Spring Break Part 2: Sorrento, Rome and Florence

After a quick flight from Athens to Naples, we finally arrived in Italy! Winding our way to the city center, we also found our way to a local pizzeria - being the birthplace of pizza, naturally we had to give it a go. After eating the entire thing, we caught a train to take us through the beautiful country side to Sorrento. This ended up looking somewhat like Santorini, just a lot greener. It had been a long day of travelling, so we wound our way through the city to our apartment for the next few days and settled in because the next day we were taking an all day boat tour to Capri.

At 9am sharp our boat captain picked us up from our doorstep and drove us to our waiting yacht, named Mamma Mia! II. They drove us past Old Sorrento (which was amazing from the water), Positano, and on to Capri - we circled the entire island, seeing all of the grottos and the faraglioni, which are the three massive rock formations in the water. We eventually got off at the port and had 3 hours to explore the island and indulge in some gelato. This is on my top list of gorgeous places I've been, and apparently Hollywood agrees - this is the go to destination for, supposedly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey, and once upon a time Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Onassis.

 


The next day we planned on visiting Pompeii. After several talks with different locals, they convinced us that Pompeii isn't the way to go, rather Ercolano. Much less visited, much smaller, but instead of being completely destroyed by Vesuvius, there is more to see here. So we hopped back on the train and wound up  exploring an ancient town for the rest of the afternoon. It was amazing how much was preserved, from art on the walls, to dishes and water fountains.

 

After making our own pasta dinner that night (and making good friends with a local market owner) the following day we caught a train to Rome. On a side note - this hostel was possibly the worst of the trip; they gave us a 6th roommate, a guy from London rooming with 5 girls, no towels, so we used tshirts instead, their wifi barely worked, and they promised us free pizza every night, which of course didn't end up happening.Anyways, we arrived in Rome pretty early in the day, so after finding our way to our hostel we continued on to the Colosseum - it really is huge! After this, we walked around a bit more, got dinner, and visited the Trevi Fountain at night. I figured by that hour the Trevi Fountain would be empty, but it was nuts. We wound our way to the front, threw in a few euros for good measure, then proceeded to get gelato.

 
Next day's agenda was the Vatican - instead of waiting in lines for several hours we bought a guided tour, and it was well worth it. We skipped the lines, and the guide was genuinely funny. Also, he resembled Joe from The Princess Diaries, only adding to the entertainment factor. There was a lot more to the Vatican than just The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica (apparently a lot of the marble used for the floors in the Vatican was taken/stolen from the colosseum because the Popes didn't want to wait and pay for new marble.) The rest of our time in Rome we spent visiting landmarks like the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, and going to a Roma football match.

 

 




Next stop: Florence. Another train ride north brought us into Tuscany. At this point in the trip we are two weeks in, exhausted, and still have an entire other city to explore. We hobbled to our hostel, passing the amazing Duomo, a few leather markets, and struggling to roll our suitcases over the cobblestone. As luck would have it, while we were in Florence, so were the leaders of the EU. Although this may seem cool, it also meant that we never made it inside the Duomo or into the main museum in Florence, housing The David. There were police everywhere, along with huge crowds, and it was not what we needed at the tail end of our trip. So to fill our days instead we explored the Ponte Vecchio, bartered with anyone we could, and took a wine tasting class. We sampled three wines (one white, two red), paired with three cheeses, and two types of olive oil. Florence ended up being our relaxing time, just shopping, eating, and taking in the views. One day while exploring, and famished, we happened upon a pizzeria, ordered, sat down to wait and realized we had just stumbled into the place that Jersey Shore worked while they were in Italy - I am not an avid fan of this show, but it was entertaining to see all of the things they left behind to be remembered by.

 

 

In the end, Spring Break was surreal. I have never been on vacation that long or visited that many places at once. It still hasn't really processed that I have been to all of those places. The family arrived in Paris the day I got back from Spring Break, meaning I didn't really stop being a tourist, anywhere, for four weeks straight. Exhausting? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.

