Fall Break- Spain and Portugal

From October 25^th to November 2^nd I got to adventure across Spain and Portugal. What an experience! Mom and Dad left the 25^th and I hopped the train to Bologna to fly to Madrid. A few of my friends from Florence were already there so I was meeting up with them. So me and my one backpack (that I had to live out of for one week!) were on our way. I have gotten a lot more comfortable traveling alone and its crazy to think how terrified and lost I was when I first got here. I guess I am growing up! :)

The first night after seeing some of the sights of Madrid we went to a few of the bars to celebrate Zach’s 21^st birthday. Free shots are great! The next day we checked out some of the famous sites of Madrid and did some shopping on Gran Via. My favorite was the Park of Madrid. We sat by the lake with a bottle of wine and some bread. It was so relaxing and a great way to kick off my week. Another highlight of Madrid were the restaurants we found. So good and super cheap! Yum!

The next day we woke up super early and took a taxi to the airport to catch our EARLY flight to Lisbon, Portugal. This trip has to be a record for the most flights in one week—5! Quite ridiculous! It’s the best way to travel quickly and relatively cheaply. Most of our flights were early morning flights so I have perfected the art of sleeping on planes. Lisbon was probably my favorite stop of the trip. Our hostel was the best hostel I have ever stayed at. If you are ever in Lisbon I recommend the Travelers House, super cute and homey, complete with scrambled eggs every morning! The first day we spent exploring Lisbon. I love wandering the streets of random towns. You never know what treasures you will discover, like churches over looking the bay. :)

Then that night the hostel had a wine tasting aka my new favorite hobby. We met some fun people and had a great time making friends with people from all over! It was an excellent day.

For day two in Lisbon we decided to do a road trip tour with the hostel to Sintra. So the 5 of us, 2 Australians and one crazy guy piled into a van for a grand adventure, complete with the oddest variety of music. I have good news! I found my future home! The Castelo da Pena is amazing and fully furnished with many bedrooms so you can all come stay with me. I plan to move in sometime after graduation. Hahaha! In case you haven’t noticed I love touring castles. J The next stop was another palace complete with the craziest “gardens” ever. It had tunnels and caves that would connect you to different parts of the gardens. We had way too much fun exploring the tunnels and defending our castles. It was like being in a fantasy world. We all turned it to kids for a few hours, complete with an acorn battle castle vs. castle. Then it was on to Capo da Roca, which is the farthest western point in Europe. I waved to all of you! Last but not least was the most gorgeous beach ever, where I got to watch the sunset. It was an amazing day and once again one of the best I have had here. The night ended with a keg at the hostel and a pub-crawl. Portugal=Awesome!

Then it was another flight back to Madrid for a quick overnight before another flight to Barcelona! Really we flew it Girona, which is about an hour outside Barcelona. We did some exploring before catching the train to Barcelona. Girona is a really neat town with lots of neat churches and winding streets. Barcelona is quite the place with lots to see and explore. After checking into the hostel we met up with Jeff’s friend Katie (also an Iowa Stater) who is studying in Barcelona and she gave us a great introductory tour of the city. We wandered Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s famous shopping street, and checked out all the stands, costumed street performers and an great fresh food market, the Boqueria Market. Then Katie took us to a super awesome fountain show complete with music and lights. It reminded me of something Disney would do. J After a few escalator rides we reached the top of Palace Nacional and enjoyed the lights of Barcelo

The next day was dedicated to the works of Gaudi. Examples of his modernist architecture and style are all over the city. Our first stop was Parc Guell which looks over the city. It was nice to be outside enjoying the nice weather and we took a break on Gaudi’s ergonomically correct bench. Very comfy!

Another stop was La Sagrada Familiga, a church designed by Gaudi that he left unfinished. It is still under construction, but very impressive and so different from all the other churches I have seen. This guy had some really unique ideas. Next we wandered to Parc de La Ciutadella. I love parks and this one is definitely near the top of my list. It offers I nice break from the busy streets of Barcelona and has a lot to offer including a great fountain, a lake with rowboats and a wooly mammoth statue.

