Spring Break and this Past Week

There is just so much to say about Venice and spring break that I don’t even know where to start/ I’m probably not going to spend eight hours writing a blog post about it. I’ll just sum it up with everything was amazing. We were in Venice with school from Tuesday until Friday, when Jessica, Erica, Karina and I left for Paris. 

We were in Paris until Monday when I flew back to Rome and the rest of the girls went onto England. I met up with Kristin (a real old friend from back home) in Rome and we explored Italy for a week. We covered Rome, Venice, Florence and Pisa in a week, and by the end we were dead tired. The best part of spring break was getting to see a familiar face and really get to spend time with an old friend, someone that really knew me and I could be totally myself around (not that I’m not myself with my friends in Castig, it’s just different). 

Torture Museum. Florence.

The worst part of spring break was definitely the Monday that I left Paris and met up with Kristin- it was the most hellish day of traveling of my life. I had to wake up at 5AM, jump a turnstile on a Parisian metro and take four different metros to get to the bus station to take a bus to the airport- that was surprisingly the easiest part of the day. I was asleep on the plane before it even took off! I got to the airport in Rome, but Kristin was coming into a different airport, so I had to take a bus from the airport to the train station and another bus to the airport that she was coming in to. Then Kristin’s flight got delayed so I had to take a taxi from the airport to the hostel to check in and hang out for a while until late that night. Then I took a bus from the hostel to a train station and took a train to the airport to meet up with Kristin. Lets just say that by the time that I saw Kristin at the airport gates I was near tears. It was a rough day for sure; seeing Kristin was the turning point and everything started getting better after that. We had to take a car from the airport to our hostel and the man was really nice. He was joking with us the whole time saying that I should come and give tours for him while he drives people to their hotels because I knew the city better than he did. He was a really sweet guy, another bright spot in my day.

New experiences that I haven’t blogged about: going to Venice and Paris.

Venice.

           Venice was great. I had heard a lot of really negative things about Venice, like you always hear that it is really nasty and everything smells really bad, but honestly it wasn’t worse than any other Italian city that I’d been to. Venice was awesome because instead of roads they’ve got canals and instead of cars they all have boats. It was kind of refreshing to be walking down the street and not have to worry about getting run over by a car. They had great little shops with amazing knick-knacks. We went to the islands of Murano and Burano when Kristin was in town. Murano is known for its glass making and blowing. They can do some of the most amazing things with glass and I saw things that I would have loved to have purchased but I knew that there was no way that it would make it to America in one piece. Burano is a gorgeous little island because everything is so colorful there. The houses are all difference colors and you could tell that it was just a homey little town because all the residents were out in the streets talking to each other about daily life. That island is known for their lace making and there was some gorgeous lace just about in every store. I would have loved to get some, but I couldn’t really think of any use for lace in my life.

Venice.

           With school and Kristin I got to see some pretty amazing things. I went to Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Cathedral, and the Peggy Guggenheim museum. 

St. Marks was absolutely gorgeous- totally covered in gold and jewel mosaics because it was a private church for the Doge (Venetian ruler) and the wealthy. I got to see gold plated bronze horses that are five centuries older than Christ- it was pretty awesome. I feel like I can always find something that takes my breath away. Kristin and I just had an absolute blast in Venice because it was so much calmer than Rome, where we had just come from. It’s a definite change of pace going from Rome to Venice, a nice one. The weather was also much better the second time around when I went with Kristin.

St. Marks. Venice.

            Paris was a lot of fun and I fit so much into two days of being there, it was kind of ridiculous. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triumphe, Sacred Heart Church, Notre Dame, Saint Chappell, the catacombs, Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb, and other things that I am sure I am forgetting right now. 

Notre Dame. Paris.

           We stayed in a nice hotel that was in a sketchy neighborhood- Moulin Rouge was a few blocks away if that helps explain. One of the best pieces of advice I’d have for an American tourist trying to get to our hotel at night is to just not look into any of the windows of the stores/bars you walk past. Not only are there strange things in them, but also strange people who are all in various stages of dress.

Moulin Rouge. Paris.

             The Eiffel Tower is bigger than I thought it would be, because I always here how people are disappointed when they see it because they think it is going to be bigger. We got to see it both during the day and at night, and it was gorgeous during both. At night (8PM and 9PM) they turn the “twinkle lights” on and the tower twinkles with a million little lights, it’s really awesome to see. We went all the way to the top and it was little unnerving because there really isn’t much structure to the building because there’s so little to it. It’s just you in the elevator and the world… nothing really between. One thing that I read that I find interesting is that even though the building is so large and heavy, with the construction of it the tower only exerts the same amount of pressure on the ground as a person sitting in a chair. Kinda cool, huh?

Paris.

The Louvre was huge. Way more than anyone could ever see and fully appreciate. We were only there for about two hours and we didn’t know that it closed so early so we didn’t even get to see the main highlights (the Mona Lisa and Hamurabi’s Code) before they started herding us towards the exit. There was a ton of really neat stuff though. I guess my favorites of what I did see were the Egyptian section. It was really neat to see a lot of the ancient stuff especially since I’ve always been really enamored with ancient Egypt. 

Saint Chappell. Paris.

Notre Dame was huge and beautiful, but I think I like Saint Chappell better. The entire thing seemed to be made of glass and it was beautiful to see it with the sun shining in. I was really thankful that Chris told me to go there because I loved it! 

