Jammy - Really Lucky

Since we got a whopping 5 days off from classes/interning, the gang and I decided to head to Italy and conquer Venice , Florence , and Rome in that short time. Impossible? Think again.

We woke up nice and early on Wednesday morning to catch our flight to Venice . On the plane, I woke up just in time to spot the Alps outside the window :)

We landed and navigated through a system of both land and waterbuses to get to our hostel. Venice is unlike any other city I’ve seen, because the buildings are so tall and the streets are all very narrow alleyways, making it virtually impossible to get an idea of which direction you’re headed or what lies more than a block away from you. Then you get a break from the claustrophobia and cross a bridge over a canal, and then it’s back into the maze! First on our agenda was the Piazza San Marco, which contains the majority of important city landmarks and is considered the center of the city. Upon reaching the square, we were greeted by a giant fruit-covered lion, and a whole lot of confetti – we had just missed Carnivale (a huge celebration ending with Mardi Gras) by one day. Great timing. It was still amazing to see the Basilica and Doge’s palace, and I personally couldn’t get enough of the canals and gondolas everywhere. In the afternoon, we snacked on our first Italian gelato, and browsed all the shops for their famous Murano glass pieces. Being the tourists that we are, we went on a gondola ride before a great authentic Italian dinner, and then bedtime. Oh, and thank you hostel for forgetting to tell us that the heat was broken. We barely noticed. Not.

Thursday morning, it was back on the waterbus to catch a train to Florence. It was drizzling, and we were glad to move onward on our Italian adventure. Our hostel in Florence more than made up for our Venetian one – we had a great room overlooking a courtyard, and free breakfast in the morning and pasta parties every night! After dropping off our things, we tracked down the Duomo, the giant dome on top of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It was absolutely amazing, but a few of us couldn’t escape comparing the Basilica to parts of Disneyworld … embarrassing. After exploring the inside of the cathedral, as well as learning a bit about the Battistero di San Giovanni (with beautiful golden doors) right next door, we set off on a mission to find Michelangelo’s statue of David. There was a little navigation confusion, and some waiting in line, but once we were inside this random gallery, all our efforts paid off. The statue is huge!! – Way bigger than I pictured it, and definitely worth seeing.

On our way back to the hostel, we walked through the San Lorenzo leather market. Reggie fell in love with a leather jacket that she talked down to a reasonable price, and the rest of us found leather treats in the market as well. That evening, we went out for “aperitivos” with Lauren’s friend, meaning we bought cocktails at a bar and got free reign on the various dishes they put out. Good news since we love eating. Afterwards, we enjoyed some wine as we walked along the River Arno, and then headed back to our awesome hostel for some shut-eye.

We were lucky enough to have all day Friday in Florence, without worrying about catching any trains or planes. Naturally, this was the day that it drizzled on and off all day. Also, Megan woke up feeling very sick, so we had to leave her in the hostel while we explored the city :( First we went to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge of shops with crazy expensive gold jewelry.

We then explored the palace where the Medici family lived, saw the Santa Croce church (where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried), and finally ended up back at the Duomo – this time to climb to the top of it. 463 steps and a questionable fear of heights later, we made it to the tippy top, and got to see the most incredible views of Florence . Despite the drizzly conditions, it was amazing to see all the landmarks from above, and the Tuscan hills in the background. We had one more fantastic dinner in Florence at the recommendation of the hostel staff, and went to sleep.

We took a train to Rome on Saturday morning. Both train rides we took were very comfortable and easy – a big part of what made our expedition to three cities in five days possible. Our Rome hostel was again very convenient and close to the train station and we spent only a few moments there before rushing to Vatican City before it closed. The Vatican City museum was very interesting and had tons of religious artwork, but all of us were anxiously rushing to get to the Sistine Chapel at the end of the tour. After a few confusing hallways covered floor-to-ceiling with paintings (that were not, in fact, the Sistine Chapel – Ally, put your camera away) we finally made it into the real deal! The chapel was absolutely incredible, and we stood staring upwards for the longest time. Thank god Reggie knew a ton of useful information about each of the ceiling panels, as well as the giant fresco on the back wall of the chapel. My favorite anecdote was that Michelangelo was not Catholic, and decided to stress this fact through a depiction of Noah, drunk, in a strikingly similar pose as Adam, in the “Spark of Creation” panel, just a few meters away on the ceiling. After the Sistine Chapel, we saw St. Peter’s Square and Cathedral, which I immediately recognized from Angels & Demons, the movie (at least it’s not a Disney reference). We left Vatican City just as it was closing, and I was so glad we made it to this country within a city.

