San Sebastian e Italia

San Sebastian: 5/21
- Katie meets meg and shell in alcala at 4am! Take taxi to Madrid airport to catch plane to Bilbao
- bus to San Sebastian, pouring rain!, take taxi to city center
- tried to escape rain and kill time, ate our first pinxos!
- finally walked over to hostel in the cold windy rain (by the ocean) and met up with Jaime, the talkative and strange hostel owner
- Katie and shell siesta while meg hangs in Hotel Londres
- all meet up again at hotel, went to mall and had an American lunch (burgers), found Katie a cute bathing suit, and then went to the spa, La Perla!!
- spent 2 hours in the jets and waterbeds and steam rooms and underwater exercise pools and colorful walk through water spray things. Just lovely, and a tad salty!
- got some pinxos from place near hostel
- walked back to hostel with the stopped rain and SLEPT! (luckily we had the triple bunk bed room to ourselves)

5/22
- slept in a bit, went to McDonald's for wifi and yogurt, walked around San Sebastian a little (way less rain), meg was "bored" and over walking so she hung at hotel again while k and m hiked to the Jesus statue!
- at one point got expensive but very unique pinxos
- lots of tinto de verano!
- chinese food for dinner

5/23
- slept in again, meg leaves us and explores on her own for a little
- back go McDonald's for wifi, had to carry our backpacks all day
- go to Concha beach! Scammer bothers us, get soooooo burnt, drink tinto on the beach, and hang in the sun for a few hours. FINALLY SUN!
- catch bus back to Bilbao, back to Madrid, say bye to meg, chill in airport for 6 hours

5/24: Rome
- sleep in mcdonalds at airport and then catch early plane to Rome
- trapeze through Romes metro and train systems with our backpacks until we finally arrive at our campsite!!!
- so pleasantly surprised by the campsites amenities (pool, restaurants, market, cutest cabin, Internet, etc)
- hang at pool (water so cold and got reburnt) and just stay at campsite for the day, relaxing

5/25
- woke up early and caught shuttle to train and then into Rome
- first stop was Colosseum (breathtaking and huge and just wow. A little sunny and hot this day though)
- walked past roman forum and other ruins just hanging throughout the city
- got gelato and ate it on the steps of the Pantheon
- walked to Trevi then to Spanish steps (got another gelato, first one not as good)
- got groceries at some point
- after Spanish steps got the WORST dinner by trying to be cheap but spent 15 euro each on a worm salad and microwaved pasta
- caught metro back to campsite and hung out in the wifi area, watching the I love Rome people on the bull

5/26
- Vatican day!
- arrived to Vatican at around 11 and were very pleasantly surprised to see the Pope talking!! Sooo many people there
- stood in line to get into st peters basilica for more than 2 hours (people trying to cut, hot sun turning to rain, lots of waiting)
- finally get into basilica and are reprimanded for our dresses. Katie has to tie a sweater around her knees.
-"this isn't a disco ladies, it's the Vatican"
- go into extremely ornate church, so much gold!, feel stupid about Sistine chapel question, lots of pictures!
- send postcard from Vatican!
- book it over to Sistine chapel in the Vatican museum across the country, get handed 2 free tickets worth 15 euro each!, and hop on in.
- very, very, very huge with tons of people and cool ceilings and statues and way too much to see before actually getting to the Sistine chapel
-Sistine is magnificent, very strict about pictures
- starving and exhausted we eat at a little forno and get a great deal with a slice of pizza, a coke and an arancini for 5 euro
- go to really cheap grocery store, load up, and then are led to the best gelato nearby!
- get MASSIVE gelatos after waiting in a huge line for them. Scarf down with the nuns.
- slowly head back, souvenir shop, get caught in some rain, and eventually make it back by sundown!

5/27: Pompei
- wake up early, long train ride to Naples and then sketchy little train to Pompei
- check into or cute family owned B&B, ate an arancini and an entire yummy pizza each (stuffed) and then finally go into the ruins
- tour around the hot spots, are amazed, Katies favorite is the bathhouse, so nice to be there with so few people
- get back to our place and have the best, most authentic italian meal made for us by the B&B owners (wine, cheese and meat and bruschetta platter and then yummy pasta and berries for dessert)
- talk with our immature and annoying roommates for a while, Katie writes her essay while everyone sleeps (quite difficult on a phone/iPad)
- sidenote: we are kicking ourselves for not bringing our own iPad or laptop or other form of traveling entertainment!

5/28: travel day up north
- get paperwork scholarship stuff out of the way, nice hostel owners let us use their laptop!
- depart and get into Naples where we are seated across from mafia member for our 3 hour train to Rome.
-his code was M&M and he was so creepy and gross (always leaving to smoke illegally in the bathroom and talking on his phone suspiciously)
- train is super late so we have to SPRINT with our backpacks to our next train leaving in 5 mins (and buy tickets for it!)
-make it and we relax in our Harry potter cart, watch a movie, and look at the amazing view as we near La Spezia
- wait in la Spezia for an hour as our train is majorly delayed and then finally get to our campsite (they were so nice to pick us up way later than they were open)
- we got the CUTEST cabin ever with a fridge and sink and stove and everything! And comfy beds too. And lacy window curtains.
- then we sleep.

5/29: Cinque Terre
- a bit confused at first about how to do this hiking thing (awkwardly go into hotel and ask, decide to just train it all bc of our shoes too)
- major hunt for sunscreen, find it!
- first stop: riomaggiore. Sit on the rocks looking up at this amazing town, meg calls us, in awe of scenery, hike up the town to more amazing views and a cute elementary school, eventually get back to train station
- next stop: manarola. This was our favorite bc of the crystal clear water right off cliffs with easy swimming access. It was less touristy and more secluded than the others. We found a hidden spot and kicked ourselves again for not wearing our bathing suits! The water felt sooo nice. Spend a few hours here, eat another pizza to ourselves, and get brioche with gelato at the end.
-skipped 3rd city of corniglia bc of time
- next stop: vernazza. Still see damage from October flood, stores all revamping. Sit on cement harbor thing on the water and watch the little kids (moglie) trying to dish. The water is sooo clear!! Saw jellyfish too.
Last stop: monterosso. This one was really touristy with an actual "beach" that was very rocky. Very different from the others. We got drinks and snacks here and walked around the town for just a little. Caught train back to Deiva Marina
- had to borrow phone from bar sereno, luckily were able to be picked up, and were sad to realize all the grocery store options were already closed.
- ate our peanut butter and bread for dinner, got some wifi, saw a firefly!, and eventually slept

