Chocolate. Carbs. Fried Food. Beer. SOLD.

For our last weekend in Florence, Laura and I decided to go to Vienna and Salzburg. We had done a lot of work on Thursday, bought some snackies and headed on to the train station. We got on our bus and the 10-hour bus ride started. Even though I have done at least three other ones, they are still always BRUTAL. We arrived in Vienna around 7.30 am, checked into our hostel, napped for like one hour and then headed out to explore. We did a tram tour where we saw the entire old city center of Vienna. At noon we meet up with Ivan, Laura’s friend from DU. We walked around Vienna for the rest of the day, had some hot wine (which was surprisingly good) and at 4.00 pm we had a Schnaps Tour (and YES, its spelled with one P, the owner told us). IT.WAS.SO.COOL. We learned how Schnaps is made and got to try a bunch of flavors. I even got to try one that had GOLD in it. NBD. I DRANK some gold. We then hung out at our hostel for a while and at around 7.00 pm said BYE to Ivan. It sucked that we only got to see him for a bit but we got to see him nonetheless. Awesome.  That night Laura and I ate some Asian food and got MAJOR food comas. We did not make it out. 
The next day we went to Schounbrunn Palace and got to see some more Christmas markets. I had hot chocolate and a waffle with chocolate and caramel. Lunch of champions? I think so.  We then got on our bus and headed to Salzburg. Sadly, it was raining so enjoying these Christmas markets here was a little bit more complicated. The concept of raincoats is FOREGIN to Europeans so EVERYONE had an umbrella. I literally felt like my eyes were going to be poked out every other second. 

We bought some souvenirs and then Laura and I headed to the Augustiner, a beer hall. This was definitely one of my favorite things ever. I got some schnitzel and fries and some beer. There were a lot of Austrians there, just hanging out. Some of the men were even wearing Lederhosens.  We had a lot of beer and a REALLY GOOD time.  The next morning we got up and headed on the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR. It was awesome to see all the beautiful sites of Salzburg including the lake where Maria and the kids fall into, the Von Trapp house and the famous gazebo. We then had delicious tomato soup, the BEST apple strudel and some more French fries. Around 2.00 pm we started the bus ride back to Florence. It was supposed to be shorter than the one there BUT since it had been a long weekend, everyone AND THEIR MOTHER had gone out for the weekend. There was SO MUCH traffic. We finally made it home around midnight. Even though the bus ride was MISERABLE, it was totally worth it. It was a great last trip before leaving Florence. 

PEOPLE I LOVE

So week #1 in December was epic. Thursday evening Jack came to visit. He is studying abroad in Perugia and we had missed each other when he came to Florence and when I went to Perugia. It was awesome to finally get to see him. We had a really fun time enjoying the Christmas markets in Florence and a great night out.

            Friday morning Laura and I got up real early and took a train to Rome with our school. Friday we saw all of Vatican City, had BOMB lunch, saw the Trevi Fountain and then that night we meet up with Haley and Mary Kate (2 DZ’s from Denver) for dinner and drinks. We had a great time catching up and hearing hilarious stories from Fall quarter and their travels through Europe. It was UN REAL that I got to see my Little (Haley) in Rome! We had a really fun night out with them after dinner. Saturday Laura and I got up and headed to the Coliseum. There we meet up with Aspen and Edie (two more DZ’s!).  And yes, in case you were wondering I was THAT GIRL that saw her friends and RAN and YELLED. Give me a break, I hadn’t seen Aspen in 5 months and it had been 1 month since I had seen Edie. We had a great time seeing the coliseum and doing the Ancient Walk of Rome (arch of Constantine, Arch of Titus, Temple of Vestels, etc…). We kept trying to break off from the group that way we could be loud an obnoxious without bothering anyone but they kept finding us! We FINALLY broke off from our group, had lunch (and some AWFUL gelato… I guess bad gelato DOES exist in Italy) and saw the Pantheon.

