Fall Break: Part II

First off: sorry that this took a few days to get out. This week has been crazy! (I’ll blog about it this weekend.) Second: this post probably isn’t going to be as exciting as the Rome post (sorry if you didn’t find it exciting… then this is awkward) since we definitely got to do a lot more in Rome than in Venice, but that’s okay.

Friday afternoon: we left Rome around 1 PM to head off to Venice! We decided to take a train since it would probably be a pretty ride and a lot less expensive than flying. Both things were true. You never realize how green the Italian countryside is until you see it. Unlike Greece, for example, it’s barely arid anywhere. Well, at least from what I’ve seen/heard. Around 5:30 PM, we got into the Venice train station. Once you step outside the station, you feel like you’re in a new world. We immediately came outside of the station and felt like we were in the Italy that comes to your mind when you think of the country. Sure, Rome was beautiful and ancient, but Venice is just a completely different world, in good and bad ways.

Okay, maybe not the best picture of the Italian countryside, but it’ll do. (^)

We made it! Yay Venezia! (^)

Friday evening: Trying to figure out how the vaporatto, which is like a boat shuttle, we found our way to St. Mark’s Square (Piazza de San Marco) Here’s a tip: don’t ask for a water taxi unless you want to spend a ton of money getting around when you can spend a few Euros and get around just as easily. From what I’ve been told, water taxi drivers rip you off. The vaporatto is pretty much Venice’s public transportation – it has different lines and stops, and it will get you wherever you need to go on the border of the island.

 One of the few decent pictures I have from the vaporatto ride to our stop. (^)

 Our stop! (^)

Anyway, let’s get back on track: we walked to our apartment that we rented, which was a 5-10 minute walk to St. Mark’s Square, which was perfect for us! After getting settled in, we decided to walk around and find a place for dinner. Although we thought it was beautiful at night, Venice is better during the day when you can see all the colors, canals, gondoliers, and everything else. We found a place for dinner pretty quickly, considering we were all starving, and enjoyed the wonderful Italian food. After our big dinner, we definitely needed to walk around and burn some calories. We went to St. Mark’s and saw St. Mark’s Basilica, which aside from the scaffolding, was just… wow. It was a lot bigger than I expected, and had so much detail into the building’s architecture. Another awesome thing we encountered in the square were the few groups of musicians performing. This wasn’t just street performing – this was legitimate orchestra players with their pianos, clarinets, flutes, basses, accordions, the whole deal. It was probably the best dinner entertainment I’ve ever seen. After that, we headed home to start an early day of exploring, shopping, and eating (the three things we do best.) Speaking of shopping (I bought a few things in Venice that reminded me to mention this), Murano glass, a really nice type of glass, is made in Venice! We were going to go to the glass museum, but didn’t get a chance. It’s definitely something to buy if you do go to Venice though!

A canal near our apartment & gondolas. The epitome of Italy. (^)

 Casual evening entertainment. (^)

St. Peter’s Basilica by night. (^)

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Saturday morning: As always, we got up nice and early to have a full day of getting around. Actually, I lied. We slept in until 8:30… that’s late for us when we travel. We got some fruit, coffees (well in my case, hot chocolate), and hit the alleys of Venice. We had no plans until later in the day, and everyone who’s been to Venice said the most important thing to do is walk around and get lost, so we figured we’d do just that. And it worked out great! Walking through small streets, we found a cute square with what looked like two large churches – turns out one of them was actually a hospital. Definitely the prettiest, most elegant hospital I’ve ever seen! We also wound up on one of the main roads with great shopping called Strada Noda. It happens that a restaurant our friend who studied in Venice last semester recommended to us was right around the block from us, so we had to try it. She said she had the best meal of her life at the restaurant, so we needed to test these waters. La Columbina, tucked away from the main Cannaregio road, was a quaint restaurant with an amazing lunch deal we couldn’t pass up: a pasta dish, a meat/seafood dish, a salad, wine, water, and a coffee for 25 Euros. It was so much to eat and well worth the price. I got spagetti with clams and mussels, and bresaola (it’s an Italian air-cured beef) and it was probably my favorite meal while we were in Italy.

