Hola from Granada! I am sorry, owe you several blog posts that come from the few weeks before this one, but I figured I should not get behind on what's happening now. Well it's Spring Break and I'm in Spain! No more Italian for me! It's back to Spanish! I took Spanish for 8 years, but learning Italian this semester has made speaking Spanish was very hard. I have been saying si grazie instead of si gracias and come estai instead of como estas. What a mess.
On Friday, I hopped on a plane to spend spring break in Spain with Zoe, Chris, and Sadie. I arrived in sunny Barcelona, but of course my bag didn't arrive! Chris and I met Zoe at the bus station and went to find our hostel- for only 10 euros a night, this place was great! Very clean and high tech, but very close living quarters. There were also weird quirks about the hostel that we soon learned... Like that the overhead lights automatically go out at 12, that the sink was in the room with the shower (which was separate from the toilet), and that the water in the shower didn't stay on...we had to keep pushing the button every 30 seconds to keep the water going.
My return to Barcelona was bitter sweet. It reminded me how much I loved that city; everything about Barcelona is great. It's enough city to be city-city, but it has the resort town feel that calms the cityness down. Everything is bright and light and airy. In contrast, Milan seems so dark, rainy, dreary. I also love that Barcelona is so lively, both day and night. But I had felt like the last time I was in Barcelona I had came and conquered the place. I mostly remembered my way around the city and served as a tour guide for my friends. I was sad that I didn't get in touch with my old host mother- it would have been nice to see her again!
I took Chris and Zoe to Placa Catalunya and into the gothic district where we had lunch. Yumm yumm! Having alioli again makes me so happy inside- alioli is like a garlic mayonaise that pretty much tastes delicious with everything. Afterwards we strolled down Las Ramblas, stopped in La Boqueria (the market) and chilled by the Barcelona port. Being back at La Boqueria also reminded my why I loved barcelona so much- THE FRESH FRUIT! Its just to die for- I get fruit in Milan but there's no market that nearly compares to the deliciousness nor the price! We walked through Parc de la Ciutadella and saw the beautiful fountain there and then saw Arc de Triomf. Another thing about Barcelona that is so great is that it is a very young, lively, creative, and fun city. There were people slack lining, jamming and playing guitar and, juggling in the park. There were people roller blading through mazes they set up for themselves with cups. Everyone is just so chill and casual; its a great atmosphere.We stopped at a little pastry shop by the Arc de Triomf to kill some time before we picked Sadie up from the bus station (her flight came in later than our). Turned out that we fell in love with this pastry shop and came back every day. Chris got these donuts- 6 donuts for 2 euros!! They were amazing and we all feasted on them every day.
Once Sadie joined us, we went looking for our first dinner to kick off our vacation. The stress of midterms and the disorganization of our lives had put us in a slump for a while, so the commencement of our vacation was something to be celebrated. The thing about Barcelona is that food is really expensive, and we have trouble (although we do try) finding the local places that are cheap and still have good food. After wandering and looking for a while, we stumbled upon a restaurant serving 3.50 euro margaritas and mojitos- which in comparison to 8-10 euro drinks in Milan seemed like a steal. The restaurant was a super cute Mexican restaurant! Despite not being Spanish food, it was still great. We went to bed super early since we had a big week ahead of us.
I did not receive my bag until Saturday morning! We woke up on Saturday and headed to La Sagrada Familia, the most famous landmark in Barcelona- Gaudi's amazing church. Everyone was in awe at the gaudiness (lol) and decadence of the building. The line to get in was horrendous and the price was very steep. We decided that we'd try to get into Sagrada for palm Sunday mass the next day. In order to preserve our metro rides, we walked to passeig de gracia and looked at the ritzy stores and Gaudi's other famous buildings: la pedrera and casa batllo. We ended at Placa Catalunya again and feasted on food and fruit from la Boqueria.
Afterwards, we went to the Picasso museum. This museum was great when I was taking my art history class in Barcelona and learning about all of the artwork. I didn't remember much, but it was still exciting to see such masterpieces again. That is one of my favorite things about Europe, seeing the most famous artwork in the world. We concluded the day with squishing some sand beneath our toes at the barceloneta beach and drinking sangria. That night, i wanted to show everyone the magic fountain in Placa Espanya, so we had dinner on top of a mall, which used to be a bullfighting ring converted, which had an amazing night time view of the city. After dinner, to my surprise, the magic fountain wasn't working! What a bummer!
On Sunday we woke up early and headed to La Sagrada Familia to go to Palm Sunday mass. We had heard that it would start at 12 (we got there at 10 expecting to wait in line for a long time to get in), but no one told us it was required to get tickets and to get them way in advance. There was mass in the chapel below the main church, which we made it to just in time for. This was my first mass! It was interesting- kind of what I expected mainly because it was all in Catalan and some spanish, so I couldn't understand it. But I watched people do communion for the first time, so that was interesting. When we got out of mass, there was crowds of people outside sagrada, all with their palms, waiting to listen to the mass going on inside La Sagrada Familia and to see the archbishop and have him bless their palms. What a cool cultural experience. We didn't stay to hear the mass, but Chris waited and did get to see the archbishop.
