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.