Weekend in ROMA

Day 19, Friday, 6/8

Today we all woke up pretty early to head to the airport! Our flight left around noon and we arrived in Rome around 2pm! Their was a group of about 15 of us on the same flight, so as soon as we arrived at the airport in Rome 8 of us got a shuttle to take us directly to the Vatican! We wanted to start sight seeing immediately, because there was so much we wanted to see and so little time to see it! 

As soon as we got there we decided to go with a tour group to see the Vatican, the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Ballisca. The lady we bought the tour from gave us a good deal and we all paid under 30 Euros for this awesome tour of all 3 places, including our entry fees to all 3 as well! 

And when we got to the tour part of our group from Barcelona was waiting to go on the same tour with the same group as us! Such a small world! But we felt like it was meant to happen because this happens to us a lot. We started at the Vatican, which was absolutely beautiful and had so many crazy works of art by Michael Angelo, and some very famous artists of that time. 

The Globe

After that we went into the Sistine Chapel, which was such a holy and gorgeous place to be in. The ceiling was painted by Michael Angelo, which according to history was not by his choice. The Pope at the time, which the people called the Terrible Pope forced him to paint the ceiling of the chapel against his will, and he also created the tomb for this pope as well. Just an interesting fact I learned from my tour! 

One thing that was kinda weird about the Chapel was that some guards working at certain times would allow you to take pictures and others would not. Of course ours would not, but a lot of people were taking them anyways! Which I don’t blame them, because the reasoning for not allowing pictures is just because the guards want to take authority. It is not something they are ordered to do, which I think it ridiculous. I snuck a picture, but it is a little blurry! 

After this Chapel we headed to St. Peter’s Ballisca. It was another church that was absolutely breath taking inside! 

We went from here to check into our hostel finally! Which ended up actually being really nice, and we stayed in a private 4-bed room.  This was a lot better than sharing with people we didn’t know like we did in Paris! We got there, and I showered and got ready for the night! We were all starving at this point, so we decided to take advantage of the free pizza our hostel gave us that night. It wasn’t great pizza, but it was free! Then we decided to do the Pub Crawl our hostel was offering, that went to 2 different places. We met so many people from all over doing this and made a lot of new friends, so it was awesome. I really enjoyed it!

Day 20, Saturday, 6/9

We got an early start today with some cheap breakfast at our hostel and then we all headed to the bike tour we had booked! Our tour was at 9am and about 16 of us were going on the same tour, so we had to get there on time! On the way there it rain a little bit and we were so nervous we wouldn’t be able to go, but it ended up being okay. 

We had to split into 2 groups with different tour guides because there was so many of us! We all practiced riding bikes around for awhile because a lot of use hadn't rode a bike in years, including myself. So that was interesting, haha. But after a little bit we got the hang out it. Our tour guide's name was Bruno and he was awesome. He told us SO much history and was a great guide through the city of Rome. We got to see so many things and back streets and buildings that we never would have otherwise. We went with Rome City Bike Tours, so I recommend them in you are going to Rome! Some of the major sites we got to see: The Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Parliament, Collesium, etc. 

Our goofy ponchos when it started raining! Everyone was staring at us. We looked like complete tourists!

For lunch we had pizza, pasta, and wine. It was wonderful. 

Then we walked around Roma for a while, and got gelato. Then we headed home, showered, napped, and got ready for the night! A bunch of us went to dinner at a place near our hostel. We had wine, more pasta, and I got tiramisu to top it off. I was in a great company, so it was a great dinner. 

After dinner we all went to the Spanish Steps, got some wine, and just enjoyed each others company. It was a wonderful way to end our last night in Rome! We also went to the Trevi Fountain again, just to see it in the night time. And it was gorgeous, as I would have imagined.   

Sunday 6/10

Today we woke woke up really early, packed our backpacks, ate breakfast, and headed to the Coliseum for our 10:15 tour! We got there early, so we were able to walk around and explore for ourselves a little bit, which was nice.    

The tour was pretty short compared to a lot of the tours we have been on, but we were glad that it was because we were kind of burnt out on tours at this point. It gave us the basics about the Coluseum and what exactly took place there. It was so amazing to think about how old it was and the things that used to take place there. You literally had to envision it in your head to get the full feeling about how it used to be and what it used to look like. A lot of it actually reminded me of The Hunger Games.