            Laura and I then headed home, Edie and Aspen were following on a train right behind. We finally made it back to Florence where I meet up with Mallie. She had gotten here the night before and had explored some of Florence. We had some pastries and cappuccinos and hung out for a bit. We then met up with Hank, Edie, Aspen, and Laura and then our group headed out for dinner. We had dinner and some amazing wine at La Spada, which was a great find. We then proceeded to have probably one of the funniest, and most epic nights out I have had in Florence yet. Lizz joined in on the festivities around midnight, so basically I got to hang out in a city I love with MY PEOPLE. I can’t tell you how amazing it was to get to hang out with my friends. I guess you never truly know how much you miss something or someone until you are away from it for quite a while. Great Saturday if you ask me. Sunday Mallie and I got up earlier, collected Aspen and Edie and Laura and all of us girlies headed out for a traditional American breakfast at The Diner. Hank joined a little bit later (boys will be boys). Sadly it was raining, but we still did some exploring, walked around Florence, saw the Santa Croce Christmas markets, San Lorenzo, and got some AMAZING gelato. Mallie and I then made the trek up to Piazzole Michelangelo where we got lucky because it was not raining. Se got to city my beautiful city, all lit up at night.

            We had dinner and some beers at HOPS (Laura and I found this cute bar close to home…. LOVE IT) and then called it a night. Mallie left really early in the morning the next day (she even got to see the leaning tower of Pisa) and I got to hang out with Hank all morning. I said bye to him at 1.00 pm and met up with Aspen and Edie. I decided I am blaming the rain on Hank because about 30 minutes after he left, it stopped raining. Edie, Aspen and one of Aspen’s friends from elementary school climbed the duomo (I finally got around to it… only took me three months) and enjoyed the amazing views. Later, Aspen and her friend hung out and Lizz, Edie and I had some roomie-to-be snuggle time. Again, it was amazing to have my friends around. Edie left really early the next morning and Aspen and I had one more awesome day in Florence together. We had some amazing food at the Central Market and hung out. She left early on Wednesday morning.

            It was really sad to see all my friends leave but I was exhausted from playing tour guide, not going to lie. Thursday was a holiday so Laura and I did some work, because that night we headed out to VIENNA AND SALZBURG.

QUICK REFLECTION ON ROME:

Really cool city, so much to see but oh so big and so many people. I hate public transportation and if one more person came up to me and asked to take my picture or tried selling me a rose, I might have punched them. Don’t get me wrong, Florence has a decent amount of street vendors, but they are highly concentrated in San Lorenzo. So stay away from there, and you won’t have to deal with them. In Rome, they were more common than pigeons. GEEZ. Definitely had a newfound appreciation for Florence after seeing Rome. 

Its all just a blur...

So I did not realize that Prague was exactly ONE MONTH AGO. And I just uploaded my post about it. WHAT? And now I only have two weeks left. WHAT? So in an effort to be a little bit more up to date, here is a quick update on what happened after BCN.

<   1. Week went by smoothly, did some work, got some A’s. Naturally

San Gimingiano

Siena

     2. Went to Siena and San Gimingiano on Friday November 18^th with my school and some a lot of cool stuff. Not going to lie though, the cathedral at Siena was a little much.

        3. Next day we made it to Pisa and Lucca. Laura and I had quite the photo shoot with the Leaning Tower and relaxed in Lucca.

        4. This came with a fun night out and a PERFECT Sunday where we got up, had amazing lunch and finished it off reading our books at the park.

Pisa

    5. The next week again went by smoothly with classes. I got to visit an old Casa Torre from the medieval times in Florence

     6. I got to do a chocolate tasting

     7. The weekend of the 25^th to the 27^th  we stayed in Florence. We used this time to visit David, the Boboli Gardens and relax a bit and catch up on work. We also went to the Fiorentina vs AC Milan soccer game, which was a blast.

Fiore vs Milan

All in all, November was pretty awesome. We had fall break, amazing trips and relaxed a bit. The weather was also INCREDIBLE. Sun was out everyday, it would get chilli at night but not too bad, no rain. We loved it. And then Edie brought the rain. 

