I have Christmas music stuck in my head because everyone's been singing them around here. Rome is finally starting to get into the Christmas spirit (or maybe I just haven't noticed yet). They started building the nativity scene in St Peter's Square, but apparently they don't reveal it until Christmas Eve. Athens and Dublin were much more decorated for the holidays, but I think I just haven't been around the really touristy parts of Rome lately (or the major shopping areas) so I haven't seen it. Either way, it doesn't really feel like December, more like late October. It started raining today and it's not supposed to stop until I leave on Monday. The thunder is actually why I'm still up right now.
I have my last final in art and architecture tomorrow, and its the only test that I was nervous for. I just read our entire text book tonight though, so I should be okay. Yesterday I went to San Paolo Fuori la Mura (St Paul outside the walls) because its one of the major Vatican basilicas and they sold chocolate that monks made. It was huge (the church, not the chocolate). I mean, I've been in St Peters, but every other church I've been to in Rome hasn't been that big because there isn't enough space. But since this one was outside the walls, they had plenty of room. Most of the places left in Rome that I want to go are churches (Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni di Laterino and San Lorenzo Fuori la Mura) and they're all the major seats of the Vatican. I hope I get to all of them, and I think I will because they're all off of metro stops. The only hitch in my plan is that there's a public transportation strike on Friday, so I'll have to hit things semi-close to me. I think San Giovanni is walkable, but I might just go back to the Vatican museums and get an audio guide so I know what I'm looking at this time. I also want to go to the Galleria Borghese...where did all the time go? At least I'm going to St Peter's again tomorrow for mass with the Pope for University students. I hope I don't do anything wrong. I've never been to a Catholic mass before.
I'm getting away from myself...Tuesday night I went to another soccer game. Roma vs Bourdeux and we won! It was a lot of fun, because I love watching the people watch the games. Everyone is completely into it, and yelling things at the players and at the fans for the other team (which are sectioned off and guarded by police) and no one looks at you funny if you stand up and yell profanities. I threw a couple in this time because the Roma team was sucking for the first half. The hand motions are important too. One of the French players made an inappropriate gesture to the Roma crowd and everyone gave him the bird, Italian style. There was also a lot of booing. My friend Kelsey and I tried to sing along with the chants, but there was no way I was going to understand the words. We figured out that if you end with a vowel you have a pretty good chance of sounding like you know what you're saying.
We got stuck at the stadio for about an hour afterwards because the buses we needed just weren't coming. We had to go to "bus heaven" which is a bus terminal close to the stadium and wait on a bus for twenty minutes to leave. It was really annoying.
So other than that, this week I've had finals and sleep and studying. My religions final was a complete joke, because he asked us two opinion questions. One of them, I kid you not, was "If you could meet any founder of the religions we've studied (save Christ), which one would it be and why? Give three questions you would ask and what you think they would say" First of all, we didn't study any religions because he never taught us anything. I'm so glad I'm done with that man.
Last weekend I was in Ireland, and it was incredible. We didn't get into our hostel until about ten because we took a public bus from the airport and two of our friends got abandoned by the bus driver (he shut the door on them) so we had to wait at the bus stop for them because we weren't sure if they knew how to get to the hostel. Where we stayed was very nice because it was within walking distance to almost anything, and I never felt in danger. We had to eat fast food that night because everything else was closed (Dublin closes down around 11) but then we grabbed a pint before heading home. Ireland guinness is so much better than any other guinness. There's just something a little better about it and its hard to explain.
Friday we tried to see the Book of Kells, but it wasn't on display. No explanation either. My roommate, Kate (Gallagher) was really disappointed because she used to Irish step dance, and they designed their dresses after the Book of Kells. At the very least, we got to see Trinity College, which makes me jealous. It looks like a real college.
After that we went to Grafton street and did some shopping. We had a bit of a time crunch because we were going to the Guinness storehouse at 1, so we ended up skipping lunch (bad idea) and we walked from Grafton street all the way to the storehouse. We passed by Christ Church, which, after Rome, wasn't that impressive. I just liked walking through Dublin. The actual storehouse was okay...really touristy but informative. They had a whole section on the marketing of Guinness (I took a picture of the Guinness is Good for You campaign because it reminded me of Mom's friend Ewan) I learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness, which I think is an important skill, and then we drank them up at the sky bar, which has a great view of Dublin. It was a little cloudy so it was hard to see too much, and too crowded to take pictures from every view, but I still loved it.
We kind of had to rush out of the Guinness factory because we had a scheduled tour of the Old Jameson Distillery at 4, and we knew it would take about twenty minutes to walk there. It was kind of hidden, but we got there on time. It was pretty cool because the first part was a movie, and then there was a guided tour through a recreation of the distillery. Some of it was dumb, and really scripted, but it was interesting information nontheless. At the end of the movie, they asked for volunteers, and Kate and I were chosen for our enthusiasm (remember, no lunch, Guinness skybar) so at the end of the guided tour we got to be taste testers. They gave us a bit of Johnnie Walker Black, Jack Daniels, and Jameson. It wasn't blind, so we knew which was which. I did not like the Scotch at all, and JD is an old friend, so I was really interested to see how the Jameson would be. I actually liked it the best. Mom, you should be so proud, I'm a certified whiskey taster now.
We got dinner directly after that because we were all starving. We went to the Quay in Temple Bar. It was really good (I had Irish stew) and then we explored some of the pubs near Grafton Street. We went to one that Ewan recommended, O'Donoghues. I saw why he liked it. It was pretty dark but lots of people and no one was being obnoxious. The music wasn't too loud either. We also went to Dawson's lounge, the smallest pub in Ireland. I think it held 20 people.
It was hard to get up Saturday morning, but we did, and we caught a bus to Cork. The bus said it would take 3 hours, but it took 4, so we arrived around 2 and almost missed the bus to Blarney. We literally ran down the street and the bus driver opened up the doors in the middle of the street. He was really nice about it though, and made a couple jokes like, "Look how I make all the lasses breathless. Oh look, now they're throwing money at me!"
Blarney was beautiful. It's what I think of when I think Irish countryside. Everything was green and misty and clear and wonderful. I took more pictures there than anywhere else, and we were only there for two hours. The castle was fun, but a little dangerous. We had to climb these stairs that were absolutely tiny and slippery.
At the top we kissed the Blarney stone, which no one ever warned me about. You have to hang backwards upside down out of the castle to kiss it, with some guy holding onto your back so you don't fall out of the castle. Luckily they installed handle bars so you can hold yourself a little, but I still almost had to do a backbend. My pictures aren't great because they try to get you to buy official ones for ten euro, but you can kind of get the idea.
We almost got stuck in Blarney (we would have missed the last bus back to Dublin) because the bus to Cork never came. We had to run into a pub and ask them to call a cab. They were so so nice about it though because the bar tended called the cab company from his own cell phone, and the guy came within ten minutes. We only had 25 minutes to get to the bus station, so we asked the driver to go fast, and he was just like..."Get in the cab. Let's go."
He ended up being awesome though, because he works in the historical society of Blarney, so he studies the castle and Irish history in general. He told us all about the history of the castle, and how it changed hands and why it was falling down, and the history of the village of Blarney. It didn't even matter that the cab was more expensive than the bus because we got our money's worth. He got us to the bus station with ten minutes to spare. Best cab ride ever.
When we got back to Dublin, we ate at Gallagher's Boxty House (because Kate really wanted to) and had a really good Irish dinner. This restaurant was also at Temple Bar, and we had the window view, so we could see across inside the Auld Dubliner. There was some sort of Bachelor's party going on because there were about twenty young santas in the building, and one of them got arrested outside while we were there. It was great.
We hit the Temple Bars after that, because we felt like we should. Its totally geared to young people, or people who like loud music and huge crowds and drunk Irish men. I thought it was really funny because we kept attracting the drunk Irish men. One guy told Kate that her eyes were like "an Irish meadow after a soft rain" We laughed so hard. I met a guy later that actually lived in Huntington Beach for awhile, on Beach Blvd. He kept talking about Chronic tacos. I had a lot of fun and I was sad to leave the next morning.
I'd love to go back to Ireland when it's not so flipping cold, maybe see a little more of the countryside. I kept looking for Carney related things because Mom told me it was Irish, but I didn't find any. I might have been in the wrong area, but hopefully I'll get to look again.
I'm not ready to start packing yet! I only have four days left! Ah!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Greece
I swear, I'm not a complete slacker. I haven't been updating for a few reasons: I was really sick last week so I was barely functioning at all, and then I had all kinds of projects and papers due and then I went to Ireland. Being sick in Rome sucks because theres no easy way to get soup, and I live in a dorm with everyone that I go to school with, so if I look like a hot mess, everyone knows about it. i missed a class last week and everyone in the class vouched that I was really sick and I didn't see more than half of them. Anyway, I'm better now after much vitamin C and lots of sleep and water. My friends here were really good and made me food for two days so I didn't have to go out into the cold. It was really nice. I wasn't feeling 100 percent before I went to Greece, and I didn't really hold back while I was there, so when I got back I got bad.
Anyway, on to more important things. Our Athens trip was really last minute because we'd been searching for cheap airfare all semester and nothing was below 300 euro, which is above our price rage. Then,, finally we saw that some fares went down for Thanksgiving (we noticed the Sunday before, so there were three of us that literally looked at each other and went, "just book it. We'll think about it later") so we ended up paying about two hundred euro with taxes, and it was on a real airline instead of RyanAir. There were supposed to be four of us but one girl had to back out because her sister was coming and had a strange schedule.
We flew Swiss Air, the nicest airline I've ever flown with. Our flight was a little ridiculous because we flew north to Zurich, and then south east to Athens, but it was cheap. I'm getting really good at sleeping on planes, because the last couple I've been on I've passed out about five minutes after take-off.
We stayed in a hotel in Athens because it ended up being cheaper than a hostel and it was great. It was really close to a metro stop and pretty walkable from the acropolis. The guy that traveled with us, Travis, had to take an earlier flight so he got there first, and Kate and I got in around 7, so it was already dark when we started exploring. We just headed towards the acropolis because you could see it in the distance and found this cute little restaurant (there was a guy standing outside, and he said, "You're hungry? I feed you." It was great. The restaurant was obviously for tourists, but it wasn't too over-priced. There was live music, and about half way through our meal, the singer got a bunch of women out in the middle of the restaurant and made us dance (she narrowed in on Kate and I because we were the youngest people there). It was really funny. That was our Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner, we explored around that area a little. It was right by the Roman forum, so we got to see a few of the ruins. We couldn't get up close, but we took some pictures anyway. It was pretty late by then, so we walked home. One of the great things (I think) about Athens is that there are packs of dogs roaming the streets at all times. They're really relaxed dogs that don't bother you, unless you show them attention or give them food. A lot of them had collars, but were still hanging around the streets. We saw them a lot over the course of our trip.
Friday we did the tour of the acropolis and the theaters, and we climbed this huge hill looking for something called the "Tower of the Winds" (which we found out later we had seen the first night at the Roman forum--felt stupid) and found a mausoleum to a Spanish guy. I hadn't realized it, but seeing the Parthenon was definitely on my life goal list because I felt such a sense of contentment once I'd seen it. I studied Greek mythology and history IN DEPTH in middle school, so I know the significance of all of those buildings and it just kind of hit me that I was doing something that I'd unknowingly dreamed about since sixth grade when Dr Landes filled my head with Greek gods and the freaking Greek alphabet that I can still recite. The whole Greece trip was like that for me--Athens was a place that I needed to go at least once in my life so I could see where these ancient people used to live. I kind of get the same in Rome, except that I'm learning the history as I live here. I didn't have a Roman history background, but I have a Greek one. I want to go back again later and hit all the museums and really learn what everything was about.
The Agora was pretty nice too, where we saw the temple of Hephaestus and a statue of Hadrian (a Roman emperor that is freaking EVERYWHERE I go) and then we had lunch at a nice tourist cafe. I couldn't get enough of the Greek food. I've rarely met something Greek I didn't like. After lunch we climbed the hill of the muses to discover that the tower of the winds was not there, found a flea market (I bought a Greek dress that I will be wearing for New Years) and then it got cold so we went back to the hotel.
