KT Says

Ciao!

This past weekend Ursinus organized a trip for all the students and the professors to Rome from Friday until Sunday. We left bright and early Friday morning (8 am!!) from the train station in a nice, comfy bus so we could get to Rome by 1 pm for our tour of the Vatican Museum. We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Albani, threw our stuff in a locked room, and got back on another bus to get to Vatican City on time. Ursinus was very nice and paid for 3 day bus and metro passes for all of us so we could get around the city with no problem. Anyway, when we arrived at Vatican City, I started to get very excited when I saw the dome for St. Peter’s Basilica rising above the other buildings.

We got through security and everything for the Vatican Museum and started our long, grueling, 4 hour tour. The museum is gorgeous, but it’s an art museum basically; it’s full of everything that previous popes collected during their time as pope and I was not aware that we’d be seeing MORE art in Rome! I love art, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve been living in Florence for almost 3 months–I’m all arted out!

I have to admit, however, that I have become much more of a sculpture-lover since I have lived in Italy, and there was no shortage of sculpture in the Vatican Museum! But after that part of the tour, Rita, our tour guide, led us into the Sistine Chapel. Now, a lot of people have said that the Sistine is sort of anti-climactic because everyone says how amazing it is and blah blah blah, it’s over-done. I did not agree with that at all. I was absolutely blown away. Michelangelo knew what he was doing with paint as much as he knew with marble…his figures on the ceiling as well as behind the altar (The Last Judgement) MOVED. I could have stood in that chapel for hours just staring at the magnificence around me: it literally blew my mind.

After the Chapel, we headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica. I can say with all honesty that this is the most beautiful church that I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I’ve seen a WHOLE lot of churches.

My pictures are blurry and dark because we couldn’t take pictures with flash inside the church, but they’re there! I only regret not taking a picture of Michelangelo’s Pieta, because it almost brought me to tears. It’s in the Basilica and it’s behind a glass wall and, usually, surrounded by swarms of people. It’s breathtaking, and I recommend to everyone to see it with your own eyes.

That night we were given free time to do whatever, so Mary, Jasmine, me, Kelly, Cara and Bailey took showers and went out to a restaurant nearby. We got lots of food for not too much money, so I was satisfied! Then we came back to our hotel and just passed out. We had to be up the next morning pretty early for our walking tour of Rome.

All of us met in the hotel lobby the next morning at about 8:45-9 am to get the bus to the Colosseum. This is the coolest thing Italy has to offer, I swear! It’s this massive structure that’s still standing…even the rooms below the arena where they kept the animals and the gladiators are still intact. I think this was my favorite part of Rome, to be honest. I couldn’t imagine living in an apartment across the street from this and opening my window everyday to see it. I’m sure I’d take it for granted, but it really made an impression on me when I was there . We also saw some gladiators hanging around smoking…very authentic, haha. Apparently you can take pictures with them, but if you don’t offer them 2 euros per picture before you take it, they can charge you 10 euro. They’re a bunch of crooks if you ask me…but I suppose people have to be smart tourists!

Anyway, after we took our tour of the Colosseum, we went to see the Forum (which was amazing) and the Pantheon. These structures are thousands of years old and they’re just sitting in the middle of a huge, modern city. They’re literally things you have to see to believe. The Pantheon was converted into a church and Raphael is buried there, as well as two or three of Italy’s kings (I actually think they only had 2 or 3 as it was…).

Of course it started to rain at this point, so all of us were wandering around the city in the freezing cold rain without umbrellas. The umbrella salesmen were there to help though, don’t worry! Those guys are everywhere in Italy…if they’re not selling umbrellas, it’s scarves or little remote controlled Smart cars. They’re crazy and will follow you around harassing you. Just yell "NO GRAZIE!" at them…they’ll get the idea eventually .

We went to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps next. The Trevi Fountain is the most gorgeous fountain in the world, especially at night. That’s one thing I think everyone should see once in their life. The Spanish Steps were cool, but I probably would have appreciated them more if they weren’t the last stop on our 5 hour walking tour and I wasn’t so exhausted…and wet.

At the end of our tour Kelly and I had lunch in a small restaurant because we didn’t want to join everyone else at Burger King (too much fast food is never good!) and we did a little shopping at some tourist shops. Overall, it was a nice day. That night a bunch of us went out for dinner…I think there was 11 of us. A nice outdoor cafe accommodated us, probably because they figured we were dumb American students that wouldn’t pay attention to our bill, but whatever works! I had a great time. It was very relaxing to sit around with the whole group and laugh and talk and have a good night.

The next morning we woke up and a bunch of us decided to go to the Vatican to hear the Pope speak at noon. We got there and couldn’t believe the crowd that was there, but it was absolutely worth it. He spoke in Italian for awhile, then French, English, Spanish and German. That really got me…every time he started on a new language another group of people would cheer and clap. It was a beautiful moment and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It surprised me how much Italian and French I could understand–he spoke very clearly. I’m just very happy that I could witness that .

I took a video of part of his speech (he spoke for about 25 minutes) and I’m glad I did. I don’t want to forget that! I will post it here one day, but loading it onto a website is taking too long and I sort of want to pull my hair out. So…it’ll have to wait, haha.

Overall, I had a great time in Rome and I think it was one of my favorite places to visit! I recommend a trip to anyone who loves history: the city is absolutely teeming with it. Here are my Rome Pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

~Katie

PS-15 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well!

Needless to say, I love Dublin and I will be moving there in the very near future . I went with Kelly, Cara and Bailey and we left on Friday. Our flight was at 5:30 pm so we thought we would stop in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, but that didn’t work out. Cara and Bailey had trouble printing out flight information, so we ended up just taking the train to the Pisa Airport and hanging around talking. The plane was late getting off the ground and it was crowded, so Kelly and I found seats in the emergency exit aisle, which was an adventure. One flight attendant came and wanted to stow my scarf in the overhead compartment because it would impede people’s exit of the plane in case of an emergency? That was strange, but anyway, the flight was great! It was a little turbulent at times, but I was lost in music and half asleep most of the time. For the last half hour I got into a conversation with the woman sitting next to me–she was from Ireland, about 50 miles from Dublin (I probably couldn’t spell the name of the town anyway) and the friendliest woman in the world. She asked about my study abroad experience and said how wonderful it is that young people have a chance to travel these days, and she told me her daughter is going to Dublin City University. She’s studying abroad in Texas next semester! I thought that was pretty neat, and I told her that I hoped her daughter would have a great time in America.

