Ciao Bella!

After 2 months in dreary, drizzly London, Spring Break in Italy was a welcome change. Kayla, Paige, and I took on Pisa, Cinque Terre, Florence and Rome in 6 days and had the time of our lives. The most noteworthy detail of our adventure is that I do not think the temperature dropped below 60 degrees the entire week. We found ourselves celebrating a sunburn after a day spent outside soaking up the rays and exploring a beautiful city... that's the happiest I have ever been to have a sunburn.

Our trip began in Pisa. We flew into the airport there and spent the afternoon getting accustomed to the sunshine and embracing the fact that we were going to be shameless tourists for a week. We took pictures with the Leaning Tower in every pose you could imagine, and even captured a few of our fellow tourists in especially interesting poses. All the while, we had our backpacks strapped on tight and full of a weeks worth of clothes. We had initially been nervous about being three girls traveling alone to Italy, and our fears were temporarily recognized about five minutes after arriving in Pisa when Kayla's purse was attacked by a homeless woman, but that was the worst that happened all week. After taking the token tourist pictures and fishing our sunglasses out of the depths of our backpacks, we wandered into a restaurant for our first Italian meal. It just so happened that we ate outside with a gorgeous view of the Tower, and thoroughly enjoyed our pizza and pasta (we had no idea at this point how tired we would eventually be of pizza...). We piddled around for a few hours until our train departed for Monterosso, one of the five cities that make up Cinque Terre.


We stepped off the train in Monterosso and there was no doubt that this was going to be a good trip. The sky was a left over pink from what I imagine was a beautiful sunset, and the breeze was blowing salty air in from the rocky beach. The three of us exchanged excited looks as we made our way to our hostel. My favorite part about Italy is the fact that everywhere you go there are random cats strolling around just waiting for a pet-deprived college student to pet them. I happily obliged. 

Our hostel was owned by a very friendly Italian man whose family also owned a restaurant in town so after putting our bags down, he escorted us to the family restaurant where we were given a generous discount and were waited on by his equally friendly brother. After sampling their mother's homemade desserts, we returned to our hostel full and happy and ready to rest up the next day that would be spent hiking the five cities.

Such a beautiful view!

Cinqe Terre had some pretty destructive floods a few months ago, and the cities were all recovering while we were there. This did not inconvenience us at all, except for the fact that the trail linking the five cities was closed and we were forced to find an alternate route. What was supposed to be a two and a half hour hike through all the cities turned into a two and a half hour hike to the WRONG city that was in the complete opposite direction of where we wanted to be... and we couldn't have been happier about it. We hiked to a city called Levanto that was not one of the five cities that made up Cinque Terre, and ended up taking a train to where we meant to go. But we sure enjoyed our hike and all of the beautiful views that it brought with it. We discovered that we are not very good at following a trail because we were constantly looking off into the horizon or admiring the scenery and repeatedly found ourselves off the trail. The red and white makers that lined that the trail became a welcomed sight after we tired of the moments of panic when we realized we were no longer on route. Each one merited a point and an exclamation of "MARKER!" when spotted no matter how close it was to the last marker. Once we made it to Levanto, we hopped on a train and rode ten minutes to Manarola which was connected to Riomaggiore by a walkway called Lover's Lane. This was the only section of the trail that was not affected by the floods and so was open to the public.

  It was basically just a sidewalk with a fantastic view, but what made it so interesting was that the walls and stones surrounding the trail were covered with love notes and hearts enclosing names of lovers that have visited. As if that is not mushy enough, there is also a large collection of locks left on fences lining the trail perhaps to signify the strength of love. You can imagine the dialogue  of "Ooooh," "Awww," and "This sucks" that took place between three sentimental girls reading all of these notes having been far away from boyfriends or any semblance of romance for months. The bursting pink sunset didn't help either...

"Part of your worldddd"

The rest of our time in Cinque Terre was spent exploring five beautiful towns, enjoying local cuisine and people, and climbing on rocks in the sea pretending to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I could go on and on about how amazing our time in Cinque Terre was, but I am realizing just how long this post is going to be and how bad I am at short-and-sweet. My third grade writing teacher told me that I needed to elaborate more in my writing...she obviously never read my blog.

