The Amalfi Coast!

I am sad to say that this past weekend was my last major travel weekend! But it was such a great one!! On Thursday  Franchesca, Michelle, Jesse, and I headed to the Amalfi Coast! We were supposed to go with a student run program called Florence for Fun, but they canceled on us last Monday so we quickly decided to put the trip together ourselves. We took a 3 hour train to Naples and then a sketchy hour metro from Naples to Sorrento. I was very glad we were with our guy friend Jesse for that part of the trip. When we finally got to Sorrento we checked into our AWESOME hostel!! It had a bar downstairs, a sun deck and the rooms were so nice! The only problem was we were staying in a room with a girl that had a stick up her ass (pardon my french) and couldn't stand the music at the bar downstairs and turned the heat up to 90 degrees (no joke) every night.
The first day we had a lazy day where we explored Sorrento, ate delicious pizza, and layed on the beach and got our tan on. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. For dinner we went to the coolest restaurant that our hostel told us about, that had only Italians in it. It was so cool to see that since we haven't been to too many places that aren't overpowered with Americans in Florence.

Sorrento

On Saturday we took an all day boat tour to the Island of Capri. The person that owned the boat was friends with the guy who ran the Hostel so we got the trip for half price and the other 8 people on the boat tour were from our hostel. We met the cutest New Zealand boy ever :) I decided that him and Kai would be best friends because he had the biggest spice for life like Kai does. He was so much fun to have on our boat tour because he got everyone enthusiastic about everything and everyone became friends because of him.

Michelle and me with our New Zealand friend

I'm on a boat.

Love

Our boat!

We first headed to the Island of Capri on this tour and got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was raining while we were on the Island, but when we got back on the boat  it was sunny out again! We ventured around the Island on our little boat. Let me just tell you this is a huge accomplishment for me because I have this weird irrational fear of open water in the ocean (even though I was a swimmer my whole life.) But I accomplished my fear because this is what the semester is about. I even got in the 45 degree water. This was not a wise decision.
4 people from our group decided to get in the water and I was debating it. Francesca looked around and goes, Look at all of the jellyfish in the water, oh my god!! So I asked the guy, do those jellyfish sting a lot of people and looked at me and just says "Yes" but I was in the mood to be adventurous and while Francesca was getting nervous, I just decided to jump off of the boat. I hadn't felt the water with my feet or anything and as soon as I jumped in the breath got knocked out of me because of the freezing water. But I decided to swim a couple minutes to where I could get up onto a rock to walk up to a cave. I swam there and tried to get up, it was a lot harder than I thought and I couldn't use my strength considering I couldn't breath, so I had to swim back to the boat without seeing the cave. But hey, I went swimming with Jellyfish in Capri, pretty cool.

Capri

Freezing water!!

That night we went to the best restaurant ever! The cutest old Italian man picked us up in his macchina, aka car, and drove us to the restaurant. The people were very excited to have us because it was far away from the center of town so no tourists ever come there. They talked to us about California and what we were doing in Sorrento. Then they gave us there homemade bread with their orange and lemon infused homemade olive oil and their homemade wine to go along with it. We got fried mozzerella and rosemary roles and fried anchioves for our appetizer. He gave his homemade passionfruit and papaya sorbet before our main course. We ate seafood for dinner, and he gave us his homemade special desserts afterwards! Followed by his homemade digestive alcohol. It was everything people think of when they think of an Italian meal. The nicest people, with the best homemade food and wine, and tons and tons of it.

Sunday we headed to Pompei on our way back to Naples. It was so cool seeing such an ancient city preserved so well. If anyone gets the chance to see Pompei I highly recommend it because it was just a really interesting place that is hard to even put into words.

I am sad that my major traveling is over, but I am SOOOOOOO excited to see my family on Saturday and Kai again in 3 weeks! I can't believe I only have 28 days left abroad!!!

Cinque Terre=Heaven!

This past weekend I went to Cinque Terre. It had to be one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places I have ever been!
We stayed in a cute little place on Monterosso where a cute Italian lady rented out rooms to travelers. For 30 euros a night, we got an adorable room with views of the ocean! She also had two sons, one who owned a pizza place, and one that owned a nice restaurant. We got discounts for going so we figured we would give them a try.
The pesto pizza we ordered at lunch was UNBELIEVABLE! It is in a tie with Dad's grilled pizza for the best pizza I have ever had. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, so when we went to the other restaurant that night I ordered homemade ravioli with pesto. Cinque Terre's pesto is for sure the besto!
The next day we did the most beautiful hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. It was two hours and it was amazing! We then hopped on a train to go see Corniglia. We had to get back though, and couldn't visit the other villages. Therefore I will have to go back to this amazing place in the future to see the rest! I am hoping I can return in the next month.

