Two years later...

I am off to Japan in five days!   I don't imagine that I will real-time blog, as in while I am actually there, but I do want to have some place to record the trip with both pictures and words, so I figured I would just expand my Italy blog to be more of a travel blog.

Emma (my younger sister) and I leave New Orleans in the evening on July 6th and arrive in Tokyo on July 8 at 4:55 in the morning!   We will stay in Tokyo for four days, visit small towns like Takayama, Nara and Koyasan, then stay in Kyoto for four days.  After Kyoto we will visit Hiroshima and Kurashiki before returning to Tokyo for a few more days and then returning to America on July 23rd.  

To say that I am overwhelmed is an understatement- I have planned this entire trip myself and I know literally NO ONE who has ever been to Japan- so unlike my time in Italy, which many people gave me advice and opinions about.   I am relying on guidebook and internet advice for places to stay, eat, visit, etc.

I read over all of my entries from Italy just now- I am such a lucky, lucky girl.  I wish I could fast forward through the next few years just because I want to start earning my own money so that I can send my parents on a trip- they deserve it after all that they have given me!

Until late July (I imagine!),

Rebekka

Final Days in Firenze?!

So... the whole "tomorrow" update thing did not really happen. Oh well!

The weekend after Rimini, Amanda (my kindergarten BFF) came to visit me! She had a nice, long time to hang around Florence- from Wednesday night to Monday morning. Unfortunately, the first day she was here the weather wasn't great, but we did walk around the city a lot, like up to Michelangelo's steps and around the Santa Croce, which was nice. That night we went to dinner at one of my favorite places to take guests, Trattoria Contadino, which serves you a 3 course meal+ bread, wine and water for only 12 Euro. I went there when Maddie visited me as well (I think I forgot to mention that she was in and out of Florence a few weeks ago, but it was GREAT seeing her and I don't know how I forgot if I did). Friday, we walked around the city a little more- got lunch at Za-Zas, bought presents at the market (Matt, if you're reading this, I hope she didn't tell you about your present yet... it's a GREAT surprise) and saw various other sights around town. Then the next day, we took a day trip to San Gimignano, which is this tiny Tuscan town that has the best preserved fortressses of any city in the area- so there are all of these HUGE towers still standing, which apparently inspired people to start calling it the Manhattan of Tuscany. It was a really cute place to go for the day and I'm so glad I got to see it! And that Amanda saw more of Tuscany than just Florence, which is beautiful, but so is the countryside! Sunday was filled with more Florence touring and shopping, and then Monday I sent her off and prepared for my last week of classes. The weekend after that week, I took it easy to study/soak up my last days in Florence, but I did get to take another day trip to Cinque Terre which I thoroughly enjoyed, again. And now I'm in my final countdown (and also a countdown to my birthday!).

I really can't believe my semester is already over. The saying "time flies" is so trite, but it's really true in this case. I have just had the most amazing time this semester getting to know a city that was completely foreign to me on January 16 and now feels like home. Every single day of last week and this past one, I have been struck by one thing or another that I realize I am going to miss so much when I'm at home. Whether it's my hilarious attempts to speak Italian, my English teacher Stefano's ridiculous quotes (his latest, when asked about his broken finger: I can bent it a little more. Maybe by Christmas I can, I don't know, pick up a bug), my beautiful apartment, the outdoor/indoor markets just steps from my school, the great SHOPPING, the amazing history/art all around me, the friendly (and sometimes, overly so) Italian people, the easy travel or the great people I've met on my program, I know that there is so much I am leaving here (or sending off to their own homes, in the case of my friends) that I am going to pine for for quite some time. I don't even know how to express how thankful I am that I was given this opportunity, and I hope I take lots and lots that I've learned back with me(although currently, my suitcases are wishing I was taking a little bit less stuff). I hope everyone has enjoyed reading this (and I do have one more post left) and I will see y'all SO soon!