The nicest hospital I’ve ever seen. (^)

SO PRETTY. I love Venice. (^)

Saturday, 2:30 PM: We’re heading to our tour that starts at 3 PM, and all of a sudden, it starts down pouring. Great… just when we thought we could have a vacation with perfect weather. We waited for the rain to pass and went on to find our tour, which was way too difficult to find even though it was right in front of our noses. People were not very clear with directions, but at least we found it and on time! Unfortunately, the tour wasn’t as great as we expected. We didn’t see many historical landmarks, didn’t get to walk around much of the island, and just learned about the basics of Venice. I mean, I can’t complain… it’s a tour in Venice. At least we learned a lot of really interesting things! Enjoy my brief fact listing. (Yes I took down notes on my phone so I could remember and was made fun of for doing.):

• Venice is made up of 116 islands attached by 450 bridges. (Even if two buildings are surrounded by water, that’s considered an island).
• Even though there’s only 60,000 people living in Venice, they’re haunted with 26 million tourists in a year.
• Mozart lived in Venice in 1771, just a couple buildings away from La Fenice, an extremely well known theatre.
• High tides cause the alleys and streets to flood, and wooden planks are laid out around the city. It’s not as cool as it sounds… it’s actually really bizarre.
• You don’t have to go all the way to Pisa to see a leaning tower; Venice has the Leaning Tower of Venice, it’s a bell tower that isn’t built on bedrock, so it became lopsided.

Our tour finished off with something everyone has to do when they go to Venice – a gondola ride. Okay, it wasn’t the greatest gondola ride, like you see in movies where they go through the narrow canals, sing songs, and you and your special someone are staring into each other’s eyes. Well it wasn’t like that for us at least. Since it was wet, we were all a little uncomfortable, and the waves in the Grand Canal (the main canal in Venice) made the gondola rock a lot. Oh well! I’ve decided that if I have a spring or fall wedding, I want to go to Venice for (part of) my honeymoon, so maybe I can live my gondola-riding dream then. And yes, I have planned that far in advanced. Sorry future husband.

Leaning Tower of Venice. (^)

View from the gondola! (^)

Saturday evening: As soon as our tour was done, we walked as fast as we could back to our apartment to get warm and relax, which was definitely needed. Afterwards, we decided to have a simple dinner at a café and walk around, maybe shop a little bit. Of course we sat there for a long time just sitting, talking, and people watching. Not to sound creepy, but I could actually just people watch for hours and hours. For me at least, it’s fun to see how different everyone is, and occasionally make up stories about people you see, like saying their name, where they’re from, what they’re doing, where they’re going, etc.

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Sunday, 10 AM: Since we had to check out early, we got up and got ready for the day early. We probably should have prepared ourselves better for the weird morning that was about to come…

Originally, our plan was to go to Doge’s Palace, the palace in St. Mark’s Square that is supposed to be beautiful. After that we would head into St. Mark’s Basilica to see the inside and maybe watch part of a service. Unfortunately, neither of those plans worked out. We headed to the Palace first, which had a long line. Since we knew that the church had a service every hour, we were thinking of just running in quickly between services, so we figured we could do that to kill time and go back later on the line. It actually took a good 10 minutes to walk over to the Basilica… which is right next to the Palace… because of the water and wood planks everywhere. It was just massive amounts of people crammed into small surface areas because of the water. People were pretty much on each other trying to get from one side of the plaza to the other via the wood planks, and it was just a mess.

Some gondolas and me. Notice the water about to attack my feet. (^)

Is this not the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen? I actually could not grasp what was going on. (^)

Once we got to the Basilica and waited in line for a few minutes, we were told to get off line. We figured we’d go up to one of the people in charge and ask when we could get back in line. When we did, he said that it was closed for the rest of the day. Of course the day we planned to go was the one day they closed the church at a certain time… I’m pretty upset that I didn’t get to see it. I’ve heard really great things about it and was really excited to see the inside and possibly part of a service. Oh well, I can see it on my honeymoon! And at that point, it was going to be too long of a wait to get into the Palace. There goes a few hours wasted.

At that point, we were tired, overwhelmed from the crowds, and kind of bummed (and had to go to the bathroom), so we decided to get out of the main touristy area and get some lunch. How could food not make you feel better? After that, it was time to get our bags and head back to London for a new chapter in our abroad experience.

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Fall Break was such an amazing experience. I learned so much, got to see so many new things, and ate some amazing food. The break, as all traveling experiences I have, really made me appreciate how lucky I am to travel and see the world. The amount of places I’ve been is remarkable, at least to me. I honestly don’t see how people don’t like to travel, but I guess that means more availability on planes and trains, and in hotels or hostels, for me to use for traveling!

Fall Break: Part I

Fall Break finally came! Here’s how the first wing of the trip has gone.

