Italia!

While most of my friends spent spring break on beaches, I went a little less mainstream and decided to spend the week in Italy! After visiting the amazing city of Barcelona, Paige and I headed off to the land of gelato, pasta, pizza and wine. Can you tell I LOVE food?? On Sunday, we woke up at the ungodly hour of 3 am for our flight to Rome. We made it there ok, and after a little mix up meeting our friend, we got all settled in at our hotel and met up with my good friend Nyssa who is studying abroad in Rome!

Of course, nothing is ever without funny little anecdotes when traveling, and checking in to the hotel was no exception. Our little B & B was hidden and tucked away from the main piazza, so it was hard to find to begin with. Once inside, we found the man at the reception desk to be very...confused. We asked if we could check in and he replied, “why not?”

-“Well we thought check-in was at 12 and we’re a little early, but if we could check in now that would be great!”

-“Okay, just head downstairs!”

So we proceeded to lug our huge bags down the stairs and tiny elevator to the basement. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. And finally the man from reception came down and asked, “Is everything ok?” and we told him that we were waiting to check in. His response?

-“Oh yes, reception is upstairs.” So we had to smush in to the tiny elevator once more. Check in went ok until he told us we could bring our bags to our room, but it wasn’t clean yet...long story short, we went up and down that tiny, rickety elevator about 6 times before finally leaving our bags in our room. This same man also forgot to tell us we needed to leave our key with reception (resulting in another mix-up the next day) and that we had to order our breakfast the night before. Oh well.

Our first day in Rome was absolutely beautiful! It was sunny and about 70 degrees, so we put on our sundresses and Nyssa showed us all around the city. I was amazed at how huge, ancient buildings would seem to just pop out from around a corner. One minute you’re mesmerized looking at all the flavors of gelato piled up in a store window and the next minute-BAM- there’s the Pantheon. Or the Trevi Fountain. Or the Colosseum. It’s incredible. We saw all of those things and more on the first day there, and we enjoyed some delicious Italian pizza as well.

Throwing our coins in the Trevi!

First Italian Pizza!

We woke up bright and early on Monday to head to the Vatican, hoping to beat the lines. (We later found out that the worst days to visit the Vatican are Mondays, days it is raining, and the day after a holiday. It’s a good thing we decided to go on a rainy Monday the day after Palm Sunday. You live and you learn). Fortunately, we avoided the lines by buying a guided tour through the museum and to the Basilica, which ended up being a great idea-we learned so much more than if we had just walked through on our own. In the museum, my favorite part was definitely the Hall of Maps. After visiting the Vatican Museum, the tour ends with a stop in the Sistine Chapel. I was so completely in awe of Michelangelo’s work there-I couldn’t help but sneak a highly illegal picture of his masterpiece. It was so cool to think that just over 10 days ago, all of the cardinals were locked in there for the papal conclave!

 Ceiling in the Hall of Maps

 My illegal photo taken inside the Sistine Chapel...can you see the Creation of Adam?

Being silly in St. Peter's square

We exited the Sistine Chapel and went to see St. Peter’s Square and St. Peter’s Basilica, which was amazing as well. I was especially blown away by the SIZE! The carved letters inside the dome are 12 feet tall! I couldn’t believe it!

We met up with Nyssa again after lunch and she took us to see the Spanish Steps and go on a walk through Villa Borghese-a beautiful park and garden overlooking Rome. It was a great end to the day!

Our last day in Rome was extremely rainy, but fortunately, the rain held off long enough for us to take some sunny pictures inside the Colosseum. After the Colosseum, we toured Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, but to be honest, I don’t really know much about the history of either. I was too wet at that point to care about much more than getting warm and dry. I hate that the rain can ruin trips in that way. We also stopped at the Rome Cathedral, where the Pope gives mass! Our last night in Rome ended with a lovely dinner on a cute street in the city with all of our friends, followed by a trip to the 150 flavors gelato shop (AKA complete HEAVEN). I’m seriously going to gain 50 pounds in Italy.

