its been awhile...

Well I have not written in a very long time and for that I apologize. I haven’t been doing much since I haven’t been traveling Europe. The last month has been fun but rather uneventful. I have been enjoying my time in Florence by going out, sleeping in and working hard at school. We have celebrated a few birthdays, which is funny because they were 21^st birthdays…and how I remember that year, oh so long ago.

After our travels concluded, the first weekend was Halloween! So, we celebrated American-style, by getting dressed up and hitting the town. There were a bunch of us, and we were the cast of The Wizard of Oz. I was the Wicked Witch of the East, you know, the one who got the house dropped on her? It was pretty fun, but it was basically the beginning of the cold rainy season, so the weather was not enjoyable. All in all, it was a pretty fun night, but definitely nothing compared to Halloween in America.

That weekend, was pretty low-key for me, because my roommates were out of town (which was great) and I decided, I needed a weekend to myself and to rest. So, I strolled around Florence, buying souvenirs for people and doing a little shopping for myself. I stumbled upon a great antique market and found 2 vintage Gucci hand bags, which I immediately purchased of course. I also found some cute little dishes that were hand painted and made in Florence, so I bought them as well. How I am going to get them back into the States, I have no idea, but I guess, I will figure that out later. There were so many cool things there that I wanted to buy everything, but unfortunately, funds are limited, so I had to settle with those things.

The next weekend was Ashley’s (one of the other girls) 21^st birthday. It was a typical night out until the end, when some girl tried to pick a fight with me. Why I get picked on everywhere, I will never know, but whatever. This girl kept throwing her coat on me (at our table, at which she was not) so I kept removing it from my lap. Well, after a few things had piled up, I asked the owner if he could ask them to move their things, because there wasn’t enough room to sit down with all of their stuff there. So he did, and she of course got a big attitude. So, she threw her coat on me again and I moved it again and she then punched me in the face! I was absolutely shocked, and managed to just laugh. I figure me laughing in her face was a lot more mean than me hitting her and I didn’t look trashy. She definitely didn’t like that, so then she started to yell at me in some language I do not understand. I told the owner again what had happened and he radioed for the bouncers to throw her out. In the mean time she spit her drink in my face, and then when I had my back turned, she raked her disgusting nails across my back. By that time the bouncer had just arrived to see all of this, and physically removed her. She went out with a fight too, I don’t know what her problem was, but I showed restraint (as hard as it was) and feel that even though I now have scars on my back from her, I came out on top by not looking like a piece of trash starting a fight at a club. After this incident, we all decided it was time to turn it in for the night and rightfully so.

Sunday of that weekend, we went to see a soccer game! It was Fiorentina vs. (someone else…) It was interesting to see, but the section we were in was a little boring. We bought jerseys and scarves though so we definitely looked the part of the Fiorentina soccer fans. They won, so it was good…but I must admit slightly boring. Nothing beats American football.

The next weekend we went to Milan. This was a school trip, so we had “school things” to do, but it was still fun! We started out by visiting some notable shops in the area, which were all really interesting. Then we went to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” It was so cool to see in person. It is a huge secco (a different type of fresco) and it preserved pretty well considering its age. It is fading in areas such as the feet and some of the faces, but overall it still looks great. For those of you who have read “The Da Vinci Code” it does look like a woman seated next to Jesus, but with most things, I think the translation is left to the individual viewer and shaped by their experiences and openness. After seeing the painting, which by the way, you get 15 minutes to see it, you are funneled in like cattle and then when your time is up they bark at you over the PA and then you are funneled out. It’s very strange. Anyway…after seeing the painting we headed to our hotel to check in and freshen up. Afterwards we went to the Galleria, which is like a mall but is original to the town. It holds many restaurants and shops and is home to the original Prada store. It was very cool inside; it had many original items and a lot of museum-type pieces. After that we went to the Armani Super Store, which contained every Armani label under one roof. They had a very cute little café/bar so we of course had a cocktail and some mini-sandwiches before heading off to dinner. We found a cute little restaurant which had very interesting food. I had pumpkin ravioli with a cheese fondue sauce with cocoa on top. It was very good, but very sweet and dessert like. Following dinner we walked around enjoying Milan and found a very cute hip bar that we were definitely not cool enough to even be in. But, we managed to have a good time. The next day we scoped out all of the vintage stores and found some very interesting items, but being in a large city, all were over priced so I left empty handed.

That Sunday we decided to go horse-back riding in Tuscany (Ruffina to be exact) it was the perfect day! It was a cool, crisp fall day with the sun shining. Perfect!!! It was a two hour ride through vineyards and fields and wooded areas. It was absolutely beautiful. My horse, Cidia, was a dream to ride. She was very responsive and attentive, she was great. It was probably one of my favorite things we have done in Italy as it was such a great way to see the countryside and enjoy it as well.

The next week, we went to Sienna with school. It is a small town about an hour from Florence and is a very interesting place to visit. There are scenes from the new James Bond movie filmed there during an event they call the “Paolo” which is a horse race through the city. It’s a very big deal to the people of Sienna and they are very divided on it as well. Each person belongs to a different neighborhood in Sienna. There are rivals, flags, mascots, songs and specific areas. They take it very seriously. Our tour guide (who was Samantha Brown’s twin…if you are a travel channel fan…) was an honorary member of one of these neighborhoods and is only one of eleven Americans who hold this honor. She was a great tour guide and was full of interesting facts and knowledge. Sienna was a very beautiful place and I suggest visiting if you are ever in Florence.

This was about all of the fun I had until Ben came to Italy…which was for Thanksgiving break.

Ciao!

Vote for Change

I would like to officially endorse Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. He makes me want to be proud again that I am American. I feel that although he is young, he will bring a fresh new perspective and at this point, that is what our country is dying for. Please get out and vote today (no matter who it is for). There are people who put their life on the line every day so that you can have to right to vote.

BARACK THE VOTE '08!

Hola!

This past weekend I was in Barcelona, Spain! I was looking forward to spending the weekend in a warm climate, whit lots of sun and enjoying my last trip of the semester. Well, when we first got there we met up with 3 other girls from school who were staying in our hostel. We get on the metro to get to the hostel, only to discover that it closed in 5 minutes, so we had to get off. We got off at what we thought was our stop (as indicated on the directions from the hostel) and discovered that it was actually about a 20 minute walk from where we were. It was about 1:00 am, so we were trying to hurry, as it’s never a good idea to be out late, and a group of 9 American girls is like a moving target. So, we get directions from two nice ladies who happened to be walking by and make our way down the street. As we are crossing the street we hear one of the girls screaming. I turn around she is being dragged down the street by a Vespa. She falls face first into the street and the guy speeds away. So, we all run over to her and try to process what has just happened. I thought the Vespa had hit her, but apparently he had tried to grab her purse off of her arm and she didn’t let go so he was dragging her. She gets up and her face is bruised and scraped up as well as her arms and feet. She is shaking terribly, and is obviously shaken up, as all of us are, but we are now trying to figure out what to do. No cabs would stop for us, and we were still 15 minutes away from the hostel, so I tried to clean her up, a few girls grabbed her stuff and we continued walking. I have never been so scared in my life. Every Vespa or motorcycle that would drive back, I would just hold my breath and tremble. Its one thing to hear of these types of things happening, but you never think it will happen to you (or someone you know) and then when it does, it is the biggest reality check. We were all silent walking to the hostel, I think because we were all scared and no one knew what to say. It was horrible and one of the worst things I have seen happen to a friend. I hope it never happens again, and serves as a reminder that there are bad people out there and to hold your belongings close, because around every corner someone is there to rob you and take advantage of you. I was so glad that she had held onto her purse, because her life was in there. I am glad that she is ok for what happened, but if he would’ve gotten her purse she would’ve lost her passport, credit cards, cash, etc…all in a foreign country and when the embassies are all closed. She would’ve been screwed. So, on one hand her face would’ve been saved if she would’ve just let go, but at what cost? Anyway, we finally got cabs, and we finally got to the hostel. Everyone was afraid to leave the hostel because of what just happened, but we decided that at this point we could all use a drink, so we went next door to an Irish pub. It was nice to be crammed in, and feel safe actually. The rest of the girls went home, and Tracy and I stayed out for a little bit and blew off some steam. It was an interesting day to say the least.

