To Do List...

Someone remind me to start watching Entourage this summer...just in case I forget.

Au Revoir La Defense

It's my last day in La Defense before I go stay with the girls in the Bastille, and I'm actually going to miss the darn place. The crazy giant statue of the thumb, forest of wire trees, and colorful music tunnel to the metro were all pretty intimidating at first. Now it's just become my home.

Yesterday Diana and I went to see L'Orangerie at the Jardin de Tuileries. There are two big oval rooms on the main floor completely surrounded with large Monet paintings of the water lilies and trees at Giverny. We had gone to see the garden just a few days before, so it was amazing to see how Monet really captured the feeling of the garden in his work. I can't believe I almost left Paris without seeing this place.

Last night, Cindy and I went out in Etienne Marcel. This area of Paris, near Pompidou, that is like its own little community. During the day there are hippie clothing stores and small gourmet food boutiques. By the time we got to the area, a lot of bars were winding down. We stopped in a random pub, sat at the bar, and ordered two beers. We got to talking to the bartenders and found that one girl was from Los Angelos while the guy was from Scotland. The girl poured us shots and when we asked about why she was here, she told us that she fell in Love while studying abroad in Bordeaux in college and is now living with her French boyfriend. She also told us that she thought Virginia was one of the most underrated states, and that it is one of the most beautiful places in the country- we were immediately won over. Then she made us a very very strong drink to share, and Cindy and I were set for the rest of the night. There was a regular next to us at the bar who apparently is a writer working for Newsweek in Paris. He had been writing stories about this blogger who paints portraits of people she meets on the metro, and I couldn’t stop asking questions in the hopes that I could figure out how to get Leslie a job with him. We talk to this guy for a good hour, but it’s not until he lights up a cigarette on the way home that we realize he only has two fingers.

Our original plan was to go home after this, but that is never how things work with Cindy and me. There is a sister bar of the original pub on the way home, so naturally we need to stop for one more beer. We get to talking to the bartenders and find out that they are Irish and Scottish. This begins a series of discussions on the word “lashing” and “gap yar.” We start talking to two French guys who both work for insurance companies –one of them actually works for the same company I’m interning for this summer. We speak French with them for about an hour and a half, learning how to say the word “database” in French and discussing how Americans don’t travel as much because they are so isolated…typical French-American conversation. We then realize it’s 3:30 and we really needed to leave to meet Gulfem at her place. We stop to take pictures with Sciences Po- something I was way too embarrassed to do during the daytime when all the French students were outside smoking and judging me for wearing a Jansport backpack. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better last Saturday night in Paris.

La vie en rose is almost over...

"Paris has 10,000 poissons, exactly how many poissons does your aquarium have?" Beach Week 2010, La Rochelle

The entire time in La Rochelle we were trying to compare the town to something we knew. At first it reminded me of the Outer Banks, but then you would pass old homes, world war II forts, bakeries, old men on bicycles, old men in speedos, and everyone speaking French and we knew that this place was a far cry from any town in North Carolina. We planned the trip Wednesday afternoon and left on Thursday morning at 10am. All we knew about the town was that there was a nearby island you could take a boat to and a beach. Other than that, we were pretty much winging it.

Jeudi: Our day began Thursday afternoon where we checked into our hotel (a real hotel! with our own private bathroom and clean sheets and free towels). I never appreciated hotels like this until after traveling Europe in hostels. We started walking around the town, stopping to sit by the water and watch the ships pass by. While we were walking, we found an ice cream place with about 40 different flavors and homemade cones. This would soon become our daily routine for the rest of the trip. I got blood orange and raspberry sorbet, only to watch it fall right off the cone as we reached the water. We decided to grab some wine and chips to enjoy by the water, and within an hour I was already burnt and too tipsy to really care. We found a small street with nice restaurants and picked a place called Cote de Boeuf for it's lower fixed price dinner menu. Despite the name of the restaurant, we ordered crab and shrimp. I was having some difficulties eating the grilled shrimp and one of my tails ended up flying across the table. Fortunately, it landed on Diana's side so she got the look when the waitress came to clear our table. Exhausted and a little red, we decided to go back to the hotel and wake up early for the bus ride to Ile de Re.

Vendredi: Friday morning we rolled out of bed around 10, put on our bathing suits, and ran to catch the 11 o clock bus for Ile de Re. We were all set with grocery bags full of Doritos and a 1.5 liter bottle of euro sangria. When we got to the station, we were informed that the next bus would not be leaving for another two hours until the woman looked out onto the road and told us to run to catch one that was leaving right now. We ran across the parking lot with our neon green shopping bags and just made it to the last bus. Then we broke out baguette and babybel cheese and feasted on the way there. Looking around the bus, we noticed that we were the only ones eating as well as the only ones under the age of 60.

