Ciao...
Today, I woke up at 6:30 to the cheery alarm noises that dear Siemens provides on their A70 model. Vanessa and I were going to meet Jon, AJ, Dominique and Laura on Via Trastevere - the street that they live on. We figured if we never woke up today then we would never make it to the destination - The Vatican.
As we trucked down Via Trastevere and stumbled onto the 8 tram in desperate need of espresso and a croissant, we made it just in time to meet the rest of the group and head to Vatican City. When we arrived at the Vatican it was around 7:30 and it doesn't open to the public until 10:00. We waited in line for awhile and enjoyed breakfast there against the enormous brick walls that encase Vatican City. We were finally let in around 10:15 and made our way to the lines upon lines of people waiting to enter. We bought tickets, traveled up possibly the longest escalator I have ever been on and then waited in even more lines to finally arrive upon the Sistine Chapel.
The Sistine Chapel was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was painted by Michaelangelo in what seemed to be a rush job of 4 years. The Pope at the time wanted it to be completed as quickly as possible and this was a demand. Michaelangelo was 62 years old when he began painting the Sistine and was working with 20 apprentices. The Chapel was beautiful and pictures will be posted on my Webshots account very soon (p.s. pictures are prohibited in the Sistine....AJ and I took our flashes off of the camera and were able to catch a few photos and a couple of videos).
After the Sistine we ventured on through shops along the way and other artwork that adorns that walls, ceilings, and every other flat surface in sight. We then came to St. Peter's Basilica which we spent 4 Euro to climb the 700-ish steps to the top. The views from the top of Vatican City and almost all of Rome were incredible. Vanessa, Jon and I went into a special section of the Basilica that is designated only for prayer. It was amazing and the amount of cardinals and nuns that are swarming the Vatican is intense and somewhat intimidating, yet very cool all the same. The Vatican is absolutely crowded with tourists from all over the world and it is amazing to hear so many different languages spoken in such close proximity to each other - almost like Manhattan!
All in all our trip this morning was fabulous and I plan to do it again. Either tomorrow or next Wednesday, Vanessa and I are going to wake up early and get to the Vatican in order to listen to the Pope speak. We will see what time brings.
Hope all is well.
Ciao for now!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Post-Sorrento/Capri
Ciao!
I have returned from our weekend trip to Sorrento and Capri. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life and was so eye-opening and different when contrasted with Roma. The rugged, city streets of Roma were lost in Sorrento and Capri to the boat docks and beachy atmosphere of these port towns. They are gorgeous and I highly advise anyone and everyone to visit at some point in a lifetime.
We woke up early on Friday morning and Ashley, Tiffany and Laura met us at our apartment. We all traveled to the Roma Termini train station together and took TrenItalia to get to Napoli. There, we had to take a 50 minute, scorching hot subway to Sorrento. The subways and most other public transportation has an odor like no other. Italians do not have a bathing schedule as we Americans do and the smell in the public transportation is sometimes devastating, especially early in the morning. However, I have a great tendency, 9 times out of 10, to fall asleep on public transportation (usually just the trains), therefore leaving me unharmed by the awful odors coming from the natives. Napoli, from what we saw and what I have learned since living in Italia, has a huge garbage problem lately and resembles the South Bronx area of New York. It's somewhere that you go as a middleman to get to the place that is your destination. Some of our friends spent the weekend on a school sponsored trip to Pompei and spent some time in Napoli - they did not speak very highly of it, either.
