Viva Madrid, Holy Toledo, and Hello Athens!

After settling into our hostel on Tuesday, we waiting for Francisco to pick us up for dinner. Here is a brief history for those of you who don’t know about Francisco.

Francisco’s dad, Frank, was a foreign exchange student for my dad’s family many eons ago. Frank is from Spain and married Marinez who is from Brazil. They raised their family of four kids (Paula, Carolina, Gabby, and Francisco) in Portugal. When I was growing up, Frank and Marinez would send their kids to the US for a month in the summer and they would stay with us. I don’t really remember when the girls came to visit, but I was 9 when Francisco (who was 15 at the time) came so I have a few memories. Francisco, since 2010, has moved to Madrid. I contacted him and he offered to take us to he favorite tapas place.

We went to a fantastic restaurant that put all our other tapas experiences to shame. Everything was delicious and catching up with Francisco was so much fun (and slightly embarrassing- his main memory of me is my love for Harry Potter and Spyro the Dragon video games.) It was so nice seeing a familiar face since. 

Ten bucks says my mom puts this picture on our refrigerator 

Wednesday was cold! We bundled up and spent the first part of the day on a three and a half hour walking tour of the city. We hit all the major sights (plazas Mayor, Sol, and della Villa, the Cathedral, the Moorish Wall, the Palace, and Cervantes’ home). We stopped in the middle for a quick break, and Kate, Michelle and I went to the world famous Chocolateria San Gines. There are pictures all over the interior of famous people enjoying churros con chocolate. We couldn’t resist and it was one of the better choices we made on the trip,

Cathedral of Madrid and remains of the Moorish Wall

Mmmm chocolate con churros

After the tour we spent the day out of the cold booking our tickets to Toledo for the next day, perusing the stores near Plaza del Sol for some warmer clothes, and staying bundled up in our quite fridged hostel. It was a shame the weather wasn’t on our side, but after three and half hours on our feet, a low key night was appreciated.

Thursday was almost spent entirely in Toldeo, a Mideival city outside Madrid. We wandered the streets that reminded us a lot of Carcasonne, had a lovely lunch, and went in the Cathedral. Inside were works by Raphael, Goya, Titian, Valasquez, and El Greco. It our vast (and slightly snobby) knowledge of Renaissance with the dark style of Spainsh painters. On a side note: I found more thimbles in Toledo than I think I have ever seen in my life. All shapes, sizes, styles, and materials.  I found a precious one in the shape of a flamenco dancer. It was thimble heaven! Our feet hurt, but it was a day well spent.

TOLEDO!  

Lots of knights, swords, and thimbles (how medieval?)

Cathedral of Toledo. 

A bit drizzly, but still a good time.

When we got back to Madrid, we made a quick visit to La Reina Sofia- the modern art museum. I was kind of overwhelmed. IT was fun seeing works from Picasso and Dali, but I had no idea what I was looking at half the time. It was weird looking at art that wasn’t made in the 15^th to 16^th century.
We spent the night packing. But we managed to have some fun.  The front desk guy at the hostel told us to play futbol in our room,  but we decided to go bowling instead with water bottles and rolled up socks. (picture to come-stay tuned!)

Today was spent entirely en-route to Athens. The airline was amazing! They gave us candy, played a movie, gave us lunch, coke, and two rounds of coffee! I was mega impressed!

We took a cab to the Marble Stadium to meet Jean. It's right next to our campus and you can see the Parthenon from it. We walked the few blocks to our apartment, got settled in, and went out for our first gyro (yummmm) with Shannon and Jesika. Now for a  weekend of getting to know my new city! 

View of the Parthenon from my new campus. I could get used to this.

The Beginning of My Flamenco Dancing Career

Sevilla was incredible! We got in Sunday night, and checked into our super cool hostel (a five hundred year old former Jewish family's home!). We grabbed some tapas (and made friends with a tiny chocolate lab the man at the table next to us set on our table) and wandered the streets.

Puppy! 

 Monday afternoon was spent on another free walking tour. Our tour guide was a bit rough, but the city was super interesting. We learned all sorts of triva: Sevilla buildings must be shades of Gold (like the sand in the bull fighting arena), red (like the bull's blood), or blue (like the sky). We saw the arena, the river, Torre de Oro (the Gold Tower), Parliment, Plaza de España, and the former tobacco factory (the setting of the opera Carmen) that is now the University of Sevilla.

