Barcelona III

My last day in Barcelona started off with good intentions.  I wanted to wake up early and go see the inside of the Sagrada Familia.  However, in instead woke up around 10am and decided to just make it a lazy kind of day .  I also didn't really want to spend the money as I was trying to avoid taking more money out of the ATMs.  Anyhow, I woke up, had my customary croissant and espresso breakfast, got a fruit salad from the food market.  I enjoyed the creek Gaudi walking tour so much that I decided to do the other one the company offered, the Old City tour.  I luckily had the same tour guide, and it was once again great.

I'd like to take this moment to share with you a Catalan tradition that I learned from the walking tour.  Instead of Santa Claus at Christmas, they have this log with a painted on face.  The log shows up about a week before Christmas, and the children "feed" the log every night, just like we leave out cookies and milk for Santa.  All week, the children feed the log, so the log is theoretically getting pretty backed up.  That log needs to go!  So the night before Christmas, the back half of the log is covered in a blanket, and the children sing a Christmas song in Catalan while beating the log with sticks!  The next morning, hopefully the log will have crapped out of a bunch of gifts and they'll all be under the blanket.  They literally beat the poo out of that Christmas log.

There is also traditionally another figure in the classic Catalan nativity scene.  There's Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus......and a shepherd with his pants down in a squatting position.  His name in Catalan translates to "the shitter".  The idea is that he giving back to the earth that which was provided to him, in an endless cycle of bounty.  You can buy your very own pooping shepherd in many of the tourist shops, and sometimes you can get one that looks like someone famous, like the Pope or Queen Elizabeth.

Right now I'm sitting on the airplane in Dublin, waiting to take off for Boston.  Dublin has the distinction of having a US customs checkpoint here, so Ive already cleared customs.  I know you were worried!!!!  :). It's kind of cool because you get off your arriving flight (from Barcelona, in this story) and you proceed directly to the U S immigration center in the airport.  If you've checked a bag like I did (I was tired of hauling that thing around, plus I bought some liquids in Barcelona), then you had to sit and wait while they got your bag from the other airplane.  Then they call you up to a desk, ask you some questions, and scan your boarding pass.  A picture of your bag pops up on the computer screen, you confirm that it's yours and then hopefully you're on your way.  

I'm headed to Providence for a few days to hang out with the lovely Suz, my oldest NYC friend.  Then I'll head into Boston for the night and stay at Kera's.  I'm having dinner with Steph and Camille, two friends from grad school.   It's going to be a grand few days of catching up with old friends, and then it's back to Austin.

Barcelona II

Barcelona has been better!  Last time I blogged, I was feeling pretty tired and unmotivated.  I'm still both of those things, but I've made myself get up and go do stuff.  

I met up again that night with the Brit and we went and saw the Magic Fountain.  This thing is so cool!  It's a giant water dismay with music and colored lights that was building for one of the World Fairs in the 1920s.  The giant fountain is level, but you can climb the these stairs behind it waaaaaaaay far up, all the way up to this art museum and look down over it.  It sounds cheesy, but it was pretty impressive.

The next day the Brit and I met up again to go be beach bums.  We headed down to Barceloneta and picked out a nice spot and just basically laid there like beached jellyfish for a while.  The water was so gorgeous and turquoise, and the temperature of it was perfect.  We took turns going into the water and watching our stuff.  It was just a wonderful Mediterranean time!  We got lunch there and then said goodbye, as he had to go catch his flight back to London.  I was kind of sad, as he ended up being an excellent sightseeing buddy.   In addition, he totally hooked me up with bottles of shower gel, shampoo, and sunscreen that came with his hotel room, all stuff that I was just about out of and was trying to avoiding purchasing for my last few days.  Haha!  After that I wandered over and took a ride on this cable car that goes way up high above the city.  It drops you off in a park, and then I took the bus back downtown to the city center.  The bus passed the giant futball stadium and the Olympic stadium, so it was cool to briefly see those things.

This morning I woke up with the intention of going to do the tour of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, but I showed up and the queue was around the block and I went NOPE!  I should have gotten up earlier, and will try again tomorrow.  So what I did instead was go and roam around a neighborhood I hadn't been in yet, which ended up being full of cute boutiques and vintage stores, and getting some more juice from the giant market.  I also took in a free walking tour of some of Gaudi's highlights.  The tour was so good that I'm planning on catching another one tomorrow, of the Old City.  And now my evening consists on drinking Estrella beer and eating Toblerone  chocolate with my roommates.

Anyhow, that's about it for now.  I haven't been very exciting in Barcelona, sorry readers. I was telling one of my roommates that I haven't felt very cultured in this city, and she said that her dad likes to say that you can get more culture from sitting in a coffee shop in a new city for an hour than going to a museum. If that's the case, then I am the most cultured person ever! :)

Barcelona

So far, Barcelona is nice.  I don't know if I'm just tired from all my travels or hot or what, but I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do much.  I have a lot of time here so maybe that's it.  Anyhow!  Here's what I've been up to so far.

The first day was pretty much consumed by the camera fiasco and not a lot of sightseeing was done.  I DID spot a couple of Gaudi buildings only way back to my hostel, so that was awesome.  They're so interesting looking.  His buildings all look like they are made of wax and are melting.  They're quite pretty.  So my hostel this time around is the Sant Jordi Diagonal and it's pretty typical.  Dorm room, kitchen area, common room, blah blah blah.  The only thing different about this one is that I have male roommates this time around.  They don't do single sex rooms here.  At first I was like, oh great.  However, the two girls in my room have been the noisier, messier ones and the three guys have all pretty chatty and considerate.  That first night I just cooked myself some instant risotto that had been hanging out in my backpack since Italy and called it a night.  

Yesterday I woke up early and went down to the beach area to catch a free walking tour, but only two of us showed up so it was cancelled.  The other guy was this British dude, so we ended up hanging out for the rest of the day,s editing the sights.  We went up to Park Güell, a giant park filled wit neat little architectural things and Gaudi's house.  After that we strolled around for a while, got lost for a bit, and found a little sandwich and gelato place for lunch.  When we were done we hit up Merct de la Boqueria, this giant amazing food market.  They have fruit, veggies, seafood, met, poultry, olives, candy, juices, and more!  Its all pretty cheap and it's just fun to look at roam around in.  Once that was over we split up to rest for a bit, and then met up later to get some dinner.  I had this really tasty veggie paella and some sangria.  We kind of stumbled on the restaurant accidentally, and it was all locals, which was nice.  When we were done eating, we went over to look at Sagrada Familia at night.  I hadnt see  it yet and WOW, it is just beautiful.  Im going to go do the tour of it in the next few days.  Then we went down to the beach, Bareloneta, and just strolled around until 1am and then I headed home.

This morning I hauled myself out of bed around 10am and went to a giant flea market, the largest in Spain.  You know how I love flea markets!  This one was just ok.  It was.....well, a flea market.  It didn't have the antiques and charm of the Paris one.  It was mostly just junk and cell phone accessories.  I got of of there pretty quickly. Afterwards I just roamed around for a bit, hit up Boqueria for lunch (a veggie pastry, a fruit salad, and some fresh coconut pineapple juice, all for about €5).  It started raining so I came back to the hostel to hang out and figure out a plan.  I don't really know much about Barcelona or its neighborhoods, so I'm going to spend some time online right now figuring out where I want to explore because in feeling sort of unmotivated and clueless right now.  Late the Brit and I are meeting up again for dinner and maybe to rent some bikes and roam around on those.

Idiot

I am an idiot. Listen to what idiotic thing I did today.

