so sunday morning i dropped off pat at the airport and sasha and i very last minute decided to randomly meet in pisa and then go to sienna. since my phone is awful and wsnt working, we discussed this sat night and sunday when i got back home we made a decision and within an hour i showered, packed and left. i waited for the bus way too long, hit traffic and missed the first-and much cheaper train, to pisa. the bus kicked us off not even halfway there adn had us walked 5 miles to a metro. the special olymics job or something was going on and buses stopped running joy. so not knowing where i was at all, i followed people to the metro, all of them getting lost and confused. i left my place at 11, i got to the train station finally at 115. i bought the tickets and with my phone card used up all my money trying to call sahsa which didnt work. i got a text saying she was on her train, so i bought my much more expensive ticket and got on mine. finally we both made it there at 5. went to our hostel, dropped out bags and took pictures of the leaning tower of pisa of course. we then got food and made out way to one of the best places in pisa for gelato. it was good. it was in the same small square where the only bar seemed to be and we hung there for a bit before going back early because we were both exhausted. pisa dsnt have a night life. we passed out and woke up at 8 to see the tower again and catch our train to sienna.
we got on the train and since the machine and ticket didnt specify we had to transfer at a train station we took it all the way to florence instead of sienna. we then hopped a train in florence to sienna, and got to sienna an hour later then planned.
having skipped breakfast we decided to just get this buffet instead of finding one of the restaurant we wrote down. we then went to his amazing huge castle in this piazza that everyone hangs in and in the sun it was nice and warm. we climed the bell tower and had the most amazing view of sienna. its soooo gorgous and it seems it looks like what u would think italy looks like, pretty green hills and a little country with some houses...just so pretty! the bell rang while we were up there too which was fun. we then went to see the duemo and then got gelato and sat in the piazza in the sun infront of the castle like everyone else did.
we then hurried ourselves back to the train station where sasha literally just hopped on it before it left.
i then ran to the bathroom in the mall and made it back to my train only 20 minutes later. took the train to the place where i was supposed to transfer, got on that train and finally came back to rome.
it was a long 2 days of travel, very busy and very sleepless it seemed. but so much fun! it was great to see sasha, especially after having to say bye to pat. more of my friends from home need to come here. its also great that i dnt have monday classes and neither does sasha. except now i must start getting ready for my stupid class at 2. i dnt want to go back to school! cant spring break be forever?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Spring Break with an Australian-Italian
sooo last week was spring break! sadly its over but i did a lot. i had midterms up until pat came basically. midterms here are annoying and hard and almost seem worse then midterms at maryland. anyways, i picked pat up at the airport friday morning which was an adventure in itself. took forever because its italy trains tend to be late, then it took some time to figure out which terminal to go to, because its italy there are never signs and u must guess- even at airports. so although it was like an hour late i finally got pat. what was worse about it all is that my phone dsnt work. it shuts off when i get a call and it shuts off when i try to make one. it just always shuts off which is very fustrating and out of all the times iv had aphone here and never relaly needed it the one time i really did was three times in the past week- i actually really needed my phone, one being when pat was coming.
so friday we basically came back here and napped since it was so early. we walked around a park near my house with my roommate but then came back and pat slept more. saturday we got up and saw the pantheon, spanish steps, trevi fountain and tomb of the unknown soilder. we walked around a lot, got gelato and pizza and it was a very busy day with many italian firsts for pat. almost every night we went out to dinner so pat was able to eat his italian meals. friday night him and my roommate and i went to this place my roommate and i found that cheap and has amazingly delicious food! i tried this pasta with walnut cheese sauce or something, it was yummmmy. saturday night we found this amazing place (i think it was saturday night...it was def some night) that has cheap food but its incredible and the wine is amazing there and it has a great atmosphere- we went there again saturday night. just so good!! i think its my new favorite place.
anways so sunday we went to the vatican, saw st peters and learned the sisteen chapel and vatican museums are closed on sundays. joy. so we did that then went back basically. i think we walked around some more probably. everyday we found all these churches to go in and see and i took him by some markets to see. we quickly realized through looking at my top 10 rome book that to do everything you must be in rome for like a month. so pats 6 days here wrnt quite enough.
we cooked sunday night, which was yummy. this whole break my body was on a break too and i ate lots of cheese!
