On my flight to Rome, I recall writing in my journal that I felt like I was going to end up sleeping with the fishes...a guy in the row in front of me had been saving seats for two cary looking guys in business suits who sat in front of and next to me...During the last 20 minutes of the flight, the mafia man next to me started speaking to me when he realized I spoke Engligh because he was so excited to practice and then he leaned over and started pointing out all the places of Rome to me and at the end of the flight shook my hand and called me a friend. Precious, I know.
Driving in Rome is scary - point blank, you gotta have balls. The crazy taxi driver I had to get to the hotel did not obey street lines, street signs and just barely obeyed stop lights. She missed the turn and started yelling in Italian which is pretty scary if you ever witness it. I had to eat dinner at the hotel since there was nothing else around and my waiter was also glad to speak English because he really enjoys it. I had some lovely pasta and eben though I am not a big fan of tomatoes, I enjoyed every single one of them in that salad. Fresh veggies!!!! I had another king size bed, another balcony complete with a table and chairs, some awesome American shows dubbed over in Italian, a hot shower, a heater to dry my sink washed clothes on and even a urinal in the bathroom!!!! It took me a while to realize what it was...I must have looked like the caveman when he discovered fire.
The hotel offered a taxi to the nearest metro station so I hopped on that and took the stop the hotel man told me to...well, no one knew the street I was trying to get to. Ended up calling the hostel and after some trial and error, found my way through the constuction zone to the street I needed! The man at this hostel was awesome - when I told him I would have two days here, he took out a map and quite literally, made me an itinerary. I had two other girls from America staying in my room and the three of us spent the first day together. We grabbed some pizza at a local shop for lunch and then continued full speed ahead so we didn't waste any time! We visited the keyhole to the city which is where you can look through a keyhole and through the gardens, see the Vatican! We headed through some orange gardens to get a good view of the city and then ended up at the mouth of truth. As legend says, if you stick your hand into this mouth and tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. (The walking tour guide the next day told us that this 'mouth of truth' is actually an old manhole from ancient Roman times). Next, we headed along the Tiber and crossed over into one of the smaller neighborhoods to get a local chocolate shot - a shot glass made out of chocolate and filled with chocolate liquer or Baileys then topped with whipped cream and powder. To do this shot, you pick it up and stick the whole thing in your mouth bottom first. Difficult but delicous! We headed back across the river and walked through the old Jewish ghetto which was really neat. There are a lot of monuments and statues that I don't know the name of or their significance but I took a lot of pictures anyway! It was getting dark early because it had been cloudy and overcast all day and it sprinkled for about an hour. We walked past the cat sanctuary which was an old ruins site that a bunch of stray cats took over. It's walled off and they can't get out and people and vets do take care of them - they are all tagged. Above, there were tons of bats and they were pooping so we ran out of there! Next, we hit up Piazza Navona which is where they have the Christmas market and Santa was there!!! We had to pay to get our picture with him and the Mrs. though. We also made it to the Pantheon on this part of the walking tour which is very impressive! All of the building are just so old but extremely detailed and it's hard to describe just how awesome they are in person so go see for yourself =] Grabbed a nice bite to eat and shared a bottle of wine before heading back to the hostel for the night. We also had the chance to eat some gelatto - there was a shop with over 100 flavors!
Day 2 involved breakfast at the hostel and then straight off to go chill with the Pope. I battled my way through the street vendors to the Basillica and walked around the inside for a long time. There was no opportunity to light candles in there though because the Italian guard kept saying something along the lines of NO FLAME! at me...Oh well. The building was beautiful and incredibly detailed. What Notre Dame had for size and Gothic architechture, this rivaled with it's incredible number of paintings, things that involved gold, and decorated columns. Don't worry, I have a lot of pictures! Next, I popped inside the Vatican museum which was exhausting. I thought taking the scenice route to the Sistine Chapel was a good idea but half way through it, I needed to get out. I'm not much of a museum person and I have seen an overwhlming amount of churches on this trip so I think that the Vatican and St. Peter's will be my last one if I can help it! The Sistine Chapel was pretty incredible. (Between you and me, I managed to take a picture of the ceiling so I will put that up!) After my tour of Vatican City, I headed back to the center and explored Circus Maximus and the Colleseum. Wow. The ruins are incredible. I don't think I can effectively describe it all in words but it was just AWESOME. I spent quite a bit of time walking around this area and had an old lady take a picture of me in front of the colleseum! Time for food and then I headed out for another free walking tour! We started at the Spanish steps which literal name doesn't mean that at all (it was a lot of words and I can't remember them, sorry!) We headed around to a few smaller churches and checked out their differenct architecture. Our tour guide told us that a lot of the columns that are displayed throughout the city are recyled - if the building wasn't a church, it could be knowcked down so that it's parts could be reused to build new things (he called it recycling instead of looting ha). There was a lot of information being thrown at me and I was tired and cold so my memory was very out of focus so I can't offer you too much information =/ We made it around to the Pantheon again and then headed over to the Fountain of Trevi which was really cool! Neptune is in the middle of this statue and the way that it is structured and just almost appears out of the street is really neat. Grabbed a late dinner and then found my way all by myself back to the hostel on the bus! Woot!
Rome has been awesome but I think the most exhausting out of all the cities I have been in. It's an early bed time for me since I am catching an 8:43am train to Florence tomorrow! Good night and I will try to post as soon as I can so I don't forget important historical information!
P.S. - Do not worry about seeing pictures; I have already filled one memory card and am almost halfway through a second. It's just a matter of how soon can I get them up when I get home...
Monday, December 13, 2010
MADRID!!!!
The ride to Madrid was long but the time managed to pass fairly quickly as I switched between reading my book and sleeping...if you have ever seen me sleep while in a car, you can only imagine how entertained the Spanish people must have been with my head rolling all around...
