Rome - "Oh WOW"

We arrived into Rome around 3pm local time after a 4 hour train ride from Cinque Terre. One of the first things Jenn and I discovered is the sanity level of Italian trains is truly unique. For instance, the toilet does not have a tank; in fact, it drains directly on to the track. A little disconcerting but overly we got a kick out of it. The train station at Rome was huge and it took us a good half hour to find help to get directions to our hostel (which was literally a 5 minute walk away). Slightly sketchy neighborhood around the train station but the hostel was incredibly nice inside (Alessando Downtown Hostel) and the staff was friendly. We dropped off our stuff, changed and ventured out to get food (and by food, I mean Donor Kebab - we couldn't resist, we were missing it already from Spain). Walking into the shop I got a bit of a shock when I man walking out literally grabbed my butt as he went by; so startled, the best I could do is stare at him and look appalled. Moving on, we finished out food and decided to follow the map and venture into town and try to see a few sights. We were just going to wander close by and try not to see anything major since my friend Alyssa was arriving later that evening and we didn't want her to miss out on anything. However, in Rome that is apparently impossible. I think we managed to walk by/see from the distance anything that could have been important and/or interesting to see; navigating Rome, even with a map, proved to be a little difficult and resulted in excessive sight seeing. After managing to accidentally stumble by the Colosseum, we decided it was time to head back and shower and give the sight seeing a rest. Our hostel offered a free pasta so after freshening up we ate dinner there and Alyssa arrived a little after. Jenn was utterly exhausted, but not wanting to waste our first night in Rome, Alyssa and I walked over and got to experience the Trevi Fountain, complete with some delicious Italian gelato (I suggest anyone vesting Rome experience this). We walked home and once again managed to see almost every monument. Everything was incredibly gorgeous at night and almost better than during the day - plus, no crowds of people blocking them.

We woke up around 8:30am the next morning, ate breakfast, and made our way toward the Colosseum. After waiting in line for about 20 mins and being hassled a few times by guides trying to get us to pay for them to take them around (claiming it would take an hour to get in - not true at all), we made our way in. As with everything in Europe, there were a bunch of stairs to climb before we could reach the top. It was relatively packed, full of tourists taking pictures. We have never been asked so many times to take picture for people, however it worked out well because Jenn, Alyssa, and I were in turn able to ask for our picture to be taken afterwards. I probably took about a million photographs inside (though, no where close to Alyssa who managed to have over 1000 pictures at the end of our Rome trip, verses my 300) and then we moved onto the Palatine Ruins, which were included in our entrance ticket to the Colosseum. First off, for anyone visiting Rome, set aside a whole half day to see these two locations. The ruins were huge and amazing to walk though. Adding to this, somewhere within there is a small museum to go through. Again, don't listen to the guides. They claim there are "no signs to explain what things are" and there are a bunch posted all over. By this point, all our feet were killing us and it was getting quite warm so we ventured out to go find food. We found a great pub where we all got burgers and soda, before working toward one of the prettiest buildings I have seen in my life. The monument to Vittorio Emanuele IIis a huge white structure situated somewhere between the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain which I do not believe I could do complete justice by my own words or even showing a picture. Adorned with gold statues and beautiful detailing, the entire structure blew our minds. Alyssa best captured the essence of the building when talking about seeing it when she drove in, elaborating, “it was so beautiful, it made me want to cry.” After exploring around this, we decided to give our tired feet some rest and grab some more gelato and enjoy the Trevi Fountain once again, this time during the day. Afterwards we made our way back to the hostel and met up with more people from our program who had finally made their way into Roma: Sylvia, Wes, April, and Bianca. After dinner and resting our feet for not quite long enough (trust me on this, backpacking through Europe causes your feet to feel like you have walked over hot coals and then over a desert for 100 miles - ok, maybe a slight exaggeration but they definitely kill at the end of the day), we went to the Trevi Fountain yet again so the others could see it at night and so we all could enjoy an Italian beer while sitting on the steps. So here’s the kicker, we’re all exhausted and get back to the hostel around midnight and we decide to get up around 5:30am so we can be to the Vatican early to beat the lines.