Wednesday, 3:20 AM: I woke up from my extremely brief nap to head over to the bus that took us to Gatwick. Luckily the bus ride was a little long so we were all able to take a quick nap. We had an easy time at the airport, getting through security and finding our gate. By 6:45, we were off in the air on our way to Roma

Wednesday, 9:45 AM: We landed safe and soundly. Yay! One step down, a few more to go to get settled. We took a bus that cost € 4 to the train station that is about a 15 minute walk from where we were staying, which was a lot better than paying € 40 for a taxi or € 10 for a train. We enjoyed a beautiful bus ride at ease until we got to Roma Termini, the Rome train station, and just couldn’t seem to figure our way out. Another step down, a couple more to go. Trying to figure out maps and ask some locals where to go, we somehow navigated our way to Piazza del Republica, a major square near our B&B. From there it was a simple walk down one of the main Roman roads, Via de Nazionale. After about a 10-minute walk with two large suitcases, we made it!

The rest of the day on Wednesday: Since we didn’t have any set plans until 4 PM, we decided to venture off into the city on our own to explore and see what we could stumble upon. Fortunately, we were very successful. Simply walking down Via de Nazionale, we found Piazza Venezia, one of the main Roman squares. There we found the beautiful Ministry of Heritage & Cultural Activities. It kind of looked like the White House on steroids gone Roman. It was such a beautiful building, and we spotted it as soon as we got to Piazza del Republica earlier that day and found our way there later.

The Ministry of Heritage & Cultural Activities. Pretty, right?

From there, we continued to walk around, get some gelato (that Hannah and I pretty much got scammed for… since it cost € 9), and see what else we could find. We came across a market called Campo del Fiori that we heard a lot about. They sold fresh fruits, silly souvenirs, fake designer bags, 50-year aged olive oils, different types of sauces, cheeses, and lots more. Numerous restaurants bordered the market place, which makes the area a great place to go out at night for dinner and some drinks. We knew that this was a place to come back to.

Venetian Masks (^)

Hundreds of different types of pastas. Some were red, white & blue, while others were crazy squiggle shaped. (^)

 Italian cheeses. Yum! (^)

We booked a free walking tour that started at 4 PM. Since it started by the Spanish Steps, we decided to make our way over there and wander through the streets. We found the “5th Avenue of Rome,” as our tour guide described it, with stores like Valentino, Dolce and Gabanna, Fendi, and tons of others that made us broke college students feel even more broke (which is always just a wonderful feeling). Eventually, we made it to the Spanish Steps, which I’ve seen countless times in movies, but never in person. It was so pretty – prettier than I imagined, and a lot more crowded than I would have expected. Our tour was really great, and what my friends and I agreed to be one of the best parts of the Rome trip (aside from the food, obviously).

Spanish Steps… full of tourists. Oh well. (^)

On our tour we saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain , structures that date back to the 4th century AD, the Colosseum, and other landmarks. My favorite part of the tour was probably the Trevi Fountain. As insanely crowded as it was, it was more breathtaking than I could have imagined. Watching couples throw their coins into the fountain together and seeing groups of friends taking pictures together, it was awesome to see. This is another place that I’ve seen a number of times in movies and TV shows, so like the Spanish Steps, it was really special to see in real life. The Colosseum was also mind-blowing to see up close as well. It amazes me that something so historic is still standing for people to see today.

The Trevi Fountain (^)

Tourist Central (^)

I don’t get how those structures from 1,500 years ago are still standing. (^)

The Colosseum (^)

After our extremely long day of traveling, walking, learning, and somehow staying awake, we needed a dinner break. Our first Italian meal was actually perfect. Our meal contained of nothing other than wine, bread, cheese, and pasta. All we needed was some pizza and we’d be golden, but that might have been a bit excessive. We literally salivated over the food the second it came into our line of vision and ate it in about two minutes. This definitely got us excited for the rest of the food we’d be eating for the rest of the trip, but our meal also put is into a food coma. We all headed home and went to bed nice and early to get up for another adventurous day.

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Thursday, 8:45 AM: Already up and at ‘em, we finished our breakfast at our B&B and headed off to our big adventure for the day: the Vatican City. Somehow figuring out the public transportation system, we took a bus about 10 minutes away to the Vatican City. Little did we know how odd the bus situation would be… First off, we bought roundtrip tickets to and from the Vatican City, only costing about € 3 luckily, but we wound up not needing them. And we didn’t need them just for that time, but every other time we took the bus, we didn’t need a ticket then either. Oh well, we knew that the luck would be reversed if we didn’t buy a ticket… somehow the bus driver would ask for our tickets or something. And speaking of which, our bus driver was actually texting and driving. A bus driver! And none other than in Italy, where I haven’t seen that crazy driving except for Greece and on the Autobon in Germany. It was already an interesting morning before 10. Woof…

