The three of us Pi Phi girls over here (Sami, Lauren, and I) had planned our "spring break" trip at the very beginning of the semester, and it blows my mind that it already came and went. I use the term spring break loosely because we're basically done with classes, but that's what we're gonna call it. Barcelona If you're close enough with me to want to read this post, you've probably heard about my passport fiasco during my family's Euro vacation last summer...quick refresher: my passport was expired, family went to Barcelona and left me wandering New York City Home Alone style for a full 3-day weekend (which was actually really fun) and I met up with them in Barca just hours before moving on to the next country. It's funny because now here I am studying abroad in Spain, the one stop I missed, and somehow STILL hadn't made it to Barca until now...so it was definitely a big "FINALLY" kind of feeling wandering La Rambla, the Born neighborhood, the Sagrada Familia, and everywhere else that my family had raved about. What I learned: 1) Gaudi is a boss. All of the strictness and uniformity of the Catholic Church is challenged, in my mind, by his trippy style and faith in using his art to satisfy God, not the money makers. 2) Always triple check the price of sangria when you're on a budget, preferably in multiple languages just to really make sure. 3) Those hop-on-hop-off tourist buses with the open tops driving around are actually the greatest way to see a big city in a day...and oh did we take advantage. If you lose your ticket, don't fret! Pass backs from the top of the bus work just like the balcony at Big 12. 4) Equity Point Centric Hostel is the way to go....even if you overstay your welcome to the point where the employees have to shake you awake in the common area to tell you they're closed... 5) In reference to the above, if your flight out is at 6am, no hostel needed! Get a locker and a couch and you're good to go. Milan Next we landed in the fashion capital of the world and the city we'd heard so much about from one of our best friends that studied there (lookin at you Truss). We stayed at Mina's Hostel, which was definitely wins for the "cutest" hostel room we've stayed in so far...I feel like I keep claiming hostels as the nicest but this one was also pretty sweet. The first night we checked out Naviglie area, where Truss lived, and it was also the cutest for lack of a more accurate term...all restaurants and bars with outdoor seating were lined up along the canal. We tried out Italian "aperitivo," which is their "happy hour" but really means buy one drink and get a full unlimited buffet...that sounds pretty happy to me. The next day was Easter. Weird to not be at Lake having a competitive Easter egg hunt with my 23 and 25 year old brothers (yeah, we still do it), but Italy was not a bad place to be either. The Duomo di Milano, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, was absolutely breathtaking and even cooler to be inside on such a special day. We climbed to the top of it for the full view of the entire city. What I learned: 1) Pizza and Diet Coke (oops...Coca Cola Light) outside the Duomo listening to an amazing street performer sing Coldplay songs makes a perfect Easter brunch. Being with two best friends on a beautiful day doesn't hurt either. 2) Italian is not too hard to figure out. Somehow we ended up speaking a mix of Spanish and English with an Italian accent and were able to build a little friendship with some pizza chefs and plenty of strangers on the street for directions. 3) Speaking of strangers giving directions...this goes for way more than just Milan, but locals in general can be so incredibly helpful. At one point we referred to a couple as the Italian version as Pedro and Asuncion, because they didn't speak any English and took us all the way to the tram we needed to be at. Then the people on the tram caught on to our cluelessness and made sure we knew where to get off and connect to the bus...all communicating in this broken Spanish/Italian language we made up. Bottom line, I'm paying it forward when I get back home and helping anyone who seems confused. 4) "Prego" is the Italian response to literally anything...it means welcome, you're welcome, what can I do for you, and I'm pretty sure everything else. Of course we started using it with our newly developed Italian accents. 5) Milan's whole atmosphere is beautiful. We had heard mixed reviews from people back in Spain, but we were beyond impressed. Florence Here we had a totally different experience, because we stayed at our friend's apartment and hung out with his study abroad friends. He took us out, showed us around, and even cooked an Italian dinner for us the second night...seriously. Mason, you rock. What I learned: 1) Florence is sick. Definitely in my top favorite cities I've been in. It's not huge, but every corner is another open plaza, cathedral or beautiful building. Someone we met called it the Seville of Italy, which I thought was pretty accurate. It's the cooler, smaller, more stylish version of the capital. 2) Pino's Sandwiches are bomb. 3) The goal in every city is to get as high up as possible for a view, and it's worth it. 4) You don't have to pay to go in museums to appreciate the old Italian art and architecture. 