I flew to Barcelona and feeling pretty smug on ethe flight because I'd employed my stuffed raincoat pockets trick again to get more crap onto the plane. My backpack was in the overhead bin, and my raincoat was under the seat in front of me. When we landed, I exited the plane, took the shuttle bus, got onto the subway, OH MY GOD WHERE IS MY RAINCOAT. I LEFT MY RAINCOAT ON THE PLANE. In the pockets of the raincoat were two pairs of shoes, my entire collection of clean of underwear, my electricity converter, AND MY CAMERA. I thought I was going to die right there. Six weeks of pictures gone. I got to my hostel, told the desk clerk what I'd done, and he called the airport for me and spoke to the in Spanish. Miracle of miracles, my jacket had been turned in and would be waiting for me to pick up.

So, I got back on the subway, and then the shuttle bus, and finally got to the airport again. I asked the lady at the info desk where I should go, and she was like, go down there and turn right. So I went down there but there was no where to turn right. So I asked her again, and she's like, you go into where it says Arrivals. I was like, you want me to go in the area that says NO ENTRY? And she's like, si. So I think this lady is crazy and I go ask someone else. This guy says the same thing. Go in the place where everyone else is coming out of the secure area. I was like, am I going to get arrested?! And he goes...here's the kicker...."This isn't your country. We don't do that here.". I wanted to be like, well, no one has flown airplanes into your buildings either, but I kept my mouth shut.

so I did what they said. I went against the flow of people exiting the secure area of the airport and not a single soul asked me what I was doing. No one stopped me. I went right on in and went to the easyJet desk, got my raincoat, camera and underwear intact, and went right on back to the hostel. I will never say a bad thing about easyJet again. The end.

Lisbon

Portugal was gorgeous!  Lisbon was the one city that I came into knowing practically nothing about it.  No monuments, no museums, nothing.  The hostel that I booked, the Living Lounge, had come on the recommendation of a friend of a friend, and it was.....well.   This year it was voted the #1 medium sized hostel in the WORLD.  That should tell you how the hostel was.  When I booked it months ago online, there weren't three nights of dorm rooms available, so I opted for my first night in a private room and the two following nights in the dorm.  The cost of living in Lisbon is so low that my private room  there cost the exact same as my eight bed dorm room in Paris.  It seemed like an affordable luxury.  Each room in the hostel had been decorated by a local artist, so they all had different themes.  My private room had a giant mural of a ship and red furniture, while my dorm room had a lomography theme and pictures everywhere.  The lobby of the hostel had antique furniture and a really lovely fully stocked kitchen.  A local chef came to the hostel and cooked dinner each night at 9, which you could buy into for €10. I arrived a little late to figure out the area and find food on my own, so I joined the dinner.  I was able to drop off my laundry with the desk clerk, and for a small fee it was washed, dried, and folded overnight (which was a lifesaver because out of all of my clothes, the only things I had that were clean we're a pair of underwear, my AirBerlin socks, and a shirt I'd washed in the sink the night before).

The next morning, I woke up early for the free breakfast of homemade crepes and to go on the free walking tour.  The chef from the night before was the guide, and he lead us on a four hour tour of Lisbon.  What a pretty city it is.  Everything is so colorful and sunny.  Some of the buildings were painted in bright pastels, but most of the buildings are completely covered in brightly painted tiles.  Some of the tiles date back hundreds of years, but unfortunately a lot of them were lost in the great earthquake in the 1700s.  Most of the tiles follow patterns from before that time, though.  Also the streets and sidewalks are also made of black and white rocks places into mosaic patters.  There is just so much detail with the aesthetics going on all of the time.  We walked around the city center for a while, and then hopped on one of the vintage trolleys.  These trolleys are the actual public transportation system, and not just fixed up for the tourists.  There's also a small subway system for longer travels.  The trolley took us to a massive outdoor flea market, where you could wander around and look at cheap handmade stuff and antiques.  

After that, the guide led us into the Alfama district, which is the Moorish area.  The streets are so narrow and winding that cars can't drive there.  Sometimes you would see a scooter, but rarely.  To use a map to find your way is useless, because the streets are so curvy and change names at every intersection.  There are giant grand churches and temples mixed in, but everything is so close to each other that there are no plazas in front of them and the beautiful facades just butt up right against the backs of houses in front of it.  When the earthquake happened, it was a holy day and so lots of people were inside the churches and couldn't get out in time and died.  Something like 50,000 died.  After the earthquake, it was decided that all new churches constructed would have a plaza in front, and that's how you can tell the age of e churches in Lisbon.

Our guide led us by a small shrine covered in Barbie dolls and wedding decorations, and told us it was for Saint Antonio, the patron saint of weddings or something like that.  All donations that were placed in the plate in front of it were gathered and doled out once a year to poor girls deemed "worthy" to help cover the cost of their weddings.  Praying to Saint Antonio could apparently help you find a husband or wife, so this one cute girl in my group was like "Well I need all the help I can get!" and she dumped a TON of change into that plate, hahaha.    She told me later that in her area of Canada, there is a "man drought" and it's something like 3 or 4 women for every man.  Totally average dudes will come up to women in bars and stuff and go, "Hey, want to buy me a drink?". I was like, come to Texas, we'll find you a nice southern boy.  ;)

After roaming around the tiny corridors of Alfama, we came to a little cafe that served local specialties.  I wanted to try something new to me, so I ordered the sardines.  Out came four pretty big sardines, heads and tails and all.  I just picked them up by their little silver heads, scraped the meat off their tiny bones, and put their little fish skeleton on the extra plate.  They were good!  Salty.  So for €10 each, we got our entree, some veggies, soup, bread, olives, vino verde (green wine), sangria, and espresso.  Good deal!  Since we're talking about food here, let me mention the hostel meals.  They were also €10, and came with the entree, soup, salad with honey dressing, bread, dessert, and wine.  I had the hostel meal every night.  The first night it was seafood rice with prawns and profiteroles for dessert.  The second night it was this fried Cod and onion dish with chocolate mousse for dessert.  The last night it was this veggie ravioli dish with lots of fan veggies and strawberry creme mousse for dessert.  They were all sooooo good, and it was fun eating with all of the other people in the hostel all of the nights.  Some of my favorite meals of the trip.

The second day, I decided to take the tram to a neighborhood on the outskirts of Lisbon called Belem.  There were some lovely monuments I'd heard of and wanted to see, as well as a free modern art museum.   The museum was awesome and had a great collection of Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Jackson Pollick, Andy Warhol, etc works.  I also strolled around and had these little custard tarts that I'm totally forgetting the name of right now.......  They are to Portugal what gelato is to Italy and macarons are to France.  I had like three of them from this famous bakery that was celebrating 175 years of service.  The whole time, though, I'd been fighting the inevitable.  This whole trip, sun allergy and sprained ankle aside, I'd managed to stay pretty healthy.  However, I could feel a cold coming on.  I went back to the hostel and laid down for a bit, watched some Mad Men that I was behind on, and joined the dinner,  and that was it for my time in Lisbon.  I really wish I had scheduled more time there.  It's such a pretty place, everyone is so friendly, and the Euro goes a lot further there than elsewhere in Europe.

Right now, I'm on my last easyJet flight to Barcelona.  Thank goodness.  So far on this flight they have gone up and down the aisles with a cart of food and drinks you can buy (no free drinks and peanuts on this carrier, no sir), a cart with perfume, sunglasses, toys, etc, and now they're giving us the hard sell about donating to their charity.  Maybe they should do that one first next time, because I don't see anyone dropping any coins into the donation bag.  That €7 packaged sandwich must have cleaned people out.

Barcelona is my last stop in Europe, and I'm a little worried about the pickpocket situation there since it has the reputation of being the Pickpocketing Capital of Europe.   It seems like almost every traveler I've encountered has a story about something that has been stolen from them there.  I've been a little lax with my belongings so far, but I'm going to have to step it up in Spain, I guess.  After almost six weeks of travel, I'm wearing down a bit and I'm excited to enjoy my last week here, head to Boston for a few days, and then home to Austin.