When we landed it was close to 8 pm, so we made our way out of the busy airport to find the bus that would take us near our hostel. We asked the bus driver and he was joking and laughing with us the whole trip! Then he drew out directions for us to walk and slowed the bus down a bit to point out where we were supposed to walk when he let us off. It was unbelievable! If you asked a bus driver in Florence for directions, he might deign to take his earphones out but then he’d just sneer at you…. We got a bit lost on the way to the hostel and while we were looking lost and forlorn on a corner, two women approached us and asked if we needed any help. Amazing again! That’s only ever happened to me in Ireland! We found our hostel alright, and we stayed at The Avalon House which was great. They really catered to students and backpackers, and we even got a free breakfast in the morning! (bread and butter…but breakfast all the same!) We went out to eat the first night and had really good food for not a lot of money, and just went back to the hostel and passed out. We saw a lot of people dressed up and there were some fireworks outside of the city, but we had gotten there late enough that most people were probably at parties or home already.

The next morning we went to Trinity College and paid for the tour and for our ticket to see the Book of Kells. Trinity College is beautiful!

It definitely looks the way a college campus should, much like Ursinus. It’s pretty big though, with about 15,000 students, but I think a lot of them live at home and commute to the college. A student there, Keiran (spelling?), gave the tour and all of us were pretty much in love with him by the end. He was a sweetheart and very funny, and I paid attention to what he had to say. After we saw the Book of Kells and took lots of pictures, we went to Nassau Street, which is right next to Trinity College, to do some shopping. Cara bought a Trinity College hoodie and I bought a few nice things for myself and for other people. Then, we went to buy tickets for the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour of Dublin.

This bus tour is great, they have them in all big cities here, even in Florence, and you get a continuous commentary about the city as you drive around. The bus will stop at specific places and you can get off if you want, look around a bit, and get back on. It’s great! Our first stop was St. Stephen’s Green.

This park is amazing. I was dying to see some greenery since Florence is all stone and pavement, and I really enjoyed this park. We walked around for close to an hour just taking pictures and joking around and having a really nice day. The duck ponds were really cute, and the grass was beautiful–everything looked really put together. This was definitely one of my favorite places in all of Dublin!

After that we stopped at Dublin Castle to look around. We were going to go in, but we would have had to pay for a guided tour and we didn’t really want to do that, so we just took pictures on the outside.

It was a beautiful building, and the tour guide on the bus said it was the seat of Parliament for 700 years. Also, it had been built (I think) when the Vikings came to Dublin, so that’s a pretty old building! After that, we grabbed lunch at a nice hotel nearby. That was also cheap and very good! It was so nice to be able to sit down to a meal and not worry about a sitting fee and if we were going to spend an arm and a leg for our food. I love Ireland .

After this, we looked in some more shops and hopped back on the bus. Kelly and I got off at the Guinness Storehouse to take the tour while Cara and Bailey went and did their own thing. The Guinness tour is in a building, and the tour itself goes up these stairs in a section of the building that’s shaped like a giant pint glass. At the top there is the Gravity Bar where you get your free pint of Guinness and 360 degree views of Dublin. It was so neat. I learned a lot about how to make a good beer, at least what I don’t already know from my dad, haha.

We walked back to Trinity College to meet Cara and Bailey at 6, and we decided it would be a great time to go back to the hostel, take our showers, and head out for dinner. We went to a place called The Porterhouse right next to Trinity, and it was delicious! Kelly and I both got "steak sandwiches," which were just small steaks on top of really good bread with fries and tomato salad on the side. The steak wasn’t that great, but everything else was. It was a bar, so it started to get loud by the end of our meal and we were all exhausted from the walking we did all day, so we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

The next morning we had to get out early because our flight left at 12:20, and Bailey and Cara wanted to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral because it was closed for a ceremony on Saturday. We took the bus there, found out we had to pay to get in, and decided to just take pictures outside. If we had more time we would have paid and really taken in the church, but by this point it was close to 10:15 and we still had to catch the bus. We walked around in a small park right next to the cathedral for a few minutes, then we booked it to the bus stop. We got to the airport at 11:45 and RAN through security and check in, and made it to the gate just as they were boarding. We got pretty lucky.

This is where the not so great stuff starts. We arrived in Rome at about 4:45pm and we had tickets for a bus to take us from Rome Ciampino airport to Rome Termini train station, because it’s about a 40 minute right. Well, Kelly and I got on the bus with no problem, but Cara and Bailey didn’t. They just disappeared. As the bus pulled away without them, we saw them walking out of the airport…and we were confused. Apparently they were just making sure about their tickets or something so they went to the bus kiosk inside to clarify everything. Well, they called us and another bus was coming in 20 minutes, and we were only about 10 minutes into our own bus ride. We arrived at the train station and looked up times for the train to Florence and tried to buy our own, but it said we couldn’t for some reason and we had to go to a ticket window. Alright, that’s fine. We get in line and finally go to a woman and we say, in Italian "Four tickets to Florence, please." Well, she gave us a nasty look and looked it up for us and said there were no second class seats available, only first. Then she said the price, which was 216 euro. So I asked, again in Italian, "For 4 people?" And she repeated 216 euro in a short way, so by this point I was fed up with Italians and how rude they are, and I said louder "No, is that for four people?" in Italian. I’m not a mean person and I’m very shy, but this woman was making me so angry!! Finally, she told us a train was leaving at 8:30 and we could get on that one, which would get us into Florence by 10:30. Wonderful. So we just bought the tickets and she kept making faces at us and I kept having to refrain from yelling at her. Cara and Bailey finally arrived, and we spent two hours in McDonald’s in the train station talking about how much better Ireland is than Italy. We were just angry and tired from travelling, and not all Italians are rude, but a lot are. Especially to tourists. We were just fed up. We made it home fine and finally walked into Maria’s at 11:30pm, because of course the train was late. She had made pasta for us and it was delicious and Kelly and I just passed out as early as we could.