Friday, we got a late start because of our really late bedtime the previous night, but we got some lunch and went to Starbucks and all was ok. We decided to head to the beach, even though it was chilly, we still wanted to walk in the sand. By the time we figured out where the beach was it was pouring. It was a little windy when we left the hostel, and it kept getting darker, but we figured it would hold off. It did not. It was so windy and cold and rainy—absolutely miserable. Where we were, there was not much to do inside, so we braved the rain (with my now broken umbrella) and hit the shops on La Rambla. The shopping there was amazing! The style was so different than anything I have ever seen. The colors and prints were crazy, anything went. I thought this was only in one store, and as we kept walking around I found this was not the case. I didn’t really buy anything crazy, but the other girls did and let me tell you, it is nothing you would ever find in the States. It was very inspiring to be around all of this, I loved it. After shopping we figured we should go back to the hostel and get ready for the night. We went to a Spanish restaurant for dinner, where we had a ton of Sangria. I also got typical Spanish food; it was pretty good, actually. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I liked it a lot. After dinner we went to a club that was supposed to be “the best club in Spain!” It was definitely not. There were about 5 people there and the drinks were ridiculously expensive. However, like always, we made friends with the managers and bartenders, so we did not have to pay. But, this fact did not make this club any less lame, and on top of that, Spain still allows smoking inside, so it reeked of smoke and it was everywhere. Ugh. We decided to leave after a few hours and this club was in the middle of nowhere, so getting a cab was next to impossible. When we finally got one, we realized we had 5 people (cabs only allow 4) and had to beg the driver to take us. He finally did after much convincing and we made it home safe and sound.

Saturday also started relatively late (the bars stay open until 5am) but once we did get up we wanted to walk around and see the architecture. Some of the other girls went on a bus tour, but I wanted to walk so Tracy and I and 2 other girls did our own tour. By the time we finished with lunch, it was raining again. So, we had to waste time somehow in the shops. I can only look at the same clothes for so long, so this was getting old, but I bought a few souvenirs and we finally made our way outside to the Casa Batillò, which is the famous Gaudi building. Gaudi is an architect (and artist, I guess…) from the early 1900s whose style was very modernistic and crazy for the time period. I personally love his style and would live in any house he designed in an instant. He liked to derive inspiration from all things “nature” and used them quite literally, but more on that later. Anyway, so we are walking and taking our time and taking photos of everything and checking out shops. We then realize that it’s almost 8pm and the house is probably going to be closed. So we hurry to the house, and it had just closed, so we vow to get up early the next day (we had to anyway to check out) and go inside. So, we decided to walk around some more and go back to the hostel to get ready for the evening’s festivities. We go to dinner at this tiny little restaurant/pub on this little side street. I wasn’t really that hungry, but I ordered something “meat in the oven” whatever that means. Well it comes out and it’s like a big slab of “meat” I don’t know what it was, but it was disgusting. I am pretty open to trying new food, but I couldn’t eat it. Luckily it came with mashed potatoes, so I ate those. The server comes to clear the table and looks at my untouched plate and says “you don’t like?” and I say apologetically, “no, I am sorry…it’s ok though” and she gives me the dirtiest look ever. Whatever, I didn’t mean to offend her, but I just couldn’t eat it. Anyway, to smooth things over (plus I was hungry at that point still) I ordered a chocolate tart and cleaned my plate. After dinner we went to a tiny little salsa bar, and I mean tiny. There were 10 of us and we barely fit. After sitting at a cramped table for an hour, we decided to change locations. We went to this little place where there was a great dj and a lot of interesting people. It ended up being really fun and a great way to end our night out in Barcelona. We went back early because we wanted to be able to get up early the next day.

Sunday morning came pretty early, as we had to be up and checked out by 10am. So after that, we went to the Gaudi house, Casa Batillò. We went in this time and it was amazing. I have never in my life seen anything like it. The inside was made to represent the inside of a whale. The staircase looked as if it had a spine attached made of beautiful polished wood. The windows were supposed to be like the teeth and they had beautiful stained glass inserts like bubbles. There were so many interesting things in this house, it is almost impossible to remember them all! Just the way things were designed was so amazing and thinking of the time period in which all of this was created is even more impressive. For instance, the doors had a ventilation system, where you could open however many to create air circulation within the rooms, and the handles on the windows were designed to fit perfectly into your hand. The staircase railing was the same way, the wood was so soft and it fit smoothly into my hand. In the center of the house there was a courtyard referred to as the “courtyard of light.” It was tiled in blue tiles that at the bottom were light and as you went up the stairs, you noticed that they became a more cobalt blue. This was done to create a brightening effect at the bottom. This courtyard was covered by glass to let the light in and it was the entire height of the house. Once we got to the top, there was a rooftop terrace. It was so cool! The front of the house has a shape that is reminiscent of a dragon’s back and is tile in mosaics accordingly. There are also little stairs that go to secret places all over the house, even on the roof. The chimney covers were made to resemble a castle, and are mosaic tiled as well. It was perfectly reminiscent of Barcelona with its bright colors and interesting design. This was my favorite thing that we did, only because it was so unique and I really enjoy unique architecture and design. After the Casa Batillo, we walked around more and saw the things we kept missing. We got one last lunch of tapas and other Spanish food (I got paella…a rice dish, so good!) and headed back to the hostel to pack up our luggage and get to the airport.

Overall, this trip was great. Even though it started horribly and it rained most of the time, it was still enjoyable and I loved it. Barcelona is a very unique and beautiful place, which I would recommend to anyone. The architecture alone is worth the trip. There were so many other Gaudi buildings that we didn’t get to see, but the Casa Batillo was the crown jewel for sure. Unfortunately that was my last trip to another country (unless I plan something on a whim…) but I will spend the remainder of my trip in Italy. This weekend I was hoping to get back to Amsterdam with some girls from class, but I waited way too long to book a flight and they are now ridiculously expensive, so maybe later. I would like to take a trip by myself, but I am not sure if I will and where I would go. This weekend, I will stay in Florence and probably do some Christmas shopping for people and visit museums. My roommate, Tracy will be out of town with her parents, and my other roommate has a friend coming, so I am hoping to be alone all weekend and will enjoy every second of it. I need the rest and especially the alone time, as spending 24 hours a day with the same people, can be taxing. I will write again soon.

Ciao

Cheers!

Last weekend I traveled to Dublin, Ireland, one of the “mother lands.” It was beautiful. I felt about Ireland, the way I felt about London. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I knew I would love it. As soon as we got off the plane, we went to our hostel, The Dublin City Bunkhouse, to drop our stuff and go get some dinner. We arrived to our hostel, which was in a good location and close to everything and promptly checked in. The lobby seemed nice enough, and we were interested to see what staying in a 16-person “mixed dorm” would actually be like, so we lugged all of our stuff up to the top floor and went in. As soon as we walked in, we noticed there were mostly guys in the room, and it smelled horrible. I would liken it to a dirty sock, covered in old milk: the worst smell ever. Also, it was really hot and the windows were closed, so the first thing I did was open the windows to air it out and hopefully get rid of the disgusting smell. We quickly freshened up and left to go to dinner.

