La Dolce Vita di Alison

Oh my Guinness! I want some Moher!

2010-04-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

DUBLIN, IRELAND and THE CLIFFS OF MOHER
(March 18, 2010 - March 21, 2010)

After a long wait at the Rome-Ciampino Airport and a somewhat loud plane ride sitting next to a mom and her four three-year-olds, we arrived in Dublin Ireland on thursday night about an hour later than anticipated (even though the loudspeaker on the plane said "Welcome to another on-time Ryan Air Flight"), thanks Ryan Air! Tom, Lizzie, Cara and I were in high spirits, though. WE WERE IN IRELAND! Finally, no one was going to speak Italian to me, nope. They were going to speak English :)

We stayed at an adorable Bed and Breakfast right outside of Dublin called Donnybrook Lodge.It seemed to be run by a couple who lived there, the wife greated us on our arrival and the man cooked all the breakfasts for the guests (which were delicious by the way). Other than not being able to find the receptionist lady when we had to check out on Sunday, our visit was awesome. We had our own room, bathroom, shower, fridge and TV (where we got to watch American Idol!!!). It was so cozy, just like I imagined my stay in Ireland would be.

Our first day we got up early and hopped on a bus to city center to meet up with our tour company for the day that was taking us to the Cliffs of Moher. Our coach bus was very fun, and the Irish driver told us Irish history and sang us Irish songs for a lot of the ride to Galway first, some sights in the Irish couontryside, lunch and then the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher were incredibly breathtaking, I could have stayed there all day and although the two hour break we were allowed to explore seemed at first to be ample time to go explore, when the time was up and we had to go back to the bus, those two hours didnt seem to be enough. We spent time walking along the cliffs, taking pictures and taking in the view.

Our tour bus ended up being abouot twelve hours long, and we got back to Dublin around nine at night. We were quite excited to get out of that tour bus, and were pretty hungry so we set out in search of dinner. We quickly discovered how very expensive Dublin restaurants were, much more so than we expected, and ended up getting some food at the cheapest burger joint we could find before heading back to bed, exhausted from our long day.

We got up the second day for the complimentary breakfast and ate our fill of cereal and toast with jam to avoid spending as much money on food in the city. We first went to the Dublin Castle and got a tour with a somewhat awkward guide, who kept leaning on the ancient furniture and touching all the old things in the rooms while he talked to us... that would NOT fly in Italy! We also walked the streets of Dublin a bit, I just loved the feel of the city. My favorite part were the streets which had "Look Left" and "Look Right" painted on the ground at the crosswalks for people like us who werent used to cars driving ono the wrong side of the street.

After seeing St. Patrick's Cathedral, we set out to the Guinness Brewery (One of the coolest places I've been). We had such an awesome time going through the museum that explained how Guinness was made and how the company progrerssed over time. We taste-tested at the half way point and took advantage of the free beers. We then spent a lot of time looking at all the Guinness Advertisements throughout history and watching their old commercials, they were so cool. At the end of the tour, you end up at the top of the brewery in a large circular room with windows on all sides over looking the city and a bar in the middle handing out our free complimentary pints of Guinness... officially my favorite, but not so much Cara's haha.

Cara's friend from home that was studying in Dublin met up with us for dinner and we shopped around a little bit looking for new cladaugh rings, even though I couldn't bring myself to part with mine, the other girls bouoght themselves new ones. We struggled a bit getting home since the buses sometimes don't stop at the bus stops? As the bus that we needed zoomed past the stop, one of the Irish men sitting on the corner told me that sometimes they don't stop if they're full.. Cara and I laughed and told them to visit Rome to see what the word "full" means. We finally made it back to the B&B and packed our stuff up for our early flight the next morning, and finally fell asleep wishing we had more time in Dublin!

The View from the Window of the Dublin Castle, pretty sweet

St. Patrick's Cathedral!

All of us in front of the (windy) Guinness Brewery!

Some handy little signs :)

Fieldtrip to Pempeii

2010-03-30T03:49:00.000-07:00

POMPEII, ITALY
(Friday, March 12)

One Friday, my Cities, Towns and Villas class took an all-day field trip to Pompeii, the city that was buried in ash for thousands of years after an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It was awesome to see how well preserved the city was and learn about the history, some of the eeriest things were seeing the plaster casts of people and animals that got caught in the eruption. When they were excavating the ash from the area, they found that people's bodies had decayed but had left holes in the ash in the form of their bodies, so they filled the holes with plaster to make plaster casts. These people seemed to be just frozen in time, there was even a cast of a dog on a chain that couldn't escape since he was tied down, so sad. Also, a funny fact that we learned from a wall inscription: How much did a woman at the brothel cost? Three cups of wine!

Mt. Vesuvius, No big deal

Plaster Casts in the Vineyard

Cast of a dog :(

My teacher, look at how well the wall painting were preserved in the ash! Amazing.

The Forum, kinda cool

View down one of the roads...

Annieeeeee

2010-03-15T02:56:00.000-07:00

SEVILLA, SPAIN
(Friday, March 5 - Monday, March 8)

Last weekend, I got to reunite with my love, ANNIE ALWINE! She's my roommate back home at Gustavus who is studying this semester in Sevilla, and although we skype almost everyday, I have missed her an insane amount. I traveled over with my friend Phil, who's best friend Rob was also studying in Sevilla and happened to be good friends with Annie... what a small world!

Phil and I took a bus from the airport to Sevilla, where Annie and Rob were both waiting for us, and I almost cried seeing Annie. They took us out to eat to a Spanish fast food place, where I tried Annie's favorite Spanish dish "Tortilla Espanola" that was just delicious. We sat at this restaurant for well over an hour just catching up, and then we went and got icecream where we sat and talked for another hour. We walked around Sevilla for a little bit on our way to our hostel, and it was a beautiful city. It almost reminded me of Prague in some ways, the clean cobblestone roads with people out walking ther dogs, and it was much quieter than Rome without any of the sirens or horns.