Language

I've spent a lot of time thinking about languages lately, I guess because I've been pretty much dumped into the middle of a whole bunch of them. This is my first time being in a place where Englisb is not the dominant language (I'm excluding Mexico here, sorry Mexico), and it's a little disorienting sometimes. So far on this trip, I've been around English, German, Italian, French, and Portuguese.

The hardest part of this whole trip has been each and every time I cross into a new country. I have a little freak out moment where I worry if I'll be able to navigate myself to my hostel using he public transportation. Will I understand the signs? Will people be able to help me? Will I be able to get people to understand that I need help? It's daunting!

Before this trip, I knew the basic pleasantries in a few languages. Hi, bye, please, thank you, do you speak English?, etc. I could say those things in Spanish and French, and that was it. German, forget about it. English was so widely spoken in Switzerland that it was like the German language didn't even need to exist. In French, I can still say only those things and that's about it. In Italian I think I can get by quite well if I need to. I can't have a full on conversation, of course, but I can handle myself as a customer, ask for directions, give directions, deal with numbers, etc. but Portuguese? Its intense! It's the one language where I didn't know a single word before I came here. I had to look up "hello". It's similar to Spanish, but then completely different as well!

I guess one of the benefits of all of these languages is that they've kind of given me a bit of security. In most touristy areas, people who want to sell you something or convince you to come into their restaurant or just otherwise hassle you will often approach you in English, because they can tell you're clearly not from around these parts. I've found that if I throw out a Bonjour or Ciao to their Hello, they mostly leave me alone. Before, I was just a rich American walking around. Now, I've maybe created a bit of uncertainty in their minds. Maaaaaaaybe I'm European, ad therefore not as much of a sucker, so maybe they should just move on to another target.

Paris III

The flea market in Paris?  Pretty awesome!  One of my roommates and I went to what is considered to be the largest antiques flea market in Europe!  It's a serious maze of little corridors on the edge of Paris, and it's full of little booths.  They have furniture, clothes, jewelry, creepy dolls, art, accessories, and just about everything you can think of it.  Most of it is pretty vintage and retro, and there are some amazingly expensive treasures in there.  We wandered around while eating some Nutella and banana creeps, and I ended up with a really pretty old silk scarf.

After that, my friend and I parted ways for a bit, and I headed over to look at the Arc d'Triomph and the Champs Élysées.  It was raining off and on, so eventually I just headed back to the hostel to rest up a bit.

That night, we went to a restaurant that I'd heard of before a d really wanted to try, Chartier.  The place is a century old, and is famous for serving good French food for fairly cheaply, fairly quickly, and in a beautiful place.  The night before we'd attempted to go there and the line was down the block.  This time, it being a Sunday night, the line was shorter, and we were inside within 15 minutes.  They try to fit as many people in and as possible, so we found that we were sharing a table with another couple of people.  The waiters there either don't speak English or pretend not to, so we were pretty much on our own with the menu.  But oh my god, it was so good.  I ordered escargot, mushrooms in sauce, and green beans in sauce.  In France, the snails are cooked in their shells and served to you that way, unlike in the states where you get that funny dish with the holes in the top.  To get them out of their shell, you must use these tongs to hold onto the shell, and then use a tiny fork to dig that buttery, garlicky little delight out.  It was sooooo good!  For dessert, we decided to just feel lucky, so we pointed to two things on the menu and hoped that they would be amazing.  They were!  One was a sort of mousse cake and the other was a chocolate parfait kind of thing.  We also finished off a whole bottle of rosé.  After dinner, we wandered around Montmartre for a bit.  We ended the night at a candy stand in front of the Moulin Rouge, where we sat for a bit and ate our sour gummy Eiffel Towers.

The next morning, I had a little bit of time to go look the Notre Dame church, and wander around Les Halles.  I had a quick lunch of a crepe and an eclair, and then had to grab my stuff and head for the airport.  EasyJet, we meet again.

Paris II

The night time bike ride was awesome! A group of about 15 of us rode all over Paris, stopping for ice cream and some local tidbits about landmarks we were passing. The tour included a ride on a ferry down the Seine, and we all drank some red wine that our guide had been carting around on the luggage rack on his bike. All in all, the tour clashed about four hours and we covered eight miles. Totally fun experience.

This morning, I woke up late and missed the hostel breakfast, so I was forced to get breakfast at the corner cafe. I was absolutely forced to get the breakfast special, which included a cappuccino, orange juice, buttered bread with jam, and a croissant. It was absolute torture. I hit up my last Paris museum, the Musee de l'Orangerie. I was walking around looking at everything and thinking....hmmm.....I've seen this before. And the. I remembered that the whole collectn had once made the trip to one of the art museums in Dallas, and I'd seen it all there. Regardless, it was nice to see some old friends by the likes of Monet, etc. :). After that, I walked (in the rain) to the Latin Quarter and down the Rue St. Michel. Another really lovely neighborhood with cute shops and cafes and a young vibe. For lunch , I bought a small round of Brie from a farmers market for €1 and ate it with crackers and fruit. I wandered over to the Rue Moufftard, a street famous for its open air market and checked and some lovely fruit and bought more macarons....which I then ate while watching a jazz band. Really lovely. I finished up the day by getting dinner with two of my roommates. Ordered trout,and the ENTIRE thing came out......bones, skin, eyes, and all. It was ok.

Tomorrow, the same roommates and I are hitting up a couple of flea markets, to look for treasure. Stay tuned to see what we find!

Paris

Everything you've heard about Paris is true....from the beautiful streets to the art and even to the constant smell of pee in some places.  This is such a great city!  I would move here in a heartbeat if it were possible!

Two days ago I landed at Orly and then took a shuttle train, a commuter train, and finally a subway to my hostel, the St. Christopher's Inn.  Unlike the other places I've stayed in that are hostels in reclaimed spaces, this place was built to be a hostel, so it's got lots of nice conveniences.  Sliding curtains on the beds, private reading lights and outlets, lots of showers, etc.  All in all, a pretty good place for the price.  So I dropped my stuff off, got some Lebanese food, and called it an early night.

Yesterday I was up early and ready to beging fitting as much culture and adventure into four days as possible.   However, first things first.  I had to see the Eiffel Tower.  I hopped on the subway, and when I later climbed up out of the station, there it was!  Massive lines were already queuing up, even so early in the morning, so I just looked at it and took picture of it, and then walked along the Seine to my next destination.  I'd been saving all of my museum-going for this city, and my first stop was the Musee de l'Orsay.  No line!  What a lovely building it's in.  Very old on the outside, with lots of modern design on the inside.  The Orsay has lots of paintings and sculptures that go into the 19th century.  After a few hours there,  headed out and promptly found a "take away" counter at a restaurant where I could get a crepe to eat and walk with.  

The museum had taken less time than I expected, so I hopped on the metro again and went to the neighborhood of Montmartre.  This is where the movie "Amelie" was filmed.  It is such a cute neighborhood.  It's where I'd want to live.  Lots of cute cafes and boutiques and such a fun atmosphere.  I found the giant lawn and hill front he movie where she slips the album into his satchel while he watches from way up high. Its actually part of a church and people tend to just hang out there sunbathing or whatever,  it also has spectacular views of all of Paris.  

After that, I headed back to the hostel to rest a bit before the ballet.  Months ago I had bought a ticket online to see "La Fille Mar Gardée" at the Opera National de Paris and in the Palais Garnier.  This ballet is considered to be the most important French ballet created, and in fact was first performed EVER at the very same place I was about to see.  The venue, the Palais Garnier, was just gorgeous.   Construction on it was started in the 1860s, and it's the setting of "Phantom of the Opera".  I'd booked the cheapest cheap seats that I could, and expected to be way up high in the nosebleed section. Imagine my surprise when I showed my ticket to the usher and she walked me over to a box, which she unlocked and then showed me into. Unless you've purchased an orchestra level seat, you get a box seat!  My box was on the third level and had a sofa, mirror, and coat rack in the entry way, and then six individual chairs up by the railing.  I had a nice seat, and the ballet was just gorgeous.  If you are ever in Paris, and even if you don't like the ballet!, go and see it.  The whole experience was such a memorable one, and it's definitely my favorite thing that I've done so far.  