The following morning we got up early (a trend this week...) to make our train to Florence. We had booked tickets online the night before, and thought we left with plenty of time. Well, the unreliable Rome city buses took longer than we thought and when we got to the station, Paige and I got separated from our other two friends! With not much time left, we frantically searched for someone to ask about where our train was. It was conveniently located at the farthest end of the farthest track, and was scheduled to leave in just minutes. Unsure of where our friends were, Paige and I took off at a sprint for the train. We made it just in time and happened to see Elissa and Hope talking to a train worker outside the train. They made it on the train too, and we all sat down breathless and a little shaken...even more so when we found out that it was NOT the train we had bought tickets for. It was still going to Florence, but we were terrified that we were going to get kicked off the train or have to pay a huge fine for not purchasing the right tickets. Four hours and lots of stressing later, the nice train worker let us stay on the train without paying a fine! It’s always so nice to meet kind people in the world.

Once in Florence, we decided to spend the rest of the day in Siena, a small town about an hour from Florence by bus. It was sunny and nice and such an adorable place! I could have stayed there for days. It ended up being a lovely day.

 Siena

Watching sunset in Siena

Today we spent the day in Florence; I have decided I like Florence even better than Rome! It’s just smaller and cuter and easier to get around. We went to the famous “mercato centrale” where all sorts of Italian leather goods are sold, as well as gorgeous scarves and other fun things. I purchased some cool postcards to add to my collection and a beautiful photo album that I plan to put my postcard collection from the semester in. We took a stroll down the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge, and decided that we wanted to take a wine tasting class! It was SO much fun, and the wines were all delicious! We ended up being the only four in the class with our lovely instructor Mauritzio. I think I’m quickly on my way to becoming a wine expert. A bit tipsy and blissfully full of wine, the four of us wandered to the Duomo with plans to climb all the way to the top. Unfortunately, it was closed already for the night so we ate some more instead. If I could some up Italy so far in one word, it would be FOOD. There are no words for the food here-all I want to do is eat all the time! It’s really a good thing I’m not studying here, because you’d have to roll me off the plane at the end of the semester.

Anyway, check back for another post this weekend about the rest of our Italy trip! I think that’s all for now!

 The Duomo at night

Ponte Vecchio bridge 

After a lovely wine tasting class!

The one in Barcelona: a very Gaudí day

Have I mentioned that I love traveling? Because I really, really do. Paige said something that I thought was very philosophical today-she said, “I’m so glad we got to spend the day seeing all these cool, new things. Wait. We do that basically every day.” And it’s SO true! Maybe that’s why I’m constantly in a state of exhaustion, because there is always something new to look at everywhere I go.

In case you haven’t seen my Facebook in the past week or so, let me fill you in on a couple of things. First, it rained even more, which I thought was impossible. It rained so hard, in fact, that it soaked right through my backpack and ruined all my lecture notes from my History of Art class as well as my beloved Lilly Pulitzer planner, among other things. 

Thankfully, I had just finished my Art History midterm earlier that day. Second, I had a week of midterms which was stressful (who knew I’d have to do real schoolwork and studying while abroad??!?) but they ended up going pretty well I think. Third, I reached my halfway point for my time abroad! I can’t believe it’s here already...two months from tomorrow, I go home! I think it’s really going to fly by. Being at the halfway point is bizarre-it’s such a strange mixture of emotions, but I can definitely say I’m truly lucky to have such amazing friends and family to make going back home something to look forward to just as much as the rest of my semester in Spain.

So other than that, I spent some time with Paige’s family who was visiting for the past week (and so graciously let me spend two nights with them!) and I tried to avoid the awful rain. I also bought a new umbrella. Oh, and last Saturday I visited Sevilla, Spain with my program! It was beautiful! I wish we could’ve spend more time there. You can see my pictures from that trip here :

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151486084547042.1073741826.622252041&type=3

So that gets you pretty much up to date! Now it’s time to recount all of my adventures from the first two days of my spring break! Paige and I thought it was a great idea to take an 11 hour train overnight to get to Barcelona on Friday morning because it was cheaper...if you’re traveling by train for that long, make sure to have some sleeping meds. That’s all I have to say about that. We arrived at our apartment that Paige’s mom rented for our stay in Barcelona and our first stop was for some much-needed, strong, good ‘ole Starbucks. Once Paige’s mom and sister arrived (by plane-the smart way) we wandered out into the city to Plaza de Cataluña and found an awesome cathedral to go into, after some yummy lunch outside in the sun. We strolled down the famous walk called La Rambla and out onto the port/boardwalk area, where we decided to walk all the way around to the other side to go up in these little cable cars, which would take us to the top of the hill for some amazing views. The wait was long, but the views were worth it! It was a gorgeous sunny day and we got to explore the castle at the top of the hill as well. 