That night we had a pretty Greek dinner and then went to another restaurant by the acropolis and drank Ouzo while some Greek people watched soccer. Ouzo is really strange--its licoricey but when you put it over ice it turns cloudy. I didn't really like it, but then again, I really don't like drinking liquor straight. I preferred the Greek beer, which was really good.
Saturday we took a bus from Athens to Delphi, to see the ruins of the ancient oracle there. It took three and a half hours to get there when it was only supposed to take two, but the ride was pretty incredible. It rained for the first two hours, but the last was when we were getting up into the mountains, and the rain started to clear up and I saw the most spectacular views. I kind of got good pictures, but they don't do it justice. At one point there was a full on rainbow in the sky. So pretty.
Delphi is up in the mountains (we passed a couple skiing towns) and by the time we got there we were starving, so we ate at this really good taberna that overlooked the mountains and had homemade everything. Turns out it was kind of a bad idea because when we got the ruins at 300, we saw that they had closed down at 245, because Greece doesn't really operate in the off-season. I was really bummed, but then I realized I could kind of see the ruins from where we were, so we got an idea of what they were like. There was also other stuff to see, like the gymnasium and a temple to Athena. I still really liked Delphi, and would love to go back. The town itself is tiny, and really cute. Lots of stairs though.
Sunday we had just enough time to see Parliament and the ruins of the temple of the Olympian Zeus (massive), and eat lunch before we had to be off to the airport. We also got lured into a restaurant for lunch--there was a man standing outside who was like, "You eat here. It's been here 50 years, and we never change the recipes. I would never lie to you, I hate liars, and I don't work on commission. You know car salesmen? Liars that work on commission. Terrible. You eat here." It was actually really good and not expensive. One of the greatest things about Greece was that everyone was nice and hospitable. Our hotel concierge man kept teaching us Greek words and telling us what buses to take. Everyone was very helpful.
Our flight home is when I noticed my downfall, because I slept through both plane rides so deeply that I woke up feeling like crap both times and when I woke up Monday morning I felt like someone had sucked all the liquid out of my body and deposited it in my head. I think it was worth it though, because I felt fine most of the weekend, and I had two really sick days before I went to Ireland, and now I feel pretty good. I think Guinness really must be good for you, because I don't feel sick anymore.
I'll try to update this thing again tomorrow night, but I have to go to bed. I have errands to do before the end of the week (I have to start packing for home and I'm so not ready for that at all) and send off Steve's birthday/Christmas package. I'm completely done with two of my classes, and have one final tomorrow and one on Thursday. I can't wait to be done with my religions class and never see Father Murray ever again. Even the Catholics in the class hate him because he doesn't teach the tenants of Catholicism right, and he only teaches other religions in the terms of "what's wrong with them" or as he said "Islam is attractive to terrorists because it differs from Christianity for a, b, and c reasons" and "Jews will never have peace because they won't accept Jesus as their savior" I know I live five minutes from the Vatican, but I've never had such exposure to clergy before. I think I wasn't ready for it. Although, every nun I've ever met has been perfectly nice. I don't know, but I am going to a papal audience on Thursday because its directly for University students. I'm going to get my friend's rosary blessed, I think? We'll see. I'll report back. Now I'm off to bed.
Anyway, on to more important things. Our Athens trip was really last minute because we'd been searching for cheap airfare all semester and nothing was below 300 euro, which is above our price rage. Then,, finally we saw that some fares went down for Thanksgiving (we noticed the Sunday before, so there were three of us that literally looked at each other and went, "just book it. We'll think about it later") so we ended up paying about two hundred euro with taxes, and it was on a real airline instead of RyanAir. There were supposed to be four of us but one girl had to back out because her sister was coming and had a strange schedule.
We flew Swiss Air, the nicest airline I've ever flown with. Our flight was a little ridiculous because we flew north to Zurich, and then south east to Athens, but it was cheap. I'm getting really good at sleeping on planes, because the last couple I've been on I've passed out about five minutes after take-off.
We stayed in a hotel in Athens because it ended up being cheaper than a hostel and it was great. It was really close to a metro stop and pretty walkable from the acropolis. The guy that traveled with us, Travis, had to take an earlier flight so he got there first, and Kate and I got in around 7, so it was already dark when we started exploring. We just headed towards the acropolis because you could see it in the distance and found this cute little restaurant (there was a guy standing outside, and he said, "You're hungry? I feed you." It was great. The restaurant was obviously for tourists, but it wasn't too over-priced. There was live music, and about half way through our meal, the singer got a bunch of women out in the middle of the restaurant and made us dance (she narrowed in on Kate and I because we were the youngest people there). It was really funny. That was our Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner, we explored around that area a little. It was right by the Roman forum, so we got to see a few of the ruins. We couldn't get up close, but we took some pictures anyway. It was pretty late by then, so we walked home. One of the great things (I think) about Athens is that there are packs of dogs roaming the streets at all times. They're really relaxed dogs that don't bother you, unless you show them attention or give them food. A lot of them had collars, but were still hanging around the streets. We saw them a lot over the course of our trip.
Friday we did the tour of the acropolis and the theaters, and we climbed this huge hill looking for something called the "Tower of the Winds" (which we found out later we had seen the first night at the Roman forum--felt stupid) and found a mausoleum to a Spanish guy. I hadn't realized it, but seeing the Parthenon was definitely on my life goal list because I felt such a sense of contentment once I'd seen it. I studied Greek mythology and history IN DEPTH in middle school, so I know the significance of all of those buildings and it just kind of hit me that I was doing something that I'd unknowingly dreamed about since sixth grade when Dr Landes filled my head with Greek gods and the freaking Greek alphabet that I can still recite. The whole Greece trip was like that for me--Athens was a place that I needed to go at least once in my life so I could see where these ancient people used to live. I kind of get the same in Rome, except that I'm learning the history as I live here. I didn't have a Roman history background, but I have a Greek one. I want to go back again later and hit all the museums and really learn what everything was about.
The Agora was pretty nice too, where we saw the temple of Hephaestus and a statue of Hadrian (a Roman emperor that is freaking EVERYWHERE I go) and then we had lunch at a nice tourist cafe. I couldn't get enough of the Greek food. I've rarely met something Greek I didn't like. After lunch we climbed the hill of the muses to discover that the tower of the winds was not there, found a flea market (I bought a Greek dress that I will be wearing for New Years) and then it got cold so we went back to the hotel.
That night we had a pretty Greek dinner and then went to another restaurant by the acropolis and drank Ouzo while some Greek people watched soccer. Ouzo is really strange--its licoricey but when you put it over ice it turns cloudy. I didn't really like it, but then again, I really don't like drinking liquor straight. I preferred the Greek beer, which was really good.
Saturday we took a bus from Athens to Delphi, to see the ruins of the ancient oracle there. It took three and a half hours to get there when it was only supposed to take two, but the ride was pretty incredible. It rained for the first two hours, but the last was when we were getting up into the mountains, and the rain started to clear up and I saw the most spectacular views. I kind of got good pictures, but they don't do it justice. At one point there was a full on rainbow in the sky. So pretty.
Delphi is up in the mountains (we passed a couple skiing towns) and by the time we got there we were starving, so we ate at this really good taberna that overlooked the mountains and had homemade everything. Turns out it was kind of a bad idea because when we got the ruins at 300, we saw that they had closed down at 245, because Greece doesn't really operate in the off-season. I was really bummed, but then I realized I could kind of see the ruins from where we were, so we got an idea of what they were like. There was also other stuff to see, like the gymnasium and a temple to Athena. I still really liked Delphi, and would love to go back. The town itself is tiny, and really cute. Lots of stairs though.
Sunday we had just enough time to see Parliament and the ruins of the temple of the Olympian Zeus (massive), and eat lunch before we had to be off to the airport. We also got lured into a restaurant for lunch--there was a man standing outside who was like, "You eat here. It's been here 50 years, and we never change the recipes. I would never lie to you, I hate liars, and I don't work on commission. You know car salesmen? Liars that work on commission. Terrible. You eat here." It was actually really good and not expensive. One of the greatest things about Greece was that everyone was nice and hospitable. Our hotel concierge man kept teaching us Greek words and telling us what buses to take. Everyone was very helpful.
Our flight home is when I noticed my downfall, because I slept through both plane rides so deeply that I woke up feeling like crap both times and when I woke up Monday morning I felt like someone had sucked all the liquid out of my body and deposited it in my head. I think it was worth it though, because I felt fine most of the weekend, and I had two really sick days before I went to Ireland, and now I feel pretty good. I think Guinness really must be good for you, because I don't feel sick anymore.
I'll try to update this thing again tomorrow night, but I have to go to bed. I have errands to do before the end of the week (I have to start packing for home and I'm so not ready for that at all) and send off Steve's birthday/Christmas package. I'm completely done with two of my classes, and have one final tomorrow and one on Thursday. I can't wait to be done with my religions class and never see Father Murray ever again. Even the Catholics in the class hate him because he doesn't teach the tenants of Catholicism right, and he only teaches other religions in the terms of "what's wrong with them" or as he said "Islam is attractive to terrorists because it differs from Christianity for a, b, and c reasons" and "Jews will never have peace because they won't accept Jesus as their savior" I know I live five minutes from the Vatican, but I've never had such exposure to clergy before. I think I wasn't ready for it. Although, every nun I've ever met has been perfectly nice. I don't know, but I am going to a papal audience on Thursday because its directly for University students. I'm going to get my friend's rosary blessed, I think? We'll see. I'll report back. Now I'm off to bed.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Spain pt 2
Barcelona reminded me a lot of Huntington Beach, in a weird way. Not that the architecture, or even the language was similar, but the attitude of the people. It's a beach town, and they have the same kind mentality in that way. It was a nice feeling, because I was at home there almost immediately.
We got there Thursday night, and as soon as we dropped our bags off we went out with our hostel to a club on the beach. I like going out with the hostels because they take you places you wouldn't normally go, because you don't know they exist. It was interesting to see a wide variety of people, because everyone goes to clubs in Spain, and a lot of ages intermingle together, dancing to mostly American music. I thought it was great for people watching, especially when the older men started dancing.
On Friday we did the Gaudi tour of Barcelona. Gaudi was an architect in the 20's who built these amazing buildings that are part fairy tale and beautiful. It's easy to tell what he built because it's so different than anything I've ever seen. I couldn't believe that someone could actually build things that like. Everything was very surreal. The first place we went was Casa Mila, an apartment building. So beautiful. The apartments themselves were pretty normal, but the flow of the rooms were great. The outside is what caught most people's attention, because everything was either painted or sculpted. The rooftop terrace was like being in a sculpture garden, with a great view of Barcelona.
After that we walked to Park Guell, a public park Gaudi did. The entrance has houses that look like they're from Hanzel and Gretel. Everything was so beautiful, and at the same time I felt like I was in Disneyland. Bizarre.
That night we got tapas, which I think we need to start doing more in the States. I'm definitely figuring out how to make Patatas Bravas (we had them with almost every meal). I like how Spain and Italy do meals--its really relaxed, and the waiters don't bother you. It can be a little frustrating when you're trying to get the check and you can't find anyone, but I like it anyway.
Saturday we went to the markets down on Las Ramblas and poked around for awhile. They're pretty incredible in their scope. There's this one, called the Boqueteria, that is huge, and it's all food. On the streets, they sell pets, like chickens, roosters, chinchillas, turtles, chipmunks...everything. I wish I could have spent more time there, but the people I was with wanted to siesta (because we were leaving our hostel around 4:30 in the morning to catch our flight) so we left pretty early. After our nap, we went to the Picasso museum. It was pretty cool, but there wasn't anything in it that I recognized. It was more about seeing his work as a whole, as it changed.