This morning, I woke up early and headed out for the Louvre.  Another trip on the metro during rush hour. Again, no real queue to speak of, so I was in and out of there in about four hours.  Again a really gorgeous HUGE museum.  Afterwards I headed back to Montmartre to a restaurant I'd heard about called Les Pâtés Vivantes and this place served.........Chinese food!   They're well known for 1) being amazing, 2) making their own hand pulled noodles, and 3) being a good deal.  The food was great and then I went across the street to a creperie and had a sweet crepe and an espresso for dessert.  I'm back at. The hostel now to rest for a bit because I'm doing a nighttime bike ride this evening.

the Mona Lisa and her many, many fans

Before I came to Paris I'd been warned about how expensive it is.  IT IS expensive, but it's also possible to be really cheap here!  Really good fancy cheese can cost as little €1 at the market, so a lot of my meals so far have been bread, cheese, and fruit.  Not a bad way to survive.

Rome

Rome was quite the adventurous city for me.  I'd only budgeted one full day there, with an evening and a morning book ending it.  I figured it would be plenty of time.  I was kind of wrong.  There is so SO MUCH to do there!  I arrived by Frecciargento train and made the short walk to my hostel, the Mosaic.  After checking out my dorm room and securing my backpack to my bed with a lock and cable (no lockers in the room), I headed out to explore.  

First stop, lunch at a sidewalk cafe.  Spinach and provolone on olive bread and an acqua frizzante (carbonated water).  I then headed to the Coliseum, and it is just AMAZING in person.  I didn't go inside of it because of time constraints, but it was still completely breathtaking.  The oddest thing about Rome, to me, was that you'd see a somewhat modern building, and the some ruins just hanging out next to it.  No big deal!  After the Coliseum, I strolled around and saw a TON of stuff, including the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Victoriana, etc.  All of it just amazing.  The sun was incredibly bright and I was wearing down pretty quickly, so I called it an early night.

The next morning I slept in and thought, maybe I'll try the Vatican can after all.  I'd heard horror stories about the queues for it,and I hadn't served a ticket ahead of time, so I was a bit worried about these situation. It ended up being a total nonissue.   Either I'm the luckiest girl or people just weren't feeling especially holy, but I didn't encounter a single line the whole time.  I just walked into everywhere that I wanted to go.  It was a bit crowded, but there were no queues!  The Sistine Chapel is AMAZING.  There have been a few things on this trip that have left me speechless.  The duomo in Milan is one.  The view of Florence is another.  The Sistine Chapel?  Wow!  It's quite big and has multiple rooms, but the famous painted ceilings in them are just spectacular.  I snuck some pictures.

More walking in the hot sun.  I'd heard about this drink called a Granita di coffee con panna from a coffee shop adjacent to the Pantheon, the Tazza del Oro.  It was basically a layer of whipped cream, a layer of espresso slushy, and another layer of whipped cream.  It was soooooooo good!  More walking in the hot sun.  After a while, I reached down to scratch the back of my leg and it felt funny so I looked down and promptly freaked out.  I had this crazy rash thing going on on both of my legs.  I got myself to a farmacia ASAP and was promptly seen by a doctor and diagnosed with a long word that basically means "sun allergy".  Polymorphic light eruptions or something like that.  I was give a prescription for a cream, bought the cream for €7, and went back to the hostel.  Universal healthcare system, I love you!!!!!!  I decided to stay inside in the air conditioning, so after lots of chatting with my roommates, I went to bed early.

Right now I'm at the airport awaiting my flight to Paris.  I'm flying a super discount carrier called easyJet.   This airline charges very little for the actual ticket, but then an arm and a leg for just about everything else.  You get just one carry on bag.  Not a purse and a bag, but ONE BAG.  And you have to prove that it fits in the little wire cage thing.  Ive already sent home one package to Texas with 1/3 of my  clothes and all souvenirs bought up until now.  To save space in my bag, I'm wearing all my biggest stuff.  Jeans, hoodie, and rain jacket.  In the zippered pockets of my rain jacket I've managed to fit my entire underwear supply, two pairs of shoes, my wallet, camera, electricity converter, and iPad cable and charger.  I've made it past the check in counter, but I have to clear the gate, where I can see the agents eyeing me and my giant pile of stuff that I've shed while I wait.  Fingers crossed that I can get onto the plane with all of this stuff. I might need to mail another package home from Paris.

easyJet makes me feel like that too, little buddy.

Florence (Firenze)

My quick little trip to Florence was nice, except for the oppressive heat and humidity. It about 100 degrees each day I was there. I just heard all my Texan readers laughing at that silly low number, but I feel like I should also point out that I was outside for most of it,and my hostel didn't have air conditioning. Ugh!

Upon arriving in Rome, my travel partner and I roamed around a little bit. The streets of Florence are famously small. The sidewalks are maybe a foot or two wide, a d the small side streets can only hold one car at a time. The streets twist and turn and often change names, so it's easy too get lost (and I did a few times). We got some dinner at a pizza place and then my travel buddy was like, I'm tired, I'm going back to the hostel. It was only 8pm so I roamed around by myself for a while, including a nice walk along the river Arno. A coouple of hours, a gelato, and a glass of prosecco later, I was back in my hostel.

The next morning we got up early for the pret fabulous free breakfast offered by the place. And for the free walking tour around the city. Florence is surprisingly compact, so you can walk to just about wherever you want to go. We schlepped around with our group, saw lots of piazzas and palazzos and churches. It's so amazing so see buildings from the 1200s, still functional and still beautiful. We ate pizza and drink beer on the street for a bit and at around 2, my travel buddy was once again tired. I dropped her off at the hostel and continued to roam around some more. You can not do so much walking, so hopped on a city bus and took it up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a square way up on a hilltop, overlooking all of Florence. Really beautiful!

I'm such a bad girlfriend. Chris had asked for one of the blue Italia futball shirts and I totally got him one.....and then I wore it to go and watch the game. :) We grabbed a bottle of wine from our hostel and headed for a local park where they had set up a giant screen to watch the game. I think we all know how the game ended up! It was still awesome being there for it.

This morning more hostel breakfast, more sightseeing. My travel buddy was still tired, so I went out with two of my dorm roommates. I almost didn't get into one of the churches because of my shorts and bare shoulders, but thanks goodness for the scarf I had in my bag. Yet another glass coffin, but this one didn't even have a mask or anything, so AWESOME. Hello skull!

So right now I'm on the Frecciargento train, headed for Rome. Its my last stop in Italy and, to be quite honest, I'm ready to go. I hear that Paris is supposed to be in the 70s today, so that's more my speed. On one last note...I now totally understand the appeal of Starbucks, McDonalds, etc, in foreign countries. People like to be all, why would you eat there when you're in a fabulous food place?! Well, because you want something familiar. When you've been on the road for a long time, and youve had pizza for your last 6 meals, sometimes all you want to do is order something familiar, and know its going to turn out exactly how you want it to. Chris mentioned breakfast tacos yesterday and I was like, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm tacos. I would almost kill for some Taco Bueno MexiDips right now.

Genius!

Juice, breadsticks, and Nutella...all in one!

Trains!

I really love the train situation in Europe! I'm kind of cheating because after Italy, all over my city to city transportation will be cheap flights, but in Italy it's been all about the trains. There are different types here, all run by the same company (Trenitalia). The Regionale is sloooooow but cheap. It's usually a little dirty and it smells bad. It usually runs between the small villages but I've seen it offered for transport between some big cities. Another option is the Intercity and it's just what it sounds like. I took it from Milano to San Remo and it was fine. All of the seats were divided into compartments of six that had a glass window and door. Sometimes they oversell it, and there are up pull down seats in the corridor that people can sit on. The fancy trains here are called the Frecciarossa, Frecciabianco, and Frecciargento. Right now I'm on the Frecciarossa and it's kind of awesome. I've got my own little desk with a power outlet and wifi (obviously). It can go up to 225 mph. They keep having announcements on here (both in Italian and English) advertising the bar in the middle of the train that has "high quality beverages and salami" haha.

