Don't Worry, I didn't Fall or Break, I Just Went on Fall Break!

Boy oh boy, where to begin. Okay so my last post was about Oktoberfest (that feels like forever ago...probably because it was when compared to the timing of all of my previous entries), so now it is time to catch you all up on the happenings of my midterm week and fall break (mostly fall break, I mean who really wants to relive the weeks of little sleep and testing in college?).

The weekend before my midterm week (Oct. 10-12th) was spent in Florence finishing up drawings for my drawing 101 portfolio along with memorizing recipes, painting with oil, and making flashcards like it was my job--on the plus side, I can tell you exactly how to make Lasagna from scratch with chocolate cake for dessert. The week then followed with a lot of late nights and me getting fingerprinted to finish up my "Permesso di Soggiorno" (permit of stay). Aside from all of the testing, my permit of stay had to be the most thrilling aspect of the beginning of the week.

We are all familiar with the lovely DMVs of America. No matter what area of the states you are from, each of us can relate to the grueling wait in the seating area of the DMV only for our number to be called and us find out that we are lacking a crucial stamp or piece of paper for the process to continue. This then results in us retrieving the (seemingly crucial) article only to begin the waiting process again.

Imagine the worst DMV you have ever been to, multiply its size by about three, quadruple the amount of customers, incorporate about four additional languages to your own, and take the wait time and multiply it by three. Welcome to the Permit of Stay office in Florence, Italy. When I arrived, I went up to the main counter where two men were sitting in ticket windows. Seeing as my appointment was at 10:06AM, I arrived at 9:50AM thinking that I was great on time. The men looked at their numerous appointment times and gave me the number "101B". I looked over to the light-up board which was on 79B thinking that it would take no time for my number to be called.

There were a total of 14 booths with 14 simultaneous appointments going on. After a few minutes, I realized that there were 6 different types of numbers, __A, __B, __C, __D, __E, and __F. It seemed as though "B" was also a very uncommonly called number set. So, rather than standing, I took a seat and got ready for my wait. After 2 1/2 hours of waiting, 101B appeared on the board and I was quick to run to booth 11 (because if you don't show up within 20 seconds to your designated window, your number is then skipped). The woman inside of the booth spoke no English so I did my best to speak with her. The total process took 5 minutes. Kinda crazy if you ask me, but either way I got it completed and my stay in Italy "would not be considered illegal" so that was important.

On Thursday after finishing all of our midterms, two of my roommates and another one of our friends decided to go to my cooking professor's cafe. Michele (my professor's name pronounced Mick-elle-ay) personally invited me, and whatever friends I wanted to bring, to "Bahia Cafe" every Thursday for the semester to eat with him and all of his closest friends and drink wine for only 10 euros a person (those unfamiliar with euros, this is VERY inexpensive). We got to eat with Michele who cooked all of the delicious food we ate and we enjoyed one last meal in Italy for a while before our fall break the following morning...it is now an ongoing thing on Thursdays. That night we all finished getting packed and went to bed before our early flight the next morning.

Fall Break: A Compilation of Numerous Adventures

Day 1:

So, on Friday, October 17th, Krista, Natalie, Nina and I got up and got to the Santa Maria Novella train station bright and early. As soon as we got there, we had to get a taxi to the airport which was our easiest option. We got to the airport which was totally empty and checked in. Our flight was through Vueling airlines so once we got our tickets printed, we had to go through security. You would think that after carrying my nalgene with me everywhere that I would remember to drink all of the water inside of it before going through security, but I didn't. After drinking all 32 ounces of water, I got through security without any problems. Our flight was a little bit more than an hour and a half which was a piece of cake when compared to all of the bus traveling I  have been used to, plus I got a window seat...who doesn't love that?

When we landed, we got off of the plane in Barcelona and it was a gorgeous 22ish degrees Celsius (upper 70s-low 80s). We got to baggage claim and then purchased our tickets for a bus ride into the center of the city. Once we were dropped off at the city center, we had to walk to our hostel which was about a 20 minute trek through Catalonia (the area of Barcelona we were staying in). Once we found Equity Point Hostel, we checked into our 18-person mixed dorm. We dropped off our stuff and grabbed a quick hotdog before our free walking tour around Barcelona.

Our tour guide, Poppy, was super energetic and a lot of fun to listen to. She took us through many different landmarks in Barcelona and was very well-informed on everything. At the completion of the tour, we decided to head back towards the hostel, look around, and grab some food before heading to Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batillo. While we were looking around, we found an original Espadrille shop where all of the shoes are handmade. It was pretty cool to see all of the work that went into a single pair of shoes. I was even able to translate for one of my friends and an employee of the shop (all those years of Spanish DID come in handy).