When we arrived in Sorrento, I was still going mad because (if you have not heard) I was 99% sure I had lost my Citizen's Bank debit/ATM card. This is huge because a large chunk of my money for this trip was on that card. I woke my mom up in a panic at I believe 4am (SORRY MOM!!) needing her help. Thankfully, she was able to help me as always. (Your help never goes unnoticed.) I was looking for an ATM in Sorrento and of course there is only one in the town. However, this was shocking to me because Sorrento is such a touristy place. Many cruise ships dock there and it's very beachy and something that would appeal to many travelers who were taking cruise through Europe. We spent some time just taking in the beautiful sights and taking photos then we decided to get lunch. We ate at this small pizzeria which apparently wasn't serving pizze (that's how pizza is written in Italia) anymore. We settled for a roll with salami and mozzarella...see my photographs for a visual of this sandwich. It was awful so we needed to get gelati afterwards to fill us up. After this we found Peter's Beach, this rinky-dink beach near a port in Sorrento. Me, being the explorer I am, decided to walk farther and in front of the group, finding Leonelli's Beach. WHAT A GREAT FIND! This beach was everything we wanted. The beach itself was tiny but it had piers where we laid out for awhile in the hot afternoon sun and just hung around and talked. There we also took about a million pictures and just enjoyed the great weather. We really lucked out on the weather-front this weekend; it was supposed to rain but thankfully it didn't even sprinkle. It was great!
After awhile on the piers, we decided to take the bus to our stop at San Angelo, a bit outside of Sorrento - where our hostel was located. Pretty much, we came upon the Youth Hostel. It looked very shanty and I was not nervous about staying there, but more expected something similar to our trip in Pisa. This was nothing like Pisa. It was a dreary, dark building and for some reason fluorescent green lights were inside. It was an experience all in all and wasn’t the cleanest of places but it did the trick and for 20 Euro a night, who could complain? We settled in and then decided to venture out into San Angelo. As we walked down the long and winding roads (shout out to the Beatles) from the hostel to the main “town” of San Angelo, there were bats. There were not ANY bats. These bats came so close to your head that you honestly thought they were going to attack you. They would swoop down from 50 feet above you and almost land in your hair. Surprisingly, if this gives you any inclination of some of the girls that I am traveling with, I took it the best in not freaking out every time a bat kamikaze dove down at my head. I needed to just mention that quickly to prove a point (haha).
We made it to San Angelo and found this great pizzeria (everything in Italia pretty much is a pizzeria) called Moonlight. I ordered a great broccoli and mozzarella pizza and we just had a very relaxing dinner and then made our way back to our hostel later that night. We were all exhausted from our day of traveling and exploring so we called it an early night.
We woke up the next morning to a rooster, honest to God. Apparently there are quite a few farms in San Angelo and every time we opened the window to our room it suddenly smelled like we were living in a barn, but I digress. We woke up early in a venture to Capri. We took the complimentary shuttle from our hostel to the docks at Sorrento and then bought our ferry pass to Capri. When we got to Capri it was like nothing I had ever seen in Europe before. Granted I have only been to Portugal aside from this trip, but it was like a Caribbean island. The water was clear, blue and turquoise and was glistening in the hot Italian sun. We stepped off of the ferry (also, on the ferry, I saw an anemic boy pass out and then people were trying to revive him…it was disturbing and made a couple of us cry. It was very sad and I really feel horrible for people who get that ill so frequently.) Furthermore, in Capri we got a 10 Euro boat tour around the island and a trip to the Blue Grotto, as well. It was by far the best 10 Euro we have spent on this trip since we got here. My pictures from the Blue Grotto do not do it justice and as a matter of fact my pictures from this entire trip do not do anything justice. The beauty of the water and of the trip is incomprehensible for a person just looking at the photos. I will try and do a better job explaining all of this when I return to the States.
Capri was gorgeous and after our boat tour around the island (most of which was in Italian – I am getting much better at translating things in my head, but still speaking is difficult having such a knowledge of Spanish) we decided to head to the beach for the remainder of the day. We swam around in the crystal clear water (just like Narragansett…kidding!) and lounged on the rocks. The beaches in Capri have sand few and far between but after awhile of hurting your body on the rocks, you get used to it. We shopped around in the town by the port for awhile and I got a really pretty, large beaded bracelet and an Italia zip-up jacket. These were the first things I have actually bought for myself since being here. It’s strange when you study somewhere for a somewhat significant amount of time you forget you are a tourist. The funny thing about this phenomenon is that YOU forget you are a tourist, but NATIVES do not. Natives can pick you out from a group of 1,000. It’s quite strange and sometimes surreal.
