Post-Script to TTCSAIATF: We are not thankful for those things in the order that they are written. Despite the fact that Nutella made a double appearance at #2 and #25, we do not love Nutella more than family and friends.
Post-Post-Script to TTCSAIATF: Lola has ISSUES.
Post-Post-Post-Script totally unrelated to TTCSAIATF: My former RA, Mary Clare (not to be confused with sissy Murr Clurr), is currently working for an organization in Ethiopia called Our Glimmer of Hope. Mary Clare is turning 23 soon, and for her birthday, instead of gifts, she is asking for donations to her organization to help bring water, medical facilities and other basic necessities to the people of Dube Bute, the town where she works. Here is Mary Clare's blog where you can read about the amazing work she's doing in Ethiopia. And here is the page where you can donate to her cause. Please consider donating! All the money raised goes directly to helping the people in Dube Bute and I know that with the funds she raises, Mary Clare will do wonderful things for that community.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Living In A Warzone
It's rather scary. Raquel and Estefanía are in a HUGE fight. Yesterday they were screaming at each other for a solid 20 minutes and I'm pretty sure a slap was thrown. I was hiding in my safe haven, protecting myself from getting caught in any potential crossfire. From inside the safety of my room I have learned a montón of fighting words. As I heard Raquel calling Estefanía various nasty names, I typed them into spanishdict.com and had myself a little Spanish homeschooling lesson. I suppose it might come in handy one day...
I don't even know really what they are fighting about anymore. I wasn't there for the beginning of it, and right now their primary accusations are that Estefanía treats Raquel like a child and that Raquel always acts like a witch with a B to Estefanía...typical sisterly squabbles. But now Raquel is threatening to skip their upcoming trip to Ireland because she doesn't want to be around Estefanía. That is making Mama Pili angry because they already paid for the trip. So she's forcing Raquel to go, causing even more drama and yelling.
For the most part, Mama Pili just lets them fight. Since they are 21 and 27, there's not much she can do except tell them to lower their voices occasionally. Javier just sits there too and whenever Raquel yells at Mama Pili he just says, "Don't talk to your mother like that." Meanwhile, I just sit in my room until Mama Pili comes in and tells me that it's safe to come out for dinner.
Hopefully they make up soon! It's starting super awkward.
I don't even know really what they are fighting about anymore. I wasn't there for the beginning of it, and right now their primary accusations are that Estefanía treats Raquel like a child and that Raquel always acts like a witch with a B to Estefanía...typical sisterly squabbles. But now Raquel is threatening to skip their upcoming trip to Ireland because she doesn't want to be around Estefanía. That is making Mama Pili angry because they already paid for the trip. So she's forcing Raquel to go, causing even more drama and yelling.
For the most part, Mama Pili just lets them fight. Since they are 21 and 27, there's not much she can do except tell them to lower their voices occasionally. Javier just sits there too and whenever Raquel yells at Mama Pili he just says, "Don't talk to your mother like that." Meanwhile, I just sit in my room until Mama Pili comes in and tells me that it's safe to come out for dinner.
Hopefully they make up soon! It's starting super awkward.
Monday, November 22, 2010
TTCSAIATF #1-?
TIHLALIS and TIHLAL seem to be a popular theme of "Holy Toledo," so today I will continue the trend and begin yet another list. In honor of Thanksgiving, or "Día de Acción de Gracias," this list shall be entitled TTCSAIATF: "Things That Caitlin, Sofia And I Are Thankful For."
This afternoon Mama Pili, Javier, Raquel, Estefanía and Alberto left for Ireland to visit family. Lola and I are all alonesies at home until Monday, so tonight after Thanksgiving dinner at the Fundación, Caitlin and Sofia are coming over and we are having a Thanksgiving party/girls only sleepover. Everyone is bringing a homemade Thanksgiving dessert and we will have Thanksgiving cocktails (whatever those are...something involving cranberry, I suppose). Throughout the night we will be compiling a list of all the things we are thankful for. Right before we go to bed we will click "Publish Post," no matter how many typos there are. This list will be compiled by everyone, so no one will know whose belongs to who. Enjoy!
This afternoon Mama Pili, Javier, Raquel, Estefanía and Alberto left for Ireland to visit family. Lola and I are all alonesies at home until Monday, so tonight after Thanksgiving dinner at the Fundación, Caitlin and Sofia are coming over and we are having a Thanksgiving party/girls only sleepover. Everyone is bringing a homemade Thanksgiving dessert and we will have Thanksgiving cocktails (whatever those are...something involving cranberry, I suppose). Throughout the night we will be compiling a list of all the things we are thankful for. Right before we go to bed we will click "Publish Post," no matter how many typos there are. This list will be compiled by everyone, so no one will know whose belongs to who. Enjoy!
- Being in Spain with Caitlin and Elizabeth
- Nutella
- Acceptable food substitutes
- Not being diabetic
- Families
- Mama Pili
- Lady Gaga
- Cooking skillz
- Food babiez
- Blog readers who write me comments
- No-Shave November (except armpits)
- Tights
- My dad Bill
- Sofias card yricks
- That I'm not a vampire
- Having Elizabeth wax my eyebrows
- Gelato
- Boys
- Listening to rap as a fuilty o=pleasure
- Diego, who gave me his jacket on the tour, a free tour and free drinks after the tour
- Polka dots
- Not having to be out hthere grinding
- Cell phones
- Stuffing
- Being a woman (where my feminists attt?!?!)
- Nutella
- Fanta limon, y zumo de frutas variadas
- Body parts (those which we have and those which we dont have)
- Shakirkas speaking english... aka angry chinese man struggling to sing
- Dsettings button on any application/web page
- Friends (collectively, no names cuz you all matter)
- Not everyone is like sofia (million sofias would be crazy)
- She wolfs
- Shitty party music you dont understand, but dance to anyways
- Youtubes
- For being YOUNG AND IRRESPONSIBLE
- Losing the remote (you find so many goodies while digging into pillows)
- ABROAD!
- Not going to jail
- Exchange rate dollar to euro.... JK NOTTTT!!!
- Life is... ya know... time and stuff
- Freewill
- Bras that are comfortable... but unfortunately dont occur in my size
- Roommates
- Acting like your friends... picking up random phrases and motions, etc
- MAGIC
- ppl that make us laugh
- Miami
- Not being a baby
- Apples
- freshman year, epic times
- Comforters, adn other omfy things
- having a boyfriend......NOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Not having scurvy. Scabies blows.
- Wool socks
- sleep
- water
- Beds and bedding
Ten Modes of Transportation
This weekend all of Notre Dame converged on Barcelona.
I mean, when I say that I really just mean about half the people from Toledo, a few from London, a handful from Rome and one from Dublin. But it seemed like a lot. Even though I have an extreme aversion to groups this large, it's okay because the only people I really cared to see were Annie Gurney, Emily Wurz and Clare Cooney!!!!!! and of course my traveling compañeros from Toledo and Caitlin's friend from Rome. The BFFs graced España with their presence all the way from London, London and Dublin (respectively) and Spain, The Bacon Wallet and I couldn't have been more ecstatic to host them.
I was the first of the 4 to arrive in Barcelona (Transportation Modes #1, 2, 3 and 4: bus, metro, plane, train). After a restful night's sleep with Caitlin at her aunt's house in Madrid (as opposed to the cold floor of Barajas Terminal 2), I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest of the group. We couldn't check in until the whole party was there so the Toledanos and I wandered around Las Ramblas for a while. When Clare FINALLY arrived around 3:45, we headed out to find the most typical Spanish lunch we could find--paella and sangria. Full and happy and lacking sufficient time to do anything on our list of sightseeing, we just kind of walked around aimlessly. We saw some....interesting....things in the shopping center near the port and wasted time until it was time to get ready for the night. Feeling fresh and looking fresher we headed out for tapas and drinks and more drinks and Harry Potter and Boy Scouts and dancing and South America. It was a rousing success and Day One of the Barca adventure was completed with almost nothing to show for it!
Day Two was only slightly more productive. We woke up late (too late for the hostel breakfast...oops) only to find that it was RAINING. What? It never rains in Spain! But we couldn't just sit around and do nothing again. So we grabbed our umbrellas, prayed for eventual sunshine, and went to search for breakfast. We found a cute cafe that was perfect for us: coffee and recovery food. Feeling better, we began our trek to the Sagrada Familia. Most people take the Metro there, but we decided to walk (Transportation Mode #5), partly because we wanted to see the city but mostly because we didn't want to spend money on transportation. Walking directly there should have only taken about 30-40 minutes, but we managed to turn it into an almost 2 hour ordeal. And BONUS by the time we got to the church the rain was gone and the sun was shining!
First pit stop: Mercat de Sant Josep. This bustling, colorful food market provided a plethora of entertainment. Buying oranges, discovering mystery fruit, taste testing interesting smoothies and........BEING ON TV!!!!!!!!! We were just standing around near a fruit stand and this woman from TVE 1 (the Spanish equivalent of E! News) came up to us and asked if we would like to be on TV. Of course we said YES, and she produced a list of music artists to see if we recognized any of them. The only one we knew was Shakira because the rest of them were rando Spanish artists that we had never heard of. So the woman and her camera crew recorded us saying, "Hi, we're from the United States, our names are (insert names here), and the Record of the Year is Shakira: Sale El Sol!" The Record of the Year will be announced at the end of December, and if Shakira wins, they're going to air our clip!!! We're going to be FAMOUS! Emily has pictures of us with the big blue TVE microphone so when I get a copy I will post it on here. After the market we continued onward with our journey, on a media high and super stoked about our potential debut on Spanish TV. My only regret: not whipping out The Bacon Wallet for a surprise appearance.
Quick side note: My Econ professor just appeared on TVE in a segment about the current economic crisis. NBD.
After two or three more small, insignificant pit stops, we finally made it to the most spectacular church I have ever seen: La Sagrada Familia. It easily surpasses any other church I've seen in my life, without a doubt.
Workin it in front of La Sagrada Familia.
We marveled at the outside for a long while and then got in line to go inside. The wait was going to be about an hour, so since we were starting to get hungstown we decided to get lunch first and then get back in line later. Best. Decision. Ever. 1) The wait was only 10 minutes the second time around. 2) The sun was starting to go down when we got inside, making the stained glass shine like nothing I've ever seen. 3) Lunch was the most hilarious experience of all time.
There were 4 waiters at this restaurant: one whose name I don't know (we'll call him Patricio), Raul (who actually served us our food), and Roberto and Sebastian (who just came over and chatted with us). They all wanted to be our best friend. Every time one walked by, he would either stop to chat or squeeze one of our hands. One small problem: none of them spoke English so I was the only one who could talk to them. This circumstance made one-liners and witty banter even funnier because there were four rounds of laughter every time. Waiter would say something hysterical, I laughed. I translated for the girls, they laughed. Waiter and I laughed together at the girls' delayed reaction. Then we all laughed some more together. Our abs were getting a great work out and I'm sure we amused/annoyed the rest of the restaurant. It's a good thing this lunch was so entertaining because the food was actually pretty mediocre. The paella was kind of dry, the steak we ordered was so tough and fatty that our wrists were in physical pain from cutting it, and to top it all off, the ice cream for dessert was served in a plastic cup with a paper lid like something you might find in the discount section of Costco. Hilarious. Sebastian empathized...he knew it was cheap.
We asked Sebastian where were the best places to go out on Saturdays. After a 10-minute schpeel from Roberto, Sebas gave us his phone number and said he wanted to come with us and that he had a friend of a friend who could get us on a VIP list fo free. Holler! After almost 2 hours of chatting, translating, laughing, trying to eat terrible steak, hand-holding, dos-besos-ing and marriage proposals (Emily), we tore ourselves away with promises to call and meet up later.
Back to La Sagrada Familia (not to be confused with La Sangre Familia, which means "The Blood Family," AHEM AHEM HOLY TOLEDO BLOG STEALER). The inside was absolutely incredible. Gaudi is a genius. The church can fit up to 8,000 people, with room for 1,000 in the choir loft. Can you imagine a Mass with music led by 1,000 voices? In my lifetime I WILL go to Mass there.
After we left the church, we tried to go to Tibidabo. Unfortunately we failed, but we made it the next day, so no worries. More on that later. So instead of Tibidabo, we went back to the hostel to siesta and get ready for our night on the town with Sebastian and friends. Tapas, drinks, more tapas, more drinks and NO call back from Sebastian left us feeling weary and ready for bed. Clare wanted to go to a club so we went to the free one right next door to our hostel but it was lame and empty so we left after about 5 minutes. Good thing too because Day Three was jam-packed with all sorts of Barcelona fun!
