Florence, Italy

There’s a first for everything and this trip marked my first time traveling to Italy!! And better yet, a large portion of my friends are studying abroad there this semester, which enabled me to visit with them too! This weekend was one of two 4-day weekends I have this semester. I seized the opportunity because the timing was perfect. Everyone is always traveling every weekend, but this weekend we were all free allowing me to come! My time in Italy was well spent. Before coming, Mary told me that her friend, Bri had two girls visiting her this same weekend and were most likely on my flight. Guess what? They both go to SLU with me in MADRID! Ironically, we met up in the Pisa airport after we landed just by chance. I was waiting behind them at the information desk and asked if they were going into Pisa to visit the leaning tower. Sure enough, they were and one of the girls said, “I think we were supposed to meet you!” So, the three of us traveled to the tower together and then into the city of Florence. Pisa had so many tourists especially people taking the touristy pictures pretending to touch the tower or push it up including myself. 

Pisa

We didn’t stay here long at all. I actually thought it was a little boring. Back in Florence, Mary showed me around her apartment and then brought me to see Deanna and Lauren in the apartment downstairs. After everyone said hello and we were all showered, the group went out to dinner to celebrate Mary and Trevor’s’ 20^th birthdays (no they are not twins). This whole dinner experience was pretty poor. Megan and I did not get our food until everyone was finished with theirs even though we ordered the same meal as some people. After what seemed like forever, the two of us finally received our food. The chicken was delicious and dinner was fun! The next day on their actual birthdays, we did a family dinner at home. The girls had one and then the boys had their own. We had lasagna, which I am normally not a fan of, but this tasted good and was homemade by Alex. Before that some of us walked around Florence and went sightseeing. I had my first real Italian pizza for lunch from Gusta Pizza, which in fact was delicious. Who says you’re too big to ride a carousel?   

Piazza Republica

Not any of us because in fact we all did just that in the Piazza Republica. Just around the corner was a Ferrari store so of course I had to go inside and check it out. They had Ferrari everything! (t-shirts, notebooks, golf balls, hats, etc.) The prices were as expected and out of my budget. 

On to the next place! Or should I say places? We were on a mission to get to our destination but passed a handful of other important places in Florence that everyone pointed out to me. Some of the hot spots include the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence with nothing but jewelry shops), the Santa Croche (church where Michelangelo is buried), and the Duomo (where I attended church on Saturday night). We reached our main destination: The Boboli Gardens (pronounced “bubbly”). 

View from the top of the Boboli Gardens

Beginning of the Boboli Gardens

 I almost had to pay for a ticket which would have cost me 25euro but my group of friends is sneaky and Deanna used her free access card at a different window to get another free ticket for me.  Inside the garden, we climbed multiple gates and steps until we reached the top. The views were pretty cool.  The real views were at the Piazza Di Michelangelo. I climbed this “mountain” on Sunday and saw the most spectacular view of Florence. The weather wasn’t awesome, but then again the weather could have been worse. Another thing I got to experience in Italy was the central markets and the leather markets. Florence is famous for its leather making.  I bought a few presents at the markets, which I will not name in case someone I purchased something for reads this! Italy overall treated me well. It was weird seeing how much English is used and how little Italian is actually used. I didn’t even really feel like I was in Italy (language wise). The city is small and my friends do not even use public transportation to travel anywhere. It’s all done by foot. I even picked up the hang of things after walking the same streets about 3 times. In fact, Mary and Lauren made me find my way home one time without any help from them! Sure enough, I found their apartment with no problem. I also got to experience a real cannoli which was DELICIOUS along with a fruit ice pop dipped in chocolate made to order. The ice pop was phenomenal. Easily my favorite thing I tried in Italy. My short and sweet visit with so many of my friends had to come to a close. However, I was not THAT sad because they were coming to Madrid the very next weekend. Before I end this blog post, I must mention how I was sitting by the gate at the airport waiting for my flight when all of a sudden a guy wearing his dirt biking gear sits down next to me. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. Obviously he was getting on a Ryanair flight because he wore his biggest and heaviest clothing/equipment! People will do the silliest things these days just to save some money!

