Spring Break Adventures: London

Hello, London! When we arrived at the the Gatwick Airport, Kirsti and I realized that we had no idea how to get to our hostel (no address, no maps, no nothing) and luckily the information desk was so sweet and even called our hostel to make sure the name we gave him was correct, and once we arrived at our hostel, the desk told us they have never received a call like that before, ha!

Of course, the first place I went to was Starbucks. How I have missed you skinny white mocha with light whip! 

The first site we visited the night we arrived was the millennium bridge, which is beautiful at night. The next morning, Saint Patrick's Day, we visited the Tower of London. I didn't go to the museum to see all the awesome royal jewels. I also expected the tower to be more massive than it was. It all seemed so short and unimpressive.

After a walk around town, we all walked to the Kensington Palace for afternoon tea at the Orangerie.
I had the Chinese green tea, and have never had sugar cubes before! I felt so fancy! Although it was quite expensive (25 pounds - about 40 dollars), it was worth the experience and actually quite filling. The sandwiches were to die for.

Stay classy, folks.

Our hostel was an experience all in it's own. I have never seen so many different races, cultures, and languages spoken in one place. Most of the people that were there were there to improve their english. Which I think is magnificent. I would love to just work at a hostel like this one and just soak in all the different types of characters that fill the rooms.

The hostel was also connected to a bar, and since it was saint patrick's day, I thought I'd try a beer. Nope. I didn't care for it very much, and so a sweet swedish girl name Anna who recommended me (and even bought it for me) a delish sweet swedish cider (Rekorderlig) that came in many different flavors. So good!

London is so gorgeous in the rain!

Big Ben! I also rode the London Eye and saw it from a bird's eye view. I didn't get good pictures since it was so dark, but I was happy to have done it at night and saw the beautiful lights of London.

Abbey Road! It was hilarious to watch people walk the road and have  their pictures snapped not to their liking and so they had to re-do it but the people in cars were getting so frustrated each time.

This is also when I publicly defaced public property for my good friend and Beatles fanatic, Peter. Don't say I never did anything for you!

A cool giraffe and I. I was deeply reminded about my best friend and how much I miss her!

Asides from the aforementioned events, we also went to the Tate Modern museum (saw really awesome surrealist art) and the British Museum which disappointed me because I had hoped to see Hokusai's famous The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, which I had walked TWICE to the museum to search for, but after finally giving up to ask the information desk, they informed me that most of the Japanese art was under restoration. SAD. DAY.

One of the main objectives of my spring break was to NOT EAT ANYTHING ITALIAN. And after my traditional mcdonald's meal, I tried some Vietnamese food. It was awful. Everything was pre-cooked and the noodles weren't even cooked through. But the Vietnamese coffee did not disappoint, so at least it was a halfway decent experience. MORAL: don't eat Vietnamese in London! 

but of course, one SHOULD get traditional british food. And of course I opted with fish and chips. DEEEELISH! It came with mashed peas as well, which I've never had, and it was pretty yummy.

Overall, London was beautiful and very lively. It was awfully relieving to hear English again (although British english is just as hard to understand, and it took a while for me to learn to stifle my laughter when I couldn't understand a darn word)! The three whole days we stayed just wasn't enough to see London to it's fullest. But as a general theme that I cannot stress enough, no amount of time that I will spend in a city, or a country, is going to be enough to explore and really know and understand them. It takes so much time to get a feel for a certain place. I really hate being a tourist. 

Paris, you're next!

"When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London." - Bette Midler

Sixth weekend update: Ladies' Night and Meeting the Parents!

Asides from the beautiful Assisi, this week was rather filled with important dates! Friday was International Women's Awareness Day, and so Bar La Posta had a "Magic Mike" event to celebrate. A couple Americans and Italians got together and choreographed a performance that was very entertaining. The bar also gave every girl a  flower (which I helped put together) in honor of the night.

It was a really fun event (Bar La Posta never fails to be a fun night) and it was the first time I was brave enough to wear heels in the cobblestone streets of Italy! I didn't fall so I would like to call it a successful night. 

The next day I took a short morning trip to Cortona. I got there rather early and none of the stores were open yet, so I wrote in a cafe near the piazza. Have I told y'all how much I love Cortona? I hope so. It never fails to remind me that it's my favorite town. This time, it was the amount of wifi I could get literally anywhere I went. Not only did the cafe have wifi, but after I was done drinking, I went out to the steps of the bell tower to finish writing and could still get wifi from two other cafes. Ridiculous! I couldn't even get this kind of Princess treatment in Florence or Rome! Once T-Nobile opened (the store I came all the way to Cortona for), I bought the leather weekender bag I wanted and then I met up Shenell and Dezi in Arezzo for the rest of the afternoon. We finally picked up Dezi's handmade leather boots, which were beautiful!

On Sunday, the center organized a brunch for the students to eat and socialize with local families. Shenell and I paired up and were paired up with the sweetest family! Our family also decided to join two other families and we had lunch in Cortona (after a prosecco drink in Castig). It was the longest lunch/meal I've ever had. The whole meal lasted four hours and we had an after lunch promenade around Cortona and then they took us to Montecchio Castle. This was the first time I really was expected to use and know my italian (although Stefania knew English pretty well) and it was such a breath of fresh air to actually get to practice and do what I planned to do when I got to Italy. I suppose I never really thought about how being enclosed in a space with only english-speakers and not exactly needing to speak any Italian other than what is necessary to get by (knowing how to ask for information in the streets, stores, order) would really hinder my learning, but I got a heavy dose of it with these families!

