Springfest!!! (end of week 13)

So Ashley, Katie, and I all went to Springfest this past weekend. Springfest is the smaller, more local version of Oktoberfest, which happens in the Fall. We met the Euroadventures tour group at 7:15 on Thursday night and departed close to 8 pm. Our 8 hour bus ride included a rest stop for dinner, and tons of movies. We finally arrived in Munich at around 4 am, got our hostel room key card, and settled down for bed. We were in a room with 5 other girls who were nice enough.

On the beer walking tour

Friday morning, we woke up early to get breakfast and meet the group in our lobby to go on a beer walking tour at 11ish. We walked to the meeting point where a guy standing on four kegs told us the "rules" of the tour. We split up into different groups of about 20 people, and our tour guide, Tom had 2 kegs for us. It was tons of fun walking around drinking beer on the tour, though people were looking at us weirdly, and it rained for a little bit. I felt bad because midway through the tour, some of the people in our group began to get rowdy and weren't really paying any attention to what was being said, though Tom said he had been doing this for two years now and was probably used to it. Before dropping us off at the Hofbrahaus for lunch, he gave us one last piece of advice: when saying "Prost" (cheers), you must look into the other person's eyes, otherwise you will have 7 years of bad sex.

At the Hofbrahaus we got lunch and drank more beer. Ashley and I got this dish of egg noodles with cheese and onions called "Allgauer Kasspatzle." This dish was very similar to mac and cheese.. with onions on top. Katie got frankfurters, and we all split pretzels.

After lunch we decided we wanted to go buy Dirndles, the woman's traditional German garb. And that's exactly what we did. We went into the first store we found on our way back to the hostel, where Katie went off on her own to find an outfit, while Ashley and I found a woman to help us pick out our attire. I'm glad the woman helped us because she knew exactly what size I was and helped pick out a style for me instantly... which was good because I had no idea what I really wanted. She let us try our outfits on together and after a while of debating whether or not to get it, we decided to buy it (they looked so great!). Afterwards, we made our way back to the hostel where we took a much needed nap. We didn't end up going with our group to the Springfest tents because they left at 5:30 and we woke up at 7:30ish. We all got changed into our Dirndles, took some pics, and headed out to Springfest.

When we got there, we tried to find the Augustiner tent, which was where Euroadventures said they were going to be. However, we ended up going into the first tent we saw, which was called the Hippodrom, and found a table to sit at. There were two people at a table so we asked to sit with them; the point of Springfest is to find tables of strangers to sit at and just to have a great time. We ended up each ordering two liters of Spaten beer and had a great time chatting with our new friends and singing and dancing on top of the benches. At one point, our new friend told us that the  German song that had just played was filled with inappropriate sentences.. and we had no idea what we were dancing to till then! At around 11:30, the tent started to close, and we ended up getting hotdogs at a carnival stand before getting a cab back.

Dachau

The next day, we went with our group to visit Dachau, one of the first concentration camps in Germany. We spent all afternoon there, walking around with our audioguide and taking everything in. It was actually a beautiful day which really seemed ironic since we were visiting such a terrible site. After walking around the camp, we ate some lunch in the cafeteria before heading back to our hostel for a nap.

That night, determined to get to the tents a little earlier, we made our way to the Augustiner tent at 8:00 only to realize that there were now bouncers outside who weren't letting people in, they were only letting people out. Fed up after only 15 minutes, we contemplated trying to get into the Hippodrom again. We finally asked these people near us how long they'd been waiting, and they said for about 45 minutes. We realized we didn't want to waste our time outside of the tent, and decided to head over to the Hippodrom to see if it was the same situation.

Hippodrom part 2!

At the Hippodrom, there was barely a line outside, and so we walked over to the entrance only to realize we needed a yellow wristband to get in. Katie walked over to the bouncer and asked if we could please get inside, since it was only three of us, and he thought for a moment and told us to wait a few minutes. He ended up getting us wristbands and then had us wait inside by the door while a waitress asked around the tables to see who would let us join them. I think that we got in because Katie and Ashley look more German. Anyway, we ended up joining a table of about four guys, and one girl, who was also wearing a dirndle. Almost everyone was German and wearing garb, and the tables were all reserved, which is why we were lucky we got in. We got to know the people at our table while we ordered beer and some pretzels; they were surprised we bought Dirndles for only being there for the weekend. The people at our table ended up leaving a bit early, while the three of us did part two of our bench dancing and drank another liter of beer. We stayed till it was closing once again, and took another cab back.

Sunday, our last day, we woke up early once again; this time to get a tour of the Neuschwanstein castle, one of the most famous castles in Germany, and also the castle which was the model for the Disney castle. We ended up on a double decker bus, which was much nicer than the bus we took on the way to Munich, and they took us to the area. When we got there it was raining a bit, so the three of us took a shuttle bus to the top of the mountain where the castle stood. Though one side of the castle had scaffolding for renovations, it wasn't the side which we would be taking pictures of, which was good. We climbed to this area where we could see the castle from a bridge, which was a beautiful view, and then we walked closer to the castle to see it up close. We ended up eating lunch down the hill from the castle and I got the same thing for lunch again. We also tried this dessert called Snowballs, which was supposed to just be fried dough balls and sugar, but turned out to be covered in cream. After lunch, we made our way back down to the bus, where we finally headed through the scenic mountain landscape back to Florence. We got back to the apartment at midnight, and went to sleep soon after. 

Looking sleepy in front of the Neuschwanstein castle!

I have to say, this is one of my favorite and most memorable weekends abroad! I would love to come back for Oktoberfest one day!

Week 13

So the rest of my Sunday was pretty laid back, I didn't really do much the rest of the day, and for dinner we went to Ristorante Pizzeria which is down the street.

Monday, I woke up early to clean a bit so that the apartment could look presentable for when my parents came to check it out. They ended up getting into Florence around 1:30 or something, and they took a while to get settled in. They were staying at Hotel Dante, which is literally around the corner from me and made things easier. It was a bit rainy which was annoying, but the three of us ended up going to Pino's for lunch so we didn't have to walk far. After lunch, we ended up going to the San Lorenzo market, where we helped my mom find a new leather jacket. I ended up going back to my apartment for a while, and they took a nap, before we finally headed out to Cesarino's for dinner. I ended up getting pasta with ragu and cheese, my mom god penne with pesto, tomato, and mozzerella, and my dad got a side salad, and then spaghetti with salad and fish. We all enjoyed our meal, and we also ended up getting chocolate cake for dessert with some limoncello. My parents were both pretty tired from their flight so we didn't check out anything afterwards. We also ended dinner at 11ish, which was later than they were used to. I was also extremely tired for no reason and I didn't end up going out that night either.

On top of Piazzale Michelangelo!