The Espadrille Shop

The Espadrille Shop

Once we got to Casa Batillo, we showed our tickets and started walking through the fabulous piece of architecture created by Gaudi. Words cannot describe how talented Gaudi was and I felt honored to be able to see this masterpiece. The pictures of his work just do not do it justice.

Inside of Casa Batillo!

After Casa Batillo, we grabbed some food at a tapas restaurant and lets just say that it was not the most pleasant of experiences. My food was delicious, I got a burger with goat cheese and asparagus, but some of my friends' food could have been better and the service was below sub-par, and the sangria wasn't all that great. But it was a learning experience and that is what is important.

Following dinner, we headed back to the hostel where we met a guy in our room named "Ash" (maybe Ashe or Asche or Asch...I didn't ask him the spelling obviously). He was from an island off of Spain but studying in England and spending the weekend in Barcelona where a couple of his friends were studying and teaching. He invited us to go out with him and his two friends and so we did and it was a really fun time. When we got back to the hostel, we fell asleep immediately.

All of us at the bar we went to that night

Day 2:

Saturday morning we woke up and ate the free breakfast provided to us by the hostel. Then we got tickets to the metro and headed to Sagrada Familia, (a very popular church in Barcelona whose architect was Antoni Gaudi). Sagrada Familia has been under continuous construction since 1882 and it is still not finished. Builders are carrying out Gaudi's plans to completion...that may give some perspective into the amount of detail this church has.

 

Sagrada Familia is really that awesome

All of us in front of Sagrada Familia!

Cast model of the finished Sagrada Familia

Once we arrived at Sagrada Familia, I was completely overwhelmed with its beauty. Pictures could never do it justice, there are no words to describe its magnificence, and the amazing part is that its not even close to being done. How amazing. I sat in awe just trying to absorb everything and even that was hard. We spent a total of 3 1/2 hours just looking around the inside and outside of the building and boy was it amazing.


Following Sagrada Familia, we grabbed lunch at the local farmer's market that was going on. We went to a tent where a woman was making crepes in front of us. I ordered a ham, egg and cheese crepe and yes, it was as good as it sounds. We ate our crepes and sat in the park for a while while we waited for our tickets to be valid time-wise for Park Guell. (Another one of Gaudi's works...the dude was incredible). After about a mile walk to the bus station, we took a bus up to the top of the mountain where Park Guell was located. The park, just like the rest of Gaudi's work was incredible. This was also the location of Gaudi's home for the final years of his life. I really enjoyed his design choices.

On top of Park Guell

Park of the Farmer's Market

Because I just love dogs

My "room" in Equity Point Hostel

Following our visit to Park Guell, we headed back to Catalonia and hung out at the hostel for a while (we were all pretty tired from the day). We left the hostel to grab food at the farmer's market that was going on out in front of the Cathedral in Catalonia. I ate this delicious potato-like food called "falafel" and also some beef food (that I can not remember the name of...oops!). There, we ran into a woman named Marlena, in her late twenties, who had studied abroad in Florence during her college years. We talked about our trip and she gave us a ton of helpful hints on things to do and places to go while we were on our adventure including a VERY popular restaurant in Paris named "Steak and Fries". We spoke with her for about an hour or so and then went back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, we were all so tired that we ended up sleeping from about 10pm through until the following morning!

Day 3

Sunday morning saw Krista and Natalie off on their own adventures while Nina and I woke up at about 10am and were ready to head off to the beach. We google mapped the location of the beach relative to our hostel while we were at breakfast and then, we were off! Since the beach was only about a mile or so from the hostel, we quickly got changed and then headed to the coast. (Side note--during our tour with Poppy, she told us that the beach at Barcelona was not originally there, in fact, the port had primarily been used for commercial usage. Barcelona had to call on over to Egypt in order to ask for some sand...so thats pretty cool!)

Nina and I were very very excited to be at the beach. We ended up arriving at 11AM and finding the perfect spot to lay out. One thing that was shocking to me and downright bombardment, was the onslaught of men (and women) walking along the beach-goers try to sell goods and services. For five hours I heard "cervesas, cold beer, mojitos" every few minutes, and I could replicate it for you perfectly. Also, as I was laying out, one of the men (selling henna tattoos) came up to me--while I was clearly sleeping--and kicked my foot asking if I was Hannah Montana...not sure how I should feel for being directly compared to Miley Cyrus or for the fact that Europeans are really very bad at celebrity look-alikes. (If you recall Jennifer Lopez my first night in Italy along with a whole combination of much shorter and ethnically differing individuals).

