paris was amazing!!! so beautiful, has to be one of my top 2 cities i have been to. it took us a while to get there, our flight was delayed then the airport we were flying into was closed since it was so late, so we landed in the big one, had to get a bus then it would have been an expensive taxi ride so my friend and i just wound up staying in the same hostel as our other friends we went with.
the first day couldnt have been better. it was gorgous and sunny and warm and we started at the louve which was incredible and lots of fun! we stayed there till about noon where we got sandwhiches and went on a walking tour. it was sooo interesting, we learned so many good stories and saw a lot. we even saw the light post where big told carrie he loved her when he went to find her in paris (sex and the city) and where a scene from the bourne identity was filmed! we also saw the cafe where the french revolution began and the operah house where the phatnom of the operah is based off of and everything else including notre dame, etc. there is a statue of luis IV on this bridge where he decided to have a party. they mixed alcohol and went crazy and so he had his artist friends draw all his friends having fun, since he loved them so much he then had some designer guy sculpt the heads of his friends making all the funny faces they did when drunk onto the bridge, there are like 300 of his friends heads on a bridge, its great!
that night we got 6 euro tickets to see a beautifu ballet in the operah house and had a good dinner near moulin rouge (tho we never went there or saw it). we also saw the sacred heart cathedral- perhaps like the hospital in scrubs?
the next morning we went up the effiel tower which had an amazing view and the arc de triumph! we also went to this other museum which had a lot of monet and van gogh and many many other famous artists. we spent a long time there and after that we got an early dinner and then later that night did a boat tour on the sien river.
we also got crepes several times, but never made it to the jewish area or moulin rouge :-( suppose thats why im gunna go back!
it was so much fun to see sasha and get to see paris. it got really cold the second day and nights were freezng, but the first day was great! couldnt have asked for a better day.
now that im wiped out of money- paris is veryyyyy expensive, i am sad to say im leaving in 16 days! i cant believe it, time flew by sooo fast. this weekend i do almafi coast and get another chance to cliff jump, this time there better be no rip tides!
sorry not much detail, i have some big papers to write, including this huge art paper....def not looing forward to it!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
hola barcelona!
sooo, where do i begin??? we arrived friday morning and it was actually so nice to be in a country i actually could speak and understand wayyy better then i ever could in italy. not that i am good at spanish, or even fluent but somehow those 4 yrs of spanish helped me cuz i understood a lot and i was able to even speak a lot, it was great!
so on friday we went to la rambla which is a huge main street filled with shopping and restaurants. it actually started raining so it worked out nicely we just went from store to store! its fun cuz ppl perform and do circus stuff or breakdancing on the street!
i got a shirt and 3 dresses and sunglasses- tho very necessary because the moment i took them out of my bag at the hostel when we first got there they broke.
fri night we tried some restaurant that was soso, so we went to hardrock for nachos and milkshakes, much better choice! they were deliciousssss.
on sat we did all our sightseeing and saw everything there was by gaudi and the sagrada familia and park guell. americas next top model had a photo shoot at park guell, so we went a little crazy and were angry brides as well :-)
the park was beautiful and had amazing views of barcelona, we then went to the castle which is montjuic aka jewish mountain and had amazing views as well. it was lots of fun and we had great weather for it!!! we also got very very very lost tryin to find a lot of the things because the map we had was wrong, ligit was wrong so we kept getting confused. but we got our dunkin donuts which was awesome! btw
sat night we went to chupitos which was the bar roxy said i must go to. it has like 300 shots written on the wall u just pick one and hope its good. some involve fire and they are are all fun to take, i took the boy scout which included roasting a marshmellow on fire, the finding nemo where u had to find the m and m in the whipped cream and take the shot all with hands behind ur back and the rock pops one where u take rock pops with it. we went to a club after and it was a fun night!
on sunday we went to the beach for a few hours. it was sooo perfect, warm and sunny and we got the best tuna sandwhiches of my life. literally. we got drinks- sex on the beach, drank them on the beach and enjoyed it until it started to drizzle. we went to la rambla quickly then back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.