Tuesday, I tried meeting up with my parents early, but they woke up later than they thought they would and I ended up just telling them things to do before going to my World Religions class. After Italian, I met them around 5 to walk up the Piazzale Michelangelo. To my surprise, my parents had already gone over the bridge and went to the Pitti Palace AND the Boboli Gardens! So they were a little tired, but we got gelato from Neri before walking up to the Piazzale which was good. We didn't really spend much time up on Piazzale Michelangelo, which was fine with me. We had dinner reservations for La Giostra at 7:30, so we ended up having time to get ready once we each got back to our places. La Giostra was soo good, one of the best meals I've had in Italy so far. We got an antipasti platter of food which was good, as well as a complimentary antipasti platter and prosecco. I ordered Pear Ravioli, which I'd been told to get there, and my mom got a pasta dish hereself, while my dad got calamari. We also got chocolate cake as well as cheesecake for dessert and I was soo extremely full. I don't believe I went out that night, which was good because I was starting to feel like I had a cold.

Wednesday, I didn't try to wake up early to go somewhere with my parents, so they ended up going to two museums on their own as well as the Synagogue. I had class all day; during Wine Appreciation we tried dessert wine, which was pretty good. For Art History, we went to the Pitti Palace to see the Modern Art exhibit. After class, I met my parents once more and ate Pino's with them again, though this time we had their pasta and vegetable dishes. Afterwards, they had to catch a cab to take them to the airport; they were going to Barcelona next until Saturday. That night, Ashley and I went out with Gerald and Fani to YAB, which was lots of fun.

On Thursday, I woke up early enough and was able to make it to cooking, which was really good. We made Eggplant Parmesan and Tiramisu. Soooo good. We also had a cheese tasting consisting of four cheeses. After class, I skipped Italian to nap, grab Mr. Pizza for dinner, and pack for Munich. I'm going to talk more about Springfest in my next post, so read on!

Week 12

 This week seemed to fly by so fast! It was a holiday on Monday because of Easter weekend, so Ashley and I decided to check out another park, Giardino dell'Orticultura, which was very pretty. There were a lot of families there and groups of teens playing with soccer balls and volleyballs. We couldn't find how to get to this slope area where we could get prime sun exposure, so we just sat down on the grass and chilled. I was pretty tired because I had gotten only about 4 hours of sleep, but I was glad we had a chance to explore more of Florence. It ended up getting a little chilly, so as we were deciding whether or not to leave, I got a bbm from Merkrebs saying she was finally in Florence. We ended up meeting her on Guelfa, and then walked to her hostel to get her friend. Ashley and I had been craving Tijuana all day and invited them along, but they really were looking forward to Italian food so they went somewhere else. I got a peach margarita and nachos with cheese, chicken, and guac. Since we both had been up really late, we didn't do anything else that night except watch an episode of SNL. Katie finally got back from Barcelona at around 12:30, and we all caught up a bit before going to sleep.


After class on Tuesday, Katie, Ashley and I tried to explore and find a new sandwich shop I heard of that is on Pinto, but we couldn't find it and ended up going to good ol' Pino's. I ended up getting a pasta dish with stringbeans which was soo good. That night, I went with Ashley and Gerald to BeBop, where a Beatles cover band plays weekly. They were really good, and it was cute because they dressed up like them! Ashley and I stayed the whole time, till 1:30, and then went to Mr. Pizza before going home in the rain.


For dinner on Wednesday we made chicken parm again. That night, Merkrebs and her friend Talia, who is studying abroad here, came over to pregame before going to 21. When we got there, I was shocked at how crowded it was! We hadn't been there in a while, so I didn't realize how many people would be there. Merkrebs, Ashley, and I ended up dancing on this couch thing for a while, which was fun. The wall behind us was literally steamy, it was pretty gross. The music ended up not being so good, and the club was just so filled with annoying Americans, so we left and Merkrebs tried this panino from a place right across from Pino's that stays open late.

Thursday, I was actually able to wake up for Cooking which was good, and we made little aperitivo bread things; one was Bruchetta with tomatoes, one was with rosemary oil salt and pepper, and another was with rosemary and beans. We also did an oil tasting, which really grossed me out in the end because we were just eating olive oil off spoons! Though I was good at describing the oils, I completely failed at figuring out which region of Italy they came from. Later, after Italian, Ashley met Katie and me and we went to the sandwich shop that Merkrebs had tried the night before. It was pretty good, and the owner let us taste some of the meat and cheese before we chose what we wanted. The paninis were only 50 cents more than Pino's, but I think I like Pino's more anyway because its pressed. That night we didn't do anything except Jillian Michels workout video, and we also caught up on some shows including Glee, Modern Family, and New Girl before going to sleep.

 

Friday, I had to wake up early to go to a make-up class for World Religions at 9:00. There were only 4 of us who came, including me. We watched a documentary about Buddhist monks trying to find the reincarnation of their lama, which was pretty strange and interesting to learn about. Afterwards, I came back and slept till 3ish. We ended up running errands a bit later because we needed more food and 5 lightbulbs.... We later went out with Fani and Gerald to Babylon, which was lots of fun. Babylon is literally 5 minutes away from us and we never realized it existed! It had a few rooms with different music and the first room was playing 60s music at first and I really didn't think it would be fun, but then we moved to another room with better music and stayed there for the rest of the night. We stayed there pretty late, about 4 am, before heading back to the apartment.


Yesterday, we did nothing once again, and we rescheduled our trip to Cinque Terre since it would have been miserable to go today in the rain and cold weather. We are now going May 6th, right before finals. Hopefully the weather is beautiful then, or at least warmer. Ashley and I made fritatta for dinner (notice that it was ME who actually helped make it this time!) which was delicious! Ashley and I also ended up meeting up with this girl Melissa, who is studying abroad in Florence too, and Rachel, who was visiting her (she was one of my sister's roommate) at Space, which was really fun. We had only been to Space one other time, so I was glad we got to go again. We stayed there pretty late, and got late night panini's from that place before going to bed.


Today is already starting out to be a lazy day again. I really want the weather here to get sunny again instead of cold and rainy. For once, the weather in Allentown is actually sunny and warm- if we went to Cinque Terre today we'd be walking around in 30 degree wet weather! Last night was Phi Sig formal, and I'm really sad I couldn't be there. As much as I love living in Florence and consider this to be one of my homes just as much as I consider Muhlenberg to be home too, I just really know I missed out on a good semester at school. However, I really cannot complain, I'm so extremely lucky and grateful that I have this opportunity to travel all around Europe- when is the next time I'll be able to do this?? Probably not till I have a decent job and can afford it.