Afterwards, we headed to Parc Guell which is one of my favorite places in Barcelona. We got off at my old metro stop, Vallcarca, on the green line, and walked to Parc Guell which is a schlep- it is up a huge hill! The view from the top was not great since it was a cloudy overcast day, but Parc Guell is still cool with Gaudi's funky architecture and amazing mosaics. We ate at a real local restaurant nearby and really feasted- for 12 euros we got 2 courses, a drink, and a dessert. Wow! Stuffed, we headed back to the beach to conclude our trip and were serenaded on the beach by a man playing the guitar and harmonica. Of course, our traveling luck, it began to rain. We headed back to our hostel, but because of the pouring rain, ended up stopping in Parc de la Ciutadella's community center and watched a basket game of cute Spanish boys. When the rain cleared up, we made our last trip to the donut shop and then had a light dinner at a local chain restaurant before boarding our overnight bus to madrid!
Oh what a mess. We booked this bus over a month in advance and were the only ones with tickets for the bus. We figured we'd be the only crazies doing an overnight bus for 7 hours. We figured we'd spread out and lie down. Nope- the bus was packed! None of us got much sleep since every few hours we'd make a stop, the lights would go on, and the loudspeaker would announce the stop. It was not the most comfortable way to travel- but it got us to Madrid and it worked out that we wouldn't have to pay for a hostel for that night. We got in at 5:30 in the morning! The metro doesn't even run until 6! We struggled to get to our hostel- no working wifi and no map of the city made it really difficult to figure out. We ran the wrong doorbells a few times, but finally ended up at our hostel. They nicely changed us to a room in a partner hostel that had a room ready for us right then so we could rest before starting the day. Good thing because at 6 am, that city was dead. Not a soul in the streets. So we wouldn't have anything to do anyway. Our room had absolutely no room to walk in, and it was a maze to get there. Through 100 corridors with no labeling- we were definitely in a building out of Harry Potter. We slept and rejuvenated before we began our Madrid adventure.
Of course, it rained and was chilly while we were in Madrid. Plaza Mayor was our first stop. We happened upon a group of people with an umbrella that said join a free tour! Naturally we signed up, but of course nothing is really free... the tour guides rely on tips as their wage. I introduced myself to the tour guides and said: Hi I am Erika. And one guide responded: Hi, I'm from Madrid. I was very confused. Turned out they thought I said: Hi I am from America. LOL. Our tour guide's name was Sebastian; he was cute!!.. He was very enthusiastic and very funny. He used everyone to play parts in Spanish history and explain the importance of buildings and monuments. It was a very thorough tour and we definitely learned a lot. I was the first victim of being used in his history-telling. It was very funny! Boy was it cold and rainy during the tour. During the tour, we saw the oldest restaurant in the world! That was very cool. We also saw the beautiful royal palace! So regal! When the tour was over, we walked to the Reina Sofia museum, which had free hours from 7-9! Reina Sofia is where Picasso's Guernica is held. This is what I was most looking forward to in Madrid. I cannot tell you the number of times that painting has come up in different classes that I've taken. But I had learned a lot about it in that art history class, so I really wanted to see it. The Reina Sofia is a huge museum and there were a lot of people there because it was free. The artwork was mainly modern art- some surrealist Dali, some Miro, some cubist Picasso, photography, and a lot more! It was a great museum, but we unfortunately only had two hours and we zipped through it. When I finally saw the Guernica, I was in awe! Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of it. There was a huge crowd of people in front of it. Chris had never even heard of the artwork before, so when we got to it, he said "this piece of art seems famous." I said "Chris thats the Guernica!" OY! The Guernica is HUGE... GINORMOUS... ENORMOUS! So many intricate details that you can't appreciate in the picture on a computer screen. It's dark and twisted....as Meredith Grey would say. Powerful, disturbing, and enlightening!
We left Reina Sofia and went to dinner. It was our last dinner together! How sad! This was Monday night, which also marked the beginning of Passover. I tried so hard to find a seder for Zoe and I to attend. I emailed and called all the major synagogues. I did find a community seder at the JCC of Madrid, but it would have cost 40 euros per person! :( I was really disappointed Monday night because everyone's Facebook statuses were about pesach, Matzoh balls, and not eating bread. I told myself that I would try to keep Passover to the best of my ability here, but honestly that quickly failed by the next morning when the only options for breakfast are croissants and pastries. We had a very nice dinner on Monday, but being me (a picky eater), I struggled to find something on the menu. Everything in Spain has pork in it! And if it's not pork, it's seafood! Oy! Well, i decided to take a risk and order tempura cod. I don't eat fish, but I figured I should try it (when in rome...) Well, its slimy. Non mi piace. But I should get a lot of props for trying it!!