I will continue to be proud of myself for making it all the way from the train station via the metro and some walking to my hostel without asking for directions!!!!! To all of you who enjoy making fun of me for being bad with directions - I can now prove you wrong! Ha! The hostel was pretty cool - it had tons of people in it and was more like a hotel than anything. I shared my room with two Italian girls and we had our own bathroom which was really nice! I went out and consulted the map the lady at reception gave me and started to go and see some sights she suggested. I bought myself some lunch that consisted of fruits and veggies because it's been hard to get those into my diet lately. I also went and bought two books in Spanish to help me learn the language more efficiently. I walked to this gorgeous park and had lunch then walked all the way through it to the other end of town with a pit stop back at the hostel to grab my jacket because it was actually fairly chilly in Madrid. I spent the better half of 3 hours looking for a Christmas market but of all the places she circled on the map and I thought was it, I could not find it =[
The nest morning something amazing happened - I DID MY LAUNDRY!!!! I finally had a hostel that had really cheap laundry machines and washed all of my clothes. I don't think I have ever appreciated clean clothes that much before! Had some breakfast then packed up my things and left it in the hostel storage closet. Joined a walking tour that started around 11:30am. We started off at the center of Madrid where the guide showed us what the city has that is equivalent to the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower - a small statue of a bear getting some berries out of a tree. Not quite impressive in size at all but the story behind it is that the particular berries ferment on the tree so every season, the bears and other animals go eat them and essentially get drunk and as the guide liked to say - that's how they do it in Madrid. We moved on to the opera house and how Queen Isabel 2 put a lot of work in to establishing the influence and presence of art in Madrid (according to the tour guide, this was because she was a lonley old lady who needed to put her love somewhere). Next, we moved on to the governement building that was once and old Moorish building but when the new king took over (originally from France) he had is destroyed and built this new giant building instead. From here, the offical church of the city is literally right across from the government building and is pretty ugly from the front but from the other side, it's beautiful. This was because in these days, if your building was to be more beautiful than the ones around you, you were being a snob and could get in some serious trouble from that. We carried on to a park/church so we could see the influence from all the other cultures only to talk about the Spanish Inquisition. Another fun fact was that when King....took over, he wanted desperately to do something that people would remember him by so he changed the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid. This then involved moving all the nobles to Madrid and when there wasn't enough space to house them, this king decided to make a tax that required the local people to house the nobles. Long story short, a lot of the houses had tons of extra windows to confuse the king when he went around trying to determine if one was able to hosue the nobles. Trickery! Finally, I found the Christmas market! It was a lot different than what I thought it was going to be so I wouldn't have spent a lot of time there the night before anyway.
I then made it to the airport in time to hop on my flight to lovely Roma!
I will continue to be proud of myself for making it all the way from the train station via the metro and some walking to my hostel without asking for directions!!!!! To all of you who enjoy making fun of me for being bad with directions - I can now prove you wrong! Ha! The hostel was pretty cool - it had tons of people in it and was more like a hotel than anything. I shared my room with two Italian girls and we had our own bathroom which was really nice! I went out and consulted the map the lady at reception gave me and started to go and see some sights she suggested. I bought myself some lunch that consisted of fruits and veggies because it's been hard to get those into my diet lately. I also went and bought two books in Spanish to help me learn the language more efficiently. I walked to this gorgeous park and had lunch then walked all the way through it to the other end of town with a pit stop back at the hostel to grab my jacket because it was actually fairly chilly in Madrid. I spent the better half of 3 hours looking for a Christmas market but of all the places she circled on the map and I thought was it, I could not find it =[
The nest morning something amazing happened - I DID MY LAUNDRY!!!! I finally had a hostel that had really cheap laundry machines and washed all of my clothes. I don't think I have ever appreciated clean clothes that much before! Had some breakfast then packed up my things and left it in the hostel storage closet. Joined a walking tour that started around 11:30am. We started off at the center of Madrid where the guide showed us what the city has that is equivalent to the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower - a small statue of a bear getting some berries out of a tree. Not quite impressive in size at all but the story behind it is that the particular berries ferment on the tree so every season, the bears and other animals go eat them and essentially get drunk and as the guide liked to say - that's how they do it in Madrid. We moved on to the opera house and how Queen Isabel 2 put a lot of work in to establishing the influence and presence of art in Madrid (according to the tour guide, this was because she was a lonley old lady who needed to put her love somewhere). Next, we moved on to the governement building that was once and old Moorish building but when the new king took over (originally from France) he had is destroyed and built this new giant building instead. From here, the offical church of the city is literally right across from the government building and is pretty ugly from the front but from the other side, it's beautiful. This was because in these days, if your building was to be more beautiful than the ones around you, you were being a snob and could get in some serious trouble from that. We carried on to a park/church so we could see the influence from all the other cultures only to talk about the Spanish Inquisition. Another fun fact was that when King....took over, he wanted desperately to do something that people would remember him by so he changed the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid. This then involved moving all the nobles to Madrid and when there wasn't enough space to house them, this king decided to make a tax that required the local people to house the nobles. Long story short, a lot of the houses had tons of extra windows to confuse the king when he went around trying to determine if one was able to hosue the nobles. Trickery! Finally, I found the Christmas market! It was a lot different than what I thought it was going to be so I wouldn't have spent a lot of time there the night before anyway.
I then made it to the airport in time to hop on my flight to lovely Roma!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
SEVILLE!!!!!
Hola Once Again!
I suppose there will be a section in each post for me to write down what I forgot from the last city...
From Barcelona - I forgot to mention that there was a palace we went to that was significant. It was in the main square (that I forget the name of) and it is unique because most of the stones that make up the walls are from headstones of graves from a demolished Jewish graveyard during the Inquisition. I thought that this was really powerful and when I was going through pictures, I remembered that.
On to Seville!
I had an uneventful flight to Seville - had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the metro and then on to the airport. Slept the entire flight there which turned out to be acceptable because it was super cloudy. When I got to the airport, I picked up a lovely map and guidebook then got in line for the only bus that takes you to the city. Since it is another holiday in Spain today, it only ran once and hour so I shoved my way to the front and hopped on. I made friends with an American girl from Virginia for the bus ride and when we got off the bus, I met a guy named CJ from California. He was very kind and walked in my direction so I didn't get lost and then sent me on my way after giving me some pointers about what to do in the city. There have been some really amazing people on this trip and their stories are incredible - inspiring at times.