Spring Break Part 1: Santorini and Athens

Although Spring Break is about one month removed, and I head home in about two weeks, here are the highlights of the best spring break of my life. It is hard to cover everything, so bare with me on the briefness.

Spring Break commenced with a flight to Athens International airport, where after sleeping in the McDonald's for about 8 hours, we caught our connecting flight to Santorini. Since I figured we would right away be landing in a gorgeous paradise, I was sorely surprised to see us landing in a barren desert, but it wasn't long before the great views appeared. We stayed at Stelio's Place while on the island, and it was by far the best hostel I have staid in while abroad. Not only was it really clean, they provided breakfast, beach towels, suntan lotion, and were all of twenty seconds from a black sand beach. We ended up frequenting this beach quite often to work on our tans.

 


One day we rented ATVs to explore the island. They were mildly scary going around the curves on the side of the cliffs, but they are truly the easiest, and most fun, way to get around. It may be a tourist thing to do, but I'm pretty sure most locals own them too. One of our locations for the day was Ammoudi Bay, so we strapped on our helmets and zoomed our way there, stopping along the way in Thira for lunch. The main goal of Ammoudi Bay was to go cliff jumping. Not so keen on plunging into water from 15 or 20 meters high caused some stress, especially once we saw where we'd be jumping from. Getting to the mini cliff also proved to be a problem - you had to swim across a mini channel, then scale the island around and up to the landing - keep in mind this is all barefoot and in a bathing suit, so cuts and bruises were inevitable. We did eventually make it, and nerves started getting the better of us, but backing down now was not an option. It may have taken an extra ten minutes or so of mental debates, but eventually I was the first girl to jump off - scariest and best feeling ever. Dropping for that long and not knowing when you'll hit the water is awful and exhilarating. Finally bobbing in the salt water though and knowing it was over with was a huge relief. Later that day we went to Oia to watch one of their famous sunsets and get a good and cheap meal (one nice thing about Greece being in a fiscal downward spiral is that we ate very well for very cheap). After finding a comfy place among all of the cute white and blue houses, we watched, and applauded, as the sun set behind islands on the horizon.

Another day, we took a boat from Thira to an active volcano. It was about a twenty five minute hike up to the top, but it was an amazing view of the rest of the island and the surrounding water. I imagine this is what being on top of the world feels like, or at least close. After the volcano we went to the hot springs. Although much dirtier and colder than I expected, it was still neat. The water was red/brown, murky, and it smelled, but apparently it is great for your skin - nevertheless, we couldn't get back to the boat fast enough. Another adventure was to the red sand beach. Santorini has black, white, and red sand beaches, and despite all of them being scalding hot on your feet, they are all beautiful. The red sand beach was the most unique beach I have ever seen. It was a straight drop off from red dirt cliffs, and mini rock slides would occur behind you as your sitting looking out into the water. This was the beach where we really found out just how buoyant the Mediterranean is - no effort was needed whatsoever to float, just lay back and enjoy.

 

Our next stop after having a wonderful time in Santorini was Athens. We took a very long ferry back to the mainland, arriving around 11:30 at night, grabbing a taxi to our hostel, which looked like I imagine it did in perhaps the 60s..The next day we planned on visiting the Parthenon and other big monuments in Athens, but there just so happened to be a strike. Apparently this was common knowledge to everyone but us, and therefore these monuments were all closed. We climbed all the way to the top of the acropolis to find that we couldn't enter into the actual Parthenon. To say we were bummed is an understatement. We didn't have much to do in Athens than this, so we climbed yet another mini mountain to get another view of the city - fun, but exhausting in the heat. The shopping in Athens proved to be really fun, but the actual city itself was rather grimy, and not exactly a place I see myself visiting again in the future unless I know the parthenon is indeed open.
 
