Jordan

I went to Jordan for 3 weeks and I thought I'd give everyone a run down about my trip. (By the way if anyone didn't know by now, I'm half Jordanian, my dad was born and raised there). Get ready, its a long one lol.

First some facts about Jordan because sadly the world is under educated:


-The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a Constitutional Monarchy with a representative government ruled by King Abdullah II
-Jordan has one of the highest immigration rates in the world. Jordan's political stability, ethnic and religious toleration, peace with all its neighbors, and equal opportunity for all make Jordan attractive to refugees and political asylum seekers.
-92% of Jordanians are Sunni Muslims and 6% are Christian. Jordan is one of the most liberal Muslim nations in the World with a very progressive government and good human rights record.
-Jordan has almost no natural resources and so it relies on external sources for majority of it's energy and oil needs. It is one of the most water starved countries in the world and is currently exploring ways to expand its limited water supply and use its existing water resources more efficiently.
-Jordanians are the most educated population in the Arab World with a 99% youth literacy rate and a 93% adult literacy rate, the highest in the region.
-Tourism accounts for a large part of Jordan's economy, popular sights include: Petra- an entire ancient city carved into a mountain and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, The Dead Sea- the lowest point on Earth and is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, Wadi Rum- a desert full of mountains and hills and known for it's connection with Lawrence of Arabia. Christian religious sites include: Madaba, where The Madaba Map was found, the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land; Mount Nebo, where Moses was said to have gone to get a view of the Promised Land before he died; and The River Jordan, which is the river where Jesus Christ was baptized.

Ok enough of the Jordan lesson and on to my trip! The main reason for the trip in the first place was for my cousin Firas' wedding. He is one of my closest cousins and lives near me but his fiancee lives in Jordan (as well as most of their families). Me, my parents, his mom Basma and sister Fatin all flew to Amman, the capital, for the wedding. We stayed at my Taita's (grandma) apartment, which was a little cramped with all of us but was pretty convenient to visit the rest of the family and sight-see in Amman. Our first weekend there all of us from Taita's house, Firas and my other cousins Yara and Sana went down to Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. We went with a big group and took a charter bus down. We left early Friday morning and arrived in the ancient city of Petra about 4 hours later. We walked about a 1 1/2 miles until we reached the Siq which is a path between 2 mountains. The Siq was almost another 2 miles until you reach The Treasury, the most famous building in Petra. It was really hot, over 110 degrees so we didn't continue walking past The Treasury, although there is A LOT more to see of the city.


Wearing our Shmah's, traditional Jordanian headwear to protect our heads from the sun.


Approaching The Treasury

We left at 1:30pm for lunch nearby and then continued to Wadi Rum, another hour away. That night we were staying at a campsite in the desert which is designed to give people the experience of how the native Bedouins (nomads) live. The bus couldn't go too far off the main road in the sand so we had to take jeeps the rest of the way. The idea of camping in the desert was really cool, but it wasn't as great as we thought it would be. Mostly because it was soo hot there was no relief from the heat. Nobody in Jordan has A/C except for the hotels so you rely on the fact that all buildings are made of limestone to keep cool and have fans everywhere. Another problem is that there was only one community bathroom with a few sinks and stalls. Not only where there not enough for the number of people at the campsite but when the Muslim women are in there washing up, they don't allow any men to go in, and that's not really fair. They also ran out of water by morning so no flushing of the toilet..you can only imagine lol.
Side note about water: because water is so scarce in Jordan, people have to have water tanks on their roof's that fill up when water comes once a week. Some people get really big tanks or build a well so they have plenty of water, but some people (like Taita and that campsite) don't have big enough ones for the amount of people that use the water, so running out is a constant threat.


Jeep ride to the campsite


Wadi Rum is famous for it's sunsets, this picture doesn't do it justice. (that's our camp on the right)

Saturday morning we left for Aqaba, the ride was short, about 45 minutes and we were so thankful to be staying in a resort! Right when we got our room keys we raced to take a shower, we were so gross from Petra and Wadi Rum. After our showers we went down to the pool area. It was about 130 degrees, by the time we walked from our rooms down to the pool we were gross again, luckily there were 2 pools and the sea to enjoy. We basically had the whole resort to ourselves, summer is the off season for tourists because its so hot. Lucky us...haha. We didn't really hang out on the beach for 2 reasons: 1) we were so over sand from Wadi Rum 2) the entrance to the water was really rocky. We did explore a little and we found trampolines that you could jump on, for free!


Enjoying the Infinity pool at the resort


Jump!