Observations in Italy

. What happens when you no longer have access to a hair dryer or straightener.

As my time it Italy begins to wind down, I thought I'd share some random things that I've noticed or wondered about.  I've been super lucky to be able to have an experience here that the average tourist almost certainly will never have, and I feel like I've really lived in Italy (however briefly) and not just swung in and out briefly.

TV shows here are hilarious, because they are almost all American shows that have been dubbed over.  They never have subtitles here, even in the films that are in the theatre.  Everything is dubbed.  So far, I've watched the dubbed versions of "Private Practice", "Criminal Minds", "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition", "The Simpsons", and "Grey's Anatomy".  I only understood the last one, and that's because I'd already seen the episode (Lexie, NOOOOOOO!).  It's pretty funny though, to hear the voices for the characters that they pick.  My host family always offers to turn the English on so I can watch shows, but I can't justify that when there is just one English speaker and five Italians sitting around watching it, you know?

Mamas here are amazing.  They totally do it all.  Yesterday my host mom did the following:  Went into town and worked at her art gallery in the morning. Went to the Roletto commune (the city offices) and did some of her Mayor duties, came home and did all of the laundry for the whole family and then ironed it all, picked me up from work and shuttled me around or a bit, cooked this fabulous multi-course meal (while i lounged around in the gorgeous swimming pool because she wouldn't let me help), and then sat back and ate very little of it while her family (plus another teacher and I) devoured it.  She does so much!

Things that Italians do that I think are funny:  Regularly say "Mama Mia!" to express surprise.  Buy milk in room temperature cardboard cartons and then not refrigerate them until they're opened (is it real milk then?  I don't know!!!!!).   Speak to each other super loudly all the time, so much so that I thought they were all mad at each other all the time until my coworker told me otherwise.  Charge three prices for things ($$$ if you're an obvious American, $$ if you're an obvious foreigner but not from the States, $ for the locals....I usually get the $ or $$ prices, depending on where I am and what I'm buying).  

Italian pharmacies are awesome!  Farmacia.  Here they have more leeway in what they can and can't do.  You can usually go into one and explain your case and they'll give you a prescription, no doctor needed.  One of my coworkers stubbed her toe in a super bad way in San Remo, and the dude at the Farmacia cleaned it up, bandaged and padded it up, and told her what to do to care for it, and all for free.  Even with my insurance, a trip to the urgent care clinic in the states to have that done would cost me $40.  I've done something to my ankle, sprained it or whatever.  I went to the Farmacia, explained the situation and they took me into the back room and checked me out.  I got an ace bandage kind of thing and instructions on how to wrap it and care for it, and the cost was just €3 (for the bandage).  They then wished me a nice visit to the region and sent me on my way.  I dont understand how anyone can NOT support some sort of universal public health care system after seeing one in action.  They rightfully realize here that healthcare shouldn't be limited to those who can afford it.  EDIT:  OBAMACARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    :)

The education system is interesting here.  My students aren't that much different than my American ones in terms of behavior, except they need much more handholding.  When you don't speak the language, that can get annoying.  What happens is that my kids here start finishing their work and don't know how to quietly entertain themselves until everyone is done, so they all get out of their seats and end up waving their work in my face going "Spreeeeeeeng-ah, done!".   And then I have to tell them like 20 times to sit down and mime it a couple of times and they're like, oh ok.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Every instruction to them has to be done in a mixture of English, broken Italian, and lots of pantomime.  Even making a big circle to play a game can take 5 minutes sometimes because they just don't do that here and they don't get it.  Thats not to say that they're stupid, though.  Italy ranks pretty high above the USA is all subject areas.  It's just that there instruction style here is all about sitting in your desk and memorizing stuff and working independently and being super studious.  They don't seem to cater to different learning styles as much.  All of the kids have to take these major exams at the end of each year, and those exams determine if they advance or not.  School ends, they get a week to study on their own time, and the they all go back and take the exams.  It's pretty intense.  One of my host brothers has to repeat next year because he apparently spent too much time studying "MTV, Nintendo, iPhone, and futball" (according to his older brother).  A college kid I was talking to at a party the other night said he spent a semester at a fancy east coast American school last year, and he was laughing about how easy it was.  He said it was what they did in high school.  But again with the independence.....  My American students seem to be much more confident and self assured than their Italian counterparts.  So I guess Italy got the smarts and we got the attitude and problem solving ability.  :)

Saturday I head to Florence, for a couple of days, then Rome for a couple more, and then I leave Italy for Paris.  I've REALLY enjoyed my time here.  It's such a lovely country.  The food is amazing, the people are wonderful, and it's breathtakingly beautiful.  I'll definitely miss it, and want to come back soon to visit people and see all of the places that I'm not making it to this time around.  I'll try to update again from Firenze (Florence) or Roma, so ciao!

Turino

I went to Turino this weekend, and what a lovely city it is.  Turino is the original capital of Italy (before it was moved to Rome to be more central), and the home of the 2006 Winter Olympic.  It's a really beautiful place!  The first thing we did upon arriving by train was meet up with some of the other teachers  and seek out food.  We ended up in a pizzeria where €5 bought you a fresh margherita pizza.  After that we walked around the city checking out the sights.  There are beautiful old buildings and sculptures just hanging out randomly here and there.  We walked through a beautiful park that ran alongside the river and saw a castle.

Despite my love of the rustic setting of Roletto, it was nice to be in an urban area again.  I bought some beautiful leather sandals and enjoyed the crowds of people.  This weekend in Turino was the festival for Saint Giovani, the patron saint of the city.  Lots of stuff going on.  We found a moscato wine festival going on in the streets and decided to do that.  For €10 you got a badge and a wine glass, and could walk around to all off the different tents that were set up and fill your wine glass up with as much as you liked.  You could also wander away from the festival,  down the street, and just keep on sipping on your wine.  No one cared at all.  After the festival we went with some new friends we had made to an Irish pub.  We were hungry so we stopped in a this fast food place that basically makes tacos but with Italian ingredients.  It's the first time I've seen a tortilla since I left the states.  I had a tortilla filled with mozzarella,  zucchini, tomatoes, basil, and a balsamic vineagarette and it was AMAZING.  At the pub, we watched some of the France-Spain soccer game, before declaring ourselves exhausted ad walking in the rain back to our hostel, the Tomato Backpackers.

Our hostel was pretty gorgeous.  We had sprung for a twin room with a private bathroom.  We had a long balcony that wrapped around the entire courtyard area, and doors that opened to it from the bathroom and bedroom.  The only bad thing about the place was that there was no a/c, and it got pretty hot.

This morning we woke up and strolled into the city center, where we found the ultimate in heaven......an outdoor market dealing in antiques and crafts.  I had a pretty proud moment where I was able to haggle down the price of a lovely vintage book from €8 to €5, all in Italian from greeting to bargaining to goodbye).   We wasted a bunch of time there and then went and found a cute cafe called the Gatsby, where we had excellent cappuccinos and canolos (soft pastries with creme inside, like the Italian equivalent of a Boston creme donut). After a visit to the grocery store, Carrefore, a small disaster when we got lost looking for our hostel again (which caused us to miss the train we wanted), we are finally back on the train to Pinerolo.

I need advice!  My job ends on the 29th, and I'll leave the next morning.  I don't have anything scheduled until July 4th, when I have a flight out of Rome to Paris.  Where should I go?  I don't have a huge interest in Rome, so I don't want to spend more than a couple of days there,  I have zero interest in the Vatican, except for maybe the Sistine chapel.  I'd really like to go Florence, but it's a 7 hour train ride and somewhat expensive for the ticket.  I might go to Cinque Terre with some friends. People tell me nice things about Pisa as well.  Help!  SUZ!  TELL ME WHERE TO GO!!!!!!

