"boy, i sure feel like a mary without a peter and paul"--tobias funke

i need to get a few things off my chest:

things i will miss about abroad:
--seeing cool places/doing cool things
--the 7 people i like on my program...the rest are literally freaks and i don't care who reads this at this point
--being legitimately on my own...but that's getting old
--the food
--the wine
--the nightlife that feels more sophisticated, minus barcelona, which was definitely not sophisticated at all but was still awesome
--siena and the natives
--feeling independent
--learning things i would otherwise never know and finding out random facts about random crap everyday
--living in one of the most beautiful places and the tuscan countryside
--the dogs, especially the huge dog named lucky that sits in front of his house next to IES every day and for whom i specifically schedule an extra 7 minutes to play with before i go to class
--being able to go wherever i want in europe basically
--not being bored at any moment in time, always having something to do
--finding out what i can do by myself...which is actually a lot...

things i won't miss about abroad:
--having travel plans go awry
--having to get from siena to anywhere else
--freaks on my program
--hostels
--my smelly apartment due to my roommates
--smelly italians
--smelly italian youth
--having to do an inordinate amount of work for classes that don't even count for my major or show up on my gpa, but which require the effort nonetheless because the grades appear on my transcript
--the weather this entire semester in every single place in all of europe
--language barrier
--public restrooms in europe
--the euro (see: not getting free water at the table, being charged ridiculous cover charges at mediocre restaurants, the awful exchange rate)

things i miss about america:
--my bed, my shower, car, reliable wireless access, comfortable pillows, other tangible and material possessions of the like
--DRIVING and the feeling i get when i am doing so
--my friends
--my family
--legitimate BRUNCH food (eggs, bagel, lox, french toast, pancakes)
--iced tea and ice in general
--drying machines
--the food, specifically: sushi, tiny boxwoods, beck's, cupcakes from crave, mac and cheese from basically everywhere, grilled cheese, pei wei chicken fried rice minus bell pepper and plus extra egg, chipotle, chicken pad mun sen from thai gourmet
--hot weather
--USD, english, english-speakers
--walgreens, cvs, target, things that are open 24/7
--central standard time

that is all.

Cinque Terre...the most beautiful place I've ever seen

Cinque Terre (directly translates to "5 Lands" in Italian) is an area along the Northern Italian Riviera that is comprised of 5 really small towns that are all connected by a small train and hiking trails. I had wanted to go here more than any other place in Italy because I had heard such amazing things about how beautiful it was. I had planned virtually all of my other trips around this weekend because it needed to be warm and sunny out to fully appreciate the hiking trails, beaches, and views...needless to say, excitement for this trip had been building up for quite some time.

We stayed for one night at a hostel in the first of the towns going from south to north, called Riomaggiore, and we got a pass that gave us unlimited access to all of the trails and trains connecting the towns.

We got in at around 4:30 pm on Friday, found our hostel, which was located up the steepest and longest flight of stairs (all of the towns are build into mountains) ever. It ended up being awesome though. We were the only people staying in that part of the hostel so we basically had our very own apartment with a kitchen, living room, tv, 2-story porch with amazing views, private bathroom, and really comfortable beds. It was exactly what we needed after a semester of not-so-great hostels and pretty awful weather.First off, I have to say that Cinque Terre is definitely the most beautiful place I've ever been to and by far my favorite place in Italy. It is the Italy that everyone comes to Italy imagining. We had amazing seafood, beautiful weather, incredible landscapes, beach and mountains, beautiful flowers everywhere that made the entire place smell really good, cute shops....I felt like I was walking in a postcard. It was so incredibly stunning.

Anyway, the names of the towns are: Riogmaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. As I said before, they are all connected by hiking trails that are right along the sea. We hiked 3/4 of the trails...2 were pretty easy and the last was really hard, but I love hiking and I was really happy to finally be able to do outdoorsy things in Italy after so many months of cold and rain. Altogether, we hiked over 4.5 or 5 miles which took us a little over half the day. We ate a really good lunch and then took a train to the last town, Monterosso, and laid at the beach for the rest of the day until we had to go home.

There were locks and hearts like these all along the trails...allegedly people from the 5 towns weren forbidden from being together so tons of couples put locks up to symbolize enduring love..it was pretty neat:

All of the girls in front of Corniglia (I think)

My favorite town was Vernazza, pictured below.