On Sunday we did more things than we did Friday and Saturday combined. First we made it successfully to Tibidabo. Annie thought Tibidabo was the Old City of Barcelona (as seen on Samantha Brown) so after taking Transportation Modes #6 and 7--trolley halfway up the mountain, cable car the rest of the way--we were surprised to find that it was just actually an amusement park and a church on top of a mountain! Not quite what we expected, but we had an amazing view of the entire city from up there. After lunch we hauled it up another mountain to Parc Guell to see more Gaudi things. Luckily there were escalators all the way up or else it would have taken ten times as long and we would have been exhausted. We power walked through the park, rather in a hurry to snap our pictures and be on our way because our last adventure was about to begin. We left the park and hailed a cab (Transportation Mode #8) to head back to the city so that we could hop into Transportation Mode #9, the most anticipated activity of Barcelona...............
GO CARS.
Hitting the road!
Yes. Go Cars. We rented them with our hostel discount--9 Euros per person--for 90 minutes of sheer joy and hilarity. These tiny cars have a talking GPS system in them. They talk you through a guided tour of the city and tell jokes too! At one point, our car asked us, "Are you having fun yet?" To which Annie and I replied, "YES!!!!!!" The Go Cars are actually really easy to drive. We were given a 5 minute tutorial and then they set us free on the streets! The best part of Go Cars is the reaction from other people. So many people took pictures of us as we zoomed by. They waved, shouted, cheered, and one man even whipped out his Camcorder and asked us to say hi to the camera. We were such a hit.
The Bacon Wallet driving the Go Car.
Unfortunately Annie and I got separated from Clare and Emily, but we still had a blast. We actually saw them from afar one time and they looked SO ridiculous. Emily had the camera poised at the ready and Clare was flooring it. Annie and I were crying from laughing so hard at them and then we realized that we probably looked the exact same, which made it even funnier. It made me a little nervous driving in Barcelona, but we survived. I think at one point I was violating about 10 traffic laws in this one roundabout because cars were honking and I think I was in the wrong lane and Annie and I probably both looked terrified. And also really stupid. But in retrospect it was really funny...even though we almost went on the highway! Oops.
After we returned our Go Cars, we all booked it back to the hostel to grab our bags, say goodbye to Clare who was staying one more night and take the shuttle bus (Transportation Mode #10) to the airport. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I know that January will be here before I know it, the way the semester has passed so far. Time has flown! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend with the besties. I love the people I've met in Toledo, but it was especially wonderful to spend time with friends I've known long enough to spend hours on end rehashing those "Remember that time when..." stories. I miss them already!
I have a lot more pictures to post of this weekend. Some I need to steal from Annie and others I have to upload myself. I'll do it.....eventually.
I mean, when I say that I really just mean about half the people from Toledo, a few from London, a handful from Rome and one from Dublin. But it seemed like a lot. Even though I have an extreme aversion to groups this large, it's okay because the only people I really cared to see were Annie Gurney, Emily Wurz and Clare Cooney!!!!!! and of course my traveling compañeros from Toledo and Caitlin's friend from Rome. The BFFs graced España with their presence all the way from London, London and Dublin (respectively) and Spain, The Bacon Wallet and I couldn't have been more ecstatic to host them.
I was the first of the 4 to arrive in Barcelona (Transportation Modes #1, 2, 3 and 4: bus, metro, plane, train). After a restful night's sleep with Caitlin at her aunt's house in Madrid (as opposed to the cold floor of Barajas Terminal 2), I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest of the group. We couldn't check in until the whole party was there so the Toledanos and I wandered around Las Ramblas for a while. When Clare FINALLY arrived around 3:45, we headed out to find the most typical Spanish lunch we could find--paella and sangria. Full and happy and lacking sufficient time to do anything on our list of sightseeing, we just kind of walked around aimlessly. We saw some....interesting....things in the shopping center near the port and wasted time until it was time to get ready for the night. Feeling fresh and looking fresher we headed out for tapas and drinks and more drinks and Harry Potter and Boy Scouts and dancing and South America. It was a rousing success and Day One of the Barca adventure was completed with almost nothing to show for it!
Day Two was only slightly more productive. We woke up late (too late for the hostel breakfast...oops) only to find that it was RAINING. What? It never rains in Spain! But we couldn't just sit around and do nothing again. So we grabbed our umbrellas, prayed for eventual sunshine, and went to search for breakfast. We found a cute cafe that was perfect for us: coffee and recovery food. Feeling better, we began our trek to the Sagrada Familia. Most people take the Metro there, but we decided to walk (Transportation Mode #5), partly because we wanted to see the city but mostly because we didn't want to spend money on transportation. Walking directly there should have only taken about 30-40 minutes, but we managed to turn it into an almost 2 hour ordeal. And BONUS by the time we got to the church the rain was gone and the sun was shining!
First pit stop: Mercat de Sant Josep. This bustling, colorful food market provided a plethora of entertainment. Buying oranges, discovering mystery fruit, taste testing interesting smoothies and........BEING ON TV!!!!!!!!! We were just standing around near a fruit stand and this woman from TVE 1 (the Spanish equivalent of E! News) came up to us and asked if we would like to be on TV. Of course we said YES, and she produced a list of music artists to see if we recognized any of them. The only one we knew was Shakira because the rest of them were rando Spanish artists that we had never heard of. So the woman and her camera crew recorded us saying, "Hi, we're from the United States, our names are (insert names here), and the Record of the Year is Shakira: Sale El Sol!" The Record of the Year will be announced at the end of December, and if Shakira wins, they're going to air our clip!!! We're going to be FAMOUS! Emily has pictures of us with the big blue TVE microphone so when I get a copy I will post it on here. After the market we continued onward with our journey, on a media high and super stoked about our potential debut on Spanish TV. My only regret: not whipping out The Bacon Wallet for a surprise appearance.
Quick side note: My Econ professor just appeared on TVE in a segment about the current economic crisis. NBD.
After two or three more small, insignificant pit stops, we finally made it to the most spectacular church I have ever seen: La Sagrada Familia. It easily surpasses any other church I've seen in my life, without a doubt.
Workin it in front of La Sagrada Familia.We marveled at the outside for a long while and then got in line to go inside. The wait was going to be about an hour, so since we were starting to get hungstown we decided to get lunch first and then get back in line later. Best. Decision. Ever. 1) The wait was only 10 minutes the second time around. 2) The sun was starting to go down when we got inside, making the stained glass shine like nothing I've ever seen. 3) Lunch was the most hilarious experience of all time.
There were 4 waiters at this restaurant: one whose name I don't know (we'll call him Patricio), Raul (who actually served us our food), and Roberto and Sebastian (who just came over and chatted with us). They all wanted to be our best friend. Every time one walked by, he would either stop to chat or squeeze one of our hands. One small problem: none of them spoke English so I was the only one who could talk to them. This circumstance made one-liners and witty banter even funnier because there were four rounds of laughter every time. Waiter would say something hysterical, I laughed. I translated for the girls, they laughed. Waiter and I laughed together at the girls' delayed reaction. Then we all laughed some more together. Our abs were getting a great work out and I'm sure we amused/annoyed the rest of the restaurant. It's a good thing this lunch was so entertaining because the food was actually pretty mediocre. The paella was kind of dry, the steak we ordered was so tough and fatty that our wrists were in physical pain from cutting it, and to top it all off, the ice cream for dessert was served in a plastic cup with a paper lid like something you might find in the discount section of Costco. Hilarious. Sebastian empathized...he knew it was cheap.
We asked Sebastian where were the best places to go out on Saturdays. After a 10-minute schpeel from Roberto, Sebas gave us his phone number and said he wanted to come with us and that he had a friend of a friend who could get us on a VIP list fo free. Holler! After almost 2 hours of chatting, translating, laughing, trying to eat terrible steak, hand-holding, dos-besos-ing and marriage proposals (Emily), we tore ourselves away with promises to call and meet up later.
Back to La Sagrada Familia (not to be confused with La Sangre Familia, which means "The Blood Family," AHEM AHEM HOLY TOLEDO BLOG STEALER). The inside was absolutely incredible. Gaudi is a genius. The church can fit up to 8,000 people, with room for 1,000 in the choir loft. Can you imagine a Mass with music led by 1,000 voices? In my lifetime I WILL go to Mass there.
After we left the church, we tried to go to Tibidabo. Unfortunately we failed, but we made it the next day, so no worries. More on that later. So instead of Tibidabo, we went back to the hostel to siesta and get ready for our night on the town with Sebastian and friends. Tapas, drinks, more tapas, more drinks and NO call back from Sebastian left us feeling weary and ready for bed. Clare wanted to go to a club so we went to the free one right next door to our hostel but it was lame and empty so we left after about 5 minutes. Good thing too because Day Three was jam-packed with all sorts of Barcelona fun!
On Sunday we did more things than we did Friday and Saturday combined. First we made it successfully to Tibidabo. Annie thought Tibidabo was the Old City of Barcelona (as seen on Samantha Brown) so after taking Transportation Modes #6 and 7--trolley halfway up the mountain, cable car the rest of the way--we were surprised to find that it was just actually an amusement park and a church on top of a mountain! Not quite what we expected, but we had an amazing view of the entire city from up there. After lunch we hauled it up another mountain to Parc Guell to see more Gaudi things. Luckily there were escalators all the way up or else it would have taken ten times as long and we would have been exhausted. We power walked through the park, rather in a hurry to snap our pictures and be on our way because our last adventure was about to begin. We left the park and hailed a cab (Transportation Mode #8) to head back to the city so that we could hop into Transportation Mode #9, the most anticipated activity of Barcelona...............
GO CARS.
Hitting the road!Yes. Go Cars. We rented them with our hostel discount--9 Euros per person--for 90 minutes of sheer joy and hilarity. These tiny cars have a talking GPS system in them. They talk you through a guided tour of the city and tell jokes too! At one point, our car asked us, "Are you having fun yet?" To which Annie and I replied, "YES!!!!!!" The Go Cars are actually really easy to drive. We were given a 5 minute tutorial and then they set us free on the streets! The best part of Go Cars is the reaction from other people. So many people took pictures of us as we zoomed by. They waved, shouted, cheered, and one man even whipped out his Camcorder and asked us to say hi to the camera. We were such a hit.
The Bacon Wallet driving the Go Car.Unfortunately Annie and I got separated from Clare and Emily, but we still had a blast. We actually saw them from afar one time and they looked SO ridiculous. Emily had the camera poised at the ready and Clare was flooring it. Annie and I were crying from laughing so hard at them and then we realized that we probably looked the exact same, which made it even funnier. It made me a little nervous driving in Barcelona, but we survived. I think at one point I was violating about 10 traffic laws in this one roundabout because cars were honking and I think I was in the wrong lane and Annie and I probably both looked terrified. And also really stupid. But in retrospect it was really funny...even though we almost went on the highway! Oops.
After we returned our Go Cars, we all booked it back to the hostel to grab our bags, say goodbye to Clare who was staying one more night and take the shuttle bus (Transportation Mode #10) to the airport. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I know that January will be here before I know it, the way the semester has passed so far. Time has flown! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend with the besties. I love the people I've met in Toledo, but it was especially wonderful to spend time with friends I've known long enough to spend hours on end rehashing those "Remember that time when..." stories. I miss them already!
I have a lot more pictures to post of this weekend. Some I need to steal from Annie and others I have to upload myself. I'll do it.....eventually.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
¡CUIDADO!
TIHLALIS #26-27:
26. Energy conservation applies even during the holidays. There are Christmas lights up all over the city. However, I have yet to see any of them actually lit. Hopefully once we hit December Toledo will get over this fear of the luz and TURN THE LIGHTS ON.
27. I am a complete spazz. Especially in public establishments.
26. Energy conservation applies even during the holidays. There are Christmas lights up all over the city. However, I have yet to see any of them actually lit. Hopefully once we hit December Toledo will get over this fear of the luz and TURN THE LIGHTS ON.
27. I am a complete spazz. Especially in public establishments.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Es Pjiama, No Pasa Nada.
Today is Tuesday, the day of Martes the mercado. Mama Pili went to Martes today to buy some new pajamas for Raquel and Estefanía. Estefanía came over for dinner tonight and Mama Pili busted out the new pjs so we could have a fashion show. She prefaced the revealing of the pijamas with "super sexy" and "super guapas."
They are horrrrrrrrendous.
One pair (pants AND top) is light blue, the other is beige. The pants are a real, authentic, perfect (slash terrible) copy of Burberry and the long-sleeved top has a "Burberry" umbrella on the front with the fake Burberry trim on the collar and sleeves. They really are terrible. We had a long laugh when Estefanía came out from the bathroom wearing them. Then Raquel said to me, "Yeah, you keep laughing...keep laughing until she comes home next Tuesday with a pair for you!" ...I seriously hope that does not happen.
In other news, tomorrow Raquel is taking a test to get her learner's permit for driving. She's super nervous. I should tell her I failed my permit test the first time...maybe it will make her feel better.