Familit time... in BCN

That week back was quite a blur. Probably because I went to class Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday I had to go to the Italian Immigration office to get my “Permesso di Sogiorno” (permission to stay) and got excused from Italian class. Let me tell you, hanging out at the immigration office in Italy was quite an experience.  Thursday morning I headed out to BARCELONA, my favorite city in the world, to meet up with some family, The Castillos.

            BACKGROUND FOR US FRIENDS: My cousin studies in Barcelona, as does my other cousin’s fiancée so I got to go there to meet up with 3 cousins and my aunt and uncle!

            I trained to Pisa, flew from there into the Girona airport and then took the 1-hour bus into the Barcelona Nord Bus station, then a cab to the hotel and then a cab to meet up with the family. I had to take one too many ways of transportation if you ask me, but TOTALLY WORTH IT.

            Barcelona was AMAZING, as usual. I went on a tour of the Camp Nou, had amazing food, visited La “Sagrada Familia”, saw amazing sunsets and had a great night out with my cousins. It was really nice to see my family, speak some Spanish and have a more relaxed trip. I mean, compared to Fall Break, anything was more relaxing.

            I also got to indulge and satisfy my craving for Starbucks. Barcelona might just have as many Starbucks as NYC. Not kidding. There was one right next to our hotel, so I indulged. Twice. On Sunday evening, I said goodbye to the family and headed home.

            1 bus, 1 flight and another bus ride later, I was back in Florence. I got REAL lucky because we (I made a friend at the airport!) purchased out bus tickets in Barcelona and when we got off the plane, since it was early, we caught the bus that was there for the earlier flight. So lucky. We were the only two people who got on that bus.

            Upon returning to Florence I was able to meet up with Laura and her parents (who were in Florence for Parent’s weekend) for an amazing dinner, which completed the weekend of the best meals I have had in Europe yet. It was definitely an amazing weekend. 

Prahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....Finally.

Castle

STREET FOOD. Yum.

Prague was AWESOME. After we finally checked into our hostel, SHOWERED (thank god) and got our life together, we set out to explore Praha. We walked all the way to Old Town, stopping by some really nice churches and important buildings on the way. We walked down a really famous street that reminded us of Champs-Elyse and saw a Starbucks probably once every block. Food was really cheap in Prague, which we loved. We had a “traditional” Czech meal for a late lunch and then explored Old Town.  In Old Town we were surprised to find a sort of “local market”. They sold all kinds of Czech street foods that were local specialities. There were all kinds of desserts, fried food, shishkebabs and oh so much more. I wanted it all. But we contained ourelves and decided that we were eating there the next night too. Later that night Laura and I went on a “Ghost Tour”. The tour itself was not too exciting BUT after it we got to go inside the catacombs. Prague has a very dark and bloddy history and it was quite an experience to be underneath the old clock tower, where people were tortured and kept as prisioners.

Scrabble and wine

Charles Bridge

That night, considering we had such a long day, Laura and I stayed in and played scrabble and had some wine. It was a nice end to our day. The next day we got up and went on a walk with the entire group (finally!). We visited the Charles Bridge, the John Lennon wall and the Prague Castel. It was an awesome day and we got another traditional meal, for quite cheap. At 5.00 pm we meet up with our DU friends (and fellow DZ sisters!) Michelle and Janna. We were supposed to meet at the Old Clock Tower, but they found us at the chocolate shop (naturally)! The excitement caused me to get chocolate all over Lizz, but it was oh so worth it.  We only got to hang out with them for literally one and a half hour because they were flying out that night. SO SAD. IT was awesome to see more friends, and a little unreal to see them in Prague! Yup, this IS real life.