Barthelona

Last weekend, I went to Barcelona, which is where a TON of my friends are studying abroad. For some reason, I had this preconceived notion of Barcelona as being really gross, industrial, polluted, and just not that nice as a whole. Instead, I was really pleasantly surprised. Barcelona is actually a beautiful city and, most notably to me, soooo clean! I really think that had the whole volcano incident not occurred, it would've been one of my favorite cities in Europe.

Unfortunately, the volcanic eruption played a large part in influencing the whole weekend. Instead of enjoying the city and what it had to offer, my friend Molly and I were forced to focus on more important things....like getting home. We had about one full day in the city, and even then, we were both so stressed about getting home that we didn't really have the chance to take in the city. I will definitely be returning to Barcelona sometime in my life though because I know I would've loved it.

This is going to be a short post considering there weren't many pictures taken. I could go into detail about how the volcano ruined everything, but just read any news article and you'll know exactly what Molly and I went through. It was miserable. Good thing Barcelona was amazing, though, otherwise I would've regretted the trip.

One more thing before I go into pictures/itinerary: everyone has heard about the nightlife here and everything that is said is basically true -- it is INSANE. It's no secret that most kids who go to Barcelona go primarily for the nightlife, and this is totally true...it's actually kind of sad because a lot of the kids who go here leave without really seeing the city because they sleep all day (so say actual friends who live in Barcelona; not being patronizing). For 2/3 nights I was there (I only went out on the 2 nights I was actually supposed to be in Barcelona...night #3 was way too stressful for me considering I wasn't sure I was going home), I am proud to say I stayed out so late that I didn't even go home...I went straight from the club to the airport one night and stayed out till 7 the other night. At first I was a little worried about my ability to handle this kind of intensity because I just picture 6th Street in Austin and I know there's no way even it could stay fun past 3 or 4 am. But the nightlife here was SO fun and I have no clue where the time goes -- you go to dinner, a bar, and then a club and then suddenly it's 7 am already.

I will say that this lifestyle has had interesting and notable repercussions on my friends there. They don't go out this hard just one night a week...they do it about 4-6/week. Anyway, I came to Barcelona as their semesters were all winding down and they are all just SO sick all of the time. They've gone out so much and everything that it's literally effecting their immune systems...it's nuts. A lot of my friends who are the hardest partiers and drinkers I know have told me that once they get back from home, they don't think they'll be able to step foot in a nightclub or stay out past midnight. It was really fun but if I had keep up with them for 4 months, I'd probably die. I had 2 nights of this, plus 2 full days of traveling and sightseeing, and it took me about a week to recover.

P.S. This post is dedicated to my Dad, who has been nagging me to update my blog for a couple of days now...thanks, Dad, for being the only one who reads this! Hope I'm making you proud!!

Allison took me to Fountain Show at Montjuic Castle. We caught the last 5 minutes but the area and the Castle itself was beautiful:

The next day, Molly and I spent a lot of time at Parc Guell, which is a park with all of these buildings designed by Gaudi. It was probably my favorite thing to do in Barcelona and Gaudi has some really amazing designs.

Other things we did: Gothic Quarter, saw Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's most famous work....this was at a travel-crisis moment so I didn't get to take a picture but was reallllly cool), the Boqueria Market (HUGE food market with AMAZING fruit juices and candy), Las Ramblas (the main street where vendors sell all kinds of stuff, even pet rabbits and birds), ate (food isn't that great, especially compared to Italy, but patatas bravas are delicious and I love tapas), beach (is nice but apparently was man-made for the Olympics in 1992...which brings me to another interesting thing I learned: when Barcelona hosted the Olympics is when it turned into a "tourist" city, cleaned up its act, and became truly modernized. If the Olympics hadn't occured here, apparently it wouldn't even be a legitimate place to send kids abroad. It's amazing to consider how much money something like the Olympics or the World Cup can bring to a city to revitalize it).

And theeen the whole volcano debacle occurred. Besides that, it was a fantastic weekend and Barcelona was honestly one of my favorite cities in Europe. The end.

Mia Famiglia in Venezia, Firenze, San Gimignano, Chianti, e Siena & Feste di Primavera in Sicilia

My family paid me the obligatory semester abroad visit during my sister's spring break. They got to see Florence, Siena, some small towns in the Tuscan countryside, and Venice.

