Day 74: Thursday, March 31, 2011

Today, I leave for London with Emily!  I emailed Christi's old roommate Laura about the best things to do and best attractions to see, so we have a full weekend planned!  I am so excited to hear the English language!  And as you know, to eat Chipotle :)  And I'm obviously stoked to do all the other awesome things in London too, like see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the house of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, etc., etc., etc!

I'm also super excited to do an Open Bus Tour!

You buy a ticket then hop on and off as you

please!  Seems like an awesome way to see a city!

Of course, more when I return!

Day 74: Thursday, March 31, 2011

I decided that I really miss home.

World's most fabulous, loving, giving, parents ever. 

World's prettiest, most awesome, fun, smart (teeny tiny!) sister ever :)

Day 73: Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Today I was handed back my last mid-term.  It's official.  I got straight A's!!!  My lowest grade was a 92 percent, which I got on my Italian midterm.  Other than that, I got two 96 percents and one 100 percent!  And one class didn't have a midterm.  Not too shabby :) 

Day 70: Sunday, March 27, 2011

This weekend Emily and I stayed in Milan.  Caitlin was in Madrid with her dad, so Emily and I just chilled out.  We really didn't do much of anything.  On Friday, I woke up and worked out, then we did a little spring cleaning in the house.  On Saturday, we went shopping.  And it was the most poorly executed shopping trip ever.  We left around noon and took the metro to H&M in Sab Babila.  The H&M's in Europe are so much better than they are in the States.  We walked in and started shopping around together.  However, we have similar styles so we both kept gravitating towards the same clothes.  So, we decided to separate.  And that was the worst idea ever.  I shopped around by myself for about 30 minutes, picking up way much more than I could afford.  Then, I decided to look around for Emily because I hadn't seen her since we separated.  I took a couple laps around the store, but didn't see her.  I didn't think too much of it, the store was pretty big.  I decided to try on the clothes I had.  After I got out of the dressing rooms, I looked for her again while also simultaneously shopping around again.  Still didn't see her.  After I had already made my purchases and it had been about an hour since I had seen her, I decided to really search.  I walked around the store over and over and over, searching for her.  I couldn't find her anywhere!  I then decided to sit on the stairs in the center of the store, and wait for her there.  Still no luck.  Obviously, neither one of us had our phones on us, or this wouldn't have been an issue.  I thought she might have just gone home, but she didn't have a key to the house, so I ruled that one out.  I waited and looked for 2 hours before I officially concluded there was no way she was still in that store!!!  So I headed home, slightly worried.  WHERE WAS SHE???  And what do you know, as I was walking up to the house, there she was...sitting on the front stoop.  Needless to say, terribly executed shopping day. 

Day 69: Saturday, March 26, 2011

Ibiza, Spain.

A couple days ago I messaged Casey about how her study abroad experience was going, and about the possibility of meeting up with her somewhere.  She is one of my best friends at school, it's crazy that we haven't seen each other yet. She is studying in Florence, basically a hop, skip, and a jump away!!  I sent her my calendar and which weekends I had free, and we were able to coordinate our schedules!!  Emily and I are flying to Ibiza, Spain the second weekend in April to meet up with her and another friend!! It's a little island in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain; it's really close to Africa.  We're flying out Friday morning, April 8, and coming back Sunday night. I can't wait :)

Day 64: Monday, March 21, 2011

Typical Amsterdam site.  Every single person in Amsterdam
owns a bike. 

As always, today our flight was super early.  We left our really crappy hotel around 7:30 and walked to the train station, then took a free ride to the airport :)  There is never anyone checking tickets on those things.  We have decided to stop buying tickets.  We were all so sad to leave;  Amsterdam is amazing.  The weekends I spent with Kevin were obviously my favorite weekends, but this weekend came in a close second.  We all had such a blast.  I recommend everyone put Amsterdam on their bucket lists :)

Pretty Amsterdam <3

We got our boarding passes, and both Emily and I were in separate rows in the middle seat.  Bummer.  I still managed to sleep the entire time :)  Being able to sleep anywhere, at anytime, in any place really is a fantastic gift.  I am thankful for it every time I travel.  When we got back to the house, we had missed class.  We weren't mad about it.

