walking into a café and ordering a café latte for 1 euro (student discount haha) or walking down the street waving at the business owners I’ve gotten to know, like the scarf woman and her husband, or the gelato boy next to my flamenco class. And every time I go to Conad, the grocery store one of the grocery guys always comes straight up to kiss me on both cheeks and say “come stai?” The people are so sweet and it’s so neat being friends with some of the locals. Speaking of which, Francesco, the college kid that works the night shift at our hotel is giving us his own personal tour around Florence. We thought it’d be perfect for our last weekend and he asked to do it awhile ago, so we’re all pretty excited!
On the other hand there are things I will not miss. Like the pigeons. Honestly Pigeons are very disgusting birds and it will be nice not having to walk through them everyday. Oh that’s another thing I love being able to walk everywhere! I won’t miss the smoky air though, I don’t think very many people in Europe really realize that lung cancer is a real possibility! Oh I won’t have to pay for internet anymore woohoo! I’m also very ready to be back to the dollar. It’ll be nice looking at a price and really knowing exactly how much I’m paying for it. That’s another thing, Gypsy’s kind of freak me out, it’ll be nice not having to hold my hand over the top of my purse as I walk to school. Hmmm…what else?! Oh the men hollering in the streets. I think I can go a really long time without hearing “ciao bella.” I remember the first day at orientation our faculty said “just so you girls know that’s not a compliment, so don’t go up and talk to them.” It’ll be nice being able to walk down the street with my head up, rather than having to watch the cobblestones so I don’t trip (I’m serious this happens on a regular basis haha), and to avoid eye contact with the very forward Italian men.
On a different note, I hope that someday when I come back I can keep the mindset of a resident rather than a tourist. I want to be able to walk down the streets to the Ponte Vecchio just strolling and not feeling like I have to see a certain amount of sites in a limited amount of time. And I want to be able to take everything in and enjoy the little things more!
And lastly, there is the very strong pull to go home. I never really felt homesick while being abroad, and I don’t know if that was because Kristen and I came together or the U.S. atmosphere of our apartment. No matter what it was, it worked out so well! The girls and I just kind of went with the flow of things, had our ups and downs, but mainly ups. In the last week I’ve been getting so anxious to get home though, and I think that’s a mixture of me missing everyone like crazy since I’ve been gone for 4 months, and the fact that it’s the Christmas season. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas time unless I’m with my family! Trevor actually said something about this on skype earlier today. He said that he didn’t really feel like it was almost Christmas because I wasn’t home. I completely agree with him… and that only adds to my excitement that I will be home at this time next week! So I’m definitely ready to be back in the U.S….especially Idaho, and be with my family and friends enjoying the season and hopefully the snow!!!!
That’s everything for now. Hopefully I’ll get to write more later in the craziness of finals and farewells!
Ciao Ciao e molto baci!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thanksgiving, a Weekend in Rome, & Falling More in Love with Florence!
Monday, December 8th, 08
Ciao!
So I haven’t written about Thanksgiving, Kristen and my school trip to Rome, or what we’ve been doing in Florence lately…so I’ll try and get it all down right now.
November 27th
Starting with Thanksgiving, Maddie’s parents were visiting which was really neat. We all made some of our favorites from home and it ended up being a lot more American than we thought! It consisted of: mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, macaroni and cheese, chicken (our substitute turkey :P), sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, pineapple stuffing, pumpkin and apple pie. I think that’s everything. Anyway, Katie and Nick were in Paris so it was the 5 of us girls and Maddie’s mom and dad. Therefore we had wayyyyy tooo much food. Anyway, it was great having leftovers! All of us seemed to have the same tradition of going around and saying what we were thankful for so we did that and at the end of the night we watched the cartoon Grinch. I love Christmas movies! It ended up being a great Thanksgiving, and was definitely Italian style because we didn't eat until 9 haha!
November 29th
That Saturday Kristen and I left for Rome with the school. The more I see of Rome the more I like it! I feel like there’s so much to see and always so little time to see it. So we left at 4 that morning on a bus with the school. We got to The Vatican around 8 and took a 3 and a half hour tour through the Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms, and St Peter’s Basilica (one of my favorites! It has Michael Angelo’s “Pieta” in it!) They were all beautiful and I felt like I got a lot out of the whole morning! Although towards the end of the tour you could tell that everyone was tired and hungry. So the tour guide let us go and we had about an hour to grab lunch before meeting back up with the group. Kristen and I had a horrible lunch hahha. It was so bad. We went to a place that said you could get a primi, segundi, and meat for 10 euro….it ended up being like a tv dinner of chicken cordon bleu, lasagna, and oddly colored broccoli. An experience to say the least, and we made everything better by getting gelato :P And that, of course, was delicious!
We met back up with the group and got back on the bus. First we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral which was really pretty as well, and there was a choir rehearsing while we were there. I love church choirs, especially around the holidays. It made me think of Home Alone or something…I know im weird :P After that we just headed to the hotel so everyone could nap. Kristen and I had a room to ourselves which was really nice, definitely an upgrade from our hostels haha. Then we grabbed dinner and walked to the colosseum so we could see it in the dark. It was creepy! For some reason there’s like an eerie blue light on the second floor that shines at night and the rest is dark and grey. We were wiped out so we just went back to the hotel.
November 30th
Sunday was my favorite! I can’t describe everything we did because it would take forever, so we saw: The Colosseum, The Arch of Constantine, The Forum, Trajan’s Column, The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, and The Catacombe’s…once again these were creepy haha. I had already been to the Trevi Fountain with mom and dad, but that’s one of my favorites, and it was fun to see again, and I also loved the Spanish Steps. They didn’t have flowers around them this time of year, but they’re gorgeous and look out over the whole city. Our teacher/tour guide told us that as you walk down them they seem to get larger and larger…and he was right, so I guess that’s another reason why I like them! Oh and that day for lunch we had a “real Roman lunch” which was a 4 course meal and dessert. It consisted of: a fried vegetable starter, an amazing pasta that was like a creamy tomato spaghetti, lasagna, then veal and potatoes, followed by tiramisu. Honestly, we were all stuffed and the meal lasted 2 hours…2 HOURS! That’s totally insane to me, but so very Italian haha. After that we took the bus ride back to Florence. And we were back in plenty of time for me to skype with Peej on his 21st Birthday J
December...
The next week was filled with school, school, and more school…thrilling to say the least! And we had class on Friday this week because we have Monday, today, off due to The Immaculate Conception holiday. Friday night Katie and I went to a dance club called 21 with 4 other girls from school (Katie, Sara, and their two roommates). I’ve been told that Florence is so fun to go out in, and the girls and I never really feel up to it. So Katie and I decided we’d get out since our time is becoming so limited! Anyway, it was pretty fun, minus the Italian men that are seriously “like sharks” as the guy at our front desk calls them. Honestly, we’d move like two feet and be swarmed. They’re creepy to say the least and we didn’t stay long. But the best part of the night was that we went to SECRET BAKERY! Katie and Sara had already been but still weren’t really sure how to get there. Secret Bakery is also one of those places that a lot of study abroad students who have already been to Florence talk about. It’s only open from like 2-6 am so it’s really hard to go if you’re not already out. It’s hidden in a few back alley ways/streets. So we wandered around for awhile before finding it. But at 2 in the morning Florence is still swarming with people so it didn’t seem that late/early at all. The door to the place was a sliding plastic door, kind of sketchy haha. But we walked into this small back room, pointed to a shelf to tell the lady what we wanted, paid, and left. Im not really sure what I got but it was a mixture between a brownie, cookie, and fruit cake hahha. Afterwards we walked back to the apartment and called it a night!
Saturday we went to Mario’s, a famous restaurant that’s in all of the guidebooks. There was a long line to get in, which is common I guess, and then we were sat at a table with two other men, also common. The seating is like picnic table style and at all of the tables there are a bunch of different people that are just put together. They change the menu daily, which was also kind of cool and I ended up getting some very good tomato ravioli. After that all of the roomies, minus Marci and plus Nick, hike up to Piazza Michaelangelo. It’s a beautiful piazza that overlooks the whole city. We timed it so we’d get up there by sunset at 4:38 and it was gorgeous! All of us were really sentimental, we keep realizing how close we’re getting to the end of our time in Italy and I don’t think any of us really know how we feel about it! Im so excited to get home, especially since it’s getting closer to Christmas, but it’s weird thinking that it’s going to be a really long time before Im back here again. And it’s even more weird to think that when I come back I’m going to feel more like a tourist than a citizen. The girls and I even catch ourselves saying “ugh the tourists.” After that we hiked up to San Miniato to listen to the munks chant and then headed back down to Santa Croce where there was a German Christmas market. It was a really fun day and I was so happy to be spending a weekend in Florence again!!!
That’s pretty much it for eventful things. Aside from the fact that we’ve been trying to eat out more, eating way too much gelato if there ever was such a thing, and doing homework!
Alright BACI!
Ciao!
So I haven’t written about Thanksgiving, Kristen and my school trip to Rome, or what we’ve been doing in Florence lately…so I’ll try and get it all down right now.
November 27th
Starting with Thanksgiving, Maddie’s parents were visiting which was really neat. We all made some of our favorites from home and it ended up being a lot more American than we thought! It consisted of: mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, macaroni and cheese, chicken (our substitute turkey :P), sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, pineapple stuffing, pumpkin and apple pie. I think that’s everything. Anyway, Katie and Nick were in Paris so it was the 5 of us girls and Maddie’s mom and dad. Therefore we had wayyyyy tooo much food. Anyway, it was great having leftovers! All of us seemed to have the same tradition of going around and saying what we were thankful for so we did that and at the end of the night we watched the cartoon Grinch. I love Christmas movies! It ended up being a great Thanksgiving, and was definitely Italian style because we didn't eat until 9 haha!
November 29th
That Saturday Kristen and I left for Rome with the school. The more I see of Rome the more I like it! I feel like there’s so much to see and always so little time to see it. So we left at 4 that morning on a bus with the school. We got to The Vatican around 8 and took a 3 and a half hour tour through the Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms, and St Peter’s Basilica (one of my favorites! It has Michael Angelo’s “Pieta” in it!) They were all beautiful and I felt like I got a lot out of the whole morning! Although towards the end of the tour you could tell that everyone was tired and hungry. So the tour guide let us go and we had about an hour to grab lunch before meeting back up with the group. Kristen and I had a horrible lunch hahha. It was so bad. We went to a place that said you could get a primi, segundi, and meat for 10 euro….it ended up being like a tv dinner of chicken cordon bleu, lasagna, and oddly colored broccoli. An experience to say the least, and we made everything better by getting gelato :P And that, of course, was delicious!
We met back up with the group and got back on the bus. First we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral which was really pretty as well, and there was a choir rehearsing while we were there. I love church choirs, especially around the holidays. It made me think of Home Alone or something…I know im weird :P After that we just headed to the hotel so everyone could nap. Kristen and I had a room to ourselves which was really nice, definitely an upgrade from our hostels haha. Then we grabbed dinner and walked to the colosseum so we could see it in the dark. It was creepy! For some reason there’s like an eerie blue light on the second floor that shines at night and the rest is dark and grey. We were wiped out so we just went back to the hotel.
November 30th
Sunday was my favorite! I can’t describe everything we did because it would take forever, so we saw: The Colosseum, The Arch of Constantine, The Forum, Trajan’s Column, The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, and The Catacombe’s…once again these were creepy haha. I had already been to the Trevi Fountain with mom and dad, but that’s one of my favorites, and it was fun to see again, and I also loved the Spanish Steps. They didn’t have flowers around them this time of year, but they’re gorgeous and look out over the whole city. Our teacher/tour guide told us that as you walk down them they seem to get larger and larger…and he was right, so I guess that’s another reason why I like them! Oh and that day for lunch we had a “real Roman lunch” which was a 4 course meal and dessert. It consisted of: a fried vegetable starter, an amazing pasta that was like a creamy tomato spaghetti, lasagna, then veal and potatoes, followed by tiramisu. Honestly, we were all stuffed and the meal lasted 2 hours…2 HOURS! That’s totally insane to me, but so very Italian haha. After that we took the bus ride back to Florence. And we were back in plenty of time for me to skype with Peej on his 21st Birthday J
December...
The next week was filled with school, school, and more school…thrilling to say the least! And we had class on Friday this week because we have Monday, today, off due to The Immaculate Conception holiday. Friday night Katie and I went to a dance club called 21 with 4 other girls from school (Katie, Sara, and their two roommates). I’ve been told that Florence is so fun to go out in, and the girls and I never really feel up to it. So Katie and I decided we’d get out since our time is becoming so limited! Anyway, it was pretty fun, minus the Italian men that are seriously “like sharks” as the guy at our front desk calls them. Honestly, we’d move like two feet and be swarmed. They’re creepy to say the least and we didn’t stay long. But the best part of the night was that we went to SECRET BAKERY! Katie and Sara had already been but still weren’t really sure how to get there. Secret Bakery is also one of those places that a lot of study abroad students who have already been to Florence talk about. It’s only open from like 2-6 am so it’s really hard to go if you’re not already out. It’s hidden in a few back alley ways/streets. So we wandered around for awhile before finding it. But at 2 in the morning Florence is still swarming with people so it didn’t seem that late/early at all. The door to the place was a sliding plastic door, kind of sketchy haha. But we walked into this small back room, pointed to a shelf to tell the lady what we wanted, paid, and left. Im not really sure what I got but it was a mixture between a brownie, cookie, and fruit cake hahha. Afterwards we walked back to the apartment and called it a night!
Saturday we went to Mario’s, a famous restaurant that’s in all of the guidebooks. There was a long line to get in, which is common I guess, and then we were sat at a table with two other men, also common. The seating is like picnic table style and at all of the tables there are a bunch of different people that are just put together. They change the menu daily, which was also kind of cool and I ended up getting some very good tomato ravioli. After that all of the roomies, minus Marci and plus Nick, hike up to Piazza Michaelangelo. It’s a beautiful piazza that overlooks the whole city. We timed it so we’d get up there by sunset at 4:38 and it was gorgeous! All of us were really sentimental, we keep realizing how close we’re getting to the end of our time in Italy and I don’t think any of us really know how we feel about it! Im so excited to get home, especially since it’s getting closer to Christmas, but it’s weird thinking that it’s going to be a really long time before Im back here again. And it’s even more weird to think that when I come back I’m going to feel more like a tourist than a citizen. The girls and I even catch ourselves saying “ugh the tourists.” After that we hiked up to San Miniato to listen to the munks chant and then headed back down to Santa Croce where there was a German Christmas market. It was a really fun day and I was so happy to be spending a weekend in Florence again!!!
That’s pretty much it for eventful things. Aside from the fact that we’ve been trying to eat out more, eating way too much gelato if there ever was such a thing, and doing homework!
Alright BACI!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Prague, Praga, Praha (November 21-23)
This trip didn’t start out on the best note (I was sick multiple times on the 12 hour bus ride) but then I bought motion sickness medicine and everything picked up from there haha. We left at 8 on Thursday night and got in around 8 Friday morning. We stayed at a hostel called Plus Prague which was pretty nice for a hostel and we kind of had a room to ourselves because it was Hannah, Katie, Nick, and I plus two girls that were really sweet (Jazz they were from southern Texas and one of them kept saying ya’ll). Anyway, the first day our tour group (called Bus2Alps) went to Old Towne Square and then Charles Bridge. The architecture of Prague was so gorgeous and unique, definitely eastern Europe! Hannah and I thought it looked a lot like Edinburgh (and both of us loved Edinburgh haha). I don’t know maybe it’s just something about the medieval look of buildings….in the U.S. you can’t walk outside and see a giant gothic cathedral or a castle on a hill…I guess that’s partly why I’m so fascinated by all of it! It rained almost all of Friday and the temperature was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. My cheeks were wind burnt and I found that my boots don’t work very well as rain boots (my socks were soaked) hahah but the city was pretty so that distracted me from the slightly miserable weather.
In the afternoon the group split up and Hannah, Katie, Nick and I walked some of the streets and window shopped. When we were heading back to old town square it started pouring down rain and the wind was picking up so we found a really cute coffee shop to sit in until the storm passed. We all got cappuccinos with apple strudels….yumm. At that point we were exhausted from not getting very much sleep on the bus the night before so we went back to the hostel and napped. That night the bus2alps group met up again and we went to a 5 story dance club. It was sooo fun! Each floor had a different genre of music…one was an oldies floor (our favorite!) Dad the girls and I did the twist haha, and some of the other floors were hip hop, techno, etc. It was really neat and we ended up staying longer than we thought. Oh and that night we grabbed dinner and snow started falling outside…soooo beautiful! And it was even more fun because Hannah is from Florida and she’d never seen snow fall before!!!!
The next morning our bus2alps group hiked to the top of a lookout tower, called the Eiffel Tour, in the snow! Everything looked so pretty and being in the snow made me miss home!
After that we slid down the hill…..literally, and went to Prague Castle! The group split up after that and Katie and I bought warm Prague hats hahah. Then we walked over to Old Towne Square again and as we were walking we ran into a coffee shop called Ebel that Hannah had read about in her guidebook. It was seriously the cutest coffee shop I’d ever been to. They decorated all of the coffee’s and we Hannah and I had cake which was great haha. And even better it was snowing again outside and there was a giant Christmas tree all lit up right outside our window. I loved it! After we had thawed from the freezing cold we bundled back up and headed back out. We all linked arms and just walked down several streets looking at Christmas lights, I think that was my favorite part of the trip because we were quietly singing Christmas songs and it was one of those moments I wish I could have captured and kept forever….I guess that’s why I’m writing about it haha.