Alyssa’s alarm goes off right at the point our French roommates in the hostel return from clubbing and they apologize fiercely for waking up and we get a bit of a laugh out of it as we explain to them we had to be up anyway. As we quickly get ready we quickly realize our definition of being ready by 6am to leave is not the same as others in our group and of course we get a bit of a late start (thanks mom for teaching me to be prompt and on time, too bad everyone else didn’t get the memo). However, when we arrived it was worth the wait. We got to experience St. Peters without the crowds and it was breathtaking. To add to this, so were the rest of the grounds. By the time we made it to the Sistine Chapel, there were crowds but in this case I was a bit happy since it gave me the opportunity to be sneaky and take a few (illegal - oops) photos of the famous ceiling that Michelangelo had adorned so many years ago. After about 4 hours of walking around we went to eat then quickly home to get some rest. Most of the rest of our time was spent relaxing, since we all seemed to find ourselves utterly exhausted. At this point my sinus infection had developed into a fever so it was good timing not to be sight seeing for hours. We went out for a final dinner that night with the entire group and had a sad goodbye as this would be the last time we would see any of them until back in the states. After bed, we were up early again the next morning and off to the airport for yet another goodbye with Alyssa (also sad) and then Jenn and I were off to Athens!

Hills, Speedos, Stairs, and Waspzilla: Cinque Terre

After leaving Barcelona for the second time, we took a night train headed to Milan and then made our connection into northwest Italy, toward a series of 5 cities on the coast that make up a region called Cinque Terre. Jenn and I got situated on seats facing a couple guys from Minnesota who were making their way down into Florence then Rome; as far as who we could have been stuck by it was relatively pleasant and when Jenn fell asleep I got a chance to talk to them for a while; we split up from them when arriving in Milan and then hopped on another train into La Spezia, then another to Manarola where our hostel was situated. Arriving in Cinque Terre, we were told to leave the train station and turn right and go up a hill - and oh boy, was it a hill. We walked for about 400 meters straight up, with our lovely backpacks on which began to hurt a bit after the first 100 meters. For the record, backpack on flat ground for 400m = fine, backpack up a steep hill for 400m = hard. We made it in and were pleasantly surprised with the hospitality and cleanliness of the entire hostel. It was situated at the top of a hill with a nice view of the city and ocean. We also found out we would be rooming with 2 girls from our program in Oviedo (we knew we would be in the same hostel but we weren't sure it would be possible to be in the same room) and then another girl from Seattle, Erin. Jenn and I showered and cleaned up and walked down through the town and quickly discovered it was one of the most beautiful places we had ever been too. The entire town was situated on a hill overlooking the sea and a path led along the rocky coast. After walking along the path for a bit we turned around and headed back toward our hostel for dinner. Right after we sat down and started eating, Bianca and April (the girls from our program) returned to the hostel so we were all able to eat together and catch up on our individual journeys since we had left Oviedo. We then all walked back down the hill and got some gelato and watched the sunset. Absolutely gorgeous and perfect, up until the point we walked up into a small park to take a few more picture and found out that mosquitoes are particularly ferocious at night in Italy. We decided to call it a night after getting eaten alive within 5 minutes and returned back to the hostel and fell asleep.

The next day, we woke up and made our way up into the northernmost town of Cinque Terre: Monterrosso. The town was situated around an incredible sand beach and after exploring and taking pictures we decided to hike to the next town, Vernazza, believing we would have a mostly downhill journey, considering we were at the top of the towns. However, we found out quickly that assumption was quite wrong. The weather had become warmer since the morning and we all found ourselves sweating as we climbed stair after stair on a path that was often a food wide with a drop off to the right. We had made it close to the top (and by that, I mean the end of the constantly uphill path) when a group of firemen carrying a stretcher ran by. After rounding a few more corners and climbing a few more stairs a rescue helicopter came into sight. Apparently a person had fallen off the path during their climb, which was slightly disconcerting, however it was nice to know the response team was so prompt. About 2.5 hours after we started our hike we finally made it into Vernazza, completely exhausted with all of our legs shaking a bit from the strain. We then hopped on another train back to Monterrosso, and decided to lay out on the beach among about a million men in speedos, which we all got a laugh out of. April and I ended up taking a break from relaxing and swam out to some rocks where we laid down for about 10 minutes, then we jumped off and then headed to a buoy further out just to say we touched it. After we got back to shore we all slept in the sun for a bit longer before hopping on the train to most southern of the Cinque Terre cities: Riomaggiore. From there, Jenn and I decided to walk back to Manarola through the Via de Amor (Love Path). April and Bianca had already gone this way so they stayed and explored the town a bit longer, however I had developed a sinus infection in Barcelona and wasn't feeling too well after the long day and wanted to get home to relax. The path was awesome, and continued along the lines of a bridge we visited in Paris, were lovers inscribe their names on locks then place them somewhere and throw the keys in the ocean. After about 30 minutes we made it back to the hostel and showered and got ready to go out to a nice dinner. We found a nice authentic Italian restaurant to eat at and it was probably some of the best food any of us had experienced on the trip.