Bull Fighting Arena 

Torre de Oro 

Plaza de España

After the tour, we checked out the Cathedral of Sevilla. It is the third largest cathedral after St. Peter’s in Vatican City and St. Paul’s in London (we unfortunately missed that one). It was indeed quite large and extravagant. Even after seeing tons of Churches during our stay in Rome, this one still managed to take my breath away. One interesting feature is one of the six “official” tombs of Christopher Columbus. We climbed the Giralda tower. Before it was transformed into a bell tower, it was a mosque. Each day, five different times, a person would have to go to the top of the tower and to signal it was time to pray. Because this person would be terribly exhausted if it were stairs, the tower is mostly ramps, and the messenger would ride a donkey up and down so he could save his breath for yelling. The tower allowed us a fantastic view of Sevilla.

 

Christopher Colubus' Tomb

Climbed it! 

We hit up a grocery store for sandwich supplies. We went to the terrace of our hostel and had a nice dinner watching the city light up! After dinner we wandered around looking for (and failing to find) churros (a Spanish dessert- basically fried bread). We then got all dolled up for our nightlife tour with our guide from earlier. This included a fantastic flamenco show featuring a singer, a guitar player, and a dancer named Sophie. It was incredible. My eyes kept going between the guitar player’s furiously playing fingers and Sophie’s feet.  

Watching the city light up: Dinner and a Show 

Sophia and Her Fancy Footwork

We've just arrived in Madrid after a 3 hour train ride, and we have gotten all settled into our new hostel (fun fact: our room for just us three is so big, we could fit two of our last 6-person rooms in Sevilla inside of it. The guy at the reception told us we could play soccer if we wanted...) Let's see what Madrid has in store for us! 

Wait… I thought we were in Spain.

Barcelona was a strange place. We were so excited to finally use our 4 or more years of Spanish, only to discover Barcelona’s official language is Catalan. The region of Catalonya is fiercely independent from Spain. IT basically has wanted to secede for ages. We knew it would be different, but I don’t think any of us realized it would be illegible and nearly impossible to decipher (there are Xs randomly put in their words!)

Saturday we took advantage of a free walking tour.  Our tour guide, a British guy named Chris, took us all over the Medieval and Roman (we felt right at home) parts of the city. We learned about the Catalan identity, Barcelona’s history, and the current Barcelonan identity. Subjects of interest include: St. Eulalia, Christopher Columbus, Hairy Wilfred, and St George. Chris was super cool and his tour was tremendously refreshing compared to Jan’s History class and Paolo’s Renaissance Art classes. 

 Chris talking about Christopher Columbus

After the tour and lunch, we went to check out the Sacrada Familia- the famous cathedral. I had seen it in pictures, but up close it kind of looked like a melting fudgecicle dipped in trix cereal. It is brown with drooping decorations and on the top of the towers there are brightly colored fruits. It is a super bizarre structure. We then went to Montjuic to see the Magic Fountain show. It started off kind of lame (just some water changing levels to random elevator type music), but once it got darker my attention was captivated: they started playing Circle of Life from the Lion King. They proceeded to do an entire Disney tribute- in Catalan! IT WAS AWESOME!  It was really fun seeing all the little kids jumping around and dancing.

The Sacrada Familia kinda looks like it's melting

Magic Fountain

On our way back to the hostel, we decided to check out the old Bull Fighting Arena in the Spanish Plaza. Bull fighting was recently outlawed, so the old arena in all its splendor was converted into a huge shopping mall!!! It was SO COOL!  The view from the top was incredible, and it had a gym, tons of restaurants, and even a movie theater. It was the Barcelona version of the Mall of America.

The Mall!

Sunday didn’t give us much time to explore Barcelona, since our train left at 3:50 for Seville. We put what time we had to good use. After breakfast, we ventured to Güell Park.  It was huge, and the views of the city were incredible! There were tons of cool buildings, walls, and sculptures with mosaics on the facades. It was cool to just roam around for a while until it was time to catch our train.  Let’s hope our Spanish actually can be put to use in Seville!

View of Barcelona from Güell Park

Lizard sculpture was so hard to find! 

Arrivaderci Italia, Hola España

Hola!

We have arrived in Barcelona! But I want to tell you about my last few days in Rome first.

Tuesday we had our Art History exam.  After studying all day long and exhausting our brains, we decided to celebrate with one last night of karaoke at Scholars. It was so nice having a night without our noses stuck in textbooks.