After this a few of us got gelato, and then we all walked over to the Roman Forum and all the beautiful gardens you could walk through, because this was included in our ticket price for the Coliseum!  When we walked into the area there was beautiful gardens everywhere, beautiful architecture, and trees, etc. I fell in LOVE with this area as we walked through it and we all were in awe of what was in front of us. We walked through this whole area for as long as we could before it was getting close to time to leave for the airport!

After this we hurried to grab some lunch. I shared a pizza and pasta with Mackenzie, and it was by far the best meal I had in Rome. Which was great since it was the last meal we would have there. They also had tons of Gelato at this place, so I had to have some more! I mean this may be the only time I'm ever in Rome, so I think that makes having it twice in one day okay :) 

After this we got picked up by our shuttle driver and headed to the airport!We had a bumpy flight, so I wasn't able to relax much, but I was happy to land to say the least. Then we headed back to the apartment, made some dinner with some of the roomies, took showers, unpacked, and had a chill night!

Days 14-18 in Barcelona

Day 14, Sunday 6/3

Today we all woke up pretty early to head to the airport! The flight went well and flew by pretty fast. When we finally got into Barcelona it took awhile to get back to the apartment and we were all starving! We stopped for food at pans when we got into the city and then headed home and passed out! We were exhausted from the trip.

I stayed in tonight because I was just way too tired to go out but a lot of the girls and a few guys went out! But I had some much-needed sleep! :)

Days 15-18  

6/4-6/7

Monday: School, beach, and went out with a small group! Oh and bought some fake ray bans near the beach that look just like the real ones and were only 20 Euros! So that was a good buy =)

Tuesday: We didn’t have school today because we went to visit the Barcelona stock exchange and parliament. First we visited the stock exchange and after this we had free time for a little bit. Myself and some others went with our program director Shah, and Lynn who is also in charge of us here for a short tour around some areas we hadn’t been before with shops, restaurants, etc. After that we went to lunch, which was decent food. 

 Dr. Shah lounging at lunch!

Then we headed to the parliament for our tour. Both were interesting to see, but our tour guides were a little hard to understand at times. One spoke decent English, but the other didn’t at all and it had to be translated the whole time, which was time consuming. After all of this I went back home and hung out for a bit and stayed in this night!

Wednesday: Today we went to school, went shopping, and went out to dinner at a Mexican food restaurant with Shah and our whole group! 

 

Mackenzie and I at dinner! Love this girl, new life long friend! :)

The food was pretty good, but the margaritas weren’t great. I feel like the places here make completely different margaritas than we drink in the states! At the few places they even sell them anyways…because they are kind of hard to find. 

After dinner we all went and got ready and then went out for Tess’ 21^st birthday! 

Thursday: Today started off with school, then was followed with some showering, eating, and napping. After this Mackenzie, Morgan, Audrey, Katie and I went to La Sagrada Familia, which is an amazing church here in Barcelona that has been in construction since the 1800’s and is a very famous church. It was absolutely beautiful inside and out! 

I just felt like I was inside of a church when I walked in there, like a feeling inside of me that knew I was there. It is hard to explain, but it was a great feeling. 

 When the doors close it is the lord's prayer!

Afterwards we all went to Subway across the street, and it was AMAZING! We had missed it so much and we actually felt like we were eating semi healthy for once, which is really hard in Barcelona! Then we all went home, relaxed for a bit, packed for our weekend in Rome, and planned for our travels for the weekend!

Weekend in Paris!

June 1st-3rd 

Friday 6/1

Today we woke up really early to go take the metro and the train to the airport! Luckily some of the girls had left the previous night, so they told us exactly what to do and where to go. Thank goodness because we would have been so lost if not! We got to the airport with an hour or so to chill before we had to board the place. Security here is a lot more relaxed than in America, so it doesn’t take too long to get through when you are traveling from one European country to another. The flight was pretty smooth, but I think I was the only one of out 8 of us girls who stayed awake for most of the 2-hour flight! I just don’t sleep on planes very well, because I don’t typically like to fly. It freaks me out for my life to be in someone else’s hands like that. And probably because it just seems crazy to me that you can fly from one place to another in such a short period of time!

After we arrived in Paris we decided to get a cab to our hostel and grab lunch in that area of the city until we could check in! When we got over in that area we had about an hour before check in, so it was perfect timing! We walked around until we found a place that looked appealing and when we walked in we found another group of Americans immediately who were also studying abroad in Spain! So that was a strange, but cool coincidence. Then we all sat down and we had no idea what to get! None of us knew even the slightest bit of French, but luckily the table next to us had something that looked really good, so the majority of us just ordered that! It ended up being a potato dish of these mashed potatoes, beef, cheese, and some type of green sauce. It came with a salad as well! It was a great first meal in Paris. Especially with all the random foods we have been eating in Spain.