After making a great dinner of Spaghetti at the hostel it was time to celebrate Halloween Barcelona style! What better way then to go to the largest club in all of Barcelona. Razzmatazz has five different rooms playing all types of music. We ended up hanging out in the biggest room with about 5,000 other people. It was crazy, but a lot of fun. The highlight of the night was a performance of the Thriller dance! Those Spanish know how to party; we were out till 5:30am! And that’s normal!

The final day of fall break was spent with a tour of the Picasso Museum, feeding some gimpy pigeons and souvenir shopping. Then it was a train ride back to Girona. I spent the remainder of the evening in the hostel feeling sick. Not the best way to end a great trip, but I was glad it wasn’t until the last day that I felt icky. The next morning we took an early morning flight back to Bologna and then a train to Florence completing our amazing fall break journey.

I never thought I would make it to Spain or Portugal and I got to do both! I am constantly thinking about how lucky I am to have had all of these amazing experiences. I have seen so much this semester! Study abroad has been so much better than I imagined and I cannot believe how fast it has gone!

For more pics from Madrid, Lisbon and Barcelona check out Facebook! Love you all!

Mom and Dad in Italia

On October 15^th Mom and Dad arrived in Rome! I took the train right after my Italian class Thursday morning and met them at the hotel. It was so nice to see them and exactly what I needed. I felt only a little sorry that I interrupted their napping time, but we were in Rome there is way too much to see to be napping! So instead we started walking. It was so fun to see them out of their element a little bit. Mom couldn’t get over the buildings and Dad was just smiling, taking it all in. The first stop was of course gelato and then we wandered our way from the hotel to Colosseum. I have seen the Colosseum before, but it is still such an amazing architectural feat. You can clearly see the resemblance to any and all athletic facilities of today. We decided to tackle it and the Forum the next day. Instead we wandered some more, eventually finding a wine bar and relaxing in a Piazza with a good bottle of Chianti. Becky, my roommate from Iowa State, is studying in Rome this semester and we got to meet up with her for a delicious dinner. I still couldn’t believe my family was here in Italy. It was great!!

The next day we went to the Forum (aka the ancient Roman ruins). We decided to split an audio tour. Ha! The little speaker only goes so loud. I am sure we looked like idiots all huddled around it trying to hear. Hahaha! But it was helpful to have some clue as to what we were looking at. One of the coolest places was looking down on the Forum area from the Palatine Hill. It was kind of neat seeing all the tourists milling around down there. If they had been in togas it would have been perfect! Next was the Colosseum. We got to pass the ridiculously long line since we had already bought our tickets. Hooray! The inside of the Colosseum is just as amazing as the outside. I would have loved to have seen it during the Roman times, well minus all the killings inside. Yikes!

Then Dad was thirsty and he managed to lead us back to an Irish Pub we had passed the day before. After a long day of ruin strolling a beer and bar snacks was a perfect way to kick off the evening. Once again we met up with Becky and we were once again roaming the streets of Rome. We hit up the usual sights like the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps. Then it was another tasty Italian dinner. Yum! One of the best things about having my folks in town was all the wonderful food I got to enjoy. Tasty! After dinner we took the back way up the Spanish steps. Much to mom’s disappointment there are just as many steps going up this way hahaha. At the top we actually ran into my friend Paula from Iowa State who is also studying in Rome. It was a complete surprise and so totally random. It was great to see her! We stood there and chatted for quite awhile, but I noticed the jet-lagged ‘rents starting to fade so we called it a night and went back to the hotel. It had been a long, but awesome day.

Saturday we decided to head to another country for a few hours and made the Metro trip to the Vatican City. It was a little gloomy out when we arrived so we headed to the museum first. Now the last time I was in Europe I did the Vatican Museum in record time. We only had 2 hours or so and our mission was the Sistine Chapel. It was so nice to actually enjoy all of the amazing pieces this museum has. It was crazy to look at some of the statues that I had been studying for the past few weeks in my art history class. It’s so true that you appreciate artwork so much more when you know what it is about. Thank god for personal audio guides! The Sistine Chapel was just as amazing as I remember, if not more so since I have learned so much more about it and Michelangelo since being here. We were one of the lucky ones to score a spot on the benches surrounding the walls and got to sit and take it all in. Besides the minor interruptions of angry guards yelling at tourists to be quiet it is a really overwhelming experience. You may have seen pictures, but nothing can compare to seeing it in person. Next was a stop at St. Peter’s Square and a walk through the Basilica. It is HUGE! It is the largest church I have ever seen and everything in it is so ornately decorated. Beautiful!