Sunday was our last day in Italy , and also our most productive/touristy. Lauren decided that a hop-on/hop-off bus tour would be the most efficient way for us to see all of the sites we were interested in despite their big distances from one another. This was a great decision, and a relatively inexpensive way to take care of all of our transportation for the whole day. First we went to the Spanish steps, which I admit I hadn’t heard much about, but they were pretty impressive. To be honest, I was the most excited by the awesome, warm, sunny weather in Rome – I didn’t even wear a jacket WOOHOO that’s never an option in London ! Next we bussed on over to the Pantheon, Circus Maximus (where the Romans held chariot races), the Trevi Fountain, and the Colleseum. I think the Trevi fountain was my favorite, because we got to spend a lot of time there, throwing coins in and making wishes. We read somewhere that 3,000 euro are thrown into the fountain daily, and that throwing one coin in will ensure a trip back to Rome (GREAT!). There are a bunch of different stories about what will happen to your love life if you throw in two versus three coins… I’m glad we stuck with just one. Sunday night we had a few airport obstacles, but successfully got on our plane and safely back to London , all of us (including Megan) in one piece. Florence was probably my favorite city because it was so beautiful, but we heard that it’s overpopulated by students and it’s hard to find a real Italian person there (that made me glad to be in London – definitely no shortage of British people). After being in Venice for a day, I feel like I saw the most important parts of it, so Rome would be the city that I’d most like to go back to in Italy .

Last night we watched Angels & Demons in our building to spot all the scenes of Rome in the movie that we just visited. I just started my internship at NBC Universal yesterday, which I’ll blog about soon, but I know all of your eyeballs are probably exhausted at this point.

Love & miss everyone! Cheers!

Chinwagging - Chatting

Looks like my blog entries are becoming a weekly tradition… woops! I should probably try to update more frequently. My friends and I have all been swamped with work recently, because we’ve been off gallivanting and now that our first set of classes is coming to a close, we actually have papers and finals, etc. to deal with. What a bother.
Last weekend we decided to stay in London, since the shadow of homework was looming in the near future. Plus, we wanted to cross a few more touristy attractions off our list. Here’s a little rundown:

On Friday afternoon Reggie, Ally, Megan, and I decided to embark on an adventure to Westminster Abbey, only to discover that we had arrived about 15 minutes after it had closed. We snapped some pictures of the area, before relocating our trip to Oxford Circus, which just so happens to be one of the hugest shopping hotspots in the world. I personally wasn’t aware of this, but it appears that the hoards of Friday afternoon shoppers were, and they were on the loose. We snooped around a few stores, but the aggressive shoppers, enormous stores, and SUPER long lines quickly discouraged us! At that point it was early evening, and we had about an hour to kill before our stomachs would start rumblin’ so we headed to the tube to hunt down the infamous Brick Lane. After an outrageously long line to top up my Oyster card (sorry friends), a few accidental tube changes, and a two-minute cab ride (amateur) we found the glorious street lined with Indian food restaurants- YUM! We had been told to haggle with the men outside of each restaurant, but the first one came up to us offering huge meals and two free bottles of wine for ten pound each. Easiest haggling known to man. We were sold in about 30 seconds, and ate a delicious Indian feast of chicken tikki masala, samosas, nan, and rice, washed down with some pinot, of course.

Saturday afternoon we explored Borough Market, which is essentially dozens of stalls housing all kinds of scrumptious treats to munch on. We did a lap around the entire market just to get a feel for all of the sections/categories of offerings. Although we were tempted by various hot lunch foods, I wasn’t satisfied until we finally found the stall with WORLD FAMOUS GRILLED CHEESE. MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

 

We waited in line for our cheesy slices of goodness and munched on them in a churchyard while a wedding party caroused by – all of my senses were entertained. After drinking hot apple and pear cider, eating delicious brownies, and getting some avocados for the road (5 for 1 pound!!) we strolled onto London Bridge to take some more touristy photos before heading home after a successful afternoon of tourist madness.

Saturday night out on London was a bit of a disaster, especially because we decided to continue our tourist vibes into going out to the most populated, skeevy clubs in town. After that disappointment, we took a daytrip to Cambridge to visit our friend from high school. Unfortunately, it was misting/raining all day, so while the campus was beautiful and green, it was cold and gross outside :( We also couldn’t partake in the traditional activity of “punting” because of the inclement weather plus bad timing (i.e. the punting rental place was closed, oops). We did score some great fudge and nifty sweatshirts, plus Megan and I kicked some British butt in a game of pool. On our way back to the train/bus station, Reggie and I put our SHOES ON THE GRASS (big no no) so, take that Cambridge.


Nothing too exciting has been going on this week, since finals are next Monday and Tuesday, and we’ve all retreated into our rooms for a little bit. After exams are over, we’re going to ITALY from Wednesday – Sunday, YAY!!! We’re hitting Venice, Florence, and Rome, so I’m sure I’ll have tons of pictures and stories to share.
Miss & love everyone! Cheers!

Luvvly-jubbly - Lovely

Hi there! Sorry I haven’t written in a while – we just traveled to MADRID this past weekend and I had to jump right back into schoolwork & projects that I, of course, didn’t work on while in Spain. Here’s a quick (nope, not so quick) overview of our trip…

Our journey started when we got up unbelievably early on Friday morning (4am) to get picked up and driven to Gatwick Airport for our flight. I think we all planned on sleeping in the car for the hour drive, but that plan died as we were all so excited to travel/giddy due to lack of sleep that we talked the whole way and rolled up to the airport before we knew it. Checking in and boarding was pretty easy, although Lauren and I got our bags basically turned upside-down and scoured for God knows what… after re-packing and some muttering we were good to go.