Rimini and Relaxing

Okay, so, as you may be able to tell from the fact that I did not write in this for over a month and from the length of my previous posts, I was seriously on the go from around the time of my spring break until just over a week ago. I've finally had the time to relax a little bit, which has been really nice, although it's also crazy to sit back and think about how much time has passed. I've been uploading my pictures to a picture website in order to save space on my computer, and it's so crazy to me that the month of February began when I was in Assisi, saw my trips to Venice and Paris as well as my family's visit, and ended in Milan. March began in Mantua, brought me to Sicily, London and Ireland, and ended just in time for April when Jacob visited me and then I went to Prague, the Amalfi Coast and in the next two weekends that I am about to write about, went on a bike tour and to a beach town. My life has been so adventurous this semester and I am so thankful for all that I've been able to experience.

The weekend after Easter, I went on a bike tour in Chianti with three of my friends from my program. Along the way, we got to tour a winery and taste some wines, and also eat a delicious lunch and gelato. Now, I am no Lance Armstrong, but I was fairly confident about my biking skills, and I would have to say I overestimated myself. I was SO sore by the end of the 12 mile ride, but it was worth it because I saw some of the most beautiful scenery ever! The best part (and also most terrifying) was this HUGE hill that we coasted down in the middle of the ride... all around me there was just beautiful Tuscan countryside and it was completely silent because all I could hear was wind in my ears. There were some scary moments when cars passed literally right next to me, because we were biking on actual roads, but I made it through unscathed and it was a great way to spend a Saturday.


The next week, after quite a bit of school work (comparatively... the workload here is manageable to say the least), I went with five friends to Rimini, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea. Unfortunately, it was still a little bit cold for beach-going, but it was a cool place to see nonetheless. It was very cute and walkable and our hostel was also very interesting... it had its own bar! We mostly spent the weekend walking around on the beach/in the town and relaxing... there was definitely more than one nap involved, but we did have one fun night out on the town and then a really amazing dinner the next night (my favorite part, aside from the fact that we got free cookies, was this really great frozen lemonade thing that has been cropping up all over Italy since the weather has gotten warmer).

It's been awhile since Rimini (and since I started this post), and tomorrow I'll update on my last two weekends IN ITALY. After that, I'll be in exams and then off to travel, so I may not write again until I'm on my way home or even at Camp Hardtner. Absolutely insane! My thoughts about leaving will be covered more in my next post. Ciao Ciao!

Pizza, Pompei, Positano, etc.

So I have to start out this blog with some semi-unfortunate news. First, my camera broke right after the National Championship game. Luckily, I was able to replace it, but this week, I somehow (and I have literally no idea how) lost my memory card with 300+ not uploaded pictures on it. Thankfully, everyone abroad takes as many pictures as I do, so I've been able to collect a lot of pictures that are very similar to the ones I lost, but the ones I show in this entry from the Amalfi Coast/Pompei and later a bike tour I did in Chianti will unfortunately not be ones that I personally took.


But pictures or no pictures, the Amalfi Coast was one of the best weekends I have had here, even though I am fairly positive that I was running a fever for most of the time. We started the weekend with a firve hour train ride to Naples, which because of the time (Easter weekend) and the earthquake in Abruzzo was EXTREMELY crowded and I slept literally on the floor of said train for an hour until I got a real seat. We finally made it to Napoli, which is a pretty gross city, but is famous because it is where pizza was invented. I had read about a really amazing pizza place in the book Eat, Pray, Love, so Stacey and I went there and each ate our own Double Margherita pizza, which was delicious and prepared right in front of our faces! Then we hopped on the Circumvesuviana railroad to get to Sorrento, which was our home base for the weekend. We didn't get to Sorrento until late that night, so we went to sleep right away because we had a pretty full weekend.

Early the next morning it looked like we were going to be disappointed because it was cold and rainy, obviously not the kind of weather you want to enjoy beautiful places like Capri and Positano, which were our destinations for the day. Luckily, on the boat ride over to Capri, it started clearing up and turned into one of the most gorgeous days I had seen in awhile. Immediately after docking in Capri, a bunch of us purchased tickets to take another boat to see the Blue Grotto, which is this amazing cave that juts out of Capri. The entrance is so small that you have to lie down in your boat to get inside of it, but its well worth it because the water in the cave is BRIGHT neon blue... it's just this indescribable experience because it's so bright and cool and peaceful inside. After the grotto, we took a bus up to Anacapri, which provided us with some amazing views of the island. Unfortunately, the chair lift that we wanted to ride was closed, but we did take a nice walk. After that, we relaxed on a tiny, rocky beach for a little while and then Stacey and I took the ferry to Positano.