Despite the travel troubles at the end, I really had a great time. I think Ireland is one of the greatest places in the world! I’ve never met nicer or more helpful people, and I think everyone should go there one day. This weekend we are going to Rome with the school and we’ll be doing ALL the tours, so that’ll be another great blog entry with hopefully lots of pictures. I’m loving it here, but I can’t wait to come home–only 22 days! I can’t believe it’s so soon already. Well, I’ll let everyone go, and enjoy my pictures: Dublin Pictures. Ciao!

~Katie

PS-I’ll find out who our new president is tomorrow morning…I’m nervous!

Hello everyone!

This weekend I went to Paris with my friend Amber from our group, and I have discovered one of the most amazing cities in the world. I don’t want to knock Florence, because I love it, but Paris has all the magic that everyone says it has. I was not disappointed at all! Our flight was on Thursday night, October 16th, at 8:50 from Pisa airport, so Amber and I had to rush out of Italian at 5 to catch a bus from the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence to Pisa. We made it through and got on the plane, but we hit some turbulence while we were in the air. That was a little scary because it lasted longer than 5 minutes, and I’ve never experienced turbulence like that. Poor Amber was really freaked out because she’s only flown a handful of times in her life, including our flight to Italy! We made it in one piece though and because we really had no idea where our hostel was, we decided to get a cab. It was only 14 euro between the two of us, and we thought that was pretty good considering the location of the airport and all (we flew into Orly Sud in Paris). Our hostel was a little weird–the people were very nice and we didn’t feel unsafe or anything, but it was very old and it smelled old, kind of like mothballs. We had our own room and bathroom though, so we couldn’t complain too much.

This is the street our hostel was on: Rue Magenta de Strasbourg, I think it was called. I swore I took a picture of our room, but apparently not so maybe I’ll steal some from Amber if she took any . Anyway, we crashed the first night because we were exhausted from the flight and getting to the hostel, and we had a huge day planned for Friday.

Friday morning we were up and out of the hostel by 9:30 am, and found a nice little bakery down the street from us . Needless to say, I certainly took advantage of that and bought a pain au chocolat for breakfast. It was the perfect way to start our day off in Paris! We had a plan for Friday: Eiffel Tower, Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre, Champs Elysees, and the Arc de Triomphe, and we were going to stick to it! So, the both of us went to the nearest metro station and asked a nice lady at information for directions to Le Tour Eiffel, and she couldn’t have been happier to help! We made it to the stop she directed us to in no time and we emerged from underground into a cold, crisp, sunny morning. We looked and looked for the tower but we couldn’t find it, but finally we turned a corner around a building and there it was, in all its glory.

I have to say, the Eiffel Tower is the best monument I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing–tall, beautiful, majestic…just absolutely amazing. We were both speechless at the sight of it, literally. Since I’ve been taking French for so long I’ve always dreamed of going to Paris, and this was the culmination of all my dreaming. We absolutely couldn’t take our eyes off of it for a long time. We quickly got in line to go to the top of it, and that was totally worth the 12 euro.

You don’t get views like that from just anywhere! We had a nice lunch at a snack place inside the tower and bought a few cute souvenirs (I was cheesy and touristy and bought Eiffel Tower stud earrings ) before we headed down the Seine to our next destination: the Musee d’Orsay.

Our friends Cara and Bailey went to Paris over Fall Break and they both said the Musee d’Orsay was worth seeing. We went in and saw all kinds of Impressionist paintings, from Degas to Manet to Renoir to Toulouse-Latrec, and I love the Impressionists. I was in my heaven, and that was before we went downstairs to see the Rodin sculptures the museum had. They were all amazing! I never appreciated sculpture before I came to Florence and now I have a love for it. Also, I saw a painting there that may be my new favorite painting ever: it’s called La naissance de Venus by William Adolphe Bouguereau. I fell in love with it and couldn’t believe I had never seen it before! I like it better than Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus because the figures are so much more substantial and alive in this painting. I can’t say I don’t still love Botticelli’s painting though–I’ve lived in Florence for too long to not appreciate the Italian artists .

After the Musee d’Orsay, we headed a few bridges down the Seine to the Louvre. We crossed the Seine and were wandering around trying to find the museum and discussing that we would probably know it when we saw it since it’s a pretty big building, and sure enough the giant building we had been staring at the entire time was the Louvre! It’s an absolutely breathtaking building: I took 5 or 6 different shots of the building to try to convey just how big it actually is. I completely understand now why a tourist couldn’t see the whole museum in a day…or even a week! It’s huge.

It’s such a gorgeous, gorgeous building, much like all of the structures in Paris, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. We decided to go in to see La Jaconde (The Mona Lisa) and the Crown Jewels. After walking for what seemed like 15 minutes, we made our way up many flights of stairs to the "first floor" where she was sitting on her own glass-encased wall in the middle of a huge gallery. There was a rope around her so we couldn’t get closer than a few yards to her, so it was tough to see since the painting isn’t that big to begin with. It was still wonderful to be in Paris, in the Louvre, one of the most popular and well-known museums in the world, looking at probably the most well-known painting in the world. It blew my mind! Oh, and she really is smirking .

The crown jewels were very beautiful too, and the room itself was gorgeous! I’m glad we chose only a few things to see, otherwise it would have been too overwhelming to try to take the whole museum in at once.

After the Louvre, we walked back down the Seine to the Pont Alexander III (I think) to go up past the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais (which are now museums) to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. That was really neat! The whole street is completely lined with trees and shops and restaurants, and it was a great experience to be there and to see it. We stopped at a pizza place (go figure…) and got a nice, cheap, filling dinner before continuing our long walk towards the Arc de Triomphe. It was so nice to just stroll after walking hardcore all day. Oh, and that big circle around the Arc is really crazy and dangerous! There are no traffic lights or any sort of direction, and it’s just pandemonium! There were a few times where Amber and I just looked at each other and had to say "We’re in Paris, we’re staring at the *insert famous monument here*" to keep us focused. We were in awe the entire time!

On Saturday, we woke up early again and set out to see Notre Dame. We walked straight down a street by our hostel for about 20 minutes, and then we saw it looming above the buildings on the Seine. It was such an experience to just stand in the square in front of Notre Dame and just stare at it; it is such a beautiful church from the outside that I couldn’t imagine what the inside looked like.