One day we went on a wine tour in the Chianti region. That morning, we took a little visit to San Gimignano, one of the aforementioned small towns, to get the World's Best Gelato....literally:

One of the vineyards we visited:

On our way to Venice, we decided to take a little roadtrip with our friends, the Evanses, who we've probably gone on about 10000 family trips with. We made two stops: at the Ferrari factory and museum and at a balsamic vinegar factory. You'd think that the Ferrari place would take the cake, but it was actually a piece of shit and SUCH a rip-off.

Libby and me at the Ferrari Factory and Museum:

The balsamic vinegar factory, on the other hand, was awesome. They make the vinegar from rinds of grapes and they age it for a reeeeally long time -- the most valuable vinegar we saw was 400 euro/bottle and had been aging for 100 years.

Below is some vinegar that has been aging since 1925. I had no idea it was such an intense process:

We got to Venice, which is gorgeous. Although there isn't much to actually do there, it's just a really beautiful place. Don't try staying for more than a weekend, however....you'll get bored real quickly.

I also have to add that Venice is THE most expensive city I've visited this entire trip. It is RIDICULOUS. First of all, you have to take a boat everywhere, and even the public boats are super expensive. The food is so costly, and unless you're willing to drop serious money, it pretty much sucks. I just couldn't believe it. But I guess it doesn't matter considering the place was full of tourists.

My dad and me in Venice :)

We spent a good part of a day in Murano, the area outside of Venice famous for its glass. We went to one glass maker and watched an artist create this amazing piece for about 2 hours. It was sooo cool. Then, the owner of the glass place took us to his gallery, which had some of the coolest art I've ever seen.

After my family went back to Texas, I flew to Sicily to meet my friends for our Spring Break. The first half of the break was spent in a town called Cefalu, which is about an hour's tran ride from Palermo and is on the northeast coast of Sicily. Cefalu was a tiny, beautiful beach town with Arabesque influences and was absolutely perfect. We rented an apartment instead of staying at a hotel. The location of the apartment was incredible - right on the main piazza and a 5 minute walk from the beach.

The view from the balcony of our apartment in Cefalu:

We then, unfortunately, made our way back to Palermo for the second half of our vacation. Palermo is easily the most disgusting, ugliest, skeeviest, shittiest city I've ever visited in my entire life. This is where my rant will commence:

Firstly, all of Sicily is run by the Mafia, and I'm 100% serious. Like, the Mafia originates from Sicily. And the capital of Sicily is Palermo, meaning that it is basically Mafia City. No joke, every single person there is somehow linked to the Mafia. I know this information from credible sources (i.e., my Italian professors, program directors, and friends) and I've done a lot of research on the matter.

Because the Mafia rules Sicily, the Italian government really neglects it. This means that big cities in Sicily are disgusting...especially Palermo. "How disgusting," you ask? Well, there are stray dogs and cats everywhere. The tap water isn't drinkable. There is virtually no trash collection, so trash litters every street. It's REALLY dangerous to go out at night. There is graffiti everywhere, and even the sights and monuments that could potentially be pretty are ruined by the prevalence of this graffiti.

We thought Palermo would be sooo cool because it was supposed to possess so much history. Well, it does have a lot of history, but it isn't even worth going to see because the historical parts are now gross. We decided we would pay 20 euro/person to go on a tour of the city on one of those really touristy red double-decker buses, and the audio-tape on this thing literally tried to convince us that a parking lot was beautiful, proceeding to call it a "garden of multi-colored cars." The bus took us to "historical ruins" that really were just building from the 1960's and '70s that had been torn down. It was so ridiculous that we just laughed the entire time.

One of the stops on our tour of Palermo...no joke:

After we realized how horrible Palermo was, we decided to get the hell out of there ASAP and we went to Mondello Beach for the day. This beach was about 20 min. from Palermo and was beautiful...I couldn't even believe we were still in Palermo's city limits. On the way home, though, I was reminded of my proximity to Palermo when the bus driver decided to stop the bus just to come to the back and hit on my friend, Amanda. Literally, there were other people on the bus, and this 60-yr-old bus driver decides to just stop what he is doing and flirt with my friend for a good 20 minutes. He even let my other friend pretend she was driving the bus, prank-called a friend who we were meeting, and proceeded to have a weird photoshoot with us. It was one of the most bizarre events I've ever witnessed.