Apparently we passed over some big bridge to get to the island, but I missed it because I was passed out on the bus. We got to the island and went to the tourism office for a map. It was completely useless. All we knew was that the bottle of sangria was heavy and we wanted a beach asap. We asked a few shop keepers where to find the beach and finally we found a woman who gave us a funny face and said 15 minutes down the street. We leave the building and there is a huge sign that reads "plage ->" We walk through a citadel from WWII and a few monument looking things from the 1800's (that's how you know you're in France), and found a rocky kind of beach with old fisherman and couples surrounding it. The beach itself was empty, so we went to town on the Doritos and Sangria and proceeded to pass out in the sun. Diana and I listened to Something Corporate songs and belted Konstantine while Theresa read Jane Eyre or something. This was a blissful afternoon I will never forget...mostly because I fell asleep with my hands on my stomach and I now have two white hand marks surrounded by somewhat painful burns, resembling the chest of Kocoum from Disney's Pocahontas. We loved that we had our own "private beach" and watched as the tide went down leaving beached boats in the rocky sand (which is apparently normal here?).

This left us just enough time to make it back to the bus while passing by donkeys in pants (anes en collants). This is an Ile de Re tradition which we were later told allowed women travelers to store things in the pants pockets. The best part are the donkey in pants stuffed animals available at any store in the vicinity. The bus ride was followed by showers and moules frites for dinner. We were so hungry by this point we were beginning to stare down other customers, which got pretty uncomfortable, but the mussels were so fresh there were crabs in some. Then came gelato- raspberry dark chocolate praline and coconut I believe- and a nice walk around the water. We saw a group of people crowded around a bar across the street and went over to see what was going on. There were three younger guys playing music, a singer, upright bass, and guitar. We guessed that they were in high school based on the fact that all of their young looking friends were there watching and the girl next to us in a furry cowboy hat was drunkenly dancing with an "18th birthday" balloon. They were really really good, so we stayed for a while to watch until we the birthday girl was getting to be too much so we went home.

Samedi: We grabbed pain au chocolat almondes (kind of like a French Paula Dean recipe of a pastry wrapped in pastry). We headed to the boat to go to Fort Boyard and Ile d'Aix. When we boarded the boat, the three of us chose to sit uncomfortably close, facing a French couple, and chowing down our disgustingly rich pastries- luckily the wind was blowing making our pastry crumbs soar through the air, which our new neighbors loved very much. One of the guys working on the boat asked if we wanted our picture taken and when he tried to hand the camera back to me, my dress flew up while my straps started to come down, making the whole exchange pretty awkward. We headed to the front of the boat and stood next to an older man taking pictures. I asked if he wanted a picture with the Fort (it's in the middle of the water, so the boat just circles it instead of docking), and he looked puzzled, politely declined, and then offered to take ours. He heard our American accents and started asking where we were from (of course complimenting our French skills) and told us that he was born and raised in La Rochelle. This began one of my favorite conversations I've had since coming to France. The man told us of how he used to go camping at Ile d'Aix and he still comes a few times a week to have picnics and see the island. He also told us about the forts and how even though Napoleon ordered the building of the forts, by the time they were finished the technology had become obsolete. My Ile d'Aix pamphlet said that it is only used for a t.v. show now. There was also a British couple with three adorable dogs. A man on a wheelchair nearby was sitting smiling at the dogs, and the owner picked up the big dog and brought him over so the man could pet it. We soon realized that this part of the boat was much better than our original spot up top with all the picture takers and fun haters. We docked at the island and headed to the market to pick up food for a picnic.

At the store we picked up sandwiches, nectarines, and grapes and found a bench to enjoy them on. After our little picnic, we started walking on the path around the island (the whole island isn't that big and only takes about 2 and a half hours to see the whole thing). On our way we saw cute little houses and gardens. We were also lucky enough to catch a very old man plowing his field in his speedo. We accidentally stumbled upon a tunnel museum about the soldiers at the forts on the island and then caught a view of the water. We finished our visit with fresh oysters by the water at a little farm. Diana and I split our very fresh oysters while the owner of the farm told us about how he harvests them. The oysters we had took 4 years to harvest, and he told us about how he has to move them around different parts of the island. He showed us his machinery used to move the oysters and brought us out 10 month old oysters so we could see how small they were. He spoke really fast, so I could barely understand him but Diana picked up everything he said. We also had some bread and wine, which Theresa had to reinforce with her hands so they wouldn't blow away. The oysters were amazing, and definitely the freshest seafood I've ever had. Then the man's young daughters came to hang out and started whispering about us. We were so blissfully happy about the oysters we couldn't have cared less about what the 7 year old girls were saying. At this point my skin couldn't take much more sun and I had to wear my sweater in the 80 degree heat. We walked back to the boat and enjoyed the windy hour ride back to La Rochelle.