Our hostel "Sevilla Inn Backpackers" turned out to be quite awesome. Phil and I stayed in a four person room with a German couple who was very nice, and the place was very clean and friendly. They seemed to have a lot of events offered for the visitors and we were invited to a rooftop barbeque that night. After a quick nap, I met back up with Annie. While Phil and Rob wanted to go out that night, I just wanted some quality time with Annie so we decided to spend the night at the English movie theater (Or so we thought). We sat down for one of the movies, but it turned out to be a movie in German with Spanish subtitles, and that wasn't going to work... so we decided to go to a later showing of the "Lovely Bones" which we were sure was in English, and to kill time we went and got some dinner. We had a very amusing time at the restaurant with the Spanish waiter who asked us what "North Face" was (we were both wearing the same Northface jacket), and we chatted with him a little bit... Annie knows much more Spanish than I do, but it was fun for me to try to speak it, after all I did take Spanish for seven years! We made it back and saw a late showing of the Lovely Bones and we balled our eyes out, so that was fun :)

The next day, Annie, Phil, Rob and I took a tour of Sevilla's Castle "Real Alcazar". The palace was beautiful and we wandered through its many courtyards, fountains and patios. There were many gorgeous outdoor gardens filled with flowers and lemon and orange trees, although Annie warned me not to eat the oranges. The best part I would have to say was getting to chase a peacock around the lawn of one of the gardens. Sadly, Annie and I were not scary enough to get it to open it's feather, or it was simply not interested in trying to attract us as mates :)

That evening, we had an amazing experience going on our hostel's Tapas Tour. They got a big group of us from the hostel together and took us to three different Tapas bars where they ordered an insane amount of Tapas for all of us to share at each one. Spain really likes its potatoes, so alot of the Tapas were really yummy. I did have an interesting experience in eating what I though was an onion ring, but it was in fact calamari, which was disgusting. We also got a drink everywhere we went, I really enjoed my first experience of Sangria, but did not so much like the Sherry Wine (actually I gagged everytime I took a sip). We also attempted to go on my hostel's pub crawl, but it was somewhat lame and took us to bars where there was literally no one in there, so we dipped out of that and went to Annie and Rob's favorite bar called "Agua del Fuego", which was quite fun. We met a bunch of Spanish guys there and they really enjoyed us attempting to speak Spanish to them because their English was not so good. It was a really fun night.

I spent the next day with the group wandering around. We went to Dominos for lunch because Phil insisted, and I felt extremely hippocritical coming from ROME to SPAIN to eat Dominoes, and it also backfired a little bit because I really did not enjoy the pizza (I hope this isn't a sign of how much I'll like American pizza when I get back home!). I also tried churros, deep fried bread, which were delicious. The group then decided to visit Sevilla's Catedral, which is the third largest cathedral in the world. It was gorgeous, and we climbed to the top of its bell tower for an incredible view of the city. That night, we joined our hostel in one of the rooftop barbeques where they cooked us hotdogs and potatoes espanola and we socialized with the hostel workers and the other guests a little bit while lounging on their outdoor bean bags and listening to Spanish Music. It was an excellent way to spend our last night in Sevilla. It was really hard saying goodbye to Annie that night, but I can't wait to see her in a few weeks when I visit Paris and she will also be there with her family, and then for Easter when all of our roommates will reunite in Rome for Easter :)

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MIDTERMS week = NO FUN!

2010-03-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

MIDTERMS WEEK
(Tuesday, March 2 - Wednesday, March 3)

I would like to start out saying that I am a psychology major, meaning that I like concepts and ideas and abstract thinking. Now, I am taking THREE Art-history courses, and I have never taken an art history course in my life... so instead of sitting at home studying concepts, I spent hours upon hours memorizing dates and Roman emperors and architects. Casey, Lizzie, Tom and I ordered lots of Chinese Pizza and bought an obnoxious amount of cans of coke and hit the books, who would have thought that we would have to pull an all-nighter to study for midterms in ROME?! It was a fun little study party. I feel like I know everything there is to know about Ancient Rome, and I have art history coming out of my ears... I could totally be a tour guide :)

Grades:
Ancient Rome and It's Monuments = 18.5 / 20
Cities, Towns and Villas; Rome, Ostia and Pompeii = 20 / 20
Politics, Power and History of Roman Architecture = ??
New Product Management = ??

Conquering La ROCCA

2010-03-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

PALERMO and CEFALU, SICILY
(Friday, February 26 - Sunday, February 28)

Christina came in to Rome on Thursday night from Florence, so we took her out for some french fries and beer at Birrifugio to talk about our plans for our weekend in Sicily. The train for Friday morning was supposed to leave at 6:20 am for the airport, but I accidentally set my alarm for 5:50 instead of 4:50, which was really awesome because I did not pack before going to bed and I just happen to live about a twenty minute walking distance from the train station. By alot of scurrying and frantic hustling, I packed in a very inefficient and unthoughtful way, but Christina and I got to the station in time to meet Tom and Lizzie. There was still one problem, however, because we were still missing our fifth travel buddy (our friend Casey). Miraculously he had made the same mistake I did but made it to the station just in time, and our finally complete group set out on our journey to Sicily.

When we arrived in Palermo, Sicily we were at a loss for words- it breathtakingly beautiful, and the airport was right on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea with a sunny, green, mountainous backdrop. We hopped on a bus that would take us from the airport on a gorgeous ride along the coastline to Palermo, where we were staying. When we arrived in the city, we asked around for directions to our hostel, the "Ai Quattro Conti" which was luckily only a few blocks away from the bus stop. This was our first hostel experience since our Hotel Giovannina nightmare in Venice, so we were a little nervous, but we soon found out that we had absolutely nothing to worry about. Check-in didn't start until one, and having arrived at 11, they allowed us to leave our bags there until we returned at one to check in. We did so and decided to go explore the city, we were all really antsy to get out and enjoy the beautiful, nice, sunny weather because Rome had been cursed with rain everyday for atleast two weeks prior.

With the weather being much warmer than we were used to, our natural decision was to head towards the beach! As we were walking down the road, we somehow adopted this stray dog that decided to follow us FOREVER. He was very cute, but we knew not to touch him, and had to try very hard to get rid of him. We eventually came up with the ultimate scheme to trick the dog by pretending like we were going into a little cafe, staying in there a while and then sneaking out while he wasnt looking and hiding behind cars until we crossed the street. We were very proud of ourselves when our plan worked! Haha.