We ate lunch at by far the best place since I have been in Italia. I am so upset with myself that I did not take pictures or even remember the name. I got a Margherita pizza (your standard tomato sauce and mozzarella) and it was the best meal since I have been here. After lunch we caught our 18:00 ferry back to Sorrento. Sadly, 18:00 is the last time they send a ferry back to the mainland. I actually would not have been too upset about getting stuck in Capri for the night, except we had already paid for the hostel. Also, I have become accustomed to speaking/reading/writing in military time due to it being the standard way of Italian living. Nothing is 6pm, it is always 18:00.
When we got back to Sorrento we hopped on the C bus and met some other study abroad students who were studying in Florence but were spending the weekend in Sorrento/Capri as well. They were from a very small college in the Sacramento, California area and were our age. Among them was Alex, Jesse, Balvene, Candice, and Taylor and we actually found out they were staying at our hostel that night and for the rest of the weekend. They came out with us to the American Bar (yes, that was the name of the bar/club in Sorrento) and they will be in Roma in a couple of weeks so we are going to meet up with them for dinner and probably a night at Campo dei Fiori. They were really interesting people and I’m really happy that we met them. Balvene, an Indian girl who was also a student at this Sacramento college, talked to me for awhile about India, etc. Basically, I shared with her my idea to travel to India at some point next year…we will see how that turns out but I am absolutely dying to do some work in New Delhi. After the American Bar we returned to our hostel around 1:30 and immediately hit the sheets. We had a long day of traveling ahead of us and we wanted to be well rested.
We awoke at 8:00 and got ready and packed up camp. We did the essential check out process then we went to the piers at Leonelli’s Beach for a little while until we had to catch our train back to Napoli and then to Roma Termini. The day was a great beach day and we all soaked up the sun. We got back onto the subway to Napoli, where I actually did not fall asleep (shocking) and then transferred over to our train from Napoli to Roma. We all immediately fell asleep on the scorching hot train back to Roma and it was great. I felt so well rested when we got back to Roma, however I was on the verge of being severely dehydrated, which put a damper on the rest of my night and sent me to sleep at 22:30 (10:30pm). I slept for a solid 12 and a half hours before I woke up this morning at 11:00.
That is where the story of my weekend ends and today begins. I went to class today and then went down to Piazza Venezia with AJ and Jon to do some shopping. Tomorrow I am waking up at 6:00 with Vanessa to meet AJ and Jon at their apartment to venture out to the Vatican before we have class at 13:00. We are going to do some sightseeing and hopefully beat the Vatican chaos as well as get our Mass tickets for church with the Pope on Wednesday morning before class. I am really excited about this and will be sure to write tomorrow when I get a chance and relay my adventures.
Ciao for now!
Xo,
Kristen
I have returned from our weekend trip to Sorrento and Capri. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life and was so eye-opening and different when contrasted with Roma. The rugged, city streets of Roma were lost in Sorrento and Capri to the boat docks and beachy atmosphere of these port towns. They are gorgeous and I highly advise anyone and everyone to visit at some point in a lifetime.
We woke up early on Friday morning and Ashley, Tiffany and Laura met us at our apartment. We all traveled to the Roma Termini train station together and took TrenItalia to get to Napoli. There, we had to take a 50 minute, scorching hot subway to Sorrento. The subways and most other public transportation has an odor like no other. Italians do not have a bathing schedule as we Americans do and the smell in the public transportation is sometimes devastating, especially early in the morning. However, I have a great tendency, 9 times out of 10, to fall asleep on public transportation (usually just the trains), therefore leaving me unharmed by the awful odors coming from the natives. Napoli, from what we saw and what I have learned since living in Italia, has a huge garbage problem lately and resembles the South Bronx area of New York. It's somewhere that you go as a middleman to get to the place that is your destination. Some of our friends spent the weekend on a school sponsored trip to Pompei and spent some time in Napoli - they did not speak very highly of it, either.