Tuesday we woke up and walked around Retiro Park. So beautiful. It's very large, so we didn't get to see it all, but we saw this beautiful clear sunroom building, the Palacio Cristal. Outside there was a fountain with a baby turtle and black swans! The swans had red beaks- so unique and very beautiful! Across from the Palacio Cristal was the Palacio de Velazquez. The park in general was beautiful; I just wanted to sit there and enjoy the park for the rest of the day. Afterwards we walked down Gran Via, the major commercial street in Madrid, and met up with a local girl, who is coming to spend next year at Skidmore and living with Zoe in Northwoods! We also met up with Chris's friend. The six of us walked to Placa España and then to Puerto del Sol to grab lunch. Lunch was very nice, but it took much longer than we expected. We expected to have time to go to the famous El Prado museum after lunch before our (Zoe and my) bus to Granada. But there wasn't enough time! :( Honestly I am really bummed that I didn't get the chance to go to El Prado; so much famous artwork is there! Las Meninas by Velazquez! Well, I just keep telling myself that hopefully I'll be able to come back to Madrid and go to El Prado. Zoe and I got churros and chocolate from San Griges Choccolateria before we left Madrid. To be honest, I didn't really like it. Neither the churros nor the chocolate was very sweet. Chris and Sadie went back to Milan to go to Macbeth at La Scala on opening night! While Zoe and I were off to conquer Granada and Sevilla!
I will update you on our adventures soon! WHAT LIFE AM I LIVING THAT I GET TO CASUALLY TOUR SPAIN FOR SPRING BREAK! It really is so amazing; I am so fortunate! I am so sad that I only have 2 months left in Europe!
Ok well wishing you all a good Passover and Easter!
Besos,
~E
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Adventure in the Alps
Ciao amici,
What an amazing and crazy week!
The highlight of the school week was making pizza from scratch with Sadie! As you can see below- we rolled out dough, made our own sauce, piled on the mozzarella and spinach, and man oh man was it delicious! One of the best pizzas I've had!
On Thursday, I had a skype interview for a possible internship for this summer. I still really don't know what I am doing this summer :-/... but these interviews are at least good practice for me!
Zoe came into Milan later that Thursday night and I picked her up at the train station. Unfortunately I had class early Friday morning, so she explored all the touristy sites while I was in class. I took her to Luini for a delicious panzerotti for lunch that day! Yes, even the girl who gets access to Gusta Pizza for a whole semester thought Luini was amazing!!
Friday was quite an adventure. I booked hair cut appointments for Zoe and I at the Toni and Guy Hair Cut Teaching Academy. We weren't quite sure exactly what we were getting ourselves into, but a free haircut is a pretty sweet deal. Here are a few of the 1,000s of reasons why we were nervous:
1. What if they don't speak english??
2. These people are new hair cutters- what if they totally mess up??
3. There are two options for the hair cut- the classic haircut or the advanced avante-garde haircut... these people are training to be amazing hairstylists for like Fashion week- so people were saying that they could try to convince us into getting an avante-garde haircut.
So what did happen?
Strangest experience. We had no idea what to expect. What ended up happening was the teacher (this amazing visionary professional hair designer) went around with the students to each "model" (us- those who voluntarily gave our heads to these newbies) to determine the best haircut for the person and then the teacher instructed the student what to do. Everyone was talking in Italian and we started to freak out. He finally got to us, and luckily spoke English. He gets to me and says that I should have an advanced haircut- and in my head I am freaking out thinking that he wants to shave off half my head of hair or something. He gave me a look book to pick from and we agreed upon a style. There were 8 models and only 6 students so two people had to wait for the other 6 to be done. Of course Zoe was one of the models who didn't get their hair cut right away. I got stuck with the most new student there was. He was afraid to cut a single strand of hair. He was incredibly nice but it took him 2 full hours to give me the most basic hair cut. By the end, I got a little frustrated because everyone else was on the hair drying stage when he was still cutting the first layer of my hair. Anyway, he gave me the basic haircut and then the professional teacher came over and fixed it and added the bangs and the pizazz that we agreed upon. It was one of my best haircuts! I loved it. It had body and curls and it was great. I wish I could have my hair like that every day!
Zoe's haircut did not even start until mine was over (which took 2.5 hours!). The teacher professional had a little thing for Zoe and agreed to cut her hair! She was getting the premium experience. Everyone stared in awe as he cut and shaped her hair. He was like in a trance envisioning the end result. It was amazing. Zoe's hair cut was great and despite being at Toni and Guy for 3 hours more than we expected, it was an extremely successful day.
We met up with Sadie, Chris, and Hugh for aperitivo at Forestawood Bar that night. After dinner we got lost on our way to go to AJ and Arturo's apartment. We got there as everyone was walking out the door. We decided to go with them to Alcatraz. It was a fun night there and it was especially great because we not only got in for free but figured out the bus system home so the travel home was free too! That's a sign of a successful night!
On Saturday, Zoe and I went to a Asian restaurant for lunch. I actually live a minute from Milan's Chinatown and had yet to explore it. Afterwards, we took an adventure and explored around the Navigli area. We got lost trying to find the Bagel Factory and wound up in a flea market. Our adventure eventually landed us at the Bagel Factory (WOO!) and I stocked up on bagels for the next month! Hugh, Sadie, and Chris came over for dinner- we cooked an epic feast with amazing normal lasagna, pesto lasagna, garlic bread, two chocolate cakes! YUMM, we ate ourselves silly! I have mastered making lasagna at this point. I LOVE IT!
Zoe left early the next morning to go to Lake Como with her friends, and I was off to the Alps to go skiing!