That week back in Amman my parents and I started what would end up being a very long process to get our Jordanian citizenship and passports. Since my dad was born in Jordan he is still is a Jordanian citizen but he can give my mom and I citizenship too. Things didn't end up going as planned; I thought Italy is inefficient, man Jordan takes the cake. It took over 8 hours and 3 separate trips to fill out all the forms and standing in different lines but my dad and I got our Jordanian ID's and I got my citizenship (my dad just had to get his ID renewed)! My mom could have gotten hers but she would have had to go through an immigration hearing since she isn't of Jordanian blood and we agreed it wasn't worth it. My dad and I getting our passports would have required more forms and lines and since we can get them in the U.S. we didn't do it. It's actually easier for us to travel on our U.S. passports so we may not get them at all, we'll see. The rest of the week was consumed by wedding preparations and pre-wedding parties.

Our last week there we went to the Dead Sea which is only about 30 min from Amman. We had a very relaxing 2 days there just floating around in the sea and swimming in the hotel pool.


The Dead Sea


Mud-bath!

Our last few days were spent with the family and buying souvenirs. We had a great trip but we were definitely ready to return to bay area weather!

I'm DONE!!!

I am officially done with college! ahh that is so scary yet exciting at the same time. I finished up my finals on Wednesday and have been living up my last days in Rome, doing some repeat sightseeing and spending time with friends. I am getting really sad to leave, the semester went by so fast. Today i finished packing up all my stuff and cleaning the apartment. We have to move out tomorrow morning and Christina, Hilary and I are going to Mykonos for a week. Greece will be awesome, we've been watching Mamma Mia over and over to get ourselves pumped lol. Leaving is definitely bittersweet, I miss everyone at home but I'm not done with Rome. It's also hard to cope with the realization that I'm not living in San Diego part time anymore and so I'm still going to be missing out on all the fun there. I am ready to settle down a little though, I'm sick of moving so often. I've caught the travel bug however, there is so much of the world left for me to see. After the Greece trip, I will have gone to 11 countries in the 4 months I was studying abroad! Then it's Jordan and possibly Egypt in summer then who knows what next! My friends here and I have already started planning when we're going to visit each other, I'm happy they all live/go to school in different parts of the U.S. that I haven't been: Colorado, Texas, Maryland, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey. This semester has motivated me to go out and do new things and see as much as possible. Life's too short to sit around, there are too many adventures to experience!

Can you say STRESSED??

These last 2 weeks have been really hectic with school but a really great time in Rome. Last week I had a presentation to give and this week I have 5 essays due and a final! I really wish some of my teachers would have spread the work out more (like one class alone has 2 essays and the final the same day) but then I would have had to have done more work during the weekends and I wouldn't have been able to travel as much so I guess killing myself with work now is worth it. Here's the run down on last weeks Rome activities:

Wednesday night there was a free concert in Piazza del Pololo put on by National Geographic for Earth day. There were a couple Italian bands that played, and I actually liked one of them, called Subsonica. Basically The Killers in Italian. Headlining the show was Ben Harper! I think every American in Rome went to the concert, even if they arn't Ben Harper fans just because he's American haha. He played all his new music which I don't know, but it was still a really cool concert.



Saturday was a gorgeous day in Rome so a bunch of us went to Parc Pamphili near our house and had a picnic. I love this park because its really big and open and this is the only place you see Italian's being "normal" compared to American standards. They play games and exercise and there are kids playing everywhere. We brought food, lots of wine and mad libs to entertain ourselves. It was the perfect day, so relaxing and awesome to just enjoy the weather and take a break from school work.



The rest of the week has been work work work! Thankfully I only have one essay left to write, due tomorrow (or next week if I choose but I just want to get it done!) I'd love to say it's my last essay left ever, but one of my finals is a take home essay so I'll be working on that this weekend. Luckily I'll have only 3 actual exams to study for, so for once I'm not that worried about finals.

This Friday Christina and I are going back to Florence to visit my aunt and uncle so that will be a nice break. There are still a few sights we didn't see back in January, most importantly David!! Unfortunately we can only stay for the day, we're not even sure anymore if we can stay the night because of studying, but we'll see how it goes. I can't believe next week is my last full week in Rome, I still have so much to do!!!

Me, Christina and our roomie Hilary leave for Greece May 10th, I'm so excited!!