After that we met up with the bus2apls group again at a place called Beer Factory, which is famous for having beer taps on the tables. Everyone had beer and I tried hot wine haha I don’t like beer! They had hot wine everywhere in Prague and I love trying food and drinks that are specific to different cultures. That night our group went to another club and the 4 of us decided to stay in the city instead. We wandered/got lost in a small blizzard for awhile haha. I have to say I was put in charge of directions….and mom Im becoming more and more like you everyday, I think I can officially be labeled “directionally challenged” haha! So that was just a bad idea from the start and it took us like 2 hours to get back to our hostel. We were so cold at one point that we stopped and had dessert and hot chocolate in another café before heading back. Anyway, we eventually made it back crawled in!
The next morning Hannah and I woke up early to catch a tram back to the middle of the city and walk around. We both bought souvenirs and then went back to Café Ebel…it was so good! So that was nice and relaxing and then we headed back to the hostel to embark on our 12 hour trip back haha. The bus ride flew by and before I knew it we were back! So Prague was beautiful and Im really glad I got to visit a country in Eastern Europe!
In the afternoon the group split up and Hannah, Katie, Nick and I walked some of the streets and window shopped. When we were heading back to old town square it started pouring down rain and the wind was picking up so we found a really cute coffee shop to sit in until the storm passed. We all got cappuccinos with apple strudels….yumm. At that point we were exhausted from not getting very much sleep on the bus the night before so we went back to the hostel and napped. That night the bus2alps group met up again and we went to a 5 story dance club. It was sooo fun! Each floor had a different genre of music…one was an oldies floor (our favorite!) Dad the girls and I did the twist haha, and some of the other floors were hip hop, techno, etc. It was really neat and we ended up staying longer than we thought. Oh and that night we grabbed dinner and snow started falling outside…soooo beautiful! And it was even more fun because Hannah is from Florida and she’d never seen snow fall before!!!!
The next morning our bus2alps group hiked to the top of a lookout tower, called the Eiffel Tour, in the snow! Everything looked so pretty and being in the snow made me miss home!
After that we slid down the hill…..literally, and went to Prague Castle! The group split up after that and Katie and I bought warm Prague hats hahah. Then we walked over to Old Towne Square again and as we were walking we ran into a coffee shop called Ebel that Hannah had read about in her guidebook. It was seriously the cutest coffee shop I’d ever been to. They decorated all of the coffee’s and we Hannah and I had cake which was great haha. And even better it was snowing again outside and there was a giant Christmas tree all lit up right outside our window. I loved it! After we had thawed from the freezing cold we bundled back up and headed back out. We all linked arms and just walked down several streets looking at Christmas lights, I think that was my favorite part of the trip because we were quietly singing Christmas songs and it was one of those moments I wish I could have captured and kept forever….I guess that’s why I’m writing about it haha.
After that we met up with the bus2apls group again at a place called Beer Factory, which is famous for having beer taps on the tables. Everyone had beer and I tried hot wine haha I don’t like beer! They had hot wine everywhere in Prague and I love trying food and drinks that are specific to different cultures. That night our group went to another club and the 4 of us decided to stay in the city instead. We wandered/got lost in a small blizzard for awhile haha. I have to say I was put in charge of directions….and mom Im becoming more and more like you everyday, I think I can officially be labeled “directionally challenged” haha! So that was just a bad idea from the start and it took us like 2 hours to get back to our hostel. We were so cold at one point that we stopped and had dessert and hot chocolate in another café before heading back. Anyway, we eventually made it back crawled in!
The next morning Hannah and I woke up early to catch a tram back to the middle of the city and walk around. We both bought souvenirs and then went back to Café Ebel…it was so good! So that was nice and relaxing and then we headed back to the hostel to embark on our 12 hour trip back haha. The bus ride flew by and before I knew it we were back! So Prague was beautiful and Im really glad I got to visit a country in Eastern Europe!
Visiting Sha in Butzbach!
November 14th-16th
Ciao!
I’m most definitely getting behind on my blogging and I think they’ve been way too long anyway hahha. So here’s a sum up of Germany and then Prague :)
So Germany was AMAZING. It was so so great seeing Sha Sha and getting to meet her host family (they’re adorable). Her mom is like the sweetest thing ever and was constantly feeding us and her host sister is like the most lovable girl I’ve ever met (Shannon and I decided that Karen, her host sister, has to marry Trevor haha). The first night we got back to their house around 10 and Barbara, Sha’s host mom, was pulling all of this food out for me to eat. It was very good…first she gave me a giant bowl of fruit salad and tnen rolls with this mango cream spread (Shannon’s new favorite) and then all of us had tea and spice cake hahah. Needless to say I was stuffed! That night the girls and I sat down in the basement and caught up on life haha. I tried coca-cola beer for the first time…the coke part was good…the beer part not so much.
The next morning we had breakfast and then the girls showed me around Butzbach. It is such a cute German town…..Sha and I think it looks like a little downtown Eagle, only German haha. The buildings were so old and cute and there were people selling brauts and such in the street. After that we went to Frankfurt and walked around/shopped for a few hours. We had lunch at a quaint restaurant in one of the main squares. I had goulash hahah typical German (and it was delish!) There was a wedding going on in the square while we were there and it was so cute! We were wondering what was going on and Karen told us that at weddings in Germany the newly married couple has to cut out one side of a heart from a big sheet that has a heart drawn on it, and basically whoever cuts their side out faster is the leader/head of the relationship haha. Fun Tradition! And it was really neat to see.
That night Sha and I made German Cheesecake! Since we were little we’ve always baked together and our favorite was always German Cheesecake…so this was necessary haha. It turned out really well even though we substituted a few ingredients. And we spend the rest of that night watching a German movie called the no eared bunny (they put English subtitles on for me haha). Oh and before that we went to a birthday party of one of Shannon and Karen’s friends. We didn’t stay for very long because we wanted to bake but it was neat going and seeing some people Sha’s been going to school with. Oh yeah and she’s completely fluent in German! Not even kidding we’d be in the car and suddenly she’d start talking to Barbara and she speaks at like 100 miles a minute…I was impressed! And the next morning Barbara packed me a lunch, seriously she’s adorable, and took me to the train station very very early in the morning. The trip was short but so great and definitely one of my favorites (mainly because I was visiting Sha and it was more relaxing and less touristy)!
Tshooch (that’s goodbye in German…it’s pronounced chews which took me awhile haha)
Ciao!
I’m most definitely getting behind on my blogging and I think they’ve been way too long anyway hahha. So here’s a sum up of Germany and then Prague :)
So Germany was AMAZING. It was so so great seeing Sha Sha and getting to meet her host family (they’re adorable). Her mom is like the sweetest thing ever and was constantly feeding us and her host sister is like the most lovable girl I’ve ever met (Shannon and I decided that Karen, her host sister, has to marry Trevor haha). The first night we got back to their house around 10 and Barbara, Sha’s host mom, was pulling all of this food out for me to eat. It was very good…first she gave me a giant bowl of fruit salad and tnen rolls with this mango cream spread (Shannon’s new favorite) and then all of us had tea and spice cake hahah. Needless to say I was stuffed! That night the girls and I sat down in the basement and caught up on life haha. I tried coca-cola beer for the first time…the coke part was good…the beer part not so much.
The next morning we had breakfast and then the girls showed me around Butzbach. It is such a cute German town…..Sha and I think it looks like a little downtown Eagle, only German haha. The buildings were so old and cute and there were people selling brauts and such in the street. After that we went to Frankfurt and walked around/shopped for a few hours. We had lunch at a quaint restaurant in one of the main squares. I had goulash hahah typical German (and it was delish!) There was a wedding going on in the square while we were there and it was so cute! We were wondering what was going on and Karen told us that at weddings in Germany the newly married couple has to cut out one side of a heart from a big sheet that has a heart drawn on it, and basically whoever cuts their side out faster is the leader/head of the relationship haha. Fun Tradition! And it was really neat to see.
That night Sha and I made German Cheesecake! Since we were little we’ve always baked together and our favorite was always German Cheesecake…so this was necessary haha. It turned out really well even though we substituted a few ingredients. And we spend the rest of that night watching a German movie called the no eared bunny (they put English subtitles on for me haha). Oh and before that we went to a birthday party of one of Shannon and Karen’s friends. We didn’t stay for very long because we wanted to bake but it was neat going and seeing some people Sha’s been going to school with. Oh yeah and she’s completely fluent in German! Not even kidding we’d be in the car and suddenly she’d start talking to Barbara and she speaks at like 100 miles a minute…I was impressed! And the next morning Barbara packed me a lunch, seriously she’s adorable, and took me to the train station very very early in the morning. The trip was short but so great and definitely one of my favorites (mainly because I was visiting Sha and it was more relaxing and less touristy)!
Tshooch (that’s goodbye in German…it’s pronounced chews which took me awhile haha)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Mondays
November 10th
The next morning, after Barcelona, was just like any Monday morning, although I feel like everything around our apartment is becoming really sentimental because we’re all realizing how short our time together is. The subject is kind of off limits…according to the girls hahah, but tends to come up anyway. Italian class was really fun. We spent the first half an hour talking in English about our travels from the weekend before. Every Monday is so fun to hear where everyone went and what they did! Two of the girls in my class got pick pocketed this last weekend though which is miserable so that kind of ruined their weekend, but neither of them seemed to down about it. It was just a really good way to start the week! That night Maddie and I met Hannah, Katie, and Nick at the wine bar by the Arno. I’ve heard them talking about it a lot but had never been before last night. Filippo, the owner, brought us both out glasses of wine when we got there and then all of us, includig Filippo went to dinner hahah. I love sitting down for the Italian style dinners. Everyone is just in the best mood and the restaurants are so quaint and warm! 4 of us ordered the same pasta because Nick had had it before. It was like a penne with tomato, mozzarella, and basil…so good! And we went for 1 euro gelato afterwards hahaha. Oh and Then I spent the night in the kitchen with the girls writing postcards, as marci curled my hair into the tiniest ringlets it’s ever been in. And at about 1 in the morning I took my postcards downstairs to send and interviewed Francesco, the 24 years old Italian that works night shifts at the front desk, for my intercultural comm. Class. It was a long day but a good one at that. Okay I’ll write again soon.
Ciao Ciao and 1,000 baci!
The next morning, after Barcelona, was just like any Monday morning, although I feel like everything around our apartment is becoming really sentimental because we’re all realizing how short our time together is. The subject is kind of off limits…according to the girls hahah, but tends to come up anyway. Italian class was really fun. We spent the first half an hour talking in English about our travels from the weekend before. Every Monday is so fun to hear where everyone went and what they did! Two of the girls in my class got pick pocketed this last weekend though which is miserable so that kind of ruined their weekend, but neither of them seemed to down about it. It was just a really good way to start the week! That night Maddie and I met Hannah, Katie, and Nick at the wine bar by the Arno. I’ve heard them talking about it a lot but had never been before last night. Filippo, the owner, brought us both out glasses of wine when we got there and then all of us, includig Filippo went to dinner hahah. I love sitting down for the Italian style dinners. Everyone is just in the best mood and the restaurants are so quaint and warm! 4 of us ordered the same pasta because Nick had had it before. It was like a penne with tomato, mozzarella, and basil…so good! And we went for 1 euro gelato afterwards hahaha. Oh and Then I spent the night in the kitchen with the girls writing postcards, as marci curled my hair into the tiniest ringlets it’s ever been in. And at about 1 in the morning I took my postcards downstairs to send and interviewed Francesco, the 24 years old Italian that works night shifts at the front desk, for my intercultural comm. Class. It was a long day but a good one at that. Okay I’ll write again soon.
Ciao Ciao and 1,000 baci!
Barcelona, Spain
November 7th
Friday night Kristen and I flew into Barcelona to meet Marci and Hannah. Getting there was a little interesting…but it all worked out as usual haha. For some reason on the way to catch our plane that day, the train we were on just stopped on the tracks for an hour. As the time was passing I kept getting more and more nervous that we might actually miss our flight, especially since we’d already missed our train to the airport. So when the train finally started up again and pulled into Pisa about 5 minutes later, Kristen and I just got a taxi. God works in mysterious ways and sure enough we ended up sharing a taxi with a man on a business trip who was on our same flight and he paid for the taxi and let us just run to check-in. Anyway we got checked in 10 minutes before the ryanair check-in closed which was a close call but we made it hahaha. Oh the adventures :P
After we landed in Barcelona we took an hour long bus ride into the city and then two metros to our hostel. And the hostel is another experience to say the least haha. It was the first hostel with just the two of us (therefore we couldn’t reserve a private room with the 4 or 6 of us roommates) it was a mixed male/female room, one bathroom, and 16 bunk beds. It’s a really weird experience falling asleep in a room with 14 people you don’t know! But surprisingly I felt more comfortable than I thought I would, and Im just glad that was my last night in a hostel hahah!!!! This hostel was called Gothic Point and it was actually pretty cool. The bunk beds were really high up and fairly separated, so it felt like there was a little bit of privacy. And I have pictures, but pretty sure the whole room just looked like a giant jungle gym.
Anyway, enough about the hostel! That night Hannah and Marci rested up from their day of sightseeing and Kristen and I split a huge plate of nachos at a restaurant the girls suggested. Afterwards the girls and I signed up for tapas and a flamenco show for 18E. The tapas were small portions of meats and cheeses on French bread, they were all a little interesting haha but I did have one with brie and a dried plum on it which was actually really good. Oh and I tried Sangria for the first time! I was surprised that I actually liked it, I think it was the fruity flavor because I love fruit and the fact that I was parched from traveling the whole day. Next the group went to a small theatre which was basically a relaxed bar atmosphere with a stage at the front. The beginning of the show was instrumental with clapping, guitar, and a drummer. Then after awhile the dancer came out and she was AMAZING! I was seriously soo impressed. Afterwards the girls and I were a little confused because the hostel leaders (who were leading the whole night) took us to two bars after the show. The girls all took their first shot ever at the first bar. It was Russian vodka, fanta, and orange juice. I tasted one of them and it pretty much just tasted like juice. Lastly, we went to the final bar which had a club downstairs. So we all just went downstairs and danced. It was soooo fun I haven’t just danced for the heck of it in so long and it was so great! The four of us decided we need to go out dancing more often, therefore we’re going to try and find a place in Florence soon. There’s actually a place here, in Florence, called the Red Garter that I really want to go karaoke at!
That night I fell asleep around 2 and then just tossed and turned throughout the night because I was cold. That’s one weird thing about our hostel. They didn’t provide us with top sheets, blankets, or comforters….so night times were a little chilly. Kristen and I were both sleeping with our scarves over us but that didn’t do a whole lot haha. And oddly enough neither Kristen nor myself heard any of our other roommates come in during the wee hours of the morning! After waking up we started the morning with golden crisp cereal at the hostel and muffins.
November 8th
We started the morning pretty early because Marci and Hannah had to leave to catch their plane around 1. First we went to the Picasso museum. That was actually really neat (I feel like lately I’ve been so reluctant to go to museums just because I’ve been in so many the last couple months and I have a hard time remembering what I see in them anyway). But I learned a lot about Picasso’s life and it was really awesome seeing how his work changed as he went through different phases of his life. Afterwards we walked to the beach, which happens to be the area where the Olympics were held. Being in a beach atmosphere made me miss California and beach bon fires soo much but it was also a really good feeling. I honestly think that was my favorite part of the trip. There’s something really amazing about being at the ocean where everything’s just wide open….and I feel like Im always so so happy at the beach even when it is cold outside. Afterwards Hannah and Marci left and Kristen and I took the metro up to Park Guell. It’s a large park on top of a hill designed by Gaudi. His architecture was absolutely incredible and the unique shapes of the buildings looked like they were straight out of Dr. Seuss or something! Kristen was fascinated with the park because there were mosaics everywhere and she loves mosaics!
We spent the rest of the day walking and taking the metro to different buildings Gaudi designed: Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batilo. By the time we were done our feet were killing us and we were ready to take a break at the hostel. Hannah and Marci recommended a smoothie place, founded off Jamba Juice in California so we stopped there on the way back to the hostel. Mine was orange, strawberry, banana which tasted like heaven because I have not had a smoothie in so long. We used internet, which was free for once, for a little while at the hostel before heading to a mexcian restaurant for dinner. Kristen and I both ordered enchiladas and mine actually kind of made me sick, it wasn’t a typical enchilada, but their guacamole was good haha. Then we jumped on the metro for about the 5th time that day and headed to the west side of the city. We wanted to see a light show at this huge fountain but we missed it so we just sat on the steps and talked for awhile. It was so nice to just sit still for awhile, and that’s basically what we talked about. How we’re trying to slow down and take everything in because on our last couple trips we’ve been going non stop and sometimes it’s just nice to do less sightseeing and more relaxing haha. So that’s kind of my aim on my next trip, which is visiting Sha Sha in Germany this weekend and we’re not planning any sightseeing so that’ll be perfect :P
After wandering back from the fountain we stopped at a coffee shop called Cappuccino. First we ordered a piece of chocolate cake to split and then decided we might as well get another. So we got a gelato ciocolato which was a scoop of vanilla and chocolate gelato in hot chocolate with whip cream on top. It was delicious and right when we started eating it Jewel “Pieces of You” came on and we were both singing and eating our amazing dessert haha. We’re seriously such dorks but that’s what makes life fun hahaha.
