We gonna party like it's your birthday

Now that I think about it, Berlin was probably one of my favorite places I visited on my whirl-wind tour of Europe.  Arriving in Germany felt very strange, but by the end of my stay in Berlin a lot of my skepticisms and stigmas of Germany had disappeared.  Germany is extremely apologetic of its Nazi and Berlin is a tribute to this with many Holocaust memorials and the overall feeling of moving forward past its communist and Nazi history.

Anyway, now to what I actually did in Berlin.  Berlin is SO cool.  Because of all the bombings in went through during WWII, it is a completely new and modern city and the buildings are AWESOME (especially the main train station, SO COOL).  We took a train to Berlin from Prague which was a great experience because we hand an entire compartment (yes, it's like Harry Potter and there are compartments) and stretched out to take a lovely nap.  We spent our first day walking around the city and just getting the vibe of Berlin.  We went to a Shul that was destroyed during WWII, which actually had a really interesting exhibit about Jews in Germany pre-Nazi time and stopped at Berlin's Museum Island (self-explanatory what it is).  We saw the Reichstag (molto bello!).  What's cool about the Reichstag is you can see through the ceiling of the main hall where Berlin's parliament meets because the idea is government should be open and transparent to the people.  Unfortunately you needed a reservation and we didn't get to go in.  So instead we spent some time hanging out in the sun on the gorgeous open field in front of it, during which Miriam wrapped her scarf around her head to keep her from blowing all over the place, and looked like a married Orthodox woman (mazel tov!)  Afterwards, we headed to the East Side Gallery, which is a giant section of the Berlin Wall that is covered in all different paintings representing peace, freedom, and tolerance.

East Side Gallery

Lookin fine

Reichstag

That night, Miriam and I went on a pub crawl to celebrate my 21st birthday (Ah.  Weird.  I'm old), despite the fact we were about to fall over from exhaustion.  We started at this awesome bar that was outside and sort of looked like an abandoned junk yard but swap out the junk for Christmas lights and cool sculptures.  The pub crawl was lots of fun, and we met some Estonian and Israeli (yay, I missed Israelis) guys and then once it hit midnight and I took my first "legal" shot, we left and went to bed, because we are lame.  Yay for turning 21!

We spent the day of my birthday on the Free New Europe tour of Berlin (seriously, they should be me for all the good things I'm saying about them) and it was awesome!!! We saw the Jewish Holocaust monument, which was interesting and consisted of a lot of large stone blocks...

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

We also saw a lot of war buildings, including the old Nazi airforce headquarters.  While leaning against this building listening to my tour guide tell us about it, I realized that simply by the act of me leaning against the building Hitler lost and would do some not so nice things upon seeing me do this.  We also stood on the ground over where Hitler killed himself.  Essentially I spent my birthday learning about Nazis and Communism, which was really interesting despite the depressing-ness factor.  After the tour we went to the Topography of Terror museum, which explains the inner workings of the Nazi party, and is actually really cool and really well done.  We finished off the day with a lovely birthday dinner, and then preceded to pass out because we were EXHAUSTED and to wake up early for our flight back to Italy!  

It was awesome traveling throughout Europe for spring break, but I was also so happy to return to Florence, mainly because I missed Italian food, but also I could not have been more exhausted after seeing 4 incredible cities in 10 days.  Lesson learned: traveling=tiring.  

Ciao ciao!

La Vie Boheme

So, I am officially a horrible blogger because I am about 5 weeks behind and am leaving Europe in exactly 11 days (AHHHHHH).  Miriam and I leave for Amsterdam tomorrow, and then I have a lovely week in Florence before heading home :)  I've been mentally blogging, so that sort of counts.  Anyway, I'm going to pick up where I left off so here's a little bit about my adventures in Prague (which is located in what was Bohemia, hence the title of this post).

Prague was nothing like I expected it to be.  People kept telling me how gorgeous it is, but I basically thought nothing of it.  However, Prague is actually incredibly gorgeous and picturesque.  Seriously, Prague IS Epcot and what every one pictures a European city to look like, hence why they shot EuroTrip there.

Prague is also where we discovered Free New Europe tours, which are exactly what they sounds like and they are AWESOME.  They tell you so much about the city and the guides are amazing (they even do tours in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv). So, in the morning after seeing the famous astrological clock, we headed out on one of their tours of Prague and it was AWESOME.  We saw everything there was to see in Prague, AND stopped at Bohemia Bagels for...BAGELS!!! Although, they were not the same as home it was still good to have a bagel for the first time in 3 months.  I didn't know much about the history of Prague before, but I got rundown in about 2 hours.  After the tour, Miriam and I went to the Jewish quarter to see all the different synagogues there, including the oldest active synagogue in Europe. We also saw the Holocaust Memorial there which includes thousands of names written all over the walls of the shul, and an exhibit of children's art made in a nearby ghetto that there teacher was able to save during the war.  Afterwards, we went to the communism museum and then headed to relax before dinner.  Dinner was really cool.  My friend who studied in Prague last year told us about this rooftop restaurant that had an INCREDIBLE view of Prague from the main square, so we headed over there for dinner and had a romantic rooftop dinner for two.  I also tried Austrian beer, which was delicious, and that's saying a lot, because I don't generally call beer delicious.

The next day I did a little exploring of some more churches and shuls and then Miriam and I went on a tour of the Prague Castle.  The views from the castle were beautiful and the castle is HUGEEEEE.  We also saw a church where the monks used to brew beer, as well as an old jail the Nazis and Communists used to torture people in...good times.  After the tour we saw the John Lennon wall and Charles Bridge.  Then we got dinner, napped, and went to Prague's 5 story club, which was actually a joke.  It was pretty much filled with a bunch of teenagers and had a floor called "black music".  It was an experience to say the least.  We left on the earlier side because we had an early train (yes, train, not plane) to Berlin!!

I forgot...Prague is also home to the fried cheese sandwich which is DELICIOUS.  It's like a flat mozzarella stick stuck between bread and you're supposed to put mayonnaise on it, but I used ketchup because clearly I don't eat mayonnaise.  However, the fried-cheese-sandwich-lady felt the need to very abrasively point out where the mayonnaise/ketchup was.  Czech people aren't quite as nice as Italians.

People taking pictures of the Astrological Clock...way more exciting than the actual clock.

View from our romantic dinner.

Je suis la jeune fille

Bonjour mes amies!!!  Paris etait tres belle et incroyable.  J'adore Paris!!!  Je ne voulais pas partir.

Ok back to English, so you can actually understand me. I don't even know where to start with Paris.  I have wanted to visit Paris probably since the first day of 6th grade when I had my first French class (which was during 4th period for those of you who would really like me to be specific).  If I could have studied abroad here, I would have, so to say I had high expectations for Paris is the understatement of the year.  Luckily, the City of Lights went above and beyond my expectations.  And, I got to use my French, which was so fun.

Miriam and I stayed at a great hostel in the Bastille district right near about 5 different bakeries just waiting for us to eat every single one of their pastries.  As soon as we were settled we walked across the street, and got crepes (which I ordered for us in pretty good French if I do say so myself).  I had a banana and nutella crepe and it was pretty much one of the greatest things I've ever eaten.  The crepes there are just so much better than anywhere else, the actual crepe is just light and slightly crusty and SO FREAKIN GOOD.  After our tres delicieux crepes, we hopped on the metro (which is so fast and goes everywhere unlike the DC metro) and headed over to Musée d'Orsay to see all the beautiful, colorful Impressionist art that I have been dying to see.  It was awesome to see all these paintings I learned about when I was little (especially the Monet picnics with all the big dresses because I was in love with them when I was little).  After, we headed over to the Louvre, at which point I started to freak out because I was actually standing in front of the Louvre (!!!) and couldn't quite comprehend that this was real life (this was basically the overall theme of Paris, utter shock that I was actually in Paris).  We didn't actually go inside of the Louvre, because we didn't feel like waiting online and we heard the Mona Lisa wasn't actually that exciting and its behind glass, so don't judge me.  We walked through Jardins des Tuilleries and stopped for bread and cheese and got FREE WATER.  The water was honestly the best part because you can never NEVER get free water in Italy (or anywhere else in Europe) so I was just a tad bit excited.  We roamed around just enjoying Paris for a little while (and saw our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower on the skyline AHHHHH) and then headed back to our hostel.  We had yummy French food for dinner, including amazing wine and creme brulee!!! Perfect first day in Paris :)

