Pink Palace Beach

View of the Island

Me on my ATV

The Pink Palace

Pots they smash on Easter

Part of the Easter Parade

View from our room

Ferry ride

Corfu, Greece!

So for Easter weekend instead of going to Rome, we decided that we wanted to go to Corfu. Corfu is an island just off of the mainland in Greece. It is gorgeous there. We left early thursday morning and took a Coach bus down to the port of Ancona (it took about 4 hours to get there). Once we got to the port we got on the overnight cruise ship to go to igoumenitsa, greece. The ship was nice. The program that we went through bought out all of the seats on the boat so that we would have a place to sleep. But we were smart and decided to upgrade to a cabin on the ship which turned out to be a great choice. The cabin was real small, but what do you expect on a boat, atleast we didn't have to sleep on the floor like a lot of other people. The boat ride was about 13 hours and we arrived in greece early friday morning. But wait we were not done traveling yet. Once we got off the big boat we had to get on another smaller ferry which took us to corfu. That ferry lasted about an hour and a half. This is when the sun started to come out. After we got off the little boat we got on a bus for another hour. The bus ride was crazy. Corfu is very hilly; the bus was driving up there hills and twisting and turning the whole way up and down. The veiws were amazing though. The bus took us to the infamous Pink Palace Hostel. The hostel was built on a hill (shocking) and it had several building scattered all the way down to the water and it was pink (again, shocking). The hostel remninded me of one giant fraternity house, it was a constant party for the entire time we were there.
Friday afternoon when we got to the Pink Palace, we immediately went up to our room, went out on our balcony, looked at the amazing view of the beach, and then went right down to the beach. We spent a few hours relaxing by the water then took a taxi into Corfu Town and did a little shopping. We met some really nice Greek people. We talked to one lady who was telling us about Easter in Greece. She was saying that a lot of Greeks come to Corfu for Easter (which was really obvious). She was telling us about the parades that they have (some of which we got to see) and how on Easter it is tradition for them to smash pots outside of their windows. Then she proceeded to tell us that we were the first tourists that she has seen this season. We definately stood out too; we were the only ones in shorts and t-shirts, but whatever, we were hot. So after we finished shopping we met our nice taxi man and he took us back to the hostel. That night was apparently toga night at the Pink Palace, so we got our pink togas and got all dressed up and went to to the Palladium (their dinner/ night club at the hostel). The dinners were pretty good and the dining hall had a great view of the ocean. After the toga party we headed back to our rooms because we needed to get up early to get in line to sign up for the ATV safari.
Saturday morning we were second in line to sign up for the ATV safari. For those of you who don't know what an ATV is, it is a 4-wheeler bike. This safari was one of the highlights of my semester abroad. We drove up all of the hilly roads and got to see some amazing views of the island. We stopped about 3 or 4 times during our ride. One was to see a beach and relax for a while, then we at lunch way up on the top of a hill, then we made another stop where we got to look over the island, and our final stop was at a small cafe which had an ocean veiw. I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous at first to get on the ATV, but after about 30 seconds I loved it. There were some areas were we got to go real fast and other areas where we went off-roading...SO MUCH FUN. There was a point for about 20 minutes where I was lost by myself on a mountain in Greece, with no idea where to go. I don't want to explain the whole thing, but I met some nice people that pointed me in the right direction and I was able to meet up with the rest of the group and no one knew I was gone haha. Other than that it was unbelievable! That night we went back down to the Palladium for the same thing minus the togas. Sunday morning we rented kayaks and paddled around the island for a little while then chilled on the beach until we needed to start our journey back home. The journey back home started off a little chaotic and pretty much stayed that way til we got back to florence. We got on a super crowded bus to go to the small ferry. The small ferry was also super crowded and loud and hot. Then we got on our big ferry and they somehow messed up our cabin tickets, but that got straightened out so we were able to get our cabin again. Apparently that night there was a storm out at sea, (which would explain all of the rocking on the boat) so it took us a lot longer to get back to italy. And there were some big waves out there. Once we got on our bus we thought we were good but then we hit traffic and we were in it for a while, but all was good because we just watched movies and ate food. We got back in Florence at about 10 monday night to a home cooked meal courtesy of my housemate hannah!

