a tuscan 21st!

A few hours later, we had survived yet another RyanAir flight (although this one was a close one…) and found a bus from Pisa to the Florence city center. This was when we realized that the address we had for our apartment did not include a number. We found the street and were wandering up and down and after 30 minutes, I decided to turn on my cellular data for a minute to get the apartment number. BAD IDEA. 5 seconds after turning it on, I received an e-mail saying that I can incurred charges over $50.00. My jaw dropped and I moved my fingers as quickly as possible to turn it off. Annoyed, since I didn’t even get the number, someone else realized they could use theirs for free and turned it on to call Kerry, who arrived a few hours earlier than us with Ian. They came down and let us in a few minutes later, and we settled into our cozy little loft apartment. Starving, we grabbed pizza at an Italian restaurant down the street and then went home to get some much-needed sleep. 

The next morning, we met Jillian on the steps of the Duomo, She had been in Florence for three days already visiting her friend named Lindsay who was studying there and knew the city pretty well already. She started by showing us the leather markets and the indoor food market, stopping at different stands for samples and eventually, lunch. I saw a long line that seemed to be moving quickly and decided that this was the sign of a good meal, so I jumped in. I copied the majority of the people in front of me, ordering the same pasta that they had. Sure enough, it was AMAZING. 

After lunch, we explored the markets a little more, haggling with vendors and trying on leather jackets. I knew that I wanted to buy a leather jacket while I was in Florence and I decided to check out Massimo Leather, a shop backed by Rick Steeves and numerous reviewers online. I dragged Megan along with me and walked in.  I was greeted at the entrance by Massimo himself, who pulled a few jackets for me to try on. I knew exactly which one I wanted almost immediately, but I was having trouble digesting the price. Massimo told me that it was a perfect fit, but that I could leave and come back if I wanted. The next thing I knew, we were back in the shop with everyone and all of my friends were telling me to do it. The, Massimo was cutting off the tag. I barely remember signing the receipt, but I was extremely happy with the purchase, especially after Massimo agreed to give me a special birthday price.

After everyone got what they wanted from the leather market, we went inside the Duomo, adding one more to the list of impressive churches. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of wandering into cathedrals and taking it all in.

From there, Jillian led us to Ponte Vecchio, where we held the obligatory Florence photo shoot and experienced the common “I can’t believe that we are here” thoughts. 

From there, we hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for an amazing birds eye view of Florence and yet another photo op. Note to self: go back here at night one day!

For dinner, we knew that we had to try a place called Gusta Pizza for what many have said has the best pizza in the world. We found it without too much trouble about 10 minutes away from our hostel and they were right. The best pizza I have ever had (and I’ve had a LOT of pizza, so that’s saying something). It was a little packed, but the prices were unbeatable and we left wanting more.

We regrouped at our apartment, and then met Jillian yet again on the steps of the Duomo so that she could take us to Lindsay’s apartment before heading out. Her apartment was HUGE and it was crazy to think about all of the differences in our study abroad programs. We are basically the only American students in Lugano, and in Florence she was one of 10,000! We had Eurail passes and travel every weekend and she travels a lot less. All of the kids in our program go to Tech and her classmates are from all over the country. We have family dinners every night and she is on her own for meals. Some aspects of her experience were extremely appealing (Gusta Pizza only 5 minutes away?! People around you actually speak English?!) but overall, I wouldn’t trade our program for anything.

We spent a lot of time chatting and drinking in her apartment and suddenly it was midnight and I was 21!!! Thanks to her amazing WiFi signal, I was able to Facetime my siblings, which provided the PERFECT start to my birthday. When we realized how late it was, we headed out in search of popular bars, hoping that we could find a secret bakery along the way! If you don’t know what a secret bakery is, it is basically a bakery that is hidden in the back streets of Florence that is only open for certain hours in the middle of the night. Only the locals know where they are and there are absolutely no signs outside to reveal them.

It’s safe to say that we became a little bit obsessed with our search for a secret bakery, because we spent the next 45 minutes walking around asking people where we could find one. “DOVE E SECRET BAKERY???” People looked at us like we were nuts and nobody knew what we were talking about. Were they pretending not to know and lying to us?? Was this some sort of made up thing to trick the silly American students? “DO YOU KNOW WHERE A SECRET BAKERY IS?” “NO, NOT A CIGARETTE BAKERY, A SECRET BAKERY!!” That’s when we smelled it— the strong aroma of sweet fresh croissants. We followed our noses like bloodhounds on the search for a missing person. It got to the point where we were obnoxiously knocking on random doors to see if they would open until FINALLY we saw it through a window. 2 men behind a counter rolling dough and throwing things into a brick oven!!! I’m afraid we totally ruined the secrecy of this place, because when we found it, we shouted it for the whole world to know. “GUYS WE FOUND IT!!  THE SECRET BAKERY IS RIGHT HERE!! LOOK!!” …yep… not so secret anymore.