After a long day of Vaticany things we were ready to head back to Rome. We wandered along the river for a while. It was so nice to get to just hang out with my parents. I miss home so much and getting to laugh and talk with them was the best thing ever. I am so thankful that they were able to make the trip over here to see me. They deserved it to! 25 Years!We had another great dinner at the little place by our hotel. I think we have a gift for picking good restaurants…or most restaurants in Italy are just pretty darn good!

The next morning we caught a train to head back to Florence for a few days before they headed to Cinque Terre. They stayed at my hostel, which was fun! After showing them my room and they headed to the Accademia museum, while I booked my flights to Spain for fall break. We met up later and did the walking tour of Florence. That one of my favorite things about this place, everything is in walking distance. We covered a lot of ground. It was nice for them to get to see where I have been for the past few months. Although we had planned to visit museums on Monday when we found out that many of them were going to closed. So instead we decided to head out to Chianti for a wine tour with the hostel. It was the same tour I had went on

earlier this semester. We got to taste some great wines and olive oils. The last stop was in San Gimignano, a medieval town in the hills and home to the world’s best gelato. We had a great day and I know they were glad that we did it since we all know they love wine J

The next day they left for Cinque Terre and I took my first midterm. Not fair I know! It actually went pretty well considering how little studying I had done. Apparently going wine tasting before midterms is not a bad idea J It was a long week with five tests, but I am slowly getting the grades back and I did pretty well. Not that it matters too much since everything transfers back to ISU as pass/fail. Hooray!

After my last exam Thursday afternoon I met Mom and Dad outside school and we were on a train bound for Venice. It’s a pretty long ride to Venice from Florence so when we arrived it was pretty late. One thing we did learn about Venice is that since there are not really streets that cars drive on there are not really any street signs either. After wandering for quite some time we finally called the hotel and confessed how lost we were. The hotel guys actually met us in St. Mark’s Piazza to lead us to the hotel. Well when we finally got there… no wonder we couldn’t find it because it looked nothing like a hotel. Besides a very small plaque on the building you would have no clue. Then when we entered it only got better. It was a basement with just brick walls. Not exactly your typical hotel lobby. The guy apologized profusely and said he was waiting for approval to redo it. Poor guy! When we did we reach the hotel (on the 4^th floor- sorry dad/Sherpa) it was very nice and we were happy to have a home. However, we were starving! It was 11pm and not a lot of places are open that late and still serving dinner. Luckily we had found a Hard Rock Café and it was exactly what we needed. I had a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and about died! Yum! So far Venice was turning out to be quite the adventure J

The next day we did the typical touristy things: St. Mark’s, the piazza, and the Doge’s Palace. My favorite was touring the palace. Each room seemed to get bigger and even more beautiful. The last room was gorgeous and so massive! Mom’s thought was that with better footing it would make a perfect indoor arena…typical! We also got to go over the Bridge of Sighs that led to the prison. Mom made a joke about how she though it was called that because the prisoners thought “oh…damn-it” when crossing. Well true story, that is actually why it is called that. Haha! After spending a little too much time in museums we started wandering the streets of Venice. It is such a unique place. The streets are so narrow and canals are everywhere! We did manage to find the Rialto bridge, the first bridge to span the Grand Canal. Then it was wine time! We decided to have our own wine bar and bought some wine, crackers and cheese to enjoy while relaxing at the hotel. Before dinner we went out exploring again and almost let mom take a swim in one of the canals. J

On Saturday we took the train back to Florence and enjoyed the day walking around Florence. We did conquer the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. It was a long way up, but the perfect view of the city. Then it was of course time for more gelato at my favorite place, Grom. Mom and I got caramel and apple favors. Yum! As a celebration of their last night in Italy we did go out for a tradition Italian meal complete with all 4 courses. It was a lot of food, but we managed! J I was really sad to see them leave Sunday morning, but I had a train to catch to Bologna to fly to Madrid. I am so glad that they came to visit me and I think they enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a perfect way to break up the semester here. I did get some nice things from home that I am enjoying now too, like microwave popcorn, Life cereal and caramel! I can’t believe how little time I have left here. I will miss it, but I will definitely be ready to head home. I miss you all so much!

