Ciao!

For the long weekend, I traveled to Italy. Once again it was going to be too far to take a train so we took our very safe RyanAir, only 5 euros for a one way flight to Venice! I won't lie I didn't do a whole lot of research on what to do or what to expect so when i arrived in Venice and realized all transportation was by water it amazed me. We sat down at a nice pizzeria and grabbed our first slice of italian pizza and white wine. The next morning we woke up with only 4 hours till our train to Florence, so we were looking for a quick canal tour of some sort, but then we realized we should just take the public transportation waterbus, which was the perfect tour of the canal. Venice is yet again another place we visited that I would like to go back to and spend more time relaxing and walking around. We went to the main plaza, and all around it were small streets with stores after stores of beautiful jewelry and very chic window displays, I guess i will have to go back when i have enough money to buy those rings and necklaces :) . Our hostel in Florence, Hostel Veronique, reminded me of the typical italian/european apartment. The lift was very small and old, and the room was lets say..not to clean along with sharing a bathroom that was outside down the hall. Although the flat wasn't ideal looks wise it was perfect location. We had a view of a chapel,a large outdoor leather market, and central located to many of the piazza in the area. Florence had amazing window displays and their fashion is one i would like to put into my own style. We started to walk around Florence the next day, and came upon Pitti Palace, where we were able to see a exhibit of costume and how it shows the economy of the different time periods, along with a hilly garden which gave us a good view of the city.
On June 24 is the Tournament of St. John, which was a saints holiday where the city is split up into 4 teams. The 4 teams had been playing in game in the last couple weeks and on this day is when they championship is. I can't begin to explain what the rules of this game was, but it was a combination of football, soccer, rugby, and boxing. We had no idea what we were getting ourself into. The game starts and they were all wearing plain T-shirts medieval pants, and their were 3 refs who were also dressed in medieval dress. The whistle blew and complete mayhem occurred i sat there with my mouth opened, trying to figure the game out, or even what part of it to watch, left and right there were random fist fights, the players were ripping each others shirts off, people were pushing the refs around, and then somewhere in that mix a guy had the ball. If i could suggest a time to go to Florence go on June 24, it was an unforgettable experience, I wish i could go back again next year to watch. We then traveled to Rome, where we mostly did the typical tourist stuff, we did the hop on hop off tourist bus which took us to the Coliseum and Fountain di Trevi for the first day and the second day we went to the Vatican and Spanish Steps.

At the Vatican we were persuaded by a guide outside to do their deal, which is a 50/50 chance that its legit, we happen to luck out and we got a tour guide who's family is from San Marino! It was a 2 hour tour, and he sat us down before and explained all the art work in the Sistine Chapel. There is so much of Michael Angelo's life and work that i had absolutely no idea about. I had seen his famous panel of God giving life, but I didn't even ever closely look at it. The other panels that he painted were so interesting to look at and see how he interpreted the different sections of the bible. One thing that he was talking to us about was that Michael Angelo and Pope Julius II did not get along, and their are small things in his paintings that mock the Pope, which i thought was interesting seeing that Julius II was the one who hired him. Our guide was somebody that you could just tell was born to be a tour guide, he showed such interest and enthusiasm that it made it very enjoyable. Now for the food, yum! I had my fair share of pesto pasta, pizza, and gelato. I had tried many different flavors of gelato, my favorite were tiramisu, nutella, and wait for it...Chocolate, who saw that coming right. One thing that changed my mind after going was their sense of style, i guess i should have thought more about it seeing that Milan is one of the top fashion cities, but i was expecting people to be tacky, more jersey shore like, which is probably why the Italians got so upset about that show. The men were very well dressed and not as metro as many people might think, and the women were perfectly put together with a variation of outfits while as compared to american style where it seems like many people wear the same combinations of clothes. I'm so glad that i choose to go to Italy for the long weekend, all our travels worked out perfectly, we caught all our trains, found all our hostels easily, and figured out maps and metros within the first couple hours of being in each city. Throughout my time in Europe it has been so much fun to be in Europe for the FIFA world cup, all these countries get so into the game and it shows in every city that we go to. In Florence we were able to grab a table at a pub and cheer with other Italians to support their team, unfortunately they didn't win though. We watched two US games while in Italy, one in Florence and the other in Rome. In Florence it was fun because the pub was filled with Americans that were traveling in europe. The one in Rome the three of us girls wore navy and white striped sweatshirts and wrote GO USA on our face, we got some looks but felt good to get into the world cup and cheer for our country. Sadly we lost :( . It's hard to believe that this was my last weekend travel during my study abroad, and that i will be back in the states in 5 days!! I wish I could have spent more time in Venice and Florence, It would be fun to do more exploring of the canals and the fashion in those two places.
Arrivederci!