The catacombs were also really net. It did take a few minutes to get used to though. Walking around with piles of human bones surrounding you is definitely not something that you do every day. It was net to see how many bodies/bones they crammed into such a small place and how artfully they could arrange some of them.

Basically Paris was lots of walking in two days and cramming week or two’s worth of exploring into 48 hours. If I go back later when my sister and mom come to visit then I definitely want to go to the Louvre again and also go see Versailles, which I didn’t get to go see this time. I’ve heard the Versailles gardens are worth the trip on their own, they’re so beautiful.

Tomorrow I’ve got plans with Liz to go over to Castiglion del Lago, a little village centered around a lake. We’re going to go hang out and soak in some sun, picnic in the park and hopefully get to get in the water if it isn’t too cold. But now that spring break is over and this weekend is coming to pass we have four weekends left and then my trip with sister and mom. I really need to start panning and figure out what I want to do with my time left here. Things on the to-do list are Capri and Cinque Terre for sure- two beach locations. Other than that I don’t really know what I want to do. We’ll see if anything pops up that catches my attention. I’ve also heard that Lake Como (on the northern border of Italy close to Switzerland) is gorgeous and so worth going. Time is really flying by here. It doesn’t seem like I’ve already been here for over two months. The program ends in 33 days and my flight back to the states is in 40. I can’t believe that this semester is going by so quickly; I honestly thought things couldn’t go by much faster than last semester, but they sure are.

Spring break was a doozy. I had an absolutely amazing time traveling around Italy with Kristin. Two weeks of traveling though (a week in Venice with school, weekend in Paris, then spring break) totally wore me out. This week has been all about recovering from spring break and getting back into the swing of school, or at least what we consider school over here. We only had classes on Tuesday and Thursday this week- I didn’t go to Florence on Wednesday with the rest of the group because I had already been to the museum they were going to visit. Instead I stayed at the center with Katie and Micah and we watched a movie, hung out and worked on some miscellaneous schoolwork. It was kind of funny because I made it all the way until dinner on Friday and then I realized that we didn’t’ have school the next day and that it was already time for the weekend- it was definitely one of the fastest weeks here in Italy.

The weather here has really become amazing. It was great during spring break and Kristin got a week of amazing weather while she was here. Right after she left it rained for a day and now the weather has only continued to get better. Everyone at the center has shed their jackets and sweaters and has turned to t-shirts and shorts. It’s really funny because apparently Italians aren’t big on wearing shorts, so it’s kind of scandalous here or something. We were talking to the Eurospar (grocery store) the other day and the six of us got honked at NINE times! It was hilarious and at the same time kind of annoying. Everyone stares at us wearing shorts too, and it’s not even like we were wearing short-shorts; they are the shorts that everyone wears in College Station, the Nike running shorts. Who knows, I guess we know for future reference though that if we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves to wear pants.

Yesterday (Friday) I hung out at the center in the courtyard and soaked up some of the amazing weather with Jillian, Erica, and Karina. Then we took our trip to the Eurospar. Today my roommate, Liz, and I went to Arezzo to shop around at the antique fair. They have one there the first weekend of every month and it takes over the entire town. You couldn’t believe the amount of antiques that this little town has to sell! They had everything from silver flatware, to crystal glasses, to furniture, to jewelry. There was something there for everyone. I saw this really cool bracelet that I thought Catherine (my sister) would love, but the guy wanted 40 euros for it, and I was like, “I like it, but not THAT much,” so I passed. It was really neat though. It was black metal with crystals and there were three skulls on it. It was kind of something I could imagine her wearing to work at Paul Mitchell or something. Who knows, she also could have hated it! Hah! Something I did find, fall in love with, and then purchase was something for my dad. It was at a stand in the Arezzo town square near the end of our journey throughout town. I was walking by the table and a glass case caught my eye and when I realized what was in it I thought to myself that I had to get something from it for my dad. I looked at everything in the case and chose out something that I thought was neat and also hope that he likes. I am being kind of vague about it because I want it to be a surprise to him when I get back. I did do some research on it when I got back to the center though and found the exact thing online selling for over fifteen times what I paid for it (and I paid what I though was a pretty penny for it!). I’m pretty proud of my find and I hope he thinks that it is awesome as I do!

A pair of the earrings I bought. You can also see the sun I got at Castilion del Lago.

At the antique fair I also bought two cheap pairs of earrings (not really antiques, but cute!) and Liz bought a broach for her hat and an adorable headband. It fair is definitely something that I am glad that I went to and I kind of wish I had gone earlier in my stay. It was awesome and antique-lovers back home would be way jealous of the amount of antiques for sale.

When we got back to Castig we were walking back to the center and there was a wedding party for a couple that had just gotten married at the church right next door. The bride had the most gorgeous dress and Liz and I definitely creeped on them while they were taking photos outside. We were more jealous of the background of their wedding photos than anything. A Tuscan backdrop probably takes the cake for more gorgeous setting for a wedding. Katie told me that she saw the bride and groom in Cocoa Palm (the gelato store) later eating gelato and that she was still in her gown! Talk about eating carefully!

If you’re reading this then you’re probably my family or some of my close friends. I love and miss you all and I’ll be back soon! Gotta stock up on some good Italian souvenirs before I do though. Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ll try and get better these past few weeks. Ciao!