This one time in Italy

Amo Firenze!

2010-05-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

I haven’t uploaded my blog in forever, I’ve been way too busy. Sorry folks.

I had my last day of classes today!! It went by so fast, bittersweet. I went to the Amalfi coast last weekend with felt like the entire program for the last “hurrah”. I had so much fun, but the weather sucked. KIMBERLY MARIE CAME TOO!! Yay. We stayed in Sorrento and then went to Capri, Pompei and Positano during the day. It’s gorgeous down there. The blue grotto was closed though due to high tide and windy weather ☹. Sad news, I guess that means I’ll have to go back one day.

On the way to Pompei we were walking in a group of about 25 students and the street vender, loud as day, says “Hi Ginger” as I walk by. What a sight that was. Pompei was incredible, it looks like the buildings are 200 years old, not 2000.

I finally went to Pisa and got my cliche picture of me holding up the leaning tower...only took 4 months.

I went inside Palazzo Vecchio with my Medici class. Marcello told us we could use the "Secret" elevator that was for staff only. We had to go up in groups of 8...he sent my group to the wrong floor. For about 10 minutes we were wandering on the top floor of this medieval palace. We ventured down a narrow stair case, got yelled at, and eventually caught back up with the class. When we told him he sent us to the wrong floor, his answer, "I guess the Medici thought you belonged there instead".

A few weekends ago I went to the Boboli gardens (attached to the Pitti Palace) and relaxed on the grass for a while. The weather was perfect and it's so relaxing there. What a perfect afternoon. Spring in Italy is amazing.

This past weekend was my last weekend in Florence, I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I finally had my first Gato bomb and went inside the synagogue. I've never been inside a synagogue before, but this one was gorgeous and it just finished its restoration so it was all the more nice. I left way too much to do for the last week.

I've been eating out constantly because I can't not try all of these amazing restaurants and I'm going to miss the food greatly. I went to mama ginas last night and had amazing chicken parmesan. We then went to the old stove in piazza signoria and sat in the square. The weather was perfect for sitting outside, so much fun. Plus, Old Stove does 3 shots of tequila for 5 euros..best deal around.

Well I have to go study for finals and write a paper, I can't believe it's all coming to an end! I'm going to miss you Florence!

Hej Danmark!

2010-04-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

I LOVE DENMARK! I had the most fantastic weekend and wish I could have stayed longer ☹
I left for the land of the Danish on Wednesday night and was greeted at the airport by my friend, Louise, waving the Danish flag. I guess she wanted to make sure I really knew that Billund (the town I flew into) was really in Denmark. Actually, for an early fact of the day: Billund is the home of Legos. That’s right kids, Legos are a crazy Danish invention.

I’m sure many of you are wondering who Louise is, so I’ll try to give you the run-down since many of the Danes we tried to explain it to thought it was absurd. I met Louise in Iceland when we volunteered together for a month. Why we both decided to go to Iceland? The question remains un-answered. The answer has something to do with “well, one day I was bored and decided to Google Iceland”. I guess you never know how a random decision can affect your life. However, it’s probably the best experience I’ve had because now I have someone to visit in Denmark! haha

Anyway, we departed from the airport and went to her apartment in Århus. Århus is the 2nd biggest town in Denmark and is the absolute best college town/city. I would love to live there. It took us a little while to reach Aarhus (Louise said it could be spelt with two A’s or with Å b/c before 1948 there was no such letter as Å and so people used 2 a’s) because, well, we got lost. We were in the town of Give 3 times. OH well. When we finally arrived, we ate and went to bed.

Thursday morning we woke up very early and took a train to Copenhagen! We stayed with her sister, husband, and adorable newborn baby, Frida! Her sister, Bolette, acted as our personal tour guide and took us all over the city. We saw the downtown, the harbor, new harbor, and where the queen and royal family lived. From the harbor we were able to see and wave to Sweden! Afterwards, I got a real Danish hotdog and it was fantastic. For dinner, Bolette made the typical Christmas dinner meal for me b/c I needed to experience real Danish food. It was amazing and it felt like home having such a good home-cooked meal.

They spoiled me. After dinner we went to “Heidi’s after-skiing bar” which was supposed to be a bar in the Alps that people would go to after a long day of skiing. The bartenders were all dressed in old-fashioned German clothing and it was a great time. This one guy thought I was Danish and very shy b/c all I said was “ja, nai, tak, skoll” which is, “yes, no, thank you, and cheers”. Louise would do the talking and I’d just smile. Haha, it was an adventure to say the least.

The following day, Bolette took us to a park 20 min outside Copenhagen that coincided with an amusement park. It was great. We then headed back for Aarhus around 5 and met up with Louise’s friend Lone. We went to out to Social Club and danced the night away. The next morning, Saturday, I got a personal tour around the city. The only problem was that it was by bike and I am not used to riding them. Everyone in Denmark rides a bike. The roads are really wide and every road has a path for pedestrians, bikes, and cars. Besides biking, Danes run all the time. They are all in great shape and made me feel like a lazy bum. Even in the rain you saw people running all over. Also, next to playgrounds they often times had work-out stations where you could do pull-ups, bench presses…etc. Crazy Danish people.