Off to the Amalfi Coast on Monday!

Spring Break in BARCELONA!

Last week I had my spring break and I headed to Barcelona to see the city that Kai is studying abroad in! Because I was there for a while, I am going to list the highlights of the trip.

1) The trip started off a little rocky, when I took my first RYANAIR flight. The plane felt very different than any other plane I have been on when taking off. After about five minutes in the air, the plane had a huge drop while it was sideways and everyone on the plane screamed bloody murder. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to Barcelona. BUT I DID! And I am alive!

2) The first full day I was there, Kai and I did another Fat Tire Bike Tour! It was funny, because this bike tour really resembled the culture of the spanish people. We took about five breaks, each break my tour guide got a beer, one of the breaks he also took us to go get a drink, and the last break we took a long break to eat. This was one of my favorite parts because he took us to an awesome Tapa's bar that Rick Steve's reccomends, that I would have never found! It was very fun tour and I got to see and learn about so many things in Barcelona such as the Sagrada Familia, bullfighting, the history, the beach, and so much more. Bike tours are my favorite way to see a city so you should do one next time you are visiting a new place!

3) I met up with my friend Alison a few times who is also studying abroad in Barcelona! It was so good to see her and made me so excited for next year when we are living together! She also introduced me to my new favorite drink. Tinto de Verano. It is really similar to Sangria, but BETTER! It is 1 part red wine and 1 part carbonated lemonade. It is delicious! If you are in Spain, you must try this drink.

4) Kai and I took a day trip to a cute little beach town that Kai's friends had told him about called Blanes on Thursday. We took a train there and the whole train ride we were looking at the beach and the ocean. That is until about 5 minutes before we got to Blanes. Right before we got there, the train went inland to what looked very similar to the midewest. This was not a good sign because Kai and I were trying to go to the beach, not away from it. We just decided to get off at this stop because we knew we were trying to go to a place called Blanes. Right outside the train station was a bus stop and that was it, so we figured if we got on a bus we would get to the beach. There were two different buses that came to that stop, and no map around to figure out which one we should take. So the plan was, we would take the bus that the most people got on because they were probably all headed to the beach. A bus showed up and everyone stood inline to get on it, so we did to. We paid our 3 Euro and sat down. As we were leaving we saw another bus coming in that said "BLANES" on the top. Kai and I looked at each other and Kai said "I think we might want to be on that bus." We were already driving on this one though, so we just decided to see if it also took us near the beach. At the round-about there was a sign that pointed right that said "PLAYA." Kai and I decided if the bus went right than we would stay on it, but if it didn't we were for sure on the wrong bus. The bus started to slowly turn right and we got really excited but then quickly turned left and we were going away from the beach. Finally when a sign read that we were leaving Blanes we decided we better get off. We ended up in the middle of nowhere. We were near car dealerships but that was about it. We went to the bus stop across the street and waited 20 minutes to go back to the station, and then at the station we waited another 10 minutes to get on the other bus. A 3 euro, 10 minute bus ride, turned into a 9 euro 40 minute adventure.
Once we got to the beach, it was totally worth it. The town was adorable and we spent the afternoon eating paella and lounging on the beach!

5) The Boqueria in Barcelona is amazing! If you are ever visiting, you need to check it out. It is a huge market open from Monday-Saturday. There is amazing fruit, chocolate, meat, and even restaurants. It was very cool to see and gave a great sense of Spanish culture.

6) The last day we focused our attention around Gaudi. We went up to Parc Guell. The Park that Gaudi designed. To get there we walked through a neighborhood that looked very similar to San Francisco. When we got to the park we were able to see views of the entire city. It was gorgeous! Also in the park are two houses that Gaudi designed. It was supposed to be an entire neighborhood for wealthy people, but people didn't want to buy his gingerbread looking houses, so there are only two. We also visited one of the apartments that Gaudi designed. This was one of my favorite things I have seen in Europe. Gaudi's architecture is so fascinating and it was amazing to be able to see inside of it and learn about why he did the things that he did. It also had such a crazy rooftop.

Barcelona was such a cool city. It was very fun to see such different architecture and be in pretty warm weather by the beach for a week. I will say though, that I do like the Italian culture more than the Spanish culture. I think that the Spanish culture is too lazy for me. Not only do they take about a 4 hour siesta everyday, but they also have about 35 holidays! (and they wonder why their economy isn't doing so well.) From my experience they weren't all that friendly either. It made me really appreciate the Italian  culture and how nice and welcoming everyone is!

