It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

The morning after the long walk to McDonald's with no success, most of my roommates relaxed during the day and hung around the apartment. When I woke up at about 10am, we had a meeting with one of the representatives from our school and I went to the boathouse to get in a good workout and be able to relax. After some good cardio, I came back to our place, napped, and my roommates and I went to Conad to grab some groceries. We decided on making pizza, although we never really thought about the fact that the Barilla Pizza Kits would be in Italian (imagine that)...so we spent about 45 minutes online looking for the directions in English. Finally, we found the directions, in English, on Pinterest, pinned by a British woman. It was not the usual, pasta, and I can honestly say that the pizza was delicious. We got fresh mozzarella, pesto, vodka sauce, and vegetables. We had leftover pasta and so one pizza became vodka sauce pizza with penne noodles tossed in pesto sauce with mozzarella on top and the other had vegetables, mozzarella, and prosciutto. Natalie, Krista and I were quite impressed with our creation, but then again, how can you mess up pizza?

Natalie and I eating the Penne tossed in pesto

 

Have you ever seen two better-looking pizzas?

After dinner, Nina came over and her, Krista and I decided (very late might I add) that we would take a spur of the moment trip on Saturday to Pisa. After doing some research, we came to the conclusion that Pisa only had its most famous attraction and so we also decided that we would stop by Lucca that day too. Lucca is not known for anything particularly significant but it is a beautiful little town that is only a 20 minute train ride from Lucca so why not? We left for Pisa from the Santa Maria Novella train station at 9:05AM. The train ride took about an hour and twenty minutes and we arrived in Pisa. Sure enough, if you are ever curious as to what all is in Pisa, it is the leaning tower. That's it. We walked around by the leaning tower with tourists upon tourists doing the same pose and expression for every selfie and photo you can think of. I tried photo-bombing, and was quite successful.

Clearly I was strong enough to hold up this building

Me, Krista, and Nina in Pisa

I like my men with rock-hard abs

I was able to get a lot of shots with my GoPro on my trip this day, I would highly, highly suggest a GoPro to anyone that is interested in the ability to take selfies in any situation.

Oh hey there, leanin' tower

We wandered around Pisa for a while and then we got on the train again for our 20 minute ride to Lucca. Once we arrived in Lucca, we were overwhelmed by the city walls surrounding the entirety of the city itself. We were all hungry so we stopped by a local Trattoria (cafe/restaurant in Italy) for some lunch. There, I had the absolute best Pasta a la Bolognese that I believe I will ever have in my life. The handmade pasta and Bolognese sauce certainly hit the spot. After, we explored Lucca a little bit before our train back to Florence (Firenze). We found a huge annual farmer's market was going on and it was really really cool. I guess I didn't realize that pumpkins were a thing in Italy, but believe me, they are. I don't speak very much Italian, but it was quite clear that there was a competition for the largest pumpkin, and these things were massive!

 

These things were absolutely HUGE

We tried to do this new thing where we take a video at every new place we go saying basically the same thing. So that's what that is.

Before leaving for Florence again, we were all very excited that there was a free bathroom, (going to a public restroom in Europe almost always costs money...), but we were all very shocked at what we found. I will just let the picture do it justice. When we got back to Firenze, we were all tired so we went to bed. On Sunday, we worked on homework in the apartment, I went rowing, and then Krista and I went to explore Florence. We ran into a red carpet event that was going on, a concert for Andre Bocelli, where we were kindly asked to take a picture of a beautiful couple. We found Piazza de Michelangelo and after climbing a mountain, its views were so absolutely incredible. We were also able to do some writing in our respective journals at the Santa Croce (gorgeous as well).  

Santa Croce

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Fountain of Neptune

Panorama at Piazza de Michaelangelo

  

Monday was pretty dull. I went to class, got food at the Mercado Centrale, went rowing, and then relaxed. Florence can not always be rainbows and butterflies and I have begun to experience some FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) recently so it has been difficult. I do not want to sound ungrateful because I am so so so happy to be here but missing out is certainly difficult. Tuesday was really busy as usual. Cooking class was fun though! We learned how to make some awesome Risotto con Salsiccia and homemade Hazelnut cake with our cooking uniforms...delicious! I went rowing after class and then chilled at the apartment. Wednesday was one of my friends' 21st birthday, and conveniently T-Pain his very first concert ever in Florence, at Club Space, so we all went of course!

