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.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)