We finally got the beach and got some gelato. The beach itself wasn't sandy but the coast was full of rocks, and of course the adventurous boys just HAD to climb them, and drag the girls with them. It was a tad slippery and perhaps a little dangerous, but it felt awesome to be thatclose to the water and we just sat there taking in the view of the bright blue water and the mountains on either side. As we continued walking back on solid ground, we passed these really strange sculptures in the shape of lifesize polka dot beds. Strangest sight I have ever seen. Then, just our luck, another stray dog began to follow us, but was thankfully easily distracted by the people in the grass throwing frisbees.

We went through a lot of effort to find a pizza place for lunch (Sicilians don't eat pizza for lunch?), and we relaxed and chatted for a bit until we noticed this HUMUNGOUS dog just hanging out the window with its tongue out, chilling and watching the people on the sidewalk. It was the funniest thing ever, and if you look at the picture, there is slobber draped OVER his nose, you can just imagine how it got that way :) His owner shouted out of one of the shops that his name was Occi... Italians LOVE their dogs here.

We got back to the hostel to check in, and the owner Giuseppe was there waiting for us. We felt immediately at home. He showed us our five person room and sat us down explaining places on a map as well as different things to do and places to eat. The walls were covered with Giuseppe's handwritten posters about day trips from Palermo that we could do, sights to see in Palermo, activities and meals the hostel offered and pictures were plastered everywhere of Giuseppe and all the guests he has had. Giuseppe kept calling the hostel the "house", and we learned that he lived there too and all of his guests were like his family every weekend. He was very persuasive in getting everyone to agree to going to dinner and out on the town together with him that night, saying that the best part of hostel experiences are the people you meet.

So, that night just as we had promised, we joined all of the other hostel guests and Giuseppe in going out to dinner. The place that he wanted to take us was closed, but we ended up at a nice restaurant anyways. I had a great experience eating out with the group because we got to talk to many people from different places of the world who were traveling Europe. We really clicked with this young couple who we discovered were from Wisconsin and had recently graduated college, worked for six months to save money, and took six months to go travel Europe together. They told us all about their experiences, where to go, how to budget, etc. and it was just incredible. They were part of a program called "couch surfing" that they did in most cities. Couchsurfing is a website where people create a profile for themselves and it is a huge database of people from different cities who are willing to let them stay on their couch and show them around their city for a few days for free. Although I was skeptical of this, they told me how it is a relatively safe system because everyone has a profile and can be reviewed by other couch surfers, so if someone gives them a bad review they cant erase it from their profile and no one else will stay with them or let them stay on their couch. Ultimately you get to see the city underneath all the touristy facades and learn about real life there, and this couple had had numerous wonderful experiences.

From the restaurant we went with Giuseppe to an outside bar where we met up with his friends. He introduced all of us by name, it was like we were his friends for the weekend. The outside bar was a really cool sight to see because everyone was just hanging out, laughing and talking with eachother. They were all very friendly and many just randomly came up and introduced themselves so they could practice theyre English. We were clearly the only Americans there, which really gave us a taste of the culture, I loved it.

In the morning, we got up early to catch a train for one of the day-trips that Giuseppe had suggested to a little city on the coast called Cefalu about forty-five minutes away. It was a beautiful day once again, so we were very excited to go to another coastal town. Getting of the train, we immediately saw this huge cliff-like crag that was like a small, 912 ft tall mountain called "La Rocca" and the boys immediately decided that we were going to climb it. I was obviously pleased with this situation because remember how I said that I rushedly packed without thinking? Well that packing job didn't include a pair of tennis shoes, thus I was required to climb La Rocca in flats, fun... what better way to break them in!

We got a bite of pizza before the climb that was surprisingly very different than Rome, it was a lot thicker and doughier, Roman pizza is extremely thin and flimsy (but delicious). It was a nice difference, and we definitely needed our fuel to climb La Rocca. The store owner pointed us in the direction of the path leading up the hill, and we began our journey. Although the trek was steep pand exhausting, the views made it totally worth while looking out over the medieval streets of the city, coast and mountainous countryside. We also saw many Greek ruins scattered on the hill including the Temple of Diana from the second century BC at the top. We hungout at the various lookouts for quite a while, none of us could get anough of the views.

Once we climbed down La Rocca, we once again headed to the beach. We got some gelato and sat on their outside deck right on the water just soaking up the sun for about an hour. Lizzie and Christina bought some sunglasses from a street vendor and we walked down to the sandy beach to feel the water (freezing, but nonetheless i wished i had brought a swimsuit!). We spent the rest of our time here until we decided to head back to the train station to catch a ride back to Palermo for dinner.

After taking a quick nap at the hostel, the five of us and our two new Wisconsin friends went out to eat at the place Giuseppe had wanted to take us the night before. He must take all of his hostel stayers here, because when we said we were sent by Giuseppe they immediately got us everything we wanted and got us the best deals. For ten euros, I got and all you can eat appetizer buffet that was DELICIOUS, bread, all you can drink wine, a pasta primavera, a huge plate of chicket cutlets, fruit for desert (wierd how thats a desert in Italy huh?) and coffee. Needless to say, none of us could hardly move after our all-inclusive meal, and we struggled back to the hostel before crashing in our beds. We hit the sack early because we caught an early flight in the morning back to Rome and we were understandably exhausted from our incredible meal and the day of conquering La Rocca :)

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Florence for Christina's 21st

2010-03-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

FLORENCE and PISA
(Thursday, February 18 - Sunday, February 21)

Back in February, Tom, Lizzie and I packed up our bags and hopped on a train to Florence to go see Christina, our good friend from home, for her 21st birthday. After our three hour long train ride (during which I atleast ATTEMPTED to study my art history homework), Christina and her dad and his girlfriend, Amy, met us at the train station. It was soo nice to see them , I couldn't stop smiling honestly. We walked arouond the streets of Florence for a bit and Mr. Mangine took us all out to a nice Italian restaurant for Christina's birthday dinner. We spent the meal catching up and talking about home, our new schools, friends apartments and travels. Christina took us back to her apartment to drop our stuff off and get situated, and we got to meet her roommates (there are NINE of them! can you imagine?) who were all very friendly. We then met up with some of our other friendsfrom Gustavus that were studying abroad in Florence and had a fun night with them, Christina and her parents out on the town.