I unpacked my stuff and watched the last three episodes of season 5 of Dexter.  I.Love.Dexter.  I watched 5 seasons in about 3 and a half weeks.  It's amazing.  I'm so bummed out I have to wait till September for the next season!  Afterwards, I went for a run, for the first time since I've been here.  Which is not okay.  But I have proceeded to go on one everyday since (it's Thursday, I'm a little behind!)  Hopefully, I can keep it up.  Because I'm going to London next Thursday, and I plan on eating Chipotle everyday.  And my hatred for Italian food is growing everyday.  I hate pasta.  And I hate pizza.  And I hate paninis.  I literally go to bed hungry every night because I don't want anything that I have to eat.  I finished everything my wonderful parents sent over with Kevin, and I still have one month and 20 days left.  I really don't know what I'm going to eat!!  Just one of my very few complaints about my experience here, but it was to be expected.  Other than that, life is fabulous :)    

Day 63: Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bagel Tapas 

Today, we slept in again :)  It was Emily's birthday, and she didn't want to have any alarm set whatsoever, and Kristen and I had no complaints to that!  Once again, it was kind of nice to not have to get up and race around the city trying to see as much as possible!  We left the Hotel around noon, and despite the horrendous service yesterday, we went back to Bagels and Beans.  But we went to a different location in hopes of better service.  And it was somewhat achieved.  Somewhat.  We got a nice seat outside so we could enjoy the sunshine, then proceeded to spend $50 on bagels.  We decided to get "Bagel Tapas;" they give you a couple different kinds of bagels and five different types of cream cheese spreads.  And it ended up costing us 36E, which translates to $50.  Insane.

Pretty day in Amsterdam

Us attempting to roll ourselves because the Coffee Shop owner
was "too busy" to do it for us.  He was smoking himself, not
busy at all.

After breakfast, we stopped at the Coffee Shop next to Bagels and Beans, and lived like Amsterdamians for a little :)  Then, we decided to head out and find the red and white "I Amsterdam" letters that everyone always climbs on and takes pictures with.  Everyone that goes to Amsterdam has that picture, so we wanted it!  We hoped on the tram, took it one stop too far, so got off and back tracked till we found it.  It was in a beautiful park with a pond, kids and dogs running around everywhere, and pretty flowers and benches outlining it :)  There were about 30 other people who had the same idea as us, so it was very difficult to get pictures of just us, but we tried anyways.

I am.sterdam

After we snapped the necessary pictures to prove we were in Amsterdam, we found a spot in the park and parked it.  We sat down and people watched for a little, enjoying the beautiful weather.  We watched as this one man continually hit on every single girl that walked by him.  I guess men in the Netherlands are just as creepy as Italian men.  We hung out in the park until we decided we were hungry again.  We decided to just walk until something looked appealing.  And we found this awesome Chinese Restaurant called Wok to Walk, and it tasted just like China Express from home :)  It was sooooo good.  It was just like the place we went to on Friday night, except way yummier.

Afterwards, we decided to live like Amsterdamians again, and eat a Space Cake for dessert.  We found a spot in the sun, sat down and ate it.  I had never tried one before, and it wasn't very good.  It did taste like chocolate cake, but just really dry.  Good cake is super moist.  There was no moisture whatsoever.  After finishing the cake, we finished what we had left of our purchases from earlier that morning.  There were people on both sides of us doing the exact same thing we were.  It boggled my mind again, that we were actually legally allowed to be doing what we were doing.  When we were done, we wandered around the city for a little, walking down streets we hadn't walked down yet.  However, every street is very similar.  There is a Coffee Shop every other store, a Smart Shops on every corder, and bars in between.  It's definitely a city made for young people.  We actually commented on the fact that almost everyone in the city is really young.  It's such a cool atmosphere.  We stopped in a bar to get a shot of Absinth.  After all, it was Emily's 21st birthday, and Absinth isn't legal in the states either, so we figured...When in Amsterdam! It actually wasn't as bad as I was anticipating.  I was expecting the worst taste ever, something that just tasted like straight nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol.  But it tasted exactly like licorice.  I don't like licorice at all, but it's definitely better than rubbing alcohol, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Shots of Absinth!  

As we continued walking down the streets, we passed this awesome bar with huge lay-down couches in the window.  While they were probably the dirtiest, most disgusting couches ever, we decided to go in anyways.  What an awesome place to people-watch!  We sat down, ordered some drinks and a hookah, and chilled there the rest of the night.  If you're thinking this just sounded like the most unproductive day ever, you're right.  We didn't really do much of anything, but it was so much fun just prancing around the city and Emily had an awesome birthday :)

Emily on her 21st birthday :)

Day 62: Saturday, March 19, 2011

We couldn't have been more thrilled to find out
that Amsterdam had bagels! 