We went to a place called “The Oval” as we wanted to eat traditional Irish food and of course get a pint of Guinness. We all got stew, and it was delicious. It was exactly the comfort food I have been craving and I was very happy! After dinner, we walked around the Temple Bar area, which is the touristy part, but there is a lot to do there. We stopped in a pub that had live music and had a drink. It would’ve been great except for the fact that it was shoulder to shoulder and when we were there the musician had taken an hour break. So we finished our drinks and decided to just call it a night. We got back to our hostel and much to my dismay; I discovered that I was on the top bunk which was inches away from the next top bunk, who happened to be some smelly guy. Seeing as how I didn’t feel like “sharing” my bed with a stranger, I turned around so at least my feet were in his face if he decided to make a move (he obviously did not…)

Friday morning after one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had we got up and went to the Guinness Storehouse. It is a huge brewery and the inside part that you tour is shaped like a pint glass, thus the world’s largest pint glass. We started the tour at the 9,000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed for the building and made our way through the brewing process. It was very interesting and mid-way you get to go to the “tasting lab” and taste their low alcohol beer (2.5%) It was pretty good and afterwards we continued our tour. It takes you through the history of the beer and the advertising and it was really cool to see all of the old advertisements and bottles. After this portion you get to learn how to pour the “perfect pint” which you get to drink afterwards (for free of course!) So, I got certified after pouring my pint and we decided to have lunch at the restaurant there. It was so good, and again, I ate stew and again, it was amazing. Then we went up to the top floor, which they call the “Gravity Bar” and it gives you a 360˚ view of Dublin 15 stories up. It was really crowded, but they were playing really good American classic rock, so we stayed and enjoyed our free pints. We then met some very nice Irishmen around our age who were bent on showing us the real Dublin, aka not Temple Bar. So some of the girls exchanged information with them and we agreed to meet them later. That night we did some shopping and dinner and decided we were tired and went to bed early.

Saturday morning we got up around 6am to go to Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. We arrived at our meeting point right on time, to discover that the bus had left early and without us. So at 7am I am arguing with the staff about how they could just leave us, seeing as how we had paid 70€ for the trip, just like everyone else and why would they just leave, especially when we weren’t late? So there we were running behind the manager of the company down the street to catch the bus and they were sorry and so on… Anyways, we get on the bus and get on our way. It is about 3 hours to Limerick, which is where we have to change buses to go on to Cork, which is where Blarney Castle is located. The driver tells us a little bit about the towns we are driving through, like we passed through the area where the battle scenes from Braveheart were filmed. We also drove through the very small town of Moneygall, where apparently Barack Obama’s ancestors are from, which I, of course thought was cool. We then arrived in Limerick, which apparently is referred to as “Stab City” because so many people are stabbed and robbed there. I was a bit concerned, but we only stopped there for 5 minutes, took a picture and left, so I think we were safe. After we changed buses, we sped off for the town of Cork. And I mean sped off, our little bus we were in, felt like it was going 100mph over these hills, bumps and curves, so I was very glad when we finally arrived to the castle.

The castle was not as big as I thought it would be, but the grounds surrounding it were so beautiful. It was everything you think of, when you think of Ireland. It was lush green grass, lots of trees, animals: beautiful nature. We walked through the castle and although it was in pretty good shape for its age, it was still aging. On the top was the infamous Blarney Stone, which was why we were there in the first place. If you don’t know the story I will tell you. The stone is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence for 7 years because the man who originally lived there had a speech impediment, and he was also a very prominent leader in the area. He saw a beautiful woman drowning in the river, so he went to save her, and when he pulled her out, she thanked him, but he couldn’t say anything back to her because of his speech problem. She then promptly turned into a witch, but instead of cursing him, she was thankful for him saving her life, and asked him what his greatest wish was. He told in her as best he could, about his speech impediment and that he wanted to be cured, so she put a spell on the stone and him giving him the gift of eloquence. And now, everyone that kisses it receives this gift as well. Hopefully it works, as I will have quite a few job interviews coming up within the next 7 years, and could use that gift! After the Blarney Stone, we did a little bit of shopping (again…) and had some lunch and then it was time to leave.

When we arrived back in Dublin, we decided that we just wanted to get coffee and hang out a little before going out that night, so we went to a place called “Murray’s Pub” near our hostel, and they happened to also have Irish dancing that night. So we got our coffees and settled in for the dancing to begin. It was so amazing to watch and it really made me miss dancing. They danced to traditional Irish music and did a few routines and then of course called for audience participation. I, of course get volunteered by my roommates, so up to the stage I went. It was embarrassing, but still fun and now I can say I danced on stage (however bad…) in Ireland! After the dancing concluded we went back to our smelly hostel to get ready for the evening.

We met the friendly Irishmen at a pub called O’Donahughes’, which was definitely not a tourist pub, but still really fun. The pubs close early in Ireland (like in London…) so they told us they were going to a club, and invited us along for free entry and VIP room. So, of course we went and had a blast. We danced all night, and there was an Xbox360 in the VIP room, that I played PacMan and Frogger on. It was so fun and everyone was so nice. It was nice to go out and have a good time for the sake of fun. It was around 4am when I decided to call it a night. I was exhausted from dancing all night and it was time for bed. So I said my goodbyes and went back to the hostel.

Sunday morning, we packed our things and decided that we would explore Dublin some before we left for Italy. We went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is one of the oldest churches in Dublin. It has 16 different types of bells and we were told that a lot of people traditionally go there on New Year’s Eve at midnight for their kiss. We also went to Dublin Castle, which now houses their city hall. Nothing remains of the original castle except for one tower, so that wasn’t as interesting as we thought it would be. We then found ourselves at Trinity College. It was one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen. There was so much green space and the architecture was so old and fascinating. We strolled through the campus, and I wished I had enrolled or that they had a fashion design program. It was perfect! We then went to St.Patrick’s Cathedral. It was under a lot of construction, so it was hard to see, but what we could see was amazing. It’s so remarkable that I have this opportunity and I sometimes just sit in awe of these types of things. I have learned about it in school, but seeing it in person is so much better, and this of course goes for all of things I have seen. Anyways, at St.Patrick’s there is a very nice park, so we sat for a bit there and then decided to go in. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures, but I snuck a few of course, as it was very nice inside as well. By this time, it was time to head to the airport, so we unfortunately concluded our visit to Dublin.
Overall, this was one of my favorite trips. It was very beautiful, and the people were so nice. I would love to go back there again, and stay much longer so that I could enjoy it. This weekend I am off to Barcelona, Spain, which will be the polar opposite of Ireland, but I am excited just the same!

Ciao-

Gutentaag!

Last weekend was spent in Munich, Germany and it was one of the best trips yet. A couple of us left very early Friday morning (4:00 am) to get to the airport for our 6:30 flight, which of course was delayed about an hour. Once we got off the plane, I realized that I wasn’t sure how to get to our hostel. I knew the street that it was on, but we weren’t sure how to get there from the airport. There was a little old man who was helping everyone out, and when he saw us standing in front of the ticket machine in the subway he came over to help. We told him our dilemma and and he told us exactly where we needed to go and sent us on our way. Then, some Italians came up to us and tried to sell us their subway pass. We thought this might be a bit sketchy, but apparently it is common practice in Germany. The pass they sold us (for 5€) was an 18€ pass that was good for 5 people and for 24hours. Apparently they had bought the ticket because it is cheaper than buying 2 individual passes and they were leaving to go back to Italy, so we got a cheap subway pass and were on our way. As a side not about the subway system in Munich, there are no gates and no one checks your tickets, so after our 24 hours expired, we figured we’d just chance it and not worry about the tickets. It worked.