 

Overall, Greece was a great experience. The people were more than willing to help you out in every way possible, the food was amazing (I literally will put tzatziki on anything now), and the sites were gorgeous. Although the mainland wasn't all that I hoped it would be, I would still love to go back to Greece and do some more exploring.

Preparation for Spring Break: Amsterdam

To start, let's clear up some geographical and cultural questions that nagged us on our 8 hour bus ride to Amsterdam: Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland; they speak Dutch; and they were ranked the happiest people according to OECD in 2011.

Like I said, Paris to Amsterdam is an 8 hour bus ride, including stops in Brussels and Antwerp, and the cheapest way to get between the two cities. Although it was a very cramped half day, we did indeed finally make it to this capital city. Since we were taking a night bus back home on Sunday night we had almost two and a half days to explore the city. The first thing that I noticed was the sheer number of bikes. There were entire parking garages of just bikes - seriously don't know how anyone finds their bikes at the end of the day. The second thing was the cones of french fries covered in who-knows-what that everyone seemed to be eating. Although we weren't adventurous enough to try riding bikes in a city where  bicycles are used more often than vehicles, we did try the fries. We ordered the "special", which meant fries covered in ketchup, mayo and onions - not something you would ever crave, but it was delicious nonetheless. At the end of this very long Friday we got back to our hostel, and even though all I wanted to do was go to sleep, to my very loud shock and surprise there was a man sleeping in my bed. We woke him up, got the front desk, and he was thrown out into Amsterdam at midnight, but hey I wasn't about to share with him.


Along with very unhealthy food this weekend, we also experienced Keukenhof - it was truly an experience. Keukenhof is also known as the Garden of Europe because it is the largest garden in the world. We went to see the tulips (which luck would have it weren't blooming for one more week) but ended up seeing so much more. There were fields of daffodils and red tulips, as well as huge planted beds, a windmill, and also an indoor greenhouse where we got to finally see some tulips. Luck would also have it that this was the single most popular day to go to Keukenhof - there is an annual, national flower parade that winds its way through the country, Keukenhof being one of the stops along the way. It was interesting to see the floats made out of flowers, but not worth the crowds.

 Along with just wandering the very interesting streets of Amsterdam, we also hit up a few tourist stops along the way, including the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum and The Heineken Factory.

We had to wait in an hour long line to get into the Anne Frank House, but it was well worth the wait - it was crazy seeing the rather small space that two families inhabited for two years, never being able to go outside, or even open the windows. When the space was being turned into a museum, Otto Frank (Anne Frank's father, and only one who survived WWII) insisted on not replacing any of the furniture that had been taken from the apartment - this gave the entire tour more of an eerie, or perhaps somber, effect, as well as reinforced everything most of the visitors had read in this girl's diary. At the end you got to see Anne's actual diary and other pages she filled during those two years - seeing the red checkered journal and the scrawl of a thirteen year old really made the entire experience that much more chilling.


Next we checked out the Van Gogh museum - definitely one of my favorite exhibits visited while being abroad. Although Starry Night was absent, The Bedroom and Sunflowers were present, along with several other gorgeous paintings. I didn't realize how much of Van Gogh's work I recognized, or how much his style changed between black outlines, brush strokes, Japanese influence, and his use of color.


Now onto the Heineken Tour - I have never taken a beer factory tour before, so therefore I have nothing to compare it to, but from what I can imagine this is the best it gets. For the 18 euros we paid, we got the entire history of the brand, saw the tanks where the beer is made (and for that matter just how in general it is made), the bottling process, took the "beer ride" (virtual video that turns you into a bottle of Heineken), learned how to properly taste beer, made a music video (mildly embarrassing) and then received two half pints of their finest beer. We had quite the afternoon. Once we made it out of this gigantic green maze we took the free Heineken boat to their souvenir location to receive our free bottle opener (and it just happened to drop us off closer to our hostel so we didn't have to walk!)