Wednesday was a day that I had been waiting for since arriving in Rome: Audrey Hepburn day. Katie, Michelle, and I discovered we all have a love for Miss Hepburn and thought we should pay tribute. So us three (along with Ashley) began Wednesday morning with breakfast at the Tiffany’s right next to the Spanish Steps. Then we had our Roman Holiday: gelato at the Spanish Steps, a stroll down Margutta Street, staging pictures at the Trevi (hair cut scene), Pantheon (restaurant scene), and Roman Forum (sleeping scene), and of course putting our hands in the Mouth of Truth. It was so great to take one last walk around the city before leaving. (The pictures from the movie were found by Michelle. She get's full credit for all the hard work)

Wednesday night we had our farewell dinner with the CEA staff. They felt bad for all the computer problems that they’d have, so they took us to a pasta tasting restaurant. We had wine, four different types of pasta, and dessert. It was so fun all having a meal together.

Thursday was check out and our Italian final. We said goodbye to the CEA staff (Andrea was even crying!). After some more packing and organizing, we had everyone over for a last night in Rome. It will be so weird being apart from everyone during break. From Austria to Croatia, to Ireland and Spain, we all will definitely be covering the map these next few days.

Today (Friday) Pretty much consisted of Michelle, Kate and me arriving in Barcelona, getting settled into our hostel, eating at a German Restaurant (I finally got my cheeseburger fix), and walking around. We keep accidentally speaking Italian to the Spaniards. It’s really difficult getting back into the Spanish mode, especially with the Catalan dialect being so different from what the three of us know. More Spanish updates to come!

Ciao-er I mean- Adios

The Ankle Adventure

Yesterday, even after a treacherous Theology final melted my brain, another task was at hand.  I had a doctors appointment last night to get my ankle looked at. After a weekend of rest, it has been doing better, but I wanted to make sure I had the problem looked at before a week of extensive wandering around Spain.

"It's really easy to find" was what I was told from the CEA staff when I asked where the Medical Group was... Sure maybe easy for a Roman. Clearly Italy and America define "easy to find" differently.

Jean (who is responsible for all the pictures) was nice enough to go with me, since surprisingly enough no one wanted to sacrifice precious study hours to go wandering around in search of a mysterious doctor (I don't blame them in the least). All was well until we arrived at the supposed location and were unable to find any sign of Advent Medical Group. After asking for directions and getting further turned around, Jean called the phone number (thank goodness she had a phone!). We were informed that the office had been right under our nose the entire time. It was just unmarked and in what appeared to be a normal apartment building. Our fault for assuming there would be some sort of sign.

Is this really the place?

As close as we got to a sign: Second from the top on the left.

The verdict is exactly as I thought: Tendonitis. The doctor (a Frenchman working at an English-Speaking medical group in Italy) ordered it to be wrapped and a topical cream to be applied to the tendon twice a day for a week. Oh and also for me to get new shoes... easier said than done. Apparently my camp sandals and cobble stone were not meant for each other. Who knew I was so fragile!

At least the wrap is pink...

Sorry To Disappoint You Dear Readers

Unfortunately, the only sights I'll be seeing this week are:

• The inside of my notebook/textbook 
• The bottom of an empty coffee mug
• The continuous rotation of my art history powerpoint
• A comforter that I would much rather have on my bed with me sleeping on it. 

It's going to be a boring week in the blog world. Sorry everyone. I'll talk to you after I have hopefully survived... 

Don't Worry, I'm Alive

As many of you may know, there was rioting yesterday in the center of Rome. I promise I am safe and sound in my apartment going a tad crazy with all my studying. Here's what I know about the riots:


On Friday, Berlusconi (the extremely corrupt and hated prime minister) narrowly was given his 5st confidence vote in three years. Italians are fed up with the corruption, and are saying that Italy will become the next Greece.


Yesterday, Occupy Wall Street spread worldwide to Tokyo, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, as well as right here in Rome. Occupy Rome began as a peaceful demonstration like normal, but a group of hooded demonstrators (referred to as the black bloc) upset by the event on Friday, decided to act violent. Cars and garbage cans were lit afire. Flames from a burning car caught onto the annex of the Ministry of Defense where protestors had already trashed the offices inside. ATMS were broken, window of shops smashed. Rocks were pelted at police vans, and police fought back with tear gas.

