CHOCOLATE!!
So, off we were to the land of chocolate, Amanda Knox, and spectacular views! Perugia was a beautiful city and world famous for its annual chocolate festival.
We had decided to go to the chocolate festival a week before through the tour group EuroAdventures, but we were emailed the friday before saying that since only four people had signed up for the tour, they were cancelling it. So instead, we decided to take the train to Perugia and go from there. We got on the train at about 8 a.m. Sunday morning and the ride was about an hour and a half. It was beautiful to ride through Chianti and see the countrysides of Tuscany. Since Perugia is located in Umbria, a different region in Italy, it was cool to see that too on the train. We arrived at the Perugia train station around 9:30 and found a bus that would take us up to the festival! So, we hopped on and had about a 20 minute ride up the hill. I did not realize that Perugia would be so hilly! For the most part, Florence is pretty flat. So riding around uphill was a little different than normal. When we got the the last stop, we had to walk a little bit more up the hill, but by the time we got to the top, the view was breathtaking! You could for miles around in all directions! At this point, it was nearing 11 a.m. and we were all starting to get hungry. We found entered the festival, it was a little different than I had imagined; there were so many people! It was completely packed to capacity. Although it was outside, it was crazy busy and there were people everywhere. Out of the whole festival, there was one booth with "real" food, so we ordered some panini and started to walk around. Shortly after, we noticed the EuroChocolate Card, that got you free samples at some of the booths, and a cool picture frame made out of chocolate! And all for only 6 euro! We got our first sample from Lindt, and after, we tried the chocolate liqueur at another booth. That was interesting. For me, it tasted like cough syrup mixed with chocolate syrup... But regardless, chocolate!
The day was filled with chocolate in every shape, size and flavor that you could imagine! The one down side was the crowds... there were lots of people, probably because it was a Sunday, but it was difficult to get around everyone all the time. Other than that, we had a great day that ended back at the train station around 3 to catch the train back to Firenze!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Day 52 Venice
Ahh... Venezia! At last!
I can not tell you all just how excited I was to FINALLY be going to Venice! To me, this is one of the most unique places in the entire world! And what makes it more stunning is the fact that it will not be around forever. I feel so lucky to be able to travel and see this beautiful place while it is still in existence. Since all the fast trains were sold out for the morning, our slow train departed at 4:30 a.m. and arrived in Venice at 9:30 a.m. Although I was running on 5 hours of sleep, the excitement kept me going. Venice! When we first stepped off the platform, I was greeted by my first sight of a venetian canal! For the last 20 years of my life, I have only ever been told of this city, and now here I am, seeing it with my own eyes. First, we walked across the bridge and decided to try and find Piazza San Marco. Ana bought a map and we slowly made our way through the streets of Venice. I think we might have taken the longest route possible to get there, but on our way, we stopped to window shop and look around. It was amazing. The city is so clean and well-kept, you feel like you are on a movie set just walking around. When we finally made it to the Piazza, I was stunned by how big it was. I have heard and seen the Piazza in movies before but seeing it firsthand was amazing. At that point in the day, we were fairly hungry so we stopped into a ristorante on a street off of the Piazza. The one down side to Venice is how costly everything is... My small pasta dish cost about 10 euro, and that was one of the cheaper places we could find. But at this point, I am kinda used to having to spend a lot of food... Italy can be very pricey if you don't know where to go. During lunch we noticed that all the other tables around us had a basket of bread on the table; not abnormal, just a little appetizer before your main course. But we never received a basket! This is not the first time this has happened to us either. Almost every time we have gone out to eat, they don't bring us bread. So Bree asked our waiter if we could have some and he said, "It comes with your meal." Well, call me crazy but our food came and left and I never once saw any of that promised bread sitting on the table... Maybe it's because we are American students? Who know... but I just thought that it was strange considering that we can obviously see other people munching on their bread. Anyway, just a random occurrence that keeps happening here. After lunch, we walked over to the Basilica and went inside. Of course, it was beautiful. It makes me sad to think that in as little as 20 years the whole place could be destroyed though. Even now, during heavy rainfall, the Piazza becomes flooded since it is already below sea level. It would be a shame to lose such a historical place. After the Piazza, we went across the Grand Canal to see another church on a different part of the city. But before we found the bridge, we came across an impromptu circle of cellists playing in a tiny little piazza. I couldn't believe my luck! There were about 12 cellos playing. It was a very special moment for me because it was just a coincidence for me to run into it. They only played one song and then packed up and left. I have it recorded for those of you interested :) I was so happy to run into that, it made my day.
It was quite strange to see absolutely no cars, buses, or even bikes in an entire city. We were thinking about getting a gondola ride, but it cost 80 euro for each! Maybe if we had 6 people, but the price was a little steep. We had about and hour and a half left before our train so we decided to start making our way back to the train station and window shop on the way. I bought a panino, nutella, and pretzels for the ride back and since we got the fast train, it was only an hour and a half ride instead of 4. I was very excited but pretty tired at this point. On Sunday, we were planning to go to Perugia for the chocolate festival and were taking an early train again. It feels like I live about half of my life on trains these days! But this trip was by far one of the coolest so far, and Venice did not disappoint :)
I can not tell you all just how excited I was to FINALLY be going to Venice! To me, this is one of the most unique places in the entire world! And what makes it more stunning is the fact that it will not be around forever. I feel so lucky to be able to travel and see this beautiful place while it is still in existence. Since all the fast trains were sold out for the morning, our slow train departed at 4:30 a.m. and arrived in Venice at 9:30 a.m. Although I was running on 5 hours of sleep, the excitement kept me going. Venice! When we first stepped off the platform, I was greeted by my first sight of a venetian canal! For the last 20 years of my life, I have only ever been told of this city, and now here I am, seeing it with my own eyes. First, we walked across the bridge and decided to try and find Piazza San Marco. Ana bought a map and we slowly made our way through the streets of Venice. I think we might have taken the longest route possible to get there, but on our way, we stopped to window shop and look around. It was amazing. The city is so clean and well-kept, you feel like you are on a movie set just walking around. When we finally made it to the Piazza, I was stunned by how big it was. I have heard and seen the Piazza in movies before but seeing it firsthand was amazing. At that point in the day, we were fairly hungry so we stopped into a ristorante on a street off of the Piazza. The one down side to Venice is how costly everything is... My small pasta dish cost about 10 euro, and that was one of the cheaper places we could find. But at this point, I am kinda used to having to spend a lot of food... Italy can be very pricey if you don't know where to go. During lunch we noticed that all the other tables around us had a basket of bread on the table; not abnormal, just a little appetizer before your main course. But we never received a basket! This is not the first time this has happened to us either. Almost every time we have gone out to eat, they don't bring us bread. So Bree asked our waiter if we could have some and he said, "It comes with your meal." Well, call me crazy but our food came and left and I never once saw any of that promised bread sitting on the table... Maybe it's because we are American students? Who know... but I just thought that it was strange considering that we can obviously see other people munching on their bread. Anyway, just a random occurrence that keeps happening here. After lunch, we walked over to the Basilica and went inside. Of course, it was beautiful. It makes me sad to think that in as little as 20 years the whole place could be destroyed though. Even now, during heavy rainfall, the Piazza becomes flooded since it is already below sea level. It would be a shame to lose such a historical place. After the Piazza, we went across the Grand Canal to see another church on a different part of the city. But before we found the bridge, we came across an impromptu circle of cellists playing in a tiny little piazza. I couldn't believe my luck! There were about 12 cellos playing. It was a very special moment for me because it was just a coincidence for me to run into it. They only played one song and then packed up and left. I have it recorded for those of you interested :) I was so happy to run into that, it made my day.
It was quite strange to see absolutely no cars, buses, or even bikes in an entire city. We were thinking about getting a gondola ride, but it cost 80 euro for each! Maybe if we had 6 people, but the price was a little steep. We had about and hour and a half left before our train so we decided to start making our way back to the train station and window shop on the way. I bought a panino, nutella, and pretzels for the ride back and since we got the fast train, it was only an hour and a half ride instead of 4. I was very excited but pretty tired at this point. On Sunday, we were planning to go to Perugia for the chocolate festival and were taking an early train again. It feels like I live about half of my life on trains these days! But this trip was by far one of the coolest so far, and Venice did not disappoint :)
Day 51 Siena Hot Springs
Since you all know just how hard my life the past 2 months has been, I am sure you can all agree when I say that I deserved a relaxing day at the natural hot Springs in Siena.... ;) Friday morning, Ana, Ariana, Bree and I met up at Santa Maria Novella Station and got on a bus to go try out the hot springs in Siena. Since the weather is about to get pretty chilly, we decided we might as well take advantage of the last few weeks of sun. The ride to the hot springs was about an hour and a half. When we got there, it was a beautiful sunny day but super windy. The hot springs, which was more like a spa, offered massages, mud bathes, facials, and manicures for extra, but I was just satisfied with being able to use the bathes all day. Unfortunately, on the bus, our tour leader warned us that since the hot springs are natural wells, there was a high chance that the place would smell like sulfur.. and that it did. Once inside the locker room, the smell was very concentrated. So, not ideal, but I was willing to but up with it for the time being. So we changed and made our way out to the pools. I really did not realize just how cold it would be until we stepped out in our bikinis and felt the cold wind. Getting out of the pools was going to be fun! We walked over to the first pool only to reach down and feel the temperature... lukewarm at best. So we ventured over to another pool.. A little better but not by much. Now I am freezing, and anything beyond cold sounded like a good option. So we got into this pool. Once inside we started talking to some other people there about the other pools and everyone agreed that this was the hottest.. The hot springs just turned into the lukewarm springs. I can't say it wasn't relaxing.. just not what you would expect from a place who boasts naturally "hot" water. They also never mentioned the sulfuric-rotten eggesque smell coming from all around you, but alas... We decided to relocate to the inside pool where the smell was worse, but at least it was shelter from the wind. Basically, we hung out in there for the rest of the day, sheltered from the cold but not exactly doing what we had planned. Bree paid for a mud bath, so for an hour she was gone doing that. Around 5, we got back on the bus and headed home. Since we were planning on going to Venice in the morning, I was just going to spend the night at their apartment since our train to Venice was at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. The lukewarm springs were beautiful in person, but only by sight. I can't say I would recommend them to a fellow traveler but I am glad that I had the experience. Not many people can say they lukewarm springed in Siena, Italy, can they?
Days 39- 45 Genoa
Ciao a tutti!