In Århus, Louise showed me her university (which looked very similar to US colleges), the downtown, and the medieval city which reminded me of Sturbridge village but much much older.

For dinner we were going to have a tradition Easter lunch but since two of her friends got sick and we didn’t need as much food, we decided to turn it into a random international evening. I forced her to buy peanut butter so we could have PB&Js. (and yes me and Karyn were the lovely Americans which introduced PB&Js to her in Iceland). We then decided to have guacamole with sour cream and nachos, cheddar cheese!!! (they don’t sell cheddar cheese in Italy), a danish yoghurt thing w/ biscuits and another Danish meal which tasted like chicken pot pie. It was an epic meal to say the least and we all gained 3 kilos since there were only 3 of us to eat it. After dinner, we hung out, got ready, and spent the night out with some friends. We went to G bar and Heidi’s. I guess we really liked Heidi’s so much we had to go in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

We ventured home around 7am and slept until 1:30. We woke up and went for Easter dinner at Louise’s family’s house in Ry. They have the most lovely home on a lake. Her mom and husband Paul bought me “Danish’s” because they found it funny that American’s call pastries danishs when Danes call it “Vienna bread”. Any who, her mom then made a delicious pot roast and it was the perfect European Easter. Plus I got a chocolate Easter egg, so why ever complain? I also got mini chocolate Easter eggs with a marzipan filling, delicious.

Visiting Denmark was probably my favorite trip so far. I loved being able to meet up with Louise and really getting the European feel and college life. Denmark is a very clean and organized city and everyone seems so happy and content. I could live there, AND everyone speaks English so that’s a greater plus.

Cinque Terre!

2010-03-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Last Friday (3/19), Tewks and I went to Cinque Terre! Cinque (5) Terre (lands) is a group of 5 towns built into the cliffs of northwest Italy. It's stunning and one of the most beautiful places I've been. Cinque Terre is known for its cliff walks which connect the 5 towns together. To hike between all 5 towns, it takes about 12 hours. If you don't wish to walk, there's a boat which connects the towns together....except it doesn't operate until April, we took the train. (which was just as good)

We arrived around noon to the first of 5 towns (it's about a 2 hour train from Florence) and began to sink in the views. From the first town, Riomaggiore, we walked to Manarola via lovers lane...how romantic with us two.

In Manarola we had the best facaccia with pesto (Cinque Terre is known for pesto) and ate by the shore. In my opinion, this town was the prettiest of the 5. The town was build right into the cliff and it's unbelievable. From here we walked to Corniglia and had to climb up 387 steps just to see the town..what a hike. The towns feel like small families since they are so separated from everything else. The trail connecting the 3-4 and 4-5 towns was closed and so we were forced to take the train. We went to Vernazza next and watched the sunset. The last town, Monterosso, is the biggest of the five and is the only town with an actual beach. It's probably really nice for the summer, but it wasn't my favorite town look-wise.

It was such a lovely day, I had great time.

Fiesta in Espana!

2010-03-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

Firstly, this is the longest blog ever. Traveling for 10 days is way too long to blog about. I wish you luck if you decide to read this.

Our venture to the land of Spain began on Friday morning when we departed for Madrid. We arrived at the airport only to be told that Meridiana (what we were flying) might be on strike. Airlines all over Europe have been striking non-stop lately and if you fly RyanAir, they won’t reimburse you. Just a tidbit.. Anyway, our flight was on time and life was good.

We arrived in Madrid and saw KATIE! Who came to visit for the week. We checked into our hostel, Mucho Madrid (Classy right?) and the receptionist, a cute old man, spoke perfect spanglish. We were starving, spotted TGIF, and obviously went there to eat. We then went to the Prado, which according to Rick Steves, has the “greatest collection of paintings In the world”. Here we saw Las Maninas by Vasquez and it was awesome.

On Saturday, we took off in the rain and went to the Royal Palace. It’s the third largest palace behind Versailles and Schonbrunn. The thing about Spanish royalty, however, is that the King who built it was French and grew up in Versailles and he married an Italian. He didn’t even speak Spanish in the palace….so much for national pride. In the palace they had a really cool room of armor and had examples of horse armor. We then went to the Reina Sofia, modern art museum, and saw Guernica by Picasso. It’s HUGE and really really cool. There’s also a lot of Dali’s, Miro’s, and Picasso’s. I liked it better than the Prado. For dinner we drank sangria, ate at a tapas bar and fell in love with croquettes. (and in cooking class this past Wednesday I learned how to make them…YES) On our way out, we got a recommendation to go to a bar/club called Ghetto. We had nothing else to do, so of course we ventured there….we shortly after discovered that it was indeed a gay club. We left and went to Dreams. It was a legit Spanish hang out that loved to play Spanish American songs like Pitbull. The best part was that they would sing the Spanish parts really loudly and then hum the English words while we, obviously, did the opposite.
Sunday rolled around and we went to the huge Madrid street market. They have some “treasures” and crazy stuff like old coins, keys and any other junk you could think of. We walked around all day and saw Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol, went shopping for a bit, and took a little siesta. We went to a buffet style dinner (an experience in itself) and ended at a local bar to have some more sangria ☺