They are horrrrrrrrendous.
One pair (pants AND top) is light blue, the other is beige. The pants are a real, authentic, perfect (slash terrible) copy of Burberry and the long-sleeved top has a "Burberry" umbrella on the front with the fake Burberry trim on the collar and sleeves. They really are terrible. We had a long laugh when Estefanía came out from the bathroom wearing them. Then Raquel said to me, "Yeah, you keep laughing...keep laughing until she comes home next Tuesday with a pair for you!" ...I seriously hope that does not happen.
In other news, tomorrow Raquel is taking a test to get her learner's permit for driving. She's super nervous. I should tell her I failed my permit test the first time...maybe it will make her feel better.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Morocco, Morocco...I Love Ya, Morocco!
You're only an hourandahalfplaneride awaaaayyyyyy! Even though it seemed like worlds away.
Before I regale you loyal readers with exotic tales from Africa, I would like to publicly apologize to my parents.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I am sincerely sorry for going to Morocco this weekend without telling you. I probably should have let you know that I was going to Africa, but I knew that you would spend every single minute of those 72 hours in constant worry and I wanted to spare you the stress. Just know that I made it home safe and sound and still in possession of everything I had with me when I left...plus a few trinkets I picked up along the way. It might not have been very smart to keep this information from you, but I assure you I had only the best of intentions. I am still safe.
Love,
Elizabeth
Ok. So. MOROCCO.
This trip was probably THE most anticipated trip of the entire semester. I can't even count the number of times I told someone, "I'm going to go to Morocco and ride a camel!" before I left the States to come to Spain. Despite the warnings, beggings and pleadings from my mom not to go to Morocco, I just couldn't resist.
One of the girls I work with in the Tourist Office is from Morocco, and before we left she taught me a few key words and phrases in Arabic. I knew it was going to be a good weekend right away because as soon as I got off the plane in Marrakech, I tested out my new skillz with the customs officer and it was a hit. I said "Salam" as I walked up and gave him my passport and when he gave it back I said "Shukran." He smiled appreciatively and gave me a nod of approval and I knew it was going to be great.
Words I learned (and used!) in Arabic:
We made it to the hostel by a miracle (there are absolutely NO traffic regulations in Marrakech--the roads are a free-for-all and I thought we were going to crash into motorbikes/people/other cars every 30 seconds) and met our hostel owner/new best friend, Yassir. I don't actually know if Yassir is right because he was talking very fast and none of us actually caught his real name. But Yassir is very fitting. He was awesome. He gave us tea, a terrible map and a tour of the hostel and introduced us to the turtles that wander around the upstairs terrace. There are 4 or 5 up there, but we only got to meet Apple and Yassir's favorite, Ho Ho. They are adorable. Just like Yassir.
Also when I said "Shukran" to Yassir after he explained the map to us he got really excited and asked me if I speak Arabic! I told him I was learning, but I only actually know about 3 words. He laughed. It was so cute.
We set out to explore Marrakech, girls conservatively dressed and boys figuring out the terrible map. We successfully made the 5 minute trek to the Al-Bahia Palace, the highlight of which was the courtyard of bedrooms. All the information about the palace was written in Arabic (unfortunately my language skillz were not quite at that level yet) but a nice English-speaking couple explained it to us: "28 bedrooms, 28 wives...the king visited one wife every night. So, lucky king? Or lucky wives? Depends on who's asking."
After the palace we went to the main square, Djema'a al-Fna, for lunch. Tangines with chicken and couscous with veggies all seasoned with saffron and a thousand other spices filled our tummies so we could recharge and conquer the rest of Marrakech...aka, the Medina. We went to a few more rando but interesting museums before finally making our way into the magical Marrakechian market...the Medina. Pardon the cheesy alliteration, but it really was magical. It was kind of straight out of Aladdin or something. Amazing. Literally, a-mazing. A seemingly endless maze of thousands of vendors selling all kinds of Moroccan goods from slippers to ceramic bowls to lanterns to leather goods to dates and figs.
The exchange rate for the Morrocan dirham is insanely good...for us non-Moroccans. 1 Euro equals about 10 or 11 dirhams and nothing I bought in the market cost more than 200 dirhams/20 Euros. Pretty darn cheap, I'd say! We explored the Medina for a while and when we finally found freedom and fresh air outside the market it was well after dark. Still stuffed from lunch earlier that day we decided to save our precious dirhams and skip dinner. We went out to the main square to people-watch, because according to my guide book, it's one of the most fantastic open-air spectacles in the world. Djema'a al-Fna didn't disappoint! We saw snake charmers, men with monkeys on leashes, orange juice vendors, incense burners, boxing matches and impromptu concerts. And of course, the henna tattoo artists. We girls couldn't pass up getting a tattoo...the boys had an easier time saying no.
We had a big day ahead of us the next day so we called it a night pretty early and headed back to the hostel to rest up for our Saturday excursion. Our hostel was very dimly lit, even with all the lights on. But when it came time to finally turn them off, it was a big struggle. After a few minutes of fumbling for the switch, Sarah had a brilliant idea: "HEY! Maybe it's a CLAP LIGHT!!!" .......Just for the record, there are no clap lights in Morocco.
Bright and early the next morning, after a delicious breakfast (shukran bessef, Yassir!), we were picked up at our hostel to go out on an excursion to the Ourika Valley to hike the mountain and see the Five Waterfalls. Once again, driving through Marrakech almost gave me a heart attack. There are so many bikes in the street and they just go wherever they want! And they're not just your everyday, run of the mill Schwinn bikes either. They're these super charged motor bikes (probs just a regular ole Schwinn with an engine slapped on the back) that go every which way with no regulation whatsoever. And the old men in robes driving them aren't very attentive, either, which makes for an even more increased risk for crashing. Luckily our driver was a native and he knew what was up. He got us safely out of town and into the mountains with no problems at all.
We were handed off to another guide once we got to the valley. His name was something like Moussef or Mourkash or maybe Muhammed. No one understood him but we just ended up calling him Mountaingoat. Mountaingoat took us on a hike up the mountain to see the waterfalls of the valley. He scaled that mountain like he lived on it! I mean...he practically does (he takes tourists up there twice a day), but still. Crazy. This hike reminded me a little bit of hiking Panther's Peak in Tucson, Arizona...except there was a trail this time. And no cacti. And we were in Africa. So it was better...and a little bit easier! But not much. There was many a time when Mountaingoat and Marathon Mike sprinted ahead up the mountain, leaving us girls and Mickey behind to fend for ourselves, which was rather difficult. But for the most part Mountaingoat was really helpful. Especially when we had to climb this tiny tiny questionably unstable steel ladder to scale the rocks. We all survived though, no worries. I made sure of it, because I was NOT about to die in Morocco since my parents didn't even know I was there!!!
There are so many pictures from the hike, I don't know which ones to post on here. So instead, here's the Facebook album to see all of them.
After the hike we had an amazing free lunch by the river. I like to call it "free," but really it was just included in the price we paid for the tour. Mountaingoat passed us off to the waiter, and came to collect us when we were finished. Then he turned us back over to our driver, who took us to our next adventure: CAMELS.
The Bacon Wallet and I on our camel.
As we were driving out of the valley, the driver pulled over to the side of the road where there were 8 camels just chilling there with three or four men. Apparently this is a thriving industry in Morocco--we saw a few of these "establishments" along the road. We hopped out of the car, handed the owner our 50 dirhams each, and mounted the camels! It was mostly like riding a horse, only there are no reins. The camels are tied to each other head-to-tail, and the man led us in a line on our 20 minute walk. As we left the "front desk" area, the two leftover camels--one huge one and one baby--got jealous and started to run after us. The owner (who happened to be holding my camera and taking pictures of us) sprinted over to the camels, grabbed a stick and started herding the runaways with said stick and my camera. The big camel was acquiescent and went back to the front desk, but the baby was not having any of that, so she came along with us. The man with my camera tied her to my camel (they were obviously bffs) so I got two camels for the price of one. I greeter her with a friendly "Salam!" and we all became fast friends.
Unfortunately the camel ride marked the end of our excursion, and after we dismounted we made our way back into the city. We regrouped in the hostel, freshened up (as much as we could without water) and headed back to the Medina to spend the rest of our dirhams. We shopped till we dropped all our money, saving just enough for dinner and a cab ride, and emerged from the Medina in the main square. We all splurged and bought some fresh orange juice for 3 dirhams...yes, that would be 30 cents...and then feasted (slash probably got ripped off) on kebabs, bread, and free bottled water. After dinner, we spectacled some more at the fantastic open-air spectacle. And it was spectacular...until...
One of the men with monkeys on leashes came up to me offering his monkey for a photo op. I said no a few times, and he laughed and said "no" to the monkey. I tried to be more affirmative by saying it in Arabic while shaking my finger at him: "La, la, la." Again he laughed and mimicked my actions to the monkey. He offered the monkey to me and I said no, I don't have any money for a photo. The monkey reached out his hand and the man said "Just try. No photo. It's free!" So I reached out one finger to shake hands with the monkey--ONLY shake his hand--and the next thing I knew the monkey had jumped off the man's arm and was hanging on to my hand, trying to make his way up my arm. I started violently shaking my arm in a feeble attempt to throw the monkey off, but then I realized that a) it was a living creature and due to the fact that I have a soul I couldn't exactly just throw it off onto the ground, and b) it was successfully crawling its way up my arm towards my head. So I gave up fighting it and just resorted to covering my face until it was over. I could feel the monkey's back legs around my neck, and the rest of his body on top of my head for a solid 10 or 15 seconds before the man finally came to my rescue and removed Curious George.
Unfortunately there are no photos of this event, partly because we would have had to pay for them, but mostly because everyone else said they were just so stunned by what was actually happening that they didn't really know what to do.
We spectacled for a while longer, and after a long eyeful, we unanimously decided to nix the Moroccan club scene and just head home for the night. We had an early-ish flight to catch...plus none of us felt like being abducted that night.
Just for the record (Mom), we never even considered going to a club. That was a joke.
The next morning, we said "beslama" and "shukran bessef" to Yassir (so sad) and hopped in our death trap/taxi to the airport. By another miracle, we made it without a scratch. The night before, hoping the Moroccan airport security would be as lax as security in Madrid, Caitlin had decided to try to carry on some kebab skewers she had purchased in the medina. I passed through first and watched the screen as her backpack went through the scrutiny machine. They paused the belt and examined it a little more closely, making out what appeared to be bomb assembly parts/a machine/a deathly claw of sorts. They immediately had Caitlin open her bag so they could investigate. They took out the skewers, clearly a potential threat, and confiscated them. In a last-ditch effort to salvage her purchase (and her dignity) she called out, "But it's NOT A WEAPON!!!!" ...As if that was really going to change their minds. Sorry, Mr. Connolly, but you will not be getting Moroccan skewers for Christmas this year.
The rest of us passed through security with all our goodies and after an unexplained hour and a half delay we finally boarded the plane and flew back to the real world. I'm glad I took so many pictures of Morocco because even though I've only been back in Toledo for few hours, the weekend already seems surreal. It's such a different place than anywhere I've ever been. The man-to-woman ratio (easily 100 to 1), the head scarves and covered faces, the separate women's line for airport security...I've never seen anything like it before. It makes me wonder what they think of us Westerners who come in with uncovered heads, jeans, t-shirts and with only 2 guys for a group of 5 girls.
Again, sorry, Mom and Dad, for not telling you about it, but this trip was amazing. I'm definitely coming back to Morocco in my lifetime. I have to decorate my house!
Also, sorry that this post is the approximate length of the Qur'an. There's just so much to tell!
Before I regale you loyal readers with exotic tales from Africa, I would like to publicly apologize to my parents.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I am sincerely sorry for going to Morocco this weekend without telling you. I probably should have let you know that I was going to Africa, but I knew that you would spend every single minute of those 72 hours in constant worry and I wanted to spare you the stress. Just know that I made it home safe and sound and still in possession of everything I had with me when I left...plus a few trinkets I picked up along the way. It might not have been very smart to keep this information from you, but I assure you I had only the best of intentions. I am still safe.
Love,
Elizabeth
Ok. So. MOROCCO.
This trip was probably THE most anticipated trip of the entire semester. I can't even count the number of times I told someone, "I'm going to go to Morocco and ride a camel!" before I left the States to come to Spain. Despite the warnings, beggings and pleadings from my mom not to go to Morocco, I just couldn't resist.
One of the girls I work with in the Tourist Office is from Morocco, and before we left she taught me a few key words and phrases in Arabic. I knew it was going to be a good weekend right away because as soon as I got off the plane in Marrakech, I tested out my new skillz with the customs officer and it was a hit. I said "Salam" as I walked up and gave him my passport and when he gave it back I said "Shukran." He smiled appreciatively and gave me a nod of approval and I knew it was going to be great.