We were starving but it was too early for dinner, so we decided to grab mint chocolate chip ice cream and go see the tower. The tower is where they kept English prisoners in some wars back in the day. The best part was the griffiti (or as the English translation descriptions said "graffito") that was made by the prisoners. It had pictures of boats and the names of prisoners with where they were captured. We climbed all the way to the top of the tower and got a great view of the city.

Then we grabbed brie and baguette to enjoy by the water. We wandered around for a while and saw some other areas of the town. We went back to our regular spot near the water and hung out for an hour or two just enjoying the view. That night we went for moules frites round 2, but this time we decided to get it with a curry sauce very well known in that area. We finished with creme caramel which was amazing since La Rochelle is known for it's caramel. The importance of the salt was another lesson we received during the weekend. Apparently salt is only found in 3 places in France, and La Rochelle is known for it. Therefore, the caramel made with that salt is famous and known for its ocean like flavor. We ended the night by watching our "friend" playing with fire by the water- we had discovered him the night before-but he wasn't very good. He kept dropping the torches and then he got one upped by a man juggling fire on a unicycle with a top hat.


Dimanche: Today was tough because finally our burns stopped hurting, but we had really explored everything in La Rochelle except the beach. We checked out the hotel and decided to suck it up and go to the water. It was super windy this morning, so the sand was blowing everywhere- a little flashback from the Dust Bowl or something similar. I decided to go in the water (so now I can say that I've been in both sides of the Atlantic) which was freezing but felt really nice after numbing my body to the cold. I finished the Italy part of my book "Eat, Pray, Love" and decided that I wasn't in the mood to read about her religious experiences in India and preferred her food finds in Rome.

We went to lunch in the late afternoon to escape the hottest part of the day, and Diana and I enjoyed grilled calamari. Our waitress was really rude, so we followed lunch with our last ice cream of the day- mint strawberry sorbet and caramel chocolate ice cream. The sorbet had pieces of fresh mint in it and was easily the best sorbet EVER. Then we found some rocks to lay on and watched these dogs play with each other by the water. Two of the dogs wrestled while the other one searched for sticks and rocks to show his friends. At one point, he picked up a huge rock in his mouth and looked so excited to show his owners, who were too busy drinking and smoking joints I think to notice. We watched them for a while and then realized it had gotten pretty late already. We headed back to the hotel, turned in our sandy towels that we snuck to the beach, and picked up our bags.

Overall, a very successful beach week. I showered immediately after returning to my apartment but I'm pretty sure it will take a few more to get all of the sand out of my hair. The fact that we were able to go to a place as beautiful as La Rochelle with 2 hours of preparation makes us a little sad to be going back home in a few weeks. I'm not quite ready to give this all up!

Felicia No Capiche: Italy Part 2, Rome

Day 1: The Colosseum, Forum, and Trevi Fountain

We started Rome with Barcardi Breezers, peach tea, and pizza sandwiches. The mediocre food was masked by the view of ancient ruins in the middle of the city of Rome. All through lunch a man selling parasols repeatedly interrupted our conversations to see if we would like to buy one, and we decided it was time to head to the Colosseum.

We were convinced to take a tour by a young American guy standing by the entrance line (his perfect hair and suave mannerisms having no impact on our decision to expand our educational horizons). It turned out to be a great decision because we got to skip the incredibly long line of Asian tourists and actually learned about what went on in the Colosseum. Our guide was hilarious and he told us all about where they kept the lions and how gladiator fights worked. I had no idea how much funding was needed for these fights. Animals were shipped across the world to please the crowds costing the emperors millions and millions of dollars. We also learned that most fights did not end in death except for one fighter who rigged most of the fights and ended up killing his opponents (meaning animals or other gladiators). Some fights were declared fight to the death matches or others offered terms of surrender (but only if the emperor was in a good mood that day). Our guide was also kind enough to tell us what was wrong in the movie "Gladiator" but unfortunately I never saw it. That will be number one on my list of things to watch this summer.

