Trip 3: Rome, Italy

So, after our exhausting flight to Rome, we were there! We landed around 9 am, and we wanted to try to get to the hostel and get going on things. We wrote down directions, but they weren't very clear. Where we were staying, which is outside of Rome, actually in Ciampino (where the airport is). We didn't realize this though, and thought it was in Rome. We got on the bus that it said to, and got off because we didn't know exactly where to go, and it dropped us off at the bus transfer. We asked some cops if they could help us (so hard, because they didn't speak English). They told us to take the metro into Rome, and so we did. It was hard not to laugh, because they had the stereotypical Italian accent, especially pronouncing "Di'Assissi", which was the name of our street. We got into Rome, and asked the Info desk at the Metro to help us to our hostel. She even looked it up on the map, and told us what bus to take and then we would find it. We got on the right bus, asked the driver to help us get off when we needed to (she wrote down directions to what stop to get off at). And he did, so we thought we were almost there around 11 am, finally. We were so relieved, just had to get off the bus and look for the place. We literally walked around for another half and hour, asking many, random Italians that could maybe help? A couple of times people told us there was no street named "Di'Assissi" in Rome. Finally, we found a hotel and asked for help. The lady told us we were supposed to be in Ciampino, where we just were. We had no idea what to do. Finally, we were so tired (literally exhausted, running off a few hours of sleep) and hungover, that we took a cab. The cab was expensive, but so worth it. We were done trying to find our way around this town. We found the hostel, grabbed something to eat, and I made Natashya get going on our Rome adventure, since there was so much to do. We literally didn't even have enough time to shower, so we (sadly, and grossly) walked around in our head scarves, dirty hair & face, all day....

We grabbed food from a place across the street from our hostel. The guys that worked there were Egyptian I think, but they couldn't speak english. There was a guy in there (their friend I think) that helped us out though. He, of course, started out by trying to guess our race, the normal throughout this trip. (It's not often you see an Asian and a Sri Lankan together in Europe). We got to talking, and he actually ended up working at the hostel that we were staying at. So, once he started work, we got ready and he told us where to go. He gave us his map, and we did his day guide of what to do. Because we weren't exactly in Rome, we were outside, we had to take the train in everyday to get to the city. It wasn't too bad, like a euro ticket and a 15 minute ride in. We just had to make sure that we got up in time to catch it, for some reason it barely left between 1 pm and 2 pm.

We rode the train in, and took the metro to the coloseum. There's people walking around trying to get you to do a tour with a guide, but I just figured it was a rip off. We can figure it out ourselves...So after a long line and no student discount (that sucked), we got into the coloseum. Sadly, the first thing I thought of was the movie Jumper. But, it was really cool other than the rain here & there. It was weird that they would literally just watch people try to fight animals, and kill others, etc. there. Kind of creepy that people go there to look at it. On the way to the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II we walked by a bunch of ruins that we had no idea what it was. Guess it was the Roman Forum, don't make fun of us. We had no idea what half of the stuff we were seeing. The Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II we didn't know it was called that either. It was this huge building in the middle of a roundabout. It had huge statues, a couple military men standing guard over a memorial it looked like. We then walked around, into some random churches here and there. We went into one church, and there was a guy outside pretending to take donations for the church, but was obviously some bum. He literally like yelled at me in Italian for walking by him withouth giving him something...I felt bad. More scared than bad though. Afterwards we went to the Pantheon. It was closed when we went, but we were outside for a bit. They have horses that can pull you in a carriage, and we decided to go pet them. The one horse did not like Natashya very much though, it literally ate at her shirt. Literally, hole in shirt. We stayed away from that horse after. Natashya hated it, but i found it entertaining! Next was the Piazza Novana. We actually just kind of ran into all of these piazzas, not realy know what was what. But, this was definitely my favorite place of all time (and I repeated this to Natashya the whole trip). Something about the setting was just perfect. It was a big square with two fountains at the end of each in the middle. All around were restaurants (pretty expensive) and in the middle there were plenty of artists & their paintings. It was beautiful. There was accordian music heard all around, artists drawing more, and people buzzing. We had dinner around the corner of the Piazza, where we shared salad, pasta, and of course some wine. Traditional Italian? We took the train home, showered, and slept like babies that night. We were so exhausted after having like 5 hours of sleep and walking around all day.