After a long walk with my backpack, purse, North Face slung over my purse and my wool sweater with the sleeves rolled up, I finally arrived at the hostel after a hot and sun drenched walk along the river. I was sweating and was glad it was so cool in here! I am sharing my room tonight with two girls from the states who are leaving before dawn to head back to Barcelona and then I think I have it all to myself! The hostel is pretty empty so I will have no problem with access to things. I hopped on the internet and had to change some things around - I am now headed back to Stirling on the 17th (two days earlier than planned) because there is no way Lisa would make it to Berlin. I will only be spending one night there so the equivalent of a day). It will be nice to see everyone who is still on campus and give me a chance to properly pack and say goodbye.
I will have to admit that I was a failure for lunch - I went to McDonald's (my second time since being in Europe though!) I did, however, win a free hamburger thanks to the monopoly game going on! I spent my time reading my Seville book and deciding where I wanted to go. On my way out of lunch, a gypsy lady stopped me and handed me a sprig of rosemary and started telling me a fortune despite all the 'No entiendo' (I don't understand). I did understand that she thought I had a strong heart, good health due to a gesture upward, people were watching me from above. I also understood the 'Nececitas pagar' portion meaning she wanted me to pay her...she didn't like the answer no and even worse, she hated that I refused to give her more than .60€ I believe she called me some names as I walked away...
I went on a walking tour today (Wednesday I think?) and it was pretty informative. Some of the historical stories are amusing because Barcelona and Seville both believe that Christopher Columbus came from their cities and that doesn't allow for fluid historical accuracy. We were brought through some of the old Jewish neighbourhoods that came with more horror stories about the Inquisition. There are loads of gardens and lush green plants everywhere and trees sprouting with oranges. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when we went to Plaza de España. It is a huge plaza that has a special section for each part of Spain and huge parts dedicated to Seville. It is brightly decorated with all kinds of tiles and artwork and it is just impressive. (I would recommend going to check this out for yourself someday!) The people of Seville LOVE Christopher Columbus...you can't escape him. Another part about the tour that stuck out was the sign or phrase that is all over Seville - NO DO with a vertical infinity symbol in the middle. The infinity sign represents the word 'madeja' which would appear in wedding rituals to signify the bond the couple had for their life. The reason this is all around Madrid is because it was a 'gift' King Alphonse X left for the city. It literally translates to 'No me ha dejado' meaning 'She has not abandoned me'. He left this as his parting gift to the city because when his own son and the Pope turned against him and showed up with the Spanish army ready to attack the city, Seville stood up against them and fought for King Alphonse X. (He ended up being removed from kingship and was to remain exiled in Seville while his son took over.)
Day 2 in Seville started off with a trip to the bus station to purchase my ticket to Madrid. Tomorrow (the 10th) I have a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid. Woot! After the bus ticket, I headed back towards the center of town and for €2, I took a tour of the cathedral and the Giralda. Th cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe and the 3rd largest cathedral (after the Vatican and St. Paul's) The inside was beautiful- loaded with details and a lot of gold and silver. The organ was massive! The Giralda (tower next to the church) involved a climb up over30 sections of ramp (there are no stairs in the tower because the sultan, who commissioned it, had to climb it 5 times a day for prayer so he had ramps put in so he could ride his horse up to the top) It is very Arabic on the inside but the top of the tower is a portion added by the Catholics. Following the cathedral tour, I headed back outside into the side streets and checked out all the souvenir shops - it's amazing how there can be so many with the same things! I stopped in a restaurant for some paella (a very cultural dish) with a glass of sangria. Typically, paella is made with fish or seafood but I had mine with chicken instead =] It was really good so I would recommend it! Walked down town a bit more then headed back to the hostel for a siesta since the hot Spanish sun was making me tired!
After my siesta, I headed out for some Ben and Jerrys (which is a small luxury I treated myself to!) and then I sat by a beautiful fountain people watching for a while. I exchanged greetings with some lovely old people and was able to watch people bike riding and roller blading all over the plaza. This was a particularly lonely night for me...after traveling by yourself for quite sometime, it gets to you, so the people watching helped not to mention all of the awesome Christmas music that the performers were playing in the street! I grabbed some food then headed back through the crowded streets to get ready to leave real early the next day! I really love Seville and would love to head back there some day!
There are loads more stories but I will write about those when I put all of my pictures up on facebook. It is easier to write a historical caption when I can see the picture and so can everyone else!
I suppose there will be a section in each post for me to write down what I forgot from the last city...
From Barcelona - I forgot to mention that there was a palace we went to that was significant. It was in the main square (that I forget the name of) and it is unique because most of the stones that make up the walls are from headstones of graves from a demolished Jewish graveyard during the Inquisition. I thought that this was really powerful and when I was going through pictures, I remembered that.
On to Seville!
I had an uneventful flight to Seville - had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the metro and then on to the airport. Slept the entire flight there which turned out to be acceptable because it was super cloudy. When I got to the airport, I picked up a lovely map and guidebook then got in line for the only bus that takes you to the city. Since it is another holiday in Spain today, it only ran once and hour so I shoved my way to the front and hopped on. I made friends with an American girl from Virginia for the bus ride and when we got off the bus, I met a guy named CJ from California. He was very kind and walked in my direction so I didn't get lost and then sent me on my way after giving me some pointers about what to do in the city. There have been some really amazing people on this trip and their stories are incredible - inspiring at times.
After a long walk with my backpack, purse, North Face slung over my purse and my wool sweater with the sleeves rolled up, I finally arrived at the hostel after a hot and sun drenched walk along the river. I was sweating and was glad it was so cool in here! I am sharing my room tonight with two girls from the states who are leaving before dawn to head back to Barcelona and then I think I have it all to myself! The hostel is pretty empty so I will have no problem with access to things. I hopped on the internet and had to change some things around - I am now headed back to Stirling on the 17th (two days earlier than planned) because there is no way Lisa would make it to Berlin. I will only be spending one night there so the equivalent of a day). It will be nice to see everyone who is still on campus and give me a chance to properly pack and say goodbye.