John Lennon Wall

DZ does Praha

Jammin' to some 80's
and 90's music

That night we went out with the entire group to a club that had 80’s and 90’s music videos. SO, SO MUCH FUN. We danced the night away to Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and even La Macarena. Pretty epic, if you ask me. We even indulged in some late night Pizza, the last and final appearance of Italy on our Fall Break. The next morning we got up and started the long journey home. The bus ride through Germany and Austria was quite beautiful and it was nice to see the scenery. Finally, around midnight, we were finally home. Fall Break was awesome. We had an amazing time, saw a handful of great friends and learned, quite a bit. We had a blast, but it was nice to be home. 

Slight detour... change-o plans.

     Before I fully attempt to explain the next 40 hours of our lives, let me just explain what was SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. After Maastricht we were supposed to fly from Brussels back to Pisa (train to Florence), change our luggage and depart that night FROM FLORENCE via Bus to Prague, with Bus2Alps. We even patted ourselves in the back when we planned this; we didn’t have to pack for 11 days!! We got to change luggage half way through break. WEEEELLLLL…. False. False. False. FAIL.  

Trying to mantain some glamour on
the trains. FAIL.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 10.25am from Brussels. The night before we got our train tickets for the 7.00 am train from Maastricht to Brussels Airport. This would put us at the Airport at 9.00 am, 1 hour and a half before our flight. PERFECT. We were flying Ryan Air so the night before we had packed our bags even tighter and were prepared for the layering challenge. Well, Ryan Air threw us a curve ball this time and it turns out THEY DO NOT FLY OUT OF THE BRUSSELS NATIONAL AIRPORT. Naturally. We arrived at the airport and when we started looking around for Ryan Air, we couldn’t find it. I walked up to someone and asked about Ryan Air and the lady replied (very calmly, I might add) “Oh no, Ryan Air flies from Charleroi, its about an hour bus ride from here”. WHHHHAAAATTTT!?!?!?!?!?.

            To get there we would have to take a train (go figure) to the station where the buses left from and from there, a bus to the other airport. F#$%^&*&^^k was all I could think of. So far, Fall Break had been to good to be true. Our plan was waaaay to ambitious and included one to many means of transportation for it to work flawlessly, I later decided. I immediately went into panic mode and Lizz whipped out her computer to start figuring out what we could do. We realized there was NO WAY we were making it in time to the other airport to make our flight and there was not another Ryan Air flight that got us in to Florence (factoring in the train from Pisa, naturally) to make the Bus2Alps bus to Prague. PANIC, PANIC, PANIC. We had already paid for Prague so WE HAD TO MAKE IT.

Unplanned pit stop in
Kolon. 

            I started going from counter to counter asking in every single possible airline about flights to Florence, Pisa, Bologna, Rome and ultimately Prague. All flights were about 400 Euros. Again, PANIC, PANIC, And PANIC. I ran down to the trains counter and found what our most logical solution was. Training straight from Brussels to Prague. The train would put us there at 9.30 am (Friday morning, mind you, 24 hours later), which was the estimated time of arrival for Bus2Apls anyways, so we decided to go with that. Isabelle decided that she was going to go back to Maastricht and skip Prague and just try to make it back to Florence at one point. So then there were three.

            We collected our things and took the train to Brussels Sud, where all the international trains leave from. There, we set up a little fort and got some food. We each got an entire pack of crackers so we could snack on them….. considering we had a 12-hour train ride ahead of us. We also took this time to….freshen up a bit, because since we thought we would be back in Florence by noon, we were all wearing the same clothes we wore out the night before (we decided re-packing at 6 am was a bad idea, so opted for this. BIGGEST.REGRET.EVER.).  Thank god my toiletries were accessible…. I do not think washing my face and brushing my teeth ever felt so good.

After about 5 hours at the train station (and finding out from a very nice man that this happens to people ALL THE TIME, and that unless you were born and raised in Brussels you wouldn’t really know there are two airports) we jumped on our first train: Brussels to Köln, in Germany.

YUP. This is how we felt.

