Hi everyone! I know it's been a while, it's just been too nice here to be inside most of the time! But I've had a few more incredible adventures since I last posted. First, Amsterdam. The weekend after spring break me, Marie, and four of our friends went to Amsterdam! We had barely recovered from all the spring break travel, but we'd only heard great things so we were really excited.
Marie and I left Friday afternoon and flew into Eindhoven. Now we realized only a few days before we left why that flight was so cheap, and it's because Eindhoven is literally nowhere near Amsterdam. It is almost a 2 hour bus ride. And a fairly expensive one at that. So that was kind of a bummer, but now we know to double check these things (that was one of the first trips we booked). But we made it to our hostel which was really cool. It's pretty well known and popular, two of our friends actually couldn't even get rooms there. The only thing was we were in a 14 bed mixed dorm, the biggest one we've been in so far. It was interesting, but not horrible at all since honestly we were hardly ever there, and the beds were pretty comfortable. We arrived around dinner time and were starving. Our friends Emily and Alyssa (the ones who live right around the corner from Marie and I in Rome) got there a day before us so they'd already scoped everything out and they took us to get fries and falafel. They serve the fries on the street in these HUGE cones with this spicy mayo and let me tell you, it was pretty unreal. But honestly the best thing we ate was the falafel, which we had more than once. They put the falafel balls into pita pockets and then it's unlimited toppings from a salad bar essentially and then they have this garlic sauce that was unreal. Cheap street food, but seriously amazing. Then we walked around the city, which is absolutely beautiful with all the canals and architecture. We walked through the red light district on the way to our friends' hostel which was an experience. I think i was pretty convinced before I came there that such a thing couldn't possibly be real, much less quite normal.
The next day we woke up pretty early and went to the Anne Frank house. We met Chris Stephens there, a friend of mine from high school who also goes to Loyola and is studying abroad in Spain. We waited in line for probably around an hour in the freezing cold (side note, it is pretty cold there and most of us did not pack appropriately!) but it was completely worth it. The house is unfurnished for the most part but there are a lot of artifacts and pictures of the Frank family as well as the family helping them and the other family in hiding with them. You also get to go into the annex, behind the famous moving bookshelf into where they were actually hiding. What got me was the marks on the walls where they measured the height of Anne and her sister were still there. It was haunting. There were also videos interspersed throughout the house of friends and even one of the father. They had Anne Frank's original diary in the middle of one of the rooms which was also pretty cool and pages of it all around this one room. We spent most of the morning looking around the house, it was really amazing.
Afterwards, we walked around for a while looking for a place to eat and finally settled on a pub and got some great burgers, I think it honestly might have been my first since coming to Europe. Also, don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Europeans put mayo and cream cheese on absolutely everything. Very strange to us, but not always bad. Anyways, after lunch we headed over to the Heineken factory because we had gotten tickets for the Heineken experience, which according to everyone who goes abroad ever, is a must. And it was really really fun. Kind of cheesey, which we expected, but it wasn't super expensive or anything. Also they did teach you all about their beer and the process of it and everything and we did get to do a beer tasting. The whole thing lasted a lot longer than I would have expected but we were all having a great time. After the Heineken factory, we went to find the I Amsterdam sign, because if you didn't take pictures on the I Amsterdam sign, did you really even go? Just kidding (kind of). But it was fun and there were people climbing all over it, but we managed to get a few good shots. And of course me being as uncoordinated and unathletic as I am literally needed like three people to hoist me up these four feet letters. After this we went back to the Heineken factory because included in our ticket is a 25 minute free boat ride to the Heineken brand store to pick up our free glass WOO! free things. It was actually really cool though to be on the canal and see everything from there. We wandered around a little more after this, it was almost dinner time. The city is incredibly walkable, we didn't take public transportation anywhere. The one thing is though, bikes come out of NOWHERE. I almost got run down by like five bikes. I would say it would be cool to bike around there but I don't know if I could handle it! We were going to go out that night so we all went back to take a nap at our hostels but ended up sleeping through the night, if that gives you all any indication of the level of exhaustion. The next morning Marie and I trekked across the city to go to the Van Gogh museum, unfortunately the line was way too long and we weren't able to go or we'd miss our flight which was a bummer, but we got to walk all around the city because it was on the completely opposite side as our hostel.We walked along the canals and it was absolutely beautiful. It was such a cool city, and so different from anywhere we'd been. There were a lot more canals than I expected I think, I guess I thought it was just one running through the city, but they're everywhere, it's a little reminiscent of Venice in that way. The architecture was beautiful as well. Overall, one of the coolest cities we've been to and we all had a fantastic time.