I will have to admit that I was a failure for lunch - I went to McDonald's (my second time since being in Europe though!) I did, however, win a free hamburger thanks to the monopoly game going on! I spent my time reading my Seville book and deciding where I wanted to go. On my way out of lunch, a gypsy lady stopped me and handed me a sprig of rosemary and started telling me a fortune despite all the 'No entiendo' (I don't understand). I did understand that she thought I had a strong heart, good health due to a gesture upward, people were watching me from above. I also understood the 'Nececitas pagar' portion meaning she wanted me to pay her...she didn't like the answer no and even worse, she hated that I refused to give her more than .60€ I believe she called me some names as I walked away...
I went on a walking tour today (Wednesday I think?) and it was pretty informative. Some of the historical stories are amusing because Barcelona and Seville both believe that Christopher Columbus came from their cities and that doesn't allow for fluid historical accuracy. We were brought through some of the old Jewish neighbourhoods that came with more horror stories about the Inquisition. There are loads of gardens and lush green plants everywhere and trees sprouting with oranges. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when we went to Plaza de España. It is a huge plaza that has a special section for each part of Spain and huge parts dedicated to Seville. It is brightly decorated with all kinds of tiles and artwork and it is just impressive. (I would recommend going to check this out for yourself someday!) The people of Seville LOVE Christopher Columbus...you can't escape him. Another part about the tour that stuck out was the sign or phrase that is all over Seville - NO DO with a vertical infinity symbol in the middle. The infinity sign represents the word 'madeja' which would appear in wedding rituals to signify the bond the couple had for their life. The reason this is all around Madrid is because it was a 'gift' King Alphonse X left for the city. It literally translates to 'No me ha dejado' meaning 'She has not abandoned me'. He left this as his parting gift to the city because when his own son and the Pope turned against him and showed up with the Spanish army ready to attack the city, Seville stood up against them and fought for King Alphonse X. (He ended up being removed from kingship and was to remain exiled in Seville while his son took over.)
Day 2 in Seville started off with a trip to the bus station to purchase my ticket to Madrid. Tomorrow (the 10th) I have a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid. Woot! After the bus ticket, I headed back towards the center of town and for €2, I took a tour of the cathedral and the Giralda. Th cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe and the 3rd largest cathedral (after the Vatican and St. Paul's) The inside was beautiful- loaded with details and a lot of gold and silver. The organ was massive! The Giralda (tower next to the church) involved a climb up over30 sections of ramp (there are no stairs in the tower because the sultan, who commissioned it, had to climb it 5 times a day for prayer so he had ramps put in so he could ride his horse up to the top) It is very Arabic on the inside but the top of the tower is a portion added by the Catholics. Following the cathedral tour, I headed back outside into the side streets and checked out all the souvenir shops - it's amazing how there can be so many with the same things! I stopped in a restaurant for some paella (a very cultural dish) with a glass of sangria. Typically, paella is made with fish or seafood but I had mine with chicken instead =] It was really good so I would recommend it! Walked down town a bit more then headed back to the hostel for a siesta since the hot Spanish sun was making me tired!
After my siesta, I headed out for some Ben and Jerrys (which is a small luxury I treated myself to!) and then I sat by a beautiful fountain people watching for a while. I exchanged greetings with some lovely old people and was able to watch people bike riding and roller blading all over the plaza. This was a particularly lonely night for me...after traveling by yourself for quite sometime, it gets to you, so the people watching helped not to mention all of the awesome Christmas music that the performers were playing in the street! I grabbed some food then headed back through the crowded streets to get ready to leave real early the next day! I really love Seville and would love to head back there some day!
There are loads more stories but I will write about those when I put all of my pictures up on facebook. It is easier to write a historical caption when I can see the picture and so can everyone else!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
BARCELONA!!!
Hey Everyone!!
I hope you are all enjoying your weather - it's been beautiful over here!
So what I forgot to write was that in Lisbon, I tried roasted chestnuts and they tasted pretty good! They were very warm so that helped since it was a cold night!
I have truly lost all concept of time so if there are inaccuracies in my stories, I apologize!
Sunday the 5th (I hope!) I left Lisbon at 11:39am to take a train in to the city of Porto where I would be catching a flight. The original plan was to explore Porto for a little while and then get to the airport which would have been nice. However, the airport was so far away from anything to do in the city and I didn't want to get lost so I stuck it out in the airport. Turned out alright because I picked up a Portuguese history book and some gummy worms and started reading! The flight went well - it was pouring rain as we headed out to the plane so we all got soaked.
I arrived at the airport and the hotel in Barcelona had a free transport so I took that to the hotel. I ended up having a king sized bed and a huge marble bathroom with a massive tub and it was pretty awesome although it would have been nice to share it with someone!
The next morning, I allowed myself to sleep in given the luxury of the room and then I headed off to find the hostel. Turns out the hotel was in a section called El Prat which is a town within Barcelona. I eventually was able to understand which bus line and metro line I needed to take to make it to the hostel. I arrived just fine after quite an adventure but I was able to laugh at my Spanish skills. I plan on asking people at home who know Spanish to only speak to me in Spanish from now on otherwise I will never learn! At the hostel, I hopped ont he computer to check the emails and such and figured out that Scotland is not a great place to be right now! The entire university shut down, buses and taxis barely run, trains are also very unreliable and no one can fly out or in. All of the exams are rescheduled as well! What this means is that I might be crossing Berlin off my European tour because if Lisa doesn't make it to Germany then I would like to head back to Scotland to see eeryone who is stuck there!
I was feeling a bit lonely yesterday just because it's been 5 days alone already but I met some really nice people here yesterday - a kid named Josh from Boston who asked if I went to WPI when I said I go to school in Worcester haha and a girl named Zainib from Morocco. She and I went out to dinner and walked around the market last night and then came back and called it a night - it's exhausting!
Today, Zainib and I headed out to Casa Museu Gaudí which is a beautiful park featuring the architecture of Gaudí. I took a lot of pictures but you don't to see those until later! After that, we headed back on the metro to go and see Temple de La Sagrada Familia and the two parks surrounding it. This is a very beautiful temple with gothic style architecture - it's actually huge but we didn't pay to go inside of it because the line was incredible! We had some lunch back near the hostel and then I left to take a walking tour of the city.