On a happier note, my parents, who have been in England for the past few days visiting my sister, are coming to Florence tomorrow! They're staying here till Wednesday, and I hope they'll enjoy it here. The weather doesn't look like it's going to be that bad, which will be nice. I feel a little pressure to make sure they have a great time and really see how well I'm doing here (gotta brush up on my Italian a bit tonight!). I was going to try to go to a couple museums today since its "free museum week" but I am not quite sure that will happen since we're being pretty lazy. I'm probably going to end up doing my homework so I don't have to worry about making time for it when my parents are here, and I'll end up stalking formal pictures on FB once they go up. I can't believe I only have 4 weeks left here!

End of Week 11: Easter Weekend

So, this will be my last post till next week. I literally have written 10 new posts in the past two days to catch up with everything I hadn't written down since I started traveling 6 weeks ago. Once again, I may be the worst blogger when it comes to consistently posting things.. but I made this blog for a reason, and I'm glad I finally caught up.

The rest of this week was really fun. Katie left on Thursday to go to Barcelona with Euroadventures along with Melissa, Margo, and Meghan. So it was just me and Ashley here for the weekend. Gerald invited us to go to an aperitivo with him and his friend Fani, so we decided we might as well go out to eat instead of sitting at home all night. We made ourselves a salad though with chicken to hold ourselves off till we left. We met up with Fani in front of Old Stove at 9:00, a bar that I want to check out before I leave, near the Duomo, and took a bus to where Gerald lives. The aperitivo was fine, but we got there close to 9:30, so all they really had was the desserts. After "dinner" we went back to the Center, and Ashley and I got Mr. Pizza since we hadn't really eaten since our salad, and went back to our apartment where I ended up Skyping till 8:30.

The next day, Ashley and I slept in. I ended up waking up at 2, and we both decided we wanted to check out one of the parks in Florence, Cascine, so we did even though it had started to drizzle a little. The walk was about 35 minutes, and it was 4 bridges past the Ponte Vecchio. It was pretty humid and by the time we got there, the sun had come out. I wish I brought my camera because the park was really pretty. Ashley and I walked a little further and found a grassy area where we could sit by the Arno River, and we did. There were so many people running with their dogs alongside them, and it was just really nice to sit outside. We tried to bring back some flowers for our apartment but they kind of died by the time we got back. For dinner we had chicken parm with salad and garlic bread, and later on, Ashley went with Gerald to Beebop to see an Oasis coverband. I had wanted to go to Beebop for a while, but I wanted to Skype with my mom to say hi to our relatives for Passover. I was talking to my mom around midnight, and then to my grandpa for a little, but then all our relatives started showing up and I ended up talking to pretty much everyone! It was really nice and I'm glad I got to see them. I had a chance to go to a Seder because we got an email earlier in the week about how a family had room for two students, but I got too nervous about calling and going by myself, so I didn't.

On Saturday, Ashley and I decided to do my Jillian Michaels workout video that I had downloaded with the purpose of using throughout my stay in Florence. We had both thought about doing it for a while, but this time we actually did workout. I felt really good after, and I was glad we finally used it. Afterwards, we made reservations for the aperitivo Kitsch, which is where Fani said he loves to go, and indeed, it was really good. I kind of like it better than Oibo, because the food is better. Afterwards, Gerald once again invited us out to Rex, an Italian bar, and so we met up with him and his friend. The bar was really cool, and people ended up dancing. Fanny showed up eventually and after a while we all decided we wanted to go elsewhere. We headed towards Kikuya and I ended up getting a Dragoon with Fani. The rest of the night we all just hung out outside and chatted. We walked towards Mr. Pizza so Gerald could get a slice, and afterwards we went home, at about 4 am.

I had heard a lot about Easter, or Pasque, in Florence recently, and really wanted to go to the celebration on Sunday. So this morning, Ashley and I woke up at 10 and headed over to the Duomo to watch the celebration. Since we got there a little before 11, we missed the whole procession of the white oxen leading this cart to the front of the Duomo. The people leading them were dressed in Medieval costume. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew that at 11, they would re-enact the "exploding cart" by setting off fireworks and smoke. Ashley and I knew we wouldn't really be able to see outside since people had taken the good spots, and umbrellas were out because it was raining, so we went inside the Duomo where there were people standing on both sides of a closed off aisle. Suddenly, at 11, dramatic organ music started playing, and all of a sudden this wooden dove was lit up at the alter and it zoomed past us through the main doors of the Duomo on this wire which I hadn't noticed. The dove ended up setting off the fireworks on the wooden cart the string was connected to, and the dove ended up zooming back into the Duomo one last time before the cart began "exploding." The whole thing lasted for 15 minutes, but it was the coolest thing ever, and when it finally ended, this flag appeared and the crowd started cheering. I'm really glad we got ourselves up to see it, especially since we were supposed to have gone away this weekend.

I didn't take any pictures, and I also was seeing this from inside the Duomo, but Sean Vanin, who also goes to Muhlenberg did get some shots from his window, so these are some of his pictures, just to give you guys an idea of what we saw:

The oxen pulling the cart towards the Duomo

The cart "exploding" with fireworks and smoke

The end of the explosion.

So here are some things coming up:

-This Tuesday is registration for the courses I plan to take as a first semester senior at Muhlenberg- too weird!

-This coming Sunday, Katie, Ashley, and I are going to Cinque Terre with Bus2Alps. We were supposed to go today, but the trip was cancelled due to the lack of people attending. This is good though because Katie had gone to Barcelona and would have missed it.

-I think this weekend we're also going to take a train to Lucca, a small city in Tuscany, where the old walls are still standing.

-Next week, my parents are visiting me from the 16-18th. And then Katie, Ashley and I will be going to Munich for Springfest that weekend.

-The last weekend in April, my friend Beth will be visiting early in the week, and then I'm going to the Almafi Coast... and then we have one weekend left in Florence before finals!

Week 11

Wow, so I finally caught up to week 11, this past week. I cannot believe I only have five weeks left in Florence! I have just been so busy traveling all of March that I didn't give myself enough time to update my life on this blog... but, I'm glad I did.

Before getting into what happened this past week, I forgot to mention that sometime during week 8, I went to this dinner through our school at this nice hotel where we had a three course meal and reflected on our time here. Our meal included lasagna with pesto sauce, chicken and potatoes, and pasta. In between courses, we were asked to jot down answers to some questions and discuss them with the table. My table only included me, Meghan, Katie, and Amelia (our program coordinator) and her friend who was visiting. One of the questions was "What has surprised you about yourself being in Florence?" (something along those lines..) And I found that my answer is really that I was surprised at how comfortable I feel here, and how easy it was for me to integrate.. this may be due to the fact that I can speak English when I want to, and it isn't hard for people to understand me. I also responded how I felt challenged to speak Italian.. although I can understand it in class, I still cannot really make conversation unless I have already thought it out. Lastly, on reflecting on things that are different in Italy, I want to say how much I hate the buses that take up all of the street. However, I'm gonna save how I've changed since studying abroad for my last post, before I head back to New York in five weeks.