We went inside and there was choir music playing, and it was just an amazing place to be at the time. I sat down in front of the altar for awhile just to take it all in, despite the large groups of noisy tourists wandering around. I guess that’s the problem with beautiful churches–you’ll always have crowds of people inside them no matter what. After Notre Dame we headed to the metro which took us to the train station where we caught a train to Versailles! I never imagined that during my weekend trip to Paris I’d see the Palace of Versailles, but it’s only about a 20 minute train ride from Paris. We walked down the street from the train station, and there it was!

I was a little disappointed because there was work being done on the palace and there were tarps over parts of it, but it is still a gorgeous building. We bought tickets for the palace and for Marie Antoinette’s estate, which is separate from the palace itself. We walked through all the rooms and I can’t believe that people actually lived there! There are some rooms which are fairly small, and then there are huge expanses of rooms, like the hall of mirrors or the chapel, which have high ceilings and beautiful artwork. Before going to Marie Antoinette’s Estate, we took a walk outside to the gardens and they were BEAUTIFUL!

You couldn’t see the gardens in a day, because there are different parts and mazes and fountains all over. Because it was such a beautiful day, we took our time making our way to the end of the Versailles gardens, where it turned into a public park, and made a right to get to the Estate. It was very small, but very pretty. Marie lucked out with that deal .

After Versailles we ran back to the train station so we could get to Sacre Coeur and Montmarte in time for the sunset. The church and the steps of Montmarte sit on a hill and that’s where people go for the sunset–it’s like a big party. Some people bring food, some bring wine and beer, and there is live music and dancing and everyone just sits, talks, and has fun. Amber and I watched a few guys dance and sing to their own music for awhile before moving up the steps to where these two guys had amps and microphones plugged in so they could play their guitars and sing. They played "No Woman, No Cry," some Greenday, and other American songs, plus some French songs. It was so much fun! When we got too cold to sit there anymore, we went to a cafe down the street and had some hot chocolate and a croque monsieur. That was SO GOOD! Overall, I’d say I had the best weekend that anyone could have. Paris is the most amazing place in the world and I can’t wait to come back with family or anyone who wants to see it–I’d glady show them .

Today, we heard some screams coming from the street after our English class and Danny, the guy who mans the desk at CAPA, told us that high school and university students in Florence are protesting a law that was recently passed that cut funding for the teachers, among other things. They protested and have been occupying the schools for a few weeks now, which basically means they don’t go to school and hang out in the building having parties. Some of the kids really care about the issues, but some are just in it for the party. But anyway, Kelly, me, Abbie, and Cara ran down the street and were greeted by a HUGE crowd of students chanting, holding signs, clapping, and singing. There were groups and groups of them floating down the street…it was really neat to see and to be a part of. There were police there just watching them…I guess they can do stuff like that in Italy and nobody can do anything about it. Amazing! Okay…I don’t have anything planned for this weekend, but Halloween weekend is Dublin! I can’t wait. Oh, and only five weeks until I come home! I can’t believe how fast it’s going….

Ciao!
~Katie

PS-Here is the link to the slideshow of my pictures: Paris Pictures If you can’t read some of the captions, just hold your mouse over them and they will appear in a little box so you can read the whole thing. Enjoy!

Here I am again! This time I’ll be talking about my lovely stay in the French Riviera.

We stayed in a hostel called Villa Saint Exupery in Nice and we traveled to Cannes, Monaco, Antibes and a little town called Eze–it was BEAUTIFUL! (By we I mean me, Kelly, Caitlin, Will, Abbie, and Amber) We went with Bus 2 Alps again, like we did for our trip to Capri, and it worked out so nicely because our fee covered transportation to the hostel and back to Florence on a bus, some transportation between the towns, the hostel itself, and two guides or leaders who were knowledgeable about the area. We arrived Thursday night around 11 pm at the hostel and just passed out, but the next morning we left at 10 am to go to Eze and Monaco. It was a beautiful, warm day and I took the best pictures while I was there!

We only stayed at Eze for a little while we waited for the bus to Monaco, but the town was beautiful! It’s very small and we had to climb up a hill to get there (much like EVERY place in Europe–you want to get somewhere? 95% chance it’s uphill), but the views were worth it. Kelly and I took our time and window shopped as we passed the tiny shops that seemed to be carved into the walls of the medieval town, and by the time we reached the top we had spectacular views of the Mediterranean.

After an hour we hopped on the bus to Monaco and I think that was my favorite place, besides Nice, that we went to on the entire trip. There were pictures of Princess Grace all over the place there and you could tell the people really loved her. Also, we saw Monte Carlo and just the architecture on that building was beautiful! I didn’t gamble but some of our group did, and Abbie gambled with 70 euro cents . That’s about our budget over here, ha-ha. We walked down to the harbor and had quiche for lunch (delicious!) before walking uphill (surprise) through botanical gardens to see the royal palace.

That was so neat! By the time we got to the top we got some beautiful pictures of the harbor below and the Mediterranean. Also, we walked around the small streets and stopped in some tourist shops to do souvenir shopping. It was a very nice experience to see a place I never would have thought to go to on my own. Like I said, Monaco was my favorite place besides Nice, and it might have been because the weather was good or because it was the first day and we weren’t all tired and angry yet (ha-ha), but it really was beautiful.

On Saturday we woke up and hopped on the bus to go to Antibes and Cannes. I liked Antibes better than Cannes I think because Antibes seemed less touristy. There were so many palm trees around and I think I got some of my best pictures in Antibes by the water.

We walked around a lot and passed the Picasso Museum, which was closing for two hours for lunch so we couldn’t get in to see it. I think I like the way Europeans think (what, with their siestas and all) except when it interferes with my need to get into places, especially on Sunday!!! It’s rare that anything is open on Sundays, but that’s another story. Anyway, after Antibes we went to Cannes where the film festival is held. That was really neat, but really crowded.