Today we slept in...really late!  Last night was really fun, so we needed to get some sleep to recover.  I had done some research on Amsterdam prior to coming, and honestly, didn't really come up with much.  The websites I typically go to usually give me the Top 10 things to do in each city, but there were only five for Amsterdam.  It's a beautiful city, where a lot of fun things are legal :), but that much to do!  So it was almost nice being able to sleep in and not feel guilty about missing out on some sites.  We left the hotel around 11:30 to meet up with some boys from the Heineken Brewery. We got there right at 12, but we decided we were hungry, so we went to grab some BAGELS.  Yes, the Netherlands have bagels.  What a wonderful surprise.  We passed a shop called Bagels and Beans and stopped with zero hesitation.  We sat down outside at a table with dirty dishes, in hopes that the waiter would clear them once he saw us.  No such luck.  He acknowledged we were there, then proceeded to wait about 20 minutes before clearing the dishes in front of us.  We had stacked the dishes to make it easier for him to clear, and the only thing he said upon coming up to us was, "Just so you know, stacking dishes makes my life a lot harder."  Um, ok asshole?  I don't see how that could possibly be true.  Seven plates aren't going to fit on your tiny little tray unless you stack them?  After he gathered the plates, he just stared at us.  Apparently he wanted us to give him our order, but it was a very unclear, awkward encounter.  No "Hi, how are you guys today?" or "What can I get you guys?"  Just a stare.  It then took 45 minutes for him to bring us our bagels.  Really?  45 minutes!!!! European service never ceases to amaze me.  It really is crazy how terrible it is.

Entrance to the Heineken Brewery

Afterwards, we walked back to the Heineken Brewery, where we happen to run into the guys from last night, even though we were both an hour and a half late, and one of Emily's friends from home!  Such a small world.  We all paid the 15E to get in, then began the "Heineken Experience."  First of all, the museum was HUGE.  And it was super cool.  Daddy, you would have loved it :)  I was thinking about you the entire time!  They took us through every stage of brewing process, and we even went into this virtual brewing room, where they "brewed" us.  We watched a movie while we were on a moving ground that spun us in circles like we were being brewed, then showered us with water and other ingredients, then blew hot air as we were being "cooked."  It was pretty cool.  We learned about how the Heineken logo came to be, how the Heineken bottle came to be, and all the changes over the years.  

Kristen, Emily, and I at the Heineken Brewery

Heineken was founded by Gerard Adriaan Heineken (see right) in 1864.  He actually knew nothing about brewing beer when he bought the company, but he was an ambitious entrepreneur who was determined to sell the best beer man can make.  The most monumental change the Heineken company ever made was their switch to bottom-fermenting yeast in 1869.  This yeast is still the key ingredient in Heineken, and is what gives the beer its gold color.  Below is the different Heineken logos over the years.  The most recent Heineken logo has "E's" that "smile."  The CEO of Heineken thought the smiling E's made the logo more attractive to women.   

The logos

The four ingredients in Heineken:
Water, barley, hops, and yeast 

Emily, Kristen, and I at the Heineken Brewery 

The "Heineken Horses"

The "Heineken Horses" are kept in the museum.  It made the whole place smell like a barn, but they are apparently very symbolic of the beginning of Heineken.  "These" horses would carry the kegs of Heineken all over the city, thus spreading its popularity early on.  In the middle of the tour, we all got some free beers.  (Well, not really free, because we paid 15E to get in).  They told everyone how to "drink beer like a man."  They said that the reason most women don't like beer, is because they drink it like they are drinking wine or champagne: with their pinky up and take really small sips.  Well when you do this with beer, you are only tasting the foam, which has no yeast in it.  You need to take full swigs in order to taste all the yummy ingredients.  Noted!  

Couch parties in Amsterdam

Afterwards, we got a few more free beers, toured around a little more, then headed out.  It was a beautiful day outside, so we wanted to enjoy it!  As we were walking around, we saw a bunch of kids taking their couch from their living room, and hauling it to a little bridge, then just drop it, and start partying.  It was like the opening scene to a movie!  They invited us over to come hang with them, so we did, and everything was kind of a colorful blur from there.  We all roamed the streets for about three hours, enjoying the prettiness of Amsterdam :)

Pretty canals in Amsterdam

You hear about Coffee Shops in Amsterdam selling weed, but we didn't really know what to expect.  There are literally coffee shops every two stores, and you walk in, they hand you a menu of solely marijuana, and its as easy as that.  Oh, and there is no coffee at these coffee shops.  You have to go to a cafe if you want coffee.  We walked in, made some purchases, and moved on :)  It's so weird to me that these kinds of things are actually legal.  I just don't understand why any city would ever allow it.  It can't be good for society.  It is 100% counter productive.  No one does anything of importance after they smoke weed?  So, why any society would allow it is beyond me.