The next day we decided to dedicate to the Vatican City. First we went to the Piazza Espana. That's where we saw a bunch of the name brand stores--things we can't even imagine ever going into. Oh well, a girl can dream? I saw this store Hermes, that Brandon and his roommate were looking at online once. Literally like 100 euros for a sweater, right? Anyway, on the way to the Vatican. Then, because we didn't have any tour guide/etc. we got lost...a lot. First off, we didn't know what anything we were looking for looked like. So, that made things a lot harder. We literally walked outside around the Vatican Museum...the WHOLE museum. We gave up trying to find the entrance, so we went to the Piazza San Pietro, and walked up the St. Peter's Basilica. It was such close quarters. Literally only one person could go up/down the steps at one point. It was crowded, no windows, with a bunch of never-ending steps. It was almost as bad as going up the Eiffel Tower just because you were confined to such a small space. Either way, we made it. After we were done looking from above (from the inside of the church, at the top, and the outside) we walked back downstairs into the church. We went back to the Piazza Novana, because it was my favorite, to eat some gelato. We noticed some Italian lady, her friend, some guy & a son staring and laughing at us. Not laughing at us, but like to us. We finally figured out it was because her son had a littel crush. He came up to us, very shy, and started speaking to us in Italian. He was about five years old, and the cutest thing on the planet. The guy translated for us as we flirted with this little boy. We told him we'd come back in 15 years for him. He even gave us some kisses on the cheek, such a sweetie! After we got directions from the guy that spoke English, we headed to the Fontana di Trevi. It was getting a little dark, but everyone says to go there when it's dark because it's beautiful. There's a bunch of guys with instant cameras that try to get you to buy their pictures. They even offer to take pictures of you with your own camera. We got this one guy to, but we felt bad taht we didn't buy antyhing from him. I made a wish, best wish of my life, until some guy told me I did it wrong. I guess you're supposed to throw with your right over your left shoulder? Thanks for the warning everyone...I looked like an idiot. I definitely redid that wish. It was a mixture of my 11/11/11 at 11:11 wish with a twist...just a hint. After the trevi fountain we grabbed some pizza, where we found the BEST pizza in Italy. It was thick crust, had a trillion choices, and was delicious. We headed back home, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our Rome trip for the next day.

 We decided we needed to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, so we headed back there right away. It took us like 45 minutes to try to find the entrance, when it was where we started...we're idiots. We finally got in, and took a look around. The place was huge. We literally ran through the whole museum because everyone said how long it takes to get to the Sistine Chapel. So, we ran through the museum to get there first. It didn't take long at all (maybe beacuse it was like a Wednesday when we were there?) You had to be quiet, no pictures, etc. The walls looked like they were 3d, we stood there trying to figure out whether it was a real ledge or not at the top. Still haven't decided, but I'm convinced it's just some good artwork tricking us! After we saw that, we slowly went through the rest of the museum looking at everything. It was weird, in The Louvre there was this sculpture of a kid having a swan in a headlock (don't ask why we remember this?) but we saw it again here in the museum. Like, which one is fake? Why is this stupid sculpture so popular? Someone has to know these answers. Obviously one of them is fake, and if it is, why have a replica? After the Vatican stuff, we decided to see the rest of the Rome "attractions" that we had never heard of...We went to Campo di Fiori, where I bought some Limoncello. It was just a huge fresh air market selling lots of food (which I did not need!) in the piazza. Then we went to the Circo de Massimo, which was a little further from everything else. We didn't really know what it was. But we saw it. We rode the bus back into the center of Rome. We decided to go back to the Piazza Novana to have a picnic outside since it was still light out and we wanted something cheap. We grabbed some peach liquor (Natashya's pick, it was gross) and some cheese and bread to have and sit in the piazza. We got yelled at (after about half an hour of the cops watching us eat) because apparently "no picnic", in their exact words. Didn't really matter since the cheese was gross anyway, I don't know what kind it was, but gross! Even the bread was bad, how do you screw up bread? Oh well. We walked to the Fontana di Trevi to drink the rest of our liquor, and watch cute couples be cute in front of the fountain. We found the guy that took our picture from the night before, and since I was pretty drunk, I bought a picture from him. Too bad the picture sucks, it's literally just a picture of me and Natashya, you can't even see the background, it's pitch black. Whatever. The guy then gave us some story about how he gave up drinking (after seeing we were clearly drunk) beacuse he has a daughter. Then he showed us a picture of his daughter. Hmm, cool? We went back to the pizza place from the night before to eat more of the delicious pizza. I also told plenty of people outside how this was the best pizza place (although, worst service). We headed back to the hostel, got some good sleep before leaving for Cinque Terre around 11 the next morning.