So the last thing I mentioned was that my friend Bri visited us when we got back from our weekend trip. Ashley and I were really excited because we both missed her, and we weren't going to be able to visit her in Sevilla, where she's studying, like we had hoped since flights were expensive.

Monday, since I don't have class, I spent the day with Bri. We woke up and ate some eggs before going to the David. However, I didn't realize that the Galleria D'Academia is closed on Mondays, much like most other museums, so instead we walked towards the Synagogue so she could see it from the outside. I tried going to this Tabacchi that Amanda had told me to go into, on Via degli Alfani. She had made friends last year with one of the guys who worked there, Dario, and had been wanting me to say hi to them for her since I've gotten here. So, I try to go and say hi, but the owner had no idea what I was talking about and didn't really understand English or who this "Dario" was... it was pretty embarrassing but he then sort of realized what I was saying and told me Dario would be there at 3. Since it was really awkward and weird, I don't know if I want to go back and try to say hi again.. (sorry Big).

Anyway, we ended up going on top of Piazzale Michelangelo, and it got a bit sunny out so we just relaxed on the steps and caught up. We met Ashley at 6 at Pino's so we could both watch Bri enjoy her first Pino's panino.. which she did. That night we went to Bigallo, and then Kikuya where we each had Dragoon. We tried to go to Twice but ran into these boys who said it was closed, and they asked if we knew where 21 was. We decided to take them there, but for some reason it was closed as well. We then decide to walk to YAB, but didn't end up wanting to pay, so we ended up just going to Mr. Pizza before going back and to sleep.

Ashley, me, Katie, Bri, and our home cooked meal!

Tuesday, Bri did her own thing while we were in class. Afterwards we all made fritatta which was delicious, and I wrote my Art History paper before 12 so I could go out. That night we went to Salamanca for sangria, and then to Eby's for an Eby shot. We then went to Kikuya where we started talking to this guy from Paris. He ended up sitting down with us and ended up going to Twice with us. We all had lots of fun and then went to Secret Bakery.

Katie, me, and Bri at Kikuya with our Dragoons!

Wednesday, Bri did her own thing again since we all had class. I had my Art History presentation and we went to the Galleria D'Academia and Piazza Signorina before going to class for my presentation. I was a bit nervous and didn't talk as smoothly as I wanted to, because I hadn't had time to practice, but I think I did fine. That night we tried to go to Acqua al Due for dinner, but didn't realize we had to make a reservation and ended up going to Il Gato e la Volpe, where I got penne alla vodka which I missed so much! Ashley, Katie, and Bri all got gnocchi which was delicious too. That night we went to YAB and thought it would be one euro.. but since we bought a drink it ended up being 11 euro which was ridiculous. However, it was a lot better going on Wednesday since it was the night when all the university kids went out, so the crowd was more our age. I also accidentally slept through my class at 9 the next day, and Ashley, Bri and I got Pino's one last time, and then went to Perche No for gelato before I took Bri back to the train station and went to Italian.


Since this blog is way too long, I'm going to write about Easter weekend in my next post.

Perugia, Assisi, Siena, and San Gimignano (weekend 10)

I don't really remember details about the four places we visited, because we just kept getting a lot of information from our tour guides, but my favorite places would have to be Assisi and San Gimignano. All of these places are medieval towns and are just so beautiful.. and hilly. At one point, I was able to really see myself living in Assisi, it was just so charming. Also, the formatting for the pictures is really sucky, so don't mind that.

Perugia

still in Perugia

So Ashley, Katie, and I woke up really early on Saturday morning to get on the bus to Perugia. We got there, took pictures and had a tour, and went to the hotel for lunch, which was lasagne, salad, tiramisu and ice cream. The hotel was really nice, and we were only staying there for one night. After lunch, they took us to Assisi, which was beautiful and my favorite place we visited. Everything was so pretty, and it ended up being beautiful outside, which was an added bonus. I'm glad we were able to make up this trip at the end of March since the weather was much nicer than it would have been during orientation weekend. After spending some time in Assisi and getting another tour, we headed back to the hotel. We had the option of going to Mass in Assisi, and Margo ended up going. She also was really helpful in explaining Palm Sunday to me since I had no idea what it really was. Back at the hostel, we ended up napping before dinner... which was 3 different pastas and risotto! So many carbs!

Assisi

Assisi

The next day we went to Siena, which was also beautiful, and we had free time for lunch. After lunch, we ended up staying in the Piazza del Campo, where we tanned and just relaxed before the next part of our trip. In San Gimignano, we also had a tour, but then had free time to buy things and also try the "best gelato" ever. We ended up getting back to Florence around 6 pm, and then Ashley and I picked up Bri from the train station at around 8:45. The three of us plus Katie ended up going to Gusta Pizza, which was really yummy, except we ended up getting our pizza at 11!

Siena

Piazza del Campo, Siena

San Gimigano- amazing view!

San Gimignano's famous towers

Week 10

The Monday that classes started again my sister and her friends from Brighton visited Florence. It was good timing because the stress from midterms was finally over, and I wasn't going to be having a lot of work that week. It also happened to be a beautiful week, sunny and in the 70's!

Morgan and me on top of the Duomo!

I met them on Tintori since they took a bus from the SMN Station, and I showed them where their hostel was. It happened to be literally two minutes away from me, which was perfect for meeting up with them to take them around for the next few days. After checking in to the hostel, I took them to Pino's which they loved, and we got gelato from Neri. We walked with our gelato to the Ponte Vecchio so they could all take pictures. Afterwards, we all went into H&M and a few of them bought stuff before heading back to the hostel to change to climb the Duomo.

I really enjoyed taking them up to the top, and we took lots of pictures and then sat in the sun again, just like I did the last time I climbed it. For dinner, I wanted to take them to Oibo, but for some reason it was closing early, so Ashley and I tried to take them to Gusta Pizza only to see that they were closed to. We ended up going to Il Gato e la Volpe, where I got four cheese gnocchi. They all enjoyed their food and enjoyed tasting gnocchi, which a lot of them hadn't had before. Afterwards, we all got wine before going to YAB. It was really fun having a big group again, and my sisters friends were really nice.