monday morning we woke up early to get the train to venice. we got to venice around 11 i think and it took us FOREVER to find out hotel. it was a bed and breakfast which supposedly ment no big signs, just a little plaque on a door u had to buzz into. it was a great location so we figured cldnt be hard to find, but apparently it could. we finally got to the b&b and checked in, got our room and dropped our stuff. we then went out, ate and walked around. it was so great to be back in venice, i loved it especially since i only saw it during carnivale, it was nice to see it when carnivale isnt going on. not as crazy or touristy but definalty just as beautiful. we walked around a lot, which is what u do in venice. ur supposed to get lost. so we did. we went to the bascilica, and st marcos square first. we walked along the water, the bridges, and on tuesday i convinced him to go to murano for lunch- since last time i was there my friends got a great seafood lunch whihc is waht they are famous for and for some reason none of it looked familiar. maybe it was cuz lots more things were closed, who knows but we got pretty good sandwhiches and a nice boat tour of venice. on monday night we ate on the water and this restaurant which had pretty good food. it was nice to sit outside by the water and i am SO glad they had heaters cuz at night it was soososoo cold. we also kept trying to find this pastry shop which has these amazing sugar dough raison ball things, we found it and it was closed for siesta, we went back and it was closed for the night. sadly we never got it, but we definaltey found other pastries to eat which was good.
wed morning we left venice and went to florence. we got there and went straight to this sandwhich shop i heard of which has the most amazing sandwhiches that are huge for only 4 euro. last time i was in florence it closed. apparenlty when they run out of bread they close. so i thought i remembered where it wasm, but didnt and i didnt circle it on my map (the one i saved from weeks ago). soo we wondered around, starving so i finally asked a hotel and they told us. we went and had the most amazing sandwhiches everrr. we walked to this piazza where we sat and finished them it was beautiful outside in the sun. then we went to see david before it got too late. we waited in line for a bit, got in, saw him and then went to this church which has many famous dead people burried in. like michael angelo and galileo and others. we also saw the duemo and walked around. we then made our way through the gold bridge with all the jewelery shops and past many castles, or i claimed were castles. there was one that is free to go in and i sadly never found it :-(. but we hiked up to michael angelos park to see the sunset. it has the most gorgeous view of the city and it was beautiful at sunset. a little overcast....not as clear as the last time i was there, but the last time i wsnt there at sunset. it was freezing up there, so windy so after the sun was almost setting we walked back to catch dinner before our train. i took him to zaza, which i had marked on my map and knew where to go. unfortunatley at some pnt on the walk down or somehting it fell out and i lost it and soooo we kept walkn the direction and i stoppped adn asked ANOTHER hotel who kindly told me and got me a new map. italians sometimes are so nice. we made it in time just to walk quickly through the market they have. i got myself a leather bracelet that i wanted last time and kept forgetting to get. zaza was amazing food and lots of fun....as last time. we then left in time to head back to the train station, getting a waffle with nutella and seeing a church st marie maggiore or something which has this wall around its cemetary on the outside connecting to the church that people used to be burried in...the waffle and nutella (florence specialty) was amazing of course a nice change to all the gelato we kept eating.
so wednesday night we got back home and thursday we decided to do the colloseum and all the forums and palentine hill. i put my art class knowledge to use and was able to give him a little more intersting information about all the places. since palentine hill, the roman forum and imperial forums are so big...plus the colloseum, we spent like 3 hrs there and that was basically our day. we made dinner again that night, and relaxed.
friday we went to the sisteen chapel, waiting in a line to get in for 45 min in the freezing wind, then another hour to actually get to it through the museum. it was like disney. but the sisteen chapel is truly incredible. the cieling is practically flat and it looks like its a dome. its gorgous and totaly worth all the money and they make u pay cuz tech u can see the museum too. which we didnt do for sake of time and pats interest. we got a bus back and came home- he likes his naps. we took each day pretty slowly. that night we went out with both my roommates adn their friend/bf who were visiting. we went to this cheap amazing place as well. it was lots of fun. it was a looong dinner tho so we never made it out to get gelato again and just came back and i got him hooked on the show how i met your mother. which is the only show i watch here because my roommate had it on her computer. its actually pretty good.