This weekend, we planned on seeing Venice but unfortunately, all the train tickets and group trips were sold out. So instead, we planned a trip to Genoa, Christopher Colombus' home town. On the way there, we took a slow train so the trip was about 3 hours. We left Florence around 7 a.m. and arrived in Genoa at about 10:30. When we first got off the train, there was a huge statue of Cristoforo Colombo outside of the train station. You could tell that they take him very seriously, considering that he is probably the most important person that Genoa has ever produced. After that, we walked around the city, eventually making our way down to the water. Genoa is a port city located on the coast, north east of Florence. It is actually best known for its pesto, apparently Genovese style pesto is supposed to be the best there is in Italy. So, after walking around for about an hour, we decided to find a place to eat near the water. We chose a restaurant that we could see all the boats from. If you have been to San Diego harbor, this is pretty much what the harbor looked like. For lunch, I ordered pizza and salad but Ana ordered the pesto and I tried a little piece. The verdict? Nothing special in terms of pesto. I am sure we were not at the best restaurant that Genoa has to offer, but I wasn't especially impressed. The other famous part of Genoa is the aquarium on the harbor. Unfortunately, we didn't go in because the tickets were kinda pricey, but it looked cool from what I could see. Instead, we just walked around the harbor and looked at all the boats. There were a couple you could pay to see and go on like you can do in San Diego but we were fine with just looking. I also imagine that Genoa is a huge port for cruise stops because there were a couple huge cruise ships docked in the marina. Also, there were tons of yachts so my friends and I decided to each choose one for ourselves so that we could pretend that we were going to take one out for a ride. We decided to cut back into the city and see what else there was and of course, we found ourselves shopping. There has to be an H&M in just about every city in Europe now because we have found them everywhere so far. Anyway, Genoa was beautiful because of this location on the water, but I was somewhat unimpressed by the actual city. Some of the architecture and design did not make any sense to me; sometimes there were buildings in the city that had kinda tacky painted on windows and decks... very strange. Compared to the architecture in Firenze, and in other places I have visited, I was a little disappointed. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and then headed back to the station for the train home. Overall, an enjoyable day, but no match for my "home" town of Florence. We also decided to buy our train tickets farther in advance for Venice so that we could go the next weekend. I couldn't wait :)
This weekend, we planned on seeing Venice but unfortunately, all the train tickets and group trips were sold out. So instead, we planned a trip to Genoa, Christopher Colombus' home town. On the way there, we took a slow train so the trip was about 3 hours. We left Florence around 7 a.m. and arrived in Genoa at about 10:30. When we first got off the train, there was a huge statue of Cristoforo Colombo outside of the train station. You could tell that they take him very seriously, considering that he is probably the most important person that Genoa has ever produced. After that, we walked around the city, eventually making our way down to the water. Genoa is a port city located on the coast, north east of Florence. It is actually best known for its pesto, apparently Genovese style pesto is supposed to be the best there is in Italy. So, after walking around for about an hour, we decided to find a place to eat near the water. We chose a restaurant that we could see all the boats from. If you have been to San Diego harbor, this is pretty much what the harbor looked like. For lunch, I ordered pizza and salad but Ana ordered the pesto and I tried a little piece. The verdict? Nothing special in terms of pesto. I am sure we were not at the best restaurant that Genoa has to offer, but I wasn't especially impressed. The other famous part of Genoa is the aquarium on the harbor. Unfortunately, we didn't go in because the tickets were kinda pricey, but it looked cool from what I could see. Instead, we just walked around the harbor and looked at all the boats. There were a couple you could pay to see and go on like you can do in San Diego but we were fine with just looking. I also imagine that Genoa is a huge port for cruise stops because there were a couple huge cruise ships docked in the marina. Also, there were tons of yachts so my friends and I decided to each choose one for ourselves so that we could pretend that we were going to take one out for a ride. We decided to cut back into the city and see what else there was and of course, we found ourselves shopping. There has to be an H&M in just about every city in Europe now because we have found them everywhere so far. Anyway, Genoa was beautiful because of this location on the water, but I was somewhat unimpressed by the actual city. Some of the architecture and design did not make any sense to me; sometimes there were buildings in the city that had kinda tacky painted on windows and decks... very strange. Compared to the architecture in Firenze, and in other places I have visited, I was a little disappointed. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and then headed back to the station for the train home. Overall, an enjoyable day, but no match for my "home" town of Florence. We also decided to buy our train tickets farther in advance for Venice so that we could go the next weekend. I couldn't wait :)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Day 34- 38 Oktoberfest!
Ciao Tutti!
Again, about two weeks since my last post.. I know you have all been on edge, just waiting for my next novel to be published. I am so so sorry that I have kept all my loyal fans waiting for me! Anyway, the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of events. Since my last post, I have led quite the life. Last weekend, as most of you know, I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany! Let me just say.. no words. But I will do my best to try and recap with the best description that I can.
Thursday Night: Bus leaves the train station at 11:30 p.m. Get ready for an 8 hour bus ride to Germany! That part of the journey wasn't too bad.. Except for the pit stop at 3:30 a.m.. not sure why they think that is a good time to stop, but I suppose it's because it is right in the middle of the trip. I slept about 6 hours on and off on the bus, which I think is pretty good considering that we had absolutely no leg room.. We arrived in Munich around 9 in the morning on Friday and since we planned to meet up with our friends, we walked straight to the train station to find them. Once we got there, we all realized that our campsite was a train ride away from downtown Munich so we needed to buy a ticket for the weekend. But first, we HAVE to try a pretzel.. what else is there to eat in Germany? :) So Ana and I buy our first pretzel of many at the train station. Once we got onto the train, we had to figure out where we were going exactly. Our campsite was called Weisncamp. We knew the stop to get off at, but weren't sure where to go from there. After getting off the train, us and about 15 other people were having some difficulty finding the campsite... so we wandered around for about 20 minutes looking before someone eventually found it on a map and we were able to head in the right direction. When we got the camp, it was almost as I imagined it, although I was unaware that it was known to be a "party" camp so there was a big tent for dancing, food, and drinks right there. Since it was only 11 a.m., of course there were people drinking.. what else would they be doing? After check-in, we put of stuff in the tent, got changed, and decided to head to Okterberfest! Finally! Some of our other friends had been there since 9 a.m that morning. So needless to say, we were a little bit behind. We caught the train back into the city and found ourselves coming up the escalator to the funnest looking fair I have ever seen. Like the Del Mar Fair times one hundred. There were tents for all different types of food, rides, games, and best of all, the infamous beer tents. :) Since I had only eaten a pretzel all day, I decided to try a "hot dog", German style. Oddly enough, it was like a hotdog in a hamburger bun.. which was strange but pretty good. After that we decided to try and get into one of the beer tents to see the madness first hand. I am sure you have all seen the movies like BeerFest, heck, maybe you have even been to Oktoberfest before. But for those of you who haven't.. I will do my best to describe my initial reaction. First, when we finally push our way into the tent, all you can see are tables just jam-packed with people. Second, you see the steins. A stein is that huge "glass" that beer comes in but it holds a whole liter of beer. Everyone in the tent has at least one in their hands at all times. Most of the people in the tent (Hofbrauhaus) were either standing on the tables, or about to be. I have never seen anything like it. Randomly, we ran into a girl from our program and since she had a table, we decided to sit with her. You can only order a beer if you are "sitting" at a table. So you can't be walking around a expect to order a beer. Anyway, as a our first tent of the day, I am happy to say that it was my favorite when I look back on the whole experience. After that tent, we walked to another to find some friends, and then another after that, and another. Then, we thought it would be fun to go on a carnival ride. Let me tell you... twenty times scarier than normal... Couldn't believe that we all made it through alive. Around 7 we grabbed dinner, and decided to head back camp. When we got back, there was party starting in the main tent but we were all pretty tired. Ana and I headed to bathroom to wash our faces and low and behold, there was no hot water! Just the beginning of a very cold, showerless weekend. We we headed back to the tent, (we were staying with Matt and Jordan, two guys from Gonzaga) we realized just how COLD it was going to be. Ana and I both bought our very compact sleeping bags. [Shout out the the Knudsens for that one :) ] but alas, the tent was way colder than we thought. We decided to go to bed early so that we could get up early on Saturday. Unfortunately, you could literally feel the music coming from the main tent through the ground. But we were all pretty exhausted and fell asleep fast. The sleeping arrangements went as follows... Jordan, Matt, Ana, and Me. I had NO IDEA just how cold being on the outside of the tent would be. Around 3 a.m. [music still going at the party tent] I woke up freezy. I think I may have accidentally woke everyone else up with my teeth chattering so, like the gentleman he is, Matt offered to switch with me and go on the outside. Which would have made more sense initially because he had a better sleeping bag.. but oh well. The middle was probably 15 degrees warmer than the outside spot. We feel back asleep until 6 when Ana and I decided to get up and actually take a shower.
Saturday: We got all of our stuff and headed to the girl's bathroom. Although there was no hot water the night before in the sinks, we saw steam coming from the shower. But when we got inside, there was absolutely NO hot water AT ALL. Oh, and icing on the cake, the showers all had about 6 inches of water in them, collected from the poor souls before us who decided to brave the cold and take showers. Ana, a much braver woman than I, got in the ice bath and WASHED HER HAIR! I could barely bring myself to dip a toe in the water, much less dunk my head in it! I chickened out and just attempted at washing my body. Its really nice to go from a freezing night's sleep to an ice cold shower.. I live the life of a queen. Anyway, after that whole ordeal, I got out, shiver-dried off, and proceeded to get dressed. Unfortunately, the whole bathroom was flooded at this point. Guess who proceeds to drop all her clothes in the messy, dirty, wet floor of the public bathroom? I DO. I literally dropped everything except my pants and my jacket. So guess who had to wear those back to the tent and change there? I DID. Yes, I assume you are all imagining this vividly and chuckling to yourselves. And at the time, that's all I could do too. I laughed. Just my luck. So, not the best start to my day, but I made it work. After that whole situation was over, we went to the main tent and bought some crappy food for breakfast. For everything you purchased from the tent, you had to give them a down payment for the utensils! So strange. Anyway, we headed to Oktoberfest around 9 and half of us found a table in the Paulaner Tent. The other half got a table outside at another tent across the way. We drank a stein at the Paulaner and ate a pretzel then made our to find the other group at their outdoor beer garden tent. At that point in the morning, everything was already PACKED so just finding a table for everyone was a challenge. Around 12, a bunch of these Croatian guys asked a guy at our table if he would order then 6 steins for 80 euro, basically tipping him 20, because they wanted drinks but since you can only order if you have a table, they asked him to do it for them. Matt's mistake... we quickly found our table being taken over by a bunch of rowdy soccer referees from Croatia. To sum up my experience with them, let's just say that I will NOT be going to Croatia anytime soon to find a husband.. they were quite vulgar. I do not think one of them possessed a filter on the stream of thoughts running through their heads. I was privileged enough to hear all of them. At one point, Jordan and I left to get some ice cream because we needed a break from the sun/ the Croatians. But when we tried to get back into the beer garden, the guards would not let us! We tried every entrance to the tent but no one would give in. Finally, we were able to distract a guard and we snuck in under the rope and got back to the table. After that, everyone decided that they had been hanging out long enough, and we made a group decision to head home to get changed and then find a place to eat dinner downtown. Of course all the restaurants in all or Munich, we settle for an Italian food restaurant. Of course. But at that point, I was so hungry I didn't even care. Some people in the group wanted to go out after that, but the majority of us were too tired, so we just decided to head back to the freezing cold campsite and go to bed. We had to check out by 11 a.m. in the morning, and we wanted to hang out in Munich a little bit before we had to catch our buses back at 3.
Sunday: After another super comfortable night in the tent, except this time we got smart and put our extra blankets down first for more insulation, we got up around 8, packed up, and headed to the train station to catch a train to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside Munich. I was really excited to go to there because I have read so many books about the holocaust, but I've never visited the scene of where it happened. We got to Dachau around 1130 and walked around for a couple hours. I have never been so close to so much tragedy before. It was astounding to me how anybody survived there. Truly. I felt like such a baby for complaining about being "cold" in my clothes, sleeping bag, and tent. Holocaust victims were forced to stand shoeless, clothless, and hungry in the dead of winter outside for hours. And sometimes, they were forced to walk from camp to camp through the snow. Seeing the "living" quarters and barracks were also astounding. But the part that affected me the most was seeing the gas chamber and the ovens. I could not believe how many lives were ended in those rooms alone, a murder factory. There was even such a great demand for the first crematorium, they had to build a second, bigger one with more ovens and more killing capacity. The fact that humans, just like you and me, were putting other humans into ovens is a mind blowing thought in itself. I think about how fortunate I am; not being born during that time and place, because my family probably would have also been lost in the horror as well. And to the survivors, wow. Just simply unbelievable that anyone could have survived. They are ALL heroes. And should be examples for just how strong we are, and can be when faced with difficulty. Anyway, ending with Dachau was not the happiest thing we could have done that day, but it was definitely the most meaningful. I am so glad that I went. After that, we all piled back onto the bus, and then back onto the 8 hour bus ride home. I watched about 3 movies during that time and attempted at sleeping, but to no avail. We got back to Florence around midnight and Tommaso picked me up from the train station.
