After the tour of the "Parco della Musica", Diana, Laura and I headed on a quick hunt for lots of the bigs things to see in Rome. We took the metro to Via Veneto, a street where all the famous people used to hang out and of which we talked about in class. Then we ran to the Spanish steps, which had these large concrete things on them. They were some sort of demonstration that just didn't belong there. After that we ran to the Trevie Fountain. Diana really wanted pictures of all of these things in the day time, so that is why there was so much running.
Well, the Trevie was our last stop and we met up with some people there and decided that we all deserved a break after a long day. We went back to the hotel and everyone came and hung out in our room and we had some girl time. (You know, we chatted about the boys we like, etc..haha)
Anywho, after girl-time we went out to supper. We went to a cute little restaurant and had some more great food and bonding time! Then (this is where the title of the post comes in) we got some wine and went and sat by the Trevie Fountain and drank our wine. It was so relaxing and fun; definitely something that doesn't happen everyday! After an hour or two we headed back to the hotel and hung out in the guys room for a while.
(Hint: the next paragraph is quite boring and lists museums/villas/artists we saw on Saturday morning. Feel free to skip it!)
The next day, it was up early to visit the Cancelleria where we got to see Giorgio Vasari's room of 100 days (someone we studied a bit) and a cool exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines. Then, we headed to the suburban Villa Farnesina which had a hall painted by Raphael. We had a bit of time off where we ate lunch and walked around until we headed back to the hotel to get the bus to go to the Villa Borghese. This Villa was also filled with artwork; a lot by Micheangelo called Carravaggio (not the Michelangelo Buonarroti with whom we are all familiar! ;)) and a temporary exhibit comparing Caravaggio and Bacon. As someone who doesn't appreciate, or understand, modern/contemporary art, I was more interested in teh Caravaggio. Italian has truly taught me how to appreciate/like Renaissance Art. I never thought I'd say/write that!!!
After the Borghese we got on the bus and headed home. At the Villa Corsi Salviati (our villa) we had a lovely supper cooked by Bruno then broke apart from each other and skyped/facebooked/looked at pictures, etc.
Rome was such a fantastic trip and I'm so glad that I'm going back for ten days; it'll be great!
Also, I failed to mention all the times that we got gelato in Rome. I hadn't had it since before fall break, so we accidently binged a bit in Rome...oh well......
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sisters, Sisters, Sisters
First of all, the whole time we were in Rome, I counted the number of nuns/sisters in habits that I saw. My total count was 63! And we only spent about 3-4 hours in Vatican City. I can't imagine what my count could be over the ten day trip to Rome for Christmas! It made me really happt to count the sisters and all my friends were helping me out--but, have no fear, I am the best at sighting habits and veils! :)
Anyway, the trip started early Thursday morning; we ate breakfast, packed our lunches, and headed to the bus that was chartered to take us down to Rome. 3-4ish hours later we arrived in Rome. We had a little time to unpack and get settled. I roomed with Laura and Diana. It was a great situation...and the hotel was just like an American hotel, which was quite pleasing! (Towels in the room, bathroom/shower in the room...)
Then, we headed out to meet our guides for the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned all about the ancient, ancient, ancient city of Rome. It was so weird to think I was standing on the same ground that people stood on and rode their chariots on so many thousands of years ago. After the tour of the Forum, the guides took us to the Coliseum and told us a bit about it; then we were free to go. Diana and I ran around the Coliseum taking pictures and looking at it. It was such a strange place....gladiators....human sacrafices...all that crazy gross stuff! I have a picture of me in the Coliseum and I'm smiling...I realized later when I saw it that it is kinda weird to smile there but oh well! Anyway, at 4:30 we met Professor Mariotti at the Arch of Constantine (after getting gelato!) for a little walking tour back toward the hotel. The hotel was by the Theatre of Pompey, which meant nothing to me in terms of geography so I figured I should take advantage of Professor Mariotti's sense of direction in Rome. Per usual, the tour was informative and filled with facts (most of which I can't remember anymore..but it was great nonetheless!).
After adventures back near the hotel to the Fountain of the River Gods we headed to supper. I think there were 6 of us and we ate at outside at a restaurant in some Piazza so that we could people watch. I had a delicious noodle with crushed red pepper (apparently a specialty of Rome); I loved it so much since, evidently, Tuscany doesn't know spicy...and I like spicy! Anyway, after supper we got some wine and ran into some architechture students. Then, a group of about 8 of us found a random bench connected to a building in a random piazza and drank our wine and took some pictures. It wasn't until the next morning on our way to Vatican City that we found out we were drinking wine and "chilling" literally on the steps of the French Embassy...whoops! :)
After our French Embassy encounter we headed back to the hotel for bed. Early Friday morning we set off for our hike to Vatican City. It was a twenty minute or half hour walk and we were there staring at THE VATICAN! It was quite a sight...needless to say my "nun count" shot up from about 9 to 43 in the next few hours. We were told a bit about the structures and what we would see (we had already had 3 hours of in-class lecture on this) and then set loose in the Vatican Museum. I won't go into terrible detail about what I saw, but I do have a couple funny stories:
1) I went through the Museums with Diana and we decided to go to the Sistine Chapel prior to the stanze (rooms) of Raphael. The Sistine is supposed to be the last part of your tour and you can't get back to other parts of the museum....oops! Anyway, we needed to get back in and went and talked and smiled to the guards who let us sneak up the stairs you can only go down "because we were nice"...anyway, we felt pretty cool.
2) When we finished our exploration of the Raphael Stanze and got a decently-priced espresso (how Italian do I sound?) we went back to the Sistine. We were told we had to leave out the door on the left because it will put us right at St. Peter's. Well, that door is reserved for tour groups, but we were told to, whatever we do, get through that door. If you go out the other door you have to walk around the whole country, literally, and then go through security again. Well, the door was shut and there was a mean looking guard by it. So, what do Diana and I do? We blend in with a tour group. A tour group, of Asains! It was funny. The tour guide came and asked us in Italian where we were going, etc. We thought he was going to yell at us but he was super nice and said (in Italian), "Oh yeah, you're going the right way..." That whole situation made me giggle quite a bit!
After this we went through the crypt where a bunch of popes are buried, including John Paul the Great. It was cool to see....Anyway....
3) St. Peter's treasury. It cost 4 Euro to get in and I figured I would go with Maggie and Phil in December and she decided she didn't need to go in. We ran into our friends Ryan and Katie near there and they were also debating paying to get in. Diana and I decided to buy postcards. She walked up to the checkout and said in Italian, "I think I have 5." Well, he corrected her and told her she needed the subjunctive form or something and we started talking. He asked us where we were from and questions like that. Upon hearing we were from WI he says, "Oh, 'That 70s Show" and got really excited because he likes that show. Anyway, others were approaching the checkout and he says, "Do you want to go into the museum for free?" And we say, "What? huh?" Then he told us to wait a minute. After he helped the other customers he asked his question again and upon answering in the affirmative, he took us and told his buddy to let us in for free! It was great!
(I think Diana and I might make a good pair because we got a free bus ride in Oslo too. We like to think it's because we're cute!)
Anyway, after the museum and a walk around St. Peter's we had to get going to make it to the Music Park. It's a newer construction of three huge concert halls that we got a tour of. It was alright and cool to see. The best part was the extremely comfortable chairs. I wanted to steal some for the classroom here at the villa.
I'm going to continue the post from Roma in another post so as to encourage people to read it....it's a little long now....
Anyway, the trip started early Thursday morning; we ate breakfast, packed our lunches, and headed to the bus that was chartered to take us down to Rome. 3-4ish hours later we arrived in Rome. We had a little time to unpack and get settled. I roomed with Laura and Diana. It was a great situation...and the hotel was just like an American hotel, which was quite pleasing! (Towels in the room, bathroom/shower in the room...)
Then, we headed out to meet our guides for the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned all about the ancient, ancient, ancient city of Rome. It was so weird to think I was standing on the same ground that people stood on and rode their chariots on so many thousands of years ago. After the tour of the Forum, the guides took us to the Coliseum and told us a bit about it; then we were free to go. Diana and I ran around the Coliseum taking pictures and looking at it. It was such a strange place....gladiators....human sacrafices...all that crazy gross stuff! I have a picture of me in the Coliseum and I'm smiling...I realized later when I saw it that it is kinda weird to smile there but oh well! Anyway, at 4:30 we met Professor Mariotti at the Arch of Constantine (after getting gelato!) for a little walking tour back toward the hotel. The hotel was by the Theatre of Pompey, which meant nothing to me in terms of geography so I figured I should take advantage of Professor Mariotti's sense of direction in Rome. Per usual, the tour was informative and filled with facts (most of which I can't remember anymore..but it was great nonetheless!).
After adventures back near the hotel to the Fountain of the River Gods we headed to supper. I think there were 6 of us and we ate at outside at a restaurant in some Piazza so that we could people watch. I had a delicious noodle with crushed red pepper (apparently a specialty of Rome); I loved it so much since, evidently, Tuscany doesn't know spicy...and I like spicy! Anyway, after supper we got some wine and ran into some architechture students. Then, a group of about 8 of us found a random bench connected to a building in a random piazza and drank our wine and took some pictures. It wasn't until the next morning on our way to Vatican City that we found out we were drinking wine and "chilling" literally on the steps of the French Embassy...whoops! :)
After our French Embassy encounter we headed back to the hotel for bed. Early Friday morning we set off for our hike to Vatican City. It was a twenty minute or half hour walk and we were there staring at THE VATICAN! It was quite a sight...needless to say my "nun count" shot up from about 9 to 43 in the next few hours. We were told a bit about the structures and what we would see (we had already had 3 hours of in-class lecture on this) and then set loose in the Vatican Museum. I won't go into terrible detail about what I saw, but I do have a couple funny stories:
1) I went through the Museums with Diana and we decided to go to the Sistine Chapel prior to the stanze (rooms) of Raphael. The Sistine is supposed to be the last part of your tour and you can't get back to other parts of the museum....oops! Anyway, we needed to get back in and went and talked and smiled to the guards who let us sneak up the stairs you can only go down "because we were nice"...anyway, we felt pretty cool.
2) When we finished our exploration of the Raphael Stanze and got a decently-priced espresso (how Italian do I sound?) we went back to the Sistine. We were told we had to leave out the door on the left because it will put us right at St. Peter's. Well, that door is reserved for tour groups, but we were told to, whatever we do, get through that door. If you go out the other door you have to walk around the whole country, literally, and then go through security again. Well, the door was shut and there was a mean looking guard by it. So, what do Diana and I do? We blend in with a tour group. A tour group, of Asains! It was funny. The tour guide came and asked us in Italian where we were going, etc. We thought he was going to yell at us but he was super nice and said (in Italian), "Oh yeah, you're going the right way..." That whole situation made me giggle quite a bit!
After this we went through the crypt where a bunch of popes are buried, including John Paul the Great. It was cool to see....Anyway....
3) St. Peter's treasury. It cost 4 Euro to get in and I figured I would go with Maggie and Phil in December and she decided she didn't need to go in. We ran into our friends Ryan and Katie near there and they were also debating paying to get in. Diana and I decided to buy postcards. She walked up to the checkout and said in Italian, "I think I have 5." Well, he corrected her and told her she needed the subjunctive form or something and we started talking. He asked us where we were from and questions like that. Upon hearing we were from WI he says, "Oh, 'That 70s Show" and got really excited because he likes that show. Anyway, others were approaching the checkout and he says, "Do you want to go into the museum for free?" And we say, "What? huh?" Then he told us to wait a minute. After he helped the other customers he asked his question again and upon answering in the affirmative, he took us and told his buddy to let us in for free! It was great!
(I think Diana and I might make a good pair because we got a free bus ride in Oslo too. We like to think it's because we're cute!)
Anyway, after the museum and a walk around St. Peter's we had to get going to make it to the Music Park. It's a newer construction of three huge concert halls that we got a tour of. It was alright and cool to see. The best part was the extremely comfortable chairs. I wanted to steal some for the classroom here at the villa.
I'm going to continue the post from Roma in another post so as to encourage people to read it....it's a little long now....
Raise your hand if....
....you are terrible at blogging!
I'm raising my hand. It's been a while. So much has happened that I've failed to write about....darnit. It all stopped after my trip to Rome when I didn't want to blog without our schedule so that I could make sure to write everything that I did. I could never find the schedule. So, alas, you will only get what I can remember three weeks later...
I'm raising my hand. It's been a while. So much has happened that I've failed to write about....darnit. It all stopped after my trip to Rome when I didn't want to blog without our schedule so that I could make sure to write everything that I did. I could never find the schedule. So, alas, you will only get what I can remember three weeks later...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Io vado la città del Papa per il weekend...
I'm going to the city of the Pope this weekend!!! Our program is taking us to Rome leaving early tomorrow morning. 7:30 to be exact. I'm getting up in 6 hours! Ahh. I'm super excited and just thought I'd drop a little note to let everyone know what I'm up to now. We are going on so many tours and stuff...this trip will focuse a lot more on the ancient Rome stuff--of course we are going to the Vatican museums, St. Peter's, and the Sistine chapel--but we are also doing all the stuff that Maggie told me I should do now so we don't have to do it when she and Phil come!
