Pisa, Florence, & Siena

This past weekend I headed to Florence to visit my friends Katie, Krissy, and Jacey. Courtney just finished her finals and was on spring break so she came down from London and spent the weekend with us also!

I left my apartment at 4:15 am on Thursday to go catch my bus to the airport at 5. My flight was on ryanair at 8:00 and so you have to catch the bus out to Girona about three hours before hand so it was a rather early morning. Once I landed in Pisa it was only 9 so I decided that I would go venture out and try and find the leaning tower on my own. Well when I got off the plane I asked the information desk and they said that I could catch a bus to take me to the leaning tower, then catch the same bus but opposite direction to take my to the train station, where I could then take a train into Florence. Well the lady failed to mention any bus stops she just said that the leaning tower was about a 10 minute bus ride. After being on the bus for about 15 minutes I had no idea where I was and I hadnt seen any leaning towers yet. I saw a hotel at the next bus stop so I decided to get off there and go and ask for directions. The hotel was located in a little square that had a huge wall behind it with arches leading to something. Well when I asked for directions to the tower and if I was close the lady must have thought I was crazy. The leaning tower was located just on the other side of the wall. Should have looked a little harder I guess. Well I walk through the arches and see the tower and the two other buildings that are by it. There is really nothing in Pisa at all. By the leaning tower there were so many tour groups of asians who were all trying to take the standard picture of them pushing over the tower or kicking it or leaning against it. I decided against those pictures since I was by myself but I did ask some people to take a few solo shots. By this time it was only like 9:45 and I didnt really know what else to do. I didnt need to be in florence til 12:15 so I was going to catch my train at 11. I went to see how much it would be if I was going to walk to the top of the tower and it was 15 euro so I said no thank you. I just walked about that area for a little bit, bought so postcards, and just people watched. After awhile I decided to try and figure out the bus and head back to the train station. Once again I didnt know what stop to take so after what seemed like a long time I got off to ask another hotel for directions. Well once again I was just around the corner from where the train station was. Once at the train station I bought my ticket for the train that left at 10:54 and it was about 10:53 so right when I walked on to the platform the train was leaving. Thankfully there was one leaving at 11:05 which was perfect. Well I guess you are suppose to stamp your train ticket which I didnt know and I thought I would get comfy on the train and put my feet up which is strictly forbidden. If you get caught doing it it is a 40 euro charge. Right when I put my feet up of course the conductor walked by, but he just looked at me and gave me a bad look and kept going thank god. Made it to florence all in one piece and found krissy. Krissy had class at 4 so we walked to her apartment set my stuff down, got some gelato, went to the best sandwich place ever and everything was so cheap, and then we went to Katie's apartment while Krissy went to class. At Katie's I just rested a little bit since I had a pretty long day. That night Krissy made us dinner and it was delicious and then we went to a bar did some karaoke. It was fun and I actually sang, but that is because we didnt have to stand on a stage just in the crowd hah.

Friday Krissy and I headed to Siena. It is a little over an hour train ride away from Florence. My friend Laura studied abroad there last semester and so I really wanted to see it. Siena is soo cute, but super small. I fell in love with the city immediately though. When I think of Tuscan Italy that is what I picture. Cute little houses with the green country side. It was so beautiful and quiet. There are barely any cars in the main part of the city. It was a nice be in a quiet city and get a break from the busy city life of Barcelona. We spent a couple hours just wandering the streets of Siena. I visited the Duomo in Siena which was awesome. It was one of the coolest churches I have been in because it is so different than all the rest. It wasnt the boring gothic cathedrals that every city has. It was blue and white stripped on the inside with dark blue ceilings that had little gold stars. After a few hours we headed back to Florence because Courtney was coming in and I needed a nap before we headed out for the night. That night we went to this restaurant called Dantes. It was great because they have a student special where college students get free wine all night long. We stayed there til 1:30 am just hanging out, eating the greatest bread ever, drinking wine, and enjoying everyones company. We went to dinner with Katie, Krissy, Courtney, Jacey, her roommate Blair who is from WSU also, and then Blair's friend from home(mercer island) was visiting from Paris with her roommate, and then Alex Bernasconi came down for the weekend also so it was just so fun all hanging out. By the time we left there wasnt much going on so we all just headed home and got a good night sleep.