When we arrived in Sorrento, I was still going mad because (if you have not heard) I was 99% sure I had lost my Citizen's Bank debit/ATM card. This is huge because a large chunk of my money for this trip was on that card. I woke my mom up in a panic at I believe 4am (SORRY MOM!!) needing her help. Thankfully, she was able to help me as always. (Your help never goes unnoticed.) I was looking for an ATM in Sorrento and of course there is only one in the town. However, this was shocking to me because Sorrento is such a touristy place. Many cruise ships dock there and it's very beachy and something that would appeal to many travelers who were taking cruise through Europe. We spent some time just taking in the beautiful sights and taking photos then we decided to get lunch. We ate at this small pizzeria which apparently wasn't serving pizze (that's how pizza is written in Italia) anymore. We settled for a roll with salami and mozzarella...see my photographs for a visual of this sandwich. It was awful so we needed to get gelati afterwards to fill us up. After this we found Peter's Beach, this rinky-dink beach near a port in Sorrento. Me, being the explorer I am, decided to walk farther and in front of the group, finding Leonelli's Beach. WHAT A GREAT FIND! This beach was everything we wanted. The beach itself was tiny but it had piers where we laid out for awhile in the hot afternoon sun and just hung around and talked. There we also took about a million pictures and just enjoyed the great weather. We really lucked out on the weather-front this weekend; it was supposed to rain but thankfully it didn't even sprinkle. It was great!
After awhile on the piers, we decided to take the bus to our stop at San Angelo, a bit outside of Sorrento - where our hostel was located. Pretty much, we came upon the Youth Hostel. It looked very shanty and I was not nervous about staying there, but more expected something similar to our trip in Pisa. This was nothing like Pisa. It was a dreary, dark building and for some reason fluorescent green lights were inside. It was an experience all in all and wasn’t the cleanest of places but it did the trick and for 20 Euro a night, who could complain? We settled in and then decided to venture out into San Angelo. As we walked down the long and winding roads (shout out to the Beatles) from the hostel to the main “town” of San Angelo, there were bats. There were not ANY bats. These bats came so close to your head that you honestly thought they were going to attack you. They would swoop down from 50 feet above you and almost land in your hair. Surprisingly, if this gives you any inclination of some of the girls that I am traveling with, I took it the best in not freaking out every time a bat kamikaze dove down at my head. I needed to just mention that quickly to prove a point (haha).
We made it to San Angelo and found this great pizzeria (everything in Italia pretty much is a pizzeria) called Moonlight. I ordered a great broccoli and mozzarella pizza and we just had a very relaxing dinner and then made our way back to our hostel later that night. We were all exhausted from our day of traveling and exploring so we called it an early night.
We woke up the next morning to a rooster, honest to God. Apparently there are quite a few farms in San Angelo and every time we opened the window to our room it suddenly smelled like we were living in a barn, but I digress. We woke up early in a venture to Capri. We took the complimentary shuttle from our hostel to the docks at Sorrento and then bought our ferry pass to Capri. When we got to Capri it was like nothing I had ever seen in Europe before. Granted I have only been to Portugal aside from this trip, but it was like a Caribbean island. The water was clear, blue and turquoise and was glistening in the hot Italian sun. We stepped off of the ferry (also, on the ferry, I saw an anemic boy pass out and then people were trying to revive him…it was disturbing and made a couple of us cry. It was very sad and I really feel horrible for people who get that ill so frequently.) Furthermore, in Capri we got a 10 Euro boat tour around the island and a trip to the Blue Grotto, as well. It was by far the best 10 Euro we have spent on this trip since we got here. My pictures from the Blue Grotto do not do it justice and as a matter of fact my pictures from this entire trip do not do anything justice. The beauty of the water and of the trip is incomprehensible for a person just looking at the photos. I will try and do a better job explaining all of this when I return to the States.
Capri was gorgeous and after our boat tour around the island (most of which was in Italian – I am getting much better at translating things in my head, but still speaking is difficult having such a knowledge of Spanish) we decided to head to the beach for the remainder of the day. We swam around in the crystal clear water (just like Narragansett…kidding!) and lounged on the rocks. The beaches in Capri have sand few and far between but after awhile of hurting your body on the rocks, you get used to it. We shopped around in the town by the port for awhile and I got a really pretty, large beaded bracelet and an Italia zip-up jacket. These were the first things I have actually bought for myself since being here. It’s strange when you study somewhere for a somewhat significant amount of time you forget you are a tourist. The funny thing about this phenomenon is that YOU forget you are a tourist, but NATIVES do not. Natives can pick you out from a group of 1,000. It’s quite strange and sometimes surreal.