Today Ashley, Ashley, Diana, Tessa and I helped plan our friend Laura's life. It's the time of year where we have to register for classes and Laura is a first semester junior with no major. We ran reports with possible majors and told her what she would need for each major. It was so much fun as the 5 of us who helped are quite in love with the timetable and class schedules, etc. I signed up for classes today and got all of the classes I need for Communicative Disorders. (I'm also in a Wisconsin Folklore class right now!) I think I may try to get into a Stats or Computer Science class that I need, but we'll see.
Anyway, it's off to bed then Roma...buona notta! :)
Today Ashley, Ashley, Diana, Tessa and I helped plan our friend Laura's life. It's the time of year where we have to register for classes and Laura is a first semester junior with no major. We ran reports with possible majors and told her what she would need for each major. It was so much fun as the 5 of us who helped are quite in love with the timetable and class schedules, etc. I signed up for classes today and got all of the classes I need for Communicative Disorders. (I'm also in a Wisconsin Folklore class right now!) I think I may try to get into a Stats or Computer Science class that I need, but we'll see.
Anyway, it's off to bed then Roma...buona notta! :)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
My life back in school...
March 4, 2011: I have no idea why this post was not originally posted a year-and-a-half ago when I wrote it. :)
Fall break has come and gone and it's been about a week and a half since I've returned. I'm feeling better but still have a sore throat. There are some unused rooms here at the villa above the kitchen which have been termed the "quarentine" rooms. One girl is actually stuck there because she has the flu. She's not allowed to come to meals, go to classes, etc. That would stink...I'm avoiding the quarentine rooms at all costs!
Fall break has come and gone and it's been about a week and a half since I've returned. I'm feeling better but still have a sore throat. There are some unused rooms here at the villa above the kitchen which have been termed the "quarentine" rooms. One girl is actually stuck there because she has the flu. She's not allowed to come to meals, go to classes, etc. That would stink...I'm avoiding the quarentine rooms at all costs!
Classes are truckin' along. I think I'm down to four weeks of classes and finals week. It's going scary fast! My internship with the bambini is going well--I think I've written before about how I go "teach" English to little Italian children once a week...I say "teach" because we actually only play games or do activities! Last week, we did MadLibs. They absolutely loved it. The only problem is I forgot these fourth graders don't know past tense and perfect past and present progressive and all of those verb forms...the teach had to translate the story into Italian so they knew what was going on, but it was great!
Last weekend was a relaxing weekend. Thursday night a bunch of Villains (as we like to call ourselves) gathered and played sardines--or reverse hide-and-go-seek. It was so fun because, as you can imagine, this villa is huge! We are going to play again, but with better boundaries set and more rules. Also, we want to play a large game of Clue, like a murder mystery party, but we have yet to figure out how to go about that. I'm going to look into it soon! Friday I got up and made lunch and had breakfast and then went back to bed--until noon!!! It was great; I haven't slept in in forever. My friend Laura came up to my room about 12:30 and had just woken up too. Most of the Villains were in a town called Prato for the morning with Prof. Mariotti. I never signed up for it, so I didn't go. Laura, Ashley and I watched the movie P.S. I Love You in the early afternoon and by the time it was done, everyone was back from Prato. Friday night we watched another movie, Twilight. Saturday Laura and I went into Florence. We went to the Boboli gardens which were beautiful, but then it started raining. Laura didn't dress for the elements at all...she was wearing a short sleeved shirt. So, we were pretty cold and decided to go to the Accademia to warm up. We wanted to sit behind the David and listen to what people had to say about him. One person mentioned something that most art historians, including Prof. Mariotti, don't agree with. We wanted to correct him, but knew that would be rude!
Halloween on a boat, in Stockholm...
The morning we left for Stockholm, I was feeling a little sick but nothing too bad. My muscles were really sore which I thought was odd, but it was alright. We got to Stockholm and did the age-old routine of walking and finding our hostel. This time, it was about a 45 minute walk to our hostel and thankfully we had that GPS. As the title suggests and previous posts mentioned, our hostel was a boat. It was fun! We checked in and made our beds and then headed out for, you guessed it, some food! Amanda had heard of an Irish pub in Stockholm so we went to check that out.
The weather was in the 40s but didn't seem that cold! (Boy, were we wrong!) We found this pub and there was a guy checking coats. I was so cold and didn't want to give him my fleece. He also wanted the equivalent of 2 Euro in Swedish Crowns for our coats. Amanda said she wasn't going to pay because she didn't want to give him her fleece in the first place. He said, "fine fine, for free." And so we were basically forced by this guy to give up our coats. I said "but I'm going to freeze" he assured me I would be fine. Supper was about the point I realized that the sore muscles and feeling sick wasn't going to go away. Throughout all of supper I was freezing (onset of a fever!) I did have some delicious cajun chicken strips and then got some tea because I was soooooooooo cold. Anyway, they wanted to do some shopping afterwards so we went to H&M where I proceeded to buy a sweatshirt and a pair of mittens because i was that cold. I also really wasn't feeling well and just wanted to go to bed.
After a while of shopping and walking around we went back to the hostel where we met the French, Austrailian and Grecian men staying with us in our hostel room. We talked for a while and I laid down. Then we played some more cards. Abe went back out to get some Chinese food later while the three of us stayed in the hostel. At this point I felt terrible. I don't think I've had a fever in many years and have decided that I don't like them. I just wanted to go to bed. So, I tried. But, I was so cold that I eventually fell asleep with my teeth chattering. (And, of course, woke up all night sweating....)
Anyway, the next day (Halloween) I didn't feel much better but didn't want to sit in the hostel all day alone. We actually slept in a little and ended up leaving about 10am. I was so out of it that I left and tried reading the hostel sign and couldn't see what it said, at which point I realized that I hadn't put my contacts in. hah. Anyway, all we did all day was walk around. It was a great way to see the city. Around lunch time I was ready for a nap or at least to sit down. We finally found a place...Italian food! One day before returning to Italy! What a terrible idea. But, I had a pizza with chicken, pineapple and...BANANAS!...it was the strangest idea but I liked it a lot.
After lunch we wandered some more and shopped some more. I don't really remember what else happened, but I know it gets dark there by 4pm, at which point your body tells you it must be bedtime! It was Saturday night and we were going to be traveling all day Sunday so we found a church for me to go to. Actually Laura and Amanda found it because my brain was not working and I definitely couldn't figure out how a blackberry works. I went and it was fun! I sat next to someone who I was pretty sure was an English speaker if only for the fact that we shooks hands at the sign of piece only to look at everyone else who was bowing at eachother with their hands folded. It was funny! Anyway, after mass she asked if I was an English speaker and then talked to me about the "Legions of Mary" which she was trying to get started in Stockholm. She and a friend were from London where they were members there and she told me to look it up when I get back to thet states. It was fun! After mass we headed back to the hostel and Amanda, Laura, and I didn't want to brave the cold again. Abe eventually went out for Chinese food..again.
We left early in the morning for the adventure back to Italy. Stockholm was a very pretty, clean city. I like it a lot and think had I not been walking around in a haze I would have liked it even more. Definitely a place to visit again.
The weather was in the 40s but didn't seem that cold! (Boy, were we wrong!) We found this pub and there was a guy checking coats. I was so cold and didn't want to give him my fleece. He also wanted the equivalent of 2 Euro in Swedish Crowns for our coats. Amanda said she wasn't going to pay because she didn't want to give him her fleece in the first place. He said, "fine fine, for free." And so we were basically forced by this guy to give up our coats. I said "but I'm going to freeze" he assured me I would be fine. Supper was about the point I realized that the sore muscles and feeling sick wasn't going to go away. Throughout all of supper I was freezing (onset of a fever!) I did have some delicious cajun chicken strips and then got some tea because I was soooooooooo cold. Anyway, they wanted to do some shopping afterwards so we went to H&M where I proceeded to buy a sweatshirt and a pair of mittens because i was that cold. I also really wasn't feeling well and just wanted to go to bed.
After a while of shopping and walking around we went back to the hostel where we met the French, Austrailian and Grecian men staying with us in our hostel room. We talked for a while and I laid down. Then we played some more cards. Abe went back out to get some Chinese food later while the three of us stayed in the hostel. At this point I felt terrible. I don't think I've had a fever in many years and have decided that I don't like them. I just wanted to go to bed. So, I tried. But, I was so cold that I eventually fell asleep with my teeth chattering. (And, of course, woke up all night sweating....)
Anyway, the next day (Halloween) I didn't feel much better but didn't want to sit in the hostel all day alone. We actually slept in a little and ended up leaving about 10am. I was so out of it that I left and tried reading the hostel sign and couldn't see what it said, at which point I realized that I hadn't put my contacts in. hah. Anyway, all we did all day was walk around. It was a great way to see the city. Around lunch time I was ready for a nap or at least to sit down. We finally found a place...Italian food! One day before returning to Italy! What a terrible idea. But, I had a pizza with chicken, pineapple and...BANANAS!...it was the strangest idea but I liked it a lot.
After lunch we wandered some more and shopped some more. I don't really remember what else happened, but I know it gets dark there by 4pm, at which point your body tells you it must be bedtime! It was Saturday night and we were going to be traveling all day Sunday so we found a church for me to go to. Actually Laura and Amanda found it because my brain was not working and I definitely couldn't figure out how a blackberry works. I went and it was fun! I sat next to someone who I was pretty sure was an English speaker if only for the fact that we shooks hands at the sign of piece only to look at everyone else who was bowing at eachother with their hands folded. It was funny! Anyway, after mass she asked if I was an English speaker and then talked to me about the "Legions of Mary" which she was trying to get started in Stockholm. She and a friend were from London where they were members there and she told me to look it up when I get back to thet states. It was fun! After mass we headed back to the hostel and Amanda, Laura, and I didn't want to brave the cold again. Abe eventually went out for Chinese food..again.
We left early in the morning for the adventure back to Italy. Stockholm was a very pretty, clean city. I like it a lot and think had I not been walking around in a haze I would have liked it even more. Definitely a place to visit again.
München, ich liebe dich!
Munich, a wonderful city...we began our tour of Munich by arriving at the airport at about 1:00. Then we had a 1.5 hour bus ride into the city. The bus ride cost 18 Euro and that was a lot; we thought maybe a taxi would be cheaper. I knew it was on me to ask since I was the only one who spoke an German. I went up and asked, "Wie viel kostet...a Munich, i mean München...." I couldn't remember the German word for "to" (nach) so I used Italian (a). Then he told me and told us that if we had 8 people it would be 18.75 Euro per person. While, we only had four people and the bus was still cheaper, so the bus it was. I said "grazie" and started to walk away only to realize "grazie" is quite Italian and not German at all so I turned back and yelled "danke" over my shoulder.
AFter arriving at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) we began the familiar routine of finding the hostel and checking in. The hostel was actually really close to the train station so it was easy to find. We checked in, made our beds and headed out to find something to eat. We hadn't an idea of where to go so we started walking. After a long time, I realized that was ridiculous and we would never just stumble upon somewhere we would eat. Mostly because we were not in teh main touristy area so most places only had German menus which was an issue because I didn't bring my dictionary from the hostel and Abe is Jewish so he doesn't eat pork. I had no idea what the word for pork was! Anyway, my awesome navigation skills eventually got us to the Viktuelienmmarkt which was something like a farmer's market with a beer garden. Laura, Amanda and I got brats and Amanda and I got good, German beer! Then we played some cards and eventually shared a big German pretzel..yum!
After that we walked around and saw the Marienplatz and some other things. We wanted to do laundry and so we headed back to the hostel kind of early. After doing our laundry we headed to bed. We got up early the next morning to go to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. We spend a majority of the day there going on a guided tour and in the museum. It was such a learning experience and a I enjoyed it...it seems weird to say I enjoyed that, but whatever!
Anyway, after our lovely guided tour from Franz and some more museum time, we were ready to catch a train back to Munich. We went back to the hostel to rest a minute then headed back out for supper. I really wanted to go to the Hofbräuhaus and they didn't care so I led them there. We walked in and I thought it would take us hours to find a table...but one walk around the large building and we had one! I had some delicious pork dish that was sooooo tasty. We also had more good, German beer.
After supper it was pretty late so we headed back to the hostel. We had to get up early the next morning to go to Stockholm so we went to bed early. We got to the bus stop to take us to the airport in what we thought was plenty of time to get to the airport. But, we hadn't actually looked at schedules and had forgotten how long of a ride it was, etc. so Amanda was freaking out that we would miss our flight. I figured we would be alright. Well, actually, I figured either we'd make it or we wouldn't and there wasn't any senese in freaking out. We got to the airport with like 30 minutes to spare so we thought we'd have to rush through security. It turns out, which we didn't notice upon arrival to the airport, it competes in size with Alexander Field, the Wisconsin Rapids airport. It was such a small airport and took us about 3 minutes to go through security and get to the gate. Also, our flight boarded late so it didn't matter anyway. Thus ended our German adventure.