Monday- We checked out of Mucho Madrid, said our fair wells to Mr. Spanglish and went to Retiro Park. It’s a gorgeous park and saw some cool trees and a lake. It was finally sunny but a little chilly. We hung out for a bit and found a playground. Let’s just say, they have some pretty interesting things for kids…we enjoyed ourselves. We ate at burger king before we departed for Sevilla. Just a little tidbit of information: There are candy shops all over Spain, sweet markets, as they are called. It’s actually a wonderful thing…except you just constantly eat candy. We arrived in Sevilla and ate dinner at Coloniales and it was delicious!! We had amazing tapas, spinach croquettes (I’m telling you, they are superb). Croquettes are a mix of potatoes and spinach (or whatever filling like ham, chicken, etc...) that are then fried.
Tuesday: We woke up to the lovely sun and warmth of Sevilla and went to Alcazar (Spanish term for castle) and got a tour. There were four of us and a couple who were obviously from CT…go figure. The alcazar architecture was cool, very muslim influenced. The Sevilla alcazar is actually 3 different alcazars combined into 1 and the French nobility live there when they visit. I learned some very fun facts on the tour.
1. The United States dollar sign ($) is from the coat of arms of Hercules. The coat of arms represents Hercules dividing Spain from Africa; this is represented by 2 pillars. The pillars are wrapped in a ribbon, essentially being the “s” figure on the dollar sign.
2. Buenos Aires in Argentina is named after the virgin god of air/wind. She was the God that the sailors prayed to before their journeys (i.e. Christopher Columbus).

The gardens of the Alcazar were the best part. They were gorgeous. They had ducks, oranges and lemon trees everywhere.
After the Alcazar we went to the Sevilla Cathedral, which is the largest church in the world! Christopher Columbus is buried here (well 200 grams of him). He was originally buried in Madrid and then he got moved a century later to the Dominican Republic to be buried with his brother and family. After Spain lost control of the Dominican, they moved him to Cuba and then finally Sevilla.
We then ran into Nikki, Lauren, and Laura! I wanted to get Churros all day and so we went to a 24hr place and of course, they were closed due to construction. We went for a walk near the river and then again, had tapas for dinner.
Day 6: Tuesday was another gorgeous day in Seville. We got paella and croquettas. Vanessa didn’t like her croquettes because they were clearly not chicken but rather fish. This old man behind her bought her a paella…too bad it was also seafood. We met up with Ali and Hannah and had a terrific afternoon hanging out at Capitania General (1929 world fair site) and sat around in the sun. I finally found churros!

We went to an amazing flamenco show (flamenco dancing originated in Seville) and I never realized how fast people could move their feet. It was incredible. We then went to an underground club which played terrific 90’s hits. Spain has a great drink called Tinto De Verano and it’s red wine mixed with fanta. It sounds weird but is great. At the club, I met this girl named Alex (Laura’s friend) and her dad is Mario Carter, the CT lawyer. Strange world.
Day 7: Wednesday we depart early and go to Barcelona. We decided to see Gaudi’s famous apartment buildings and tour the inside of one. The top of one of his apartment buildings has 36 chimneys, it’s a crazy design. We then walked to Gaudi’s Parc Guell and it’s really nice.
At night, we went to an amazing club called Opium. It was such a rager filled with great music (they played Save Tonight in a techno form) In Europe, you go out later than at home and Barcelona goes out the latest. We didn’t leave the club until 6am. We woke up at 1 the next day…
Day 8- Friday- It was Katie’s birthday! And so we celebrated by going to the aquarium and seeing some crazy sharks. We then saw Sagrada Familia (Gaudi’s famous church), went to get some dinner, bought boxed wine (87 cents), and didn’t end up doing anything exciting b/c we were exhausted.
Day 9- Saturday- We went to the Picasso museum and saw Las Meninas (Picasso’s interpretation of it anyway). I love Picasso’s work. The old man he always seems to paint I learned (thanks Rick Steves) is his father. Picasso lived 1881-1979 (I don’t know why I remember such a fact, but well now you know). Afterwards, we went to see the Arc De Triumpf (Barcelona style) and the park around it…which had a huge wooly mammoth statue.
For dinner, I decided to be Middle Eastern and Lily and I got schwarmmers and ate them on the roof of the hostel. We went to a light show at night at the Plaza de Espana and it was very pretty. The little kids near us Loved it. We went to chupitos, a shot bar, afterwards. It was the coolest shot bar! We had a “smores shot”. Basically, the bartender lit the counter on fire, gave us marshmallows to stick into the fire and then told us to take our marshmallows on fire and stick them into our shot. We then ate the marshmallow and took the shot. It was quite the process. We went to a club for a little bit afterwards but it was terrible techno music and so we went home early…around 4.
Day 10- Sunday- we depart the lovely country of Spain (and that means my blog is almost done…thankfully). We woke up and took a stroll on La Ramblas to watch all of the street performers and just people watch. It was a lovely day and then we left and came back to Florence. It was an amazing vacation but it was nice to come back home.