Kelly and I split from the group without really telling anyone to get some crepes (yes!), and we really have to learn not to do that anymore, ha-ha. But, the crepes were worth it and we just walked up and down the red carpet for awhile and by the beach where these guys were doing huge sand sculptures. They were really neat and it was the first beach I’ve been to here so far that had sand instead of rocks! After Cannes we headed back to Nice and went out for a nice dinner. We went to a place that Simon, the guy who’s in charge of Bus 2 Alps, recommended: 12 euro for unlimited mussels and fries. Well, we couldn’t have gotten ready and on that tram faster. It was completely worth it, too–Will and Kelly had never had mussels before and they loved them! They were in some sauce with onions in it and they were just absolutely delicious. After that we walked around downtown Nice for awhile and took in the beautiful town.

I loved Nice because everyone spoke French and were so incredibly nice, it was clean, and the sidewalks were huge! In Florence all the streets are narrow and they smell, but Nice was such a different experience. I really loved it.

The next day we were free to walk around Nice, but since nothing was open we spent a lot of time walking and looking at closed stores. We ended up just grabbing McDonald’s for lunch before getting on the bus and heading home. For some reason, our bus driver seemed like he couldn’t quite drive right because he didn’t stick between the lines or follow traffic laws…we swerved a LOT. We also stopped abruptly and people’s stuff was falling all over the bus, so Abbie said she’s going to call the company to complain. Normally I don’t get involved with this type of thing, but it was pretty scary, especially when we were driving beside huge cliffs.

Anyway, we made it home safely on Sunday night around 11 and had a nice night in our own beds in Florence . I loved Nice so much because I could finally speak French! Also, Cara and Bailey, who spent the last half of their fall break in Paris, told Amber and I that Paris is AMAZING and they didn’t want to come back to Florence. That makes me really excited for me and Amber’s trip this weekend. We leave Thursday night at 8:50 from Pisa Airport and should get to Paris around 10 something. We have two full days there and I want to see everything! I am so excited.

Until next week, Ciao!
Katie

PS-I think this picture summed up our entire Nice trip:

That’s Kelly and I on the bus on Sunday, with Will being silly in the background. I love it!

I had a wonderful time in Ireland! I am so happy that I’ll be going back there Halloween weekend with friends to see Dublin. The people were so nice and they actually spoke English (and Gaelic too, of course), but staying with family was the best part of it all. On Saturday the 4th, I took a Terravision bus from the train station in Florence to the Pisa airport, which was wonderful because I paid less than if I had taken a train and it took less time than a train would have. I waited about an hour before I was able to check in and go through security, but once I was on the plane I started to get very excited about Ireland! The flight left at about 3:30pm from Pisa and arrived in Dublin at 7:30pm (Dublin is an hour behind Italy, so only 5 hours ahead of the U.S.), so it was already dark outside. I could still see through the drizzling rain that the grass was a brilliant green–I could hardly believe it. It was such a change from Florence which is a city with barely any green, even across the Arno where Kelly and I live. Angela was waiting right outside the terminal for me with a sign that said MK Sullivan on it, and as soon as I saw her my face lit up. It had been an exhausting day and I was happy to see someone there for me . Angela is Pop Pop Darcy’s cousin, so somehow she’s my cousin 32 times removed or something like that. She brought one of her daughters with her, Cliona, who is 27 and also a sweetheart. Oh, and another thing, they drive on the wrong side of the road in Ireland! I got a kick out of that, and Angela and Cliona thought it was funny that I had never been in a car with the steering wheel on the right side before.

Back at the house, I met Herb (Angela’s husband) who is the nicest man. He had finished making dinner while Angela and Cliona were picking me up at the airport, and let me tell you, it was the best meal I’ve had in a long time (not to say Maria’s cooking isn’t fabulous, but it was just something DIFFERENT!). We had stuffed pork wrapped in bacon, rice, and vegetables with soy sauce. It was so good!! They offered me wine and we sat and talked about my study abroad experience and it was just nice to be around family. On Sunday, Angela and Cliona and I took a walk on the beach by their house (they live north of Dublin airport) and I loved it! It was a beautiful (but windy) day, and Angela said I brought the good weather with me, which was fine with me! We headed home for an early dinner after that. Young Imelda (Pop Pop’s father’s sister Imelda’s daughter…is that confusing enough?), her husband Tom, and their two children Dervla and Cahill (spelling?) came over to eat and it was a great dinner. It felt like Sunday dinners at home with the family and I really enjoyed that. We had corned beef and cabbage and it was AMAZING! We also had carrot cake for dessert and I ate entirely too much, but I told myself that I was on vacation and it was okay .

Herb and Angela are so knowledgeable about Ireland and I’m very thankful for that, because the next day they took me to Glenndalough in County Wicklow, which is a national park with the ruins of an old monastic community that St. Kevin started in the 800s. I was absolutely amazed that these old stone churches, gravestones, and buildings are still standing. The landscape was beautiful too, and it reminded me of Pennsylvania with all the trees and mountains and greenery.

We walked around for awhile and I took in all the scenery and history before we headed to Dublin so Angela could show me around (we drove down Hollywood Road, which runs next to the place where Braveheart was filmed..that was pretty cool to see!). Herb dropped me and Angela off, and we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells first. Wow, is all I can say. It was amazing to see that book, and I think when we come back for Halloween I’ll suggest getting a guided tour. I think we would all get so much more out of the experience with a guide who knows more than we do. After that we went to the National Gallery to look at some art and it was really nice to see some Irish artists as well as some others I already knew. Also, art museums are free to get into in Dublin and I think that’s a great idea. Then we walked around Dublin for awhile and I got a picture with Molly Malone off of Grafton Street. I told Angela I knew that song about Molly, and she seemed thrilled. I told her Pop Pop got me into Irish music .

After that, we went home and had a nice dinner, and Angela and Herb’s son Nile stopped by with his fiancée whose name I can’t even begin to spell because she’s Belgian. They brought Belgian chocolate over and it was delicious–I think word spread pretty fast that I like chocolate. That was fine with me! We talked about Florence and traveling and how much I’m enjoying my time here. They are wonderful people.

I woke up on Tuesday and Angela and I took a bus to the airport and had a coffee together before I got on the plane. I got a little choked up when I left! Herb and Angela and Cliona were wonderful to me. I really enjoyed every second of my stay in Ireland; every day was nice and I actually learned so much about my family and the history of Ireland that I wouldn’t have heard normally. Tomorrow I plan on going to the post office and getting some stamps so I can send them a postcard to thank them for taking such great care of me while I was there.