So there, in somewhat of a nutshell, was Oktoberfest 2011 for me. I hope you all enjoyed my story :)
Again, about two weeks since my last post.. I know you have all been on edge, just waiting for my next novel to be published. I am so so sorry that I have kept all my loyal fans waiting for me! Anyway, the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of events. Since my last post, I have led quite the life. Last weekend, as most of you know, I went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany! Let me just say.. no words. But I will do my best to try and recap with the best description that I can.
Thursday Night: Bus leaves the train station at 11:30 p.m. Get ready for an 8 hour bus ride to Germany! That part of the journey wasn't too bad.. Except for the pit stop at 3:30 a.m.. not sure why they think that is a good time to stop, but I suppose it's because it is right in the middle of the trip. I slept about 6 hours on and off on the bus, which I think is pretty good considering that we had absolutely no leg room.. We arrived in Munich around 9 in the morning on Friday and since we planned to meet up with our friends, we walked straight to the train station to find them. Once we got there, we all realized that our campsite was a train ride away from downtown Munich so we needed to buy a ticket for the weekend. But first, we HAVE to try a pretzel.. what else is there to eat in Germany? :) So Ana and I buy our first pretzel of many at the train station. Once we got onto the train, we had to figure out where we were going exactly. Our campsite was called Weisncamp. We knew the stop to get off at, but weren't sure where to go from there. After getting off the train, us and about 15 other people were having some difficulty finding the campsite... so we wandered around for about 20 minutes looking before someone eventually found it on a map and we were able to head in the right direction. When we got the camp, it was almost as I imagined it, although I was unaware that it was known to be a "party" camp so there was a big tent for dancing, food, and drinks right there. Since it was only 11 a.m., of course there were people drinking.. what else would they be doing? After check-in, we put of stuff in the tent, got changed, and decided to head to Okterberfest! Finally! Some of our other friends had been there since 9 a.m that morning. So needless to say, we were a little bit behind. We caught the train back into the city and found ourselves coming up the escalator to the funnest looking fair I have ever seen. Like the Del Mar Fair times one hundred. There were tents for all different types of food, rides, games, and best of all, the infamous beer tents. :) Since I had only eaten a pretzel all day, I decided to try a "hot dog", German style. Oddly enough, it was like a hotdog in a hamburger bun.. which was strange but pretty good. After that we decided to try and get into one of the beer tents to see the madness first hand. I am sure you have all seen the movies like BeerFest, heck, maybe you have even been to Oktoberfest before. But for those of you who haven't.. I will do my best to describe my initial reaction. First, when we finally push our way into the tent, all you can see are tables just jam-packed with people. Second, you see the steins. A stein is that huge "glass" that beer comes in but it holds a whole liter of beer. Everyone in the tent has at least one in their hands at all times. Most of the people in the tent (Hofbrauhaus) were either standing on the tables, or about to be. I have never seen anything like it. Randomly, we ran into a girl from our program and since she had a table, we decided to sit with her. You can only order a beer if you are "sitting" at a table. So you can't be walking around a expect to order a beer. Anyway, as a our first tent of the day, I am happy to say that it was my favorite when I look back on the whole experience. After that tent, we walked to another to find some friends, and then another after that, and another. Then, we thought it would be fun to go on a carnival ride. Let me tell you... twenty times scarier than normal... Couldn't believe that we all made it through alive. Around 7 we grabbed dinner, and decided to head back camp. When we got back, there was party starting in the main tent but we were all pretty tired. Ana and I headed to bathroom to wash our faces and low and behold, there was no hot water! Just the beginning of a very cold, showerless weekend. We we headed back to the tent, (we were staying with Matt and Jordan, two guys from Gonzaga) we realized just how COLD it was going to be. Ana and I both bought our very compact sleeping bags. [Shout out the the Knudsens for that one :) ] but alas, the tent was way colder than we thought. We decided to go to bed early so that we could get up early on Saturday. Unfortunately, you could literally feel the music coming from the main tent through the ground. But we were all pretty exhausted and fell asleep fast. The sleeping arrangements went as follows... Jordan, Matt, Ana, and Me. I had NO IDEA just how cold being on the outside of the tent would be. Around 3 a.m. [music still going at the party tent] I woke up freezy. I think I may have accidentally woke everyone else up with my teeth chattering so, like the gentleman he is, Matt offered to switch with me and go on the outside. Which would have made more sense initially because he had a better sleeping bag.. but oh well. The middle was probably 15 degrees warmer than the outside spot. We feel back asleep until 6 when Ana and I decided to get up and actually take a shower.
Saturday: We got all of our stuff and headed to the girl's bathroom. Although there was no hot water the night before in the sinks, we saw steam coming from the shower. But when we got inside, there was absolutely NO hot water AT ALL. Oh, and icing on the cake, the showers all had about 6 inches of water in them, collected from the poor souls before us who decided to brave the cold and take showers. Ana, a much braver woman than I, got in the ice bath and WASHED HER HAIR! I could barely bring myself to dip a toe in the water, much less dunk my head in it! I chickened out and just attempted at washing my body. Its really nice to go from a freezing night's sleep to an ice cold shower.. I live the life of a queen. Anyway, after that whole ordeal, I got out, shiver-dried off, and proceeded to get dressed. Unfortunately, the whole bathroom was flooded at this point. Guess who proceeds to drop all her clothes in the messy, dirty, wet floor of the public bathroom? I DO. I literally dropped everything except my pants and my jacket. So guess who had to wear those back to the tent and change there? I DID. Yes, I assume you are all imagining this vividly and chuckling to yourselves. And at the time, that's all I could do too. I laughed. Just my luck. So, not the best start to my day, but I made it work. After that whole situation was over, we went to the main tent and bought some crappy food for breakfast. For everything you purchased from the tent, you had to give them a down payment for the utensils! So strange. Anyway, we headed to Oktoberfest around 9 and half of us found a table in the Paulaner Tent. The other half got a table outside at another tent across the way. We drank a stein at the Paulaner and ate a pretzel then made our to find the other group at their outdoor beer garden tent. At that point in the morning, everything was already PACKED so just finding a table for everyone was a challenge. Around 12, a bunch of these Croatian guys asked a guy at our table if he would order then 6 steins for 80 euro, basically tipping him 20, because they wanted drinks but since you can only order if you have a table, they asked him to do it for them. Matt's mistake... we quickly found our table being taken over by a bunch of rowdy soccer referees from Croatia. To sum up my experience with them, let's just say that I will NOT be going to Croatia anytime soon to find a husband.. they were quite vulgar. I do not think one of them possessed a filter on the stream of thoughts running through their heads. I was privileged enough to hear all of them. At one point, Jordan and I left to get some ice cream because we needed a break from the sun/ the Croatians. But when we tried to get back into the beer garden, the guards would not let us! We tried every entrance to the tent but no one would give in. Finally, we were able to distract a guard and we snuck in under the rope and got back to the table. After that, everyone decided that they had been hanging out long enough, and we made a group decision to head home to get changed and then find a place to eat dinner downtown. Of course all the restaurants in all or Munich, we settle for an Italian food restaurant. Of course. But at that point, I was so hungry I didn't even care. Some people in the group wanted to go out after that, but the majority of us were too tired, so we just decided to head back to the freezing cold campsite and go to bed. We had to check out by 11 a.m. in the morning, and we wanted to hang out in Munich a little bit before we had to catch our buses back at 3.
Sunday: After another super comfortable night in the tent, except this time we got smart and put our extra blankets down first for more insulation, we got up around 8, packed up, and headed to the train station to catch a train to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside Munich. I was really excited to go to there because I have read so many books about the holocaust, but I've never visited the scene of where it happened. We got to Dachau around 1130 and walked around for a couple hours. I have never been so close to so much tragedy before. It was astounding to me how anybody survived there. Truly. I felt like such a baby for complaining about being "cold" in my clothes, sleeping bag, and tent. Holocaust victims were forced to stand shoeless, clothless, and hungry in the dead of winter outside for hours. And sometimes, they were forced to walk from camp to camp through the snow. Seeing the "living" quarters and barracks were also astounding. But the part that affected me the most was seeing the gas chamber and the ovens. I could not believe how many lives were ended in those rooms alone, a murder factory. There was even such a great demand for the first crematorium, they had to build a second, bigger one with more ovens and more killing capacity. The fact that humans, just like you and me, were putting other humans into ovens is a mind blowing thought in itself. I think about how fortunate I am; not being born during that time and place, because my family probably would have also been lost in the horror as well. And to the survivors, wow. Just simply unbelievable that anyone could have survived. They are ALL heroes. And should be examples for just how strong we are, and can be when faced with difficulty. Anyway, ending with Dachau was not the happiest thing we could have done that day, but it was definitely the most meaningful. I am so glad that I went. After that, we all piled back onto the bus, and then back onto the 8 hour bus ride home. I watched about 3 movies during that time and attempted at sleeping, but to no avail. We got back to Florence around midnight and Tommaso picked me up from the train station.
So there, in somewhat of a nutshell, was Oktoberfest 2011 for me. I hope you all enjoyed my story :)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Italy Photos!
Italy Photos!
Hey everyone.
Since not all of you have facebook, you are unable to see all of the wonderful pictures I have taken on my trip so far.. So I decided to make a Flickr account so that I could share all the pictures with you :)
Just follow the link above and it should take you to my photos!
Ciao!
Hey everyone.
Since not all of you have facebook, you are unable to see all of the wonderful pictures I have taken on my trip so far.. So I decided to make a Flickr account so that I could share all the pictures with you :)
Just follow the link above and it should take you to my photos!
Ciao!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Day 23- 33 Volpaia
Ciao Tutti!
So I have realized that blogging daily is almost an impossibility.. As you can see, it takes me at least a week to post. But I suppose it is a good thing that I am just that busy and having that much fun over here :) Anyway, I will try not to write a novel, since it has been ten days since I last wrote. I could very well write a novel but I will try to keep it somewhat concise.
As you last heard, I was dining away almost nightly at various "aperitivi" around Florence. I wish you all could experience a true aperitivo.. the food is usually better than anything I ever eat at home but its all "appetizers." Anyway, I wrote that I planned on going to Sunflower on Sunday.. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the rain that actually came on Sunday night.. but oh well. Instead, on Friday night I went out with Tommaso because my other friends weren't going anywhere and I was bored and wanted to get out of the house. Because mom was using the car, the next obvious choice was to take his "mottorino" AKA a Vespa. And let me tell you... all the stereotypes about Italian vespa drivers are true!! I am a first hand witness to this everyday while standing (somewhat) safely on the sidewalk watching. But in this special case, I was able to get some actual evidence to prove my case. IT WAS SO SCARY! I honestly don't understand how there aren't accidents every five seconds here. Maybe it's because their cars are so small or something? I really don't know.. But alas, I was riding a Vespa through the strees of Firenze! As scary as it was, Tommasso really is a good driver, and I did wear a helmet so don't get worried yet.. We ended up going back to the Bar Argentina with a bunch of his friends. One or two spoke English so I talked with them a little bit, but I mostly listened. It gives me extra practice that most people don't get. So, there was Friday night. My first ride on a scooter, and conversations with Italians!