Hazelnut cake preparation

 On Thursday, I had my usual Graphic Design course from 9AM-2:30PM. I really enjoy that class. Then, I went rowing, showered, packed, scarfed down some dinner, and headed for the bus for my 12 hour ride to Split, Croatia. (12 hours is crazy, I know, but it is Croatia, come on) -- Also, for those who were concerned about my safety (my family especially), Croatia is 96%  Roman Catholic, and not Muslim. There was a civil war that occurred there roughly 10 years ago in the north, I was in the south, I was safe.-- My hostel was located in Dioklecijan's Palace which dates back to the 5th century (can you say AMAZING?!)...where Game of Thrones was being filmed as I was there!! When we arrived on Friday, I decided to go white-water rafting on the Cetina River (come on, we all know I would do that). We spent most all of the day rafting and cliff jumping and it was really very very awesome.

Nina, Me, and Krista in our wetsuits

Mid-Rafting Shot

Cliff jumping happened, much to the chagrin of some of my relatives, and it was so so worth it. We got to go through a natural waterfall and drink water from the Cetina River. Afterwards, we had a local Croatian lunch of cod, potatoes, wine, and bread. I have never had the experience of eating a whole fish before, but that happened. Once we got back to the hostel, we showered, relaxed and hung out. At about 9PM, we went out to look for some dinner. We found a pizza place and I can honestly say that Croatian pizza is far better than Italian pizza. Afterwards, we found a local pub and it was jammin. We met a guy named Nick who was from an area of Michigan where Nina was close to! He invited us to come back on Saturday night too and he would show us around. 

On Saturday morning, we woke up, ate the free breakfast provided to us, and then we waited for an island-hopping trip through the Adriatic Sea to a couple different islands of Croatia. It was breath-taking to see all of the different land there and the water was a blue color that seemed almost unreal.

Nina, Krista and I on the island-hopping cruise

I got to use my GoPro for some awesome shots again and it was a lot of fun. While island-hopping, the chef on the boat cooked us lunch and I had the cod again (only this time I felt like a pro because I had done it before). We had lunch, and headed back to our hostel where we were able to shower and relax some more before we found food for dinner. We got a Mediterranean wrap made with pizza crust (SO GOOD) and then headed back to get changed for the night. We got changed and then headed out into Deoklecijan's palace where a restaurant had its doors open with live music playing. The performer was playing "Rollin' on the River" and "Stand By Me" ...not simultaneously of course, that would be quite difficult.

Nina, Me, and Krista at Krka National Park

Nina, Krista and I thought, "What the heck?!" so, we decided to dance in the middle of Deoklecijan's Palace, under the stars to Stand By Me and a few other popularized American songs, with a couple other people while tons of people watched. It was pretty surreal...I mean, I, Katie Williams, was just dancing in this building that dates back to the 5th century with two great friends and an Englishman (He proudly announced this during a song and followed it with a 'Yeehaw') IN CROATIA.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful...Croatia

After a few more songs, we decided to head back to the pub where we each got a stein of beer and hung out with Nick again from the previous night, as well as two German guys that we met, Alexander and Ernie. It was very very fun. The next morning at 8AM, we left Split, Croatia to head back to Italy. On the way back, we stopped by Krka National Park where we got to see some incredible waterfalls and great scenery. Then, we got back onto the bus to get to Florence. We crossed through Slovenia where we had our passports checked (Another stamp in my Passport!), and then we promptly arrived in Florence at 12AM. Needless to say, it was a long weekend, but one that I will honestly cherish forever.

More Fun Facts about Florence:

1. The Euro will make you feel like you have no money when compared to the Croatian Kuna.

2. Croatians are much nicer than I expected.

3. Italian rowing unis are much more comfortable than American unis.

4. I saw a nude beach in Croatia. You don't want to see it. 

5. Sunscreen costs the equivalent of about 25 dollars in Italy. Be grateful.

6. It took me 5 hours to load all of the pictures and video in this blog because the wifi in Italy is very slow. If you didn't read all of this, please do so.

7. I am so grateful for people that follow my story, so thanks for that.

8. Croatian Pizza, Seafood, and potatoes....BOMB.

9. If you ever meet Marco, our white-water rafting instructor in Croatia, do not mention my boat, he was quite annoyed with us.

10. Lastly, go. Just go travel and do whatever you can to do it while you still have time. I have learned more about myself in the past three weeks when compared to the same amount of time in the States.

The water in Croatia really is this blue...

At the Pub in Croatia (I now have that Stein)