All of us at Mondello Beach...it was beautiful:

After we (miraculously) got back to our "hotel" (it doesn't really deserve that title), we went out to dinner and on our way home, a man with a stray dog followed us home. I was the first person to realize we were being followed, and as I poked each of my friends on the shoulder to let them know we were being followed, I cushioned my warnings with, "DO NOT FREAK OUT, but ...." Immediately after I told my friends to remain calm, they all did the exact opposite and RAN down the sketchy alley where our "hotel" was located. Of course, this made the situation 1000x worse and provoked our stalker to start running after us, no exaggeration.

The good-for-nothing stray hoodrat cats who lived outside of our "hotel" and who provided NO protection against our stalker enemy:

Once we reached our "hotel" we had to buzz the doorbell so the owner would let us in. The hotel owner was some 90-yr-old lady so, of course, we were stuck outside for what felt like an hour waiting for the lady to buzz us in. The rest of the night consisted of tears, nightmares, etc. etc. It was seriously the scariest thing that has ever happened to me, and I know a lot of people are going to think that I was just being really paranoid and that nobody was following us, but I can promise you that this guy was DEFINITELY following us. And that concluded our Spring Break.

Paris...Mainly in Pictures

Paris the City: Was amazing, duh. Gorgeous city, rich culture, best food in the world, easy-to-use metro and public transporation, unrivaled museums, decent weather. Only con: people were rude and, in my experiences, were strongly and very obviously anti-American.

Paris the Trip: Frustrating. I learned my lesson about traveling in big groups which is: don't do it, no matter how close you are with the people. At times it was very frustrating and the trip as a whole was just kind of weird and I wasn't feeling great but oh well. I honestly wish I could just go back and enjoy the city more instead of dealing with unhappy campers/other random roadblocks. I guess the positive of being the one person in charge/able to read a map/actually in POSSESSION of a map/who knew what they were doing was that I got to see everything I wanted. Seeing my friends was great though and we had the best guides, i.e. my friends studying abroad there.

The best way to go through the itinerary is through pictures so...:

--Thursday night: Went to the hotel and met my friends, then immediately walked to the Louvre, which is where this picture was taken. Went to dinner with my good friend Molly who took me to some delicious whole-in-the-wall only she would know about. The people sitting next to us were so rude and made fun of us the entire time for reasons I don't understand. Molly is fluent in French, but even after she told them she could understand them, they continued to mock us.

--Friday morning: Louvre...

There were a lot of artists, like the one below, in the Louvre working on reproductions of other works. I'm really curious to know how they receive permission to do this.

--Friday afternoon: Notre Dame, below

...which was followed by lunch in the St. Germaine area. We found this amazing crepe place that had both meal and dessert crepes. That morning, I had read an article on the NYTimes online about breakfast tacos in Austin so I was really in the mood for a good Torchy's, but this crepe place had breakfast crepes so my craving was satiated.

--Friday late afternoon: Passed Les Invalides, where Napolean in buried, and walked to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees and Rue St. Honore, the super high-fashion area. Everyone in Paris is SO beautiful and they all look like Carine Roitfeld. If you want to be fashionable in Paris, all you need to do is wear all black. We did a LOT of walking on Friday.

--Saturday morning: Musee d'Orsay, which was my favorite museum. It was amazingly diverse and beautifully curated. The Louvre was simply too overwhelming for me. The Musee de L'Orangerie was also great, especially if you love Monet like I do.

--Saturday afternoon: Eiffel Tower...took the obligatory Hook 'Em pic.

...and then we followed that by going to Pierre Herme, the world's most famous macaron maker (not to be confused with macaroons, the Passover crap). It was simply incredible; however, this was not surprising. I had wanted to go to this place ever since it had been featured on "Gossip Girl" where Chuck flies all the way to Paris and back to bring Blair macarons from here. That's how you know it's good. There was literally a line winding all the way around the corner of the street.

--Saturday night: Was our big Texas reunion! We went to Nicole, Becca, and Lisa's apartment, which is literally the size of a shoebox (Nicole and Lisa share a bed, no joke) and then to dinner at a restaurant/club. In total, there were 9 UT Phis in Paris! Another group was in Barcelona that same weekend...so crazy.

Late Saturday night/Sunday morning: Went to the "6th Street of Paris" (forgot the name, but that's a direct quote from Nicole). Instead of the 3 am Kebabolicious or pizza, they have late-night crepe stands which we ate at...