Another week in the life of Lynn

2010-03-01T04:12:00.000-08:00

Sunday (2/21)- I went to my first Italian soccer game! Florence played some team, shows how much I know because I already forgot the other teams name. Anyway, it was so much fun. We sat in a section with crazy Italian fans and some guy gave me a flag to hold and wave during the game. This big Italian guy stood at the bottom of the stands and was conducting everyone to chant. So, of course we had to join in and chant God knows what to the other teams fans. I did find out that one of the gestures we were told to do meant “f-you”. When in Florence do as the Florentines do, right? It was a riot to be there and see them get so pumped for the game. Alcohol isn’t served in the stadium and is forbidden inside because people get too rowdy. People take things to a whole new level here.

Tuesday (2/23)- In class we had to ask our Italian teacher, David, questions. So this really annoying girl goes, “David, would you like to get dinner with me tonight”. His response? “Piuttosto mi ucciderei!”—or, “I’d rather kill myself” hahahah. Talk about no political correctness here.

Also, I went to Dave Matthews in Rome!!!!!!!!! Everyone knows that I enjoy a little Dave here and there and it was really cool to see him in Rome. Granted most of the people there were Americans….we’ll just forget about that fact. Life is good. The only bad part was that we didn’t get home until about 4:30 (it takes about 3 hours and 15 min to get there by bus from Florence..1.5 hrs on a speed train) and I had a 9am class. Yes, I was once again at class.

Wednesday- I'm taking a cooking class...I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but anyway. Wednesday (2/24) at cooking class I ate so much I didn’t think I would be able to walk home. For our antipasto, we made a spinach and a ricotta quiche and then we had spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce for our first meal and then beef and artichokes for our main course along with beans. This was all followed by fruit salad (Macedonia) with wine. To say the least, I had 2 pieces of quiche, and 2 pieces of meat. Bad decision 2010. It was great. The only bummer was that I had to miss the Florence vs Milan soccer game. You may be asking when I turned into such a soccer fan? Well I haven’t but David Beckham plays for Milan! It turned out not to be a big deal though because he didn’t even play. Someone told me that since he is on “loan” technically from LA Galaxy, he doesn’t play unless it’s a terrible game because of risk of injury. This whole concept makes no sense to me.

Friday (2/26)- Vanessa and I depart for Rome ( my second time this week) to visit Faina and explore ancient Rome at its finest. We go to her apartment, which is in a cute residential section of Rome, and get ready for our night. We head to the Trevi fountain to see how stunning it looks at night and to find love (obviously). We then head to the Spanish Steps and end at a small little restaurant near the Pantheon. It was DELICIOUS! I had fettucini alfredo (which is NOT an Italian meal, but great all the same) and veal in a lemon sauce. We then got wine and headed to the spanish steps once again. Now let me tell you, this wine isn't just "oh I got a bottle of wine", it's,- let me take my empty water bottle to a store and have them fill it up with wine for me. Such a worldly place does exist for the low price of 1.10 euro/ liter. The wine is local and is kept in huge vats for customers to come in and buy as much as they would like. The wine is really good too. Lovely.

Saturday (2/27)- We go on a date with the Pope...kinda. We head to the Vatican and go through the Vatican Museum and see the Sistine Chapel. It's a HUGE museum but it was interesting. There was a Egyptian woman's body there that was over 2000 years old! (that's what the picture is of)We then headed to St. Peters square and then finally inside the Cathedral of St. Peters. I've been to a good many churches in my day and usually say, "you see one church, you've seen them all" but St. Peters is absolutely stunning. Which makes sense since it's the home of well, the Pope. Also, in the church, they have dead Popes on display. Poor guys, I wouldn't want my dead body on display. After the Vatican we treated ourselves to some lovely gelato. Funniest part of the day? When Nori (Faina's friend) was taking a picture of Faina in front of St. Peters and an old man snuck up behind her and OINKED in her ear. hahahhahaha, one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. To say the least, she was scared.

Fact of the day: You really don't have to pay to use the buses/trams in Rome either. I noticed that no one does and no one checks. If you see the ticket checker get on, simply get off. Also, people in Italy were made to wait. There is no bus schedule--it just shows up.

Saturday night- We are absolutely exhausted from the long day and go home and make dinner...but not before stopping at McDonalds for french fries because it just sounded so good at the time...and for only a euro! Nope, bad idea. Oh well, our real dinner was healthy. After dinner we headed over to some of Faina's friends apartment and hung out for while before heading out. It was here that I met one of the biggest tools of my life, and yet the most fascinating. This young child, Louis, studies abroad in Brussels and was also visiting a friend. So far, seems like a normal kid right? Wrong. On his 19th birthday he won the lotto. Yes, he won $1,000,000. That covers the fascinating part, the tool part follows. He kept talking like he was the coolest thing that has ever walked the planet. The only plus, we didn't have to pay for absolutely anything. Anyone else win the lottery?

Sunday (2/28)- We wake up early, grab pizza for breakfast, and head to the Colosseum, which is actually called the Flavian Amphitheater. (I never knew it either). It was so old, crazy things. I really thought it was cool. We then went to the Roman Forum and had a mini Rick Steves led tour (AKA we read his book outloud). Rick Steves rocks. After this we headed to the Pantheon and then did a quick stop at the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain so I could take a few more pictures. I'm that girl.