On Saturday, I hung out at home for the day. Later that night, we had a "girls night" with pizza at Gusta Pizza.. the BEST pizza in all of Florence. And after, we walked to out friend's apartment to hang out before going out. That was my first experience in a discoteca here in Florence. Called "Twice," it is a mostly American hang out with over priced drinks, loud music, no air, and of course, tons of Italian boys. When we walked into the place, there were literally 5 guys to every one girl in there. And let me tell you, they are not shy about making a point of coming over. I think I speak for all the girls there when I say that it feels like a meat market, and the guys are literally there to "pick out" the best product they can find. Needless to say, we did not stay there long.
Sunday, being that Sunflower was cancelled, I slept in. Woke up to eat, and took a nap. When I finally decided to arise for the day, I got up and did some homework. Sunday was mostly uneventful..
Monday, the start of a new week! Back at school in the a.m., home around one for lunch. Nothing too interesting. Homework, dinner, bed.
Tuesday. Somewhat of the same story. Except instead of going home for lunch, I tried this panino shop around the corner from school that has happy hour panini from 12 to 3. For only 3 euro, you get a huge panino with anything you want in it AND a drink. Just a great bargain. The panino was delicious and made having to go back to class less painful. I do miss being able to go home in between classes.. but it's not easy to do when you must take the bus.
Wednesday... more of the same. Except today we had an oral quiz in class. I actually just got my grade back today and got an A-. Not too shabby for making up a skit in 15 minutes! I really do enjoy talking when I can. It just takes a me a little while to formulate the words that I want to say. Anyway, after class I went home. At this point in the week, I have decided to go to Volpaia to visit my grandparents who are in Italy for three weeks! After school I decided which train to catch on Friday to get there. I couldn't believe I was actually going to see the place that my grandpa loves so dearly. I couldn't wait :) Went home to study and write a paper about Neorealism for my film class.
Thursday. First BIG test for Italian. I thought it went okay.... the class is fairly challenging because it goes at such a fact pace but the test didn't seem so bad. For lunch I went to Gusta Pizza to celebrate being done with my paper and finishing the test. After that, I went home and finally took a break. That night, Kelly, Tommaso and I went to this the William which is a fairly popular bar. We met up with Mirko, Tommaso's friend, and some of Kelly's friends. Kelly really likes beer so she always orders the strongest thing they have. It was pretty fun night sitting an talking over our dark beer [Side note to Tobin if you read this: I have to admit, I am beginning to like beer a little bit more, and not just "yellow fizzy water" beerm but the REAL stuff :)] After that, Tommaso drove us home and I crashed out.
Friday: Wake up around 10. Pack for Volpaia, and catch the bus to the train station. I still can't believe I am on my way there! What a life I have! I catch a 1:13 p.m. train and the ride takes about 45 minutes to get to Montevarchi... a town close-ish to Volpaia. Grandma and their driver Patricio are there waiting for me at the station! It has been a year since I have seen my grandparents and I have never been in Italy with them! I feel so happy to see a familiar face, that it kind of makes a little homesick. But I get over it quickly and we are on our way up the mountain to Volpaia! For those of you who have never been to Tuscany, Chianti region is what you envision when people say "Italy." At least that is tue for my vision. It is the setting of "Under the Tuscan Sun"... Eat, Pray, Love... and every other Italy set film out there. Simply breathtaking. By the time we made to Volpaia, I couldn't believe I was actually there. Volpaia was almost the way I had imagined it.. Small, and quieter than any place I've ever been.I arrived around 3 p.m. and we walked down to Bar-Ucci to get a cappucino but I had a feeling it was more so that my grandpa could introduce me to all these characters I've only ever read about in his book. At 4:30, a group of American tourists who had spent the week in Volpaia wanted to throw Paola, one of the Bar owners, a surprise birthday party. They asked my grandpa if he wanted to sing for her, and of course, he agreed. I have never heard my grandpa turn down a chance to sing. Especially in his most special place. Anyway, he sang two songs for the congregation and of course everyone broke intp applause at the end. It's not everyday that you hear an 83 year old man burst out in song, especially that song being opera. That night we dined at La Bottega, the restaurant about 20 feet from the bar, run by Paola's sister, Carla. After our meal, she asked grandpa to sing again, and he sang with her for the rest of the guests to hear. I love to see the reactions on people's faces when they realize what is happening across the room from them. I have had the priviledge to see these expressions for years now. For dinner I ordered the rabbit.. Yes, I know... not typical. But I wanted to give it a chance. The verdict: That was probably the first and last time I will be eating rabbit. All the same, it was a good experience and I am glad I tried it. Other than that, the food was delicious and I hope to go back to La Bottega again someday.
Saturday: Woke up at eight, got dressed and went down to the Bar with miei nonni (grandparents). Grandpa has a particular spot that he prefers to sit in so when we got down there, he was happty to see his table vacant. I ordered a capuccino and they un caffe. They planned to take me down to see their friend's vineyard and into Radda to go grocery shopping. The vineyard was magical. I got my own private tour of the winery and got to taste the the wine straight from the barrel! It was an amazing experience, and again, I am so blessed to be here! After the tour, we went to Radda to go grocery shopping and it was there that I actually purchased my first "real" bottle of wine. It was the wine shop of the vineyard I had just seen and Paolo's son was working there. I got to taste three different wines and choose my favorite. I went with a 2006 Doccio and Matteo, Chianti Classico. Made right where I was standing moments before! I feel like a true wine connoisseur now :). After the tasting, we went to have lunch at Ristorante Badia e Coltibuono in Gaiole in Chianti. The view from our outside patio table was amazing. Grandma and I went for the gustazione, which is like a full course menu of pre-chosen items. Basically, I dined on five courses of deliciousness! It was so much food but I ate every bite. If I could bring my all of you there, I would. Of all the places I have dined at so far, this place is one of the best. After lunch (three hours later) we headed back to Volpaia, squash blossoms and wine in hand. That night Grandma made my favorite dish, squash blossoms with cheese, eggs, and bread crumbs. I only ever get to eat that when I go to Seattle so it was a real treat :)
Sunday: My last day in Volpaia :( Tommaso and Kelly have offered to come pick me up, which was nice of them because then I didn't have to get a ride to the train. In the morning I went down to the Bar with Grandpa again, and we sat and talked for a while. He and grandma just wanted to stay in town for the day, which was fine my me. Oh and Grandma made me scrambled eggs in the morning which I was extremely grateful for because I haven't had scrambled eggs in forever... Italians don't eat eggs like that. But anyway, I sat down at the Bar for a while, had lunch with them, and people watched. I went back up to the house for a little while but it was too quiet so I found my way back to the Bar. Around the time that Tom and Kelly were coming, they thunder started and it began to rain lightly. The rain here is quite tropical so it is never actually cold. But soon after I sat down, I had a phone call from Kelly saying that they were there. I gave them a short tour of the town, and their villa. But it came to saying goodbye, I actually got a little teary-eyed. Especially since I won't see anyone else for a couple months. I asked grandpa if he would sing for them in the church because I wanted Kelly to see what I had been talking about. I think Kelly, Tommaso, and Mirko were very surprised when they heard grandpa's voice.. the look on their faces was priceless. I was very excited that I got to share that with them. After that, we left and started the curvy ride down the mountain. On the way out of town, we stopped in Greve to go wine tasting at this one shop that Tommaso knew of. It was very cool and we had fun walking around and checking out different labels. After, Mirko invited us over for dinner at his place so we dropped him off and continued back into Florence. I basically dropped off my stuff and we went to dinner. Again, delicious food... All men back home should be able to cook like Mirko. He said he learned how because he had to feed his little sister when they were younger! HA! Imagine that boys?! :)
Well, this is probably my longest entry yet, and I hope you all are not bored our of your minds... I just had A LOT to say. And I could have said even more believe it or not... But I will let you all get back to your lives. I hope everything is well for you and if you have any questions for me or just want to say hello, please email me!
sarah.green3491@gmail.com
I love you all very much!
Baci!
Sarah
So I have realized that blogging daily is almost an impossibility.. As you can see, it takes me at least a week to post. But I suppose it is a good thing that I am just that busy and having that much fun over here :) Anyway, I will try not to write a novel, since it has been ten days since I last wrote. I could very well write a novel but I will try to keep it somewhat concise.
As you last heard, I was dining away almost nightly at various "aperitivi" around Florence. I wish you all could experience a true aperitivo.. the food is usually better than anything I ever eat at home but its all "appetizers." Anyway, I wrote that I planned on going to Sunflower on Sunday.. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the rain that actually came on Sunday night.. but oh well. Instead, on Friday night I went out with Tommaso because my other friends weren't going anywhere and I was bored and wanted to get out of the house. Because mom was using the car, the next obvious choice was to take his "mottorino" AKA a Vespa. And let me tell you... all the stereotypes about Italian vespa drivers are true!! I am a first hand witness to this everyday while standing (somewhat) safely on the sidewalk watching. But in this special case, I was able to get some actual evidence to prove my case. IT WAS SO SCARY! I honestly don't understand how there aren't accidents every five seconds here. Maybe it's because their cars are so small or something? I really don't know.. But alas, I was riding a Vespa through the strees of Firenze! As scary as it was, Tommasso really is a good driver, and I did wear a helmet so don't get worried yet.. We ended up going back to the Bar Argentina with a bunch of his friends. One or two spoke English so I talked with them a little bit, but I mostly listened. It gives me extra practice that most people don't get. So, there was Friday night. My first ride on a scooter, and conversations with Italians!
On Saturday, I hung out at home for the day. Later that night, we had a "girls night" with pizza at Gusta Pizza.. the BEST pizza in all of Florence. And after, we walked to out friend's apartment to hang out before going out. That was my first experience in a discoteca here in Florence. Called "Twice," it is a mostly American hang out with over priced drinks, loud music, no air, and of course, tons of Italian boys. When we walked into the place, there were literally 5 guys to every one girl in there. And let me tell you, they are not shy about making a point of coming over. I think I speak for all the girls there when I say that it feels like a meat market, and the guys are literally there to "pick out" the best product they can find. Needless to say, we did not stay there long.
Sunday, being that Sunflower was cancelled, I slept in. Woke up to eat, and took a nap. When I finally decided to arise for the day, I got up and did some homework. Sunday was mostly uneventful..
Monday, the start of a new week! Back at school in the a.m., home around one for lunch. Nothing too interesting. Homework, dinner, bed.
Tuesday. Somewhat of the same story. Except instead of going home for lunch, I tried this panino shop around the corner from school that has happy hour panini from 12 to 3. For only 3 euro, you get a huge panino with anything you want in it AND a drink. Just a great bargain. The panino was delicious and made having to go back to class less painful. I do miss being able to go home in between classes.. but it's not easy to do when you must take the bus.
Wednesday... more of the same. Except today we had an oral quiz in class. I actually just got my grade back today and got an A-. Not too shabby for making up a skit in 15 minutes! I really do enjoy talking when I can. It just takes a me a little while to formulate the words that I want to say. Anyway, after class I went home. At this point in the week, I have decided to go to Volpaia to visit my grandparents who are in Italy for three weeks! After school I decided which train to catch on Friday to get there. I couldn't believe I was actually going to see the place that my grandpa loves so dearly. I couldn't wait :) Went home to study and write a paper about Neorealism for my film class.