Oh, also on the sunday before we went to the castle which had a perfect view of rome and it was pretty cool to walk through- we did that before going into st peters.
so the following saturday we went to a market in campo and saw piazza navona and wondered around a bit. we got gelato. and pizza and i bought an italia sweatshirt as my suvenier from this trip. we went out to dinner at that new amazing restaurant i now love and got more gelato then hurried back home ot catch the maryland basketball game. which we also watched on sunday i think.
overall it was lots of fun, went by wayyy too fast and got pretty cold towards the end. we only had nice weather for a bit sadly but im hoping it keeps getting warmer!
so friday we basically came back here and napped since it was so early. we walked around a park near my house with my roommate but then came back and pat slept more. saturday we got up and saw the pantheon, spanish steps, trevi fountain and tomb of the unknown soilder. we walked around a lot, got gelato and pizza and it was a very busy day with many italian firsts for pat. almost every night we went out to dinner so pat was able to eat his italian meals. friday night him and my roommate and i went to this place my roommate and i found that cheap and has amazingly delicious food! i tried this pasta with walnut cheese sauce or something, it was yummmmy. saturday night we found this amazing place (i think it was saturday night...it was def some night) that has cheap food but its incredible and the wine is amazing there and it has a great atmosphere- we went there again saturday night. just so good!! i think its my new favorite place.
anways so sunday we went to the vatican, saw st peters and learned the sisteen chapel and vatican museums are closed on sundays. joy. so we did that then went back basically. i think we walked around some more probably. everyday we found all these churches to go in and see and i took him by some markets to see. we quickly realized through looking at my top 10 rome book that to do everything you must be in rome for like a month. so pats 6 days here wrnt quite enough.
we cooked sunday night, which was yummy. this whole break my body was on a break too and i ate lots of cheese!
monday morning we woke up early to get the train to venice. we got to venice around 11 i think and it took us FOREVER to find out hotel. it was a bed and breakfast which supposedly ment no big signs, just a little plaque on a door u had to buzz into. it was a great location so we figured cldnt be hard to find, but apparently it could. we finally got to the b&b and checked in, got our room and dropped our stuff. we then went out, ate and walked around. it was so great to be back in venice, i loved it especially since i only saw it during carnivale, it was nice to see it when carnivale isnt going on. not as crazy or touristy but definalty just as beautiful. we walked around a lot, which is what u do in venice. ur supposed to get lost. so we did. we went to the bascilica, and st marcos square first. we walked along the water, the bridges, and on tuesday i convinced him to go to murano for lunch- since last time i was there my friends got a great seafood lunch whihc is waht they are famous for and for some reason none of it looked familiar. maybe it was cuz lots more things were closed, who knows but we got pretty good sandwhiches and a nice boat tour of venice. on monday night we ate on the water and this restaurant which had pretty good food. it was nice to sit outside by the water and i am SO glad they had heaters cuz at night it was soososoo cold. we also kept trying to find this pastry shop which has these amazing sugar dough raison ball things, we found it and it was closed for siesta, we went back and it was closed for the night. sadly we never got it, but we definaltey found other pastries to eat which was good.
wed morning we left venice and went to florence. we got there and went straight to this sandwhich shop i heard of which has the most amazing sandwhiches that are huge for only 4 euro. last time i was in florence it closed. apparenlty when they run out of bread they close. so i thought i remembered where it wasm, but didnt and i didnt circle it on my map (the one i saved from weeks ago). soo we wondered around, starving so i finally asked a hotel and they told us. we went and had the most amazing sandwhiches everrr. we walked to this piazza where we sat and finished them it was beautiful outside in the sun. then we went to see david before it got too late. we waited in line for a bit, got in, saw him and then went to this church which has many famous dead people burried in. like michael angelo and galileo and others. we also saw the duemo and walked around. we then made our way through the gold bridge with all the jewelery shops and past many castles, or i claimed were castles. there was one that is free to go in and i sadly never found it :-(. but we hiked up to michael angelos park to see the sunset. it has the most gorgeous view of the city and it was beautiful at sunset. a little overcast....not as clear as the last time i was there, but the last time i wsnt there at sunset. it was freezing up there, so windy so after the sun was almost setting we walked back to catch dinner before our train. i took him to zaza, which i had marked on my map and knew where to go. unfortunatley at some pnt on the walk down or somehting it fell out and i lost it and soooo we kept walkn the direction and i stoppped adn asked ANOTHER hotel who kindly told me and got me a new map. italians sometimes are so nice. we made it in time just to walk quickly through the market they have. i got myself a leather bracelet that i wanted last time and kept forgetting to get. zaza was amazing food and lots of fun....as last time. we then left in time to head back to the train station, getting a waffle with nutella and seeing a church st marie maggiore or something which has this wall around its cemetary on the outside connecting to the church that people used to be burried in...the waffle and nutella (florence specialty) was amazing of course a nice change to all the gelato we kept eating.