On our way down on the bus, we could see the tops of what looked like a huge cathedral or a palace or something, but we all decided we were too tired after a long day to stop and see something else. We quickly changed our minds as views of the front of the National Art Museum came into sight. As soon as the bus stopped, we were off and admiring the building and snapping photos left and right. It was one of those buildings that take your breath away. Quite possibly one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve seen. Of course we just had to stay for the water/lights show that was to be starting in an hour, so even though it was cold, we plopped ourselves down in front of the biggest fountain to enjoy the display. It was a great first day.

Today, we set our alarms and had a full list of “must-see” things on our list for the day. We started by being tacky tourists and purchasing tickets for one of those “hop on, hop off” city tour buses (with headphones and EVERYTHING!). We “hopped off” at the Sagrada Familia, probably the most famous site to see in Barcelona. It’s a cathedral designed by the legendary Gaudí and is just completely surreal! Unfortunately, the outside is habitually under construction, but it still looks amazing. The entrance line wound almost totally around the block, but went by pretty quickly. Once inside, we were kind of in shock yet again. You can see a bit in the photos, but they hardly do it justice. Apparently the architecture is meant to mimic nature and specifically trees and a forest, which you can kind of tell if you look really hard. I agree it’s a bit of a stretch.

After having our minds rocked by the Sagrada Familia, we “hopped on” the tacky tourist bus and headed to Park Guell to see more of Gaudí’s creations. The park was also absolutely surreal-it reminds me of something out of Dr. Seuss, Alice in Wonderland, or just gingerbread houses. I don’t know how someone could have designed something so cool! We inevitably got lost in the park, but had time to wander around a lot and take in views of the city from the top, as well as listen to some local performers.

Once again, I wish I could spend more time here...it’s an awesome city-I highly recommend it! Of course we didn’t get to see everything, but I loved all the Gaudí architecture and the city itself was just incredible. I need to head off to bed soon to get up at 3 am for the next leg of our spring break week...ROME! Stay tuned for updates. I’m hoping to post several times throughout the week, but that might be too ambitious. We’ll see, I guess! Anyone who has been to Italy, what are your suggestions for things to see/eat/do? I’d love to hear them! Please leave a comment! 

The rain in Spain falls mainly...in Granada.

Hallelujah, Lord Almighty, thank goodness it has finally stopped raining in Granada! I think it was like nine days in a row and my umbrella was getting quite a nice workout. Of course, now that I say this, it’s probably going to start torrentially down pouring on my walk to school.

Now that the sun has returned along with my inspiration to write a blog post, I’m going to recount the past week and a half in Spain! Since coming back from Prague, we’ve done a bit of traveling around the area here in Spain. Last Friday, we had another “intercambio” activity with our partners from the University of Granada. For this activity, we visited the Memoría de Andalucía museum, which has all sorts of cool things to teach us about the history of Andalucia. On Saturday, we hiked wayyy up to the area called Sacromonte here in Granada to see the cave museum that’s up there. Basically, these man-made caves exist from years ago when the gypsies lived up in the hills and created their own little neighborhoods of caves. It was pretty cool to see them, and I definitely burned some serious calories on the hike up there.

Inside one of the caves in Sacromonte

On Sunday, we had another excursion with our program to the city of Ronda, about 3 hours from Granada. I had heard that Ronda was beautiful, but wasn’t expecting the breathtaking views that we saw of the bridge there. Ronda is known for its famous bridge and it blew my expectations out of the water. The day started out with rain, rain and more rain. We were pretty much soaked, but were determined to see all we could. We had about 3 hours of free time before we had to meet up for our guided tour, so my friends and I bought a student pass from the tourism office to see the inside of the bridge, 2 museums, Arab baths, and the palace for only 5 euro. It was a pretty great deal, even if we only used it to get out of the rain for a bit. Our first stop was the bridge, followed quickly to a wine museum-right up my alley. I’m thinking of stealing their idea and installing a wine fountain in my house this summer.

Wine fountains!

Before we had to head back for our tour, we decided to take a hike down the steep hills to try to get a better view of the bridge and the waterfall running underneath it. Luckily for us, the sun came out for a while so that we could take some pictures without umbrellas. The scenery was absolutely amazing. Some quotes I heard from that day included, “It looks like we’re in Lord of the Rings!” and “It’s just so OLD!” and “Are we really here?” Pretty much sums that up. The pictures don’t even begin to capture it.