After walking around the Colosseum and seeing actual armor from fights long ago (I'm keeping the dates vague to create a feeling of mystery..and because I don't remember when the armor was from), it was time for our second tour of the Forum which is the center of development of the city of Rome. Our second tour guide had a very thick British accent and talked incredibly slowly, like he was narrating a PBS special for two year olds. It was a cross between crocodile dundee and Ben Stein...hard to explain I guess. I don't remember much from the forum tour because I couldn't really wrap my head around how old everything was, but our guide told us the story of the beginnings of Rome and Romulus and Remus. He said that most of the mountain has still not be excavated because all of the ruins lie beneath the ground. He also told us about the beautiful painted marble found at the site (conveniently borrowed by a small place called the Vatican), leaving not much left at the Forum. It then began pouring rain, so we continued the tour soaking wet. The rain stopped quickly and we got to see a double rainbow over the ruins of Rome. It was pretty unreal. Our guide then showed us where the kingdom's oldest temples were located and the first building of commerce. There were more ancient ruins that he explained but we all got a little distracted by this little baby on the tour who kept giggling every time we looked at him. His mother didn't like this and put down the hood of the stroller so he couldn't see us anymore. We tried to see the building where Caesar's ashes are kept, but it started closing before we could get in.

Now remember, we're still in Italy, and this day is missing something very important that has been a crucial part of our experiences in other Italian cities, gelato. We stopped for some on our way to the Trevi fountain, and for the first time were very disappointed. Our flavors were mediocre and the woman at the cash register was extremely rude. We downed it quick so we wouldn't have to think about it, and then made our way to the fountain.



Now I thought that the Paris metro was good for people watching, but the Trevi Fountain blew it out of the water (pun intended). There were European girls climbing on the fountain to pose for pictures and loud Americans with Frommers guide books EVERYWHERE. We threw in pennies and made our wish. Gulfem and I then proceeded to act like 5 year olds and fight with water. We then decided to sit and relax for a while and just enjoy the view. We came at the perfect time of day because as the sun went down we got to see the fountain light up.

We decided to go grab dinner and I suggested we try to wander a little bit so we could find a place less touristy. As we walked down some side streets, I stopped in to what looked like a bookstore to ask if there was a good restaurant near by. The woman replied "well we are a good restaurant, but we're closing." Oops. She continued in broken English, "There is a good restaurant near here. Go straight, then you will see steps, always keep right, there is a good view." By some stroke of luck, and a few trips down the wrong steps into dark alleys, we found what looked to be a beautiful view and a restaurant called Melo with flashing lights. The place looked packed, so I took this as a good sign and asked for a table. They squeezed us into the restaurant, and we immediately knew that this place was a winner.

We started with the best bruschetta I have ever eaten, and if it was culturally acceptable to lick the plate, I would have done it. One of the waiters came to our table with a guitar and sang us a song in English called "Felicia No Capiche." He was hilarious and we spent the rest of the night humming the tune. We ate some okay pasta, and then Diana and I found the holy grail of desserts. We split a cannoli and the restaurant owner, a cute old Italian man in a black vest, offered to cut it in half. As he cut it he shook his head and moaned "my beautiful cannoli" and you could see that it pained him to cut his perfectly crafted shell. Then our waiter told us about how he was learning to speak English and we complimented him on his language skills. After the check, he brought us out shots of lemon cello and Theresa and Kendall almost took it like a shot. The waiter yelled, "No Tequila Boom Boom" and told them to sip the liquor. While the others paid their check, our waiter took my hands and pulled me out of my chair to teach me traditional Italian dances. All of dinner we had heard a loud group of people clapping and singing behind a wall in the other part of the restaurant. He danced with me to the other side and much to my surprise, the noisemakers were all 80 year old Italian men with endless bottles of wine. Our English speaking waiter and very non-English speaking owner begged us to come back the next night to see them.

We went straight back to the hostel for the night to pass out in preparation for our 8am wake up call to see the Vatican. When we got back to the room, the empty bed was filled with a guy covered in tattoos and piercings with long dreadlocks. I was surprised at first, but after a few minutes I found out that he was a French tattoo artist with great music taste. We exchanged some bands and ended up giving me a sketch of a music tattoo to keep.