IES planned a fabulous ski trip for us! The bus left early Sunday morning and we got there around midday. We had a hotel right on edge of the ski mountain. The ski town we were in was called La Thuile in the Aosta Valley region, which is in the Italian alps, northwest of Milan. THE ALPS ARE AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL! It looks like a scene out of a movie. It was not real. We had the most amazing weather; it was sunny and beautiful and was not cold at all.
As soon as we got there, a lot of us immediately put on ski clothes and went to hit the slopes. I started the day skiing with Ale (the RA- a local Italian), Paula (who basically lives on a ski resort is a skiing and snowboarding master), Nini (from Skidmore too!), and AJ. They were all fantastic skiers and I got myself a bit over my head.
The first run went fine until someone crashed into me, which kind of made my lose my confidence. We took a chair lift up the mountain and ended up on a red slope. :-/... The leveling here in the Alps is different than in America. The lowest is blue, the middle is red, and black is the hardest; but, each level is one level higher than in the states. So the lowest in the Alps (Blue) would be equivalent to a blue in the states (which is the second after green, the easiest). Red in the Alps would be like an American Black! So we ended up on a red slope and boy was I out of my league. I ended up just sliding down the mountain on the side as I had a minor panic attack that I was going to die on the top of the mountain. Meanwhile, the others causally skied on down the mountain. That was the end of me skiing with these amazing skiers. I spent the rest of the day on the easy blue slopes with another girl Sarah. The blues were a bit to easy but for my first day it was a good warm up for the next day!
The buffet dinner provided by the hotel was amazing! Of course most of the food was like "too fancy" for me; if you know me well enough, I am a picky eater and do not eat fancy food. They served like rabbit and fish and pork, etc. Not for me. But I feasted on the delicious pasta! Later that night, a large pack of IES people went to the local pub, King's Pub. We were expecting a really cool bar or discoteca like we have in Milan. Nope... we were the only ones there! It was a cute pub, with a pool table and foosball table. I lost miserably in pool with Anna against Nini and AJ. I actually like pool, but I was uber miserable- like missed hitting the ball every time. Doesn't matter how you play as long as you enjoy it!
Monday we woke up early to be on the slopes when they opened. Little did I know that I was going to wake up with incredible pain around my ankles from skiing the day before. I was in such a rush the day before to get onto the slopes that I was not very careful about socks and pants layers; it ended up bruising my ankles pretty badly. I could barely make it down blue slopes that morning, but I did my best and skiied a little with Erin, Cassie, and Kala.
I took it easy that morning because I scheduled a 2-hour lesson with an instructor so that he could take me down the red slopes. This was the best two hours ever! The lesson started out shaky because he spoke very little English and we struggled to communicate. After a while we figured out how to communicate- mainly me just mimicking what he did. He took me down some amazing slopes and took me to other sides of the mountain I hadn't gotten to get to yet. What's cool about the La Thuile mountain is that you can ski into France! I am not sure entirely because the teacher kept saying French...French... so I think that means I skied into France! We went down all reds for the entire 2 hours! We even went down one black at the end of the lesson! I WAS SO PROUD OF MYSELF. AND I NEVER FELL ONCE! It was an amazing day and the mountain was just so beautiful. Another note about what was cool... It was possible to see Mont Blanc- the tallest mountain in the Alps- from the slopes that we were on! Honestly the tops of the mountains all look similar, but people pointed it out to me!
Same thing as the night before, we feasted at the hotel buffet. My roommates on the trip, Anna, Paula, and Nini bought a bottle of the local wine. It ended up costing double (like 5 euros more) than we expected; we expected some amazing local wine...nope.. it ended up tasting like a lumberjack or a log cabin. oy. lol We went that night again to King's Pub because its the only bar in town. I played pool with Arturo and actually improved! I hit a few balls in! WOO
On Tuesday, most of us took a bus to Courmayeur, a neighboring town. It was described to us as an ritzy ski town where many Milanese locals vacation. The town was really cute, but like everywhere else, shops and stores close down in the middle of the day. So a half hour after we got there all the stores were closed. We ended up getting pizza/focaccia at a really cute local place and then sitting and eating gelato until the IES bus picked us up to go home. It was a really long and exhausting weekend but it was so amazing! I SKIED IN THE ALPS! Look at these photos- aren't these mountains incredible??
What an amazing and crazy week!
The highlight of the school week was making pizza from scratch with Sadie! As you can see below- we rolled out dough, made our own sauce, piled on the mozzarella and spinach, and man oh man was it delicious! One of the best pizzas I've had!
On Thursday, I had a skype interview for a possible internship for this summer. I still really don't know what I am doing this summer :-/... but these interviews are at least good practice for me!
Zoe came into Milan later that Thursday night and I picked her up at the train station. Unfortunately I had class early Friday morning, so she explored all the touristy sites while I was in class. I took her to Luini for a delicious panzerotti for lunch that day! Yes, even the girl who gets access to Gusta Pizza for a whole semester thought Luini was amazing!!
Friday was quite an adventure. I booked hair cut appointments for Zoe and I at the Toni and Guy Hair Cut Teaching Academy. We weren't quite sure exactly what we were getting ourselves into, but a free haircut is a pretty sweet deal. Here are a few of the 1,000s of reasons why we were nervous:
1. What if they don't speak english??
2. These people are new hair cutters- what if they totally mess up??
3. There are two options for the hair cut- the classic haircut or the advanced avante-garde haircut... these people are training to be amazing hairstylists for like Fashion week- so people were saying that they could try to convince us into getting an avante-garde haircut.
