Time for waterproof mascara

It’s day 104 in Barcelona. My program ends Saturday. I’ve already said goodbye to some friends and more goodbyes are creeping up quickly. This has been the most exciting, exhausting, unforgettable four months of my life and I can’t believe it is already coming to an end.

It’s bittersweet. I love it here. I love Barcelona. I love the Spanish life. I love  my new best friends. But all good things must come to an end and I think I am okay with it. I don’t have  a single regret and wouldn’t go home a day earlier than planned, but also not a day later. This lifestyle is exhausting.

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.  ~Lin Yutang

Best friends: Lindsay, Mari, Shannon, Stephanie, Lindsey and me

I’m okay with going home soon because I feel as if I have not slept since my flight to Barcelona on January 12th. I have taken every opportunity given to me and seen, what feels like, the world. I’ve learned about myself. I’ve learned about others. I’ve learned about the world. I came. I saw. I conquered.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

It all still seems so unreal. However, while I say it is coming to an end, I  don’t exactly mean end…

My program is ending, my friends are leaving, and I’m moving out of my beloved room 323, but I have a month of adventures ahead of me. At 9 am on May 1, Shannon, Lindsay R., Lindsey O. and I will all go to the airport together. I’m sure the tears will be flowing as Lindsay R. returns to Pennsylvania and Lindsey O. returns to Washington, but Shannon and I will fly to Prague. Thus beginning my month of “backpacking” through Europe. Here is what my schedule looks like for the month…

My crazy month

It’s likely that my blogs won’t be as up to date while I’m gone, but I will share my adventures as soon as I get a break from Czeching out Prague, discovering the Berlin Wall, spending time with family across Spain, seeing the end of the world (before America) in Lisbon and soaking up the sun along Costa Blanca, Spain.

On May 31 I’ll be on the 8am flight to Colorado

I’ll spend this week studying for finals–yes, I was actually taking a few classes while I was here. After studying, I’ll try to squeeze the rest of my souvenirs into my suitcases and prepare for my adventures…

Friday is the last day with friends, we have plans to go sailing, drink sangria on the beach and go to Font Magica. Followed by tears, I’m sure.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

Barcelona from Park Guell

My 7 day weekend in Paris

The Eiffel Tower at sunset

On April 15, I was packing to head to Paris for the weekend with Shannon and Lindsay when I decided to read my AOL news. I discovered a volcano in Iceland had erupted, but thought nothing of it. Then I realized the headline read “Volcanic Eruption disrupts flights accross Europe”. I still didn’t think much of it. WAIT! I’m in Europe and I’m flying…we immediately check our Air France flight for that evening and found no changes, then forgot about the volcano. Little did we know it would turn our 2 1/2 day trip to Paris into 7 days of helplessness. And let me just begin by saying, 7 days of being stranded in Paris is not as glamourous as it sounds. But lets start with the good times….

The trip started great! We realized how cheap we usually do things as soon as we boarded our Air France flight. We usually take Ryanair or Easyjet, two European “budget” airlines. Ryanair seats do not recline, and neither airline has seat assignments, snacks or beverages. (They are even rumored to be soon starting to charge for using the onboard restroom). On Air France we found the seats to be large and comfy, then we heard we would get a snack! Expecting some peanuts and a small drink, we were ecstatic to see the half-sandwich and cokes we were served.

Once we landed we found a map and headed to our hostel–a train ride and 18 metro stops away. It sounded like an eternity, but the hour or so flew by and we checked into Three Ducks Hostel. We were a little angered to learn that on top of our 26 euros a night we paid, we had to purchase linens for 3.50 and a towel for 1 euro. Our original plan was to walk to the Eiffle Tower as soon as we arrived, but we were pretty worn out and decided to call it a night and start fresh in the morning.

Lindsay and Me

The first morning, we enjoyed the free hostel breakfast–coffee and croissants. Then walked about 10 minutes to the Eiffle Tower. This is where I began my 8,768,549,762 photos of the tower. We wandered around for a bit then found guys selling Eiffel Tower keychains, 3 for 1 euro. Conveniently, we were three and couldn’t resist Oh, fun fact about the Eiffel Tower…it was meant to be in Barcelona! Barcelona decided it was too ostentatious and turned it down, so Gustave Eiffel chose Paris.

Basque ETA members on the Arc de Triomphe

Next, we walked another 10 minutes or so to the “real” Arc de Triomphe. (I live by the fake one in Barcelona). Here, we witnessed big news. As we began our picture taking, we noticed a person climbing over the top edge of the arc. ‘Is that legal?’ We thought. We were confused as to whether or not this person had permission to be doing this. He and another began trying to put up a banner, but it was taking forever, so we decided to walk under the street to get under the arc. We got there, and snapped about two photos before police with whistles hurried us out. We were confused, so joined the other tourists on the other side of the street to watch. Siren after siren came and went as police and medical personal arrived. Eventually the two men on the tower released their banner. It said, “What have you done with Jon Anza?”. We had still had no idea what was going on and decided to leave. We later googled it to learn these men were members of the Basque Separatist group ETA, which is classified as a terrorist group. Their banner was in response to the death of Basque militant who went missing and was discovered in the South of France. We also found out that one of the men had fallen from near the top of the arc breaking nearly every bone in his body. The arc remained closed the next day when we went to try to see it again.