November 9th
The next morning we got ready, had breakfast, and checked out of our hostel at ten. Our plan was to have a shopping day…but apparently a lot of clothing stores are closed on Sunday in Barcelona. I guess we should have realized that because that’s how it is in Italy as well. Anyway, we just went into a bunch of souvenir shops and walked around the city. As usual the highlight of the day was the food. We split vegetable paella for lunch which was absolutely necessary since we were in Spain hahah and it was so good! As we were leaving the city we stopped at a little shop to have churros and hot chocolate because that was on our to-do list for Spain. Then we bought a few postcards and caught our hour long bus ride back to the airport. I really like all of the traveling time. I’ve really grown to like my time on the buses, trains, and planes to read, listen to music, and just gather my thoughts. So we flew into Pisa around 6:30 to find out Italy was having a train strike hahaha not surprising. So we hopped on another bus back to Florence. It’s always so nice getting back to our cozy apartment after traveling. And I love it when all of the roommates are back together. I feel like we’re always just talking, laughing, cooking, and listening to music! We don’t have a family room or kitchen so our kitchen table is pretty much our gathering place hahah. So that was Barcelona…fast and furious, but so fun!
Adios!
Friday night Kristen and I flew into Barcelona to meet Marci and Hannah. Getting there was a little interesting…but it all worked out as usual haha. For some reason on the way to catch our plane that day, the train we were on just stopped on the tracks for an hour. As the time was passing I kept getting more and more nervous that we might actually miss our flight, especially since we’d already missed our train to the airport. So when the train finally started up again and pulled into Pisa about 5 minutes later, Kristen and I just got a taxi. God works in mysterious ways and sure enough we ended up sharing a taxi with a man on a business trip who was on our same flight and he paid for the taxi and let us just run to check-in. Anyway we got checked in 10 minutes before the ryanair check-in closed which was a close call but we made it hahaha. Oh the adventures :P
After we landed in Barcelona we took an hour long bus ride into the city and then two metros to our hostel. And the hostel is another experience to say the least haha. It was the first hostel with just the two of us (therefore we couldn’t reserve a private room with the 4 or 6 of us roommates) it was a mixed male/female room, one bathroom, and 16 bunk beds. It’s a really weird experience falling asleep in a room with 14 people you don’t know! But surprisingly I felt more comfortable than I thought I would, and Im just glad that was my last night in a hostel hahah!!!! This hostel was called Gothic Point and it was actually pretty cool. The bunk beds were really high up and fairly separated, so it felt like there was a little bit of privacy. And I have pictures, but pretty sure the whole room just looked like a giant jungle gym.
Anyway, enough about the hostel! That night Hannah and Marci rested up from their day of sightseeing and Kristen and I split a huge plate of nachos at a restaurant the girls suggested. Afterwards the girls and I signed up for tapas and a flamenco show for 18E. The tapas were small portions of meats and cheeses on French bread, they were all a little interesting haha but I did have one with brie and a dried plum on it which was actually really good. Oh and I tried Sangria for the first time! I was surprised that I actually liked it, I think it was the fruity flavor because I love fruit and the fact that I was parched from traveling the whole day. Next the group went to a small theatre which was basically a relaxed bar atmosphere with a stage at the front. The beginning of the show was instrumental with clapping, guitar, and a drummer. Then after awhile the dancer came out and she was AMAZING! I was seriously soo impressed. Afterwards the girls and I were a little confused because the hostel leaders (who were leading the whole night) took us to two bars after the show. The girls all took their first shot ever at the first bar. It was Russian vodka, fanta, and orange juice. I tasted one of them and it pretty much just tasted like juice. Lastly, we went to the final bar which had a club downstairs. So we all just went downstairs and danced. It was soooo fun I haven’t just danced for the heck of it in so long and it was so great! The four of us decided we need to go out dancing more often, therefore we’re going to try and find a place in Florence soon. There’s actually a place here, in Florence, called the Red Garter that I really want to go karaoke at!
That night I fell asleep around 2 and then just tossed and turned throughout the night because I was cold. That’s one weird thing about our hostel. They didn’t provide us with top sheets, blankets, or comforters….so night times were a little chilly. Kristen and I were both sleeping with our scarves over us but that didn’t do a whole lot haha. And oddly enough neither Kristen nor myself heard any of our other roommates come in during the wee hours of the morning! After waking up we started the morning with golden crisp cereal at the hostel and muffins.
November 8th
We started the morning pretty early because Marci and Hannah had to leave to catch their plane around 1. First we went to the Picasso museum. That was actually really neat (I feel like lately I’ve been so reluctant to go to museums just because I’ve been in so many the last couple months and I have a hard time remembering what I see in them anyway). But I learned a lot about Picasso’s life and it was really awesome seeing how his work changed as he went through different phases of his life. Afterwards we walked to the beach, which happens to be the area where the Olympics were held. Being in a beach atmosphere made me miss California and beach bon fires soo much but it was also a really good feeling. I honestly think that was my favorite part of the trip. There’s something really amazing about being at the ocean where everything’s just wide open….and I feel like Im always so so happy at the beach even when it is cold outside. Afterwards Hannah and Marci left and Kristen and I took the metro up to Park Guell. It’s a large park on top of a hill designed by Gaudi. His architecture was absolutely incredible and the unique shapes of the buildings looked like they were straight out of Dr. Seuss or something! Kristen was fascinated with the park because there were mosaics everywhere and she loves mosaics!
We spent the rest of the day walking and taking the metro to different buildings Gaudi designed: Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batilo. By the time we were done our feet were killing us and we were ready to take a break at the hostel. Hannah and Marci recommended a smoothie place, founded off Jamba Juice in California so we stopped there on the way back to the hostel. Mine was orange, strawberry, banana which tasted like heaven because I have not had a smoothie in so long. We used internet, which was free for once, for a little while at the hostel before heading to a mexcian restaurant for dinner. Kristen and I both ordered enchiladas and mine actually kind of made me sick, it wasn’t a typical enchilada, but their guacamole was good haha. Then we jumped on the metro for about the 5th time that day and headed to the west side of the city. We wanted to see a light show at this huge fountain but we missed it so we just sat on the steps and talked for awhile. It was so nice to just sit still for awhile, and that’s basically what we talked about. How we’re trying to slow down and take everything in because on our last couple trips we’ve been going non stop and sometimes it’s just nice to do less sightseeing and more relaxing haha. So that’s kind of my aim on my next trip, which is visiting Sha Sha in Germany this weekend and we’re not planning any sightseeing so that’ll be perfect :P
After wandering back from the fountain we stopped at a coffee shop called Cappuccino. First we ordered a piece of chocolate cake to split and then decided we might as well get another. So we got a gelato ciocolato which was a scoop of vanilla and chocolate gelato in hot chocolate with whip cream on top. It was delicious and right when we started eating it Jewel “Pieces of You” came on and we were both singing and eating our amazing dessert haha. We’re seriously such dorks but that’s what makes life fun hahaha.
November 9th
The next morning we got ready, had breakfast, and checked out of our hostel at ten. Our plan was to have a shopping day…but apparently a lot of clothing stores are closed on Sunday in Barcelona. I guess we should have realized that because that’s how it is in Italy as well. Anyway, we just went into a bunch of souvenir shops and walked around the city. As usual the highlight of the day was the food. We split vegetable paella for lunch which was absolutely necessary since we were in Spain hahah and it was so good! As we were leaving the city we stopped at a little shop to have churros and hot chocolate because that was on our to-do list for Spain. Then we bought a few postcards and caught our hour long bus ride back to the airport. I really like all of the traveling time. I’ve really grown to like my time on the buses, trains, and planes to read, listen to music, and just gather my thoughts. So we flew into Pisa around 6:30 to find out Italy was having a train strike hahaha not surprising. So we hopped on another bus back to Florence. It’s always so nice getting back to our cozy apartment after traveling. And I love it when all of the roommates are back together. I feel like we’re always just talking, laughing, cooking, and listening to music! We don’t have a family room or kitchen so our kitchen table is pretty much our gathering place hahah. So that was Barcelona…fast and furious, but so fun!
Adios!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Thursday, October 30th Last Day and back to Florence
As usual for our last day…it rained haha. But I love the streets and gorgeous buildings when it rains so that was neat. For breakfast we went to Clarinda’s tea room which was recommended by friends that studied abroad and all of our guide books. It was a really cute little place and it was fun because we all got big pots of tea with scones and shortbread…yum! Afterwards we all split up for awhile, I shopped, Maddie headed to the National Gallery, and Kristen and Hannah walked to the top of the Scott monument. Then we all met up at the National Gallery and spent about an hour there. That was really neat because I saw paintings by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, and Degas. After seeing so many paintings I have a really hard time remembering all of them, but the famous ones stand out!
Afterwards we hiked up to some monuments that we’d seen on the top of a hill, Calton Hill, that we’d been referring to as Athens or Greece because of the architecture. When we got up there we saw Duncan’s monument and Nelson’s Monument, the coolest part was just looking out over all of Edinburgh. We got really into taking jumping pictures on top of the hills we climbed hahah so we did a few more of those. A lot of people have themes when they take pictures in different places and jumping is definitely one we’ve adopted haha. We had to leave for the airport around 4 so we just hung around the city for a copule hours in the afternoon. For some reason Scotand had baked potatoes everywhere so for lunch we went to a backed potato shop. Maddie and I felt it was appropriate being Idahoans and all ;) I also tried pumpkin soup there…I couldn’t pass it up with the season and everything haha. We all ate so much soup in Dublin and Edinburgh just because it was so cold outside. Afterwards the 4 of us just sat in Starbucks and read, avoiding the rain and the wind. Oh and one last thing: I never mentioned how everyone drives on the other side of the road in the U.K. It’s so crazy because all of us would try and cross the street and be looking the opposite way for oncoming traffic…dangerous hahha. But we got the hang of it…not to mention all of the sidewalks said “look left” or “look right” :P
That night we flew out of Edinburgh late...our flight was delayed an hour and a half. Out of all times to be delayed we couldn't have been happier that it was a very last one on the way home. And after that the flight went smoothly and our plane landed in Pisa at 12:30 and we got on a bus that left at 1:40am and arrived in Florence at 2:40am. It was definitely early in the morning but it was so nice to get back to apartment and crawl into our own beds. Home Sweet Home...Away From Home :)
Afterwards we hiked up to some monuments that we’d seen on the top of a hill, Calton Hill, that we’d been referring to as Athens or Greece because of the architecture. When we got up there we saw Duncan’s monument and Nelson’s Monument, the coolest part was just looking out over all of Edinburgh. We got really into taking jumping pictures on top of the hills we climbed hahah so we did a few more of those. A lot of people have themes when they take pictures in different places and jumping is definitely one we’ve adopted haha. We had to leave for the airport around 4 so we just hung around the city for a copule hours in the afternoon. For some reason Scotand had baked potatoes everywhere so for lunch we went to a backed potato shop. Maddie and I felt it was appropriate being Idahoans and all ;) I also tried pumpkin soup there…I couldn’t pass it up with the season and everything haha. We all ate so much soup in Dublin and Edinburgh just because it was so cold outside. Afterwards the 4 of us just sat in Starbucks and read, avoiding the rain and the wind. Oh and one last thing: I never mentioned how everyone drives on the other side of the road in the U.K. It’s so crazy because all of us would try and cross the street and be looking the opposite way for oncoming traffic…dangerous hahha. But we got the hang of it…not to mention all of the sidewalks said “look left” or “look right” :P
That night we flew out of Edinburgh late...our flight was delayed an hour and a half. Out of all times to be delayed we couldn't have been happier that it was a very last one on the way home. And after that the flight went smoothly and our plane landed in Pisa at 12:30 and we got on a bus that left at 1:40am and arrived in Florence at 2:40am. It was definitely early in the morning but it was so nice to get back to apartment and crawl into our own beds. Home Sweet Home...Away From Home :)
Wednesday, October 29th Exploring the Medieval City
The girls and I ate breakfast at the Elephant House where JK Rowling first got her inspiration for Harry Potter. It was a really cute little coffee shop and breakfast house. I got a mocha and a bacon and egg biscuit. Afterwards the girls and I bundled back up to head out into the freezing cold and head to Edinburgh Castle. It’s so huge and it was really neat being on the inside of a castle that was really used centuries ago. There was a ton to see once we were passed the main gates and it took us a few hours just to see a few of the rooms and buildings in the Castle. We saw several Scottish war museums, heard a cannon fired, saw the crown jewels, and a few palace rooms.
After that we walked down the Royal Mile, which is basically made up of a bunch of streets that lead straight from the castle to the Holyroodhouse which is a palace. On the way to the Holyroodhouse we stopped and had lunch at a very American restaurant called the Filling Station. It wasn’t as adorable as the Filling Station in Orange but still fun haha. Then we just continued on shopping at all the little shops along the main street. There were tons of Scottish souvenir and kilt shops which were kind of fun to look at. By the time we got to the end we took pictures of the Holyroodhouse palace and then climbed a volcano right next to it as the sun was setting. The top had a gorgeous view of the city and the hike helped warm us up haha. It was so awesome. Honestly even the sky had black clouds in it and looked all medieval…I don’t even usually like dark things this was just something out of a fairy tale or something. The Edinburgh Castle sits on a volcano as well so we could see that and all of the city spires on the buildings from the lookout point. After that we went back to our cupcake place from the first night called chocolatesoup! We had amazing hot chocolate and I got a mint brownie for the next day hahah I think we were all on a crazy sugar overload the whole time. But the U.K. had normal American desserts and we’ve been deprived of those for over 2 months now hahah so we had to make up for lost time!
Our big event of the night was taking an underground ghost tour of the city. It was called Mary King’s close and the whole thing was more suspenseful than scary…Thank goodness! The girls had a crush on our tour guide so they were very into the tour the whole time hahaha. At one point a girl came out and started telling us that she was a witch and she could identify the witches in the room because they were wearing red. And of course I had my big red pea coat on hahah So she pulled me out in front of the whole tour and kept asking if I was a witch and I just kept saying no and laughing. I had to walk a line and she had to poke me with her wand…all kinds of stuff. But eventually I was off the hook. Hannah’s a witch too because she had red on, so the rest of the trip we were making jokes about being witches.
Afterwards I wanted Mexican food, because we’d passed quite a few Mexican restaurants in Scotland. So I got nachos and the girls got quesadillas…simple but good! Edinburgh was absolutely gorgeous but after a week of traveling I was definitely ready to come back to Florence…and even more excited to celebrate HALLOWEEN!
Cheers!
After that we walked down the Royal Mile, which is basically made up of a bunch of streets that lead straight from the castle to the Holyroodhouse which is a palace. On the way to the Holyroodhouse we stopped and had lunch at a very American restaurant called the Filling Station. It wasn’t as adorable as the Filling Station in Orange but still fun haha. Then we just continued on shopping at all the little shops along the main street. There were tons of Scottish souvenir and kilt shops which were kind of fun to look at. By the time we got to the end we took pictures of the Holyroodhouse palace and then climbed a volcano right next to it as the sun was setting. The top had a gorgeous view of the city and the hike helped warm us up haha. It was so awesome. Honestly even the sky had black clouds in it and looked all medieval…I don’t even usually like dark things this was just something out of a fairy tale or something. The Edinburgh Castle sits on a volcano as well so we could see that and all of the city spires on the buildings from the lookout point. After that we went back to our cupcake place from the first night called chocolatesoup! We had amazing hot chocolate and I got a mint brownie for the next day hahah I think we were all on a crazy sugar overload the whole time. But the U.K. had normal American desserts and we’ve been deprived of those for over 2 months now hahah so we had to make up for lost time!
Our big event of the night was taking an underground ghost tour of the city. It was called Mary King’s close and the whole thing was more suspenseful than scary…Thank goodness! The girls had a crush on our tour guide so they were very into the tour the whole time hahaha. At one point a girl came out and started telling us that she was a witch and she could identify the witches in the room because they were wearing red. And of course I had my big red pea coat on hahah So she pulled me out in front of the whole tour and kept asking if I was a witch and I just kept saying no and laughing. I had to walk a line and she had to poke me with her wand…all kinds of stuff. But eventually I was off the hook. Hannah’s a witch too because she had red on, so the rest of the trip we were making jokes about being witches.
Afterwards I wanted Mexican food, because we’d passed quite a few Mexican restaurants in Scotland. So I got nachos and the girls got quesadillas…simple but good! Edinburgh was absolutely gorgeous but after a week of traveling I was definitely ready to come back to Florence…and even more excited to celebrate HALLOWEEN!
Cheers!