When we got up in the morning, Christina took us out for croissants and cappuccinos and we met up with Mr. Mangine and Amy at their hotel. They took us out for a really nice meal again, during which they all made fun of me for being a bottomless pit when it comes to food (I ate my entire pizza, split a pasta with Lizzie and ate half of Christina's pizze...). I'm going to miss Italian food! I have to eat as much of it as I can while I can! We spent the afternoon walking the streets of Florence, which was just so calming because it was so quiet and clean comparerd to Rome. We also walked through a few of the markets on the streets and saw the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's famous bridge. It was ultimately a very chill day, we didn't really see a lot of sights but it was very nice to spend time with Christina and her parents. Mr. Mangine took us out for a few drinks and appetizers, and we hungout there watching Italian MTV, which mostly consists of American music oddly enough and we were just DYING to see our favorite video: Lady Gaga "Bad Romance" :)

The next day, Christina and her dad and Amy slept in but Tom, Lizzie and I got an early start. We headed out and did a little shopping at the markets, got some gelato and set out to go see the Cathedral. We explored the cathedral for a bit, it was gorgeous and it had candles to light, so each of us lit a candle and sat down to say a prayer. We wanted to climb to the top of the cathedral, but the Campanile right next to it was cheaper so we did that instead... even though this turned out to be an exhausting experience. We did end up climbing to the top of the campanile, after taking several breaks, but the view at the top of the whole city was totally worth it! Christina met up with us after that and she took us to her favorite hill to climb (great, more climbing) that was across the river on the other side of the city. The view was once again beautiful and we stayed up there for a while and people watched until it started to rain.

We headed back to Christina's apartment and Mr. Mangine met up with us there. He owns an Italian deli back in Eagan and is an excellent cook, so he offered to cook all of us a traditional Italian meal and boy was it good! I loved it because he talked us through everything he did while he cooked and gave us tips, which Tom Lizzie and I definitely needed since we have to cook for ourselves everyday back in Rome and we were getting incredibly sick of pasta with red sauce. In fact, since then we have successfully made our own homemade fetuccine sauce!

The next day, the three of us got up early to catch a train to Pisa. We made it to Pisa and made a long trek from the train station to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Cathedral, but it was a charming little town. We took our pictures, bought a few postcards and a couple cokes and headed back to the train station to hop on a train to Siena. I would just like to say at this point that our idea to do TWO day trips in ONE day was not the smartest one ever. We got to Siena and once again didn't really have any idea where we were going (it was like Tivoli all over again, but with a giant hill to climb). By the time that we finally found the area that we wanted to be in, it was time to head back to the train station to catch the last train to Rome. So in actuality we didn't see and of the sights or attractions of Siena, so we're pretending like we havent been there yet. Maybe we'll make it back before the end of the semester. Although the last day was exhausting and it took a HUGE toll on my feet (not a smart idea to wear leather boots while doing that much walking!), I had an awesome weekend!

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SNOW in Roma!

2010-02-12T08:10:00.001-08:00

Today, I woke up to SNOW falling outside my window! The Italians had a hayday, they've never seen snow... they were all carrying around umbrellas and my cleaning lady couldnt stop looking out the window... Ohhh Italy.

Carnivale di Venezia

2010-02-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

Venice and Rain and One Star Hotels, Oh my!!

Last Friday morning February 5, we hopped on an early RyanAir flight to Venice. It still amazes me that flights are so much cheaper than trains now a days, we spent about half the money and got there in a quarter of the time! Our flight was short and sweet, and we arrived in Venice in about forty minutes... and it was raining.

The first order of busiess was to find our hotel to drop our stuff off before heading to the island of Venice. Our hotel "Hotel Giovannina" was on in Mestre down the street from the bus stop, and was a ten minute bus ride to Venice so it was a pretty good location. However, we quickly discovered that the location ended up being possibly the only good thing about the place. Honestly, if you have an enemy and they happening to be travelling to Venice and you really want to get back at them for something, recommend this hotel!

So let me tell you a little bit about Hotel Giovannina. First, there is no way that this place would ever pass an American health and safety regulations check, no way. We first got there and checked in (the guy at the dest was very helpful atleast) and he handed me a key with a key chain that honestly weighed like five pounds. He told us that you must turn in your key everytime you leave the hotel and they would give it back everytime you came back. Later, we discovered that to get your key back you just say "Room 118" and they hand it to you without checking ID or anything. So basically, anyone could say they were staying in our romo and coud get the key = awesome security. The room didnt seem too bad upon irst entering, but it went downhill from there. The walls and ceilings were stained with God knows what, Tom's sheets had a stain on them, and my blankets smelled awful.

The worst was the bathroom, which deserves its own paragraph. We noticed that the shower was strategically placed in the doorway (???) so that you had to walk through the shower to get to the toilet. That, and there was nothing to catch the water from the shower, so when someone showered, the water just went all over the bathroom floor and leaked into the room (so, you can imagine, part of the floors of our room was soggy from all the mold underneath).

We dropped our stuff off (but took our valuables with us) and left that hotel room as quickly as we could. We meandered arouond Mestre for a little while, found a gorcery store and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the bus station. Our hotel receptionist had given good advice about what buses to catch and where to buy tickets, so that was helpful. The bus ride over kinda got us out of our dreary little run that we had fallen into because of the rain and the room because driving over water and seeing all of the ports and stuff was gorgeous. We got off the bus (it was still raining) and started walking. There were tons of sidewalk shops and stands, most of them selling masks and costumes for Carnivale which was starting the next day. We wandered around Venice for a little while, just happy to be there and admiring the canals and the such.