The next day was jam packed with all of the Paris must-sees.  We hit le Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and the Longchamp store, because yes, that is a Paris must see.  The Eiffel Tower is so cool.  I was kind of nervous I'd be disappointed after hearing about it for so long, but it did not at all disappoint...I loved it.  Miriam and I took a thousand pictures in front of it before actually climbing it.  After we climbed it we got cheese and each got our own baguette and went and sat in the gardens around the Eiffel Tower and ate lunch.  We felt so Parisian (and the bread was so freakin delicious) and just loved sitting and absorbing Paris.  After Notre Dame (where we kind of just joined a tour group for a little while), we played in a park, and that sat at a cafe on the Seine, enjoying the views and the atmosphere.  Afterwards, on our search for a metro, we stumbled on the French Holocaust memorial, so we went in there for a little while.  We wandered down Champs Elysees before picking up super cute (and so-much-cheaper-than-in-America) bags at Longchamp.  For dinner we ate at the cafe next to our hotel during which I ran across the street to the supermarket to pick up a 5 euro bottle of wine for our rendez-vous at the Eiffel Tower later.

The Eiffel Tower at night is actually one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.  We got there and took another million pictures and then plopped down in the grass and just stared at the sparkly tower.  with our delicious (and super cheap!) wine...we even had music, but then my phone died so that failed.  It was another one of those surreal moments where I couldn't believe I was there and just relaxing in front of the Eiffel Tower.  It was a great way to spend the night and I even got to argue in French with some annoying guys selling mini Eiffel tower keychains because he wouldn't leave us alone.  Parfait!

The next day was Versailles day!!!  Wooooo!  Versailles is really as gigantic as they say it is, who knew?  To be honest, though I was a little disappointed.  The palace was beautiful, but it was also filled with way too many tourists which made seeing everything a)annoying and b) really difficult (good thing I have no issues with pushing people).  The gardens were gorgeous and GI-FREAKING-GANTIC.  Unfortunately, they fountains weren't running and most of the flowers hadn't been planted, but we got the basic gist.  After Versailles, I went and explored Paris on my own for a little and saw the Pompidou Center.  It's a really cool, modern building with lots of colors on the outside and I had learned about when I was probably about 12, and wanted to see it in person.  It was awesome and had a lot of cool stuff near it.  I also went down to an area where lots of artisans make clothes, furniture, etc.  Finally, I went back to meet up with Miriam and we headed to the airport for our flight.

Getting to the airport was an adventure in itself, because we took the metro system during rush hour and had our suitcase to drag around (not fun in the Paris metro--they don't have any elevators/escalators.  I would love to know how a person in a wheelchair gets around there).  So after being shoved and pushed through the metro system, we finally made it to the Charles de Gaulle, only to not be able to get out of the metro because we had the wrong ticket.  We told the guy working there who started to go through the turnstile, so we just followed another person through and quickly walked away before the guy noticed.  Again, we are so bad ass.  We flew an airline called SmartWings, which we were very happy to find actually existed, and then we were off to Prague!

Sidenote: Parisians are not nearly as mean as everyone says they are. They were actually really nice.

Vamos a la playa, a mi me gusta bailar

So before I tell you about my adventures in Barcelona (said with an accent, and it sounds even better when you say it like Italians do-Barchelona...love it), I just wanted to say that spring break was so great!!Miriam and I went to...brace yourselves...Barcelona, Paris, Prague, and Berlin. Don't ask me to pick a favorite...I can't...they are all way too different to even compare. Overall spring break, was an incredible learning experience on so many levels. Not only did I learn a lot about the places I was in, particularly Prague and Berlin, but I also learned that traveling is actually one of the MOST exhausting activites, you don't need a lot of people around you to have a good time, and European metro systems really need to get more stairs, particularly in Paris. Anywaaaaaay, here comes the epic story of my own personal Eurotrip...


Miriam and I woke up bright and early Friday morning for our 8 am flight to Barca from Pisa. We finally made it on to the plane (after dumping some of my toiletries, and rearranging our bags so we didn't have to pay 80 EUROS (20 per kg you're over) for heavy bag fees. Well, we sat next to a bunch of guys who were going to Barcelona for their friend's bachelor party. They all had matching shirts counting down to the wedding (which was on my birthday!) and were just generally rowdy and bachelor party-like. They were awesome. They had a toy trumpet, inappropriate hats,silly wigs, and were ready to have a good time. The guy we were sitting next to asked us to sign his shirt. I loved them, despite the fact it was 8 am and we'd been up since approxiamately 5 am.

 We landed in Barcelona and headed to our hostel. On the way we met up with our friend who used to go to UMD and is studying abroad in Barcelona, Alex. She was our official tour guide for the day and was absolutely AWESOME! Seriously, she knows everything little thing you could possibly want to know about Barca. We got lunch and then headed up to Mount Juic to see the Olympic Stadium and other stuff up there andddddd to meet up with KEREN AND VERED (can you tell I was just a little bit excited?) We took the funicular, yes that's what it's called, which is basically the same as the metro but it goes up a hill, and it's just fun to say. We walked around Mt. Juic for a little and then all of the sudden I hear "turn around", and Keren is standing behind me. We hugged for too long, and I was just unbelievably happy to see her. Alex showed us around the Olympic Park and then Keren and Vered left to lay down and Miriam, Alex and I did some more touring. She took us to Las Ramblas, a famous street in Barcelona which has the BEST market ever and we got such delicious smoothies. I got a cactus fruit smoothie, mostly because it was bright pink and I could not resist. Then we went down to the BEACH and stuck our feet in the freezing cold water.  From the beach, we did more walking around and touring, and then went to the Magic Fountains (like the ice cream place in Summit, but not really).  I cannot even describe how cool these fountains are...the closest I can get is that they are like Disney World.  They're set to music and the lighting changes and its just incredible.  Miriam, Alex, and I sat there and stared in silence and happiness.  It was one of those moments where I realized how great my life is and how lucky I am to be galavanting all over Europe.

After the fountains, it was back to the hostel to get Keren and Vered and then all of us went to dinner at the oh so normal time of 10 30 PM, so weird.  We ate dinner at a restaurant on the beach that had delicious sangria and then stayed there until about 2 (which is early for Barcelona).  We met yet another bachelor party, and they all wore matching clothes too, and they were just as nuts as the one on the plane.  

The next morning Miriam and I went back to the market on Las Ramblas for more smoothies, followed by Starbucks :).  Then we became stupid tourists, and this is actually painful for me to admit, but we got on one of those city touring busses, which ended up being great because we had such limited time in Barcelona.  We saw all of the Gaudi buildings, which were SO COOL.  We started off at La Sagrada Familia, his church that has been under construction for 150 years and will not be finished for another 10-20 years.  We didn't go inside, but the outside was so gorgeous.  It was so different than we have been seeing and was great to see another type of architecture.  From there we went to Park Guell, which is the COOLEST place ever.  The tile work is amazing and I fully intend to have my kitchen tile look like that in 20 years.  The park was teaming with people, and I honestly could have spent all day there exploring. We saw a really cool band there, but finally tore ourselves away to continue our tour.  After lunch, we started going up to Mt. Tibidabo, of "Friends" fame, but that failed, so we continued our Gaudi tour. We went to Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, where we actually went inside.  The inside was so cool, because it continued the curvy lines that are so characteristic of his style.  We got to see a bunch of other stuff from the bus as well.  

After Casa Batllo we went back to the hostel to lay down for a while.  Keren and I got some much needed catch up time and somehow managed to condense the last 2 1/2 months of our lives into a 45 minute conversation.   I went to the fountains and dinner with Keren and Vered.  The fountains were awesome again, and this time there was a Disney medley, which obviously made my day.  Then we went out for tapas and Miriam met us at the restaurant.  The food was delicious and it was so great to spend time with them.  I said goodbye to Keren and Vered, which was hard, and then went to bed because Miriam and I had an 8 am flight to PARIS!!!!!  