On the walking tour, we explored a lot of the old Barcelona where gothic architecture is still very present. We saw quite a lot of churches that I forget all the names of but all very beautiful and impressive structures. The church called Santa María del Mar was one of the ones that stuck out because it was built by the people with al of their money - the government wouldn't give them any aid. It was also built in the middle of the plague and famine so it is just that much more impressive. The patron saint of arcelona is Saint Eulalia who died at the age of 13 because she failed to convert religions. We also saw the art school that Picasso attended and a plaza dedicated to George Orwell because of the aid he gave Barcelona. You can still see all the remnants of the firing squad and bombs from earlier times in the walls of the plaza.
Barcelona is Spanish but more commonly, it identifies with it's ancient roots of Catalonia. Catalonia was a small territory that was stuck between Spain and France and has continually fought for their independence (once, the city was being attacked for 13 months with no chance of winning but they fought til the daeth anyway.) Barcelona is the main city and capital of Catalonia but it also includes Girona, Lledia and Tarragona. The tour guide put quite a lot of emphasis ont he fact that the people of Catalonia still identify with their roots. Here in Barcelona, they speak Catalan and then Spanish - all the signs are in both but Catalan comes first. It has a lot of French roots as well so it is quite a bit different from Spanish. There is your history lesson =]
After the tour, we stopped off for a drink and a girl I met came with me and we got a waffle (gofre) with nutella at their version of the Christmas market. There are loads of street performers here!! I think when I come back in the future, I will spend a lot more time here because there is just way too much to see when I only have two full days here!
Tomorrow, I move on to Seville bright and early in the morning! I already have the bus trip to the airport planned out and I looked up directions to get from the Seville airport to the hostel when I get there so for now we can all assume I will make it there without a problem! I was able to charge the lovely British phone tonight so I should be all set!
I took loads of pictures of everything I could since I have been here so you will all have a lot to see when I get home! Also, spell check here is in Spanish so it doesn't help me very much...My bad if there are errors!
Heading out for now to a late dinner and then bed early for the flight tomorrow! Love you all!!!
I hope you are all enjoying your weather - it's been beautiful over here!
So what I forgot to write was that in Lisbon, I tried roasted chestnuts and they tasted pretty good! They were very warm so that helped since it was a cold night!
I have truly lost all concept of time so if there are inaccuracies in my stories, I apologize!
Sunday the 5th (I hope!) I left Lisbon at 11:39am to take a train in to the city of Porto where I would be catching a flight. The original plan was to explore Porto for a little while and then get to the airport which would have been nice. However, the airport was so far away from anything to do in the city and I didn't want to get lost so I stuck it out in the airport. Turned out alright because I picked up a Portuguese history book and some gummy worms and started reading! The flight went well - it was pouring rain as we headed out to the plane so we all got soaked.
I arrived at the airport and the hotel in Barcelona had a free transport so I took that to the hotel. I ended up having a king sized bed and a huge marble bathroom with a massive tub and it was pretty awesome although it would have been nice to share it with someone!
The next morning, I allowed myself to sleep in given the luxury of the room and then I headed off to find the hostel. Turns out the hotel was in a section called El Prat which is a town within Barcelona. I eventually was able to understand which bus line and metro line I needed to take to make it to the hostel. I arrived just fine after quite an adventure but I was able to laugh at my Spanish skills. I plan on asking people at home who know Spanish to only speak to me in Spanish from now on otherwise I will never learn! At the hostel, I hopped ont he computer to check the emails and such and figured out that Scotland is not a great place to be right now! The entire university shut down, buses and taxis barely run, trains are also very unreliable and no one can fly out or in. All of the exams are rescheduled as well! What this means is that I might be crossing Berlin off my European tour because if Lisa doesn't make it to Germany then I would like to head back to Scotland to see eeryone who is stuck there!
I was feeling a bit lonely yesterday just because it's been 5 days alone already but I met some really nice people here yesterday - a kid named Josh from Boston who asked if I went to WPI when I said I go to school in Worcester haha and a girl named Zainib from Morocco. She and I went out to dinner and walked around the market last night and then came back and called it a night - it's exhausting!
Today, Zainib and I headed out to Casa Museu Gaudí which is a beautiful park featuring the architecture of Gaudí. I took a lot of pictures but you don't to see those until later! After that, we headed back on the metro to go and see Temple de La Sagrada Familia and the two parks surrounding it. This is a very beautiful temple with gothic style architecture - it's actually huge but we didn't pay to go inside of it because the line was incredible! We had some lunch back near the hostel and then I left to take a walking tour of the city.
On the walking tour, we explored a lot of the old Barcelona where gothic architecture is still very present. We saw quite a lot of churches that I forget all the names of but all very beautiful and impressive structures. The church called Santa María del Mar was one of the ones that stuck out because it was built by the people with al of their money - the government wouldn't give them any aid. It was also built in the middle of the plague and famine so it is just that much more impressive. The patron saint of arcelona is Saint Eulalia who died at the age of 13 because she failed to convert religions. We also saw the art school that Picasso attended and a plaza dedicated to George Orwell because of the aid he gave Barcelona. You can still see all the remnants of the firing squad and bombs from earlier times in the walls of the plaza.
Barcelona is Spanish but more commonly, it identifies with it's ancient roots of Catalonia. Catalonia was a small territory that was stuck between Spain and France and has continually fought for their independence (once, the city was being attacked for 13 months with no chance of winning but they fought til the daeth anyway.) Barcelona is the main city and capital of Catalonia but it also includes Girona, Lledia and Tarragona. The tour guide put quite a lot of emphasis ont he fact that the people of Catalonia still identify with their roots. Here in Barcelona, they speak Catalan and then Spanish - all the signs are in both but Catalan comes first. It has a lot of French roots as well so it is quite a bit different from Spanish. There is your history lesson =]
After the tour, we stopped off for a drink and a girl I met came with me and we got a waffle (gofre) with nutella at their version of the Christmas market. There are loads of street performers here!! I think when I come back in the future, I will spend a lot more time here because there is just way too much to see when I only have two full days here!