Anyway, once we got to our hostel we dropped our bags and headed to Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp located just outside of Munich. I was looking forward to this visit, except for the fact that it was 40˚ and pouring rain. The walkways in Dachau are gravel, so I had trench foot by the time this visit was over, but it was worth it to see this piece of history, plus I think the weather suited the mood anyway.

When we got into the camp, there were rows of buildings and you could see where the old watchtowers were and the foundations of the rows and rows of buildings where the prisoners were housed. The first building we went to was where the “special prisoners” were housed. These were usually ministers, doctors and I think a lot of “non-Jewish” people. There were really long hallways of cells and it was dark and damp and very sad to think of someone having to live there. This part of the building looked a lot like prison cells. I think this is also where they would punish the prisoners by isolation in the dark, “pole hangings” and other terrible things. At the end of one of the halls, there was a gate that blocked off the rest of the cells for whatever reason, and people had left flowers, coins, notes and other things as a sort of memorial. It was moving to see. The rest of this building had been converted into a museum where there were stories, people’s belongings, uniforms etcetera. It was interesting to read the survivors’ stories and appalling to think that these things were allowed to occur. The museum seemed to go on forever and it was set against a background of the basically unchanged rooms of the past. After leaving the museum area, we headed to where people were housed. It was rows and rows and rows of wooden bunk beds. Not the kind you think of now, but stacked and crammed in. I couldn’t even imagine living in conditions such as this, as I can’t even stand sharing a room, let alone a bed. Some of the stories I had read at the museum talked about how the beds had to be made which such precision and the floors had to be spotless and perfect, all within an hour. If they were not just right, they were subjected to harsh and horrible punishment. After leaving the bunkhouses, we went to where the gas chambers and crematoriums were. The strangest part about going to this area was that it smelled horrible, like death. The only reason I even know what something dead smells like is from driving by poor animals on the road, but the smell is unmistakable and I could smell it in this area. It actually was nauseating. I asked my friends if they could smell it, and they could too. It definitely intensified the situation and the thoughts I was already lost in. As we walked through this area, I was taking pictures feeling like a horrible person, but I wanted to be able to show people at home what I was seeing. It didn’t make me feel any better, but I tried to remind myself of this fact through this area. It was very disturbing to think of these things and I was anxious to finish our visit to Dachau. We stopped in one of the many churches on the property and paid our respects and promptly left. I am glad I was able to see Dachau, and I feel that it is important to experience these kinds of things, but this was definitely not an uplifting segment of our trip and I was ready to be uplifted.

After Dachau, we realized that we were starving, so we got off at Hackerbrucke (the stop where Oktoberfest is) and decided to go look for food there. We knew we wanted a beer and German food. So we stopped at the first place we came to, a huge place called Hacker-Pschorr. We walked in and it was packed, as it was directly across from the festivities. However, we happened to catch people leaving a table, so we snatched it up and parked it for quite a while. The first thing we wanted was a liter of beer. Then we had to figure out how to read German and order dinner. We flagged over our waitress and asked some questions, and she promptly brought us the English menu, which made things much easier. I ended up going with the “Crispy pork with potato dumplings, cabbage salad with beer sauce.” It was delicious as was my first real German beer. After we had finished eating, we met some Germans at the table next to us. They came up and sat with us and we had a really good time with them. The party really started to get going around 7pm when the band started to play. At this point the Germans had bought us another round and we were dancing on chairs singing German songs. We then met a couple from Hudson (which is a couple towns away from Kent…so random) who were so nice and really fun as well. By the time 9:30 rolled around, my roommate, Tracy had well over enough to drink so we had to cart her back to the hostel. So we said auf weidersehen to our newfound friends and decided it was best if we all turn in early to prepare for our early wake-up call the next day.

7 am came very early Saturday, but in order for us to even have a small chance of getting into the tents, we would have to be in line by 8. We decided to go for the tent that is one of the biggest and most popular, Hofbrauhaus. I particularly wanted to go here, because as you Cincinnatians know, Cincinnati has the only other Hofbrauhas in the world besides Munich (and Vegas) and it is one of my favorite places to hang out in Cincy. Anyway, this tent is almost impossible to get into, so we knew we were going to have to fight. So we get to the tent and there is already a huge crowd, so we kinda push our way in to get a spot in line. The tents don’t open until 10, so we prepare to wait for a couple of hours. Well, around 8:30 people start cheering, and me being short, I can’t see what everyone is cheering about, but I can tell that we are moving, so I run up and grab my friends too. Well, then it starts to get a little tight. Which each surge forward f the crowd, the back comes running up, and I am sandwiched in the middle. It continues in this manner for about 10 minutes. At this point, my feet are barely touching the ground, because my body is wedged up so tight against the person in front of me and I can barely breathe because there is no room to expand my chest. This is when it starts to become painful and I realize that if I just don’t keep going with the crowd and keep my head up, I will get swallowed up and potentially seriously injured. The crowd keeps pushing and pushing and I just keep getting more and more squished. I am crying out in pain, as is everyone else, but we are almost to the door. Finally we get into the foyer, but there is still one more door to go through, and instead of it being a wide doorway, it is the size of a regular doorway. Imagine squeezing 2000 people into one small doorway at the same time. I basically get swept away from my friends in the current of bodies and get all turned around and twisted and then all of a sudden, I notice that I am in!!!! My excitement is put on hold as a German police officer grabs me and starts screaming at me in German, and I finally realize he wants to search my bag. So I open it and he does and then he throws me away and into the area where the tables are. There are not many left, so I grab a table and wait for my friends. We all eventually find each other and are ecstatic that we got in and are hugging and jumping around like we had just won the lottery. We got to know our neighbors at our table, who happened to be Italian and waited patiently for the beer to come. Around 9, this sweet old lady came to our table carrying 8 liters of beer. It was an amazing feat, as I can barely carry one without breaking my arm and I was particularly sore on the top of my hand from the giant steins of the night before. But anyhow, we got our beers and “Prost!”-ed more times than I can count and got down to enjoying our delicious Hofbaruhaus Oktoberfest brew. The Italians next to us finally get their beers too and “Prost” us, and they are really hard core because, they break my glass into pieces. So, I get another, no big deal. Well the second time around they want to toast, and again. They break my glass and their glass this time so, after that I decided no more of that, I would just nod and smile. After staying there until around 4 we decided that we needed to do some souvenir shopping and to get something to eat. So I decide to try a sausage, and I still didn’t like it, just like I don’t in the States, but I figured I should try it. So I pulled out the sausage and ate the bun. Tracy and I headed to Marienplatz where there is a ton of shopping. We got a few souvenirs and went back to the hostel to find the other girls. Once we got there, we were hungry again, so we went to the Chinese place down the street and headed back to Oktoberfest before they closed for the night. We had one last beer there and went back to our hostel to take advantage of the bar in the basement. It turned out to be really fun and we danced all night to bad European techno and had a great time.