For more pictures check out my facebook album or mom’s facebook album. (Yeah she caved hahaha!)

Amalfi Coast- Cliffs and Caves

First I want to apologize for neglecting my blog. I have been so busy lately and the thought of trying to get it caught up is overwhelming me. I really want to share with you all that I have been up to the past month so I am going to try and summarize the best I can without leaving to much out so here goes nothing! Sorry it is so long… I just can’t help myself. I want to remember it too!

The weekend of October 8^th to the 11^th I traveled to the Amalfi Coast here in Italy. It is located on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula. It has to be one of the most beautiful places in Italy. The coast is gorgeous and it has the bluest water I have ever seen! We stayed in Sorrento at a really cute hotel. On Friday we spent the day in Capri. Capri is an island that is famous for the Faraglioni (huge limestone formations sticking out of the sea, as seen behind me in the picture) and the Blue Grotto. The first thing we did was a boat tour around the island. This was a great way to see the entire island. We also stopped at the Blue Grotto. I decided that it was totally worth the 10 Euro to go inside. They don’t lie… it is a glowing blue cave! You have to enter through a small opening that can barely fit a small paddleboat. It was four other girls, a guide and me and we all had to lay flat in the bottom of the boat to fit through! Inside is indescribable. The sun reflects off the sand under the water at the bottom of the cave and it makes the whole cave glow blue. I took pictures, but they do not do it justice. Another highlight from Capri was the chairlift ride Isabelle and I took to the highest point of the island. We could see the entire island and the coast of Italy from up there. The view was amazing! Once again the pictures just cannot capture the beauty of this place. Capri was so amazing and we had a great day exploring the island.

On Saturday we took the bus to Positano, another town along the coast. I cannot get over how these gorgeous towns are just nestled into the mountainsides right along the sea. In some ways it reminded me of Cinque Terre. We got to go on another boat tour here, but this one I will call more of an adventure tour. First the boat stopped at a rocky seaside cliff. This was where I got my first experience with cliff jumping. The cliff was probably about 40 feet up and the climb to get up there was probably the most dangerous part. After watching a few people take the plug I decided I didn’t want to miss out on this. So I climbed all the way up. At the top I had a lot of second thoughts. It took me quite awhile but I finally jumped. What a rush! Unfortunately I did hit the water wrong and was in quite a bit of pain for about a week…Oops! Looking back now though I am still totally glad I did it!

One of the highlights of the trip for me was at the second stop on the boat tour. Here we got to swim in a cave. It was not quite as blue as the blue grotto, but the water there is unlike anything I have ever seen. Swimming in the cave felt like being in a movie. It was so neat and not like anything I had ever done before. I hope that I get a chance to go caving again someday. Preferably when the water is a tad bit warmer!

On Sunday we got to go to Pompeii. I am sure many of you know the story, but I will give a quick recap. Pompeii was a big city during the Roman Empire. In 79 AD it was covered in rock and ash after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. One positive of this catastrophe is that Pompeii is one of the most well preserved cities of that period. It went untouched for centuries and the ash persevered many of the buildings and some of the frescos on the walls are still visible today. It is unbelievable to walk the streets of this ancient city! I got to go into a theater, a wealthy house, a brothel and tour the city center. I wish we could have spent more time there since we barely got to scratch the surface. I was overwhelmed by the size of the city! Then it was back on the bus and back to Florence.

I have to add this as another one of my top places to sea in Italy. The Amalfi Coast is gorgeous and there is so much to see and do there. I would like to go back again and spend more time there! For more pics check out my facebook album.