That night we got paella at a restaurant off the Ramblas. It was really funny because the cook served us, and when he came to clear the plates, he yelled at us in Spanish because we didn't eat it all (not real yelling, just like, an Italian mother yelling) and I was the only one who could really speak back to him, so I tried to make nice. He got distracted by a huge group of older Scottish men, so we were off the hook for awhile. We were also much better customers because we didn't fuss about anything like the Scottish men did. As we were getting up to leave, one of the Scottish guys tried to talk to me in Spanish, but I couldn't understand him because of the accent, so I was like, "I speak English...I'm American" and he started laughing. He thought we were Spanish. Then I got the usual interrogation about what I was doing in Europe, but it was okay because all the guys were really funny and a little drunk.
That was pretty much the trip in a nutshell. It was a lot of fun, mostly relaxing, and a lot of art. I'd like to go back in the summer when the beaches are open. Maybe I will, someday.
We got there Thursday night, and as soon as we dropped our bags off we went out with our hostel to a club on the beach. I like going out with the hostels because they take you places you wouldn't normally go, because you don't know they exist. It was interesting to see a wide variety of people, because everyone goes to clubs in Spain, and a lot of ages intermingle together, dancing to mostly American music. I thought it was great for people watching, especially when the older men started dancing.
On Friday we did the Gaudi tour of Barcelona. Gaudi was an architect in the 20's who built these amazing buildings that are part fairy tale and beautiful. It's easy to tell what he built because it's so different than anything I've ever seen. I couldn't believe that someone could actually build things that like. Everything was very surreal. The first place we went was Casa Mila, an apartment building. So beautiful. The apartments themselves were pretty normal, but the flow of the rooms were great. The outside is what caught most people's attention, because everything was either painted or sculpted. The rooftop terrace was like being in a sculpture garden, with a great view of Barcelona.
After that we walked to Park Guell, a public park Gaudi did. The entrance has houses that look like they're from Hanzel and Gretel. Everything was so beautiful, and at the same time I felt like I was in Disneyland. Bizarre.
That night we got tapas, which I think we need to start doing more in the States. I'm definitely figuring out how to make Patatas Bravas (we had them with almost every meal). I like how Spain and Italy do meals--its really relaxed, and the waiters don't bother you. It can be a little frustrating when you're trying to get the check and you can't find anyone, but I like it anyway.
Saturday we went to the markets down on Las Ramblas and poked around for awhile. They're pretty incredible in their scope. There's this one, called the Boqueteria, that is huge, and it's all food. On the streets, they sell pets, like chickens, roosters, chinchillas, turtles, chipmunks...everything. I wish I could have spent more time there, but the people I was with wanted to siesta (because we were leaving our hostel around 4:30 in the morning to catch our flight) so we left pretty early. After our nap, we went to the Picasso museum. It was pretty cool, but there wasn't anything in it that I recognized. It was more about seeing his work as a whole, as it changed.
That night we got paella at a restaurant off the Ramblas. It was really funny because the cook served us, and when he came to clear the plates, he yelled at us in Spanish because we didn't eat it all (not real yelling, just like, an Italian mother yelling) and I was the only one who could really speak back to him, so I tried to make nice. He got distracted by a huge group of older Scottish men, so we were off the hook for awhile. We were also much better customers because we didn't fuss about anything like the Scottish men did. As we were getting up to leave, one of the Scottish guys tried to talk to me in Spanish, but I couldn't understand him because of the accent, so I was like, "I speak English...I'm American" and he started laughing. He thought we were Spanish. Then I got the usual interrogation about what I was doing in Europe, but it was okay because all the guys were really funny and a little drunk.
That was pretty much the trip in a nutshell. It was a lot of fun, mostly relaxing, and a lot of art. I'd like to go back in the summer when the beaches are open. Maybe I will, someday.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Spain
The weeks here are starting to blur together because its going by so fast. I'm trying to do everything I want to in Rome while still recovering from travel every weekend. My Rome time is suffering because of it. Not to mention that I'm finally getting sick (been expecting it for weeks) so all I want to do is sleep. Right now I'm drinking the Italian version of airbourne, which is actually much more pleasant. I'm fighting it though--today we went to St Peters and walked through again. Its massive. Tomorrow we're going to the Aurelian walls for class, so that will be interesting. I don't know much about them, but I think they were one of the initial defensive walls erected by an Emperor. Guess I'll find out.
My last two weekends have been dedicated to Spain. Last weekend was Madrid, el capital ( I think lol). I went with a few friends, one of which is from Venezuela so we had a native speaker with us. It was nice, but I held my own. I guess once you take Spanish 1 three times the basics never leave you. We arrived on Friday afternoon and went straight to the Prado because it was free. I really liked it because it reminded me of the Met, except only paintings. My favorite part was when we walked through about five rooms of Goya, my friend told me that Goya had started to go crazy towards the end of his life and you could see it in his paintings. I didn't believe him because we got to about eight rooms and I still didn't see anything unusual. It was when we got to the ninth room of Goya paintings that I could see the crazy. There's a famous one, of Saturn eating his children, that really creeped me out. Everything in that room was disturbing. If anything, it was really really nice not to see Madonna and Child for the 600th time.
After the museum we had dinner at a Spanish/Cuban place. I got the paella, which was nice. I refuse to eat pasta or pizza outside of Italy because I eat so much of it here. We went out with our hostel to a club that night, but they would only let the girls in (one of our guy friends wasn't wearing a collared shirt), so we took pictures for five minutes and then left. It was interesting to look at though, because it was a five level club.
Saturday we went on a walking tour of the city. I love walking tours because you learn a lot of history and can stop and take pictures. The guides are usually really cool too because they're used to dealing with young people. The walking tour guide I had in Hungary loved to swear in English and it was kind of great. Our tour guide in Madrid was a South African named Bruce, and in my mind he had an Australian accent, so I kept thinking of Finding Nemo the whole tour. He gave us 2000 years of Spanish history in about two hours, which was pretty cool. Everywhere I go makes me more and more interested in European history, because I never covered it in depth in high school.
Spain still has all of its original buildings because it wasn't involved in World War II, so it was really cool to see apartment buildings (still in use) dated to the 1400's. There's also a lot of Arabic influence hidden throughout the city, which is another refreshing change. After the tour we went to the city park, which is supposed to be three times the size of Central Park. I believe it--it was massive, and had a lot of interesting landscaping.
We went to the Reina Sofia museum that night because it was free, and saw Guernica by Picasso. I had studied it in my Spanish classes, and was very glad to see it in person. It's incredible. I thought it was still hanging in the UN in New York, but I guess it got moved back once Spain was 'free from tyrannical oppression' in the 70s when Franco died. My books must have been really old.
Saturday night we ate at a really good restaurant called Restaurant Puerto Rico. It was a set menu that was so good. We made friends with the waiter and chatted with him in Spanish (Eyal mostly, but I interjected a few times). After dinner we went on a pub crawl with the hostel, which turned into a huge project because one of our friends got lost, so we had to go find him, and then we couldn't find the rest of the group so we sneaked into a salsa club for a few minutes. It was fun. We were told we had to get chocolate and churros after the crawl, so we found a place still serving them. The Spanish really know their hangover remedies. It was a really thick hot chocolate with plain churros straight out of the pan. Delicious.
Sunday morning we went to the El Rastro market for an hour to look around. At one point I looked down the street (down a hill) and all I could see were people's heads and awnings. So many people! I wanted to stay longer, but we had to check out of the hostel and get to the airport. I had a spanish tortilla sandwich for lunch, which is actually eggs and potatoes and greatness on a bun. I'm going to learn how to make it.
I loved Madrid, so I was really happy that I was going to Barcelona the next weekend. I'll write more on that later because I need to get some sleep, but on a side note, I booked two more trips for my time here. On Thursday (Thanksgiving) I'm flying to Athens! I'm very excited because Greece was on the top of my list of places to visit while I was here, and I didn't think I'd get to do it. The other trip I've booked is to Ireland, the second on my list. I can't wait!
Note: I'm much better about updating pictures than actually writing, so check the pictures because they're always more current. I'm working on Barcelona right now.
My last two weekends have been dedicated to Spain. Last weekend was Madrid, el capital ( I think lol). I went with a few friends, one of which is from Venezuela so we had a native speaker with us. It was nice, but I held my own. I guess once you take Spanish 1 three times the basics never leave you. We arrived on Friday afternoon and went straight to the Prado because it was free. I really liked it because it reminded me of the Met, except only paintings. My favorite part was when we walked through about five rooms of Goya, my friend told me that Goya had started to go crazy towards the end of his life and you could see it in his paintings. I didn't believe him because we got to about eight rooms and I still didn't see anything unusual. It was when we got to the ninth room of Goya paintings that I could see the crazy. There's a famous one, of Saturn eating his children, that really creeped me out. Everything in that room was disturbing. If anything, it was really really nice not to see Madonna and Child for the 600th time.
After the museum we had dinner at a Spanish/Cuban place. I got the paella, which was nice. I refuse to eat pasta or pizza outside of Italy because I eat so much of it here. We went out with our hostel to a club that night, but they would only let the girls in (one of our guy friends wasn't wearing a collared shirt), so we took pictures for five minutes and then left. It was interesting to look at though, because it was a five level club.
Saturday we went on a walking tour of the city. I love walking tours because you learn a lot of history and can stop and take pictures. The guides are usually really cool too because they're used to dealing with young people. The walking tour guide I had in Hungary loved to swear in English and it was kind of great. Our tour guide in Madrid was a South African named Bruce, and in my mind he had an Australian accent, so I kept thinking of Finding Nemo the whole tour. He gave us 2000 years of Spanish history in about two hours, which was pretty cool. Everywhere I go makes me more and more interested in European history, because I never covered it in depth in high school.
Spain still has all of its original buildings because it wasn't involved in World War II, so it was really cool to see apartment buildings (still in use) dated to the 1400's. There's also a lot of Arabic influence hidden throughout the city, which is another refreshing change. After the tour we went to the city park, which is supposed to be three times the size of Central Park. I believe it--it was massive, and had a lot of interesting landscaping.
We went to the Reina Sofia museum that night because it was free, and saw Guernica by Picasso. I had studied it in my Spanish classes, and was very glad to see it in person. It's incredible. I thought it was still hanging in the UN in New York, but I guess it got moved back once Spain was 'free from tyrannical oppression' in the 70s when Franco died. My books must have been really old.
Saturday night we ate at a really good restaurant called Restaurant Puerto Rico. It was a set menu that was so good. We made friends with the waiter and chatted with him in Spanish (Eyal mostly, but I interjected a few times). After dinner we went on a pub crawl with the hostel, which turned into a huge project because one of our friends got lost, so we had to go find him, and then we couldn't find the rest of the group so we sneaked into a salsa club for a few minutes. It was fun. We were told we had to get chocolate and churros after the crawl, so we found a place still serving them. The Spanish really know their hangover remedies. It was a really thick hot chocolate with plain churros straight out of the pan. Delicious.
Sunday morning we went to the El Rastro market for an hour to look around. At one point I looked down the street (down a hill) and all I could see were people's heads and awnings. So many people! I wanted to stay longer, but we had to check out of the hostel and get to the airport. I had a spanish tortilla sandwich for lunch, which is actually eggs and potatoes and greatness on a bun. I'm going to learn how to make it.
I loved Madrid, so I was really happy that I was going to Barcelona the next weekend. I'll write more on that later because I need to get some sleep, but on a side note, I booked two more trips for my time here. On Thursday (Thanksgiving) I'm flying to Athens! I'm very excited because Greece was on the top of my list of places to visit while I was here, and I didn't think I'd get to do it. The other trip I've booked is to Ireland, the second on my list. I can't wait!
Note: I'm much better about updating pictures than actually writing, so check the pictures because they're always more current. I'm working on Barcelona right now.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Snafus in Eastern Europe
About two weeks ago I was supposed to go to a soccer match between Rome and Sampadoria because the school arranged the trip. Once we got to the stadium, it started to downpour. The soccer players tried to make it through the rain, but they were all falling and knocking into each other. They ended up canceling the game because the grass was so wet that the ball wouldn't bounce. I've never seen it rain that hard before. The drops were huge, and my shoes got soaked all the way through on our way home. I was not a happy camper.