AFter arriving at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) we began the familiar routine of finding the hostel and checking in. The hostel was actually really close to the train station so it was easy to find. We checked in, made our beds and headed out to find something to eat. We hadn't an idea of where to go so we started walking. After a long time, I realized that was ridiculous and we would never just stumble upon somewhere we would eat. Mostly because we were not in teh main touristy area so most places only had German menus which was an issue because I didn't bring my dictionary from the hostel and Abe is Jewish so he doesn't eat pork. I had no idea what the word for pork was! Anyway, my awesome navigation skills eventually got us to the Viktuelienmmarkt which was something like a farmer's market with a beer garden. Laura, Amanda and I got brats and Amanda and I got good, German beer! Then we played some cards and eventually shared a big German pretzel..yum!
After that we walked around and saw the Marienplatz and some other things. We wanted to do laundry and so we headed back to the hostel kind of early. After doing our laundry we headed to bed. We got up early the next morning to go to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. We spend a majority of the day there going on a guided tour and in the museum. It was such a learning experience and a I enjoyed it...it seems weird to say I enjoyed that, but whatever!
Anyway, after our lovely guided tour from Franz and some more museum time, we were ready to catch a train back to Munich. We went back to the hostel to rest a minute then headed back out for supper. I really wanted to go to the Hofbräuhaus and they didn't care so I led them there. We walked in and I thought it would take us hours to find a table...but one walk around the large building and we had one! I had some delicious pork dish that was sooooo tasty. We also had more good, German beer.
After supper it was pretty late so we headed back to the hostel. We had to get up early the next morning to go to Stockholm so we went to bed early. We got to the bus stop to take us to the airport in what we thought was plenty of time to get to the airport. But, we hadn't actually looked at schedules and had forgotten how long of a ride it was, etc. so Amanda was freaking out that we would miss our flight. I figured we would be alright. Well, actually, I figured either we'd make it or we wouldn't and there wasn't any senese in freaking out. We got to the airport with like 30 minutes to spare so we thought we'd have to rush through security. It turns out, which we didn't notice upon arrival to the airport, it competes in size with Alexander Field, the Wisconsin Rapids airport. It was such a small airport and took us about 3 minutes to go through security and get to the gate. Also, our flight boarded late so it didn't matter anyway. Thus ended our German adventure.
They really do drive on the wrong side of the road...
I originally thought everyone in Europe drove on the opposite side of the road. Then, I went to Germany and was proven wrong. I started believing that maybe it was all a lie and no one actually drove on the opposite side of the road. And then I went to London...and Dublin. It was so great. Immediately after disembarking the plane we got on a bus, and the door was on the left side where the steering wheal should have been. I loved it.
Also, written all over the crosswalks in both cities was directions on which way to look it said "look left" or "look right" and pointed to the corresponding direction. We nearly got hit numerous times! It was funny because everything you were ever taught about which way to look before crossing the street--something we don't even think about anymore--was called into question and changed. I would look at the commands of which way to check for traffic but wouldn't believe them because it felt all wrong. I would eventually have to look left then right and left and right again before crossing, just to make sure. My mind was so confused. But everything was okay because steering wheels were on the right side of cars!
Also, written all over the crosswalks in both cities was directions on which way to look it said "look left" or "look right" and pointed to the corresponding direction. We nearly got hit numerous times! It was funny because everything you were ever taught about which way to look before crossing the street--something we don't even think about anymore--was called into question and changed. I would look at the commands of which way to check for traffic but wouldn't believe them because it felt all wrong. I would eventually have to look left then right and left and right again before crossing, just to make sure. My mind was so confused. But everything was okay because steering wheels were on the right side of cars!
Ireland, the land o' me mother
Monday morning it was time to head to Dublin. We could have flown from London to Dublin, but we decided to take the ferry. We also picked the cheeper one that took two hours longer. We board the ferry to find out it is a cruise ship (basically) filled with dining halls, lounges, bars, and a movie theater. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (the film Heath Ledger was filming when he died) was playing in the theater and we considered watching that but went to get lunch first. It turns out the ferry wasn't quite a cruise ship in that I started feeling sick right away and could feel the boat moving. At this point, I thought the movie was a great idea. So, we went to that. It was good, although quite strage...
When it was over it was nearly Dublin time! We had to take a bus to the city center and then started walking to find our hostel. (Amanda had a blackberry with gps on it that helped us navigate quite frequently!) We found our hostel, checked in, and headed out to find a place for supper. We had looked at at least 20 menus before picking a pub. Amanda and I shared a pretty decent burger. Then, we walked around for a while, checked out the river and the temple bar area (very touristy), got a Guinness then went to the hostel and called it a night.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast in the hostel. Then we started walking around without any clear plans for the day. We saw Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral (both from the outside since it cost a few euro to get in and I think my friends were pretty churched-out). We found a park and a playground and went on the swings for a while. For lunch we found this great little place with a "3 course" meal and pop for around 7 euro. I had spanish meatballs, fries, and nachos. It was really just a little bowl of each, like a sample...but it was delicious nonetheless! After lunch we walked some more then headed to the Guinness factory. We had alredy made reservations so getting our tickets went smoothly and we headed in to the factory. It wasn't like a normal, Wisconsin brewery tour in that it was self guided and you didn't actually get to see the production of Guinness. But, again, fun nonetheless. With the ticket you get one free pint of Guinness either on the top floor of the brewery or on the fourth floor where you would be taught how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. Of course, we opted for learning how to pour Guinness. It was pretty difficult, but now I know all the tricks (for example, it can only be poured in a very clean Guinness glass and the beer must be 6 degrees celcius)...anyway, I'll give you more pointers if you're interested. I know have a certificate that says "Jane Voelker has crafted the perfect pint of Guinnesss." I thought I should apply to work at a bar in Madison when I get back and attach that to the application! (I tried to upload a photo, but it wouldn't work....Italian Internet...)
Anyway, after the tour we went to the "Queen of Tarts" bakery that Amanda's friend recommended where I had yet another fabulous cupcake! Then we stopped at a souvenir shop to look for claddagh rings. I decided that I wanted to get one and Amanda wanted one too (although she's Mexican she grew up in the South? side of Chicago with tons of Irish people! haha) We finally found a cute one and she said it was bad luck to buy your own claddagh ring, so we bought each others!
Then we went back to the hostel to make free phone calls back to the states. I called home and Emma answered. We talked for a while since no one else was home and then I hung up and went upstairs for a nap. Well, actually they only had one phone so we had to go one at a time. While I was waiting for Abe and Amanda to get done I lived out part of my worst nightmare. I think this hostel may have doubled as a middle school or orphanage. We were in the common room and there were 9 middle schoolers gathered around a computer laughing at facebook. 2 middle schoolers playing guitar and singing. Another group of middle school boys playing bloody knuckles and a group thinking they were cool drinking some sort of low-alcohol content beer. Everyone was screaming and it was a nightmare. Needless to say, after a few minutes I went and waited on the bench outside for them to finish.
After naptime we went out for supper. We did the same ol' look at 3000 menus before picking a place, but finally agreed upon something. The next morning we were leaving early for Munich so we headed to bed at a decent hour.
Oh, we also got offered cocaine. A man asked if we wanted some and we said, "no thanks!" Then he proceeded to show us his hand filled with little balls? of cocaine and asked if we were sure. Then, we ran. Dublin disappointed me a bit. I thought there was going to be pots o' gold and leprechauns everywhere. (Not to mention I thought I would see "Houlihan" written everywhere, but I didn't see it once!) But, instead there were tons of homeless people and lots of trash everywhere. I think next time I visit Ireland I will stear clear of Dublin and go to the countryside or to Kerry county, the actual land of me mother, right? Anyway, it was a fun trip, but too short! And before I knew it, we were off to Munich, another land o' me forefathers.
When it was over it was nearly Dublin time! We had to take a bus to the city center and then started walking to find our hostel. (Amanda had a blackberry with gps on it that helped us navigate quite frequently!) We found our hostel, checked in, and headed out to find a place for supper. We had looked at at least 20 menus before picking a pub. Amanda and I shared a pretty decent burger. Then, we walked around for a while, checked out the river and the temple bar area (very touristy), got a Guinness then went to the hostel and called it a night.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast in the hostel. Then we started walking around without any clear plans for the day. We saw Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral (both from the outside since it cost a few euro to get in and I think my friends were pretty churched-out). We found a park and a playground and went on the swings for a while. For lunch we found this great little place with a "3 course" meal and pop for around 7 euro. I had spanish meatballs, fries, and nachos. It was really just a little bowl of each, like a sample...but it was delicious nonetheless! After lunch we walked some more then headed to the Guinness factory. We had alredy made reservations so getting our tickets went smoothly and we headed in to the factory. It wasn't like a normal, Wisconsin brewery tour in that it was self guided and you didn't actually get to see the production of Guinness. But, again, fun nonetheless. With the ticket you get one free pint of Guinness either on the top floor of the brewery or on the fourth floor where you would be taught how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. Of course, we opted for learning how to pour Guinness. It was pretty difficult, but now I know all the tricks (for example, it can only be poured in a very clean Guinness glass and the beer must be 6 degrees celcius)...anyway, I'll give you more pointers if you're interested. I know have a certificate that says "Jane Voelker has crafted the perfect pint of Guinnesss." I thought I should apply to work at a bar in Madison when I get back and attach that to the application! (I tried to upload a photo, but it wouldn't work....Italian Internet...)
Anyway, after the tour we went to the "Queen of Tarts" bakery that Amanda's friend recommended where I had yet another fabulous cupcake! Then we stopped at a souvenir shop to look for claddagh rings. I decided that I wanted to get one and Amanda wanted one too (although she's Mexican she grew up in the South? side of Chicago with tons of Irish people! haha) We finally found a cute one and she said it was bad luck to buy your own claddagh ring, so we bought each others!
Then we went back to the hostel to make free phone calls back to the states. I called home and Emma answered. We talked for a while since no one else was home and then I hung up and went upstairs for a nap. Well, actually they only had one phone so we had to go one at a time. While I was waiting for Abe and Amanda to get done I lived out part of my worst nightmare. I think this hostel may have doubled as a middle school or orphanage. We were in the common room and there were 9 middle schoolers gathered around a computer laughing at facebook. 2 middle schoolers playing guitar and singing. Another group of middle school boys playing bloody knuckles and a group thinking they were cool drinking some sort of low-alcohol content beer. Everyone was screaming and it was a nightmare. Needless to say, after a few minutes I went and waited on the bench outside for them to finish.
After naptime we went out for supper. We did the same ol' look at 3000 menus before picking a place, but finally agreed upon something. The next morning we were leaving early for Munich so we headed to bed at a decent hour.
Oh, we also got offered cocaine. A man asked if we wanted some and we said, "no thanks!" Then he proceeded to show us his hand filled with little balls? of cocaine and asked if we were sure. Then, we ran. Dublin disappointed me a bit. I thought there was going to be pots o' gold and leprechauns everywhere. (Not to mention I thought I would see "Houlihan" written everywhere, but I didn't see it once!) But, instead there were tons of homeless people and lots of trash everywhere. I think next time I visit Ireland I will stear clear of Dublin and go to the countryside or to Kerry county, the actual land of me mother, right? Anyway, it was a fun trip, but too short! And before I knew it, we were off to Munich, another land o' me forefathers.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Londra
Ciao miei belli amici! I suppose it's time to write a bit about London, or Londra as we say here. Our new flight was scheduled for Saturday morning at 10am. We were planning on leaving the villa at 5:15. Abe came and woke me up at 5:00--apparently I turned off my alarm--so I didn't get to shower. Anyway, we traveled to Pisa then got to the airport a little over 2 hours prior to our flight. The flight went well and we landed in London, FINALLY! Anyway, sparring you the boring details, we found our hostel...The Walrus. I picked that hostel because first, I think the walrus is a funny animal and secondly, I like the Beatles song that is was named after. Anyway, we tossed our stuff on our beds and headed out to get supper and explore the town.
With our limited time in Londra, we did a lot. We traveled by the tube to save time and get to most of the things we wanted to see. Here's a list of the wonderful things we saw in Londra (and keep in mind, we had like 30 hours to do this all):
-Hard Rock Cafe vault tour (we saw all sorts of great rock memorabilia stored in a vault under the gift shop).
-Met up with Amanda's friend who's studying in London and went out to a restaurant.
-Walked a lot, got a little lost.
-Mass, in English, which was a pleasant change.
-Saw the Notting Hill neighborhood and had amazing cupcakes there.
-Harry Potter's platform 9 3/4
-Abbey Road and the recording studio, from the outside. Of course, we took the signature Abbey Road picture.
-Cabinet War Rooms (This was the underground "lair" of all British operations during WWII. It was a great museum with a lot of cool stuff to see, and a lot of information about Churchhill.)
-Imperial War Museum (We only got to this a half hour before it closed...and it's a huge museum. This was a little sad; next time I'm in London I think I would reserve at least a half a day in the building, if not more, to see everything. It's also free!)
-A few meals
-Saw Big Ben
-Rode lots of escalators
-Saw Buckingham palace; we were there on the wrong day to be able to see the changing of the guards, but that's okay.
-Saw some sort of London Royal Navy Parade type thing--we still aren't really sure what it was.