As I've mentioned a trillion times, the Piazza Novana was my favorite. The Fontana di Trevi is cool and all, but who decides what fountain is gonna make your wish come true? Americans throw coins in everywhere to make wishes, who decides what's "magical" and what's not? (Okay, I sound like Stefanos now). But still. The Piazza Novana just had the perfect feel to it, had beautiful artwork that I had to pry myself away from, and beautiful music and scenery. It was the perfect Rome picture. Rome was such a touristy place, and I felt overwhelmed by everything that I wanted to see. We got lost a lot since it was just a bunch of piazzas everywhere. There were signs telling you how to get to every attraction, yet we still got lost. Rome was beautiful, such an amazing, big city, I can't imagine if I would study there. I mean you would never run out of things to do, but at the same time, it's not much of a unique experience since there's always tourists there. Going to all the big tourist places over spring break made me happy that I studied in Thessaloniki, it's the second biggest city in Greece, yet there's hardly any tourists. I got a real feel of "Greece".

Spring Break Trip 2: Barcelona

Okay, first off, I have to tell everyone that my camera is now gone forever. Lost in the Aegean Sea....WITH ALL MY SPRING BREAK PICTURES! :( There is a drunk boat (the Reggae Boat) that we went on, and my friend dropped it in the sea...none of my pictures were uploaded onto my computer yet either. So...they are lost. I cried at the time...but I'm getting over it (slowly, but surely). I figure, I hardly ever look at my pictures from Korea, I mean, I will get over it. It's sad, but pictures are pictures. Besides, everything looks so much cooler in real life...Oh well....trying to stay positive! Nothing I can do about it now.

Anyway, so we left Barcelona and arrived around 9 pm Thursday night. First people we run into when we get off the plane to take the train into town are some people from our college! Such a small world, we didn't plan it together at all, but I knew they were going to be in Barcelona at the same time as us. It wasn't too hard to get to our hostel this time, a lot of people spoke English and we ended up just asking the cops where to go. We stayed at Hostel One, which our friend said to stay at. They had dinner every night, although we only ate it like twice (kind of weirded me out having a dinner at a hostel? I don't know). We decided to go to a bar and wait for our friend Craig, his girlfriend Kathryn & his friend Eric. They got in around midnight and we met up to go out to some club that Kathryn's friends were at. We were not prepared to get all dressed up...blah. We were supposed to try to get there before 1:30 am, to not have to pay to get in, but we didn't make it in time. We thought we would be really sneaky and try to get in from the back which faced the sea. We thought we made it, we climbed over couches & snuck in an open door & literally 2 seconds in the club we were escorted out. It was worth a try though, right?! The security was so into their job...they had headphones and everything. Natashya heard him say "Indian, asian, blonde" on the way out. Probably to have them keep an eye out for us...oops. Wasn't too bad of a night though, we ended up just drinking on the boardwalk.There were guys selling shit everywhere, mostly beers for 1 euro. Crappy, 1 euro beer. Natashya and I went to go try to find a bathroom & we went into a casino, but since I didn't have my ID on me they wouldn't let me go in to pee. Like really?!

The next day we woke up around 11 and went out to explore. We grabbed breakfast around the corner, and headed out to a place that overlooked the city, Guell. They had America's Next Top Model Runway show there once, that's how I remember that place...haha. Then we walked around Las Ramblas around all the shops - expensive & not expensive. There's a bunch of street vendors & entertainers. There's guys that try to sell you these weird noise thingys. I guess what they do is try to distract you with what (annoying) noise they're making in your mouth while some guy steals stuff from you. Luckily, I may add, nothing was stolen on this trip! There was the fresh air market there, which is 10x cooler than the one in Thessaloniki. They had a bunch of fresh fruit, meat & vegetables. They had awesome smoothies, which we bought for 2 euro when we found some later that were like 1 euro...if only our fatasses could've waited 2 minutes. We also went to La Sagrada Familia. It is this huge church designed by Antonio Gaudi. It's like no other building in general that I have ever seen. It looks like it's melting from the top. We sat there deciding what 50 things it looked like - melting chocolate ice cream, upside down baseball bats, etc. They have like fruits on top of the pillars. It's been in construction forever, and still isn't finished. It was a really cool building, they say you either love it or hate it. I, personally, loved it. Something different, literally nothing I've ever seen before. Mind blowing. Later that night we went out, and made the cover so we didn't have to get kicked out again...haha. We went to one of the clubs on the beach. It was weird though, you're not allowed to smoke inside there, which I didn't realize. I got yelled at for lighting a cigarette inside...oops. (In Greece they let you smoke literally anywhere. LITERALLY anywhere...) I don't usually smoke, only when I'm drunk (and in Greece) mom. We had a good night, and somehow made it back home.

