germany

so last weekend i went to germany. we flew into hamburg, which we didn't realize was a 3 hour bus ride to berlin, our intended destination. we made a last minute decision to stay in hamburg instead of berlin, which was a really good idea. so we stayed in hamburg for the first day, where we ended up wandering around. we went to a fair, where we ate what we thought would be hamburgers, but turned out to be steak sandwiches. then we tried to find the club where the beatles became famous, but it turned out to be on a street full of sex shops and strip clubs. so ew. and near our subway stop, people were drinking beer at all hours of the day and night, even at 8 am. and the man working at the hostel was one of the most awkward individuals i've ever met..and i should know.
so the second day we took the bus to berlin. in berlin we saw the wall, of course. then went to the tiergarten, which is a huge park. we ended up in alexanderplotz, which is a big square. we walked into a wooden restaurant to eat, and we ended up being basically backstage to a runway show. so while the models prepared themselves to walk outside to the platform, we stuffed our faces with a delicious meal of lamb, berlinershnitzel, asparagus, potatoes, sour kraut, beans wrapped in freaking bacon, beer, and spaetzels. it was quite hilarious. then i bought a grass animal from a stand. and the final thing that happened was there was a very very creepy man on the bus back, who was talking and laughing to himself, knocking on the window, and imitating one of my friends. and jen gable, if you don't like this, feel free to add details ok bye. :)

spring break..long overdue

so..i'm a slacker. a ton has happened since i wrote last.
spring break was the longest consecutive ten days of my life, in ways both good and bad. by the time i got back to florence, i was a little dead. since most of the details are already fading in my head, i'll just write down some of the more general things that happened.
we started our break in paris, which was beautiful. i finally get what all the hype about paris is, although i'm not sure if i could explain it. everything there was just really pretty. the buildings and streets and everything. and every single meal was delicious. we ate so much, but it was worth it. pastries and food with fancy sauces, fondue and...crepes. the crepes were to die for. we saw the eiffel tower, arc de triumphe, walked the champs, went in notre dame, and spent a day seeing versailles. a lot of the minor details are escaping me, though i do remember us getting on the a tour bus once by accident. people were nice to us, despite what we'd been warned, although the fact that we are three polite and seemingly non-threatening girls probably had something to do with it. people also kept thinking we were spanish. speaking of which, our next destination was barcelona. there is a ton of cool architecture in barcelona, done by gaudi. we saw his unfinished church and the park he designed, parc guell. we also sat on the beach for a while. we saw a flamenco show, ape tapas and paella, drank estrella damm. next stop was valencia. saw another flamenco show, ate more tapas and paella to die for. also went to the beach. but valencia was a lot different from barcelona. it was a reeeally pretty city. they had this huge nice park. and they have this series of building that look like they're from the space age. we went into one, a huge aquarium. that was about it, i think. it seems like nothing when it's boiled down, but you better believe we were running around the whole time.

spring break

whoa. my spring break starts tomorrow. that snuck up on me. this week was midterms, and tomorrow i leave for ten days. marisa, wendy, and i are going to paris and barcelona, and then we are meeting up with my housemates in valencia, spain. wish me luck, i might need it.

back from palermo

we had to take a train from florence to pisa, where there's an airport. we left at 8 am on friday. got on the train, go the airport, get on the plane, everything is fine..we land..and have no idea what to do. there's supposed to be a shuttle, but it's nowhere in sight. there is a bus that says it's going to center city palermo, so we get on it, but at this point, we're not sure if it's going to take us where we want to go, so we have to look at the street signs, which causes some stress. so as soon as we start to recognize street signs, we're ok. which happens. and we stop at the bus station. and walk to our hotel, which we find easily. we spent that first day walking around. saw some of the "main" sights, which were nice, but not nearly as impressive as rome obviously. like this one place is called quattro canti, 4 corners, and it's just 4 statues on each intersecting corner. jen didn't believe that was it, since it's one of the main sights.

we walked around for a bit on the streets, and then through this park full of palm trees and cacti and orange trees. then we walked down to the water. on the way we had lunch and had a cannoli!!!!!! the water was beautiful and i climbed on the rocks. then we walked back to our hotel for a little bit, and on the way we got a little lost. a man on a bike stopped to try to help us, which shows that people in palermo are way friendlier than in florence. we walked through a game of soccer and one of the boys said ciao bella to us, which was just funny. a lot of men stared and honked at us. sometimes it was funny, a lot of times it was annoying, and sometimes it was creepy.