Tuesday, October 28th On our way to Edinburgh
We spent Tuesday morning trying to see the last few things we wanted to while we were still in Dublin. It was such a quick trip I can’t even believe how fast it flew by. Kristen and I got up early and avoided the line in to see the Book of Kells. It was really awesome going through the whole museum and reading about the Book. They turn the pages everyday so I wrote down the verses we saw because Hannah and Maddie both went on different days when they were doing things on their own. The pages had a ton of intricate detail and it’s pretty mind boggling to think that monks wrote them around the year 800. There was a really old library above the Book of Kells where I saw a bust of John Locke. The girls and I have a running joke that he’s my favorite philosopher. Hannah is related to him somehow somewhere down the line and she misunderstood me one day and thought I said oh my gosh he’s my favorite philosopher….Anyway, we all thought it was hilarious and apparently every time philosophers come up in conversation someone has to throw in John Locke. The library also had some of Darwins field notes which were really neat to see. The Book of Kells is kept in Trinity College, where Maddie’s mom went to school, so we looked around the campus real quick afterwards and then went for scones again at Queen of Tarts. That day I got two…one for the next morning hahha I didn’t know what the food was going to be like in Scotland :p but I got and apple scone and a chocolate chip one that was delicious!
So we flew out of Dublin and into Edinburgh, landing around 5:30 that night. By the time we got in it was already dark outside and below freezing LITERALLY. Our bus dropped us off on a bridge and we made our way to the hostel. From the time any of us first saw the city we were all ooing and ahhing. Seriously it was soo gorgeous and amazing. I think I was completely awestruck by all of the medieval buildings in the moonlight. It was so gorgeous I just don’t even know how to put it into words. Anyway, since it was freezing we hustled to our hostel. It was called smartcityhostels and it was seriously soo nice. The room was a really good size and everything was white so it was a lot easier to tell when things were dirty or clean. The shower was large and really nice and they provided towels, which most hostels don’t. So it was basically like a hotel only with bunk beds and for a hostel price.
Scotland was definitely my favorite and I could tell that from the beginning. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were there the 2 days before Halloween and the city was so medieval or if it was just all of the architecture and the people that I was fascinated by..? not sure but I loved it. For our first dinner in Scotland we decided to get a real hardy Scottish meal haha. Maddie got haggis, cows stomach, Hannah ate pasta, and Kristen and I split hahha I feel like shouldn’t even have to write that anymore it’s just assumed. But we split a really good stew and a way too sour sourcrowt haha.
The whole week our hostel was showing scary movies in the lounge. So Kristen, Hannah, and I went downstairs and watched Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2. It was dark and definitely a scary movie for a reason hahah but it put us in the Halloween spirit :P That night Kristen and I did back massages again, we started doing them on a regular basis on the trip since our backpacks seemed to be crippling us haha. Thankfully the UK doesn’t have very much cobblestone so it was a nice change on our joints haha. Anyway, Kristen and I stayed up that night just talking about our overall study abroad experience and just how it’s been so great. I feel like there is so much happening all at once and I’m just trying to soak it all in! It’s seriously going by soooo fast! And at the same time, the closer it gets to the holidays the more excited I get about being back with family and friends! Even being gone from Florence for 5 days makes me miss it and miss my little apartment. I thought I was so sick of pasta too and I was soo ready for it when we got back here.
Oh and one thing I left out was in the Book of Kells gift shop you could look up your family names on a computer in the room. So I found out Richardson means son of Richard. And Richard means brave and strong. The first Richardson reached America in the 1600’s. And from Fitzpatrick I learned that Fitz means son. So the name is son of Patrick. And in 1920 the first Fitzpatrick went through Ellis Island. It was really neat to read about and I just wished I could have written it all down.
So we flew out of Dublin and into Edinburgh, landing around 5:30 that night. By the time we got in it was already dark outside and below freezing LITERALLY. Our bus dropped us off on a bridge and we made our way to the hostel. From the time any of us first saw the city we were all ooing and ahhing. Seriously it was soo gorgeous and amazing. I think I was completely awestruck by all of the medieval buildings in the moonlight. It was so gorgeous I just don’t even know how to put it into words. Anyway, since it was freezing we hustled to our hostel. It was called smartcityhostels and it was seriously soo nice. The room was a really good size and everything was white so it was a lot easier to tell when things were dirty or clean. The shower was large and really nice and they provided towels, which most hostels don’t. So it was basically like a hotel only with bunk beds and for a hostel price.
Scotland was definitely my favorite and I could tell that from the beginning. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were there the 2 days before Halloween and the city was so medieval or if it was just all of the architecture and the people that I was fascinated by..? not sure but I loved it. For our first dinner in Scotland we decided to get a real hardy Scottish meal haha. Maddie got haggis, cows stomach, Hannah ate pasta, and Kristen and I split hahha I feel like shouldn’t even have to write that anymore it’s just assumed. But we split a really good stew and a way too sour sourcrowt haha.
The whole week our hostel was showing scary movies in the lounge. So Kristen, Hannah, and I went downstairs and watched Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2. It was dark and definitely a scary movie for a reason hahah but it put us in the Halloween spirit :P That night Kristen and I did back massages again, we started doing them on a regular basis on the trip since our backpacks seemed to be crippling us haha. Thankfully the UK doesn’t have very much cobblestone so it was a nice change on our joints haha. Anyway, Kristen and I stayed up that night just talking about our overall study abroad experience and just how it’s been so great. I feel like there is so much happening all at once and I’m just trying to soak it all in! It’s seriously going by soooo fast! And at the same time, the closer it gets to the holidays the more excited I get about being back with family and friends! Even being gone from Florence for 5 days makes me miss it and miss my little apartment. I thought I was so sick of pasta too and I was soo ready for it when we got back here.
Oh and one thing I left out was in the Book of Kells gift shop you could look up your family names on a computer in the room. So I found out Richardson means son of Richard. And Richard means brave and strong. The first Richardson reached America in the 1600’s. And from Fitzpatrick I learned that Fitz means son. So the name is son of Patrick. And in 1920 the first Fitzpatrick went through Ellis Island. It was really neat to read about and I just wished I could have written it all down.
Monday, October 27th Trip to Wicklow
The day started fast and furious as usual hahah. Breakfast at the hostel consisted of toast and orange juice which seems pretty common for hostels. Then Hannah, Kristen, and I tried to catch an early bus to Wicklow, but as we later found out Monday was a bank holiday so the buses didn’t run as often and many of the shops were closed. So we went to St. Stephen’s Green, walked by a marathon that was going on, saw Dublin Castle. It doesn’t exactly look like a typical castle but it was really neat to see. Then we went to Christ Church which was by far my favorite as far as architecture, it looked like a small palace. Afterwards we went to a really cute bakery that Maddie’s mom had recommended called Queen of Tarts. Oh and I haven’t mentioned yet that Maddie’s mom studied abroad in Ireland when she was in college. So Maddie spent the rest of that day going to see her mom’s old apartment and everything which was really neat. At the pastry shop we all got scones, mine was raspberry, and in Ireland and Scotland they serve scones with butter, jelly, and cream. The cream was really good on them. And right next door was an Irish souvenir shop where I bought postcards and a Claddagh ring!!!! I’ve been waiting forever to get an irish Claddagh ring and I finally found one I really like in Ireland of all places haha. Kristen got a matching one as well, and got one for Marci, one of our roommates because she wanted one as well. Im still so excited about it ahh!
At 12 our bus left for Wicklow which was about an hour away. Wicklow was even colder than Dublin so I was completely bundled with my scarf wrapped around my face hahah it was quite the site. When we got to Wicklow we weren’t really sure what to do so we walked up to a church on a hill and then over to the Irish sea and up a hill where there were amazing castle ruins. That was definitely my favorite part of Ireland because it was sooo beautiful! Oh for those of you that know the movie P.S. I Love You, when Holly is young and traveling Ireland she walks through Wicklow National Park and that’s when she meets Jerry for the first time. Anyway, the three of us girls love that movie and when we heard that was the same town we knew we had to go haha. Oh and on the bus ride to Wicklow we passed a hotel called Tara Tower’s Hotel and a pub in the hotel was called P J Branagans Bar! How crazy is that?! Anyway, it was the cutest thing ever and put a huge smile on my face. I just I wish I could have gotten a picture of it but the bus was going too fast! Oh and there’s also a Tara’s street in Dublin and one of the dart stations is called Tara’s as well. Apparently my name is very popular in Ireland. And in Wicklow there was a shop named Fitzpatricks which is my mom’s maiden name so I was really excited about that too haha.
Dublin is such a small city compared to London, it just had a really cool small town feel. Not to mention the fact that the people were all so friendly. Seriously they were so sweet and talkative I loved it…and they had amazing accents haha. That night we wanted to go to our first pub, so we ate at a Spanish restaurant (we were very cultured throughout this trip hahaha we ate at so many different ethnic restaurants it was crazy). After dinner we went to Temple Bar. The girls ordered a guiness and bulmers cider to share. I tried them both and it’s still official that I do not like the taste of beer. Yuck! Anyway, the cider wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t partake. We all found stools in the room that the music was playing in though and that was awesome. It was so so fun being in a real pub in Dublin listening to a guitar player, who was singing Irish music, accompanied by a violinist. It was so neat because people would join in singing the songs every once in a while or clap to them. We had a few unwanted visitors but I guess that’s expected being in a pub…and after livening in Italy we’re all really talented at avoiding unwanted attention! Oh and to continue our ethnic experience that night we had gelato for dessert haha. I actually got a gelato shake which was most definitely a first and they don’t really make those in Italy. By the end of the night we were all exhausted from site seeing and walking as usual so we called it a night!
At 12 our bus left for Wicklow which was about an hour away. Wicklow was even colder than Dublin so I was completely bundled with my scarf wrapped around my face hahah it was quite the site. When we got to Wicklow we weren’t really sure what to do so we walked up to a church on a hill and then over to the Irish sea and up a hill where there were amazing castle ruins. That was definitely my favorite part of Ireland because it was sooo beautiful! Oh for those of you that know the movie P.S. I Love You, when Holly is young and traveling Ireland she walks through Wicklow National Park and that’s when she meets Jerry for the first time. Anyway, the three of us girls love that movie and when we heard that was the same town we knew we had to go haha. Oh and on the bus ride to Wicklow we passed a hotel called Tara Tower’s Hotel and a pub in the hotel was called P J Branagans Bar! How crazy is that?! Anyway, it was the cutest thing ever and put a huge smile on my face. I just I wish I could have gotten a picture of it but the bus was going too fast! Oh and there’s also a Tara’s street in Dublin and one of the dart stations is called Tara’s as well. Apparently my name is very popular in Ireland. And in Wicklow there was a shop named Fitzpatricks which is my mom’s maiden name so I was really excited about that too haha.
Dublin is such a small city compared to London, it just had a really cool small town feel. Not to mention the fact that the people were all so friendly. Seriously they were so sweet and talkative I loved it…and they had amazing accents haha. That night we wanted to go to our first pub, so we ate at a Spanish restaurant (we were very cultured throughout this trip hahaha we ate at so many different ethnic restaurants it was crazy). After dinner we went to Temple Bar. The girls ordered a guiness and bulmers cider to share. I tried them both and it’s still official that I do not like the taste of beer. Yuck! Anyway, the cider wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t partake. We all found stools in the room that the music was playing in though and that was awesome. It was so so fun being in a real pub in Dublin listening to a guitar player, who was singing Irish music, accompanied by a violinist. It was so neat because people would join in singing the songs every once in a while or clap to them. We had a few unwanted visitors but I guess that’s expected being in a pub…and after livening in Italy we’re all really talented at avoiding unwanted attention! Oh and to continue our ethnic experience that night we had gelato for dessert haha. I actually got a gelato shake which was most definitely a first and they don’t really make those in Italy. By the end of the night we were all exhausted from site seeing and walking as usual so we called it a night!
Sunday, October 26th Heading to Dublin
We ate breakfast at the hotel again. We had preordered porridge the day before hahah it was necessary for our English experience! It was really good and I actually really miss oatmeal so I’ll be eating some of that when I get home. Hannah’s flight for Dublin left at 4 that morning so Sunday in London was just Maddie, Kristen, and I. We walked around in Kensington Gardens for a long time again and went to Kensington Palace. I loved that park it was just absolutely huge and families were out walking, leaves were everywhere, people were jogging, I don’t know it was just relaxing strolling along and I loved it! Oh and it rained that last day. It was just sprinkling when we started walking in the park but an hour or so later it started pouring so we decided to head back and get our stuff from the hotel.
Afterwards Kristen and I felt the need to eat yet again hahah so we went to a pastry shop where I bought an éclair and she got a doughnut. In order to get to the airport we took the tube and then an above ground train. And our tube experience was a little different that time. Apparently a rugby team had just won a match the night before and they were all traveling back to their home town very drunk the next day. They were walking through the station singing Hey Jude…it was actually really neat although it sounded like we were going to be trampled walking through the small tunnels. Anyway, we actually had a little encounter with these boys. I swear stuff like that is inevitable for us to run into. Anyway they were on our same tube and then got off at the same stop. The girls and I got stuck in the middle of them and had to ride up the long escalators with them. Lets just say I saw one too many butt cracks. A couple of them were wearing thongs and I made some kind of comment like “oh geez now im going to be scarred for life,” and some of the guys just gave me a weird look like they thought I was serious. And a couple of them had crazy hats on too. Like one guy had a black witch hat with an orange wig hanging out the bottom. When we got off the tube we were engulfed and the three of us were separated and the guys were asking us what part of the U.S. we were from. One of them was helping Kristen pull her luggage and kept saying “hey it looks like we’re holding hands.” The guys I was by were trying to tell me they weren’t on a team together they were actually just acquaintances and hated each other and then flipped each other off. It was quite the experience. Anyway after the craziness we got on our next train for the airport and headed to Dublin!
We got into Dublin around 5:30 and caught a bus to our hostel. Hannah was there waiting for us as planned and we were all starving so we went to a cute Dubliney restaurant haha. I think it was actually an Italian restaurant but we were hungry hahah. I got soup because I haven’t had it in forever and then Kristen and I split dessert! I think it was a berry cobbler with coffee ice cream on top. Hahah we live for our desserts yumm!
Our hostel was pretty clean, but definitely a change from the hotel. Especially since it was a tiny room with bunk beds….but that’s part of being young and traveling around Europe right?! Haha. Oh and I didn’t even mention…it was freezing! When I wrote this blog I was sitting on my bed with a comforter over me and my nose was freezing cold. But it’s Ireland and therefore amazing whether it’s cold or not. That first night it didn’t really click that I was in Ireland, one of the places I’ve always wanted to go my whole life. And it’s still kind of surreal but it’ll click at some point. Oh and right when we got off our bus that night Kristen and I got a picture with a Giant Leprechaun which put us in a very Irish mood right away!
Afterwards Kristen and I felt the need to eat yet again hahah so we went to a pastry shop where I bought an éclair and she got a doughnut. In order to get to the airport we took the tube and then an above ground train. And our tube experience was a little different that time. Apparently a rugby team had just won a match the night before and they were all traveling back to their home town very drunk the next day. They were walking through the station singing Hey Jude…it was actually really neat although it sounded like we were going to be trampled walking through the small tunnels. Anyway, we actually had a little encounter with these boys. I swear stuff like that is inevitable for us to run into. Anyway they were on our same tube and then got off at the same stop. The girls and I got stuck in the middle of them and had to ride up the long escalators with them. Lets just say I saw one too many butt cracks. A couple of them were wearing thongs and I made some kind of comment like “oh geez now im going to be scarred for life,” and some of the guys just gave me a weird look like they thought I was serious. And a couple of them had crazy hats on too. Like one guy had a black witch hat with an orange wig hanging out the bottom. When we got off the tube we were engulfed and the three of us were separated and the guys were asking us what part of the U.S. we were from. One of them was helping Kristen pull her luggage and kept saying “hey it looks like we’re holding hands.” The guys I was by were trying to tell me they weren’t on a team together they were actually just acquaintances and hated each other and then flipped each other off. It was quite the experience. Anyway after the craziness we got on our next train for the airport and headed to Dublin!
We got into Dublin around 5:30 and caught a bus to our hostel. Hannah was there waiting for us as planned and we were all starving so we went to a cute Dubliney restaurant haha. I think it was actually an Italian restaurant but we were hungry hahah. I got soup because I haven’t had it in forever and then Kristen and I split dessert! I think it was a berry cobbler with coffee ice cream on top. Hahah we live for our desserts yumm!
Our hostel was pretty clean, but definitely a change from the hotel. Especially since it was a tiny room with bunk beds….but that’s part of being young and traveling around Europe right?! Haha. Oh and I didn’t even mention…it was freezing! When I wrote this blog I was sitting on my bed with a comforter over me and my nose was freezing cold. But it’s Ireland and therefore amazing whether it’s cold or not. That first night it didn’t really click that I was in Ireland, one of the places I’ve always wanted to go my whole life. And it’s still kind of surreal but it’ll click at some point. Oh and right when we got off our bus that night Kristen and I got a picture with a Giant Leprechaun which put us in a very Irish mood right away!
Saturday, October 25th In London!
Saturday morning we woke up around 8:30 and had breakfast at the hotel. We were all so excited because breakfast consisted of toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. I haven’t had an American style breakfast since I left the states so that was fantastic hahaha. Oh the tiny thrills in life :P Plus our Italian breakfasts usually consist of a crescent and coffee, or in my case yogurt and cereal hahaha so I’ve been wanting something a little more like home! Afterwards Kristen and I went into some boutiques and shops near the hotel while Maddie and Hannah went to an antique market.