So because we couldn't see that game, a bunch of us decided to buy tickets to another game, just for the experience. The next game was Roma versus Chelsea (which I found out later was for qualifying for the European Champions cup aka Champions League). I kept getting warnings about speaking English and riots, but I made sure to wear a Roma scarf and not have any blue on. It was a lot of fun because the Romans were out full force. All the Chelsea fans were contained to one section that were surrounded by police and I heard that they had to stay in the stadium for a full hour after the game ended so that the police could ensure their safety. It was a good thing, because when Rome started winning, both sides starting heading for each other's sections. Everyone thought Chelsea would win, but Rome ended up beating them 3-1. It was pretty incredible.
That was last Tuesday. Thursday began my trek to Budapest which took far took long and was marked by so many failures. My friend Fiona and I booked our trip to Budapest awhile ago, and because we didn't do very much research, we thought the only way to get there without paying a lot of money was to take two planes and a train. One of our other friends booked this same trip a week later. We knew it was going to take a long time, but we thought it would be interesting. Come to find out, there is a direct flight to Budapest from Rome on a relatively cheap airline, and a bunch of our other friends booked through them.
So on Thursday, we flew from Rome to Milan no problem, got there with plenty of time to recheck in and go through security. When we're getting our boarding passes to Bratislava (Slovakia), one of our friends, who has a Chinese passport, gets stopped. They told her that her visa didn't allow her to visit countries other than Italy, because it didn't say "Schengen states" on her visa. She had already been to Spain and France without any problems, so we argued with the ticket lady for awhile and we ended up getting a bunch of people involved, but they still wouldn't let her go through. We had to leave her in Milan (we thought she would just take another flight back) and go on to Bratislava. It was really depressing.
Once we got to Bratislava, we took a bus to the train station. It was about 8pm at that point, and we thought we'd be in Budapest by 11. Turns out, the trains to Budapest stop early on Thursdays, so we had to wait until 5:44 am the next morning. We ended up going back to the airport because it was better lit and safer than the train station. Fiona slept because she was sick, but I just stared at the ceiling for a long time. Don't ever go to Slovakia. It smells like onions, vodka, and cigarettes. I was very happy to get on the train to Budapest the next morning because the seats were so comfortable. The view was also great because we got to see the sun rising over the Slovakian/Hungarian countryside.
We got to Budapest around 9, got on the metro, and went to our hostel where we were staying with our friends. When we got there, we literally dropped our stuff off and ran to meet them at a free walking tour. Budapest is beautiful and has a very different history than any of the other countries I've been to. They're still recovering from communism, and are very happy with their new freedoms, but have a horrible economy. It was very cheap for me to visit because of the exchange rate, but I would hate to be Hungarian. They won't be eligible to even apply to use the euro until 2012, but even then probably won't get approved because of their inflation rate. I learned all of this from my tour guide, who was either playing to her American crowd and hating on Communism, or was genuinely happy about it. Her big thing was that there were no colors during Communist rule, only red, black, brown, blue, and yellow. She was wearing a rainbow skirt and green shoes.
After the tour, we went 'caving', which is basically crawling around limestone caves for three hours. We went through tiny holes and squeezed between rocks and climbed over them and up them, and I was ready to die at the end because I hadn't slept the night before, and the end was when we started climbing up and over rocks.
The next day we walked through Pest up to the city park to the thermal baths. I've come to find that the best and cheapest food often comes off the streets, so I got some corn on our way up. It was fantastic. The thermal baths were amazing because they are natural springs that have minerals that are supposed to be good for you. If anything, there were about twenty heated pools to go in, and one of them had a whirlpool. It was also really entertaining to watch everyone. Europeans are hilarious and great for people watching.
Later that night we went to a Hungarian folk dance performance. It was really interesting because it was a combination of tap dancing and jumping and a little bit of ballroom type whirling. I really liked it. It got kind of freaky at the end though, because everyone started clapping in uniform, and when the main dancers came out, the clap changed tempo. I think it was from the communist times, because most of the people in the audience were older.
We left the next day, after visiting Margaret Island. Our train go to Bratislava when it was supposed to, and we got to Milan on time. Unfortunately, our flight back to Rome didn't leave until 8 the next morning, so we met back up with our friend, who had ended up staying in Milan for the weekend. She had a good time and found good Chinese food. We stayed at her hostel, and I had the best sleep I had all weekend.
On our way home from Milan, there was an emergency landing in Ciampino airport, so we got diverted to Fiumicino where there was supposed to be a free bus to Ciampino (we thought we could take the metro from there) but the bus didn't come for three hours. We all missed our morning class, and we ended up taking the only train that was running in to the train station, only to find out that there was a country wide public transportation strike happening, so the metro wasn't running. Termini (the train station) is pretty far from my dorm, and we had luggage, so we found the only bus that was running (which was packed) and got to St Peter's. We walked from there because we live very close, but it was such a long morning that all I wanted was to sleep and shower. I'm only taking direct flights from now on because I was constantly worried that I was going to miss my flights or trains or something was going to get delayed.
I was very very happy to be back in Rome. I'm going to stay here over Thanksgiving, but I decided to go to Ireland the first weekend in December. I think there are going to be about five of us going, and I might be able to fly Aer lingus, a real airline, out of a real airport. It will be cold, but great.
So because we couldn't see that game, a bunch of us decided to buy tickets to another game, just for the experience. The next game was Roma versus Chelsea (which I found out later was for qualifying for the European Champions cup aka Champions League). I kept getting warnings about speaking English and riots, but I made sure to wear a Roma scarf and not have any blue on. It was a lot of fun because the Romans were out full force. All the Chelsea fans were contained to one section that were surrounded by police and I heard that they had to stay in the stadium for a full hour after the game ended so that the police could ensure their safety. It was a good thing, because when Rome started winning, both sides starting heading for each other's sections. Everyone thought Chelsea would win, but Rome ended up beating them 3-1. It was pretty incredible.
That was last Tuesday. Thursday began my trek to Budapest which took far took long and was marked by so many failures. My friend Fiona and I booked our trip to Budapest awhile ago, and because we didn't do very much research, we thought the only way to get there without paying a lot of money was to take two planes and a train. One of our other friends booked this same trip a week later. We knew it was going to take a long time, but we thought it would be interesting. Come to find out, there is a direct flight to Budapest from Rome on a relatively cheap airline, and a bunch of our other friends booked through them.
So on Thursday, we flew from Rome to Milan no problem, got there with plenty of time to recheck in and go through security. When we're getting our boarding passes to Bratislava (Slovakia), one of our friends, who has a Chinese passport, gets stopped. They told her that her visa didn't allow her to visit countries other than Italy, because it didn't say "Schengen states" on her visa. She had already been to Spain and France without any problems, so we argued with the ticket lady for awhile and we ended up getting a bunch of people involved, but they still wouldn't let her go through. We had to leave her in Milan (we thought she would just take another flight back) and go on to Bratislava. It was really depressing.
Once we got to Bratislava, we took a bus to the train station. It was about 8pm at that point, and we thought we'd be in Budapest by 11. Turns out, the trains to Budapest stop early on Thursdays, so we had to wait until 5:44 am the next morning. We ended up going back to the airport because it was better lit and safer than the train station. Fiona slept because she was sick, but I just stared at the ceiling for a long time. Don't ever go to Slovakia. It smells like onions, vodka, and cigarettes. I was very happy to get on the train to Budapest the next morning because the seats were so comfortable. The view was also great because we got to see the sun rising over the Slovakian/Hungarian countryside.
We got to Budapest around 9, got on the metro, and went to our hostel where we were staying with our friends. When we got there, we literally dropped our stuff off and ran to meet them at a free walking tour. Budapest is beautiful and has a very different history than any of the other countries I've been to. They're still recovering from communism, and are very happy with their new freedoms, but have a horrible economy. It was very cheap for me to visit because of the exchange rate, but I would hate to be Hungarian. They won't be eligible to even apply to use the euro until 2012, but even then probably won't get approved because of their inflation rate. I learned all of this from my tour guide, who was either playing to her American crowd and hating on Communism, or was genuinely happy about it. Her big thing was that there were no colors during Communist rule, only red, black, brown, blue, and yellow. She was wearing a rainbow skirt and green shoes.
After the tour, we went 'caving', which is basically crawling around limestone caves for three hours. We went through tiny holes and squeezed between rocks and climbed over them and up them, and I was ready to die at the end because I hadn't slept the night before, and the end was when we started climbing up and over rocks.
The next day we walked through Pest up to the city park to the thermal baths. I've come to find that the best and cheapest food often comes off the streets, so I got some corn on our way up. It was fantastic. The thermal baths were amazing because they are natural springs that have minerals that are supposed to be good for you. If anything, there were about twenty heated pools to go in, and one of them had a whirlpool. It was also really entertaining to watch everyone. Europeans are hilarious and great for people watching.
Later that night we went to a Hungarian folk dance performance. It was really interesting because it was a combination of tap dancing and jumping and a little bit of ballroom type whirling. I really liked it. It got kind of freaky at the end though, because everyone started clapping in uniform, and when the main dancers came out, the clap changed tempo. I think it was from the communist times, because most of the people in the audience were older.
We left the next day, after visiting Margaret Island. Our train go to Bratislava when it was supposed to, and we got to Milan on time. Unfortunately, our flight back to Rome didn't leave until 8 the next morning, so we met back up with our friend, who had ended up staying in Milan for the weekend. She had a good time and found good Chinese food. We stayed at her hostel, and I had the best sleep I had all weekend.
On our way home from Milan, there was an emergency landing in Ciampino airport, so we got diverted to Fiumicino where there was supposed to be a free bus to Ciampino (we thought we could take the metro from there) but the bus didn't come for three hours. We all missed our morning class, and we ended up taking the only train that was running in to the train station, only to find out that there was a country wide public transportation strike happening, so the metro wasn't running. Termini (the train station) is pretty far from my dorm, and we had luggage, so we found the only bus that was running (which was packed) and got to St Peter's. We walked from there because we live very close, but it was such a long morning that all I wanted was to sleep and shower. I'm only taking direct flights from now on because I was constantly worried that I was going to miss my flights or trains or something was going to get delayed.
I was very very happy to be back in Rome. I'm going to stay here over Thanksgiving, but I decided to go to Ireland the first weekend in December. I think there are going to be about five of us going, and I might be able to fly Aer lingus, a real airline, out of a real airport. It will be cold, but great.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Perugia, Rome, London
After Venice, I had my last weekend off before my month of traveling kicked off. I decided I needed to see as much of Rome as possible, which ended up being smashed into one day because of several factors: bad alarm clock, sickness, and a little miscommunication. Anyway, Friday, I went to Perugia which is the capital of the Umbria region. I got up at 6 to catch a train to go to the biggest chocolate festival in the world. I had tried to go on Monday because my classes were canceled, but the only train I could catch ended up being canceled as well, so I went back home and slept all day.
So Friday I tried again and was successful. We had a few issues once we got there because no one in Perugia speaks English and I was the only one in the group that spoke Italian. We managed to find out that the festival was in the city center, but they didn't have any maps of the city. We tried following signs, but we noticed that we were snaking up a hill and there were stairs that looked more direct. I ended up asking someone for directions and she literally said, "See that street there? Turn left, go up the stairs, cross the street, go up those stairs, and then the next set of stairs you see, and then you'll find a piazza with buses. Go up the stairs on the other side of the piazza" Here's a warning: use a stairmaster before coming to Italy. It will help you out.
The chocolate festival itself was pretty cool, but most of the stuff is easily found in Italy, anywhere. I bought a few things, but I'm saving most of it. The only things I bought to eat there were cinnamon hot chocolate and a white chocolate apple. Both were very very good. The festival had a few giant chocolate sculptures (a cow, a chessboard, a key) and some interactive stuff. All I know is that by the end of the day, all I wanted was bread and olive oil.