We eventually found our way to Ponte Rialto, Venice's most famous bridge crossing over the Grand Canal. Apparently, the original wood bridge collapsed in the 1500's so the built a new, huge one made ouot of stone. Today, there are at least a dozen shops built on the top of the bridge, its a really fun place to shop and a huge tourist site. From there we made it to Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square), which was beautiful. We could see them already setting up for Carnivale and I got so excited :)

We spent the afternoon sight seeing and it was very relaxing. First, we went into the Basilica di San Marco which was absolutely breath taking on the inside... there were dozens of signs saying no pictures but I did anyways. On the altar we saw the tomb of Saint Mark, and the altar piece marking the tomb was gorgeous. There were also mosaics everywhere depicting stories from the Bible, they were so intricate it was amazing!

Next we went to the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) which was right next to the Basilica and had a pink and white facade that reminded me of a fairytale castle. Inside we found dozens of grand chambers with incredibe paintings on the walls and ceiling and stucco and marble floors (again i wasnt supposed to take pictures but I did). The palace housed the Doge's residence, the head of State, as well as other government offices. Ultimately we learned that the almost over the top decor actually served the purpose of illustrating to visiting ambassadors and diplomats Venice's extreme wealth and power. Perhaps my favorite part of the visit was the "Prigioni Nuove" which were prisons built next to the Palace to house the prisoners that were earlier locked in the palace's attics and basement. The prison was connected to the Palace by a bridge over the canal called the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs), which got its name from the legend that once a prisoner crossed this bridge after getting sentanced, they would never return.

After the palace visit, we shopped around a bit and got dinner. Venice was absolutely dead, probably because of the rain, and there was hrdly anyone on the roads. We stopped to get some dinner and we were the only people in therestaurant, which was a little awkward because then the waiter just stood and watched us eat. We decided to head back to the hotel afterwards because we were exhausted and wanted to rest up for Carnivale the next day, and we were in bed by eight o'clock (but not without a lot of whining to eachother about the disgustingness of the beds).

In the morning, we debated with eachother for about an hour whether showering in our scary shower was worth it, and I was ultimately the one to take the chance first (terrible idea- frozen water, gross floor = two minute shower). When we left, we stopped at the grocery store for some breakfast and headed to Venice for the day. When we got there, a lot of people were dressed up in capes and gowns with Carnivale masks, so Lizzie and I bought a couple cheap ones for ourselves. We spent the day people watching and admiring all of the cool costumes. Tourists and Americans were everywhere, they seemed to greatly out number the number of Venetians. We watched as they prepared for a performance in the main square and stopped by another museum. The performance during the day seemes to be geared towards children, because a creepy bunny came out dancng and singing. We shopped around a little bit more and grabbed a bit to eat mid afternoon (best pizza I've had in Italy! I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant) before heading back for a nap. When we finally got up, the rain had finally stopped for a little bit and our spirits were lifted. We ran into a friend from Rome (Dan) who had bought complete costume for hundreds of euro, but it was very cool ad we hungout with him and his friends for a little bit. We headed back to St. Mark's square for a more adult performance in Italian. There were so many people! and so many cool costumes, I'm glad I experienced it :)

We left on a plane early Sunday morning, and we were all excited to be out of the hotel! Looking back, I wish that our visit to Venice wasn't full of rain, but I think that we did a phenomenal job making the best of it, and Carnivale was so fun :)
I actually missed Rome a little bit and I'm excited that this weekend we will be staying in town to get some Rome-time in!

Czech-ing out Prague!

2010-02-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I absolutely fell in love with the city of Prague and found it the most charming place that I have ever been. The city was absoultely beautiful with its architecture, landmarks, cobblestone roads and quaint little pubs on every corner. While I was walking the streets, I came to the conclusion that Praha (as the Czechs call it) was now my new favorite place in the world. Then I wondered how many times I will think that about how many different places during the next four months...

Me, Tom, Lizzie, Cara, and four of Tom's roommates Phil, Robbie, Connor and Miles all hopped on a train, then another train, then a bus to the Rome-Ciampino Airport on Thursday night. We successfully boarded our hot pink "WizzAir" plane and were off on our way to Praha. I quickly became the hero of the plane ride because I happened to say something to one of the stewardesses, who then realized that I spoke English and offered all eight of us Emergency exit row seating which had to be occupied by English speakers. Note: Emergency exit row = twice the leg room, success.

I have to say that this flight was the most amusing plane ride I have ever taken. In addition to the sassy stewardesses that made funny comments towards the passengers over the loudspeaker, the italian passengers were quite an amusemnet. As soon as the seatbelt sign turned off, people were up and out of their chairs and congregating around their friends, sitting on the arm rests and drinking their beers. While all the Italians were throwing their little party, Lizzie and I decided that their behavior totally wouldn't "fly" on American flights (get it?), but it seemed to be perfectly normal. However, I'd have to say that my favorite part of the trip was upon landing the plane in Prague when the entire plane erupted in applause when the plane touched the ground. This apparently happens at the end of every flight… what a hysterical little Italian quirk.

We reached Prague around midnight, hit up the ATMS for some Czech crowns, and set out to find a taxi. It was a little rough because well, there were no taxis waiting for us at midnight and when we finally flagged one down we realized that I hadn’t written down the address of the hostel (Okay, I’m still working out a few travelling kinks). Nonetheless, Lizzie, Connor, Tom and Cara decided to get in the taxi anyways and claimed that they would just roll down the window and ask street walkers for directions. Unlucky for them, literally three seconds after they left, the remaining four of us found the address and were able to get to our hostel in a timely, cost efficient manner while they were driven around aimlessly and dropped off on a random street corner forced to find their own way to the hostel in the falling midnight snow.

I have to mention a little bit about how I felt on the cab ride to the hostel. Although it was dark, the city was beautiful. Snow covered everything and the city was silent as the snow fell, such a change from the constant horns and sirens of the streets of Rome that fill every night. With the trees and the snow and just the environment, it almost felt like a Minnesota winter night drive. I fell in love with Prague within two minutes of being in that cab, probably partly because I was reminded of home…and maybe partly because I saw both a KFC and a Starbucks on the street… (kidding).