This past weekend, to finish up my fall break, a bunch of us went to Nice, Cannes, Antibes, and Monaco. I’ll save that for another entry tomorrow because I’m very tired of typing right now! I hope everyone enjoys the pictures, and I miss you all!

Ciao!
Katie

Hello everyone!

So Oktoberfest never happened for me and my friends because the bus Florence for Fun (the agency we bought the trip through) rented broke down. Apparently they couldn’t find another working bus in all of Tuscany, so we just didn’t go. We got our money back on Monday, of course, but it was a disappointment all the same. Kelly and I stocked up on so much food that day–cookies, crackers, Pringles, and water. So now we have a grocery store in our rooms . Luckily, we found peanut butter in the grocery store the other day, so my outlook on life is very much improved!

I wanted to update before I left for fall break. I’m going to Dublin on October 4th until the 7th, and then we may go to Venice for a day on the 8th, and then a big group of us are going to Nice and the French Riviera the last weekend of break–October 9th until the 12th. I think it’s going to be lots of fun! Expect many pictures, and I’ll post in two weeks about my adventures!

Ciao,
Katie

PS-I’d love to get cards or letters here, so if anyone wants to write my address is:

MaryKate Sullivan, c/o CAPA
Via Panfolfini, 20
Florence, Italy 50122

Well, I suppose I should start from the very beginning because it was a long weekend! We left Thursday night at 7 pm from Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence (after, of course, grabbing a very nutritious dinner from McDonalds), and by we I mean me, Kelly, Cara, Bailey, Caitlin, Abbie, Amber, and Tanja. It was a big girls weekend! The bus ride was about 7 hours long and we had to stop by some shady, out-of-the-way train station near Rome to pick up three random girls who were coming on the trip with us (all in all, there were about 48 of us, plus two guides, on this trip). We arrived at our very nice hotel/hostel around 2:30-3 am exhausted, hungry, and dirty but we all just passed out right away so it didn’t matter.

This was the view from outside our room down into the outdoor courtyard (10 of us roomed together!). Our guides told us it wouldn’t be wise to judge future hostel stays based on this one alone, and I believe them. It was a pretty nice place; downstairs there was a bar and they served us breakfast. We could eat dinner there for only 5 euro a plate (mostly pasta) and they had a rooftop terrace for warmer weather.

We all woke up the next morning about 7:30-8 am and were out the door by 9 to get to Capri. We had to take a ferry over and it was pretty overcast, but it was worth every single second. Capri is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Even with a cloudy sky the water looked navy blue and clear, and I could tell that the people staying on the island or living there were mighty rich, based on the number of yachts in the bay and expensive cars parked on the narrow, winding streets. First, we took a boat to the Blue Grotto, which is literally a small hole in the side of a huge cliff that opens into a dark cave.

Kelly, me, Amber, and Tanja were in a small rowboat, and the guy who was rowing the boat just told us to get down low so he could yank on the chain and pull us into the grotto. I don’t get nervous about small spaces or anything like that, but imagine having to fit a boat into that opening! It was pretty scary, but so worth it. Once you’re in, it’s a big, dark cave and you can’t see anything until you turn around to face the bright opening where the sunlight is streaming in. It shines up out of the water and it looks like there are lights below the water that are illuminating it–it’s so blue it looks like pool water. With all the men rowing the boats singing Dean Martin and their voices echoing off the cave walls it sends chills down your spine–there’s no other place like it in the world. No description can do it justice, it’s only something you can see firsthand to really understand what I’m talking about.

After that we took a tour on the bigger boat around the entire island (which isn’t very big), but it’s so beautiful. A lot of it is just green grass and trees or tan and white cliffs with cerulean waters breaking against them. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life (aside from Positano, which I’ll get to next!). The rock formations are amazing–I took a few pictures of natural caves, a natural arch, and a rock off the island that has an arch in it that we went under. It’s called the kissing rock and you’re supposed to kiss someone you love as you sail under it…unfortunately, I don’t love any of the girls enough to kiss them just yet, so I didn’t get to kiss under the kissing rock .

After the tour, we hiked (and I mean hiked) two miles uphill to the town of Anacapri to get lunch and walk around a bit. That’s when things got bad–it was so steep hiking uphill that a lot of our group had to stop towards the end because we hadn’t exactly had a big breakfast or a lot of water that day, and some of us were in danger of passing out. After the initial suffering, we all sat down at a nice cafe for some pizza and much needed water before setting out to do a little shopping. We took a bus further up on the island and found a cute little place with lots of little shops with Limoncello, jewelry, and clothes. I bought a pretty necklace with green stones on it and a few people bought Limoncello. One of the salesmen took a liking to Amber and I so he kept giving us free "tastes" of the Limoncello. He also gave us a lemon-chocolate bar for 4 euro instead of its original price of 8 euro, so we made a friend . We had to meet the group back down at Marina Grande, where the ferry dropped us off in the morning, to get back to Sorrento so we decided to start walking down early instead of taking a bus back. Well, that was a mistake. We walked the three or so miles down a mountain of stone steps in the pouring, drenching rain. The steps were so steep and slippery we were all afraid we would slip and fall and have no way of getting to a reliable hospital–it was very scary.

This was the view from the top where we started our trek–down where those small, teeny tiny boats are is where we had to be. Can you even see them? Yeah, I couldn’t either. Anyway, we made it down alive and rewarded ourselves with some delicious gelato (which is the most brilliant thing man ever invented) which only served to make us colder. We did make the ferry back to Sorrento, but we were all so drenched and cold that we just stayed at the hotel to eat dinner because it was still pouring outside (we would have to walk about 45 min. into town to get dinner at a restaurant). We passed out that night around 10:30, and I’m pretty sure my parents called me around 11 but I don’t think I was even conscious enough to hear my phone ring.