-Got close to the guards. (No, mom, I didn't try and make them laugh like I've always wanted to. But, I'm planning an attack for next time I'm in London because I will make them laugh. I was just a little thrown off/scared of their large guns.)
-Walked around St. James Park and took tons of beautiful pictures, even some with a giant pelican that was sitting in the middle of the path.
This is all I can think of for now--and it's lunch time. But, I'll update the list if I recall anything else. London was great and I'll definitely go back there!
Oh, and did you know they drive on the wrong side of the road. But more on that after the Dublin post (because they do that there too!).
With our limited time in Londra, we did a lot. We traveled by the tube to save time and get to most of the things we wanted to see. Here's a list of the wonderful things we saw in Londra (and keep in mind, we had like 30 hours to do this all):
-Hard Rock Cafe vault tour (we saw all sorts of great rock memorabilia stored in a vault under the gift shop).
-Met up with Amanda's friend who's studying in London and went out to a restaurant.
-Walked a lot, got a little lost.
-Mass, in English, which was a pleasant change.
-Saw the Notting Hill neighborhood and had amazing cupcakes there.
-Harry Potter's platform 9 3/4
-Abbey Road and the recording studio, from the outside. Of course, we took the signature Abbey Road picture.
-Cabinet War Rooms (This was the underground "lair" of all British operations during WWII. It was a great museum with a lot of cool stuff to see, and a lot of information about Churchhill.)
-Imperial War Museum (We only got to this a half hour before it closed...and it's a huge museum. This was a little sad; next time I'm in London I think I would reserve at least a half a day in the building, if not more, to see everything. It's also free!)
-A few meals
-Saw Big Ben
-Rode lots of escalators
-Saw Buckingham palace; we were there on the wrong day to be able to see the changing of the guards, but that's okay.
-Saw some sort of London Royal Navy Parade type thing--we still aren't really sure what it was.
-Got close to the guards. (No, mom, I didn't try and make them laugh like I've always wanted to. But, I'm planning an attack for next time I'm in London because I will make them laugh. I was just a little thrown off/scared of their large guns.)
-Walked around St. James Park and took tons of beautiful pictures, even some with a giant pelican that was sitting in the middle of the path.
This is all I can think of for now--and it's lunch time. But, I'll update the list if I recall anything else. London was great and I'll definitely go back there!
Oh, and did you know they drive on the wrong side of the road. But more on that after the Dublin post (because they do that there too!).
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Safe and Sound in Italy!
I thought I'd drop a quick update to let y'all know that I am safe and sound in Florence. I had quite the week of traveling and lots of "hurry up and wait" experiences as we like to call them around the Voelker household. I'll be posting about each city over the next couple of days; probably sooner rather than later seeing as how I have copious amounts of work that I need to do this week! :) Well, I'm kind of tired from the trip and not sure where to start with the posting (obviously, I'll start with London)...but my brain really isn't working right now. I guess I'll have to turn that ol' brain back on before class tomorrow. A domani!
Friday, October 23, 2009
A Good ol' Italian Sciopero...
We've been told about these mystical, make-believe strikes that happen in Italy all the time. Usually with buses and trains, etc. Today, we started our fall break trip at 9:30 am and headed to our train. After a few switches we made it to the Pisa airport where our flight was schedule to depart from at 2:55pm. I run up, excitedly, to the tv screen with departure times to make sure our flight wasn't delayed and to my dismay, I see "CANCELLED" in beautiful flashing letters. We were a bit scared, but decided to get to the bottom of it.
After talking with many different Ryan Air employees, Amanda doing some calling back to the states, some phone calls to people left at the villa, internet searching and more, we find out that Italian Air Traffic has gone and strike from 12-4pm and our flight will not be departing from Pisa today. So, we get in the rebooking line--a super long line in a room that was like 90 degrees. Well, Amanda, Abe, Julian, and Laura got in line and the other Laura and I laid on the ground and watched our stuff (and napped!). The news came that we would be flying out at ten in the morning the next day, so we packed up and got on a train back to Florence. Shoot!
Once we made it back to the Villa we all did some relaxing in our respective rooms, printed out our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight, and then went out to eat. We had made reservations for Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant in Florence for 7pm. At 6:15 we left the Villa, got on a train at 6:29 and arrived in Florence at 7:26 and made it to the restaurant at 7:45ish. But, besides the really long bus trip and being late for super it was great! The food was really delicious and we had "margarita azure" (blue margaritas) that tasted quite a bit like a blue raspberry slushie, so I loved them! :)
The bus ride home went quite rapidly and now it's nearly 11 o'clock and we are all heading to bed early so that we can get up and leave the villa be 5:15 am to try and get to London...again!
I just thought I'd give everyone a quick update on my day that seemed jammed pack...although, in reality, it was completely unproductive...and I didn't make it to London yet! We were out some money for train tickets to and from and back to Pisa, a bus ticket to downtown London from the airport, and possibly some money for our hostel...but I'm determined to make it to London tomorrow, no matter what it takes! :) Peace and love from Florence!
By the way, in Italian Sciopero means strike!
After talking with many different Ryan Air employees, Amanda doing some calling back to the states, some phone calls to people left at the villa, internet searching and more, we find out that Italian Air Traffic has gone and strike from 12-4pm and our flight will not be departing from Pisa today. So, we get in the rebooking line--a super long line in a room that was like 90 degrees. Well, Amanda, Abe, Julian, and Laura got in line and the other Laura and I laid on the ground and watched our stuff (and napped!). The news came that we would be flying out at ten in the morning the next day, so we packed up and got on a train back to Florence. Shoot!
Once we made it back to the Villa we all did some relaxing in our respective rooms, printed out our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight, and then went out to eat. We had made reservations for Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant in Florence for 7pm. At 6:15 we left the Villa, got on a train at 6:29 and arrived in Florence at 7:26 and made it to the restaurant at 7:45ish. But, besides the really long bus trip and being late for super it was great! The food was really delicious and we had "margarita azure" (blue margaritas) that tasted quite a bit like a blue raspberry slushie, so I loved them! :)
The bus ride home went quite rapidly and now it's nearly 11 o'clock and we are all heading to bed early so that we can get up and leave the villa be 5:15 am to try and get to London...again!
I just thought I'd give everyone a quick update on my day that seemed jammed pack...although, in reality, it was completely unproductive...and I didn't make it to London yet! We were out some money for train tickets to and from and back to Pisa, a bus ticket to downtown London from the airport, and possibly some money for our hostel...but I'm determined to make it to London tomorrow, no matter what it takes! :) Peace and love from Florence!
By the way, in Italian Sciopero means strike!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Fall Break--Like Spring Break, In The Fall!
Madison should adopt the fall break plan. It's just like spring break, but in the fall! What a phenomenal idea! I love it. Anway, after the Italian midterm we had supper then some fall break planning. I did my laundry today and I'm proud to say that, for the first time since I got here, all of my clothes are clean at the same time! Of course, they are all sitting in large, clean piles on my bed...darnit! We did some internet searching and tried to find things to do in the different places we're visiting. Here's the itinerary:
Fri Oct. 23-travel from Florence to Pisa to London
Sat Oct. 24-London (probable bike tour of London this day)
Sun Oct. 25-London
Mon Oct. 26-travel by ferry to Dublin
Tues Oct. 27-Dublin (Guinness brewery tour and finding my Irish future-husband this day... also, a chocolate festival)
Wed Oct. 28-travel to Munich
Thurs Oct. 29-Munich (probably going to Dachau concentration camp)
Fri Oct. 30-travel to Stockholm
Sat Oct. 31-Stockholm (No definite plans in stockholm, but our hostel is acutally on/in a boat)
Sun Nov. 1-travel to Milan and back to Florence
We don't spend a ton of time in any one place and the whole week will be go, go, go, but it will be a great taste of what Europe has to offer! Rest assured, I will blog about my experience when I return on the 1st of November. I think I am going to write down 3 fun/funny/exciting things from each day or city to post on here so that the blog posts aren't as long as these last few. This will also force whoever is reading this to email or skype me with more details questions! Muahaha...
Anyway, we are catching a 10 o'clock train out of here tomorrow morning so I'm off to pack since it's quarter to 1. I hope everyone has a wonderfully-spooky halloween as I know I will in Stockholm!
Fri Oct. 23-travel from Florence to Pisa to London
Sat Oct. 24-London (probable bike tour of London this day)
Sun Oct. 25-London
Mon Oct. 26-travel by ferry to Dublin
Tues Oct. 27-Dublin (Guinness brewery tour and finding my Irish future-husband this day... also, a chocolate festival)
Wed Oct. 28-travel to Munich
Thurs Oct. 29-Munich (probably going to Dachau concentration camp)
Fri Oct. 30-travel to Stockholm
Sat Oct. 31-Stockholm (No definite plans in stockholm, but our hostel is acutally on/in a boat)
Sun Nov. 1-travel to Milan and back to Florence
We don't spend a ton of time in any one place and the whole week will be go, go, go, but it will be a great taste of what Europe has to offer! Rest assured, I will blog about my experience when I return on the 1st of November. I think I am going to write down 3 fun/funny/exciting things from each day or city to post on here so that the blog posts aren't as long as these last few. This will also force whoever is reading this to email or skype me with more details questions! Muahaha...
Anyway, we are catching a 10 o'clock train out of here tomorrow morning so I'm off to pack since it's quarter to 1. I hope everyone has a wonderfully-spooky halloween as I know I will in Stockholm!
Hold the Phone...We Have Midterms Here?
Yes, this week was midterm week. I had an art history and an Italian midterm today. They both went pretty well..I think. Anway, after my Italian midterm ended today, my fall break began....see next post.
Oslo is Magical
The story of the missing keys continues...three of the girls went back to where we played in the leaves to look for the keys and four of us looked where some kart-wheeling was taking place earlier in the day. Both explorations went without reward and we headed to look by the palace. When we got to the infamous hill that we rolled down, Kelsey found some of the Ashley's eyedrops...we knew the keys had to be there somewhere!!! Sure enough, a few seconds later, Ashley Mac yells, "keys"...and so ends the curious case of the missing keys. This is why we say Oslo is magical, because that would never have happened in Florence.
We were a pit pooped out after all the searching so we caught the tram up the mountain to our cabin. We were also quite excited because we bought the fixings for grilled cheeses the night before--something we all missed quite a bit and had been craving for oh, so long. We made grilled cheese after grilled cheese and kept cutting them in quarters and everyone got their fair share. Let me tell you, mom, everyone was quite impressed with my grilled cheese making skills, so thank you! We also had a pack of dry tomato soup mix with instructions--in Norwegian. Although some words some similar to German, that doesn't cut it with soup making directions. Fortunately it was tomato soup, so we added a little water and a little milk (we were able to decipher the word milk on the package). It was graded by the group a C for eating as soup but an A for dipping your grilled cheese in. Grilled cheeses were followed by ice cream and bed. We put all of the mattresses on the floor of the living room and had a sleepover...whose idea was that, you ask? Of course, it was yours truly. It was a great sleepover.
Sunday morning we woke up and had some more eggs and french toast for breakfast...oh yeah, and leftover ice cream! Then, Diana and I had to jet to get to mass and everyone else was going to meet us in town later in the morning. Mass was so great in Norwegian because it sounds like everything is made up and they aren't actually saying anything! Also, the priest looked like Paul McCartney thirty years ago...weird.
After mass we met up with the other folks and walked by the water's edge. We stumbled upon a castle--only in Europe--and wandered around until we had to catch a bus for the airport at 2ish. We made our flight and got to the Milan airport on time. We then found our rental car and drove home. This time, we stuck two people in the trunk and it worked out quite well!
There are a few things I loved about Oslo:
1) It was super clean.
2) They had big cars--trucks, range rovers, minivans--I know these are not so environmental friendly, but I like big cars.
3) The Norwegian language makes me giggle, a lot. (I learned a great Norwegian phrase: Jeg Elsker Deg...it means "I love you".
4) It was so beautiful
5) Free tap water at the restaurant
6) Toilet seats and soap in bathrooms
The list could go on and on. I think I may have fallen in love with Norway, and when I go to Stockholm soon, I'll see if I can say I've fallen in love with Scandinavia.
We were a pit pooped out after all the searching so we caught the tram up the mountain to our cabin. We were also quite excited because we bought the fixings for grilled cheeses the night before--something we all missed quite a bit and had been craving for oh, so long. We made grilled cheese after grilled cheese and kept cutting them in quarters and everyone got their fair share. Let me tell you, mom, everyone was quite impressed with my grilled cheese making skills, so thank you! We also had a pack of dry tomato soup mix with instructions--in Norwegian. Although some words some similar to German, that doesn't cut it with soup making directions. Fortunately it was tomato soup, so we added a little water and a little milk (we were able to decipher the word milk on the package). It was graded by the group a C for eating as soup but an A for dipping your grilled cheese in. Grilled cheeses were followed by ice cream and bed. We put all of the mattresses on the floor of the living room and had a sleepover...whose idea was that, you ask? Of course, it was yours truly. It was a great sleepover.