Emily's friend from home doing the dirty work because we
didn't know how

The sketchy coffee shop we went to.
Pretty much every shop in Amsterdam looks like
a college guys dorm room.  Terribly decorated,
dirty, and smells like weed. 

Making my mark in Amsterdam :)

My terrible dinner on Saturday night

Afterwards, we went to grab some dinner.  Earlier that day we had seen a Pancake House, and we couldn't wait to get some pancakes!  Pancakes are pretty difficult to mess up, so we were super excited!  However, of course, we were completely let down.  A CREPE IS NOT A PANCAKE!  I ordered a banana pancake, hoping for a stack of fluffy pancakes filled with yummy bananas, and instead I got a thin, disgusting crepe with half a banana sliced on top of it.  And it was completely covered in brown sugar.  What is that?  I don't want that.  I ate 1/4 of it and was really angry about every bite.  And not to mention, it was 10E.  For one terrible crepe.  The whole situation was just so typical though, so we really weren't that shocked.  After dinner, we were all SO tired, but we had to make it till midnight for Emily's birthday.  We went to another coffee shop, got some drinks, and hung out till midnight.  While it wasn't a typical rage, get completely wasted, 21st birthday for her, it was still awesome.  We all had so much fun all day; Amsterdam is like a whole new world.  When the clock finally stuck midnight, I bought her a tequila shot even though she totally didn't want it, then we headed home.  And we all got the best night sleep of our lives that night.  We were exhausted.

Kristen, Emily, and I on Saturday night in Amsterdam 

Day 61: Friday, March 18, 2011

Today, Emily, Caitlin and I attempted to catch a flight to Amsterdam.  It was Emily's 21st birthday this weekend, so we were all super excited.  Our flight was at 1:30, so we left the house around 11.  We took the metro the Centrale, then a bus to Malpensa, just like we always do.

Actually, I'm going to stop right there.  Back track a few weeks earlier...

We searched for flights to Amsterdam on the travel websites we always use, like Ryanair, Easyjet, Skyscanner, etc., and couldn't find anything affordable!  But we all really wanted to go, so we kept searching.  Finally we found a ticket for 105E on a website called GoVolo.com.  The website seemed legitimate as we were going through the checkout process, so we continued without many hesitations.  All three of us purchased a roundtrip ticket, and were relieved we found out at a reasonable price!  The next day, while we were at a fashion show, we got an email from the website telling us that we had to email a scanned copy of our credit card and passport by 5pm that night or they would cancel the reservation.  We got the email at 3pm.  We thought it was really odd.  1) I have never had to do anything like that before?  And 2) did they really give us two hours to do this?  We emailed the site back and told them we would have the information they requested as soon as we got home.  So we did, and a couple days later, Emily and I got our etickets, but Caitlin never got one.  She emailed the help hotline four separate times requesting hers be sent, and they finally responded by saying they don't issue etickets.  We obviously knew that was false because Emily and I both got etickets from the exact same site.

Picking back up from above.  We got to Malpensa, and Emily and I handed our etickets at the check in counter, and they handed us what we thought was our ticket. However, Caitlin got 100% screwed.  Apparently the reason she never got an eticket, was because her reservation had gotten cancelled, unbeknownst to her.  We walked straight to the customer service counter, where we were told there is nothing they could do to help us.  And the sketchiest part is, nowhere on the website we booked through, is there a phone number to call.  There is only an email address given under contact information.  So, that makes it very difficult to contact someone and raise hell when something like this happens.  Caitlin called her dad, who happens to be an Aviation's Lawyer, and he looked into the site.  Apparently there have been numerous complaints about it being a fraud site and incidents like this happening all the time.  And the worst part is, nobody gets their money back.  We asked the lady at the ticket counter how much the tickets were selling for currently, and she told us 350E.  Obviously, she had to pass.  So Emily and I went on ahead, and had to leave her behind.  I felt so, so terrible.  We were all so excited to go, and she couldn't have gotten more screwed.  Thankfully, her dad is going to go after the site for fraud and try to bring them down.  I hope he succeeds. 