Words I learned (and used!) in Arabic:
- Hello Salam
- How are you? Kidayra?
- Fine Labas
- How much does this cost? Sh'hal dir hadi?
- Thank you Shukran
- Thank you very much Shukran bessef
- Yes Ah
- No La
- Goodbye Beslama
We made it to the hostel by a miracle (there are absolutely NO traffic regulations in Marrakech--the roads are a free-for-all and I thought we were going to crash into motorbikes/people/other cars every 30 seconds) and met our hostel owner/new best friend, Yassir. I don't actually know if Yassir is right because he was talking very fast and none of us actually caught his real name. But Yassir is very fitting. He was awesome. He gave us tea, a terrible map and a tour of the hostel and introduced us to the turtles that wander around the upstairs terrace. There are 4 or 5 up there, but we only got to meet Apple and Yassir's favorite, Ho Ho. They are adorable. Just like Yassir.
Also when I said "Shukran" to Yassir after he explained the map to us he got really excited and asked me if I speak Arabic! I told him I was learning, but I only actually know about 3 words. He laughed. It was so cute.
We set out to explore Marrakech, girls conservatively dressed and boys figuring out the terrible map. We successfully made the 5 minute trek to the Al-Bahia Palace, the highlight of which was the courtyard of bedrooms. All the information about the palace was written in Arabic (unfortunately my language skillz were not quite at that level yet) but a nice English-speaking couple explained it to us: "28 bedrooms, 28 wives...the king visited one wife every night. So, lucky king? Or lucky wives? Depends on who's asking."
After the palace we went to the main square, Djema'a al-Fna, for lunch. Tangines with chicken and couscous with veggies all seasoned with saffron and a thousand other spices filled our tummies so we could recharge and conquer the rest of Marrakech...aka, the Medina. We went to a few more rando but interesting museums before finally making our way into the magical Marrakechian market...the Medina. Pardon the cheesy alliteration, but it really was magical. It was kind of straight out of Aladdin or something. Amazing. Literally, a-mazing. A seemingly endless maze of thousands of vendors selling all kinds of Moroccan goods from slippers to ceramic bowls to lanterns to leather goods to dates and figs.
The exchange rate for the Morrocan dirham is insanely good...for us non-Moroccans. 1 Euro equals about 10 or 11 dirhams and nothing I bought in the market cost more than 200 dirhams/20 Euros. Pretty darn cheap, I'd say! We explored the Medina for a while and when we finally found freedom and fresh air outside the market it was well after dark. Still stuffed from lunch earlier that day we decided to save our precious dirhams and skip dinner. We went out to the main square to people-watch, because according to my guide book, it's one of the most fantastic open-air spectacles in the world. Djema'a al-Fna didn't disappoint! We saw snake charmers, men with monkeys on leashes, orange juice vendors, incense burners, boxing matches and impromptu concerts. And of course, the henna tattoo artists. We girls couldn't pass up getting a tattoo...the boys had an easier time saying no.
We had a big day ahead of us the next day so we called it a night pretty early and headed back to the hostel to rest up for our Saturday excursion. Our hostel was very dimly lit, even with all the lights on. But when it came time to finally turn them off, it was a big struggle. After a few minutes of fumbling for the switch, Sarah had a brilliant idea: "HEY! Maybe it's a CLAP LIGHT!!!" .......Just for the record, there are no clap lights in Morocco.
Bright and early the next morning, after a delicious breakfast (shukran bessef, Yassir!), we were picked up at our hostel to go out on an excursion to the Ourika Valley to hike the mountain and see the Five Waterfalls. Once again, driving through Marrakech almost gave me a heart attack. There are so many bikes in the street and they just go wherever they want! And they're not just your everyday, run of the mill Schwinn bikes either. They're these super charged motor bikes (probs just a regular ole Schwinn with an engine slapped on the back) that go every which way with no regulation whatsoever. And the old men in robes driving them aren't very attentive, either, which makes for an even more increased risk for crashing. Luckily our driver was a native and he knew what was up. He got us safely out of town and into the mountains with no problems at all.
We were handed off to another guide once we got to the valley. His name was something like Moussef or Mourkash or maybe Muhammed. No one understood him but we just ended up calling him Mountaingoat. Mountaingoat took us on a hike up the mountain to see the waterfalls of the valley. He scaled that mountain like he lived on it! I mean...he practically does (he takes tourists up there twice a day), but still. Crazy. This hike reminded me a little bit of hiking Panther's Peak in Tucson, Arizona...except there was a trail this time. And no cacti. And we were in Africa. So it was better...and a little bit easier! But not much. There was many a time when Mountaingoat and Marathon Mike sprinted ahead up the mountain, leaving us girls and Mickey behind to fend for ourselves, which was rather difficult. But for the most part Mountaingoat was really helpful. Especially when we had to climb this tiny tiny questionably unstable steel ladder to scale the rocks. We all survived though, no worries. I made sure of it, because I was NOT about to die in Morocco since my parents didn't even know I was there!!!
There are so many pictures from the hike, I don't know which ones to post on here. So instead, here's the Facebook album to see all of them.
After the hike we had an amazing free lunch by the river. I like to call it "free," but really it was just included in the price we paid for the tour. Mountaingoat passed us off to the waiter, and came to collect us when we were finished. Then he turned us back over to our driver, who took us to our next adventure: CAMELS.
The Bacon Wallet and I on our camel.As we were driving out of the valley, the driver pulled over to the side of the road where there were 8 camels just chilling there with three or four men. Apparently this is a thriving industry in Morocco--we saw a few of these "establishments" along the road. We hopped out of the car, handed the owner our 50 dirhams each, and mounted the camels! It was mostly like riding a horse, only there are no reins. The camels are tied to each other head-to-tail, and the man led us in a line on our 20 minute walk. As we left the "front desk" area, the two leftover camels--one huge one and one baby--got jealous and started to run after us. The owner (who happened to be holding my camera and taking pictures of us) sprinted over to the camels, grabbed a stick and started herding the runaways with said stick and my camera. The big camel was acquiescent and went back to the front desk, but the baby was not having any of that, so she came along with us. The man with my camera tied her to my camel (they were obviously bffs) so I got two camels for the price of one. I greeter her with a friendly "Salam!" and we all became fast friends.
Unfortunately the camel ride marked the end of our excursion, and after we dismounted we made our way back into the city. We regrouped in the hostel, freshened up (as much as we could without water) and headed back to the Medina to spend the rest of our dirhams. We shopped till we dropped all our money, saving just enough for dinner and a cab ride, and emerged from the Medina in the main square. We all splurged and bought some fresh orange juice for 3 dirhams...yes, that would be 30 cents...and then feasted (slash probably got ripped off) on kebabs, bread, and free bottled water. After dinner, we spectacled some more at the fantastic open-air spectacle. And it was spectacular...until...
One of the men with monkeys on leashes came up to me offering his monkey for a photo op. I said no a few times, and he laughed and said "no" to the monkey. I tried to be more affirmative by saying it in Arabic while shaking my finger at him: "La, la, la." Again he laughed and mimicked my actions to the monkey. He offered the monkey to me and I said no, I don't have any money for a photo. The monkey reached out his hand and the man said "Just try. No photo. It's free!" So I reached out one finger to shake hands with the monkey--ONLY shake his hand--and the next thing I knew the monkey had jumped off the man's arm and was hanging on to my hand, trying to make his way up my arm. I started violently shaking my arm in a feeble attempt to throw the monkey off, but then I realized that a) it was a living creature and due to the fact that I have a soul I couldn't exactly just throw it off onto the ground, and b) it was successfully crawling its way up my arm towards my head. So I gave up fighting it and just resorted to covering my face until it was over. I could feel the monkey's back legs around my neck, and the rest of his body on top of my head for a solid 10 or 15 seconds before the man finally came to my rescue and removed Curious George.
Unfortunately there are no photos of this event, partly because we would have had to pay for them, but mostly because everyone else said they were just so stunned by what was actually happening that they didn't really know what to do.
We spectacled for a while longer, and after a long eyeful, we unanimously decided to nix the Moroccan club scene and just head home for the night. We had an early-ish flight to catch...plus none of us felt like being abducted that night.
Just for the record (Mom), we never even considered going to a club. That was a joke.
The next morning, we said "beslama" and "shukran bessef" to Yassir (so sad) and hopped in our death trap/taxi to the airport. By another miracle, we made it without a scratch. The night before, hoping the Moroccan airport security would be as lax as security in Madrid, Caitlin had decided to try to carry on some kebab skewers she had purchased in the medina. I passed through first and watched the screen as her backpack went through the scrutiny machine. They paused the belt and examined it a little more closely, making out what appeared to be bomb assembly parts/a machine/a deathly claw of sorts. They immediately had Caitlin open her bag so they could investigate. They took out the skewers, clearly a potential threat, and confiscated them. In a last-ditch effort to salvage her purchase (and her dignity) she called out, "But it's NOT A WEAPON!!!!" ...As if that was really going to change their minds. Sorry, Mr. Connolly, but you will not be getting Moroccan skewers for Christmas this year.
The rest of us passed through security with all our goodies and after an unexplained hour and a half delay we finally boarded the plane and flew back to the real world. I'm glad I took so many pictures of Morocco because even though I've only been back in Toledo for few hours, the weekend already seems surreal. It's such a different place than anywhere I've ever been. The man-to-woman ratio (easily 100 to 1), the head scarves and covered faces, the separate women's line for airport security...I've never seen anything like it before. It makes me wonder what they think of us Westerners who come in with uncovered heads, jeans, t-shirts and with only 2 guys for a group of 5 girls.
Again, sorry, Mom and Dad, for not telling you about it, but this trip was amazing. I'm definitely coming back to Morocco in my lifetime. I have to decorate my house!
Also, sorry that this post is the approximate length of the Qur'an. There's just so much to tell!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Make Local Friends? Check.
Today I made a new friend. His name is Panchito. He is 6. I met him on the bus today when his mom made him sit next to me while she stood with Panchito's baby brother, Jorge, who was in a stroller. Here you have an approximate translation of our conversation:
Panchito was standing in his seat, spinning around, and I was laughing at him.
Panchito: Don't laugh!
Me: Sorry, you're funny!
Panchito: It's ok, I forgive you. My name is Panchito. Because I eat a lot of bread (pan). What's your name?
Me: I'm Elizabeth. How old are you?
Panchito: 6. Everyone always asks me how old I am! I don't know why.
Me: Well, it's because you seem much older, of course.
Panchito: How old are you?
Me: 21.
Panchito: Woah. You're old. Hey look, that's my brother! His name is Jorge. Look at him smiling at you!
Me: Aww how cute!
Panchito: Jorge likes you, he's smiling a lot.
At this point we had arrived at Panchito's bus stop, so unfortunately we had to say goodbye. Panchito's mother gave me an apologetic look as she summoned Panchito and they got off the bus. Panchito waved, and we said adios. Yay for new friends!
Also, I figured out how Raquel's tanning bed works. No video, but I do have a picture. Supreme creeper status, I know. When the máquina arrived, it looked like one of those fans you get from Sharper Image or something, just a 3-foot tall cylinder, only instead of standing up straight it was horizontal on the ground. I thought that you would have to stick in one limb at a time to tan yourself, but I was wrong. The mystery machine is a transformer! It unfolds and expands and it becomes an overhead lamp that extends over the bed, so all you have to do is turn on the cancer light, lay down, take a nap and voila! Instant morena.
I promise I wasn't sneaking into Raquel's room...
Panchito was standing in his seat, spinning around, and I was laughing at him.
Panchito: Don't laugh!
Me: Sorry, you're funny!
Panchito: It's ok, I forgive you. My name is Panchito. Because I eat a lot of bread (pan). What's your name?
Me: I'm Elizabeth. How old are you?
Panchito: 6. Everyone always asks me how old I am! I don't know why.
Me: Well, it's because you seem much older, of course.
Panchito: How old are you?
Me: 21.
Panchito: Woah. You're old. Hey look, that's my brother! His name is Jorge. Look at him smiling at you!
Me: Aww how cute!
Panchito: Jorge likes you, he's smiling a lot.
At this point we had arrived at Panchito's bus stop, so unfortunately we had to say goodbye. Panchito's mother gave me an apologetic look as she summoned Panchito and they got off the bus. Panchito waved, and we said adios. Yay for new friends!
Also, I figured out how Raquel's tanning bed works. No video, but I do have a picture. Supreme creeper status, I know. When the máquina arrived, it looked like one of those fans you get from Sharper Image or something, just a 3-foot tall cylinder, only instead of standing up straight it was horizontal on the ground. I thought that you would have to stick in one limb at a time to tan yourself, but I was wrong. The mystery machine is a transformer! It unfolds and expands and it becomes an overhead lamp that extends over the bed, so all you have to do is turn on the cancer light, lay down, take a nap and voila! Instant morena.