We definitely lucked out with our hostel ("Old Prague Hostel"), which turned out to be ranked the eighth best hostel in Europe. We all had paid the base rate of 11 Euro per night of the basic 8-person dorm, but luckily since there were eight of us, we were all assigned to the same dorm… no sleeping with strangers, awesome. The hostel gave us free luggage storage, free breakfasts, free walking tours of the city, free maps and tons of discounts at local restaurants. Not to mention, I got the best showers that I’ve had all month and a bed with an awesome pillow (I don’t have quite these luxuries in my Rome apartment). AND I did not get bed bugs, so the hostel was a success. I almost feel like we were spoiled and might have a rude awakening when we stay at other hostels during our travels.

Although we didn’t get into the hostel until around one, we still decided to hit up a pub down the street that our receptionist had recommended. It was such a relaxed atmosphere, I wish we had something like it in Italy. We all got a table, ordered drinks and chatted while sipping our first real Czech beer before calling it a night and heading back down the street to the hostel.

On our first day, Connor and I made sure we were up in time for the free breakfast (Ham and cheese sandwiches and chocolate?). We woke the rest of the group up and came to a consensus that the bagel shop down the street called “Bohemian Bagel” would be an excellent place to go to wake up and chill before our free walking tour at 11. Since our hostel gave us unlimited discount coupons for Bohemian Bagel, and because it was so gosh darn cheap and delicious, the bagel shop became our little home away from home away from home (we ate there for at least four meals). We also couldn’t help ourselves when we saw a Starbucks: small splurge, totally worth it.

The weather in Prague was much colder than what we were used to in Italy, and I dressed up like a complete American with my Ugg boots and Northface jacket, hat and gloves to go walking outside. Our free walking tour turned out to be the best decision ever. Our tour guide, Mark, was extremely animated and told historical stories in a way that was amusing and understandable, he called it making us “Czech-sperts”. We saw such things as the Old Town Square, the Astronomical Clock, the Jewish Quarter and many monuments along the way, as well as the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle from afar. It was a great way to see the city. Then we grabbed some food and shopped around a little bit before heading back to the hostel to get ready for the night.

Our hostel had told us about a pub crawl that Prague was famous for and we decided to do it. We met them at the astronomical clock at 9:00 and they gave us free shirts that say “Crawl With Me” on them and the brought us to the first bar. It was so much fun because people from all around the world were on this pub crawl and we got to spend the night with them. We met people from England, Sicily, Venice, Canada, Switzerland and many other places. Throughout the night they took us to four different bars and dance clubs before ending up at a five story club that stays open all night. However, when we were approaching the last club, I realized that the pub crawl group had lost Robbie, Connor and Miles so Phil and I had to turn around and go look for them. Apparently, they had met a bunch of English people in their forties and decided to bond with them because we found them in a bar with and English man buying them flaming shots and talking about being long lost relatives (imagine me rolling my eyes at this). When Connor tried to take his shot, he spilled it and lit the bar on fire momentarily so I decided that it was time to leave. We finally got to the last club and it was absolutely huge and packed, what an awesome atmosphere. I checked my coat with my camera in the pocket and we headed in. However, the night took a tragic turn when we were leaving and I got my coat back and discovered that the camera wasn’t in the pocket anymore. When I tried to talk to the manager in charge, he just got mad at me for accusing his men of stealing and was no help, so my camera was lost. I didn’t care about the camera as much as the pictures, but you live and you learn, what an expensive mistake though.

The next day we went on the Prague Castle tour with the same company, and much to our delight, Mark was our tour guide again. The Castle wasn’t so much a castle but a bunch of buildings with a really cool looking Cathedral in the middle. This tour wasn’t as cool as the first one, but it was still fun and worthwhile even though we were freezing our butts off. Afterwards, we asked Mark where we could get some real Czech cheap food and he gave us directions to his favorite restaurant, which was very close by. We made it there, got a table and waited for our waiter. When he came over to greet us, he spoke the absolute bare minimum of English, and the menu’s were entirely in Czech. Ordering food was a treat because we had no idea what was on the menu and what we were ordering. When it came my turn to order, the waiter literally knew the words ham, chicken, potato, yes and no. I said yes chicken and potato. No one had any idea what they had just ordered and we sat with fingers crossed waiting for our food. Incredibly, everyone absolutely loved what they got. I ended up having fried cheese (so delicious) and then potato pancakes with chicken and cheese inside. The meal was incredible and I was so full by the end of it, wonderful Czech meal.

We spent the next day wandering around a little bit. We crossed the Charles Bridge and found the Lennon Wall, but none of us had a pen so we couldn’t sign it. We then went to McDonalds and a Czech casino, and while I didn’t gamble it was quite fun because the lowest bet you could make was 10 czk and the boys had fun passing the time playing at this minimum bid, feeling like they were doing something worthwhile when in actuality 10 czk is like 50 cents. We also found a shopping mall that was full of cool stores, and I felt a little shot of jealousy because I have yet to find anything like that in Rome. I ended up buying a new camera there, figuring that the exchange rate was better in Prague than in Italy. It was then finally time to catch the plane back to Rome, it was quite sad to leave Prague, I absolutely loved it!

Here's the crew on the Charles Bridge!

That's us in front of the Lennon Wall!

The Charles Bridge :)

The Cathedral at the Prague Castle

Old Town Square

Bohemia Bagel!

Tivoli and Public Transportation

2010-01-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Me, Tom, Lizzie and our friend Cara took our first trip out of Rome to a little city about an hour away called Tivoli. Let me tell you, we learned a lot about travelling.. thank goodness this was not a major trip or it could have been a disaster!

We took the train and struggled a bit with being on time for that, but we made it. It was a nice trip though, it felt so nice to get out of the city and to see the italian countryside (beautiful) for the hour long ride. Getting into Tivoli, we got off the train and realized that we had made our first mistake: while we had read up on everything that we wanted to see and do, we hadn't actually read a map... so we wandered. A lot. The group (Lizzie) actually ended up getting a little crabby because of our lost-ness and our inability to find pizza... but once we found a pizza place (and decided that we were still hungry and found a second), we stumbled upon one of our tourist locations that we were hoping to see, Villa D'Este.