After we finished at the beach, we headed back to the hostel hoping to find Natalie and Krista. Once we got there, we ran into them. After discussing things, we decided that since we had to be up and leave for the airport at 4AM, that we would take a nap and then enjoy a night out in Barcelona and head straight to the airport. (Looking back, not our brightest idea to pull an all-nighter). We left the hostel at midnight and walked to the beach clubs. After about a mile to mile and a half walk, we arrived at the club...which was not very full. Called Opium, we were surprised when they asked for our I.D.s because this has never happened in Europe. After dancing some, we migrated to another club along the beach. At 2:45AM we left the clubs and walked back to the hostel. We got changed and ready to make the three quarters of a mile walk to the central square in order to catch the bus to the airport. As soon as we got there, we couldn't find the correct stop so I tried to look for a taxi driver. I asked him where bus stop thirteen was and he gave me directions and told me when to expect it (need I mention that the entire conversation was in Spanish? because it was...and I felt awesome).

After the 50 minute ride to the airport, we got checked in to ryanair's counter. My backpack weighed in at 8 kg. For those of you familiar with my normal packing habits, you will be shocked to find that the limit for a carry-on bag is 10kg and I only packed 8kg for my 10 day trip...so yeah, that happened. We got to security and I took off my shoes/backpack/phone and everything of the sort. After my bag was scanned, the not-so-lovely gentleman at security asked for me to open my bag. I gladly did and he went on to investigate. As he was eying-up my, clearly lethal, bottle of Peter Thomas Roth face wash I was putting my boots back on. He then looked at me and in a series of hand signals and broken English shook his head at me and threw it into the trash. Granted I was not as alert as normal but I just wasn't ready to argue with him about the importance of a good skin-care regimen and so I gave him a furrowed brow and walked away. We waited for our plane to begin boarding in gate 22 as we tried to not snooze off.

Finally, we boarded the plane and began the next leg of our trip. (For those possibly studying abroad in the future, know that Ryanair is cheap but you certainly get what you pay for. It also has THE worst rated customer service in the airline industry).

Day 4

We arrived in Paris at about 8:30AM on Monday morning (after about an hour of sleep on the plane). We all picked up our bags and then headed outside in search of a taxi. After waiting in line for one, we got a ride to the train station where we had to take a train into the Gare du Nord station which would put us about a mile and a half from our air b&b apartment. Once we arrived at the train station, we had to figure out how to print our tickets because the ticket machine wasn't working. Thank goodness Krista speaks very good French because the man at the ticket window did not speak any English. After about 10 minutes of explanation and Natalie, Nina and I standing behind Krista like hopeless puppies, we were able to get our tickets printed. The ride to Gare du Nord went by quickly and we then went to look for a taxi. We found out that taxis for the four of us would have been about 75 Euros (a little less than $100)...it was then decided that we were young and strong and 75 Euros was not worth the money, even if we WERE all very tired.

After getting a map, we finally found the location of the apartment and we were off. The air b&b that we ended up staying in was owned by a man named Marco who was a native Italian in his late twenties. When we got there we never saw him (thats how air b&bs work, you normally do not end up meeting the individual who owns the property) but his place was absolutely perfect for our stay.

We all got settled in and took like a thirty minute break before we were headed off to look around. (yep, thats 3-0...it was a very short-lived break). After leaving the apartment, we thought that using the metro system would be a waste of money since we are used to Florence where you can basically walk anywhere (one of our greatest downfalls of the day by far). Our first stop was looking at the facade of Notre Dame. We then headed to Sainte Chapelle where we tested the tip that I had been given about all museums in Paris. Sure enough, all of the museums in Paris are free to students studying abroad in the European Union (that was a life-saver). Sainte Chapelle was gorgeous. It was undergoing a lot of restoration work while we were there so the rose window was not visible, however, the other windows were incredible.

Love Lock Bridge <3

Singing in the Rain, of course!

No caption needed!

Sainte Chapelle

We left Sainte Chapelle and headed back to Notre Dame to go inside. Notre Dame was also quite beautiful and the detail of the building was humbling. We finished up at Notre Dame and then went to Shakespeare's bookstore, which is a famous bookstore in Paris where travelers can work for their stay (it was really cool). We grabbed some food and then decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower. For those unfamiliar with the layout of Paris...as I was...the Eiffel Tower is 2.4 miles from Notre Dame. We finally got to the Eiffel when it was dark and boy was she a beaut. The 12+ mile day was wearing heavily on our VERY tired bodies so we purchased a metro ticket and took it all the way to our apartment. After a quick dinner of a glass of wine, some brie and part of a baguette, I was off to bed.