Upon returning to our hostel we were warned by Erin that there had been a giant "moth" in our room that we should look out for. About 15 minutes went by when we all heard the buzzing of a small airplane and discovered what we all believe to be the world's largest wasp. It landed on one of the top bunks and after being at a loss of how to get rid of it, we recruited the front desk to help. They send up the cook, who (I kid you not), came dressed in his apron, jeans with one leg rolled up, crocs, and a turban on his head. He had a towel to kill the wasp and asked us to stay in the hall with the door closed as he scurried around the room with towel in hand. About a minute after we closed the door we all realized a key person was missing: Bianca was still in the bathroom. Luckily she heard enough of the commotion to know not to come out and about 10 minutes later Waspzilla was killed and we all were laughing about the entire situation. That pretty much rounded up our last night in Cinque Terre and we all fell asleep pretty quick so we could get up early to catch our train to Rome.

Here's the deal:

So, I still have to post on: Southern France, Barcelona, Madrid, and Oviedo, however, for now I am going to stick to posting about the recent stuff and then go back when I get a chance to think more about each of the places.

Heidelberg: Prost!

Continuing on our journey we made it into Heidelberg after a series of trains and were greeted by two of my good friends, Kirsten and Patrick. Kirsten, my old roommate and one of my best friends, had been studying in Heidelberg for the past year, and Patrick is doing an internship in Northern Germany and decided to take the train down to visit. We got in around 4pm and quickly found out we were going to have a bit of a journey to get into Barcelona. The train we wanted to take had become fully booked and our best option turned into staying another night and working our way into Southern France (which just gave me more time with Kirsten, so zero complaints). We managed to see most of the city that day and worked our way up to the ruins of the old castle there where we could see the entire city. So gorgeous. Also proving the point that we live in such a small world, an old friend of Patch's from boarding school happened to being going to the university in Heidelberg and knew Kirsten, so she joined us for the sight seeing. That night we got to try our first taste of German food (wiener schnitzel - sooo good) and beer (also amazing). We got back to Kirsten's dorm relatively early and Jenn, Patrick, and I all managed to play a bit of sleeping tetras and all find a way to fit on her dorm floor
- not the most comfortable but after all the travel it didn't really matter. All we wanted to do was sleep.

On the second day we went through a bunch of the shops in old town Heidelberg and just explored more around the city before making a home cooked meal back in Kirsten's dorms. Patch left us around lunch time to head up north which gave us some girl time. I hadn't realized how much I missed Kirsten before arriving. After food we went out to a couple different bars and at the last one I was so tired while we waited for a cab I actually fell asleep in the middle of the smokey room. I guess getting such little sleep finally took its toll on my body. Jenn, Kirsten, and the others woke me up a bit later to get in the cab and we headed home for the night. Jenn and I jetted off pretty early in the morning on another train journey (Heidelberg-Mannheim-Paris-Marseilles-Montpelier), starting to work our way to Barcelona.

Paris Pictures

Paris: Je t'amie

So, it's official: I am horrible at being prompt about blogging. It's been over a month since I was in Paris so I'll have to try to remember it to the best of my ability. We left London rather early (and by that I mean we woke up at 5:30am to quickly rush to the station and almost miss our train). We arrived in Paris around 11am after a short stop in Calais (quick note: local time sprung forward an hour from London, so we were not on trains for horribly long). From the train station we took the subway (Paris has an amazing public transit system) into Malakoff and then had a bit of an adventure trying to find our hotel. It was located about a ten minute walk from the station, however streets in Europe are not labeled well. We ended up having a couple who spoke zero English lead us in the right direction. It ended up being our first of many "lost in translation" moments in Paris. The rest of the first day was spent relaxing, trying French pizza, and napping. Which was a fantastic change from the go-go-go atmosphere we had previously been experiencing.

The next day was probably one of my favorite of the entire trip. My friends Alyssa, Megan, and Matt from back at school were also traveling Europe this summer and happened to be in Paris during the same time. We met up with them in the morning and did a free walking tour of Paris - which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting the city for the first time. Our tour guide took us around showing us pretty much everything we could have wanted in the city and then giving us the history behind the monuments. We managed to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Pont Neuf, the Latin Quarter, Tuileries Gardens, Champs-Élysées, the Lourve, and a whole lot more. Afterward, we took our tired feet back toward our starting location and had a nice dinner together before heading out for our first pub crawl. Starting our crawl at Cafe Oz (an Australian pub), we made our way to 3 more clubs before calling it a night and taking the subway home.