When Emily and I landed, we hoped on a train from the airport to the Central Station.  Lucky for us, our hotel was literally a two-minute walk from Central Station, so we got there around 5:00 with no problems at all.  Kristen was already in the room when we got there, so we threw our stuff down and decided to head out.  The weather couldn't have been more miserable when we arrived.  It was pouring down rain and freezing cold.  Like winter coat and scarf weather.  But we had looked at the forecast before we left, so we knew it was going to be dreary on Friday, but it was supposed to be clear and sunshine’s on Saturday and Sunday. 

Anne Frank House

We grabbed a map from the hotel lobby and headed for the Anne Frank Museum.  We figured since it was raining, it was the perfect day to do a museum.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes (in the pouring rain) then paid 8.50E each to get in.  Why can't all museums be free like they are in the D.C??  8.50E is over $12!  But it was worth is, the museum was really, really cool.  It was the actual house that Anne Frank hid from the Nazi's in.  They tour people all the way through the different rooms of their Secret Annex.  There were four other Jews besides the Frank family hiding in the Annex.  I was actually surprised by how large it was.  (And when I saw large, it's obviously very relatively speaking.  It was extremely tight quarters for eight people who were constantly living in fear of discovery.  But for some reason I had always pictured the whole family sharing one, tiny room.)  There were actually four separate bedrooms and a bathroom.  However, they could never flush the toilet or turn the water on, because the pipes ran through the workshop downstairs, and the workers didn't know there were Jews hiding upstairs.  A bookcase on hinges hid the Secret Annex entrance.  We got to walk around the Annex and all it's rooms.  The rooms were completely empty, with not furniture at all.  Otto Frank (Anne Frank's father) was the only Frank to survive the concentration camps.  When he came back to Amsterdam, we wanted to preserve the house just as it was.  Thus, the furniture that was thrown out when they Franks were discovered was never replaced.  However, they did a great job of recreating it.  All the windows were completely blacked out like they had been when the Franks were in hiding.  They had quotes on the walls from Anne Frank's diary, and pictures of what the rooms looked like while they were there.  You couldn't take pictures, which I didn't really get?  There was nothing in there to ruin, no furniture, no artifacts, nothing?  However, they did have the original Diary of Anne Frank, which was also really cool.

Sketchy street signs in Amsterdam

On a side note: check out this sketchy street sign that was outside the Anne Frank House.  You know it's a sketchy city when this in an actual sign:  See right -->

Afterwards, we were starving so we looked for a place to grab some dinner.  Everyone had told us that Amsterdam has amazing Chinese food, so we decided to give it a whirl.  It was very easy to find a Chinese place, they were on like every corner.  And they were right about its yumminess.  We went to Sara's Wok, and it was delicious :)  When we were looking at the menu, we decided it sounded like Chipotle!  You picked white or brown rice, then steak or chicken, and then whatever other vegetables and toppings you wanted on it!  Well, when it came out, it couldn't have tasted less like Chipotle, but it was still really yummy.  It was like American Chinese food, which I was stoked about.  We have heard the Chinese food in Italy is like actual authentic Chinese food, which apparently tastes like nothing like what we are use to.  So we ate the Americanized Chinese food, and we were all totally satisfied when we were done.  Which is a very rare statement when it comes to meals.  We usually leave 95% of the restaurants still hungry and super bummed.  

Chinese Food in Amsterdam!

After dinner, we went back to our really crappy, outrageously overpriced hotel, and got ready for the night.  The hotel cost us $176 a night!  It was supposed to be a four-person room, but because Caitlin couldn't come, we had to split it between just the three of us.  And of course they told us they were completely booked and there were no triple rooms available.  However, there was a "Vacancy" sign on the door the entire time we were there, so I was skeptical of their story.

After we got ready, we took a cab to the bars.  The cabs in Amsterdam are SO expensive!  They don't have meters in them, which is really sketchy.  So basically when you get to the destination, the cab driver turns around a just spits out a number, and you have to pay it.  That's really the system.  It's ridiculous.  On the way there, we were in the can for about five minutes, and it cost us 20E. 

Emily and I in Amsterdam

When we got to the nightlife area, we went from bar to bar drinking and dancing.  There were literally bouncers outside every bar, almost begging us to come in!  We basically got free drinks all night, it was amazing :)  They would hand us free drink tokens at the door, so we would go in, have our one free drink, and then go to the next one!  It was definitely a scene I could get use to!  This area was lined with bars and pubs; it was definitely a really sweet nightlife scene.  We had a blast seeing a bunch of different bars and hanging out.  At the end of the night, we met up with some kids at Emily had met in Brussels the weekend before, we decided to all meet at the Heineken Brewery the next morning at noon.  We hopped in a cab around 4ish and headed home.  This cab driver decided to charge us 30E for a cab ride that was literally four minutes long.  When we told him it only cost us 20E to get there, he basically said "Sorry 'bout it.  It's 30E this time."  Such BS.  It's such an unfair system!  But it was a really fun night, and we all had a blast. 