The next day was Saturday. We went to the Catacombs of San Callisto, which were cool. They don't let you go down there alone, so we had a priest from New Zealand show us around. Apparently one of the popes picked his order as the ones to watch over the tombs. The catacombs were in the middle of nowhere. We literally walked through a field to get there (because I misjudged the bus exit). Apparently there are sheep that run wild in that part of Rome. I want to go back. On the way home we stopped at the mouth of truth and took pictures. It was pretty cool, but I guess the only reason its so famous is because of Roman Holiday.
When we were about to transfer buses at Piazza Venezia, I decided I wanted to go to the Capitolini Museum that was five feet away. I really liked it because of all the statues. A lot of the artifacts at the museum were taken from the Roman forum, so it was nice to see them and know the context that they used to be in.
On Sunday I had every intention of going back to the Vatican museum, but I accidentally slept til noon and by then I felt it was too late and I had to do laundry and other things. Also, I hadn't been feeling well since I had returned from Venice, so it felt good to relax a little. Luckily I made a full recovery by Thursday, because thats when I set off for London.
Let me tell you some things about Ciampino airport, and Ryanair. They don't communicate. My flight left at 6 am on Thursday morning, and Ryanair opens its ticket counters two hours before any scheduled flight, so logically I should have been able to get in at 4am. I, be the nervous traveler that I am, left my dorm in a cab at 3 am because I wasn't sure how long it would take. I ended up being locked out of the airport for an hour because Ciampino didn't open until 430. I waited a lot that day.
The flight to Stansted was only 3 hours, and I slept through all of it. I'm getting good at sleeping on planes. I got into London around 8 (time difference) and hopped on a train to get into the city. Once I got off the train, I had to figure out the tube to get to my hostel. It wasn't that hard, compared to New York, but it cost 4 pounds! That was about $6.50 when I was there. I pay 2 in New York, and one euro in Rome. It kind of prepared me for London to be expensive.
I got to my hostel all right after wandering around Chelsea for awhile (I didn't read the directions correctly) and dropped my bags off. It was about 10 at that point, and they wouldn't let me check in until 2, so I sat in a cafe for an hour and then got bored and started walking around. One of the reasons I went to London was to see my friend from Wagner and he was supposed to meet me around noon, when he got out of class, which is also why I traveled alone. Chelsea and Kensington are very pretty, but a lot like the upper east side. I felt very safe, even when I got lost (got distracted by a side street) but I liked wandering around by myself. I haven't done that much in Rome because I'm always with someone. London is almost as confusing as Rome to navigate though, because I had to use a bus map to find my way back to where I was supposed to meet my friend Bryan.
Thursday we didn't really do much, but he took me to the Thames and we saw the London Eye. I had left my camera in my bags at the hostel, so I went to check in around two, and by the time we got moving again after eating lunch it was starting to get dark. So we went to Picadilly circus and Soho and an indoor market that I forget the name of. It felt a lot like New York, but older, obviously. We rode the double decker buses.
Friday we did more sightseeing. We wanted to go into the Tower of London, but it cost 20 pounds to get in and there was a really long line so we just looked at the outside. It wasn't what I thought it would be because the actual tower is pretty small. It looks like a castle. After the tower we walked across the London bridge. I liked it, but I wished we could have gone up into the actual building part of it. We took a bus to the Globe theater but didn't go in because it was closed, so we ate fish and chips and mushy peas instead. It was great.
We went to Hyde park after that because I wanted to see the fall leaves. It was beautiful and made me miss New York a little. Central Park is lot better, but it was nice to have some serenity for a few minutes. I made Bryan chase geese.
Saturday was my last day because I left very very early Sunday morning. It rained all day, but we stuck it out to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. Of course we kept all the big stuff for the day it rained, but it worked out alright. At the end of the day we went on the London Eye. None of my pictures turned out because of the rain, but it was very very cool.
Overall I really liked London. I want to go back when the weather is nicer (if it ever is) and actually go in some of the places I saw. There's a possibility that I could end up there for gradschool, and I'm completely okay with that.
So Friday I tried again and was successful. We had a few issues once we got there because no one in Perugia speaks English and I was the only one in the group that spoke Italian. We managed to find out that the festival was in the city center, but they didn't have any maps of the city. We tried following signs, but we noticed that we were snaking up a hill and there were stairs that looked more direct. I ended up asking someone for directions and she literally said, "See that street there? Turn left, go up the stairs, cross the street, go up those stairs, and then the next set of stairs you see, and then you'll find a piazza with buses. Go up the stairs on the other side of the piazza" Here's a warning: use a stairmaster before coming to Italy. It will help you out.
The chocolate festival itself was pretty cool, but most of the stuff is easily found in Italy, anywhere. I bought a few things, but I'm saving most of it. The only things I bought to eat there were cinnamon hot chocolate and a white chocolate apple. Both were very very good. The festival had a few giant chocolate sculptures (a cow, a chessboard, a key) and some interactive stuff. All I know is that by the end of the day, all I wanted was bread and olive oil.
The next day was Saturday. We went to the Catacombs of San Callisto, which were cool. They don't let you go down there alone, so we had a priest from New Zealand show us around. Apparently one of the popes picked his order as the ones to watch over the tombs. The catacombs were in the middle of nowhere. We literally walked through a field to get there (because I misjudged the bus exit). Apparently there are sheep that run wild in that part of Rome. I want to go back. On the way home we stopped at the mouth of truth and took pictures. It was pretty cool, but I guess the only reason its so famous is because of Roman Holiday.
When we were about to transfer buses at Piazza Venezia, I decided I wanted to go to the Capitolini Museum that was five feet away. I really liked it because of all the statues. A lot of the artifacts at the museum were taken from the Roman forum, so it was nice to see them and know the context that they used to be in.
On Sunday I had every intention of going back to the Vatican museum, but I accidentally slept til noon and by then I felt it was too late and I had to do laundry and other things. Also, I hadn't been feeling well since I had returned from Venice, so it felt good to relax a little. Luckily I made a full recovery by Thursday, because thats when I set off for London.
Let me tell you some things about Ciampino airport, and Ryanair. They don't communicate. My flight left at 6 am on Thursday morning, and Ryanair opens its ticket counters two hours before any scheduled flight, so logically I should have been able to get in at 4am. I, be the nervous traveler that I am, left my dorm in a cab at 3 am because I wasn't sure how long it would take. I ended up being locked out of the airport for an hour because Ciampino didn't open until 430. I waited a lot that day.
The flight to Stansted was only 3 hours, and I slept through all of it. I'm getting good at sleeping on planes. I got into London around 8 (time difference) and hopped on a train to get into the city. Once I got off the train, I had to figure out the tube to get to my hostel. It wasn't that hard, compared to New York, but it cost 4 pounds! That was about $6.50 when I was there. I pay 2 in New York, and one euro in Rome. It kind of prepared me for London to be expensive.
I got to my hostel all right after wandering around Chelsea for awhile (I didn't read the directions correctly) and dropped my bags off. It was about 10 at that point, and they wouldn't let me check in until 2, so I sat in a cafe for an hour and then got bored and started walking around. One of the reasons I went to London was to see my friend from Wagner and he was supposed to meet me around noon, when he got out of class, which is also why I traveled alone. Chelsea and Kensington are very pretty, but a lot like the upper east side. I felt very safe, even when I got lost (got distracted by a side street) but I liked wandering around by myself. I haven't done that much in Rome because I'm always with someone. London is almost as confusing as Rome to navigate though, because I had to use a bus map to find my way back to where I was supposed to meet my friend Bryan.
Thursday we didn't really do much, but he took me to the Thames and we saw the London Eye. I had left my camera in my bags at the hostel, so I went to check in around two, and by the time we got moving again after eating lunch it was starting to get dark. So we went to Picadilly circus and Soho and an indoor market that I forget the name of. It felt a lot like New York, but older, obviously. We rode the double decker buses.
Friday we did more sightseeing. We wanted to go into the Tower of London, but it cost 20 pounds to get in and there was a really long line so we just looked at the outside. It wasn't what I thought it would be because the actual tower is pretty small. It looks like a castle. After the tower we walked across the London bridge. I liked it, but I wished we could have gone up into the actual building part of it. We took a bus to the Globe theater but didn't go in because it was closed, so we ate fish and chips and mushy peas instead. It was great.
We went to Hyde park after that because I wanted to see the fall leaves. It was beautiful and made me miss New York a little. Central Park is lot better, but it was nice to have some serenity for a few minutes. I made Bryan chase geese.
Saturday was my last day because I left very very early Sunday morning. It rained all day, but we stuck it out to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. Of course we kept all the big stuff for the day it rained, but it worked out alright. At the end of the day we went on the London Eye. None of my pictures turned out because of the rain, but it was very very cool.
Overall I really liked London. I want to go back when the weather is nicer (if it ever is) and actually go in some of the places I saw. There's a possibility that I could end up there for gradschool, and I'm completely okay with that.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Venice
This month starts my crazy travel schedule. I returned from London today, and I leave for Budapest on Thursday night. The following Friday I'm going to Madrid, and the weekend after is Barcelona. I really hope I can stay healthy, so I'm loading up on vitamins right now. I wish I had a blender so I could make smoothies. They might not actually help my immune system, but Jamba Juice has made me think they do.
To finish up with Mom's visit, I need to tell you about Venice. My tendencies to motion sickness made Venice less enjoyable than Florence for me. We stayed on Giudecca, which is a little island right across from San Marco square so we had to take the Vaporetto to get to the main islands, and when the ocean was choppy it took me a little while to feel right. Other than that, I really liked Venice. The atmosphere is very different than any other Italian city I've been in. I feel that if I go back with a boyfriend or husband I'll have a much better appreciation. It's mysterious and romantic. I understand why so many artists are inspired because the light is almost magical and there are so many places to get lost or sit and watch everyone walk by. The best example I can give of this is when mom and I were walking through St Marks after dinner and we heard bands playing, almost competing with one another. While we were listening, the brightest moon I've ever seen came through the clouds over the basilica. It made the clouds glow while the rest of the sky was either a dark dark navy or black. It was pretty incredible.
The first day mom and I wandered around, going through tiny little alleyways just to see what we could stumble on to. Once we ended up on a wooden dock overlooking the grand canal. we could see the gondola drivers passing by and talking with one another. Venice was much less structured than the other places we went because we didn't know what we wanted to do. One day we went to Murano and watched someone blow a glass horse in less than five minutes, and also went to the glass museum (sort of cool, mostly boring). We kind of had our head in the clouds because it was the end of the trip and we were content to not have an agenda.
On our last full day we went into the Doge's palace. It was very ornate and impressive. It was interesting to hear how different the Venetian government was in comparison to Rome, and the role of the Doge. Mom thinks I'm going to come out of this trip as a historian.
We ate a lot of seafood in Venice, which was very nice. I tried one of their specialties, which is squid and pasta in a squid ink sauce. It was odd, but very good. I didn't think I would like it. I uploaded all my pictures into my photobucket account, which has a link on the side of this blog. It's kind of hard to put the actual pictures in the blog, so I've tried to label them the best that I can.
Since I have a midterm tomorrow I can't write about everything that happened recently, but I'll make bullet points so that I don't forget anything (and I'll expand later)
-San Castillo catacombs
-Capitolini museum
-Via Appia Antica
-Roma/Sampadoria game (torrential downpour)
-Chinese food (flooded metro)
-London
-crappy night transportation
To finish up with Mom's visit, I need to tell you about Venice. My tendencies to motion sickness made Venice less enjoyable than Florence for me. We stayed on Giudecca, which is a little island right across from San Marco square so we had to take the Vaporetto to get to the main islands, and when the ocean was choppy it took me a little while to feel right. Other than that, I really liked Venice. The atmosphere is very different than any other Italian city I've been in. I feel that if I go back with a boyfriend or husband I'll have a much better appreciation. It's mysterious and romantic. I understand why so many artists are inspired because the light is almost magical and there are so many places to get lost or sit and watch everyone walk by. The best example I can give of this is when mom and I were walking through St Marks after dinner and we heard bands playing, almost competing with one another. While we were listening, the brightest moon I've ever seen came through the clouds over the basilica. It made the clouds glow while the rest of the sky was either a dark dark navy or black. It was pretty incredible.