Seine River Tour

After the arc we walked down Champs-Elysses Avenue, full of expensive stores and restaurants. We turned down a side street to find a Jimmy Choo store. We went in and dreamt for a few minutes. Next, we headed back to the river for one of Matt’s recommendations: a Seine River Boat Tour. Well, it was almost warm enough. Despite the wind it was a really nice tour, it gave a little narration as we passed many of the famous landmarks in Paris. By this point in the semester, we felt like we can’t handle the amount of information given in intense tours, so this was perfectly relaxing.

Notre Dame in my flower pictures

After the boat tour we went to The Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful and free to go inside The outside smelled and looked like Spring with blooming flowers everywhere. I couldn’t stop taking photos of the flowers so Shannon reminded me that there was  a gorgeous cathedral in the background.

We were starting to get hungry so we went on the search for crepes For some reason on this day we couldn’t find any cheap 2 euro crepe stands so we got them in a restuarant. It was much more expensive–6euros, but we had many more choices. Instead of just sugar or nutella, I got chocolate, banana, rum and raisins! Lindsay got salted caramel and Shannon had chocolate with coconut ice cream.

Next stop was the famous Louvre Museum at 6pm when it becomes free for students! The outside is a really nice atmosphere with fountains, gardens and, of course, the famous pyramid. We got inside really quickly, just to be immediately overwhelmed. It is four massive and confusing floors of art. Luckily, Shannon is currently in an art class and had written down a few she wanted to see. I pretty much just wanted to see the Mona Lisa. We saw it first then moved on to see “Venus de Milo“, and several others which I recognized once I saw them. We used up the rest of our energy here and left about 2 hours later. We walked out to find it much colder than when we went in. Solution? French Onion Soup. Yum. Yum. Yum.

The Louvre

Moulin Rouge

The next day we headed to the Montematre District where the Moulin Rouge is found. I have to say, it was a bit of a let down. The movie makes it seem much bigger and more glamourous. We could only see the outside and the entry way; I kind of expected a full tour. We walked up the next street to find the “official” (and overly priced) gift shop. Then we continued to stroll uphill along the street until we found The Sacred Heart Cathedral (Sacre Coeur). Matt also suggested this for great views of the city. Well Matt, I was a little disappointed in the view, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the smog was due to the volcanic ash that cancelled my flight the next day. It was a little hike to the church on top of the hill, but it was beautiful.

The Sacred Heart

After the Montmatre District we went to The Conciergie, a former palace and prison, where Marie Antoinette was said to have been held. The whole thing was kind of a joke and left us wondering how it gained status as a national monument. The plaques describing what each recreated room was were quite confusing. Some examples read (and this is a direct quote): “It is not certain whether such cells existed in the Conciergie…” and “…it may have been located here, but it’s more likely that it was upstairs.” There were even question marks after some statements. The reason we went was to see Marie Antionette’s jail cell, but one of the plaques informed us that it no longer existed, however if it did, “it might have looked something like this….but it’s hard to be sure…”  It was 4 euros down the drain, but made for a good laugh….and was the basis for the rest of the jokes of the trip.  After the museum we walked to Place de la Concorde, where Marie Antoinette was said to have been beheaded. (Although, based on the museum, who knows how much truth this has to it.)

Place de la Concorde

That night we met with one of Shannon’s friends who happened to be in Paris as well. We bought two bottles of wine for the four of us and sat on a blanket in the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower. This was probably one of my favorite moments in Paris. We watched the sunset, then as the darkness set in we enjoyed the light show…twice.

The next morning, we woke up to bad news. Our flight was cancelled. Air France simply said, “Dear Madame: Your flight from Paris to Barcelona has been cancelled. Thank you for your understanding.” Well, we don’t understand…shouldn’t you be giving us more information? By this time, others in the hostel had had their flights cancelled as well and we learned the Paris airport and several others across Europe were closed, thus beginning our 4 day attempt to get home.

We immediately went to the train station where our lack of French got the best of us. We stood in not one wrong line, but two. This wasted nearly 2 hours before we finally made it to the correct line and waited. And waited. And waited. Then after several French announcements, one was made in English. “All trains for Italy, France and Spain are booked until Wednesday.” WHAT! (today is Sunday). There had to be another way, we thought. Next stop: bus station. There was a huge line there too, so we had Shannon go to the front to try to get some information. She found out all busses to Barcelona were full until Wednesday. I have to say I was a bit thankful because this ride would have been 15 hours.