Well, that was my Spring Break in Spain. My plan is to stay in Italy for my last month and a half and discover all that Italy has to offer now! Thursday, I am headed to the Cinque Terre for a night, and then to Urbino on Saturday with my art history class.

I AMsterdam.

My new years resolution this year was to say "yes" to people when they asked me if I wanted to do something. So when my friend Danielle asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam at the end of February I said YES, even though this was a place I really knew nothing about.

We headed to Amsterdam Thursday and flew out from Milan. We walked a mile to the train station, took an hour and forty-five minute train ride to Milan, took a 30 minute bus ride to the airport, took an hour and a half flight to Amsterdam, and a 30 minute train ride into the city center. It was a lot of traveling but that is all part of the adventure. I went to Amsterdam with my friends Danielle and Danielle, who both go to CU, and my friend Annie and Emily who go to Northwestern. When we booked our flight Danielle and Danielle accidently booked the morning flight because they got confused with military time so they were there a whole day ahead of us.

When we finally arrived to our hostel, Danielle and Danielle were ready to show us around. Well it turns out that they had just gone on a tour of The Red Light District and we happened to be staying right in the Red Light District so we headed out to see it all. (Diana, maybe don't read this next sentence to Annelies and Ava.) We roamed the allies looking at prostitutes in little rooms trying to get men to come in for some sexual pleasure. We were pretty much the only girls out at 11:30 at night. We also walked by all of the coffee shops that sold weed like they sell coffee. Considering this was the first thing I saw of Amsterdam, I was pretty much in culture shock. I felt like I was at the zoo going to look at the pandas or tigers or something but instead I was looking at these women and a few transvestites as well. I went to bed wondering where the heck I was and what planet I had just landed on.

Our amazing hostel! 

Friday morning, Emily and I woke up early so we decided to go see the other parts of the city while we waited for the other girls to wake up. Now that I was seeing it in daylight and not only The Red Light District, I began to realize what a cool and beautiful town I was in. Once the other girls woke up we headed to The Anne Frank House. I had been told by other people that it wasn't very cool or worth seeing, so I didn't know what to expect. Well trust me, it was worth seeing. Going to this house was extremely impactful. I got chills walking through it thinking of the history and the horror that this house had seen. Anne Frank's journal entries were also put up about different parts of the house and what they were doing. If you are ever in Amsterdam this is worth going to.

Anne Frank House

After this sad start to the morning we needed something to cheer us up, and what could be better than pancakes!! Amsterdam has amazing pancakes, but they are more like crepes and you can get savory or sweet ones. I got a pancakes with cream cheese, lox, and tomatoes on it. It was unbelievable! After that someone thought that we should go try french fries, cause we hadn't already eaten enough for lunch. Amsterdam is known for there french fries so those were also amazing. We finished our afternoon by roaming around The Red Light District again, and going for a walk by the water. My hostel was really fun because in order to get to the hostel, you had to go through a bar, and we got discounts at this bar so we ate dinner and spent our night there. It was very convenient.

Now that is a Pancake.

Amazing French Fries

The next morning we slept in and then headed to the Heineken Experience! I was told to do this by people from my program that had been to Amsterdam so we decided to give it a try. It was only 15 euro for the whole experience, plus 2 beers! Pretty good deal if you ask me. We were able to see the history of Heineken and learn how it is made. Then, we go to go into their brewing room. After that we entered a room only to find a "Be the Beer Ride!" What you did was stand on a moving platform and watch how beer was made. It was sort of like "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" for adults. We got sprayed by water and bubbles and felt heat lamps. It was a fun way to appreciate how beer is made. When we got off the ride we did "beer tasting" which was very similar to wine tasting. We had to swirl and smell the beer and then take a big gulp. It tasted like every other beer to me though, so it didn't have the same effect as wine tasting does. When we left that room we got to go into a "bar" and get our beer and hangout.  This was an extremely fun experience.

Heineken Experience

After, that we went to the big I AMsterdam sign and got our pictures there and ate lunch. We decided to head back to our hostel because a few girls wanted to take a nap. My friend Danielle and I didn't want to nap and saw a movie theatre on the walk back. In Amsterdam, pretty much everyone speaks english because dutch is becoming extinct. So, the movies that were out were all of the ones we have in the movie theatres in the United States and they were in English so we saw "No Strings Attached." It was funny because we got a seat assignment in the movie theatre. I love going to movies at home so it was nice to get a little taste of the United States since I have officially been out of the country for 7 weeks. We finished off the night by getting food from a Wok place! Stir-fried vegetables and tofu! I miss my healthy food :)

I AMsterdam in the rain

Dutch Movie Theatre 

I don't know if Amsterdam is a place I will ever go on vacation to later in life, so I am so glad that I was given an opportunity to see it and experience it!