Sorry there isn't alot of pictures from spring break...you will just have to wait til I get home to see more!




Renia Sofia Musuem in Madrid

Notre Dame in Paris

Louvre in Paris

Louvre

Mona Lisa

Louvre

Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Eiffel Tower

Spring Break!

okay so first off I would just like to say that I am an idiot because I forgot to charge my camera before I left for spring break, BUT I am going to get some pictures from kate later, so I will put them up then.


The first day and a half of spring break was spent traveling...we left florence at 9 am friday morning and didn't get to our hostel in madrid til about 7am saturday. We took a train from Florence to Pisa, flew from Pisa to Alicante, Spain...waited at the Alicante bus station for about 6 hours for the next available bus to come and take us to madrid. It sounds bad, but the time actually went by a lot quicker than I thought it would. When we got to Madrid we could get into our hostel until noon so we camped outside of a startbucks and watched the sunrise while we played "what animal am I think of" haha. We stayed at the Mad hostel in Madrid. It wasn't that bad for a hostel and it had a small breakfast so I was happy. We booked a person suite but since there were only 5 of us was had a random person stay with us, but we never saw him and he left real early on morning. We visited the Renia Sofia Museum, which is filled with a bunch of contemporary art. The museum had a rooftop terrace, so that was cool to look over the city. People in Spain were really nice. We went to this small spanish resturant for dinner both nights we were there. We basically ate a lot of seafood, bread and vegetables... it was great! They have a big market in Madrid, similiar to the outdoor markets that they have in Florence. It's basically a big flea market with crazy spanish people and tourists. I have to admit that this is I am not that into the markets in Europe, too crazy for me. After the market we went to a not so crazy place, the Jardin Botannico. This was a big garden, similiar to a park, with different pieces of art placed all throughout. I like the garden alot more than I thought I would. It was very peaceful which was good because we have been living the city life for a while now. Later that night after we ate at the spanish resturant I talked about earlier, we found a small spanish bar where we sat and drank mojhito's.
After a few days in Madrid, we went back to Alicante for a few days. We were going to take a bus back to Alicante, but someone came up with the great idea to rent a car (I think it was anna and mike, but I am not sure). I have never enjoyed renting a car more. We went to the airport in Madrid to rent the car. Since we are only 20 there was only a small list of cars that we could choose from. We ended up picking a Volkswagon Polo, which was the cutest little car. The Polo, however is not really build for 5 people and a whole lot of luggage but we made it work. Anna was the only one who could drive because it was a standard. We also got a GPS which was the best decision ever. Anna named the GPS Judy, but we all called it different names. It was a little choatic at first trying to figure out the roads, but Anna and Mike made it work (only a small amount of fighting hahaha). The ride was about 5 hours and we drove through the countryside of Spain. I feel like I laughed for 2 out of the 5 hours, we had a lot of fun. There was not much out there but it was so beautiful. At one point we passed a bunch of wind turbines, SOO COOL. I stole kates camera and took a bunch of pictures. We made a quick stop at a rest area to grab food and go to the bathroom. We saw the best sunset at this rest stop. When we went to get back on the highway, Judy (the GPS) took us some weird way through this little Spanish town on the side of a mountain. It was really cool to see a different side of Spain other than the city. About 500 roundabouts later we arrived at our hotel.
Our hotel in Alicante had a view of the beach! Alicante is known for its beaches, too bad the weather wasn't good enough to go to the beach:( It didn't rain, but it was cloudy for the few days that we were there. There were so many beaches and it would have been great if it was summer time. We did get to walk along the beaches though. We also realized quick that we should have kept the rental car while we were in Alicante because it would have been a lot easier to see all the places that we wanted to see, but we still had fun. We went to Castillo Santa Barbara, which is a huge castle on a hill that overlooks the water. You have to walk through this long tunnel and then take an elevator up to the top. We wandered around there for a while. The views were amazing, I could have sat up there for a while.