Amalfi Coast

Last weekend me, Christina, Jessie and Lauren went to the Amalfi Coast with bus2alps. The tour was with all Rome study abroad students, most from JCU. We met up at the train station and took a bus down to Sorrento. We stayed in Sorrento at 7 Hostel- it was gorgeous. This hostel was basically a hotel except we stayed in 10 person rooms and each floor shared bathrooms, it felt like I was living in the dorms again. Friday we went to the island of Capri. It was a long hike from the marina to the town but we saw some awesome views.



We split off for lunch and wandered the town. The weather was cool and cloudy in the morning and in town so that was a bummer but later we went back down to the marina and it got sunnier. We just relaxed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. That night we all went out to dinner and then to a karaoke bar, which was more a big singing party then karaoke.



Saturday we went to the small town of Positano, which is in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Positano was my favorite place of the weekend, it's smaller and less touristy and has cute little boutiques. Capri was cute too but it has more designer stores, which are boring to go in when you can't afford any of it. The weather was much nice Saturday so we could lay out in our bathing suits and tan. I got handmade sandals there; Capri is famous for them but they are wayy overpriced there.



Unfortunately our tour didn't arrange our transportation back since we didn't have evening plans they let us leave whenever. Well the ferry's weren't running to Sorrento for some reason that day so everyone had to take the bus. But of course the buses didn't show up for some reason so there were like 80 tourists waiting in the road. We ended up hiring a private driver with a Mercedes to take us back, it was 12 euros each which sucked but it was the most entertaining ride ever. Our driver was hilarious and he wanted to teach me to drive stick in his Mercedes! I declined though because 1) I had been drinking most of the afternoon and 2)I haven't driven in 3 months so I would probably hit something haha. That night the hostel had Mexican BBQ and a band playing in the bar so we kicked it there all night.

Sunday we checked out of our hostel and went to Pompeii. It was so cool to see how much they uncovered. It's way bigger than I imagined.



The weather was touch and go all day, cool and rainy. Luckily it didn't rain while we were on the tour so we all had a nice time. We left around 4:30 for Rome and got home around 8:30. It was an awesome weekend, the weather could have been a little better but I got to relax by the beach so I was happy!

Ireland

Over Easter weekend Me, Lauren, Jessie, Molly and her friend Cassie went to Ireland! We stayed in Dublin for 5 nights and also went on 2 day trips to nearby smaller towns. Friday we went on a free tour of Dublin and saw most of the main areas including Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, Trinity College, St. Patricks Cathedral and St. Stephan's Green. The rest of the day we relaxed in the park and wandered down Grafton St. the main shopping area.


St. Stephan's Green

Saturday we went to the farmers market, explored Temple Bar area more and did some shopping. That night we were really excited to go out because it was Good Friday the day before and no alcohol was sold the whole day, meaning no bars were open. On Sunday Lauren, Jessie and I took the DART (yes just like BART aka a metro) to Dun Laoghaire, a small port town. It was a gorgeous day, sunny but cool and we walked along the pier. We stopped at People's Park where they had a farmer's market for lunch and then continued walking along the water. We ended up walking through 2 more towns, Sandycove and Dalkey. We did some rock climbing and relaxed on the huge rocks for a while, enjoying the sun and the amazing view.





Monday was the first day we had any rain, it was bound to happen being in Ireland lol. We went on the Wild Wicklow Tour that took us through the Wicklow mountains to Glendalough and past other small towns and countryside. We unfortunately couldn't see the extent of the mountains and the views because it was so foggy but we got to walk to the river in Glendalough and saw better views there.



We left Dublin Tuesday evening, it was a great trip but unfortunately the massive amounts of school work we've all been assigned were on our minds most of the trip. The end of the semester is coming fast, less than a month left and professors have been assigning a lot of essays. I've got a lot of work to do but I have to find the time to soak up as much of Rome as possible. I'm leaving tonight for the Amalfi Coast for the weekend, Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompeii! It's my last weekend trip of the semester, I'm glad I'll be staying put in Rome for the last few weeks.

Paris

Me and Jessie went to Paris for the weekend and we had a blast! We stayed with her friend Kerry from school who is studying abroad there. We were so lucky to have awesome weather the whole weekend, it made me love Paris even more!. We got there Friday and did most of the touristy things, but first we ate at Breakfast in America and I basically had a Denny's grad slam, it was delicious! We walked along the Seine, went to Notre Dame, Jardin des Tuileries and sat by one of the giant ponds, walked down the Champs Elyses to the Arc de Triumph and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That night we went to Fajitas for dinner, yay for Mexican!!! Saturday we went to Disneyland Paris!