Sunday we had to be at the airport by 9:30, so we didn’t have time to really do anything, but we had a layover in Zurich for 5 hours. Once we got to Zurich we got some lunch at Burger King (it sounded good...haha) and realized that Zurich isn’t on the Euro or even in Germany. We asked the nice lady at the BK counter where we were, and she laughed and informed us that we were in Switzerland, which is on the Swiss Franc. This was news to us, as we realized that we had paid $13USD for a “value meal”. The only reason I know how much I paid in dollars is because the Swiss Franc is 1:1 with the dollar, so this was ridiculous and that was my meal for the day. After our extravagant meal at Burger King we found a place to hang out for the next 5 hours. Luckily it ended up being a place that we could sleep, so we did just that. Finally it was time for our plane to leave and as we were flying home to Italy, I looked out the window and noticed we were flying over the Swiss Alps. It was so cool because they are so tall! It looked as if the plane was flying low, but I assume it was not as that would be dangerous, and the peaks of the mountains were so close! It was a very cool ending to our great trip to Munich and once we got back to Florence everyone crashed early to recuperate from the weekends festivities. This weekend I am off to Dublin, so until then!

Ciao!

J'adore Paris!

Bonjour mes amis! I just returned from Paris and what a trip it was! It began with an extremely unpleasant 12 hour train ride from Florence to Paris. It was a "couchette" which slept 6 people. Luckily, everyone in our couchette was from our school and got along, so we didn't have any creeps in our midst. There were 3 beds stacked on top of each other, and there was maybe 1 square foot of room to walk, it was smaller than a closet. The worst part of the train was that it was unbearably cold and the train car rocked. It was so scary and I definitely watch way too much CNN, because I have seen the train accidents in Europe and I was sure that I was going to be a part of another one. I woke up with every shake, wobble and screech; it was not ideal for sleeping even after tossing back a few Excedrin PM's. Once it was morning, we had to get dressed and ready for an entire day of things our professor had planned for us. Getting dressed and putting on makeup on a moving train was a gymnastic feat in itself, but somehow I managed to look semi-human. Once we got off the train, we headed to a charter bus that took us to a little French restaurant, where we had a traditional French breakfast consisting of croissants, baguettes, pound cake and coffee.
After our carb filled meal, we went back to the bus for our guided tour. It was great to see the city and have a French person's perspective. She showed us Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees and all of the other major Parisian attractions. We were then dropped off at a store called Collette that is a "lifestyle" store that offers high-end designers next to unknown designers and a wealth of trendy magazines, books, music, footwear and gadgets. They do not show the labels of the clothes and don't put prices on anything because they want you to purchase the item because you love it, not because of who made it or how much it costs. I think this is a great philosophy if money is no object, but unfortunately that is not my case, so I looked intently and with envy.
Immediately after visiting the store, we were rushed off to the Paris-American Academy to attend a workshop given by Madame Picot, who was the head draper for the House of Gres, a French couturier known for the micropleating of the dresses that was done by hand. These dresses were mostly popular in the 60s and 70s and could sell for around $50,000. They took about 300-500 hours of work per dress and everything was done by hand. Madame Picot told us the story of Madame Grès and showed us the pleating technique. I took a video of it so that I can refer back to it at a later date, it was very inspiring.

After the draping demonstration, we walked to a place called the "Trend Union" where a woman named, Li Edelkoort plays God of all things fashion. She predicts the future of trends, colors, textiles, lifestyles, everything. She puts together 250 trend books that sell for around $3000 a piece. They contain all of the information portrayed through her visual presentation. Her predictions are usually accurate and she says she is never wrong, just too ahead of the game. This arrogant attitude was experienced first hand by my friend and I after her presentation. We spotted her across the room and decided to go talk to her, so we walk on over and she is talking to someone else, so we patiently wait. After she is finished talking to the other person, I introduce myself to her and tell her that I was very inspired by her work and thanked her and then told her I was an American fashion design student. She looks at me, laughs and says, “Oh how unfortunate.” I just stood there in shock as she turned around to kiss and hug someone else. My thought is that you do not have to be rude to people and everyone was no one at some point in their life, but I guess she did not get that memo. I just feel that if ever, one day I get to a position where people admire me or my work and tell me so, I would graciously thank them and feel grateful that someone thinks I am important enough to even have the position, but I was raised correctly and with manners and respect for others. The funny thing is that, this would not be my first encounter with a very rude person in France.

After my nice experience with Ms. Edelkoort, Tracy and I stuck around to drink her free wine, as this was also a cocktail party, so we figured that since she was rude, we would take extra advantage of her party. So we made friends with the waiters and they made sure our glass was always full and we always had something to eat. I met some interesting students from all over Europe and it actually turned out to be an enjoyable evening.

The next morning was the “big day.” We had tickets to the largest textile tradeshow in the world: Première Vision. This trade show is where all the important designers, buyers, companies and textile companies come together as one. I am not sure how much space this building covered, but it was HUGE, bigger than anything I had ever seen. The fabrics there were of spectacular quality and were beautiful. I saw a lot of interesting things that I wished I could either take a picture of or purchase. Unfortunately, fabric was not being sold by the yard, (obviously) and cameras were forbidden! I saw a girl take a picture and the security guard yelled at her and stood there while she deleted it. They were very serious about that! We strolled around touching fabrics and staring in awe for a few hours and then we were off to a fashion show at Galleries Lafayette (which is a very large and famous French department store).

It was actually like a mall fashion show, so it was a little bit cheesy, and the models looked about 14. The clothes they were wearing were expensive designer clothing, such as Armani; but to see a girl who looked 14 in an Armani suit, was a bit of a joke. It was still cool to watch I guess but afterwards we went shopping, so that made up for the lack of coolness in the show. Actually, the best part was the rooftop deck, which had a great view of Paris and the weather was perfect. While browsing through the store, I saw about a million things I wanted to purchase, but unfortunately my financial situation does not allow purchases of this magnitude, so I instead looked with awe and envy.

After Lafayette, it was time to go back to our “hotel,” which I guess I haven’t even said anything about. It was called “FIAP Jean Monnet,” and it looked more like a human experimentation facility than a hotel. Apparently it’s actually a hostel; my professor who plans these trips really dropped the ball on Paris, considering our money is supposed to be used on airfare and hotels, not overnight trains and hostels. Anyway, when we walked into our room, we noticed that it smelled like a foot and the bathroom smelled like there may have been something dead in there. Our beds were really hard (which I actually enjoyed because it felt good for my back) and the pillow was like a piece of paper. However, breakfast and dinner was included in the price, so that was great, even though the food was a little cafeteria-ish. Unfortunately, we were not informed that dinner was included at our “hotel” so we had made reservations at a couple of really nice restaurants, which were most certainly not free or cheap.

Anyways, Friday night, Tracy and I had reservations at Buddha Bar; while the other girls were going to see Moulin Rouge. (google it, very cool place and they have great music that they release in compilations, and I own all of them!) The tickets for Moulin Rouge were about 200 € and that is way too expensive, so Tracy and I decided not to go. Buddha Bar was amazing and we stayed afterwards to hang out in their lounge area and have a couple of very expensive, yet very tasty cocktails. We always end up meeting random people who have connections elsewhere, so we ended up at an ultra-exclusive club near the Louvre, with a table and our own complimentary (well, to us...) bottle of Belvedere. After having a good time dancing and hanging out, our bottle came to an end, so as we were making our way to the dance floor, Tracy met a couple of nice gentleman who invited us to sit and hang out. After having a drink with them, some guy comes up to us and tells us to get up from the table because it’s not ours. So were like, “ok, whatever” and get up. I was rounding out the rear of the 6 of us and the mean guy was standing next to me yelling. I didn’t realize what he was saying until he was screaming in my face, “you didn’t pay for that!!!! Get out of here!!!!! This isn’t your table!” and I’m like, “Obviously. But we were invited to sit, what is the big deal?” Well, he keeps repeating himself as he grabs a hold of me and starts shoving me, like “you wanna fight?” style. So, by this point the conversation has escalated to a screaming match and me getting manhandled by some psycho. He is pushing and shoving me towards the door (which was really hurting) and I am screaming at him to get off of me and let me go. I turn around with my back to him and he shoves me so hard that I fly face first into a bouncer. The bouncer then proceeds to literally drag me up the stairs (I don’t think my feet were even on the ground) and toss me into the street. While all this is happening, the girls I was with are just watching and come running after me. I have no clue as to why this all happened, but after that I was done with French people being rude to me. After being tossed into the street, we waited about 3 ½ hours for a cab and finally arrived back to the hotel after 5am. It was a horrible end to my night and I am so mad that it happened, because I really wanted to dispel the rumors that the French aren’t nasty horrible people, but it got harder and harder with each passing day.