Day 5

Today being a Tuesday, we were unaware of what the crowds would be like at so we wanted to be sure that we would get to Versailles early enough to beat everyone. After purchasing a day pass for the metro (SO worth it), we took the train to by the Eiffel Tower and then the RCR to Versailles. We arrived at the golden gates at 9:30AM where the entrance again was free! Versailles was breathtaking. No other way to describe it. The weather at the beginning of the day was perfectly fall. We saw all of the rooms inside and then headed out into the famous gardens of Versailles where we explored.

The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

Inside the Gardens of Versailles

After the gardens, we decided to exit the Versailles gardens and continue to explore the surrounding land where we got to check out Marie Antoinette's house (she had a pretty sick kitchen), and a few other buildings. On our walk back, a torrential down pour/windy storm/minor hurricane decided to bombard us. Everyone who decided to pay for the shuttle service was laughing and taking pictures as we were running and laughing at ourselves through the storm.

The five hour trip to Versailles was great and we then decided to take the metro to the Arc de Triumph. Lets just say that Napoleon really was very full of himself. We then stopped in a little cafe to give our legs a break and I ordered some French Onion Soup...it was so very good. I then purchased a raspberry boure-- the kind you find in a...Paris (for those who got that reference, you deserve a high-five). We then walked up this big long hill to get to Sacre Coeur (a very cool church in Paris). We spent some time there and then decided to go back to the apartment and relax a little bit before getting dinner.

Panoramic at Sacre Coeur

For dinner, we went to the Steak and Fries place that Marlena had mentioned to us in Barcelona. Sure enough, this place was very popular and had a following. When we arrived, we had to get to the back of the line behind about 20 people to wait to get inside. The wait was about an hour and it was so worth it, in fact, this restaurant doesn't even have a menu. When you are there, the only thing the waitress will ask you is how you want your steak cooked.

Steak and Fries

Dessert

The four of us split a bottle of wine and then we were given amazing steak slathered in truffle sauce with thin-cut french fries...it hit the spot like five times more than anything I have had before it. For dessert, we split this strawberry meringue concoction that was amazing as well. Totally unforgettable.

Following dinner, which ended at about 11:45...they eat dinner very late in Europe, we headed back to the apartment and then got ready for bed.

Day 6

We all woke up very early in hopes of getting to the Louvre and beating all of the lines. Leaving the apartment at 7:20AM set us up perfectly to buy our metro pass for the last day in Paris and get to the secret entrance to the Louvre, located inside of a mall, at about 8:30AM. After about a 30 minute wait, we got our bags checked and headed into the grandest museum I have ever seen. The amount of artwork contained inside of the Louvre is so much that if you were to spend just 10 seconds on each piece of work in the museum, it would take you a little over three months time to see everything. We didn't have three months but six hours did the trick for us and even then we were exhausted.

Inside of Versailles

So these were pretty awesome

Its the Mona Lisa!

Venus de Milo

The Seated Scribe

I really liked this painting of Jesus

Outside of the Louvre

The four of us left the Louvre at 2PM and headed to Musee d'Orsay. Another fine museum, this was much smaller and contained more contemporary art...even still, that was a 2 hour adventure. Following Musee d'Orsay, Nina and I went back to the apartment and relaxed and made some dinner while Natalie and Krista headed to the Pompidou (another modern art museum). That night we all showered and got packed up and ready to walk to the train station at 5:20AM the following morning to get to the last leg of our trip, Amsterdam.

The original Tebow

I mean how could you not?

Arc de Triumph

 

 

 Day 7

On Thursday, we arrived to the train station at 5:45AM after our long walk in order to catch our 6:20AM train ride to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Natalie, Krista, and Nina got their tickets taken care of at the station while I waited with my pre-printed ticket to get onto the train. I sat with Natalie and Nina while Krista's seat was in another train car. The (roughly) two hour train ride went by quickly and we got dropped off at the Amsterdam Central Station. The ten minute walk to St. Christopher's hostel was a breeze compared to all of the walking that we had been doing in Paris and we were glad it was somewhat small.