Sunday morning we woke up and had some more eggs and french toast for breakfast...oh yeah, and leftover ice cream! Then, Diana and I had to jet to get to mass and everyone else was going to meet us in town later in the morning. Mass was so great in Norwegian because it sounds like everything is made up and they aren't actually saying anything! Also, the priest looked like Paul McCartney thirty years ago...weird.
After mass we met up with the other folks and walked by the water's edge. We stumbled upon a castle--only in Europe--and wandered around until we had to catch a bus for the airport at 2ish. We made our flight and got to the Milan airport on time. We then found our rental car and drove home. This time, we stuck two people in the trunk and it worked out quite well!
There are a few things I loved about Oslo:
1) It was super clean.
2) They had big cars--trucks, range rovers, minivans--I know these are not so environmental friendly, but I like big cars.
3) The Norwegian language makes me giggle, a lot. (I learned a great Norwegian phrase: Jeg Elsker Deg...it means "I love you".
4) It was so beautiful
5) Free tap water at the restaurant
6) Toilet seats and soap in bathrooms
The list could go on and on. I think I may have fallen in love with Norway, and when I go to Stockholm soon, I'll see if I can say I've fallen in love with Scandinavia.
There are tickets to Oslo for 15 Euro, who wants to go?
One day, after fall break trips had been planned, and we were in the trip-planning mood, we decided to make a weekend trip somewhere and started looking for cheap plane tickets. Ashley found one for 15 Euro, round trip to Oslo, Norway. Seven of us raised our hands and the tickets were booked. And then we realized that we should find a hostel there...the hostels were all booked...I guess we should have checked ahead. But, things worked out and we found a cute cabin in a campsite that slept 5. We then realized it was kind of expensive to take the train to Milan so looked into other options--like renting a car.
Well, the day finally came and we were off to Oslo. It ended up being 7 girls total: Kelsey, Laura, Ashley Mac, Ashley S., Yunha, Diana, and me. We rented a car because that was going to be the cheapest way to get to Milan. The only problem was that the car only fit five. We originally had a little 2 door car, but when Ashley and I went to the Florence airport to pick up the car, we sweet talked our way into a four door sedan--still small for American standards. But, after putting one girl in the trunk and four in the back seat we all fit. (My quick wit and I had already "shotgunned" navigating so I got the front seat! haha...and Ashley S. was the only one who could drive stickshift.) It was a three hour drive that went without a hitch! Ashley Mac, who was in the trunk, slept like a baby the whole way! We ate our packed lunch in the airport then boarded the plane for Oslo.
When we got to Oslo, we had an hour and a half bus ride into the city. When we got to the city we checked out the city map and how to get to the campsite. Since we were only supposed to have 5 people in the cabin and three of us were hugnry, we split up. Diana, Yunha, and I went to this huge establishment, Egon. Diana and I got a huge Tex-Mex burger with fries...and yummy alternative to the usual pasta and pasta. We also got a pitcher of tap water with ice. And refilled it, twice. This is such a rare commodity to find in Europe. We definitely take that for granted in the US. It was so delicious. Then we made our way to the campground and found the cabin. The other girls had gone out and gotten an American style pizza. They also had the heat on for us when we got back and some hot water ready for tea. We warmed up (the weather was probably in the 50s, I think) and watched some TV...oh yeah, there was a plasma TV in our cabin. We went to bed pretty early. We then all woke up in the middle of the night in a huge sweat because we forgot to turn the heat down...yuck! It was so warm and we did some window and door opening. I moved off the top bunk and settled in on the tile floor of the living room which was much more bearable than that top bunk! Besides the heating problem, we made it through the night unscathed.
Saturday morning brought with it beautiful fall weather! It was the perfect weather for jeans, a fleece, and a scarf. We made some eggs for breakfast than walked up a hill to try and find the metro train. It was a long walk up...but so beautiful! We ended up finding a little visitor center in a little part of the mountain where the world ski championship (or something along those lines) will be happening in 2011 and they were building a ski jump of sorts for it. There were also some fantastic houses and great views of the city. Near the visitor center there was also a great grassy hill...and I had the urge to do some rolling down hills. So, I did. It was so much fun. We finally found the tram to take us into town and did some walking around in town. For lunch, we split up again. 4 of the girls were going to the Grand Cafe which had lots of semi-expensive sea food--not exactly up my alley. Laura wanted to go to Burger King. So, Diana and I went with to Burger King...in Oslo. It turns out Oslo doesn't have a lot of their "own" food; more of a mash of all other foods...so we weren't really missing out on a lot. And their main specialty is seafood which I don't like, and there's lutefisk and since dad doesn't eat that, I'm sure I won't like it!
After lunch we got some American coffee from the 7-11...you know, coffee in a large cup that you can drink for a while and it keeps your hands warm, instead of the Italian espresso. We also wandered until we found a church for me to go to Sunday Morning. Then we made our way toward the royal palace and a sculpture garden. Behind the royal palace was a pretty decent grassy hill and Ashley S. wanted to do some hill rolling; so we did! Then we went on to the sculpture park and walked around and took pictures. On the way back toward the palace and downtown we found a wonderful open area with sooooooo many leaves! We stopped and sat down and played in the leaves for an hour and a half. It was so fantastic! Then, we made our way to the entrance of the park--just so you know, this place is huge--and Ashley realized the keys to the cabin weren't in her pocket...
the saga will continue in the next post.....
Well, the day finally came and we were off to Oslo. It ended up being 7 girls total: Kelsey, Laura, Ashley Mac, Ashley S., Yunha, Diana, and me. We rented a car because that was going to be the cheapest way to get to Milan. The only problem was that the car only fit five. We originally had a little 2 door car, but when Ashley and I went to the Florence airport to pick up the car, we sweet talked our way into a four door sedan--still small for American standards. But, after putting one girl in the trunk and four in the back seat we all fit. (My quick wit and I had already "shotgunned" navigating so I got the front seat! haha...and Ashley S. was the only one who could drive stickshift.) It was a three hour drive that went without a hitch! Ashley Mac, who was in the trunk, slept like a baby the whole way! We ate our packed lunch in the airport then boarded the plane for Oslo.
When we got to Oslo, we had an hour and a half bus ride into the city. When we got to the city we checked out the city map and how to get to the campsite. Since we were only supposed to have 5 people in the cabin and three of us were hugnry, we split up. Diana, Yunha, and I went to this huge establishment, Egon. Diana and I got a huge Tex-Mex burger with fries...and yummy alternative to the usual pasta and pasta. We also got a pitcher of tap water with ice. And refilled it, twice. This is such a rare commodity to find in Europe. We definitely take that for granted in the US. It was so delicious. Then we made our way to the campground and found the cabin. The other girls had gone out and gotten an American style pizza. They also had the heat on for us when we got back and some hot water ready for tea. We warmed up (the weather was probably in the 50s, I think) and watched some TV...oh yeah, there was a plasma TV in our cabin. We went to bed pretty early. We then all woke up in the middle of the night in a huge sweat because we forgot to turn the heat down...yuck! It was so warm and we did some window and door opening. I moved off the top bunk and settled in on the tile floor of the living room which was much more bearable than that top bunk! Besides the heating problem, we made it through the night unscathed.
Saturday morning brought with it beautiful fall weather! It was the perfect weather for jeans, a fleece, and a scarf. We made some eggs for breakfast than walked up a hill to try and find the metro train. It was a long walk up...but so beautiful! We ended up finding a little visitor center in a little part of the mountain where the world ski championship (or something along those lines) will be happening in 2011 and they were building a ski jump of sorts for it. There were also some fantastic houses and great views of the city. Near the visitor center there was also a great grassy hill...and I had the urge to do some rolling down hills. So, I did. It was so much fun. We finally found the tram to take us into town and did some walking around in town. For lunch, we split up again. 4 of the girls were going to the Grand Cafe which had lots of semi-expensive sea food--not exactly up my alley. Laura wanted to go to Burger King. So, Diana and I went with to Burger King...in Oslo. It turns out Oslo doesn't have a lot of their "own" food; more of a mash of all other foods...so we weren't really missing out on a lot. And their main specialty is seafood which I don't like, and there's lutefisk and since dad doesn't eat that, I'm sure I won't like it!
After lunch we got some American coffee from the 7-11...you know, coffee in a large cup that you can drink for a while and it keeps your hands warm, instead of the Italian espresso. We also wandered until we found a church for me to go to Sunday Morning. Then we made our way toward the royal palace and a sculpture garden. Behind the royal palace was a pretty decent grassy hill and Ashley S. wanted to do some hill rolling; so we did! Then we went on to the sculpture park and walked around and took pictures. On the way back toward the palace and downtown we found a wonderful open area with sooooooo many leaves! We stopped and sat down and played in the leaves for an hour and a half. It was so fantastic! Then, we made our way to the entrance of the park--just so you know, this place is huge--and Ashley realized the keys to the cabin weren't in her pocket...
the saga will continue in the next post.....
Lucca, Lucca, Lucca, I love Lucca
The weekend after Amalfi, my roommate Amanda's friend Erinn was visiting Florence. She goes to school at Madison and is studying in Copenhagen. She's a cool person and was fun to hang out with. On Friday, I went into Florence to buy a dress for the Opera that we were going to the next week. At night, my roommate Kristine and I went and met up with Erinn and Amanda who had gone out to eat. We had a little wine and then went to get gelato. When we got back to the villa, we hung out in our room and had a little photo shoot. That day was actually the first time we got a picture with all three roommates together--how precious! :) Then we went to bed some what early with the intention of going to bologna in the morning.
In the morning Kristine decided not to come and Laura said she needed to study all day so it was just Amanda, Erinn and me. When we got to Santa Maria Novella--the main train station--and went to buy tickets to Bologna, they wanted 20 Euro a ticket...we weren't having that so we picked a new destination. We decided to go to Lucca, a small city with its ancient walls still standing. There was a bit of a fiasco with me getting stuck in the train doors and a little public embarassment, but we got over it. Once we got to Lucca, we walked around and it was great--everything seemed to move in slow motion, unlike Florence. We found a little cafe for lunch and I had some pesto pasta. The best part of that was an English translation on the menu: instead of "coffee with ginseng" it said, "coffee to the ginseng"...menu translations are usually pretty funny.
Then, we went into the beautiful cathedral in Lucca where Amanda and I recognized some artwork and artists that we had been studying in Art History. We had an (intelligent) conversation about it...something I could never have done two months ago!
We decided to rent bikes after our visit to the church. You can ride on top of the walls of the city and go all the way around. It's a pretty crowded walking/biking path filled with the cutest old men. We took so many pictures of people and Lucca and the beautiful mountains in the background. We tried biking in the city, but there was a lot of traffic and it wasn't as fun as biking on the path. We went back to the path and eventually stopped to play in the grass a while. After biking for two hours it started to rain a bit. I got my umbrella out and rode my bike with the umbrella--not as dangerous as it sounds, mom! Anyway, lots of people thought it was pretty funny and many strangers were taking my picture.
After we returned the bikes (which only cost 5 Euro for two and a half hours--what a steal!) we wanted to get some supper. We decided on Chinese food, Lucca Chinese food. It was quite a learning experience. I don't know that I would repeat it...but it was fun nonetheless.
We took the train back to Sesto and called it a night. Sunday I got up went to church with Erinn, who I happened to run into on the street; she really had no way of getting a hold of Amanda after a phone situation, so this worked out well! Sunday during the day, I did some homework and probably napped...yes, I'm pretty certain I napped most of the day! haha
It was a great weekend! The next week was pretty relaxing. I had a required movie for my literature class on Tuesday night and we went to the Opera on Wednesday. It was so fun to get all dressed up. I had watched the movie version of the opera we saw (La Traviata) with English subtitles so I knew what was going on...sort of. Overall, it was a great night and a good week of classes.
Again, check facebook soon for photos and I'll try to put some on here after fall break.
In the morning Kristine decided not to come and Laura said she needed to study all day so it was just Amanda, Erinn and me. When we got to Santa Maria Novella--the main train station--and went to buy tickets to Bologna, they wanted 20 Euro a ticket...we weren't having that so we picked a new destination. We decided to go to Lucca, a small city with its ancient walls still standing. There was a bit of a fiasco with me getting stuck in the train doors and a little public embarassment, but we got over it. Once we got to Lucca, we walked around and it was great--everything seemed to move in slow motion, unlike Florence. We found a little cafe for lunch and I had some pesto pasta. The best part of that was an English translation on the menu: instead of "coffee with ginseng" it said, "coffee to the ginseng"...menu translations are usually pretty funny.
Then, we went into the beautiful cathedral in Lucca where Amanda and I recognized some artwork and artists that we had been studying in Art History. We had an (intelligent) conversation about it...something I could never have done two months ago!
We decided to rent bikes after our visit to the church. You can ride on top of the walls of the city and go all the way around. It's a pretty crowded walking/biking path filled with the cutest old men. We took so many pictures of people and Lucca and the beautiful mountains in the background. We tried biking in the city, but there was a lot of traffic and it wasn't as fun as biking on the path. We went back to the path and eventually stopped to play in the grass a while. After biking for two hours it started to rain a bit. I got my umbrella out and rode my bike with the umbrella--not as dangerous as it sounds, mom! Anyway, lots of people thought it was pretty funny and many strangers were taking my picture.
