Barcelona! And Starbucks... finally.

"Ali, I don't think this train is going to the airport for a while."

"Maddy, it says it leaves in 20 minutes, just be patient."

"Well I think I just heard a lady on the speaker say the train for the airport is about to leave from platform 13, we're on platform 14..."

"Calm down, this one says it goes to the airport."

(Speakers) "Pisa Airport leaving from platform 13 now"

Uh oh. 

"RUN!"

We SPRINTED and made it on just as it was leaving haha! But nevertheless we made it to the airport on time and made our flight to Barcelona Thursday night! It was a great start. But first, the previous week...

Wedensday night was MTV's TRL Awards live in Santa Croche square, about 5 minutes from where we live. We were so excited to go, I had both my papers written and done, and we got there 3 hours early. It was already packed, it should have been a sign. And I mean it was PACKED with Italians. Like, literally, we see Americans everywhere everyday. But ALL the Italians that live on the edge of the city who we normally don't see, all of the teenagers and such, were there and ready to party. We have never felt so foreign here! But we could not move, like an inch. No police or anything around, just everyone packed and crammed. The awards started at 9 and they were in Italian, sooo we didn't understand much, but the music performances were fun as well as the atmosphere. By about 10:20, we were ready to peace out though, it was so crowded we couldn't stand it any longer, but it took at least 20 minutes to get our way out of the crowd. I mean seriously, it had to have been any creepy molester's heaven. 

So Thursday evening we caught a train for Pisa at 5:30 (which we almost missed by a minute) and arrived at 6:30. This is when we had to catch a 10 minute train to the Pisa airport, which we almost missed as well, as you notice from the beginning of this post. Not a great start to the trip but we found it hilarious :) We try to be punctual. Try. Anywho, then we boarded our cheap sketchy Ryan Air flight to Barcelona and at around 11 pm, whala! We had made it to Spain! Now, Maddy has a friend whose family lives on the outskirts of Barcelona in a small town, so we stayed with them and it was so wonderful. First her dad picked us up and took us to their house so we could sleep, but the entire week they were so wonderful and generous and drove us around and took us to dinner and such. It was nice to sleep in a real home again! But usually how we got into the city of Barcelona each morning was on the train, which took about 20 minutes. But how did we get to the train station you ask? Maddy drove us in one of their cars. No big deal. Just driving a car in Spain. 

The first day in the city we did SO much. We walked ourselves out. But let me tell you what our first stop no questions asked was: STARBUCKS. Yes. Thank you Lord for giving Barcelona multiple starbucks. I ran to it. Ran. Over 3 months is a long time people, I've learned to appreciate the little things, like a grande nonfat no whip mocha. 4 times in 3 days. I miss it again already. Okay moving on. We walked down La Rambla, the famous street with lots of restaurants, small market stands, street performers, everything else. It leads all the way down to the beach. Then we walked around the Gothic district and saw the cathedral and tried to see the Picaso Museum, but the line was miles long, so we waited until Sunday. Then we headed to Hard Rock for lunch (don't judge, Spanish food is not very good and we miss hamburgers!) then walked around the big fountain and area in Catalunya Square. Finally we walked to one of Gaudi's homes he designed, toured it, and last walked all the way Gaudi's Sagrada Famila, a HUGE amazzzzing cathedral that is STILL being worked on and is absolutely unbelievable. The inside had just been opened and we got to go in. That night Xenia's family, Maddy's friend and family we stayed with, took us to dinner for tapas - Spanish foods in appetizer form you make into a meal. 

Sagrada Familia

Inside Sagrada Familia!