Kristen, Emily, and I at the bars in Amsterdam

Day 58: Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Kevin leaving me after our trip
together was over :(

Today was a terrible day :(  Kevin and I woke up really early to head to the airport.  We left the house around 6am so we could catch the metro to Centrale, and then the bus to Malpensa.  Naturally, we just missed a bus as it was pulling away, so we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one.  I was so sleepy, I fell asleep on the way to the airport.  And now I am kicking myself for doing so.  Did I really sleep during the last hour my boyfriend was here?!  Mistake, I was so sad when I woke up and we were there.  We grabbed his luggage and headed towards the check-in counter, which happened to be on the other side of the very, very large airport.  There was only one person in front of us when we got in line, but somehow we still managed to wait 20 minutes before being helped.  Why is there always someone have some huge debacle at the airport counter?  When we finally went up to the counter, we were literally up there for less than a minute.  She looked at his ticket, handed him the customs form, then sent us on our way.  We slowly walked to security, dreading the next few minutes.  I walked as far as I could have possibly walked with him, then said goodbye.  And it was awful.  I had been counting down the days until he came, and the thought of starting the countdown all over was terrible.  We said goodbye at the entrance to security for awhile, then I watched as he was went through and headed off to his gate.

After he was out of sight, I went outside to catch a bus back to Centrale.  It was about 8:15, and I had class at 10, so I thought I had more than enough time.  Well that wasn't the case at all.  We have never had to take the bus to the airport during rush hour...and wow does it make a difference!  Usually the bus ride is about 45 minutes; it took almost two hours to get back!  So obviously, I was very late to class.  Which normally wouldn't be that big of an issue, but today we were going on a field trip!  I didn't want to miss them leaving and not know where to go!  The second the bus parked, I sprinted underground to the metro, impatiently waited for it to arrive at my stop, then sprinted to class!  When Kevin and I had left five and a half hours earlier, it wasn't raining...but now it was pouring!  And I got drenched.  I caught the class just as they were walking out of the school, and had to do the whole field trip with a broken heart, wet jeans, and frizzy hair.

Even though it was so hard to say goodbye to Kevin, I couldn't be happier that he came.  I have loved getting the opportunity to experience all these amazing cities, so I was so glad I got to share the experience with him.  And I know he enjoyed the trip just as much as me.  Venice and Rome were both beautiful places, and we made some awesome memories.  And he was such a trooper the entire trip.  Even when I was sick and couldn't get out of bed, he didn't complain for one second.  The 11 days he spent here were fabulous, and I wouldn't trade them for the world :) 

Day 57: Monday, March 14, 2011

Luini's 

Today I had to wake up and go to class, for the first time in 11 days.  I had a midterm, one in which I had barley studied for at all.  I glanced at the material for about 30 minutes the night before, and that was it.  But as expected, it was SO easy.  Half of the people taking the exams don't speak English very well, for some its their second and even third language.  So the professors have to make the exams very simplistic so these people have a fair chance.  Well, lucky for us, we speak English perfectly :)  And thus, the exams are a joke.  The information is almost common sense.  So after my exam, Kevin and I went to the center to get Luini's again before he left!  We took the metro to the Duomo and headed straight for Luini's.  Of course the line was out the door and wrapped around the corner, but it moves decently fast, so we waited.  We got our calzones, then headed to the Duomo to find a place in the sun to enjoy them.  It was beautiful out, so we sat down and hung out for a bit while we were eating.  We talked about the last two weekends, and how unbelievably fast everything went by.  After we were done, I got to come home to a clean house!  Kevin had cleaned up while we were at class...and he even went to the grocery store!  He's so adorable :)  The two of us just hung out the rest of the day.  He was leaving in the morning, so I was really sad the whole day :(  We watched a movie, and Kevin said I can pick whatever I want.  There is a website called Project Free TV, and you can pretty much watch any TV show or movie you want.  So I picked Country Strong.  It wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all.  I thought it was a movie about Gwyneth Paltrow's character making a comeback into Country Music and fame. Not at all.  It's a movie about her demise.  It further depressed me.