It's almost the same as the real Disneyland, except some of the rides are a little different. I was really mad that the Indiana Jones ride is completely different, no fun adventure, just a roller coaster. Overall it was really fun and awesome to basically be in America-land, except everything was also in French. Sunday we went to the Louvre because it was free, which meant there was a long line and it was packed. We just saw the Mona Lisa and another few key pieces before leaving to enjoy the weather! Later that evening we went to the Eiffel Tower! We went to the second landing (it's cheaper than going to the third and you can actually see the view better) and took gorgeous sunset pictures.



By the time we came down, the lights turned on which was another beautiful sight.



For dinner we went to fondue! There is a set menu so it's really easy and it comes with wine, but you have to drink it out of a baby bottle! It was so much fun, it's a tiny place, with only 2 long tables, you can probably fit maybe 40 people total. The people who sit on the booth along the wall have to climb over the table! It was awesome. Monday we wandered around a little and I had the best crepe ever, nutella and banana. Mmmmm. Our flight left that evening, of course it was delayed an hour, stupid budget airlines. I had a fabulous weekend in Paris, it took all my energy to not do some serious shopping though!

Things I miss about America

1. Target- Italy doesn't believe in one stop shopping, and it's just fun to waste time wandering around the store.
2. Driving- It's just so much easier to get things done quickly, and I miss my little car (well it would be considered big compared to Italy's abundance of smart cars lol)
3. Foreign cuisine- Italy doesn't have the most diverse selection of food, I just want some Mexican food!!!!!!!!!
4. Being able to wear flip flops without getting crazy looks- Italians must have feet phobias because they do not like to see people in sandals.
5. Customer service- In general Italian's don't care for Americans, which I can understand because we expect them to speak to us in English and that's not fair. When they come to the U.S. they don't expect us to speak Italian! But they could be a little nicer when we struggle to speak their language. Luckily in Trastevere most are more friendly to us because they are used to all the students (and like our money haha)


Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm still in love with Italy's 4-P's of food- Pizza, Pasta, Panini and Parmesan but sometimes you just crave things and unfortunately it's very difficult to get it here. I guess that's half the fun of being abroad, being forced to try living life differently and finding new loves. I'm already foreseeing my withdrawls from Italian chocolate and the cheese selection at Safeway is just not going to cut it!

On a happier note, spring as sprung in Rome. We have been enjoying temperatures in the 60's, which feels much warmer here than at home, probably because Rome isn't on the water. Even when it rains (which is often here in spring) it's still pretty warm; as long as I don't have to wear my coat anymore I'm happy!


On my walk to school

Spring Break

I had 10 days to travel for spring break and I took advantage of it! Me, Jessie and Lauren went to Budapest, Vienna and Prague and then met up with Christina in London at the end of the trip. We had a great time and saw soooo much, I'll try to recap each city as best as I can!

Budapest
We arrived late Thursday night and went straight to our hostel. We stayed at the Mandragora Hostel and it was so cute and nice! It was yoga/hippie style and had only 3 rooms, a double, a six person and an eight person where we stayed. It didn't have any bunk beds but lofts instead, it was a lot more private that way. We also got free breakfast and all the coffee and tea we wanted. Friday morning we headed out to explore. We took the metro to the center of Pest and wandered around, a little lost for a while. We found Parliament, made it to the river and crossed the chain bridge into Buda where most of the "sights" are. We walked up a ton of stairs to the castle district and saw amazing views of the city.





We had lunch at a traditional Hungarian restaurant; I had goulash- yum! We struggled with money, their currency has large denominations (100, 500, 2,000, 5,000 etc) and it was confusing trying to convert prices in our head to see how much we were really spending. After lunch and some more walking in Buda, we took the metro back to Pest to go to the thermal baths! Their basically huge hot tubs, some outside and a bunch inside. It felt so good to relax and hang out in the baths and then we decided to get Thai massages! It was pretty cheap and felt so good. This little Asian lady was crawling/walking all over me and cracking my body in ways I didn't know were possible. It was awesome. We had dinner, strolled around a little and headed back to the hostel. We enjoyed the unlimited tea and went to bed early because we had to catch the train the next morning. We only spent a day in Budapest but one full day is all you really need to see most of the sights. Parts of Budapest area really nice and some are really sketchy and run down looking so we were ready to move on.