5/30
- cooked ourselves some actual breakfast, checked out of camping, and carried our backpacks to Monterosso in hopes of tanning on the beach
- the beach here was just too rocky and we couldn't kayak with our stuff so after about an hour we packed up and went to Manarola again
- in manarola we got pizza and gnocchi at a restaurant (so nice to sit down) and then went back to our hidden spot!
- the spot was perfect and we met such nice people and jumped into the wonderful wonderful Mediterranean! It was very salty but so clear and there were tons of fish around us. A nice lady even lent us her goggles! (and jellyfish, we had to be very careful about that)
- lots of nude people and sing songy hippies (and a kayaker who couldn't handle it)
- we sadly got our clothes and heavy backpacks back on, caught a train to la Spezia and then to Pisa, and spent the night at a really good hostel there. We made pasta in the microwave and talked to fellow travelers!

5/31: Greece
- currently on the plane to Kos, a small island in Greece!
- soooo excited for the food aka baklava kebabs fish hummus and pita and much much more.

The first 11 days!

Day 1(may 10, 2012) :
-Pisa flight late
-rush to see meg and she's not there
-meg sleeps through her layover
-finally reunite
-explorer/ meet robin at bday dinner
-eat TONS
-meet w Arielle and go to moya bar
-run into robin and go to red garter
-exhausted, secret bakery, hotel

Day 2:
-made bfast then bring stuff to Arielle's place
-saw David
-market and then yummy panini
-showed meg my turf/school/gelato
-back to Arielle, helped with HUGE luggage, so hot so we got drinks outside and relaxed in the shade
-dropped stuff at Emily's on way to Michelangelo hill with Arielle and roommates
-watched sunset, beautiful! Then got pizza at ovesuvius
-stopped at Emily's work (military guy) and then back to her place to sleep

Day 3:
-slept in, picnic turned into eating at ostreria Santo Spirito for a few hours after seeing a few sights on the way
-met up with Emily, chilled in the shade of her room for a bit
-met up with robin on rooftop in piazza della republica, no real food there, snuck pics, then left to kitch apperativo in new part of town for me
-all ate lots of yummy food, dropped Emily off, went with robin to duomo and hung on steps
-Italian guys from kosova came and talked to us, eventually we went to ebbys together and took nutella/ banana shots
- all went to moya, had more drinks (Luca met robin there)
- lots of speaking Italian!! All had fun :)
- ended the night walking around with the boys and going to sleep at 5:30am

Day 4:
- got up at 8am, caught fast train to Verona, taxi to hotel (raining here!)
- rested for Un attimo and then trekked over to city center (so cold)
- got into Verona and it was sooooo cute. All the buildings and the castle-like walls and cute alleyways and the roman theater and the big piazzas and the river in a heart shape and the views from a high up castle and lots of love
- ate lunch in prime people watching spot in piazza near Juliette's house.
- visited Juliette's house, went inside on balcony, wrote a letter, touched the statues boobs ha ha
- got gelato at a place with a line and made the beautiful walk to the castle, across the river.
- lots of amazing views and pictures, decided to make way back to hotel (stores all closing but I did get an adorable bathing suit)
- happen to walk by the famous arena and find out Tiziano Ferro is having a concert in 20 mins and there's still tickets! Meg INSISTS on going so we get the tickets and enter the arena having only a faint idea of who this guy is
- there are ALL Italians here!! We try our hardest to blend in and sing a long to the songs (there were definitely some obsessed fans around us!), have popcorn for dinner, and absolutely love life! (going off of like 3 hours of sleep now)
- concert ends at 10:30, we grab a cab not so easily, and are finally home to SLEEP and call our moms for mothers day

Day 5:
-wake up early yet again, see hostel owner in underwear and feel bad not having bfast but have to rush to train station by cab
- all is good and eventually we are seeing lake como from our train window!!!
- I was so excited and the second I saw the water I was glued to the window snapping away. Every glimpse I got was more incredible than the previous!!
- we were to arrive in the little town of varenna and before doing so met our Rick Steves friends while waiting for the train to stop. What funny ladies and they loved to hear our travel plans.
- now in Varenna!!!!! It's absolutely positively amazingly gorgeous and it really felt as if I was either dreaming or standing in front of a fake backdrop. Meg and I were in the best of moods even as we had to trug with our backpacks and Meg's suitcase up the mountain and through the cobbley streets to our wonderful hotel.
- the hike up to the hotel was again breathtaking and left me so beyond speechless. How am I so lucky????
- we checked in and were led up 2 vernaculars and an elevator to our room. Ah-ma-zing!!! The view from our room high above the lake was just,wow, once in a lifetime.
- meg and I soaked it all in and quickly threw on our suits underneath our summery clothes and were off to explore this amazing place we called ours for a few days.
- first we got lunch at the creepy waiter place even though beautiful water front restaurants were just around the corner. Oh well.
- we walked around, took lots of pictures, yummy gelato and then happened to find a secret place on the water to tan! We were a little self conscious of the people above who could maybe see us but we soon did not care and got ourselves a good tan!
- after we got our fill of tanning we decided to walk around to the next town over and discovered Italy's smallest river along with more cute streets, some locals, and yummy conolietti
- we made our way back to the city center of Varenna and had such a relaxing meal complete with Italy's favorite cocktail, spritz aperol, right on the side of the lake. We took it slow and just simply enjoyed everything. And trust me, there was so much to enjoy in that moment.
- then back to the really comfy beds for real SLEEP

Day 6:
- we both slept in a tad, donned our summer getups again, had a plan of kayaking that was canceled bc it wasn't season, ate a yummy free breakfast and then hopped on a ferry for the nearby city if Bellagio!!
- the ferry was just Un po' Freddo with the wind but being out in the middle of the lake offered even more wonderful sights.
- we arrived to this GORGEOUS town (a bit bigger and more touristy but still beyond beautiful) and proceeded to walk up and down every cute side street. We happened upon this one path that led us to the other side of the lake and this was my favorite bc the tourists were gone, Italy was in full bloom and it was all just so authentic.
- we finally found our way back to the popular side, ate a cute lunch and then kept walking along the lake. We made it to a villa, didn't want to pay, passed a yacht club which meg went in to and ended up grabbing drinks here!
- drinks turned into more drinks which turned into us jumping into the lake with an Italian crowd watching us thinking we were out of our minds and then staying for happy hour and eating delicious food. We were there for 4 hours. And it was some of the best most relaxing and beautiful 4 hours of my life.
- eventually we sadly left (not mentioning that bill), grabbed a ferry back to our ghost town (like everything was closed before 9pm!), and freshened up.
- there was a bit of drama bc I had to sign up for classes and the wifi at the hotel decided to stop working that night, but all worked out just fine!