We ate lunch at by far the best place since I have been in Italia. I am so upset with myself that I did not take pictures or even remember the name. I got a Margherita pizza (your standard tomato sauce and mozzarella) and it was the best meal since I have been here. After lunch we caught our 18:00 ferry back to Sorrento. Sadly, 18:00 is the last time they send a ferry back to the mainland. I actually would not have been too upset about getting stuck in Capri for the night, except we had already paid for the hostel. Also, I have become accustomed to speaking/reading/writing in military time due to it being the standard way of Italian living. Nothing is 6pm, it is always 18:00.
When we got back to Sorrento we hopped on the C bus and met some other study abroad students who were studying in Florence but were spending the weekend in Sorrento/Capri as well. They were from a very small college in the Sacramento, California area and were our age. Among them was Alex, Jesse, Balvene, Candice, and Taylor and we actually found out they were staying at our hostel that night and for the rest of the weekend. They came out with us to the American Bar (yes, that was the name of the bar/club in Sorrento) and they will be in Roma in a couple of weeks so we are going to meet up with them for dinner and probably a night at Campo dei Fiori. They were really interesting people and I’m really happy that we met them. Balvene, an Indian girl who was also a student at this Sacramento college, talked to me for awhile about India, etc. Basically, I shared with her my idea to travel to India at some point next year…we will see how that turns out but I am absolutely dying to do some work in New Delhi. After the American Bar we returned to our hostel around 1:30 and immediately hit the sheets. We had a long day of traveling ahead of us and we wanted to be well rested.
We awoke at 8:00 and got ready and packed up camp. We did the essential check out process then we went to the piers at Leonelli’s Beach for a little while until we had to catch our train back to Napoli and then to Roma Termini. The day was a great beach day and we all soaked up the sun. We got back onto the subway to Napoli, where I actually did not fall asleep (shocking) and then transferred over to our train from Napoli to Roma. We all immediately fell asleep on the scorching hot train back to Roma and it was great. I felt so well rested when we got back to Roma, however I was on the verge of being severely dehydrated, which put a damper on the rest of my night and sent me to sleep at 22:30 (10:30pm). I slept for a solid 12 and a half hours before I woke up this morning at 11:00.
That is where the story of my weekend ends and today begins. I went to class today and then went down to Piazza Venezia with AJ and Jon to do some shopping. Tomorrow I am waking up at 6:00 with Vanessa to meet AJ and Jon at their apartment to venture out to the Vatican before we have class at 13:00. We are going to do some sightseeing and hopefully beat the Vatican chaos as well as get our Mass tickets for church with the Pope on Wednesday morning before class. I am really excited about this and will be sure to write tomorrow when I get a chance and relay my adventures.
Ciao for now!
Xo,
Kristen
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Capri
President Bush is in town (Roma) therefore I am leaving for the weekend. My portion of Roma, Trastevere, is under high security with over 6,000 detailed officers. There is apparently high terrorist alert. Being that this is all happening, I've decided to flee to Capri for the weekend. I will write about my weekend when I return.
Have a safe weekend everyone!
xo,
Kristen
Have a safe weekend everyone!
xo,
Kristen
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The past 6 days or so...
Sorry I haven't written in a little while...I've been busy with school, hiking Cinque Terre, taking funny pictures at Pisa, etc. etc. etc. This is a quick run through of the past 6 days or so...
Thursday: Thursday night I really don't remember what we did...if anything we probably just went to Campo dei Fiori with friends..that's my best attempt at a guess for Thursday night. All of the days and nights kind of blend together here; you get different thoughts mixed up of what you did, where you went, etc. Of course, classes took place that day.