Around 12 we all met up and went to the Houses of Parliament where we also saw Big Ben. All of those buildings have awesome architecture and are beautiful to see. Then Maddie, Kristen, and I went to the London Eye. It’s the biggest ferris wheel in the world and it takes about half an hour to get all the way around. So we got to look out over all of London which is huge! Then we ran to Westminster Abbey to see it real quick before meeting up with Hannah in Trafalgar Square afterwards. It was a little more complicated than we had planned haha. It took us about 30 minutes just to find each other because there were so many people in the square and our cell phones weren’t working which is just another weird technical difficulty. At this point we were just trying to see all of the sites so we went through the National Portrait Gallery for about half an hour, and then to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Seeing all of these places just makes me wish I could visit them in a different time period and listen to how people talked and what they wore. I can only imagine! Oh my gosh!
The day flew by and all of us were so worn out, not to mention our feet aching hahah but all of the places we saw were absolutely beautiful. My favorite site of the day was probably the London Eye just because it was so neat looking out over all of London. On our way home we ate at a pub, although we weren’t in Dublin yet :P It was called the Old Swan and the food was great. The portions were huge and so very American hahaha. Speaking of which I feel like I’ve gotten so used to feeling full off of small portions I love it….not that I don’t already have the smallest stomach in the world or anything but you know what im saying?!
Since we were in England Kristen and I split fish and chips and a Shepheards Pie, we seriously split all of our meals just because we like trying different things! Afterwards we had apple pie with custard which was soooo delish! Then we headed to the hotel, changed the clock back, and hit the sack!
Around 12 we all met up and went to the Houses of Parliament where we also saw Big Ben. All of those buildings have awesome architecture and are beautiful to see. Then Maddie, Kristen, and I went to the London Eye. It’s the biggest ferris wheel in the world and it takes about half an hour to get all the way around. So we got to look out over all of London which is huge! Then we ran to Westminster Abbey to see it real quick before meeting up with Hannah in Trafalgar Square afterwards. It was a little more complicated than we had planned haha. It took us about 30 minutes just to find each other because there were so many people in the square and our cell phones weren’t working which is just another weird technical difficulty. At this point we were just trying to see all of the sites so we went through the National Portrait Gallery for about half an hour, and then to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Seeing all of these places just makes me wish I could visit them in a different time period and listen to how people talked and what they wore. I can only imagine! Oh my gosh!
The day flew by and all of us were so worn out, not to mention our feet aching hahah but all of the places we saw were absolutely beautiful. My favorite site of the day was probably the London Eye just because it was so neat looking out over all of London. On our way home we ate at a pub, although we weren’t in Dublin yet :P It was called the Old Swan and the food was great. The portions were huge and so very American hahaha. Speaking of which I feel like I’ve gotten so used to feeling full off of small portions I love it….not that I don’t already have the smallest stomach in the world or anything but you know what im saying?!
Since we were in England Kristen and I split fish and chips and a Shepheards Pie, we seriously split all of our meals just because we like trying different things! Afterwards we had apple pie with custard which was soooo delish! Then we headed to the hotel, changed the clock back, and hit the sack!
Friday, October 24th First Day in London
None of us slept! I think between midterms just ending, the excitement of our trip, and knowing we had to wake up at 4am, laying wide awake was inevitable. So we left for the airport at 4:30 and everything with ryanair and our flight went so smoothly. We were all so relieved because we’ve been hearing horror stories all semester of stuff going wrong. Thankfully it was one of my better flying experiences. Our plane got in half an hour early, so we jumped on a train and headed into London. The metro station was fairly close to our hotel and we just had two small rolling bags, one Kristen and I were sharing, and one for Hannah. Our hotel was the cutest thing though. It wasn’t called a bed and breakfast but was very similar to one and it was just a small family that owned the place. Our room was huge compared to the other European hotels I’ve stayed in and Kristen and I had a queen size bed to share instead of a double and Hannah and Maddie both had twins. So the first thing we did was go to Starbucks. Hahaah I know it sounds crazy but I was craving a peppermint mocha! Italy’s café latte’s are absolutely amazing but you can’t get flavored coffee drinks or mochas here. So we all took pictures and got Starbucks almost everyday we were in the U.K.
London is absolutely beautiful and it was almost a culture shock for all of us readjusting to an English speaking country and one that has Starbucks and chain stores and restaurants. It’s full of weirdness as momma would say! Actually at the airport this guy and I ran into each other and he said sorry as I said “scusi.” And suddenly I was like “oh excuse me.” That happened throughout the first couple days we all kept saying “grazie” and “ciao” it was totally weird! Anyway, back to London, it’s such a fun city and it reminds me a ton of NY. I guess that’s also because a lot of NY was designed in similar ways to London.
So we got our Starbucks and walked through Kensington Gardens. The park is absolutely huge and it was so perfect this time of year because the leaves were all orange and red and covering the pathways. It was supposed to rain all day but the weather was sunny and 60 degrees which I enjoyed so much! Afterwards we jumped on the tube to Trafalgar Square and then spent a couple hours in the National Gallery. There were paintings by so many famous artists like da Vinci, Vangogh, and Raphael. Next we window shopped and went to China Town. Maddie was craving Chinese food so we ate and then headed to an Art school. It was in the middle of London and Hannah wanted to look at it because she’s thinking about applying to do her masters there. And afterwards all of us were talking about possibly living in London for a short time someday. The possibilities are endless and it’s amazing hahah who knows what will happen?!
The last part of the night Maddie, Kristen, and I went to the musical Les Miserables. We bought tickets a couple weeks in advance because we thought it was necessary to see a Broadway play in London haha. Les Mis was absolutely beautiful! Seriously I was mesmerized! It was a tragedy, which I don’t usually like, but the performers voices were beautiful and the plot and everything ahhh haha still swooning! By the end of the night we were all so wiped out and crashed after getting back to the hotel. (Oh and Hannah went and saw the Duchess which is apparently very very good it’s really cool because it was filmed at the art school we went and checked out for her. Very cool!)
London is absolutely beautiful and it was almost a culture shock for all of us readjusting to an English speaking country and one that has Starbucks and chain stores and restaurants. It’s full of weirdness as momma would say! Actually at the airport this guy and I ran into each other and he said sorry as I said “scusi.” And suddenly I was like “oh excuse me.” That happened throughout the first couple days we all kept saying “grazie” and “ciao” it was totally weird! Anyway, back to London, it’s such a fun city and it reminds me a ton of NY. I guess that’s also because a lot of NY was designed in similar ways to London.
So we got our Starbucks and walked through Kensington Gardens. The park is absolutely huge and it was so perfect this time of year because the leaves were all orange and red and covering the pathways. It was supposed to rain all day but the weather was sunny and 60 degrees which I enjoyed so much! Afterwards we jumped on the tube to Trafalgar Square and then spent a couple hours in the National Gallery. There were paintings by so many famous artists like da Vinci, Vangogh, and Raphael. Next we window shopped and went to China Town. Maddie was craving Chinese food so we ate and then headed to an Art school. It was in the middle of London and Hannah wanted to look at it because she’s thinking about applying to do her masters there. And afterwards all of us were talking about possibly living in London for a short time someday. The possibilities are endless and it’s amazing hahah who knows what will happen?!
The last part of the night Maddie, Kristen, and I went to the musical Les Miserables. We bought tickets a couple weeks in advance because we thought it was necessary to see a Broadway play in London haha. Les Mis was absolutely beautiful! Seriously I was mesmerized! It was a tragedy, which I don’t usually like, but the performers voices were beautiful and the plot and everything ahhh haha still swooning! By the end of the night we were all so wiped out and crashed after getting back to the hotel. (Oh and Hannah went and saw the Duchess which is apparently very very good it’s really cool because it was filmed at the art school we went and checked out for her. Very cool!)
Thursday, October 23rd Night in Pisa
Beginning of the trip: The girls and I took the 7:30pm train to Pisa! Before we left the train station Hannah was body slammed by a lady running to her train. Meanwhile Hannah’s McDonalds coke and fries flew across the terminal. It all happened so fast that we all just stood there staring and then Hannah kind of laughed, her normal reaction to everything hahahha so great. Anyway, we loaded the train and got into Pisa around 9. Our trained smelled like BO but that’s typical for Europe I guess…sorry I just feel it’s necessary to include all of the details. When we got off the train we walked down a dark street to our hostel. There was a note on the gate addressed to Maddie and had a phone number to call. Shortly after a little lady in her 50’s pulled up in her little European car and told us that she was moving us to a different hostel but it was right down the street. She asked if we wanted to walk or drive and we’d never been in a tiny European car, and figured that we wouldn’t experience that the rest of the semester. So she piled the 4 of us and our luggage into this tiny little thing and drove us right back to the train station where we’d come from. Then we walked to our hostel which was a lot bigger and cleaner than we expected so that was really nice.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Week before Midterms & Sha Sha visiting!
The week before midterms was quite eventful and I never got a chance to write about it. So Starting Tuesday October 14th the girls and I went to the Italian Opera "Tosca." It was absolutely beautiful, not to mention the first opera I'd ever been to, so I loved it! The girls and I had fun getting dressed up for it, and as I learned in my intercultural comm class Opera is very big in Italy. Italians love getting dressed up and spending a night at the opera. It lasted about 4 hours...so it was very long but so amazing. Then Even more exciting...Shannon got to Florence on Wednesday night! So Marci, Katie, and I went to the train station to wait for Sha and her friend Charlene. When they got here we were all pretty tired so we just came back to my apartment and caught up for a little while. It was such a good feeling. Both of us were crying at the train station when we first saw each other too it just seemed so unreal!
On Thursday, October 16th, Hannah, Kristen, and I went to a ballet at the theatre. We’re all members of the dance club here so we got free tickets which was really cool. The ballet was so beautiful and it was based around relationships and World War 2. The dancing was really contemporary and completely up my alley so I couldn’t stop smiling. And I was doing that thing where my leg or arm moves randomly because I feel like I should be dancing…I know im a dork hahahha. Before the ballet Shannon, Charlene, and I ate at the Lorenzo restaurant. Sha and I had a lot of time to just catch up on life which was really nice.
The next day we shopped at some of the street markets and then Sha and Charlene went to the Uffizi while my roommates and I went to the Boboli gardens to study for midterms for a couple hours. The gardens are huge and really pretty. We hiked up to a higher part of the gardens that looked out over Florence, and then we just laid out towels on the grass. It was seriously so relaxing and I felt like I could focus so much up there. Afterwards, the roomies, Sha, Charlene, and I got gelato from De Neri and then just walked around Florence. That night we all went to Tijuanas…the Italian style Mexican restaurant. They have very good food, but it’s definitely not like the Mexican food back home hahaha and they have very good pina coladas and fruit smoothies which are delish as well! The next day the girls’ train left around 12 so I took them to the train station and we just said a quick goodbye and they were off. It was so great seeing Sha and so fun catching up on life! It’s crazy because no matter how long it’s been sense we’ve seen each other or where we are in the world everything feels the same. I love it!
The next day all 6 of us roomies, Katie’s boyfriend Nick, Rebekah, and Kristen’s friend Trisha went to the PERUGIA CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! It was so great! Seriously all of us are chocolate addicts so we were in heaven! It’s an international chocolate festival so several streets were completely packed and very difficult to get through. They had chocolate carvers there and everything. And we would all just wait next to the guys carving the statues because they would fill bags with all of the extra chocolate and give it away for free! I think I ate way way too much that day, but I had some amazing hot chocolate, a chocolate covered banana, and some peanut butter fudge that was very yummy (still not as good as moms though)!
The following week of school we all had midterms and they were stressful as usual. Most of my midterms were written like flamenco I had to write 10 short answer essays on the history of gypsies and flamenco in Spain, History was 3 in class essays, and communications consisted of 24 short answer questions 2 of which were full pages, oh and cooking was 10 short answer as well. Italian was the only one I had a regular test in and that was slightly stressful. Blarf anyway, I think the part that was craziest for my roommates and I was that we were all leaving Thursday after our last tests on a week long adventure in the UK. So we just had a lot of packing and planning of little things to do as well as study and take finals. But the good news was that as soon as the tests were over we were all on cloud 9 and soooo excited for our trip!
On Thursday, October 16th, Hannah, Kristen, and I went to a ballet at the theatre. We’re all members of the dance club here so we got free tickets which was really cool. The ballet was so beautiful and it was based around relationships and World War 2. The dancing was really contemporary and completely up my alley so I couldn’t stop smiling. And I was doing that thing where my leg or arm moves randomly because I feel like I should be dancing…I know im a dork hahahha. Before the ballet Shannon, Charlene, and I ate at the Lorenzo restaurant. Sha and I had a lot of time to just catch up on life which was really nice.
The next day we shopped at some of the street markets and then Sha and Charlene went to the Uffizi while my roommates and I went to the Boboli gardens to study for midterms for a couple hours. The gardens are huge and really pretty. We hiked up to a higher part of the gardens that looked out over Florence, and then we just laid out towels on the grass. It was seriously so relaxing and I felt like I could focus so much up there. Afterwards, the roomies, Sha, Charlene, and I got gelato from De Neri and then just walked around Florence. That night we all went to Tijuanas…the Italian style Mexican restaurant. They have very good food, but it’s definitely not like the Mexican food back home hahaha and they have very good pina coladas and fruit smoothies which are delish as well! The next day the girls’ train left around 12 so I took them to the train station and we just said a quick goodbye and they were off. It was so great seeing Sha and so fun catching up on life! It’s crazy because no matter how long it’s been sense we’ve seen each other or where we are in the world everything feels the same. I love it!
The next day all 6 of us roomies, Katie’s boyfriend Nick, Rebekah, and Kristen’s friend Trisha went to the PERUGIA CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! It was so great! Seriously all of us are chocolate addicts so we were in heaven! It’s an international chocolate festival so several streets were completely packed and very difficult to get through. They had chocolate carvers there and everything. And we would all just wait next to the guys carving the statues because they would fill bags with all of the extra chocolate and give it away for free! I think I ate way way too much that day, but I had some amazing hot chocolate, a chocolate covered banana, and some peanut butter fudge that was very yummy (still not as good as moms though)!
The following week of school we all had midterms and they were stressful as usual. Most of my midterms were written like flamenco I had to write 10 short answer essays on the history of gypsies and flamenco in Spain, History was 3 in class essays, and communications consisted of 24 short answer questions 2 of which were full pages, oh and cooking was 10 short answer as well. Italian was the only one I had a regular test in and that was slightly stressful. Blarf anyway, I think the part that was craziest for my roommates and I was that we were all leaving Thursday after our last tests on a week long adventure in the UK. So we just had a lot of packing and planning of little things to do as well as study and take finals. But the good news was that as soon as the tests were over we were all on cloud 9 and soooo excited for our trip!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Getting to Venice
Hey Everyone!
So this last weekend Kristen and I went to Venice....It took us the whole weekend to get there, but we made it hahha.
Starting Thursday night, Katies birthday lasted kind of late and then i skyped with Peej, mom, dad, & Trev until about 2 in the morning. So Kristen and I decided to change our Venice day from Friday to Saturday. We spent Friday having a hangout day and just getting caught up on everything. Then Saturday morning we woke up at 4:45 am and headed to the train station where we bought our train tickets (weàd looked up the times about a week before). But what we didnt realize was that the tickets the machine printed for us required us to catch a train to another florence station before leaving for Venice. So we had already missed it.
Therefore we went to the ticket counter where the lady proceeded to tell us we could not get a refund and all the other trains that morning were full. She did tell us we could use the tickets sunday though. So we went to our cute corner coffe shop on Via Faenza and Nazionale got our cafe lattes and pastries and headed back to the apartment. Our other 4 roomies headed out at 4 in the morning so we had the apartment to ourselves and basically just ended up getting internet, watching movies, making chocolate chip cookies, booking our Ireland, England, and Scotland hostels and trying to get Phantom of the Opera tickets for London, which we couldnt figure out...but we will buy some broadway show for London at some point haha.
So Sunday came around and Kristen and I woke up at 4:45 once again....that is wayyyyy too early for me :P. So we went to the train station and purchased our tickets for the train home that night. The guy behind the counter told us the lastest trains were already booked up so we would have to come home at 4:56 that afternoon. We were so excited to go to Venice that nothing was going to stop us! We got to Bologna where we had a quick lay over and sadly missed our next train haha. Kristen and I have not missed a single train until this weekend and then we missed 2! Crazy! Anyway, we were with two other American study abroad girls so we all just waited for about 45 minutes for the next train. We made that one and got to Venice around 11 in the morning.
We heard that if you buy an all day ferry pass itàs a lot cheaper and you can by pass the lines. So we did and that was sooo helpful. We got on the first ferry which took us to the island of Murano. Venice is known for its glass and Murano is the island that makes the glass. So we wanted to see how it was done. I had never seen glass blowing before and it was seriously one of the coolest things. The two guys doing demonstrations that day looked to be about our age and for their intricate work that seemed insane! So after that we went SHOPPING! Of course! I bought a venetian necklace and watch (i havent had a clue what the time has been since i got to italy haha). Afterwards we took another ferry back to the center of Venice and went to Piazza San Marco. It was absolutely gorgeous. As is all of Italy. Each region is so unique and from the landscape to the architecture is completely stunning. So we had about an hour there to see the basilica, go in a few more shops (there were glass shops everywhere), take pictures of the gondolas and beautiful houses...not to mention everything else thats on the water. There were so many people in Venice too, honestly I think it was more touristy than Milan which was absolutely packed!
