Spring Broke!

I mean broke in every sense of the word: financially, mentally, physically, emotionally…hygienically… For two weeks I traveled throughout Spain and Italy with my friends for a trip that is best described by Murphy’s law; everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I had an incredible time, but it really felt like a Griswold family vacation at times. I’ll start from the beginning.

We left Paris from Paris Beauvais airport which is an hour and half drive from Paris. I should also mention that the luggage regulations for Ryanair and Easyjet are quite strict and that really set the tone for the entire two weeks. You’re only allowed one piece of carry on luggage including a purse, and there was no cheating, they’re actually pretty strict about it. So I packed two weeks worth of the essentials into my tiny Jansport backpack. I’m still not quite sure how I fit everything, but considering the amount of things I put it in this backpack you would think I greased my clothes. Anyway, Paris Beauvais is a pretty tiny airport, and it’s a little crazy. There are about 5 gates all lined up next to one another and when they announce which gate you’re leaving from, you better be ready. There was a mad dash to the gate, I guess because there aren’t any assigned seats, so by the time you actually run across the runway and get on the plane, it’s kind of a free for all. The girls in my group were troopers though, so we got the seats we wanted, and I have to say I really enjoyed flying Ryanair. Especially because of their safety guidelines.

Apparently the best way to exit in case of an emergency landing is the crotch chop down an inflated slide. I like it!

Me being a good little tourist and following the audio guide

After our short flight we arrived in Barcelona Reus around 11:30. Funny thing about Barcelona Reus is that it isn’t really in Barcelona at all. We had to take another shuttle from that airport to actually get into Barcelona, so by the time we

arrived at Mediterranean Youth Hostel it was about 1AM, from what I can remember. Since we had so little time in Barca,

we tried to go out that night but without much success, we were all pretty exhausted anyway so we just went back to our hostel and slept. The hostel was pretty nice, no real complaints. The staff was very helpful, especially since no one really knew what to expect from Barcelona, so they helped us get off to a good start.

By far my favorite thing about Barcel

ona was the architecture and the work of Gaudi. One of his houses was one of our first stops and it was unbelievable. He designs without any straight lines, and the inside of this house was meant to be very organic and ocean-like. We also got to go to the roof of the house which gave us a great view of Barcelona, but the pictures don’t really do it justice.Barcelona in general was a lot of fun, I definitely took the most pictures there, so the picture to type ratio is out of whack here, but it was just so cool! Plus it was the first stop, so I was really excited. It was fun just to explore the city and stumble upon things. Of course we ate a lot of food, sangria with every meal. It was a little challenging to find vegetarian food in Spain, but I managed, and I liked everything I had.

I fell in love with Happy Hippos, which I have yet to find anywhere other than Spain. They were so cute!

It was actually the first time I had been somewhere where they speak a language that I had never studied, which was weird, because I’m usually pretty good with communicating. I know a few phrases in Spanish, and luckily almost everyone spoke English, but in Barcelona they actually speak Catalan, and they refer to the city as Catalunya, entirely separate from Spain. The people are very proud, and I didn’t even want to try to speak their language and risk butchering it, so I just stuck to the few basics that I knew. I was also faced with a lot of mullets in Spain, that’s just the style I guess, but it caught me a little off guard…just thought I’d mention that. Some other things we saw include the mysterious egg building which to this day we have no idea what it’s used for, but we thought it was pretty cool, we walked down Las Ramblas during the day to see all of the cool vendors, stores, and living statues, and at night to be part of the wild nightlife.I guess in Spanish “chupito” means shot, so there are a bunch of bars called “Chupitos” and they are just little bars with a lot of different kinds of shots.

They range from the regulars like kamikaze to the theatricals like the Monica Lewinsky ( I won’t get into the details, but it was a messy one). Our favorite was the Bob Marley shot which looked like a Jamaican flag and just tasted like coconut, but I also really like the boy scout shot which involved roasted a marshmallow, and putting it out in the shot and then obviously taking the shot. There were some weird ones we tried out like the furby…but of course we started the night off with the Harry Potter which was actually pretty gross, they just lit them on fire and then we had really sugary orange slices, but we had to do it. After that we ended up going to a club off Las Ramblas. Not really my thing, but it was just something we had to do since we were in Barcelona and it turned out to be alright.

We also got a chance to go to Park Guell which was absolutely beautiful, another touch of Gaudi in Barcelona which led to the catchphrase “that’s so Gaudi” simply because it was so applicable. But that was where you really got the best view of Barcelona, though it was quite the hike up, and we were not dressed appropriately at all.

ANTM!