But, now what? We had school in the morning and it was the week before finals. Our next thought was renting a car, but since none of us knew french and were terrified by the thought of being in control of a vehicle in European traffic, this thought quickly left our minds. We went back to the hostel, empty handed, after hours of searching for a way out of town. We decided we’d try to book another flight, though we had no idea of the status of the airport. We were able to book a 110 euro flight on Easyjet that would leave at 6pm Tuesday. We relaxed a bit, knowing there was nothing to do until then.

No one seemed to have any sympathy for us being stuck in Paris and I have to admit, it doesn’t sound all too horrible. But trust me, as soon as the word “stranded” is involved, all you want is to be home. I was determined to make the most out of our extended weekend in Paris, so the next day we went to Versaille. It was about a 30 minute train ride that was 6euro roundtrip. Some other stranded girls told us it was beautiful and there was a student discount! Well, it was beautiful…from the outside. When we arrived the first thing I saw was a sign reading “Versaille Palaces closed Monday”. What luck. Fortunately, the gardens were still open and we spent a couple hours meandering through them. It was so quiet and peaceful in Versaille; it felt like we were miles and miles from Paris. We could have easily spent hours more in Versaille, as the gardens spread as far as the eye could see, but we enjoyed a late lunch panini then headed back to the bustling city.

The Gardens at the Palace of Versaille

We decided we might as well enjoy another night under the lights of the Eiffel Tower. This time we wanted to eat cheap and McDonalds was along the way I got a salad for some much needed vegetables, so it still ended up costing me about 6euros. After we ate, a cute French man asked if we had a lighter. We said no, but he stayed and continued the conversation. Soon his two friends who were sitting nearby joined us. We chatted with them for the rest of the night.

The next morning, more bad news came. Flight number 2 was cancelled. Luckily we bought the flight insurance and Easyjet was much easier to deal with than Air France. There were two choices: refund or rebook. We rebooked for the 6pm Wednesday flight. We considered trying the train station again, but rumor in the hostel was that all trains were booked until Sunday. I’d walk home before I stayed until Sunday.

It took every ounce of energy and willpower to get myself out of bed the next day to take advantage of the beautiful city. I’m sure you’re thinking: “You’re in Paris, how could it be that bad?” Well, for one its France…aka language barrier. Two: it’s expensive. I couldn’t eat for under 10 euros, unless it was a kebab or the McDonald’s Euro Menu. Three: we thought we were going for 2 1/2 days so we crammed everything in the first two days! Four: It smells like pee. EVERYWHERE. Five: I have a life in Barcelona and just because travel stops, my life there doesn’t.

Once I pulled myself out of bed, we all went to a place a friend told us about that had cheap, good food: “Breakfast in America”. Coincidentally, it was at the same metro stop as the park we wanted to go to that day.  Shannon and I both had chile burgers, and Lindsay had a pancake breakfast. We all ate ourselves sick. I’m not sure if it’s because it was delicious, or American, or just the stress of the trip. Luckily we were going to Place Vosges after. It is Paris’s oldest planned square and in the Marais District. We laid in the sun for a while to relax and digest. It was here where I saw an airplane in the sky. YES! Airports are open and we’re going home! (I HOPE!). The former home of poet Victor Hugo was also in this square so we checked it out before heading back to the hostel.

Place de Vosges

I had anxiety every time I checked my e-mail that day and the following morning, but still no word of a cancelled flight. According to Easyjet’s website, the flight was still on time and the airport was open. The airport was an hour or more from our hostel, and we were bored to death, so we left at 2:30pm, luggage in hand. The airport was a mess.After about 3 hours of standing in line hardly moving, we learned that they were calling people by flight to check in, so there was really no use in standing in line at all. Our flight was delayed about an hour, but we were ecstatic that it was still going to fly. Finally, we were called to check it and eventually boarded our flight. I was surprised to find the flight half empty. I guess everyone is still waiting for their train to leave on Sunday.

If our flight had been cancelled, we already agreed to spend the next day at Disneyland Paris.

I couldn’t be happier to be home, but writing this blog definitely reminded me that Paris was fun, until we became stranded.

Today is day 100 in Barcelona. My program ends next Saturday (May 1). I have 9 days left actually “living” in Barcelona. It’s crazy how time flies. There is much to be done before then!

To see a slideshow of my Paris pictures, click here!

Catalunya Radio

At CEA, I have two professors that work for Catalunya Radio. Pipo Serrano, my Journalism 2.0 instructor, and Marcos Garcia, my Sport and Culture instructor.  Both teachers gave us the opportunity to see the radio on separate field studies. I went with Marco’s class and was able to see Pipo working at the time.

I have been in radio stations before and found the Spanish radio very similar to U.S. radio. It was still really interesting to see and hear about. The part I was most impressed with was the control room. It was a small room filled with lots of technological stuff and a huge board with switches for everything. We could see in because the room was all glass on one side. Basically one person sits in this room and controls everything going on in the station…aka this guy is REALLY important. It was crazy, seems like way to much responsibility for me!

I found a couple YouTube videos about the radio so you could see and hear a little for yourself. It is in Catalan though, so good luck understanding

podcasts: convenient listening.