Friday: Friday we actually had classes. We generally don't have classes on Friday's because the University isn't open (welcome to yet another great feature of the Italian lifestyle!). We were planning to take it easy and pack for our weekend at Cinque Terre and Pisa, but of course, we're in Roma! Vanessa and I went out with AJ, Jon, Dominique, Kristin and Laura (all other SHU students) sightseeing and went to Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, Colosseo and the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain was by far my favorite sight of all. It's absolutely beautiful and huge and just everything I dreamed of and more. haha. I'm a nerd. We got gelato by the Trevi (at the place my hairdresser's mom recommended) and it was delicious. As always, I get fragola (strawberry). I will be posting pictures that AJ took on my Webshots account very soon for everyone to see.
Saturday: On Saturday we took a 4 and a half hour train ride from Roma to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is the first of 5 villages of Cinque Terre. We hiked...and we hiked...and we hiked some more. It was by far the most painful, eye-opening, and self-gratifying experience I have pretty much ever had. Hiking that far is intense and there were times I wanted to wimp out and take the train to the last village (there is a train that runs through all 5 villages). These pictures have already been posted for your viewing pleasure. Saturday night we took the train to Pisa, and walked forever trying to find our hostel. Instead of finding our hostel, we ended up running into this huge, leaning building. Yes, yes, it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took some pictures, hung out and then proceeded on our journey to find the hostel. After about 45 minutes of walking through deserted Pisa (Pisa is seriously nothing without that tower) we stumbled upon our campground hostel. Not your typical hostel, we actually had a camper-like, bungalow for the 7 of us to stay in. It had a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, and 3 bedrooms. It was great and very cost efficient (only 20 Euro per person for great amenities). Vanessa, Erika, Nicole and I stayed up until about 3am, despite how tired we were from hiking all day, and talked about basically nothing of importance, just joking around.
Sunday: Sunday we were up and at 'em around 10am (haha) and checked out of the hostel. We walked to the Leaning Tower again to take all the necessary tourist pictures holding it up, etc. With little time left, we ran to the train station in Pisa to get our train back to Roma. Also, what I forgot to mention is that I got McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries in Pisa...and it was amazing. Not as greasy and disgusting, by any means, as it is in America.
Monday: Monday! Back to school, back to school, to prove to my blog-readers that I'm no fool! haha so yup, we had classes yesterday and then were planning on going on this American Bar Crawl with a bunch of other American college students from schools all over. We got ready and went to AJ and Jon's apartment and much to our dismay, they had just finished eating and hadn't showered or gotten ready to go out. We hung around their apartment and waited for them and by the time they were done it was far too late to go to the Bar Crawl. Jon was convinced that the 10 mosquito bites on his hands and arms were bed bugs. He spent at least 20 minutes Googling about the symptoms of bed bugs before we left to go to Campo dei Fiori for the night. We got to Campo dei Fiori after a bus ride and a short walk. There we spent hours just hanging around and having casual drinks with friends. Campo dei Fiori is always a great time. Tons of Americans go, but there are also Italians, as well. It's always fun to meet new people, and Campo is the place to do so.
Tuesday (today): Today was pretty uneventful: marketing class, finance class and now I am writing on here. In a little while AJ and Jon are going to come over and study finance - we have our first big exam tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Be sure to check out the picture site for updates:)
Thursday: Thursday night I really don't remember what we did...if anything we probably just went to Campo dei Fiori with friends..that's my best attempt at a guess for Thursday night. All of the days and nights kind of blend together here; you get different thoughts mixed up of what you did, where you went, etc. Of course, classes took place that day.
Friday: Friday we actually had classes. We generally don't have classes on Friday's because the University isn't open (welcome to yet another great feature of the Italian lifestyle!). We were planning to take it easy and pack for our weekend at Cinque Terre and Pisa, but of course, we're in Roma! Vanessa and I went out with AJ, Jon, Dominique, Kristin and Laura (all other SHU students) sightseeing and went to Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum, Colosseo and the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain was by far my favorite sight of all. It's absolutely beautiful and huge and just everything I dreamed of and more. haha. I'm a nerd. We got gelato by the Trevi (at the place my hairdresser's mom recommended) and it was delicious. As always, I get fragola (strawberry). I will be posting pictures that AJ took on my Webshots account very soon for everyone to see.