The first day mom and I wandered around, going through tiny little alleyways just to see what we could stumble on to. Once we ended up on a wooden dock overlooking the grand canal. we could see the gondola drivers passing by and talking with one another. Venice was much less structured than the other places we went because we didn't know what we wanted to do. One day we went to Murano and watched someone blow a glass horse in less than five minutes, and also went to the glass museum (sort of cool, mostly boring). We kind of had our head in the clouds because it was the end of the trip and we were content to not have an agenda.
On our last full day we went into the Doge's palace. It was very ornate and impressive. It was interesting to hear how different the Venetian government was in comparison to Rome, and the role of the Doge. Mom thinks I'm going to come out of this trip as a historian.
We ate a lot of seafood in Venice, which was very nice. I tried one of their specialties, which is squid and pasta in a squid ink sauce. It was odd, but very good. I didn't think I would like it. I uploaded all my pictures into my photobucket account, which has a link on the side of this blog. It's kind of hard to put the actual pictures in the blog, so I've tried to label them the best that I can.
Since I have a midterm tomorrow I can't write about everything that happened recently, but I'll make bullet points so that I don't forget anything (and I'll expand later)
-San Castillo catacombs
-Capitolini museum
-Via Appia Antica
-Roma/Sampadoria game (torrential downpour)
-Chinese food (flooded metro)
-London
-crappy night transportation
Monday, October 27, 2008
Pams come to Italy
I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with this, but I've been fighting illness for about three weeks now, and I think I've finally kicked it. When I'm sick I find it difficult to make time for the necessities (like waking up, and leaving the room), let alone writing a journal entry. Also, I've been busy. Not that I need to make excuses, but it makes me feel better to know that I have sort of legitimate reasons. Anyway.
Mom and Pam were here last week, which is why I was busy. They arrived on the 7th, which was during my midterms, so in between tests and studying I was showing them around Rome. It was a lot of fun, but very different actually living the tourist life here. As a student I have been to a lot of touristy places and done a few tours, but I usually do it with other students who also live here. The first day they were completely jet-lagged and tired so I took them to Trevi, Spanish Steps, and my school, and then to the best gelato (Old Bridge) I've found so far. I kind of pushed them to do more than they should have, but it was fun.
The next day I had a midterm until 6, so I only met them for dinner. We went to a restaurant that I'd been eyeing since I got here, and it was a great meal (Taberna de Grachi). We had annoying Americans sitting next to us, who, when they found out I spoke some Italian, enlisted my help in translating the waiter's Italian accented-English. I was kind of annoyed at them, but at the end of the meal the most annoying guy handed me a card and said, "You don't look like the kind of girl that would need this, but I'll give it to you anyway". It was a get of jail free card from the Chicago Police Department. Score.
Thursday was the first day that I had mostly free. We went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. I had saved this for when they were coming, so it was really cool for me too. Word of advice---nothing in the Vatican is labeled, so if you ever go, get an audio guide. I would look at a statue and be like...I know what that is but I have no idea why. The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but once I started looking I began to appreciate why it's the Pope's chapel. Every surface of the chapel is covered in pictures and painted tapestries and they're all perfectly proportioned. It's pretty incredible.
Friday was our last day in Rome, so mom and I did a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was also very cool. They had just opened up a part of Augustus' home that had been pretty well preserved--it still had frescoes on the walls and the paint was still bright. I was very excited about that.
Saturday we went to Florence by train. This was my second trip, but I liked the city much better this time. I had more time, and I was able to see more. My favorite part was the Santa Croce church, which held the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. It was beautiful and full of history. I think I have more interest in the Renaissance than I knew. The facade looked a lot like the Duomo.
We also went to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which is above the city so you can see all of Florence. We went right before it rained so it was a bit cloudy, but the view was still great. We went to the Uffizi galleries, which were way more impressive than the Galleria Accademia (where David is) because they housed so much more art.
We also took a cooking class at the hotel we were staying at, which had about 8 rooms in total and was very cute but out of the way. The cooking class was fun because we made it fun--Mom and Pam bought chef hats for us at the Ponte Vecchio which made the chef laugh. She didn't speak English, so her daughter was translating. Once she found out I spoke some Italian, she directed most of the cooking lessons at me, and while I understood most of it, I had to ask for clarification a few times from the daughter. We took the class with a mother and daughter from Florida, who were interesting. We had a good time, and the food was delicious. We learned how to make Tuscan tiramisu. So good.
After Florence we went to Venice. More on that later, I need to sleep.
Mom and Pam were here last week, which is why I was busy. They arrived on the 7th, which was during my midterms, so in between tests and studying I was showing them around Rome. It was a lot of fun, but very different actually living the tourist life here. As a student I have been to a lot of touristy places and done a few tours, but I usually do it with other students who also live here. The first day they were completely jet-lagged and tired so I took them to Trevi, Spanish Steps, and my school, and then to the best gelato (Old Bridge) I've found so far. I kind of pushed them to do more than they should have, but it was fun.
The next day I had a midterm until 6, so I only met them for dinner. We went to a restaurant that I'd been eyeing since I got here, and it was a great meal (Taberna de Grachi). We had annoying Americans sitting next to us, who, when they found out I spoke some Italian, enlisted my help in translating the waiter's Italian accented-English. I was kind of annoyed at them, but at the end of the meal the most annoying guy handed me a card and said, "You don't look like the kind of girl that would need this, but I'll give it to you anyway". It was a get of jail free card from the Chicago Police Department. Score.
Thursday was the first day that I had mostly free. We went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. I had saved this for when they were coming, so it was really cool for me too. Word of advice---nothing in the Vatican is labeled, so if you ever go, get an audio guide. I would look at a statue and be like...I know what that is but I have no idea why. The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but once I started looking I began to appreciate why it's the Pope's chapel. Every surface of the chapel is covered in pictures and painted tapestries and they're all perfectly proportioned. It's pretty incredible.
Friday was our last day in Rome, so mom and I did a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was also very cool. They had just opened up a part of Augustus' home that had been pretty well preserved--it still had frescoes on the walls and the paint was still bright. I was very excited about that.
Saturday we went to Florence by train. This was my second trip, but I liked the city much better this time. I had more time, and I was able to see more. My favorite part was the Santa Croce church, which held the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. It was beautiful and full of history. I think I have more interest in the Renaissance than I knew. The facade looked a lot like the Duomo.
We also went to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which is above the city so you can see all of Florence. We went right before it rained so it was a bit cloudy, but the view was still great. We went to the Uffizi galleries, which were way more impressive than the Galleria Accademia (where David is) because they housed so much more art.
We also took a cooking class at the hotel we were staying at, which had about 8 rooms in total and was very cute but out of the way. The cooking class was fun because we made it fun--Mom and Pam bought chef hats for us at the Ponte Vecchio which made the chef laugh. She didn't speak English, so her daughter was translating. Once she found out I spoke some Italian, she directed most of the cooking lessons at me, and while I understood most of it, I had to ask for clarification a few times from the daughter. We took the class with a mother and daughter from Florida, who were interesting. We had a good time, and the food was delicious. We learned how to make Tuscan tiramisu. So good.
After Florence we went to Venice. More on that later, I need to sleep.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Pompei
My original plan for this past weekend was to go to Oktoberfest. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and EXPENSIVE housing, it wasn't possible. Now that I'm not going, I can tell the way that we talked about going: flying to Frankfurt, renting a car, and driving down to Munich on the autobahn in an automatic minivan. Once we got to Munich, we were going to sleep in tents until Sunday, when we would take an overnight train home (12 hours). I, of course, would not have been driving, but it would have been at lot of fun. Carlos (one of the students from UF) used to live in Berlin so he knows about driving in Germany, but that still doesn't make our plan any less ridiculous. There were about 8 of us trying to do this.
So instead of all that, I stayed in Rome. On Saturday I went to the Castel Sant'Angelo because it was raining and it was the closest museum to our dorms. It was pretty cool. They had an exhibit on Egypt's influence on Rome, which is pretty obvious once you get here. There are more obilisks in Rome than in Egypt because the emperors stole them all. Also, there are
temples to Egyptian gods and goddesses, particularly Isis. We call Castel Sant'Angel the Hadrian castle because most things we've studied here were built by Hadrian, like the Trajan forum and the Pantheon. Anyway, the Castle was cool. The bottom half was built to be a massoleum for Trajan, but got turned into a castle for the Popes later on. There is a bridge between the castle and the Vatican in case Vatican city ever gets attacked. We tried to get onto it, but (logically) they've got it blocked off. The view from the top of the Castle is great. Not exactly worth the 8.50 euro I paid to get in, but a good afternoon nontheless.
On Sunday I went to Pompei, which is about three hours south of Rome, near Napoli. We left Termini (the Rome train station) at 7:15 in the morning. The train was delayed for half an hour, we didn't get to explore Naples like we wanted, but in the end I think it was for the better. There were three Italian men on the train that started talking to us. One was creepy and old and missing teeth but the other two were cool. One was about our age from Milan, and the other was about my dad's age. The guy from Milan spoke a little English, so he translated what I couldn't. They told us not to speak English in Napoli or else the pickpockets swarm you. And to get the Margherita pizza, because its the best. Oh, and Napoli has the best pizza in the world. We ate pizza in the train station and it was good because the sauce was different, but I knew that if we'd gotten the chance to explore we could've had better. The pizza we had in Pompei was more like what I though Napoletano pizza would be like. The sauce was runny and there was no cheese and lots of garlic. I liked it better.
Pompei is beautiful. We went on a clear, sunny day and the view was perfect. The ruins span a huge area, which isn't
that surprising considering it was a city. There were a lot of pretty well conserved houses that still had frescoes on the walls. You could see Mt Vesuvius (in the picture) perfectly. Pompei must be an archeologist's dream because there is so much that is still there, unaltered by time (only lava and ash). What I liked is that you got a real sense of what a Roman town looked like before it was dominated and changed by Christianity. Everything in Rome has been "popeified" because of the sharp change in religion, and while the churches are beautiful, the old ruins were scavenged for the marble and bronze it took to make those churches beautiful.
It was nice to have the "Temple of Jove" instead of the "Church that used to be the Temple of Jove." I'm glad I went.
Tomorrow my mom and her friend Pam are arriving in Rome. By chance, my art class is meeting pretty near where their hotel is, so I'm going straight from class, around noon, to meet them. I'm excited to show them around. We're going to Florence on Friday, making a side trip to Parma at some point (Monday?) and then going to Venice. I'm excited!
ps. I put a link to my pictures on the blog. They're on the side where it says, "pictures for Italy"
So instead of all that, I stayed in Rome. On Saturday I went to the Castel Sant'Angelo because it was raining and it was the closest museum to our dorms. It was pretty cool. They had an exhibit on Egypt's influence on Rome, which is pretty obvious once you get here. There are more obilisks in Rome than in Egypt because the emperors stole them all. Also, there are
temples to Egyptian gods and goddesses, particularly Isis. We call Castel Sant'Angel the Hadrian castle because most things we've studied here were built by Hadrian, like the Trajan forum and the Pantheon. Anyway, the Castle was cool. The bottom half was built to be a massoleum for Trajan, but got turned into a castle for the Popes later on. There is a bridge between the castle and the Vatican in case Vatican city ever gets attacked. We tried to get onto it, but (logically) they've got it blocked off. The view from the top of the Castle is great. Not exactly worth the 8.50 euro I paid to get in, but a good afternoon nontheless.On Sunday I went to Pompei, which is about three hours south of Rome, near Napoli. We left Termini (the Rome train station) at 7:15 in the morning. The train was delayed for half an hour, we didn't get to explore Naples like we wanted, but in the end I think it was for the better. There were three Italian men on the train that started talking to us. One was creepy and old and missing teeth but the other two were cool. One was about our age from Milan, and the other was about my dad's age. The guy from Milan spoke a little English, so he translated what I couldn't. They told us not to speak English in Napoli or else the pickpockets swarm you. And to get the Margherita pizza, because its the best. Oh, and Napoli has the best pizza in the world. We ate pizza in the train station and it was good because the sauce was different, but I knew that if we'd gotten the chance to explore we could've had better. The pizza we had in Pompei was more like what I though Napoletano pizza would be like. The sauce was runny and there was no cheese and lots of garlic. I liked it better.