Vienna
We arrived in the early afternoon and only had to walk about 2 blocks to our hostel, the Wombat. The hostel was really cool, it had a lounge area with a pool table, computers with internet for 50 euro cents and a huge bed to relax on. There was also a kitchen with free food and the WomBar in the basement! The Wombat felt like living in the dorms, there were lots of young people staying there. We stayed in a 6 person dorm so we had randoms staying with us the 2 nights we were there. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be since we were all out and about all day and didn't really see each other. On Friday we started in the center of town where St. Stephen's Cathedral is and continued to the area where the Vienna Boy's Choir performs, the Spanish Riding School, the Butterfly House, the Opera House, Parliament and City Hall.


In front of St. Stephen's Cathedral

We found multiple Starbuck's which was very exciting. The cool thing about them in Vienna (and some other countries) is that they ask if you want to drink your coffee there and give you real Starbucks mugs! Classy. Anyway, we were cold from walking all day so we headed home for a nap before going down to the Wombar for our free welcome drink. The next day, Sunday, we went to see Shonbrunn Palace across town. We rode the metro which is awesome in Vienna, it takes you everywhere and our hostel was right across the street from one of the stops. The palace is gorgeous, and there are gardens all around it, I only wish all the flowers would have been in bloom.



We had lunch at a traditional Viennese restaurant, I had soup with dumplings. Side note- Vienna in German is Wein, we had so much fun trying to read words in German. Words have like 15 letters in them, people thought we were crazy when we would laugh at street signs. Our favorite sign read "Gute Fahrt" (say it out loud hahaha), turns our it means "enjoy your travels". I digress... That night we went to an English cinema and watched Milk, it was my second time seeing it, so good! It was really nice to do something "normal" like going to the movies, it helps to not feel like my life here is so different than at home and that I'm in a foreign country. Vienna is a beautiful city, the architecture is gorgeous, most old buildings are crisp white with no graffiti and the whole city is very clean.

Prague
Our original plan was to take the overnight train from Vienna to Prague but it ended up being a lot more expensive than we thought, so we took a bus. It was a 4 hour ride but it went by pretty fast and it was cheap. We stayed in an apartment that we rented for 3 nights, it was pretty nice and there was a washing machine! We had to pack light, only backpacks or duffel bags because the budget airlines that we took charge you to check a bag so we could only have a carry-on. We packed for 5 days and were able to wash things in Prague, which was half way through the trip. The machine didn't work that great but it was good enough. My friend Martin that I know from SD last summer lives near Prague so he was our tour guide. We had lunch at a Czech restaurant down the street from our apartment, I had Wiener Schnitzel- yum and we had a beer tasting. Prague is truly a fairy tale city, it looks just like Main St. in Disneyland. All the buildings are really clean and are different colors so they stand out.



The weather was crazy though like Budapest and Vienna, windy, cold, thunderstorms, a little snow and sunshine, so bipolar. Monday we saw Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, the Municipal House, Powder Gate and we saw an Opera that night. On Tuesday we went to the Jewish Ghetto and walked along the river, then we crossed the Charles Bridge. We saw the Lennon Wall and had to take a million pictures. It was amazing, and detailed, you could stare at it for hours and still not see everything.



After we walked up a ton of stairs to the Castle area. Up on the hill is the Royal Palace, the Castle, and St. Vitus Cathedral. We watched the changing of the guards before walking down the Golden Lane and then back home. That night we went clubbing at FX, the club where Rhianna shot the video for "Please Don't Stop the Music' it was a lot of fun! Wednesday we had a lazy start to the day and just wandered around the city and into a few shops. We stayed in that night to pack and rest up for London the next day.

London
We left early Thursday morning to get to the airport. We arrived in London and took a quick train into the city. Christina met us at the train station and we took the tube to the Marriott! It was awesome to end the trip in a nice, comfy hotel. After freshening up we went sightseeing. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey before lunch. We went to a typical English pub and had fish n chips, delicious. After we ate we crossed the Thames River and went on the London Eye. I was scared at first because I really don't like heights, but I had to go on it! It actually wasn't scary because you're completely enclosed and there is a bench in the middle to sit. The only time I would get a little scared was if I went right up to the glass and looked down. We went in the late afternoon, just before dusk and the sky was beautiful.



That night we attempted to go out, but for various reasons it didn't work out so we kicked it at the hotel. Friday we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, it was packed so I didn't see all of it but it was still cool. I was a little bummed to learn that you can't actually go up to the guards and take pictures with them like in movies. We had lunch at Pret- basically its all grab and go food, packaged but really fresh and delicious. They have them all over and other places like it, Italy needs to get on it! We also took some time to act like complete tourists and took picture with everything...