Saturday: On Saturday we took a 4 and a half hour train ride from Roma to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is the first of 5 villages of Cinque Terre. We hiked...and we hiked...and we hiked some more. It was by far the most painful, eye-opening, and self-gratifying experience I have pretty much ever had. Hiking that far is intense and there were times I wanted to wimp out and take the train to the last village (there is a train that runs through all 5 villages). These pictures have already been posted for your viewing pleasure. Saturday night we took the train to Pisa, and walked forever trying to find our hostel. Instead of finding our hostel, we ended up running into this huge, leaning building. Yes, yes, it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took some pictures, hung out and then proceeded on our journey to find the hostel. After about 45 minutes of walking through deserted Pisa (Pisa is seriously nothing without that tower) we stumbled upon our campground hostel. Not your typical hostel, we actually had a camper-like, bungalow for the 7 of us to stay in. It had a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, and 3 bedrooms. It was great and very cost efficient (only 20 Euro per person for great amenities). Vanessa, Erika, Nicole and I stayed up until about 3am, despite how tired we were from hiking all day, and talked about basically nothing of importance, just joking around.
Sunday: Sunday we were up and at 'em around 10am (haha) and checked out of the hostel. We walked to the Leaning Tower again to take all the necessary tourist pictures holding it up, etc. With little time left, we ran to the train station in Pisa to get our train back to Roma. Also, what I forgot to mention is that I got McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries in Pisa...and it was amazing. Not as greasy and disgusting, by any means, as it is in America.
Monday: Monday! Back to school, back to school, to prove to my blog-readers that I'm no fool! haha so yup, we had classes yesterday and then were planning on going on this American Bar Crawl with a bunch of other American college students from schools all over. We got ready and went to AJ and Jon's apartment and much to our dismay, they had just finished eating and hadn't showered or gotten ready to go out. We hung around their apartment and waited for them and by the time they were done it was far too late to go to the Bar Crawl. Jon was convinced that the 10 mosquito bites on his hands and arms were bed bugs. He spent at least 20 minutes Googling about the symptoms of bed bugs before we left to go to Campo dei Fiori for the night. We got to Campo dei Fiori after a bus ride and a short walk. There we spent hours just hanging around and having casual drinks with friends. Campo dei Fiori is always a great time. Tons of Americans go, but there are also Italians, as well. It's always fun to meet new people, and Campo is the place to do so.
Tuesday (today): Today was pretty uneventful: marketing class, finance class and now I am writing on here. In a little while AJ and Jon are going to come over and study finance - we have our first big exam tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Be sure to check out the picture site for updates:)
Friday, June 1, 2007
Photographs
http://community.webshots.com/user/KristenInItaly
This is a link to my Webshots account. Not all of the pictures have captions yet, but the ones that do are in a smaller font right below the picture. Enjoy and be sure to check for updates soon after my hiking trip through Cinque Terre and Pisa this weekend!
ciao ciao
xo
--K
This is a link to my Webshots account. Not all of the pictures have captions yet, but the ones that do are in a smaller font right below the picture. Enjoy and be sure to check for updates soon after my hiking trip through Cinque Terre and Pisa this weekend!
ciao ciao
xo
--K
Thursday, May 31, 2007
MY BAG WAS FOUND!
I received an email this morning saying my bag was found and delivered to AUR's reception desk and i get to pick it up today! Yay!! However, I had already started spending a lot of money...I wonder how this is going to work out with the insurance company...
Class in an hour.
Ciao! Ciao! Ciao!
xo,
--K
Class in an hour.
Ciao! Ciao! Ciao!
xo,
--K
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Italia is not America and America is not Italia.
It's been a hectic and interesting 3 days so far...the luggage being lost is somewhat devastating due to what was in the bag. No money can replace sentimental items. It's unfortunate but it happens...you live and you learn.
Through the past 3 days I have learned the title of this post quite well: Italia is not America and America is not Italia. The people, culture and socially acceptable things here are not the same in Italy, and vise versa. The men gawk at you, especially my friend Gina...you'll see. She's beautiful and looks very ethnic and Italian and they all gawk at her. Any native Italian will call us bella or bellisimas because they think we are suckers. Some people are very nice, others are very, VERY rude. Tonight on the bus ride home from The Pantheon (one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life...was built BEFORE CHRIST...and Christ is a pretty old guy!) we got yelled at by a homeless looking man on the bus, "BASTO, BASTO, BASTO AMERICANAS!" (translation: SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP AMERICANS!) It was strange all in all but a lot of people on the bus agreed with him, which was disheartening.