Also, for all of the America’s Next Top Model fans out there, the season finale runway show between Caridee and Melrose was filmed in Park Guell in these caves, so that was really cool to see, and to give our signature walks a test run, Tyra would be proud.

Park Guell, obviously

Sagrada Familia in the background. The elevator was broken that day though, so we couldn't go to the top :(

There’s a ton more from Barcelona but I just can’t post all of my pictures, especially since that was only the first city, there’s so much more! Our group split up and My friend Angie and I went to Alicante to visit my Ande while the others went to Seville and Grenada for a few days. We took a seven hour bus ride that left at midnight so we arrived in Alicante at like 7 AMish. It was really great to see Ande and Alicante was pretty beautiful. We went into the town and got some good food, paella, spanish tortillas, churros! And we went to the mercado which was pretty cool, I got some delicious strawberries. Then we went out to the castillo which had amazing views. That was probably the warmest it got, and it was probably the nicest weather too. After this point, I feel like it all went downhill. The rest of the vacation was full of rain and cold weather.

bad hair, good view

el castillo!

Alicante was nice and relaxing which I definitely needed after Barcelona. The next city on my tour of Spain was Madrid. I left Alicante at 4:30 AM which was not fun, and crammed all of my stuff in my tiny backpack and took a 5 euro flight

Draft for Guernica, Reina Sophia

to Madrid International Airport and met my friends at our hostel, they had already been there for a night. Of course, I couldn’t check in when I arrived at 9 AM and all of my friends were sleeping, so I took some time to explore Madrid myself, and I didn’t really like what I found. Maybe I was just in the wrong area, but it wasn’t very nice, I just really didn’t see the attraction to the city. Eventually I checked in to our room, and Way Hostel ended up being our favorite place on Earth. For a hostel, it was pretty nice. Our rooms were clean (our room was Edith Piaf themed), there was a big kitchen where we cooked all of our meals, a nice lounge area, the staff was really cool and helpful (shout out to Bao) and the people staying there were all really great ( another shout out to Hostel Nick!). The only thing I knew of that I definitely wanted to do in Madrid was to see the Prado, which we did, but we also went to the Reina Sophia which was completely different but equally interesting. Since taking art history classes at AUP museums have become so much more enjoyable, not that I didn’t like them before, but I just have a better idea of how to analyze art now, and I’m actually really familiar with a lot more, that’s what I really loved about the Prado. One of my favorite paintings that I’ve studied in class was there, Hieronymous Bosch’s Triptych of Earthly Delights, it’s absolutely incredible and you can really get lost in it because there’s just so much to look at.

The Triptych of Earthly Delights

We spent a really long time at the Prado, it was really nicely laid out, they led you to all the masterpieces. The Reina Sophia is home to Guernica which was amazing to see, I didn’t realize how big it was. It was also very heavily guarded, moreso than even the Mona Lisa, and you’re not allowed to take pictures of it, but there was a room that contained Picasso’s drafts, and you could see all of his different ideas and how he came to the final draft. There was also a lot of Dali, and modern art. There was one room that was entirely painted bricks, and another that was entirely white with colored discs, pretty sweet.

We also went to a club in Madrid, because apparently that’s the thing to do in Madrid, it was okay. The club itself was kind of cool since it was seven floors and each floor had something different going on, but still, I just don’t really like clubs, so it was kind of lost on me. I still had a good time though. The next day was miserable, we had to check out early, but our flight wasn’t until late at night. One of my friends was very sick.It was cold and raining and our feet were desperate for some TLC so we decided we should treat ourselves to pedicures. It was the strangest pedicure I’ve ever gotten in my life. I was on a table like in a doctor’s office, crinkly paper and all, and there was just like a foot bath and the whole thing was just really clinical and kind of odd, but by the time she got to the foot massage I could care less and I knew that I had made the right decision. So for the rest of the day we just kind of relaxed and avoided the rain. We left for the airport with one very very sick friend.