Day 7:
- today meg and I woke early, grabbed breakfast, hiked to a castle and broke in, packed up, had a mini photoshoot, had lunch at our hotel and shared a bottle of wine in the sun for a few hours and just stared at the lake.
- now we are on a train to pisa and are currently riding along the ocean as the sun is setting. Can life get any better?????
- Ciao ciao for now! Spain next with meg as my tour guide!
- spent night in sketchy airport hostel

Day 8:
- woke up for early flight to Spain, all went smoothly except meg had to check a bag in and it cost like 60 euro!!
- got to Spain and saw Lola finally!! She picked us up and drove us first to the grocery store where meg already knew someone and then to pick Candela up from school!
- Lola was sooooo nice but my Spanish was so rusty the whole time! I understood her pretty well but speaking was a different story.
- we picked up Candela and she was SO excited to see meg! At first a little shy with me but she warmed up very fast. We walked home and Lola made us an amazing lunch!
- after lunch meg showed me around Alcala a little but and all the plazas were sooooo adorable!! Lola's current student Kayla also joined us and I had fun times getting closer to little Candela
- we then joined Lola and watched her play paddle (sort of like tennis) with her friends at this country club type place. Meg and I had a ton of fun being kids with Candela and she had fun bossing us around
- we got back pretty late and soon meg and I were off to my first tapa!! We went with Kayla and got to meet her friends as well. I tried lots of typical Spanish foods (tortilla is still my favorite) and had my favorite drink called tinto verano!
- meg and I were exhausted as we fell asleep in Candelas room shed given up for us

Day 9:
- I woke up a bit late, Meg had seen Candela off to school in the cutest little outfit for some Spanish holiday, but quickly got ready for a day of exploring Alcala some more!
- we met up with a Spanish friend o Meg's and Kayla joined us as well as we walked all around and saw the cute plazas, got some famous almonds from this cloistered nun place, and saw Meg's school as well, and lots of storks!
- we came back for another YUMMY lunch made by Lola!
- siesta time was in full swing after this huge lunch and we relaxed until it was time to go out for tapas again (this was or dinner)
- we went to a new tapa place, soooo good, and waited for Megs Spanish friends to be ready. We didn't meet up with them until 1am!! These darn Spaniards!
- I was so exhausted but once we were with the Spanish I was revived! I communicated with my mangled Spanish Italian and had a good night! We went to a new bar place and it was just really fun being surrounds by all Spaniards!

Day 10:
- today was a holiday in Spain and it was exactly like fiesta in SB!! I couldn't believe it! It did make me miss home a bit, though.
- we walked around with Lola and Candela and even watched a bit of a an outside mass going on. Everyone was wearing fiesta dresses!
- Lola took us to this nice hotel to look at their rooftop garden (Justin bieber once stayed there!)
- we has yet another amazing lunch followed by an even yummiest banana and chocolate cake Lola had made! Soooooo good!!
- after resting a bit we went with Lola to watch her play paddle again. Another fun time, but the game lasted hours! I got to meet megs other sister Manuela though and I was so glad for that!
- we got back at 9pm (it was still light out!) and meg and I bolted off to get our nightly tapa fix :)
- another great round of tapas!! We got back and slept like babies.

Day 11:
- meg and I went into Madrid this day! It was great to see this city again without the horrible rain like last time!
- we had yummy cookies, meg got her picture taken for wearing sandals (ha!), we went into the insanely crowded Sunday market (il rastro), got into the Reina Sofia for free, got lost, saw an INCREDIBLE flamenco show as we ate an INCREDIBLE Spanish lunch with sangria, of course, and finished the day rowing cute boats in Parque de Buen Retiro. So fun!
- got home, printed tickets, did lots of research, talked to Katie, and then slept for a couple hours!

The Calm Before the Storm

It's officially been 10 days since my studying abroad program in Florence has ended. Say what?? I don't think I'll be able to properly admit this to myself for another, maybe, five years. I honestly just blinked and the experience came and went. Will I ever get used to how strange time is? I think not. 

I packed up my bags, sadly said goodbye to all of my roommates, took one last tour around my amazing apartment, and walked the all too familiar path to the train station in Florence. There were a few moments throughout this journey to Holland where I honestly thought my luggage was going to just tear open, spilling all of it's contents across the cobbley streets of Florence. I thank my lucky stars that that never happened and I did in fact arrive safely to my grandma's house, bags in tact, around 5 hours later. Besides having to throw out some last minute items in my suitcase (including some really nice wine I was going to bring home) everything went more smoothly than usual. I traveled with my friend Cristina and we just happened to arrive on one of the biggest holiday's in Holland called Queen's Day! We were met by a sea of orange as kids to teenagers to adults roamed the streets celebrating the day away. Long story short, I made it to my grandma's house safely and the comfort of familiarity was much needed at that point. 

Over the course of the next few days I relaxed, unpacked, read The Davinci Code, and just thought of nothing else. I caught up with my grandma and Stan a lot, something I have never had the chance to do on my own without tons of family also around, and enjoyed hearing many family stories and looking through great family photos. After resting a day or two, Stan and I biked over to some beautiful and vibrant tulip fields! I wanted to see these so bad and I was not disappointed in the least. I had no idea flowers could produce such colors! The 10 mile bike ride in the crisp air was wonderful and Stan even treated me to some apple pie towards the end of our journey. The next day Granma took me shopping in a nearby town called Alkmaar, where we had an enjoyable lunch and I came out with a new pair of sandals to trek around in this summer! Somewhere in there we also bused it over to a nearby town to watch The Hunger Games. I had been waiting MONTHS for this and I was very happy with the way it turned out. Side note about movie theaters here: it's like going to a show! There is a 15 minute intermission during every movie, you're not allowed to eat in the theatre, you have to reserve actual seats ahead of time and the theatre itself is very nice with the option of buying drinks if you wish. 