Thursday. First BIG test for Italian. I thought it went okay.... the class is fairly challenging because it goes at such a fact pace but the test didn't seem so bad. For lunch I went to Gusta Pizza to celebrate being done with my paper and finishing the test. After that, I went home and finally took a break. That night, Kelly, Tommaso and I went to this the William which is a fairly popular bar. We met up with Mirko, Tommaso's friend, and some of Kelly's friends. Kelly really likes beer so she always orders the strongest thing they have. It was pretty fun night sitting an talking over our dark beer [Side note to Tobin if you read this: I have to admit, I am beginning to like beer a little bit more, and not just "yellow fizzy water" beerm but the REAL stuff :)] After that, Tommaso drove us home and I crashed out.
Friday: Wake up around 10. Pack for Volpaia, and catch the bus to the train station. I still can't believe I am on my way there! What a life I have! I catch a 1:13 p.m. train and the ride takes about 45 minutes to get to Montevarchi... a town close-ish to Volpaia. Grandma and their driver Patricio are there waiting for me at the station! It has been a year since I have seen my grandparents and I have never been in Italy with them! I feel so happy to see a familiar face, that it kind of makes a little homesick. But I get over it quickly and we are on our way up the mountain to Volpaia! For those of you who have never been to Tuscany, Chianti region is what you envision when people say "Italy." At least that is tue for my vision. It is the setting of "Under the Tuscan Sun"... Eat, Pray, Love... and every other Italy set film out there. Simply breathtaking. By the time we made to Volpaia, I couldn't believe I was actually there. Volpaia was almost the way I had imagined it.. Small, and quieter than any place I've ever been.I arrived around 3 p.m. and we walked down to Bar-Ucci to get a cappucino but I had a feeling it was more so that my grandpa could introduce me to all these characters I've only ever read about in his book. At 4:30, a group of American tourists who had spent the week in Volpaia wanted to throw Paola, one of the Bar owners, a surprise birthday party. They asked my grandpa if he wanted to sing for her, and of course, he agreed. I have never heard my grandpa turn down a chance to sing. Especially in his most special place. Anyway, he sang two songs for the congregation and of course everyone broke intp applause at the end. It's not everyday that you hear an 83 year old man burst out in song, especially that song being opera. That night we dined at La Bottega, the restaurant about 20 feet from the bar, run by Paola's sister, Carla. After our meal, she asked grandpa to sing again, and he sang with her for the rest of the guests to hear. I love to see the reactions on people's faces when they realize what is happening across the room from them. I have had the priviledge to see these expressions for years now. For dinner I ordered the rabbit.. Yes, I know... not typical. But I wanted to give it a chance. The verdict: That was probably the first and last time I will be eating rabbit. All the same, it was a good experience and I am glad I tried it. Other than that, the food was delicious and I hope to go back to La Bottega again someday.
Saturday: Woke up at eight, got dressed and went down to the Bar with miei nonni (grandparents). Grandpa has a particular spot that he prefers to sit in so when we got down there, he was happty to see his table vacant. I ordered a capuccino and they un caffe. They planned to take me down to see their friend's vineyard and into Radda to go grocery shopping. The vineyard was magical. I got my own private tour of the winery and got to taste the the wine straight from the barrel! It was an amazing experience, and again, I am so blessed to be here! After the tour, we went to Radda to go grocery shopping and it was there that I actually purchased my first "real" bottle of wine. It was the wine shop of the vineyard I had just seen and Paolo's son was working there. I got to taste three different wines and choose my favorite. I went with a 2006 Doccio and Matteo, Chianti Classico. Made right where I was standing moments before! I feel like a true wine connoisseur now :). After the tasting, we went to have lunch at Ristorante Badia e Coltibuono in Gaiole in Chianti. The view from our outside patio table was amazing. Grandma and I went for the gustazione, which is like a full course menu of pre-chosen items. Basically, I dined on five courses of deliciousness! It was so much food but I ate every bite. If I could bring my all of you there, I would. Of all the places I have dined at so far, this place is one of the best. After lunch (three hours later) we headed back to Volpaia, squash blossoms and wine in hand. That night Grandma made my favorite dish, squash blossoms with cheese, eggs, and bread crumbs. I only ever get to eat that when I go to Seattle so it was a real treat :)
Sunday: My last day in Volpaia :( Tommaso and Kelly have offered to come pick me up, which was nice of them because then I didn't have to get a ride to the train. In the morning I went down to the Bar with Grandpa again, and we sat and talked for a while. He and grandma just wanted to stay in town for the day, which was fine my me. Oh and Grandma made me scrambled eggs in the morning which I was extremely grateful for because I haven't had scrambled eggs in forever... Italians don't eat eggs like that. But anyway, I sat down at the Bar for a while, had lunch with them, and people watched. I went back up to the house for a little while but it was too quiet so I found my way back to the Bar. Around the time that Tom and Kelly were coming, they thunder started and it began to rain lightly. The rain here is quite tropical so it is never actually cold. But soon after I sat down, I had a phone call from Kelly saying that they were there. I gave them a short tour of the town, and their villa. But it came to saying goodbye, I actually got a little teary-eyed. Especially since I won't see anyone else for a couple months. I asked grandpa if he would sing for them in the church because I wanted Kelly to see what I had been talking about. I think Kelly, Tommaso, and Mirko were very surprised when they heard grandpa's voice.. the look on their faces was priceless. I was very excited that I got to share that with them. After that, we left and started the curvy ride down the mountain. On the way out of town, we stopped in Greve to go wine tasting at this one shop that Tommaso knew of. It was very cool and we had fun walking around and checking out different labels. After, Mirko invited us over for dinner at his place so we dropped him off and continued back into Florence. I basically dropped off my stuff and we went to dinner. Again, delicious food... All men back home should be able to cook like Mirko. He said he learned how because he had to feed his little sister when they were younger! HA! Imagine that boys?! :)
Well, this is probably my longest entry yet, and I hope you all are not bored our of your minds... I just had A LOT to say. And I could have said even more believe it or not... But I will let you all get back to your lives. I hope everything is well for you and if you have any questions for me or just want to say hello, please email me!
sarah.green3491@gmail.com
I love you all very much!
Baci!
Sarah
Grandpa and his villa :)
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Day 16-22 Cinque Terre
Ciao!
Again, I am sorry about the delay in posts! I clearly am not the best at keeping up with this blogging business.. but by the time I am not in school, doing homework, or traveling, I just want to sleep! Anyway, this last week has been AMAZING. And since, again, it has been a full week since I last posted, I will do my best to fill you all in on what has been happening in mia vita bella!
So...
Friday: Day trip with all the UC students to Siena and San Gimignano. SO beautiful! (As are most things here) but these two places took my breath away. When we got to San Gimignano, a small town south of Florence, we paid 5 euro to climb to top of the highest tower to see the view. And let me tell you... it was incredible. I won't lie.. I did grumble a little bit about having to pay to climb up thousands of stairs just to be able to stand at the top, but when I got up there, it was well worth the effort and the money. I had a 360 degree view of miles and miles of country side, the city, and Italy! I probably took about pictures of the same view. After that short trip, we got back on the bus and headed to Siena. Not quite the size of Florence, Siena is a "quaint" town that features an amazing town square with crazy architecture. Siena is also known for an annual horserace they have put on for hundreds of years. In a nutshell, Siena is separated in 17 different neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a different mascot and each year, 10 of the 17 neighborhoods participate in this horse race. To make the race fair, the horses are chose at random on race day so that no one neighborhood can buy the best horse. The race is three times around this tiny piazza and in total, it is over in about 1 minute and 18 seconds. Obviously, I was intrigued by this fact because you all know how much I love horses. Sadly, this event creates a lot of controversy because of how dangerous the race is for the riders and especially the horses. The corners on the piazza are so tight, they literally have to put mattresses on the buildings near the corners because so many horses fall when rounding them. Our tour guide also told us that one horse actually died this year :( and jockies have died in the past as well. Anyway, I found this to be the most interesting part of Siena and I hope that maybe I can come back to see the race someday. After that part, we finished the tour in different cathedrals, museums, and Siena's Duomo. It is not as impressive as Firenze's but still very cool. We also got to see the Patron Saint Katherine's skull on display at another museum.. not gunna lie, it was very creepy. It is like a floating head in glass box that people pray to daily but alas.. Just one of those things.. cool and interesting, but weird. After the tour, we all got back on the bus, exhausted, and headed home. Since I planned on going to Cinque Terre in the morning early, I spent the night at Ana's so that we could get up early and go to the train station.
Saturday: Woke up at 5:30 to catch a 7 a.m. train to Cinque Terre! I couldn't believe we were finally going! Everyone I have ever talked to about Italy has told me to go there, so I was really excited. We decided to start at the most northern town called Monterosso and hike south to the last town. We arrived in Monterosso around 10:45 and bought a train pass to use between the cities in case we decided not to hike. We started off up the hill and after about 10 minutes of walking in direct sunlight and at a significant grade, I started to feel the heat... this hike was timed out to be about 90 minutes according to the map. No big deal, right? Wrong. 90 minutes of stair climber on steroids. I swear... I have NEVER walked up so many stairs at one time while carrying my backpack and facing 90 degree heat! Long story short, after about 2 hours of hiking a sweating like men, we made it to the second town! As we came around the side of the mountain, we could see Vernazza from the top. I have never been more relieved to see civilization! Although the hike was not the way I thought it would be, I feel very accomplished by finishing it. Vernazza, a beautiful beach town with a small beach and beautiful water, was my favorite town of the five. We went to the beach to cool off and hung out for about an hour. I bought some delicious pizza and we made a group decision to catch a train to the next town.
When we arrived at Corniglia, we got off the train expecting to be sitting on another beautiful beach but sadly, this was not the case. Another set of terrifying stairs stood in our way. But, being the good sports that we are, we decided to climb the stairs up to town #3. When we made it to the top, there wasn't much to the little town. No beach, just a nice view of the water from the top and only a few stores.. Not as exciting as expected but still pretty nonetheless. Luckily, we were able to catch a bus down from Corniglia back to the train station at the bottom of the hill. We got back on the train and made our way to the fourth town; Manarola. Town #4 was my second favorite terra. We walked off the train and down to the water, and lo and behold, there was a crazy cove that looked like it should be covered in mermaids. It was honestly something out a movie. So of course, what else can we do but jump in? The water felt amazing and I felt like a real life mermaid swimming around. :) There a huge rock in the center that you could jump off of but since no one else in my group would do it, I was too scared to climb up there alone haha but I have pictures of other people jumping off. I do believe that if I become a rich old maid, I plan on retiring in one of these tiny towns. They are amazingly beautiful. Last but not least, we caught a train to the last town, Riomaggiore. This was a fairly lively town that had a lot of tourists in it and lots of restaurants. Before we were going to catch the train back to Florence, we grabbed some dinner and walked down to the water. Overall, an amazing trip. I recommend to anyone who comes to this region of Italy.
Sunday: Woke up around 11... had breakfast and decided to go grocery shopping with my roommate Kelly because we needed food for lunches. We left the house to go to the store, got all the way there, and realized it was closed on Sundays... That's the one kicker in Italy. Stores are usually closed on Sundays and randomly throughout the day. Most things are closed from 1 to 4 and ristorantes are open like 10 to 4, closed 4 to 7 and open 7 to 11 for dinner. So if you get hungry around 4.. you are basically screwed. Anyway, we eventually found a K-Mart-like store that had food and everything else you could want so we went shopping there for our stuff. Another thing that is weird is that the food here expired fairly quickly compared to American food. I am assuming this is because there are less preservatives in the food but it has been strange. Probably a good thing overall though. Anyway, Sunday night, Tomasso's friend Mirko invited us over for dinner at his house. First we went to aperitivo though which is this really cool thing where you pay around 6 euro for unlimited food and one drink. Unfortunately, I ate way to much there and by the time I got to Mirko's house, I was pretty full. Basically, Kelly and I couldn't even make it through our primi piatti so we never even got to the second dish! We felt bad but Mirko said it was his fault for making so much for primi piatti. Alas, I think I may have found my future husband.. he is an amazing chef! Too bad in Italy men typically don't cook meals... ha ha. Oh well.. We stayed at dinner probably too late for school the next morning but I figured that it would be worth the exhaustion :)
Monday: School. Nap. Homework. Eat. Sleep.