Day 2: The Vatican, Pantheon, and Spanish Steps

We woke up at the crack of dawn, grabbed pastries, and ran to the Vatican Museum to make it to our reservation time. There is no way to describe the amount of things that are in the Vatican museum. Of course the Sistine Chapel is one of the most famous parts of the museum. Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" actually interrupts the wall's chronological portraits of the bible, leaving out stories of Mary and the coming of Jesus. The nudity of the painting was also very controversial at the time. The Pope's Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena complained to the pope of the nudity and called the artwork a disgrace. Michelangelo then painted Cesena into the portrait as the judge of the underworld. Michelangelo was also beginning to become frustrated with his waning skill in painting and this can be seen in the morbidity of this work. The ceiling was once a starry sky but was commissioned to be painted over because it did not live up to the beautiful art already painted on the walls. The two back windows were actually filled in to make for more room for paintings (These fun facts brought to you by the audio guide I insisted on renting by myself). The only problem with the Chapel is that it is packed shoulder to shoulder and everyone disregards the rules for no talking or photography. This leads to bright lights flashing everywhere and annoying high school tour groups running around and yelling. Despite these issues, I was still able to enjoy the pure beauty of the paintings. The paintings are simply breathtaking. We also walked through other rooms of the museum including the hall of maps and tapestries. After seeing Raphael's self portrait in Florence, I was able to spot him in one room as he painted himself into his work. He was depicted along famous scientists, philosophers, and poets of the time.

Next we went to see the Vatican and I was shocked to see that this was also a burial site for popes inside the church. Theresa, our informed catholic, taught us that each pope has his own symbol, and we spent a long time looking at the memorials on the ground and the beautiful wall sculptures. By this time we were starving so we went to Piazza Navona to grab lunch. Everything was super touristy and overpriced, so Diana and I decided to share a caprese salad and pizza. The mozzarella was unreal, and we got to watch as tourists took pictures with human statues.

After lunch came possibly the best gelato of my life. It was this cute little shop in a brick alley with flowers around it. We walked in and a very sweet man from Peru let us try all of the flavors. It must have taken us 30 minutes to figure out what we wanted, but I ended up getting white chocolate, dark chocolate and wine, and mille foglie (some type of italian pastry). Then we saw the same baby from the Forum (the one with the mean parents who wouldn't let us make googly faces at him). The parents looked seriously concerned at this point that we were stalking their child.




Then we headed to the Pantheon and saw the hole in the ceiling and the drain in the center for the rain. There was a famous Madonna and Child portrait covered in a gold cover plate. I think Theresa told us something interesting about it, but I don't really remember. What I do remember is seeing the same baby AGAIN.



At this point we just had to leave because it was getting a little creepy. Then we headed to a paper store down the street. The man gave us a demonstration on how they make paper and how he uses the traditional techniques of his family in Florence. Theresa and Gulfem bought letter seals (like the initial thing with wax), and I almost got one until I realized that I haven't written a single letter or postcard since arriving in Europe.



After that we stumbled upon a leather shop. The store looked like a workshop and there were purses covering the ceiling and walls. One woman with crazy hair was smoking a cigarette behind stacks of leather, and I ended up finding a beautiful brown leather satchel and a rose leather keychain.



By that point it was almost sunset, so we rushed over to the Spanish steps. We climbed to the top and bought Peronis to drink while we enjoyed the view. We spent most of the time being harassed by men selling sunglasses and hemp bracelets. Finally, I told them that we really weren’t going to buy anything and that they should go away. The guy looked outraged and finally left us alone. Then we were free to enjoy the view of Rome at sunset.



We stopped for dinner one last time before heading to the hostel. We got really cheesy gnocchi and stopped at a bakery for late night cannoli before passing out at the hostel. Our French friend was asleep at that point and smelled horrible. Luckily we were so tired, it didn’t really matter. The next morning we said our goodbyes to Rome and headed it Istanbul!

So Close...

This time tomorrow I will be finished with all of my final papers and classes and will finally be able to relax and enjoy Paris for two weeks. In the meantime, chocolate and diet coke are the only two things that are going to get me through the next 24 hours. Wednesday can't come soon enough!

"What are we doing? We're talking about food...again." Italy Part 1

Day 1 Venice: Well really this story should begin the night before when we arrived at the hostel. A funny Italian man gave us a map and showed us where to visit the next day. He also marked the location of the hostel and a separate dot for where we were staying. We attributed this separate dot to a mistranslation or something, but no, he meant that we were staying in a different building. So he gave us umbrellas, lit up a cigarette, and began the trip to our room. Ask we walked through a damp, dark alley our hostel man assured us that “Venice is the safest city in the world, you do not need to be scared in alleys.” Noted.

Finally we reached the room and noticed that there were no towels. We asked if we needed to rent them or something, and he said “well if you give me some euros I can get someone to go out and get them from the market but you’re only here for one night…just use your sheets.” The next morning you would have thought there was a toga party as we were all wrapped up in long white sheets. I also accidentally walked in a Brazilian guy peeing in the bathroom as all of his friends tried to warn me. That is also how I met a group of 10 Brazilian exchange students studying in England, aka our neighbors.