We got a very late start Saturday morning because of how late we were out, but we made it to the Louvre around noon and headed straight to the Mona Lisa. It was weird, because I always thought the painting was so much bigger, but it was kinda small. It was really neat to see it, but I feel like I have seen it a million times because it’s plastered everywhere. When we got to the Eiffel Tower, I felt the same way; which is all King’s Island’s fault. Anyways, so after the Mona Lisa, we went to see the coronation jewels and then the Venus. It was a very quick and abbreviated trip, but we had a million things to do, so unfortunately it had to be that way.

After the Louvre, we went to lunch because we were starving and had a traditional French sandwich called a Croque Monsieur. It is usually a hot ham and cheese sandwich with a certain type of cheese (I don’t know what kind) but ours was open-faced style, but was pretty good. After lunch we walked through Champs-Elysèes and down to the Arc de Triomphe. Afterwards we walked back and went to the Louis Vuitton flagship store and the Chanel store, yet another amazing and mouthwatering place to be. By the time all of this was done, it was almost time to go and get ready for dinner, so we did.

We had reservations this night at a restaurant called, “World Place” which used to be called, “Man Ray” and is partly owned by Johnny Depp. It was very hip and chic, but the service was HORRIBLE! After sitting at our table for about 20 minutes with no menus or seeing our server, a girl comes up to our table and says “Drinks?” And to that we responded, “Menus?” So she finally brings us 4 menus for 9 people, we ask for more but she says they don’t have anymore; which was odd considering the restaurant was probably a quarter full. Anyways, the food was way overpriced, there was barely anything appetizing on the menu and once we ordered we never saw our waitress again. I ended up getting veal, which was actually amazing but I was still annoyed to be paying so much money for such a disappointing experience.

After dinner, Tracy and I went to the Eiffel Tower because at night it is blue and it sparkles every hour. It was so beautiful and huge! It definitely puts the one at King’s Island to shame! Haha. We walked around for a bit and decided we were tired and our feet were killing us so we just went back to the “hotel.”

Sunday morning we packed up and left for Versailles, our final destination in Paris. Versailles was amazing and huge and grand and all of those describing words you could ever think of. It was also jam packed with tourists, but I guess we are tourists as well, so oh well. The décor was unbelievable, and the Queen and King’s rooms were so beautiful, it’s no wonder they didn’t care what was happening to their country, why would you ever want to leave that? Check out my pictures of Versailles and see what I am talking about, however the magnitude and vibrancy of the colors is not done any justice in the photos, but still, check them out.

After Versailles, we went to the airport and came back to reality. As I sit here and think about Paris, I try really hard not to be ignorant and think that the French are terrible people, any of these situations could have happened in the States, but they didn’t, and I am constantly struggling not to think that way. I met plenty of nice French people, and plenty of rude French people, so why do I struggle? I guess it’s the preconceived notion that every American has of France and the French and you just have to try to put it out of your mind. I loved Paris as a city and the people and I are still working on a loving relationship. I guess as with any relationship, it takes work and persistance.

Ciao-

Kellie

Living the dream...

Well, this past week has been crazy as usual. I have been really sick with no voice, a disgusting cough and lots of congestion. Apparently, I have been welcomed to the Florentine fall, according to the locals. I am finally getting over it as I leave for Paris tomorrow, but this past weekend was definitely interesting being sick, but I will get to that in a bit.

Tuesday of last week, we had to meet at the Palazzo Vecchio for a class (pictures are on Shutterfly) which is now the town hall of Florence, and is active but it used to be a palace where the Medici’s resided. It was interesting to visit, as it is so old, but I mean, how interesting can the town hall be? I find the architecture and décor the most interesting. I am constantly in awe of the ceiling decorations in palaces, churches and even my own apartment! The thought of every detail being taken care of is something I strive for, and I love that everywhere in the home is worthy of beautiful artwork. Whenever I finally settle and purchase my own home, it is something I think I will take into consideration, because it adds so much life and color to the space. Anyways, the frescoes were also so interesting and beautiful; I try not to become numb, because I see it so much; it’s a normal thing to see 1000 year old frescoes on the walls around here. Sometimes I forget that they are even there or that they are so old and valuable. It’s a very strange feeling. We took a guided tour through Palazzo Vecchio, but I honestly couldn’t understand a lot of what our tour guide said because of his very thick accent. He basically just told us what its previous use was, etc…One thing I did find interesting, is the Palazzo Vecchio is where a lot of people get married! I think that I would definitely get married at the courts if it looked like this place. The large and vast room that is pictured is where the ceremony is held and our guide said it is a very common thing for couples to go there. I believe it was Cosimo I ( a Medici) that lived in the Palazzo Vecchio with his wife ( royalty from Naples, I believe…anyone who knows can correct me!!) and she hated the palace, so she actually ended up moving down the street to the Pitti Palace, which has the beautiful Boboli Gardens and other such things. But her rooms in Palazzo Vecchio are very interesting because they are green and very decorated. Her major complaint of Palazzo Vecchio was that there were no gardens, trees, landscape of any kind (which is still true…its in the center of a piazza(square)) so her rooms were decorated to reflect nature more than the cold stone grey walls. It was a very interesting tour and informative, plus it’s nice to know about the history of the city you live in, especially if it’s a history like Florence’s.