The next morning we didn’t have to be out of the hostel until around 10, so we were able to sleep in! After grabbing breakfast we were off to a day at the beach at Positano. The day was much sunnier and warmer than Friday so the whole group was anticipating a nice, relaxing day at the beach. Most of the girls wore bathing suits but me, Kelly, and Amber didn’t wear ours so we just planned to sit on the beach and read. We sat through a beautiful, scenic bus ride until the driver had to let us off in the middle of the road so we could walk the next mile down more steps (by this point we were ridiculously sore from the steps the day before) to get to the beach. Apparently the roads down to the actual beach were too narrow for any bus to get through. Positano is gorgeous.

I may be biased because Saturday was so much nicer and so the water was bluer, but Positano is such a cute place. It has many little shops and cafes and homes all on cliffs overlooking the ocean. If there were elevators I think it would be much nicer, but that’s just my opinion. I saw more than one elderly lady walk up and down those hills without even breaking a sweat, so I can’t really complain without feeling silly. What I didn’t do that was really stupid was wear sunscreen, and I got sunburn on my face and arms. I got it even worse on my legs, though, and last night they were purple–I called my mom in a panic thinking I had severe sun poisoning and I had very little time to live. I’ve never had or seen anyone with such bad sunburn, so I can tell you that walking to the hotel from the ferry that night was a miserable experience (because we had to shower and get ready and make that walk again to go to dinner). The restaurant we ate at was really cheap and really good though, so I can’t complain about that!

The next day we left at 11 am to go to Pompeii and that was an experience. Mt. Vesuvius erupted 2000 years ago and buried the town of Pompeii under so much ash that it wasn’t found again until about 200 years ago. Vesuvius used to be 10,000 feet high (according to Antonio, our guide) and when it erupted long ago 7,000 feet blew off the top of it. That’s amazing–nature is a stronger force than we think! So many parts of this city are still amazingly intact, like the town market, the town center, the public baths with a lot of the original marble floors, a brothel, a lot of murals, and also a few human bodies preserved in ash.

Coming back into Florence last night felt like coming home, and that was the best part. I was so glad to get on my familiar bus home and get into my familiar bed and say hi to Maria. I think going away finally made me appreciate Florence since I finally feel like I know where I’m living for the next two months. This weekend me, Kelly, Abbie, Caitlin, and Will are going to Oktoberfest in Munich for a day (9 hours on a bus there, 9 back–don’t even ask how we’re going to do that) and that’ll certainly be an experience, but that’s what’s next for my adventures! I hope you enjoyed my description of my weekend, and I suggest that everyone go to Capri and Positano and Pompeii if they can one day–they are the places where all those pictures on calendars come from! Here are links to slideshows with all the pictures I took with captions so you can get a better idea of what I saw this weekend: Sorrento and Capri, Positano, Pompeii.

Until next time!!

Ciao!
KT

Hello again!

This past Saturday a group of us went to Greve in Chianti for a wine tasting festival.  Chianti is really pretty; it’s a small region and, of course, the wine is what makes it pretty famous.  Kelly and I said goodbye to Maria before we went to catch the bus, and she said something about an umbrella—of course Kelly and I said that we’d be fine without one.  Well, now we know to never take what Maria says for granted!  As soon as we stepped off the bus at the Santa Maria Novella bus station it started to pour, and not just normal rain either: it was big, cold drops of rain.  That was okay because we were taking a bus to Chianti, and maybe it wouldn’t be raining there.  WRONG.  When the bus finally got moving after the bus driver threw a tantrum because the bus was too full (but he didn’t actually get on the bus to deliver this message to his passengers), it rained on and off.  When we arrived, we ate at a nice café with a small group of us: Pete, Mike D., Mike (don’t know his last name), Amber, Kelly, me, Cara, and Bailey.  Then we were off to try some wine!  I realized that wine really does taste different if you pay attention and savor it—so I’d say I had a nice, educational experience at Chianti this weekend!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, but this weekend a big group of girls (me, Kelly, Cara, Bailey, Caitlin, Abbie, Amber…I forget who else) are going to Capri and Sorrento!  Here’s a link to the website we bought the trip from: Bus2Alps Sorrento . We get tours of the blue grotto and Pompeii, a day on the beach, and a LOT of walking—plus, of course, transportation there and back, a hostel, and breakfast.  I’m going to take plenty of beautiful pictures for everyone to see.  I’m very excited because this is my first full weekend trip since I’ve been here and I think I need it (I’ve been pretty homesick off and on).  It’s always nice to be with a big group of people who you can laugh and talk with, and be yourself.

Also, I wanted to give everyone a heads up for my fall break plans: I’m going to Dublin to visit family who I’ve never met before for three nights starting October 4th, flying back to Florence on October 7th, then Kelly, me, Amber, Will, and Caitlin want to go to Venice on October 8th for the day, then all of us plus Abbie leave on October 9th for Nice, France and stay there until October 12th.  I think that’s a pretty nice plan, if I say so myself.  We’re going to Nice with the same company that is taking us to Capri—you pay a flat fee and you get the bus, hostel, some food, and tours.  No better deal than that! Bus2Alps Nice

I have class soon, so I am going to catch up on some reading before that.  I hope to have many pictures posted on Monday when I get back, so expect an e-mail then—and they will also be posted on my blog.

Ciao!
KT

In the wake of my internet catastrophe, I am now grasping at straws in terms of finding a way to post on this blog.  The internet here is not very good…and there is no tech support here at CAPA because they just sort of set up a wireless network and that’s it.  Anyway, aside from the internet crisis, I’m doing very well!  This past weekend was nice because it got me out of my homesick funk.  Friday we had to go to the Immigration Office to give our names to the Italian Government; I suppose they want to keep track of all the crazy American students let loose in the city during the school year.  Afterwards, Kelly, Taylor, Amber, and I walked around the neighborhood up by Santa Maria Novella, which is diagonally opposite in the city from our home stay.  They had a lot of shoe stores around, so I was looking for a nice pair of boots or walking shoes for when the weather gets cold (I only brought a pair of sneakers and flats with me for colder weather–and the flats give me bad blisters.  Poor planning on my part.).  I found a great pair of boots for a really cheap price, but I didn’t buy them; I sort of regret that but there’s plenty of time and plenty of places to look!
   On Saturday, Kelly, Jasmine, Mary and I went to Fiesole, this town the Etruscans built high on a mountain above Florence hundreds of years ago.  Rome conquered them and Etruscan and Roman ruins are still there today, so you can imagine how old this town is.  We (or at least Kelly and I) didn’t go for the ruins so much as the view.  And all of us came for this wine, cheese, and olive oil tasting festival that was supposed to be there that afternoon (however, no one in the town itself knew when or where it was supposed to be).
People come here just to see the crystal clear (or not, as was the case the day we went) view from the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately, it was so hot and humid that there was a haze that hung over the valley, so Kelly and I said that we’d come back in October or November again for better pictures.
   After we were done that, we had lunch in a small café and had the best pizza we’ve had so far in Italy!!  The crust was thin and perfectly crispy (Mom Mom Sullivan would appreciate this) and individual pizzas were big, so we all split two.  Finally we went to where the festival was being held (which turned out to be inside the outdoor museum with the ruins—if that makes any sense) and walked around taking pictures of some really old rocks.  They were neat, but there wasn’t really that many of them.  It was still fascinating to think that something so incredibly old was sitting right in front of me.