Tomorrow, I move on to Seville bright and early in the morning! I already have the bus trip to the airport planned out and I looked up directions to get from the Seville airport to the hostel when I get there so for now we can all assume I will make it there without a problem! I was able to charge the lovely British phone tonight so I should be all set!
I took loads of pictures of everything I could since I have been here so you will all have a lot to see when I get home! Also, spell check here is in Spanish so it doesn't help me very much...My bad if there are errors!
Heading out for now to a late dinner and then bed early for the flight tomorrow! Love you all!!!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
PORTUGAL!!!!!!
Hey Everyone!
So here is my Portugal update!
Day 1 - A whole lot of travel involved! I was in the train station by 11:30am but with all the time delays from the trains due to the 'severe' weather, I didn't end up getting a train out of Stirling until 12:45pm! While I was on the train and the bus to the airport, I met a guy from Rome and he was giving me a lot of pointers on how to see the city when I am there which was really nice! Made it to the airport in time to discover that my flight was delayed 2.5 hours. We finally boarded the plane at 6:50 (when we were supposed to depart) and then sat in there at the terminal for another 1.75 hours until we finally took off at 8:36! (Yes, I watched the time carefully!) At the airport, there were two guys waiting for me when there was only supposed to be one (long story short the other company is scummy) and my shuttle guy took me to the hotel only after he drove me around downtown to show me the train station. The woman at the reception desk was very sweet and I was able to access internet. My room was awesome! I had a very comfortable double bed with amazing pillows, a full bathroom, a neat TV and my own balcony that overlooked a portion of the city!
Day 2 - I started the morning off with continental breakfast from the hotel and I think I ate enough to feed a small army! I then went on a walk to explore the city of Faro and started off near the marina. The water looked beautiful and it was a very warm day. I strolled around the market plaza which had blue carpet lining all of the shopping streets so I didn't get lost! The town has a bit of poverty but all of the shops were very high end. There was a man playing the accordion in the street which was really neat! I had to purchase a pair of sunglasses because it was so bright thaqt I couldn't see. I hopped on the train at 1:20 to take the trip into Lisbon. The Portuguese country side isn't too fancy - I saw a lot of vegetation and a lot more poverty. Rolling hills and tiny streets are everywhere! I made it into Lisbon at 5:05pm and was so overwhelmed with how huge the Oriente station was that I decided to just take a taxi to the hostel. The driver got me there pretty quickly and safely so I was pleased! The person running the hostel (Guillereme, the French version of William) is very friendly and he gave me a tour and I met some of his friends and my roommate. I have an amazing balcony out of the room of this hostel so that was really nice to wake up to! I followed the map Guillerme gave me and went to a local little shop and had a delicious and cheap steak dinner! When I got back, Frederick, Guillerme and I sat around and chatted for a while. I went to bed early since I was pretty exhausted and wanted to do a lot today!
Day 3 - I woke up and had a filling breakfast in the hostel. After breakfast, I headed out with Frederick and we went to a cathedral. After seeing Notre Dame, this one was not impressive but it was still nice. After the cathedral, we continued down the hill and checked out some shops and ended up in one of the main plazas. This +articular plaza used to be called the kings palace because that used to be the site of the royal gardens but when the earthquake and the tsunami hit in 1755, it was destroyed so they rebuilt and renamed it. It started to rain a bit so we headed back to the hostel to grab another coat then went back downtown. We took a tram into the city and that was quite an experience! It was absolutely packed and the ride is the farthest thing from smooth possible but it was so much fun! A fight broke out so the driver made the guys get off but we carried on! Frederick and I stopped to have some food and coffee at one of the famous cafes in the city and then we went to meet for our guided tour organized by the hostel. This is where we met the group o 7 or so Spanish men that are staying here with us. The tour was given by a woman named Ana who is an archeologist and likes to do these kinds of things for fun. It lasted 3 hours long and was incredibly historic and took us to a lot of unknown sites throughout Lisbon. I tried to get to a computer fast enough to write down all she told us before I forgot but that didn't happen! Part of the tour covered the oldest monastery in Lisbon that they decided to build around after the tsunami/earthquake knocked it over. There is a very strong Muslim influence here in Lisbon and there was a wall all around that city that still exists in some parts.
After the tour was over, Ana took us to ti a shop to get a shot of gin
jinh. This is a very Portuguese liquor that is very strong and has been soaked in cherries for a very long time. It's sweet at first and then it hits you! After the tour, we went to a little restaurant where they have Fado. Fado is a very traditional Portuguese style of music with a Portuguese guitar, as well as normal ones, and a singer. Songs are usually about something that is lost (like love) or can be about the town and can be sad or hilarious. The style of Fado we went to was kind of like an open mic night and it was great! I have some videos that I will put up as soon as I get back to my laptop! Tonight, Ana made dinner for those of us in the hostel. We had some pork mixed with clams, salad, potatoes and onions. Yes, I tried the clam. No, I did not like it. But the point is, I tried! All the seafood I have had so far is just too seafoody...I don't like it. THe hostel got pretty full last night because the Spanish folk are all on holiday since next week they have Monday and Wednesday off. The people I had dinner with were Frederick, Ana,
Guillerme and 10 guys from Spain. They are hilarious though!! Definitely exhausting. Their English is comical and they wanted to tell us jokes but they needed to have the other Spanish people translate them first! On the way home to dinner tonight, I asked the lady for Portuguese sweet bread (in Portuguese) and I purchased some for 1 Euro...it was not Portuguese sweet bread. I haven't found it anywhere but I will keep looking!
Tonight, a bunch of us are going out to do a pub crawl. Tomorrow morning, I will have to take the metro to the HUGE train station then get a train into Porto. From there, I will check out the town and then head on another metro to the airport and get ready to fly to Barcelona! Can't wait!
I hope that everyone is having a great time back at home and you are all decorating for Christmas! I keep forgetting that is coming up because I don't have a tree =[ I will update you next when I am in España!!
Love you all tons and am sending you hugs and smiles from Portugal!!
***I will put up all the pictures and videos I have when I get back home!***
So here is my Portugal update!