Villa D'este was built in 1550 by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este into the side of a hill and it's backyard is absolutely breathtaking with incredible views of the Italian countryside as well as beautiful Italian style gradens sprinkled with hundreds of fountains. We spent hours here lookinig at each fountain, there were so many! Our favorites were the Cento Fontane (One Hundrerd Fountains), Fontana dei draghi (Fountain of the Dragons) and the Fountain of the Bicchierone (Large Glass).

When we got out of Villa D'Este, we wandered into what seemed to be the city center where they were having some sort of festival/ carnival with music and stands and people dressed up in costumes. It was at this point that we found the tourist office, who offered us a map and informed us that most sites would be closed by four o'clock and that we would have no more time to see other sites. While this was disappointing, we were alright with it because Villa d'Este was totally worth the trip and we were starting to gt tired. The tourism woman mentioned to us that there was a bus that went between Tivoli to Rome and that if we wanted, it was leaving in a few minutes for only one euro. One euro was cheaper than the three euro train ride and none of us wanted to try to get bak to the station, so we decided to take the bus.

This decision, in fact, turned out to be a wonderful little mistake because do you think any of us thought to ask exactly where in Rome it would drop us off? Of course not. So we were dropped off and had absolutely no idea where we were. Once we figured out that it was a metro station, we guessed about what tickets we should buy and then guessed again which was the correct metro (subway). Luckily, we made it to the Termini station and finally knew where we were but were still a while from home. We needed to take a bus and struggled quite a bit trying to figure out exactly which one to take. After getting on two wrong buses, we found the right one (The "H") and hopped on. However, because we didn't know exactly where this bus stopped, as soon as we saw our road, we got off and took the tram home. So we ultimatly used all forms of public transportation in a single day... the train, the metro, the bus and the tram. I'd say that that's an accomplishment in itself. Good thing Tivoli was worth it!

In Conclusion, notes to self:
1. Look at Maps before Trip
2. Keep track of the time so we can see more than one site
3. Find the tourist office first, not last
4. Don't get on buses just because they say "Rome"
5. Learn the Metro/ bus routes

Orientation Week in Rome

2010-01-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 12/14/2010

We arrived in Rome today at the Rome Fiumicino Airport. I was so thrilled to see my luggage at the baggage claim, I've heard so many horror stories about lost baggage. I was traveling with two other people from Gustavus; my good friend Tom and another girl named Michelle. We quickly found our SAI coordinator who got us and two other girls connected with a taxi to Rome. One in Rome we stopped by the SAI office to get our keys and our cell phones (which are ancient).

Our taxi driver was hysterical, he spoke broken English but we understood him well. When he asked everyone in the car whether they were Catholic and two responded that no, they were Lutheran, he said

Oh so you must be Communist. You must be either Catholic or Communist, one is garbage the other is the shit

. He seemed especially fascinated with using English swear words and half the time they did not even make sense with the context. The other thing that I noticed was Italian driving. There didn't seem to be any lanes or yeilding to eachother or pedestrians of any sort... it was quite terrifying. Cars on the street were literally parked three inches away from eachother (parellel parking nighmare) and people seemed to make up parking spots wherever they could fit their car, sideways, backwards, blocking others in etc. I noticed that a lot of the cars were dented and when I asked about it, the driver told me that people hit eachother all the time on roads and getting out of parking spots and it was considered normal. I don't think that I could ever drive here.

Although I live on the sixth floor, my apartment on Via Ippolito Nievo 12 in the Trastevere neighborhood actually turned out be very very nice. We have a Living room with a table and TV, a kitchen with a dishwasher and washing machine, two bathrooms with showers, a single room and four double rooms for eight girls. My roommate, Morgan, was there when I arrived and was very sweet. Once we were all unpacked, Tom and his girlfriend Liz and his new roommate Del (who was here last semester as well and knows his way around) decided to meet up with a friend of ours from home who happens to be on a trip here on the other side of the city. While Del thought that he had directed us onto the right train, after sitting on it for forty five minutes we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction and had to get off and grab another train in the opposite direction. When all was said and done, we finally met up with our friend Steve who took us to the Trevi fountain and we had our first pizza in Italy (delicious). Trevi fountain at night was absolutely gorgeous and we sat on the closest step eating our pizza, drinking our italian beers (the drinking age in Italy is sixteen...it's crazy) and chatting about how we felt like we were in a different world. We topped the night off at a local bar called "Scholars" which we've been told is where a lot of John Cabot students go and where they play a lot of American sporting events on TV. Walking home, my feet killed and I tried to prepare myself for the amount of walking in days to come. Del offered us what he called a "nightcap" and took us to the cute little bar right down our block for some french fries and we all walked back and went to bed after the long day.

Thursday 12/15/2010

Today was our first day of orientation. I went to our mandatory meeting (yawn) which Tom did not make it to... The walk to the Guarini campus of John Campus was about a half hour but I was proud of myself for finding it. The streets here are like cobblestone alleys, they have shops and restaurants tucked away and I have no idea how the manage to fit both cars and people on them. This city is chaos. I went to lunch at a cute little restaurant and ate the most delicious lasagne I've ever had and met up with Tom and Lizzie. Liz and I attempted to go to an electronics store that a friend of mine said she had just gotten adapters at, and it was quite the experience. I needed a hair straightener but needed to ask a worker to get it for me and upon asking about a billion people "Parla inglese?"... i found out that no one spoke Enlgish. Awesome. I ended up figuring out how to get the hair straightener but they kept telling me they didnt have adapters... not true. Morgan had gotten some there a half hour before, so frustrating. So, I still need adapters. I came back and took a nap, and then Tom went out to get us some wine and pizza from a place that we have now come to call "Chinese pizza" because it's all Chinese workers. It was incredible pizza that cost three euros and is totally my favorite pizza so far. For dinner, Del took us to his favorite lasagne restaurant where I got to eat more delicious lasagne and some awesome margherita pizza. I can't believe how cheap food is here. After dinner, we came back and got ready for our first night out on the town. We went to the infamous Campo dei Fiori, a beautiful piazza full of restaurants and bars called things like "The drunken ship" and "Sloppy Sams". I felt like every one in the entire city was there. After some difficulty we got a table in the piazza outside of Sloppy Sams and talked broken Italian to the three Italians at the table next to us who responded with broken English. I need to learn Italian, for real. We walked home and went to bed, what an awesome first night at Campo.