Just a side note: I hate to rub it in, but I will. The weather in Rome was gorgeous, spring has finally arrived in Italy! 65 and sunny is the perfect way live. AND it's strawberry season...yes.

Another side note: In Rome, they fold pizza over everywhere you go. They don't do it in Florence, just Rome. Strange Romans.

Sunday Night- Vanessa and I discover an American bakery near our house!!! They have bagels and cream cheese, AND carrot cake!! Super find.

2010-02-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

So my Italian teacher decided that it would be a wonderful idea to go to Piazza della Republica and go up to random Italian strangers and interview them. Being fluent in Italian, this was no problem…NOT. In a small group, my friends and I decided to venture near the Duomo and approach a woman singing while selling waffles on the streets. Little did we know how crazy she actually was. We would ask her a question and her response was always in a singing tone. She asked if we liked her purple rain boots. I interviewed this 21 year old Florentine barista who’s favorite color is white. Is that even a color?

In photo, my teacher took us on a two hour walk around the city. As you can see, my classes are really tough.

This past week my mom and brother came! On Friday we went on a tour of Siena, San Gimignano, and Chianti. It was raining which was a bummer but it was still a great time. I had my first cup of coffee (I’m 9 years old..fine) and I was wired. San Gimignano is a really small town, known as the town of the towers, because during the Medieval ages all of the nobles built towers so they would be "above" the proletariats. They would then build bridges to connect the towers to one another. Smart thinking kids.

Siena was a cool medieval town as well. Saint Catherine was from there and is buried in the church in the center. Fact of the day: Saints always have a part of their body on display, (I'm not sure why, for good luck?) and so her 800 year old head is on display in a glass case. crazy. Siena is broken up into 16 or 17 provinces in the city and they are form their own neighborhoods. Cute, right?

Chianti was my favorite part. The rolling hills with grapes growing everywhere really is stunning. Plus, I love wine. We went to an organic winery (liz, you would have loved yourself) and got to try 3 types of wine, 30 year old balsamic vinegar, 8 year old balsamic and olive oil. The olive oil was the best I've ever had. The 30 year old balsamic vinegar was good but strange, it wasn't very liquidy since most of the water had evaporated. It tasted good on ice cream though (yes, sounds very strange indeed but good nonetheless). The 8 year old balsamic was absolutely amazing and delicious. The wine, of course, was great. While the owner was building his winery he found an original wine recipe from the 12th century. He mastered the recipe and we were able to try some of what wine tasted like so many years ago. We also tried a wine made from strawberry grapes--it was really good and had a hint of strawberry. My favorite, though, was the normal wine. I drink way to much wine. Oh well.

Amsterdamned

2010-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

Well firstly, very sorry for the long delay. I suck and I promise not to do it again.

Secondly, not much happened in Amsterdam, it’s a pretty normal city…JOKES.

Where to begin? Let's see, Amsterdam is a city unlike any other place I've ever visited. It's very pretty with the canals and buildings and yet some of the streets have the most bizarre Las Vegas looking signs. And by some streets, I mean the red light district.

We left for Amsterdam last Thursday night and arrived just in time to grab dinner and explore some of the nightlife. We woke up early Friday morning and went to the Anne Frank house, which you definitely have to go to if you visit. It was really interesting, you can see the house exactly as it was while she and her family lived there. We then went to the Rijks Museum and saw some Rembrandts. It's a huge museum with a lot of famous paintings, I just don't overly enjoy museums. We then went to the Heineken brewery , which ROCKS. It was so cool and we got to sample some delicious frosty beverages.

Friday night was quite interesting...we explored the red light district. There really are no details to describe the night. To understand, you must go. Basically, though, it's like Vegas on steroids.

Saturday we went on a canal tour around the city and it was a nice way to see everything. We saw the Van Gogh museum, which again was pretty cool. Right outside of the museum district is a huuuge Amsterdam sign, that was a highlight. We wanted to take a tram home from the museum because it was bitterly cold...not as warm and lovely weather as lovely Florence, and so that was fun.

Fact of the day: you really don’t have to pay to take the tram in Amsterdam, as long as you avoid the last trolley car. It’s a true fact, even the coat check lady at the Heineken brewery told us and let me tell you, this method of traveling free really does work wonders.

Saturday night we went on a pub crawl and I got a free t-shirt (well kind of)! I'm still raking them in, even while abroad. I rock.

Get pancakes in Amsterdam. They are heaven sent. Sara’s pancakes house and the Pancake Bakery are delicious. I could eat one everyday. They are thin like crepes but rather than filling them with food like crepes, they bake them within 2 layers of pancakes. The description really doesn’t make much sense, so just take my word for it that you will love yourself after your meal.

Sunday began Chinese New Year and since we travel with Vanessa, our token Asian, it meant that we got to dine at a delicious Chinese restaurant where I got sweet and sour chicken. It was fantastic and made my day. Happy year of the tiger! Our plane didn’t leave until 8 pm and so we just mainly walked all day.