Footage I saw yesterday showed black smoke coming from behind the Colosseum. It literally looked as if Rome is burning. It was so weird seeing streets I walk down several times a week filled with violence. I feel like my backyard has been invaded! Hopefully everything can hang tight until after we leave this week.


For more info click here

Class. More Class. Studying. More Studying.

To those who said studying abroad would be a nice break from "real school" have not experienced the trifecta of Jan, Fr. Gunter, and Paolo. This week was entirely devoted to our profs cramming the last bit of knowledge into our already full brains before finals next week.

We met with Paolo on Tuesday at St. Peter's Square. He gave us the 25 questions that could be on the test to study (he will be picking 2-3 to put on the exam) and reminded us to study the name, artist, date, and location of  everything we have seen with him over the past weeks. We've been studying like mad as well as writing the two papers (on the Vatican Museum and Michelangelo's David) due on the day of the exam. Tuesday will be a bit rough...

Father Gunter took us out two times this week: once to see the church of Saint Clement and the other to see the  Basilica of St. Paul. He also has us officially terrified for the exam on Monday. We are to write two essays in an hour and a half on questions we do not yet have (although  he did give of us general topics). The scary part is we are expected to memorize at least 4 quotes from our text to put in each essay (even though we don't know what we are writing our essay's on... it's hard to gather evidence when you don't know what you are arguing). It's quite overwhelming.

Jan had us running around three times this week in history, including yesterday at Ostia Antica- the Roman port we pass on the way to beach. It was pretty interesting seeing all the ruins of the ancient city. Other than not being destroyed by a volcano, it had striking similarities to Pompeii. I am extremely relieved I am just auditing this class. I believe his quote was "the war in Afghanistan is a piece of cake compared to my exams." I don't think I could handle another massive test. I can't believe I am saying it, but I kind of miss writing papers...

Italian shouldn't be too bad. We had our second quiz on Thursday, and our final sounds like it will be pretty much on the material from both. I also have Wednesday to brush up on my verb conjugations.

At least we don't have to worry about Jean's class (until Greece that is) or Carmella's literature class. We had our final on Thursday for her on Petrarch. It's nice to have that out of the way.

In other news, just one week left and I GO TO SPAIN!  Our plans are Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, and possibly Toledo. It should be a blast, provided I survive this next week!


Wish me luck!

"Gondola Gondola"

So I had every intention of making this post last night, but I fell asleep around 8:30 at night. Needless to say, Monday was an exhausting day- but I wont get ahead of myself.


Our taxi arrived for Shannon, Jesika, and me at 5:00 Saturday morning. We flew through airport security and were off the ground at 6:40 for Venice. There was a lovely man sitting across the aisle from me who noticed me straining to look out the window on his side to see the sunrise. It was beautiful, he offered to stand so I could look at it better.


We managed to get out of the airport and to the main island by bus. We were horrified to experience what felt like a late october morning in Minnesota. I could see my breath, and had failed to pack my jacket since the weather had indicated it would be in the 70s. After shivering and wandering for a bit, we decided to get some coffee and sit down with our map to get the lay of the land.


Saturday was mostly spent walking around the main island of Venice. We went across the Rialto Bridge, did a fair amount of window shopping (lots of masks, journals, and glass stores) and, my personal favorite activity, gondolier watching. These men are quite the sight even when they aren't gracefully rowing wealthy couples around. If they aren't harassing people to buy an 80 euro/person ride ("gondolagondolamiss?gondolagondola?") they occupy their time by being the laziest looking people around. They'd lounge around, smoke, or be on their cell phones (we even saw one use his phone while rowing!)

Rialto Bridge is pretty even with that stupid banner

texting on the job

But they  look so picturesque when they try!

We had sandwiches and managed to find some sunshine in a piazza where a string trio played some Vivaldi. We continued our wandering towards S Marco's Square. We went up the bell tower for a beautiful view of Venice. We then ventured further into square which is known for its extremely brave pigeons. In Jess' and my attempt to take a picture with a pigeon on our arm, I was caught a tad unaware and one leapt onto my shoulder. It was terrifying!

The Bell Tower!

Venice from above

Surprise! 

Finally, after much struggle, we both have one

After more walking and some spaghetti for dinner, we bought our 24-hour boat pass and made our way to our hostel. We were happy to be in the warmth, and turned in early. I attempted to nurse my left ankle that had begun to hurt after dinner.