Then we went back to the hostel to get settled in and freshen up a little bit before we explored the city. The hostel we stayed in was pretty nice! We had an eight bed all girls’ room with 4 of us and 4 other random girls! We didn’t really talk to them much though. Three of them were friends and we think they were French because that’s what it sounded like when they spoke to each other. They said a few things to us, but not much, but they spoke English to us, so it was awkward when they would speak French to each other. But for the most part we weren’t in our rooms much anyways, so it wasn’t too bad! The beds were bunk beds with a curtain over them so you could have privacy, and there were storage lockers underneath the bed that you could lock all of your things in as long as you had your own lock, so we used those! They also provided you with a towel, a pillow, and a blanket. The hostel was also a restaurant and bar downstairs, and there was always people coming and going, so it was easy to meet people there from all over the world, which was pretty neat. They had free breakfast in the mornings too, which we took total advantage of. Plus drink specials at night in the bar and the club downstairs.

But enough about the hostel! After we were all ready we decided to try to take the metro to the Eifel Tower, because that was the first thing we really wanted to see in Paris! The metro in Paris was a lot more dirty than the one in Barcelona, and we weren’t familiar with it, so we were a little bit creeped out. Then we got off at the wrong stop and walked around for a while, but didn’t see it anywhere. So we asked around, but barely anyone could speak English or they just pretended that they couldn’t. So we just decided to take a cab, because we were tired of wasting the little time we had in Paris on trying to find our way around by the metro! Once we got there we took pictures and were just amazed by actually seeing it in person. It’s a little bit on an unreal feeling to actually be standing in front of one of the most famous monuments in the entire world.

After we admired it for a bit we decided to walk around nearby and check things out. We found a place across from the tower that sold crepes, so we got some chocolate crepes and cappuccinos! 

After this there was a boat tour place in front of the crepe stand, so we decided to check that out! It was only 12 Euros for an hour tour down the Seine River and to see the view from the river of all the famous monuments and buildings in Paris. So of course we decided to take advantage of that! Especially since we had time to kill before our sunset tour of the Eifel tower we had booked at 8:15.

The river cruise was perfect and very beautiful! The river was so nice and the views of the city were amazing. One really neat thing we got to go underneath on the boat was the Love/locks Bridge! It’s a bridge in Paris where people come and put locks on with their names on it. It’s mostly couple’s names, which I thought was really cute!

After the cruise on the river 2 of the girls got in line for the Eifel Tower, because they didn’t book their tickets in advance, and the rest of us found a place that sold champagne and bought a bottle to drink on the grass by the tower! It was really fun and just an unreal experience that every girl dreams about honestly.

Our tour started at 8:15 and we met with our guide in front of the south side of the tower. He was a quirky, skinny, and lanky Irish guy with a red shirt and blue pants on! He was so awesome though and just so nice. He was from Belfast, Ireland, but was in France going to school to learn French! Giving tours of the Eifel Tower is his side job while he is in school there. He started the tour off by giving a brief history about the tower and explaining how the tour was going to work. After this we walked over to skip the huge line of people to go to the elevator of the tower. Booking this in advance was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! Waiting in that long line and wasting your time in Paris in line is not something anyone wants to do! Luckily the other girls we were with got through in about an hour though, so they got pretty lucky. So if you do forget to book it, go at night!

Going up the elevator to the 2^nd floor was pretty awesome because the elevators are slanted up the side of the tower so you are going up at a diagonal angle, almost like you are on a roller coaster. Once we got to the 2^nd floor we got to walk around and take in the view of the entire city and all the famous monuments. We took lots of pictures and then met back up with our tour group! From this point he led us to different points on the 2^nd floor and pointed out various monuments, what they are, their history, and random stories about them. It was pretty neat learning about all the history in Paris. After all of this our guide gave us the opportunity to either go all the way up the Eifel tower or we could all just go back down and that was the end of our tour. He also gave a us a sheet of paper with tons of local great places to eat, which we were really excited about because we had no idea about where to go!

Oh and I forgot to mention the lighting up of the Eifel tour at 10pm! For 5 minutes the Eifel tour sparkles, and it does this every half hour until midnight I believe! It was so pretty and something you should definitely see in Paris! 