Lauren, Jessie and I went to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge while Christina went to a few museums (she was in London a few days before us so she already saw the Tower). I was so excited to go because the Tower of London was once a palace where royalty and nobility lived but then became famous as a prison. The Tower is where King Henry VIII beheaded two of his wives and had others killed as well. They had tours of the grounds lead by the Beefeaters (retired military personnel that now work here, that's their nickname, they're actually called Yeomen Wardens). Our Beefeater was awesome, he was really funny and told us about a lot of cool stuff. At the Tower of London is also the Royal Jewels- bling bling! We were grandma's again that night and stayed in. We enjoyed the pool/steam room/gym at the hotel and watched a movie in our room. Saturday we got up early and went to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to get Wicked tickets!!!! We went on a Beatles walking tour through some quieter areas of the city and saw where some of them lived, where they filmed scenes from both of their films and saw Abbey Road and Abbey Studios.


Our attempt of The Beatles Abbey Road album cover haha
After the tour we walked around the shopping areas and then went to Wicked. The show was amazing, I'm so so SO glad we went and I really want to see it again! Sunday was our last day, Christina left in the morning for her flight, the rest of us didn't fly out until that night. We did some last minute sightseeing, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, the Globe Theatre and a stroll along the river. There were a bunch of street performers out and it was so fun to see them, especially the break dancers! The last thing we did before going to the airport was go to King's Cross train station to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter, that's right they made a little wall and trolley just for tourists lol. We had a great time in London, it was awesome to be in an English speaking country, we really didn't feel like foreigners. It mostly felt like we were in the U.S. just in a state we'd never been before, except for the cars on the other side of the road and the double decker buses haha.

Brussels and Amsterdam

I thought this weekend was going to be really stressful with all the traveling involved to get from Rome to Brussels, then to Amsterdam and then back to Rome, but it was surprisingly a very smooth weekend. Christina, Jessie and I flew to an airport outside of Brussels, hopped on a bus and was in the city in an hour. Our hostel was about a 2 minute walk from the train station and was in this really cute square- a great location to see the main areas of Brussels. We were just a few blocks from Grand Place square where they have gorgeous old buildings with lots of gold. One of the best things we saw was Mannekin Pis- basically a statue of a little boy peeing. Legend has it that a man couldn't find his son and swore that when he found him, he would create a statue of him exactly as he found him, and apparently he was peeing. I don't know if that's true, but I hope it is because that's hilarious..



We also walked to the royal palace, the cathedral, a few parks, ate the most delicious waffle, had a beer tasting, and went to a chocolate shop all within a few hours!


WAFFLE


Royal Palace

Brussels is awesome because pretty much everything you need to see is all in one little area of the city. It was very relaxing to just wander around and go in and out of little shops. Everyone is so nice there and they all speak English. Belgium had 2 official languages- Dutch and French, most of Brussels speaks French. We met this lady who worked at the chocolate shop, and we heard her speak 4 different languages with customers while we were there, turns out she can speak 10 languages! That's amazing. Another bonus was that our room had a TV and we got to watch American shows! Italy doesn't have American programming on their basic channels...

The next morning, Saturday, we took the train to Amsterdam, about a 2:30 hour ride. We love the train so it was a nice scenic ride. Again we got really lucky and were staying close to the train station, and the best part was we stayed at a Marriot! The price for a hostel was almost the same as the hotel so why wouldn't we go classy?! The hotel was gorgeous and our room was huge with really comfy beds. Unfortunately we didn't get as lucky with the weather as we did in Brussels, it drizzled most of the day but we still explored. We walked along the canals, saw the flower market, ate pancakes and bacon-yum!!!! saw the I amsterdam structure, walked past the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum (the lines were too long to go inside), learned the tram line, walked through the red light district (wow, that's all I'm going to say) all by 6:00 pm.






Giant Clog!

We were so concerned we would be pressed for time in both cities, but a day in each ended up being plenty. We went back to the hotel to relax and watch MTV on our flat screen; it was a much needed update on American trash TV. We had dinner at a really cute little Indian restaurant, wandered around a little more and went to bed. The next morning we took a 2 hour bus ride to Eidenhoven where the small airport is where the budget airlines fly out of and were back in Rome by 4:30pm. It was a really chill weekend, nothing super crazy happened and we took it easy. This coming weekend starts our 10 day spring break and it's going to be BIG! I'm going to Budapest, Vienna, Prague and LONDON!!!! Can't wait!!