Tuesday: School. Homework. Aperitivo part 2 with everyone in Acccent including some Minnesotians and Virginians! But, I didn't end up meeting any. Food was delicious but I couldn't stay out because I had to catch a bus home before 11:30. That's one of the cons of living out of the city, I either have to sleep over or get a cab home.
Wednesday: School. Homework. Study for quiz. Aperitivo part 3 with Tomasso and Kelly and drinks at Bar Argentinian. Buy tickets for Sunflower (party on Sunday in Florence). Go to sleep way too late.
Thursday: Wake up at six to study some more. Go to school. Take quiz. Sneak to the bathroom to drink a cappucino. Go back to class. Eat lunch. Class. Home. Run. Shower. Eat. Write this blog.
Wooo! There we go. I hope you all enjoyed that.
As always, I will keep you posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
Again, I am sorry about the delay in posts! I clearly am not the best at keeping up with this blogging business.. but by the time I am not in school, doing homework, or traveling, I just want to sleep! Anyway, this last week has been AMAZING. And since, again, it has been a full week since I last posted, I will do my best to fill you all in on what has been happening in mia vita bella!
So...
Friday: Day trip with all the UC students to Siena and San Gimignano. SO beautiful! (As are most things here) but these two places took my breath away. When we got to San Gimignano, a small town south of Florence, we paid 5 euro to climb to top of the highest tower to see the view. And let me tell you... it was incredible. I won't lie.. I did grumble a little bit about having to pay to climb up thousands of stairs just to be able to stand at the top, but when I got up there, it was well worth the effort and the money. I had a 360 degree view of miles and miles of country side, the city, and Italy! I probably took about pictures of the same view. After that short trip, we got back on the bus and headed to Siena. Not quite the size of Florence, Siena is a "quaint" town that features an amazing town square with crazy architecture. Siena is also known for an annual horserace they have put on for hundreds of years. In a nutshell, Siena is separated in 17 different neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a different mascot and each year, 10 of the 17 neighborhoods participate in this horse race. To make the race fair, the horses are chose at random on race day so that no one neighborhood can buy the best horse. The race is three times around this tiny piazza and in total, it is over in about 1 minute and 18 seconds. Obviously, I was intrigued by this fact because you all know how much I love horses. Sadly, this event creates a lot of controversy because of how dangerous the race is for the riders and especially the horses. The corners on the piazza are so tight, they literally have to put mattresses on the buildings near the corners because so many horses fall when rounding them. Our tour guide also told us that one horse actually died this year :( and jockies have died in the past as well. Anyway, I found this to be the most interesting part of Siena and I hope that maybe I can come back to see the race someday. After that part, we finished the tour in different cathedrals, museums, and Siena's Duomo. It is not as impressive as Firenze's but still very cool. We also got to see the Patron Saint Katherine's skull on display at another museum.. not gunna lie, it was very creepy. It is like a floating head in glass box that people pray to daily but alas.. Just one of those things.. cool and interesting, but weird. After the tour, we all got back on the bus, exhausted, and headed home. Since I planned on going to Cinque Terre in the morning early, I spent the night at Ana's so that we could get up early and go to the train station.
Saturday: Woke up at 5:30 to catch a 7 a.m. train to Cinque Terre! I couldn't believe we were finally going! Everyone I have ever talked to about Italy has told me to go there, so I was really excited. We decided to start at the most northern town called Monterosso and hike south to the last town. We arrived in Monterosso around 10:45 and bought a train pass to use between the cities in case we decided not to hike. We started off up the hill and after about 10 minutes of walking in direct sunlight and at a significant grade, I started to feel the heat... this hike was timed out to be about 90 minutes according to the map. No big deal, right? Wrong. 90 minutes of stair climber on steroids. I swear... I have NEVER walked up so many stairs at one time while carrying my backpack and facing 90 degree heat! Long story short, after about 2 hours of hiking a sweating like men, we made it to the second town! As we came around the side of the mountain, we could see Vernazza from the top. I have never been more relieved to see civilization! Although the hike was not the way I thought it would be, I feel very accomplished by finishing it. Vernazza, a beautiful beach town with a small beach and beautiful water, was my favorite town of the five. We went to the beach to cool off and hung out for about an hour. I bought some delicious pizza and we made a group decision to catch a train to the next town.
When we arrived at Corniglia, we got off the train expecting to be sitting on another beautiful beach but sadly, this was not the case. Another set of terrifying stairs stood in our way. But, being the good sports that we are, we decided to climb the stairs up to town #3. When we made it to the top, there wasn't much to the little town. No beach, just a nice view of the water from the top and only a few stores.. Not as exciting as expected but still pretty nonetheless. Luckily, we were able to catch a bus down from Corniglia back to the train station at the bottom of the hill. We got back on the train and made our way to the fourth town; Manarola. Town #4 was my second favorite terra. We walked off the train and down to the water, and lo and behold, there was a crazy cove that looked like it should be covered in mermaids. It was honestly something out a movie. So of course, what else can we do but jump in? The water felt amazing and I felt like a real life mermaid swimming around. :) There a huge rock in the center that you could jump off of but since no one else in my group would do it, I was too scared to climb up there alone haha but I have pictures of other people jumping off. I do believe that if I become a rich old maid, I plan on retiring in one of these tiny towns. They are amazingly beautiful. Last but not least, we caught a train to the last town, Riomaggiore. This was a fairly lively town that had a lot of tourists in it and lots of restaurants. Before we were going to catch the train back to Florence, we grabbed some dinner and walked down to the water. Overall, an amazing trip. I recommend to anyone who comes to this region of Italy.
Sunday: Woke up around 11... had breakfast and decided to go grocery shopping with my roommate Kelly because we needed food for lunches. We left the house to go to the store, got all the way there, and realized it was closed on Sundays... That's the one kicker in Italy. Stores are usually closed on Sundays and randomly throughout the day. Most things are closed from 1 to 4 and ristorantes are open like 10 to 4, closed 4 to 7 and open 7 to 11 for dinner. So if you get hungry around 4.. you are basically screwed. Anyway, we eventually found a K-Mart-like store that had food and everything else you could want so we went shopping there for our stuff. Another thing that is weird is that the food here expired fairly quickly compared to American food. I am assuming this is because there are less preservatives in the food but it has been strange. Probably a good thing overall though. Anyway, Sunday night, Tomasso's friend Mirko invited us over for dinner at his house. First we went to aperitivo though which is this really cool thing where you pay around 6 euro for unlimited food and one drink. Unfortunately, I ate way to much there and by the time I got to Mirko's house, I was pretty full. Basically, Kelly and I couldn't even make it through our primi piatti so we never even got to the second dish! We felt bad but Mirko said it was his fault for making so much for primi piatti. Alas, I think I may have found my future husband.. he is an amazing chef! Too bad in Italy men typically don't cook meals... ha ha. Oh well.. We stayed at dinner probably too late for school the next morning but I figured that it would be worth the exhaustion :)
Monday: School. Nap. Homework. Eat. Sleep.
Tuesday: School. Homework. Aperitivo part 2 with everyone in Acccent including some Minnesotians and Virginians! But, I didn't end up meeting any. Food was delicious but I couldn't stay out because I had to catch a bus home before 11:30. That's one of the cons of living out of the city, I either have to sleep over or get a cab home.
Wednesday: School. Homework. Study for quiz. Aperitivo part 3 with Tomasso and Kelly and drinks at Bar Argentinian. Buy tickets for Sunflower (party on Sunday in Florence). Go to sleep way too late.
Thursday: Wake up at six to study some more. Go to school. Take quiz. Sneak to the bathroom to drink a cappucino. Go back to class. Eat lunch. Class. Home. Run. Shower. Eat. Write this blog.
Wooo! There we go. I hope you all enjoyed that.
As always, I will keep you posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Day 11- 15 Villa Montalto
Ciao Tutti,
Again, sorry for the delay in posts! This week has been filled with craziness. So in order to sum it up for you all, I will break it down into days!
Monday: I had school from nine until 12:30 and then I went into the city to find a dress to wear to Villa Montalto, the place where we had our welcome dinner that night :) After shopping, I went home to get ready and took the bus back to the train station with Kelly to catch the bus to our villa. Our welcome dinner was hosted at this AMAZING Villa on the hill overlooking the city. The background of this blog is actually a picture from the villa! When we arrived, we had to trek up this huge hill but when we got to the top, this crazy palace was awaiting us. It was all very fancy; they served us drinks in nice glasses outside and hors d'oeuvres before dinner. Dinner began like all Italian meals do; a primi piatti consisting of a pasta dish. We had a pasta with zuchini and zuchini blossoms on top. Needless to say, it was awesome. This place was seriously out of a fairy tale... the sort of castle on top of the hill that princesses get married in. But back to the good stuff... the secondo piatti consisted of chicken, potatoes, and a salad. (I make it sound so boring, but in reality it had really fancy Italian names that I can't remember that make it sounds more delicious). Obviously it was amazing as well. Last but not least, we had la dolce; the sweet! Surprise, surprise.. they served us tiramisu. Although I am normally not a huge fan of this dessert, I decided to give it another chance in Italy. I have to admit... it is definitely growing on me. Which is probably a good thing considering that here people either eat 1) gelato or 2) tiramisu for la dolce. Anyway, the villa was incredible... I am so lucky to be here! I am reminded of that everyday.
Tuesday: School again from 9 to 330... but unfortunately for me, there was a bus strike starting at 4 p.m. until midnight so no bus for me home... Instead of walking the 45 min it takes me to get home on foot, I decided to stay at Ana's apartment for the day. During class we found out about beer pong tournament going on at a local bar that night and of course, being the typical Americans that we are, we decided to check it out. The bar we went to is called the Red Garter, and according to my homestay brother Tommaso, it used to be known for lots of rowdy bar fights back in the day but now it is pretty much an American student hang out. Fortunately for us, Americans seem to dominate at beer pong (sad but true: especially UCSB). But the best part of the night was that my roommate Kelly convinced Tommaso and his friend to come out with us and learn how to play! Let me make this clear.. I am no professional at beer pong, but for whatever reason I am not too bad at it. I do surprisingly well when I do decide to play. Anyway, I partnered up with Tommaso to teach him the ways of the game and we had a blast. The bar was crazy and there was barely any space to move.. but we actually won our first two games and made it to the next round! Unfortunately the next round was against my friends from school.. needless to say they beat us pretty fast but it was still a lot of fun.
Wednesday: It was not easy waking up for school. When I went out to get breakfast Tomasso made a joke that we should play coffee pong.. ha ha. He is so clever. Despite our language barrier, we joke around quite often. Wednesday mostly consists of me walking around the library like a zombie and going home to take a 2 hour nap... I will call it my siesta haha.