Flowers in Amsterdam are perfect

After dropping our bags off, we went to a restaurant where my friends grabbed some breakfast and we all got to chill before checking into the hostel. We did a little bit of exploring and walking along canals before we could check in at 2PM. St. Christopher's hostels are probably the nicest hostels I have EVER been to. The best comparison would be a hotel with a couple of roommates. When we came back to our rooms at the end of the day our beds were made, and the trash was taken out and everything...it was great!

We all relaxed for a little bit before we headed to get some food on the go and then go to Anne Frank's house. Sadly no photography was allowed in Anne Frank's house but it was a pretty neat experience to be able to see where the Franks lived. I even got to touch the bookcase in the back of the house that served as the door to the secret passageway for the family. (it was really really cool). I also got to see the real diary itself and that experience hit home pretty hard.

The canals are beautiful!

While we had been waiting in line for the Anne Frank house, we were approached by the promoter of the BOOM Chicago comedy club in Amsterdam. The comedy club was having a show at 8:30pm (in English) on the 7 deadly sins of dutch people. While we didn't get ALL of the inside jokes, we were able to get quite a few and it was pretty cool to be able to get VIP tickets for 20 Euros a piece rather than the normal 70 Euro price. Following the show, we were all again very tired and we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

 Day 8

On Friday, we got to sleep in some (FINALLY) and eat breakfast at our hostel...which I was again surprised with the quality of this aspect of the hostel. After eating, we grabbed our stuff and headed to Mike's Bike Tours for our 24km tour through the Amsterdam countryside. The weather was rainy and cold and windy so it certainly wasn't the best combination for a bike tour but we made our own fun. Biking is a very common thing in Amsterdam, so much so that the local authorities pulled out over 15,000 bikes out of the canals last year...now THAT is saying something.

The middle of the tour marked our visit to Rembrandt farm. Here, we met a very happy farmer who spoke every language you can imagine, makes delicious cheese, and also carves clogs. (Quite the combination, huh?) At the end of our tour, we went into his shop and he then proceeded to tell me to turn around and stand still....yeah super weird, I know, but I did it. And this was the result....




















He then very proudly told me I was just like Whoopi. Yep, Goldberg. As you can see, that seems to be quite true.

This is Bonita. She is a windmill that is over 300 years old and she is in GREAT SHAPE!

Lovin the ensemble? WE WERE TOO (mostly because it kept us very warm)

 Following the bike tour, we went back to the hostel and took some time to chill out. We then woke up and grabbed some stir-fry for dinner and took it back to the hostel to relax again (the weather really took it out of us that day, okay?). We got up at about 10PM and went to a couple of different bars just to check out the nightlife of Amsterdam before leaving in the morning.  We got to bed at about 2AM and got packed up to leave the next morning.

Day 9

All of us woke up and ate breakfast at the hostel and left to see the I AMsterdam sign before leaving for the airport. At 8AM we took about a 20 minute walk to the sign across the city and got pictures before checking out of our hostel and saying goodbye to Amsterdam and our fall break.

We got back to the hostel at 10AM and made sure that all of our stuff was packed up. All of us then left the hostel at 10:30AM to walk to the train station. Our 20 minute train ride to the airport went by quickly and the airport was a piece of cake. Security and everything went phenomenally well and we were early to our gate. we boarded the plane at 11:20AM in Amsterdam and then landed in Pisa at 1PM. (This flight through transavia was much more comfortable and I spent the time writing in my journal.)

Once we touched down in Pisa, we got our bags from baggage claim and then got on a 6 Euro bus for an hour and a half train ride to Florence. We got to Florence and I dropped my stuff off at our apartment and then headed to the boathouse to get in a workout. All of us then went to this amazing and authentic Panino place, on Via de Neri where the people behind the counter literally only speak Italian, and got these delicious Panini that were out of this world.

On Sunday morning I woke up and went to the boathouse where I got in some brief cardio and a lifting session and prepared for Zach to visit during the week. My next blog post will cover his visit and all of our fun adventures, so get ready and thanks for reading!

Highs and Lows of Break:

Highs: 

The food in Barcelona is awesome, Sagrada Familia was gorgeous, Paris is an Art-Lover's paradise, I have noticed that studying abroad truly has given me so much more perspective on the world and life experience than anything that I could find sitting inside of a classroom, and I would not have wanted to spend my break with any other group of people.

Lows: 

Lack of sleep tends to get the best of me, I still feel like there is SO MUCH left to explore in every place I went, I wish that I could take my experiences and just share them with all of my loved ones because they are simply indescribable, and the amount that I miss my teammates, my boyfriend, my family, my friends, and my school is kinda crazy. I realized that I only get six more weeks here so I MUST make them count.