So we walked for awhile and then hopped back on another ferry to the train station. We made both trains and made it back to florence by 8:39 last night. Oh and the ferrys are hilarious. Kristen said it best when she was like "come on think sardines people." Everyone would push to the front of the ferry lines and honestly it was like cattle call to get on board. One guy even started mooing...im not even kindding haha. Oh and at one point I was one of the last on one of the ferries and Kristen hadnt made it on. The guy told me no more people when I pointed Kristen out. So I just grabbed her hand and yanked her on and he made a weird face but Kristen kept saying "oh my gosh that was just like titanic" hahha. Anyway, the ferries were quite the experience and Im very surprised with how many people they can fit on those things! But overall theyàre really fun because you get to see so much of the city. Oh and that was another thing that was really cool. All of the families have boats instead of cars. So youd see like a mom and dad in the front with the kids in the back heading off somewhere. Or one dad was letting his son drive and they looked like they were just hanging on the lake. So fun!
The whole trip was fast and furious. But now I know that Venice is sooo beautiful and definitely a place I want to go back to. If I find a free weekend during the rest of the semester I will probably head back that direction and try and do Verona as well.
Okay Hannah and I are going to meet our church group at Tijuanas for some Mexican food. Im craving nachos and havent had them since I left Idaho haha. Okay ciao ciao & baci
So this last weekend Kristen and I went to Venice....It took us the whole weekend to get there, but we made it hahha.
Starting Thursday night, Katies birthday lasted kind of late and then i skyped with Peej, mom, dad, & Trev until about 2 in the morning. So Kristen and I decided to change our Venice day from Friday to Saturday. We spent Friday having a hangout day and just getting caught up on everything. Then Saturday morning we woke up at 4:45 am and headed to the train station where we bought our train tickets (weàd looked up the times about a week before). But what we didnt realize was that the tickets the machine printed for us required us to catch a train to another florence station before leaving for Venice. So we had already missed it.
Therefore we went to the ticket counter where the lady proceeded to tell us we could not get a refund and all the other trains that morning were full. She did tell us we could use the tickets sunday though. So we went to our cute corner coffe shop on Via Faenza and Nazionale got our cafe lattes and pastries and headed back to the apartment. Our other 4 roomies headed out at 4 in the morning so we had the apartment to ourselves and basically just ended up getting internet, watching movies, making chocolate chip cookies, booking our Ireland, England, and Scotland hostels and trying to get Phantom of the Opera tickets for London, which we couldnt figure out...but we will buy some broadway show for London at some point haha.
So Sunday came around and Kristen and I woke up at 4:45 once again....that is wayyyyy too early for me :P. So we went to the train station and purchased our tickets for the train home that night. The guy behind the counter told us the lastest trains were already booked up so we would have to come home at 4:56 that afternoon. We were so excited to go to Venice that nothing was going to stop us! We got to Bologna where we had a quick lay over and sadly missed our next train haha. Kristen and I have not missed a single train until this weekend and then we missed 2! Crazy! Anyway, we were with two other American study abroad girls so we all just waited for about 45 minutes for the next train. We made that one and got to Venice around 11 in the morning.
We heard that if you buy an all day ferry pass itàs a lot cheaper and you can by pass the lines. So we did and that was sooo helpful. We got on the first ferry which took us to the island of Murano. Venice is known for its glass and Murano is the island that makes the glass. So we wanted to see how it was done. I had never seen glass blowing before and it was seriously one of the coolest things. The two guys doing demonstrations that day looked to be about our age and for their intricate work that seemed insane! So after that we went SHOPPING! Of course! I bought a venetian necklace and watch (i havent had a clue what the time has been since i got to italy haha). Afterwards we took another ferry back to the center of Venice and went to Piazza San Marco. It was absolutely gorgeous. As is all of Italy. Each region is so unique and from the landscape to the architecture is completely stunning. So we had about an hour there to see the basilica, go in a few more shops (there were glass shops everywhere), take pictures of the gondolas and beautiful houses...not to mention everything else thats on the water. There were so many people in Venice too, honestly I think it was more touristy than Milan which was absolutely packed!
So we walked for awhile and then hopped back on another ferry to the train station. We made both trains and made it back to florence by 8:39 last night. Oh and the ferrys are hilarious. Kristen said it best when she was like "come on think sardines people." Everyone would push to the front of the ferry lines and honestly it was like cattle call to get on board. One guy even started mooing...im not even kindding haha. Oh and at one point I was one of the last on one of the ferries and Kristen hadnt made it on. The guy told me no more people when I pointed Kristen out. So I just grabbed her hand and yanked her on and he made a weird face but Kristen kept saying "oh my gosh that was just like titanic" hahha. Anyway, the ferries were quite the experience and Im very surprised with how many people they can fit on those things! But overall theyàre really fun because you get to see so much of the city. Oh and that was another thing that was really cool. All of the families have boats instead of cars. So youd see like a mom and dad in the front with the kids in the back heading off somewhere. Or one dad was letting his son drive and they looked like they were just hanging on the lake. So fun!
The whole trip was fast and furious. But now I know that Venice is sooo beautiful and definitely a place I want to go back to. If I find a free weekend during the rest of the semester I will probably head back that direction and try and do Verona as well.
Okay Hannah and I are going to meet our church group at Tijuanas for some Mexican food. Im craving nachos and havent had them since I left Idaho haha. Okay ciao ciao & baci
Friday, October 10, 2008
Milan, Lake Como, Dinner with the Cooking class, and Katie's 21st :)
So catching up on last weekend…Hannah, Kristen, Maddie, and I went to Milan and Lake Como. Friday morning we caught a 7:30 train to Milan. When we got there we took the metro to the middle of the city and the station was right in front of Milan’s huge Duomo. The Duomo was absolutely gorgeous and very medieval looking which was really cool. My first impression of the city wasn’t the best because it was really smoggy and there were people smoking everywhere. Although we did sit at a famous coffee shop on the corner of one of the big designer shopping centers for about an hour, which was really cool. Milan is awesome for people watching and seeing fashion haha. There were seriously designer stores on every corner and giant flat screen tvs on many of the buildings showing the latest fashion. It was crazy!
That night we took an hour train to Como. We walked around there for awhile before catching an hour long ferry to a little city called Menaggio. It was a really small and quiet city. Almost kind of creepy since there didn’t seem to be anyone around and especially because the rest of Italy is so lively at night. We found a really cute litte restaurant though and ended up having dinner and dessert there before checking in to our first hostel! What an experience hahha. It wasn’t too bad because the girls and I reserved our own room, that way we didn’t have any creepy people sleeping next to us haha. The entire hostel reminded me so much of summer camp! We all slept on little red bunk beds and the tables in the kitchen and outside were picnic tables. When we first got to our hostel there was a giant spider on the door handle…but thankfully we didn’t see anymore after that haha. The next morning was absolutely gorgeous. Our room was on the 3rd floor and the window looked out over Lake Como and the Alps. It was a great view to wake up to! We got an early start so that we could do one of the nearby hikes. We took a bus up to the start of the hike and just walked through all of these huge trees in this forest area up to a little church dedicated to the different world wars. On the way we passed German World War I trenches. That was soo crazy. Apparently the soldiers in those trenches kept people from fleeing into Switzerland who was neutral. The whole day seemed to fly by…as usual haha. Time is a serious issue here hahah every week in Italy goes by way too fast and the weekends are even faster. I’m just trying to soak up as much as possible and enjoy every minute of it…so far so good hahah :P
During the week nothing very eventful happens except for school and the girls and I making pasta for every meal but this last Tuesday was kind of exciting. The morning started with my cooking class. It was fantastic like always hahah mainly because we cook amazing food and then get to eat it. We made vegetable broth, risotto, vegetable soup, polenta, and a berry tart….so delish! But the eventful part is that the oven mitt I was wearing was huge on my hand. And while I was stirring the risotto the mitt managed to reach all the way down to the burner. So I started smelling something burning and quickly realized my oven mitt was on fire! Luckily it had just started so it wasn’t like flaming or anything haha. So I pulled my hand out not realizing what was happening and handed it to the girl next to me who said “wow it really was on fire!” haha Another crazy experience!
That night our cooking class went out to dinner together. About 8 of us showed up and it was one of the best meals I have ever had. I was really excited because it was the first time I have actually had a real Italian sit down that included all of the courses. Most Italians go to dinner around 9ish…so that’s what time our teacher had us meet up. We ate bread and talked for the first 45minutes and then all of the courses started coming out after that. Dinner lasted until midnight and all of us felt like we were going to have to be rolled out of the restaurant! The courses were:
Antipasti- spinach and ricotta rolled in meat, fried asparagus, barley with shrimp, and salmon covered in green sauce
Primi- an amazing risotto
Main Course- sausage, green peas and prosciutto, potatoes, and after a little while they brought out steak covered in parmesan.
Dessert- tiramisu!!!
After dessert the waiter offered us all coffee, grappa, and limoncello. None of us were hungry for more but he decided the men needed grappa and the women needed limoncello so he brought them out anyway. It was such an awesome meal and really neat because everyone at the table had so much time to talk and get to know each other which will only make Tuesday mornings even more fun!
Okay last but not least. Yesterday all of us roomies celebrated Katie’s 21st Birthday!!! She actually turns 21 on Sunday but she will be with her boyfriend in Cortona, and 3 of the other roommates are going to the French Riviera. So Katie picked a restaurant that had been recommended by one of her teachers. Once again our meal was very long! The waiters were so funny and really cute to Katie because we told them it was her birthday. All of us had big smiles on our faces the whole night and kept laughing…but that’s pretty common for everyday in Italy. I think we all have so much fun being together and we’re always cracking up about something ridiculous! Anyway, we got crème brulee and the waiters turned off the house lights, put a candle in her dessert, and sang happy birthday in English. It was seriously the cutest thing! After that we headed back to the apartment and had birthday pie, Katie’s favorite, which we got from an American dessert place here. It was such a fun night and it makes me so happy when all 6 of us roommates are together. I don’t know how I lucked out so much but I feel like I ended up with the sweetest most loving roommates. They all play a huge part in my Italy experience and I don’t think it would be half as amazing without all of them! Sentimental I know…but totally the truth haha
Okay im done with the catching up for now and I will write about Venice after I see it tomorrow!!!
Ciao Caio :)
That night we took an hour train to Como. We walked around there for awhile before catching an hour long ferry to a little city called Menaggio. It was a really small and quiet city. Almost kind of creepy since there didn’t seem to be anyone around and especially because the rest of Italy is so lively at night. We found a really cute litte restaurant though and ended up having dinner and dessert there before checking in to our first hostel! What an experience hahha. It wasn’t too bad because the girls and I reserved our own room, that way we didn’t have any creepy people sleeping next to us haha. The entire hostel reminded me so much of summer camp! We all slept on little red bunk beds and the tables in the kitchen and outside were picnic tables. When we first got to our hostel there was a giant spider on the door handle…but thankfully we didn’t see anymore after that haha. The next morning was absolutely gorgeous. Our room was on the 3rd floor and the window looked out over Lake Como and the Alps. It was a great view to wake up to! We got an early start so that we could do one of the nearby hikes. We took a bus up to the start of the hike and just walked through all of these huge trees in this forest area up to a little church dedicated to the different world wars. On the way we passed German World War I trenches. That was soo crazy. Apparently the soldiers in those trenches kept people from fleeing into Switzerland who was neutral. The whole day seemed to fly by…as usual haha. Time is a serious issue here hahah every week in Italy goes by way too fast and the weekends are even faster. I’m just trying to soak up as much as possible and enjoy every minute of it…so far so good hahah :P
During the week nothing very eventful happens except for school and the girls and I making pasta for every meal but this last Tuesday was kind of exciting. The morning started with my cooking class. It was fantastic like always hahah mainly because we cook amazing food and then get to eat it. We made vegetable broth, risotto, vegetable soup, polenta, and a berry tart….so delish! But the eventful part is that the oven mitt I was wearing was huge on my hand. And while I was stirring the risotto the mitt managed to reach all the way down to the burner. So I started smelling something burning and quickly realized my oven mitt was on fire! Luckily it had just started so it wasn’t like flaming or anything haha. So I pulled my hand out not realizing what was happening and handed it to the girl next to me who said “wow it really was on fire!” haha Another crazy experience!
That night our cooking class went out to dinner together. About 8 of us showed up and it was one of the best meals I have ever had. I was really excited because it was the first time I have actually had a real Italian sit down that included all of the courses. Most Italians go to dinner around 9ish…so that’s what time our teacher had us meet up. We ate bread and talked for the first 45minutes and then all of the courses started coming out after that. Dinner lasted until midnight and all of us felt like we were going to have to be rolled out of the restaurant! The courses were:
Antipasti- spinach and ricotta rolled in meat, fried asparagus, barley with shrimp, and salmon covered in green sauce
Primi- an amazing risotto
Main Course- sausage, green peas and prosciutto, potatoes, and after a little while they brought out steak covered in parmesan.
Dessert- tiramisu!!!
After dessert the waiter offered us all coffee, grappa, and limoncello. None of us were hungry for more but he decided the men needed grappa and the women needed limoncello so he brought them out anyway. It was such an awesome meal and really neat because everyone at the table had so much time to talk and get to know each other which will only make Tuesday mornings even more fun!
Okay last but not least. Yesterday all of us roomies celebrated Katie’s 21st Birthday!!! She actually turns 21 on Sunday but she will be with her boyfriend in Cortona, and 3 of the other roommates are going to the French Riviera. So Katie picked a restaurant that had been recommended by one of her teachers. Once again our meal was very long! The waiters were so funny and really cute to Katie because we told them it was her birthday. All of us had big smiles on our faces the whole night and kept laughing…but that’s pretty common for everyday in Italy. I think we all have so much fun being together and we’re always cracking up about something ridiculous! Anyway, we got crème brulee and the waiters turned off the house lights, put a candle in her dessert, and sang happy birthday in English. It was seriously the cutest thing! After that we headed back to the apartment and had birthday pie, Katie’s favorite, which we got from an American dessert place here. It was such a fun night and it makes me so happy when all 6 of us roommates are together. I don’t know how I lucked out so much but I feel like I ended up with the sweetest most loving roommates. They all play a huge part in my Italy experience and I don’t think it would be half as amazing without all of them! Sentimental I know…but totally the truth haha
Okay im done with the catching up for now and I will write about Venice after I see it tomorrow!!!
Ciao Caio :)
Monday, October 6, 2008
Rome & Cinque Terra with Mom and Dad
Sunday, October 5th
I am sooo far behind on my blogging, so hopefully I can get caught up on the last two weekends right now!
Starting with last weekend: Mom and Dad flew into Rome on Thursday night (the 25th) so I took the train after class. It was an eventful train ride to say the least, I paid for the fast train, but for some reason there was a problem on the tracks. So it was an hour and twenty minutes longer than it was supposed to be and I was sitting across from a slightly creepy Venezuelan man. We kept speaking Spanish to each other though so at least I got to work on that.
The good news is that my train finally made it to the station and mom and dad were waiting for me when I got off. Yay! It was so good to see them and I was sooo happy. We headed straight to our hotel because we were wiped out and crawled in. The next day we took a bus to the Vatican. It was absolutely huge and definitely gorgeous. We took the stairs to the top of the Vatican to look out over the city and went down into the tombs as well. After that we took a bus to the Parthenon and the Colosseum. The Colosseum was giant and completely mind boggling! After sight seeing mom and I decided to shop…dad didn’t exactly seem to enjoy this part of Rome...but it didn’t last that long because we headed back to the Trevi Fountain. That seemed to be the popular place. It was all lit up and there were tons of people there every night. On our way back to the hotel we ran across the cutest local restaurant called Ristorante da Giovanni. The food was really good and the waiters were sweet little old men, our waiter even put my red rose in a wine bottle and set it on the table.
The next morning we took a train to Florence!!! I couldn’t wait for mom and dad to see the city I’ve been living in and my little home! So we spent the day running around to the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, seeing the outside of the Uffizzi, doing a little shopping, and mom and dad bought dinner for me and all the roomies. So we ate together down in their hotel room. And by the end of the night we were exhausted, as usual haha so we put in 27 Dresses, skyped with Trev, and then called it a night. Sunday morning mom, dad, 4 of the roomies and I went to Cinque Terra. We went through a tour group called Florence For Fun. The guides were hilarious and made the trip even more fun. We took a train up to Cinque Terra which are 5 villages on the Mediterranean Coast and from there started hiking. The 5 towns are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, & Monterosso. The hikes progressively got more difficult, so we hiked the first 4 and took a ferry to the 5th town. All of Cinque Terra had stunning views with colorful towns settled right on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Oh and most importantly in the last town we had amazing gelato…of course haha! Cinque Terra was on my list of top things to do in Italy and I’m sooo happy I got to see it I’ve got to finish some Italian homework..im supposed to be writing about my hometown haha. So I will write about this last weekend in Milan and Lake Como later!
Ciao Ciao
I am sooo far behind on my blogging, so hopefully I can get caught up on the last two weekends right now!
Starting with last weekend: Mom and Dad flew into Rome on Thursday night (the 25th) so I took the train after class. It was an eventful train ride to say the least, I paid for the fast train, but for some reason there was a problem on the tracks. So it was an hour and twenty minutes longer than it was supposed to be and I was sitting across from a slightly creepy Venezuelan man. We kept speaking Spanish to each other though so at least I got to work on that.