So what did happen?
Strangest experience. We had no idea what to expect. What ended up happening was the teacher (this amazing visionary professional hair designer) went around with the students to each "model" (us- those who voluntarily gave our heads to these newbies) to determine the best haircut for the person and then the teacher instructed the student what to do. Everyone was talking in Italian and we started to freak out. He finally got to us, and luckily spoke English. He gets to me and says that I should have an advanced haircut- and in my head I am freaking out thinking that he wants to shave off half my head of hair or something. He gave me a look book to pick from and we agreed upon a style. There were 8 models and only 6 students so two people had to wait for the other 6 to be done. Of course Zoe was one of the models who didn't get their hair cut right away. I got stuck with the most new student there was. He was afraid to cut a single strand of hair. He was incredibly nice but it took him 2 full hours to give me the most basic hair cut. By the end, I got a little frustrated because everyone else was on the hair drying stage when he was still cutting the first layer of my hair. Anyway, he gave me the basic haircut and then the professional teacher came over and fixed it and added the bangs and the pizazz that we agreed upon. It was one of my best haircuts! I loved it. It had body and curls and it was great. I wish I could have my hair like that every day!
Zoe's haircut did not even start until mine was over (which took 2.5 hours!). The teacher professional had a little thing for Zoe and agreed to cut her hair! She was getting the premium experience. Everyone stared in awe as he cut and shaped her hair. He was like in a trance envisioning the end result. It was amazing. Zoe's hair cut was great and despite being at Toni and Guy for 3 hours more than we expected, it was an extremely successful day.
On Saturday, Zoe and I went to a Asian restaurant for lunch. I actually live a minute from Milan's Chinatown and had yet to explore it. Afterwards, we took an adventure and explored around the Navigli area. We got lost trying to find the Bagel Factory and wound up in a flea market. Our adventure eventually landed us at the Bagel Factory (WOO!) and I stocked up on bagels for the next month! Hugh, Sadie, and Chris came over for dinner- we cooked an epic feast with amazing normal lasagna, pesto lasagna, garlic bread, two chocolate cakes! YUMM, we ate ourselves silly! I have mastered making lasagna at this point. I LOVE IT!
Zoe left early the next morning to go to Lake Como with her friends, and I was off to the Alps to go skiing!
IES planned a fabulous ski trip for us! The bus left early Sunday morning and we got there around midday. We had a hotel right on edge of the ski mountain. The ski town we were in was called La Thuile in the Aosta Valley region, which is in the Italian alps, northwest of Milan. THE ALPS ARE AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL! It looks like a scene out of a movie. It was not real. We had the most amazing weather; it was sunny and beautiful and was not cold at all.
As soon as we got there, a lot of us immediately put on ski clothes and went to hit the slopes. I started the day skiing with Ale (the RA- a local Italian), Paula (who basically lives on a ski resort is a skiing and snowboarding master), Nini (from Skidmore too!), and AJ. They were all fantastic skiers and I got myself a bit over my head.
The first run went fine until someone crashed into me, which kind of made my lose my confidence. We took a chair lift up the mountain and ended up on a red slope. :-/... The leveling here in the Alps is different than in America. The lowest is blue, the middle is red, and black is the hardest; but, each level is one level higher than in the states. So the lowest in the Alps (Blue) would be equivalent to a blue in the states (which is the second after green, the easiest). Red in the Alps would be like an American Black! So we ended up on a red slope and boy was I out of my league. I ended up just sliding down the mountain on the side as I had a minor panic attack that I was going to die on the top of the mountain. Meanwhile, the others causally skied on down the mountain. That was the end of me skiing with these amazing skiers. I spent the rest of the day on the easy blue slopes with another girl Sarah. The blues were a bit to easy but for my first day it was a good warm up for the next day!
The buffet dinner provided by the hotel was amazing! Of course most of the food was like "too fancy" for me; if you know me well enough, I am a picky eater and do not eat fancy food. They served like rabbit and fish and pork, etc. Not for me. But I feasted on the delicious pasta! Later that night, a large pack of IES people went to the local pub, King's Pub. We were expecting a really cool bar or discoteca like we have in Milan. Nope... we were the only ones there! It was a cute pub, with a pool table and foosball table. I lost miserably in pool with Anna against Nini and AJ. I actually like pool, but I was uber miserable- like missed hitting the ball every time. Doesn't matter how you play as long as you enjoy it!
Monday we woke up early to be on the slopes when they opened. Little did I know that I was going to wake up with incredible pain around my ankles from skiing the day before. I was in such a rush the day before to get onto the slopes that I was not very careful about socks and pants layers; it ended up bruising my ankles pretty badly. I could barely make it down blue slopes that morning, but I did my best and skiied a little with Erin, Cassie, and Kala.
 |
| View from the Gondola up the mountain |
Photos of Courmayeur:
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| Courmayeur |
Well what an amazing weekend and just a few days later I was in Copenhagen to visit Kayla K. What an amazing few weeks. More stories of my Italian adventures to come!
Snow angels and butterflies,
~E
Monday, March 11, 2013
F is for Fashion Week and Florence!