Capri is pretty, but Positano is GORGEOUS. It's hard to explain how pretty everything there is and I will have to let the pictures do the talking for the most part. There was this small beach right when we got off of the boat that we sat on and ate some delicious gelato (I got this flavor that had POP ROCKS in it, as well as a delicious pear flavor), and there were also all of these adorable stores (I purchased an Easter dress!), including the kind that the Amalfi Coast is famous for, sandal stores where the employees make the sandals right in front of you and fit them perfectly to your feet. I got two pairs of those! On our way up to the town area, we ran into a Good Friday procession which was a little bit bizarre but also beautifully surreal, as it took place on a covered street whose awning was draped with purple flowers. After the bus back to Sorrento, we ran into yet another procession, one that was a little bit more creepy because it was in the dark and there were hooded men and chanting involved, but there was also incense which I LOVE. That night at dinner, I got made fun of by an Italian man for how often I say "like." I know, you are all shocked. Whatever, at least I can turn it off when I need to.

The next day we went to Pompei, which was probably one of the best experiences of my LIFE. I don't even know where to start- but in case you are wondering exactly what Pompei is, it is this ancient city that was eventually a part of the Roman Empire that was inundated by a volcano- I can't say destroyed, because it was actually extremely well-preserved! So being there is like literally being in a huge city- meaning there is so much to see and it's impossible to actually do EVERYTHING in less than like, an entire day, maybe more. But I did get to see a ton of stuff, such as a few ancient temples; many houses (including the largest one in the city, which had some BEAUTIFUL gardens -obviously, those are reproduced, but still- and mosaics); the brothel, which has pictures above the little bedroom cells of the .. services.. that were available; the theater, one of the 38 bakeries, political graffiti, etc. etc. My favorite thing were these snack bars that they had where you could still see the counters/places for eating where people had lunch daily (according to my little guide, it wasn't customary to eat lunch at home). ANCIENT SNACK BARS?! I mean the idea really blows my mind. Anyway, after a half day at Pompei, we took a taxi up to Mt. Vesuvius, and proceeded to do something I bet no one reading this has ever done- hike up an active volcano! The actual mountain itself is not very scenic, because obviously there is no vegetation, etc at the top of a volcano, but we got some great views of the Bay of Naples and also got to look down into the crater. So cool! After this, we went back to Sorrento for dinner- and I did a little more shopping, of course.


Easter Sunday we travelled back to Florence and I spent the day wishing I was at home with y'all going to church and eating crawfish (Okay, I know that if I was with people in North Carolina I would have not so much been eating crawfish). I missed the servies at the Episcopal church and I just didn't really feel like I would get much out of a Catholic service that was in Italian, but I did read the liturgy online. Just in case anyone was worried! I also spent a good portion of the day/the next week sleeping, because as you may remember from the beginning of this lengthy entry, I am pretty sure I was running a fever for a good portion of my weekend. But as I said, it was all in all fantastic, and I am really glad Nene told me that the one thing I HAD to do while I was here was go to Pompei- so true!

Coming up next, my entry about a bike tour/Rimini/life in Florence that will FINALLY catch me up. I have less than four weeks left in Europe! Yikes!!!

Brother, Bohemia, Basketball

How is it possible to procrastinate writing a blog?! It's not like it's actual homework or anything, and yet I have been putting this off for SO long! Last time I wrote, I detailed my spring break. So now we will move on to the week after, when Jacob came to visit, we traveled to Prague and Cinque Terre (and of course toured Florence), and UNC won the National Championship!