The next day I had class till 4:15, so my sister and her friends decided to walk around the San Lorenzo market. They were going to go to the David, but since they couldn't get student discounts, they ended up not going. However, Ashley and I met them around 5 to walk over to Piazzale Michelangelo, where we sat and listened to music while enjoying the view. I had booked a wine tasting for us with Pino at Pozzo Divino at 7, so we headed back down there at 6:30. The wine tasting was so much fun! We got a lot of food such as cheese, bread, prosciutto, salami, oil, and really good balsamic vinegar. The wine we had was Chianti Classico 2008, Bianco Della Lanciola 2010, and Poggio Al Ginepri 2009, another red. It was cool because I understood how to taste and analyze the wine, and my sister and her friends seemed to really enjoy it. Pino let us have as much wine as we wanted and we ended up getting a bit tipsy. We also ended up taking pictures with him and he had us do a "drunk test" where we stand in a funny way to see if we are sober enough to have good balance. We all were pretty tired from the day and ended up not going out that night.

Me, Jordana, Pino, and Morgan after the wine tasting!

 On Wednesday, I had class for most of the day so my sister and her friends did their own thing again. I'm pretty sure they really just went to the market again to buy more things. I ended up going to the Uffizi Gallery for Art History and we saw so many things. I didn't realize that the Birth of Venus was there, and so that was pretty cool to see. I met my sister afterwards and we all went to Oibo for dinner with Ashley. That night we went to Kikuya and Twice.

Thursday, my sister and her friends left to continue their travels. My sister has a whole month of Spring Break which is pretty cool but must be exhausting. Nothing much happened on Thursday and we didn't end up going out, although Ashley, Katie and I went to Tijuana (Note: Tijuana might have been on Friday night... I didn't write this down, whoops).

Friday morning I went to pick up my new cell phone, which I had to get since I lost mine in YAB on Monday. Afterwards, I went to the library for the first time to get research on Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, since I had a presentation and paper due for Art History that coming Wednesday. Ashley had wanted to go to the park, but I just really knew I wanted to get my research done because we were going away that weekend and Bri was coming to visit on Sunday. Luckily, I was pretty productive, and stayed in the library for about 2 and a half hours!

We had a chill night that night because Saturday and Sunday we were going on the make-up trip with FUA to Perugia, Assisi, Siena, and San Gimignano, which I will talk about in my next post!

Spring Break: Amsterdam! (week 9)

Ashley and I decided to spend the last four days of our Spring Break in Amsterdam. At first, I didn't really know why we didn't give ourselves an extra day in Barcelona, since it felt a bit rushed in only two days, but the weather ended up not being so great by the time we left Barcelona to get to the airport, so it was nice to know we were going to have sunny weather in the 60's once again.

Canal next to our hostel!

We got to Amsterdam on Wednesday afternoon, and had gotten some breakfast on the plane. When we arrived at the airport, we realized we had forgotten to look up how to get to the hostel, but luckily I was at least able to find the street where our hostel was on from my Blackberry. It was on Leidsegracht, though neither of us knew how to pronounce it. We decided to type the street name on our phone and show it to the cab driver. The cab ended up being a little pricy, 40 euro, but we had no other idea of how to get there. Our hostel was the International Budget Hostel, and it was in such a good location. We were close enough to the Anne Frank house, and right near the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum, and also near a bunch of bars and clubs.

For our hostel, we actually booked a room with two other people for the first night, and then we booked our own room for the rest of our stay, just because we felt more comfortable without random people in our room. Our room was on the fourth floor, and we had to walk up the steepest steps ever to get to the top. Our roommates happened to be girls our age who were also studying in Florence. They had already been there a couple of days and had two nights left in Amsterdam. When we got inside, they were napping, and so Ashley and I both showered and took naps too for a little while. They told us about a coffeeshop nearby that we should check out, which we ended up doing. We then went on a "Red Light District Exposed" walking tour at 7, that met by the Centraal Station. The tour was so interesting, and I had no idea what to expect in the Red Light District.

Our tour guide was really funny, and showed us a bunch of things before going towards the district. He showed us a custom condom shop, and then showed us some of the funnier contrasts in the area, such as a Christian hostel that is right in the Red Light District, as well as a Kindergarten. Our tour guide told us that we were not allowed to take pictures of the girls in the windows because they will come out and smash your camera, or even throw cups of pee at you. Therefore, my only picture of the Red Light District at night is a bit blurry and from a distance right before we entered and saw all the girls. He also told us all about how prostitution became legalized and gave us all this information about how the girls have to rent the windows and how the prices range depending on location and size. Apparently the area is one of the safest, since there are a lot of policemen who patrol the area. It was so surreal to walk down the streets lined with girls, and it was even weirder to watch some of the men go and talk to them. We walked down this one street called the "Elite Street," which was also the skinniest street, where the "best" girls stood. We were also told about some of famous prostitutes, such as the oldest one, who's twin used to be one too. Our tour guide told us how they once experimented to see if they could get women to pay for sex if they had male prostitutes, but the mission failed since they did not want the media to watch... but before it actually stopped, about 6 women actually did go and pay.

During one point of the tour, we stopped in front of this two minute Peep Show, and our tour guide suggested we all give it a try. He said it was two euro and you can go with a friend. Ashley and I weren't going to do it at first till we realized our whole tour group entered the area to give it a try. We were so awkward about it at first, and it was very weird, but it was interesting to see.

The tour lasted an hour and a half, and it had gotten a bit chillier, so after the tour we decided to head back to our hostel instead of walking around a bit more. We bought a pasta salad type thing in the grocery store and some wine, and ate in the hostel. Our roommates had gone to get dinner with some friends they knew, and Ashley and I decided to go see if Katie, Margo, and Meghan were still in Amsterdam since we overlapped on their Bus2Alps trip. We ended up meeting them by their hostel, which was on Warmoesstraat, right in the middle of the Red Light District. They ended up going to a bar, and Ashley and I ended up going to Hunters, but then the rest of them met us there. We ended up just going back to the hostel after since I was really sleepy, and as we were trying to find our way back, a man walking his dog started talking to us. I was weirded out but he ended up giving us helpful advice before parting, which was to follow the tram tracks back toward our hostel. It was funny because I was really good with directions during the daytime, but at night, Amsterdam just seemed so different to me and it was Ashley who had the better sense of direction every night.

Just a pretty picture of Amsterdam on our tour.

On Thursday we ate breakfast, went to the same coffeeshop we did the day before, and then went to Dam Square at 4 pm to go on the Famous Coffeeshops tour. Once again, the tour was very interesting and we learned all about the history of marijuana in Amsterdam. After the tour, which only included us and another couple, our tour guide gave us suggestions of places to go to, and so we checked another one out. Afterwards, we tried to find the Van Gogh museum, but ended up running into the IAMSTERDAM sign and took pictures on that. We ended up not going into the museum, but just sat on the field near there and then got a waffle, which was AMAZING!

Waffle with sugar, chocolate syrup, and ice-cream.