Wednesday, we headed to a little town in the countryside called Lucca for a traditional Tuscan cooking course. As we pull up the very steep, dirt road the bus comes to a sudden stop. We are instructed to get out and hike up the rest of the hill. It wasn’t that bad, but it seemed strange. As we get up the hill, a house comes into view straight out of movie. The typical Tuscan cottage with herb bushes surrounding the property, flowers. Beautiful wicker furniture; it was definitely picturesque. A lovely woman from Texas (haha) comes out to greet us and shows us around the property. She tells us that it’s like a bed and breakfast, but for groups. I guess there are artists that she knows that have these great followings, so she will have the artist stay with her and people come and take classes from the artist and stay for the weekend and cook and drink wine. I think it sounds like a dream vacation and I am currently trying to figure out how to be a part of that! Anyways, we cooked everything from scratch and the ingredients were either from her property or local farmers. As this was a typical Tuscan/Italian meal, it came in several courses and was consumed over several hours. Our first antipasti (or appetizer) was fried sage. I thought that I would not like this, but it was amazing. We went and picked sage off of the trees and then dipped them in beer batter (beer, flour, salt) and then dropped them in a pan with about 2-3” of oil in the bottom. It was the most interesting flavor, almost like a friend Christmas tree! I liked it because, who doesn’t like fried food, and the sage made it seem lighter and not like a typical heavy fried appetizer. The second thing was we chopped veggies to put into a salad that consisted of radishes, carrots, onion, celery and farre (I think that is what it’s called). It is almost like barley, I think she said that it was from the chestnut (somehow…) and it’s actually what the poor farmers used to eat, because wheat products were for the wealthy. It is a grain and they would grind it up to make flour for bread and pasta and they would leave it as is to use in soup and anything thing else you could think of. It was definitely a taste I had not tried before. I liked it, but it was not my favorite. The third thing we made was stuffed zucchini flower. We stuffed it with a mixture of ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper. We stuffed spoonfuls of the mixture into the flower, wrapped it and then set it in a baking pan. We topped it all off with diced tomatoes and baked it. I really enjoyed the stuffing (who doesn’t like cheese?)but the texture of the flower was different than anything I had ever eaten and only ate the yellow flower part, not the green fuzzy part (ew.). Our next course to make was the gnocchi. If you don’t know what gnocchi is, it is the best thing about Italy! It is potato pasta. They are shaped like little dumplings and are sooooo good. They are also extremely easy to make from scratch. You just boil potatoes, peel them and mash them with a little bit of butter. Then you add a couple handfuls of flour into the potatoes and knead it through. Once the flour is in, you just roll it out into little snakes and cut off little chunks. For the sauce we had a 4 formaggio (cheese) consisting of: gorgonzola, provolone, something similar to Swiss (but not…) and of course parmesan. We made the sauce, boiled the gnocchi and then put everything into a big casserole type dish. We then sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and then baked it until it had a nice crust. Perfecto!!! For the main course (Secondi piatti) we had veal stuffed with cheese, basil leaves and asparagus. It was basically strips of veal with all of these ingredients rolled up inside. We then lightly coated them with flour and sautéed with olive oil and white wine. This course was also amazingly delicious. The vegetable was green beans (the long skinny ones) that had olive oil, garlic and cinnamon on them. It was a very warm flavor and she told us that it was actually a Sicilian recipe, but she loved it, so she wanted us to love it too! After our veal, we had tiramisu that we had prepared earlier in the evening. They brewed fresh caffe to dip our cookies in; we made the cream filling and then sprinkled it with cocoa. Again, delicious. It took us about 3-4 hours to make all of these dishes, and once the table was set we were starving, so we were ready to eat! And we definitely ate…it was probably the best meal I have had since I’ve been in Italy, and that is saying quite a lot. Our night ended with us having an espresso and boarding the bus to come back to Florence, but it was an experience I will never forget, and I will definitely pass the recipes around when I receive them!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, but Friday we traded Italy for Amsterdam! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, I had pictured something completely different, but as we pulled in to the downtown area, the sky was blue, the sun was shining and our surroundings were astounding. The architecture was so remarkable, as the very old was juxtaposed against the very new and modern. The canals were busy with private boats, tours and marine life. People were out walking around enjoying the city, everyone was on a bike. The trams go through the middle of town (literally…) it was like a different world. Holland is a place I could live as well! The people were so friendly, the food was unique and very good and there was an endless amount of things to do. As soon as we got there we had to figure out how to speak Dutch… and I thought Italian was hard to pronounce…HA!! We eventually found our hostel, which was pretty nice. It had a very cozy bar/lounge in the basement and everyone was very friendly. It was called the Flying Pig, and I felt a little bit of a connection to Cincinnati again, seeing all the flying pig décor. We stayed in 12 person room, which was a lot like going to camp and sleeping on the bunk beds. We dropped our bags and started to explore the city. We hit up several souvenir shops, coffee shops and boutiques. We also made our way to the Van Gogh Museum, which was really cool. It was exciting to see artwork that I have studied for years in person and right in front of me! After the museum, we were starving and ate at the first place we came across…Pizza Hut. It turned out to be very good and it was nice to have comfort-ish food. The other girls decided they were too tired to do anything else, but Tracy and I figured we can sleep when we die, so we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were in Amsterdam. We went out and had a few Heinekens at a nice outdoor bar and chatted a bit. It was nice to wind down with a good friend and a good beer in such an amazing place. After a while, we decide it was time to turn in, so we could get up bright and early the next day.

Saturday morning we woke up, enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel and made our way to the Anne Frank house. It was the actual house where they were hiding and it had been renovated to what it was at the time. However, when the Frank family was discovered they were removed, and all of their belongings (furniture, clothes, etc) were also removed. Because of this fact, and the fact that the father, Otto, was the sole survivor of the family, the house was never refurnished. He wished it to be a source of inspiration and education and that it is. Anne’s diary had been given to Otto’s secretary so that it would not be lost when they were taken, Anne had wanted to be a journalist and there are no words to describe the feelings one gets when entering into her world by either reading her journal or visiting this museum. It was a very meaningful and sorrowful morning, as it is such a sad event in history to even think about, let alone come face to face with some of its victims, especially when some of those victims are children. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures in this museum, so I cannot share my experiences visually, but take my word, it was moving.

After Anne Frank’s House, we took a canal cruise. It was really nice and after the morning, I think we all needed something mindless and happy. It was really crowded and the boats are sunken into the water, so it’s really hard to see out, but it was still cool nonetheless. After the tour we had lunch at a place called the Soupkitchen. SO GOOD! It wasn’t an actual soup kitchen, it was just called that, but it was inexpensive and all of the ingredients were organic and locally grown. I decided to step out of the box a little and order the Sweet Potato soup with sour cream and coriander. It was probably the best decision I have made in a while! It was like a warm, cozy blanket. I have been craving it ever since. After the best lunch ever, we went to the Rijks Museum. I’m not sure any of you are familiar with Dutch painters, but I love them. The color palette is usually pretty dark and subdued, but they are beautiful still lives or portraiture, or pretty much anything else! I just really like the style, so this was of particular interest to me. When I say Dutch painters, I am referring to Vermeer, van Dyck, etc… Google them, let me know what you think. Anyways, apparently the entire museum was undergoing renovations, so about 1/10 of the building was open, but that’s ok. I still got to see a pretty good mixture of artists.

After the museum, we decided to venture to the Red Light District. I, personally, was disappointed, because everyone makes such a big deal about it, but we actually only saw maybe 3 girls in the windows, but it was only about 6 pm, so maybe that’s why. After strolling around the Red Light District, we decided that we were again starving so we headed over to Pancake Corner because we had heard it was really good. Seeing as how I don’t really like breakfast food ever, I knew I had to find something else to eat. I kept hearing that we should eat Indonesian food, and there was some on the menu, so that is what I ordered. It was delicious!! It was a chicken and rice substance, maybe a peanut sauce…I am not really sure, but it was good. So, I recommend it if you are ever in Amsterdam. After dinner we decided we would go back to the hostel for a bit and then go back out, but we all actually ended up falling asleep and not getting back up until the next morning. I was kinda annoyed with myself, because like I have said before I can sleep when I am dead. How many times am I going to be in Amsterdam?

Sunday was a travel day and when we finally got back to Florence it was cold and rainy, which it has been a lot lately for some reason. I went to bed quite early Sunday night, seeing as how I had just traveled with a really bad cold and felt like a pile of crap.

The last couple days have been pretty uneventful, except getting ready for Paris! We leave tomorrow night around 8 pm and I am ecstatic!!! I have been waiting for this trip for my entire life. But, I will tell more about that tomorrow, for now I have to get my beauty rest!

Ciao for now.

~k

Amalfi Coast!