Jacob arrived on the Thursday after my Spring Break after much stress because a TON of flights got canceled from the Baton Rouge airport. Luckily, I am an excellent problem solver, so I got him a flight out of New Orleans and he made it here right on time! We went on a little walking tour of Florence that afternoon and then took an overnight bus (along with three girls from my program) to Prague. So Friday morning we woke up and immediately went on a walking tour of the city. It was a really great thing to do because we needed to stretch our legs and also because we probably would have wanted to go back to sleep if this hadn't been offered right when we got there. We saw the Old Town Square with the really cool astrological clock that is pictured above, the Charles River/Bridge, the palace, and other random sights such as the old synagogue, Charles University, etc. After a delicious, typical Czech lunch, the five of us did some wandering around in the Old Town square and then went back to our hostel for a little rest before the night. That night we did a pub crawl with most of the people on our trip which was really fun! Although Jacob wanted to stay out later than me, shockingly enough.


The next morning, we got up and went back to the Old Town Square area and just did a lot of wandering around the city. There was an Easter/Spring festival in the middle of the square so we bought a lot of souvenirs and delicious food at that and then we went and relaxed in a park near some beer gardens. That night, we ate at a delicious vegetarian restaurant and went out for just a few minutes. This is because OBAMA was speaking in Prague the next day and we had to be out of our hostel at an EXTREMELY early hour in order to attend the speech.

So after waiting in the European version of a "line" for about two hours very early the next morning, we made it in to the palace area and eventually heard Obama's first foreign policy speech in a foreign country! If you didn't hear it or read some of it, I highly recommend it because it was a great outline of his plans for eventual nuclear disarmament. What a cool experience! After that, we got back on the bus for the long journey back to Florence. We made it home earlier than I expected, thankfully!

The next morning Jacob and I woke up and took a train to the Cinque Terre, which are these five little towns north of Florence that are connected by hiking trails along the sea. They are BEAUTIFUL, and we had such a nice time walking and taking in the beautiful weather and amazing scenery. I was more relaxed than I have been in a long time! Our favorite town was Vernazza, where we ate the most delicious gelato I have had here. After that amazing day, we made it back to Florence in time to eat dinner at one of my favorite restaurants here, Dante's, but that was only the beginning of our night. This is because it was the NCAA Basketball Championship and it didn't start in Florence until 3 am! So we went dancing for an hour or so at a club, then went to the bar that kindly stayed open to let us watch the entirety of the game. We won, as I mentioned earlier, and because we couldn't be there to rush Franklin (which means running to the main street that goes through UNC's campus to have a huge celebration!), we celebrated in the streets of Florence, but since it was 6 am and most of the city's population did not share our joy, we were shushed pretty quickly.




The next day Jake and I tried to catch up on our sleep (and I tried to catch up on my school work), but we did get a nice dinner at a restaurant called Aqua al 2 where there are two delicious kinds of steak- balsamic and blueberry. Then we ate for the first time at my new favorite gelato place, Gelateria Neri. I don't love ice cream, so I had not REALLY enjoyed gelato until that one in Cinque Terre, but this place is amazing and I almost wish I hadn't found it because now I always want to go...



For Jacob's final day here, we had a morning of souvenir shopping and an afternoon of museum visits. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Jake absolutely loved the outdoor market and all of its stands FILLED with little trinkets. We both loved the Uffizzi (I had already been, but I hadn't seen a lot of the rooms) and of course appreciated the magnificence of the David. That night we had a farewell dinner at Il Latini, the great restaurant where Mom, Dad, Emma and I ate that has a million courses and an amazing fixed menu. I have to say I think I liked it better when we went in February because it was far less touristy.



Phew! Now I am only one and a halfish entries behind on this thing, although it will get worse because it's almost the weekend again and I'm going to the beach! Hope the weather is nice!

Getting ready to go cheer the Tar Heels on!