Afterwards, we made dinner together.  Chicken and pasta (again) but we put the Zesty Italian dressing (that I got in my care package from home) on it, so it was delicious and I wasn't mad about it at all.  After dinner, we watched another movie, my pick again!  This time I picked Love and Other Drugs.  And it was so good!  A perfect little chick flick with a happily ever after ending :)  Just what I needed to heighten my mood.  After the movie, we went to bed.  My alarm was set for 5:30am so I could take Kevin to the airport :(

Day 56: Sunday, March 13, 2011

Kevin waiting in line at the airport 

Me waiting in line at the airport

Today we had to wake up super early because our flight was 8:30.  There was a bus to the airport leaving from the Central Train Station at 6:30; we were only about a 10 minute walk from the station, so we figured if we left the hostel 6:15 we'd be good.  Mistake.  Did we not think that we would need to A) find where the bus is located B) buy a ticket for the bus C) ensure we got seats?  When we got there, the 6:30 bus was completely full, and the next bus wasn't leaving until 7:10.  It takes about 40 minutes to get from the train station to the airport, so the 7:10 bus wasn't going to work.  Kevin, being the little stubborn pants that he is sometimes, starts freaking out saying over and over "we missed the flight, we missed the flight."  Well, obviously there is more than one way to get to the airport!  We walked outside to where the cabs were lined up, and one man agreed to take us to the airport for 30E. He had the pedal to the metal the entire time; we literally got there in 20 minutes.  We checked in, waited in line after line after line, then finally boarded the plane and flew back to Milan.

By the time we got back from the airport it was almost noon.  We were both exhausted from such an awesome weekend, so we climbed into bed, turned on some Glee and fell asleep for a couple hours.  We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and watching some shows.  For dinner, we decided to do Apertivo again.    We went to the one that was a bit further, but with better food.  It was really crowded, but we still got a table, ate dome decent food, and drank some delicious Miami Vice's :)  

Kevin and I at Apertivo

Day 55: Saturday, March 19, 2011

Kevin and I in St. Peter's square 

We got up around 10 and got out the door by 11.  We didn't think we had a ton to do that day so we weren't in a huge rush like we had been Friday. Jack and I hopped on a bus at the train station that took us almost right to Vatican City.  It was about a ten minute bus ride and we crossed the Tiber River on the way, getting a good view of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, a huge fortress used as a refuge by some of the emperors and popes over the centuries.  When we got to the Vatican we were both blown away.  St. Peter's Square is huge, and is surrounded by these huge column walls.  We stood in the middle of the square for a few minutes just taking pictures and enjoying the view and then headed to see how the lines were.

St. Peters Basilica 

 This is the start of my panoramic picture capturing: 

Picture 1) Facing away from the Basilica 

Picture 2) Moving clockwise 

Picture 3) St. Peters Basilica 

Picture 4) Huge columns that formed a horseshoe shape
around the square 

Picture 5) The last of the panoramic view 

So that is exactly what St. Peter's Square looks like :)

St. Peter's Square 

As we were walking I walked right past one of my best friends from USC, Alex.  I knew he was going to be in Italy that week but with no phone I didn't really see much of a chance to meet up.  And we just happened to walk right past one another in the center of St. Peter's Square, amongst 5,000 people also in the square.  Small world.  We caught up for a couple minutes but he was with a group and they were moving so Jackie and I moved on to try and get into the Vatican Museum.  Well we found out that it was 15 euro to get in and the line was about 2 hours.  Bummer.  We ran into some tour promoter who we haggled the price down to 30 euro and decided to do it.  It was worth 15 extra just to skip the two hour line so we went for it.  Once we said yes the guy starts in a full sprint towards his office.  I kept up about two feet behind him most of the way, but Jackie was struggling.  She's so small and her legs can only chop away so fast.  Normally Jackie is a surprisingly fast speed-walker but this guy had her beat.  I kept having to fall behind and grab her and tell her to keep up.

Walls to the Vatican 

Laocoon and his sons 

We arrived at the office out of breath just as the tour was starting.  Our tour guide was named Anton and he had a very strong British accent that became tough to understand when he would get excited about something and start talking fast.  Going through security at the front of the museum was a joke.  I could have been carrying a rocket launcher and wouldn't have been stopped.  The security guards were all standing together cracking jokes as people were setting off the metal detectors over and over.  We started the tour, and we both really enjoyed it.  We had a little trouble hearing sometimes because the headsets we were using weren't the best quality, and they only gave you one earpiece.  But, if we stayed close to Anton, we could hear fine.  Our tour of the Vatican Museum was about an hour long.  That sounds like a solid amount of time, except that the Vatican is the largest collection of art in the world, even bigger than the Louvre in Paris.  If you were to look at each piece of art for 10 seconds, it would take seven years without sleep to see everything.  There is so much art in every single room, and the museum itself was absolutely humongous.  And it was gorgeous.  Every ceiling, even in the corridors that connected to the bathroom, were so beautifully painted.  We went through a few of the most famous corridors in the museum and saw some amazing sculptures.  Anton did a great job of explaining the important pieces and also pointing out a few of his favorites.