Buon Appetito

The food here has definitely been one of the best parts of this whole experience. For the most part I'm eating very well, with the exception on the whole school lunch thing (more on that in a second). However, I'm about to shatter your Olive Garden loving world here. Real Italian food is fairly different than what we know it. For starters, the salad comes last , right before dessert. The meal usually goes antipasto (appetizer), pasta, entree with vegetables, salad, dessert. Those big puffy breadsticks we all know and love? Wrong! No such thing. Here they are thin and hard and usually sealed up in packaging. The package of saltine crackers that sits on your American table in a basket is a closer relative to real Italian breadsticks. So your Olive Garden unlimited salad and breadsticks meal is about as Italian as a can of Chef Boyardee. Another big fat faux-Italian lie is vegetarian lasagne. Does. Not. Exist. I took this one personally! When I said that I liked it, my host family looked at me like I suggested they make it with puppies. Here its strictly a meat dish with no vegetables other than the tomato sauce.

School lunches here are bizarre. At my camp, we mess around in the church and courtyard all day and then trek the kids over a couple of blocks to the primary school for a school lunch. The lunchroom is actually a relatively small portable building with tables that seat 6 or 7 each, each one with a table cloth, basket of bread, pot of Parmesan cheese, pitcher of water, and drinking glasses. The kids serve themselves the water. The lunch lady wheels in. This cart with a big pot of pasta in it, and shovels pasta into breakable bowls, with the teachers then serve to the kids. After the kids are done with the pasta, the teachers pick up the bowls, take them to the kitchen, and then the lady comes back with her cart with the entree pot and more clean plates. She shovels the food onto plates, which the teachers then pass out to the kids again, and then we pick up the plates when theyre done. Then we take baskets of the fruit of the day and hand them out. It's like a little bambino restaurant with the worst food ever. Usually some kind of gloppy vegetable and some sort of boiled meat. For me, they take off the meat and give me slices of gloppy mozzarella cheese. Today instead of pasta there was rice, but even that is wearing on me. I will never complain about American school lunches again.

The homemade food is great though! My friend's host family regularly has me over for dinner and they we've all sorts of fresh veggies. My host family made a giant pizza feast the other night, and it was easily the best pizza I have ever had in my whole life. I had no words for the amazingness of this pizza. Afterwards we ate f ruin that we had picked in the orchard earlier. Everyone here has a garden in their yard that they grow their own food in. It makes my tomato plants in Austin look super weak. They take a lot of pride here in growing their own food, and it's so fresh and wonderful. So overall, school lunches aside, the food is good. I'm eating lots of good stuff, lots of gelato, and lots of fresh fruit.

Laundry and Kaffe

There are three things that almost every Italian wants to talk about with me.  1). Obama.  They love him, and Europe thinks we are all idiots for G-Dub (yup).  2). Cowboys, because I am from Texas, yes?  (haha, no)  3).  Burlusconi, do I know of him?  He is an idiot, yes? (yes, I know of him).  They love to try out their English on me, and even though it wasn't a priority when I came here, I've been picking up some Italian.  It's funny because in this tiny village of maybe 2000 people, not many speak any English, and none speak it fluently.  My coworker and I are able to walk around and talk freely in public and no one knows!  We attract a lot of attention because of it.  We are Americana!

Toms tan

The house where I am staying is GORGEOUS.  Parts of it were built almost 300 years ago, but it has some slightly new wings as well (only 200 years old, ha!).  There are a lot of different fruit trees on the property and a swimming pool.  The mama is the mayor of the village, but I haven't met her yet.  She has been out of town on holiday, and her four children, ages 12-19, have been looking after me.  Here's a funny story about the oldest son, who is 19.  I asked yesterday if I could do some laundry.  He's like, ok, so we put it in the dual washer/dryer thing and then I go into town for a bit.  I get held up in town, whatever.  The son comes later to get me from my friend's house and says, "oh I hung up your laundry.". UHHH WHAT?  Apparently in Italy, they only use the dryers if the weather is cold.  So this Italian guy just hung up all of my laundry, undies and all, on the line outside.  No big deal!   Except!, it started to rain last night.  All of my clothes were soaked.  So they stayed out all night, and were still damp this morning.  I went to work.  I saw the son after work, and he says, "I put your clothes on your bed.".  Hahaha, oooooook.  Again, no big deal.  This is how it's done here.

The church where the school is being held is so old.  It was built in the 1400s.  We have two classes there, both inside and out.  After that, we line up the kids and walk them over to the primary school for lunch, where the bambino and ourselves are served a three course lunch of pasta, entree, and fruit/dessert, and then kaffe (espresso).  After that, the kids run wild in the gym for a bit and then we walk them back to the church for a couple of more hours of English.  Today was the first day and it was loooooong and hooooot, but still fun.  I'm so tired, though.

The church where the school is housed

As for the every day stuff.......   Sill eating lots of gelato, still walking everywhere, still going Ciao!  Ciao!  Ciao!  Kaffe is a total lifestyle here.  We went to the softball game of the one of the girls here.  Softball is very trendy now.  In the concession stand was an espresso machine and all the parents and just hanging out, chugging down little cups of it.  In the petrol stations, espresso.  Everywhere!  Paper take out cups do not exist.  You stand there and drink your little kaffe in the china cup and saucer and then you go.  If there's a single thing that Italians love to laugh at us about, it's our obsession with Starbucks and our whole coffee on the go thing.  They just don't get it.  The kaffe here IS amazing though.

Ciao!

In Roletto! The Internet is still shaky. However, I'm living with the MAYOR of my town. The house is about 300 years old and surrounded by peach, cherry, apple, and pear trees. Grapes are growing on the balconies of the house. It's gorgeous! School starts tomorrow. People here speak little to no English. When the other teacher and I walk down the street talking to each other, people stop and stare at us and we hear "Americano!". I've eaten gelato almost every day. I should have regular Internet after Tuesday, so expect more updates then. Ciao!

Roletto, Italy

Got my placement! Tomorrow I'll be getting on a bus and heading to Roletto, Italy. It's a small village of about 2,000 people, about 35km SW of Turino, near France. It's in one of the biggest wine producing regions in Italy, YES!!!!!!! I'm going with just one other teacher, who happens to be one of my roommates now. I'll be teaching 14 8-11 year olds. I'm expecting the wifi situation to be pretty strained, so I might not be updating this thing for a while, but hopefully that's not the case. Until then, ciao!!!!

Near France!

Bon Jovi in Italia

last night after dinner, my roommates and I ventured into Taggio for some gelato. When we were done, we heard the faint sounds of American rock music off in the distance, so we headed towards it. Soon we found the source.....a bar with an Italian band outside on the closed off street, singing American cover songs in English. We were so excited to hear English outside of our training! There were lots of people standing around listening, but no one was dancing or moving or anything. So, we did what any normal person would do.... We started up a dance party it he middle of the street. We were jumping around and screaming and dancing and trying to get the Italians to dance with us but they were like ........ Eventually some more people from our program showed up and it ended up being this giant dance party in the middle of the street until late in the night. So much fun!!!!!!!!!

Still training!

Still in San Remo.  Still don't have wifi.  To use the Internet, we have to venture into Taggio and either use the slow free wifi at the bar, or pay €1 for 10 minutes at an Internet cafe and use their old computers.

Still having fun, though!  Training is super strenuous.  They're loading us up with as much knowledge as possible.  Games, songs, lessons about Italian customs and how to behave here, etc.   On Friday I'll find out where my placement is going to be.  There's a possibility that some of us might stay here, too.  I'm really hoping for this side of the coastline, Florence, or Verona, but we'll see!  I couldn't have gotten any luckier with the roommate situation.  Mine are all so much fun and we get together very well.  Quite a feat when you consider that it's five girls sharing a bathroom.  Today we're all going down to the beach after training.