Barcelona is an incredible city and so different from Florence.  After Rome, I was convinced I didn't like big cities, which freaked me out because I love New York, but Barcelona convinced me of the opposite.  Basically, Rome is just way overrated.  Barcelona is so big and has so much life, but I really don't think I could handle the 10 30 dinners and staying out till 6 am on a daily basis.  However, I definitely want to go back as soon as possible and stare at Gaudi architecture all day long.  

We Open in Venice, then on to Verona

Well, I didn't actually go on to Verona, but Kiss me Kate is a great show.

Venice is freakin awesome. Not only is it one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, but it's just really really cool. I mean it's streets are literally water, which you can't quite conceptualize until you've actually seen it in person. It was such a nice, relaxing weekend after a very crazy week and the school took us, so it was great to see people I hadnt really hung out with all week.

We left for Venice on Friday morning by bus and then took a boat over to the actual city, because they obviously don't use cars there. Our hotel rooms were obviously not ready, because that would make our lives way too easy, but we were really lucky to be staying in the actual city and not on the mainland. We got lunch and explored for a little while before starting our touring for the day. That day our teachers showed us Piazza San Marco and the cathedral of San Marco, as well as the Doge's Palace. The Piazza did not have nearly as many pigeons as everyone said (lame), although there were people who were letting the pigeons climb all over them...ew. The Cathedral was absolutely stunning, mostly because instead of being covered in frescos, its covered entirely in mosaics which is beautiful as well as completely mind blogging, because I would like to meet the people who had the patience to cover a GIGANTIC church with tiles the size of my thumb nail. They deserve a medal, or a cookie, whichever they want. The Doge's Palace, although beautiful, was pretty boring, mostly because all we wanted to do was be outside because it was BEAUTIFUL out. After the day of touring I went to dinner with a bunch of girls from my program at a cute little restaurant our professor recommended. Navigating the streets of Venice was interesting, but we somehow managed to not get lost among all the tiny little streets, bridges, and canals. Go us.

The next day, Miriam and I along with our friends Joanna, Stacey, Beth, and Lucy decided to ditch school and all the art they were going to look at because we decided that seeing the islands of Murano and Burano would be way more fun/beneficial to our travel experience then looking at yet another piece of Renaissance art (Mom, you can pretend I didn't say that, Renaissance art is great!) And it was SUCH a good decision! Not only are the two islands gorgeous, but we got to experience more Venice because we were on the water busses all day (SO FUN! and way cheaper than a gondola, where they don't even sing to you when you take one). Getting onto the busses though was quite interesting, mostly because Italians just kind of push and push instead being at all organized. This meant that all of us except Joanna, who, typical to her Southern nature, is not very good at pushing, got on the boat. We were yelling her name and encouraging her to push, and luckily she got a little burst of Northern/Italian-ness and pushed her way onto the boat.


Once we were all safely on the boat we headed to Murano, where they are famous for their blown glass. We watched some guy actually making the glass, which was SO COOL and I kind of wish I could do it, but me+hot temperatures+breakable materials+heavy objects=disaster and lots of burns and broken bones. Then we shopped our little hearts out and explored Murano, which is covered entirely in glass shops. We stopped for lunch and then headed over to the STUNNING island of Burano. Burano is the most colorful place I have ever been. Every building there is painted some beautiful, bright, happy color, and the white houses just look out of place. Burano is also famous for its homemade lace, which was beautiful. We spent our time on Burano relaxing by the dock and taking funny pictures, and mostly just admiring the stunning beauty of the island. It's definitely one of my favorite places I've visited so far. After Burano, we headed back to the main island of Venice to relax and get dinner, which was an adventure in itself. We really wanted pizza for dinner, so we went to the restaurant school recommended that supposedly had pizza...well, it didn't. So, after we finished looking at the menu we literally got up and ran out the door. Then we spent another 15 minutes looking for the right restaurant, until finally we had pizza sitting in front of us around 10 30 PM. Which was delicious, and totally worth it.

Sunday, we went with school to visit the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which is a collection of modern art. It was Peggy's personal collection, although now it is part of the Guggenheim collection. Buuuut, fun fact: because it was originally her personal collection, Peggy Guggenheim was a bit skanky and used to sleep with all the artists to get good prices on the paintings, including her daughter's husband (the daughter committed suicide when she found out). So, if you're looking to get cheap, priceless works of art, do what she did, it seemed to work out pretty well for her. Or, just get really rich and then you won't have any issues. The museum was cool and had amazing views of Canal Grande. After the museum we laid by the water and then got lunch and headed back to Firenze. Upon arriving in Firenze Miriam and I sprinted, like actually sprinted with all our stuff, back to our apartment because we thought a)our bladders we're going to burst or b)we would pee in our pants. We ended stopping at a bar to use the bathroom because we simply could not make it home. We had to buy coffees after this, but it was the best coffee ever (Actually it was gross, but whatever) because I had dry pants and an intact bladder.

Moral of the story: pee before you get on the bus and go visit Venice because it is actually incredible (I never wanted to leave!!!).

Ciao!

We are family...

So on Saturday, after lots of flight complications and lost baggage the Touger family finally arrived in Firenze. I met them at their apartment that was literally in Piazza Santa Croce and it was so great/weird to see them here in Italy. We were all very happy to see each other, and although she denies it, I’m pretty sure my mom was more excited to be back in Florence than to see me ☺ We went dinner pretty much as soon as they were settled and I think this was the first time I’ve ever seen my dad drink wine for anything other than a religious occasion. After dinner we got yummy gelato and then I took Ben to Kikuya where we met up with Jess and another girl from my high school.

Sunday was rainy and gross—actually the whole week was, my dad was not happy. We walked around a little bit and went to lunch (my dad had his first taste of Italian chocolate and LOVED it, obviously we’re related) and then went to the Palazzo Vecchio, the old city hall of Florence and a former Medici residence (seriously, is there a place in this city that the Medici didn’t live in?). The palace has a special exhibit going on now featuring a skull encrusted in lots of shiny shiny diamonds. It was so sparkly and wonderful. The exhibit is entitle For the Love of Gd, although I need to do more research into what it’s supposed to mean because it didn’t really tell you. Either way there were lots of diamonds. It was great. After the shiny skull we toured the rest of the palace’s art collection. If you ever want to see someone truly bored, bring my brother to an art museum and see what happens. It’s hysterical. Except for when he decides to take it out on me by hitting me with his broken umbrella. Afterwards we just hung out and relaxed and then went to a late dinner. We went to a really yummy restaurant on Piazza Santa Croce, and even though the food was really good, the owner was a complete foodie and yelled at my brother for putting Parmesan cheese on his pasta because it had mushrooms on it. He also definitely judged us for having white wine instead of red. After dinner, I hung out for a little while and then went back to my apartment to “study” for my midterm the next day.

Monday I took my joke of a Mafia midterm and then met my family at their apartment and waited for them to get ready…which took about 5 years thanks to my incredibly slow moving brother. The rain held up on Monday so we walked around the city and then my mom went on search for a place for my parents to change their money. Meanwhile, my brother, my dad, and I sat in front of the Duomo and I just stared at my brother being completely absurd. Finally, we climbed the Duomo and saw the beautiful view at the top. After the Duomo we went and saw my mom’s old house and then chilled out till dinner. I took my parents to a place in a piazza that coincidently my mom used to eat in all the time. The food was delicious and Ben ordered his first legal beer, he was very excited. He also managed to drop his cheesy pasta into my wine…gross. Watching my dad eat Italian food is so funny. I have never seen him get so excited over food before. Just shows how delicious it is.


Tuesday I took a midterm and then met my family for shopping day! It was a very successful shopping day complete with both leather and jewelry! Thanks parents!! For dinner that night my parents had gone to the San’Ambrogio food market and picked up lots of yummy fresh food. It was great to have a “home cooked” meal! We had fresh gnocchi, tagliatelle, ravioli with mozzarella, bread, and delicious wine. It was so great! I took my brother to a bar that night, and then went to sleep!