so wednesday night we got back home and thursday we decided to do the colloseum and all the forums and palentine hill. i put my art class knowledge to use and was able to give him a little more intersting information about all the places. since palentine hill, the roman forum and imperial forums are so big...plus the colloseum, we spent like 3 hrs there and that was basically our day. we made dinner again that night, and relaxed.
friday we went to the sisteen chapel, waiting in a line to get in for 45 min in the freezing wind, then another hour to actually get to it through the museum. it was like disney. but the sisteen chapel is truly incredible. the cieling is practically flat and it looks like its a dome. its gorgous and totaly worth all the money and they make u pay cuz tech u can see the museum too. which we didnt do for sake of time and pats interest. we got a bus back and came home- he likes his naps. we took each day pretty slowly. that night we went out with both my roommates adn their friend/bf who were visiting. we went to this cheap amazing place as well. it was lots of fun. it was a looong dinner tho so we never made it out to get gelato again and just came back and i got him hooked on the show how i met your mother. which is the only show i watch here because my roommate had it on her computer. its actually pretty good.
Oh, also on the sunday before we went to the castle which had a perfect view of rome and it was pretty cool to walk through- we did that before going into st peters.
so the following saturday we went to a market in campo and saw piazza navona and wondered around a bit. we got gelato. and pizza and i bought an italia sweatshirt as my suvenier from this trip. we went out to dinner at that new amazing restaurant i now love and got more gelato then hurried back home ot catch the maryland basketball game. which we also watched on sunday i think.
overall it was lots of fun, went by wayyy too fast and got pretty cold towards the end. we only had nice weather for a bit sadly but im hoping it keeps getting warmer!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Alps
So a little late, but iv been sick all week. worth it however because interloken was amazing!!!
thursday (only on my bday this would happen) i had to pack, carry my stuff with me all day...a make up class because my professor canceled class the week before- yes in italy, when professors cancel class, they are not only expected to have a make up class but you are expected and required to attend. so from 1230-640 i was supposed to have class but i left at 6 since i had to be at the train station. so i ran there practically and sat on a bus for 12 hours, celebrating my 21st bday with a small bottle of champaige and a loooong shot from these really nice girls on the bus who overheard the singing and came running up with their alcohol. we also had a choc cake and a lighter to blow out. it was funny cuz only 3 of my roommates planned this for me but a lot of the people on the bus just came in and joined in.
the bus ride was long, but it was fun...i hung out with new girls i met while my roommates slept.
we got there friday morning and dropped out bags and went to the mountains, where we took a 15 frnak train ride, 24 frank lift ride 4 hours hike of rediculous 90 degree angle up and down slopes, crossing many many paths with the skii slopes and a 40 frank train ticket down. basically the woman told us it was an hour hike no biggie. LIE. the other ppl hiking had sticks and appropriate hiking shoes, while i was in my rain books and my roommates in their tennis shoes. it was lots of fun, amazing views....incredibly breathtaking views just a very hard hike. the last hour was straight up and it reminded me so much of climbing masada. plus it was the 3rd highest peak and the altitude killed us. at some points we had to get on our backs and slide down or practically crawl up. what an experience.
we finally made it back to the hostel after our looooong hike and had an hour to eat before night sledding. night sledding was SOOO much fun and so incredible. worth every frank! we started up way high, and it took about an hour to get down. they stopped us and took us to a frozen waterfall that was gorgeous. we then had cheese fondue and eggs and hashbrowns when we were done (yes that was dinner). i hadnt seen as many stars as i did on that mountain since i took astrology at fsu and we went to even more middle of nowhere to see the stars. they were SO pretty. so was the view. incredible.
the next day we rented ATVs and drove around for 2 hrs. it was 4 of us, 2 on each ATV to be cheaper and save money! it was so much fun. we once again saw such prettty lakes and mountains and a very cute town. my friend and i switched turns driving. worked out perfectly!i wish i could have gone faster, but my friend didnt sooooo....
that night we had a really really good dinner at this crazy place. the waitors wore these stetchy cow pants, they were rediculous. i also had prob the best burger and fries iv had in the longest time....because it was made mostly of fat. but delicious! it was also a very fun dinner. in the middle they started a congo line and we all got up and congoed. they also would randomly hit cow bells. it was lots of fun!