I promise I wasn't sneaking into Raquel's room...Tuesday, November 9, 2010
heythreemonsters
I finally finished my art paper. FINALLY. A key factor in this accomplishment was making Sofia change my Facebook password because I have no self control. So she changed it to "heythreemonsters" as a tribute to one of the more gracioso encounters we had in Rome...
The Bike Crew was meandering around the Colosseum and the Roman Forum on Thursday morning. There were a ton of Gladiators walking around, asking tourists if they wanted to take pictures with them, only to turn around and ask for 20 Euro in exchange for that snapshot of their face. We skillfully avoided eye contact with them, and we even weaseled our way out of paying the one who insisted on photos. These guys are hilarious. In addition to their super long (and kind of gross) hair and rugged (aka dirty) looks, they all sport some form of man-tights and armor. I cannot take them seriously. Especially the one who came up to us and asked, in all seriousness, "Hello would you like a picture? .........full of...dreams?" The three of us just kind of looked at each other and walked away quickly so we could burst into laughter out of earshot of the full of dreams Gladiator. For the rest of the day every time we took a picture we would double check to make sure it was "full of dreams" or else we would have to retake it.
Creeper photo of the "full of dreams" Gladiator
Anyway, after a few minutes, we wanted to see if we could get him to say it again...on camera. So Sofia got out her camera, started the video, and we assumed the position, walking directly by him. We failed. He didn't see us. However, she did capture something even more magical on camera that we weren't expecting.
Gladiator: "Hey, THREE MONSTERS! (aka Bike Crew) Do you wanna picture???"
Sofia: "Uh, no thanks."
Gladiator: "Aww I'm sorry. Come on. SEXY GIRLS!!!"
Ok so typing it out doesn't exactly give it the element of hilarity that it deserves, but it really was funny. So funny that Sofia made "heythreemonsters" my Facebook password so I could focus 110% on my art paper.
TIHLAL #8:
8. Lola might be bulimic. The other night during dinner she was eating her food which is under the kitchen table. She always eats when we eat. About an hour later, we were all in the living room when we heard this rather disgusting sound. Lola had thrown up on the floor...gross. Then about 10 minutes later she was back in the kitchen eating more! For the rest of the night Mama Pili kept saying "Ohh, pobrecita Lola, tienes bulimia? Lola? Tienes bulimia?"
TIHLALIS #24-25:
24. Cell phone usage when in the company of friends is zilch. I LOVE THIS. When groups of friends go out together, you don't see them all on their cell phones, talking to other people who aren't actually with them. I think this is great. I have become very detached from my cell phone while in Spain so it will be different (slash probably annoying) to come back to a cell phone-inundated culture.
25. Spaniards love the Pope. And he's here in Spain! He is in Barcelona now and is heading to Santiago de Compostela soon...two weeks before my trips there--I'll just barely miss him in both cities!
More names I have been called:
The Bike Crew was meandering around the Colosseum and the Roman Forum on Thursday morning. There were a ton of Gladiators walking around, asking tourists if they wanted to take pictures with them, only to turn around and ask for 20 Euro in exchange for that snapshot of their face. We skillfully avoided eye contact with them, and we even weaseled our way out of paying the one who insisted on photos. These guys are hilarious. In addition to their super long (and kind of gross) hair and rugged (aka dirty) looks, they all sport some form of man-tights and armor. I cannot take them seriously. Especially the one who came up to us and asked, in all seriousness, "Hello would you like a picture? .........full of...dreams?" The three of us just kind of looked at each other and walked away quickly so we could burst into laughter out of earshot of the full of dreams Gladiator. For the rest of the day every time we took a picture we would double check to make sure it was "full of dreams" or else we would have to retake it.
Creeper photo of the "full of dreams" GladiatorAnyway, after a few minutes, we wanted to see if we could get him to say it again...on camera. So Sofia got out her camera, started the video, and we assumed the position, walking directly by him. We failed. He didn't see us. However, she did capture something even more magical on camera that we weren't expecting.
Gladiator: "Hey, THREE MONSTERS! (aka Bike Crew) Do you wanna picture???"
Sofia: "Uh, no thanks."
Gladiator: "Aww I'm sorry. Come on. SEXY GIRLS!!!"
Ok so typing it out doesn't exactly give it the element of hilarity that it deserves, but it really was funny. So funny that Sofia made "heythreemonsters" my Facebook password so I could focus 110% on my art paper.
TIHLAL #8:
8. Lola might be bulimic. The other night during dinner she was eating her food which is under the kitchen table. She always eats when we eat. About an hour later, we were all in the living room when we heard this rather disgusting sound. Lola had thrown up on the floor...gross. Then about 10 minutes later she was back in the kitchen eating more! For the rest of the night Mama Pili kept saying "Ohh, pobrecita Lola, tienes bulimia? Lola? Tienes bulimia?"
TIHLALIS #24-25:
24. Cell phone usage when in the company of friends is zilch. I LOVE THIS. When groups of friends go out together, you don't see them all on their cell phones, talking to other people who aren't actually with them. I think this is great. I have become very detached from my cell phone while in Spain so it will be different (slash probably annoying) to come back to a cell phone-inundated culture.
25. Spaniards love the Pope. And he's here in Spain! He is in Barcelona now and is heading to Santiago de Compostela soon...two weeks before my trips there--I'll just barely miss him in both cities!
More names I have been called:
- Cielo
- Lizzie (even though I specifically told this person that only my mother calls me Lizzie. This person's response? Pues, ahora, tu madre y yo.)
- Melissa
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Season Finale
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been awaiting with bated breath. The final installment...the Bike Crew's last hurrah...the ANSWER TO THE CLIFFHANGER THAT LEFT YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEATS!!!!!!! Part 5 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Venice.
Last time on Holy Toledo...
We were hitting the hay in Cinque Terre, full to the brim with delicious food and exhausted from a day of exploring. As we were showering one at a time and getting our bags ready for an early morning departure, we chatted with the Australian girl who shared our room. We apologized in advance for the next morning, because we had to leave extremely early. Our train to Venice left from La Spezia at 7:50. Unfortunately, the morning trains from Riomaggiore to La Spezia are less frequent than the daytime/nighttime trains, and the only one we would be able to catch was at 6:30 am. We also had to return the hostel key to the office at the top of the hill 10 minutes away and then walk to the train station. We planned to leave the hostel at 6 am, meaning we had to wake up around 5:15 or 5:30. Not too bad...could be worse.
Anyway, as we were chatting with our new Aussie friend, she reminded us that the clocks were going to change over night. THANK GOODNESS SHE REMINDED US!!! We had been told about this a few days before, but it had completely slipped our minds. She told us to go ahead and set our clocks forward one hour, just in case our phones didn't do it themselves. That's right...forward. I hesitated for a second. Wait, isn't it "spring forward, fall back?" I was reassured that no, the clocks move forward one hour tonight. Do it or else you will miss the only chance you have to get to Venice. The combination of the insistent Aussie + the thought that maybe they do it different here in Europe + the Cinque Terre wine had me convinced that she was right. So we moved our clocks forward one hour and fell fast asleep, grateful for Aussie friend's helpful reminder and ready to be on time for all our trains the next day.
The next morning, as our alarms went off, the Bike Crew was extra sluggish and tired. The night had seemed way too short. We packed the last of our things into our backpacks and headed out into the rainy morning. As we were walking, we looked at our phones and realized that we only had 5 minutes to get to the train! We sprinted all the way there in the rain and got to the platform only to find it completely empty. We also noticed that the departure screen was broken...it was still displaying trains that had left at 4:50 am and 5:45 am. After waiting 10 minutes for our train (which we thought was running late), Sofia double checked the departure screen.
No.
No way.
You cannot be serious.
THE AUSSIE GIRL TRICKED US!!!!!!! SHE LIIIIIIEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!
I was right. It IS spring forward, fall back. EVEN IN EUROPE. We had moved our clocks forward an hour so we thought it was 6:40, when in reality it was actually only 4:40. AM. Meaning we WOKE UP AT 4 AM. AHHHHHHHHHHH.
We were furious. But also tired. So we fell asleep on some benches until our train came, then we slept on that train, then we ate breakfast in the train station and fell asleep on the next train. And the next. And by the time we got to Venice we were fully rested...kind of.
We left our bags in storage in the train station and headed out to explore the city of water...in the rain. How appropriate. Luckily it wasn't pouring, just a steady drizzle for most of the afternoon. We hopped on the #1 Vaporetto, or water bus, to take us to the Rialto Bridge. We had planned to find a great restaurant for lunch but instead settled on paninis because we had to save up for our last dinner in Italy.
Lunch menu:
Solid. We wandered around Venice for a while and I was surprised to learn that there are actually streets in Venice (I don't really know why I was surprised about that). But I still wonder how it works if someone who lives further away from the water needs an ambulance or something. The streets are not wide enough to drive on and I never saw a single car. I guess Venice has that figured out...I'm just not privy to the inner workings of their system.
We went to the Piazza di San Marco and saw the Basilica, which was magnificent. The entire ceiling of the church is covered with gold mosaics and it is so incredible. It was amazing. And it was free! Lucky us.
Our tummies were starting to get hungry (if that is even possible) and we didn't want to stand out in the rain, so we went off in search of dinner. We settled on this tiny place on a random side street that was also really empty because it was only 5:30. We had to eat early because we had yet ANOTHER train to catch so we could check in to our next hostel (aka the Milan airport) for the night. Our waiter became smitten with Caitlin which was great because we got free Limoncino out of it after dinner and Caitlin learned a new secret handshake.
Dinner Menu:
After dinner we made our way to the train station, but not before stopping at the nearest crepe stand for one last nutella crepe in Italy! And that was the last thing we ate. The 5 day feast was over...so sad.
I wish I had enjoyed Venice more. We were only there for half a day and it was cold and rainy and crowded and we were all really tired and running out of money. I think if I came back another time I would like it a lot more, but this time around it was definitely lower on the list, especially after all the other amazing places we saw. But I did like it (I just didn't love it) I'm really glad we went!
Unfortunately this post concludes the chronicles of The Best Fall Break Ever. If you read the whole thing, I hope you laughed. And dreamed of food. And started drooling. It's back to the "real world" in Toledo, and I actually have to start working on this Art History paper. Yeah....I still haven't started. I've learned some Things About Spain and Lola in the last few days so I will be updating those lists soon.
So now, it's time to hit the books. Maybe.
Bike Crew out.
Last time on Holy Toledo...
We were hitting the hay in Cinque Terre, full to the brim with delicious food and exhausted from a day of exploring. As we were showering one at a time and getting our bags ready for an early morning departure, we chatted with the Australian girl who shared our room. We apologized in advance for the next morning, because we had to leave extremely early. Our train to Venice left from La Spezia at 7:50. Unfortunately, the morning trains from Riomaggiore to La Spezia are less frequent than the daytime/nighttime trains, and the only one we would be able to catch was at 6:30 am. We also had to return the hostel key to the office at the top of the hill 10 minutes away and then walk to the train station. We planned to leave the hostel at 6 am, meaning we had to wake up around 5:15 or 5:30. Not too bad...could be worse.
Anyway, as we were chatting with our new Aussie friend, she reminded us that the clocks were going to change over night. THANK GOODNESS SHE REMINDED US!!! We had been told about this a few days before, but it had completely slipped our minds. She told us to go ahead and set our clocks forward one hour, just in case our phones didn't do it themselves. That's right...forward. I hesitated for a second. Wait, isn't it "spring forward, fall back?" I was reassured that no, the clocks move forward one hour tonight. Do it or else you will miss the only chance you have to get to Venice. The combination of the insistent Aussie + the thought that maybe they do it different here in Europe + the Cinque Terre wine had me convinced that she was right. So we moved our clocks forward one hour and fell fast asleep, grateful for Aussie friend's helpful reminder and ready to be on time for all our trains the next day.
The next morning, as our alarms went off, the Bike Crew was extra sluggish and tired. The night had seemed way too short. We packed the last of our things into our backpacks and headed out into the rainy morning. As we were walking, we looked at our phones and realized that we only had 5 minutes to get to the train! We sprinted all the way there in the rain and got to the platform only to find it completely empty. We also noticed that the departure screen was broken...it was still displaying trains that had left at 4:50 am and 5:45 am. After waiting 10 minutes for our train (which we thought was running late), Sofia double checked the departure screen.
No.
No way.
You cannot be serious.
THE AUSSIE GIRL TRICKED US!!!!!!! SHE LIIIIIIEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!
I was right. It IS spring forward, fall back. EVEN IN EUROPE. We had moved our clocks forward an hour so we thought it was 6:40, when in reality it was actually only 4:40. AM. Meaning we WOKE UP AT 4 AM. AHHHHHHHHHHH.