For fast paced Americans that are always on the go, podcasts are a great tool. A podcast is an audio (and sometimes video) file downloaded from a website via an RSS feed.

Podcasts are convenient because you can listen to them via your iPod any day, any time, and during any activity. Want to listen to the news while jogging? Learn a language while driving in the car? Podcasts make these ideas reality.

They’re also great because of the RSS feed. This allows you to subscribe to a content. For example, you can subscribe to BBC News and wake up every morning to have a new podcast ready and waiting for your listening pleasure.

It got is name from “iPod” and “broadcast”. Podcasts were created for iPods to listen to their RSS broadcasts. iTunes was the pioneer program that made podcasts easy to obtain. Today iTunes has a large section of podcasts for any interest.

Before coming to Spain I downloaded podcasts to learn Spanish and Catalan.

Here is a link to a podcast for learning Catalan:

Another place to find great podcasts is PodcastAlly.

If you want to make your own podcast, check out Apple’s FAQ

Who’s listening to podcasts? Everyone.

Dali Museum

The Dali Museum

On Friday we went on our final CEA excursion to the Salvador Dali Museum and the town of Girona, Spain. The Museum is in Figueres, about 1 and a half hours from Barcelona, where Dali was born. I love the museum, Dali has such a wide variety of work so it was really interesting. I was excited to see “The Persistence of Memory” one of his most famous works, unfortunately, once at the museum I learn that this painting is actually housed at The Met in New York City.

I think my favorite piece in the museum was one that was an optical illusion. Up close, and to the naked eye, the painting looked like the back of a naked woman, with squares all around. When I put my camera up to take a picture, it transformed into the face of Abraham Lincoln! It was sooo cool and unexpected. The further you move away from the paining the easier it is to see Lincoln’s face. Another of my favorites was a room with furniture constructed to look like the face of Mae West (see the photo).

For those of you that are not familiar with Dali, here is a little of his background that I learned:

*He lived from 1904-1989.

*His brother, who passed away before Dali’s birth, was also named Salvador.

The Face of Mae West

*He presented his first exhibition at age 15.

*He studied at La Escuela de Bellas Artes in Madrid where he met his lover Federico Garcia Lorca.

*However, Dali was asexual and was taught that sexual actions were horrible at a young age and never took part.

*Later he met Russian wife (whom he also never had sex with). She was Helena Diakova, but was famously known as Gala and at the time was married to poet Paul Eluard.

*Dali signed many of his pieces “Gala Salvador Dali” because he consider them one.

*Dali is buried in the Dali Museum, downstairs, right next to the toilets.

ROME!

Rome at sunset

Final stop: Roma. It’s hard to compare the four cities, but I think Rome might have been my favorite. I heard horrible things before I went so I was expecting the worst. Everyone said it was dirty, had way too many tourists and was really spread out. Well, it didn’t have any more tourists than any other place we had been.  If anything, I thought it was cleaner than most of the other cities and we walked everywhere. It was definitely the most exhausting of the four cities because it is so rich with history. I think it’s safe to say we saw the best and most important things, but we could have seen more if we had more time. We tried to take the 10 am train from Florence to Rome, but it and the next two were full. We finally made it on the 11:10 train to arrive in Rome around 1pm.

In the train station we asked about tours in Rome and one sounded great. Then we heard the price: 37 euros. We decided to get to our hostel first and think about it. We made a great choice to skip it because when we checked in the guy at the front desk informed us of Rome Free Walking Tours (which I highly recommend). Yes, free, aka any college student’s favorite word. There were three tours: one to the City Center, one to the Colosseum and one to Vatican City. We already bought tickets through the Vatican Museum to see it, but we took advantage of the other two.

Spanish Steps

Our free City Center tour was at 4pm that afternoon. We started at the Spanish Steps. Our first tour guide said there were 120 steps, our second tour guide said 135, and Shannon counted and said 132, but Wikipedia says 138. So who knows. Either way, it was a nice area; we sat and enjoyed our gelato on them one day. Our tour took off from there to a small church where Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s angels were. Our guide also pointed out Bernini’s past residence directly across from the church. Next, we went to the Trevi Fountain, probably the most crowded with tourists, but it’s easy to see why. It is the most famous and arguably the most beautiful fountain in Rome. I’m glad we were on a tour because our guide was able to tell us about each of the features of the fountain so we actually knew what we were looking at.  She also told us the superstitions behind it: toss one coin and you’ll return to Rome. Toss two and you’ll get married. Toss three and you’ll get divorced. Well it was really crowded and I only had 1 euro coins, so I didn’t toss any…

Trevi Fountain

Next on our tour was the Pantheon. I kept calling it the Parthenon, but quickly learned that is in Greece The Pantheon is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome. Painter Raphael’s tomb, among other famous people and kings, is inside. It was built as a temple to the gods in Ancient Rome. When we arrived on our tour it was closed for a private mass, but we peeked in. It was interesting to see it without being full of tourists. We returned after the tour to view the inside and see the tombs. Another beautiful Roman building…

The Pantheon

Next stop was Piazza di Pietra, which was ruins of temple. It was my least favorite stop, but still interesting I suppose, considering it was built in 145 AD. The 15 columns that remained are now apart of building used for business.