Pronti? Ready to hear about my super fabulous weekend in Florence?
I do want to preface my description of this past weekend with some details of this weekday. As I said, Milan Fashion week started. Thus... what is life like in Fashion capital of the world during Fashion week? Well the city is a bit more crowded, and the people and clothes are just a little extra beautiful this week. Casually there are a lot models (noticeable because they are over a foot taller than me and have legs like toothpicks) on the metro. All of the stores have upped the designs of their windows.
To kick of Fashion week, my fashion class visited the first Prada store (ever) which is in the Galleria in Milan. I didn't feel worthy enough to be even be walking in the store haha. We also visited La Rinascente and Excelsior, two large department stores here in the city.
On Wednesday, the official start day of fashion week, we (Sadie, Chris, Victoria, Erica, and I) went to Martini Bar, which is a bar that is jointly owned by Dolce and Gabbana and Martini. SO CLASSY! and FABULOUS! We all dressed in our finest to be worthy of the experience... the other people were in pretty high fashion; it was a great way to start Fashion Week! Chris bought a pair of boxers from Dolce and Gabbana to celebrate.
...
What does it mean to travel with me? First, it means that it rains. Of course, Florence rained for pretty much the entire time I was there. Trip #2 with immense amount of rain. Second, it means that every thing that there is to do or see gets done...it means conquering the city.
This past weekend, I went to Florence with Sadie, Brent, Arturo and Chris to visit Zoe, my very best friend from Skidmore who is studying in Florence. Florence is such a beautiful city; the atmosphere feels like Italy- maybe its the yellow toned buildings, the stone streets or the statues everywhere. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming my life of living and visiting Italy. In contrast to Florence, Milan is so urban and so industrialized, so it doesn't necessarily feel like Italy. BUT... Florence has so many Americans, so many tourists, and so much English. Milan makes me have to use my Italian and makes me feel like the odd one out (in a good way!- like in a I am studying abroad way). So there are pros and cons to studying abroad in both locations.
Friday in Florence
We got to Florence on Friday around 11am. Our train took an hour later than expected because it was snowing on the way there. We stayed in a hostel for the first time; it was called Soggiorno Primavera. The people that ran it were so nice and very helpful; the place was pretty ok- clean is all that matters!- but it was far from the center of the city.
Zoe gave us a tour of the city that afternoon. We saw and went inside the famous Florence Duomo. We went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence. We went to Piazza della Signoria (where the fake david is). We went to the leather market- everything was beautiful but it was kind of hard to tell what was real and what was not. Florence is a small city- it is possible to walk everywhere in maximum 20 mins, so we were able to get an introduction quickly to all of the things there were to see. It started to rain, so we decided to go to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which is the where the real David, by Michelangelo, is located. Of course, we stared at the David from all 360 degrees in awe. It was exquisite. The details are incredible. Umm.. just saying- shouldn't the David be circumsized since he was Jewish?... Michelangelo check your facts?? Haha
Afterwards, Zoe and I decided that we wanted to go to Shabbat services. The synagogue in Florence is pretty famous- it's very decadent and so beautiful! Actually there is a synagogue in Baltimore that is modeled after this Florence synagogue. We went to the synagogue and a Chabad rabbi found us standing outside and invited us to light candles with him. Us girls (Sadie, Zoe and I - we met a girl from Baltimore(!) who lit candles with us) lit candles with him. We (Chris, Sadie, Zoe and I) all then went to the synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat. This was Sadie and Chris's first time at the Jewish service- I think they really enjoyed it despite not understanding anything. Inside, the synagogue was breathtaking- so many intricate details. The service itself was not what Zoe and I like in a Jewish service because the rabbi did the prayers very fast and on his own and there was no real community aspect to the prayer. The men all did their prayers individually. I tried to catch up and follow along but it was difficult.
After the service, the Chabad rabbi invited everyone to Shabbat dinner at the local Chabad. WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE THIS DINNER WAS. There were Jews visiting Florence from all over the world and they all came to the dinner to share in a Jewish experience abroad. We talked with Jewish girls from Chile and from Israel!! One of my favorite parts of being Jewish is being able to go anywhere in the world and finding a home in the Jewish community, having the prayers be the same (all in Hebrew) and have an immediate connection with the Jews from all over the world. For Sadie and Chris, this Shabbat dinner was a brand new experience. There was so much to observe and learn for them. And they couldn't stop talking about how much they loved it! We left the dinner early and grabbed dinner part two from GUSTA PIZZA...THE BEST PIZZA EVER! IT WAS AMAZING...if you are ever in Florence promise me you'll get GUSTA Pizza...yumm.
Saturday
We woke up EARLY so that we wouldn't be stuck in a line at the Uffizi. Of course, there was of no line. We spent two and a half hours at the Uffizi. WHAT AN AMAZING ART MUSEUM. Unfortunately, after the first hour, a lot of the art was blending together, but we made it through seeing all of the artwork. Of course we stared in awe at the Birth of Venus for a good half hour. When I studied in Barcelona, I took an art history class and was then able to go to the museums and know about all of the artwork. There are a lot of significant pieces of artwork at the Uffizi that I saw but I do not think I was able to appreciate it as much because I didn't have a background in this artwork. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful museum and I am really glad that we had devoted that much time to it.