It was a great weekend, but once again, it was very nice to get back to Paris and the comforts of "home". Classes are still breezing by - had my first and only test today in one of my classes, and one of the questions, literally, was "True or False: Couples attach locks to bridges in Paris as a symbol of their lasting love for each other" C'est vrai.

The host family is as good as ever - dinners are extremely fun, especially when my host mom is constantly making jokes about her husband, the husband and I are talking about the difference between his favorite cheeses, or the daughter is telling me about great flea markets. They haven't served me anything too out of the ordinary, my host mom did eat cow tongue last night though, but I know I will miss the plethora of fresh bread and brie. I really lucked out with a great set up here!

Spring Break is only two days away, meaning it is finally time to ask my host family what the heck they did with my luggage, and purchase some sun tan lotion. For the next two weeks I will be covering 3,955 miles, 7 cities, and 2 countries; encountering new people, foods, and cultures; here goes nothing!

The Alps to the Mediterranean

Despite two back to back weekends of only mildly nice weather I can now check two more locations off of my "to see" list. Last weekend we trekked to Grenoble, and to Barcelona this past weekend.

We chose to visit Grenoble (little town in France, near Lyon, hosted the '68 Olympic Games) to be able to experience the Alps while being abroad - Mother Nature didn't really like our plan though so our trip consisted of viewing only the base of the Alps, and therefore going and seeing the new Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper movie. Nevertheless though, we stayed in an adorable apartment for the weekend and got to explore a new French town. Fort de la Bastille is right in Grenoble, so our first day we took la telepherique up the mountain to hike around a bit, and see the city from above. It was a great view- it almost felt like you were in the clouds. The city was pretty much surrounded by mountains on all sides, and you could see some houses a little ways up some of the mountains (kind of begging the question of what do they do when they need to go grocery shopping?) Anyways, Grenoble is pretty small compared to Paris, so it was nice to get away for the long Easter weekend. One thing about being abroad that is less than ideal is when holidays roll around (granted I've only missed one thus far) - you can't really celebrate Easter properly when you are 4,000 miles away from your family and eating home made fajitas as your dinner while your family are all at a massive brunch.

I got back this morning from Spain, where I was visiting a friend from school who is studying abroad in Barcelona. I absolutely loved everything about this city - if I didn't love Paris so much I would wish I studied there. When I arrived on Friday it was raining (not typical Barca weather of course) but despite the rain Hannah managed to show me around to her favorite spots, including Las Ramblas and an amazing market, the Gothic neighborhood, the beach, and the Gaudi houses. It is quite amazing how different the architecture was in Barcelona compared to Paris. It was so modern, practically shocking. So, once we worked up enough of an appetite we ate one of the best sandwiches of my life. The place was called Bo de B (or something along those lines) and it was something like a burrito/kebab on a baguette. Although you'd have juices running down your fingers and sauce all over your face after each bite, it was so satisfying. Saturday we made our way to check out Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia - two of the most amazing sites I've been to since being abroad. The fact that both are, practically, completely made up of mosaics is just mind blowingly beautiful. Compared to Paris, everything was just so colorful and luckily this was the time of day the sun decided to cooperate, making everything pop even more. These may be the tourist traps of Barcelona, but I completely understand why now, and they are 100% worth it. 

On the homefront, Paris has been pretty good the past few weeks too, despite the uncharacteristically cold weather. My host family just received/welcomed another exchange student - she is from Japan, speaks very little English, and even less French, making communicating difficult. It is rather funny though hearing my host family speak English - oh how the tables have turned. No longer am I the one asking about correct pronunciations and sentence structures. (Who knew vinegar was so hard to pronounce in English?)

The countdown is officially on until Spring Break (I leave for Santorini in 16 days) as well as when the family arrives (33 days) - so for now, no complaints from Paris!