Piazza Navona

The final stop on our tour was Piazza Navona. The square is centered around the Fountain of Four Rivers and has the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone as its main attraction. Again, I’m glad we had a guide to explain each. The Fountain of Four Rivers was unfortunately under-construction, but we could still see its’ four figures, each representing a river of each of the four continents (Australia had not yet been discovered and Europeans count North and South America as one). The square also marks the place 12-year-old Sant Agnes refused to marry a pagan and was martyred. A figure of her is at the top of the church. The piazza was a great atmosphere with restaurants surrounding artists selling their drawings. We went back the next day to enjoy our gelato.

The Church

After the tour we went to Piazza de Popolo at sunset. It was beautiful and we could see most of the city of Rome at night. Then after an exhausting day in the sun–our warmest day yet (I wore flip flops and short sleeves) we returned to the hostel for an early night in.

View of Piazza de Popolo at dusk

Me in front of Vatican City

We spent the next day in Vatican City and it was the point in the trip where my exhaustion truly set in. I tried to have coffee  at our hostel “breakfast”, but it tasted weird and burnt. I say “breakfast” because it was yogurt, corn flakes and really thin bread. But hey it saved us 5 euros! Our tour wasn’t until 12:30 but we left the hostel at 9am to explore and because we weren’t exactly sure where to go. It was a pretty long walk from out hostel; we crossed the Tiber River, then walked passed Sant Angelo Castle and eventually made it to Vatican City. I knew Vatican City was separate from Rome, but I was surprised to learn that people who live there even have different passports.  We took photos and spent a little time soaking up the sun in St. Peter’s Square admiring the beautiful basilica.

Inside the Vatican Museum

When it was time for our tour, we were pleased to find that we got to skip the line because we paid in advance once again. The tour took us through the Vatican Museum where we admired lots of art, saw the rooms of Raphael, various tapestries, and sculptures. Two hours later we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. It was beautiful. Sooo much to look at! (We couldn’t take pictures inside, but I did get a postcard). It was really overwhelming, so I’m glad we had a tour guide to explain some of it. After the tour we planned to wait in the insanely long line to see St. Peter’s Basilia….but it was closed to prepare for that evenings Easter Vigil. BUT we had just found out that we had tickets to the Vigil the next night! We were shocked. Shannon had e-mailed to try to reserve tickets, but hadn’t heard back, so we assumed we didn’t get tickets, but when we check at the ticket office, sure enough 3 tickets were waiting for us!

The Roman Forum

But before it was time to see the Pope, we took our second free walking tour, this time of the Roman Forum and Colosseum. This was one of my favorite parts of Rome. Our guide for this tour was much less informative, but it beat being one of the tourists staring at a map, looking for signs…

We again started at the Spanish Steps, then we walked through the most expensive street in Rome, where we saw a Jimmy Choo store. We all wanted to try on shoes so badly (despite not being able to afford them) that we almost left the tour. This tour seemed to be walking at a snail’s pace.  We probably could have seen everything in 30 minutes had our guide picked up the pace. After what seemed like hours of painstakingly slow walking, we arrived in Piazza Venezia, the heart of Rome. In the square is Palazzo Venezia, where Mussolini used to address the people of Rome. Next to that is a beautiful monument called II Vittoriano. However, once we learned it was built in 1911, it seemed less impressive considering its proximity to the Roman Forum, built in the first century.

The Colosseum

After, our guide took us to a great spot that overlooked the forum. There he told us some of its history, but I was a bit distracted looking at all of the ruins. Next, we walked to final destination: the Colosseum. It was really impressive, I loved it. The line to go inside was really long, and it was 12 euros. We didn’t go in because we didn’t want to miss our date with the Pope! I’ve heard from others that it is okay to miss, the outside is impressive enough.

We went home to shower and get ready for Easter Vigil with the Pope. The service started at 9pm,but  the doors open at 7:30, and the line started hours before. By the time we arrived at 6:30 the line wrapped almost all the way around St. Peter’s Square. While waiting in line we grabbed dinner (a pizza sandwich) from a snack stand and took lots of pictures as the sun set. It was beautiful at night. When the doors opened, it was craziness. Once passed security, nuns, priests and normal citizens alike sprinted toward the basilica. It was hilarious. There were tons of chairs set up outside, so we were worried about getting inside to watch. Luckily, everyone in line made it inside; the chairs must have been for the Easter morning service. The inside of St. Peter’s Basilica was absolutely gorgeous. I liked it much more than the Sistine Chapel. I wish I could have had more time to wander through it, but hey we were in for free…and with the Pope! When we sat, our chairs had a candle and an 87-page program. There was one page in English. The majority of the service was in Latin, with one reading in English, Spanish, German, Italian and a few other languages. The singing in Latin was beautiful, despite my lack of understanding.