After the Uffizi, we went inside Santa Croce Basilica. This was a really cool Basilica because it has the tombs of a lot of famous people. I saw the burial monuments for Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo! This particularly was really cool!
Of course it started raining at this point. We were a bit disappointed that we weren't going to be able to go to Michelangelo's lookout and the Boboli gardens like we had planned to because of the rain. We decided to go back to Zoe's apartment and have a mini- wine and cheese party to pass the time until the rain stopped. We chilled there until dinner when we went to ZaZa's for dinner. Yumm. Arturo and Brent shared a 50 dollar ginormous Florentine Steak- it was super rare and super delicious! Arturo, Brent and I grabbed yummy gelato from Venchi (although I am sorry but I have yet to have amazing gelato). We then met up with Chris and Sadie who was at Chris's friend's apartment and hung out with his friends. We went to a really fun local bar afterwards to kill time until 2am, when we were supposed to meet Zoe to go to a secret bakery.
Ok. Secret Bakery. Coolest thing ever. Secret Bakeries are the bakeries that prepare the pastries for smaller pastry shops that do not cook the desserts themselves. Thus, these secret bakeries start baking at 2am to be able to distribute the fresh baked goods. These secret bakeries sell the goods they are baking for like a euro- but the catch is that it is a secret and you have to be very quiet. There is no sign- you are supposed to be able to sniff out the goods baking. Zoe and her housemate had already found them so they took us there. There was already a line of people waiting outside and shushing anyone who was too loud. They were cooking mini brioches and pizza at the time- so I ordered 4 brioches- 2 filled with chocolate and 2 filled with creme. FRESH BAKED, STILL WARM. OMG! It was amazing- I savored each one- having one for breakfast the next morning, dessert for dinner that night, and then breakfast the following following morning. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trips.
Sunday
On Sunday, we woke up and checked out of our hostel. It was not raining so we thought that it was a perfect opportunity to go to Piazza Michelangelo for the lookout over the city. Of course right when we get to the top of the hill, it starts raining. Always our luck! But the lookout was beautiful- a panaromic view of the city. Because of the rain, there was a rainbow in the sky over the city which was just fabulous!
We concluded our stay in Florence with Gusta Pizza again (we couldn't get enough of it!) and gelato! It was sad to say goodbye to Florence - what a beautiful and cute city it is- and it was really sad to say goodbye to Zoe- but luckily Zoe was coming to visit me in Milan 4 days later!
Ok - I am so sorry that I am so behind in my blogging. So much has been happening. Blog post about the alps and Copenhagen coming soon.
Fairies and Rainbows,
~E
I do want to preface my description of this past weekend with some details of this weekday. As I said, Milan Fashion week started. Thus... what is life like in Fashion capital of the world during Fashion week? Well the city is a bit more crowded, and the people and clothes are just a little extra beautiful this week. Casually there are a lot models (noticeable because they are over a foot taller than me and have legs like toothpicks) on the metro. All of the stores have upped the designs of their windows.
To kick of Fashion week, my fashion class visited the first Prada store (ever) which is in the Galleria in Milan. I didn't feel worthy enough to be even be walking in the store haha. We also visited La Rinascente and Excelsior, two large department stores here in the city.
On Wednesday, the official start day of fashion week, we (Sadie, Chris, Victoria, Erica, and I) went to Martini Bar, which is a bar that is jointly owned by Dolce and Gabbana and Martini. SO CLASSY! and FABULOUS! We all dressed in our finest to be worthy of the experience... the other people were in pretty high fashion; it was a great way to start Fashion Week! Chris bought a pair of boxers from Dolce and Gabbana to celebrate.
...
What does it mean to travel with me? First, it means that it rains. Of course, Florence rained for pretty much the entire time I was there. Trip #2 with immense amount of rain. Second, it means that every thing that there is to do or see gets done...it means conquering the city.
This past weekend, I went to Florence with Sadie, Brent, Arturo and Chris to visit Zoe, my very best friend from Skidmore who is studying in Florence. Florence is such a beautiful city; the atmosphere feels like Italy- maybe its the yellow toned buildings, the stone streets or the statues everywhere. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming my life of living and visiting Italy. In contrast to Florence, Milan is so urban and so industrialized, so it doesn't necessarily feel like Italy. BUT... Florence has so many Americans, so many tourists, and so much English. Milan makes me have to use my Italian and makes me feel like the odd one out (in a good way!- like in a I am studying abroad way). So there are pros and cons to studying abroad in both locations.
Friday in Florence
We got to Florence on Friday around 11am. Our train took an hour later than expected because it was snowing on the way there. We stayed in a hostel for the first time; it was called Soggiorno Primavera. The people that ran it were so nice and very helpful; the place was pretty ok- clean is all that matters!- but it was far from the center of the city.