5) Somehow after seeing COUNTLESS cathedrals this semester, seeing a new one can still be breathtaking. I've been lucky enough to see some of the biggest and coolest in the world now without even really seeking them out...Barcelona, Rome, Seville, Milan, Prague, etc. Still, the Duomo di Firenze was unique and jaw-dropping awesome. 6) I'm now a card-holding member of the Jazz Club in Florence, in case we ever want to come back. 7) It's legal to carry around open bottles and drink wherever you want. Convenient. 8) As seriously awesome as Florence was, I'm so glad I'm studying abroad in a city where no one speaks English. I haven't seen or heard that many Americans this entire semester or had so many random people speak English to me right away. Of course it was nice, but Alicante is ideal for challenging my Spanish. 9) This goes for many many more places than Florence, but I'm really recognizing how cool it is to meet so many other kids studying abroad everywhere I go, whether they're American or from anywhere else, from Mason's friends to people we meet at hostels or in other cities or all the European people studying abroad in Alicante. Our lives are so relatable and connecting...I love the standard questions: "Where you from, where you studying, where have you traveled - oh cool, I've been there too, did you see this? Oh no way, we somehow know 15 people in common?! Here, Whatsapp me so we can find each other in the next country." It's real. Cinque Terre Have you ever been somewhere unbelievably amazing and known you wanted to come back someday, but it's not the most realistic idea? Maybe not, I don't know, but that's the exact thoughts I had in Cinque Terre with my family 11 months ago, and I had zero idea that would ever actually be possible. It's simply the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life, five little villages of colorful buildings stacked on the mountainsides of the western Italian coast. When I was with my family, we stayed in an apartment in Riomaggiore. With Lo and Sami, we stayed in Corniglia in a hostel dorm room with 5 other strangers. It was different in the best way to experience other parts of Cinque Terre with my friends. What I learned: 1) Give us a small town and we'll know all the locals, fast. It got to the point where three different familiar faces said "Ciou" to us on our way to breakfast and a group of guys from Corniglia befriended us and offered to show us around Venice since he was traveling there at the same time as us. The concept of being from Cinque Terre really blew my mind. 2) Hiking in beautiful places is one of my absolute favorite things. It was challenging, it was mind-clearing, it was shockingly pretty, and on that note.... 3) Ooooh boy am I out of shape. And on that note... 4) Gelateria Artigionale in the village of Monterosso has the best gelato in Italy in our opinion. And we tried an embarrassing amount to compare it to. 5) Traveling on a tight budget makes things 10 times more hilarious. I can't count the number of times we'd end up in the funniest situations because we didn't/couldn't take the easy way out. This is what makes the difference between a "vacation" and "traveling." On a vacation, you take cabs, eat at nice restaurants, and relax. When traveling, every second of every day comes as a surprise, a challenge, and a hilariously good time. Venice
All I knew about Venice before coming was what I had seen in pictures and The Italian Job. But to my surprise, there were no high-speed boat chases through the canals and honestly not a whole lot going on at all. It's a beautifully interesting place...It does appear as if it's floating on top of the canals, but it's really just separate islands with buildings built on top of them. I have never seen anything like it. And it's evident that tourism is almost all that's left of the place. Most of the residential buildings looked nearly abandoned to the point where we felt like we were just walking around this dream-like island from centuries ago...the only way I can describe it is unique. What I learned: 1) A gondola ride is so worth it. We were right at the end of the trip and not too apt to spend money, but it was the best way to see all of Venice and hear about it from our awesome driver Luka. 2) Venice is very very slowly disappearing. It's not that the land is sinking, it's that global warming is causing the water to rise. Eventually, the sea level will be above Venice. We were shocked to find out that every year 40% of Venice completely floods. 3) My theory is now proven that I can eat pizza every day of the week and not get sick of it. 4) Again, asking strangers for directions is always a good idea, even if you don't speak the same language. Somehow we ended up following a funny old Italian man on a bicycle to our one-star hotel (literally), which turned out to be just as good as any hostel we've stayed at. 4) Sami, Lauren, and I can entertain ourselves doing absolutely anything and are probably the most easy going travel companions out there (or we've grown to be, anyway). I cannot even explain how awesome this entire trip was spending every second with the two of them and finding ourselves in the most beautiful places having the most amazing, hilarious, completely unexpected experiences everywhere we went.
1 Comment
Sarah Peterso
5/4/2014 09:13:06 am
My first day in Barcelona I spent 18 euro on one glass of Sangria in La Rambla 😂
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Renee Fleddermanncopywriter Archives
June 2016
Categories |