Thursday, 9:45 AM: We got to the Vatican City which was a lot more awesome than I expected. First off, I had no idea that the population was only 800 people. And even though it’s so small, they have their own radio & TV networks and their own army force. Pretty sweet. Next, we found out only minutes later after we got into the Vatican City that we were going to see none other than the Pope himself! Thursday, October 11th was the celebration of the Year of the Faith, as well as the 50th Anniversary of the Vatican Second Council (in all honesty I don’t really know the significance of either, but I’ll look it up). Because of that, it was a massive service with thousands of people there. We felt like the luckiest people in the world; going to the Vatican City on a random Thursday in the off-season and we were going to see one of the most powerful people in the world? Doesn’t get luckier than that.

St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City (^)

Just being a tourist (^)

Thursday, about 10:30 AM: I don’t really remember the exact time… but that’s okay. Finally the Pope came out, but not only did he arrive to the service, but he did it in style, of course. He drove in a car while standing and waving to everyone. Until that point no one clapped or was too loud, but once the Pope came out, hundreds of people clapped and waved. Although we didn’t get to see him up close and personal, we could tell from the big screen how excited he was to see everyone and how pumped all of the attendees were to see him. Thousands of people come to the Vatican City every year, whether for religious reasons or just to visit since they’re in Rome, and it really shows. When we came back from exploring Musei Vaticani (which I’ll talk about in a few sentences, bear with me…), we saw the line for St. Peter’s Basilica entrance. I’ve honestly never seen a longer line. The line went across Piazza de San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square), which is pretty large.

It’s hard to see, but the men in green are the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Sorry, I didn’t get any good pictures of the Pope. He was shy. (^)

Thursday, 11 AM: After hanging with the Pope, we went to the Musei Vaticani to see some exhibits within the museum and go to the Sistine Chapel. We saw lots of iconic paintings, tapestries, and other religious items in the museum, most dating back to the 1300-1500’s. Again, I don’t understand how things from that long ago can still exist and be in decent condition. I love it! We also saw a lot of sculptures, and we all decided to have some fun with them…

Yes I took some selfies at the Museum with a statue… (^)

My silly friends (^)

The Last Supper tapestry (^)

Garden of Eden painting (^)

Continuing to walk on for what felt like miles, we finally reached the Sistine Chapel, along with about 500 other people crammed into the chapel. Aside from the overcrowding and some stinky Europeans, it was so pretty inside. Although I wasn’t expecting to actually go inside but to merely peek my head in, and I didn’t expect it to be so large, it was so much better to be inside. The paintings on the ceiling and walls looked like photographs and so life-like. It was honestly just so great, and so worth the wait.

(Sorry, no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so I couldn’t take any to share)

The rest of the day on Thursday: After our Vatican City extravaganza, which took up a few hours of our day, we decided to take it easy the rest of the afternoon, since our feet were still killing us from all of the walking on Wednesday. We walked to the Pantheon, which I didn’t realize was an actual Basilica – I just thought it was a structure like the Parthenon. Seeing the ancient Pantheon in a quaint square surrounded by pastel-colored buildings, I finally realized what Rome can be compared to: Rome is ancient like Athens, and tropical/summery/bright like Nice. It has the best of the both worlds to be honest. After walking around the Pantheon, we walked back to our B&B to regroup, shower, and relax. After we felt we could actually move again, we headed to Campo del Fiori to eat some amazing lasagna and caprese salad. Earlier in the day, we came up with a wonderful idea: buy a couple bottles of white wine and sit by the Trevi Fountain at night after dinner. It was a million times better than going during the day since it wasn’t as crowded. Although there were some tourists it felt like there were more locals, so we enjoyed ourselves more. We literally just sat there and drank our wine for a few hours and had a great time. Probably our other favorite part of the Rome trip.

Outside the Pantheon (^)

And inside! (^)

Trevi Fountain by night (^)

On Friday, we made our way to Venice! I wanted to separate the posts because there’s sooo much to write about for each part of the trip. Be patient with me as it will probably take me a couple more days to get a chance to blog about Venice. It’s a hectic week – I started my internship today (which is awesome!) and I’m settling back into school mode unfortunately. Anyway, have a great week everyone!

Making Moves and Planning Trips

FINALLY. I booked my tickets to travel around Europe!