After eating, we sat on the field again and relaxed, and eventually headed back towards the hostel, where we found a Wok to Walk and got dinner there. We had mentioned to our roommates that we were interested in going to Casa Rosso, and they were too since it was their last night. We had ended up in the room right across from theirs when we changed rooms that morning, and we all got ready and went out. Casa Rosso was very interesting and weird and funny and different all at the same time, but I'm glad I experienced it. Before heading back for the night, Ashley and I decided to check out a bar near our hostel. It was pretty fun, and ended up being more like a club than a bar... we walked outside and ended up going to another one before going to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up early to get lunch before going to the Anne Frank house. It was very interesting, and we each had a self guided pamphlet that explained each room. I ended up getting pretty emotional, especially when Otto Frank was talking in one of the videos. Afterwards, we went to Grey Area, one of the coffeeshops our tour guide recommended. Afterwards, we went back to the field by the Van Gogh museum and hung out there a bit before going inside. It was really cool seeing all his paintings, and there were actually other artist's work that was there too. We stayed there for a few hours before getting dinner at Wok to Walk (of course). We decided to take a quick nap at 8 before trying to go out to a club, but the next thing we knew, it was midnight! We both decided we might as well continue sleeping, so that's what we ended up doing.

On Saturday, our last day, we woke up early once again to do some shopping. I had bought a chocolate covered waffle the day before and ate that for breakfast, so we just found somewhere for Ashley to eat before wandering around the shops in Dam Square. For some reason, I had a really big headache, and I thought it had to do with the fact that we slept for so long. I took some advil and began to feel a bit better. After shopping around, we went to the Hill Street Blues coffeeshop, where we were told Eminem had been to. We then went to the Zoo which was pretty nice. I ended up taking sooo many pictures of the animals for some reason. Later, we drank some wine and had "coffee" before going to a club called Milken Weg, which we think might have had a lot of gay people there. It was so much fun and the music was different; not just popular music. We ended up staying there for a while and then realized we should go since it was daylight savings time and already became 3 am. We also had to wake up at 6 am to begin our commute back to Florence, so we pretty much got 2-3 hours of sleep.

We woke up already packed, and got a cab to Centraal Station, waited an hour for a 2 and a half hour train ride to Maastricht, where we then took a cab to the airport and finally got on a plane to Pisa, then took that bus to the Florence train station, and finallyyy got back home around dinnertime. Longest commute ever, and I didn't think it would ever be over. It was funny because this really weird group of Italian teens with all these body piercings were with us the whole time because they were going back to Florence the exact same way.

Overall, I really enjoyed our Spring Break, and I'm also extremely glad that the next plane I have to go on is the plane to take me back home, since the rest of our trips are on buses.

Spring Break: Barcelona! (week 9)

So, after getting about four hours of sleep, Ashley and I wake up to check out of the hostel, and walk to the shuttle to get to the airport. Since we had such an early flight to Barcelona, it was really the easiest plane ride of the whole trip since there weren't many people in the airport, and we got onto the plane pretty smoothly. Madrid and Barcelona also had the nicest airports because they were a lot bigger.

Ashley posing on our terrace!

When we finally get to Barcelona, it was a little later than we had planned, since the plane had been delayed for take off. I slept the whole ride though and didn't even realize we had arrived till I felt the plane touch the ground. We checked into our hostel after taking the metro to our location near La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona, and quickly took showers. Our hostel was so cute and we had a terrace on the roof where we could sit outside. We hadn't really eaten much, except some nuts we bought at the airport, so we ended up going to Wok to Walk, a stir-fry place that our hostel person recommended, which was down the block. It was sooo yummy!

Afterwards, we walked to Placa de Catalunya, the meeting point for the Hop-on-hop-off bus tours and bought a two day pass. We took the red line around for the whole day. It took us past these cool houses first, including Casa Les Punxes and La Pedrera by Gaudi, and then down Barcelona's diagonal street.

We weren't really sure when we should get off the bus, so we continued down past this industrial park and finally got off the bus at Placa d'Espanya, where we were able to get a panoramic view of Barcelona.

View from the top of MNAC

 We then walked up to the MNAC museum, where we got even more amazing views of Barcelona and sat and drank Sangria while a performer played music for us on the steps. It was just as wonderful sitting there as it was when we were in Madrid, and we stayed there for a while before getting back onto the bus.

The bus continued down past the Olympic Stadium, and then passed by these cool looking gardens with lots of palm trees, and a lift that goes up to the Castell de Montjuic. We then are driven past Port Vell, where the beaches are, but the weather was not so good at this point, and we were cold from it being so windy on top of the bus. We finally drove through the Barri Gothic area, and got off where we started. I ended up meeting my friend Samantha who is studying in Barcelona for about an hour when we finally got back. We walked around La Rambla and around her University so she could explain which places to go to at night. We caught up as much as we could, while Ashley was in the hostel skyping with her mom for her birthday. Although Sam couldn't stay with us for dinner, it was really nice seeing her. She also didn't end up going out with us because she had just gotten back from Rome and felt like she needed a break from spending money.

Ashley and I got dinner at this organic restaurant, where we got salad from the salad bar, a main course, and dessert. I got this really yummy chocolate and coconut dessert, while Ashley got mousse. We thought we were going to go out to the places Sam suggested, but found we were so tired still, and ended up watching an episode of Modern Family and New Girl before going to bed.

The next day, we went on the bus once again, but this time on the blue line. Before that though, we walked to the Gothic area and saw the Monastery and then went to the Picasso museum, which was really cool. We then walked to the bus, and went towards Park Guell, designed by Gaudi. We quickly passed by the Sagrada Familia, but didn't get off because we wanted to get to the park. It was so beautiful though and we quickly snapped pictures. At Park Guell, we ate our lunch that we made (sandwiches, no surprise), and enjoyed the views and architecture of the park. It was sooo cool, and the weather wasn't so terrible at first. After we left, we bought some souvenirs, and hopped back on the bus where we passed all these places, including the Barcelona Futbol stadium. We tried to go back towards the castle so we could take the lift up, but by the time we finally got there, it was closing because of the wind. We realized it was going to rain a bit, so we just decided to go back without any more stops. Once of the bus, we decided we wanted to warm up a bit, and got Starbucks before heading back. We got dinner at Wok to Walk again before meeting up with my sister and her friends, who had arrived in Barcelona that afternoon.

Park Guell

We tried to find this shot bar, where you can choose from 300 shots, but it was already getting late, so we went to Opium del Mar instead, one of Sam's favorite clubs. We got in for free so that was nice, and it ended up being just Ashley, Morgan, and I who wanted to go to the club. After being there for a little while, it was getting late, so we got onto the night bus back to our hostel, where my sister stayed over. Ashley and I had to once again wake up early to get to the airport, and I my sister went back to her place. It wasn't sad saying bye to her since I would be seeing her again in 5 days time when she would be visiting me in Florence after break.