            In Köln, we had about 3 more hours of waiting that became about 4 and a half because our Köln to Prague train was late. Of course, the ONE train in the entire station that is late. We had (a lot) of food and then waited outside in the cold for our train. While waiting though, the screen said something quite troubling…. There were THEE TRAINS that had the same train number as ours, same departure time and same platform…. WHAT WAS GOING ON?

            A very nice man from England explained to us that this train stopped in Berlin (and quite possibly every other city in Germany…. I can say I have seen all the train stations), where it would then SPLIT UP into three. One third of the train went to Copenhagen, one third to Prague and I think the last destination was a city was in Russia. GREEAATT. The last thing I needed was to be in the wrong compartment and end up in Denmark or Russia.

Water, saltines and cheese.
Our food for about 40 hours. 

This was quite stressful. We finally got on the train at around midnight. Between the three of us we probably asked the people that worked the train 20+ times if we were in the right compartment. We were. It was kind of cool to see how they split up the train in Berlin and after stopping in about 4 more German cities, I finally started seeing some Czech looking writing. We were in the Czech Republic!             YEY. By the time we made it to the Prague central station, got out some money and got a cab to our hostel, it was 12.30.  We made it. 36 hours after we had left Maastricht.  That shower in Prague was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

Thank god Prague was awesome and so worth all this trouble. 

Signed, sealed, delivered. MOVING HERE.

Perfect Three

After a 15-minute walk, our lovely friend Yelle dropped us off at hour hostel. It was actually a very nice hostel, considering we had our very own bathroom! We meet up with Hank and Mallie that night and had a lovely reunion. We ended up joining the Halloween festivities bunny ear-less and were EXTREMELY MAD to find everyone dressed up. COULD HAVE GOTTEN SOME GOOD USE OUT OF THOSE DAMN BUNNY EARS. It was awesome to see more friends from DU and it definitely made the three trains worth it though.

Playday at the park

Maastricht is a small town in Holland that is not particularly famous for much, which is why it was nice to be in a place where we could just walk around, explore and relax, as opposed to running from one big touristy thing to the next. I tell you, walking along streets with ZERO tourists felt so nice. It was a nice break from the dodging of people we have to put up with in Florence on a daily basis.

            We meet some of Mallie and Hank’s friends and all we could do was laugh when they told us their favorite people were the Italians. So far, we were getting some pretty good use out of our Italian on Fall Break. We also meet some really nice people from Milan at our hostel… what can I tell you? Italy REALLY missed us apparently.

Bike ride!

Future residents of Belgium

            The first day in Maastricht we had an awesome time just walking around and hanging out at this really pretty park, enjoying the fall foliage. After living in Florence for 4 months, never again will I take trees and grass for granted.  I also got to have a lovely dinner with Mallie and just hang out. Our last day in Maastricht, we slept in a little and then we rented bikes and went on an absolutely awesome adventure. We basically biked into Belgium. HOW COOL IS THAT? It was a lovely bike ride along fields of grass, cows and some more fall foliage. Lizz and I decided we were moving there. Laura had to register for school and SOMEHOW she managed to figure out the map Mallie gave her and found us, in the middle of nowhere Belgium. 

Turns out, I am NOT the City Girl thought I was; I could get used to this whole biking and walking thing. In case anyone was wondering my kids will be growing up in the beautiful countryside of Belgium, surrounded by scenery and greens, close to the water for those hot summer days. Their wacky aunts Lizz, Laura and Mallie will be living within biking distance, considering they are all on board for this plan to relocate. Now the only things we need are: 1.     Future husbands who share this ambition 2.     To learn French and/or Dutch 3.     A hotel Lizz and I can take over and manage, while Laura and Mallie tend to the animals and the plants. Not a lot... right???? 

We had one more really fun night out with Mallie, Hank and their friends. Laura and I got to wear our bunny ears, since there was another Halloween party going on and it may or may not have ended in Lizz and I having an ice cream fight…. So normal. The next morning, we were off to continue with our travels. THIS we would later find out would be the biggest “learning experience” we would have during fall break.