Saturday was our day to tour Florence. Our first stop in Florence was Pitti Palace. It was right by Krissy's apartment which was nice and it was also really cool on the inside. We started off at the gardens because the weather was really and we werent sure if it would have changed by the time we were done on the inside. After walking through the gardens we went inside and looked at the costume collection. It was a collection of all different gowns dating from like the 1800s to the 1900s. They even had some of the original clothing from the Medici (spelling?) family which were the self-imposed royalty in Florence. It was really cool seeing those because they were so old. So old that the material on the clothes has actually started disappearing and so the outfits werent complete. After the Pitti Palace we met up with Katie and some of Krissy's friends and headed to PT. Michealangelo. We hiked up a million stairs but the view from the top was worth it. It over looked all of Florence and the countryside. It is so nice to see green grass because we never see that in Barcelona. Florence is such a beautiful city. We sat up there ate some bread and cheese and then after went and got some gelato. SOOO GOOD! after a little gelato we went to San Lorenzo which is a big area of people who try and sell you stuff like purses, italy shirts, bracelets, scarfs, leather jackets, and so on. I got myself two pairs of sunglasses and a black scarf. Krissy got a real Italian leather jacket. She really wanted one so that was exciting for her. After shopping we headed to the duomo. I was rather let down by the Duomo. The outside is so pretty but the inside sucks. The one in Siena is so much more beautiful. Next to the Duomo is this tower and so we decided to climb up it since it was cheaper than climbing up the dome and they were about the same height. Well 400 and something stairs later we made it. Boy was it a hard walk too. The higher you got the narrower the stairs got and there were people going up and down. It made me a little nervous at times but we made up and down all in one piece. The view from the top was amazing! you could see all of Florence. Its cool because there are no tall buildings in Florence really so the things that stick out are all the churches and important buildings. You could see forever up there minus it was a little hazing out. Once we trekked down all the steps we went to go see the David. The building that David is in is nothing special and I surprised they put him in such a boring building. You walk in and he is just right there. It is so awesome. I just stood and starred. he is so much larger than I imaged and it is so amazing. The detail and everything makes him look so life like. its kinda creepy. on his hands you can see vains and such. After a long day of sight seeing we went back to the apartment, rested, regrouped, and then went out to one last dinner. It was everyone who was here for the weekend and Krissys friends from Florence so I think there was about 12 of us at dinner and the food was good. All I ate that weekend was pizza but its just too good not to eat it. After dinner we went back to Katies apartment and hung out a little bit. When everyone was going to go out I was so exhausted and so was Jacey me and her decided to go and have a romantic meal at Mcdonalds and then go to bed. This girl I know from home was coming to Florence for spring break so my mom met her in Seattle and gave her my computer. So I stayed with Jacey Saturday night because she lives right by her.

Sunday morning, Me and Jacey went and got my computer!!!! headed back to krissys I packed up all my stuff and then headed to the train station. I needed to catch the train at like 12:30 so we just hung out at the station for a little bit, I headed back to Pisa somehow got on the right bus, made it to the airport all in once piece got on my plane and made to Barcelona with no complications. If you ask me it was a very successful weekend and it was great to see my friends and see where cara, kristen, and laura all studied.

This weekend Krissy, Katie and Courtney are all heading out to Barca so we can show them our city and its crazy lifestyle. I cannot wait! It will be so nice to be with all our friends, minus they are staying in our apartment so it may be a little squished but well make it work!

seville

Last weekend I went to Seville or as they call it Sevilla. It is located in southern Spain and it is a really cool city. It is more of what I thought Spain would look like. A lot of palm trees, more Spanish looking houses and buildings, lots of flamenco, and lots of bull fighting. Unfortunately it rained the entire weekend when we were there so I didn't get to enjoy the city to its full potential.