The good news is that my train finally made it to the station and mom and dad were waiting for me when I got off. Yay! It was so good to see them and I was sooo happy. We headed straight to our hotel because we were wiped out and crawled in. The next day we took a bus to the Vatican. It was absolutely huge and definitely gorgeous. We took the stairs to the top of the Vatican to look out over the city and went down into the tombs as well. After that we took a bus to the Parthenon and the Colosseum. The Colosseum was giant and completely mind boggling! After sight seeing mom and I decided to shop…dad didn’t exactly seem to enjoy this part of Rome...but it didn’t last that long because we headed back to the Trevi Fountain. That seemed to be the popular place. It was all lit up and there were tons of people there every night. On our way back to the hotel we ran across the cutest local restaurant called Ristorante da Giovanni. The food was really good and the waiters were sweet little old men, our waiter even put my red rose in a wine bottle and set it on the table.
The next morning we took a train to Florence!!! I couldn’t wait for mom and dad to see the city I’ve been living in and my little home! So we spent the day running around to the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, seeing the outside of the Uffizzi, doing a little shopping, and mom and dad bought dinner for me and all the roomies. So we ate together down in their hotel room. And by the end of the night we were exhausted, as usual haha so we put in 27 Dresses, skyped with Trev, and then called it a night. Sunday morning mom, dad, 4 of the roomies and I went to Cinque Terra. We went through a tour group called Florence For Fun. The guides were hilarious and made the trip even more fun. We took a train up to Cinque Terra which are 5 villages on the Mediterranean Coast and from there started hiking. The 5 towns are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, & Monterosso. The hikes progressively got more difficult, so we hiked the first 4 and took a ferry to the 5th town. All of Cinque Terra had stunning views with colorful towns settled right on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Oh and most importantly in the last town we had amazing gelato…of course haha! Cinque Terra was on my list of top things to do in Italy and I’m sooo happy I got to see it I’ve got to finish some Italian homework..im supposed to be writing about my hometown haha. So I will write about this last weekend in Milan and Lake Como later!
Ciao Ciao
Monday, September 22, 2008
Cortona
What a week! School flew by as usual…and Kristen, Hannah, and I signed up for dance club. So after school on Tuesday we took salsa and Wednesday night we took belly dancing. Salsa was so fun! I hope I continue to go to salsa clubs and such throughout my life! And belly dancing was definitely a new experience hahha. None of us had a clue what we were doing, but it was fun to try. Friday girls and I decided to stay in our own little city rather than travel. So Maddie, Kristen, and Hannah went to a modern museum and Marci and I window shopped and searched different parts of Florence that we hadn’t had a chance to see.
Most exciting about Friday was that Adam came!!! It was the craziest thing! The whole night I just kept saying “I can’t believe this is real.” Adam is studying in Perugia so it was like an hour and a half train ride to Florence! The whole night seemed like any other night we were hanging out in Idaho or California except the scenery was a little different hahha. So I showed him around Florence and we had gelato, these waffle things with nutella on them that they sell at all the gelato stands (nutella is everywhere here!), and then we finished the night up by having dinner down the street from my apartment. I love all of the Italian family restaurants around here….sooo delicious! And after we got done having the normal Italian meal it was already 10:30 or so (most people don’t eat dinner until about 9 o’clock) so my roommies helped me get Adam a hostel and then we called it a night. Sha Sha it’s probably the same hostel you’ll stay in because Adam said it’s the best he’s ever been in. So it’s safe and right down the street. I think you will like it!
Then Saturday morning at a bright and early 7 am Adam and I went to one of the corner coffee shops and had our first real Italian, stand at the bar, coffee. The way Italians and apparently a lot of Europeans have coffee, is standing at the bar where the barista makes it. So I got a latte, which was amazing (but I still added sugar haha) and Adam got Italian hot chocolate (ill explain that one later). So Adam’s train left at 8:30 and the girls and I left at 9:30 for CORTONA. Ahh Amazing Cortona. Hahah the girls and I are now in love with Cortona, if it’s possible to be in love with a city. And we are all convinced that we’re going to buy a small place together for vacationing someday. We’ll see ;)
Anyway, our original plan was to spend a couple of hours in Cortona and a couple in Assisi. But when we got to Cortona we stayed in Cortona haha. Cortona is a really small village up on a hill. It’s the place where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed…so that was definitely incentive for going! When we first got there we walked to one of the local restaurants, according to Rick Steve’s it’s one of the best and has the most locals haha. After that we just wandered around the city. First we went to a store that had tons of leather bags. They were so cute and Hannah ended up buying one. The cutest thing was that one of the owners walked around the corner while we were all browsing, and randomly she asked if we were studying abroad. We said yes we were all from the U.S. and we were studying in Florence. She kind of laughed and then said that she was originally from Britain and decided to study abroad in Florence when she was in college as well. Only she ended up falling in love with an Italian man and moving to Cortona! The girls and I just listened with these big smiles on our faces. It was seriously the sweetest story J
Anyway, when we were leaving I asked the lady where the best bakery was (because the whole town smelled amazing) and the girls and I couldn’t decide where to go. So she sent us down a random street to this place called Cocoa. And I can honestly say that it was THE BEST bakery I have every been to. I was in chocolate heaven. Kristen, Hannah, and I all had the special Italian hot chocolate which is totally to die for. It’s so thick and chocolaty that I swear they just melt chocolate in a cup! Anyway, we all tried different truffles and such from the case as well…I think we took the most pictures there because we were all like glowing and couldn’t stop laughing. Amazing!
And after that we just continued our wandering for the rest of the day. We hiked up to a church at the top of the hill. It had a mummified body in it which was a little weird. Then just went into a bunch of the little shops, saw some wild sunflowers, ate grapes from a huge grape tree…..i don’t even know what else, but it was so beautiful. Everyone in the town was sooo laid back and everything was so beautiful. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to really live there. Oh and the girls and I got back at about 9 p.m. and decided to put on our jammies and watch Under the Tuscan Sun. We figured it was appropriate hahah. Kristen and I also made a gelato run that night…but that’s nothing out of the ordinary ;)
Sunday was a sleep in, homework, and grocery day. Which basically sums up the whole day except for church last night. Hannah, Kristen, and I decided to try out a different church that we’d heard about. It was a night service geared more towards youth. The story behind the church was that an American man started a service for study abroad students in his house, and when he moved a Swedish couple who hardly speaks English took over. It was the sweetest story and they were such a cute couple. There were about 25 people in the service and it was mainly worship music which I absolutely loved. Afterwards everyone stayed to talk and have juice and cookies. So the girls and I made some new friends and I think we’re going to game night at one of the young couples houses on Wednesday. Anyway, that was my weekend and now im back to school! I’ve had a ton of reading for school this week, I think I’ve already done about 4 hours….no good haha. But I’m meeting mom and dad in Rome on Thursday and I can’t even wait!!! yay!
K I hope life is treating everyone well J
And I’ll write again soon!
p.s. This is really random, but Kristen is writing a blog for Athena the program we are studying abroad through, and Marci and I are on the homepage! Kristen writes and sends in pictures and apparently they like a picture of Marci and I….so we’re on the front page. It’s athenaabroad.com if anyone wants to look!
Most exciting about Friday was that Adam came!!! It was the craziest thing! The whole night I just kept saying “I can’t believe this is real.” Adam is studying in Perugia so it was like an hour and a half train ride to Florence! The whole night seemed like any other night we were hanging out in Idaho or California except the scenery was a little different hahha. So I showed him around Florence and we had gelato, these waffle things with nutella on them that they sell at all the gelato stands (nutella is everywhere here!), and then we finished the night up by having dinner down the street from my apartment. I love all of the Italian family restaurants around here….sooo delicious! And after we got done having the normal Italian meal it was already 10:30 or so (most people don’t eat dinner until about 9 o’clock) so my roommies helped me get Adam a hostel and then we called it a night. Sha Sha it’s probably the same hostel you’ll stay in because Adam said it’s the best he’s ever been in. So it’s safe and right down the street. I think you will like it!
Then Saturday morning at a bright and early 7 am Adam and I went to one of the corner coffee shops and had our first real Italian, stand at the bar, coffee. The way Italians and apparently a lot of Europeans have coffee, is standing at the bar where the barista makes it. So I got a latte, which was amazing (but I still added sugar haha) and Adam got Italian hot chocolate (ill explain that one later). So Adam’s train left at 8:30 and the girls and I left at 9:30 for CORTONA. Ahh Amazing Cortona. Hahah the girls and I are now in love with Cortona, if it’s possible to be in love with a city. And we are all convinced that we’re going to buy a small place together for vacationing someday. We’ll see ;)
Anyway, our original plan was to spend a couple of hours in Cortona and a couple in Assisi. But when we got to Cortona we stayed in Cortona haha. Cortona is a really small village up on a hill. It’s the place where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed…so that was definitely incentive for going! When we first got there we walked to one of the local restaurants, according to Rick Steve’s it’s one of the best and has the most locals haha. After that we just wandered around the city. First we went to a store that had tons of leather bags. They were so cute and Hannah ended up buying one. The cutest thing was that one of the owners walked around the corner while we were all browsing, and randomly she asked if we were studying abroad. We said yes we were all from the U.S. and we were studying in Florence. She kind of laughed and then said that she was originally from Britain and decided to study abroad in Florence when she was in college as well. Only she ended up falling in love with an Italian man and moving to Cortona! The girls and I just listened with these big smiles on our faces. It was seriously the sweetest story J
Anyway, when we were leaving I asked the lady where the best bakery was (because the whole town smelled amazing) and the girls and I couldn’t decide where to go. So she sent us down a random street to this place called Cocoa. And I can honestly say that it was THE BEST bakery I have every been to. I was in chocolate heaven. Kristen, Hannah, and I all had the special Italian hot chocolate which is totally to die for. It’s so thick and chocolaty that I swear they just melt chocolate in a cup! Anyway, we all tried different truffles and such from the case as well…I think we took the most pictures there because we were all like glowing and couldn’t stop laughing. Amazing!
And after that we just continued our wandering for the rest of the day. We hiked up to a church at the top of the hill. It had a mummified body in it which was a little weird. Then just went into a bunch of the little shops, saw some wild sunflowers, ate grapes from a huge grape tree…..i don’t even know what else, but it was so beautiful. Everyone in the town was sooo laid back and everything was so beautiful. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to really live there. Oh and the girls and I got back at about 9 p.m. and decided to put on our jammies and watch Under the Tuscan Sun. We figured it was appropriate hahah. Kristen and I also made a gelato run that night…but that’s nothing out of the ordinary ;)
Sunday was a sleep in, homework, and grocery day. Which basically sums up the whole day except for church last night. Hannah, Kristen, and I decided to try out a different church that we’d heard about. It was a night service geared more towards youth. The story behind the church was that an American man started a service for study abroad students in his house, and when he moved a Swedish couple who hardly speaks English took over. It was the sweetest story and they were such a cute couple. There were about 25 people in the service and it was mainly worship music which I absolutely loved. Afterwards everyone stayed to talk and have juice and cookies. So the girls and I made some new friends and I think we’re going to game night at one of the young couples houses on Wednesday. Anyway, that was my weekend and now im back to school! I’ve had a ton of reading for school this week, I think I’ve already done about 4 hours….no good haha. But I’m meeting mom and dad in Rome on Thursday and I can’t even wait!!! yay!
K I hope life is treating everyone well J
And I’ll write again soon!
p.s. This is really random, but Kristen is writing a blog for Athena the program we are studying abroad through, and Marci and I are on the homepage! Kristen writes and sends in pictures and apparently they like a picture of Marci and I….so we’re on the front page. It’s athenaabroad.com if anyone wants to look!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pompeii, Sorrento, & Capri
My favorite weekend so far! So this may be a long one because my roommates and I spent Saturday in Siena, and then 4 of us went on a school trip to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri on Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say we did so much in such a small amount of time that last Friday feels like it was weeks ago. But I will do my best to remember what I did haha. The pictures should help!
So Friday morning the girls and I caught an 8 o’clock bus and took the hour and a half ride to Siena. Maddie has a family house in Siena and one of her aunts is living in it. So her aunt met us at the bus and gave us a little tour around the city. After Maddie and her aunt left, the rest of us explored the city. We walked around to different lookouts trying to get the best views of the city, and then bought a museum pass for 10 euro that got us into the museo dell ‘opera, battistero, cripta, and Cattedrale (the Siena Duomo). I’d go into detail of each but it would take forever because there is so much to say. My favorite was the museo dell ‘opera mainly because there was a small spiral staircase in the back of one of the rooms. The staircase lead to different areas on the roof where the view was gorgeous! The Cattedrale was amazing as well, mainly because of the elaborate designs inside.
After touring through a few of the museums we took a break to eat! And as usual the food was great! We ended up eating at a pretty fancy restaurant. Ironically they played American music which consisted of pop and rap?! Everywhere we go, and no matter how nice the restaurant or store is, they play American music. Its beyond weird but none of us can help but laugh. Kristen and I split (as always) and one of the dishes we ordered was a pear ravioli with a white sauce over it. I don’t know what all was in that ravioli but it was fantastic! Ahhh I love food! Oh and when we first got to the city we ate gelato at a homemade creamery that Hannah’s book had suggested, hahah We eat so much here…but we’re trying to “live to eat” like the Italians ;) something that is not hard to do.
We got back to our apartment at about 7 that night, did some homework, and packed for the rest of the weekend.
So starting at 5:30 a.m. Hannah, Katie, Kristen, and I loaded the bus with a bunch of people from our school, and Luca, one of the teachers. And took the 5 hour drive to Pompeii. The drive flew by since all of us seemed to sleep the whole way! The bus dropped us in Naples (which is a frightening place, ill write more about it later) and we all went to different restaurants to eat pizza. So I have officially had pizza from Naples! After that we walked to the village of Pompeii and met with our tour guide. He gave us a 3 hour tour of the archaeological site and we still only saw about half of it. About 110 acres of the site has been restored, so it is huge! I don’t even know where to start….we walked through the streets, on the cobblestone which still has wagon marks and saw different houses and bars that were popular. Some of the houses still had frescoes on the walls and everything. We saw two theaters, one amphitheater where the gladiators fought, and one field where they trained. We also saw some of the baths, a brothel, a giant swimming pool, and the part which seemed to have the biggest effect on all of us, were the casted bodies. Most of them are in the fetal position, many of the adults had their arms wrapped around children. It sounds really morbid but I think it made all of us realize that the Pompeian’s were just normal people who were used to going about day to day life. On a lighter note, the whole town was so much more sophisticated than I ever would have thought. Hannah and I were talking the other day about how hard it is to imagine that all of Pompeii and its many developments were here before Christ was!
After Pompeii the bus took us to Sorrento. The city is located right on the Mediterranean Sea and is known for it’s lemons….so there were lemon products everywhere! We stayed in a 4 star hotel called Hotel de Michelangelo. And it was so nice because we all got to pick our rooms, so I was just with my roomies haha. That night we had a three course meal, where we experienced the “food of Sorrento” :P I can’t even remember what my meal was but I started with an asparagus risotto and ended with tiramisu so it was delish!
That night all of us walked to a lemon cello store. They brought around samples of limoncello and lemon cream, as well as chocolate covered almonds and macaroons. So the girls and I tried everything. The limoncello and lemon cream were pretty brutal going down haha. I wish I had pictures of all four of our faces….hahhaha oh geez! Anyway the chocolate almonds and macaroons were soo great…so we pretty much stuck to dessert. Hahah I talk about food so much in this blog I feel like a should be a hundred pounds overweight! But we walk EVERYWHERE it’s crazy and I love it! I feel like I sleep so well every night, especially when we’re traveling because we spend majority of the days on our feet.
After the limoncello we went straight to bed and woke up around 7 to catch a ferryboat to Capri. Amazing amazing Capri hahah. So far, it is my favorite scenic place in Italy! After we got to the island we had a half hour to hang in the port before getting on a small boat which took us on a tour around the island. The whole day was kind of stormy, but in the end that’s what made it the great experience that it was! The water was a little rough at first but seemed to calm down as we got around the island. After the boat ride we had from 12 to 5 to spend on our own. So we took a cable car up to the village and spent all of our time wandering around. Capri is a resort town so it was absolutely packed with people, mainly tourists haha! So we ended up winding down these narrow paths to the residential area. All of the paths/walkways to the houses were lined with white fences and there were flowers everywhere. The island is fairly small so it never took us long to get from one side to the other. We’d just be walking along and suddenly one of us would see the ocean and know it was time to pull our cameras out.
We found an amazing gelateria that Luca had told us about. They made their own waffle cones so they were warm when we got them. And Luca suggested a toasted almond and Capri special flavor that were to die for! Yumm! So we ate those and searched for the zigzag walkway to the beach. After searching for awhile and taking several wrong turns…we found it! It probably took about 20 minutes for us to get to the bottom and when we were almost there it started to rain. So we go to the beach and we all had our swim suits on so Hannah and Katie decided to get in. Kristen and I put our feet in but didn’t want to get wet because we had to be back on the bus in an hour and didn’t have towels. While we were there a model and some photographers were having a photo shoot on a rock about 20 feet from us, and there was a restaurant a little bit above us. So people were staring at us like we were crazy, since it was raining and we were in the water. Apparently everyone else had gone inside because the place was suddenly desolate when the rain started. During our quick 15 minutes at the beach it started pouring so we all took off our dry tops and hiked in our swimsuits and shorts back up the steep walkway. Kristen and I were completely drenched in a matter of seconds after heading back up. So we both vowed never to avoid being spontaneous again. Therefore the next time we only have an hour before we get on the bus we are getting in the Mediterranean!!! Kristen was convinced it was God’s way of telling us to not hold back next time hahaha. So great!