oh and on sat night we had the BEST dinner ever!!!
so sun we got an ok dinner, then went out again! we wound up just hanging round the beach and walking around a bit then found the forest club which looks like a forest inside.
mon our flight was delayed, suppppppper. so we were 2 hours behind. we had to leave at 430 so we were up for our 7 am flight and didnt get on the flight till 930. evern more super. i came home and went to school for a group meeting for 4 hrs. even more super. its a busy week, but paris soon!! yayyyy
loooooved barcelona and would totally go back, its def more modern and has so many american things and amazing convienent things rome dsnt have, tho it def dsnt have the history rome does and as many things to do as far as seeing sites as rome does. rome still wins!
so on friday we went to la rambla which is a huge main street filled with shopping and restaurants. it actually started raining so it worked out nicely we just went from store to store! its fun cuz ppl perform and do circus stuff or breakdancing on the street!
i got a shirt and 3 dresses and sunglasses- tho very necessary because the moment i took them out of my bag at the hostel when we first got there they broke.
fri night we tried some restaurant that was soso, so we went to hardrock for nachos and milkshakes, much better choice! they were deliciousssss.
on sat we did all our sightseeing and saw everything there was by gaudi and the sagrada familia and park guell. americas next top model had a photo shoot at park guell, so we went a little crazy and were angry brides as well :-)
the park was beautiful and had amazing views of barcelona, we then went to the castle which is montjuic aka jewish mountain and had amazing views as well. it was lots of fun and we had great weather for it!!! we also got very very very lost tryin to find a lot of the things because the map we had was wrong, ligit was wrong so we kept getting confused. but we got our dunkin donuts which was awesome! btw
sat night we went to chupitos which was the bar roxy said i must go to. it has like 300 shots written on the wall u just pick one and hope its good. some involve fire and they are are all fun to take, i took the boy scout which included roasting a marshmellow on fire, the finding nemo where u had to find the m and m in the whipped cream and take the shot all with hands behind ur back and the rock pops one where u take rock pops with it. we went to a club after and it was a fun night!
on sunday we went to the beach for a few hours. it was sooo perfect, warm and sunny and we got the best tuna sandwhiches of my life. literally. we got drinks- sex on the beach, drank them on the beach and enjoyed it until it started to drizzle. we went to la rambla quickly then back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.
oh and on sat night we had the BEST dinner ever!!!
so sun we got an ok dinner, then went out again! we wound up just hanging round the beach and walking around a bit then found the forest club which looks like a forest inside.
mon our flight was delayed, suppppppper. so we were 2 hours behind. we had to leave at 430 so we were up for our 7 am flight and didnt get on the flight till 930. evern more super. i came home and went to school for a group meeting for 4 hrs. even more super. its a busy week, but paris soon!! yayyyy
loooooved barcelona and would totally go back, its def more modern and has so many american things and amazing convienent things rome dsnt have, tho it def dsnt have the history rome does and as many things to do as far as seeing sites as rome does. rome still wins!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Plate Smashing, Toga wearing Corfu Greece!
let me start by saying that this weekend was insane. be prepared....
also as it was passover i did not really eat all the food, what i ate was delicious but u cnt ask me much more cuz i dont know, sorry!
thursday morning we left to get on the bus, which was a 5 hour bus ride, to a 14 hour boat to a 2 hour ferry to a 30 minute bus ride to the hotel. finally.
of course leave it to my luck that my friend and i didnt get a rome for whatever reason so we had to wait like an hour while everyone was stripping into bathing suits to get a room. of course once again we get a room ALL the way up the hill then another hill. it was a work out. so as everyone else did, we dropped out bags and threw on our bathingsuits and went down to the beach. we waited in the longest line of our lives to get lunch, so long that when we were done the sun went away and it wsnt as hot anymore. so we walked along the beach and relaxed. it was gorgous. it wsnt that hot, it was barely warm but for just getting there and being able to be on a beautiful beach was just so nice!