And now for a complete change of pace, the bay of Naples! It's pretty crazy because I remember looking on the calendar they gave us at the beginning of the year and thinking this seemed so far away, to think that it just happened is unreal. It was a fantastic trip, absolutely on par with Tuscany. We met for the buses on Friday at 8 am and all drove down to Naples together, which is probably around a 3 and a half hour ride. Our first stop was the archeological museum in Naples itself with our art and architecture of ancient Rome professor who was our guide. It was a very cool museum, filled with artifacts from Pompeii. What's pretty amazing is that they used so many things we still use today, pots and pans, even colanders, they had jewelry and everything. And most of it is in really goof shape considering not only is it thousands of years old, but it survived a volcanic eruption. After this museum we got back on the bus and went further south to the town of Pompeii. We had a picnic lunch outside and then went into the ruins, again with our professor. It really is pretty incredible, apparently only 2/3 of it is actually excavated, and unfortunately there is no way to keep it very well preserved, but it still looks pretty good to me. According to our professor, however, the 1/3 of the city that is currently being excavated is in pristine condition, it looks like people just went out for a few hours. crazy! We went into some homes and shops and things. What struck me were the mosasics on the floor, mostly in tact still and absolutely gorgeous. There was even one that was a beware of dog sign! Our professor always says "there's nothing new under the sun". It was a very cool trip. That night we had dinner at our hotel (which was beautiful! we all got balconies overlooking the mediterranean) and then as a group walked into town. We went to karaoke with our program directors and had a blast! Such a great night.
The next day we caught the 9:50 am ferry to Capri! What a gorgeous place. We had the best day there. Our whole group of friends got two boats to take us all around the island. We brought some wine, laid out in the sun, and had the absolute best time. We all agreed it was on par with our day in Tuscany. We were all together and relaxed and just having so much fun. The boats stopped at one point to let us jump in! I almost didn't go, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity! And the water wasn't as cold as I expected. The Italians think it's freezing but in reality that's how cold the Atlantic is in the middle of the summer! The water was crystal clear and an unbelievable turquoise color. They stop about halfway around the island and give you the opportunity to climb out of the boats and into little rowboats so you can see the blue grotto, which is a famous cave where the water is an extraordinary color. you get into these rowboats and as you are going underneath the cave you have to lay down flat. Inside is unbelievable. Apparently it used to be the emperor Tiberius' personal swimming pool and it's connected to the imperial palace he built for himself on the island. We just wandered around the rest of the day after that, it was very relaxing we had lunch overlooking the water and just took it all in. It was truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.That night the school took us to dinner and this Italian musical which was pretty cheesey and we were all exhausted from the sun! I went home and sat on my balcony overlooking the ocean. A perfect end to a perfect day.
The next day they took us to another museum and a park and it was a beautiful day. We laid out in the sun for a while and some people (not me, obviously) kicked a ball around until it was time to get on the buses and head home. I still can't believe it's over! I can't say I feel great about only having a month left in Rome...it's pretty surreal being that I have looked forward to this my entire college career, and even before. After class the other day we had a picnic on top of villa Borghese in the gardens there. I maintain that I would never want to be anywhere else. I absolutely love this city and am so glad it worked out that I am here.
This weekend we decided to stay in Rome and check a few things off our list. We're traveling so much we barely have time to see things in our own city! On Friday we are planning on going to the vatican museums ( I haven't even seen the sistene chapel yet!!) and Saturday we are going to the catacombs.
Much more to come!
baci baci
Caroline
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Spring Break!