San Remo and Taggio

. The view from my bungalow!

I love Italy!  This morning I woke up in my little nook in Milan, got ready, had some espressos with my hosts and then said goodbye and headed to the Centrale di Milano (central train station in Milan).  I had prearranged to meet up with some other tutors there.  It was nice to meet them all, and then we boarded the train for the trip to San Remo.  Our train was divided into compartments with six seats each and glass doors for each compartment. Our seats were assigned, and I was lucky because another tutor for my program was in my compartment.  After three hours of a lovely ride on the Italian coast, we arrived.

Upon arriving, we were met at the station by a representative from the the program, given a bus ticket, and directed outside.  We were crossing the street to the bus when we saw all of these police scooters headed towards us, lights on and sirens blazing, and some guy literally hanging out of the window of a car with a big sign.  We quickly got out of the way.  Right behind the scooters and car was a giant herd of cyclists!  Just like the Tour de France!  Following the pack of cyclists were some scooters with spare bike wheels attached, just like I've seen in the races that Chris has made me watch.

When we got to our home for the training, we were all amazed.  It's a simple resort right on the beach, slightly outside of San Remo. My room isn't a room at all.  It's kind of like a little apartment with five small beds, a bathroom, and a kitchen.  My roommates are an American living in Greece, and American living in England, a Canadian, and a Scot.  We have a balcony that faces out to the ocean with amazing views.  It's so beautiful here!  The water is so blue and the scenery is just fabulous.  After we got settled and discovered that there isn't any wifi here, another girl and I walked into the nearby village of Taggio and found a bar that had free wifi.  The EuroCup is going on here and people are SUPER excited about it.  Everyone in the bar was getting ready for the Italy-Spain game.

After orientation and dinner (pasta, salad, quiche, and an apple), a few of the other girls and I walked along the beach back to Taggio and shared a 1L carafe of sparkling white wine on the patio of a restaurant.  Wine can be purchased for so cheap here....cheaper than soda sometimes!  Now I'm back at my bungalow, and the official training starts tomorrow and runs through Friday.  We start at 8am wit breakfast, 9am until 4:30 training (with a break for lunch), and then the rest of ours is free to do what we want.  I think I'll go to the beach.  :)

Milan

So today I caught the train to Milan, and it was lovely and they served us chocolate on the train and then I got here and all was well.

LOL JUST KIDDING! I WISH! Getting to Milan today was an absolute nightmare. Last night I get an email from the American company that sold me my train tickets saying that there had been a landslide in southern Switzerland, and that it all slid right onto the tracks that my train would be taking. Say what?! A landslide? Actually it was a massive rockslide. Anyhow! I had Chris call the company back in the US to get more info and the general advice given was....go to the station, and get on the train, and eventually we will get you to Milan. So I did, and they got me there. Instead of a non stop train from Lucerne to Milan, this is what I had to do: Catch train in Lucerne, ride to some tiny village. Get off train and onto shuttle bus, ride it for a while (past the rockslide, which I'll post pictures of once I'm home again), ride to some tiny village. Get back onto a train for a while, get off train, transfer to another train, finally get to Milan.

All complaining aside, Switzerland is so gorgeous. I have no words to explain go pretty it is. The Alps are so tall it's amazing. The train would go along at the base and then go up through them on super high bridges and it was just amazing. Lots of times you couldn't even see the tops of the mountains because they were so high that they were surrounded by clouds. Really breathtaking. At one point I saw this herd of wild white goats drinking from a crystal blue stream and I was like, is this real?!?! Lots of cute little cottages with cute little gardens just sort of perched up in the mountains. Amazing.

One of our many train stops

Milan is a completely different story from Lucerne. Everything is fast and sort of dirty. All of the hostels had reviews online that included phrases like "bed bugs", "broken locks on the doors", and "super loud at night", so I decided to go the AirBnB route. Chris and I had a lot of success renting out our second bedroom for SXSW, so I was excited to try it as the guest this time. The apartment was off a major bus line, so I finally found the bus and headed out. A few minutes later I was there. Guys, this place is so cute! It's on the third floor, but the apartment itself has two floors. The second floor is a cute little nook with a bed and a bathroom, and it's all for me! It costs the same amount as the gross hostels, so I think I've found a great deal.

Bedroom nook

So now I have to admit something embarrassing. I had to google how to flush the toilet. I had no clue, and my host had headed out. There was a lever on the wall and that was it. So finally, google told me how to flush it. I have also now seen my very first bidet, an event that I feel deserves some documentation.

After getting over my excitement at Italian bathrooms, I headed back out into Milan to go see this giant church. I took the bus to the subway, rode that for a few stops and ta-da! There it was! The Duomo di Milano. This church is the fourth largest church in the world, it was started in the 1300s, and it took SIX centuries to complete. It's really gorgeous. I sat in the plaza for a while admiring it, and admiring this amazing piece of pizza I had bought from a bakery. You can go inside for free, so I checked it out. It's very dark inside and has lots of pretty things to look at, including a couple of glass coffins with the remains of some church guys, if that's your thing. It wasn't mine, so I moved on.

Milan is oppressively hot, so I did what any good American would do and got gelato. A scoop each of tiramisu and coffee in a cone. I walked around, enjoying that for a while and then decided to come back to the apartment. Tomorrow I am meeting up with some of the other tutors and taking the train into San Remo, and then work officially begins. For now, CIAO!

Some euros and my very serious house key

Lucerne/Luzern, Switzerland

So I made it to Switzerland! In Dusseldorf, I had a long layover. I was feeling pretty tired. I'd been awake at that point for about 24 hours. When they started boarding for my next flight, we all did the whole shuffle-down-the-long-hallway bit only to be met with stairs at the end. Ok. So I climbed down,and got into a shuttle bus that was waiting. The bussed us all out to the plane, where we then climbed up another staircase into it. The fight to Zurich took about an hour, during which I kept attractively dozing off in my middle seat with my mouth open. From Zurich, I took the train to Lucerne, about an hour away.

Train station in Zurich

Ok guys, Lucerne is gorgeous!!!!! Think of every Swiss postcard you've ever seen and this is it! It has a really cute old part of town, the Swiss Alps off in the distance, and it's on a clear blue lake. I got off my train and began to the trek to my hostel, the Backpackers Lucerne. I'm in a dorm room with four beds. After I dropped off my stuff, I headed back out to the grocery store. Switzerland is crazy expensive. I got a few provisions to get me through my couple of days here. On the way back to the hostel, it started to pour. I was wearing my Toms and they were quickly soaked. Back at the hostel, I felt the jet lag taking over. I went to bed at the grandiose time of 9:30 and slept hard enough to not notice my Australian and Korean roommates who showed up during the night at some time.

My room, with balcony.

This morning I woke up and guess what? I was still raining. And it was cold. This proved to be a dilemma. My Toms were still soaking, and I really wanted them to dry out for the trip to Italy. I didn't want to wear my nicer ballet flats. So, it looked like my only option was my flip flops. I wasn't going to just sit around in the hostel and mope. So I got dressed, put on my hoodie, rain jacket, and flip flops and headed out. I got as far as the massive train station before it became this torrential miserable downpour. So I hung out there for a little bit and looked for coffee.

They have a chain here called Bachmanns that is kind of like a Dunkin Donuts with a big chocolatier included. Perfect! I got the most beautiful vanilla crime donut ever and a little coffee in a pink cup. Damn you Switzerland and your crazy prices! It cost me Fr (Swiss Francs) 5.50, which is about $5.75. I bought two postcards and stamps from the tourism office, and that cost me Fr 6. I quickly realized that I would not be purchasing any souvenirs here! A British couple in my hostel told me they went to Starbucks and that they paid Fr 9 each for that junk.