The next day was Barcelona's Valentines Day - St. Jordin! It is actually a holiday for Catalunya, an area in Spain trying to become its own country, and where we stayed fell into this area. They even speak Catalan, not Spanish as their first language! But in tradition of the day, the girl is supposed to receive a rose, and the girl gives the boy a book (any book, they're a little vague. Xenia's mom got her husband a book titled "how to stay on a diet"... it was funny). Xenia's dad and her grandfather both got Maddy and I roses, we felt so loved! By the way, her grandfather doesn't speak any English but was so cute and funny the whole trip. Anyways, the day was awesome. And La Rambla street had tooonss of rose stands and book stands for everyone to buy for each other. It was very cool to be there for. We went up to the top of one of the mountains that day where a large castle/old fortress is because the weather was finally beautiful and we could see for miles into the city and the ocean. Xenia came with us as well and we all had fun exploring. We also went to lunch with her mom and dad by the beach and tried the traditional Spanish rice dish. Then, we all went home and took a 2 hour nap. Why? BECAUSE WE WENT TO AN FCBARCELONA SOCCER GAME THAT NIGHT!! Yes, their friends had tickets they weren't using because they were out of town. But guess where the seats were? Yes. FRONT. ROW. Front row. To see one of the best teams in the world play. It was unbelievable, we had a blast! It is one of my favorite things we have done in Europe. We loved it! And sorry Savage family, I was thinking of you all the whole time! We also were given roses at the game because we had "season tickets". So a total of 3 roses that day! Not bad!

Books and Roses!

La Rambla

Roomies!

The market...

Columbus! By the beach

Sagrada Familia!

Rice dish...

We were so close!

Sunday was our last full day. It was also Easter, though it didn't feel like it to us. We didn't go with the family to church which was sad, partly because church lasts most of the day but mostly because we don't speak Catalan. So that would be a problem. So instead we headed to starbucks and then got in line for the Picaso museum before it opened. We were in luck, because not very many people were wanting to wait at 9 am Easter Sunday to see Picaso besides us. But I really loved the museum, a lot, so I'm glad we got to go finally. Then we got on the metro and began the hike to Park Guell. It is a giant park that has a center which Gaudi designed and created. It was beautiful, and the famous mosaic lizard is there :) But as we hiked through the park, we were zombies. We were hot, exhausted, and extremely sick of walking, so when we finally made it back to the city, we sat down and had giant glasses of sangria, the sweet Spainsh wine. They were really giant, we couldn't finish half of it. But they did the trick and perked us up! We needed it! The rest of the day we just explored and ended the day with dinner at Hard Rock again... yes, American food. Sorry, Spanish food is no good. Oh, and I grabbed a second starbucks that day :)

Sangria!

Park Guell 

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 am and headed to the airport. The plane home and then the train back to Florence made for a long day, but we were back by one. It was our favorite trip we have gone on for sure. Everything was fun and exciting, and different. It was a really nice break from Italy, but now we are glad to be back! But all in all, GREAT weekend! 

Off a picture I took in Cinque Terre

What do you want to do tomorrow? Go to Orvieto? Okay.

And that's pretty much how Maddy and I decided to go to Orvieto the night before. And we're pretty sure it's our last trip to a tuscan town which made me want to cry. Actually Orvieto is located in Umbria, south of Tuscany, but the train goes all through tuscany and the scenery looks like it, so it's the same thing. But it's our last trip because this Thursday night Maddy and I leave on a plane for Barcelona for Easter weekend, and then the following weekend we are planning to take a trip way up north to see the Dolomites in Italy. And then the next weekend is free, maybe? and then we will be consumed with studying for finals, and then sadly, our semester is over :( But then my dad comes! So this is why Orvieto was probably our last Tuscany trip. So sad. But I guess it has to end somewhere...

So first, a little about this last week! I really took it easy on school. First I skipped Italian on Tuesday and read a book in a cafe instead. I had my other two classes that day, but they were simple museum visits. I'm allowed to miss like 4 Italian classes before my grade drops, and considering it's pass/fail, I'm allowing myself to skip a few times. Then Wednesday I had to start a landscape painting, and I chose a picture of the giant rock on the beach in Cinque Terre. Hopefully it will turn out beautiful and not as a disaster. Then Thursday my second class was canceled to go to the Stibert Museum on Friday instead, so all I had was Italian. But I get to Italian class and SURPRISE! Our teacher takes us to the Bargello museum randomly instead. It had nothing to do with Italian. She just took us there, let us look around, and then we all left. It was really quite fun. So all in all, classes were relaxed this week, and we all needed it. Friday morning I decided to go and meet my teacher for our substitute class at the Stibert Museum, which has the second largest collection of armory in the world. It is actually a mansion turned museum with TONS of stuff in it, but it was very very cool, so I'm glad I went. It is located out in the suburbs of Florence.