In the center of Alicante is a port called Puerta de Mar. It is like a big marina with lots of bars, resturants, beaches, boats, and palm trees. We walked along this strip of bars/ resturants that was surrounded by the water. We ate a one of the resturants on this strip one of the nights. I got seafood papaya and it was delicous! I wish I got more! The food was good, but our waiter was kind of rude, but whatever we never have to see him again. Wednesday we went to Villajoyosa, which is a small town outside of Alicante. We wanted to go on a safari, but when we got off at the tram stop in the town they told us that we needed to take a taxi up the mountain. We didn't know this beforehand and did not want to pay the taxi fee to go up there. So we wandered around and found the best chicken place ever! Kate and I split a chicken and anna and mike split another chicken. The chicken was cooked perfectly and it had some kind of spice that made it taste sooo good! So even though the safari didn't work out, the chicken made up for it! That night we went to an Irish pub to watch Barcelona play soccer. The lady at the pub was super nice. I also got a free drink because I bet mike in the soccer game and I WON!
We left Alicante Thursday mourning to go to Paris! I forgot to mention our experience with Ryanair. Ryanair was the airline that we flew on for our three flights. They have strict weight restrictions on bags. We checked 2 bags between the 5 of us. The checked bags couldn't be more that 15 kg and the carry-on bag couldn't be more than 10 kg. We had to do a lot of rearranging in the airports to get our bags to be under the weight limit. I had about 5 shirts in my pockets and clothes hanging from my backpack, but with each flight we got better and better at it! Okay back to Paris. We flew into Beauvais Airport, which is just outside of the city so we had to take a shuttle in. As soon as we got to the city we were welcomed with a thunderstorm haha. But it ended pretty quickly. We also got to experience the crazy Paris metro during rush hour. That was a bit much at first, but we got the hang of it quick. We stayed at the Oops! Hostel which was really nice for a hostel. It had a great breakfast, so thats all I cared about. We had a few other roommates here but they were both really nice. One was a Mexican boy and the other was a girl from Argentina. The girl was really cool, we talked to her for a while. The first night that we were there we went to a small French resturant. The lady only spoke French and we spoke no French...that was fun. The food was really good though.
The first thing that we went to see in Paris was the Eiffel Tower. We had to wait in line for 2 hours just to enter and the weather was not so good that morning. There were also a lot of gypsies and vendors trying to sell us stuff. I counted about 70 people that came up to us or walked by us trying to sell something. It was kind of annoying. We took an elevator to the top of the tower, which was really cool. It was freaky being able to see everything as we went up. The veiw at the top was worth the wait. After that trip we needed a break so we went to a chinese resturant near there. Later that night we found a fondoe place for dinner. The waiter spoke english here and we did some research on french so the communication was much better. I was so full after that meal.
Saturday, we visited the Louvre and Notre Dame. The Louvre was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. There was no way you could see all of that in one day. We did however get to see the Mona Lisa, which is a lot smaller than you would think. After the Louvre we went to Notre Dame, which is the main cathedral in Paris. It was huge and it was free to get in! There was a long line to get in, but we were sneaky and cut some asian tourists while they were taking pictures, they had no idea hahaha. That night for dinner, I tried some escargot. It tasted like a clam, it was good! Then I had some questionable duck dish as an appetizer. But my chicken was good.
Sunday we traveled back to Florence! I am sure that there was a lot that I forgot to mention, but I think I hit all of the major points. If I think of anything else I will add it in!
Pictures will be coming soon!

Colosseum

View from St. Angelo's Castle

St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican City

Leonardo Da Vinci Museum

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

When in Rome...