Three cities. Ten days. What a trip! Spring break was a whirlwind, and absolutely incredible! It came at the perfect time too. We all needed a break. We finished Italian (with an insanely hard final) for good the Friday before we left which was bittersweet for sure. While it was incredibly time consuming, but we all loved it and loved our teachers so much. But you can't beat 15 extra hours a week!
The next day (Saturday) we left early to catch our flight to Barcelona. This leg of the trip, everyone was going, all eight girls and the Catholic boys. We flew Ryanair for the first time (of many) which was an experience, though not as bad as I'd always heard. You are only allowed one carry on bag of a certain size so all of us girls were trying to fit ten days worth of hair products, makeup, and clothes into these little bags, and I'm proud to say no one had to check their bags.
We landed in Barcelona and it was perfect weather. High sixties and sunny and we were ready for spring break. We had to take a bus to the center of the city and our hostel was luckily about five minutes from where it dropped us off. This was also my very first experience with a hostel and I have to tell you, it's not horrible if you get a good one. Our hostel in Barcelona was the nicest I would say. Very clean and nice and in a great location. We were in an 8 bed mixed dorm, one bed was empty the whole time and there were five of my friends and two boys there who didn't really bother us (except one kid's feet smelled horrible). The room also had curtains on all the beds which was super nice. The hostel had big bathrooms on each floor one for showers and one for bathrooms separated for boys and girls which was nice. Downstairs was a bar and restaurant and common area.
We dropped off our stuff off at the hostel and went exploring. We walked down the main drag toward the water passing restaurants with a ton of people eating and drinking sangria outside, basking in the sun. We came across this huge market kind of down a side street, someone spotted it and we decided to check it out. Good thing we did! Apparently it's pretty famous. It's called La Boqueria and literally seemed to go on forever. The only thing I could kind of compare it to is the Chelsea markets in New York but bigger and more rustic. We wandered around there for a while taking it all in. They had mass amounts of fresh fruit, fruit juices, fish, candy, empanadas, you name it. After walking through here we were obviously getting a bit hungry. We walked further down towards the water and settled on a Tapas place to eat (and have our first Barcelona Sangria, naturally). After this we went back to the hostel and changed because two of our friends were staying with friends from home who are studying abroad in Barcelona, and lucky us, on the day we were arriving there was a beach party. Needless to say we all had a blast, and it was a perfect way to start off spring break.
Our next few days in Barcelona were fantastic. It's such a great city with a great energy. It's very relaxing there are people all over sitting in piazzas or on the beach just loving life. We went to Parc Guell which is this absolutely gorgeous park overlooking the city with tons of paths and little hidden playground for children and an incredible view. We wandered around there for a few hours. If I'm being honest, Barcelona was a lot of relaxing, but to be fair it was much needed. We saw Gaudi's house but did not go in (we're on a budget, gotta pick and choose these things), but we did go into La Sagrada Familia, this crazy basilica Gaudi designed that is actually still not completed yet! It is very modern but also stunning. The stain glass is unbelievable and everything that is done is incredibly deliberate. My favorite part of the whole thing was just a small detail I thought was really cool, around the four columns closest to the alter were these big circles made out of what looked like a stained glass kind of material but thicker and they had on them the names of the four gospel writers and their respective symbols (Matthew an angel, Mark a lion, Luke an ox, and John an eagle). I don't know why I thought that was so cool, maybe because honestly it didn't resemble any of the churches I'd ever seen which was so amazing in itself but then you're reminded of where you are again. The whole thing was absolutely incredible.
We did a lot of walking around and a lot of eating Paella (which was awesome). It was such a beautiful and fun city and a great trip. Our next destination was London! I was so excited for this, one because I was supposed to go when I was younger but ended up getting the stomach bug, two because anyone who knows me knows that I am a little bit obsessed with the royal family, and three because Michelle is there! We got to London reallyyy late at night, around 2 am and had to wake the guy up to check us in. This hostel was a bit more rustic but definitely had charm. The bottom was a really cool pub and the top a hostel. Marie and I were in a ten bed mixed with about half guys and half girls. It was interesting but honestly we were barely in our room. And these beds were crazy comfortable. The downside is that the bathrooms were TINY and there were not enough of them for everyone in the hostel so you almost always had to wait. But we got free breakfast AND discounts on the food downstairs at this hostel which was pretty awesome. They had peanut butter which is something of a novelty in Italy so we were psyched.