We had some breakfast at the hostel, and then we took a half hour boat ride to Murano- an island off Venice that is known for its glass. We went to a free glass blowing and molding demonstration. It was crazy how fast the glass master could work! It had to have been under 10 minutes and he blew a vase and molded a horse sculpture!

The master at work

Final products. 

  

We spent the morning exploring the bajillion glass shops of Murano. Everything was so beautiful! From clocks and vases, to tiny figurines and an adorable thimble (you bet I bought that one!). One of the stores had extremely fancy glass work. The artist was known for his Christmas sculptures he would place in the city center. It was incredible, but I felt like I needed to hold my breath the whole time I was in that store!

Glass orchestra (sorry about the glare)! 

Glass sculpture and the tower of Murano

After we'd had our fill of glass, we caught a boat to Burano. This island is known for its embroidery (apparently handkerchiefs are the hot commodity). I was more interested in finding a painting of the beautiful buildings! Each building is painting a vibrant different color! Even with my hurt ankle, it was such a joy to look around and see the colors. Sadly I couldn't find anything that did it justice.

See what I mean? THE BEST!

There was a Children's' Festival going on in the main square of Burano, so the streets were filled with kids singing, dancing, and playing. I soon deemed this place the happiest town I've been to. We found a nice park to sit for a bit and read. We found ourselves serenaded by a preteen garage band was practicing in the house next to the park. I swear the bass player and drummer played the same riff for a half an hour.  It wasn't exactly a Vivaldi string trio... We grabbed some pizza for dinner and caught the boat just as sun was setting on the Island. It was a beautiful goodbye!

Bye Burano! 

We returned to San Marco Square and walked to the train station. We stopped by a bar for coffee and then a glass of wine (to hopefully make us sleepy) before our 7 hour train ride back to Rome. We boarded the train at 11 and struggled to get comfy with the commotion the others in our compartment caused. One man (who smelled a bit like cheese) was in an older man's spot and took a while to surrender. An hour or so later  when the ticket man came around, the couple that was in the other two spots didn't have tickets and had to buy them. After this settled, I went in and out of sleep and woke up just before 7 to see yet another sunrise, this time over Rome.

Finally back in Nomentana 225 on Monday around 7:45, I had just enough time to sit, shower, and get ready for class from 1-5:30 (Cultural Geography from 1-11:00, History from 11:30-1:30, and Theology from 2:00-5:30). The last two required enough walking to make my ankle unhappy. After dinner I had planned on taking a quick nap that turned into bed time. I clearly needed sleep, but the exhaustion was so worth it! 

So Much Wine So Little Time!

Today CEA took us as well as the New Haven crew to a vineyard in Viterbo. After occupying myself on the 2 hour bus ride by swapping iPods with Derek, we arrived and stepped into the slightly blustery air. We were introduced to the own and the winemaker himself (referred  to as the "Ferrari of winemakers"). We were taken into the vineyard  and  fermentation vats and he explained the winemaking process a bit. Unfortunately, since the weather has been so crazy, the grapes had already been harvested and it was too cold to harvest hazelnuts, but we managed to harvest our own on the walk to the restaurant for lunch (the walk definitely would have gone faster had we not stopped every few minutes to snag a snack off a tree or vine).

The "Ferrari" explaining the pruning process 

The beautiful walk to the restaurant

At the restaurant we were served three dishes and five  of the wines made at the vineyard (2 white and 3 red). The first dish included fried-vegetables, bruschetto, and pasta. Many of us went back for seconds on the pasta, only to be informed later we would be served a meatball and potato course. We then had a cream and chocolate desert.  I took a great deal of pride in the fact that I ate all my food (plus some of Bridget's desert she couldn't finish) and Garrett, who is 6 foot 10, never was part of the clean plate club. It was quite the accomplishment :)

Clean Plate Club: VICTORY! 

As for the wine, it was almost stressful how fast they were serving it. I would still have quite a bit left and would see our waiter coming with the next bottle. If your glass wasn't empty, you'd miss out on that round (unless you were Michelle's table which always seemed to be where the bottles were stationed. I had to sneak over that after missing the first of the red wines...)

Bridget and Andrew being all swanky

We took a quick nap to wake out of our food and wine coma outside on the grass before walking back to the vineyard. I bought the last wine we had tasted (a merlot) and spent the bus ride back contently resting. I wonder if I will ever be hungry again.