AS Roma

A few thoughts:

1. Sporting events in Italy are way crazy, they basically let you do whatever you want. People were sitting in the walkways, on the fences, getting into fights and security doesn't care.

2. Italians LOVE their futbol. Every time a Roma player would mess up a play, they would freak out, curse in Italian and genuinely act like their world was crashing down (including the kids, minus the cursing). It was pretty hilarious. They also have a few songs/cheers for the Roma team that are way cool and I'm determined to learn them.

3. The stadium that AS Roma plays in is the Stadio Olimpico where the 1960 Summer Olympic games where held and holds over 72,000 people. Rome is officially in the running for the Summer games in 2020, that would be so sweet to come back for it!!!!





4. We made sure to buy some Roma gear before going to the game so we would somewhat blend in and so the crazy fan's would know we're on Roma's side. We saw some other American's at the game, in Roma gear but totally stood out because they were being really loud and obnoxious. It's so annoying when people act like that and give the rest of us American's a bad name. A lot of Italians don't have any patience for American's because of people like these girls and it sucks for the rest of us...

Barcelona

I love Barcelona. End of Story.


Haha not really but I do really love it. Me, Christina, Lauren and Jessie all went and we were so excited because it was our first trip out of Italy! We flew on Ryanair and landed at a small airport about an hour outside the city (which is why the tickets were so cheap). Luckily they have a really convenient bus that takes you from the airport into Barcelona for 21 euro roundtrip. From the bus station we walked to our hostel which was in a great location, about 2 blocks from La Rambla, one of the main walking streets. It was my first hostel stay and I must say it was pretty nice for how little we paid. Nothing special, but clean and the 4 of us had our own room, lockers and bathroom so I can't complain! After we dropped off our stuff and freshened up, we walked down La Rambla to find lunch. La Rambla is such a cool street, it basically has a huge pedestrian walkway right through the middle of it and one way streets for the cars on either side. There are little kiosk type stands that to sell you things and out door tables for the restaurants that are across the street.


La Rambla

Friday was really warm and we didn't have to wear coats! We had tapas, paella and sangria outside and people watched. It was awesome. After lunch we continued walking down La Rambla all the way to the water. It was so beautiful to walk along the harbor and look at all the sail boats, it actually reminded me a lot of California, probably one of the reasons I love Barcelona so much!



The rest of the evening we wandered around, went shopping (of course) and had dinner at a falaafal shop! Barcelona is really cool because they have way more diverse people and food (and it's actually good) than Italy. They have a lot of American chain restaurants; our hostel was 2 doors down from Starbucks!!!!!!!!!!! I realize that half the fun of going abroad is to immerse yourself in that countries culture, but man was it nice to sit and drink a way overpriced tall vanilla latte in the cookie-cutter design of every Starbucks. Anyway we went home and relaxed before going out to Razzmatazz, a 5 story club. We knew people go out later in Barcelona so we headed out around 1 am thinking it would be good timing. Man were we wrong...it was empty, and didn't start getting packed until 2:30!

On Saturday it was overcast unfortunately but we still stuck it out without coats during the day. We had an early start and took the Metro to see Parc Guell designed by Guadi. It was so beautiful and really different, more of a gardens than a park actually. It also had a lot of mosiac designs including a giant 3-D lizard! They also filmed the season finale of America's Next Top Model there, the one with Carridee and Melrose in the crazy wedding dresses. So cool.



We walked around some more, saw some of the houses Guadi designed, had lunch and went to a HUGE food market off La Rambla. This market was awesome, it was basically outside, with just a cover to protect if it rains and had every kind of food: meat, seafood, cheese, fruits, veggies and tons of candy! We bought some chocolate- yum and went home to relax. Around 9 we went in search for dinner and found a spanish/mexican bar/restaurant; chips and guacomole+fajitas=heaven. We did some night time sightseeing, which works out better than you'd think because Barcelona is really well lit and there are tons of people out at night so it wasn't sketchy. Later that night, around 2am we went to Opium, an awesome club on the beach. It had a huge dance floor, lounge area and outdoor seating, if only it was warmer then we could have enjoyed the outside. I really liked this club and would definitely go back!

Sunday we didn't have time for any sightseeing, but we did get one last Starbucks before heading to the bus station and then to the airport. We arrived in Rome around 5pm to rainy weather of course and it's not supposed to stop all week! Oh well, I have 4 short papers to write and 2 midterms next week so I wouldn't be able to enjoy the nice weather much anyway. It's a good thing I'm staying in town this weekend!

Carnivale in Venice!