Ireland=Fairyland

Okay, so round two of spring break updates! For the second part of spring break we traveled to Ireland. The night before we left, we got some really awesome news- my friend Patee's dad has some friends in Ireland, and through various connections we ended up with a free place to stay in Dublin! We had an apartment right near the center of things, and it had exactly five beds! So perfect. Our first day in Ireland, Tuesday, was mostly spent figuring out things with that apartment, but we grabbed an early evening lunch/dinner in the Temple Bar area, which was my first of many experiences in Ireland that felt more like Disneyworld than real life. Loud Irish music blaring from all of the bars, friendly Irish people all around, tons of beer, and just generally a great atmosphere. I ate my first of probably three "Cajun" burgers at this meal... very interesting take on "Cajun" cuisine. We listened to a cute little band that night and then went to bed early.. clearly a trend of my spring break... in order to hike in the Wicklow Mountains the next day.
Trinity College Courtyard

Before the Wicklow Mountains, we visited Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. The Book is absolutely gorgeous, and Trinity College is not so bad itself! It would be so cool to be a student there. We grabbed lunch before we caught our bus to the mountains, which I have to mention because I got a BLT bagel!! That is one of my favorite meals at Alpine, and it made me soooo happy. But not as happy as the BEAUTIFUL mountains made me. I think this day was probably my favorite day in Ireland- we hiked around for close to three hours, and it was definitely pretty windy and chilly, but the hike was not difficult and the scenery was just absolutely breathtaking. This place was definitely the way I pictured Ireland- so green and peaceful. By the way, in case y'all aren't noticing, I am becoming quite the nature hiker! Who would have guessed. So after our return to Dublin, we had another dinner in Temple Bar where I had yet another "Cajun" burger (at this point, unlike my American food loving friends, I was getting REALLY homesick for good Italian food and fresh vegetables) before we went to bed early to get up BEFORE SIX AM the next day.



Thursday morning we trekked to the train station with a plan of going to Limerick and catching a bus from there to the Cliffs of Moher. After a little bit of confusion, we got onto one of the nicest trains I have ever been on in my life. No offense TrenItalia, but Ireland is totally beating you as far as cleanliness and train technology goes. We had to make reservations, so when we got to our seats, a little board above them said our names!! I was quite tickled by this. Unfortunately, in Limerick we discovered that we had missed the bus to the Cliffs, so we got on a bus to Galway hoping to get to the Cliffs from there. Let me just mention that Galway is literally on the opposite side of Ireland from Dublin. So after a morning of literally traveling cross-country, we arrived in Galway to discover that we had just missed the last buses to the cliffs from there! Geez. We had a somber lunch but thankfully Colleen was determined to see these cliffs, because she marched up to a cab driver and made a deal with him to drive us there himself. This guy was great, and he was not from Ireland so he had never been to the cliffs, either. Y'all know I am a sucker for people like that, so I was trying so hard to get him to come out with us, but he wasn't properly dressed, because the cliffs are SO WINDY. People used to regularly get blown OFF! They were beautiful though, and even though the day was exhausting, I'm really glad I saw them. I am not glad, however, that I have developed a tendency for car sickness in Europe. I felt like DEATH after we wound down the mountain back into Galway. It did not do anything to help me that we had to take a 5.5 hour bus ride back to Dublin. But it was a great day nonetheless! I absolutely collapsed into bed after that one!See? My name right by my seat on the train!
Above: Beautiful cliffs!
Below: Can you tell how windy it was? This is the tamest picture I got!


For our final day in Ireland we actually stayed in Dublin! We spent the morning touring the Dublin Castle (where I was extremely underwhelmed because the whole palace was rebuilt in like the 1800s or something like that. Not really very castle-like at all. But I digress.), walking through St. Stephen's Green and visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral which is where Johnathon Swift used to preach! Finally, we went on a tour of the Guinness Factory, which was actually not so much a factory tour but just a very large museum explaining how Guinness is produced, but it was really cool and we got two free Guinnesses. That night, after a hilarious cab ride, we had a "traditional Irish dinner" at this pub just outside of Dublin and listened to a band and watched some Irish dancing. That was probably my favorite thing we did at night in Ireland... and then we decided to just stay up all night because we had to catch a bus at 3 AM.
Above: St. Stephen's Green in Dublin
Below: Johnathon Swift's pulpit