Czech This Out

After only being back at "home" Lux, for 3 days I was off again to more weekend travels. We left out of Frankfurt Airport on Ryanair which has really cheap flights because they are trainer pilots, but we got to Czech safely. We met this women on the bus to the hostel from Prague who was telling us that hairless cats are cheapest in Czech and that is why she is back here trying to get one, haha good to know for the future. Our hostel (Hostel Elf) is sort of fun, it has graffiti all over it, with a hang out lounge, has a very chill feeling, kind of like a dorm. Our first day in Prague we walked around, went to Old Town Square where we found a bagel place ( where we ended up going for breakfast both days) It was very good, first bagel i've had in europe. We then walked around fan square that they had set up for the FIFA games with bouncy bounces, games, food stands, and a large screen. The city is so pretty, the architecture is very unique and a bunch of different styles. There is a large clock in the town square and it had a list of 365 names, one for a day, and when a Czech baby is born they have to pick from one of those names and if they want another one they have to pass it through the government, which rarely happens. It was a definite hike up to the Prague Castle but definitely worth it, we could see the whole city from up there. After our touring around we stopped at an outdoor beer garden where we enjoyed a Pilsner Beer- there specialty, sitting in the sun looking at the view of the city. Later on that night we happen to run in Finn from Glee!!!!! Ya no big deal, we chatted it up for awhile, random to see him in Prague though. Today we didn't do a tour or anything, but just walked around the city, explored a bit. We went back to the square to watch the soccer game US vs Slovenia, it was fun to see all the americans in Prague come together in a square, there was a group that was all painted and wearing the flag. And then finally we had our traditional Czech dinner, beer, fried cheese and potatoes twas delicious, don't know how the czech aren't all fat and having heart attacks though. The whole day i was looking around at the stores for a cheap fur hat and i finally found one, its kind of silly, but it makes me look like a russian in the winter, i'm excited to find a time to wear it. Tomorrow we are off to Munich, then back to Diff to write a paper, study for quiz, and get ready for Italy on Tuesday.

Dobrou noc -Good Night!

City of Arts and Science

One of the last things we visited in Valencia was the City of Arts and Science, which was recently built to try and bring more tourist to the city. It was crazy how intense these buildings were, almost as if they didn't really fit in. There is the largest opera house in Europe, an outdoor aquarium, and a science museum, but all these three places didn't have anything super interesting inside but were all so focused on the design and bringing tourist in. It looked like a resort,after having walked there i was so hot it was very tempting to jump in the mile long fountains they had. We left Valencia and had a nice relaxing and fun weekend in Sitges with some of my friends, our house was amazing, i'm glad everything worked out, plus i was able to make some homemade guac for everyone. It was so nice to be able to relax, sleep in, and lay out at the beach get some good Spanish color.

Espana

¡Hola! Been awhile since i've updated my blog, but we have been so busy touring around and traveling. We started off in Barcelona where we went to this really cool park place where the designer, Antoni Gaudí, put together titles creating really pretty mosaics. We had a bit of a hike to the place, but was definitely worth it. It reminded me a lot of California with the Mediterranean climate and plants. During this hike and walking tour I decided that I want to come back to Barcelona and spend more time. We went to the beach when we were done with our field study. This beach was packed, the ones you see in tourist magazines with people piled in. The water was not as warm as i thought, actually fairly cold. But we had a good swim out to a island of rocks where we could see the Barcelona coast. The national dish of Spain is paella, which we have been learning a lot about in class back in Lux. Its basically rice, vegetables, and either fish or chicken. Personally i'm not really a fan, its not that it is bad, just that it is not something i would crave and seems like its just rice and vegetables which ive had a bunch of times back in the states. We then traveled to Valencia, which is the 3rd largest city in Spain. It is not as fun in Valencia as in Barcelona, the majority of the people here are retired couples or young families, not many teenagers people. The people here though dress very nicely, as in preppy. The little boys walk around with khaki shorts and tucked in polos with loafers, and today i saw a 2 year old with pearl earrings in. The beaches in Valencia are more relaxed there are not a lot of people, but everyone in the Miami program normally sets up around each other and we play beach volleyball till the sun goes down, which is like 10 haha, then its time to get dinner, off to get more paella. We've gone to 3 different markets, which here are more like farmers markets, the strawberries and cherries are delicious very sweet. Most of the places here to have Sangria, which is wine and fruit juice, it is very good and refreshing especially after a long day in the sun-i've been soaking up as much sun as i can :) We are about to head off to the Aquarium now for our afternoon part, and then planning on watching the sunset on the beach again, tomorrow we have field guides in the morning then me and 2 of my friends are off to Sitges (small beach town outside Barcelona) to meet up for the weekend with other Miami students who are in Barcelona studying. Should be a nice relaxing weekend after traveling around for the last couple days

hasta mañana!