On Friday, our flight was delayed, so when we landed we went straight from the airport to the hotel, dropped our stuff off really fast, and then headed out. We didn't even have time to check into our hotel room. After being quickly rushed out of the hotel we went to the cathedral in Seville. It was really large, looked a lot like most all other cathedrals I have seen though. Inside the cathedral Christopher Columbus is actually buried there so that was pretty cool. We also got to walk to the top of the bell tower and it had a great view of the entire city. The cathedral use to be an Muslim temple, the only part of the Cathedral that remains that was Muslim design was the bell tower. so that was pretty cool to see. From there we went to the palace. It is one of the oldest still in use palaces in Europe. Within the palace there are 3 different palaces. My favorite one palace was the one that was Muslim. It is just so different than what I have seen in barcelona. Everything is so much or detailed and the architecture is so different. While we were at the palace it started raining, so when our tour was over we all headed back to the hotel to check in and settle for a little bit. well they didnt really give us good directions or a map on how to get back to the hotel so after wondering the streets of seville we finally made it to our hotel. We checked in and our hotel and it was actually really nice. It was a huge change from our pretty shitty hotel in rome. API stepped up their game this time ha. Friday night we went and got mexican food for dinner. Tenessa has wanted mexican food since the moment we have been in spain and so that is what we decided to do. Well the first restaurant we went to the entire block had no lights on and the restaurant looked like it had been shut down, so we had no idea what to do. We ventured around Seville and then finally we stumbled another mexican place which ended up to be really good. It had real sour cream!!!!

On Saturday we had a day trip to Cadiz, which is about and hour and half away from Seville and located on the Atlantic Coast. Well once again it was pouring down rain. It was raining so hard on our bus ride there that you could barely see out the front window. When we got to cadiz it cleared up a little, well i mean it wasnt pouring but it was still raining pretty hard. They had to change up our tour of the city to make it more of an indoor thing. So we took a short tour on a bus and then we went to another cathedral, the museum for the cathedral and then the city hall. The city hall was pretty cool because it was super old and really extravagant. Way cooler than any city hall in the states. As we left the Cathedral to go to the museum i literally think i was in the middle of a monsoon. It was raining so hard, everyone was soaking wet and you had to look straight down when you walked. Thankfully after leaving the museum the rain had cleared and you could see the sun trying to push through the clouds. We were suppose to stay there til 430 but everyone was so miserable we got lunch, had some time to get souvenirs and then we headed back to Seville. Since we got back early i had enough time to take a nap before going out for the night. That night we were going to go to go to this Tapas bar that my friend Dave heard of from one of his friends who was studying there but the line was over an hour wait, so instead we went to some restaurant that had live music playing on the corner. After that we all headed across the river to this bar called BigBen. That was a lot of fun and there were a ton of locals there which is a nice mix up from all the americans you see in barcelona.

On sunday we were suppose to have a bike tour, but once again the weather was terrible when they woke up so they canceled it. Instead we got to go on a tour of a bull fighting ring. The weather actually cleared up on Sunday and it got pretty warm out. The bull fighting ring was cool way different than I expected. After being there and seeing pictures and the process of a bull fight, I dont think that I could ever really attend one. Little too gruesome for me. We didnt have to meet back at the hotel until 4 so after our short tour, we headed back to that tapas bar we wanted to go to the night before. I am really glad we decided to do that because it was one of the best places i have been yet. The tapas you ordered were the size of a real meal. I ordered two dishes and my total for my meal was 3 euro! soo cheap and such great food. After that we just headed back to the hotel and soon enough we were back in Barca.

On a side note. Yesterday it snowed in barcelona. Like legit sticked to the ground snow. My spanish teacher said that in her whole life she has maybe seen snow twice and she has never seen it stick to the ground. I was at class in the campus that is really far away from my house, its a little more out of the city, and so not as warm. The streets were covered, cars were gettinng stuck, complete mayham. When I got on the metro there were people everywhere. Whats normally a 20 - 30 minute ride home turned into a 45 minute ride. It was miserable. Once i got into the city by were i lived the streets were covered in slush everywhere. My shoes, thankfully i wore my uggs to class yesterday, were soaked all the way through. Literally water in my shoes. it was terrible. But today there wasnt a cloud in the sky and super sunny. The weather is so strange here i dont understand.

This weekend i am off to Florence to meet my friends krissy, katie, and jacey. courtney will also be flying in from london and alex bernasconi will also be there. it is going to be a great weekend!

Prague

This last weekend Kathleen, Erin, and myself ventured to Prague. Tenessa went to Amsterdam to meet her mom. Her mom is going to Africa for two weeks and just happened to be in Amsterdam for the weekend so it worked out perfect for her to go and see her and get a computer!!!