Sunday morning: Went to bed at 3:30, had to wake up at 5:30 to catch a plane, and then had to study all day from my mid-terms. Exhausting but worth it :)

Prague: Pictures Don't do it Justice...

Prague is THE most beautiful city I've ever seen in my entire life, even though it was covered in snow, most of the time the sky was grey, and I was basically an ice cube the entire time. The saddest part was that the pictures don't even come close to doing this place justice. I'm already dying to go back again when the weather is a bit nicer.

To be honest, I don't know much at all about the history of Eastern Europe, especially anything before Communism, but after visiting, I intend to read up. Because of my lack of knowledge, I was really only able to appreciate the city from a visual standpoint, but that was definitely enough to satisfy me. Literally ever building in a work of art. The city as a whole is so clean, so beautiful, so unique, and so fundamentally intertwined with history and art. I felt like I was walking through a history textbook.

Every building was this beautiful (more pictures are at the end of this post):

Anyway, about the itinerary: my friend Becca and I left Siena on Friday morning, flew from Rome, and got to Prague on Friday afternoon. Interestingly enough, we weren't asked for our passports at any point in our journey. At first, I assumed this was becase we were still in the EU; however, I then remembered that Britain was part of the EU, yet I was asked for my passport when I traveled there. Becca explained, though, that since the Czech Republic "isn't a legit country," passports weren't necessary. Thanks, Becca.

We got to our hotel, which, by the way, was SO cool. We stayed at this place called The Hotel Sax, a "vintage design hotel" -- meaning that all of the furniture and decor was from the '50s, '60s, and 70's and all of the rooms were unique. There was furniture and art by famous designers from all over Europe For some reason, the hotel was also extremely cheap...tripadvisor.com is amazing.

So after we settled into the hotel, it was time for dinner. We walked to a place called The David nearby. This walk was scary because NOBODY in Prague is on the streets after 7 pm. And I don't know where everyone goes because nobody was in any of the restaurants either. Well, this place was mediocre but definitely better than the food I was expecting in Eastern Europe.

We then passed out at around 10:30 (getting from Siena to ANY airport adds at LEAST an additional 5 hours of travel time sooo at this point we were pretty tired) and woke up early the next morning to the sight of snow.

I can count the amount of times I've seen real snow on one hand, so up to this point, the novelty of there being snow hadn't yet worn away so I was pretty excited and Becca, being from NJ, kept telling me to shutup, get over it, and that my enthusiasm towards the snow wouldn't last past the end of the day. She was so right. After walking uphill, ruining my "weather-proof" boots, subsequently slipping about 984983475 times, getting frostbitten fingers, toes, and ears, and walking around in all of this for several miles, I can officially say that I'm OVER snow.

But I digress. We first went to Prague Castle, which contained several "must-sees" in Prague: St. Vitus' Cathedral; the Loreto; the Castle itself; Golden Lane, which is where all of the alchemists (who I assume must've also been dwarves considering the size of the buildings and doors) lived and practiced alchemy; and the royal gardens, which we obviously couldn't appreciate because of the weather.

We then crossed the Charles Bridge -- probably my favorite sight in Prague. It sucked that it was under construction, but it was still stuninng. Words can't describe how beautful it was, and like I said before, pictures don't do it justice.

The Jewish Quarter: got to walk around it, but couldn't go to the "main" sight: the Old Jewish Cemetery because it was Shabbat and was therefore closed. You'd think that a place like that would be pretty much open to the public and easy to gain entrance to, but unfortunately, huge walls surround all sides of the cemetery due to attempts at defacement...sad sight.

From the Jewish Quarter, we walked down the main street and just got to look at all of the beautiful buildings. We eventually hit the Old Town Square, which was just another beautiful thing to look at. The main thing to do here is look at the Astronomical Clock and ride the glass elevator to the top, which offered a great view of the entire city.

We walked around some more, headed back to the hotel in time for 5 PM tea, and then relaxed/got ready for dinner. My friend who had been to Prague before had told me, and this is a direct quote, "If you don't go to Radost FX (this restaurant) then you are an idiot. This was the greatest meal I had in Europe and you need to make this place a priority." So I did....and it was decent at best. Shoutout to Zach Silverman for that one. Moving on....