   Sunday I finally got to use my free Uffizi pass, and went right to the front of a long line (at least a 2 hour wait) of hot, angry tourists.  The museum is HUGE, and you have to walk up at least 4 flights of stairs to get to the galleries.  They built it that way because the Arno tends to flood and they don’t want a repeat of the Flood of 1966, where a lot of important artwork, manuscripts, and sculptures were lost.  Anyway, we went to the Renaissance Gallery because I wanted to see Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus for a paper I had to write for my Lit. class.  To be honest, the painting moved me more than I thought it would—even though I’ve seen it many times in books, that was nothing compared to seeing the giant canvas in person (behind a thick pane of glass).  I actually read something interesting about the painting: Venus’s neck is oddly long and her left arm is shaped funny in the painting.  Botticelli did this in order to make the perfect silhouette, but people rarely notice these things because she is so beautiful.  And she really is—it’s something that everyone should see, I think.
   This week has been fairly uneventful with classes and everything, but this weekend we’re going to the San Lorenzo market, which is supposed to be REALLY big to look around and maybe shop a little.  I really want to buy some Murano glass jewelry while I’m here.  Saturday Kelly and I and a couple other people from our group are taking a bus to the Chianti region for a wine festival (hopefully this one will be better than the one in Fiesole), and to see the rest of Tuscany.  Then, next weekend, we’re taking a trip to Capri until Sunday.  We get a bus ride there and back, a place to stay for 2 nights, breakfast, and a tour of the blue grotto and Pompeii.  I’m really excited!  Capri is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.  We have other trips planned too, so I’ll report on them once they’re finalized—things sometimes have a habit of not working out!
  Hopefully I’ll write again soon.

Ciao!
~Katie


So I finally have a way to post on my blog!!

Aunt Sue will post for me for awhile until I can get it to work over here for myself. I’ll also send her some pictures I’ve taken so far, and if that doesn’t work I’ll send a link to Photobucket where I’ve posted all of them.
  The flight from Philly to Frankfurt took SO long…7 hours. It would have been fine if I slept but I basically spent all my time watching a bad movie without sound, reading, and trying to sleep unsuccessfully. I wasn’t really feeling anything, to be honest–I didn’t feel excited or upset or anything. My body probably went into shock that day! When we arrived in Frankfurt it was 8 or 9 am there, and I had somehow locked my phone so I couldn’t even call my mom. Finally, I got that all straightened out (after lots of grief) and sat down to wait for the flight to Florence. By this point, some kids from the group floated over to the bar in the terminal and started drinking beer. I guess they wanted to start their celebrations ASAP!
   On the plane to Florence, I looked out the window after passing out for 20 minutes (at the exact moment that the flight attendant passed by with sandwiches, mind you, so that I spent the next 7 hours starving…but anyway) and saw the Alps. I couldn’t believe it and I’m kicking myself right now for not taking a picture of them. I’ve never seen anything like it…miles and miles of blue-gray, snowcapped mountains. I hope I get to see them again–up close.
   Alright, so now onto my host mom, Maria. She is a SWEETHEART. She reminds me of Mom Mom Sullivan…if Mom Mom could only speak Italian. She helps Kelly and I with certain Italian words and we get some of what she says (I wouldn’t necessarily say most..). Like today for example, she said something about washing our clothes and something else…so Kelly and I just laid our clothes out on the bed. We figured if she left them there we’d just wash them ourselves…we’re kinda stuck, haha. She’s a great cook but Kelly and I eat way too much. It’s considered rude if you leave food leftover on your plate, so the more we eat the more she tends to give us. I am just now realizing that I am allowed to say I’m full. Last night I almost reached my breaking point: Maria gave us both a bowl of rice mixed with vegetables and some sort of sauce, which was delicious, but then she gave us a big square of this cream cheese and made us split it in half and eat it with a salad and crackers. Then she gave us an apple. I almost threw up right there because it was SO much food for me. My stomach has already been hurting with all this food, so I need to communicate with her and let her know that she might kill me. Soon I’ll get some pictures up of me and Maria.
   I started my classes on Monday: Italian, Sociology, Art History, and Lit. by and about Florentines (which is my favorite class). Sociology is really boring, but the prof is really nice. Art History could be interesting, but I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep during it because it’s for 2 hours in the afternoon after lunch….not such a good combination. I love my Italian prof–she is SO funny. Today we were talking about birthdays to practice saying numbers, and she was talking about our horoscopes. One kid is a Scorpio and she told him that Scorpios are evil. It was pretty funny…she’s a sweetheart. My Lit. class is great—I love the prof and I love the books. Also, for most of these classes we’ll be going out into Florence to see different things and get a lot of hands on experience.
  Today is my last day for the week, so if I post anything new it’ll be on Monday. Hopefully this weekend will be fun…I’m actually spending a lot of it doing homework for Lit. I have to visit a site mentioned in the novel we just read (The Birth of Venus) and also visit one of the bridges on the Arno and make a presentation about it. I’ll post again soon!
 
PS–it would take a long time to e-mail these pictures to Aunt Sue, so I’ve decided to just post the link to the website I’ve posted them on: http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/mks711/Arriving%20in%20Florence/
 
Enjoy!!
~MaryKate