We left Barcelona on Friday afternoon and our flight was delayed an hour which sucked, but once we landed in Prague we caught a taxi and headed to our hostel. This was our first real hostel experience and it was actually really good. The hostel was very clean, super safe, and the staff was real nice. They gave us breakfast and a sandwhich to go for lunch. After we checked into out hostel we went to go meet the guy named Matt. He is Sean Shoemakers friends cousin and he works at at bike tour/ beer tasting / pub crawl place. We met him at his shop, he got us all sorts of maps and helped us plan out our trip while we were there. It was already like 5 on friday and our flight home was pretty early on Sunday so we really only had saturday. He recommended that Friday we go out to a nice dinner and then go to a few of his favorite bars and check out this crazy wild club. After meeting with him we walked into the old town square. It is so cute. It has all these little shops selling souvenirs and food. We got this thing that is kinda like a crepe but its made out of like donut stuff. So its a giant flat donut then covered in Nutella. SOOO GOOD! After that we went back to the hostel to freshen up for dinner and then headed out. He recommended this restaurant called Cafe Louvre. It was super nice and served Czech cuisine and the best part of all is that it was super cheap. I think my meal came to 150 something crowns which equals about 10 euro. 25 crowns equal 1 euro and 18 crowns eual 1 american dollar so it was super cheap there. After dinner we headed to this bar he recommended. You walk in and it seems super small but as you head back there are all these little rooms and then you can keep heading down and you just wind through this bar. Its all underground and kinda looks like you are in a cave, it was really cool. After staying there for alittle bit we headed out to the club called Cross Club. He told us that it will be a crazy experience, that this building wouldnt be legal in the US and just to go and sit and take everything in. So that is exactly what we did. We had some trouble finding it, but once we got there it was crazy. The outside it made out of all these metal parts. It looks like something that Edward Scissor hands would live in. Then you get inside and it has all these metal parts all over the walls, and like what looks like the inside of a computer or tv or something. That is how the decorated the walls and they would light up and stuff. It was crazy. Everyone in Prague are hippies who love techno and dance like crazy people. So we just kinda sat around and watched everyone. It was rather entertaining hah.

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to the Prague Castle. Jen´s friend Meagan studied abroad in Prague and I emailed her before we left and she recommended some places to go. Once place was this bagel shop called Bohemium Bagels and it was so good. I have really been missing bagels and cream cheese and it was a refreshing tast of home. We walked across the Charles Bridge which was really cool and then wounded our way up the hill to the castle. From up there, there is the greatest views of the city. It was crazy! In the middle of the castle they built a cathedral so we went into that since it was free and that was also really neat. Most of the Gothic cathedrals we go into are very dark on the inside, but this one was super bright and really inviting. We walked around up there for a little bit and then started to head back because we were going on a bike tour at 2:30 with Matts company. On our way back we stopped at Old Prague Square again and I got my first hot dog while abroad. And it was inside a baguette which made it even better. After gettng some food we went to the bike shop. We were suppose to do a bike tour in Barcelona at the beginning of our program but we had some troubles getting out of bed so we didnt really know what to expect, but it was awesome. They took us all over the city and would stop and talk about places, so instead of just seeing these places we were actually learning something. My favorite place was probably the John Lennon wall. It was awesome. Its a huge wall in the middle of the all the embassys just covered in graffetti. Our tour guide brought a pen so we got to write on the wall! There is also this little bridge that is covered in locks and you are suppose to come with your love and lock your love to the bridge and then through the key into the river to show that you will always be locked to them. After the bike tour, we got mexican food, another first timer here abroad. It was definatly not like mexican food back home. After that we got ready to go out for the night. Saturday we decided to give his pub crawl a chance and it was actually really fun and we met some great people on it.

Sunday morning out cab was coming to get us at 11:30 and check out time was 10 so just walked around for a bit, got some more food from Old Prague Square (this time we got potatoes that were kinda mashed but kinda not, and mine had like ham and cabbage aka sourkraut my fav!! it was sooo good also everything there was great ha) and then got some postcrds and such. We headed back to the hostel got our cab and went to the airport. We werent completly sure what time our flight was at we just knew it was at 2 sometime. Well it wasnt til 2:45 and we got there at 11:45 so we were a little early, but its better to be safe than sorry! It was a long time to wait but thats okay

All in all I had an amazing weekend in Prague. I had no idea what to expect. I was told that it was cheap and fun and it was that and so much more. This weekend we are heading off to Seville, Spain with our program. It says its suppose to rain everyday but i´m really hoping that is wrong! Pray for good weather!