Pari

Thats been two weekend trips now! ah can't believe its gone by so fast. Paris seemed unreal to me, it never really hit me that i was at the Eiffel tower, or right near the mona lisa. On the first night we had better luck at finding our hotel, but still struggled with the european way of titling streets, for they are on the sides of buildings and not signs in the middle of the intersection. Our hotel was named Hotel Andre Gill, it was a small 6 story family owned, was no ritz, but was perfect for a group of backpackers. Once we put are stuff in our rooms, we headed out to a fondu place that a friend suggested. We ended up going to this place with about 11 of us, which i soon realized later on in the trip, traveling with 11 people in europe is not fun/stressful. This fondu place was very tiny fit about 20 people total. The walls were filled with writing and they served the wine in baby bottles, which was fun, the food not so much. The next day we decided that to be able to accomplish as much as possible without stress of subways we would take the hop on hop off bus tour, which worked perfectly. We first stopped at the Louvre, which we lucked out cause there was no line, and small world i ran into a friend from Miami that wasn't apart of our program, but traveling in europe for the summer, funny how that always happens. People kept telling me how small the Mona Lisa was and how im going to be so shocked, but when i saw it i thought it was decent size, i was expecting it to be like 8x11, but i would say it was a portrait size painting. We next headed to the Notre Dame, which we grabbed lunch, more bread and cheese, at a cafe called Quasimoto. We brought out our child side at a park near the Notre Dame and played on a swing and some turn table, which really fascinated us. We were then off to the Arc de Triomphe, but got side tracked a bit before when we stopped to shop a little bit. We ended our bus tour at the Eiffel Tower just at sunset. We decided while we are still young and can, to climb the stairs of the Eiffel, which wasn't too bad. As the sun set we grabbed some pasta, wine, nutella, and bread and enjoyed a beautiful evening in the Eiffel Tower Park, where there were a bunch of groups having picnics. Have to admit i ended up buying a tourist paris sweatshirt because i got cold, otherwise great experience, definitely suggest doing Eiffel Tower Picnic.

The next day we didn't have anything planned because we wanted to spend the morning walking around, going to more shops and getting our souvenirs down. Then in the evening we were suppose to go to Belgium, Bruges... this would be the first of travel hiccups. Apparently the train ride from Paris and Bruges is very popular and books up, so at around 2:30pm when we were standing in line for tickets, we realized they were all booked and we were stuck in Paris for the night ( i know doesn't sound bad, but when you are hotelless on a saturday, it becomes hard to find open hotels.) We did luck out and ended up finding a hotel right near the train station where we were able to catch a train early Sunday Morning. That was a stressful afternoon but we found a hotel and were all safe, so worked out, i guess i won't be making it to Belgium this trip.

It was a very relaxing weekend and we were able to get a lot done, I think i would want to go back to Paris and actually enjoy the city and explore the non tourist spots to experience more of the culture, maybe i'll go back with my future husband :) . Next week we leave for Spain!! Hola!!

Mid Week

It was so nice here the last couple days and then right when i decide to take my umbrella out of my book bag it begins to rain. Hopefully Paris will have better weather. It has been a lot more convenient living in Differdange near campus, and i have already been able to hang out more with my friends and get to know more people. Although its been hard to try and fit in time to get to know my new family because of my homework, mandatory lectures and field trips, Miami has been keeping us busy. The one geography class we have a lot of homework every night, but the other classes aren't too bad. I've been busy also trying to plan all our weekend trips, so far our plan is Paris and Bruges this weekend, Spain the next, Munich and Switzerland, then for our long weekend some of us are flying to Italy and doing Rome, Florence and Venice. Suggestion for places to go at these places? For Spain we have some time off so we are looking into getting a beach house in a small town outside Barcelona, called Miami Playa. A lot of planning, but all very worth it, i'm getting very excited for our next weekend trip and to Paris! I guess i should study up my french, hopefully some phrases will come back from high school french

avoir!