Wednesday I actually went to my classes and then met up with my family to go to the Natural History Museum and the costume gallery. The museum had these really cool, really old, and really realistic wax models of the human body. The costume gallery in the Pitti Palace was beautiful. I wanted approximately half of all the stuff I saw in there, not that I have any place to wear 1950s gowns. That night my fabulous parents took me, Miriam, Ali, Negrin, and Jordan (and Ben too, because, you know, he needs to eat) to La Giostra (also known as the best restaurant in the whole wide world). It was so fun to have my family and friends all together and have the best food in the whole world. A big dessert sampler came and we literally finished it .4 seconds. Then my brother, dad, and the two boys preceded to see who could drink the most free limoncello. I would seriously love to know what came over my dad on this vacation that compelled him to drink. After La Giostra, we joined the rest of Florence to celebrate Italy’s 150th birthday. There were great fireworks, although Italy is not as safe as the US and got firework dust in our eyes. Ouch. But fun night overall.

act like a walrus Dad!

Thursday was well, rain-filled. I skipped class (gasp!) to go to Lucca, a small Tuscan village, with my family. It was awesome to see all the parades and stuff they had going on for Italy’s 150th anniversary, however, it was also really really rainy. It literally did not stop all day long, which meant lots of waiting around for it to stop down pouring. However, the food was 1000 times better than the weather. We ate a delicious restaurant, where I had spaghetti with garlic, oil, and chili flakes (SO GOOD and so easy) and my dad and my brother each got this eggplant tomato sauce that is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Sorry, mom, don’t remember what you ate. Then we climbed one of Lucca’s towers and headed home. That night we went to Gato for dinner along with Miriam, and introduced my family to the best balsamic vinegar in the whole world. It was St. Patrick’s Day that day so Miriam, my brother, and I met up with some friends to celebrate. The next morning I left for Venice, so I stopped by quickly to say goodbye to my parents and then headed for Venezia!

It was such a great week with my family and I am SO happy they got to come see my life here! Thanks for visiting! (although it sounds like you guys were way more upset about leaving the food than leaving me...rude.)

When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie...that's amore

Was going to have to use that title eventually...

Hello again friends!!! My papers are officially DONE which means a) spring break is here and I’m seeing the lovely Keren Shpigel TOMORROW and b) you all have the lovely privilege of reading about my la dolce vita. But seriously, I’m really living the sweet life. I had midterms that week, but I’ve learned when you’re abroad that pretty much doesn’t mean anything and I think I studied for a total of maybe 2 hours for each test…abroad college is great. Here's a brief(ish) run down of the week before my family got here and hopefully I'll post about their visit in a little bit. Tomorrow morning (literally morning as in 5 AM) I leave for spring break which includes Barcelona, PARIS!!!!!!!!! (AHHHHHH), Prague, and then I am turning 21 in Berlin.  Never in my life did I think I'd be spending my 21st in Berlin, but hey, I'll take it.

Monday afternoon I went with Miriam and Negrin to a park near Piazza Independenza and we, and by we I mean Negrin and I, kicked a soccer ball. Keep in mind I was wearing a leather jacket and boots…great soccer playing outfit. I even headed the ball…I’m gonna be the next Mia Hamm. That night we had a lovely dinner with Stacey and Joanna and their friend from home and I had my first Italian garlic bread. It was extra garlic-y and delicious. The next day Miriam and I went to apperitivo after class and felt really grown up having our pre dinner drinks. After we went to dinner with some girls on our program from UMD, and it was great to just have a night talking about UMD and catching up. The next day AIFS organized a pizza making class and OH MY GD…seriously some of the best pizza I’ve had…and I made it. I put peppers on my pizza which was very exciting because they NEVER have peppers here. Afterwards we went to Joshua Tree, where Negrin and Doug DJed for the night. Thursday I literally cannot remember what I did so it must not have been that exciting. Friday I sat around and did some work on my papers and then went to Chabad with Negrin. Later that night I met up with Jess and her roommates and we had an awesome night at the club Full Up…complete with a bongo player accompanying the DJ. Jess’s roomates’ friend from home was visiting that night from Rome and he was too funny. He constantly spoke Italian and said Santa Croce strangely and then proceeded to call the Duomo the Dwarma. Jess and I also randomly ran into a girl from our high school that night about 5 different times, and by 5 I mean twice, but still, random. We finished the night at the Secret Bakery with delicious fresh baked pastries!! The next day I was supposed to do work but I pretty much spent the day in bed waiting for my family to get here!

papers are dumb.

But, really.  More posts when my stupid papers are done.  

But life is great.  Having my family here was wonderful and I fell in love with Venice this weekend.  Seriously...it's great.  Everyone should go.  Especially to Burano.  

I'm officially done procrastinating

....maybe. 

Lean with it, rock with it

Ok, I'm sorry for the lack of timeliness in posts, I'm the worst.  So I'm gonna give you a quick run down of my life, from about a week ago.

It was a fun week, even though I've started to have to pretend to do work because midterms and term papers apparently actually exist in Florence, who knew?  They pretty much suck, because no one wants to take time away from doing things around Firenze, especially because it is FINALLY getting (sort of) warm outside (meaning when you're in the sun it's great, in the shade, not so much).

 On Tuesday, Miriam and I went to this really cool bead store near our school to explore a little bit, and then headed over to the Pitti Palace to go through one of the 5 million museums housed there (ok, it's more like 8 or something like that, but whatever).  Miriam and I just went through the basic art collection, which is cool because it's set up in the rooms where the Medicis used to live in the palace, so it was kind of a double tour.  There was A LOT of art in there, seriously there were maybe two blank spots on the wall.  My favorite room documented the life of Hercules, which is way more graphic than Disney makes it seem.  That night, I had dinner with Jess and we got super yummy gelato afterwards!

Wednesday was fun!  Joanna, Beth, and I changed it up and got lunch at a place other than GustaPanini, and it was yummmmmmy...great bread, tomato, mozzarella, and lots of oregano...mmm!  Miriam's parents were here for the week, so they took a bunch of us to La Giostra for dinner (thanks again!!).  I cannot even begin to describe how delicious the food is here.  Everything is so fresh and so yummy, and it is probably one of the best places to eat here.  I got ravioli with zucchini blossoms and it was delicious.  The guy who owns the place has silver bracelets on both arms up to his elbows (how do you sleep like that? It can't be comfortable) and 4 giant rings on each hand.  He's so hippy dippy, which is funny because of the reputation of the restaurant.  Anyway, he was great because Negrin's boss knows him, and made sure we had a great meal.  Afterwards, Miriam, Negrin, Jordan, and I went to Joshua Tree and hung out for the night!  Paulo, the manager, tried to get me to sign up to DJ one night.  I told him he was crazy.

Thursday, I went to the Uffizi with my friend (and future roommate!) Ali.  The building itself was gorgeous, and obviously, so was the artwork.  It was really cool to see the Birth of Venus and Primavera up close, both paintings are STUNNING.  After, Ali and I had fun in the gift shop and read children's books about art.  They are surprisingly informative.  Brought me back to art appreciation class from elementary school...look how far I've come.  Thursday night was another delicious dinner with Miriam's parents, this time at Il Gato, which has the most heavenly balsamic vinegar ever (thanks!)  I got yummy spaghetti with pesto sauce, tomatoes, and tons of parmesan, YUM.

Friday, my friend Emily and I went to the central market, which is really cool!!!  There is so much fresh food there, it was hard to pick what to eat!  We got some yummy sandwiches and then went shopping for a little bit.  That night, the two of us went to services at the Florence Synagogue, which is stare-with-your-mouth-open-for-too-long beautiful.  Seriously, services weren't that great, but the setting made up for it.  The women's section wasn't so excluded, but it was weird to hear a Kabbalat Shabbat service with  pretty much no singing.  I don't know if it's something I'll do all the time, but it was really cool to see the building.  After, we ate at Chabad, and it was so nice to have CHALLAH!!!  We met these people from Teaneck (obviously) and ran in to my camp friend because otherwise it simply would not be a Jewish function.  Emily and I had a sleepover at her place that night because my apartment was empty and I didn't want to sleep alone and I had to be at the train station bright and early the next morning.