I love the Italian culture. We didn't eat dinner until 10pm tonight and the food is amazing. Baked Lasagne was fabulous and I have recently discovered chocolate candies called Baci, similar to the Rocher candies at home. I pretty much have AMERICAN stamped on my forehead, but I am okay with it kind of; I've been making small attempts at the Upim department store (to replace clothing) and at the Mercato (market) and at the Gellaterias (gellato) to speak Italian and most people just laugh at me because I am sure I'm not very good, but you can tell they appreciate the effort.
It's 2:30am but it's so hard to sleep, I think I am still on American time, leaving me at 8:30pm...huge difference! This weekend we are hiking 17 miles (yes, you heard me...I am HIKING 17 MILES) over a span of 2 days which makes it more tolerable on the islands of Cinque Terre (pronounced chinkwa terra). It's supposed to be beautiful and I'm really excited to see the different villages. We are staying at a hostel in Pisa (the hostel is a private room for just us, thank God) so we'll be able to go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa which I'm really excited about. We are also planning a trip to Venice for the last weekend we are in Italy. We're planning it with some girls who are my year in school and also go to SHU that I knew before the trip, one of which was my roommate at orientation.
I was homesick today...I miss the family and even the friends...It's odd sometimes to be away from everything you know, but I really don't think I would trade an experience like this because it's so unique to what we are used to.
That's all for now, I promise I will upload pictures tomorrow and post the link on the blog. Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Classes start tomorrow and Dad just sent me an instant message telling me to go to bed:)
Ciao!
xo,
--K
Through the past 3 days I have learned the title of this post quite well: Italia is not America and America is not Italia. The people, culture and socially acceptable things here are not the same in Italy, and vise versa. The men gawk at you, especially my friend Gina...you'll see. She's beautiful and looks very ethnic and Italian and they all gawk at her. Any native Italian will call us bella or bellisimas because they think we are suckers. Some people are very nice, others are very, VERY rude. Tonight on the bus ride home from The Pantheon (one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life...was built BEFORE CHRIST...and Christ is a pretty old guy!) we got yelled at by a homeless looking man on the bus, "BASTO, BASTO, BASTO AMERICANAS!" (translation: SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP AMERICANS!) It was strange all in all but a lot of people on the bus agreed with him, which was disheartening.
I love the Italian culture. We didn't eat dinner until 10pm tonight and the food is amazing. Baked Lasagne was fabulous and I have recently discovered chocolate candies called Baci, similar to the Rocher candies at home. I pretty much have AMERICAN stamped on my forehead, but I am okay with it kind of; I've been making small attempts at the Upim department store (to replace clothing) and at the Mercato (market) and at the Gellaterias (gellato) to speak Italian and most people just laugh at me because I am sure I'm not very good, but you can tell they appreciate the effort.
It's 2:30am but it's so hard to sleep, I think I am still on American time, leaving me at 8:30pm...huge difference! This weekend we are hiking 17 miles (yes, you heard me...I am HIKING 17 MILES) over a span of 2 days which makes it more tolerable on the islands of Cinque Terre (pronounced chinkwa terra). It's supposed to be beautiful and I'm really excited to see the different villages. We are staying at a hostel in Pisa (the hostel is a private room for just us, thank God) so we'll be able to go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa which I'm really excited about. We are also planning a trip to Venice for the last weekend we are in Italy. We're planning it with some girls who are my year in school and also go to SHU that I knew before the trip, one of which was my roommate at orientation.
I was homesick today...I miss the family and even the friends...It's odd sometimes to be away from everything you know, but I really don't think I would trade an experience like this because it's so unique to what we are used to.
That's all for now, I promise I will upload pictures tomorrow and post the link on the blog. Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Classes start tomorrow and Dad just sent me an instant message telling me to go to bed:)
Ciao!
xo,
--K
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