Scary story: after dinner, we called a cab to pick us up. A little background on cabs here: a lot of them are fake. We were warned of this by several people, and since neither Becca nor I wanted _____ to happen to us (I'll let you use your imagination there), we refused to get into a cab that didn't have the number that was supposed to match up with the one that the operator at the cab company had given us. So when we refused to get into this guy's cab, and then decided it'd be a good idea to get into another cab right in front of the first driver's face, he got out of his car and proceeded to yell at us and at the cab driver whose cab we actually did get into. After yelling in Czech at the other driver for 5 minutes, he opened the passenger door and MADE us get into his cab. Turns out, the number of the cab was put on in the REVERSE order on the side of the cab, so that had been the right cab all along. Needless to say, this dude was angry and we were FREAKING out. I was trying to figure out escape strategies in my head and I kept bbming Becca right next to me about my strategies. But thankfully we were fine.

Oh, and also, the flight home consisted of every single study abroad student from Rome or Florence. Every single kid was so visibly hungover from the previous night, the airplane wreaked of alcohol, and every girl was wearing huge bug-eyed sunglasses to mask the fact that she was still wearing last night's makeup because she had gone straight from the club to the airport. It was a hilarious sight.

And thaaat rounded out my weekend in Prague!

Pictures:

The building above is where Franz Kafka grew up. The paintings on it all have to do with alchemy...apparently that was a huge deal in Prague way back when.
Mala Strana, the part of town our hotel was in, from the Charles Bridge
Our sweet hotel, above and below
Old Town Square, below
Another view from the Charles Bridge...I was obsessed with it

The Astronomical Clock (above) in the Old Town Square and Becca and me in front of St. Vitus' Cathedral at Prague Castle (below)

Below is Prague Castle

My Luck is Turning Around!!!

I've made some pretty stupid and costly travel mistakes since I've been here, but something amazing just happened:

I'm going to Paris the weekend of March 11th and I'm meeting a lot of friends there. I stupidly assumed responsibility for finding accomodations. I was getting really stressed out, though, because between so many different people were THAT many different budgets, THAT many different itineraries, etc. etc, it was nearly impossible to satisfy everyone and almost all of the hostels and cheaper hotels were booked. But I miraculously found this place called the Hotel Louvre-Richelieu, a 4-star hotel at 90 euro a night with basically the most superb location in all of Paris...literally 2 blocks walk-distance from the Ritz Carlton, right in front of the Louvre, and for 90 euro/room/night.

A 4-star hotel in THAT location for THAT cheap? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it was...

I got an e-mail confirming my reservation stating that it would cost 200 euro/night -- about double what I had been told over the phone -- and my credit card had already been charged for the first night (that was their booking policy). I was livid. I called them, bitched them out, and guess what?? They gave me the room for the original price of 90 euro/night!!!!!! So turns out I'm going to be paying half-price for this room, which I will be splitting amongst 3 other people. What does this mean? I will be paying about 23 euro/night (price of a cheap hostel) to stay in a 4-star hotel, in a location that could only be beat if I were to stay at the actual Louvre itself...and all because I was an assertive bitch to the receptionist.

This marks the first time I've managed to actually SAVE money on this trip and thus merits a blog post :) Not to mention, I'm going to Prague this weekend where the current exchange rate is 1 Czech Koruna = .052 USD. Becca and I will be living like queens.......I guess "Eurotrip" was more accurate than I thought!

Ciao!

Milano

I went on a class trip to Milan this past weekend, which conveniently coincided with Milan Fashion Week. I wasn't expecting much from Milan...I had heard it was just an industrial city with nothing really special, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was really nice and I like how there was a really cool mix of old art (e.g. the Duomo, "Last Supper") with new art (trendy fashion and modern art everywhere). The food was also excellent and the gelato topped any gelato I've had in Italy BY FAR. Actually, the best gelato place happened to actually be a place that just opened up in NYC and LA called Grom (http://www.grom.it/). Besides the fact that I'm pretty sure our tour guide was a vampire who wore reflective sunglasses so we couldn't see into her soul, and the amount of pigeons at the Duomo made me want to vom (I know, I know...I have a bird...pigeons aren't birds. They're rats of the sky), a good time was had by all.

Basically the only interesting historical things were saw were the Duomo (to the left) and da Vinci's "The Last Supper" which, by the way, you need to make an appointment in advance to see...I definitely would've screwed that one up had I done the planning for this trip instead of my school. But it was amazing. However, it is deteriorating SO quickly...that tends to happen to frescoes. Especially ones that were bombed during WWII.