 

We each tried different custard filled rolls and croissants, but the bakers wouldn’t let us try the really good looking stuff. Maybe they were mad at us for screaming, I don’t know. Unfortunately, they weren’t even that great, but we were too proud to admit it at the time. From there, we just went home, knowing that we had to be up by 7am to catch the 8:00 bus that would take us on a 12 hour “Best of Tuscany” tour.

And we did it! We miraculously made it to the bus with enough time to get McDonalds breakfast, as did the rest of our group who had arrived the night before and went to see Mumford and Sons. As soon as the bus started moving, Megan and I looked at each other with green faces. This was not going to be fun. We’ve gotten to the point where we just laugh through these moments, knowing there is nothing we can do about them but wait for it to pass. Thankfully, the bus got to a highway after about 45 minutes of winding through town and the motion sickness went away. Our tour guide was named Stefano and although hard to understand sometimes thanks to his Italian accent and tendency to laugh to himself after everything he said, he was really nice and did a great job of telling stories of Tuscan history.

Our first stop was Siena, and we were given “whispers” aka walky talky type things with secret agent headphones that amplified our tour guide’s voice and projected it back into our right ear. Our tour guide was this sassy middle-aged woman who spoke MUCH better English than Stefano and therefore was a breath of fresh air. She told us all about the historic horse race that occurs every yea in the main square and the various regions of the medieval town. Your name meant everything back then and it was really interesting to hear about how proud every individual was of their district. Walking around, I kept thinking about Rachel Robinson since this was where she lived with a family for a semester and I can’t wait to talk to her about what it was like to live there!

Stefano told us that the last leg of the ride would consist of a series of winding country roads, so Megan and I found a pharmacy to pick up a Dramamine-equivalent. We asked the pharmacist if it were okay to drink wine with the medicine, to which he replied “Sure! As long as you don’t drink too too much!” Hmm….

We got back on the bus and spent 30 of the next 45 minutes watching a video on the Siena horse races and then we arrived at our second stop: An all-organic family owned farm and winery where we would be having a 4 course lunch and wine tasting. My 21^st birthday lunch? This place will do!  The meal was everything we had hoped for: four courses that included plates of pasta, a variety of cheeses and meats, breads and olive oil, biscotti and even a slice of birthday pie! That’s right, everyone on our tour sang me happy birthday at lunch, mumbling at the name-mentioning part of the song, which may sound demeaning but was actually exactly the opposite.

The wine kept flowing and we had some time to take in our surroundings (and pictures to remember them) and wander around the vineyard. I could not believe how great of a day it was. Lindsay said it had rained for 9 straight days before we came so we were truly blessed with an amazing sunny day. I think Stefano had to tell us three times that it was time to go and we had such a hard time leaving that slice of heaven behind. It helped, however, knowing that we were only driving ten minutes to the next town- San Gimignano. The majority of this medieval town was situated inside stonewalls and it had the cutest little shops selling mainly wine and fine Italian-made gifts. We walked around, bought some supposed world famous gelato and sat in the square until it was time to go.

Our longest trip of the day was to Pisa, and most people took this time to get a quick nap in. Sarah even fell asleep without meaning to- while sitting up and holding an open water bottle. We heard water pouring onto the ground and had to wake her up for her to realize. We died laughing when Jordan did the same thing, but luckily his cap was on.

Stefano kept telling us that when we got to Pisa, we would get on a Shee Shee train. We had no idea what this meant, until we got there and saw a Busch Gardens type tram in the shape of a train with the words and realized Stefano way trying to say Choo Choo train. This tram dropped us off right in the main square where the cathedral and the leaning tower were located. Everyone was tired but we mustered up enough energy for a leaning tower photo-shoot, attempting to capture the best tourist picture ever. I think we got it, but you be the judge. 

We walked around the square a little more and I couldn’t help but think about what it was like for my grandfather when he was there at the end of WW2. It made me wish I were sitting back in AP Euro with Mr. Stephenson and that I could recall the events like I could back in May of my senior year. When it came to be meeting time, we ran back to the Choo Choo train and got back on our bus, where we all napped for the next two hours before arriving home. 

When we got back, it was time to wake up!!! My 21^st birthday night started with dinner at… you guessed it. GUSTAPIZZAAA! Half of the group hadn’t been yet and we knew it would be a quick and easy option for dinner. After dinner, everyone met back at our apartment and then we headed toward the Duomo to find The Lion's Fountain, a pub decorated with American college t-shirts that also had different college themed shots. On the way, we rang Lindsay’s doorbell and she buzzed us in. She and Jillian were staying in that night but it was nice to get to see them again and chat for a little.