So we bar-hopped in Temple Bar and caught about 2 hours of sleep before catching our bus and subsequently missing our flight in the London airport. Flying on a budget airline means it's your fault when things like that happen, so after paying 100 pounds and waiting for about 10 hours in the London Stansted Airport, we finally made it home. Although not before a very Euro Trip moment on the flight when as soon as the fasten seat belt sign turned off it was literally a zoo of 13 year old Italian kids climbing all over each other and screaming for the rest of the flight. Have I mentioned that RyanAir's cabin interior color is a soothing neon yellow? But anyway, I have learned over the past 3 years because I've flown so much thanks to going to school far away, you just have to roll with those kinds of punches and I was really grateful for my parents and the way I knew they would react to the news of my traveling difficulties. Either way, I have never been more excited to get back to Florence, sleep in my tiny bed, and eat VEGETABLES and other delicious, not hamburger foods. Above: In the Sky Bar of the Guinness Factory.. great views of Dublin. In case you couldn't tell from the full glass, not a fan of Guinness at all!

Coming up next, my Prague/Jacob's trip/UNC are the national basketball champions update!

Sono Andata a Londra

Oh geez... it has been FOREVER since I updated this thing. I am not going to overwhelm my few readers or myself with trying to update everything in one post. Instead I will go place by place, and the first place I visited after my week of midterms was London, for the beginning of my spring break! I went with my friends Patee, Colleen, Kara and Sarah. I'd already been, with my family when I was 13, but I loved it just as much the second time around.

We arrived in London late on Saturday night and went straight to our hotel, in the Hyde Park area, where we were moved to a different room for one night that was actually much nicer than the room we eventually got- there were 5 beds in it, but it was nice and warm and cozy! We woke up early the next morning and got a quick breakfast, where we discovered that they have Diet Coke, not Coke Light, in England, which just made our mornings! Then we took a stroll through Hyde Park, which was beautiful. We made a stop at the Princess Diana memorial fountain, which is a very pretty and peaceful spot, and then continued until we reached the exit and then Buckingham Palace. It was great to see it, but we discovered that the next changing of the guards wasn't until the next day, so we didn't stay for very long. After a quick lunch, we hopped on one of the big red sightseeing buses and made our way to the Tower of London. Just like last time, I was OBSESSED with the Crown Jewels. After the Tower, we took advantage of the free cruise down the Thames that our bus tour offered, and I finally got to SEE the Globe Theater, although I'm sad to say I still haven't made it in there, much less to see a play. I know that I absolutely HAVE to one day, though! After the cruise, we took a "flight" on the London Eye, which was great and not as terrifying as I thought it might be. That night we had a very American meal of burgers and fries, and hung out at a pub by our hotel.
The next day, we again woke up very early and attempted to go see King's Cross and Platform 9 and 3/4, but our bus guide told us it wasn't worth it (it was, as I will describe in detail later). So instead, we made it to see the changing of the guards at the palace, and then went to Westminster Abbey, which I appreciated a LOT more this time around, especially the Poet's Corner... now I realize why my mom was so obsessed with it when we went there, and I also realize that yes, I am turning into her. After the Abbey, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the big Episcopal church where Princess Di got married and that has this cool thing called the Whispering Wall around its dome. You can whisper something sort of "into" the wall (although not directly into it like my friend Colleen and I brilliantly thought) and your friend can hear it all the way across the dome!

Our next stop was Harrods, where we obviously could not afford to buy any of the beautiful clothes, and so instead purchased lots of sweets. Your blood sugar is going to go up at this list of things I got- Turkish Delight, a HUGE cupcake, and a Krispy Kreme donut to remind me of home. Don't worry, they were NOT all eaten at once. Then we moved on to Top Shop, which was VERY overwhelming but don't fret, I still managed to buy some clothes. Finally, on to the best thing ever- King's Cross and Platform 9 and 3/4s. For those who live under rocks, it is where HARRY POTTER runs into the wall to get to the train to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, even though there was a cart attached to the wall to aid in our picture taking, it did not help us get to Hogwarts, so we went back to our neighborhood for some fish and chips and crashed into bed. The next day, we were off to Ireland, which will be my next blog post!

Since it is Easter now, Buona Pasqua to all of y'all, and hopefully Ireland, Prague/my brother's visit, and the Amalfi Coast will come soon!