After we returned the bikes (which only cost 5 Euro for two and a half hours--what a steal!) we wanted to get some supper. We decided on Chinese food, Lucca Chinese food. It was quite a learning experience. I don't know that I would repeat it...but it was fun nonetheless.
We took the train back to Sesto and called it a night. Sunday I got up went to church with Erinn, who I happened to run into on the street; she really had no way of getting a hold of Amanda after a phone situation, so this worked out well! Sunday during the day, I did some homework and probably napped...yes, I'm pretty certain I napped most of the day! haha
It was a great weekend! The next week was pretty relaxing. I had a required movie for my literature class on Tuesday night and we went to the Opera on Wednesday. It was so fun to get all dressed up. I had watched the movie version of the opera we saw (La Traviata) with English subtitles so I knew what was going on...sort of. Overall, it was a great night and a good week of classes.
Again, check facebook soon for photos and I'll try to put some on here after fall break.
Wow, I stink at this! Amalfi Coast Oct. 2-4
I know, I stink at blogging; I was doing so well for a while! Oh well, enough dreading on the past. The first weekend in October was amazing!!! Twelve of us from the Villa went on a trip to the Amalfi coast of Italy. It was so beautiful. This was also the weekend that it got real cold in Wisconsin--haha. We took a night train to Salerno...what a journey! When we bought our tickets ahead of time on a little computer kiosk in the main train station of Florence, we were under the impression the train would be like a normal train...you know, two seats next to each other, etc. Well, it was actually little cars of 6 people. And we could have filled two cars perfectly and been super comfortable...but we didn't get tickets next to each other...shoot! Anyway, there were four of us in our car and we were okay because the seats laid down and my friend Laura and I kind of cuddled all night. I got plenty of sleep...some people got none! In Rome, they turned the air conditioner off and everyone got so warm and gross. Anyway, we arrived in Salerno at 5:30 and were greated by rain! yay! I was in a great mood because I got so much sleep! haha We eventually found a bus to take us to the town of Amalfi.
Amalfi was so beautiful and right on the coast. Everyone headed toward the middle of town except my roommate Amanda and I bolted toward the pier to check out of awesome water! Eventually, we met up with everyone at the cafe they found. We watched hoards of children head up a hill to school--it was so cute! Then we headed back towards the water and relaxed on the pier in the cool 7am drizzle. We were trying to kill some time in the little cities on the way to Sorrento because we couldn't get into our hostel until 4pm. We eventually boarded a coach bus towards Sorrento with the intention of stopping in a picturesque little town called Positano. Well, this was a packed coach bus trip on the crazy windy hills of the Italian coast. We ended up missing the stop in Positano...and a few of us nearly got sick. I don't know that I've ever felt so car sick before. Maggie would have died for sure! It didn't help that people were standing filling up the aisles, our backpacks were on our laps, and it was stuffy. Anyway, an hour and a half later we made it to Sorrento and had to then find our hostel. I explained my car sickness feeling as someone had taken my brain out of my head, spun it in 100 circles and put it back in my head, upside down, and my stomach was in my throat. The fresh air helped and we made it to the hostel.
At that point, we had to wait an hour or so until our room was ready. The hostel restaurant opened back up for us and we had pretty darn good hamburgers. Then, we got our room and it was shower and nap time. Later, people decided to go out to eat for supper. Laura, Amanda and I weren't really hungry so we got a gatorade from the grocery store and found a park to hang out in. We all met back up at the hostel that evening and had a couple drinks on the beautiful rooftop lounge.
Early Saturday morning we were scheduled for an all day Capri boat tour. We thought we were going to get to hand out on the island of Capri all day--this wasn't the case..it was even better! We were sad when we first saw the boat...it looked like a little dinghy that would barely hold us all (the 12 of us, 2 Aussies, the captain and 2 of his friends). But, we started by boating to a little bay with a waterfall and jumped into the beautiful blue water. Then we drove to a nice rock where we "cliff dived"--not exactly a cliff, but it was probably 20 feet high or so. Then we drove around and saw some little caves where the bright water reflects onto the rocks. We eventually had lunch--the standard tomato, mozzerella, basil sandwich of Italy--and then headed on our tour again. We went to the champagne rock, the green grotto and many other picture perfect spots.
The highlight of the day was probably swimming in the blue grotto. Usually, there are rowboats hanging outside of the grotto and you pay to sit in one and row into the grotto. The seas were too rough and not the right conditions so it was closed. When we pulled up, our captain Andrea told us to swim in and be careful to swim flat at one part because there was a shallow rock. We said, "okay" and hopped right in. Inside was absolutely beautiful, everything was so blue. You have to google image search the blue grotto and check it out. I think it's kind of undescribable. Anyway, when we finally emerged from the grotto, we were told that it was quite illegal to swim in there...but it didn't matter--it was so great!
We continued on the boat tour and got some good views of Capri and Mount Vesuvius. Our tour ended at like 6:30 at night and when we got back to the hostel we showered and got ready for supper. We went out to eat with our new Aussie friends (yes, Libby, Aussies!). Amanda and I shared a quarter or half of chicken and some pasta...it was delicious and cheap. After supper we went back to the hostel and hung out on the roof there again.
Sunday, most of the group wanted to go to Pompeii. Two people were going back to Florence early to save a little money and get home earlier to get work done. While I wanted to go to Pompeii, I decided I had to head back to Florence so that I could get to church that weekend. Andy, Diana and my trip home ended up taking quite a while. Our trip from Rome to Florence took four hours and we were expecting it to take and hour and a half...i guess that's what we get for taking a regional train instead of a Eurostar.
Anyway, we made it home at 5ish and mass was at 6 at the Duomo (Cathedral). Diana and Andy went home and I hung out on the steps of the Duomo until mass. Then, I went home and got some supper and tried to absorb all of the wonderful events of that weekend. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've had.
Check out facebook so some pictures from it...I'll try and add pictures to this when I get back from fall break in a week.
Amalfi was so beautiful and right on the coast. Everyone headed toward the middle of town except my roommate Amanda and I bolted toward the pier to check out of awesome water! Eventually, we met up with everyone at the cafe they found. We watched hoards of children head up a hill to school--it was so cute! Then we headed back towards the water and relaxed on the pier in the cool 7am drizzle. We were trying to kill some time in the little cities on the way to Sorrento because we couldn't get into our hostel until 4pm. We eventually boarded a coach bus towards Sorrento with the intention of stopping in a picturesque little town called Positano. Well, this was a packed coach bus trip on the crazy windy hills of the Italian coast. We ended up missing the stop in Positano...and a few of us nearly got sick. I don't know that I've ever felt so car sick before. Maggie would have died for sure! It didn't help that people were standing filling up the aisles, our backpacks were on our laps, and it was stuffy. Anyway, an hour and a half later we made it to Sorrento and had to then find our hostel. I explained my car sickness feeling as someone had taken my brain out of my head, spun it in 100 circles and put it back in my head, upside down, and my stomach was in my throat. The fresh air helped and we made it to the hostel.
At that point, we had to wait an hour or so until our room was ready. The hostel restaurant opened back up for us and we had pretty darn good hamburgers. Then, we got our room and it was shower and nap time. Later, people decided to go out to eat for supper. Laura, Amanda and I weren't really hungry so we got a gatorade from the grocery store and found a park to hang out in. We all met back up at the hostel that evening and had a couple drinks on the beautiful rooftop lounge.
Early Saturday morning we were scheduled for an all day Capri boat tour. We thought we were going to get to hand out on the island of Capri all day--this wasn't the case..it was even better! We were sad when we first saw the boat...it looked like a little dinghy that would barely hold us all (the 12 of us, 2 Aussies, the captain and 2 of his friends). But, we started by boating to a little bay with a waterfall and jumped into the beautiful blue water. Then we drove to a nice rock where we "cliff dived"--not exactly a cliff, but it was probably 20 feet high or so. Then we drove around and saw some little caves where the bright water reflects onto the rocks. We eventually had lunch--the standard tomato, mozzerella, basil sandwich of Italy--and then headed on our tour again. We went to the champagne rock, the green grotto and many other picture perfect spots.
The highlight of the day was probably swimming in the blue grotto. Usually, there are rowboats hanging outside of the grotto and you pay to sit in one and row into the grotto. The seas were too rough and not the right conditions so it was closed. When we pulled up, our captain Andrea told us to swim in and be careful to swim flat at one part because there was a shallow rock. We said, "okay" and hopped right in. Inside was absolutely beautiful, everything was so blue. You have to google image search the blue grotto and check it out. I think it's kind of undescribable. Anyway, when we finally emerged from the grotto, we were told that it was quite illegal to swim in there...but it didn't matter--it was so great!
We continued on the boat tour and got some good views of Capri and Mount Vesuvius. Our tour ended at like 6:30 at night and when we got back to the hostel we showered and got ready for supper. We went out to eat with our new Aussie friends (yes, Libby, Aussies!). Amanda and I shared a quarter or half of chicken and some pasta...it was delicious and cheap. After supper we went back to the hostel and hung out on the roof there again.
Sunday, most of the group wanted to go to Pompeii. Two people were going back to Florence early to save a little money and get home earlier to get work done. While I wanted to go to Pompeii, I decided I had to head back to Florence so that I could get to church that weekend. Andy, Diana and my trip home ended up taking quite a while. Our trip from Rome to Florence took four hours and we were expecting it to take and hour and a half...i guess that's what we get for taking a regional train instead of a Eurostar.
Anyway, we made it home at 5ish and mass was at 6 at the Duomo (Cathedral). Diana and Andy went home and I hung out on the steps of the Duomo until mass. Then, I went home and got some supper and tried to absorb all of the wonderful events of that weekend. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've had.
Check out facebook so some pictures from it...I'll try and add pictures to this when I get back from fall break in a week.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It literally means the "five lands" and is composed of 5 little villages connected by paths. (Thank you wikipedia!) Anyway, lots of other people from my program already hiked Cinque Terre a few weeks ago. (We had plans to do it, but it was going to rain and we didn't do enough planning.) But, we were determined to do it this weekend.
Yesterday, Amanda (not my roommate or the house fellow...a different Amanda), Julian, Laura, Yunha, and I set out to conquer the trails. We packed some food for breakfast and lunch and hit the train at 9am. (All of the other groups that went from the villa in the past weeks left at 5am...we decided that was quite ridiculous!) We had to wait for a while for a train so we had our breakfast!
Yesterday, Amanda (not my roommate or the house fellow...a different Amanda), Julian, Laura, Yunha, and I set out to conquer the trails. We packed some food for breakfast and lunch and hit the train at 9am. (All of the other groups that went from the villa in the past weeks left at 5am...we decided that was quite ridiculous!) We had to wait for a while for a train so we had our breakfast!
Here's Amanda and Laura with our breakfast: off brand Honey Nut Cheerios and red pop (we thought it was juice, but it wasn't!).
We had three hours or so on the train until we got to La Spezia, the bigger town just outside the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. We bought tickets for the park and then found a different train to take us to village number 5. We had some insider advice about starting at village 5 and ending at 1 since the hike from 5 to 4 and 4 to 3 are the hardest and the longest. When the train emptied out at city one, we giggled because we knew the right way to hike! 10 minutes later
we got to Monterosso and began the hike. It was soooo exhausting and quite strenuous. (Everyone had told us about how beautiful the views were and how much fun they had...they forgot to mention anything about us actually having to do hard work!) Anyway, it took about two hours to get to the second town, Vernazza.
we got to Monterosso and began the hike. It was soooo exhausting and quite strenuous. (Everyone had told us about how beautiful the views were and how much fun they had...they forgot to mention anything about us actually having to do hard work!) Anyway, it took about two hours to get to the second town, Vernazza.Here's Vernazza from the trail.
The hike was a lot of up and down stairs, but it was fun. Two of our companions dropped out after the first city and took a bus to the next town while we hiked. We thought the bus sounded like a really good idea but knew we would regret it if we didn't hike. From Vernazza to the next town, Corniglia, there seemed to be a lot of stairs. I think leaving the city started with a few hundred followed by a few hundred more five minutes up the trail! (And a few hundred more mear minutes later)
This is our victory picture (Julian, me, and Laura) that some French Canadians took of us after making it from Vernazza to Corniglia. (We were told by a friend from the villa that was hiking the other way that after this portion, it was a cake walk!)
The orginal plan was to find a beah at Corniglia to swim. Unfortunately for us, Corniglia wasn't as close to sea level as the first two towns. So, we met back up with Amanda and Yunah and had some lunch. (We had packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which were such a treat since peanut butter is quite rare this side of the Atlantic!) Here's what we saw when we rounded a corner of a mountain. This is Corniglia...where we wanted to swim...have a look...
Here's Corniglia, see, the little village way up on the cliff. Shoot, no swimming there!