I'm Vanessa. Venezia? No...Vanessa

2010-02-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

Sono Andata a Venezia. (I went to Venice). Hey, I'm trying.

This past weekend a bunch of us went to Venice for Carnivale. It was unbelievable. Venice is beautiful and with Carnivale (Mardi Gras), it was a blast.

We left for Venice on Friday morning and arrived around noon. Since the festivities didn't start until Saturday, it was pretty much empty and we were able to walk around easily. It was raining, which was a bummer, but we looked good with our umbrellas. It's eerie how quiet and narrow the "roads" are since there are no cars (obviously) or tourists, well on Friday at least. The paths leading to Piazza San Marco were so narrow at times that we could barely fit through with our umbrellas. No fatties welcome in Venice. It was really fun exploring the city, getting lost, and finding small canals/roads off the beaten path. For dinner that night, 6 of us went out to a really nice local place recommended by the hotel man and the food was great. I ate way to much and gained around 43.87 kilos. Oh well.

Saturday we (Dani, Wynne, Lauren, Tewks, Van and I) went to Murano island where they make all of the famous glass. We saw a glass blowing demonstration and the guy made a glass horse in front of us, it was unreal how fast he did it. I'm not going to be a glass blower anytime soon. They said in order to be considered an expert, you have to be doing the trade for at least 25 years. Anyway, as you can imagine we spent most of the day shopping and being cool.

Saturday night was when the rage began. Carnivale kicked off and Venice turned into a halloween/Mardi Gras/Disney World/17th century town. It was the coolest thing I've seen. Everyone just walked the streets in masks like it was no big deal. I met jelly fish, a family of smurfs, a knight, OH and the Pope.

For the festivities, Tewks and I decided that we wanted to get legit hand-made masks to Jam in. We found this small store owned by sisters and they were adorable. We were in there for about 35 minutes deciding which masks to get (so I can't make decisions...after all, Alberto does make my sandwiches). Anyway, we finally decided on some lovely masks and the maker, Valentina, signed the back of them and dated them for us. AND they took pictures with us. *ultimate tourist '10 award* (the picture is of Valentina's sister...she is just too cute)

Fact of the day: The longer the nose on the masks, the more luck you get. If you ever choose to give a big-nosed mask as a gift (which is pretty common you non-believers) then the more bumps/longer the nose is--the more luck they will have! What splendid knowledge

After the opening ceremonies of Carnivale (which takes part in San Marco Square), everybody went to a square where temporary bars were set up and everyone raged with a few DJs. Nothing is more entertaining than seeing Europeans raging in costumes. Nothing. At one point Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" came on. Can we not love this?

Sunday morning we walked around some more and saw a Carnivale parade on the canal. At one point, they had a huge fake rat hanging over a bridge and then eventually they pushed it down with brooms into the water? and then people in gondolas hit the rat away. I have yet to google what I saw. I'll have to update soon. Entertaining nonetheless. Another good fact (wow, filled with facts today) instead of serving hotdogs and hamburgers, they serve pasta and wine. Lovely country.

We left for Firenze later on in the afternoon and made it back around 4. We then had a few hours to prepare until the super bowl party at Red Garter. The only downside to having a super bowl party on a Sunday with class at 9 am on Monday is having the game start at 12:20 am. The game didn't get over until 4 am, but yes Mom, I was at class at 9. It was fun to have a real American night and hang out at a bar. Do it live baby.

OH, and this doesn't really fit into the blog anywhere but last week Florence had a chocolate festival. It was as fantastic as it sounds. I bought a huge block of mint chocolate. I love myself for making that purchase. They had so many chocolate flavors, fudge, truffles, chocolate liquor, etc...I had chocolate covered strawberries too.

PPS- The title of this lovely post is from when we went to the bar a few days ago and Vanessa introduced herself to someone and he kept telling her that Vanessa and Venezia (Venice) were basically the same thing.

A day in the life

2010-02-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Monday night (2/1)- I wanted to be Betty Crocker and attempted to bake chocolate chip cookies. I googled recipes all day (about 10 minutes) and realized Italy doesn't have some of the necessary ingredients...such as baking soda. So, I had to settle on a chocolate chip biscotti recipe and improvise it. The result? Chewy and soft biscotti. Chocolate chip cookies were not mastered quite yet but I ate them all regardless. Also, as a side note. It's very difficult to measure out the ingredients when they are all in grams and you don't have a measuring device. LUCKILY, we knew 100 grams is about 3.5 ounces and a shot glass is 1.5 ounces...yes, college does pay off. (and yes, the shot glass does say "Czech me out")

Monday late night- We found the secret bakery!!!! It was a serious mission for Sherlock Holmes and gang and we found it by smelling our way. It's down a random dark road and the bakery isn't labeled at all. From the outside it looks like a factory of some sort but when you knock on the frosted glass doors...BAM someone appears with food. I got a splendid chocolate croissant and loved it. I just realized that Monday was a day filled with healthy food....