On September 21 until September 23, my friend Kirsten and I are traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland! If you’re not sure where it is, click here for a map. I’ve never been too gung-ho about going to Scotland, but it’s going to be a beautiful trip. We’re staying in a hostel in a perfect location and ridiculously close to Edinburgh Castle. We were told to go to a Sky Bar while we’re there, so that’s definitely on our list of adventures. The train ride is between 5-6 hours, and I’m actually excited for it; a long travel up to Northern England and Scotland is going to be stunning. Originally on the weekend we’re going to Scotland, a few of us were originally going to go to Paris, but if I leave later, I’ll be able to crash where my friend Nicole is living! You always have to opt for the cheapest (but at the same time, reliable and safe) option while traveling, since it all adds up and can get very expensive.

In mid-October after our two finals, we have a 5-day long break. My friends and I are traveling to Rome for 2 1/2 days, and Venice for 2 days! I’ve been to Florence before, as I said in my last post, but Rome and Venice are two completely different places. I actually thought Rome and Venice were a lot closer, but they’re actually on completely different sides of the country! Florence is land-locked and located in the hilly Tuscany, while Rome and Venice are both on or close to water with very different atmospheres (from what I hear). We took our nerd-status to the extreme and checked out an Italian travel guide for the best places to go, eat, shop, explore, etc. It’s going to be a great trip! We’re also taking a train from Rome to Venice, which will also be a great part of the trip. Isn’t it the best when the actual traveling part is just as exciting as the rest of the trip? Also, other people in the BU program have awesome trips planned as well; some are going to Greece, Spain, and even Africa!

Looking ahead, I’m definitely traveling to Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, and Prague. My friend actually found a great weekend trip to Amsterdam and Bruges, two beautiful, quaint (sorry, that was the best word I could think of) cities. Because you don’t need too much time in either of the cities, it’ll be a great, but speedy, weekend trip. I have friends in Paris, Dublin, and Prague, so hopefully housing will be taken care of! And Barcelona… well, let’s be honest. What college student wouldn’t want to go there?

 

In other news…

Today was our first day of our Elective A class. As I believe I mentioned in another post, I’m taking “Writing in Today’s Britain: Meet The Writer.” So far, we’ve read Stephen Brown’s play, “Future Me.” It’s a crazy, bizarre play, but definitely compelling. One awesome thing about the class is that we do get to actually meet the authors, and part of our class is to interview the author when they come in. Tomorrow, my job will be to interview Stephen Brown! I found his play somewhat disturbing, but really intriguing, so hopefully it’s a decent interview. We’re reading plays, a memoir, two novels, and poems. It should be a really great class! 

This week is our first full week of classes, so we’re all hoping it gets us more into the swing of things with schedules and what not; so this week will kind of be a slow week. This weekend, I’m going to Oxford and Blenheim Palace, the palace where Winston Churchill was born in the 1870’s. Hopefully I’ll get to do some more exploring of London on Friday and Sunday. I could so get used to this whole three-day weekend thing…

14 Days

Until I leave for London!!

Two weeks, 14 days, 336 hours. It all seems a little far away, but I know the time will come before I know it. I couldn’t be more excited to start this new adventure. Although this summer has been full of great experiences and memories, I’m definitely ready for a new chapter and for change!

The last time I was in London was in 2005, and I was only there for a few days as a “pit stop” on my way to Greece with my family; that definitely wasn’t enough time to learn about the city. Now, I’ll be spending 3 1/2 months there… I’d say that’s an upgrade.

Fortunately, I’ve had experience living abroad before, which helps with my nervousness. In 2008, I spent all of July living in Nice, France in the Côte D’Azur through the Academic Study Associations (ASA) program. It was such an amazing opportunity, and I’m so happy to be able to spend another part of my life abroad.

I’ve always loved traveling, and it’s been a major part of my life since I was young. My parents took me to Paros, Greece where my mom and her family are from for the first time when I was three. My longest flight was a 16-hour flight to Hong Kong in March 2010, and my shoretst have been the 40-minute Boston to New York (or vice versa) flights over the past few years. I’ve been all over the country and to Central America, Europe, and Asia.

This is Piso Livadi in Paros, Greece, where my mom’s family is from. My brother took this picture back in July 2010.

There’s just something about being out of the country, or even in a new part of the country, that makes me appreciate the world more. Maybe it’s trying all of the new food (and as I blog more, you’ll easily see how much I LOVE food!), or it might be the languages and accents I hear walking around, or even how fashion changes from city to city. Whatever it is, I love being a part of a new place in the world, and learning about the culture. Traveling is something that I’ll definitely take advantage of while abroad, and for the rest of my life. Check out my About Me section to see where I hope to travel to.

Well, that’s about it for my first actual post! Check in again soon!