For our last day in Paris, we met up with Alyssa, Matt, and Megan again and explored a flea market in the morning. Following that we walked around until we went to one of my favorite sights of the entire trip: the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur. Situated near the top of the city with an amazing view, the basilica is an incredible sight to take in. I took about a million photos of the outside, however no photography is allowed inside the monument (understandably). We finished our day over at Megan Matt, and Alyssa's hostel in a park and then headed home so we could catch our trains (yes plural, we had a bit of an adventure with a bunch of connections) to Heidelberg in the morning. Overall, I truly adored Paris. All the architecture, history, and culture makes the city worth the time of being there. Adding to that the food was delicious, everything was pretty easy to navigate, and I was no longer sick.

London: Land of the Crazy Drivers

Well let's just say I'm already a bit of a nervous passenger but London took that to a new level. Not only do they drive on the opposite side of the road, their driver's seat is on the right side (one of the first things Jenn and I discovered as we made a go to enter through that door while incredibly jet lagged), and to top it all off: apparently the dividing line in the middle of the road means nothing. People drive where ever the hell they want.
One of Jennifer's friends she met in Africa a few years back, Pete, was our tour guide for while in the city and out and I can't thank him enough. I think we would have been a bit lost without his help and it was great to have him show us the ropes at the start of our journey. Now I should preface this entire blog with the fact I spent my time in London completely miserable with a cold - cough, sore throat, body aches - the whole works. I was not a happy camper; I kept going since I knew Jenn wanted to see all the sights but I don't think I was that miserable even when I had swine flu in the fall. Let's just say I've been a far more pleasant person since I feel better and we've arrived in Paris.
So here we go. Day one Pete picked us up at the airport and then (after allowing us to drop our stuff off at his place and shower) took us out to Windsor. We were joined by his friend Adam and they both served as our unofficial but amazing tour guides for the day. It was a pretty nice afternoon despite being sick and the extreme jet lag (neither Jenn nor I were able to sleep on the plane ride). We got to see some rugby pitches there (of which I was the only person excited about them), Windsor Castle, and the local town and shops. We finally sat down and had a small lunch and a beer. The beer was good (then again, I think college had rendered me quite less picky about my beer options) however I will do quite fine being away from English food. Nothing too special and it's topped off by the lack such things as ranch. If anyone has a good way to describe ranch, let me know. Jenn and I were at a loss of explaining what it was to Pete and Chip. While on the subject of food, I must mention it is traditional to serve peas with fish and chips. Which by far was one of strangest things to grace my plate there.
After Windor we went back to Pete's place and were able to take a short nap before heading out to check out the night life of Uxbridge (Pete's town and basically a suburb of London). We actually stumbled upon a pub doing trivia night which was quite amusing. Everyone else participated in the drunken mayhem, however, I refrained and blew my nose into a Kleenex about 20 times for every shot they took. I felt it was a fair substitute, the boys didn't quite agree but I think they'll live. We ended that night with the boys ordering "kababs" (basically lamb on a stick) and wandering the streets til we made our way home.
The next morning I woke up at 6am (I have no idea how that accounts into my jet lag or anything since you would think I'd sleep in but that just wasn't possible) and Pete's mom made me some hot lemon water and honey for my throat and her and I talked for a bit. Thanks again to her and her husband for letting us stay in their house. Eventually Pete and Jennifer woke up and we took a train into the city and dropped our lovely overly heavy bags at our hostel. Pete then took us around to see the London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, etc. We finished our day at Happy Hour at this cool bar in downtown London called Dirty Martini. Good drinks, bad food. I'm sensing a trend here. Pretty sure the only food I truly enjoyed in London were the fries or "chips" as they call them there. And knowing my love for food, mom and dad, you can rest assured I will never be persuaded to move to England.
We were back in our hostel around 7pm and got to meet some cool people from all over there. Even a girl who just graduated from University of Oregon. We went to bed relatively early and then had our wake up call around 5:30am so we could catch the train into France.
Overall, interesting trip but can't say I'm too in love with London. It was a fun trip but being in Paris for 20 minutes was entirely more fun for me. However I did get to learn a lot in a short time. As in, their tv there is half American and half English shows. Heinz is everywhere and they are obsessed with it, hummus is spelled houmous, shots are about half the size of the ones served in the bars in the US, oh and the public transit system in AMAZING and so efficient. Even if we didn't have Pete to take us around I think we would have got on quite fine seeing as how easy it is to operate. So, all and all, good first stop. Anyway, it's about 8:30am here in Paris (11:30pm back home) and I need to shower and eventually wake up Jenn (she may be a tad hungover from our pub crawl last night). I'll write about Paris soon, until then...Cheers!