We were furious. But also tired. So we fell asleep on some benches until our train came, then we slept on that train, then we ate breakfast in the train station and fell asleep on the next train. And the next. And by the time we got to Venice we were fully rested...kind of.
We left our bags in storage in the train station and headed out to explore the city of water...in the rain. How appropriate. Luckily it wasn't pouring, just a steady drizzle for most of the afternoon. We hopped on the #1 Vaporetto, or water bus, to take us to the Rialto Bridge. We had planned to find a great restaurant for lunch but instead settled on paninis because we had to save up for our last dinner in Italy.
Lunch menu:
- Sofia and Caitlin - salami and gorgonzola cheese panini
- Elizabeth - proscuitto, tomato, rocket and mozzarella panini
Solid. We wandered around Venice for a while and I was surprised to learn that there are actually streets in Venice (I don't really know why I was surprised about that). But I still wonder how it works if someone who lives further away from the water needs an ambulance or something. The streets are not wide enough to drive on and I never saw a single car. I guess Venice has that figured out...I'm just not privy to the inner workings of their system.
We went to the Piazza di San Marco and saw the Basilica, which was magnificent. The entire ceiling of the church is covered with gold mosaics and it is so incredible. It was amazing. And it was free! Lucky us.
Our tummies were starting to get hungry (if that is even possible) and we didn't want to stand out in the rain, so we went off in search of dinner. We settled on this tiny place on a random side street that was also really empty because it was only 5:30. We had to eat early because we had yet ANOTHER train to catch so we could check in to our next hostel (aka the Milan airport) for the night. Our waiter became smitten with Caitlin which was great because we got free Limoncino out of it after dinner and Caitlin learned a new secret handshake.
Dinner Menu:
- Cheese plate for appetizer, complete with...butter? We thought it was cheese at first but we were sorely mistaken.
- Second cheapest wine on the menu...we were running out of money, but we didn't want to settle!
- Caitlin - Tortellini with cream sauce and ham for first course, spaghetti with pesto for second
- Sofia - Four cheese gnocchi for first course, lasagna (again) for second
- Elizabeth - Spaghetti with spider crab for first course, grilled scampi for second
- Free Limoncino from our waiter friend
After dinner we made our way to the train station, but not before stopping at the nearest crepe stand for one last nutella crepe in Italy! And that was the last thing we ate. The 5 day feast was over...so sad.
I wish I had enjoyed Venice more. We were only there for half a day and it was cold and rainy and crowded and we were all really tired and running out of money. I think if I came back another time I would like it a lot more, but this time around it was definitely lower on the list, especially after all the other amazing places we saw. But I did like it (I just didn't love it) I'm really glad we went!
Unfortunately this post concludes the chronicles of The Best Fall Break Ever. If you read the whole thing, I hope you laughed. And dreamed of food. And started drooling. It's back to the "real world" in Toledo, and I actually have to start working on this Art History paper. Yeah....I still haven't started. I've learned some Things About Spain and Lola in the last few days so I will be updating those lists soon.
So now, it's time to hit the books. Maybe.
Bike Crew out.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Lovers in Paradise
Conquering Pisa was quick and painless, as well as a necessary cultural detour on our way to the next stop on our journey. Another train out of Pisa brought the Bike Crew to the most anticipated city of the trip, Part 4 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Cinque Terre.
The train from Pisa went to La Spezia, a small town where we had to catch another 10 minute train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a picturesque dreamland along the Italian Riviera. It's a series of 5 little villages tucked into the cliffs right on the water and it looks like it came straight out of a movie. The train ride from La Spezia was mostly through the mountains. Literally...through the mountain. So it was completely dark the entire time. When we finally reached light we had a magnificent view of the cliffs and the ocean and we were so excited! But that view lasted only about five seconds before we went back into the tunnel...SUCH a tease. We were disappointed (and I think the rest of the train could hear our devastation) to be back in the dark but luckily it only lasted for 3 more minutes. By 2:30 pm we finally were in Cinque Terre!
First view of Cinque Terre that lasted longer than 5 seconds.
Our hostel was located in the first town, Riomaggiore. We checked in, looked for some wifi (fail) and went out to explore. There is a coastal trail that runs from each town to the next. Unfortunately one of the trails was out of commission due to a landslide that really messed up the path. Another downfall is that the trails close at 6 pm. Walking the entire route takes at least 5 hours so that was out of the question. So we decided to take the trains from town to town so we would have more time to explore each one and see more of the Five Lands.
We did walk one of the trails, though--Via dell'Amore--the trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola. This path is the only one that is paved, it's the shortest one (the others take over an hour each) and it's mostly flat, so it was easy to make the 20 minute trek. It was mostly married couples/lovers/lots of people holding hands on this trail so the Bike Crew joined hands and faked a romance for most of the walk.
I think Manarola was my favorite town. Maybe because that's where we took the best pictures, or maybe because that's where we came back to eat the absolute best meal of the entire trip. But I guess it doesn't really matter why it was my favorite. It just was.
Self timer on the cliff.
From Manarola we took the train to the fourth town, Vernazza. Vernazza was my second favorite. All the postcards of Cinque Terre feature this amazing view of Vernazza that we tried desperately to find but unfortunately we would have had to climb the mountain and the trail was already closed. Bummer. But it was still an adorable town. We thought about eating a snack or something in this town but we decided to save up for dinner in Manarola.
After we thoroughly explored the two streets of Vernazza we jumped back on the train and headed out to the last town of Monterosso. Monterosso is primarily a beach town, and considering it was completely dark by this point AND a storm was brewing out at sea, the beach wasn't exactly a hoppin place. Sofia and I did find a giant rock and we climbed to the top of it while Caitlin guarded our stuff back on the shore. But other than that we kind of missed the Monterosso party. Since we had an hour before our next train, we found a bar and partook in a typical Italian beverage, Limoncino, which was delicious. And so began our Saturday night gastronomic adventure....
We hopped on the train to our last town (which is actually the third town), Corniglia. The town of Corniglia is up the mountain above the train station, so we had to take the bus up there. At the top, when we got off the bus, we asked what time the last bus left to go back down to the station. "In five minutes is the last bus." Awesome. We were going to have to walk down 340-something steps to get to the train. That's fine. We needed the exercise. So we went to go explore Corniglia. The problem was that it was nighttime and we didn't really know where to go. I think Corniglia is probably the lamest of the 5 towns. Not that that's a bad thing...it's just more residential than the rest. We couldn't really find the main area so we just decided to go buy some cheese. We asked for a slab of "typical Cinque Terre cheese" and paid 67 cents each. We took our cheese to the nearest wine bar where the owner gave us each a glass of his own personal wine. His picture was even on the bottle! And it was SO GOOD. We felt super classy, sipping on wine and nibbling on cheese in this small coastal Italian village. Then Mr. Wine Man brought out these cheese/garlic/onion cracker thingys to go along with our wine and cheese and we were in heaven. We didn't want it to end, but then we realized that we had only 10 minutes to descend a giant staircase to catch the last train back to Manarola for the glorious dinner that awaited us! We ran pretty much the whole way there (not in a straight line) and made it just in time.
Back in Manarola, we prepared for our feast.
Dinner Menu:
Earlier in the day we had planned to hit up Bar Centrale, the one bar in Riomaggiore. The lady who worked at our hostel told us about it and said it's "the place where boys and girls go to meet at night." But by the time we were done with dinner and back in Riomaggiore we were so full and tired and happy that we didn't want to do anything except go to bed. Which, in retrospect, was a good decision considering what happened the next morning on our way to Part 5 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Venice.
Such a cliff hanger, I know. Check back soon for the season finale!
The train from Pisa went to La Spezia, a small town where we had to catch another 10 minute train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a picturesque dreamland along the Italian Riviera. It's a series of 5 little villages tucked into the cliffs right on the water and it looks like it came straight out of a movie. The train ride from La Spezia was mostly through the mountains. Literally...through the mountain. So it was completely dark the entire time. When we finally reached light we had a magnificent view of the cliffs and the ocean and we were so excited! But that view lasted only about five seconds before we went back into the tunnel...SUCH a tease. We were disappointed (and I think the rest of the train could hear our devastation) to be back in the dark but luckily it only lasted for 3 more minutes. By 2:30 pm we finally were in Cinque Terre!
First view of Cinque Terre that lasted longer than 5 seconds.Our hostel was located in the first town, Riomaggiore. We checked in, looked for some wifi (fail) and went out to explore. There is a coastal trail that runs from each town to the next. Unfortunately one of the trails was out of commission due to a landslide that really messed up the path. Another downfall is that the trails close at 6 pm. Walking the entire route takes at least 5 hours so that was out of the question. So we decided to take the trains from town to town so we would have more time to explore each one and see more of the Five Lands.
We did walk one of the trails, though--Via dell'Amore--the trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola. This path is the only one that is paved, it's the shortest one (the others take over an hour each) and it's mostly flat, so it was easy to make the 20 minute trek. It was mostly married couples/lovers/lots of people holding hands on this trail so the Bike Crew joined hands and faked a romance for most of the walk.
I think Manarola was my favorite town. Maybe because that's where we took the best pictures, or maybe because that's where we came back to eat the absolute best meal of the entire trip. But I guess it doesn't really matter why it was my favorite. It just was.
Self timer on the cliff.
From Manarola we took the train to the fourth town, Vernazza. Vernazza was my second favorite. All the postcards of Cinque Terre feature this amazing view of Vernazza that we tried desperately to find but unfortunately we would have had to climb the mountain and the trail was already closed. Bummer. But it was still an adorable town. We thought about eating a snack or something in this town but we decided to save up for dinner in Manarola.
After we thoroughly explored the two streets of Vernazza we jumped back on the train and headed out to the last town of Monterosso. Monterosso is primarily a beach town, and considering it was completely dark by this point AND a storm was brewing out at sea, the beach wasn't exactly a hoppin place. Sofia and I did find a giant rock and we climbed to the top of it while Caitlin guarded our stuff back on the shore. But other than that we kind of missed the Monterosso party. Since we had an hour before our next train, we found a bar and partook in a typical Italian beverage, Limoncino, which was delicious. And so began our Saturday night gastronomic adventure....
We hopped on the train to our last town (which is actually the third town), Corniglia. The town of Corniglia is up the mountain above the train station, so we had to take the bus up there. At the top, when we got off the bus, we asked what time the last bus left to go back down to the station. "In five minutes is the last bus." Awesome. We were going to have to walk down 340-something steps to get to the train. That's fine. We needed the exercise. So we went to go explore Corniglia. The problem was that it was nighttime and we didn't really know where to go. I think Corniglia is probably the lamest of the 5 towns. Not that that's a bad thing...it's just more residential than the rest. We couldn't really find the main area so we just decided to go buy some cheese. We asked for a slab of "typical Cinque Terre cheese" and paid 67 cents each. We took our cheese to the nearest wine bar where the owner gave us each a glass of his own personal wine. His picture was even on the bottle! And it was SO GOOD. We felt super classy, sipping on wine and nibbling on cheese in this small coastal Italian village. Then Mr. Wine Man brought out these cheese/garlic/onion cracker thingys to go along with our wine and cheese and we were in heaven. We didn't want it to end, but then we realized that we had only 10 minutes to descend a giant staircase to catch the last train back to Manarola for the glorious dinner that awaited us! We ran pretty much the whole way there (not in a straight line) and made it just in time.
Back in Manarola, we prepared for our feast.
Dinner Menu:
- Caitlin - Trofie with pesto, stuffed mussels for second course
- Sofia - Pesto lasagna (again), steak for second course
- Elizabeth - Linguine with batti batti (local lobster), grilled swordfish for second course
- Famous Cinque Terre wine
- Desert - Tiramisu for Caitlin and Elizabeth, mixed cookie plate for Sofia (complete with a NUTELLA BOAT, to which her reaction was "WOW" every minute or so)
Earlier in the day we had planned to hit up Bar Centrale, the one bar in Riomaggiore. The lady who worked at our hostel told us about it and said it's "the place where boys and girls go to meet at night." But by the time we were done with dinner and back in Riomaggiore we were so full and tired and happy that we didn't want to do anything except go to bed. Which, in retrospect, was a good decision considering what happened the next morning on our way to Part 5 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Venice.
Such a cliff hanger, I know. Check back soon for the season finale!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Veni, Vidi, Vici.
I came, I saw, I conquered. This phrase (of Latin origin...how convenient!) pretty much describes our short but sweet Part 3 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Pisa.
Veni -
We arrived by train from Florence...barely. After waiting in line for close to 20 minutes to get our ticket validated (which didn't even need to be validated because no one ever even checked it!), we RAN to the platform and jumped on the train just in time riiiiight as it was pulling away from the station.