Anyway, we’re all such dorks and started singing sound of music and cracking up laughing as we ran and jogged through the pouring rain! There was a couple we met on the way down that was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So as we were heading up they were hiding in a little cove from the rain. The mom asked if she could take a picture of us to show her daughter how fun it was to study abroad and we had her take one for us as well. So we made it back to the top…and all of us got our 2nd gelato because we figured we weren’t going to have Capri gelato ever again…unless of course we venture back their someday. So we took the tram back down, got on the ferry which took us to the bus, and loaded the bus in the port of Naples which brought us 6 hours to our little foreign home of Firenze. Oh man it was quite the trip! We got back at about 1 in the morning and we were all very exhausted. I think the craziest part about studying abroad is the fact that my weekends are amazing adventures and then come Monday morning I'm sitting at a desk in class. Hahaha So amazing!
Sorry this blog was soooo long! I just couldn’t leave anything out :)
So Friday morning the girls and I caught an 8 o’clock bus and took the hour and a half ride to Siena. Maddie has a family house in Siena and one of her aunts is living in it. So her aunt met us at the bus and gave us a little tour around the city. After Maddie and her aunt left, the rest of us explored the city. We walked around to different lookouts trying to get the best views of the city, and then bought a museum pass for 10 euro that got us into the museo dell ‘opera, battistero, cripta, and Cattedrale (the Siena Duomo). I’d go into detail of each but it would take forever because there is so much to say. My favorite was the museo dell ‘opera mainly because there was a small spiral staircase in the back of one of the rooms. The staircase lead to different areas on the roof where the view was gorgeous! The Cattedrale was amazing as well, mainly because of the elaborate designs inside.
After touring through a few of the museums we took a break to eat! And as usual the food was great! We ended up eating at a pretty fancy restaurant. Ironically they played American music which consisted of pop and rap?! Everywhere we go, and no matter how nice the restaurant or store is, they play American music. Its beyond weird but none of us can help but laugh. Kristen and I split (as always) and one of the dishes we ordered was a pear ravioli with a white sauce over it. I don’t know what all was in that ravioli but it was fantastic! Ahhh I love food! Oh and when we first got to the city we ate gelato at a homemade creamery that Hannah’s book had suggested, hahah We eat so much here…but we’re trying to “live to eat” like the Italians ;) something that is not hard to do.
We got back to our apartment at about 7 that night, did some homework, and packed for the rest of the weekend.
So starting at 5:30 a.m. Hannah, Katie, Kristen, and I loaded the bus with a bunch of people from our school, and Luca, one of the teachers. And took the 5 hour drive to Pompeii. The drive flew by since all of us seemed to sleep the whole way! The bus dropped us in Naples (which is a frightening place, ill write more about it later) and we all went to different restaurants to eat pizza. So I have officially had pizza from Naples! After that we walked to the village of Pompeii and met with our tour guide. He gave us a 3 hour tour of the archaeological site and we still only saw about half of it. About 110 acres of the site has been restored, so it is huge! I don’t even know where to start….we walked through the streets, on the cobblestone which still has wagon marks and saw different houses and bars that were popular. Some of the houses still had frescoes on the walls and everything. We saw two theaters, one amphitheater where the gladiators fought, and one field where they trained. We also saw some of the baths, a brothel, a giant swimming pool, and the part which seemed to have the biggest effect on all of us, were the casted bodies. Most of them are in the fetal position, many of the adults had their arms wrapped around children. It sounds really morbid but I think it made all of us realize that the Pompeian’s were just normal people who were used to going about day to day life. On a lighter note, the whole town was so much more sophisticated than I ever would have thought. Hannah and I were talking the other day about how hard it is to imagine that all of Pompeii and its many developments were here before Christ was!
After Pompeii the bus took us to Sorrento. The city is located right on the Mediterranean Sea and is known for it’s lemons….so there were lemon products everywhere! We stayed in a 4 star hotel called Hotel de Michelangelo. And it was so nice because we all got to pick our rooms, so I was just with my roomies haha. That night we had a three course meal, where we experienced the “food of Sorrento” :P I can’t even remember what my meal was but I started with an asparagus risotto and ended with tiramisu so it was delish!
That night all of us walked to a lemon cello store. They brought around samples of limoncello and lemon cream, as well as chocolate covered almonds and macaroons. So the girls and I tried everything. The limoncello and lemon cream were pretty brutal going down haha. I wish I had pictures of all four of our faces….hahhaha oh geez! Anyway the chocolate almonds and macaroons were soo great…so we pretty much stuck to dessert. Hahah I talk about food so much in this blog I feel like a should be a hundred pounds overweight! But we walk EVERYWHERE it’s crazy and I love it! I feel like I sleep so well every night, especially when we’re traveling because we spend majority of the days on our feet.
After the limoncello we went straight to bed and woke up around 7 to catch a ferryboat to Capri. Amazing amazing Capri hahah. So far, it is my favorite scenic place in Italy! After we got to the island we had a half hour to hang in the port before getting on a small boat which took us on a tour around the island. The whole day was kind of stormy, but in the end that’s what made it the great experience that it was! The water was a little rough at first but seemed to calm down as we got around the island. After the boat ride we had from 12 to 5 to spend on our own. So we took a cable car up to the village and spent all of our time wandering around. Capri is a resort town so it was absolutely packed with people, mainly tourists haha! So we ended up winding down these narrow paths to the residential area. All of the paths/walkways to the houses were lined with white fences and there were flowers everywhere. The island is fairly small so it never took us long to get from one side to the other. We’d just be walking along and suddenly one of us would see the ocean and know it was time to pull our cameras out.
We found an amazing gelateria that Luca had told us about. They made their own waffle cones so they were warm when we got them. And Luca suggested a toasted almond and Capri special flavor that were to die for! Yumm! So we ate those and searched for the zigzag walkway to the beach. After searching for awhile and taking several wrong turns…we found it! It probably took about 20 minutes for us to get to the bottom and when we were almost there it started to rain. So we go to the beach and we all had our swim suits on so Hannah and Katie decided to get in. Kristen and I put our feet in but didn’t want to get wet because we had to be back on the bus in an hour and didn’t have towels. While we were there a model and some photographers were having a photo shoot on a rock about 20 feet from us, and there was a restaurant a little bit above us. So people were staring at us like we were crazy, since it was raining and we were in the water. Apparently everyone else had gone inside because the place was suddenly desolate when the rain started. During our quick 15 minutes at the beach it started pouring so we all took off our dry tops and hiked in our swimsuits and shorts back up the steep walkway. Kristen and I were completely drenched in a matter of seconds after heading back up. So we both vowed never to avoid being spontaneous again. Therefore the next time we only have an hour before we get on the bus we are getting in the Mediterranean!!! Kristen was convinced it was God’s way of telling us to not hold back next time hahaha. So great!
Anyway, we’re all such dorks and started singing sound of music and cracking up laughing as we ran and jogged through the pouring rain! There was a couple we met on the way down that was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So as we were heading up they were hiding in a little cove from the rain. The mom asked if she could take a picture of us to show her daughter how fun it was to study abroad and we had her take one for us as well. So we made it back to the top…and all of us got our 2nd gelato because we figured we weren’t going to have Capri gelato ever again…unless of course we venture back their someday. So we took the tram back down, got on the ferry which took us to the bus, and loaded the bus in the port of Naples which brought us 6 hours to our little foreign home of Firenze. Oh man it was quite the trip! We got back at about 1 in the morning and we were all very exhausted. I think the craziest part about studying abroad is the fact that my weekends are amazing adventures and then come Monday morning I'm sitting at a desk in class. Hahaha So amazing!
Sorry this blog was soooo long! I just couldn’t leave anything out :)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Study Abroad Dinner
So this week has been flying by and I honestly cannot believe its already Thursday! Not a lot has happened as far as classes go, except i do have a large amount of italian homework haha
Bus aside from classes, this city is sooo busy that my roommates and I rarely find ourselves in our apartment! Last night we all got dressed up and went to a dinner that the school held for us. We walked from the school to the dinner which ended up being right on the Arno River. It was sooo beautiful! The best part about it was that it happened to be the exact place that we couldnt get to when we were watching the lantern ceremony! We met new Chapman friends!!! So that was exciting and we sat with them for dinner. It was kind of a buffet style and there were plenty of things on our plates that we couldnt identify. But thats all part of experiencing the italian culture haha We all sat around talking and taking pictures after dinner, and then walked to the Ponte Vecchio. There was a street guitarist playing music and he sang in French, Italian, and English haha. It was such a cool night and so surreal. I think the pictures will say it better than I can. So I will put them up as soon as I get a chance!
Bus aside from classes, this city is sooo busy that my roommates and I rarely find ourselves in our apartment! Last night we all got dressed up and went to a dinner that the school held for us. We walked from the school to the dinner which ended up being right on the Arno River. It was sooo beautiful! The best part about it was that it happened to be the exact place that we couldnt get to when we were watching the lantern ceremony! We met new Chapman friends!!! So that was exciting and we sat with them for dinner. It was kind of a buffet style and there were plenty of things on our plates that we couldnt identify. But thats all part of experiencing the italian culture haha We all sat around talking and taking pictures after dinner, and then walked to the Ponte Vecchio. There was a street guitarist playing music and he sang in French, Italian, and English haha. It was such a cool night and so surreal. I think the pictures will say it better than I can. So I will put them up as soon as I get a chance!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Yay for coffee!!!
So today was officially my 2nd day of school in Italia! And the only class I had was Current Trends in Italian Cuisine. Which was amazing. Its about a 3 hour class and Im so excited for the semester so we can start cooking all this great italian food. The best part about it was that my professor owns the cafe upstairs so he took specialty coffee drink orders for all of us and it was on the house! So it was my first latte since i have been here and it was fantastic! hahah Coffee aside from straight doppios and black coffee is hard to come by around here :P
A lot has happened the last couple days and I dont even know where to start. I was trying to keep track of things to jog my memory...but that obviously wasnt very effective hahah
Starting with Sunday: Kristen, Hannah, and I went to an Episcopal church service about 2 miles from our apartment. Its called St. Josephs Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous and was a very traditional service. The church and service both reminded me of Cathedral of the Rockies...so it made me feel a little at home! The next sunday that we are not traveling the girls and I are going to try another Christian church that is on Sunday nights and more geared towards college students. But either way they are in ENGLISH and im sooo happy to have a place to go. Oh and St. Josephs has a college night dinner on Wednesday nights...so we will be going to that a few times while we are here hahah
Lets see...later that day I felt a little homesick. I dont know what my deal was, but a lot of mixed feelings probably taking in everything from the first week! But the girls and I went shopping and I bought some new heels hahaha so I was very happy :)
That night we all walked to this random square in front of Santa Croce. Apparently it is tradition for the children in Italy to have a lantern lighting procession at this time every year. So that night all of these parents showed up with their children and all of the kids had these brightly lit lanters (some had real candles inside....dangerous hahah) and there was a street band and everything. Basically all the little kids danced around everywhere and the whole town stood around the band in a big circle just enjoying the music. Later on everyone formed a procession and followed the band walking and dancing down random streets (Maddie and I went to get gelato and missed the end of the procession hahah but we saw the gist of it!)
Then last night was the 2nd night of the lantern lighting. So all of these families gathered on the bank of the Arno River and the kids brought their colorful lanterns once again. My roomies and I stood on the bridge with a bunch of other people that were watching. But all of the families took turns loading and unloading from two boats that had Christmas lights on them and a GONDOLA! So for the first time I got to see real people taking a real gondola ride hahaha. The city is sooo romantic especially at night and sooooo beautiful!
Oh and I had my first two classes, Italian and Flamenco, yesterday. They both went really well and I have them again tomorrow! I love that classes have started and I have a schedule to go by now haha but its so nice to be able to walk around the city every night and enjoy all the people. Plus all the tourists are gone at night so you can actually get through the streets haha. Oh thats another weird thing. Here people eat at about 9 o'clock at night....Kristen and I went to eat at 6 the other day and the restaurant was empty. So they are night owls for sure. Okay ive got to head back to the apartment to make pasta!!! But ill write again soon!
A lot has happened the last couple days and I dont even know where to start. I was trying to keep track of things to jog my memory...but that obviously wasnt very effective hahah
Starting with Sunday: Kristen, Hannah, and I went to an Episcopal church service about 2 miles from our apartment. Its called St. Josephs Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous and was a very traditional service. The church and service both reminded me of Cathedral of the Rockies...so it made me feel a little at home! The next sunday that we are not traveling the girls and I are going to try another Christian church that is on Sunday nights and more geared towards college students. But either way they are in ENGLISH and im sooo happy to have a place to go. Oh and St. Josephs has a college night dinner on Wednesday nights...so we will be going to that a few times while we are here hahah
Lets see...later that day I felt a little homesick. I dont know what my deal was, but a lot of mixed feelings probably taking in everything from the first week! But the girls and I went shopping and I bought some new heels hahaha so I was very happy :)
That night we all walked to this random square in front of Santa Croce. Apparently it is tradition for the children in Italy to have a lantern lighting procession at this time every year. So that night all of these parents showed up with their children and all of the kids had these brightly lit lanters (some had real candles inside....dangerous hahah) and there was a street band and everything. Basically all the little kids danced around everywhere and the whole town stood around the band in a big circle just enjoying the music. Later on everyone formed a procession and followed the band walking and dancing down random streets (Maddie and I went to get gelato and missed the end of the procession hahah but we saw the gist of it!)
Then last night was the 2nd night of the lantern lighting. So all of these families gathered on the bank of the Arno River and the kids brought their colorful lanterns once again. My roomies and I stood on the bridge with a bunch of other people that were watching. But all of the families took turns loading and unloading from two boats that had Christmas lights on them and a GONDOLA! So for the first time I got to see real people taking a real gondola ride hahaha. The city is sooo romantic especially at night and sooooo beautiful!
Oh and I had my first two classes, Italian and Flamenco, yesterday. They both went really well and I have them again tomorrow! I love that classes have started and I have a schedule to go by now haha but its so nice to be able to walk around the city every night and enjoy all the people. Plus all the tourists are gone at night so you can actually get through the streets haha. Oh thats another weird thing. Here people eat at about 9 o'clock at night....Kristen and I went to eat at 6 the other day and the restaurant was empty. So they are night owls for sure. Okay ive got to head back to the apartment to make pasta!!! But ill write again soon!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
First Weekend
Hiii!
So nothing really eventful has happened the girls and I are just exploring the city a little more and starting to really get settled in. Yesterday morning we all had a 4 hour orientation and then ran errands just getting school stuff taken care of, picking up books, getting our cell phones, and finding out how to get interent in our apartment! Then last night we came back to the apartment and decided to have a little roommate meeting. Basically we planned out some of the cities we all want to go to and when we are going to go. We also cooked our first dinner together, which was of course PASTA, and some salad, and BREAD haha. It was delish! Oh and Marci, Kristen, and I watched One Tree Hill on my laptop (we've got to keep something American!)
Then this morning we woke up at 8 and caught a bus to Fiesole a hilltop town thats right outside of Florence. It was fun to get out of the city for the first time and we hiked the scenic route of the town which was breathtaking! (mom and dad I think thats where im going to take you when you come...so let me know what you think!)
And now we're absolutely exhausted and its only 3 in the afternoon! So we're all resting and hanging in the apartment until we go watch the sunset from the Ponte Vecchio tonight. I think Kristen and I are going to try and get fresh bread from one of the bakeries in the morning...and then we all plan on having a relaxing day before school starts!
I miss you all and I'll write again soon!
So nothing really eventful has happened the girls and I are just exploring the city a little more and starting to really get settled in. Yesterday morning we all had a 4 hour orientation and then ran errands just getting school stuff taken care of, picking up books, getting our cell phones, and finding out how to get interent in our apartment! Then last night we came back to the apartment and decided to have a little roommate meeting. Basically we planned out some of the cities we all want to go to and when we are going to go. We also cooked our first dinner together, which was of course PASTA, and some salad, and BREAD haha. It was delish! Oh and Marci, Kristen, and I watched One Tree Hill on my laptop (we've got to keep something American!)
Then this morning we woke up at 8 and caught a bus to Fiesole a hilltop town thats right outside of Florence. It was fun to get out of the city for the first time and we hiked the scenic route of the town which was breathtaking! (mom and dad I think thats where im going to take you when you come...so let me know what you think!)
And now we're absolutely exhausted and its only 3 in the afternoon! So we're all resting and hanging in the apartment until we go watch the sunset from the Ponte Vecchio tonight. I think Kristen and I are going to try and get fresh bread from one of the bakeries in the morning...and then we all plan on having a relaxing day before school starts!
I miss you all and I'll write again soon!
Finally some pictures!
Ponte Vecchio!
the bridge on the left of the ponte vecchio
outside the Uffizi
Campanile
me in front of the duomo haha
The DUOMO
At my window/door
View out of my apartment window
End of Via Faenza...my street
With Hannah one of our roommates
using self timer in our hotel room for our first day in Italia!
kristen standing at one of our school front doors!
First gelato
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