And now we start the real Venice. We met Theresa’s friend at the Bridge of Sighs and went to go grab lunch. We got paninis at small lunch place filled with old Italian men drinking wine and beer at 11am. Then we got the best gelato of our entire trip (so good that I remember I ate caramel and dark chocolate). We then went to some famous Cathedral but after seeing the obscenely long line outside to get in we immediately decided prosecco was much more important.





I don’t really remember much of what we did for the rest of the day, but I do know we want back to the lunch café for a giant mozzarella stick. We also sat by the water for a while and drank bellinis and ate crackers in the shape of ducks, fish, and suns (we proceeded to play with those for a little while).



MOST IMPORTANT STORY OF THE DAY: so instead of taxi cars, people in Venice use taxi boats. While we’re waiting, Theresa and I film our rendition of “The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers” and assign Winnie the Pooh characters to everyone in Team Paris. As we have officially become “those” Americans, we get just a little more touristy when Sirus from Gossip Girl (aka Wallace Shawn) gets on our boat. I played it totally cool…okay that’s a lie I totally freaked out and debated going to talk to him about the Princess Bride and how Clueless changed my life. Anyway, at one point I swear he was like 5 feet away and I tried to make intellectual comments about old buildings while seriously freaking out about his connection to everyone’s favorite housemaid, Dorota. We got a few paparazzi pictures and then stopped staring at him and started staring at the sunset on the water in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

We then ate dinner on the water- a really really windy, slightly uncomfortable dinner-and caught the train to Cinque Terre.

The train ride to Cinque Terre- yes it deserves its own section of this post….
So for anyone who is ever considering taking an overnight train with three station changes and a two hour layover…DON’T! I can promise you that those two hours were two of the longest hours of my life. We get to Bologna and immediately our lack of Italian proves to be a challenge. We keep asking where to find the station but cannot seem to get clear directions, so we climb down the steps to what seems like a logical place for a waiting room. Instead we find hallways leading to the metro system lined with homeless people. Not only does it wreak, but the homeless people are yelling at each other and there doesn’t seem to be any place else to go (also note that it is 3am and freezing cold outside…we are also dressed to go to the beach in what we thought would be a week of 80 degree weather). We find an empty hallway nearby with vending machines. In order to distract us from the scary fighting and yelling in a language we do not even begin to understand, we try different things from the vending machine. The machine is also called a Self Bar Self which was extremely funny at the time but I can’t seem to remember why. It could be fear or complete exhaustion. After an hour, the fighting gets worse and we decide its time to find a new hideout. We go back upstairs and there, right before our eyes, is a well-lit waiting room with people sleeping rather than yelling.




Cinque Terre: this is another trip that really speaks better in pictures but I will do my best. Cinques Terre is a series of 5 cities that you can hike or train between. The first city had a beatles/love bridge where people had filled the walls with graffiti and locks. This also had one of the most beautiful views of the cities and the water was bright blue and so clear you could see the bottom of the water. At one city, we stopped to hang out some rocks by the water.





I decided to climb up one of the higher rocks and sit to look out over the water. There was another guy on the rock behind mine who looked pretty familier. We stared at each other for a while until I realized it was Mike Allerhand from UVA. I took off my sunglasses to see if he would recognize me, and immediately he shouted “Becca?” This was, by far, the strangest place to run into someone from home. He was studying in Florence and came to Cinque Terres for the day. He walked with us a little further and decided to go swim while we found a place to eat lunch.



Cinque Terres is known for its lemons so we got lemon “slushies” while we waited for a table to open up. The slushies were amazing, and they were even better because it was the same day as Foxfields and Gulfem was sad she wasn’t going to get to drink vodka slurpees so this was a pretty amazing substitution. We all ate fresh pasta and pesto for lunch, and as we were leaving the old owners of the restaurant surprised me with a bib and a perone full of red wine. This was the same pitcher thing that we drank from in Valencia where your pour wine straight into your mouth like watering can. Gulfem got cocky and held it about a foot above her head…see picture below. We visited the main beach of the last city and then took pictures with this strong man rock formation statue thing.



Then we got on a train (only one this time) and made our way to Florence.