...ok so maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic. We did run/power walk to the train but we made it with a few minutes to spare.
The train ride was uneventful and we made it safely to Pisa, grabbed a map, and navigated our way to the main attraction: The LEANING TOWER OF PISA.
Vidi -
We saw the tower! It actually does lean. It's so weird. We took lots of touristy pictures of us holding up the tower, pushing the tower over, kicking the tower, you name it. It was hilarious to look down the road and see 50 other people taking the same pictures with their arms and legs in the air and the tower 150 yards away. They looked ridiculous! We didn't though. We looked really cool when we did it.
Most flattering angle of all time.
The Bacon Wallet cannot believe how that thing is leaning so much!
Vici -
Conquering Pisa was super easy...
3 hours in Pisa = CONQUER.
I might start writing my Art History paper tonight. But if I decide to procrastinate instead, I'll post Part 4 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Cinque Terre.
Or maybe I'll make you sweat it out until tomorrow..........
Veni -
We arrived by train from Florence...barely. After waiting in line for close to 20 minutes to get our ticket validated (which didn't even need to be validated because no one ever even checked it!), we RAN to the platform and jumped on the train just in time riiiiight as it was pulling away from the station.
...ok so maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic. We did run/power walk to the train but we made it with a few minutes to spare.
The train ride was uneventful and we made it safely to Pisa, grabbed a map, and navigated our way to the main attraction: The LEANING TOWER OF PISA.
Vidi -
We saw the tower! It actually does lean. It's so weird. We took lots of touristy pictures of us holding up the tower, pushing the tower over, kicking the tower, you name it. It was hilarious to look down the road and see 50 other people taking the same pictures with their arms and legs in the air and the tower 150 yards away. They looked ridiculous! We didn't though. We looked really cool when we did it.
Most flattering angle of all time.
The Bacon Wallet cannot believe how that thing is leaning so much!Vici -
Conquering Pisa was super easy...
- Lunch: Paninis. Prosciutto and mozzarella for Caitlin, salami and mozzarella for Sofia, tomato, rocket and mozzarella for Elizabeth.
- Crepes for dessert. Nutella and coconut for Caitlin, Nutella and hazelnut for Sofia, Nutella and strawberries for Elizabeth.
- Bus back to the train station. Free. Illegal. Didn't get caught. Didn't get deported.
3 hours in Pisa = CONQUER.
I might start writing my Art History paper tonight. But if I decide to procrastinate instead, I'll post Part 4 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Cinque Terre.
Or maybe I'll make you sweat it out until tomorrow..........
Food, Shopping and Leather: A Culmination Of My Weaknesses
And we're off! It's time for Part 2 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Florence.
Friday morning the Bike Crew (so named for our cycling adventures the day before) balled out of Roma. When we left the hostel to get our bikes from the pole we where we left them overnight we found this lovely note:
Questionable note left on our bikes.
Two questions: 1) What exactly was wrong with chaining our bikes to that pole? They weren't blocking anything. And 2) HOW DID THEY KNOW THAT THE OWNERS OF THE BIKES SPOKE ENGLISH AND NOT ITALIAN??? Weird.
The journey to the train station was all uphill, and we considered just leaving the bikes where they were. Luckily we all have souls and decided to return them because as we were walking out, the bike man called me back to give me my drivers license, which I forgot I had given him as collateral!
The three of us have all become experts at falling asleep in public places, and this train was no exception. We slept the entire way to Firenze. When we arrived, we discovered that even though we had directions to our hostel, the starting point from the WRONG train station. So instead of walking for three minutes, we had to get on Bus #17 to take us to the outskirts of town. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, except I GOT STUNG BY A BEE. On the bus. What the heck! No one gets stung by bees anymore! Only small children and people who are allergic and somehow seem to attract bees to them. I was fine though. I didn't cry, there was only minor pain and swelling and the old man next to me leaned over and killed that sucker with his newspaper. So nice! We finally found the hostel, threw our bags in and left to go exploring. First order of business: food. Obviously. We found a precious little ristorante near the leather market area and all ate giant (and inexpensive!) plates of pasta that make my mouth water just thinking about it...
Lunch menu:
Refreshed, recharged, and re-nourished, we set off on our Florentine adventures. We climbed the tower of Brunelleschi's Duomo...
The Bacon Wallet at the top of the tower in front of the Duomo.
...searched for the fake David statues (because we didn't want to pay lots of Euros to see the real one)...
Sofia, The Bacon Wallet and Fake David.
...and scoured through every inch of the famous leather markets (where I may or may not have bought an authentic Italian leather jacket possibly in addition to a pair of authentic Italian leather gloves).
Also we fulfilled our obligatory afternoon sugar quota with waffle/nutella sandwiches for Sofia and Caitlin and a waffle with tiramisu gelato for Elizabeth.
After journeying over to the Ponte Vecchio for some token sunset photos we freshened up at the hostel to get ready for DINNER and the rest of the night.
Token sunset pictures.
Dinner once again was glorious. We found a place near Piazza Santa Croce that at first glance looked empty but then we realized was packed! They seemed to be filling up the restaurant from the back towards the front. To me that's illogical. Wouldn't you want to fill up the front first so passersby can see how many people are enjoying your establishment? Whatever, that's their call. So anyway, we ate there, and we ate delicious things.
Dinner Menu:
After dinner Caitlin and Sofia were being lameos and decided to go back to the hostel to go to bed. I however, had a wild night ahead of me with none other than.........COUSIN KATIE WALSH STUDYING IN FLORENCE!!! It was so wonderful to finally see a familiar face. She took me out for a night on the town and we had an absolute ball.
Katie: "Guys, this is my cousin, Elizabeth. She's visiting from Spain!"
Rando (not Katie's friend): "Wait. You guys are actually BLOOD relatives?"
Katie: "Um, yes. Our dads are brothers."
Rando: "WOW."
She even got to meet The Bacon Wallet! They became fast friends. I think she was sorry to see him go...I know it was difficult for him.
New BBFs.
My third visit to Florence was a rousing success. This city remains at (or close to) the top of my list of favorite places ever. I wish we could have stayed longer than one day, but the next morning, we had to continue on our way.
Next up on "¡Holy Toledo!"...Part 3 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Pisa.
P.S. Quick side note: I would just like to express a few moments of anger here. It recently has come to my attention that someone else here in Toledo in my program at the Fundación created a blog. She named her blog Holy Toledo. WHAT!!!! SHE TOTALLY STOLE THAT FROM ME. Seriously, though. She did. We were roommates the first night in the Fund and I told her about my blog. Her reaction? "Omg, that's like such a cute idea! I like love that name! It's like SO adorable! I should like totally make a blog!" Obviously I encouraged her, since I was just getting started with my blogness and was slightly obsessed with it. But I didn't think she would take it this far. I am not pleased.
Anyway. Pisa coming soon.
Friday morning the Bike Crew (so named for our cycling adventures the day before) balled out of Roma. When we left the hostel to get our bikes from the pole we where we left them overnight we found this lovely note:
Questionable note left on our bikes.Two questions: 1) What exactly was wrong with chaining our bikes to that pole? They weren't blocking anything. And 2) HOW DID THEY KNOW THAT THE OWNERS OF THE BIKES SPOKE ENGLISH AND NOT ITALIAN??? Weird.
The journey to the train station was all uphill, and we considered just leaving the bikes where they were. Luckily we all have souls and decided to return them because as we were walking out, the bike man called me back to give me my drivers license, which I forgot I had given him as collateral!
The three of us have all become experts at falling asleep in public places, and this train was no exception. We slept the entire way to Firenze. When we arrived, we discovered that even though we had directions to our hostel, the starting point from the WRONG train station. So instead of walking for three minutes, we had to get on Bus #17 to take us to the outskirts of town. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, except I GOT STUNG BY A BEE. On the bus. What the heck! No one gets stung by bees anymore! Only small children and people who are allergic and somehow seem to attract bees to them. I was fine though. I didn't cry, there was only minor pain and swelling and the old man next to me leaned over and killed that sucker with his newspaper. So nice! We finally found the hostel, threw our bags in and left to go exploring. First order of business: food. Obviously. We found a precious little ristorante near the leather market area and all ate giant (and inexpensive!) plates of pasta that make my mouth water just thinking about it...
Lunch menu:
- Caitlin - Gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese and walnuts (she actually cried tears of happiness...I have a picture to prove it)
- Sofia - Lasagna (are you starting to notice a pattern here? Sofia ate lasagna literally every. single. day.)
- Elizabeth - Penne arrabbiata
- Parmesan cheese that was so good we wanted to eat it with the serving spoon, but we resisted.
Refreshed, recharged, and re-nourished, we set off on our Florentine adventures. We climbed the tower of Brunelleschi's Duomo...
The Bacon Wallet at the top of the tower in front of the Duomo....searched for the fake David statues (because we didn't want to pay lots of Euros to see the real one)...
Sofia, The Bacon Wallet and Fake David....and scoured through every inch of the famous leather markets (where I may or may not have bought an authentic Italian leather jacket possibly in addition to a pair of authentic Italian leather gloves).
Also we fulfilled our obligatory afternoon sugar quota with waffle/nutella sandwiches for Sofia and Caitlin and a waffle with tiramisu gelato for Elizabeth.
After journeying over to the Ponte Vecchio for some token sunset photos we freshened up at the hostel to get ready for DINNER and the rest of the night.
Token sunset pictures.Dinner once again was glorious. We found a place near Piazza Santa Croce that at first glance looked empty but then we realized was packed! They seemed to be filling up the restaurant from the back towards the front. To me that's illogical. Wouldn't you want to fill up the front first so passersby can see how many people are enjoying your establishment? Whatever, that's their call. So anyway, we ate there, and we ate delicious things.
Dinner Menu:
- Appetizer of garlic bread with Italian sausage and sun dried tomatoes on top
- Caitlin - Canoli with spinach and ricotta cheese
- Sofia - Pasta carbonara
- Elizabeth - Cheese ravioli with pesto sauce
- Chianti DOCG, famous wine produced locally in Florence
After dinner Caitlin and Sofia were being lameos and decided to go back to the hostel to go to bed. I however, had a wild night ahead of me with none other than.........COUSIN KATIE WALSH STUDYING IN FLORENCE!!! It was so wonderful to finally see a familiar face. She took me out for a night on the town and we had an absolute ball.
Katie: "Guys, this is my cousin, Elizabeth. She's visiting from Spain!"Rando (not Katie's friend): "Wait. You guys are actually BLOOD relatives?"
Katie: "Um, yes. Our dads are brothers."
Rando: "WOW."
New BBFs.My third visit to Florence was a rousing success. This city remains at (or close to) the top of my list of favorite places ever. I wish we could have stayed longer than one day, but the next morning, we had to continue on our way.
Next up on "¡Holy Toledo!"...Part 3 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Pisa.
P.S. Quick side note: I would just like to express a few moments of anger here. It recently has come to my attention that someone else here in Toledo in my program at the Fundación created a blog. She named her blog Holy Toledo. WHAT!!!! SHE TOTALLY STOLE THAT FROM ME. Seriously, though. She did. We were roommates the first night in the Fund and I told her about my blog. Her reaction? "Omg, that's like such a cute idea! I like love that name! It's like SO adorable! I should like totally make a blog!" Obviously I encouraged her, since I was just getting started with my blogness and was slightly obsessed with it. But I didn't think she would take it this far. I am not pleased.
Anyway. Pisa coming soon.
Monday, November 1, 2010
When-a In-a Roooma
Part 1 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Rome.
Let me just preface this with the fact that I am a superb trip planner. Also I was "vacation mom" and brought a folder with a plethora of information about each city (complete with hostels, transportation, activities, and weather forecasts), plane tickets, train tickets, Vatican tickets, et cetera, et cetera. I am the master.
We left for Rome Wednesday morning. I was the first of the three of us to book my flight, so I booked it for the reasonable hour of 9:45 am. However, by the time my slow poke traveling partners got around to booking flights, my flight had filled up, and they had to leave Madrid at 7:00 am and sleep (slash not really sleep, more like shiver to death on the baggage ramp, as I was told) in the airport the night before. I slept in a real bed and the next day when I got to Ivanhoe Hostel (not to be confused with the 4-star Hotel Ivanhoe right across the street) I woke up Sofia and Caitlin from nearly comatose states of slumber and we hit the streets of Roma!
Our first meal in Italy was paninis off the streets. Obviously not LITERALLY off the streets...we did not wander the streets of Rome to find remnants of sandwiches. We found the cafe with the cutest waiters within a 5-block radius and ordered paninis--to go, para llevar, take away, whatever. We couldn't decide which language to speak. None of us speak Italian, so Sofia spoke Portuguese, Caitlin and I spoke a mix of Spanish and sign language, and we all wound up speaking English at the end, adding an over-confident "grazie!" as we left.