Spring Break: Madrid! (week 9)

So the first place we traveled to was Madrid, Spain. Ashley and I ended up having to rush to get to the bus in the morning  to Pisa Airport, and we got to Madrid by the early afternoon. We checked into our hostel and found a cute place to get lunch outdoors. We ended up getting a three course lunch for 10 euro: I got pasta salad, chicken, and ice cream. My friend Pamela is studying abroad in Madrid, and she and her friend from Syracuse, Kerry, who happens to be studying in Florence, met up with us. We walked around a bit and got to know our area before figuring out what we wanted to do that night.

Before dinner, Ashley and I took a much needed nap, and then took the Metro to Sol where we met Kerry for dinner. We went to some random Tapas place, and the food wasn't so great since we didn't really pick the best restaurant to go to. We ordered a few tapas to split and it was fine. We then bought wine and met Pamela and her roommate and we walked to the Royal Palace where we sat and drank our wine and caught up. Pam then took us to this bar where we got another drink and then to this rooftop lounge that overlooked Plaza Mayor, which was pretty cool. It was a bit windy at this point, and Ashley and I were really tired from our trip and lack of sleep dating back since we got back from Paris, and so we ended up leaving a bit early to go back to the hostel.

The next day, we woke up early to try to catch a walking tour, but ended up missing it by a minute we believe. Instead, we walked to this park that Pam mentioned, where you can rent a rowboat and go out onto the lake for 45 mins. So Ashley and I walk there in no time, and rent a boat. I was the rower at first since I knew how to row from camp, but eventually we both just let the boat drift. At this point we were in the middle of the lake, by this fountain that was spewing water into the lake. Ashley decides to lie down and I decide to look at all my pictures, when all of a sudden I hear Ashley scream- we had drifted right into the stream of water and it had begun to get all over her and into our boat! We caused such a scene because there were tons of people around us, and we both moved to the side with less water and frantically tried to row ourselves away from the fountain. Luckily, it did not get into our bags or onto my leather jacket. It was pretty funny though, and we decided to just row ourselves back to the dock and dry off.

 

The lake, with the fountain on the left.

After spending a little more time walking around the park, we get lunch nearby. Ashley and I both got Asparagus risotto which was soooooo good. My sister, Morgan, and her friends who are all studying abroad in Brighton, England, arrived in Madrid that day, so before going out with all of them, Pamela, Ashley, Morgan, Kerry, and I went to another Tapas place. This time it was so much better. We all ordered Sangria, which was huge and delicious, and then had so much food to go along with it. Ashley and I had already changed to go out, and so we went to Morgan's hostel where I met all her friends, and we all drank our wine and got ready to go out to the biggest club in Madrid called Kapitol; it has 7 floors!

We get there, and it was huge! Pamela wanted us to check out all the floors first so we could see what themes they were. We got two free drinks, and ended up going back to the main floor. The top two floors were closed for some reason, but it didn't really matter. The main floor was so much fun, and at random points in time there would be smoke and air that would burst down onto us, and it was a little scary the first time it happened because we didn't expect it, but later it was fun to be under. We danced on top of these stands, and just had a good time.

Ashley and me at the market

The next day, we woke up to go to this market, where I bought a lot of gifts for people and a few things for myself. We met up with my sister and her friends who had been there for a while, and they went to go get lunch, while Ashley and I continued shopping. We eventually found somewhere to sit and we ate lunch. We had bought sandwich supplies again and fruit, and sat in the sun and ate. We then started to head back to meet my sister and her friends at the Park, but then noticed that there was a mini concert in this cool looking square.. what we later found out is called a "hard square" because of it's urban feel. We sat and listened to people sing, and it was nice and sunny at this point, and we bought a beer and just talked and enjoyed the music. Ashley and I were probably one of the only Americans listening.

the "hard square"

We sat there for about an hour before we had to go back and meet my sister and her friends. They hadn't gone the the park like we thought they were doing, so we quickly showed them it before going the the Prado Museum, which was free from 4-7 or something. After walking around the museum for a bit, we all head back. Ashley and I took a nap, and packed, since we were leaving for Barcelona the next day, and then met up with them again for dinner. We ended up going back to our area for dinner since we didn't see anything we wanted to eat in Sol. We wound up in this cute restaurant down the block from my hotel, which was decently priced. I got this pasta dish like my sister did, and most of my sisters friends got a food sampler. We also ordered two pitchers of Sangria which really good, and we got unlimited bread. Ashley and I realized we couldn't go out that night since we had to wake up at 4 to catch a shuttle to the airport, and went to sleep when we got back to the hostel. My sister was going to be in Madrid for one night longer before going with her friends to Barcelona for a few days too. I kind of planned my trips around when she was going so I could see her.

Week 8: Midterms

So, now that I got back from Paris and had a cold, I really didn't have any reason to go out during midterm week.. which would give me more time to study everything.. mostly last minute, since I didn't have time over the weekend. On Monday, I studied for my World Religion exam, and started my Wine Appreciation research for my paper, which was interesting. Note that I did not bother trying to make my Art History study guide this whole time.

Tuesday I had World Religions, which was not bad at all, it was just short answer questions about pretty much everything she told us to study about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Tuesday night was when I finally made my Art History study guide, which took a lot longer than I thought it would. I also had to write up my Wine Appreciation paper and "study" for it as much as I could, since I didn't really have an idea of what could be on it besides the life cycle of a grape, and other random things we learned in class. I had to get Ashley and Katie to help me a little with the tasting analysis of my wine since my sense of smell was weird because of my cold. This was probably the most stressful night for me, but I finished my paper and my study guide for Art History, without studying for it as much as I could have.

Both exams went better than I thought.. though I was so stressed the whole time. I studied for Art History in between my wine exam, and was so relieved when it was over. However, I still had to study somehow for Cooking and for Italian, though I wasn't so worried about the latter. I ended up going out for a little with Ashley to Kikuya, and we met up with Gerald.. I was definitely third wheeling. We went to Eby's really quickly, and then the two of them went to Blob, while I stayed up late to re-read the history of Italian cuisine.

Overall, this is how I did on my exams: I got a B+ in World Religions,  B- in Cooking, A- in Italian, 88 on my Wine Appreciation exam (still don't know what I got on my paper..), and a 90 on my Art History exam. After they were all over on Thursday, Ashley and I went to print out all our flight itineraries, and then went to Tijuana for nachos and margaritas to celebrate the beginning of our Spring Break!

We then packed and went to Kikuya where we met up with Gerald once again and met his friend Fanny, who is also Albanian but has lived in Florence for 4 years I believe. I didn't want to stay out late because I was still a little bit sick and wanted to get enough sleep before we had to get to the train station the next day.

I'm gonna write all about Spring Break in the next post, so read on!

Week 7 & Paris!