 Egyptian temple outside the Stibert Museum

 Stibert grounds...

Inside the museum, I snuck this pic

Beautiful scenery outside the museum

So then Friday night Maddy and I picked up some pizzas from our favorite place located right across from us, opened a bottle of wine and dubbed the evening Harry Potter night. We have been watching them all in order and we were on number 4. Then before bed, we decided we wanted to see Orvieto, because we have been pretty much everywhere else, and it supposedly has a billion underground tunnels that are cool to see. So, we woke up Saturday morning and caught a 9 am train to Orvieto and got there around 11:30. It was the slow train, but the slow train is cheaper, so that's why it took so long to get there. A really really creepy guy sat across from us the whole ride and kept talking to us and telling us how he can find out where we live and all this stuff about us just from our email address, and that he could control our computers without us knowing. Then he asked me for my emil about 100 times. HAHA NO. Not happening creepy dude. Apparently he worked in the military as some sort of hacker. So once again, DEFIANTLY not giving you my email. Then he kept trying to red our minds saying he was physic. And creeped us out by asking us to name the first color that came into our minds, so when we did, he had already written both colors down and who said which one. Officially weirded out. Anyways, we finally arrived and ran off the train. So back to Orvieto, it was a REALLY cool town and we are glad we went. The first thing we did was go on an tour of the underground tunnels. Orvieto was an Etruscan town (2,500 years ago) and they built thousands of tunnels under the city on a hill. We only saw a couple, but the last one we saw was used as a pigeon coop with tons of holes in the walls. The pigeons (like 600-700 at a time) lived and bred there, and then the owner of the coop would go down to their tunnel and grab a few pigeons to eat for dinner. Yes, they were their food source. Nasty. After the tour we walked around the town and saw a few churches and grabbed a long bite to eat. The food and wine was SO good, with thick noodles and spicy red sauce. Yum. We also visited an Etruscan museum (I wanted to go and made Maddy come haha) and made a stop at the local chocolate festival going on.... YUM! I had too much chocolate that day, and we were both a little ill feeling by the time we left, lol. We arrived back in Florence at around 9pm. It was a good day :)

On our way to the underground 

Where the Etruscans made olive oil!

                                             Caves and Pigeon Coops!                       

Today, I felt sick all day. Horrible headache, slept terrible, even took a nap which I never do, and eventually had to start writing a paper. I have two due this week. So tomorrow, I'll be writing papers allll day. Oh boy. Something to look forward to this week? Italian MTV's TRL Awards are being held HERE in FLORENCE on Wednesday night, and all sorts of famous people will be here 5 minutes away! Like Lady Gaga, and hopefully Rob Pattinson if he wins an award... anyways, lots of famous people will be here and Maddy and I are camping out all day to make sure we get into the square where it's held by the time the awards and performances start that night. SO EXCITING! Then the next night we fly out to Barcelona!! Okay well, until then! Ciao! :)

P.S. Shout out to my Big Danni, because back home at Chi O this week is senior week and she will be graduating soon, and I love her to death, so I'm thinking of you this week big!

Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii and Positano!

Well this weekend was exhausting but SO much fun! Maddy and I had been waiting for this trip with my school (but we still payed for) since the program first began. I remember thinking how far away it was, and BAM now it's over :( but it was so fun and beautiful I can't complain!

First really quickly, an update about last week, I saw 3 people from TU in one day!! I had lunch with two girls I know back at school who are studying abroad in Scotland right now and came to Italy for their spring break. Then I ran into Robbie, a guy Maddy and I know from back home and we ended up taking him to Pitti Palace and then out to dinner at Dante's. It was a fun and unexpected week!

Not done really, but getting there!