At the top of the Duomo

Off to Florence! Our strategy for conquering Florence was spreading out our map next to my computer that had Google's list of "Top Things to do in Florence" pulled up and circling everything that it listed on our map. We worked our way down the map seeing everything that we had circled and many things that we had not. What Florence lacked in cliffs and sunsets, it made up for in history and architecture. We first ventured into the Duomo or the Basilica of Saint Mary and were awed by the intricate detail and ceiling. We climbed hundreds of stairs to reach the top of the Duomo, and it was well worth the trip up. The panoramic view was astounding. We made our way through museums, cathedrals, and gelaterias taking in the culture and exploring. We learned that three girls traveling alone in Italy was perhaps not the most desirable situation as we were constantly yelled at, whistled at, even barked at. The most entertaining though was the shop owner who said "Hey Charlie's Angels" as we walked by, or the man who called out "Shakira! Shakira!" as I passed. We laughed and shrugged it off, but we were constantly aware and cautious. Perhaps my favorite spot in Florence was the Piazza Michelangelo, which is an overlook of the entire city. It was quite a hike to get up there, but at this point in our trip we were pro hikers. My least favorite part of Florence was the Ponte Vecchio, which houses shops and shops full of gold and silver jewelry. It made me so acutely aware of how I will most likely never be able to afford to return there... That night we were able to meet up with a few other GLSers that were also traveling in Florence, and it was nice to see some familiar faces. Our time in Florence drew to a close and we once again packed up our backpacks and strapped up for the trip to Rome. 

We attempted to watch Mary Kate and Ashley's When in Rome to prepare ourselves for the lovely city of Roma, however we were unsuccessful. This is probably a good thing because we would have had unrealistic expectations that would have been quickly smashed. Don't get me wrong, I loved Rome. Imagine with me for a moment, though, that you are three 20 year old girls arriving in a huge city...at night...with a map that screams "tourist"... in a not-so-nice part of town. Freaked out yet? Yeah we were, too. We figured that once we found our hostel our feeling of unease would settle, but when we walked into our coed dormitory style hostel room and saw the creepy half-naked guy wrapping himself in a towel... we knew we were dead wrong. Coed dorms were much cheaper, but we learned our lesson: some things are just worth the extra cost, like all girls dorms. We turned tail and practically ran out of there to find some food and calm down. Eventually we knew that we had to go back to our hostel, but delayed this as long as we could. We went back and got a skype pep talk from a previous study abroad student who lived in Rome who assured us that Rome is not as scary as we thought and that things would be fine in the daylight. He could not have been more right. Unfortunately, towel-guy soon turned into snoring-guy so our night was near sleepless and we were anxious to get up and going the next morning. We adapted out Florence map plan for Rome and found that it was similarly successful. Rome was absolutely fantastic. Everything was so full of history and each monument we saw was more impressive than the last. We did all of the token Rome spots like the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (wedding cake), Spanish Steps, and many many more. We also found the best gelato in the world (thanks to a great recommendation). They had Nutella gelato that was wonderful but so rich we struggled to finish it. I'm pretty sure I have figured out there recipe for it as well: you take a container of Nutella, put it in the refrigerator, stick it on a cone, and call it gelato. Truly it was wonderful. We made our way to the Spanish steps to rest after a long day of sightseeing and were rewarded with a middle school flash mob rendition of "Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night" by the Black Eyed Peas performed in broken English and accompanied by woefully entertaining dance moves. Our day was complete.