Video of the Eiffel Tower sparkling! Most amazing thing!

After this we were all ready for dinner and the tour guide gave us a list of restaurants to go to! We chose this fondue place called Le Refuge Des Fondues! It was so awesome.  We walked in and it was a tiny little restaurant with 2 long tables in it with a very local feel! You sit down next to everyone at the long tables even if you don’t know them and the people next to us happened to be a couple from New York and there was also another big group of study abroad students in there as well. The waiter immediately brought us 6 small glasses of this wine and a small plate of appetizers like small pepperonis, pickles, cheese, and olives. After that we told him we wanted cheese fondue and he brought out these fondue pots full of cheese and bread to dip it in! After that he asked if we wanted white or red wine and brought them out in baby bottles. It was the most random setting but had an awesome feel to it. There was also writing all over the walls from people who have been there over the years.

We also got a plate of meat and you cooked it yourself in the boiling oils and water. It was steak and we also got potatoes! We met some French people who spoke English who we talked to for awhile! After this we all went back to the hostel and had a drink and then went to bed!

Day 13, Saturday in Paris 6/2

Today we woke up, got ready, and had our free breakfast at the hostel! It was cereal, bread with jam or Nutella, and coffee or juice! After this we took a cab to the place where you could buy hop on and hop off bus tickets. We wanted to do this so we could see all the big monuments in person and not have to pay for a cab everywhere or figure out the metro! The first stop we got off at was the Louvre! We decided to go in and see the Mona Lisa, because we just felt like it was something you had to see! We walked around for a while just to see everything and all of the artwork was amazing!

After this we hopped back on the bus and wanted to go see the Notre Dame, so we got off right next to it and we were hungry for lunch, so we decided to go to a place nearby. We found a good place where we could sit outside! I got a chicken sandwich with French fries and it was really good! Although our water cost about 5 Euros for a bottle, which was ridiculous and they don’t ever tell you how much it is going to cost because they know you are a tourist and they can take advantage of you. But overall the food was good and we enjoyed the atmosphere.

We walked over to the Notre Dame after this and took pictures, and then hopped back on the bus to go to the Arc De Triumph. We got here and took more pictures then decided to walk around and check out the shopping! We went into the Louis Vutton, which was HUGE and had extremely high security! I had never been in such a big Louis Vutton, but we were in Paris…haha.

Then we shopped around a little more until we went to a bakery that Audrey wanted to go to! It was super cute and they had tons of desserts! The ladies that worked there were wearing the cutest little outfits too. They wouldn’t let you take pictures inside though…I guess they don’t want anyone to steal their creations or something. 

By this time we were all pretty tired of sight seeing and decided to go back to the hotel and get ready for Moulin Rouge! It was fun getting all dressed up and we all went to dinner before! The show was so interesting. There was a little nudity, but that was expected. The outfits were so extravagant and the performances were so unique! We also got bottles of champagne while watching the show as well. The whole experience was pretty neat.

That about wraps up our experience in Paris! It was a great trip and good to see everything but I think 2 days was just enough before we were ready to go back to Barcelona!

Day 14, Sunday 6/3

Today we all woke up pretty early to head to the airport! The flight went well and flew by pretty fast. When we finally got into Barcelona it took awhile to get back to the apartment and we were all starving! We stopped for food when we got into the city and then headed home and passed out! We were exhausted from the trip.

 This picture about sums up our day....hahah

I stayed in tonight because I was just way too tired to go out but a lot of the girls and a few guys went out! But I had some much-needed sleep! :)

Day 10 and 11!

Wednesday 5/30/12

Today was pretty uneventful, because I was starting to get sick! I think it was just my allergies acting up with a combination of eating really fatty foods while I have been here and not getting enough sleep!

After school I came home and took some allergy medicine and took a nap for a few hours to try and get better! A bunch of the other girls went shopping, but I just wanted to try to feel better before our trip to Paris this weekend!

After I woke up Tess and Jess had called me and they picked up some pasta sauce and bread from a pasta place, so we decided to make some dinner together. It was the best dinner we had made so far! Not that we have made dinner much, because it’s so hard to find time to cook here and everyone always wants to go out to eat! But dinner was yummy and after this we all had to start studying! I had 2 tests on Thursday, so I stayed up pretty late studying for my tests!