The next morning we had a laid back day. We walked around a lot, went to the beach (even though it was cold out). Natashya and I split paille (I don't know how to spell it) and sangria. I forgot how grossed out I get by seafood. I made her split open my shrimp and other things. It was delicioius, but so gross to look at. Then we went to walk around, we found this little cart that was selling head scarves. We decided that was a really good idea & made us look extra ethnic (even Kathy who is blonde, haha). We had the lady tie them on our heads and everything. We thought it was the best idea. Perfect for a bad hair day, which we all had from the night before. We went to the beach, ate some fresh strawberries, coconuts & our champagne. We didn't realize that you're not allowed to sit on the chairs unless you paid for them. Screw that, we just sat on the sand. Then some guy (Han) came up to us and asked if we wanted Henna tattoos. We couldn't say no after the head scarves, they went together so perfectly! Too bad they were sucky, mine barely stayed on the rest of Spring Break. Oh well, he was a cool guy and he sat and talked to us for awhile. Then we went to the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. It was this beautiful fountain show. What Natashya & I noticed (and talked about the whole time of the show...now that I think of it) was that they didn't have normal neon colors, but nice, pretty pastel colors. Anyway, it was really fun to watch. We went back to the hostel to take a nap (we were all finally in the same room!) and got ready to go out. We decided to take it a little easy (so we thought) & went to a place to get a fishbowl. The fishbowl is where you share a drink together, ours was 6 liters of vodka and orange soda (did I just say soda? I've been around my eastern friends too much, this is ridiculous!). Between five of us, we finished it, along with the free shot that we got. We were still a little thirsty, so we got another 2 liters of sangria. By the end of that, we were all just wasted. Me, Natashya & Eric had to leave early to catch our flights though (mine and Natashya's was at 6 am & his was at 7 am, so we just went there together). It was horrible though. We got back to the hostel around 3 am and slept until 4 am when we got up to get everything together and leave! We took public transportation there too, which was horrible. We walked down to the bus stop, and Natashya slept on the (20 minute?) ride to the airport. Then we went through security and everything & slept again until our plane was ready to board. It was the worst experience of our lives. We were so drunk/hungover/tired. Waking up and falling back asleep, dirty & gross & tired. I don't think being in the air helped at all. Honestly, this flight was such a blur. But, we made it safe and sound! Off to Rome we were, and I was determined not to miss a thing in Rome!

Spring Break Trip 1: PARIS

I'm going to have to split up my posts about spring break, since I travelled so many places, did so many things, and took literally 1,000 pictures. It is going to take me FOREVER to upload my pictures, blog about everything, and catch up on my journal about everything. There is not enough time in the day! Not only that, but I have plans almost every weekend from here out! Can't believe how fast this semester is going by. Today is my 2nd full day of school since April 5th! (I went to one full day last week, skipped Monday this week & we had yesterday off). So, it's really hard getting back into the swing of things!

First off, literally everywhere we went it rained at least one day for a little bit. My boots are pretty much destroyed by now, but oh well. Getting back to Greece was awesome because we came back to literally 80 degree sunny, beautiful weather!

My first stop was Paris Sunday morning. I was really worried about finding the public bus to the airport, but I figured it out alright. It only leaves 2 times every hour, and they don't tell you when, so you kind of just have to chance it. Luckily, I only had to wait a couple minutes before it came. The check-in for my bag wasn't too bad. It was overweight, but the lady told me to just put on an extra sweater & I would be fine. They are so laid back here! Three girls from my program ended up being on my flight, so weird!

I got into Paris around 10:30, and I checked my facebook on my ipod and saw that I had a message from Natashya telling me to meet her somewhere around midnight (the bus from the airport to the city was about an hour and a half). So, I went there to meet her and midnight, and she wasn't there! I knew if I didn't message back right away this would happen. So, I was lost in Paris right away. Luckily, there was this kid that was waiting by the metro & I got up the guts to ask to use his phone. How lucky am I that he spoke fluent English too?! (He happened to be half American). Thank God. He waited with me there for a bit, until his friend met up with him. Natashya got there about half an hour later. It wasn't scary or anything, just freaking cold out!! We went to my hostel and I checked in. Then we went to walk around the city til like 4 am. She came to sleep with me for a bit until the metro re-opened for her at 5:45 am. She came to meet me the next day (she said) around noon. I got kicked out of my hostel around 12 (they have to do cleaning and crap), so I waited outside. She didn't get there until 1:30. I sat waiting outside my hostel by myself & this creepy, old man came up to me. He started speaking french & I just kinda laughed it off, saying I didn't speak French. Then he leaned in (I was thinking he was going to try to whisper to me or something?) & he tried to freaking kiss me!!!! I flipped out. He literally walked by like 3 more times until Natashya came. He would not leave me alone! But, I didn't wanna try to move otherwise I'd miss Natashya somehow. It was so hard to try to contact Natashya with no phone, no internet, etc...became a pain!