Before I start talking about all of the things that I saw in Rome, I would just like to say that I didn't even see half of the things that Rome has to offer. Our trip started early friday morning and we arrived in Rome by mid morning. We got off the bus and immediately started off with a tour. Two of the main historical hotspots that we saw were the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Both amazing although the Trevi Fountain beat out the steps. For those of you who don't know, the Trevi Fountain is the fountain were you can throw a coin in and your wish will come true. If you throw in a second coin you will fall in love with a Roman boy and if you throw in a third coin you will get married in Rome. I wish you could skip the fall in love with a Roman boy one because I would love to get married in Rome, but I have yet to meet a good italian boy haha. The fountain itself was so beautiful and elaborate. I probably could have just sat there for hours and just stared at it. After a quick lunch and gelato run, but continued around Rome. There was so much that they told us on the tour but the one thing that I remember was what the tour guide told us about tourists. As we were about to cross the street our tou guide said " there are two types of tourists, those that walk quickly and those that are dead". I think I laughed for like 15 mins because it is so true. Later that day after we checked into our hotel we had a free afternoon to do whatever we wanted. I finally found boots that I liked and that fit me so of course I needed to buy them. My shoe size isn't that common in Italy. This purchase made me real happy! Later we popped in to the Da Vinci museum and wandered around for a little while. That night we went to a great salad bar and I got a salad with loads of seafood on the top of it and it was great! It was one of the first nights were I haven't had tons of carbs in my meal. After dinner we did some more wandering in the streets of Rome. I guess that weekend Scotland was playing Rome in rugby so I saw more guys in kilts than I would have ever wanted to see. I believe that Scotland lost becuase there were some very angry Scotish men out in the bars that night haha. The next morning we got up pretty early to go to St. Peter's Basilica and Castel St. Angelo. Saturday was by far the nicest weather I have experienced since being abroad. The sun was out and shining and the temperature was probably mid to high 60s. It was gorgeous! The weather was nice but not as nice as the Catherdral. I have never seen a more beautiful church in my life. We spent over and hour just walking around and our tour guide was explaining all the statues and art in the church. Everything had a small story behind it. The church was overwhelming, I probably took like one hundred pictures here. If you ever go to Rome you must go to Vatican City and see the Cathedral, you cannot go to Rome and not see it! After the Basilica, we went to see a castle just outside of Vatican City. I guess there is a long wall that connects Vatican City to the Castle and if there was ever any trouble that Pope would take a secret passage to go to the Castle to be safe. On top of the Castle, there were some great views of the city and there were even better because it was so nice out. This was the last stop on our guided tour for the day, but we were not done exploring. I figured since I was in Rome it was completely necessary to go see the Cistine Chapel. There was quite a long walk through museums in Vatican City to get to the Cistine Chapel, but it was worth it. The art was amazing in the Chapel. We couldn't take any pictures or else I would put them up. We couldn't talk in there, the guards keep telling us to shhhhh! Later that night we went to a great appertivo place and then explored the Roman nightlife. We ended up near the Tiber River at some bar with many Italians and it was really fun. Sunday was our last day in Rome, but it was a packed day. There was a flea market in one of the piazza's that morning and we were told that they had a lot of really good deals, so we got up early to go check it out. There were a ton of people, but the market was really cool. I didn't get much, the only thing that I got were come antique post cards which were really cool. I think there was more junk than good stuff, but it was an experience. The afternoon consisted of a bus tour around another area in Rome. I wish I could tell you more about the bus tour but I might have fallen asleep, I was really tired. But I was not too tired to see our last major historical site. THE COLOSSEUM! It was crazy to be at the Colosseum. It was huge! I can't even imagine what it was like when it was all in one piece. I guess they took out some of the stones to help make St. Peter's. The whole thing was like one giant ruin, but it was awesome. It was a great way to end our trip! I need to go back to Rome, there was so much that I didn't see. One side note: we went to get a bottle of water at a snack shack outside the Colosseum and the price was 4.50 so obviously we didn't get it. But one of the ladies in our program said that if she went up and asked they would charge her less so I told her to go see. When see went up it was only like 1.50 for her. Those Italians are out to get tourists!

Veiw from Fiesole