on sunday, i went to a catholic church with my friend. they speak german in switzlerand so it didnt sound like i was in church, so it was more of an intersting experience of weird language. it was interesting. apparently in the middle of services or w/e u shake hands and say something like may peace be with you, so all of a sudden i was shakin hands with lots of people. i didnt go up to eat the cracker thing, i think my roommate said it was called a host. but its certaintly intresesting. we then went back to the cool place and i got hot choc :-) mmmmm. i also bought a tooon of chocolate. even yummmier!
the ride back was rediculous, we were all exhausted we pretty much just watched movies and passed out.
overall, it was an incredible weekend. it was also much warmer then i thought it would be. i didnt even have to layer as much as i thought. i at first layered more then i did for munich, but learned it wsnt as necessary. tho i still wore a lot.
its supposed to start getting nicer, knock on wood. so i really hope it does get that way and stay that way, i can really use warm weather!!!
thursday (only on my bday this would happen) i had to pack, carry my stuff with me all day...a make up class because my professor canceled class the week before- yes in italy, when professors cancel class, they are not only expected to have a make up class but you are expected and required to attend. so from 1230-640 i was supposed to have class but i left at 6 since i had to be at the train station. so i ran there practically and sat on a bus for 12 hours, celebrating my 21st bday with a small bottle of champaige and a loooong shot from these really nice girls on the bus who overheard the singing and came running up with their alcohol. we also had a choc cake and a lighter to blow out. it was funny cuz only 3 of my roommates planned this for me but a lot of the people on the bus just came in and joined in.
the bus ride was long, but it was fun...i hung out with new girls i met while my roommates slept.
we got there friday morning and dropped out bags and went to the mountains, where we took a 15 frnak train ride, 24 frank lift ride 4 hours hike of rediculous 90 degree angle up and down slopes, crossing many many paths with the skii slopes and a 40 frank train ticket down. basically the woman told us it was an hour hike no biggie. LIE. the other ppl hiking had sticks and appropriate hiking shoes, while i was in my rain books and my roommates in their tennis shoes. it was lots of fun, amazing views....incredibly breathtaking views just a very hard hike. the last hour was straight up and it reminded me so much of climbing masada. plus it was the 3rd highest peak and the altitude killed us. at some points we had to get on our backs and slide down or practically crawl up. what an experience.
we finally made it back to the hostel after our looooong hike and had an hour to eat before night sledding. night sledding was SOOO much fun and so incredible. worth every frank! we started up way high, and it took about an hour to get down. they stopped us and took us to a frozen waterfall that was gorgeous. we then had cheese fondue and eggs and hashbrowns when we were done (yes that was dinner). i hadnt seen as many stars as i did on that mountain since i took astrology at fsu and we went to even more middle of nowhere to see the stars. they were SO pretty. so was the view. incredible.
the next day we rented ATVs and drove around for 2 hrs. it was 4 of us, 2 on each ATV to be cheaper and save money! it was so much fun. we once again saw such prettty lakes and mountains and a very cute town. my friend and i switched turns driving. worked out perfectly!i wish i could have gone faster, but my friend didnt sooooo....
that night we had a really really good dinner at this crazy place. the waitors wore these stetchy cow pants, they were rediculous. i also had prob the best burger and fries iv had in the longest time....because it was made mostly of fat. but delicious! it was also a very fun dinner. in the middle they started a congo line and we all got up and congoed. they also would randomly hit cow bells. it was lots of fun!
on sunday, i went to a catholic church with my friend. they speak german in switzlerand so it didnt sound like i was in church, so it was more of an intersting experience of weird language. it was interesting. apparently in the middle of services or w/e u shake hands and say something like may peace be with you, so all of a sudden i was shakin hands with lots of people. i didnt go up to eat the cracker thing, i think my roommate said it was called a host. but its certaintly intresesting. we then went back to the cool place and i got hot choc :-) mmmmm. i also bought a tooon of chocolate. even yummmier!
the ride back was rediculous, we were all exhausted we pretty much just watched movies and passed out.
overall, it was an incredible weekend. it was also much warmer then i thought it would be. i didnt even have to layer as much as i thought. i at first layered more then i did for munich, but learned it wsnt as necessary. tho i still wore a lot.
its supposed to start getting nicer, knock on wood. so i really hope it does get that way and stay that way, i can really use warm weather!!!
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