Florence River Arno sunset :)

So Friday morning Maddy and I wake up at the crack of dawn to meet the busses taking us to the Almafi coast at 7 am. The bus ride was about 5 hours, but I had a good book and good scenery, so it wasn't that bad. When we first arrived the busses took us to Pompeii right off the bat. It was so much bigger than I imagined! And I learned only about 60% of it has been excavated so the entire city is gigantic. We had a 2 and a half hour guided tour through the ruins. They had brick pizza ovens, tons of wine bars, and a lot of brothels. And their lucky symbol was a penis, so there are penises on everything (the ground, sides of buildings, etc.) They were not a very moral city 2,000 years ago... ha! Mount Vesuvius, which caused the towns destruction, is also still alive and active right behind it, so that's a little frightening... But overall the city was fascinating. Best part? Seeing the bodies that were preserved in the volcanic ash, still in the positions they suffocated to death in. It was crazy! A little creepy, them being 2,000 years old and all. When it was time to leave, the area outside the city where we waited for the bus was festering with nasty men that stare at you like you're a piece of meat. Nothing new.

Outside walls of Pompeii 

A 2,000 year old wine bar! 

The old pizza oven... 

And there you have it. A penis on a wall.

Inside the home of someone wealthy

Body in the same shape he died in...

 He still has teeth!!                      

That night we all ate at a restaurant in Sorrento, where our hotel was, that brought us all types of traditional Italian pizza, yum! And then we had a 25 minute walk back. But that's okay, it was beautiful at night on the ocean! The next day we took a ferry to the island of Capri, and it is my favorite place I have been in Italy. I can't wait to go back sometime in my life! The water is so blue, SO blue, and the mountain of an island is just unbelievably beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. We got to take a boat tour around the entire island (which we never wanted to end) and also go to the blue grotto. The blue grotto is actually a small cave with an even smaller entry. How you get in is you take a big boat out to where it's located (on the side of the island in the water) and then you climb into a very small canoe that holds 4 people. A guy who paddles the boat brings you to the cave entrance, then you lay down while they propel the boat into the tiny opening. A little frightening, but AMAZING inside! It's dark, but the water literally glows neon blue. Something to do with the water, rocks and algae I think, but it's so cool. The water glows! After the tour was over, Maddy and I immediately headed to the beach, grabbed lunch and a Corona, and laid out for a few hours. We decided after about 3 hours we were probably as toasted as we should get, considering how white we are, so we packed up our stuff and hopped on the trolly thing that takes you up to the top of the island, the town center. It had great views, but we couldn't really shop because it was all designer stores. But I did manage to get quite a few little gifts for people back home :)

Sorrento at night!

Capri!

That would be the entrance to the Blue Grotto...

Blue Groto!!

We headed back to Sorrento at 6pm with our group and got ready to go to dinner. It was not as good as the first night's dinner, but it was still fun. We were exhausted though, and that meant we headed straight back to the hotel for bed. The next morning we all waived goodbye to Sorrento and moved along to the little coastal town on a cliff of Positano. It was a cloudy day, but the town is definitely on my list of favorites. It's hard to explain why, but the atmosphere and stores and feeling you get being there is so nice, you just want to walk around all day. We ate Pizza at a great little restaurant and picked up a bag full of fruit called kumquats... I had never seen them before, but they are little oval looking oranges, you can stick a whole one in your mouth, and the outside is sweet and the inside is like a lemon. Strangest thing ever, but for some reason I spent 50 euro cents on a half a bag full. I think I'll eat some tonight. But anyways, I was bummed when it was time to head back to Florence after 5 hours in the town, but I know I'll be back someday soon :) OH I forgot to mention, we had to climb 454 stairs back up to meet the busses from the city. Yes, we counted.

Positano!

KITTENS EVERYWHERE!!! This one is perfect :)

Lemons the size of your head!

The ride back was LOOOONG and we got back to Florence very late, but we made it. Today I decided to wake up early and go workout in the Boboli gardens. I then went back there with Maddy and laid out to get some sun and read. A pretty lazy day, trying to get my energy back and get ready for a busy week or starting papers to write. Oh school... how you get in the way of my life here. *Sigh* I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Ciao for now!