THE POPE!

We thought the service might last an hour or two….well we were wrong. Two and half hours later, we were 52 pages through the 87 page program. We just couldn’t do it anymore. Let me remind you this was day 9 of an intense sight seeing trip where we woke up early and stayed up late…in hostels. Still, I am so glad we were able to attend. I mean, how many people can say they attended Easter Vigil with the Pope in Vatican City??? What a once in a lifetime experience.

The following day, it was time for the long journey home. We caught the three hour train back to Milan at 10:15, then took the hour bus to Bergamo airport. Then the hour long flight to Girona and the final hour long bus ride to Barcelona. We finally reached our room around 7:30pm. What a day. (It was much cheaper to fly in and out of Milan than Rome)

Italy was such an amazing experience and I have great memories with awesome friends that I will never forget. Now….to lose that gelato, pizza and pasta weight…

For a slideshow of my Rome pictures, click here!

FLORENCE!

Arno River in Florence

Next stop: Firenze. We took the 11:30 train from Venice and arrived in Florence at 1:30pm. Our hostel was about a 5 minute walk from the train station. We had a six bed dorm this time, and when we arrived only the top bunks were left. Six people in one bathroom is A LOT. Luckily, all of our roommates turned out to be really cool and we hung out with them each night. One guy was from Australia, another from Argentina, and two Dutch women. The next day the Dutch women left and a guy from China and a guy from Brazil arrived. Then the Brazilian left and an Australian woman arrived. Lots of diversity in a small room. After setting our stuff down, we were headed for food in the direction of the Duomo.

To be honest, I didn’t know what the Duomo was, so when we arrived I was surprised. It looked fake, almost like it was a painted screen in Hollywood. It was beautiful (yes, I realize I need some more synonyms for pretty ). The line to go in stretched around the plaza and the tour was 16 euros, so we decided we would think about it. We were hungry, so guess what we ate? Yes, more pizza. We grabbed a slice from a snack shop that was much different from the other pizza. This was very saucy pizza with thick crust and spicy pepperoni. Mmmm I loved it.

The Duomo

After we ate, we circled around the huge Duomo in the warm, sunny weather. Then we strolled through the street markets that would eventually steal all of my money. Florence is the place to buy Italian leather and that I did I waited until the last day to make my purchases, but I ended up paying 27 euros for  a bag that one guy tried to charge me 80 for. After seeing stand after stand with the same merchandise we left and saw Piazza San Lorenzo, Pont Vecchio and Piazza Repubblica. Pont Vecchio is a bridge that crosses Arno River; it’s full of shops and tourists. Piazza Repubblica is another large square with restuarants, vendors and a carousel! One thing I love about Europe is all of the squares that you can just sit and enjoy yourself.

The girls on Ponte Vecchio

For dinner, we had more pizza then hung out with our hostel mates because we were so far away from the bars.

The next day was heavily planned. We had purchased museum tickets online in advance in order to avoid the lines, thank goodness. But before we did the museums we decided to get up early and head back to the Duomo to beat the lines. We discovered a different entrance that was without a guided tour and only 8 euros. There were only about 15 people in line in front of us so we got in pretty quickly.  There is no elevator to reach the top of the dome, so we climbed the steep 463 steps to the top.  About half way up, the stairs stop and you can take a closer look at the beautiful ceiling of the dome. Then more stair-climbing…it was exhausting, but the view was so worth it; you could see all of Florence.

Lindsay making it up the 463 stairs

View of Florence from the Duomo

After The Duomo it was time for the Uffizi Gallery. Despite buying our tickets in advance, we had to wait in line about 30 minutes, but it was a lot quicker than the line for those who hadn’t bought tickets early. The Uffizi is a huge art gallery built in 1581, where we saw works of Sandro Botticelli like Venus of Urbino and the Birth of Venus. We also saw the work of Rapheal and countless others. I took an art history class last year at ASU so it was really cool to see some of the art I studied. I definitely appreciated it more than I would have otherwise.

We left the Uffizi after a few hours to grab lunch before our next museum at 4pm. When we walked out someone handed us a flier for a restaurant down the street, so we gave it a try. Second best lasagna I’ve ever had (second to mom and grandma of course). I don’t think I’ve ever ordered lasagna in a restaurant because of moms, but since it was Italy I made the exception and was very happy.

Next up was the Academy Gallery, which houses Michaelangelo’s David. I’m not sure if it was the lighting, or the architecture, or the statue itself, but it was spectacular. I really felt a feeling of “ahhh” when I looked down the hall to see it. It is massive and it’s hard to fathom its creation. Other than the statue of David, the gallery wasn’t too exciting compared to the Uffizi. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in either gallery, but they really wouldn’t do the art justice anyway.