Courtyard in the Vatican.  The gold globe is the newest addition
to the museum. 

Michelangelo's favorite sculpture that inspired
much of his own art. 

One of the many spectacular ceiling's
in the Vatican.

Maps from the 1400's that were 90% accurate. 

Guards at the door of the Basilica 

Finally, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel.  Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed in the Chapel, and it was very strictly enforced.  There were security guards screaming "NO CAMERAS" and "BE QUIET" the entire time we were in there.  Really took from the serene atmosphere.  Fortunately for us, Anton happened to be an expert on the Sistine Chapel.  He took us piece by piece through every frame on the walls and ceiling, going into full detail.  He also knew so much about the background of the contract to have it painted, like how Michelangelo hated it and wanted nothing to do with it, rushing through it so he could get to his sculpting.  All of it was very interesting.  We spent about 45 minutes in the Chapel, and then the tour was finished.  In the Sistine Chapel there is a door on the far corner that leads right to St. Peter's Basilica.  But the gift shops were on the opposite side of the museum, so in an effort to get the tourists to buy souvenirs, they have security at the convenient exit, and make everybody walk all the way back through the museum and then around half the city walls just to get back to the Basilica.  Really annoying.  So Jackie and I, and another couple we befriended from Paris, went to a little restaurant on the way towards the Basilica.  We got some pretty good pizza, then headed for the church.  We waited in line with our Parisian friends, then went our own separate ways.  Inside St. Peter's was amazing.  It was so humongous inside, and it reminded me of the part in Lord of the Rings when they go into the Mines of Moria, just gigantic.

Entrance to the Basilica 

Alter in the Basilica 

Kevin :)

Me looking very small next to the big statues

We walked around inside the church and took a few pictures of the sculptures and architecture inside.  It was getting late and I really wanted to see the tomb of John Paul II, but couldn't find it.  We got sent in three different directions by everyone we asked, finally able to find it with about three minutes until they were closing for the night.  Lucky me!  I apologized to Jackie for making her run around like a madman, but she was understanding as usual.  We left the Basilica as the sun was starting to go down, and decided to take the metro to the Trevi Fountain instead of walking.  We wanted to be able to get pictures of it during the day because the camera wasn't doing very well at night.  We hurried to the metro and got on when it was fairly empty.  Well, at the next stop half of Rome got on and we were shoved into the middle.  Our stop was the next one, which nobody had to get off except us.  So all the people crowding to get on at our stop didn't let us out.  We literally had to body check people out of the way until we barely got out as the doors closed.  Close call!  We passed by the Spanish Steps, where it was totally packed.  Luckily, at the pub crawl the night before we got to see the Steps fairly empty because when we got there after the metro, it was a zoo.  It's the number two pickpocket spot in the world so we didn't stick around long.

In front of the Spanish Steps 

Number two pick-pocketing spot in the world.
Not very comforting.  I clung to my bag the
entire time.  

Kevin and I at the Trevi Fountain 

Afterwards, we went to Trevi, and it was beautiful.  It was really crowded, but we managed to get a good seat and take some great pictures.  It's the largest fountain in Europe (I think) and it was very cool.  Jackie and I threw in a couple 1 cent euros and made a wish, then went and got a good spot and watched the sun set behind the fountain.  It was very cool.  We had done a ton of walking that day so it was nice to just sit and relax for a bit.

The disappointment of going into Hard Rock then being forced to leave because of time had really gotten to Jack.  We decided to go back for round two.  We were just going to stay in that night so we could wait as long as necessary.  We headed over there and got a reservation, then headed back to the hostel so Jackie could change because she was very cold.  We got back and two minutes later our name was called.  We both ordered burgers, split a side caesar, and got two waters for a grand total of 50 US dollars. Wow.  But, it was really good and we had some fun just hanging out at the restaurant so there are bigger tragedies than an expensive burger.

Kevin and I on the Trevi Fountain  

Trevi Fountain - Rome, Italy

Biggest rip-off of our lives!