After those days of relaxing and regrouping, my friend Anna from the program met up with me and stayed at Granma's for 2 days. I took her on a bike ride to the tulips as well and was surprised to see that about half of the same tulips from 3 days before were already cut down! Nevertheless, those that remained were still breathtaking and the bike ride itself was quite entertaining (picture me riding Stan's bike, Stan is more than 6 feet tall, with a seat that won't go down enough for me, so basically I am standing up the entire 10 mile bike ride). We then visited Amsterdam the next day and I was not surprised to realize that I remembered nothing! I really need to learn some memorizing techniques or something. Anyways, Amsterdam was beautiful and we stopped by Anne Frank's house, the flower market, accidently ended up in the red light district, and got some yummy food. What a unique and cultural place!! I really did enjoy the diversity because in Italy you get pretty much just Italian. The last planned trip I took was with my friend Cristina to a town called Voorschoten where here dad had grown up. We knocked on his old neighbors door and had the most unexpectedly wonderful next few hours with this older couple. They sat us down, talked and talked, amazed us with their cuteness and their relationship, and even had us hop in their car to give us a proper tour of their city! It will be something I never forget. Cristina and I then stopped in another town named Leiden where we did some good shopping and ate way too much food. Sempre. 

Since Anna's departure, the stress has started to hit. I realized I only had a few days before I would be without a laptop and I immediately started wrapping up all of our summer plans, making sure we had lodging and transportation everywhere. There are still things to be done but the stress was becoming too great so we are just going to have to wing some things here and there! What used to be fun planning became tedious and time consuming. I feel as if I have spent DAYS worth of time planning for the months to come. In the end, I have to keep reminding myself, it will all be worth it and we really have saved loads of money by planning so far in advance. The next time I come to Europe, I will not have an agenda and I'll let the wind guide me. The other source of stress has been CLASSES! Gah, reality sure does come back fast! I have to sign up for classes, an event that is always, always, always full of stress, while I am enjoying time at Lake Como. Who wants to mix fun and stress?? Not I! Let's just cross our fingers that everything works out nicely (I am a senior after all, if the world was a perfect place it would) and my life can sort itself out. More on career stress later (I've decided to be an occupational therapist and classes wise it's more difficult than I thought. I'll most likely have to take a year off before Grad school which will be a good thing in the long run I believe). 

Back to fun things! The days in Holland have been very relaxing otherwise and I will be genuinely sad to leave my Granma, Stan, Katja the cat, my nice little space in Gryffindor Tower, and home cooked food especially! I will be back in 47 days, though, with Katie and Meaghan in tow! 

I have to say now that it might be quite difficult to update my blog or post many pictures because I will only have my cell phone. I'll try to keep it up as much as possible and if anything I'll at least write down small notes for each week so that I don't forget. 

Here's to some crazy backpacking around Europe!!! 

A presto! 

Bells

I thought it would be appropriate to write a little quick entry while sitting in the kitchen of my Italian apartment on my last night in Italy (as a student as part of a program, at least).

The bells are sounding through the open window currently (it's 6:30pm) and the washing machine is trugging away (it sounds like an alien invasion). We left almost every window in the apartment open today because the weather was just perfect! I think it was around the 70's with a light breeze and a bit of cloud cover. Compared to yesterday's weather which had me dreaming of swimming pools and air conditioning, today was just what this time of year calls for.

Oh how I already miss Italy.

These past couple of weeks have been spent solely in Florence (which I am so thankful for) but it made me grow even further attached to this wonderful city. Although it rained for much of it, I was still able to enjoy lounging in this AMAZING apartment I still can't believe I have the pleasure of "renting" for even this short period of time. Never in my life will I be in this situation again. That is just so beyond weird to think about. I feel as if just last week, literally, I was hopping off the plane and seeing the Duomo for the first time (and feeling kind of stupid because I knew nothing about it). Now, I can tour anyone around and point out churches, secret passageways, the best pizza place in town, the best gelato place in town, the best pub in town, the best place to get a panini, the best restaurant to get gnocchi that literally melts in your melt, and lead you to the most amazing views this city has to offer! If that doesn't make you want to hop and a plane and come visit, I don't know what will!

I have had to say a lot of goodbye's so far and it feels so strange because it's really not hitting me!! I think it's because I still have 3 more months in Europe and I am extremely excited for it. While others are crying with sadness, I am buzzing with excitement of what's to come. Honestly, the hardest thing to leave right now is this apartment. I can come back to Florence anytime, I plan on visiting all the people I have grown close to, but I will probably never call this apartment mine ever again in my life! Oh, how sentimental I am sometimes. The window in my room (the room in which I pretty much stole when our other roommate left) brings me such peace and as I hang out of it looking out at the tiled roofs below and the rolling hills ahead and hear the birds chirping and the crazy Italians talking and yelling, I can't help but forget all my problems and just smile and be so content with where I am in life.

This past Friday we had a program dinner at this wonderfully beautiful villa on the outskirts of Florence, overlooking the city below. I will have my wedding here. End of story. Anyways, the dinner was perhaps one of my favorite memories of the entire program. It was lovely to see everyone I normally just go to class with all dressed up and smiley and in just such great spirits. The weather was beyond perfect and after a short bus ride and another much-too-long-in-heels hike up to the villa, we had arrived! While everyone wiped sweat off their perfectly made up faces, we were led into the mansion and I was in complete awe. When we reached the backyard, the view was breathtaking and everyone, como sempre, whipped out their cameras and started snapping away! I felt so elegant the entire night and picture after picture, appetizer after appetizer, green juice after green juice (we aren't allowed alcohol...so lame), pasta after potatoes after weird stuffed meat thing after delicious strawberry dessert thing, conversation after great conversation, I grew happier and happier. Towards the end of the night, each class showed either a slideshow or a video representing themselves. We chose to show a slideshow of the favorite places we visited, which was very cute, and afterward the teachers had an announcement. They had each selected one or two students to win an "award" of being the official ambassador of the program at our UC and, I was selected!! I had luckily just put my heels back on underneath the table and it was a great surprise.