that night we got changed and went down to happy hour. there we met some really fun people and had some really yummy drinks. for dinner they served chicken thankfully, which was amazing esp since i had been starving! my diet of potato chips and fruit was not a good one. so after that we went down to the club and had a great night, lots of fun!
sat morning we ment to wake up early to get in line for the booze cruise. (which included cliff jumping a bat cave- which we wrnt even able to go in cuz the tide was too high and crazy and a private beach). we accidently slept till 830, and missed the sign up completly. it turned out to be a really nice day however. we got to lay out on the beach for a few hours which was sooooo nice and relaxing! we then later went into town and walked around. everything was closed but it was really nice to see the town.
we went back for happy hour and dinner and then later that night was the toga party! i used my excellent experienced toga skilled hands (by experience i mean i once tied like 6 guys togas when i was a senior in hs.....) and made everyones toga's including mine. the party was so much fun! we had greek dancers and plate smashing- one of which smashed on my head....hurt more then i thought it would.
the next day we woke up sooo super early to be able to get on and sign up for the booze cruise. so we did. and we got it.
we grabbed breakfast then made our way into the FREEZING cold water. i mean absolutly freezing. our first stop was the cliff jumping which was actually the main reason i wanted to do the booze cruise. it cost 20 euros and in my mind i was GOING cliff jumping. i had to. soooo people started jumping off and after waiting a bit my friends and i jumped off the boat to swim over the rocks. much to our suprise we got cuaght in a riptide thing inbetween rocks. that was supppper fun let me tell you. so when we finally got on the rocks we were bleeding too much and had to go back into the freezing cold water to the boat :-(. we didnt even get to attempt to climb up the rock to cliff jump. sigh. on the good hand we got free drinks! wooohooo. (better option i thought then taking my clothes off-oh yes more details given when asked) it was lots of fun!
we got back at 3 and had to get our stuff out of our room at 3. so we ran and got our stuff to go back on the bus to the ferry to the 2 hour wait to the 14 hour boat to the 5 hour bus ride to the crowded bus to take us to our apt.
it was def so much fun and i loved every minute of it!! im still so exhausted and sore, oh and i twisted my ankle. go figure. my wrist still hurts but comapred to everything else at this point....its nothing.
im attempting to get pictures on facebook but its giving me trouble, plus i got 3 paperse to write and presentations and lots of stuff and i am nonstop traveling till im home!!!
less then a month, can u believe it??
also as it was passover i did not really eat all the food, what i ate was delicious but u cnt ask me much more cuz i dont know, sorry!
thursday morning we left to get on the bus, which was a 5 hour bus ride, to a 14 hour boat to a 2 hour ferry to a 30 minute bus ride to the hotel. finally.
of course leave it to my luck that my friend and i didnt get a rome for whatever reason so we had to wait like an hour while everyone was stripping into bathing suits to get a room. of course once again we get a room ALL the way up the hill then another hill. it was a work out. so as everyone else did, we dropped out bags and threw on our bathingsuits and went down to the beach. we waited in the longest line of our lives to get lunch, so long that when we were done the sun went away and it wsnt as hot anymore. so we walked along the beach and relaxed. it was gorgous. it wsnt that hot, it was barely warm but for just getting there and being able to be on a beautiful beach was just so nice!
that night we got changed and went down to happy hour. there we met some really fun people and had some really yummy drinks. for dinner they served chicken thankfully, which was amazing esp since i had been starving! my diet of potato chips and fruit was not a good one. so after that we went down to the club and had a great night, lots of fun!
sat morning we ment to wake up early to get in line for the booze cruise. (which included cliff jumping a bat cave- which we wrnt even able to go in cuz the tide was too high and crazy and a private beach). we accidently slept till 830, and missed the sign up completly. it turned out to be a really nice day however. we got to lay out on the beach for a few hours which was sooooo nice and relaxing! we then later went into town and walked around. everything was closed but it was really nice to see the town.