When we got to the pub, we realized that not only was it my birthday, but that St. Patrick’s day started at midnight. Therefore, the whole bar was decked out for St. Pattys and they were offering different themed drink deals (like buy 2 shots and get a leprechaun hat… thanks Jordan!!!). We also had to take a college shot, so we took a University of Richmond themed one as a shout to Mands and Ash (how the hell did they have UofR but not Virginia Tech?!). When the bar closed, Kelsey and I got doner kebabs (BEST BIRTHDAY EVER) and somehow found our way home. Yay for being 21!!!

We took our time getting up the next morning and cleaned the apartment spotless before checking out. Since Megan and I’s train didn’t leave until later that afternoon, we left our bags at the train station and walked around rainy Florence a little bit more before waving our second 10 day good-bye. Oh yeah, and Jordan chased pigeons around.

Overall the 10 day was a success! It was a lot less sightseeing a lot more relaxing, which I realized is just as important when studying abroad. On our train home, we could not believe how much time had already gone by… 6 more weeks? WHAT?!? I should probably start sending postcards out to my family!

Next weekend: PRAGUE!!!!!

See ya then,

linds

BARCA BARCA BARCA

We got to Barcelona pretty late and had to take the metro from the main train station to the area our hostel was located in. This part of the traveling is never fun, since we have to lug around our overstuffed backpacks and take turns carrying our shared big suitcase up stairs, but this particular metro trip was made even worse when Ian realized his iPhone was missing. Turns out, that in the two minutes it took us to buy metro tickets, someone bumped into him and stole his phone. This was a huge eye opener for the group and we realized quickly that people weren’t kidding when they said pickpocketing was common in Barcelona. 

Walking up the steps out of the metro, the first thing I see is Gaudi’s Casa Batllo lit up in all of its glory. I couldn’t believe I was finally in a city that I have heard so much about and that the beauty left by Gaudi was so immediately evident. We couldn’t get the brand new St. Christopher’s hostel for all three nights, so we booked Equity Point Centric for the first night and St. Chris for the following two. I’m so glad we did this because St. Chris was a much better hostel overall. We spent the first night grabbing fast food for dinner and resting up.

When we woke up on Tuesday, we ate our free breakfast and then walked over to St. Chris to check in. Our room was basically a rock star tour bus, complete with beds with curtains and fedoras. We dropped off our bags in our rooms and headed back out to explore. 

     

We met up with Eric and Rachel who we hadn’t seen yet and walked down Las Ramblas, which is basically a street filled with shops and food stands. We walked through the market, which sold almost any fruit, vegetable or meat you could think of. My favorite thing in the market was the fresh fruit juice—they had every possible combination, from papaya orange to  mango coconut, available for 1 euro. I got the strawberry pineapple and ended up going back for more. 

After the market and Las Ramblas, we walked around in search of the other Gaudi houses. After viewing from the outside (tickets to go inside were expensive, but I bet the interiors are ridiculous), we went to a recommended Mexican restaurant for lunch, craving El Rods and praying that this place would compare. The food wasn’t bad, but I realized that Mexican food just isn’t the same in Europe. If you’re wondering what the first thing I will do when I get home is, the answer is simple-- La Herradura. (OK fine... the second. I’ll hug my family first… maybe). After lunch, we continued our Gaudi tour by spending the afternoon walking around Park Guell. Even despite nearby construction, the mosaics in the park and the surrounding palm trees made this place one of my new favorite places.

When it began getting cloudy, we decided to start walking back so that we could get ready for the big soccer game. (Half of our group had tickets for that night to the FC Barcelona vs. AC Milan game in Camp Nou and the other half planned on watching the game in a bar nearby). We stopped in shops along the walk home with a mission of getting Barcelona jerseys for a good price. Haggling the shop owners can be scary because it’s difficult to do without being disrespectful. It took stopping at about 10 different shops throughout the day, but I finally got the exact jersey I wanted (a neon coral Barcelona away jersey from two seasons ago that was therefore much less expensive and perfect for someone who didn’t care that much about getting the latest jersey) for $20! 

We got back to the hostel and everyone put on their Barcelona gear- hats, bandanas, real and fake jerseys, and suddenly we looked like locals! We crammed all 20-some of us into our room meant for 8 and drank wine until it was time to find a bar. Luckily, Chelsea’s friend from Kellam was studying in Barcelona and knew the perfect plce to watch the game, so we met up with him and he walked us to L'Ovella Negra. The bar was basically an old warehouse with loads of long wooden picnic tables and it was packed with students our age, most of whom study in Barcelona. We grabbed a table and ordered the standard: a 5 liter beer dispenser and glasses for each of us.