More cool stuff we saw/did....

To the left is Michelangelo's last sculpture, which he died working on and was thus left incomplete. It's called "Rondanini Pieta" and is supposed to be of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus's dead body. Seeing Michel

angelo's incomplete work was really special....it was as if he was still working on it. I've realized that I have an affinity for sculptures. Something about the way they are preserved is incredible. They don't deteriorate like paintings do, so it's just interesting to know that you're viewing something the exact way the artist saw it.

To the left are beautiful MARZIPAN! Not fruit. I wanted to send some home. These would make the perfect gift.

The picture taken below captures the greatest moment in time of this trip. This sushi restaurant was on the top floor of what was quite possibly the most amazing department store of all time (called La Rinascente). This top floor consisted of several boutiquey food places...including: a mozzarella bar, wine and cheese bar, juice bar, specialty sandwich shop, a place where you could basically make your own gelato, a really high-end restaurant, oyster bar, you get the point...HEAVEN. Anyway, the sushi was served on a conveyor belt and you just got to take whatever you wanted off of the belt and eat it. This is the way all meals should be served. And the sushi was sooo good, too.

To the right is a really cool car we saw at the Triennale, the modern art museum in Milan. There was also a collection of vintage Ferraris, Aston Martins, and boats that were used in James Bond movies. Going to a modern art museum was definitely a nice change from all of the old paintings that I've become all-but-desensitized too. I was really ready for a change of scenery. There were also a lot of cool pieces of furniture and an exhibit about Greta Garbo's relationship with the designer, Salvatore Ferragamo...the shoes in that exhibit were ridiculous. I'd post more pictures, but evidently the people at the museum were convinced that I was going to try to make my own copies of Ferraris and Ferragamo shoes that have been in mass production for years and years, so I was yelled at after taking the picture above...my one souvenir from this place. The guard made me give him my camera and wouldn't give it back to me until I left.

***honorable mention: Milan = city with the cutest dogs (besides Siena). LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!!!! In the words of Rachel Zoe: "I die."

Weekend in London/GETTING HOME (a story told in 2 parts)

PART ONE: I was afraid I wouldn't get to go to London during my time in Europe because most of my friends on my program had already been, so it was pure luck that I ended up being free on a weekend when my friends from school would be there! Finally, I had someone to go with AND I got to see my school friends and we had a great weekend -- London is such a cool city. It is a perfect blend of Western culture (i.e., where I can get a huge Starbucks on any corner or have access to a McDonald's whenever I'm craving it) and traditional British/European culture. It's the most unique city I've been to -- for sure the NYC of Europe, although I hate using any comparison.

My Italian class got cancelled on Friday so I was able to leave Friday morning. However, because getting from Siena to ANYWHERE is a logistical nightmare, I didn't end up in London til around 4:30. I sprinted to meet my friends to get something really fast to eat and then we went to see "Billy Elliot." I typically hate musicals, but it was actually really good! And being a tourist in London, I felt like I was obligated to see it.

On Saturday, we did all of the touristy sight-seeing at Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, etc. Of course, entrance to these places is prohibited so that didn't take up too much time. Then, we headed to Portobello Market which was a really cool open-air market in front of these beautiful pastel apartments. The markets sold awesome antique clocks, silver, jewelry, paintings, as well as cool jewelry, some food, and random toys. My friend Molly and I bought original and authentic, beautiful prints of the cartoon Babar the Elephant to hang in our bedrooms next year!

The pretty pastel buildings at Portobello Market (top) and Big Ben (bottom)

Afterwards, we made our way towards Oxford Circus, which is, in my opinion, the London version of Times Square (actually, I guess Times Square is the NYC version of Oxford Circus).....the place was a ZOO with about a billion people, all of the huge stores, only much prettier than anything in America. Our primary goal was to spend some quality time in the Topshop flagship store which was ridiculous to say the least. Being in here was actually a religious experience -- it was the size of any massive department store, but contained only the coolest and most coveted clothes from Topshop. There was also a restaurant, nail salon, bakery, information desk, etc. etc. Thousands of people were flowing in and out. Oh, and we came during London Fashion Week, so the store was extra crazy. Anyway, it was awesome - everything I had ever imagined, and then some.