Saturday was great, although not quite as planned.  I was supposed to go to Venice for Carnivale with my friends Sarah, Melissa, and Marissa, but for some reason we didn't think that the rest of the world would want to do this and the train was sold out.  Probably, one of my dumber moments here.  So, instead we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  Not quite Carnivale, but still fun.  It only took us an hour to get there by train, and then we stopped for lunch (complete with a crepe!) before heading over to the Tower.  Pisa is cute, but the tower is pretty much the only thing to do in Pisa.  The Tower was SO COOL!!  IT ACTUALLY LEANS!! Which sounds stupid, but after seeing pictures your whole life, when you get there it's cool to see that it really does exist and isn't some photography trick.  The Tower is really pretty and we were lucky to be there on a beautiful day to take the obligatory pushing/kicking/leaning on the Tower pictures.  It was great.  We snapped a few pictures and then headed back to the train, because there really is nothing else to do there.  We could've climbed the tower, but it was 15 euro, and Pisa doesn't have much of a view, plus it looked a little creepy.  That night it was Beth's 21st birthday, and even though those don't matter here, they're still fun to celebrate!

Sunday it was BEAUTIFUL out, so I just spent a lot of time walking around.  I walked up to this park on the outskirts of the city center and found a cool market.  I got some sort of spicy cheese and it was delicious.  They had all kinds of stuff there, including vintage bags, so good thing I didn't have a lot of cash on me.  Miriam and I ordered in that night (I think we found one of five places in Florence that does it, plus it takes our meal tickets, win!).  Buuuut, the food wasn't that great, but we stayed in our sweats, which is really all that matters.

More updates soon...plus my family gets here today, yay!!!!

Ciao, belli!!!

Roman Holiday

Big.

Rome is really, really big.  When I got there, I kind of felt like Coming from Firenze, which is incredibly walkable and small, I was overwhelmed by the size of Rome from the second they handed us the map.  I was shocked at how overwhelmed I was by the size considering I've grown up with New York City, but the City is a grid and I've grown really used to it, so Rome was a whole new thing.  However, besides being absurdly huge, Rome is pretty cool.

Roma is really different than Firenze (and being there made me so happy I'm studying here instead of there) because the contrast between old and new is so apparent there.  In Florence, the new stuff seems to blend in, while in Rome, you're walking down a modern street and all of the sudden it's, "oh hey, there's the Colosseum!" It's also a lot more open and spread out than Florence, which meant I spent my weekend taking cabs or metros between the main city and my hotel (which was on the outskirts in the middle of nowhere, and pretty much sucked all around because it smelled like smoke and the concierge was mean and almost lost our key, rude).

Anyway, we left for Rome at 8 am on Thursday, which meant I had to leave the house at 7 30, which meant I woke up at 7.  Hello, high school zombie-faced me.  It was great, and a wonderful reminder that I am so glad I don't have to wake up that early anymore.  The bus ride to Rome was bellisima; Umbria (where Rome is located) is green and gorgeous, your stereotypical Italian countryside.  Once we got to Rome we got lunch, and sat around and did nothing, because the hotel screwed up and didn't have our rooms ready, but our tours didn't start till 2.

Finally, it was touring time.  The tours were led by teachers from our school, who all magically knew everything and anything about Rome and every little building and art piece in it.  I was amazed.  Miriam and I were in a group with a bunch of our friends led by her painting teacher Franz, he's awesome.  He also crosses streets whenever he wants, whether cars are coming or not, which is not so convenient (or safe) when you have 25 people following you on walking tours.  Only a few near death experiences though.  That day we saw the Pantheon, and I was in awe of its sheer size.  Miriam captured the moment...

Yes, that was my actual face when I walked into the building.  I was most excited about seeing all the ancient Roman buildings and ruins because I am a dork and a)love history and b)love mythology, so the Pantheon was awesome (although its a church now like everything else in Rome).  We also saw the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (where we threw in the obligatory coin, although I just looked up and apparently you're supposed to throw in 2 or 3...oops.  Fun Fact: approx 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain PER DAY...the money goes towards the poor...thanks wikipedia!)  We also saw a TON of churches, whose names I can't remember, but they were pretty cool.  That night I saw my friend Ben from high school for dinner, and it was so great to catch up.  From dinner, I met up with my UMD friends from my program and we went out with a bunch of UMD kids who are studying in Rome.  It was so much fun to be with a bunch of Maryland people and was totally worth the late night even though we had to be at approxiamately 7 30 am the next morning.

Friday was Vatican Day.  Seriously, I think saw every single piece of artwork in the Vatican collection.  It was really cool, and the Vatican is beautiful.  The Sistine Chapel (which the signs keep telling you is close, but actually you still have another 2 hours of touring to go before getting there) is really amazing, although really different than what I expected.  Each individual scene is much bigger than in pictures and the whole thing is not as tiny and cramped as I thought it would be.  From the Vatican Museum we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and by this point I had been on my feet for about 4 hours and was tired, hungry, and my feet HURT (like wearing my 4 inch heels for 4 hours hurts, it sucked).  My friend Stacey took a great picture of me that entirely accurately describes my mood

St. Peter's was stunning though and GIGANTIC.  I've never seen such a big church, and at this point I've seen a lot of churches.  There's statue of a saint in the church that Catholics rub the foot of for good luck and obviously I thought of Testudo and his nose :)  From St. Peter's, Miriam and I got lunch with two of our roommates and then went back to the hotel to nap.  After our nap, Miram and I went with our friends Sarah, Sarah, and Ali (who are all in SDT with me) to meet up with our friend Laura who's studying in Rome and is also in SDT.  It was great to have dinner with them and we went to this amazing place called Tony's (where every single abroad student was eating that night...I saw two people from my high school).  The food was honestly some of the best I've had since I've been here.  You should all go and order their bruschetta and their penne alla vodka, which isn't technically an Italian dish, but they put the American versions to shame.  And we got free dessert :)  We were all stuffed and exhausted afterwards so we went home and went to bed.

Saturday was by far the best day of the trip because we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and they were GREAT.  It was so nice to have a break from all the churches and learn about another part of Rome's history.  The Colosseum was freakin awesome...although really cold...but it was so cool to see where all the gladiator battles occurred and to just be standing in such an old structure.  We spent a little while there, and then three of my friends and I got lost.  Our group went one way and we went the other.  However, Miriam called me and informed that Franz (our guide) no longer felt like waiting for us.  Luckily we found another group to take us to our next stop (where we saw the horned Moses) and we found our group again.  Thanks for waiting Franz.  Although, because we got to the Moses church (yes, I just said that) early, we got to hear this choir singing and they sounded gorgeous.  The acoustics in the church were perfect and their voices just soared through the air, it was really awesome.  Afterwards, we went to the Roman Forum to see those ruins. SO COOL!  We saw Caesar's grave and all these old temples and it was just great.  I loved it.  The rest of the day involved lunch and more touring, but Miriam and I were tired and "sneakily" ditched our tour (we are the least bad ass people ever) to take a nap.

That night we went to the Spanish steps to see them at night and then met friends at a restaurant for dinner.  From dinner, we went to the Trevi Fountain to see it all lit up, it's pretty :)  Then we went to a place called Scholar's Pub, an Irish Pub where I watched my first ever rugby game...what a violent sport, they weren't kidding when they said there were no rules.  We made friends with these older couples from Wales who were in Italy for the Rugby game and they were really fun.  It was a chill night with great music and lots of friends :)

Sunday morning was early again.  The night before the concierge had lost our room key (a lot of times here the front desk holds onto your key for you) and I was all ready to go downstairs and politely yell at them and tell them I wasn't paying for it, but it was there, so no angry me.  From the hotel we went to Hadrian's Villa, which is SUPER old, but the ruins were really cool, although at this point I was so tired it was hard to appreciate them.  And then we went to Tivoli gardens which is filled with fountains and beautifulness.  Seriously, they are stunning.  Miriam and I had asked Franz about them and he told us we'd want to take our wedding pictures there, he was totally right.  I may fly back just to take pictures.  From the gardens we got lunch and then headed back to home sweet Firenze!

Miriam and I got dinner with Negrin and Jordan that night at our favorite place around the corner.  They spent the weekend in Spain so it was great to hear about that.  Great end to a great weekend.

Ciao!


P.S.  I totally wrote this post in such a timely matter because I am procrastinating from writing my term papers.  Be proud mom.