that night we went out to dinner and were the only ones in the restaurant. palermo like closes down at 9, there was no one around. it's still a city, so it was kind of strange to us.

the next morning, we decide to follow the guide book and take a boat to a nearby island. spent the morning wandering around the port, asking a bunch of different people questions. turns out the ticket booth is closed, so we have to make a new plan.

we walk around for a bit and find this little place where we decide to have lunch, it was called mama something.

also i forgot to mention that people speak very little english in palermo. even the man at the front desk of our hotel spoke mostly italian.

so we're in this little restaurant, and there's no menu. the woman is telling us what the specialities are and she's mentioning fish. the other girls tell her they don't want fish, but i decide to go for it.

they end up getting spaghetti with tomato sauce and eggplant, and i get seafood spaghetti with peas. don't ask me what kind of seafood, i know there was some calimari in there. it was really good, but the spaghetti was super al dente so it had a crunch to it.

they would have kept bringing us out more food if we hadn't told them we were full. she even yelled at the other girls for not finishing their pasta. still, the woman brought us cake. we called it "cannoli cake" because it was filled with ricotta and chocolate chips. they also brought us the most delicious limoncello i've ever had. and she gave us shot glasses to keep as "souvenirs." one of the women made fun of me asking for the check, but she helped gave us directions to the bus stop so we could follow our second plan, getting to the beach of mondello. at the bus ticket station, there were about 5 guys, all of who tried to help us figure out which bus we wanted to take and when we would leave. the bus driver walked with us to the bus. on the bus, we had some miscommunication because we were trying to ask him how to return from the beach. we were talking in circles, and we had some 15 year-old boys on the bus trying to help us also. it was funny. but everyone was really nice for trying to help us and eventually we understood. the bus driver was very nice too. he called us to the front of the bus when it was our stop and told us to be careful and hold on to our belongings on the beach. the water was so blue and clear and the beach was awesome. i had a gelato sandwich. people on the beach were really funny. then we got the bus back. and then i had calimari for dinner and when i say calimari, it wasn't fried rings..it was a full squid. it was delish though. and that was sicily! it was awesome!!

off to palermo

planning spring break is the most frustrating thing ever. dear france and spain, stop being so difficult to navigate, ok thanks.
tomorrow morning i leave for sicily. i'm a little nervous because they supposedly speak with a much different dialect than the "textbook" italian. and i have a feeling they won't speak as much english since i'm sure palermo isn't nearly as touristy as florence. it'll be an adventure. sicily was the one place i said i had to go in italy because my italian roots are there. representttt.

venice and rome

i have done so much in the past 2 weeks that i don't know how to begin writing about it. i will try to summarize. i met my parents in venice, like planned. we spent the next 3 days in venice, seeing st. mark's square, st. mark's basilica, other churches, the doge's palace with the prisons, and other museums that i can't remember the names of. venice is beautiful with the water, but everything is very expensive there. we had really nice weather so that was good.
then we came back to florence. my parents climbed the duomo, then i joined them for the duomo museum and santa croce, which i still hadn't been inside of. i showed them mercato centrale and took them to some of my favorite places to eat. we also discovered a few new places.
then we left for rome. in rome we went to the vatican, saw the sistine chapel, the colosseum, the forum, the pantheon, palantine hill, circus maximus, more churches and piazzas with epic statues and fountains. rome might have been my favorite city so far. i wouldn't want to live there though, but it was awesome to visit.
next weekend i am going to sicily with jen and wendy! we'll be staying in palermo but we might make some day trips, since apparently palermo is a smog-infested city. i'm excited to go to sicily though.

weekend in firenze

this has been a good weekend for the most part. i finally got to do some of the stuff i kept saying i would. saw the david, went to the uffizi, and explored the other side of the river. all were glorious. even if we didn't get in for free, it would have been totally worth it. since we do have our passes, we can go back as many times as we want. we also went to see the parade for florence's version of carnivale. it basically consisted of a lot of little kids in costumes throwing confetti at each other.

monday through wednesday i will be going to class and doing work. then on thursday, i will be taking the train to venice and meeting my parents there! we will be in venice for the weekend. then they're coming back to florence with me for the week. then we will spend the next weekend in rome. time is starting to fly!!!!