If you want to learn a language, talk to a child. They don't understand that you can't understand them. They don't understand that you need them to speak slower and they will just keep talking so you better keep up!

The whole family! 

The leather bag I bought in Cortona.

On Tuesday, I leave Castiglion for two weeks! One week in Venice and the second week (spring break) in London and Paris. It's going to be a long adventure with only a backpack worth of clothes and necessities!

"Chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire."
(No matter where you go or turn, you will always end up at home.)

A Weekend on the Coast: Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, Naples

After Rome, our class took a half-day trip to Pompeii to tour the ruins. I really thought Pompeii was a much smaller town, but my goodness it was so much bigger than I expected. I actually got lost walking around the place. Also, it was raining while we were there which sucked for us but at the same time we got to experience how their drainage system worked which was really cool. I think the rain might have been worth it just for that.

A bath inside a Pompeii bathhouse. Apparently they used to do very interesting things in these baths.... other than bathing.

Alex serving us ladies at the bar, whoop!

If  you remember earlier, I broke my boots in Rome and had to buy new shoes. These are pretty appropriate for Pompeii, yeah?

Oh, yeah, we visited a brothel. This was one of the many pictures that were inside the brothel.

Of course, when anyone visits Pompeii, they want to see the people. But after seeing it, it makes me really sad. These are actual people in the moment that the eruption occurred. This particular one really got to me. You can really see the fear in the pose and I can't imagine how scared everyone was.

After Pompeii, I made a very spontaneous impromptu trip with a couple friends (CeCe, Kristie, and Chris) to Sorrento, Capri and Naples. Coincidentally, Shenell, Tessa and Kirstie booked the same hotel we were staying at!

Sorrento was beautiful. The bread actually had salt and the shops were so nice and cheap.

Mostly we made a bunch of cappuccinos and bought tons of limoncello, which is their specialty in these areas.

On Saturday, we took a ferry to Capri. I have never ridden a boat before, and not even thinking about how motion sick I can get, I was super duper excited to try it out for the first time. We decided to sit outside instead of inside for a better scenic view.

Look at me, all happy before the boat started moving!

Okay, so here comes the disgusting anecdote. I get motion sickness like no other mother, and before I realized how my inner ear was not playing games with me today, Chris escorted me inside the boat and afterward I threw up in a plastic baggie (ew, I know, but you need  to know my pain!) and had the worst pangs in my tummy. Oh, and it was stormy and so the waters were very choppy. GREAT.

After a long dreadful 30 minute hell-trip, we got off at the bottom of Capri and the tour guide needed us to get on a bus so we could get ourselves up to Anacapri. Um, say what? After my friends convinced me that I should take the bus ride because I would be bored out of my mind down here, I again endured a stupid ride up Capri and my friends did their best to keep me calm (and keep my stomach calm too). 

After we got off, the boat, they gave me some meds and made me eat pasta with butter (look at my sad face) because I couldn't eat anything acidic but to my contrary it was actual really really good... who know butter and pasta?!

We explored Anacapri and then later took the bus again to Capritown.

A perfume museum/factory/shop - they make "capri designer" perfumes!

The views were one of the most beautiful views I did ever see. And it was cloudy and stormy. I can't imagine how it would look in the summertime. Although I am glad I didn't go in the summer because there would be so many tourists and no room. It was pretty much empty in Capri which was nice to see it in all its glory and not in all its ... tourists.

After spending Friday and Saturday in Sorrento, we took the train back to Castig but stopped in Naples for lunch. I really wanted to do some exploring in Naples, but with our time limit (trains are funky on Sundays) we could only get lunch and walk back to the train.

We were in the STRAIGHT GHETTO.Just kidding. But the streets were really dirty.

(photo taken from Kristie)

After a very confusing long and scary walk, we made our way to a pizzeria (because when in Naples, EAT PIZZA) and had the best pizza I've ever had. It was called the "Stella" because of its star shape design. The middle of the pizza was cut and folded in four pieces with ricotta cheese stuffed in it and a caprese salad in the empty part. There was four sections of "stuff:" mushrooms, ham, sausage and pepperoni  Oh. My.Goodness. It was the most beautiful and elaborate pizza I ever had.

It was a really nice weekend. I couldn't believe that I hit FOUR cities in just one weekend. But like I've said before, a day is just not enough time to explore a whole town, no matter how small. But I am grateful that I can even visit and see these cities, something that would be extremely difficult for me to do back at home.

Until next time!

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. ” -Robert Louis Stevenson

Third Week Updates: Orvieto,Valentine's Day, Pizza Making

Gambino game crazy

After our tour at the duomo of Orvieto, we ate lunch at a little Pasticceria bar and I had a spinach/cheese panino because I couldn't have meat. I was skeptical at first because I've never been a big fan of spinach but it was actually super yummy. We then got some sweets to eat the next day (Valentine's day).Also, ceramics in Orvieto are beautiful. I got a couple mugs as souvenirs.

Happy Valentine's Day! Or as they say, boun san valentino! Shenell and I organized a mini- valentine's tea party in substitution for a valentine's day back in the States. We had pastries and finger sandwiches and of course, tea.

On Saturday, we went to a pizza making class! Mostly, we learned how to make bread.

The agriturismo was beautiful. The bread came out smelling so good and the pizzas definitely tasted homemade. The most surprising pizza (and unique) was the tuna and onion pizza. I was worried that the onions would really overpower the pizza but strangely it was so perfect! Never would have thought to put fish on a pizza, the italians think of everything!

Until next time!

“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore”
-Dean Martin