Ok so I'm a little behind, this goes between Interlaken and Austria

The Monday (aka Valentine's Day) I got back from Interlaken I should have been exhausted because I slept for about 5 hours, but the miracle of adrenaline kicked in and I had a great day.  Class was not so exciting, although my globalization teacher called me a conformist for recycling and I preceded to give him a death stare. On my way to lunch I saw some flowers sitting on the desk for people, but I assumed they were for other people because my dad had adamantly told me I wasn't getting flowers this year.  But, Joanna came up to me and told me there were flowers sitting on the desk for me and I was like "that's impossible!", but my dad made my day and surprised me with flowers.  Thanks for the roses, daddy!  For lunch that day, my friends Beth and Joanna and I went to the Boboli gardens for lunch!  These gardens are HUGE and even though it is even springtime, beautiful already.  It was so fun to just roam around see the beautiful views.  I can't wait to go back when it gets nicer out.  Bonus: it was free because of our awesome museum card!  For dinner that night, Miriam and I went to her friend Jill's apartment for a cute Valentine's day dinner.  Dinner was really fun, although everyone was Southern and I have never heard "y'all" used so many times in my life.  it was quite overwhelming.  After, Miriam and I hung out with Jill for a while and then met Jordan, Negrin, and Doug at Kikuya.  

On Tuesday morning I had class at the beautiful Palazzo Medici (Medici Palace).  It is now the home of the governor of Tuscany, but he's moving out soon.  Class got out early, yay!, so I got lunch with friends and then did some much needed apartment cleaning.  That night we went to a wine tasting, yummy!  It was cool to learn how wine is made and about its different qualities.  We met some of my camp friends for aperitivo and then went to Be Bop for Beatles night!  I ran into my friend Julia, who went to high school with me and my friend Mara who was in USY with me! This guy cane up to us on the street, who we immediately thought was creepy, but turned out he wasn't at all, and he explained what this secret bar thing down the street from our apartment was.  So he was not creepy and helpful...winner.  Great night! 

Wednesday I had my first meeting for San Lorenzo tour guiding, which was cool, it's a beautiful church. I also found a mozzarella bar and a cute vintage shop that I definitely need to further explore.  After class, I was exhausted...I did not want to move ever again.  Miriam and I just went to dinner out our favorite restaurant around the corner from our apartment.  It's this little whole in the whole and we made friends with the waiter, Maritizio.  It's absolutely delicious food.  After dinner, I did nothing.  It was great.

Thursday, nothing exciting.  Just made dinner for Miriam and I and then off to Austria!!!!  YAY SOUND OF MUSIC!!

I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything is right

Monday I got up and went to class...exciting I know. After some friends and I got delicious paninis from our favorite panini place in order to prepare for our climb up the duomo. After lunch I headed over to the duomo with my friends Joanna and Stacey, but we had to wait for 2 more of our friends so obviously we went into a shoe store where I found beautiful beautiful boots. But before I had time to try them on our two other friends arrived so we left to climb the duomo.

The climb was better than other things I've climbed mostly because there were less spiral stairs. The entire first half is Actually just normal stairs and then you walk out onto platform so you're inside the dome and can see the inside of the Church. Then the spiral staircases started...not So fun. The actual dome is created from two "shells" so when you climb up to ge outside you go in between them and it's really cool because you get to see the actual structure of the dome. Getting up was a little tricky because people were going up a d down at the same time...which involved lots of pushiv. The view from the top was obviously amazing. The architecture of the top itself (I think it's called the lantern) was really beautiful and it was great to see the city from smack in the middle of the city. On the way down we took a closer look at paintings on the snide of the ceiling which I believe depicts heaven purgatory and he'll...which is extremely creepy llooking and quite gory. Not something I'd want to look at during services but whatever floats your boat. After climbing down my friend Jeannie and I went shoe shopping!!! Yay! I looked for a pair of boots but I'm being really picky and couldn't find ones that were quite right/in my size.

after shoe shopping I wne t over to Negrin and Jordans place where they made dinner! Dinner was yummy, Jordan made asta and veggies for us and their roommates and we had a great time. After dinner Negrin Miriam and I watched a movie, then hung out with Jordan when he got back. Finally Miriam and I walked back to our apartment, which was not so great cuz it was super chilly

Tuesday Miriam and I woke up early so we could go to a place down the street from us called the diner for breakfast. It's the only American "diner" in Florence. I got chocolate chip pancakes and they were yummy. It was nice to have American breakfast :)

After breakfast, I thought we had class at a church in a completely opposite direction from school, but luckily we ran into our friend who corrected me and prevented us from walking 20 minutes out of the way. I need to learn to read dates better. The day wasn’t that exciting, just class and laundry. That night I made dinner for Miriam and I, which consisted of yummy pasta, baked eggplant, and these yummy Italian mozzarella stick type things. We ran from dinner to the OPERA!!! Which we were late to because we didn’t realize how far away it was and had to grab a cab. The whole thing involved us frantically running through the streets of Florence, and I was wearing heels, so that was fun.

We saw the opera, Manon Lescaut by Puccini, and this time (unlike in Vienna), we stayed for the whole thing. I liked this opera a lot better because a) I could understand more of it and b) it moved A LOT faster. Although (spoiler alert), she took way too long to die at the end. During intermissions, which there were way too many of, Miriam, Emily, and I went back in time to 6th grade and put the foil from gum wrappers on the back of my phone. So, basically, the opera was great. After the opera, Miriam, Emily, Negrin, and I went to a bar called the Joshua Tree (which they also have in the City). We made friends with the manager and had an awesome night.

Wednesday wasn’t all too exciting, just getting ready for ROMA!! However, after class I went boot shopping again, and I finally bought beautiful, black, Italian boots.

We went to what school calls “dinner with Italians”, which was cool because we got to meet some locals, but they were a little bit older than us so we didn’t have much in common. Also, we were exhausted from the night before so we weren’t feeling so social. That night we just packed and slept because the next morning we left for ROME!!!

Vienna waits for you/These are a few of my favorite things

I just couldn’t pick a title. So I went with both.

I know it’s cliché, buuut, Sound of Music WAS my weekend so, here are a few of my favorite things about Vienna and Salzburg (no, it does not fit with song, I’m way too lazy)
1. Apple strudel with vanilla ice cream
2. Schonbrun palace
3. Salzburg
4. Riding the Vienna metro pretty much for free (which may or may not be legal…oops)
5. The Austrian Alps


Miriam and I left for Vienna on Thursday night around 9, and got to Vienna around 7 am on Friday…I slept most of the way so it wasn’t so horrible. This was my first hostel experience (besides Israel, but those don’t really count) and they’re really fine.I got the top bunk, which I was totally fine with thanks to my childhood bed and several summers at camp.

After breakfast, we started our tour of Vienna by stopping at STARBUCKS!!!And this time, it wasn’t outrageously priced. I got my white mocha fix, and although it wasn’t as good as at home, it was still great to have because it’s one of those little things about home I really miss (although, I’m really starting to like Italian cappuccinos, although I put a ton of sugar in them).  Filled with caffeine, we got a tram that took us on a pretty pathetic tour of Vienna’s important buildings, but it was ok because we got to walk around and see them later.  From the tram, we went ot Café Sacher to try their world famous choclate cake.  The place was really fancy--you had to check your coat or they wouldn't serve you.  It was really cute, right out of a victorian parlor.

The cake is supposedly the first chocolate cake in the world and takes 36 steps to create (seriously, what are they doing to the cake that it takes so long).  It was good, but not the moist, rich chocolate cake I'm used to.  After cake we walked around Vienna for a little bit and stopped to see the famous Opera House and St. Stephen's church, both were beautiful.  Some people climbed St. Stephen's, but Miriam and I decided we'd had enough climbing towers for a little while.  Instead, because we are both dorky psych majors, we decided to go to the Freud museum, which was SO COOL (but really only if you're a psych major, otherwise it's not that exciting).  The museum is housed in the apartment Freud and his family lived in while in Vienna, which also was home to Freud's office.  The museum had his waiting room set up as it was when his Vienna office was active, which I found to be really awesome.  The rest of the museum consisted of pictures, pieces of furniture, documents, etc that helped depict his life and research. Not having psych classes this semester, it was fun to get back into that mindset for a little bit.  I'm a dork, you may laugh at me now.