On Monday, our program went to see a Flamenco show. It was a great experience and one of those things that you just have to do when you’re in Spain. I was impressed that it was such a cool art form-both the dancer and the singers were absolutely amazing.

So I think that’s about it for the past week. What did YOU do this week? :)

Tomorrow night we’re doing an olive oil tasting, which I’m so excited for. Anything that involves food...I’m SO there. And Saturday we are going to Sevilla, Spain for the day.

Before ending, I’d like to make two quick shoutouts. First, to all of you loyal readers who have continued to read my blog! I’m really enjoying writing this (a lot more than I thought I would have), and I hope you’re all enjoying reading!

Second, I’d like to give a shout out to my little sister Britta who turns 17 tomorrow! HOW is that even possible?? Craziness. Happy birthday, B! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you. Unfortunately, one of the hardest things about being abroad has been missing out on the birthdays of my family and almost all of my closest friends’ 21^st birthdays. To all you girlies whose 21^sts (How DO you write that out?) I missed, I owe you all a drink. To Britta, I hope you have an amazing birthday and get all you ever wished for!

Happy birthday Britta!

xoxo

For no reason at all.

Today, I decided to write a blog post for no reason at all. I guess I’m bored, but it’s not like I even have anything exciting going on right now either. If you read my blog to keep up with my jet-setting adventures across Europe, you probably won’t find this interesting at all. I apologize for that.

It’s a really gloomy day today. Like really, really gloomy. I think today is the fourth day in a row that it has rained. A little cultural observation: people in Spain do NOT move around you in any way to dodge umbrellas. I’ve been hit in the face by umbrellas a lot here.

I’m writing from the lobby of the hotel (that so graciously lets us poor wifi-less souls use their internet whenever we want). I don’t know what I would do without them! I realized this week that I never post blog posts anymore about my life here in Spain, and that’s just sad. It’s so easy to get caught up in the travels to cool places every weekend and to let my day-to-day life in Granada slip through the cracks. When I think about going home in May, I picture my response to the question “How was your semester abroad?” a lot. Usually, it goes something like this in my head:

-“Kira! So good to see you-how was your semester in Spain?”

-“It was great!”

-“So what was your favorite part?”

-(struggles to pick just one thing out of a whole five months) “I really liked the hazelnut croissants.”

-“Oh, that’s wonderful! Anything else...?”

-“Yes. Mhm. Morocco was nice too!”

I mean really. That’s pretty pathetic. But how do I even begin to describe everything that’s happened to me while abroad? I think the default is to talk about all the amazing trips I went on and the places I got to see, and I have a feeling I’ll forget to tell people about what it was like to actually live here. So, that’s what I guess I’m going to try to do now.

In the mornings, I usually wake up at 7 am or 10 am, depending on the day of the week and which classes I have that day. It takes me awhile to convince myself to get out of bed. Did I mention how cold it is in the house? Carmen (my host mom) always has breakfast set out for me when I get up and it usually consists of coffee or orange juice and croissants, toast, or dry cereal. After getting ready, I walk about 30 minutes to school, which is beautiful when it’s nice out and awful when it’s rainy. The exercise is good though, especially to counteract the hazelnut-stuffed croissants I love so much.

A quick funny story about something I saw the other day on my walk to school-Granada hosts a sort of film festival thing every year with a different theme and this year’s was Dracula movies (Sadly, I did not attend). Anyway, they set up this really long red carpet on one of the major streets of the city and there were Dracula posters lining the whole street. They finally rolled up the carpet yesterday after about 2 weeks of it being out, and I was sad. It made me feel like a movie star! So the other day, I was walking along listening to my music when I saw a group of old ladies giggling to themselves and turning around with their cameras. Of course I had to stop to see what they were laughing at...day. made. One of their friends was hamming it up, strutting down the red carpet, hands on her head, pretending to be a movie star. It was fabulous.

It was probably way funnier in person. So the rest of my day, I have class till about 1-2:30 then a break where Paige and I either walk home for lunch with Carmen and her grandson Juan Antonio or we ask for a bocadillo (sandwich/sack lunch kind of) and stay at school if we have a meeting or want to just stay and use the internet. We don’t usually head back home until around 8:30pm when we have dinner, because it’s so darn cold in the house that it’s much better to stay at school and browse Pinterest (or if you’re Paige, browse Skyscanner). Dinner at home is small, usually just a sandwich, an omelet, or a couple pieces of frozen pizza and fruit or yogurt. We tend to hang out at the dinner table for a while after eating because there is a space heater underneath. It’s fantastic. Carmen likes to watch the news or Law and Order, but Law and Order is really hard to understand because it’s dubbed in Spanish so their mouths don’t match the words and they cut down hour-long episodes to only 30 minutes. It’s still good practice, though, because Carmen helps us with the words we don’t understand!