Florence:
The first day of Florence, most of the more touristy activities were closed because it was Monday. We started the day with a Café corretto which we thought was a small cappuccino. The woman at the counter gave us strange looks and then asked us if we were sure that’s what we wanted. We soon understood her confusion when our coffee came with brandy. Apparently café corretto is espresso with a shot of liquor. Gulfem and I took ours like shots and I chased my espresso with my rice pudding tart. After breakfast/pregame we decided to go to the Duomo and climb the tower to see the city. We spent a lot of time hanging out and taking pictures in the bell tower, and then we met up with Gulfem’s friend Nas for lunch. Nas is a cooking student in Italy right now, so she took us to the best place to bolognaise and vegetable puree. There are no words to describe how amazing our meal was. You could actually taste the pasta and the puree was gone in like about two minutes, and of course there was wine. After lunch we walked through the leather markets followed by more gelato. This time we opted for fruit options and I got strawberry and coconut. Then, as usual, we had to stop in H&M and Zara. We stopped for drink and found a small café that had buffet happy hour. Since we couldn’t decide what we wanted to drink, the man said he would surprise us and we were fortunate enough to receive 5 spritzs. A spritz is a funky tasting, highlighter orange, bitter liquor drink that is quite popular in Italy. We hadn’t planned on eating anything but the mini ham sandwiches took away the foul taste of the drink. For dinner, Nas sent us to an amazing pizza place where we got fried mozzarella and warm octopus salad. Once again there are no words for that meal.

Our second day in Florence was our tourist day. We began at the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David. The statue was apparently made from a piece of abandoned marble and it was larger than I had ever imagined. The detail of the statue, from his facial expressions to the veins on his hands was indescribable. Despite the long lines, I highly recommend anyone in Florence to go see it.

After the Academia came a little bit more shopping and afterward Nas showed us a small sandwich place for lunch. The place looked just like a lunch counter, but it turned out to have cheap, incredible sandwiches. I got truffled cheese, artichokes, ham, and rocket on fresh bread. It came in a little paper pocket with a cartoon sandwich that read “Speedy Snack.” I found it pretty amusing that one of the best lunches of my life had a dancing sandwich on the front.

We then rushed to the Ufizzi and saw some of the most incredible art in the world. We saw a DaVinci painting that was the first painting to ever show a woman reading. We also saw the only painting that was known for a fact to be painted by Michelangelo. There was also Raphael’s self portrait which came in handy when we were in the Vatican museum and we could recognize that Raphael painted himself into his work.

That night was our last dinner in Florence so we went for steak, apparently Florence is known for its meat. In Florence you order meat by the kilo, but we just knew to ask for 5 servings. An old Italian man came out with a huge slab of meat, doused it in olive oil, and then cut it right by our table. The meat was barely cooked and tasted amazing. I cannot impress upon you how much meat there was, and unfortunately we couldn’t look at steak for a few days after that. It was still a classic example of a great cut of steak that doesn’t need a sauce because it is cooked so well. A great ending to Florence.

"Drinking Heineken makes you a feminist"- Amsterdam

So after food and beer coma, we wake up at 8am the next morning to go see tulips at Keukenhof. Little did we know that it takes a series of trains and a crowded tourist bus to get the flowers, but in the end it was completely worth it! There's really no way to describe the park. The entrance kind of reminds you of Kings Dominion, except there are no roller coasters, and there are just a ton of flowers and clogs...so really nothing like Kings Dominion I guess but it just had the same feel.

Moving on, Diana and I decide to skip and hold hands while singing "We're Off to see the Wizard." Then a couple walks by with a cute little dog and I proceed to yell "Toto!" Pictures are really the only way to describe this park with endless colored flowers, but it is definitely unlike anything I have seen before.

After tulips we go to get lunch at a pancake house. The menu has something called fantasy pancakes, so we spend the next 10 minutes debating whether or not there are drugs in them. We all order these pancakes with tomatoes and cheese and they turn out to be strange crepe like bread with burnt cheese and soggy tomatoes and I wanted to go get a box of Aunt Jemima and show them how a real pancake is made...but instead I just ate it.

Then it comes time for the Heineken factory, probably one of the highlights of the trip. For a marketing major, this factor is like a big case study toy shop. Diana and I decide to create videos of ourselves doing Dutch kareoke and even managed to send a picture to Brad Brown. He replied to our message with a "I'm glad you guys are learning so much. There is also a Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house that you might want to check out."



The best part of the tour is the end where they give you two glasses of Heineken at the bar. We ran out of drink tickets so the bartenders just started giving us drinks for free. By the end we were all out of tickets so I went up to the bar and told them that I ran out of drinks but it was my birthday. He asked how many I wanted, so I said "six!" and not only did I get six icy cold beers, but they also told me to get on the bar so they could sing. Naturally I accepted his offer and they shushed the whole bar and had them sing happy birthday to me. At the end I found myself with two more beers, one in each hand.



Then we went out for birthday drinks, and decided to do a drink at each bar since we were still stuck in our pub crawl mode from Brussels. We ended the night with a midnight birthday McFlurry called Strogenwaffle or something like that. It was pretty epic! I tried to ask the guy if he would put in two toppings because it was my birthday (I figured it worked at Heineken, so why not?), but he frowned and said that it was not allowed. It was probably for the best because Strongenwaflesaidl was the most epic McFlurry I've ever had.