After Freud and being educational, we met up with the rest of the group to go to the Schnaps museum and be the opposite of educational.  There is a Schnaps company in Vienna that has been making Schnaps since before WWII, and the company was started by the great grandfather of the guy who currently owns the company.  The man who gave us a tour was really funny, and clearly loved to drink, he told us how to tell if something was real Schnapps, taught us about absinthe, and more.  Basically, everything every college student needs to know.  The tour was followed up by a tasting.  I tasted two cream liqueurs (hazelnut and banana chocolate...YUMMY!), a chili pepper Schnaps they call rocket fuel (I think my throat was actually on fire after that one), and some cinnamon-y, goldschlagger type thing.  From schnaps we went back downtown to walk around for a bit and get our opera tickets!!  The Vienna State Opera house sells 3 euro standing room tickets, and since the Opera house is so famous Miriam and I, along with a few other girls, figured we'd try it out.

After buying the tickets we reserved our spots...first row standing room, sweet!  We happened to be next to a guy whose son goes to UMD and Miriam knows, small world, love Jewish geography!  We saw "the Flying Dutchman" which is the inspiration for Pirate of the Carribean 3, so if you managed to follow the plot line of that movie, then you know what happens in the opera sort of.  The opera was actually really, really cool.  I forgot that they didn't use microphones and then remembered how difficult it is to project that much and I definitely have a new found respect for the opera.  It was also so cool to watch the orchestra as well.  However, it was a really slow moving opera, and we were standing up, aaaaaand we hadn't eaten in several hours, so we left the opera early to go find food.  We ended up at this bar place and everyone else got weiner schnitzel...but obviously I don't eat that, so I got a pretzel with dinner in order to try Austrian food.  After dinner, we walked around an area called the Bermuda Triangle, where everyone goes out, and found a cool bar with live music, but we didn't stay long because we were exhausted.  Fun fact: the Vienna synagogue was literally in the middle of this area across the street from a bar.  Too funny.

The next morning we woke up and went to Schonbrun palace, where the Austrian imperial family lived before they were overthrown.  The palace is HUGE and, of course, beautiful.  It is said that it is second only to Versaille.  We got a really good audio guide tour of the palace and it was great history lesson of Austria as well.  It made me super excited for Versaille, and after the luxury of this place, I can only imagine what Versaille will be like.  From Schonbrun palace we hopped on the bus to Salzburg and watched the Sound of Music in order to prepare for the tour the next day.

Salzburg is ADORABLE!!! Seriously, GO THERE!!  The day we got there wasn't so exciting because we got there pretty late and most things were closed.  Miriam and I ditched the group to spend more time at the Do Re Mi garden and broke the rules and crossed the fence so we could imitate the movie.  Bad ass, I know.  Then we basically killed time till dinner at a legit Austrian beer hall.  We got coffee, did nothing (see Facebook for the pictures that resulted in), and ended up getting dinner early because we really had nothing better to do.  It was finally time to go to the beer hall, which was super cool.  There people dressed in traditional clothes (liederhosen I think they're called) and it was literally just 3 huge halls filled with people drinking beer and eating Austrian food.  Miriam and I got some streudel...it was just ok.  We had a fun night hanging out with people from our group.  This Austrian guy came over to our table because his friends bet him he couldn't hold a conversation with us for 10 minutes, which ended up just being him and his friends talking to us.  They were really funny and it was cool to meet local people our age.  After the beer hall, it was time for bed because we had to be up bright and early for the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!!!!

The Sound of Music tour was great.  We went to most of the key places, although I was disappointed we didn't get so close to the front of the Von Trapp house.  It was also cool because you learned a lot about Salzburg as well.  We also went up into the Alps, and it was a)freezing and b)beautiful and so cute.  We stopped at a cute little cafe for lunch and the BEST apple streudel and ice cream (seriously this vanilla ice cream was like nothing I've ever tasted).  Go on Facebook to see where we went on the tour, it was awesome!  After the tour we headed back for Florence :)  Moral of the weekend: I love the Sound of Music.  Also, they watch that movie in pretty much every country except Austria, it's bizarre.

Fly Like an Eagle...

General Observations About Switzerland:
1) Swiss citizens speak 4 languages: Swiss German, French, English, and some speak Italian. Plus, even though they speak Swiss German, they write in High German. It was crazy to hear all the different languages being spoken, although it was great for my French.
2) The entirety of Switzerland smells like cow/horse.
3) The Alps. Enough said.
4) The Swiss love cows. And St. Bernards. Seriously, they're everywhere.
5) It is the single most expensive place I have ever been. A cheap meal is about $14.

Anyway, it took about 8 hours by bus to get to Interlaken and we left around 8. We stopped at a rest stop for dinner, which in Italy means real food. Seriously, Italy has gourmet rest stops; that's how much they love food. They also have a gourmet food shop and basically Italy has the best rest stops ever. Miriam and I had a nice snack of apples and cheese. We got back on the bus and watched part of a movie before passing out. All I can say is thank goodness for Wheels because it taught me to sleep on a bus. I woke up to catch a glimpse of a gorgeous Swiss lake and the most stars I've ever seen in my life. I tried to keep my eyes open because it was so glittery and gorgeous but my eyes decided that sleep was mire important. We got to our hotel around 5 and passed out immediately.

Friday morning we woke up bright and early (8 15 to be exact, yes you read that right) to sign up for paragliding. Before paragliding, we walked around Interlaken, which is a cute, but touristy Alpine town. We climbed a stone wall (which wasn't actually that tall, but we obviously still struggled to climb it) and looked at the view for awhile. Then we grabbed lunch and finally it was time for paragliding!!! We went with a few other girls and hopped in a van to drive up the mountain. It was unseasonally warm while we there, so there wasn't that much snow, meaning a lot of the mountains were green and beautiful, instead of snowy and beautiful, but it was still stunning to see the alps up against the blue sky. We got out of the car and hiked a few minutes more up the hill till we got to the jumping point (Mom, this probably about the time you want to stop reading). 10 minutes later, I was strapped into the harness with my guide and I ran toward the edge of the cliff. It was an awesome feeling, all of the sudden I was just gliding through the air, no scary jumps or anything, just flying. If you've ever been on the ride Soarin' in Disney World in Epcot, it felt exactly like that (except I was looking at the Alps, not a video screen of California). It was a little nauseating at one point, but otherwise it was so incredible. Unfortunately there are no actual pictures of me skydiving, because the camera got messed up, but there are pictures of the goregous sapphire-colored lakes that I took! So go nuts on facebook!

After skydiving, we went to a chocolate tasting. Swiss chocolate is Gd's gift to Earth. IT WAS SO DAMN DELICIOUS AND CREAMY!!! The guy taught us about how chocolate is made and how to tell if it's good chocolate (basically everything that is wrong with a Hershey bar). We also got to try a million different kinds of chocolate, including chili pepper chocolate (YUMMY!), champagne truffles, cognac truffles, normal chocolate, and this weird swiss thing that basically has a shot in it, and was completely disgusting. From chocolate tasting Miriam and I went to dinner with a few friends at this Asian restaurant, where I ate a meal that consisted of things other than rice (yay for trying things!)

The next day we spent in Bern, which is the capital of Switzerland, and it is right out of Epcot. It's a really picturesque, small city that is a great place to spend a day. There was a Starbucks there, which I was extremely excited for, because although I'm getting used to Italian coffee, I still miss my white mochas. However, it cost SEVEN DOLLARS for a TALL coffee, and I could bring myself to spend that much money on a cup of coffee. I got over my Starbucks pretty quickly and spent the rest of the day walking around Bern. I climbed Munster Tower (spiral staircases=not fun, the Duomo is the only other thing I will be climbing on this trip), went to the KunstMuseum (aka the art museum). The museum had paintings by a bucn of famous artists: Monet, Manet, Picasso, Renoir, Rothko, the list goes on. It was great because you could really close to the paintings and see the brush strokes, which I got yelled at for at MoMa when I was trying to look at a pointillism painting, so I like Bern better. We walked through a food market and got LOTS of free samples, including this cheese that was delcious…it was as though parmesan and Swiss cheese got together and had a baby…yum! We walked around Bern and saw some of its government buildings, but we also saw some really strange people. We saw this one family of green elves…

And some guys dressed up a rabbits carrying a giant carrot…casual (hi Kristen!)