My two favorite pictures of the trip

My two favorite pictures of the trip

The U.S. Embassy in Spain

On Friday, October 26th, I went with my roommate, Gaytri, and her boyfriend, Parth, to the U.S. Embassy to drop off my vote for the 2012 election. We figured out the route a head of time and hopped on the bus around 12:30pm. I called the embassy prior to arriving to ask them if i can come and the women said yes, she would tell the GUARDS that I am coming. I thought this was pretty cool until we arrived outside the embassy. The security men were legit holding HUGE guns. I wanted to take a picture, but I am not sure if that was allowed so I refrained. However, I did take pictures sneakily of the voting drop-box and inside the embassy itself. I also took a picture of the Hummer police vehicles stationed outside the building. The U.S. Embassy would have Hummer police cars while the rest of Madrid has girly little sedan police cars. The security guys were extremely nice to us and hardly anyone was in the actual embassy besides us. I didn’t have to leave my purse with security for some strange reason, but my roommate Gaytri did. I think this might be because she is Indian? who knows. Once inside, we found our way to the voting window.  There were two tellers and two other people inside besides us. One of the persons I traveled to Lagos with a few weeks prior! What a small world. He actually needed me to sign his ballad as a “witness” which I was fine with doing because I talked to him in Portugal and he remembered me. The waiting area was set up with lots of pictures of U.S. related things such as Washington, D.C. and the Philadelphia Phillies. Out of all the sports teams in the country, I think it is pretty funny they picked the Phillies in the same city I go to school in. I waited for Gaytri and Parth to finish their applications, and shortly after, that concluded our adventure to the U.S. Embassy in Spain. May the best contender win! (Pictures are coming soon)

Futbol (Soccer) & the Countryside

Elena, Agustus and I

Elena and I sitting in the stands to the right of the player with the white shirt

Day 3- The next day we woke up around 11:15am and laughed about falling asleep so early the night before. At 11:30am we headed to Ale’s soccer game (Ale is Elena’s boyfriend). His team is ranked #1 in the league and the opponent from the other island (who they played) is ranked #2, so this games was a good matchup to watch. A little bit of rivalry broke out between the two teams twice, but each time the other team started the commotion. I think they were just mad that Las Palmas was wining because one of the “fights” took place towards the end of the game when Las Palmas was winning 3-0 which ended up to be the final score anyways. The weather at the beginning of the game was bright and sunny with powerful heat from the sun. During halftime the clouds rolled in and took away the heat which felt good for a change. The remainder of the game was played with cloudy weather which Elena was thrilled about. Elena’s friend Agustus photographed the first half of the game and then came and hung out with us for the entire second half. So, this being said, I got to practice my Spanish since he does not really know English! After the game we waited for Ale to congratulate him. Then it was time to go home for lunch. In the Canary Islands, lunch is the biggest meal of the day and dinner is the smallest. We had a complete lunch with the table set and everything. Lunch was delicious, pork and French fries! After that we didn’t really do much. Just bummed around the house. Elena and I watched Bridesmaids half in English and half in Spanish since it is easier for her to understand things for the first time in Spanish. I had seen the movie already so I was fine with watching it in Spanish. I actually think watching it in Spanish made it funnier. But anyways, we didn’t get to watch the entire thing because we headed up to Elena’s family house up in the mountains out in the country of the island. 

Countryside

 
The temperature difference was drastically different! Elena, Laura (her sister), Soli (her sister’s friend) and I were literally sitting in the house with our jackets on. 

Elena, Soli, Laura and I (and the game DixIt)

The house was SO cute. Actually, Laura was in the process of moving there with her longtime boyfriend Dan. We watched some TV (in Spanish), ate some snacks, played a game called DixIt, and eventually had a late dinner. DixIt is a game Laura received the day before as a gift on her Saint Day. Your Saint Day is almost like a birthday and is a huge deal in the Spanish culture. This game requires you to use your imagination which made it extremely fun to play. Eventually it was time to go back home. I had SO much fun this past weekend catching up with Elena and seeing the island. I would love to go back but I do not think I will have enough time. However, I could not have asked for a better weekend.   

Elena's Dog Molly!

Nude Beaches and Black Sand (Canary Islands)

Day 2 - My second day in Las Palmas consisted of nothing but the beach! Elena, her friend Melanie and I traveled about 30 min to the south of the island where the majority of tourists flock. 

Melanie, Elena and I

The name of the exact beach we went to was Playa Ingles. Once I saw the dunes, I felt like I was in Egypt. They were ENORMOUS, and separated the ocean from the buildings/hotels but A LOT. I felt like I had to walk through the Sahara desert to reach the water. Oh and there are absolutely NO paths whatsoever. Our strategy was to follow where the majority of the previous footsteps led to and stay away from the huge sand cliffs. This worked like a charm! 

We reached the water and just started looking for an open spot to setup. Before we knew it, we ended up in the nudist part of the beach! This was a scary sight. The majority of the people were old! We immediately turned around as we cracked up. Unfortunately for us, our day was cut short by the cloudy weather. The beach temperature got cold really fast and everyone disappeared. Soon it was our turn to leave. On our walk back, we encountered an adorable wild baby hedgehog! I didn’t even know hedgehogs are wild creatures and not just house pets.

Second Beach

Instead of totally giving up on the day, we headed to a beach in Las Palmas called Las Canteras.  This beach was totally different from the south. The sand here was black and there were no dunes except for a cement wall where the restaurants, apartments, and “boardwalk” were perched up on. I’m happy the weather deteriorated in the south because it offered me another opportunity to see a different part of the island. The weather here was perfect with the sun scorching through the clouds. We spent the rest of the day there, and then dropped Melanie off at her house. Back at the Elena’s house we took showers and just hung out. We were both so tired we did not even go out to a discoteca. In fact, I said I was going to take a nap at 9:45 pm and slept until Sunday morning. Elena said she would wake me up but never did because she fell asleep too! I wasn’t even hungry for dinner. I ended up eating dinner for breakfast the next day. The sun and driving sucked out all of our energy. Such a weird night! 