Castles and Cooking

The idea of travelling 9 out of the next 10 weekends was a little daunting, but considering I have only 13 weeks left and about 27 different cities I want to see, being busy is my main goal. I have made it through one of these weekends, and although getting up for class on Monday was a little rough, it is something I am going to have to get used to. As a program this past weekend all of us Illini toured the Loire Valley, visiting three chateaus and one adorable city in all. We reported to our coach bus at 7:45 this past Saturday so as to get to Chateau Blois by about 10. Although this was my least favorite castle of the weekend, it was a good "starter" castle - wouldn't want to visit the best first anyways. This castle was built at three different times, meaning that there are three different and distinct styles of this castle (Gothique, Renaissance, and Classicisme). The most memorable aspect of this castle though was definitely the massive and ornate staircase on the outside of the building. If I heard Dr. Costello correctly (considering it was in french), it was so that common folk could see the royals walking around and such. This wasn't your stereotypical princess castle, but it was still a great use of a Saturday morning.

After about 2 hours of exploring, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Chateau Amboise. We followed the river, La Loire, and saw other castles from the bus along the way, and eventually arrived at our next castle. By this time, the sun was coming out, and it was turning into a gorgeous day. Chateau Amboise is located in the center of a thriving city, and as we wound our way towards the castle, along with it already being a cute quaint French town, there was confetti covering the cobblestone streets. We don't know what we missed, but it just made the entire experience that much more memorable. We ate lunch in the city center, and then made our way to the chateau. Out of the three castles this weekend, this was my second favorite castle. It was a bit smaller than Chateau Blois, but much more beautifully maintained - the lawns were super green, the beds were planted, and it just had a happier feel to it than Chateau Blois. This is where Leonardo Da Vinci is buried, so we started our tour by seeing his grave (which is in a mini church) and then onto the castle. Chateau Amboise had a lot of tapestries on the walls, and intricate wood work. At the end of the tour, we ended up on the top of one of the towers with a great view of La Loire, the gardens, and the surrounding town.

We spent the night in Tours, a very "college" town for French standards. Once we were done with all of the tours for the day a bunch of us grabbed a beer in this large plaza that was completely buzzing with people our age. It was completely packed and alive, complete with bachelor and bachelorette parties. The following morning we departed Tours to visit Chateau Chenonceau. This was everyone's favorite castle of the weekend by far, and is perhaps the most well known when people think of the Loire Valley. Even though it was not originally built as a castle for a king (unlike the two before) it was just as gorgeous, elaborate, and orante. The most interesting aspect of it is that it is built directly above the river connecting the two sides (this ended up playing a vital role for the survival of several people during WWII). The entire grounds were very peaceful, and with the fog coming off of the water it was almost eerie. Once inside, compared to the other chateaus, this one was truly made to look like it was lived in, including lit fireplaces, pots and pans set out in the kitchen, and flowers everywhere (granted it was Palm Sunday). Along with several gardens on the property, there was also a labrynth and a donkey farm. After some more exploring, we had a group lunch, consisting of about five courses, and followed by a three hour bus ride back home.

 To cap off a great weekend, I went to a cooking class with six other people in my program. Going into it, we had no idea what we were going to make, but it ended up being fantastic. In all, we prepared an avocado, kiwi and sun dried tomato salad covered in lemon juice, honey, and salt and peper, followed by a leek, bacon, and gruyere cheese quiche, and finally chocolate mousse. I was allowed to measure the sugar, cut the leeks, and butter the quiche pan, and managed to screw none of it up. The entire thing was in french, and the woman taught us in her own apartment. Thankfully she gave us copies of the recipes in English so hopefully I will be able to recreate this masterpiece for my family when I get back to the states.

Heading to Grenoble this weekend, and Barcelona the first weekend in April - time is truly flying.

S/O to my sister, KL - Happy 26th Birthday!! So sad I can't be there to celebrate, but I can't wait to see you in 5 short weeks :)