I got a few pictures with my Italian professor as well and I am going to miss her SO much!! Francesca is one of the best teacher's I have ever had and I was sooooo sad to say goodbye to her. She wants to get coffee when I come back to Florence, though, so I can't be TOO sad.

Okay back to my time in Italy. My housemates. I have grown especially close to the three of them within these last few weeks and that makes everything all the more harder. They are such great girls, all unique in such different ways, and they have taught me SO much. My mind has been greatly opened because of them and I will always hold a special place in my heart for them. I feel like they really got to know me, as I got to know them, and I am so thankful for that. We have an insane amount of ridiculous memories that will never be forgotten!

I will write a separate blog entry once I am in Holland (I start traveling at 6am tomorrow morning and get to my Grandma's house around 2 or 3pm I am hoping) and have 10 days of relaxing time! I am looking forward to relaxing before starting off on this insane travel-around-Europe shin dig.

Just to have it in writing, the plan so far is:
1. Gma's for 10 days
2. Italy for 7 days with Meaghan
3. Spain for 7 days with Meaghan and then Katie
4. Italy for 7 days with Katie
5. Greece for 7 days with Katie
6. Budapest for 4 days with Katie
7. 9 days for both Paris and Belgium (Meg re-joins)
8. A day for Justine in Germany, a day at Sam's, and then 4 days in Berlin with Sam/Meg/Katie
9. A few days in Holland with Meg and Katie, then Meg leaves for home
10. Katie and I off to Ireland to WOOF for 1 week (work on an organic farm for free housing/food, ask me about that one later ha)
11. UK for a week-ish
12. Back to Holland for a week (maybe a little more travel in there)
13. HOME JULY 26!!! (out of Amsterdam and into LAX)

Wow. Now do you see why I am so excited??

A presto! Baccio!

The best gelato in the WORLD

Was I seriously in Spain just one week ago? It feels lifetimes have passed since that wonderful week!

Before I get into the hefty sharing of every detail since that week (I am trying SO hard to be more brief but I think it's just never going to be possible for me, oh well), I just gotta mention how CRAZY time is again!!!! I have 2 weeks from today until I am on a plane to Holland where I will rest up for a good week and then start my crazy travel-around-Europe summer. Two. Weeks.

TWO WEEKS!!!

I can't get over it. I feel like I am scrambling, trying to find a secret way to make time slow down, a secret way to absorb every detail and never forget it, a secret way to preserve all of my thoughts and feelings and memories, a secret way to rewind time so that I can sit in my window overlooking the colorful houses of Italy below and the hills ahead for when I need the peace and happiness they bring, a secret way to remember this language just as the Italian around me speak it, a secret way to just never forget a single thing. If only.

My roommates and I had a "family dinner" last night (our first ever, we can't believe it took us so long) and during this 2 hour dinner, while sitting around our cute little table in our Italian kitchen where we are 90% of the time, we shared our feelings and just how much we have all grown since January. It is amazing the things I have learned from this experience about people, culture, and life in general. I won't go into too much detail yet (save that for when the program is actually over), but I just am in such disbelief that it went so quickly.

Okay now for the meat! We had class on Tuesday and Wednesday as usual and on Thursday we got the lovely surprise (well not really a surprise, we knew it was going to happen) of attending a cooking class with our class! Our class, by the way, has grown so close and all 15 of us are so comfortable with each other and I sincerely enjoy waking up every morning and learning Italian for 3 hours everyday with them. It goes by so quickly (usually) and it is quite gratifying. So attending a cooking class with all of them was even more of a blast! We went to a culinary school in Florence where we received aprons and recipes and were then led to the coolest room with stainless steel counters equipped with pretty much everything you need for baking. Our cooking instructor led us through the three recipes (Risotto, Chicken Cacciatore, and Biscotti) in Italian and we were separated into our groups. I was on the Biscotti team and it was definitely a fun one to make! We got to use our hands to mix and the kitchen was definitely bustling as everyone began to make their dishes. It took about 2 hours total to finish all of the dishes and, as a class, we gathered around a long table and pigged out! Everything tasted AMAZINGLY (I think our biscotti was the best, of course) and even though it was only 10:30 in the morning, it was a great experience. Our teacher, Francesca, loved the food as well and she is seriously the cutest lady ever!!! I am going to miss having her as a teacher soooo much. Wow.

The rest of Thursday was spent relaxing (the entire week it had been raining and actually still is currently) and then meeting up with some girls for Margheritas! We went to the only Mexican food place around, funnily called "Tiajuana", and had the most amazing margheritas (my mango one was to die for) and some surprisingly yummy nachos with actual GUACAMOLE! Oh man, I miss Mexican food soooo much right now!

On Friday we had a stupid makeup class (they can't let us have even 2 days off, it's so lame!) which actually turned out to be incredibly fun because we played Twister and learned commands so we basically got to order people around in our class all day long. What fun! That night we went to a friends house where we made a music video to One Direction's "One Thing", had some yummy food, sang karaoke at a great bar called Red Garter, and arrived home at 3:30 in the morning!

Saturday was our programs last planned trip to the towns of San Rimignano and Siena. We had to be at the bus station by 8am (that was a tough one) and it happened to be POURING outside. I have been stubborn this trip and went all winter without purchasing an umbrella so I just can't let myself do it now for the probably 2 more days total of rain we will have. Long story short, all I had was my rain jacket to protect me from the downfall. We first arrived in San Rimignano where we had 2 hours to explore as we pleased. This town is ADORABLE and even though it's tiny, it has tons of charm and wonderful views of Tuscany. I wish it had been sunny so badly!! I explored with Anna, Scott and Kayla and we took random turns which led us to the prettiest garden with the best lookout. We had a blast taking our time discovering random things and it was quite magical. I can't talk about San Rimignano without mentioning that it has the best gelato place in the WORLD! I am serious now. It has literally been voted that like every year and they are not lying! We had gelato in the beginning and at the end and every single flavor was packed with amazingess and yumminess. My favorite was the white chocolate flavor and the "curva fiesole" flavor. I am so glad I don't live there, though, because that would be extremely dangerous.