Fr 10 note plus two Fr 2 coins

Eventually, I was like, I'm tired of sitting in this train station, got my umbrella out, and took off. The rain was letting up, and I was determined to see the sights. I crossed a big modern bridge and headed into the Old Town. It's always funny to see modern stores in the bottoms of super old buildings. But there they were, in the cutest old buildings you've ever seen. However, soon I started to notice something. No one else had on flip flops. NO ONE. I had become that stupid American in flip flops. They were also getting increasingly hard to walk in on old cobblestones. The rain had stopped so I decided enough was enough. I ducked into an H&M and bought some cheap navy blue knock off Keds. My flip flops shall remain in showers!

Dry, shoes!! Dry!!!!!

I saw lots of neat stuff! They have some crazy wooden bridges here from the 1400s. I also went and saw this amazing dying lion monument that Mark Twain once called "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.". The river running through Lucerne is blue and clear, and there lots of bridges to cross it. The buildings are all very old and some have giant paintings on the front of them.

Eventually it started to rain again, so I decided to head back to the hostel. I ducked into the grocery store and picked up some Swiss chocolate bars to send home. Right now, it is STILL raining. I'm hoping to make it out later for a bite to eat but honestly, this weather sucks, and I might just stay in and eat in the little cafe here. Tomorrow morning I have an early train to Milan.

And now a technical note. Or a few, rather. The only pictures that I'll be posting on here will be ones taken with my iPad or found online somewhere. I don't have a way to take them off of my camera, as there's no USB port on this thing, I didn't want the extra weight of the camera attachment. I'm also not very good at HTML, so please forgive any errors in spacing or whatever. I'm just try to give updates! They iPad also likes to autocorrect me on dumb stuff, so forgive any of those that I miss. And a big shout to Marie, so tells me she is an avid reader of the blog, but is having some technical difficulties leaving comments. Hello Marie!

Simple map of Lucerne

AirBerlin

Prior to this trip, I was pretty neutral on the American airline industry.  Yeah, it sucks you have to pay for all this extra stuff.  Tickets are expensive, but not terribly so.  To me, it just was what it was.  Now that I've flown on an international airline, I can say without any doubt at all that the American airline industry is miserable.  Ages ago, I purchased my ticket to Zurich, Switzerland on AirBerlin.  I chose it based on price (cheap!!!!) and that was it.  I wasn't really expecting much besides a trip over the water.  When I boarded the plane and made it to my seat, there was a little pillow, soft blanket, and a little goodie bag waiting for me.  In Economy!  In the bag was a sleeping mask, ear plugs, socks, and a tiny toothpaste and toothbrush.  There was a tv screen on the back of the seat in front of me.  We took off and the screen turned on.  All of these movie options!  And TV choices!   For free!   I watched "My Week With Marilyn" and then a ton of "Grey's Anatomy".  So that was awesome, because I can never seem to sleep on a plane.  Let's talk about the food for a moment.  Dinner was a plate of pasta, cabbage salad, bread with a triangle of spreadable cheese, and raspberry cheesecake.  Breakfast was a muffin, bowl of yogurt, cheese slices, a pickle (?????), and a cute little cup of coffee.  All of it was pretty tasty, and bonus points for having vegetarian options.  I've heard that AirBerlin is a discount international airline, but my goodness, it was pretty great.  Thumbs up to AirBerlin!!!  So now I'm just hanging out in the Dusseldorf, Germany airport, waiting for my flight to Zurich.  It's strange to be the one who doesn't know the language now.  Don't worry!, I figured out that"toiletten" means restroom.

NYC

Ahhh New York City!  It was so nice to be back in my favorite city.  Marissa, Sarah, and Minnie the dog were kind enough to put me up in their Brooklyn apartment.  I got to eat at a couple of favorite places (Panna 2, Cafe Orlin, Artichoke Pizza) and just do lots and lots of walking around.  Guys, the Highline extension is amazing!  So happy I got to see it all.  I got to ride the subway a bunch, and we all know how much I love the NYC transit system.  I had one minor oops where I had the wrong time for my departing flight in my head, but Marissa grabbed a ZipCar and got me to the airport time.  All in all, a brief yet fun time, and I hope to be back soon for a longer visit.

Packing

So, I'm fascinated by travel sized stuff.  I love that giant aisle of it at Target.  What a cute little bottle of lotion!  Look at that tiny soap!  Miniature hairbrush?  Sure, why not?!  My main issue, however, for this trip is that I had decided to not check a bag.  No checked luggage for SEVEN WEEKS on the road.  Have you ever had an airline lose your luggage?   I have.  I got it back the next day so it wasn't a huge deal, but would that be able to happen in Europe, when I'd be moving around every few days?  I didn't want to risk it.   In the USA, they're pretty lax about carry on limitations.  I have NEVER had my carry on bag weighed or given a thorough measuring.  I've heard that is totally different in Europe.  The discount airlines are extremely vigilant about looking for ways to get more money out of you, so you'd better watch those measurements.  And no more than 10kg!  And no sneaking by any liquids!  All of these were pretty easily fixed.  Lush sells a ton of great solid stuff, including lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste.  The space that was cleared up in my liquids baggie was then able to be filled up with little single use packets of laundry soap, because a couple of sessions of laundry-doing would solve the clothing problem.  Just expect to see a lot of the same clothes in pictures.  

The Who/What/Where/When/Why

One of the perks of being a teacher in the USA is that you work crazy 50-60 hour weeks during the school year in exchange for your whole summer off.  Around December, I started to explore the idea of doing some volunteer work abroad during that time.  I knew that I wanted to take a big trip, and that I wanted to spend a considerable amount of time somewhere not just in drop in and drop out.  I started looking and found a great company in Italy called Lingue Senze Frontiere.  While you are technically a volunteer, you receive a stipend (that's covering a good chunk of my airfare to and from Europe).  Here's their promotional video:

So I show up for training in the lovely Italian beach town of San Remo and then I'm sent elsewhere to teach for the next two weeks.  And here's where it gets pretty interesting...  I don't know where I'm being sent!  I'll be living with a host family, but I could be in an apartment in Rome or Milan, or in a farmhouse in some tiny Italian village with a bunch of goats.  I have no clue, and I don't know which one is more appealing.  I love city life, but how many times in your life do you get the chance to be completely immersed in Italian culture in a place where very few tourists venture?  Regardless of location, it's sure to be exciting.

So here's my itinerary for now:

June 5th:  Fly to NYC

June 6th:  Redeye flight to Zurich, Switzerland

June 7th:  Land in Zurich, immediately take train to Lucerne, Switzerland

June 9th:  Take train to Milan, Italy

June 10th:  Take train to San Remo, Italy

June 17th:  Take train to ????????

June 30th:  Work ends, travel around Italy

July 4th:  End up in Rome, fly to Paris, France

July 9th:  Fly to Lisbon, Portugal

July 12th:  Fly to Barcelona, Spain

July 18th:  Back to the USA!  Fly to Boston

July 21st-ish:  Fly back to Austin

Did I mention that I, lover of hair dryers and clothes and shoes and touristy tchotchkes, will be doing all of this out of a carry-on approved backpack?  That'll be the next post.  :)

Le Tour de Spring

This is Chris.  He's really into cycling.  He gets up ridiculously early to watch races that are going on over in Europe on the internet.  What does this have to do with my trip to Europe this summer?

The Tour de France is going to be going on at the same time.  Like, I'll be in Paris, and those guys will be riding around on their bikes in their outfits in the French countryside AT THE SAME TIME.  He's being a trooper about my proximity to this epic event while he's stuck at home.  So, in honor of Chris, I have named my travel blog Le Tour de Spring.  As I will be sans phone (but avec iPad) on this trip, all of my contact with you folks at home will be the internet-based kind.  I'll do my best to update!  In the meantime, I'm still collecting addresses for postcards, so send it this way!  

Tuesday I head to NYC, and then Wednesday I head to Switzerland!