Last weekend Christina, Jessie, Molly, Lauren and I went to Venice and it was so awesome! Jessie decided to fly because she found a cheap flight and so she arrived a few hours before the rest of us. We took the train which is a 4:30 hour ride but it really doesn't feel that long. For some reason airplanes seem to take forever, but not the trains. I think it's because the seating is set up differently and you can see the countryside through the windows, it's beautiful. Right as we walked out of the train station, we walked into Carnivale. We saw the canal, boats, face painters, musicians and tons of people. People were dressed in the most amazing costumes and masks. Some had really elaborate renaissance era costumes and they just walked around and pose so we could take pictures of them.



Other people were dressed up in funny outfits, we saw teletubbies, clowns, school supplies and little kids dressed up, they were so cute! We got a little lost trying to find our studio apartment that we rented for the weekend, luckly we found Jessie and she took us there. For some reason none of us could open the door, we all tried a million times and even asked our neighbor. We finally had to call the lady we rented the place from so she could come back and open it. She had to grease the door, I guess it sticks? It was weird... Molly and Jessie hung back to nap while the rest of us went exploring. One of the best part about Venice is that there are no cars! Walking around in Italy, you always have to watch out for cars, they tend to not stop...We wandered around, took pictures of everything and bought masks! Later in the evening we met up with the other girls and headed to St. Marc's Square to see the drag queen competition. It was pretty entertaining but once the sun went down it got really cold so we headed home.

Saturday we took the ferry to the glass blowing island of Murano. The ferry ride was pretty short but I really enjoyed it, you know how much I love boats! Unfortunately the glass blowing factories were closed so we couldn't see any being made, but we still had a really nice time strolling along the canal and going into all the shops. They also had really cool glass sculptures around the island.



When we got back to the main island of Venice, we all got our faces painted! It was so fun to feel like a little kid again at a carnival lol.



I had been trying to get in touch with my friend Kendall from SD who was in Venice the same weekend, but we were having phone issues. I only ended up seeing her for about 5 seconds when she was in line to go into the Basillica. I was bummed I didn't get to spend more time with her, but a quick hug and a hello was better than nothing! The girls and I had a delicious dinner together and went looking for a bar/club to hang out in. Venice doesn't have much of a nightlife, even during Carnivale so we headed home and had our own dance party in our room haha.

Sunday we packed up and did some more sightseeing. We went to the Jewish Ghetto and it was so nice to be away from the crowds and just enjoy a walk. After lunch and more wandering it was time to head to the train station. There was bumper to bumper traffic of people along the main streets, which you have to take to the train station.



It was a little stressful and annoying trying to navigate through all those people with our stuff, but we managed and got to the station just in time. I unfortunately didn't have a seat on the train, although I had a ticket. So basically how that works is I just hope that someone doesn't show up so I can take the empty seat. I wasn't so lucky and I had to sit on the floor the whole ride, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though!

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore"

This week hasn't been too eventful, just an average week in Rome. We've been having some interesting weather though, a lot of rain and thunderstorms. It even hailed one day even though the sun was out, weird. It's been raining so much that the Tiber river is getting really high and might flood again if this keeps up. This weekend was a much needed break of the rain and we had some sunny days but it's REALLY cold and windy; no fun for walking.

Last night a bunch of us went out and ended up walking all over the heart of Rome. Our original plan was to go on an organized pub crawl that started at the Colosseum but we were running late so we ditched that and went to Campo de Fiori for apertivo and drinks. We decided we needed to go to a club and dance so after getting a little lost and changing our plans a bit, we ended up at Gilda's, a discotecha! I had a good time but I would have had more fun if we didn't do so much wandering a before; cobblestone streets+heals=no bueno. They played really fun hip hop and techno music and there were so many JCU students there it was ridiculous. We met some interesting Italians that were really excited that we were American haha.

Today is Valentine's day! Me and some of the girls went to see Sleeping Beauty the ballet at this gorgeous Opera house in Rome. We had box seats, one just for us to sit in and we felt so classy. After the ballet we went to dinner and I decided to order something besides pasta; I got the steak and potatoes. It was a nice change, even though they gave me french fries instead of roasted potatoes (I think they did it because we're Americans lol) and even better was the chocolate cake and tiramisu for dessert!


At the ballet

I think I'm getting sick again, booo so I am being responsible and staying in to rest up. I don't want to be sick next week in Venice for Carnivale!!!! I'm so excited!!

p.s. I have yet to be serenaded "That's Amore" by an Italian, I'm workin on it hahaha