After another 45 minute bus ride, we arrived in Siena where it was STILL pouring and I was still shuffling from person to person, sharing their umbrella with them. It was hard to really SEE Siena because of the weather and I really do wish to go back and explore more. We had a few hours to get lunch (our program director pointed us in the direction of this great trattoria where the food was amaaaaazing, the wine was delicious, and the bread was unlimited. We sat in a covered area outside and the sounds of the rain lovingly joined us for lunch) and after being a bit hurried along by the waiters, we went in search for some more shelter. We happened upon this adorable wine store where the owner, a 30 something year old woman, gave us free cheese and bread with our glass of wine and talked to us for a good hour in Italian. She was one of the nicest people I have met here and it was great being able to communicate with her so well. After that we ventured out in the rain where our entire program met again and proceeded to have a 2 hour tour of Siena. Thank GOODNESS most of it was inside the government building or the duomo or another church. It was still a tad bit miserable (I started to get extremely tired at this point) but I was able to enjoy most of it. My favorite part was the end where in a sort of random church, the actual head and thumb of St. Catherine is held. You can see it pretty darn well and it is a bit disturbing. But cool. We hopped back on the buses about an hour early (everyone just wanted to go home by this point), hurried back to our warm and inviting houses, and then my housemates and I had a little movie night together. Such a wonderful, and tiring and rainy, day!

Yesterday, Sunday, was another catch up day with a movie thrown in there, an adorable farmers market visit, and COOKING! Our family dinner consisted of Spinach and Pesto and Ricotta Lasagna, bruschetta, and tiramisu! Yummay! It was a great time with lots of laughs and memories. I finished the night by booking mine and Katie's plane ticket to GREECE (finally!!!) and working on a paper until pretty late. That's life!

Two more weeks. Here we go!

Spagna

I am really going to have to hold back on this blog entry. I was gone for almost an entire week, in SPAIN, and you know what that means! And even LONGER blog than normal. Wooooop de do!

Wow, where do I even start?? Let me reach far back into my memories and see where this spring break trip of mine started. It's moments like these that I wish I was dumbledore from Harry Potter and I could have a pensieve to preserve my memories for always. Sorry for that small moment of HP loser-ness. Fans will understand me well :)

Ok, so! I woke up bright and early on Wednesday morning (missing class for that day) and was out of the house by 7am. I left the house just as two of my housemates came home from their fun night out, by the way! What crazy girls. So I made my way to the train station, caught the train to Pisa, hopped on the plane with my huge backpack that actually worked as a carry on (thank God!! Ryanaiar is SOOO strict with carry on's!), and soon arrived in Madrid after a 2 hour flight completely solo. I thought I'd have a few hours until Katie arrived from Barcelona but it turns out her bus to Madrid was full and she was forced to buy a 90 euro fast train ticket to Madrid!! I felt SO bad but it did mean that now we had a few more hours of time together. After getting extremely lost in the airport trying to find the metro, I found my way, made 3 transfers, and FINALLY climbed the stairs out of the metro. The first thing I saw was a bright pink rain jacket and only a few of them exist in Europe so I knew it had to be Katie! I screamed her name, we had a lovely moment in the middle of some busy stairs, and then proceeded to walk towards our hostel. It was so wonderful to see Katie, by the way!! Just what I needed. We found our hostel, in the RAIN, by the way, and we set our stuff down before setting off around Madrid. Our hostel, Way Hostel, to be exact was absolutely wonderful! It was not only cheap but so clean and had computers, a kitchen to use, a TV, wonderful bedrooms, and just anything you could ask for. It was a huge hostel and we were able to meet so many people also traveling around.

Sidenote: This week in Spain is called "Semana Santa" and it is a HUGE holiday. Everyone has the week off of school and work and it is just an entire week to celebrate Easter (I think) and there are constant processions (parades) that just appear in the middle of the street and continue down the road. There are huge floats with scenes from the Bible (with people carrying them on their backs as penance), bands, people in weird KKK looking outfits, and other random people marching along.

The rest of this day in Spain was spent walking from place to place, exploring so many parts of Madrid that were wonderful! We saw a huge indoor food market, some plazas, a castle and a cathedral, and many statues around the city. By the end of this portion we were soaked to the core, freezing, and ready for a break. We were lost for a food 30 minutes while the cold started to sink in and our moods were fastly lowering. Luckily, we asked around and were able to find our hostel after a few wrong turns. In the meantime, we had some super yummy Spanish food (bocadillos and froyo for example) and then re-warmed ourselves in our hostel. We then headed to Plaza del Sol and found a restaurant to eat at. The owner lured us in, and even though the price was extremely cheap for all the food/drink we got, the food itself was not the best. It was nice to just be relaxing, eating and chatting away though (we had bread, paella, and sangria). After this we got churros and chocolate (yum!!) and headed to our hostel to sleep tight. It had gotten very late by this point and we passed out quickly.

On Thursday morning we woke up around 9am, saw some more of Madrid (with less rain this time and an actual umbrella from the hostel), picked up our bags from the hostel, and used the metro to get to the bus station. From here, we grabbed a bus almost instantly and took an hour to get to a nearby city called Toledo. This city was SO CUTE!!! Surrounded by city walls, the narrow streets inside are not only unique but bustling with culture and lots of people. Our backpacks became a bit tiring (and heavy) but we finally trekked up the city to our amazing hostel. We even had a balcony!! We dropped off our stuff and headed off to explore the city! We forced ourselves to "get lost" and came upon churches, many cute stores, and a procession! The day became night and we of course ate lots of Spanish food (and froyo again) and enjoyed this beautiful city. I bought a few too many souvenirs, but who cares! We ended the night with a couple bocadillos and fries (so healthy, right?) and fell asleep with full tummies.