we went back for happy hour and dinner and then later that night was the toga party! i used my excellent experienced toga skilled hands (by experience i mean i once tied like 6 guys togas when i was a senior in hs.....) and made everyones toga's including mine. the party was so much fun! we had greek dancers and plate smashing- one of which smashed on my head....hurt more then i thought it would.
the next day we woke up sooo super early to be able to get on and sign up for the booze cruise. so we did. and we got it.
we grabbed breakfast then made our way into the FREEZING cold water. i mean absolutly freezing. our first stop was the cliff jumping which was actually the main reason i wanted to do the booze cruise. it cost 20 euros and in my mind i was GOING cliff jumping. i had to. soooo people started jumping off and after waiting a bit my friends and i jumped off the boat to swim over the rocks. much to our suprise we got cuaght in a riptide thing inbetween rocks. that was supppper fun let me tell you. so when we finally got on the rocks we were bleeding too much and had to go back into the freezing cold water to the boat :-(. we didnt even get to attempt to climb up the rock to cliff jump. sigh. on the good hand we got free drinks! wooohooo. (better option i thought then taking my clothes off-oh yes more details given when asked) it was lots of fun!
we got back at 3 and had to get our stuff out of our room at 3. so we ran and got our stuff to go back on the bus to the ferry to the 2 hour wait to the 14 hour boat to the 5 hour bus ride to the crowded bus to take us to our apt.
it was def so much fun and i loved every minute of it!! im still so exhausted and sore, oh and i twisted my ankle. go figure. my wrist still hurts but comapred to everything else at this point....its nothing.
im attempting to get pictures on facebook but its giving me trouble, plus i got 3 paperse to write and presentations and lots of stuff and i am nonstop traveling till im home!!!
less then a month, can u believe it??
Monday, April 6, 2009
tuscany and pompeii
sorry its been a while, lots of work and rome has been getting so nice and warm out. yesterday was a beautiful perfect day, no need of a jacket. my friends and i went to the jewish ghetto to get burgers and then gelato and sat out on the river taking in the warm sun!! they love those kosher burgers, they are like heaven...its so true! and i found out there is supposed to be an incredible italian restuarant that my friend wants to try too. which would officially be the 2nd place (other then fast kosher) that i can order w/e i want on the menu. fast kosher is so cute too, eventually i will work up my courage and see if they speak hebrew. it wldnt hurt to actually try to remmeber what i learned, esp since italian is failing me. anyawys-the jewish ghetto actually has ruins that agustus tried to build. it was then turned into part of a church...and some woman owns a house right under it. its really cool. also the fake colloseum- as we call it, which was half built after the colloseum was built. it was just never finished- much like michalangelo's bridge he never finished cuz he died is just chilling in rome, like its no big deal (my art teacher quickly pointed it out to us but never stopped and kept walking...). anyways, so people actually live in this half colloseum half modern addition to it...its so cool!!! oh and there is this fountain with turtles on it dedicated to the jews because turtles carry things on their back.....im not sure if thats good or not. and of course churches are all over the outside of the ghetto built because they wanted jews to convert so they kept church close of course. and the ruins turned to church is where jews were forced to go to pray annnnd the square in the ghetto is dedicated to when the nazis came to take the jews. they gave them 24 hrs to come up with a rediculous amount of gold. so all the jwes and nonjews and romans pitched in to come up with the amount so the nazis wldnt take them. nazis took the gold, and as well all know came back later to take the jews.
anyways so 2 weekends ago i went to tuscany for a wine tour and some amazing food. the place was literally in the middle of nowhere with so many fields it was rediculous. the wine was pretty good but the best part really was the 5 course meal. i opted vegitarian to avoid the pork situation- good thing i did. the antipasta for people was pruscuotto and cheese, mine was breschuetta, bread with oil and pepper, and then toasted bread with melted cheese, a pear and honey. it was incredible...i could have had that pear thing as my whole meal...over and over again!! our pasta dish was so so. i got some muschroom pesto sauce which was quite bad and everyone else got a meatsauce which they didnt love either. it was ok, just not as good as the antipasta for sure! the next course i got a place of 8 cheese and jam. that was it. the others got half a chicken and potatoes. since i cldnt give up my cheese, i just had some potatoes and suprisenly cheese and jam is good together. it was basically a cheese board and absolutly amazing! desert was an apricot tart which was good....definately a huge filling meal. well more on their end, mine was just a ton of cheese, im suprised i didnt die.