The next morning we went to the Anne Frank house which was really amazing. I had already been before, but it was nice to see it again. We also visited the Van Gogh museum which I had seen before as well. Some of the paintings were gone for restoration or something, so that was a little bit of a bummer but we still got to take our time to look at everything. Obviously we had to end the day with another Kriek on the canal and pictures with the Iamsterdam sign.

Overall, probably one of the best birthdays I've ever had...not to mention I got to spend my 21st in Amsterdam.

Italy and Istanbul stories coming soon!!

"You just made our day...it was either your or the Delirium"- Brussels

So for my 21st birthday, Diana, Gulfem, and I decided it would be a wonderful idea to go to Amsterdam for the weekend to celebrate. Our day began at 7am when we hopped a train to Brussels for a day trip. We arrived in Brussels at about 9am and the train stations were packed due to the volcano who was busy messing up everyone's flights. We went to the tourist stand to ask for a map and after looking at the map for a few minutes, we realized that we had no idea what you're supposed to do in Brussels. We then returned to the same kind man who told us what museums there were to see and attractions. After weeks of traveling, we were all pretty certain that there would be no museums for us that day and we asked where the bars and the fountain was of the guy peeing instead.

By this point we were exhausted and hungry, so clearly it was time for waffles. Our first waffle (and yes I say first to imply there will be others later) was incredible. It was topped with whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and bananas. I am certain that I will never look at an eggo waffle the same ever again. We sat for at least an hour just digesting and resting in order to gain energy for the rest of our day.

First we decided to walk around Brussels a little bit to see what was around. We posed for pictures, excited by the idea that we were no longer in a city where people would recognize us and we could be as touristy as we wanted!




By around 10:30am we decided it was time to see the Delirium Bar. This bar holds the Guinness Record for the most beers, but most importantly, it has Delirium which is my favorite! We each had a glass of Delirium Tremens and sang rather loudly as the bar played old Beatles songs. We made friends with the bartender who then let us write our names on a dollar bill and hung it up on the wall.




After Delirium came the peeing boy statue. This was a huge disappointment because Diana and I had seen people's pictures from Prague and assumed that was the peeing boy statue in Brussels. Imagine the Prague fountain, but only 100 times smaller and behind an iron fence. What was more impressive, however, were the shops who hand crafted beautiful statues of the peeing boy made entirely out of Belgium chocolate.




The came the time for bar number 2 (thus starting our Brussels pub crawl). We had been dying to try this cherry beer called Kriek which ended up being the official beer of the weekend. We asked some random woman in a shop if she knew of a good place to grab a beer and she pointed some way down some street, so clearly we decided to just start walking down that street in the hopes that we would find something. We walked down some strange alley way with low brick arch over the entrance and found a little pub at the end. Normal people might assume that you should turn back and go somewhere more central, but that's not how our mind was working at the time. Instead we entered the cozy little pub and sat down for three Krieks. Little did we know that those three beers would be the best Kriek's we had all weekend!

After beer number 2 came french fries. Diana and I wanted to fit in so we got mayonnaise on our fries. One of our worst ideas of the weekend, but if you think that's bad, the guy next to us had a french fry sandwich with mayonnaise (that's right, french fries on a sub roll). After we downed our snack, we spent the rest of the day avoiding having to look at french fries ever again.

Then obviously, it was time for beer number 3. We walked into some random bar near the square which turned out to be a worse decision then the brick alley pub. We sat down, looked around, ordered beers, and then decided to realize that it was full of old creepy men and one wasted old woman with a cigarette in each hand. The beer was fabulous, as usual, but we didn't spend too much time lingering and decided to pay our bill and go eat mussels.

As we are walking down the mussel street (named by us due to the fact that the only type of business on the entire road were seafood restaurants), we are invited to come eat by every waiter standing on the street. Keep in mind that is only 4:30pm and we have to catch a train to amsterdam around 6. We choose a restaurant and are given our own private dining room with our own wood fireplace (aka the restaurant is empty and there is a fire next to our table). Our waiter gives us wine as a welcome gift after we have ordered another round of beers. He then lights a candle for the table and we decide that from now on we will only eat by candlelight. We order one place of mussels (so that we can say "we ate mussels in brussels") and speed eat our feast so we can make it back to the train.

But oh no, this is not the end of our meal. We decide that we need another waffle before getting on the train. Possibly our worst decision of the day- yes even worse than mayonnaise fries-and we get another round to eat on the way. At this point we are all sick to our stomachs, we pass out on the train, and then make it to Amsterdam just in time to tour the red light district and pass out.