Day 1 - A whole lot of travel involved! I was in the train station by 11:30am but with all the time delays from the trains due to the 'severe' weather, I didn't end up getting a train out of Stirling until 12:45pm! While I was on the train and the bus to the airport, I met a guy from Rome and he was giving me a lot of pointers on how to see the city when I am there which was really nice! Made it to the airport in time to discover that my flight was delayed 2.5 hours. We finally boarded the plane at 6:50 (when we were supposed to depart) and then sat in there at the terminal for another 1.75 hours until we finally took off at 8:36! (Yes, I watched the time carefully!) At the airport, there were two guys waiting for me when there was only supposed to be one (long story short the other company is scummy) and my shuttle guy took me to the hotel only after he drove me around downtown to show me the train station. The woman at the reception desk was very sweet and I was able to access internet. My room was awesome! I had a very comfortable double bed with amazing pillows, a full bathroom, a neat TV and my own balcony that overlooked a portion of the city!
Day 2 - I started the morning off with continental breakfast from the hotel and I think I ate enough to feed a small army! I then went on a walk to explore the city of Faro and started off near the marina. The water looked beautiful and it was a very warm day. I strolled around the market plaza which had blue carpet lining all of the shopping streets so I didn't get lost! The town has a bit of poverty but all of the shops were very high end. There was a man playing the accordion in the street which was really neat! I had to purchase a pair of sunglasses because it was so bright thaqt I couldn't see. I hopped on the train at 1:20 to take the trip into Lisbon. The Portuguese country side isn't too fancy - I saw a lot of vegetation and a lot more poverty. Rolling hills and tiny streets are everywhere! I made it into Lisbon at 5:05pm and was so overwhelmed with how huge the Oriente station was that I decided to just take a taxi to the hostel. The driver got me there pretty quickly and safely so I was pleased! The person running the hostel (Guillereme, the French version of William) is very friendly and he gave me a tour and I met some of his friends and my roommate. I have an amazing balcony out of the room of this hostel so that was really nice to wake up to! I followed the map Guillerme gave me and went to a local little shop and had a delicious and cheap steak dinner! When I got back, Frederick, Guillerme and I sat around and chatted for a while. I went to bed early since I was pretty exhausted and wanted to do a lot today!
Day 3 - I woke up and had a filling breakfast in the hostel. After breakfast, I headed out with Frederick and we went to a cathedral. After seeing Notre Dame, this one was not impressive but it was still nice. After the cathedral, we continued down the hill and checked out some shops and ended up in one of the main plazas. This +articular plaza used to be called the kings palace because that used to be the site of the royal gardens but when the earthquake and the tsunami hit in 1755, it was destroyed so they rebuilt and renamed it. It started to rain a bit so we headed back to the hostel to grab another coat then went back downtown. We took a tram into the city and that was quite an experience! It was absolutely packed and the ride is the farthest thing from smooth possible but it was so much fun! A fight broke out so the driver made the guys get off but we carried on! Frederick and I stopped to have some food and coffee at one of the famous cafes in the city and then we went to meet for our guided tour organized by the hostel. This is where we met the group o 7 or so Spanish men that are staying here with us. The tour was given by a woman named Ana who is an archeologist and likes to do these kinds of things for fun. It lasted 3 hours long and was incredibly historic and took us to a lot of unknown sites throughout Lisbon. I tried to get to a computer fast enough to write down all she told us before I forgot but that didn't happen! Part of the tour covered the oldest monastery in Lisbon that they decided to build around after the tsunami/earthquake knocked it over. There is a very strong Muslim influence here in Lisbon and there was a wall all around that city that still exists in some parts.
After the tour was over, Ana took us to ti a shop to get a shot of gin
jinh. This is a very Portuguese liquor that is very strong and has been soaked in cherries for a very long time. It's sweet at first and then it hits you! After the tour, we went to a little restaurant where they have Fado. Fado is a very traditional Portuguese style of music with a Portuguese guitar, as well as normal ones, and a singer. Songs are usually about something that is lost (like love) or can be about the town and can be sad or hilarious. The style of Fado we went to was kind of like an open mic night and it was great! I have some videos that I will put up as soon as I get back to my laptop! Tonight, Ana made dinner for those of us in the hostel. We had some pork mixed with clams, salad, potatoes and onions. Yes, I tried the clam. No, I did not like it. But the point is, I tried! All the seafood I have had so far is just too seafoody...I don't like it. THe hostel got pretty full last night because the Spanish folk are all on holiday since next week they have Monday and Wednesday off. The people I had dinner with were Frederick, Ana,
Guillerme and 10 guys from Spain. They are hilarious though!! Definitely exhausting. Their English is comical and they wanted to tell us jokes but they needed to have the other Spanish people translate them first! On the way home to dinner tonight, I asked the lady for Portuguese sweet bread (in Portuguese) and I purchased some for 1 Euro...it was not Portuguese sweet bread. I haven't found it anywhere but I will keep looking!
Tonight, a bunch of us are going out to do a pub crawl. Tomorrow morning, I will have to take the metro to the HUGE train station then get a train into Porto. From there, I will check out the town and then head on another metro to the airport and get ready to fly to Barcelona! Can't wait!
I hope that everyone is having a great time back at home and you are all decorating for Christmas! I keep forgetting that is coming up because I don't have a tree =[ I will update you next when I am in España!!
Love you all tons and am sending you hugs and smiles from Portugal!!
***I will put up all the pictures and videos I have when I get back home!***
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Travel Plans!
Hellooooo!
I am gearing up to head out on my trip around Europe! Here is my itinerary!
Dec 2 - Faro, Portugal
Dec 3 - Lisbon, Portugal
Dec 4 - Lisbon, Portugal
Dec 5 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 6 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 7 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 8 - Seville, Spain
Dec 9 - Seville, Spain
Dec 10 - Madrid, Spain
Dec 11 - Rome, Italy
Dec 12 - Rome, Italy
Dec 13 - Rome, Italy
Dec 14 - Florence, Italy
Dec 15 - Venice, Italy
Dec 16 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 17 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 18 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 19 - Stirling, Scotland
DEC 20TH - HOME TO CONNECTICUT! (arrival at 6pm in Boston!)