Classes are fine, but midterms are coming up in a little over a week and that could be a very rude awakening. I’m here for school? What? In all honesty, the classes aren’t that hard and I find my Spanish Civilization and Culture and Art History classes really interesting. I think I might explode if I have to learn the difference between “ser” and “estar” or review pasados again, but otherwise I’m doing okay.

I think that’s about it-hope I didn’t bore you all to death! If there’s anything else you are just dying to know about my life here in Granada, you should definitely comment below or shoot me an email. Happy Thursday, friends! 

My "Prague Blogue"

Excuse the little rhyme there-I just had to. This weekend was exactly what I needed...a visit to a cool, new city is always in vogue but spending time just hanging out with familiar faces was absolute perfection. We didn’t have school on Thursday because it was Día de Andalucía, a holiday in the region of Andalucía where Granada is located. Paige and I skipped class on Wednesday so we could come to Prague, Czech Republic to visit our friend Sarah! Sarah has been studying here since this past fall and is one of our sorority sisters. We were so thrilled to be able to stay with her during our 4 days in Prague and it was even better because 2 of our other sorority sisters came to stay as well!

After a little (or not-so-little) blip with a stupid travel booking company that caused us to have to cancel and re-book our flight less than a week before we were supposed to leave, we made it safely to Prague Wednesday afternoon. Sarah was kind enough to meet us at the airport and take us back to her amazing flat, where we met her roommates Thomas (from Belfast) and Juan Carlos (from Mexico), cooked some dinner together, and fell fast asleep...until noon the next day. Needless to say, Thursday was a “lazy” day. Paige, Sarah and I just lounged around and headed into the city center to do some shopping. It was a gloriously girly day and it felt amazing to paint our nails, listen to some country music and primp ourselves to go out together. In a crazy semester where nothing ever feels quite normal, I must admit it was wonderful to have a weekend to breathe and reunite with old friends from home.

We headed over to Sarah’s friends’ dorm on Thursday night and met some cool students from Britain and Spain and spent the night partying like the Czech do at a club called M1. I even had the chance to practice my Spanish a bit with the girls from Spain! It seems to follow me everywhere...

On Friday, we went for a walk in the park near Sarah’s apartment, got some coffee at a cute little restaurant in the park, and then headed to the airport to pick up our friends Nyssa and Dana from Rome!!! It was a crazy reunion at the airport and we spent that night hanging out and talking about our experiences abroad so far (and of course catching up on all the gossip). We also went out for a traditional Czech dinner-I ordered a Czech beer (Pilsner Urquell), potato dumplings, and apple strudel. They’re not kidding when they say that Czech food is hearty! I was completely stuffed.

Saturday was tourist-y day! With our personal tour guide Sarah at our sides, we spent the day exploring all there is to see in Prague in terms of tourist things. We saw ‘old town’ and ‘new town,’ Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle, Old Town Square, the ‘Mini Eiffel Tower’, Petrin Hill and much more. We got to do our touristy shopping and I ate an amazing Czech bratwurst! I LOVE trying all the new food from the places I visit. The climb up to the mini Eiffel Tower was a great end to our sightseeing day and afterwards we headed back to Sarah’s apartment to spend another night with her Prague friends. It was a blast once again and after a couple hours at the apartment we ventured out into the Czech cold to visit the 5-story club we had heard rave reviews about. It was crazy and once again, I was reminded of how much harder Europeans party in comparison to Americans. We made it home around 4 am, just in time for a quick shower before we had to get our stuff together, say goodbye to our friends (wahhh!) and catch our 5 am taxi to the airport. It was worth a night without sleep for the amount of fun we had! I absolutely loved Prague; I can’t tell you whether it was the amazing architecture, the culture of the Czech Republic or just spending time with friends that made it so awesome (probably a combination of all three!) but regardless it was another unforgettable experience to add to my quickly growing list!

Ciao, friends! 

 Out with my SK's for some Czech beer and good Czech food: potato dumplings and apple strudel!

 The five of us at the Lenin Wall

Last night in Prague! Before we left for the 5 story club