Zoe gave us a tour of the city that afternoon. We saw and went inside the famous Florence Duomo. We went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence. We went to Piazza della Signoria (where the fake david is). We went to the leather market- everything was beautiful but it was kind of hard to tell what was real and what was not. Florence is a small city- it is possible to walk everywhere in maximum 20 mins, so we were able to get an introduction quickly to all of the things there were to see. It started to rain, so we decided to go to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which is the where the real David, by Michelangelo, is located. Of course, we stared at the David from all 360 degrees in awe. It was exquisite. The details are incredible. Umm.. just saying- shouldn't the David be circumsized since he was Jewish?... Michelangelo check your facts?? Haha
Afterwards, Zoe and I decided that we wanted to go to Shabbat services. The synagogue in Florence is pretty famous- it's very decadent and so beautiful! Actually there is a synagogue in Baltimore that is modeled after this Florence synagogue. We went to the synagogue and a Chabad rabbi found us standing outside and invited us to light candles with him. Us girls (Sadie, Zoe and I - we met a girl from Baltimore(!) who lit candles with us) lit candles with him. We (Chris, Sadie, Zoe and I) all then went to the synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat. This was Sadie and Chris's first time at the Jewish service- I think they really enjoyed it despite not understanding anything. Inside, the synagogue was breathtaking- so many intricate details. The service itself was not what Zoe and I like in a Jewish service because the rabbi did the prayers very fast and on his own and there was no real community aspect to the prayer. The men all did their prayers individually. I tried to catch up and follow along but it was difficult.
After the service, the Chabad rabbi invited everyone to Shabbat dinner at the local Chabad. WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE THIS DINNER WAS. There were Jews visiting Florence from all over the world and they all came to the dinner to share in a Jewish experience abroad. We talked with Jewish girls from Chile and from Israel!! One of my favorite parts of being Jewish is being able to go anywhere in the world and finding a home in the Jewish community, having the prayers be the same (all in Hebrew) and have an immediate connection with the Jews from all over the world. For Sadie and Chris, this Shabbat dinner was a brand new experience. There was so much to observe and learn for them. And they couldn't stop talking about how much they loved it! We left the dinner early and grabbed dinner part two from GUSTA PIZZA...THE BEST PIZZA EVER! IT WAS AMAZING...if you are ever in Florence promise me you'll get GUSTA Pizza...yumm.
Saturday
We woke up EARLY so that we wouldn't be stuck in a line at the Uffizi. Of course, there was of no line. We spent two and a half hours at the Uffizi. WHAT AN AMAZING ART MUSEUM. Unfortunately, after the first hour, a lot of the art was blending together, but we made it through seeing all of the artwork. Of course we stared in awe at the Birth of Venus for a good half hour. When I studied in Barcelona, I took an art history class and was then able to go to the museums and know about all of the artwork. There are a lot of significant pieces of artwork at the Uffizi that I saw but I do not think I was able to appreciate it as much because I didn't have a background in this artwork. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful museum and I am really glad that we had devoted that much time to it.
After the Uffizi, we went inside Santa Croce Basilica. This was a really cool Basilica because it has the tombs of a lot of famous people. I saw the burial monuments for Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo! This particularly was really cool!
Of course it started raining at this point. We were a bit disappointed that we weren't going to be able to go to Michelangelo's lookout and the Boboli gardens like we had planned to because of the rain. We decided to go back to Zoe's apartment and have a mini- wine and cheese party to pass the time until the rain stopped. We chilled there until dinner when we went to ZaZa's for dinner. Yumm. Arturo and Brent shared a 50 dollar ginormous Florentine Steak- it was super rare and super delicious! Arturo, Brent and I grabbed yummy gelato from Venchi (although I am sorry but I have yet to have amazing gelato). We then met up with Chris and Sadie who was at Chris's friend's apartment and hung out with his friends. We went to a really fun local bar afterwards to kill time until 2am, when we were supposed to meet Zoe to go to a secret bakery.
Ok. Secret Bakery. Coolest thing ever. Secret Bakeries are the bakeries that prepare the pastries for smaller pastry shops that do not cook the desserts themselves. Thus, these secret bakeries start baking at 2am to be able to distribute the fresh baked goods. These secret bakeries sell the goods they are baking for like a euro- but the catch is that it is a secret and you have to be very quiet. There is no sign- you are supposed to be able to sniff out the goods baking. Zoe and her housemate had already found them so they took us there. There was already a line of people waiting outside and shushing anyone who was too loud. They were cooking mini brioches and pizza at the time- so I ordered 4 brioches- 2 filled with chocolate and 2 filled with creme. FRESH BAKED, STILL WARM. OMG! It was amazing- I savored each one- having one for breakfast the next morning, dessert for dinner that night, and then breakfast the following following morning. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trips.
Sunday
On Sunday, we woke up and checked out of our hostel. It was not raining so we thought that it was a perfect opportunity to go to Piazza Michelangelo for the lookout over the city. Of course right when we get to the top of the hill, it starts raining. Always our luck! But the lookout was beautiful- a panaromic view of the city. Because of the rain, there was a rainbow in the sky over the city which was just fabulous!
We concluded our stay in Florence with Gusta Pizza again (we couldn't get enough of it!) and gelato! It was sad to say goodbye to Florence - what a beautiful and cute city it is- and it was really sad to say goodbye to Zoe- but luckily Zoe was coming to visit me in Milan 4 days later!
Ok - I am so sorry that I am so behind in my blogging. So much has been happening. Blog post about the alps and Copenhagen coming soon.
Fairies and Rainbows,
~E
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