Anyway, after lunch we headed to Manarola. From Corniglia on, the hike was a cake-walk. It started with 368 actual stairs down (1. thankfully they were down, not up... 2. I say actual stairs because they weren't made of compacted earth and rocks...they were tile and cement!). Julian, Laura and I got a little excited about the stairs and accidently ran all the way down! It was so much fun! Then, we figured we'd meet up with Yunha and Amanda later because they were pretty far behind us after we ran! So, we kept walking and found some stairs that led down to a "beach." This beach was all rocks, but it was water! We swam for a while in the very chilly and refreshing sea. We had brought swimsuits, which was a great idea, because we were able to let our clothes air out a bit. (Here's exciting news: from this point on in the journey, I didn't sweat! It was quite a nice change from the rest of the day!)
When we got to Manarola, Amanda and Yunha had sat down to eat. Julian joined them and Laura and I went to get gelato. I had some amazing green apple gelato...yum! Then, Laura and I did some searching and found some rocks right on the edge of the water to relax while the others ate. We did some talking, some listening to music, some writing, and watched the sunset. It was so great to have a little relaxing and quiet after the rest of our journey!
Here's a picture Laura took of me. This is where we were sitting and watching the sunset. It was a near-perfect evening!
Well, we finally made our way to Riomaggiore. This walk was about 20 minutes long and is also called "lover's walk". When we got to Riomaggiore it was pretty dark and we didn't explore the town much as we had to catch a train to La Spezia so that we could catch a train to Pisa to transfer to a different train to Florence where we caught a bus home to the villa!
The trip to Cinque Terre was, as I told the people with me, one of the best experiences of my life! It was so undescribable--although, I seem to have found plently of words here to describe it! Finally, I'm going to have to suggest, that if you ever make a trip to Northern Coastal Italy...check out Cinque Terre!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Boys don't help plan anything...fall break plans!
Fall break is rapidly approaching, well not too rapidly, it falls (haha) during the last week of October. My plans went back and forth a bunch of times due to traveling with different people and cheaper flights. We had our plans pretty much set and then turned our itinerary completely around because we could save heaps of money.
Laura, Amanda Villa, Abe, and I will be traveling together. We will start the trip by flying from Milan to London and stay for three nights (my roommate Amanda and friend Julian will also be there during our stay). Then, we catch a train/ferry combo to Dublin for two nights. This is followed by a plane ride to Munich for two nights. Our final destination is Stockholm, Sweden. We are super excited about all of this. (Esp. Stockholm as we will be staying on a boat, transformed into a hostel!) After two nights in Stockholm we fly back to Milan so we can get back for classes on Nov. 2.
Anyway, we are all over the map because it was the cheapest way to plan the trip. Our original plans included Amsterdam and not Stockholm. However, we saved like 200 Euro by going to Stockholm!!! (Exclamation points are officially back! (Because I am just that excited about this trip!))
Finally, about the title of this post. Abe, the guy coming with us on our trip, was worthless. Just kidding! (Kind of!) This past Sunday morning we sat down to plan the trip and look up hostels and spent 4 hours or so booking the trip, and what did he do? He handed Amanda his credit card and driver's license and let her do everything for him. If he tried to do that to me, I would have made him come book everything himself! For the record, I'm not mad about this at all and am really excited about Abe coming along because he is pretty hilarious!
A post about my Saturday adventure is coming tomorrow...stay tuned!
So, here's to waiting 24 more days until I can start that adventure (with a trip to the Almalfi coast and a trip to Oslo, Norway tucked into those 24 days, of course!).
Laura, Amanda Villa, Abe, and I will be traveling together. We will start the trip by flying from Milan to London and stay for three nights (my roommate Amanda and friend Julian will also be there during our stay). Then, we catch a train/ferry combo to Dublin for two nights. This is followed by a plane ride to Munich for two nights. Our final destination is Stockholm, Sweden. We are super excited about all of this. (Esp. Stockholm as we will be staying on a boat, transformed into a hostel!) After two nights in Stockholm we fly back to Milan so we can get back for classes on Nov. 2.
Anyway, we are all over the map because it was the cheapest way to plan the trip. Our original plans included Amsterdam and not Stockholm. However, we saved like 200 Euro by going to Stockholm!!! (Exclamation points are officially back! (Because I am just that excited about this trip!))
Finally, about the title of this post. Abe, the guy coming with us on our trip, was worthless. Just kidding! (Kind of!) This past Sunday morning we sat down to plan the trip and look up hostels and spent 4 hours or so booking the trip, and what did he do? He handed Amanda his credit card and driver's license and let her do everything for him. If he tried to do that to me, I would have made him come book everything himself! For the record, I'm not mad about this at all and am really excited about Abe coming along because he is pretty hilarious!
A post about my Saturday adventure is coming tomorrow...stay tuned!
So, here's to waiting 24 more days until I can start that adventure (with a trip to the Almalfi coast and a trip to Oslo, Norway tucked into those 24 days, of course!).
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday Frolics in Fiesole
We had no big plans for Friday so decided a day trip to Fiesole was in order. Fiesole is a little town on the opposite side of Florence than Sesto. We were able to take a bus to the train station in Florence and then switch buses to go out to Fiesole. Laura, the house fellow Amanda, and my roommates Amanda and Kristine went with. The city is pretty small and cute...the reason for many wanting to visit is the amazing view of Florence from the top of the city. Well, we sat and ate our packed lunch while staring down at Florence then walked a while and explored the city. We walked around for a while until we found a nice, high ledge to sit on and relax.
Here's Amanda, the house fellow, me and my roommate Amanda at the ledge that we hung out on. (It's really bad quality because I stole it off of facebook and put it on here!)
After that, we wandered around the city some more then sat down for coffee and relaxed some more. At this point it was about 5:00 and we wanted to make sure we got home before supper, of course!
I was so exhausted and decided to nap for an hour before supper. After supper, I did some skyping with Tracy, a friend from school and my mom. Of course, mom had to go right away becuase she had to go make a cherry pie because Maggie and Phil were coming over for supper...not fair!
Anyway, it was a fun day filled with lots of walking. We made plans on Friday to hike Cinque Terre on Saturday, but more on that in the next post!
Here's Florence from Fiesole. The picture looks better when it's bigger, and it's kind of smoggy looking. Weird. Anyway, it was quite a beautiful sight!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
No more exclamation points!!!!
I gave my blog address to my roommate Amanda and she said I use exclamation points a lot. I agree, but they are so much fun to use. I suppose I will stop using them to please her. (Shoot, I just used one and had to delete it. It just happened again.)
Anyway, we spend a couple hours tonight trying to make fall break plans. I think our itinerary (as of now) includes Dublin, London, Amsterdam and Bavaria. Tomorrow is probably the day we will be booking everything. I'll let you know more details as we finalize our fantastic plans. :)
But Jane, you forgot to mention your Gondola ride?
You go to Paris and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You go to Florida and go to Disney World. You go to Rome and see the Colosseum and the Vatican. You go to Venice and ride in a gondola.
These statements are usually pretty true for tourists. Unless said gondola ride costs 120 Euro. What a tourist trap! And apparently the gondoliers don't sing Venetian songs, they sing Neapolitan songs...not that I could tell the difference there! Anyway, gondola rides were just too expensive and walking around was good enough for me!
There was a 50 cent gondola that took you across the canal...but I unfortunately never stumbled upon that. I just wanted to make sure and clear that up for everyone! (And don't worry, I still had a great time in Venice without a gondola ride!)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
One more thing....
There are so many double-names in the villa. I mean there are under 40 students so you wouldn't think this would happen. Here's a taste of what we're dealing with.
An Andy and and Andrew.
Three Amandas (house fellow/RA, my roommate, and Amanda Villa)
two Kelseys
two Lauras
And Alex and an Alexa
I think there may be more, but what the heck!? It's so confusing!
Playing catch up...
Sunday morning brought Church. I'm going two weeks and counting without attending an Italian funeral! :) Also, Amanda Villa (not my roommate) came with me to Church this Sunday, which was fun! Sunday consisted mostly of homework and facebooking!
Monday, we watched a movie in my Italian Encounters class (Summertime with Katharine Hepburn). I also got my quiz from Italian class from last Thursday back. I got an A! Then, at 8:00 p.m. I had a mandatory movie to watch for a different class (Rome Open City with no one I've ever heard of before). After the movie I headed to the library in the villa to crank out my Art History paper. It was more of a personal reflection on a piece we've seen than a paper. Well, facebook, Laura, and my roommate Amanda distracted me and I distracted them. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot done.
They finally and I worked for about twenty minutes and got over 500 words done (the paper had to be 500 words!) but they weren't very good words. I was tired and had all afternoon on Tuesday to do it so I went to bed.
Tuesday morning we had on-site lecture with Professor Mariotti at the Bargello Museum. The museum had a lot of Michelangelo and Donatello. The lecture lasted until 11:15 and then Laura, Amanda and I hit the market on the way to the bus. I bought a nice cashmere scarf for 5 Euro. It's purrty! We came home in time for lunch and ate. Then I worked on my paper.
I ended up writing about Donatello's Mary Magdalene sculpture and one of Michelangelo's Pietas. It turns out Mich. made three Pietas...I only knew about the one in Rome. The one in Florence was pretty cool. Well, I got the paper done and in on time. Then I had Italian class in the evening, followed by supper. Then, after supper we had another mandatory movie for Studies in Modern Italian Lit (which we affectionately call SMIL). We watched Mediterraneo (again with no one I know in it). It was a decent movie.
After the movie I moved to the library to do some work and did Italian homework then decided to update the ol' blog. So, here I am! (It's so weird to update the blog regularly!) Anyway, I'll probably do some thinking about the movies we saw and some reading for Art History and then hit the hay! Buona Notte!
Venezia è una bella città! (part due)
I'll try to be a bit more concise about day two of the Venice trip since it seems I went a bit overboard with day one's post. Anyway, to end the towel story from the previous page, we didn't get any towels. My roommates didn't shower and I showered that night and dried off with our hand towel. I was mad at the hotel. But, hey, if that was the extent of my woes in Venice, I figured I'd survive!
Well, Ashley, Ashley, Tessa, Amanda and Laura had decided to get up and walk around Venice at six a.m. When they told me the plan I thought it sounded like fun! At 5:45 the next morning, I didn't want to go anymore. But, I got up and we walked around Venice. The sunrise was magnificent and, get this, there were no tourists around! Palazzo San Marco was empty, save for the pigeons. Ponte Rialto, empty! It was so perfect. We go back to the hotel for a breakfast of croissants, rolls, juice, espresso, nutella, etc. Then we headed to the dell'accademia (a museum) for a guided tour by Prof. Mariotti. After the tour we were free to do as we pleased until we had to board a boat at 4:30 to head home.
Many, many people wanted to check out the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and another modern art exhibit. I really am not a fan of modern art, at all, so I said I was just going to walk around. There were a few other people that also just walked around and hung out. We got lunch at a pizzeria (I had a good pizza with different peppers on it) and watch tourists at Palazzo San Marco. We got a few souvenirs and gelato.
We eventually all made it back to the hotel and then to the boat to take us to the bus. The ride home consisted of some staring at the scenery in awe and a very short nap (in which I was woken up because I drooled...no one saw!). We had supper at the villa when we got back.
Later in the evening I was freaking out because the trip to Venice (a city that Amanda and I both thought didn't exist until we saw it with our own eyes) made me realize that I'm living in Italy right now. And I'm still freaking out in my head--I try not to vocalize those thoughts because people may think I'm weird. Oh well.
Ah, Venice. Grandma and Grandpa Voelker think Prague is the most beautiful city in the world. I'm headed to Prague in November and I think it may have some competition from Venice in that category.
Venezia è bellisima!
(As a disclaimer, if this post seems a little awkwardly worded it's because I just got done writing an Art History paper and I was trying to sound smart in the paper! Also, I will probably repeat a lot of adjectives as words can't begin to describe the beauty that was our trip to Venice.) :)
Our trip to Venice was absolutely spectacular! It started with a far too early morning. The bus left at 7:30 and we had to have eaten breakfast and packed a lunch prior to departure. The ride was going to be about three hours long and I was so excited at the beginning of the ride! Immediately we drove into the foothills surrounding Sesto Fiorentino and then into the Apennine mountains. The scenery was amazing the entire way. I, amazingly, wasn't too tired so I chose to read my book--I'm rereading Pride and Prejudice because I love that book. But, driving through the mountain range made that a difficult task...too many tunnels! I finally gave up reading and took a little nap. It's Italian law for tour busses to stop on the outside of town to register with the Police (oh, Italians!). It was probably one of the ugliest places in all of Venice. But, it was just the place to register. Ten minutes later we pulled into the tourist's haven...buses, taxis, boats, tourists, tourists, and more tourists. 7 million people visit Venice per year and over 200,000 per day. Most stay fewer than 24 hours.
Anyway we met our architecture students (they were already on a trip for a few days and met us in Venice). Then, we boarded our private boat. The boat gave us a little tour of Venice, although we couldn't go down the grand canal as private boats aren't allowed there. We stopped at Murano...the glass blowing capital of the world (I don't actually know if that is its official title, but it sounds cool!). We had a little 5 minute glass blowing demonstration. It blew my mind...no pun intended! First he made a vase/bottle in two minutes. Then, a glass horse in under three minutes. He was just rolling the metal rod with molten glass on it and all of the sudden a horse head appeared. I can't even explain it...it was that cool! We then got to shop around the island for a while. The glass blowing used to take place on the main part of Venice, but as you may be able to imagine glass blowing is quite a fire hazard. And fire hazards on a group of 118 islands whose houses are mostly made of wood because wood is flexible and the materials have to be flexible because the city is sinking is not a good idea. (That was probably a very ungrammatical sentence!)