Did I mention that our hostel smelled like death? It did. We got a hold of some air freshener and doused everything in the room while everyone else was out. It was a feeble attempt, but it softened the blow of the horrible odor. Our next and last day in Italy was spent at the Vatican. I have seen impressive places in my life and on this trip, but this was in a league of it's own. We saw St. Peter's Basilica, which in itself is a sight to see, but it also houses Michelangelo's Pieta - one of my favorite pieces of art. To say I was in awe would be a gross understatement. However, this is nothing compared to the way I felt standing in the middle of the Sistine Chapel. As I stood there gaping up at Michelangelo's ceiling, all of my AP Euro knowledge came rushing back and I was thrilled with how much I retained and even more thrilled with how much more all of this information meant to me standing there looking at the ceiling itself. The ceiling was amazing, there's no doubt about that. However, it was Michelangelo's The Last Judgment that I had been itching to see. I can distinctly remember sitting in Barbara Stewart's class studying this painting and now can fully appreciate everything that she taught. I bought a postcard of this painting to send to her because as I stood there looking at it, I realized just how much I learned from her and how much richer it made my experience in Rome. That's something I feel deserves a "Thanks." I stood with my feet rooted to the ground craning my neck staring at the ceiling and the walls trying desperately to take in everything. The security guards looked at me like I was crazy because I must have been in the exact same spot for a good half an hour before moving the slightest. I can say without a doubt that that was my favorite thing that I have seen since I have been over here. I can't wait to go back some day.

 Our last day in Rome was a huge success and none of us wanted to leave. But London was calling... This time, we weren't coming back for classes. Instead, we began internships. I am working with the US-UK Fulbright Commission and loving every second of it. I will find time to write about my experiences with them so far as soon as I can! Cheers!

Edinburgh, Scotland

The past couple of weeks came and went too quickly without my permission... We traveled as a GLS group to Edinburgh, Scotland, I explored Italy for a week on Spring Break, and I began a wonderful internship with the US-UK Fulbright Commission. That means I have too much to write about to be able to catch up in one post, so over the next week I am going to attempt to cover all of the exciting things that have been happening across the pond. So I apologize for inundating you with information you might not care about... but then again, no one is making you read this...

This post is going to attempt to cover the trip to Edinburgh that happened a week or so ago. I cannot guarantee that I will remember much, because a lot has happened since!

All 26 of the 2014 GLS class traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland along with Lane and Andrew, our directors, to enjoy some haggis and windy weather for a few days. Upon arrival, we went on a ghost tour of Edinburgh that landed us in the "vaults" of the city. I will admit I was quite creeped out. I don't generally scare easily, and maybe it was just that our tour guide was particularly creepy even apart from his job, but the tour did it's job. We were given free reign of the city at night after the tour and we ventured to find some traditional Scottish food. I was determined to try haggis, but after learning that it was basically sheep's heart and liver oatmeal I settled for some safe chicken...the ghost tour was enough fright for one day. I had the chance to roam around the city and enjoyed seeing the Castle of Edinburgh by night, which has been the background on my computer for years. I stumbled across The Elephant House - the cafe where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Needless to say, I was very excited.

The next day, we woke bright and early in order to hop on a bus for a day-long tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness. Sitting on a bus all day may not sound like a barrel of fun to you, but believe me it was wonderful. Our tour guide, Andy, or as he liked to be called, "Dead Sexy," played 90's tunes while we rolled through the mountains and took in the scenery and history of the beautiful countryside. We were able to stop at a few castles along the way, including the castle used to film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The further we got into the Highlands, the more windy it got. By the end, the girls were all attempting to tame rat's nests of hair and everyone was wind blow, but it was well worth it. The sights were beautiful and the history was fascinating. It is lovely to be able to be so far away from big cities and tall buildings and for once to be able to look up and see the sky instead of a telephone pole. We made it to Loch Ness and were all able to walk out onto a pier to take pictures and absorb the beautiful scenery including four or five full rainbows. I had a close call that almost landed me straight in the Loch... as I began tumbling down the rocky side of the pier, I reached out and grabbed for Kayla, the first person I could reach only to realize that we were now both about to fall in the water. If it weren't for Chucky's Spiderman-esque reaction and quick save, it would have been a very long, cold ride home.

  The next day, which happened to be my 20th Birthday, we visited Edinburgh castle and ate fried Mars Bars. I'm not sure which was more exciting... the train ride home seemed exceptionally long, but that might just be because we were all anxious to get back and head out for Spring Break. It was a wonderful trip to a beautiful city, but the fun doesn't stop there! Hopefully I will have an Italy post up later this week!