Dad helped me out a lot with this trip and was able to book me some great hotels and hostels since everything is a little overwhelming when you wait until there isn't much time left!
I know that it is an ambitious trip but that's what makes it exciting! I will be traveling on my own until I get to Berlin and then I will be staying with Lisa at her dad's place for those three nights. Everything is all set and ready to go!
Hopefully, the weather here stays good - the airport has been closed more often than it's been open since this weekend...Flights in Ireland, the UK and France are all having issues with the amount of awful weather we have had (yes, it is STILL snowing!)
Sunday night, I went out with some people from Urban Dance and we had a Vietnamese dinner called a hot pot. This involves a pot of boiling stew in the center of the table surrounded by bowls of food and you toss whatever you would like in and take it out when you think it is cooked. The only dangerous thing about this is that you never know what you are getting in your bowl...I wish I had a picture of the food because there were baby octopuses floating around in the pot. To be fair, I tried tofu and prawns and possibly by an accident, a piece of cod. Not a fan of the tofu or the prawns one bit but I think the potential piece of cod was so small that I shouldn't count it...After dinner, the taxi could only drive us so far so we hopped out and found some people with trash bags and went sledding! It was loads of fun but going in a trash bag is not recommended!
Monday, I had my last classes and I finalized all of the flights I would be taking and began packing for my journey!
Last night (Tuesday night), my friends threw me a surprise going away party since I am the first one to leave. They filled a whole room with balloons with nice writings on them and they all wrote in a card for me saying some very sweet things. Elsa also cooked everyone crepes - ham, egg and cheese, nutella, butter and salt, etc. It was delicious and we all had a great last night together - I am so lucky to have found such amazing friends over here and knowing that they think just as highly of me as I do of them is a good feeling. I hope that we can all stay in touch (they all told me to keep writing them emails in Spanish to keep practicing!)
Tonight (Wednesday), Lisa and Melanie made us dinner for German night. We had Knödel which is a potato/bread dumpling that doesn't have yeast. They made it with a sauce of red wine and mushrooms and some other gravy like sauce. It tasted pretty good and certainly is filling! I tried the mushrooms (both cooked and uncooked) and it's really not a food I care to continue eating.
Keep your fingers crossed for a flight that doesn't get canceled and takes me safely to Portugal! The plane takes off at 4:10pm! (on a side note, I have internet almost everywhere I go so I will update you along the way but you won't get pictures until I get home!)
I will leave you with some pictures of all the crazy snow on campus! Love you!
Sledding with 'bin bags' (trash bags!)
Frozen Loch
View of Dumyat on the way to class
Frozen Loch and the Library
Frozen Loch with Dumyat and the Dorms (and you can see the bridge I cross over to get to class everyday!)
I am gearing up to head out on my trip around Europe! Here is my itinerary!
Dec 2 - Faro, Portugal
Dec 3 - Lisbon, Portugal
Dec 4 - Lisbon, Portugal
Dec 5 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 6 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 7 - Barcelona, Spain
Dec 8 - Seville, Spain
Dec 9 - Seville, Spain
Dec 10 - Madrid, Spain
Dec 11 - Rome, Italy
Dec 12 - Rome, Italy
Dec 13 - Rome, Italy
Dec 14 - Florence, Italy
Dec 15 - Venice, Italy
Dec 16 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 17 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 18 - Berlin, Germany
Dec 19 - Stirling, Scotland
DEC 20TH - HOME TO CONNECTICUT! (arrival at 6pm in Boston!)
Dad helped me out a lot with this trip and was able to book me some great hotels and hostels since everything is a little overwhelming when you wait until there isn't much time left!
I know that it is an ambitious trip but that's what makes it exciting! I will be traveling on my own until I get to Berlin and then I will be staying with Lisa at her dad's place for those three nights. Everything is all set and ready to go!
Hopefully, the weather here stays good - the airport has been closed more often than it's been open since this weekend...Flights in Ireland, the UK and France are all having issues with the amount of awful weather we have had (yes, it is STILL snowing!)
Sunday night, I went out with some people from Urban Dance and we had a Vietnamese dinner called a hot pot. This involves a pot of boiling stew in the center of the table surrounded by bowls of food and you toss whatever you would like in and take it out when you think it is cooked. The only dangerous thing about this is that you never know what you are getting in your bowl...I wish I had a picture of the food because there were baby octopuses floating around in the pot. To be fair, I tried tofu and prawns and possibly by an accident, a piece of cod. Not a fan of the tofu or the prawns one bit but I think the potential piece of cod was so small that I shouldn't count it...After dinner, the taxi could only drive us so far so we hopped out and found some people with trash bags and went sledding! It was loads of fun but going in a trash bag is not recommended!
Monday, I had my last classes and I finalized all of the flights I would be taking and began packing for my journey!
Last night (Tuesday night), my friends threw me a surprise going away party since I am the first one to leave. They filled a whole room with balloons with nice writings on them and they all wrote in a card for me saying some very sweet things. Elsa also cooked everyone crepes - ham, egg and cheese, nutella, butter and salt, etc. It was delicious and we all had a great last night together - I am so lucky to have found such amazing friends over here and knowing that they think just as highly of me as I do of them is a good feeling. I hope that we can all stay in touch (they all told me to keep writing them emails in Spanish to keep practicing!)
Tonight (Wednesday), Lisa and Melanie made us dinner for German night. We had Knödel which is a potato/bread dumpling that doesn't have yeast. They made it with a sauce of red wine and mushrooms and some other gravy like sauce. It tasted pretty good and certainly is filling! I tried the mushrooms (both cooked and uncooked) and it's really not a food I care to continue eating.
Keep your fingers crossed for a flight that doesn't get canceled and takes me safely to Portugal! The plane takes off at 4:10pm! (on a side note, I have internet almost everywhere I go so I will update you along the way but you won't get pictures until I get home!)
I will leave you with some pictures of all the crazy snow on campus! Love you!
Sledding with 'bin bags' (trash bags!)
Frozen Loch
View of Dumyat on the way to class
Frozen Loch and the Library
Frozen Loch with Dumyat and the Dorms (and you can see the bridge I cross over to get to class everyday!)
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