London was fantastic! Hopefully I can remember everything because we packed A LOT into just two days. We bought tube passes both days which helped alot in getting around. On the first day we got up early and went to Abbey Road to take the typical Beatles picture, obviously. It took quite a few tries because that is very much a busy street. In the end it still wasn't perfect but close enough! The wall outside the studio is cool too, covered in Beatles lyrics and people's names and things that have been written over the years. We also went to Buckingham palace the first day and saw the changing of the guards which was awesome! Probably the most British thing we could do. We saw big ben, parliament, and westminster abbey, but didn't go in. The thing about England is the pound...it's something like 1.70 US dollars which I'm not going to lie made me want to vomit a little bit when I realized it. Still it was pretty cool to see where Will and Kate got married. My favorites. Walking back from lunch I believe we came across a half price ticket booth and spontaneously bought tickets for Wicked! I grabbed a quick dinner with Michelle at this fantastic burger place she took me to and then we headed to the show. We were pretty far up but it was just as amazing as ever. And with British accents. I had a blast it was so fun.
The next day we walked by the tower of London, walked over Tower Bridge, which interestingly is not the London Bridge, walked over the Millennium Bridge (very cool by the way), and Marie and I toured the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe, because being an English major who will one day teach Shakespeare, I couldn't NOT do that. We went to Portobello Road in the afternoon which had lots of street vendors and that was really fun. We got fish and chips that were incredible! But really how can one mess up fish and chips I guess. After this I split off and met Michelle for tea at Harrods which was really fun and nice for the two of us. I think we thought it would be so much easier to meet up abroad, but the reality is our breaks don't match up and when you travel you're trying to pack so much in and you're exhausted. We got to catch up and also have some amazing tea and probably the best scones I've ever had. Well worth it.
The next day (Saturday) we left early to catch our flight to Barcelona. This leg of the trip, everyone was going, all eight girls and the Catholic boys. We flew Ryanair for the first time (of many) which was an experience, though not as bad as I'd always heard. You are only allowed one carry on bag of a certain size so all of us girls were trying to fit ten days worth of hair products, makeup, and clothes into these little bags, and I'm proud to say no one had to check their bags.
We landed in Barcelona and it was perfect weather. High sixties and sunny and we were ready for spring break. We had to take a bus to the center of the city and our hostel was luckily about five minutes from where it dropped us off. This was also my very first experience with a hostel and I have to tell you, it's not horrible if you get a good one. Our hostel in Barcelona was the nicest I would say. Very clean and nice and in a great location. We were in an 8 bed mixed dorm, one bed was empty the whole time and there were five of my friends and two boys there who didn't really bother us (except one kid's feet smelled horrible). The room also had curtains on all the beds which was super nice. The hostel had big bathrooms on each floor one for showers and one for bathrooms separated for boys and girls which was nice. Downstairs was a bar and restaurant and common area.
We dropped off our stuff off at the hostel and went exploring. We walked down the main drag toward the water passing restaurants with a ton of people eating and drinking sangria outside, basking in the sun. We came across this huge market kind of down a side street, someone spotted it and we decided to check it out. Good thing we did! Apparently it's pretty famous. It's called La Boqueria and literally seemed to go on forever. The only thing I could kind of compare it to is the Chelsea markets in New York but bigger and more rustic. We wandered around there for a while taking it all in. They had mass amounts of fresh fruit, fruit juices, fish, candy, empanadas, you name it. After walking through here we were obviously getting a bit hungry. We walked further down towards the water and settled on a Tapas place to eat (and have our first Barcelona Sangria, naturally). After this we went back to the hostel and changed because two of our friends were staying with friends from home who are studying abroad in Barcelona, and lucky us, on the day we were arriving there was a beach party. Needless to say we all had a blast, and it was a perfect way to start off spring break.