Pompei is beautiful. We went on a clear, sunny day and the view was perfect. The ruins span a huge area, which isn't
that surprising considering it was a city. There were a lot of pretty well conserved houses that still had frescoes on the walls. You could see Mt Vesuvius (in the picture) perfectly. Pompei must be an archeologist's dream because there is so much that is still there, unaltered by time (only lava and ash). What I liked is that you got a real sense of what a Roman town looked like before it was dominated and changed by Christianity. Everything in Rome has been "popeified" because of the sharp change in religion, and while the churches are beautiful, the old ruins were scavenged for the marble and bronze it took to make those churches beautiful.It was nice to have the "Temple of Jove" instead of the "Church that used to be the Temple of Jove." I'm glad I went.
Tomorrow my mom and her friend Pam are arriving in Rome. By chance, my art class is meeting pretty near where their hotel is, so I'm going straight from class, around noon, to meet them. I'm excited to show them around. We're going to Florence on Friday, making a side trip to Parma at some point (Monday?) and then going to Venice. I'm excited!
ps. I put a link to my pictures on the blog. They're on the side where it says, "pictures for Italy"
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Cinque Terre
Last weekend I went somewhere I had never heard of because even though I'm an Italian minor, I know nothing about Italian geography. The place is called Cinque Terre (five "lands" or cities) and it consists of five towns along the Italian Riviera. For my own reference, they're called Riomaggiore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa. One of the girls from UF planned the whole trip, arranged the hostel and train tickets, so all I had to do was hand over money, which was very nice. We took the Intercity train, which is the middle of the road train in terms of price. It was okay...the seats were grouped into six seats in a compartment, very Harry Potter-esque, except second class. We left Termini at 8:30 in the morning, which is far too early to be on a train. Anyway, the ride was beautiful. Most of it was along the water and we could see all the small towns along the way.
Once we got to Riomaggiore, we hiked up an enormous hill to get to our hostel, which wasn't really a hostel but an apartment overlooking the water. The trek was worth it once you looked outside on the balcony. There were eight of us all together in the apartment, and only one bathroom. That was the singular problem we had.
By the time we got settled, it was about 3pm, so we went down to the beach and played in the ocean. The Mediterranean is so salty! It burned a little when we first got in. There also wasn't really a beach at Riomaggiore, just a lot of rocks. It reminded me more of an East coast 'shore' instead of like home. The water was so clear though, you could see right down to the bottom. It looked a lot more shallow than it actually was. I tried to touch the bottom but couldn't because of how deep it was.
Before dinner we went up to a cliff and watched the sunset. The main attraction in Cinque Terre is the hiking trails, so we weren't really sure what to do the first night. We ended up just wandering around and having a good time.
After that we went to dinner at a restaurant and had amazing seafood and white wine (two things Cinque Terre are famous for). My mussels still had barnacles on the shells. It was incredible. We went to bed at 10 that first night because we'd all gotten up so early that morning. It was also because everyone was afraid of the 8 mile hike we were about to go on the next morning.
I bought amazing fresh fruit for breakfast and some foccacia that was soaked in olive oil. I ate very well this weekend, if you couldn't tell.
Once we got to Riomaggiore, we hiked up an enormous hill to get to our hostel, which wasn't really a hostel but an apartment overlooking the water. The trek was worth it once you looked outside on the balcony. There were eight of us all together in the apartment, and only one bathroom. That was the singular problem we had.
By the time we got settled, it was about 3pm, so we went down to the beach and played in the ocean. The Mediterranean is so salty! It burned a little when we first got in. There also wasn't really a beach at Riomaggiore, just a lot of rocks. It reminded me more of an East coast 'shore' instead of like home. The water was so clear though, you could see right down to the bottom. It looked a lot more shallow than it actually was. I tried to touch the bottom but couldn't because of how deep it was.
Before dinner we went up to a cliff and watched the sunset. The main attraction in Cinque Terre is the hiking trails, so we weren't really sure what to do the first night. We ended up just wandering around and having a good time.
After that we went to dinner at a restaurant and had amazing seafood and white wine (two things Cinque Terre are famous for). My mussels still had barnacles on the shells. It was incredible. We went to bed at 10 that first night because we'd all gotten up so early that morning. It was also because everyone was afraid of the 8 mile hike we were about to go on the next morning.
I bought amazing fresh fruit for breakfast and some foccacia that was soaked in olive oil. I ate very well this weekend, if you couldn't tell.
The hike started out nice and and beautiful. The first part of the trail that begins in Riomaggiore is called "Via dell'Amore" which means Lovers Lane because it is a stroll. Easy. After Manorola it got a little harder. There was a sign once you reached Corniglia congratulating you on climbing so many stairs. 
We stopped in each town because we needed an excuse to rest and to refuel on water. In Corniglia we got foccacia covered in pesto (another Cinque Terre specialty). There was something strange about Corniglia though--when we were exploring the town we noticed an "enoteca" (liquor store) that had beer/wine bottles with pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin on them. It was very strange, and a little upsetting. I didn't get the full story, but I didn't really ask either.
At Vernazza we rested by sunbathing on huge rocks. I think I fell alseep for a l
ittle while because I was exhausted. The best part is, the worst of the climbing was between Vernazza and Monterossa. It was literally stairs for half an hour. I have calves of steel now. It was around five in the afternoon when we got to Monterossa, and we were all exhausted. That was the most intense and beautiful hike I've ever been on. We started singing Beatles songs on the way down (one of the girls is obsessed, and one of the boys loves to teach music) and gained a chorus with a bunch of Americans. I had someone politely ask me if we could "change the cd" and it made me laugh. We didn't.
The next day we checked out of the hostel and wandered around Monterossa until our train left. We had pesto pizza (amazing) and I split this huge icecream coffee float with Fiona. Like I said, I ate well. We did all our touristy shopping that morning because we were on our way out. I got some pesto to bring home. Our plan all along had been to take the train to Pisa on the way home, take some pictures, and then contin
ue on the way to Rome. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station in Monterossa, there weren't any ticket people that spoke English. I was the only one in the group with any Italian at all, so I had to explain to the lady exactly what we wanted to do. Amazingly enough, we understood each other. There was a lot of gesturing, but with her basic English and my Italian we got it done. I was pretty proud. I'm definitely getting better.
Pisa is dirty, and smelly, and full of young Italian hooligans. I don't recommend it. We got off the train, ran to the tower, took pictures, and then ran back. I didn't want to stay longer. The tower is pretty cool though. It leans.
It was around this time that I realized I was getting sick. I lost my voice completely. I'm still kind of congested, but I feel a lot better now. I guess I just wasn't used to nature after spending so much time in a big city. Tomorrow I'm going to Pompei for the day, and possibly stopping in Napoli (although I doubt it--they were rioting last week) for a pizza. And then Monday, my mom and Pam are coming! I'm really excited to show them around my new home. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't want to leave. I've already been here a month and I only have two and a half more. It's going by so fast!
We stopped in each town because we needed an excuse to rest and to refuel on water. In Corniglia we got foccacia covered in pesto (another Cinque Terre specialty). There was something strange about Corniglia though--when we were exploring the town we noticed an "enoteca" (liquor store) that had beer/wine bottles with pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin on them. It was very strange, and a little upsetting. I didn't get the full story, but I didn't really ask either.At Vernazza we rested by sunbathing on huge rocks. I think I fell alseep for a l
ittle while because I was exhausted. The best part is, the worst of the climbing was between Vernazza and Monterossa. It was literally stairs for half an hour. I have calves of steel now. It was around five in the afternoon when we got to Monterossa, and we were all exhausted. That was the most intense and beautiful hike I've ever been on. We started singing Beatles songs on the way down (one of the girls is obsessed, and one of the boys loves to teach music) and gained a chorus with a bunch of Americans. I had someone politely ask me if we could "change the cd" and it made me laugh. We didn't.The next day we checked out of the hostel and wandered around Monterossa until our train left. We had pesto pizza (amazing) and I split this huge icecream coffee float with Fiona. Like I said, I ate well. We did all our touristy shopping that morning because we were on our way out. I got some pesto to bring home. Our plan all along had been to take the train to Pisa on the way home, take some pictures, and then contin
ue on the way to Rome. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station in Monterossa, there weren't any ticket people that spoke English. I was the only one in the group with any Italian at all, so I had to explain to the lady exactly what we wanted to do. Amazingly enough, we understood each other. There was a lot of gesturing, but with her basic English and my Italian we got it done. I was pretty proud. I'm definitely getting better.Pisa is dirty, and smelly, and full of young Italian hooligans. I don't recommend it. We got off the train, ran to the tower, took pictures, and then ran back. I didn't want to stay longer. The tower is pretty cool though. It leans.
It was around this time that I realized I was getting sick. I lost my voice completely. I'm still kind of congested, but I feel a lot better now. I guess I just wasn't used to nature after spending so much time in a big city. Tomorrow I'm going to Pompei for the day, and possibly stopping in Napoli (although I doubt it--they were rioting last week) for a pizza. And then Monday, my mom and Pam are coming! I'm really excited to show them around my new home. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't want to leave. I've already been here a month and I only have two and a half more. It's going by so fast!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Florence and Tivoli
The first week that I was here, I had so much spare time because I didn't know what to do, but now that everyone is settled and classes have begun, I have almost no free time except weekends, if I'm not traveling. Of course, as soon as I get steady internet I have no time to use it. But that's a side note because I need to finish up my Florence story.
There were three of us that traveled together: Kelsey, Sheeba, and myself. We tried calling the other people that were there (about half the program) but no one was answering, so we just decided to do what we wanted and try to meet up later. As we're circling the Duomo, we run into some people from St. Johns. Apparently, Florence is tiny, because we ran into the rest of the St Johns people about half an hour later. We walked everywhere and saw
the Duomo (I gaped for a good ten minutes--its huge, and beautiful), the Ponte Vecchio, the river Arno, some huge piazza that had a carousel, the leather market (bought a little wristbag and I love it), and tons of beautiful statues and buildings. What I like about Florence in comparison to Rome is that everything is medieval. Rome has modern parts (like where I live) and then the ancient, but Florence is the same architecture everywhere (at least where I went). The food was incredible, and inexpensive. I'm excited to go back when my mom gets here and do the things I didn't get to because I didn't have enough time.My first hostel experience was okay. There was a latino dance party going on in the basement, which was actually just someone playing sort of spanishy-crappy music and a bunch of people in their mid twenties dancing like idiots. Europeans (especially the traveling ones) do not know how to dance. They're so awkward. It made it hilarious to watch. One of my friends here (Eyal) is from Venezeula and actually knows how to dance (he was the one that wanted to go to the party), so we meringued a little bit around everyone else. I didn't know what I was doing, but it was hard to tell because he was so good. It was so much fun.
The next day we went to the Gallera Accademia and waited in line for an hour in the rain to see the statue of David. It turned out to be worth it because David is amazing. He's huge, and you feel like he's going to walk away. The rest of the statues in the museum were really cool too. We spent about an hour in there because it was so small and then peaced out. It was cold and raining and we were not prepared for bad weather. I almost bought a sweatshirt. We had to take a Eurostar back even though we weren't planning on it because there was a train strike on the regionale. Some of our friends had just planned on coming up for the day on Friday but couldn't go back because of the strike, so instead of getting a hotel in Florence, or staying with some of us in a hostel, they took a bus to Pisa and stayed there, took pictures in the morning, and then caught a train the next day. We think they were delirious. Anyway, I paid about thirty more Euro than I wanted, but I got home and took a shower and it was wonderful. It was a good starter trip because I learned all the things I shouldn't do. And that I need to check the weather before I go anywhere.