Today: School, again. Found a new caffe to study in in between my classes. GREAT panini and cappucino for a relatively low price. Also overlooking the Arno of course :) I can't wait for tomorrow though.. We are going on a group trip to Siena and San Gimignano which should be really fun. Saturday, Ana, Ariana, Bree and I plan on going to Cinque Terre and hiking from town to town. It is supposed to be beautiful there so I plan on take TONS of pictures to make you all even more jealous of my amazing life :)
Since we have to catch a bus at 8, I am going to head to bed since it is about 11 p.m. here. I hope everything is well with you all and please comment if you have questions or want to know more about what I am doing in this torturous life... :) Miss you all!
Abbracci e baci dall' Italia!
Sarah
Again, sorry for the delay in posts! This week has been filled with craziness. So in order to sum it up for you all, I will break it down into days!
Monday: I had school from nine until 12:30 and then I went into the city to find a dress to wear to Villa Montalto, the place where we had our welcome dinner that night :) After shopping, I went home to get ready and took the bus back to the train station with Kelly to catch the bus to our villa. Our welcome dinner was hosted at this AMAZING Villa on the hill overlooking the city. The background of this blog is actually a picture from the villa! When we arrived, we had to trek up this huge hill but when we got to the top, this crazy palace was awaiting us. It was all very fancy; they served us drinks in nice glasses outside and hors d'oeuvres before dinner. Dinner began like all Italian meals do; a primi piatti consisting of a pasta dish. We had a pasta with zuchini and zuchini blossoms on top. Needless to say, it was awesome. This place was seriously out of a fairy tale... the sort of castle on top of the hill that princesses get married in. But back to the good stuff... the secondo piatti consisted of chicken, potatoes, and a salad. (I make it sound so boring, but in reality it had really fancy Italian names that I can't remember that make it sounds more delicious). Obviously it was amazing as well. Last but not least, we had la dolce; the sweet! Surprise, surprise.. they served us tiramisu. Although I am normally not a huge fan of this dessert, I decided to give it another chance in Italy. I have to admit... it is definitely growing on me. Which is probably a good thing considering that here people either eat 1) gelato or 2) tiramisu for la dolce. Anyway, the villa was incredible... I am so lucky to be here! I am reminded of that everyday.
Tuesday: School again from 9 to 330... but unfortunately for me, there was a bus strike starting at 4 p.m. until midnight so no bus for me home... Instead of walking the 45 min it takes me to get home on foot, I decided to stay at Ana's apartment for the day. During class we found out about beer pong tournament going on at a local bar that night and of course, being the typical Americans that we are, we decided to check it out. The bar we went to is called the Red Garter, and according to my homestay brother Tommaso, it used to be known for lots of rowdy bar fights back in the day but now it is pretty much an American student hang out. Fortunately for us, Americans seem to dominate at beer pong (sad but true: especially UCSB). But the best part of the night was that my roommate Kelly convinced Tommaso and his friend to come out with us and learn how to play! Let me make this clear.. I am no professional at beer pong, but for whatever reason I am not too bad at it. I do surprisingly well when I do decide to play. Anyway, I partnered up with Tommaso to teach him the ways of the game and we had a blast. The bar was crazy and there was barely any space to move.. but we actually won our first two games and made it to the next round! Unfortunately the next round was against my friends from school.. needless to say they beat us pretty fast but it was still a lot of fun.
Wednesday: It was not easy waking up for school. When I went out to get breakfast Tomasso made a joke that we should play coffee pong.. ha ha. He is so clever. Despite our language barrier, we joke around quite often. Wednesday mostly consists of me walking around the library like a zombie and going home to take a 2 hour nap... I will call it my siesta haha.
Today: School, again. Found a new caffe to study in in between my classes. GREAT panini and cappucino for a relatively low price. Also overlooking the Arno of course :) I can't wait for tomorrow though.. We are going on a group trip to Siena and San Gimignano which should be really fun. Saturday, Ana, Ariana, Bree and I plan on going to Cinque Terre and hiking from town to town. It is supposed to be beautiful there so I plan on take TONS of pictures to make you all even more jealous of my amazing life :)
Since we have to catch a bus at 8, I am going to head to bed since it is about 11 p.m. here. I hope everything is well with you all and please comment if you have questions or want to know more about what I am doing in this torturous life... :) Miss you all!
Abbracci e baci dall' Italia!
Sarah
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Day 7-10 Fa Caldo!
Ciao Everybody!
My apologies about the delay with the posts! I have been extremely busy and haven't had much time to write. But now that I have a little down time, I will try to get everyone up to speed on what has been happening in my life!
So.. as far as class is concerned, so far so good! I had Italian on Thursday and Friday and most of the class time was spent reviewing stuff that I have already learned. We go at a VERY fast pace though.. one day of Italian here is the equivalent to about 4 days at home in an Italian class. I am sure it will start to become more challenging soon, so I am trying to prepare myself for that! I also had my first Italian Film class on Friday. So far, it seems like a very interesting class. The only downside it that we have to watch all the films required for the class outside of class, so that means I will be spending a lot of time on YouTube watching old Italian movies. But I think that overall, I have a pretty good schedule this semester!
On the topic of travel, Ana and I have a list of destinations we would like to see before we head home. These places include...
-Paris
-Madrid or Barcelona
-Norway
-Cinque Terre
-Lake Como
-Venezia
and the list could probably continue forever, but that is what I think we have narrowed it down to.
Yesterday, Ana, her three roommates and I went on a short day-cation to a little beach town called Viareggio. It is about an hour and a half train ride west from Florence. We caught a train at 10 a.m. and hung out at the beach for about 5 hours. One surprise when we found the beach was that we had to pay to use the beach; I guess you can't just show up and expect to be able to use the beach for free! Basically they charge you about 30 euro for day use of an umbrella, two chairs, and a "bed" which is just a tanning chair. Since their were 5 of us, the cost wasn't too bad, and we were relieved to have an umbrella since the temp was probably around 95. Other than that, the beach was amazing! I have never been to an ocean that has absolutely NO waves... it was basically a lake. But it was beautiful and a nice break from the heat of the city. The Mediterranean Sea is also A LOT saltier than any other beach I've been to, so right by the edge of the water, there is a shower for you to use so that the salt doesn't dry on your skin. I also have been missing the ocean a little bit so it was almost like being at home.
Today, I went into the city for a walking tour at 10 a.m. I am so glad that I did because even though I have seen everything on the tour, the history behind it all is so rich!! I can't describe how mind blowing it is to imagine the exact place you are standing existed hundreds and hundred of years ago and has not changed very much, if even at all. The historical contexts surrounding this city are amazing... I left the tour feeling 100% more educated and appreciative of Firenze than when I started. One of the best parts of being a student here is that we all were given a student museum card that gets us into most of the museums in Florence for free!! So I plan on spending a lot of time doing that.
Right now I am back at home trying to watch an old 1940s WWII film made in Italy for my class on Tuesday and work on my homework. The weather today was very strange, it began to rain during the tour but it was still very warm out, so it is basically super humid right now with some thunderstorms. Kinda odd.. but I'm hoping it will start to cool down soon because the mosquitoes are killer, they have even started trying to eat me when before they wanted nothing to do with me! Anyway, I should probably get back to this movie, I hope everything is going well in your lives and I would love to stay updated via comments about what is happening!
Love and miss you all!
Sarah
My apologies about the delay with the posts! I have been extremely busy and haven't had much time to write. But now that I have a little down time, I will try to get everyone up to speed on what has been happening in my life!
So.. as far as class is concerned, so far so good! I had Italian on Thursday and Friday and most of the class time was spent reviewing stuff that I have already learned. We go at a VERY fast pace though.. one day of Italian here is the equivalent to about 4 days at home in an Italian class. I am sure it will start to become more challenging soon, so I am trying to prepare myself for that! I also had my first Italian Film class on Friday. So far, it seems like a very interesting class. The only downside it that we have to watch all the films required for the class outside of class, so that means I will be spending a lot of time on YouTube watching old Italian movies. But I think that overall, I have a pretty good schedule this semester!
On the topic of travel, Ana and I have a list of destinations we would like to see before we head home. These places include...
-Paris
-Madrid or Barcelona
-Norway
-Cinque Terre
-Lake Como
-Venezia
and the list could probably continue forever, but that is what I think we have narrowed it down to.
Yesterday, Ana, her three roommates and I went on a short day-cation to a little beach town called Viareggio. It is about an hour and a half train ride west from Florence. We caught a train at 10 a.m. and hung out at the beach for about 5 hours. One surprise when we found the beach was that we had to pay to use the beach; I guess you can't just show up and expect to be able to use the beach for free! Basically they charge you about 30 euro for day use of an umbrella, two chairs, and a "bed" which is just a tanning chair. Since their were 5 of us, the cost wasn't too bad, and we were relieved to have an umbrella since the temp was probably around 95. Other than that, the beach was amazing! I have never been to an ocean that has absolutely NO waves... it was basically a lake. But it was beautiful and a nice break from the heat of the city. The Mediterranean Sea is also A LOT saltier than any other beach I've been to, so right by the edge of the water, there is a shower for you to use so that the salt doesn't dry on your skin. I also have been missing the ocean a little bit so it was almost like being at home.
Right now I am back at home trying to watch an old 1940s WWII film made in Italy for my class on Tuesday and work on my homework. The weather today was very strange, it began to rain during the tour but it was still very warm out, so it is basically super humid right now with some thunderstorms. Kinda odd.. but I'm hoping it will start to cool down soon because the mosquitoes are killer, they have even started trying to eat me when before they wanted nothing to do with me! Anyway, I should probably get back to this movie, I hope everything is going well in your lives and I would love to stay updated via comments about what is happening!
Love and miss you all!
Sarah
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Day 5 and 6 La Scuola
Ciao
So I did not have time to write yesterday because I spent most of the day at school and then the rest eating dinner and passing out. But to briefly recap, we had orientation for school at 2 p.m. yesterday. That lasted about 4 hours and then we made our way back home for dinner around 8. Again, a delicious meal consisting of three courses and for dessert, we actually made "Italian s'mores" because Kelly brought a bag of marshmellows from the states for our host family since apparently, marshmellows are fairly uncommon here. Anyway, we taught Andrea and Barbara how to roast the marshmellow over the open flame of the stove and then we covered the marshmellow in Nutella and sandwiched them between two crackers. Overall, our creation was delicious and I think they enjoyed their first s'more experience.
This morning was the placement test for Italian. It started at 830 and ran until 1030. It was about 17 pages long and VERY comprehensive.. after it was over I thought I would be placed back in Italian 1 for sure, but surprisingly, after a short oral part, I was placed into Italian 3! There are officially levels 1,3,4 and 5. I am not sure why there is no 2, but oh well. Kelly, my roommate, was placed into italian 5. She is really good with speaking and I am learning slowly but surely just listening to her. Tomorrow is our first day of class officially. I will be in class from 9 to 330 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 to 1230 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The language programs are VERY intensive and I am little bit nervous about starting in a level up from what I expected, but hopefully it won't be too bad!
I will keep you all updated about how my classes are going/ what trips I decide to go on!!
Buona sera!
Sarah
So I did not have time to write yesterday because I spent most of the day at school and then the rest eating dinner and passing out. But to briefly recap, we had orientation for school at 2 p.m. yesterday. That lasted about 4 hours and then we made our way back home for dinner around 8. Again, a delicious meal consisting of three courses and for dessert, we actually made "Italian s'mores" because Kelly brought a bag of marshmellows from the states for our host family since apparently, marshmellows are fairly uncommon here. Anyway, we taught Andrea and Barbara how to roast the marshmellow over the open flame of the stove and then we covered the marshmellow in Nutella and sandwiched them between two crackers. Overall, our creation was delicious and I think they enjoyed their first s'more experience.