 So, this week was the week before midterms, and instead of making study guides early in the week, I saved it all for the end of the week, right before going to Paris for the weekend. Now, if I didn't want to be stressed out during midterm week, I probably should not have traveled the weekend before. However, I wanted to go to Paris, and this was the weekend that fit best, sooo I knew what I was getting into.

Monday night, we did not go out.. I'm pretty sure Ashley and I booked our hostels for Spring Break then. Tuesday we played Kings before going out with Margo, Meghan, and Melissa to the 1 euro shot bar, where I had two shots. We then went to Lion's for a bit, and then Red Garter and Twice. It was another typical night out with the group. Wednesday, we didn't go out again, and I forced myself to make my World Religion study guide. Thursday, in order to prepare for my Wine Appreciation paper, I went to Enoteca Alessi and bought myself a Tuscan wine. We were supposed to research and analyze our "favorite wine" but since I don't know what my favorite wine is, I just decided to try a new one. I ended up getting a couple euro off since I mentioned I had been to the Enoteca a couple weeks ago with my class. The wine I ended up buying for 19 euro is called "Le Berne Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2008." It is similar to Chianti, since it is made from Sangiovese grapes as well.

Friday, Ashley and I headed off to Paris. At the last minute Katie didn't end up going; she hurt her foot and was advised not to walk too much. We took the Terravision bus to Pisa and flew Ryanair. It is so stressful flying with Ryanair because they are so strict and really try to make you think you're back is not going to fit. However, we got on the flight just fine, and got to Paris around 5. Ariela told us that we had to get a bus to take us from the Beauvais airport to the center of Paris. After another two hours, we finally made it and Ariela showed us how to get to our hostel, which was in Montmartre. Ariela had warned us that Montmartre (where the Moulin Rouge stands) is a little sketchy, and there are prostitutes, and that it can be unsafe if we are walking alone. However, since Ashley and I booked the hostel last minute, we really had no other good options. The Regent hostel was really close to the Metro stop, and we dropped our stuff off and changed for dinner. Since Katie couldn't come anymore, we were stuck in a room with two random people.. which both happened to be men. The first guy was from Russia I believe, and we just said hi because we were on our way out. We went to this restaurant called "Les Saisons" where we got this really great glass of red wine to go along with the pork we got. It was amazing and I really missed meat. We also kept getting unlimited tap water and bread... with BUTTER! I missed it so much, since all we really use in Italy is olive oil. After dinner, we bought wine and went to this local French club that was pretty cool It had a downstairs room where there were popular French DJ's performing. It was a lot of fun. When we finally got back to our hostel, we realized we hadn't made our beds, so we tried to be quiet since we had two random people in our room. When we opened the door, another guy who was in the top of my bunk bed sat up and was like "hello!" We both said hi, and got ready for bed.

Saturday, we woke up early and had to wait a while for our roommate to get out of the shower. We were sooo antisocial.. none of us really talked to each other. We got breakfast in the hostel and then met Ariela at her apartment. We went to one of the biggest open-air markets in Paris, and bought bread, meat, cheese, and fruit. I'm glad Ariela was there because she just made it go a lot faster since she's fluent. We went to the Louvre after and saw the Mona Lisa and a few other things before going outside to the gardens where we sat and ate our lunch.

After lunch, Ariela walked us down the Champ de Elysees, where some of the most expensive stores are. We went inside the Louis Vuitton store which was soo big and walked around admiring their bags and clothes. Afterwards, she took us to her favorite macaroon place, Laduree. They were sooo good, and we each chose two. I had chocolate and vanilla, Ariela had pistachio and chocolate, and Ashley had strawberry and pistachio. Afterwards, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and took pictures, and then finally went to the Tour Eiffel... French for the Eiffel Tower. We didn't have enough time for us to climb the tower because Ariela had plans for us to go to this party in the suburbs later on.

Since we did have about a half hour before we had to head back, we started wandering around, and I just so happened to stumble upon the Vel d'Hiv! This was the spot where French Jews were rounded up and taken to the concentration camps during the Holocaust. I had just finished reading Sarah's Key on the airplane and knew that the French aren't so proud to admit that it was the French police who did this, not the Germans.. and that the only thing to remember this day is a memorial... which just so happened to be near the metro we were going to take from the Eiffel Tower!

Vel d'Hiv memorial

We went to Ariela's home-stay where we changed into the clothes we had dropped off in her apartment that morning and went to the train station that would take us to the suburbs. We met up with two of her friends, and finally figured out which train to take.. sans ticket. Now this party was for her conversational partner's birthday, and we brought wine. Ariela had also told us that we would have to kiss everyone on the cheek when we got there, out of politeness. So we get out of the train and pile into his car and he drives to this really nice house. Ashley and I are the only ones who do not understand French and so when we see all these people through the window, we begin to freak out a little. We had already done the kiss thing the other day when we met her host family's brother and his children, and it was just a little weird.

Anyway, we go inside and we start meeting people, but it's hard to really communicate so Ashley and I are pretty much kissing people and then just standing there awkwardly, so we decide to stop saying hello to people and just stand there. We put our stuff down, and get drinks, and start to mingle since there were a few people who could speak English. It was an interesting experience being at that party, and though I did feel out of place, it was still a bit fun. The birthday boys ended up serving so much food, and cooked frozen pizza and other dishes the whole time, which was different. We ended up staying over, which I knew we would, and had to literally rush back to our hostel the next morning before 11 which is when we had to check out. We made it in the nick of time, and then had to go back to Ariela's to change into our regular clothes, and then we left our stuff in the lockers in the lobby of the hostel before exploring for the few hours we had left in Paris. We were going to try to climb the Eiffel Tower but again did not have time, so we got lunch at an Italian restaurant (there were so many, hard to resist), and then walked up the the Sacre Coeur which was right near our hostel. It got nice out so we just hung out a little bit and went inside the Church before our next stop, which was to the Moulin Rouge. Now, when Ariela told us that prostitutes hang out on the steps of the Sacre Coeur, and are all over our area of Paris, I didn't really see any of that so I was skeptical. However, as we started walking toward the Moulin Rouge, we began to see sex stores all over, and sex shows.. it was crazy! I thought we were already in Amsterdam! We took pictures of the Moulin Rouge, and then went back to our hostel to get our stuff, took the metro to the shuttle that would take us back to the airport, flew to Pisa, took a bus back to Florence, and finally walked home from the train station back home. It was such a long commute, but we did it! We were pretty tired, and I had gotten a cold over the weekend... just in time for midterms! But although I did feel like we rushed our trip to Paris a bit, I still had fun. It was pretty gray, and not as nice as it was when we went to Rome, but I'm glad we got to spend time with Ariela.

Sacre Coeur

view from top of Sacre Coeur

Moulin Rouge