Tuesday class- My photography teacher is adorable and I love him. Period. I really hope he doesn't read this blog, that could be awkward. My Medici class (well technically it's on mon/wed) is still fantastic. Some quotes from the one and only Marcello, who wears all black every day all day. "Do you know how many David's we have (referring to statues)? More than we have Japanese tourists" "It's like a Chinese restaurant, 30 names, same thing--rice" and last but not least "I used to wear my bellbottoms and steal books"

Tuesday afternoon- LYNN IS ON JERRY SPRINGER!!!!! Her question makes the big screen! Only 3.5 months left until I can watch it, thank you Nicholas (and you better read this b/c I shouted you out)

Tuesday night- Lauren and I enter a beer pong tournament at the Red Garter (local bar). We get 3rd place out of about 35 teams. Free T-shirts. YES

Tuesday night at Red Garter- I meet a British Gucci model. I thought he was lying too, I'm not that dumb. However, nope, he was legit. Anyway, he told me I should be a gucci model and that if I wanted he would talk to some people and next time he was in New York, he would set up a meeting. This fella obviously doesn't know me very well. No thank you.

Wednesday lunch- Went to the Oil Shoppe, as I do every Monday and Wednesday. Alberto works there and the sandwiches are the best, hands down. I'm a terrible decision maker so he just makes me a sandwich, no questions asked. He knows I don't like spicy sauce. What a man. If you are ever in Florence...you HAVE to go. The sandwiches are amazing, cheap, and just pure bliss. I had fresh mozzarella, pesto, tomatoes, lettuce and chicken today. I usually add some artichoke hearts.

Ahoj Praha!

2010-01-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Vanessa, Lauren (Tewks), and I conquered Prague and loved every minute of it.

Our flight was at 7:50 am on Friday out of Milan so we left on Thursday night and headed towards Milan by train to stay at a hostel and then leave from there in the morning. It was quite the adventure…and this is how it started
1. Trains in Italy are never on time…never. We had to make a connection train to Bergamo (the town that the airport is in) after we arrived in Milan but since the Milan train was late…we had to take the 11:45pm train (which meant we had 1.5 hrs to kill). So we left the station to wander around Milan and obviously went to McDonalds and got McNuggets and McFlurries. McFlurries, in case you were wondering, are smaller than in the states…anyway

2. The Bergamo hostel is bright yellow and blue. We finally arrived at the hostel around 1am and it was about to close. We just made it and ended up being the only people in an 8 person suite…sweeet. We slept 5 hrs and then left for the airport
3. Wizzair is quite the airline. The seats aren’t assigned..it’s kind of like a secret fight with every other passenger on the airplane for a good seat. Everyone secretly hates everyone else. (well, I did at least)
We finally arrived in Prague and made it to Mark and Weili’s apartment. From there I put on my tour guiding hat and led the best tour group this joint has ever seen. We had lunch at Two Cats (just for you dad)
and then did the typical Old Town, Charles Bridge, Castle walk and of course the peeing men statue. Before dinner we went to a local pub and had a few beers with some local Czechs our age thanks to the lovely Weili. They were really cool. It got late when we all left for dinner and ended up eating at a place called Bar Bar since the other restaurants stopped serving food.

The true adventure of the night begins now. Having it be around 1:30am, Tewks, Van, and I decided to venture to Karlovy Lazne (the biggest discoteque in central Europe). RAGEEE. Every floor was decorated differently and had different themed music. It was epic to say the least. We met some guys from Amsterdam…they were dressed way to fancy for the place, it was great. To sum it up in a sentence, picture this: Europeans fist pumping to Michael Jackson. Can life get better? OH and one of the floors had this huge robot hanging from the ceiling with a laser coming out of his forehead.

The next day Mark took over as tour guide and took us on a long journey around the city. It turned out to be a really nice day but cold. We went to an Asian place to get tea and spring rolls and Vanessa felt at home. We obviously went to hard rock café for dinner and I got a scrumptious bacon cheeseburger with fries. Oh, are you wondering what I drank? Well, I got a Shirley Temple. I don’t care if it’s an 8 year olds drink, loved it. After dinner Mark took me and Lauren on our private Pub Crawl. It started off at an Irish bar that he used to go to 12 years ago… but it ended up being closed. We then ventured to “la casa blu” and then to “U zeleneho stromu”. The latter was my favorite. Sadly, no bartender jobs were offered.

Our plane left this morning at 6am and so we had to take a taxi at 4:30am..miserable plan. Thanks Wizzair.

My 20th Birthday

2010-01-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

My birthday was yesterday and it turned out to be a great day. I began to feel a lot better and we went to an American diner for breakfast. I had pancakes and cranberry juice and was very satisfied. We then walked around the city and I got a much needed wallet.

For dinner we went to Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco. It was across the river and was pretty good. I picked it randomly using trip advisor. We then headed to Red Garter to watch the end of the UConn game...which was so much fun and then we won so life was great! UConn obviously won due to the luck of the blessed day of January 23rd. I'm not complaining. We met an old guy named Peter there who was a huuuge UConn fan and bought everyone victory shots at the end.

We came home pretty early though because I'm still not feeling too stellar. All in all, though, great night.

Ospedale Fiorentino

2010-01-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to be going to Chianti today with some kids from my program to visit a local winery. Instead, I woke up in the hospital. Yes, it's true.