We got back on the boat and some of the grad students were complaining about how expensive it probably was to charter a boat to take us to the 5 minute glass blowing demonstration and shop for an hour, and they thought the demonstration wasn't even that great. But, at least for my roommate Amanda and me, it was one of the coolest things we've ever seen...and totally worth it! We didn't let them rain on our parade.
Anyway, the boat took us to a different dock on the main part of Venice that was quite close to our hotel...only one bridge away! :) We checked into our hotel room and freshened up. I stayed in a room with my roommate Amanda, and two girls named Laura and Yunha. I know Laura pretty well and didn't know Yunha very much, so that was fun. The whole group then gathered and walked to Piazzo San Marco (St. Mark's Square), the spot where all the main tourist attractions of Venice can be found. We had a date with two Venetian tour guides who gave us a tour of the Doge's Palace. (In my Italian Encounters class we had talked about Venice quite a bit and read articles about Piazza San Marco, so I really felt like I knew about the city and what things were...it was great!) Anyway, the Doge's Palace is the Palace where the Doge used to live, when they had a Doge. Also, a Doge was the ruler (like a Duke, I guess). It was interesting and we learned a lot about the history of Venice; I'll spare you the details.
After the two hour tour we had time to ourselves and needed to meet back at the Piazza San Marco at 7:30. During free time we got gelato, saw Ponte Rialto (one of three bridges, I think the oldest, crossing the Grand Canal that is filled with tourist shops), ran into a museum for a bit and did a lot of walking and exploring.
At 7:30 we hit one of two of my favorite parts of the trip. A private showing of la basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica!). A walk through of the church is something that every tourist does when he visits Venice. However, the building closes earlier than 7:30 and was opened just for the 40 of us; they bolted the door behind us! When we walked in, we stood in the entryway and got a brief history of the place by Professor Mariotti. (I don't know who this woman is that she has the power to get us a private showing of San Marco...but she rocks!) Then, we walked into the church which was pitch black and sat down. After we were all seated the lights start slowly coming on and lighting up different parts of the Basilica until finally all of the lights are on. It was quite an experience and one that, I'm sure, I will never have again. She told us all about the paintings and altars and everything! Then, the security guard turned around the altar for us to reveal the golden altar. This is the altar they use only for special holy days and, in the words of Professor Mariotti, probably the most grand and expensive piece of work we will see. It was all gold with gems added all over it. It is also turned around by a hand crank that has been in the church forever. Also, under the altar lies the remains of St. Mark the Evangelist. The condensed story is that two Venetian merchants stole St. Mark's remains from Alexandria in 828 and brought him back to Venice where he became the cities new patron saint. (St. Theodore got knocked out of that spot, poor guy!) We also saw the crypt where St. Mark used to be kept and many important bishops and cardinals are now buried. There's a lot more very interesting history that we learned, but I'll spare you the details and let you look it up if you are interested...or ask me!
Anyway, the tour ended and we were on our own. A group of seven of us--I'll name drop here because I know mom likes hearing the names of my friends!:)--Amanda Villa (not my roommate), Julian, Sam, Nishant, Alex, Kristine (my roommate) and me, went out to dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant. I had some good pasta with, get this Emma, crushed red peppers!
We bought some wine and were going to head back to the hotel to hang out for the night. I was navigating and asked if we wanted to take the short way or long way home and no one said anything until Alex said, the long way. Well, it was quite long. Two hours later and many wrong turns we made it. None of us minded the tour of Venice, except Nishant was getting a little angry! oops. I had no problem reading the map of Venice and figuring out where we were. My problem came when I realized I had no clue which direction we were facing...and street signs seem to be a rare commodity. Either there will be one street sign or just the name of the campo (square, piazza). So, my strategy was to figure out where we were, walk for a while then check the map and see if we made any progress. I thought it was working fine, other people disagreed. Anyway, Venice was beautiful at night, of course, and we had a good time.
When we got back to Hotel alla Salute everyone was too tire to hang out and drink wine so the other six went to bed. My hotel-mates Laura and Amanda were relaxing in the lobby so I sat by them for a while. We witnessed some angry Germans yell at the hotel staff...it was funny...there was also a towel fiasco. Our room, which had a bathroom in the hallway that was shared with other hotel rooms, didn't have any towels in it. I asked around and everyone else had towels so I asked the front desk for towels. He asked if we had a private bathroom and I said there was one right around the corner from our room. He said we don't get towels then...and refused to give them to me! :( Anyway, most of our friends were sleeping or didn't have extra towels....I'll continue this story in the next post...mostly because it's supper time! YUMMY! A presto!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Venice!
The whole program (all 38 of us) is off to Venice tomorrow to explore the sinking city! I'm most excited about our showing of the Cathedral of San Marco (St. Mark's Cathedral!). We arrive at 7:25 and go into the Cathedral. The door is bolted shut and we get to watch the paintings on the wall get slowly illuminated. It's going to be spectacular! Oh, did I mention this is a private showing just for our group!
Anyway, I'll be sure to update the blog about my gondola rides and the Bridge of Sighs when I get home on Saturday!
(P.S. 26 days into the trip and I'm caught up blogging. Finally!)
Wait, this isn't a vacation?
I think nearly 100% of students at this villa were under the impression that we were on a four month long vacation that involved a little reading and studying. WRONG! For the most part, every night after dinner consists of studying until bedtime. One of the Duke students said how they were told that this program is one of the hardest Study Abroad programs that Duke has to offer. What did I get myself into?
I've found that I have a plethora of reading, all the time...and I may never be caught up. But, it's not hard work; it's just a lot. The second week of classes went well and culminated with an Italian quiz this evening (which I think went abastanzo bene). Abastanzo bene means "pretty well" when someone asks "how are you." I don't know if it works in this case--actually it probably doesn't...oh well!
Anyway, my vacation has turned into hard core school in a 600 year old villa in Tuscany. (Who am I to complain!?)
If she's an artist, what is the other one?
Here's a little post about my roommates. I believe I mentioned their names before, but one is Amanda and she is a senior English major at Madison and Kristine is a super senior majoring in music, at Madison. We get along great. But I was really, really, really scared when I first met...Kristine.
When I arrived Amanda was here and napping. Eventually we went and walked around the town and got a snack and she seemed cool and pretty normal.
Then Kristine came. When she arrived she says, "Hi, I'm Kristine. This may sound weird, but I don't really like people." And I thought, ahhh....shoot!!!! Why would they put me with a roommate who doesn't like people...why wouldn't she get a single room! Anyway, it turns out she's not that weird! :)
One day when we were sitting in our room she starts telling me about our roommate applications. She said she wrote, "I am an artist, don't put me with some stupid sorority girl or I don't know what I'll do!" (It's better if you hear it in the dramatic accent I use when telling other people the story or making fun of Kristine for saying that!) I laughed so hard.
Amanda was skyping with her dad the other day and he asked about her roommates. Naturally, she told the story about Kristine being an artist. Her dad said, "Well, if one's an artist what does that make the other one." Amanda says, "Well, I guess she's a klutz and I'm a mess." (Quite accurate, I thought!)
So, room one has an artist, a klutz and a mess. And, we mesh together quite well!
Since I told a funny story about Kristine, one about Amanda is necessary. I previously wrote about a group of us going out the first Saturday we were here. Well, Amanda put on a dress and wore some high heels. A guy in the program named Sam says to her, "Wow, Amanda, you take off all of those hippie clothes and you kind of look nice!" I thought that was so funny and now make fun of her for that. It's great!
A Free Weekend!
There was a group of us that stuck around Florence and Sesto the first weekend. I figured I get lost plenty in Florence that I don't need to go and navigate another city. Friday I did two much-needed loads of laundry. When I put my clothes in the washer I decided to walk to the Esselunga--a supermarket for some school supplies and whatnot. It's probably about a ten minute walk. About 3 minutes into it, it starts drizzling. I think, "Wow, a little Italian rain. This is great!" Then, it starts raining harder, and harder, and harder. Just when I thought it couldn't rain harder, it did! Now, when I left the villa, the sky showed no indication of the downpour that was soon to come...so my raincoat and umbrella were sitting safely (and dryly) inside of my closet. Anyway, I made it to the Esselunga and sat outside for a while to wring my hair out and try to stop dripping...and I wanted to enjoy the rain from the protection of the overhang. I went into the supermarket and found what I needed all the while getting strange looks from the Italians. (Like none of them have been caught in a downpour before! pshh) It was sunny when I left the store.
Friday night we watched a movie called Italian For Beginners. I know what you are thinking...you stayed in on a Friday night to learn Italian!? (Mom and dad, you are probably proud of me for doing that!) But, the movie is actually a Danish film about a bunch of strangers taking an Italian class and then eventually going to Venice together. It is filled with death and drama. It was made in 2000, but looked like a home video from 1994. One of the professors strongly recommended it to the house fellow, so we watched it. We are unsure why he thought it was so funny. Weird.
Sesto has a pretty popular market on Saturday mornings. We got up and went to that around 8:30ish. They had tons of clothes and a food market with whole pigs. There was a volunteering day in Florence at 10am. American students were meeting to go down by the Arno and clean up. We had intentions of going but got to the bus stop at 9:45ish. We decided that the worst time to be late to a group is when no one knows you are coming. (There wasn't a sign-up. You just showed up at a fountain in downtown at 10 if you wanted to help.) So, Laura, Amanda and I went to a bar (which is actually a cafe...they just call them bars here!) for cappuccino and pastries instead! In the afternoon Amanda, Abe and I went for a stroll around Sesto and made reservations for supper. We went through a big ordeal trying to figure out how many people we should make the reservation for. We decided on 6. Then, a group of 9 of us left for dinner at Gratta. It was delicious. I had a calzone that was a little over-cooked, but it was reasonably priced. Dinner was followed by gelato. Delicious!!
Saturday night a few of us went to downtown Florence for a drink. We went to Fish Club then Schott Cafe. It was fun and pretty relaxing. A taxi ride from downtown to Sesto is about 25 Euro so we wanted to catch the last bus back from town. We left about 12:30 to come to Sesto. (Also, we didn't swipe our bus passes on the bus, so we got a free ride...I felt like a rebel. And was also very scared the whole time. I may not do that again!) Once we got back to Sesto we went to a little bar. We were all pretty wiped out so we went home and went to bed pretty early.
Sunday morning I went to church. (Funeral free this time!) Then, I came home for brunch. I don't think much went on that day besides homework and relaxing. Before I knew it, the weekend was over and it was time for a new week of classes.
Back to Reality
WARNING: THIS POST WILL BE INCREDIBLY BORING!
Monday: Class 2 -3:30 and 6 -6:50
Tuesday Class 9:15-11:15 and 5 -5:50
Wednesday: Class 2 -3:30 and 6 -6:50
Thursday: Class 10-1; 2-3:30; 5-5:50
Friday: No classes!
The best part--or the weirdest part--is that I spent well under 2 minutes in commute to all my classes...combined! The classroom, known as the "Tower Room" here at the villa, is just down a flight of stairs from our room. This is one of the weirdest adjustments to having classes right in the villa. I think in Madison I probably spend at least 2 hours in commute everyday.
I'm taking four classes. The first is called "Italian Encounters" and is about foreigners and their encounters in Italy. We watch 12 movies this semester, during class time! (Needless to say, I'm excited about that!)
My next class we like to call SMIL (Studies in Modern Italian Literature!). There are only 6 people in the class, so I have to read every book...on time! This class, after some adjustments with the schedule, we have once a week for 3 hours. It's a little rough, but I only have to think about the class once a week this way. We read 5 books and watch 9 movies, outside of class! Also, over the course of the semester, we have to give three 15 minute presentations about national Identity and how it relates to a book or movie we read/saw in class. I'm a little scared. The other part of our grade is a 12-14 page paper at the end of the semester. eek!
Another class is Art History with the wonderful Professor Mariotti. Every Tuesday morning our class heads into downtown Florence to see all the Renaissance art that we can and get everything explained by Prof. Mariotti. The class is soooo interesting. But, I'm freaking out about it. I don't know how to take an art history class. She throws so much info at us every day that I don't know where to begin. I could begin by doing the "suggested" readings, right? Well there are usually 3 every week. One of the readings the first week is reading chapters 6-12 (over 100 pages) in a huge art history book..."for general review"...WHAT? I know nothing about art history. At all! So, I guess I have to pick and choose which readings are important....I may just check out wikipedia.org for a "general review" of Renaissance art. It will definitely be a great learning experience.
My final class is Italian. I have this 4 times a week for fifty minutes each class. It's pretty easy and I feel like I'm learning Italian, a little!
Classes snapped me out of the fantasy of Italy that I was strolling in and put me right back into the academic world. shoot! Only, this academic world is different because I'm not taking a single science course, which is kind of freaking me out!
Ciao!
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