Friday morning we woke up extremely early (making so much noise and feeling so bad for the other people in the hostel) and caught a bus to Madrid and then metro-ed to a different bus station to catch ANOTHER 5 hour bus to Cordoba! What a lot of traveling, holy moly. Upon arriving in Katie's city of Cordoba, though, we were re energized and ready to explore! Katie was so excited to show me everything she has come to love so much in this city and I was beyond excited to hear/see everything! We dropped off my backpack at the CUTEST hostel Katie had booked for me (we entered into a courtyard with flowers and pots all over the walls and live music meeting us at the door). Again, we dropped off our stuff and were going, going, going! We explored "La Juderia", a cute section of Cordoba with narrow streets, adorable buildings with FLOWERS everywhere, a huge church called "La Mezquita", and many stores to get lost in. I was in love right away!! The SMELLS of Corodoba are amazing as well. There are orange trees everywhere and my nose was so happy to be there. We ate some more food (Tortilla was my favorite, an egg and potato dish), explored the city some more, and I fell more and more in love. Katie was a bit bummed because of the amount of tourists for Semana Santa but I am well used to tourists from Florence.

My perhaps favorite part of this trip came next. Katie and I spontaneously decided to "splurge" and use the arabic baths in Cordoba instead of going to a fancy dinner like originally planned. It was so last minute but the best decision EVER! We made our appointment for 10pm, rented a couple bathing suits, changed in the lovely bathroom area (think a very nice spa) and then entered into the baths!!!! There was a large warm bath, 2 smaller freezing baths, 2 good sized hot baths, and one sauna. The entire place was arabic themed and the walls/ceiling/everything was just so beautiful and relaxing. The lighting was low, relaxing music was playing, and everyone was peaceful and quite. Katie and I switched between baths about every 10 or so minutes (coming back to the warm bath between each switch and staying in the cold one for no more than 1 minute) and the 90 minutes passed in no time. I was able to fully relax and wow, it was just so needed and amazing. We were a bit frugal and didn't pay a little extra for a massage and man, did we regret that the entire time!!! Next time, next time. We eventually left the baths feeling extremely calm, warm, loose, and happy. Katie dropped me off at the hostel and went to sleep at her place.

The next morning, Saturday, we met up around 10am and started the day off by walking over to Katie's school and seeing another side of Cordoba. This part was very different from the Juderia but it was still really cool! Definitely much more city-like, though. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into Katie's life here and she really is very lucky to be in this city! We made it back to her house for lunch (her host mom made us paella and croquettas) and spent about an hour chatting away with her in SPANISH.

Side note about language: I was beyond frustrated this entire trip with my spanish!!! My Italian has completely taken over and it was near impossible to have a real conversation in Spanish because I would be switching between languages every other word. Arg!

As the lunch progressed more and more of my Spanish came back to me, though, and I really enjoyed this time. After lunch, we hung out in Katie's room and skyped with Kelsey and Victoria for a while. It made me miss Santa Cruz and these girls so much though! After a few hours we headed back out to the now-sunny Cordoba air and did a bit more exploring, and of course, eating! We hung out on the terrace of my hostel and enjoyed the fresh air and then made it down to this bridge to wait for Katie's Spanish friend to meet up with us. From there, he showed us many cute (and local/secret) places of Cordoba and it was such a treat! We eventually found a place to eat MORE delicious Spanish food and enjoyed conversations together. By this time it was already almost MIDNIGHT (they eat sooooo late in Spain) and we were late to meet up with some more Spanish friends of Katie's. We eventually made our way over there (I was extremely tired by this point) and met with 4 other Spanish guys. They were all SOOO nice!!! We headed over to a bar and chatted away while we played a game of pool. Such a fun time. This is what I prefer most, just TALKING to people and getting to know them. My Spanish was still a bit rough, but I made do. By the time the night wound up, it was already almost 3am! Wow, did time fly by fast!

I was dropped off at my hostel where I proceeded to get about 1 hour of sleep! At 4:20am I walked to the bus station in Cordoba, said farewell to Katie, and caught a 2 hour bus to Sevilla. From here I got a Taxi to the Sevilla airport where I then took a plane to Bologna. I was extremely fortunate and in Cordoba I found a really nice girl also going to Florence so we shared transportation and conversation the entire way. In Bologna we caught a bus to the train station and then a train to Florence and then one last taxi to my apartment. SOOOO MUCH TRAVELING!!! And I was unable to sleep at all after only 1 hour of sleep the night before. Long story short, I got home, ate, was supposed to skype my family in 2 hours but instead fell asleep and woke up at 1:30am!!!! I NEVER do this, so I was super bewildered and confused when I looked at the time.

It was Easter, by the way, and I was almost glad to be sleeping because I was alone anyways and resting up was very important. I talked a bit with family and then fell back asleep until the morning. From there, I did the usual catching up with homework (this day was also a Holiday for Italy and so many places were closed) and I read in the sun for a bit. Katie and I then skyped for 8 hours and "planned" our entire Europe trip with flights and all. A huge disaster struck when we realized we would have to book our return flight home from Amsterdam instead of Greece but all is good!! We now just have to REPLAN our entire tirp. Woopie!

I am now officially coming home on July 26th from Amsterdam to LAX. I also now have less than 3 weeks left in Italy and it scares me to death. It can't end yet, it just started!!!!

Here's to the next few weeks. They will be the greatest ever, I am determined to make them so.

Until later, ciao!!

The things I'd do/places I'd go for pizza

I am going to start out with a minor freak out. As of yesterday, I have ONE MONTH left of my program!!! How on earth has time gone so fast?!?! It is so beyond scary because I can also plan out every weekend up until that point and after that things aren't very set in stone (as of yet). I still do not have my return flight home, so I am feeling just a little unsettled. I am going to Spain in two days, though, so Katie and I are going to really sit down and book flights and all that for this amazing summer to come! An ounce or two of homesickness has finally stuck into me and it made me realize that this has now been the longest I have been away from home. I am used to going home at least once every 10 weeks and it has now been almost 3 months here. Easter is also approaching by the end of this week and just knowing that for the first time I won't be opening my stuffed easter basket in pajamas with my family in the morning, or fighting with Jess and Nikki over how many eggs they got, or watching Tanner and Sam have their own hunt, or eating all the delicious food at my grandpa's house has got me a bit sad. There will be plenty more to come, though, so I am attempting not to fret too much about it. Many people's families in my program have also been visiting these past few weekends so that doesn't help this situation much either. Gr, why is flying to Europe so expensive?!