Lunch Menu:
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Vatican City, exploring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, the Basilica, and St. Peter's Square. We were anticipating a Pope sighting but unfortunately there was no such luck. Every hour or so we would try to think of what the Pope was doing at that exact moment. 3:45 pm, probably taking a nap. I mean, he is pretty old. 4:30 pm, maybe taking a stroll. 5:00 pm, praying? I don't know. What does the Pope do on a day to day basis? He certainly does not meander around the square like we were hoping he would...not even in the safety of the Pope mobile! Lame.
After a full day of religious sight-seeing and lack of sleep (for some), we were thoroughly exhausted. The only thing that could lure us away from our beds after our power nap was the thought of a delicious dinner ahead. We made the trek to the Pantheon Piazza and found......Pantha Rei. This restaurant was a real gem, just what we needed. We became best friends with the owner and had a simply marvelous time.
Dinner Menu:
Pantha Rei gets an extra gold star too. Some quick mental math told us that our bill would end up being around 16-17 euros each. But after chatting with the owner for a while about studying abroad and our trip to Italy, he told us to pay 10 euros each, recommend his place to other students, and we'd call it a deal. I'll take that deal! So we paid our measly 10 euros, ate our second dessert, went back to the hostel and went straight to bed. Needless to say we slept very well that night.
Thursday morning we woke up bright and early at 9 am to go rent mopeds. We had grand plans of renting Vespas to scoot around and see Rome the way Romans do. However, when we got to Treno e Scooter, the nice man at the counter asked us if we had any experience driving scooters. We told him that it had been a while, but yes, we had driven them before. I think he knew we were lying because he went on and on about how it's really obvious when people are new Vespa drivers, it can't be learned in one day, we probably would die, blah blah blah. So we held a mini pow wow, weighed the outcomes, and opted for regular old bikes instead. Kind of lame, but still better than walking! It was actually mostly thrilling, since we had to ride in the streets instead of the sidewalks. So we were weaving in and out of cars just like the Vespas (only a little more slowly and awkwardly since we didn't have masked helmets to hide our faces from drivers and passersby) and we were hanging with the big boys (aka MOTORCYCLES) in the streets. Until the pedal of Caitlin's bike FELL OFF as we were riding by the Colosseum. We went back, traded it in for a new one, and were off. Also we dominated the side streets where bikes could go, but not cars. Bikes rule.
Bicycle mishap...dislodged pedal.
We toured all of Ancient Rome and its rubble (I mean...ruins). We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus and all that jazz.
The Bacon Wallet really enjoyed the Colosseum.
In the guide book that we borrowed/stole from the hostel we read about the Jewish Ghetto and their famous fried artichokes. Determined to try all the typical food of Italy (an impossible feat, by the way), we biked over there for lunch in search of a restaurant to get some 'chokes and it was kind of a failure. Only kind of. The waiter forgot that I ordered an artichoke so I didn't get it until the very end of the meal. Artichokes for dessert? Not my fave. It was still good though.
Lunch menu:
Our bike adventure continued on to the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain (where we got our lunch dessert of nutella crepes for Sofia and Caitlin and pistachio gelato for Elizabeth), and the Spanish steps (where we creeped into many a family photo with The Bacon Wallet).
After freshening up back at the hostel, we headed out for the night. On our way to find another dinner place as magical as Pantha Rei, stopped in at Miscellanea. Miscellanea is a restaurant/bar featured in Rick Steves' guide to Italy, so ergo they love Notre Dame students (Rick Steves' son is a recent Notre Dame grad). We went in to drop the ND hints to maybe score some free drinks from Mikki, the owner. However, upon arrival, we discovered that Mikki was not working that night. On duty manning the bar was Mikki's very-easy-on-the-eyes son, Romeo (no joke, his name actually was Romeo). Romeo lived up to his name and charmed us with his broken English and dashing good looks, followed by Miscellanea's famous "Sexy Wine."
Sofia: "Why is it called Sexy Wine?"
Romeo: "Sexy Wine because...when you drink it...it cause...problems." (wink, wink)
Cheers to getting free stuff from cute boys!
One bottle of Sexy Wine (plus an extra free glass from Romeo) and two bruschettas later, we left Miscellanea to go find real dinner. We went to Bafetto 2, a pizzeria near Piazza Navona and had the most amazing pizza everrrrrrrrr.
Dinner Menu:
Before we left Miscellanea, Romeo and fellow bartender Sandri (not a girl) made us promise to come back at 12 to go dancing with them. We couldn't disappoint, so we headed back and arrived at 12:15. After being scolded for our lack of promptness, we were served (FREE!) drinks and headed out for a night of Roman raging. With Romeo and Sandri. It was all fun and games until we realized we had an early train to catch. We cut the night short around 2 and headed back to the hostel to rest up for the next day...Florence!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Florence.
Let me just preface this with the fact that I am a superb trip planner. Also I was "vacation mom" and brought a folder with a plethora of information about each city (complete with hostels, transportation, activities, and weather forecasts), plane tickets, train tickets, Vatican tickets, et cetera, et cetera. I am the master.
We left for Rome Wednesday morning. I was the first of the three of us to book my flight, so I booked it for the reasonable hour of 9:45 am. However, by the time my slow poke traveling partners got around to booking flights, my flight had filled up, and they had to leave Madrid at 7:00 am and sleep (slash not really sleep, more like shiver to death on the baggage ramp, as I was told) in the airport the night before. I slept in a real bed and the next day when I got to Ivanhoe Hostel (not to be confused with the 4-star Hotel Ivanhoe right across the street) I woke up Sofia and Caitlin from nearly comatose states of slumber and we hit the streets of Roma!
Our first meal in Italy was paninis off the streets. Obviously not LITERALLY off the streets...we did not wander the streets of Rome to find remnants of sandwiches. We found the cafe with the cutest waiters within a 5-block radius and ordered paninis--to go, para llevar, take away, whatever. We couldn't decide which language to speak. None of us speak Italian, so Sofia spoke Portuguese, Caitlin and I spoke a mix of Spanish and sign language, and we all wound up speaking English at the end, adding an over-confident "grazie!" as we left.
Lunch Menu:
- Caitlin and Elizabeth - Mozzarella and pomodoro foldover pizza thingy
- Sofia - Salami and cheese panini
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Vatican City, exploring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, the Basilica, and St. Peter's Square. We were anticipating a Pope sighting but unfortunately there was no such luck. Every hour or so we would try to think of what the Pope was doing at that exact moment. 3:45 pm, probably taking a nap. I mean, he is pretty old. 4:30 pm, maybe taking a stroll. 5:00 pm, praying? I don't know. What does the Pope do on a day to day basis? He certainly does not meander around the square like we were hoping he would...not even in the safety of the Pope mobile! Lame.
After a full day of religious sight-seeing and lack of sleep (for some), we were thoroughly exhausted. The only thing that could lure us away from our beds after our power nap was the thought of a delicious dinner ahead. We made the trek to the Pantheon Piazza and found......Pantha Rei. This restaurant was a real gem, just what we needed. We became best friends with the owner and had a simply marvelous time.
Dinner Menu:
- Caitlin - Penne with pesto and ham, no second course (lame)
- Sofia - Lasagna first, then grilled chicken with rocket, tomatoes and parmesan
- Elizabeth - Penne carbonara first, then same the grilled chicken
- When we asked the waitress which wine she recommended, she looked at us as if we each had 2 heads and 17 eyes and said "RED...because white is COLD." So red it was. I think she might have kicked us out if we had asked for white.
- Nutella pizza for dessert, FREE from the owner of Pantha Rei
- Necessary second dessert of gelato from Giolitti, famous gelateria in Rome
Pantha Rei gets an extra gold star too. Some quick mental math told us that our bill would end up being around 16-17 euros each. But after chatting with the owner for a while about studying abroad and our trip to Italy, he told us to pay 10 euros each, recommend his place to other students, and we'd call it a deal. I'll take that deal! So we paid our measly 10 euros, ate our second dessert, went back to the hostel and went straight to bed. Needless to say we slept very well that night.
Thursday morning we woke up bright and early at 9 am to go rent mopeds. We had grand plans of renting Vespas to scoot around and see Rome the way Romans do. However, when we got to Treno e Scooter, the nice man at the counter asked us if we had any experience driving scooters. We told him that it had been a while, but yes, we had driven them before. I think he knew we were lying because he went on and on about how it's really obvious when people are new Vespa drivers, it can't be learned in one day, we probably would die, blah blah blah. So we held a mini pow wow, weighed the outcomes, and opted for regular old bikes instead. Kind of lame, but still better than walking! It was actually mostly thrilling, since we had to ride in the streets instead of the sidewalks. So we were weaving in and out of cars just like the Vespas (only a little more slowly and awkwardly since we didn't have masked helmets to hide our faces from drivers and passersby) and we were hanging with the big boys (aka MOTORCYCLES) in the streets. Until the pedal of Caitlin's bike FELL OFF as we were riding by the Colosseum. We went back, traded it in for a new one, and were off. Also we dominated the side streets where bikes could go, but not cars. Bikes rule.
Bicycle mishap...dislodged pedal.We toured all of Ancient Rome and its rubble (I mean...ruins). We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus and all that jazz.
The Bacon Wallet really enjoyed the Colosseum.In the guide book that we borrowed/stole from the hostel we read about the Jewish Ghetto and their famous fried artichokes. Determined to try all the typical food of Italy (an impossible feat, by the way), we biked over there for lunch in search of a restaurant to get some 'chokes and it was kind of a failure. Only kind of. The waiter forgot that I ordered an artichoke so I didn't get it until the very end of the meal. Artichokes for dessert? Not my fave. It was still good though.
Lunch menu:
- Caitlin - Kosher pasta carbonara
- Sofia and Elizabeth - Kosher lasagna (meaning NO CHEESE. WHAT KIND OF LASAGNA HAS NO CHEESE???). Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Sofia was fuming, so I'm expressing that rage on her behalf.
- Fried artichoke. Kind of weird, but not bad
- Free water
- Free bread
Our bike adventure continued on to the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain (where we got our lunch dessert of nutella crepes for Sofia and Caitlin and pistachio gelato for Elizabeth), and the Spanish steps (where we creeped into many a family photo with The Bacon Wallet).
After freshening up back at the hostel, we headed out for the night. On our way to find another dinner place as magical as Pantha Rei, stopped in at Miscellanea. Miscellanea is a restaurant/bar featured in Rick Steves' guide to Italy, so ergo they love Notre Dame students (Rick Steves' son is a recent Notre Dame grad). We went in to drop the ND hints to maybe score some free drinks from Mikki, the owner. However, upon arrival, we discovered that Mikki was not working that night. On duty manning the bar was Mikki's very-easy-on-the-eyes son, Romeo (no joke, his name actually was Romeo). Romeo lived up to his name and charmed us with his broken English and dashing good looks, followed by Miscellanea's famous "Sexy Wine."
Sofia: "Why is it called Sexy Wine?"
Romeo: "Sexy Wine because...when you drink it...it cause...problems." (wink, wink)
Cheers to getting free stuff from cute boys!One bottle of Sexy Wine (plus an extra free glass from Romeo) and two bruschettas later, we left Miscellanea to go find real dinner. We went to Bafetto 2, a pizzeria near Piazza Navona and had the most amazing pizza everrrrrrrrr.
Dinner Menu:
- Caitlin - margherita pizza
- Sofia and Elizabeth - split a salami pizza and a four-cheese pizza
- Red wine recommended by the waiter (guess they don't like white wine much in Italy)
- Free beers from the waiter after dinner
Before we left Miscellanea, Romeo and fellow bartender Sandri (not a girl) made us promise to come back at 12 to go dancing with them. We couldn't disappoint, so we headed back and arrived at 12:15. After being scolded for our lack of promptness, we were served (FREE!) drinks and headed out for a night of Roman raging. With Romeo and Sandri. It was all fun and games until we realized we had an early train to catch. We cut the night short around 2 and headed back to the hostel to rest up for the next day...Florence!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Florence.
Eat, Eat, Eat, Pray, Eat, Eat, Love, Eat, Eat, Eat...and eat some more.
I just got back from fall break and I am certain that it was the most wonderful fall break that ever existed in the history of fall breaks. Sofia, Caitlin and I went on a grand tour of Italy. Just us three girls, no boys allowed (except Italian boys, of course).
Top 5 reasons why going to Italy with boys would not be fun:
Top 5 reasons why going to Italy with boys would not be fun:
- Attractive Italian waiters do not give free wine to boys.
- Restaurant owners do not give free Nutella pizza to boys.
- Eating massive amounts of food at every meal is not acceptable around boys.
- Scoping out potential Italian romances is not acceptable around boys.
- Gladiators at the Colosseum do not ask you if you would like a "picture full of dreams" if you are traveling with boys.
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