This weekend we headed to Southern Italy to the beautiful Amalfi Coast. We stayed in Sorrento and traveled to Capri, Pompeii, Naples and Positano. It was a 6 hour bus ride, which wasn’t actually that bad. It was a chartered coach, and we got to watch Entourage the entire time. The tour guides were three guys my age who were pretty cool. They were from Seattle and had studied in Florence during college and they decided to come back. Once we arrived in Sorrento, we headed to our “hotel.” The hotel was actually what they referred to as “bungalows” which in all actuality were little cabins like you stayed in at camp. It wasn’t my ideal lodging, but seeing as how we had air conditioning and were never actually there, it was ok. I stayed with my four roommates and the other four girls were next door. When we walked into our “bungalow” there was a set of bunk beds in one “room” and two twin beds in the other, but the room was so small that they were pushed together. I managed to push them apart a little, I really didn’t want to snuggle with Tracy for 3 nights and we managed to get around. The most interesting part of this lodging experience was that it was like a jungle. It was called Villagio Verde which means in Italian, “Green Village”, and it was green. There was like a pergola type structure over the entire area that was covered in grape vines. There were hundreds of bunches of grapes everywhere, which was kind of cool but the bugs were worse than in Florence. Also, the people who lived behind the “hotel” had a small farm with a bunch of dogs and of course, a rooster. Oh how nice it is to have a rooster alarm clock everyday at dawn…not. This thing crowed for hours. The first morning I woke up, I thought I was dreaming – I was not. Although it was particularly annoying, it was also humorous, so we got used to it.

Friday morning we met early to take the ferry over to Capri. It was one of my favorite spots we’ve been to. It was a day of luxury for sure. Once we got to Capri, we stopped for lunch and rented a private boat. The driver was really fun and let us out to swim a lot. We stopped at the “Green Grotto” which is not as famous as the blue one, but just as fantastic. It is a swim through type of area (boats definitely don’t fit) and the rocks under the water glow bright green. As I was swimming, I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of it, but it was amazing. Its something about the way the sun hits the rocks underneath, I am not sure, but it’s definitely green! The water was the deepest shade of blue and so beautiful. It was a little chilly, but it was very hot that day, so it felt amazing. If we weren’t swimming we were laying out on the boat deck (it was a small boat, but the entire front part was flat and cushioned…so nice) it was so awesome. Once we finally got to the Blue Grotto (its one of the 7 Wonders…google it.) we got into little rowboats and went in. It is a very small opening, so you have to sit on the floor of the rowboat and lay back as to not hit your head. Once in the cave it is pitch black, I could not even see my hand in front of my face, which is very strange. The “driver” of the row boat takes you to the back of the cave and turns around and that’s when you see it; the brilliant blue radiating out of the water. It’s so weird and cool at the same time! Again, it is something about the why the sun reflects, but regardless, it’s awesome. Afterwards we headed back to the island of Capri where we walked around for a bit and then headed back to Sorrento to get ready for the evening and go to dinner. Our tour guide had recommended this place by the ports called “Ristorante don Viceno” as having the best seafood, so that is where we went. It was a little more expensive, but it was definitely worth it. I obviously didn’t have any seafood, but the service was amazing (which is rare in Italy) and my food was pretty good. There were 12 of us, so they set us up in a private room. The waiter brought us 3 trays of antipasti (appetizers and on the house…) which consisted of bruschetta, and other things that I don’t have a clue as to what they were called, but were delicious nonetheless. Everyone ordered seafood except me and another girl, but I ordered asparagus and this pasta with zucchini, cream and provolone. It was almost like glorified mac and cheese…haha but good. The asparagus was over cooked, but it was still pretty good. We were having a great time and getting ready to get our check when here comes our waiter with more complimentary things only this time it was little dessert pastries and Limoncello. Limoncello is a dessert liquor that is made in Italy. Most regions have their own version, as lemons are grown everywhere. I had never actually had Limoncello, but I figured it would be light and lemony. Ha! This drink is served in little glasses (like shot glasses) and it is meant to be sipped. I took a sip and almost threw up all over the table. It was definitely not light, but definitely tasted like lemon. I suffered through it, as I thought it would be rude if I didn’t finish, and afterwards I am pretty sure I grew hair on my chest. Haha…I would compare it to sipping on bad tequila or any other really strong liquor. Anyways, it was a great dinner and followed into a great night on the town with our tour guides and the other students on the trip.

Saturday morning we had planned to get up and go to Positano, because they are supposed to have the best beach in Italy, but we thought it was going to be cloudy all day so we went to Pompeii and Naples instead. (sidenote, it was 90˚ and sunny with not a cloud in the sky…) We went to Pompeii first and had some of the best orange juice I have ever tasted. It was like someone squeezed an orange into my mouth…delicious! We entered the ruins immediately after and it was awe inspiring. I cannot describe the feeling of entering into this city that was frozen in time. A lot of the buildings are still intact and there were several “people” on display. It was very odd to see the people, because they were in mid-motion when they died and were basically fossilized immediately. I really enjoyed seeing Pompeii and if you are ever in Italy, I highly suggest going. We were only there for a couple of hours, but the ticket lady told me it would take 2-3 days to see everything. I wanted to stay longer, but the people I was with didn’t share my interest and fascination and were complaining the whole time, so we left. Please look at my pictures from Pompeii and hopefully you will see how interesting these ruins were as well.

After Pompeii, we headed to Naples (the birthplace of pizza) to eat authentic Pizza Margherita. Pizza Margherita is pizza crust (obviously), fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. I don’t even really like pizza, but this was the best pizza I have ever had. Ever. It is indescribable and is probably the best thing I have eaten in Italy. If pizza was this good in the States, I would be a lot fatter…The pizzas were probably about the size of a large pizza, but the crust is very thin and light, so it is not as filling like all the pizza we have in the US. I actually ate the whole thing, as did everyone else with us! After having the best pizza on earth, we were exhausted and decided to head back to Sorrento. It was a pretty low-key evening that night as we planned to get up early the next day to go to the beach.

Sunday morning we woke up late (of course), but we woke up to rain. However, Italy’s weather is not unlike Ohio, so rain in the morning, doesn’t necessarily mean it will rain all day. Well, it did and it was cold, but we went to Positano anyways. We took the most horrific bus to the town. It was a charter bus, however they stuffed it full and we had to stand for 45 minutes driving through the mountains and trying not to fall or sit on any of the fortunate people who had seats. I had to keep my head down because I was getting really car sick, so by the time we got to Positano I was pretty green. Once we got there, we hiked down to the shore (I’m not sure how far, but by the time we got there, all of our legs were shaking…and that was going down !!) We decided to get lunch at this cute little place that also had very good seafood (I was told…haha) and I got eggplant lasagna, which was interesting and good. Instead of noodles, it was slices of eggplant….I’ve been eating enough carbs, I thought it was time to branch out. By the time we were finished eating, it was almost time to start heading back to Sorrento, so we walked through some shops and made our way to the bus. Fortunately we found a shuttle to take us to the top, as I am sure all of our hearts would have exploded walking up the amount of stairs that took you to the top. After we arrived back in Sorrento, it was time to load up and get back to Florence.

It was a great weekend exploring Italy. I am so grateful for the experiences I had there and on other trips. The things I have seen are so beautiful, I am in constant amazement. Actually on the walk home from the train station last night, Tracy and I were talking about how amazing the Duomo is. It is so strange to live next door to this massive, important historical monument. We were laughing about how it didn’t seem real and we thought it was a painting or I think the other thing we said was a hologram…haha… I hope that I continue to be in awe of my surroundings as this is a once in a lifetime experience that I will treasure forever, and I hope that you enjoy reading about it!!

Ciao for now-