It seems like I’m always talking about food….but Italian is my favorite On our way home, we wanted our daily gelato (yes, daily). But we decided to try something new! We had seen (and smelled!) waffles being made in all of the gelato shops, so rather than getting it in a cone we ordered it on a waffle. We all picture it being a scoop of gelato on a waffle. We were wrong. It was a waffle-gelato sandwich…and it was 8 euros. We know by now that you never order anything in Europe without looking at the price, but for some reason we didn’t this time. As much as I hate to say it, it was worth it. It was sooo good! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you want to look at it) I got a stomachache after and never wanted one again.

Biking in Florence!

The next day we felt like we had seen most of Florence; we debated going to Pisa or Tuscan wine country or renting bikes. We couldn’t find any information on Tuscany, and the train to Pisa was 12 euros, so we decided biking would be fun!  When we left the hostel it was bright and sunny, but by the time I finished my mozzarella and spinach breakfast sandwich there were drops of rain falling.  Undeterred, we found bikes; it was 4 euros for 5 hours….let me just say, 5 hours on a bike is FOREVER. Before we had bikes, we thought Florence seemed like a really bike friendly place, but once on wheels the sidewalks were smaller, the cars were faster and the people were meaner. It turned out to be much more difficult to get out of the city than we imagined. Eventually, after being yelled at by many old Italian women to get off the sidewalk, we found a park. We rode through with other bikers and runners for about two hours. That was all our butts could handle.

San Lorenzo Market

After, we went back to San Lorenzo market to make our final leather purchases: I bought my purse, Shannon bought a bracelet and Lindsay bought a wallet. Then we continued to wander, in search of yes, more food. This time however we NEEDED vegetables. We were carb-ed out. We found a great salad place with a student discount for a 5 euro “make your own” salad. We picked 8 ingredients from a list of about 15. It was delicious and huge! I think it made us all feel a little better in terms of health.

The Synagogue

Later we were wondering some more, a little more out of the touristy zone and found a synagogue. Coincidentally, Lindsay is Jewish, so she got a little of her own religion before being consumed by Catholicism in Rome.

For a slideshow of my Rome pictures click here!

VENICE!

Gondolas in Venice

Next stop: Venezia. It was exactly how I pictured it, bridges, gondolas and couples. When we arrived at the train station we followed our complicated directions to the hostel. They read something like this: “Cross the large white bridge and turn right. Pass one wooden bridge then cross the green bridge. On the right side there will be two white bridges, cross the second….” Well, all of the bridges had stairs to get across, which was not a lot of fun considering I took a rolling suitcase. About 15 minutes and 5-6 bridges later, we arrived. This hostel was exactly what I originally had in mind for a hostel. We went up a tiny staircase above a restaurant to find reception (aka a woman with her two kids on a computer). It turned out to be fine. We shared a room with two Australian 20 year olds  who had taken the year off the travel.

Pesto Pizza

We were starving so we went to the restaurant below our hostel and got 10% off! We just ordered two pizzas to share this time, as they are huge. We had one Pesto Pizza, which might have been my favorite pizza the whole trip, and one with olives, ham, artichoke and mushrooms. Yummmm. It was sunny and felt great to enjoy the pizza outside.

After lunch we tried to find San Marcos Square, the main area with a beautiful basilica. Luckily, Venice is a really nice place to wonder because the signs were really confusing. We wound through several small streets filled with glass shops and gelato stands. The glass jewelry was beautiful, but we were saving up to go to Murano, where the glass is made. We walked through a market, which turned out to lead to Rialto Bridge, Venice’s most popular. It was packed with tourists, but beautiful nonetheless.

San Marco's Basilica

After Rialto Bridge, we finally found San Marcos Square. None of us knew what the basilica looked like a head of time, so we were shocked by its beauty. As we went closer we noticed that its facade was all mosaic. It was incredible and really sparkled in the sun. We spent a little time in the square, but it was crowded with American high school tourists. We wondered out towards Grand Canal, where we strolled for a bit before headed back to the hostel to rest. After a quick nap, we went to a snack bar type place for dinner right by our hostel. Our hostel was located in Campo Santa Margherita, which was surrounded by restaurants and bars. We kept seeing these orangish-pink drinks so I pointed at one to ask what it was and the bartender responded “strong” and called it Grappa. Of course,  Shannon and I each ordered one. But when it came it was not the orange-pink drink, it was clear and about the size of a shot. I explained we wanted the pink one. Shannon took hers, but I managed to switch mine to the other drink, which was a delicious spritzer. Shannon’s looked like vodka and tasted worse than rubbing alcohol. It was meant to be sipped, but she couldn’t, so she plugged her nose and took it like a shot. We were all waiting for its effects because the bartender mentioned how strong it was, but nothing really happened and the rest of the evening was fairly uneventful.