Thursday 5/31/12

Today I had both of my tests and I was starting to feel better after taking allergy medicine thank God! After our tests we all wanted to go to the beach to relax for a while and celebrate being done with our first round of tests! A few people played sand volleyball for a long time, but myself, Mackenzie, and Morgan just relaxed on the beach! We laid out for along time and got massages from the Asian ladies that walk around on the beach giving massages for 5 Euros! It was so awesome and well worth it! I paid her an extra 5 Euros and she massaged my legs and feet too! Oh and we also went to a different part of the beach that we hadn’t been at before and it was a lot nicer! There were all these walk up restaurants where you could order food and drinks to go on the beach, so I got a fruit daiquiri!

After this we went home to get ready for dinner with everyone! After we were ready we all went to La Rambla and met up with more people from our study abroad group to go eat at this tapas place. Mackenzie and I shared a few different tapas! We got meat filled croquets, which are basically liked fried up with cheese and meat in them! We also got grilled vegetables and some papas with spicy sauce! And the sangria was really good here as well. 

After this we all went to go to the fountain show off of the Espana exit on the metro! It was absolutely beautiful! There was music playing during the show and the fountain lit up so many different and beautiful colors it was unreal. It’s definitely something everyone who comes to Barcelona NEEDS to see. They also played wonderwall by Oasis when we first got there, which was awesome because that it one of my all time favorite songs, and we were all singing it together! It was a perfect night!

After the fountain show we all went home and packed for Paris! We had to get up around 7 to get to the airport! So needless to say we didn’t get much sleep, but that’s pretty typical here haha.

 :)

Day 9

Tuesdays are excursion days so today after class we took a bus with everyone to the DANONE factory, which is the Dannon yogurt factory. We were supposed to go on a tour, but it ended up being really lame. We got there and we were in some sort of classroom setting where a lady with broken English tried to talk to us a little bit about the factory. Then she tried to show us a video, which was in Spanish so it was pretty pointless. Lynn, a lady who works for the educational services abroad who organized the trip tried to translate some of the random facts from the video into English, which was a little helpful. After this we all had to put on hospital like clothing over our clothing and hair nets that looked like shower caps to go on the tour of the packaging part of the factory. But when we got over there we only got to go in the hallway part, and not even the factory, so I guess there health code is just extremely crazy, because we didn’t get to go inside. After that we went back to the classroom and got lots of free yogurt! That was the best part of the tour, hands down! 

After this we all went to lunch together at a place that served lots of American food like burgers and fries! I got a Mexican burger which was supposed to have guacamole on it, but didn’t which was disappointing. The food was okay, but I think I could have taught them how to make better burgers than they made us. 

After this a few of us girls wanted to go shopping for a little bit, so we ventured off to find the mall! The mall looked like an old bull fighting arena, which was pretty interesting. I would have never known it was the mall if we wouldn’t have asked someone. So we shopped around for a little bit, and got a few things from Mango! I got a cute yellow top and some new white shorts!

Then we went outside to take the elevator to the top of the building to see the view! It was an amazing view of Barcelona and there was a beautiful fountain in the center of the street. There were also tons of restaurants up on the top to eat at, so we may have to go back and have a nice dinner there one night before we leave!

After that we all went home to hangout for a while and then went to sleep! We were all wiped out from our long day.

Day 8

This morning we had school and it was Memorial Day! So after class we decided to head to the beach and relax for a bit to celebrate! The beach was CRAZY busy this day because it is a holiday in Spain as well! Which I thought was kind of interesting, and most everything was closed for the holiday except for restaurants!

We laid out for a while and then decided to go eat at Rosa Negra for dinner, which is a Mexican restaurant that I was told to go to! It was literally just like Tex Mex and it was amazing! We were all dying to have some queso and chips because when we had nachos at other places it was literally just melted shredded cheese on some chips….haha so not the best. But this place was great and they had real margaritas! So that was great and we are definitely going back.

After that we found our way back home to the flat and got ready to go out! Tonight we decided to go to a local bar called George and Dragon. They had a crazy amount of beers on tap and it was a pretty cool place. I got a wheat beer that I can’t remember the name of but Paras recommended it. It was yummy though! We all hung out here for a while and there were about 20 of us! Which is sometimes good and sometimes bad because it is so hard to keep up with everyone. 

Then we decided to go to another bar, which was more like a club but we walked around for awhile and hadn’t found it yet so a few of us gave up and decided to go to McDonalds for a beer and a cheeseburger, just because we felt like we had to have a beer since they serve them there! The beer was awful, but at least I can say I drank a beer at McDonalds. After that we came home and passed out!