Yesterday started off as a normal day, except my throat hurt so I was going to see the doctor between classes. It all went as planned, I got antibiotics and headed back home. On my way back, I started to feel really sick but I just assumed all of my Advil was wearing off. When I got back, I continued to feel worse and eventually got nauseous. Long story short, my roommates were all planning on going out to eat and never went. I began to shake uncontrollably, threw up non-stop and my pulse dropped dramatically (so i've been told). The EMTs came and rushed me to the hospital in an ambulance. Lauren said they looked really scared, but were cute. The rest is a little fuzzy, but I remember Tewks talking to me in the ambulance. She should have taken a picture for this blog, she said she wanted to but thought the EMTs would not be happy.

I arrived at the hospital and was in the ER for about 4 hours. I apparently came at a terrible time because one guy died and another got arrested. Of this I have no recollection, Tewks and Vanessa witnessed it. One of my teachers came from school, Daniele...he was the best. When they finally tested my blood samples, they came to the conclusion that I had strep that spread into my stomach which gave me gastroenteritis. I'm not really sure if that is what it is though because no one spoke english. It was quite the experience. The hospitals are not like home, much scarier.

Mi Chiamo Lynn

2010-01-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Classes started yesterday and well, that's fun. My Italian teacher is crazy and wears orange almost everyday. I enjoy it. I'm taking a class called "the Medici family" and my teacher is the most epic florentine (his name is Marcello). He told us how he drives a vespa and always tries to find shortcuts. When cops aren't looking, he cuts through the Piazza Duomo but it's dangerous because he almost hits pedestrians. He said the risk is worth it. What a man.

Our school is really pretty because the building is from the the 1450's, but we've been told it's haunted. The Rucellai family who owned the building was trying to set up an arranged marriage and on the day of the wedding, the young bride committed suicide. The director told us she hears her walking around all of the time but simply said that "it's no big deal, if you hear her...let us know because we want to document it". They all swear to have heard her...glorious.

Our apartment is a good 20 minutes away from school but it's a gorgeous walk. Today was really sunny and warm, probably around 60 (that fact was for you mom). I took a stroll by the river and ate a waffle from the street. Stupid Lynn bought it in a really touristy spot though and it cost 6 euros. I'm an idiot.

The picture of Vanessa is for pure enjoyment because she is a cute little Asian.

Bartender?

2010-01-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

So, since I've been in Italy, I've had a coke everyday and I'm not sure why I like it so much. The coke tastes different, it's flatter, or so we thought...it turns out it's only flat in the 99 cent store. Go figure. The grocery store coke was normal, I guess I'll have to continue to go to the 99 cent store everyday.

Anyway, last night we were planning on doing a pub crawl and ending at Space Electronic Discoteque...we never made it there. Instead, I got offered a job as a bartender. Apparently redheads are known to be bitchy and therefore good bartenders. The owner told me that I could start Monday at 10. And no, I'm not going tomorrow. All in all, good night and still no secret bakery update.

Today was not eventful. We ate dinner at the oldest restaurant in the world, though (unofficial title), from the 1500's and it was really nice. Leonardo da vinci used to go there often. We then went to Groms for gelato and it was absolutely fantastic.

pub crawl!!

2010-01-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Tewks and I just met some local CTers. Love. Our new friend Frankie went to Prep. Lovely. Well the new Syracuse fans were not that sensational...who likes the orange?

Medici

2010-01-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Last night the lovely Tewks, Van and I decided to venture and find the secret bakery. We departed for our journey around 2:30am assuming the bakery was open until 3. It was not. The secret bakery, we thought, was opened from 1-3 at night and you have to slyly knock on the door and they come and bring you hot food. We now think it's open from 3-6am. I'll keep you updated.

Today we walked around the city and went shopping at the local markets. The Italian sellers kept trying to give us "bargains". The quote of the day, "want to try this on? It's free. I'll give you a free Italian boyfriend. Maybe two if you want"- San Lorenzo Marketer. We left and went to Zara. We all purchased items.

The synagogue picture is for you Vicky, it's across the street from our apartment.

buongiorno Firenze!

2010-01-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

I made it to FIRENZE! I had too much luggage and the taxi man had to help me get out of the car but otherwise the journey was smooth. Fact of the day: you don't tip in Italy, regardless of how incompetent you are with luggage.

My apartment is adorable and I guess they realized how classy I am, because the floors are marble. There are 6 of us and we cooked our first meal yesterday (hence the picture of the table)! We went to a club called Twice and it was absolutely crazy. Very european...if that makes sense.

From my bed I can see the Duomo, it's incredible. However, if you look directly next to me you can see a police station and cop cars and across the street is a synagogue, and a pretty one at that. (it looks better in real life)

adventures so far

2010-01-15T09:19:00.000-08:00

My adventure began on the lovely day of Wednesday January 6th when I departed the motherland for Italia. I spent the first few days skiing w/ my dad in Val Gardena in Italy. Let me tell you, it was breathtaking and a skiers paradise. Over 500 km of trails and snow...I was so sore afterwards I thought I was going to fall over.