 

Canary Islands Reunion

 Day 1- Friday morning was my first time flying on the infamous Ryanair airline. This company does not assign anyone seats (unless you pay extra) and has comparably cheap flights that fit a college student’s study abroad budget. I looked up flights, as directed by my longtime friend Elena, and seized the opportunity to go visit her in the Canary Islands! She has lived in the Canary Islands her entire life, but her family in the United States is extremely close to my family. She and I met years ago at a party with her family while she was visiting the US. We kept in touch ever since so now that I am studying in Madrid, I get to visit her! My Ryanair flight went smoothly for the most part excluding the few bumps encountered. Elena picked me up from the airport and we headed on our way! It was weird being in a car with someone driving manual transmission, but then again that’s how things are here in Spain. We cruised down the highway listening to popular Spanish and American songs on a CD she made as she pointed out specific points of the islands. When we arrived at her house, she showed me around and introduced me to her dog, Molly, since everyone else was still sleeping. 

 After that, we both went back to sleep as I was up since 5am that morning. The nap felt good. Elena’s mom, her sister Laura, and I dropped Elena off at school around 2pm, then headed to the market to buy some food. Yes I said market and no this is not the same thing as a supermarket. Buying food this way is a lot cheaper because it goes through less people/companies. When we arrived home, I went and sat by their pool (which they recommended) and took a small nap, again. The sun felt amazing, but the pool was too cold to swim in. After that, her mom and I went to visit her grandmother, who I have not seen since probably before high school. Unfortunately, her grandmother did not remember me, but it was still nice to visit and attempt to communicate in Spanish. Then the two of us said goodbye and went into town to explore while we waited for Elena to finish up class at 8pm. To pass the time by, we had churros, chocolate, and coffee and browsed through a few clothing shops (where I wanted to buy EVERYTHING) and picked up some more groceries. The town was cute and probably only had one tourists, me. It was neat to see one of the true sides of the Canary Islands other than a tourist spot. Once Elena finished classes, her mom left me with her and some of her friends in town. We all went to a crepe and gelato place which was phenomenal.

 I used my Spanish to converse with her friends because most of them could hardly speak English. Eating and chatting concluded, so Elena and her friends took me to the cathedral which dates back a long time ago. 

Anton, Elena and I in front of the cathedral

Soon enough, we got bored standing outside of it and went to another restaurant just to sit and chat some more. Something that NEVER happens there is rain. Except of course it decides to rain multiple times while I was visiting. The heaviest rain occurred while we were all sitting at this restaurant lucky for us we were sitting under a huge umbrella. Everyone else scurried and scampered for shelter. It was pretty funny actually. One family took their yellow lab dog inside the restaurant. Our night ended here with the rain. It was fun living the life of a true 20 year old Spaniard! Everyone is so laid back and not in a rush to go anywhere. I could get used to it!

SURF'S UP!

Day 3 - The third and final day consisted of surfing and only surfing. At first, Zach and I were the only two from our little group who wanted to surf until Emily and Jen changed their minds at the last second once they saw how many people were doing it and decided to follow. It was more fun this way because we had more people to try and catch waves at the same time with. The bad part was that there were way too many people in one spot trying to surf. Having surfed before, this annoyed me tremendously. I would be riding a wave and people would see me coming at them but refused to move similar to a deer in headlights. It’s the “surfing law” to move out of a surfer in motion’s way. As a result, I had to jump off and end the ride. What a buzz kill. But besides this, surfing was A LOT of fun.  

 The waves were HUGE and there were so many “real” surfers farther out catching the big waves. 

 
These are surfers who spend their life traveling to surf the best surf breaks in the world. They sleep in their vans keeping their expenses to a minimum and let their dogs run around freely.  It felt pretty cool to be surfing at the same beach some of the pros surf at. Surfing was a lot of fun, but deposited a lot of sand in every place imaginable even with wetsuits on because the waves were so powerful. Unfortunately we had to travel all the way back to Madrid without showering. That bus ride home was miserable. The seats were so uncomfortable and it felt like it took forever to get home. Once again, we took an overnight bus back to Madrid to make it back in time for classes Monday afternoon. However, before we arrived in Seville, we stopped at a rest stop to find the craziest man in the world on TV. We were granted to the opportunity to watch the Austrian man free fall from outer space through the sound barrier and onto land live while we happened to be stopped there. Other than this, there was nothing exciting about the trip home. I do not think I will ever take a bus that lasts more than 4ish hours and is overnight ever again. The weekend in Portugal was a lot of fun. The beaches were unlike any other I have been to. I actually would not mind going back!