Our next few days in Barcelona were fantastic. It's such a great city with a great energy. It's very relaxing there are people all over sitting in piazzas or on the beach just loving life. We went to Parc Guell which is this absolutely gorgeous park overlooking the city with tons of paths and little hidden playground for children and an incredible view. We wandered around there for a few hours. If I'm being honest, Barcelona was a lot of relaxing, but to be fair it was much needed. We saw Gaudi's house but did not go in (we're on a budget, gotta pick and choose these things), but we did go into La Sagrada Familia, this crazy basilica Gaudi designed that is actually still not completed yet! It is very modern but also stunning. The stain glass is unbelievable and everything that is done is incredibly deliberate. My favorite part of the whole thing was just a small detail I thought was really cool, around the four columns closest to the alter were these big circles made out of what looked like a stained glass kind of material but thicker and they had on them the names of the four gospel writers and their respective symbols (Matthew an angel, Mark a lion, Luke an ox, and John an eagle). I don't know why I thought that was so cool, maybe because honestly it didn't resemble any of the churches I'd ever seen which was so amazing in itself but then you're reminded of where you are again. The whole thing was absolutely incredible.
We did a lot of walking around and a lot of eating Paella (which was awesome). It was such a beautiful and fun city and a great trip. Our next destination was London! I was so excited for this, one because I was supposed to go when I was younger but ended up getting the stomach bug, two because anyone who knows me knows that I am a little bit obsessed with the royal family, and three because Michelle is there! We got to London reallyyy late at night, around 2 am and had to wake the guy up to check us in. This hostel was a bit more rustic but definitely had charm. The bottom was a really cool pub and the top a hostel. Marie and I were in a ten bed mixed with about half guys and half girls. It was interesting but honestly we were barely in our room. And these beds were crazy comfortable. The downside is that the bathrooms were TINY and there were not enough of them for everyone in the hostel so you almost always had to wait. But we got free breakfast AND discounts on the food downstairs at this hostel which was pretty awesome. They had peanut butter which is something of a novelty in Italy so we were psyched.
London was fantastic! Hopefully I can remember everything because we packed A LOT into just two days. We bought tube passes both days which helped alot in getting around. On the first day we got up early and went to Abbey Road to take the typical Beatles picture, obviously. It took quite a few tries because that is very much a busy street. In the end it still wasn't perfect but close enough! The wall outside the studio is cool too, covered in Beatles lyrics and people's names and things that have been written over the years. We also went to Buckingham palace the first day and saw the changing of the guards which was awesome! Probably the most British thing we could do. We saw big ben, parliament, and westminster abbey, but didn't go in. The thing about England is the pound...it's something like 1.70 US dollars which I'm not going to lie made me want to vomit a little bit when I realized it. Still it was pretty cool to see where Will and Kate got married. My favorites. Walking back from lunch I believe we came across a half price ticket booth and spontaneously bought tickets for Wicked! I grabbed a quick dinner with Michelle at this fantastic burger place she took me to and then we headed to the show. We were pretty far up but it was just as amazing as ever. And with British accents. I had a blast it was so fun.
The next day we walked by the tower of London, walked over Tower Bridge, which interestingly is not the London Bridge, walked over the Millennium Bridge (very cool by the way), and Marie and I toured the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe, because being an English major who will one day teach Shakespeare, I couldn't NOT do that. We went to Portobello Road in the afternoon which had lots of street vendors and that was really fun. We got fish and chips that were incredible! But really how can one mess up fish and chips I guess. After this I split off and met Michelle for tea at Harrods which was really fun and nice for the two of us. I think we thought it would be so much easier to meet up abroad, but the reality is our breaks don't match up and when you travel you're trying to pack so much in and you're exhausted. We got to catch up and also have some amazing tea and probably the best scones I've ever had. Well worth it.
The next day one of our friends wanted to see the marble arch so we got up early and went to go see it. On our way past Buckingham Palace, however, I noticed there were four motorcycle escorts waiting just within the gates and a bunch of people waiting outside. Marie asked one of the policemen what was going on and he said the queen was about to leave! So obviously we waited and got to see the queen go by in her car!! Definitely the highlight for me.