We all slept for the flight from London to Madrid, and Megan and I woke up in time to see the Spanish countryside as we flew over it and puzzle over some mountains in the distance (Pyrenees?).
Next we found our hostel, which ended up being in a great, central location, which allowed us to completely avoid the scary metro for our entire weekend, yay! There were a bunch of prostitutes wandering around the street, but we were reassured that they were harmless, and there was a police station on our block. No one could tell us if prostitution was illegal or not in Spain… guess we’ll never know. We quickly got on the move and visited Porto del Sol, a square right down the street from our hostel. There we found all kinds of Disney characters and street performers, as well as a Mariachi band, which delighted Reggie. The fact that there was abundant sunshine was an awesome change from London :) We ate lunch in Plaza Mayor, the biggest plaza in Madrid. While our meal was expensive and we encountered more than a few language obstacles, we enjoyed our lunches and Sangria in the sun. As an added bonus, a random man named “Marco from Gambia” (jury’s out as to if Gambia is a real place) tossed us some friendship bracelets, even though we didn’t have any euros to give him to “visit California.” Sorry, Marco.

Afterwards, we continued to the Palacio Real de Madrid & Cathedral. The palace was beautifully decorated and it was exciting that we could actually get inside and see the bedrooms, throne-rooms, and the like – au contraire to our experience at Windsor Castle. We noticed lots of shops and restaurants closing up as we walked back towards our hostel and realized it was time for Siesta! So we napped for 4 hours. Woops. We woke up and meandered around the downtown area, unsuccessful seeking a restaurant that fit our budget and had room for us. Eventually, we found a restaurant whose main appeal was it’s Italian food offerings and English-speaking host, and decided that in the future we should better plan our eating plans. We quickly visited a bar before heading back to the hostel to end our first day in Madrid. Despite the freezing room and scratchy “monkey fur” blankets, we all eventually fell asleep.

On Saturday, we visited the Reina Sofia museum and saw tons of authentic pieces by Picasso and Dali for free, as students! Then it was back to the hostel to take off on our tapas tour, which provided us tapas and free drinks at four bars for 10 euro, woohoo! Each of the bars had interesting stories that had transpired within, and had original tiling, paintings, and photographs inside that were freely exposed to the smoke and bar elements to the dismay of our tour guide. A few blood sausages and pitchers of Sangria later, we were ready for our second siesta (love them).

Later in the evening, after we had all shivered through showers without a stationary showerhead (we may or may not have been refugees), Megan’s friends from school took us to a great, real Spanish restaurant, a nice change from our faux-Italian meal the night before. I had Croquettas – ham and melted cheese stuffed into a fried ball of bread, YUM. 
Of course, more Sangria accompanied the feast, and we were all thrilled and stuffed by the time dinner was over. As Americans, we were ready to go to a bar right after dinner at around 9pm, which we forgot was far too early for the Spaniards. We learned this lesson by being ushered into a club (lured by free sangria, what else) and promptly finding that we were the only ones there. We headed back to the hostel bar to have some cocktails and wait a few hours before embarking our mission of experiencing Spanish nightlife again. After a few mishaps regarding getting into a huge discoteque called Pacha (and our refusal to pay a 15 euro cover), we decided to hang out at a smaller venue called Idioteque. I was more than pleased because I was able to convince the DJ to play some “Miguel Jackson.” We headed home around 4am (sorry Mom) and caught a few hours of sleep under the monkey blankets.

Sunday was our last day in Madrid, which we started off by heading to El Rastro, the giant market that sold essentially everything under the sun. We had been warned by just about everyone we talked to that it was pickpocket central, so none of us brought purses and we all emerged without any theft issues. After the market experience, we somehow navigated our way through the city with a questionable map, stopped at a chic café for some tostas, and went to the Prado museum. There was a slight issue at the ticket counter when the ticket ladies adamantly refused to believe we were students, but once we got inside, we were able to appreciate some great paintings and statues from different eras and origins. I’m still trying to locate my favorite painting on the Prado website… I’ll post it if I find it.
After the Prado we had to stop for some churros & chocolate before leaving Spain – a very worthwhile and delicious expedition. Then it was back to the hostel to wait for our ride to the airport. We were all so pleased with our first successful weekend adventure, and were contentedly sitting in the airport… and then learned that our plane had been delayed. For three hours. We got to know terminal 1 of the Madrid airport pretty extensively that evening, and finally we made it back to London at around 3am. Despite dungeon-like conditions, monkey fur blankets, and language barriers, we were able to survive in a non-English speaking country and have some incredible, unforgettable experiences in the meantime :) Can’t wait for our next trip!
Sorry this was accidentally a novel. Cheers!