Soon after we arrived, the game started and we watched knowing in order for Barcelona to move on past this playoff game, they basically had to beat AC Milan by at least 3 goals. It wasn’t likely to happen, since AC Milan had already beat them and nobody expected them to win, let alone win by 3 goals. Therefore, you can imagine the celebration when the first... second… and THIRD goals were scored.  The atmosphere made this one of my favorite moments of the semester thus far.

The game ended around 10:30, leaving a whole night ahead of us! We walked back to our hostel to regroup and then went to a bar called Chupitos which is known for its hundreds of unique 2 euro shots. My favorites were the the boy scout shot and the willy wonka shot. We also ordered a Monica Lewinsky shot for Jack and died laughing when we saw what it entailed.

We realized it was time to go home when we ran out of money, so we went back to the hostel and Alex and I made easy mac and sat in the kitchen chatting before eventually going to bed.

The next morning we woke up to torrential downpour. Realizing that this ruined our sightseeing plan, we decided to spend the day at the Picasso museum. Michael, Jordan, Kelsey and I got to the museum and saw that everyone had the same rainy day idea that we did. Luckily, we found Kerry and Ian, who had been waiting a while and they let us jump in line with them. The Picasso museum included works from every period of his life and did a great job of explaining the eras with description boards in every room. I found the development of his style really interesting, as I had never realized before how different his early and late works were.

We stopped in shops on the way back and used Jordan’s TripAdvisor compass to find Wok to Walk (basically a Subway but with fried rice and noodles instead of subs). I told the manager that he should open one in Virginia and it got weird when he said that he just needed to marry me first… Regardless, my customized noodle creation was delicious and I feel bad for anyone who hasn’t had an opportunity to visit this place.

After Wok to Walk, we went back to the hostel and got ready for our last night out in Barcelona. We all met up again and with the help of cheap wine and iPod speakers, we had our own little party before heading downstairs to Belushi’s, the hostel bar. Once we had taken full advantage of our drink coupons, we walked to a nearby club called Club Sutton, hoping that it wouldn’t be too sketchy.

When we got there, we were welcomed with the sight of hundreds of people our age and an amazing psychic DJ that knew exactly what to play. We met people from other schools that were studying in Barcelona (there are TONS of them) and had a blast dancing around the massive club all night. At the end of the night, we climbed into one of the numerous chariots awaiting outside aka cabs and headed home.

We woke up Thursday depressed that we were leaving this playland they call Barcelona but excited to get to Florence. Megan, Maureen and I knew that we couldn’t leave without see La Sagrada Familia, so we jumped on the metro and made sure to fit it in. We might have spent a little too much time marveling at the massive cathedral because when we got back on the subway, we realized how close we were cutting it. We had to catch our RyanAir flight from Girona to Pisa, meaning that we first had to make sure we made our train to the Girona airport which was about an hour away.

When we got back to the hostel to grab our bags, the boys (who decided to sleep in and skip Sagrada) were already gone. We looked around at each other in slight panic and ran back to the metro station to get to the main train station. We got there with about 10 minutes to spare before our train to the airport left and rushed through the crowds to get to our platform. Not seeing our train on the timetable, we ran to an information desk and gave up when the old lady in front of us was taking too long. Luckily, Megan remembered some key Spanish vocab and we were able to get the platform number from another man. With two minutes to spare, we began sprinting to the platform, which was guarded by ticket counters (we didn’t have tickets to put in the machine because we have Eurail passes). We were about to buy tickets when I saw a lady with a silly hat on (meaning, of course, that she had to work for one of the trains) and flagged by Eurail at her, and she let us in the handicap entrance. We hear our train pulling up and of course we are stuck on a packed escalator helplessly having to wait for it to reach the bottom. When it finally did, I spot Jordan, who appropriately says “good timing!” and we jump on the train completely out of breath right before it pulls away. WOO!!!

Once we catch our breath from sprinting and laughing and tell Jordan and Michael about our morning, we sit in silence with our heads in our hands, struggling a little thanks to the long night before. I’ll preface what happened next by saying that unemployment in Spain is at a whopping 27% (we thought we had it bad…) and people come up with some very creative ways to make a buck. So of nowhere, a man comes into our car singing horribly, playing an accordion and shaking a maraca type instrument. We all bring our heads up and communicate with a look (what is going on, please someone make him stop) and I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. I am so glad I managed to capture this on video because although annoying at the time, it is pretty hilarious in retrospect.

We got to the airport with the standard 2 ½ hours of allotted time before our flight and we were at our gate 20 minutes later, making all of the chaos and sprinting that occurred back in the Barcelona train station even sillier. We chalked it up under “better safe than sorry!” and sat back waiting for our flight.