We had to turn it around fast to get to the airport on time. Security in London was a lot more serious than we've been used to. I had a mini shampoo floating around somewhere in my bag so they had to search it and put it in a plastic bag. Then at the gate me and my friend had to REPACK our bags to make them fit into the size constraints for easy jet (which we will never be flying again). i was wearing about six layers. We almost missed our flight but everything turned out alright! Our original plan was to go to the Louvre that night because it was free from 6-9 but we were all to exhausted. We ended up going to a bar with our friends who were staying with a friend who was studying abroad in Paris. It was fun we ended up talking to some French guys around our age who were really nice and spoke pretty good Enligsh. I'm sad to say I've lost most of my french speaking abilities. I can understand almost everything which i was pleasantly surprised by, and I know individual words but literally cannot remember a single verb conjugation which makes putting together sentences difficult. When this boy we were talking to couldn't come up with a word though I was able to translate which was pretty good considering my last french class was senior year of high school.
The next day we had to pack everything in because it was our only day in paris. In retrospect we probably should have taken a day out of Barcelona but oh well! Our hostel in Paris was in an odd spot, kind of the chinatown of Paris, but it seemed to be very popular with locals. It was nice because it was four of us in a room and we got out own private bathroom which was awesome. Also ALL public transportation in Paris was FREE all weekend! That definitely came in handy because we used the metro for everything. We began the day with Notre Dame, which I have to say is still one of my favorite churches in Europe. Plus it has this beautiful statue of Jeanne D'arc I love. Then we went to the Louvre where we got in free with our Italian visa and student ID (because technically we are European students). We pretty much saw the Mona Lisa and a few other paintings I had remembered and wanted to see. After the Louvre we walked around the Jardin de Tuleries which was beautiful, it was such a nice day, people were laying out in the sun. We had lunch and then went to Musee D'Orsay which I think was the highlight of everyone's day. I was so excited because we didn't get to go last time and I've always heard it was incredible but didn't really know what to expect. Monet, Degas, and Renoir are my favorite artists so I was in seventh heaven. We spent hours in there and everyone absolutely loved it. Saw some of my favorite paintings of all time. After this we went to this crepe place off the Champs Elysee our friends had told us about. It was fantastic and very authentic. The two women running it only spoke french and it looked to me like all the other people eating there were also french. I got chocolate crepe with white chocolate ice cream on top. Since we were already right there we went and saw the arc de triomph. Then we made the trek up to Montmartre, something I really wanted to do but wasn't sure we'd have time for so I was really excited. I think we were all glad we decided to go up there. It was absolutely beautiful. The neighborhood is so quintessentially French, it's absolutely gorgeous, fun and full of life. And the view overlooking the city is spectacular. We went right at dusk and watched the sun set over beautiful Paris. We also got to go into Sacre Coeur, the massive basilica on the top of the hill which is STUNNING. We were blown away. Once we realized what time it was though, we raced down the hill back to our hostel to charge our phones/cameras because we still had one more stop, the Eiffel Tower of course!
We waited in line for about an hour and a half with a few students we met who went to Texas A&M. Finally we got up to the ticket booth where they told us we couldn't go to the top! It was closed due to too many people! But for a reduced price we were able to go to the next highest level which we did begrudgingly. When we got up there though, we could not have been happier. Yeah, it's really touristy and everyone does it, but there is a reason. The view is absolutely insane. And at night it was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. Well worth the wait and the perfect way to end our spring break.
I have to say, while it was a fantastic trip, the trip of a lifetime really, we were all glad to be back in Roma. All these places were so incredible, different, and fun, but I am so glad to be living here. I don't think I'd want to be anywhere else and all my friends agreed. Maria was so excited we were back and we were so excited to see her! Honestly, we slept for almost the whole day we got back (had to rally for st. patrick's day the next day of course!). Tomorrow, after finally catching up on sleep we are off to Amsterdam! So excited. Also coming up we have our class trip to Naples/Pompeii and Cinque Terre!
I will post pictures soon!
baci baci
Caroline
Friday, March 7, 2014
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