Making glass jewelry

The next day we planned to go to the Murano Glass Blowing Factory. We walked back to San Marco’s Square to catch the boat to the island. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was sort of a “metro-bus” with several stops along the way. Fifty minutes later we arrived in Murano. No one directed us toward the glass factory so we wondered in the direction everyone else did. It was a cute town with a canal down the center and glass shops lining the streets. After a bit of walking we decided we wanted to see the glass being made before we made any purchases. We asked people where it was and they said back by the boat. Eventually we found a little back alley that said it was the factory. I guess it wasn’t what I expected–factory sounds huge, but this was tiny. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and they only do demonstrations for large groups on Sunday so we missed out. However, as we wondered back through the shops, one guy was making glass jewelry in the store! We watched for quite a while, it was really interesting. I decided I would spend my money in this shop since I could see him doing the work. I bought myself a glass ring and a necklace and maybe a few other things for gifts . All of the glass was beautiful; I could have easily spent my life savings in Murano. After shopping we stopped at a cafe to sit in the warm sun and enjoy more pasta.

Grand Canal

When we returned to Venice we decided to start asking how much a gondola ride would cost….everyone told me I better do it while I was there. Well, the first guy started at 80 euros and we bartered down to 50 euros. Since it was the first person we asked we decided to keep looking. The next guy we asked started at 150 euros! I thought he was kidding, but he didn’t think it was funny when we started laughing. He eventually went to 80 euros, but 80 euros??? To ride a boat for 30 minutes?? No, thanks. We skipped it.

Confusing signs in Venice

Venice was beautiful and so relaxing, but the next morning it was time to head to destination number 3: Florence.

For a slideshow of my Venice pictures click here

pizza, pasta, gelato. Repeat.

Couldn't decide what to pack...this is my entire Barcelona closet

ahhh. I’ve just returned from a nine day Spring Break trip to Italy and the thought of blogging about it is exhausting in itself. I ate gelato every day, watched glass blowing in Venice, climbed 463 steps of the Duomo in florence and attended an Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica with the Pope himself. I took 644 pictures, so I’ll try to narrow that down for your viewing I’m going to split up my blogs by city: Milan, Venice, Florence then Rome.

The trip started at 2:30 am on Friday March 26. When booking flights, money is usually the highest priority, no matter how far the airport or how early the departure. We booked our flight from Girona (an hour north of Barcelona) to Bergamo (an hour from Milan) at 6:40 am. This required us to be at the Barcelona bus station (conveniently located accross the street from where I live) at 3:45 am. We expected to be the only people there…wrong. Apparently several people took advantage of the cheap, early flights. We were a little nervous about making it on the bus. We finally reached the front of the line at 3:44 am, bought our tickets, ran to the bus and were the last ones on the 3:45 am bus.  We made it to our flight perfectly on time. I fell asleep before we left ground and was awoken by my head hitting the window as we touched down in Milan. We easily found the bus to take us to the train station where would we catch the metro to our hostel.

Photo Shoot in Milan

Ahh. Easy, successful travel. So we thought. As we were leaving the metro station for our hostel we were approached by the Metro “police” who asked to see our tickets. We showed them and they pulled the three of us aside. In Italglish (their attempt at speaking English and our attempt at understanding Italian) they told us we had purchased the wrong metro ticket and would have to pay the fine of 34 euros (~$50)! WHAT! We bought our metro ticket from a ticket booth, not a machine, how could we have messed up? Apparently, we bought a ticket for outside the city rather than inside the city. (There is a 55 cent different). We explained that we didn’t know and offered to buy the correct ticket despite no longer needing the metro. They refused. What  a scam. Their people sold us the wrong tickets!

Milan Cathedral

Frustrated, we made the walk to our hostel, to find the man at the desk very helpful in telling us things to do in Milan. We tried to forget about our lost money and enjoy the day. We, carefully, took the metro to the main area of the city, Piazza Duomo. We saw the Scala Opera House, one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world.  Then we saw Milan Cathedral, the  worlds 4th largest cathedral that took 5 centuries to complete. It was beautiful with a white and light pink marble exterior.  Unfortunately, we could not go in because it was closed, probably for a Holy Week mass.

Other than the cathedral, Milan seemed dirty, the people weren’t very friendly, we were exhausted from our early morning and it was a rainy, gloomy day. Needless to say, we were ready to head to Venice the next morning. We caught the train at 10:35 am…

Click here for a slideshow of my Milan pictures

Own a company? Start a blog.

In class this week, we discussed corporate blogging. Half the class thought it was a bad idea, while half the class, myself included, thought it was a good idea. After taking a vote, my professor said, ¨Wow, I have a lot of you to convince.¨He clearly thinks it is a good idea.

It seems to me that the hot, new thing is for corporate bosses to be in contact with their people. There is no better way to do this than create a blog to talk with his or her publics rather than to them. Blogs allow the opportunity for feedback and conversation. If a company is making a change, blog about it! That way the people the change will effect have the opportunity to comment and share their feelings.

The best thing about blogs is that they can be anything you want. A corporation could blog about changes, inside information, ideas, history of the company, customer support and more.  If you have something to say, a blog is the place to do it.

For the good, the bad and the ugly for blogs click here.

If you´re looking to improve your corporations appeal, I reccomend starting a blog. Everyone´s doing it. Here are some links to popular corporations blogs.

Google

Ask.com

Britannica