I gotta just pump this blog out now because I have very little time today (a presentation tomorrow, packing, printing all my info, etc etc) and this blog of mine has the tendency to run on and on and on :)

Okay so! I was originally planning on not going anywhere this weekend and maybe seeing a friend nearby, but that didn't work out, so I last minutely tagged along with my housemates' plans. After class and a test on Thursday I packed up my tiny backpack and then we all headed to the train station around 5pm. We took a looooong ride (3.5 hours) to Rome, booked into our HUGE hostel (unfortunately I had booked separately and was in a separate 1o person room than my housemates), spent way too long figuring out the keys to my door, threw our stuff down, and booked it to the Trevi Fountain. Rome is so magical during the night! Granted, I haven't seen it in the daytime (yet) but walking the emptier, wider and well list streets was a beautiful to catch just a glimpse of Rome. We arrived to the Trevi and were met by a HUGE group of people surrounding the famous fountain. This is where they all had been hiding! We wiggled our way through the crowed, took our necessary pictures, gazed at this famous fountain I am so used to seeing in pictures and on TV, and then headed to the Spanish steps nearby. At one point we were stopped by an older couple who asked us where we were from and we found out they had just gotten engaged at the fountain! They looked so beyond happy, it was very refreshing to talk with them. So the Spanish steps were....cool? I honestly don't know the history of them and at night they weren't very magnificent or anything, but it was still cool to walk up them and see the Vatican in the background. We meandered back home (it was now about midnight) and I proceeded to have a night full of a lot of sleep interruptions (10 people coming in and out plus an open window with cars/ambulances passing below), but all was good.

My roommates woke up early and visited the Colosseum (I decided to skip that part because I will be back to Rome in the summer time) and then we all met up at the train station as planned. We hopped on yet another 3+ hour train ride to Naples but were met with spectacular hillside and oceanside views to make up for it.

Preface: I was very worried about going to Naples. I had heard from many people (usually Italians) that this city was the most dangerous in all of Italy and it was not uncommon to be held at gunpoint or to just be mugged in general. There is a log of mafia in this city as well. But....it is also known for the BEST pizza in the WORLD, and we decided to only go for a few hours during the day.

So we get off at Naples (backpacks and all) and proceed to try to find a well known pizza place that I had looked up beforehand. We got a bit lost, as usual, and I was definitely uneasy by some of the looks we received from people we walked past, but we eventually reached the famous street and began to look for our pizza! Long story short, we had the wrong place all along but asked a local his favorite place instead and had a lovely and relaxing lunch. The pizza was AMAZING. Definitely the best I have had in Italy so far. Maybe note quite as good as I had expected, but still amazing! (side note for those of you who have read "Eat, Pray, Love", the pizza place she ate was just a few streets down! But I had been warned it is now very touristy and it wouldn't be the same). After pizza we meandered down streets and it was just SO italian! There were no tourists, only Italian was swirling all around us, clothes were hung from every window, and the drivers were as crazy as ever. We really enjoyed the culture here (worst part was the trash just laying on the street everywhere, it really was very gross) and by the time we got back to the train station our backs were killing us from our backpacks and we were full and ready to head on.

Now the exciting stuff happened. We are waiting for our train to Pompei when over the speakers, it is announced (in Italian) that there is a train strike and the train is no longer running. I was on the border of freaking out. I refused to be stuck in Naples, of all places!!! We asked around, found a bus that might go there, waited for the bus for a while (unsure if it even went to Pompei), and once the crowd started getting rowdy and scary, and the sun was almost down, we decided to head back to the station. We met our angel here, an employee of Trenitalia, who saw our scared faces and took our tickets from us, stamped them with his official seal, and led us to a different train and company that would be departing in 10 minutes. What a sweet, sweet soul!

The city of Pompei was adorable!! It was so small and just quaint and so safe feeling. Our hostel was amazing (we had our own bathroom, yes!) and we spent the night walking around the town that was largely deserted at that hour, having a drink, and eating some good southern italian food.

We woke up early the next morning, left our stuff at the hostel, and walked a mere 10 minutes to the site of the ruins! We were a bit bummed to find out we had to pay 11 euro to get in, but it was well worth it. We had a map and we just set off! I was a little bummed because I felt like I was looking at these amazing things without actually knowing the history behind it, but I will be back and next time I want to take a tour. This place is HUGE by the way! I didn't realize it was literally an entire city preserved and it took us a good 4 hours to see just a small portion of it. We had to speed walk to the places we wanted to see most but the day was perfectly sunny, the tourists weren't so bad, and the sights were just breath taking. I still can't believe the state most of these buildings and artifacts and PEOPLE are still in (more than 2000 years later!).

After about 5 hours we grabbed our stuff, hopped on a train to Naples (again) and decided on the way that since we would have an extra hour in Naples we should run into town and get a pizza to go :) So Christine and I dropped our stuff off with Vicky and Anna and proceeded to get horribly lost and look like insane idiots (people were seriously looking at us like we were aliens or something) as we ran through street after street looking for our pizza place. We eventually got there, "Di Matteo" was the name, and a huge crowd of people were waiting outside. I snuck my way into the chaos, ordered 3 margheritta pizza's to go from the actual chef, stood in the middle of complete ITalian craziness as pizza's and fried things were passed over and around me, and finally got my pizzas! Christine and I paid the whole 9 euro for all 3, ran back to the station with pizza boxes in our hands, and made it to the train! Before I was even able to catch my breath, we realized that I had booked a different train than the other girls and there's didn't leave for an hour! So they left me with my pizza (I was still content) and I had a nice 3 hour train ride all by myself. I actually really enjoyed this time alone and want to travel somewhere alone before leaving Europe. It is a completely different experience.

After that everything was pretty uneventful. The trains were long, of course, but we talked the entire time and time went by quickly. We got back at around midnight and I conked out. Sunday was a catch up day, like always, but I did make a point to go on a walk outside in the sunny and hot day. I discovered an entire carnival down the river, along with a gorgeous park and some trails! Who knew!

Now I have to go, so much to do with so little time, but Spain awaits!

Ciao!