After Bern, we got back to Interlaken and went night sledding, which was about 100 times more dangerous and scary than paragliding. Now you may be wondering, what exactly is night sledding? Well (again Mom, you may not want to read this part as it once again involves me doing dangerous things), essentially you are sledding an Alp on what is basically a ski slope at night, with no lights. But, you are not walking up and down hill like normal sledding, you start and you just keep going down, really fast, on a steep hill, and your guide says things like “don’t fall off the edge of the cliff, don’t sled into the river”…really safe. What makes this even better is this is Miriam’s first time going sledding. So we get all bundled up in ski pants and hardcore snow boots and head up the mountain with a few girls from our program and some girls we met from Virginia Tech. Before sledding, we stop for some really yummy cheese fondue (although we only had bread and potatoes to dip in so my stomach was about to explode afterwards). Then it was time for sledding, and oh my Gd it was so scary. You had to use your feet to steer yourself and people were wiping out left and right, and basically it was chaos. I really thought I was gonna die at one point when I was zooming down a hill and couldn’t see because of all the snow in my face…but don’t worry I was fine. I only had one person crash into me, and I was fine, it was actually kind of funny and I only lost the guide once, so it was a decent success. This all sounds too good to be true for klutzy little me; don’t worry, I managed to make it down the hill safely, but as we walked back to the car I wiped out on a patch of ice and bruised my butt. I knew it would have been too good to be true to make it through the whole process without getting hurt. The ride back to the hotel was hysterical because we just sat there asking our driver absurd questions and he probably thinks we’re insane. Miriam and I went back to our hotel room and had a nice little snack of hot chocolate and buttery home made caramel we bought at the market in Bern.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early (8 AM!!!) to take a train up to a ski resort called Kleine Scheidig (which I can actually pronounce!) so we could really see the alps. I cannot even put into words how stunning these mountains are. They are just so big and white and snow covered. We literally did nothing but stare…and drink hot chocolate and take pictures, but mostly stare. We looked really funny because everyone else was in ski gear and we were just in our normal coats, but we only almost got killed by a skier once so that was good (it’s on video tape too, for those of you who would like to hear me shriek really loudly). Miriam and I left our friends at the ski resort to go visit the Alpine village of Lauterbrunnen (which I can also pronounce). We got lunch at a really cool, cute café that was a traveler’s paradise because it literally had everything but a place to sleep: food, laundry, internet, you could book skydiving and stuff like that, books, games, it was so cool. I had a really really delicious brownie, but not as good as my dad's of course! After lunch, we roamed around and went to see the waterfalls the town is famous for. Usually there are 72, but because it was winter we could only see one of them (see Facebook), but it was still cool. The town was really cute and it was awesome to see a real live Alpine village (apparently, as Miriam tells me, there is a fake one in Helen, Georgia that is actually a really good imitation. So if you don’t want to fly to Switzerland, you can go there). We left Lauterbrunnen to get on the bus and head back to Florence. We got home around 12 and I got to Skype with a bunch of people which was so nice! Overall, it was an awesome weekend, and I highly recommend going to visit the Alps if you ever get the chance, they are simply breathtaking. And you can try night sledding, but I’m just warning you that apparently people have broken legs doing it, no big deal.

This week hasn't been too exciting, just getting into a routine here. On Monday, I had two classes, one of which was Globalization, and I really thought I was going to poke my eyes out, because this class was so horrible (although Wednesday was way better) because this teacher was just talking about nothing and bouncing from one subject to the next. I have no problem with class discussions, but seriously, they were pointless discussions. After class I went to lunch with my friends Joanna and Beth, then I met Miriam's friend Jill who she's told me all about, and now I know actually exists, and then Miriam and I went on an adventure to Esselunga, an Italian supermarket. 4 things: a) it's really far away, so walking home with our stuff sucked b)I have never ever seen so much cheese in a grocery store in my life, I was in heaven c) they have really gross seafood, like fresh octopus, just chilling in the refrigerated section d) you have to pay for shopping bags. That night, my friend Jess came over and we cooked dinner. I picked up some fresh homemade pasta and we cooked it with olive oil, tomatoes, basil, garlic, and parmesan. It was so fresh and delicious and because the pasta was so fresh, you really didn't need to put anything on it. Jess brought some foccacia from the Chocolate Festival and other little munchies and we had a great meal. After, we got dessert at the Chocolate Festival (we had chocolate covered nut brittle, SO GOOD) and I saw her apartment.
Tuesday during my break from class I wondered around the area near the Ponte Vecchio and saw beautiful brown boots, but unfortunately the store (or il negozzio) they were in was closed, so I have to go back. That night we had cooking class and we learned to make spinach ravioli in a butter and sage sauce, panna cotta, and an eggplant/tomato/mozzarella thing (which was heavenly, I can't wait to make it again). It was all molto buono!!!
Wednesday I was in class all day, and when I got home Miriam and I waited for our land lady to come fix our ceiling light which has not been working (we've been living with two little lamps, that don't give off much light). She finally got here with her brother to fix the light and YAY it worked (except it stopped working this morning, oh well). When her brother heard my name he said in Italian, "like Disney" and I was like YES! (that's the first time an Italian has picked up on this) and I said to him "Mi piace Little Mermaid" which means I like the Little Mermaid. Miriam and I then met our friends for dinner and went to the chocolate festival afterwards for dessert (are you seeing why this festival needs to end?) After dinner, I met Jess and her friends at our favorite bar, Kikuya and hung out for a while. Before we left, we got Kikuya cards, which are awesome, and eventually will let us get free drinks! Jess and her friends went out after that but I went home to get some sleep because I'm leaving for Interlaken today!!!! So, look forward to hearing about my Swiss adventures when I get back (which will include paragliding!!)

Sunday Funday

This past Sunday was one of my favorites here so far. I FINALLY got to sleep in (till 2:20, it would've been a good day even if that was my only accomplishment). I met Miriam at the Chocolate Festival (who's surprised?) to get breakfast/lunch (chocolate covered waffle and a DELICIOUS piece of foccacia, because Gd forbid Italians have an event without bread). After, we just roamed around Firenze for the next 3 1/2 hours just exploring and venturing to areas of the city we haven't seen yet. We walked through Piazza Republica (which is in the race for my favorite place in the city) where there was an amazing street singer (we got 2 CDs for 4 euro!) and stopped in a cute little shop for coffee. I almost got a gorgeous, gorgeous pair of boots at a little shop, but they were a little big, and for what they cost I wasn't getting anything that didn't fit perfectly (I'm growing). Eventually we made our way back across the and climbed up to Piazzale Michaelangelo. After trekking up the hill we reached what was essentially a parking lot, but so much better than that because it had a terrace-type thing with a stunning view of the whole city. The view was amazing, I liked it better than Fiesole because you're a little bit closer to the city and could distinguish more of the buildings. We also got there around sunset so the city was all lit up with a warm, pink sky in the background--it was something off of a postcard (which I now don't need to buy, because I took the pictures myself). I loves views of the city like this--they make me take a step back for a moment and remind I am so lucky to be here.
We got a little chilly, so we started to walk home and met up with Jordan and Negrin on the way. The four of us went to dinner at Salamanca (the Spanish/Mexican place) and got yummy Mexican food! After dinner, Miriam and I went home to plan our spring break. This was possibly one of the most head-spinning and stressful things I've done (my brain kind of felt the same way it does when I attempt to do geometry). I had about 10 different windows open on my browser to find cheap flights plus train websites, Google, and Wikipedia. There was a moment of panic when one website refused to accept my credit card and Miriam was going to Paris by herself, but I got the flight booked eventually (and for only 20 euro!) Best part of spring break: I get to see Keren in Barcelona!!!!!! After Barcelona, Miriam and I are going to Paris, Prague, and Berlin (AHHHHH SO PUMPED!!!) We finally finished booking flights and went to unspin our heads by joining some friends to watch the first quarter of the Superbowl (and hear Christina Aguilera sing the national anthem...SHE IS SO GOOD!) But, we didn't get American commercials, just really crappy Italian ones. The first quarter ended, and we went home to go to sleep!