This morning was the placement test for Italian. It started at 830 and ran until 1030. It was about 17 pages long and VERY comprehensive.. after it was over I thought I would be placed back in Italian 1 for sure, but surprisingly, after a short oral part, I was placed into Italian 3! There are officially levels 1,3,4 and 5. I am not sure why there is no 2, but oh well. Kelly, my roommate, was placed into italian 5. She is really good with speaking and I am learning slowly but surely just listening to her. Tomorrow is our first day of class officially. I will be in class from 9 to 330 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 to 1230 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The language programs are VERY intensive and I am little bit nervous about starting in a level up from what I expected, but hopefully it won't be too bad!
I will keep you all updated about how my classes are going/ what trips I decide to go on!!
Buona sera!
Sarah
Monday, August 29, 2011
Day 4- La Mia Nuova Famiglia!
Ciao!
I have finally made it to my home stay!! It's official, I have an Italian family :). For the next 14 weeks I will be living with my house mom, Barbara, her two sons, Tomasso (28) and Andrea (16), Megan the dog, Stella the cat, and my housemate, Kelly from UC Berkeley. The apartment is AMAZING. For those unfamiliar with Florence, I live on the south side of the Arno (the river that runs through Florence) in a residential area. This side of Florence is very beautiful, quiet, and clean compared to the center of the city. I showed up at the apartment around 1 p.m. and was greeted by Megan, Andrea, and Barbara. Andrea speaks the most English of the three, but not very much. Barbara knows some broken English and Tomasso barely knows any. It has been somewhat challenging trying to communicate with them but also kind of fun. Kelly is HUGE help, she is ten times better at Italian than me and is able to translate most of what I need to say, but I still plan on speaking with them in Italian by the time I leave here. It would be nice if I could wake up tomorrow knowing the language but I suppose it will just have to be a process!
After Kelly showed up, Barbara offered to take us into town to see the bus route. Unfortunately, my school is about 25 minutes on the bus, but I'm hoping to get my hands on a used bike so that I can take the bike path to school instead. After she showed us the bus stop, we decided to walk back into the city to meet up with Kelly's mom and get food. At this point, I had only eaten 2 fruit leathers, an espresso, and some water all day so I was STARVING. After we met up with her mom at a caffe near the Duomo, we went to find Ana's apartment. She is staying in an apartment that overlooks the Arno with three other girls from UCSB. Her apartment is really nice and very old fashioned. I wouldn't mind living closer to school, but I am overall very happy with my homestay so far.
Kelly and I came back to the apartment around 6:30 with her mom so that she could meet the family and then Barbara began to prepare our "feast" which is just normal dinner to them. We ate around 8:30 and we had a great time talking about everything from surfing to CSI. Andrea is a typical teenage boy and went straight to playing video games on the couch as soon as he was released from the table. Since I noticed they had a Wii, I decided to challenge him to a couple games and we played for a while. After that, I finally took a shower/bath, Kelly and I share a bathroom that has a tub with a shower nozel but no shower curtain... so basically you have to sit down in order to not get water everywhere. But now I am just trying to wind down for the night and beat my jet lag. Tomorrow is orientation back at school. I think I finally find out when I have class!
And last but not least, here is my address! (Hint, hint) :) In case any of your feel like you want to send me something. Thanks for reading!
Via Kyoto, 2
50126, Firenze FI
Italy
Ciao!
I have finally made it to my home stay!! It's official, I have an Italian family :). For the next 14 weeks I will be living with my house mom, Barbara, her two sons, Tomasso (28) and Andrea (16), Megan the dog, Stella the cat, and my housemate, Kelly from UC Berkeley. The apartment is AMAZING. For those unfamiliar with Florence, I live on the south side of the Arno (the river that runs through Florence) in a residential area. This side of Florence is very beautiful, quiet, and clean compared to the center of the city. I showed up at the apartment around 1 p.m. and was greeted by Megan, Andrea, and Barbara. Andrea speaks the most English of the three, but not very much. Barbara knows some broken English and Tomasso barely knows any. It has been somewhat challenging trying to communicate with them but also kind of fun. Kelly is HUGE help, she is ten times better at Italian than me and is able to translate most of what I need to say, but I still plan on speaking with them in Italian by the time I leave here. It would be nice if I could wake up tomorrow knowing the language but I suppose it will just have to be a process!
After Kelly showed up, Barbara offered to take us into town to see the bus route. Unfortunately, my school is about 25 minutes on the bus, but I'm hoping to get my hands on a used bike so that I can take the bike path to school instead. After she showed us the bus stop, we decided to walk back into the city to meet up with Kelly's mom and get food. At this point, I had only eaten 2 fruit leathers, an espresso, and some water all day so I was STARVING. After we met up with her mom at a caffe near the Duomo, we went to find Ana's apartment. She is staying in an apartment that overlooks the Arno with three other girls from UCSB. Her apartment is really nice and very old fashioned. I wouldn't mind living closer to school, but I am overall very happy with my homestay so far.
Kelly and I came back to the apartment around 6:30 with her mom so that she could meet the family and then Barbara began to prepare our "feast" which is just normal dinner to them. We ate around 8:30 and we had a great time talking about everything from surfing to CSI. Andrea is a typical teenage boy and went straight to playing video games on the couch as soon as he was released from the table. Since I noticed they had a Wii, I decided to challenge him to a couple games and we played for a while. After that, I finally took a shower/bath, Kelly and I share a bathroom that has a tub with a shower nozel but no shower curtain... so basically you have to sit down in order to not get water everywhere. But now I am just trying to wind down for the night and beat my jet lag. Tomorrow is orientation back at school. I think I finally find out when I have class!
And last but not least, here is my address! (Hint, hint) :) In case any of your feel like you want to send me something. Thanks for reading!
Via Kyoto, 2
50126, Firenze FI
Italy
Ciao!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Day 3- Gelato
The jet lag finally hit me last night. I thought I had gotten away without having any but unfortunately, I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and could not fall back asleep until 3:30 when I gave up and decided to take half a Benadryl. After that, I slept in until around 11:30 (both of us missed our 8 a.m. alarm) and even then felt exhausted, so we both slept for another hour. When we finally got up at 1, we decided to take the bus down to the Duomo again since that is the only place we know how to get to so far. Yesterday we met a man at a caffe near the Duomo who fell "in love with my eyes" when we stopped in to look at their wine selection. He invited us back for a discount on the the food, so we decided to take him up on the offer. Since it was about 90 degrees out, the only appealing thing was the macedonia (basically a fruit bowl). So we ordered one to share. After dealing with the constant space bubble preach from our overly friendly waiter, we decided to explore the city further.
Around six, we decided to stop for dinner and found a caffe with a dinner special, 9 euro for salad, bruschetta, lasagna, and a glass of wine. The food was delicious but since I saved room for dessert (as always) we went on the hunt for "cheap" gelato. After scouring the city for about an hour. taking our fair share of shopping breaks in between, we settled for a Gelatoria next to the Duomo. I ordered a small mint gelato, and Ana a limone sorbetto. The woman behind the counter stuffed each of our smalls with a huge amount of gelato and I'm thinking, what a great deal for 2 euro each! As we went to pay, the woman asked for 9 euro... EACH!! We couldn't believe that we decided on a "cheap" place that ended up being even more expensive than we thought. Anyway, c'e la vie I suppose. We ate our golden gelato as we walked to the bus stop.
Now back at the hotel, we are watching a movie and getting ready for tomorrow. We finally find out where we are living!! :) I will keep you all posted.
Ciao,
Sarah
Around six, we decided to stop for dinner and found a caffe with a dinner special, 9 euro for salad, bruschetta, lasagna, and a glass of wine. The food was delicious but since I saved room for dessert (as always) we went on the hunt for "cheap" gelato. After scouring the city for about an hour. taking our fair share of shopping breaks in between, we settled for a Gelatoria next to the Duomo. I ordered a small mint gelato, and Ana a limone sorbetto. The woman behind the counter stuffed each of our smalls with a huge amount of gelato and I'm thinking, what a great deal for 2 euro each! As we went to pay, the woman asked for 9 euro... EACH!! We couldn't believe that we decided on a "cheap" place that ended up being even more expensive than we thought. Anyway, c'e la vie I suppose. We ate our golden gelato as we walked to the bus stop.
Now back at the hotel, we are watching a movie and getting ready for tomorrow. We finally find out where we are living!! :) I will keep you all posted.
Ciao,
Sarah
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Day Two: Santa Maria del Fiore
Buonanoche!
Hey everyone,
Today Ana and I went into town and saw the famous Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. Surprisingly, we got onto the right bus and managed not to get lost. While exploring the city we also came across the piazza that our school is in! That was really nice because now we kind of have an idea of where it is relative to the Duomo. For lunch we had our first real taste of Italian food at a caffe in the Duomo square. Apparently, food costs more when you sit down to eat, they add about two euro onto each entree when you sit down. That got a little confusing when it came to tipping, but other than that, everything has gone smoothly so far. We also bought some cheap phones with pay as you go plans, so we officially have Italian numbers, not that any of you can use them, but we thought it's pretty exciting. We got back to the hotel at around five and decided to try to find this pizzeria that was around the corner. When we started looking for places to eat, we noticed that nothing seemed to be open...Apparently, restaurants here close from around 4 pm to 7 which was very confusing. But eventually, seven came around and we were able to eat! After dinner I had my first italian gelato experience :) I got a biscotti flavored one and it was delicious. While eating our gelato we walked back to the hotel. Now we are just deciding what to do tomorrow and watching the only show in English on tv.... Jersey Shore, of course!
Ciao!
Sarah
Hey everyone,
Today Ana and I went into town and saw the famous Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. Surprisingly, we got onto the right bus and managed not to get lost. While exploring the city we also came across the piazza that our school is in! That was really nice because now we kind of have an idea of where it is relative to the Duomo. For lunch we had our first real taste of Italian food at a caffe in the Duomo square. Apparently, food costs more when you sit down to eat, they add about two euro onto each entree when you sit down. That got a little confusing when it came to tipping, but other than that, everything has gone smoothly so far. We also bought some cheap phones with pay as you go plans, so we officially have Italian numbers, not that any of you can use them, but we thought it's pretty exciting. We got back to the hotel at around five and decided to try to find this pizzeria that was around the corner. When we started looking for places to eat, we noticed that nothing seemed to be open...Apparently, restaurants here close from around 4 pm to 7 which was very confusing. But eventually, seven came around and we were able to eat! After dinner I had my first italian gelato experience :) I got a biscotti flavored one and it was delicious. While eating our gelato we walked back to the hotel. Now we are just deciding what to do tomorrow and watching the only show in English on tv.... Jersey Shore, of course!
Ciao!
Sarah
Friday, August 26, 2011
Day One- Arrivo!
Ciao!
Ana and I have made it to Firenze! After about 16 hours of traveling non- stop, we are finally here :) Right now it is about 9:30 and 86 degrees out... but the good news it that our hotel has air conditioning. Tomorrow we plan on finding our way into the city to be "tourists" for a few days before school starts. I can't wait to find out who my home stay family is. Only three more days! Anyway, I think we are going to head out and look around a little bit. I will keep you all posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
Ana and I have made it to Firenze! After about 16 hours of traveling non- stop, we are finally here :) Right now it is about 9:30 and 86 degrees out... but the good news it that our hotel has air conditioning. Tomorrow we plan on finding our way into the city to be "tourists" for a few days before school starts. I can't wait to find out who my home stay family is. Only three more days! Anyway, I think we are going to head out and look around a little bit. I will keep you all posted!
Arrivederci!
Sarah
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