We finally met up around 1, and went to The Louvre. The line for it was so long just to get a ticket! But, some guy came up to me & asked if I wanted his since he was leaving and it was an all day pass. Lucky me! We walked around and saw all the art. I liked the Greek art...of course ;) The place was huge, so easy to get lost in. Of course we went to go see the Mona Lisa. Literally everyone was crowded in there taking pictures. And, like I had heard, it was a letdown. It's so small compared to everything else they have in there! But, I mean whatever. I saw it. We went to Notre Dame afterwards. It was raining and gloomy, so unfortunately the stained glass wasn't lighting up the church! But, it was beautiful inside. Afterward, we went to the Galleries Lafayette, aka the fancy mall. It was beautiful, it shouldn't be a mall! All of the designer brands, it hurt to look at the price tags.

The next day we went to Versaille. It was King Louis decided to have the biggest, most extravagant kingdom. It is..everything is gold! It was beyond amazing. I wish I lived there...It was huge! You had to either get a golf-cart or bike or walk to get from one section to the other. Natashya and I decided to rent a tandum bike because we were in a hurry. Ps, I am now in LOVE with tandum bikes! It was hard at first to get going, but I love it now!

The next day we went to Arc de Triomph and climbed to the top. Such a long walk, but little did I know it was going to be the shortest of all the walks on this trip! First off, we were idiots and tried to walk across the street (it's a big roundabout that connects 12 streets! Like we were going to get across without being honked at...) instead of using the underground tunnel that you're supposed to use. Oh well, we weren't alone, other tourists did it! From the top, you could see the Eiffel Tower, and all the streets that connect to the center. Later on, we went to, of course the Eiffel Tower! We climbed to the 2nd level, until there were no more stairs (669 I think it was?!). That was my workout for the trip....! The sun was setting and it was beautiufl up there. I was just waiting for someone to propose up there! So perfect! When we got back down, we watched the light show. It sounds so lame, but the Eiffel Tower is so much better at night! The light show is just a bunch of sparkling, but it's literally enchanting. Probably one of my favorite parts of Paris.

I really think all of this is out of order, I don't even remember what days we did what, etc. But, that's the gist of it (I don't know how to spell gist? I don't think it's even a word. Oh well, this is MY blog, I can do what I want). So, throughout the whole break, I would get really excited to talk to other Americans. And, me, being my friendly self always say hi! This guy was in the souvenir shop head-to-toe in Michigan attire. I said hi to him & that my boyfriend lives in Michigan. Then I said that I was from Minnesota. He goes, "The friends I'm travelling with are from Minnesota actually!" So, of course I had to go meet them to see if they lived by me or anything! It just so happens, two of them are really good friends with my friend Craig from high school. I told them we were actually meeting up with Craig in Barcelona on Thursday, and he goes "I'll be in Barcelona Thursday too!" Small, small world. We ended up seeing him again in Barcelona!

We left for Barcelona around 6 pm Thursday, the 12th. We didn't figure out the bus situation on how to get there and everything until later, Natashya literally had an hour to pack everything and to get going. We were running late, and we literally ran to the metro, from the metro to the bus stop, from the bus stop to the terminal. I think we literally had about 5 minutes to spare before the gates closed. All of this, and Natashya had to pee for like 2 hours straight. I don't know how she held it....!!! But, we were finally on the plane, ready to go.

My overall experience in Paris was good. I was expecting a lot more out of this "romantic city", but I just found the metro and the whole city really dirty and icky (maybe it didn't help that it was rainy?). Yes, girls were always dressed up and such, but I still think that Greek girls are prettier, French girls may just dress nicer. The French are kind of stand-offish and don't really care to talk to Americans, which was what I was expecting. It was different being in a city that was literally all tourists, and such diversity. There were many races, all speaking French still. It's not the same here in Thessaloniki where everyone is Greek and speaks Greek. People literally stare at me in Thess because I'm obviously not Greek, but in France I was just another face in the crowd. It was a plus, and a con. I kind of like standing out sometimes...