Friday 01/15/2010

Today we were the biggest tourists you could possibly imagine. We had the day to ourselves to Tom, Liz and I enlisted the help of Del to take us to some sites around the city. The first thing we saw was the Pantheon, absolutely spectacular (I took honestly about a hundred pictures). My favorite was walking out and seeing these two men dressed in old army costumes who were just hysterical. I quickly realized that they were only trying to get my money but I didn't seem to care because they were so nice and funny that I begged Tom and Liz to each pitch in a euro with me to get a picture with them... the pictures turned out fantastic and were totally worth it. We continued walking and it completely took me off guard when we turned a random corner in the city and oops, there's the Coliseum down the street. It's completely unreal that these ancient ruins are just randomly scattered throughout the city, its all beautiful.

In the Piazza Venezia, we saw the Vittorio Emanuele Monument. My travel book said that it is Italy's most flamboyant landmark... and that it is. It's an absolutly huge white building with pilars and these giant black statues of horses on top that you can see from all around Rome. As we continued down the road Via dei Fori Imperiali towards the Coliseum, we saw part of the Roman Forums on the right hand side and the Fori Imperiali (Imperial Forums) on the left. The ruins and excavation sites were very cool to see, just to know that two thousand years ago, decisions made in the Roman forum affected a lot of the known world. It was also cool to see the Imperial Forums, which were built because of the overcrowding of the Roman forums, because each were built by separate emperors (Caesar, Nerva, Augustus and Trajan) to outdo one another.

Finally we made it to the Coliseum, which we didn’t go inside of yet, but it was incredible to see. When we were approached by some tour guides pitching Coliseum and Forum tours, they had baby kittens with them that we got to hold and play with… what an interesting ploy to get our money. We also saw the Arch of Constantine right next to the Coliseum and took plenty of pictures before heading of to see the Spanish Steps. Along the walk, we stopped at the sweetest McDonalds that I have ever seen, it looked like a five star restaurant. I took so many pictures and it was funny because people in the McDonalds kept smiling for them. We got some gelato then across the street (I got Tiramisu flavor, an excellent choice for my first gelato ever) and went and ate it on the Spanish Steps and let our feet rest.

For dinner, we went to an excellent place down the street from our apartment called Carla Mente. We got a bunch of people together and got a giant table in the basement. The food was absolutely delicious, and surprise surprise, Liz and I got a pizza to share and each got a pasta (I got Penne Gorgonzola, yum. Sje got Pesto Gnocchi, double yum.) and drank some of the wine that the table had ordered and only had to pay five euro each… again, inexpenisive Italian dining that tastes way better than anything I’ve ever had. How am I ever going to go back to eating frozen pizzas and Kraft Macaroni?

Saturday 01/16/2010

Today we got up extremely early to do our Permit to Stay documentation stuff, pick up our school Id’s and go to another boring orientation meeting. When we left, we went back and napped for about four hours, apparently jetlag is still an issue four days in. I got up around three and ate an entire Chinese pizza (it’s still my favorite) before meeting up with Tom and Lizzie to attempt to go to “Simply”, the grocery store down the street. Simply was an adventure, let me tell you…. Nothing was in English! So we settled on some 22 cent pasta and some pesto and red sauce, some Italian Cheeto Puffs, bread, mozzerela, tomatos and some fruit. I really need to get some laundry detergent but I’m going to hold off until I can go back with Dell because I couldn’t tell what was detergent and what was fabric softener. Again, I need to learn Italian. When we came back, we looked through all of our travel books and ate what we thought was a very Italian snack (bread, olive oil, balsamic, mozzarella and tomatos) and started planning where we want to travel to this semester. Then, Dell made us an awesome meal of homemade lasagna (I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of lasagna here…) for dinner. We then went down to the bar down the street, which I still don’t know the name of, and got some tables and ordered some French fries. I ended up leaving early because I was exhausted… boo.

Sunday 01/17/2010

Today we got up early yet again, I’m very proud of us. There is a giant market in Tratevere (our neighborhood) every Sunday and it takes place right outside our door and goes on for miles. It is apparently the biggest market in Western Europe. We shopped around for a little bit, I really need boots because literally everyone wears them and the ones that I have kill my feet… so I’ve been walking around in my super comfortable Uggs and labeling myself as a total American (but at least I haven’t been wearing my Northface). The funniest part of the trip so far happened today when Liz and I went up to a stand and were bartering with the man for necklaces. After leaving us to look, he walked over to Tom (who was looking at belt buckles) and asked whether he was with us. When Tom replied that we were, the man said

Those are very nice girls, how many belt buckles for them?

We then met up with Tom’s roommates and we headed to the Vatican to see the Pope give an address like he does every Sunday. Del seemed to take us a really roundabout way to get there, but we got there eventually. It was absolutely unreal being in Vatican square and hearing the Pope, it was packed with people. We also saw one of the cardinals in the crowd, which I thought was very cool. After the address, we all got some pizza and ate it in Campo dei Fiori and headed back to campus to meet Liz.

We ended up deciding to climb the Janiculum Hill, a hill that was strategic in Rome’s defense against French troops in 1849. On top of the hill (and by hill I mean HILL, the stairs were obnoxious, I got a wonderful little work out) we found many fountains and monuments to soldiers, as well as many breathtakinig views over the whole city. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and the hill led us right back to a new set of steep stairs right near our apartments. When we came back, Tom, Liz and I cooked some pasta for ourselves for dinner, which turned out well. We then headed out to a bar on the other side of the river called Abbey Theater where Del had rented out a huge room for us and his friends to watch the playoffs. It was very cool to be able to watch the game and feel a small connection to home. Classes start tomorrow so it’s early to bed for me!