For dinner, we went to a part of town called Soho, which is a really cute area in the city of Westminster. I finally had SUSHI!!!!!!!!! for the first time since being here and it was exactly what I needed. Everybody always says how shitty the food in the UK is, but I loved everything I ate here! I just don't think one should go to London planning on eating fish and chips because I don't think that's a good dish no matter WHERE you are. But I thought there was great food. We also went to a pub that was pretty fun, although I was pretty offended when they carded me (drinking age is 18). That was the first time I had been carded since being in Europe, but the people at the bar were pretty rude.

Out in Soho

On Sunday, we split up. Nicole and I went to the British Museum with the main goal of seeing the Rosetta Stone. Honestly, the museum wasn't that great and I wouldn't really recommend going. Perhaps that's because I've become spoiled by some of the greatest museums in the world but I feel as though there are probably better museums in London. Next time I'd like to go to the Tate Modern and to the Tower of London museum where they hold the Crown Jewels, which I was REALLY looking forwards to seeing, but it's closed til March :(

Then, we went to lunch at Covent Garden and walked around some. This area was awesome -- great shops and restaurants and I wish I could've walked around some more. The funniest part was that we accidentally walked straight into the red carpet of the BAFTA Awards, where pretty much every major celebrity from everywhere in the world was! We missed Prince William by mere seconds! This was the end of my wonderful time in London.

Randomly stumbling upon the BAFTA red carpet

BEST COOKIES EVER from Ben's Cookies in Covent Garden
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PART 2:

THEN my journey home started. Firstly, anyone reading this needs to know about how screwed up the public transportation in London is right now due to the fact that they're redoing EVERYTHING for the Olympics in 2012. In America, construction on major roadways is usually saved to be done through the middle of the night so that there aren't traffic issues. In London, though, there is no concept of common sense (I'm allowed to say this because this line came straight from my cab driver) so they do roadwork and shut down tube lines during the worst possible times. So during our entire time in London, travel was a HUGE and EXPENSIVE (both time and $$) pain in the ass and the tube closures made everything 1000000 x more confusing than it should've been.

SO, having said that, I had planned on taking a shuttle from the Barbican train station straight to London-Gatwick. Construction forced the closure of the shuttle from Barbica to London-Gatwick and I was told I'd have to go to the Victoria station (a 20 min. and very expensive cab ride away) to catch the only other shuttle, which I ended up missing by literally 3 seconds. So I had to wait 45 minutes for the next shuttle. Getting there took another 30 minutes. So I was already short on spare time.

I get to the airport late and in panic-mode as I have about 3 pounds left in cash and am scarily close to missing my flight to Pisa. Fortunately, I notice that another flight to Florence was departing a little after my Pisa flight, which I was bound to miss. I got myself switched to get to Florence which actually would've worked out in several ways: 1. Missing my Pisa flight wouldn't be the end of the world; 2. Florence is closer to Siena; 3. Trains leave from Florence to Siena much later than trains from Pisa to Siena; 4. In case of an emergency, I had friends in Florence who could help me.

But then, my Florence flight got delayed. And delayed and delayed and delayed. I ended up landing in Florence at 1: AM and made a mad dash to the train station to see if there was any hope of there being a train back to Siena that late. I get to the train station and see that the last train to Siena had left 30 min ago and that there wouldn't be another until 6:30 AM.

Here I was, alone in the Florence train station, middle of the night, getting scary looks from homeless people and creepy men, carrying around a huge duffel with important travel documents and several credit cards. I honestly thought I was a goner. I bbmed my friends and found out that they weren't even in Italy because they had gone to Amsterdam for the weekend. I tried calling my friend Bryan's number frantically, but I kept receiving some stupid message from Vodaphone saying his Italian number wasn't working. I get my dad and sister to somehow get in contact with a member of Bryan's family.

Finally, I received a call from Bryan, who told me that his dad had called him saying that I was in a crisis. Anyway, turns out Bryan had landed back into Florence only hours before from Amsterdam himself. Being the life-saver he is, he rescued me from certain doom and I basically sat on his couch til 6 AM, where I finally got the time to complete my Italian homework and reading.

So I then made the 6:30 AM train back to Siena, walked into my apartment at exactly 8:30 AM because the train made so many g.d. stops, and had class all day from 9 AM - 4 PM. Easily the most miserable day of my life, but 150% worth it because London was out of this world...if I had to go abroad somewhere else, I definitely would've chosen London. A GREAT city.