after we had like 45 min to walk around, so we just kinda went into the fields. it wasnt the warmest day but it wasnt raining and still nice.
this past weekend we went to pompeii for the day. mt vesuveus erupted and basically perserved the huge city. there are even casts of people! the city is huge, there is no way to see the whole place in one day. its not even as ruined as i thought it would be, its def ruins...but still pretty well intact. it overlooks the water and mt vesuveous whihc was nice to see and it was relively a very nice day. we had a little tour then had like 2 hrs to walk around or do w/e we wanted. so we wondered around and found amazing houses with mosaics and frescos. we also attempted to hit up the burger king before we left but turns out we had to cross a highway....wsnt happening.
ill be back to pompeii agian the first weekend of may/last weekend of april....maybe ill see more of what i missed? who knows.
pictures will come up on facebook soon i promise!
other then those trips, not much else. weather is getting nicer which is soooo great! all i want to do is be outside but i have work to do unfortunately. i tried sitting out on our balcony- which we have done a few times. but its a wind tunnel and too hard with lots of different papers flying and whatnot. soon i will take a break and go outside hopefully. maybe go to the store and buy some matzah. i found potato chips made with vegi oil- that will def be a good investment. so vegis, fruits, matzah and potato chips...yummmy. oh and greece!!! cant wait to hit a beach here either!
anyways so 2 weekends ago i went to tuscany for a wine tour and some amazing food. the place was literally in the middle of nowhere with so many fields it was rediculous. the wine was pretty good but the best part really was the 5 course meal. i opted vegitarian to avoid the pork situation- good thing i did. the antipasta for people was pruscuotto and cheese, mine was breschuetta, bread with oil and pepper, and then toasted bread with melted cheese, a pear and honey. it was incredible...i could have had that pear thing as my whole meal...over and over again!! our pasta dish was so so. i got some muschroom pesto sauce which was quite bad and everyone else got a meatsauce which they didnt love either. it was ok, just not as good as the antipasta for sure! the next course i got a place of 8 cheese and jam. that was it. the others got half a chicken and potatoes. since i cldnt give up my cheese, i just had some potatoes and suprisenly cheese and jam is good together. it was basically a cheese board and absolutly amazing! desert was an apricot tart which was good....definately a huge filling meal. well more on their end, mine was just a ton of cheese, im suprised i didnt die.
after we had like 45 min to walk around, so we just kinda went into the fields. it wasnt the warmest day but it wasnt raining and still nice.
this past weekend we went to pompeii for the day. mt vesuveus erupted and basically perserved the huge city. there are even casts of people! the city is huge, there is no way to see the whole place in one day. its not even as ruined as i thought it would be, its def ruins...but still pretty well intact. it overlooks the water and mt vesuveous whihc was nice to see and it was relively a very nice day. we had a little tour then had like 2 hrs to walk around or do w/e we wanted. so we wondered around and found amazing houses with mosaics and frescos. we also attempted to hit up the burger king before we left but turns out we had to cross a highway....wsnt happening.
ill be back to pompeii agian the first weekend of may/last weekend of april....maybe ill see more of what i missed? who knows.
pictures will come up on facebook soon i promise!
other then those trips, not much else. weather is getting nicer which is soooo great! all i want to do is be outside but i have work to do unfortunately. i tried sitting out on our balcony- which we have done a few times. but its a wind tunnel and too hard with lots of different papers flying and whatnot. soon i will take a break and go outside hopefully. maybe go to the store and buy some matzah. i found potato chips made with vegi oil- that will def be a good investment. so vegis, fruits, matzah and potato chips...yummmy. oh and greece!!! cant wait to hit a beach here either!
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