I guess I still haven't learned my lesson because I went to Tivoli today even though I had an idea that it would rain. Tivoli is a small town about half way between Rome and Naples. It's beautiful, but hard to manage in the rain. I wasn't prepared, and neither were most of the people I was traveling with. We went to this park that was absolutely beautiful, but treacherous to navigate in the rain. The stairs were impossible and some of them were marble and it was so dangerous. I guess I need to give you some background about how I got to Tivoli in the first place.
It was a school sponsored trip. A bunch of us signed up because we didn't have plans for this weekend and it was only supposed to cost 6 Euro roundtrip. Our Student Activities planner person is a very enthusiastic Italian man named Domenico and he came with us. He's from Calabria, which is southern Italy, but he's lived in Rome for awhile.
He's hilarious because he although he speaks good English, its not perfect, and hes always trying to get us to speak Italian to him. Anyway, when we got to the train station he realized we had about ten minutes to buy our tickets, get them validated, and then get to the tracks. We ran through the station, which was up and down marble stairs and through corridors, and someone started singing Eye of the Tiger. It was great and exhausting. We made it, barely, and got situated. Domenico had been to Tivoli before, but he wasn't that familiar with it. He got us to the park and we all took a bunch of pictures, but by the time we were ready to go it was pouring and no one wanted to go to the Gregorian villa, which was the whole reason to for going to Tivoli in the first place.We ended up eating lunch and going home because everyone was cold and wet and the villa was completely outside. All in all, it was a lot of fun because we were all in the same conditions together. It's still raining right now, so I think we're doing a movie night with some weird looking hot chocolate that I picked up at the supermarket. Tomorrow I'm going to an American bar to watch a University of Florida game because everyone here from UF actually has school spirit, unlike us Wagner kids who could care less about our football team. It will be fun. I might also try to go to the catacombs outside of the Vatican, but I have to convince someone to come with me. It's supposed to be creepy.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
It's Sunday, everything except some cafes/supermarkets are closed, and its about to rain. Therefore, I am in the computer lab. I'm pretty sure my laptop has a virus, so I'm going to make an appointment with the IT person on campus and hash out this computer thing. I want to be able to skype.
My half weekend in Florence was great, but I'm glad it was only for two days. I was ready to come home at the end of it, mostly because I had no shower options at the hostel we stayed in. We took the Eurostar in, which I'm grateful for because my first Italian train experience was very nice and comfortable. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Florence from Rome on the Eurostar, and we got there around 11am on Friday. I'm glad it was a short trip for the following reasons:
1. All of us forgot phone chargers, and all our phones died.
2. No one brought shower stuff.
3. We forgot to look up EVERYTHING. Including where our hostel was.
4. It rained.
We managed to find the hostel without too many problems, had lunch at a restaurant by the train station that was delicious. I refused to eat a panino in Florence, only pasta. It was a good decision on my part, because I had the best meals. The wine! The wine we had at dinner was the best so far. I'm getting ahead of myself. The hostel was nice, for a hostel. It was clean, had a pool and a continental breakfast. It was close to the train station and the Duomo. It worked out very nicely. I was with two other girls (Kelsey and Sheeba) from St Johns and there were two guys staying in the same hostel (Ben and Eyal) so I felt completely safe, especially since the boys were on the same floor as us.
TBC...(Grocery run)
My half weekend in Florence was great, but I'm glad it was only for two days. I was ready to come home at the end of it, mostly because I had no shower options at the hostel we stayed in. We took the Eurostar in, which I'm grateful for because my first Italian train experience was very nice and comfortable. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Florence from Rome on the Eurostar, and we got there around 11am on Friday. I'm glad it was a short trip for the following reasons:
1. All of us forgot phone chargers, and all our phones died.
2. No one brought shower stuff.
3. We forgot to look up EVERYTHING. Including where our hostel was.
4. It rained.
We managed to find the hostel without too many problems, had lunch at a restaurant by the train station that was delicious. I refused to eat a panino in Florence, only pasta. It was a good decision on my part, because I had the best meals. The wine! The wine we had at dinner was the best so far. I'm getting ahead of myself. The hostel was nice, for a hostel. It was clean, had a pool and a continental breakfast. It was close to the train station and the Duomo. It worked out very nicely. I was with two other girls (Kelsey and Sheeba) from St Johns and there were two guys staying in the same hostel (Ben and Eyal) so I felt completely safe, especially since the boys were on the same floor as us.
TBC...(Grocery run)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
To expand...
My first weekend in Rome was not all that I hoped for. The airport was frustrating and unairconditioned, which led to a lot of smelly tourists. I couldn't figure out how to work a payphone (still not sure I could) and didn't have any other way of contacting the outside world. Luckily when I was still fumbling with the documents I had someone noticed the bright red St. Johns folder I had and came up to me. A whole group of St Johns kids were gathered on the floor of the airport waiting for the shuttle to come. I was the only Wagner kid, so I didn't recognize anyone. The shuttle was late coming to get us, so everyone thought they forgot or just didn't see us. Not so: turns out, everyone is late in Italy. Lesson one.
The whole first weekend was not good. I got sick from something and spent most of my time in bed or in the bathroom. I did get a chance to walk around a bit before that though, and saw some of the sights. Rome is beautiful, and complex. And very, very, hot.
Monday was better, and class was fine. My classes here are okay, not spectacular. I've only had one or two of each though, so we'll see as the semester wears on. Everyday after class I have a lot of spare time, so last week I napped through my afternoon, along with the rest of Italy. They follow the siesta tradition, or "pausa" which means a lot of stores close between one and four pm. Sometimes its inconvenient, but I understand. If I could get away with not working for three hours a day, I would too.
Tuesday I became myself again and explored around the Piazza della Repubblica, which is a big building that has a history I don't know about, like most of Rome. It's pretty, and there are a lot of shops. I'm on a never-ending quest for an Italian book that I'm not sure exists. My professor claims to have one, and demands that we do too, except no one has found it yet. I've checked two cities so far. That was my first experience with the Metro, which probably has about twenty stops total, between the two lines. It's only worth it if you're going more than three stops away, because they're so close together that you could walk between stops in five-ten minutes. The bus systems is supposed to be more comprehensive, but I haven't braved that yet. I'm still walking most places (which means I have developed leather feet. It took a week of pain, but I think I'm golden now).
My school is about a ten minute walk from the Spanish steps, which are cool but not my favorite part of Rome yet. The Trevi fountain beats that because its huge and intricate and beautiful. I have pictures, but as my laptop is still out of commission I'm in a computer lab and unable to upload.
The weather was unbearably hot last week. I would try to start out the day in pants but I'd change to my only pair of shorts halfway through the day. I really need to do laundry. It's finally cooling down (wearing pants! woo!) but only because it rained.
I forgot to mention my dorms. They're pretty cool, for dorms. They're in the same building as everything else, which means I can roll out of bed and into class in less than five minutes. They're up the tallest staircase I've ever seen. That staircase rules my life. Most decisions in the morning are made around how many trips up the stairs I'm willing to make that day. The elevators don't work here yet, like the WiFi. They have made us no promises on when they will function, which makes me think their ballpark is next spring. My room is huge, and has an archway. It's actually kind of awkward, but I like it. Everyone in my program lives on the same floor, which makes it easy to plan trips and dinner. The first couple nights were hard because all 30 of us would try to go out together. I heard someone say, "We need to start getting cliquey. This is ridiculous." We have now, and everyone has kind of found a group of people. I really like the people from the University of Florida. We all went to Florence this weekend.
I'll have more on that because it was insane, but I'm going to look up flights to Barcelona and then go the Festival of White Lights thats happening in Rome tonight. I'm not sure what its about, but it should be fun.
The whole first weekend was not good. I got sick from something and spent most of my time in bed or in the bathroom. I did get a chance to walk around a bit before that though, and saw some of the sights. Rome is beautiful, and complex. And very, very, hot.
Monday was better, and class was fine. My classes here are okay, not spectacular. I've only had one or two of each though, so we'll see as the semester wears on. Everyday after class I have a lot of spare time, so last week I napped through my afternoon, along with the rest of Italy. They follow the siesta tradition, or "pausa" which means a lot of stores close between one and four pm. Sometimes its inconvenient, but I understand. If I could get away with not working for three hours a day, I would too.
Tuesday I became myself again and explored around the Piazza della Repubblica, which is a big building that has a history I don't know about, like most of Rome. It's pretty, and there are a lot of shops. I'm on a never-ending quest for an Italian book that I'm not sure exists. My professor claims to have one, and demands that we do too, except no one has found it yet. I've checked two cities so far. That was my first experience with the Metro, which probably has about twenty stops total, between the two lines. It's only worth it if you're going more than three stops away, because they're so close together that you could walk between stops in five-ten minutes. The bus systems is supposed to be more comprehensive, but I haven't braved that yet. I'm still walking most places (which means I have developed leather feet. It took a week of pain, but I think I'm golden now).
My school is about a ten minute walk from the Spanish steps, which are cool but not my favorite part of Rome yet. The Trevi fountain beats that because its huge and intricate and beautiful. I have pictures, but as my laptop is still out of commission I'm in a computer lab and unable to upload.
The weather was unbearably hot last week. I would try to start out the day in pants but I'd change to my only pair of shorts halfway through the day. I really need to do laundry. It's finally cooling down (wearing pants! woo!) but only because it rained.
I forgot to mention my dorms. They're pretty cool, for dorms. They're in the same building as everything else, which means I can roll out of bed and into class in less than five minutes. They're up the tallest staircase I've ever seen. That staircase rules my life. Most decisions in the morning are made around how many trips up the stairs I'm willing to make that day. The elevators don't work here yet, like the WiFi. They have made us no promises on when they will function, which makes me think their ballpark is next spring. My room is huge, and has an archway. It's actually kind of awkward, but I like it. Everyone in my program lives on the same floor, which makes it easy to plan trips and dinner. The first couple nights were hard because all 30 of us would try to go out together. I heard someone say, "We need to start getting cliquey. This is ridiculous." We have now, and everyone has kind of found a group of people. I really like the people from the University of Florida. We all went to Florence this weekend.
I'll have more on that because it was insane, but I'm going to look up flights to Barcelona and then go the Festival of White Lights thats happening in Rome tonight. I'm not sure what its about, but it should be fun.
Notes until I figure out my life
Bullet notes because I have five minutes and no internet on my laptop:
Rome smells like cheese.
Siesta means that I nap a lot because no stores are open between 1 and 4.
Classes are okay, except for Religions, in which I may blow my brains out (I don't care about metaphysics, I want to know about ritual).
There are a bajillion stairs between coffee and my dorm room, which means I haven't been getting as much as I want.
There is a very good gelato place across the street. We don't go out to bars, we go get gelato.
Everything takes longer in Italy, which means I may never get WiFi in my room, or a coin operated laundry machine, or an elevator.
There is history EVERYWHERE. And it's awesome.
Romans stole a lot of stuff from other people and pawned it off as their own.
The metro here is a joke. I figured it out by looking at a map once.
No one eats dinner til 8 or 9.
Lunch is huge.
Florence is awesome (way more on that when I have time)
Need caffiene, so more later.
Rome smells like cheese.
Siesta means that I nap a lot because no stores are open between 1 and 4.
Classes are okay, except for Religions, in which I may blow my brains out (I don't care about metaphysics, I want to know about ritual).
There are a bajillion stairs between coffee and my dorm room, which means I haven't been getting as much as I want.
There is a very good gelato place across the street. We don't go out to bars, we go get gelato.
Everything takes longer in Italy, which means I may never get WiFi in my room, or a coin operated laundry machine, or an elevator.
There is history EVERYWHERE. And it's awesome.
Romans stole a lot of stuff from other people and pawned it off as their own.
The metro here is a joke. I figured it out by looking at a map once.
No one eats dinner til 8 or 9.
Lunch is huge.
Florence is awesome (way more on that when I have time)
Need caffiene, so more later.
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