It was not the best metro ride, all I’ll say is good thing we had plastic bags with us…blehhhh. But we made it to the airport for our flight to Italy. We got to the gate and there was a gaggle of Italian high school girls on our flight, not ideal for flying, and we were at the very back of the line, the plane was delayed, but I talked to the flight attendants and got my friend on the plane first so she could get a seat next to the bathroom. At this point we were all exhausted, hungry, and losing our sanity just a bit, and so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when the flight attendant asked my friend if she was “fit to fly” but we still found it hilarious and it became another tagline for the trip. We flew into Milan, arrived at about 11PM, I think, and our connecting flight to Catania wasn’t until like 7 AM the next morning, so we prepared ourselves for sleeping in the FREEZING Milan airport. I guess it didn’t really occur to any of us that Milan was pretty close to the Alps (until of course we flew over them which was sooooo cool) when we packed, but even if it did, we wouldn’t have had room for warm clothes. So we set up camp in the Milan airport, got ourselves some questionable snacks from a very tricky vending machine, and tried to sleep on the benches while simultaneously guarding our bags. It was not pleasant, but I slept relatively well all things considered. We woke up with the rest of the vagabonds around 5AM and made our way through security and to the gate. At this point, we’re professionals when it comes to airports. I do not remember a single thing about the flight to Catania because I passed out the minute I got my seat, only to wake up to the sound of applause as our plane landed (I think it’s just a European thing).

We got through the Catania airport to the shuttle that was supposed to take us to our hostel. However, after reading Hostel World’s directions we realized that after getting off the shuttle we were supposed to turn left and “ask someone for directions”. That what literally the last step, typical Catania. We put my Italian to use and we found a tourism office and got a map and directions, and Agora Hostel wasn’t too far and it ended up being in a great location, right next to the Pescheria, which is literally a fish market, but there was all kinds of food there, including the best olives I have ever eaten! YUM. As soon as we got to our hostel and looked through all of the brochures it was clear that the best thing to do was to go to Mt. Etna and get a tour. We asked the staff about it and he tried his best to get us reservations for the next day and he succeeded, so we were all set. We decided to then walk around a bit. We went through the Pescheria, and to A.N.D., a delicious restaurant. The only weird thing, is that we always went to eat at the wrong time. I don’t know if we were too early or too late, but the restaurant was empty. Anyway, the guy spoke English and he liked a lot and he gave us a ton of antipasti, and there wasn’t anything too exciting as far as vegetarian dishes go, so I took the plunge. I figured I’m Italy, the fish is clearly very fresh, we were literally a few hundred meters from the water, and I should be open to trying new things and experiencing the culture as much as I can. So I had mussels, clams, sea urchin, snails, and a bunch of other things that I can’t even name, and it was really good. I don’t think I’m going to make a habit of eating it, but I just didn’t want to be missing out.

Il Trenino, a family business!

Of course we followed lunch with gelato and we walked around a bit. Then we decided to go for a ride on Il Trenino! It was kind of the town joke, but it was the best way to see Catania in the rain and it was way more exciting than the stupid tour bus. So we hopped on with one other family and we were all set for our tour. Unfortunately, there were some technical problems and after waiting about 15 minutes we really thought we weren’t going to be able to take the tour. But not to worry, since there were so few of us, they just detached two of the end cars, left them behind, and we were off! It was a very educational tour and it helped us plan out all the places we wanted to walk to later or the next day. At this point it was pouring and our hostel had a bar, restaurant, and happy hour, so we decided to stay in. After trying to talk with the lively bar wench in Italian we got our drinks and THE BEST BRUSCHETTA OF MY LIFE. Who would’ve thought that a rinky dink hostel in Sicily would be responsible for bruschetta bliss? But it was great, and the rain let up a bit so we ventured off to get some good Italian pizza which we found at Camelot, veggies galore. We went to sleep for the night in this sketchy hostel, no locks on the doors…I think someone walked into our room, but I was too out of it to really care.

So the next day we were all excited for our trip to the volcano until we looked out the window and saw that it was raining just as hard as it had been the night before and so our trip was canceled…NOOOOOOO. Not only was our trip ruined, but what were we supposed to do in rainy Catania? Even the Pescheria was closed which we were told was going to be open because we wanted to take pictures, but we were LIED to. :( We got breakfast cannoli and cappuccino which made things considerably better and decided to just go for it.

elefanta!

It was raining pretty hard and we didn’t have umbrellas, and of course as soon as you walk outside you’re bombarded by umbrella vendors so I decided that I was getting two umbrellas for five euros no matter what. The first guy comes up to me and says that I can have two umbrellas for 8. I say no, sorry, I’m only paying 5. And after some back and forth, and the saddest puppy dog eyes of all time (on his part) we got our umbrellas for 5 euros. One black and one blue plaid. Well I guess my haggling backfired because after 5 minutes my umbrella broke. It was still functional, but it wasn’t really all that useful. We got lunch at a little trattorio near our hostel, che deliziosa! There was basically an unlimited antipasti bar which was music to my ears and it hit the spot.

We then saw the sights of Catania: theaters, parks, churches, monuments, ancient ruins, amphitheaters etc.. It was really beautiful. It wasn’t as glamorous as a lot of the more famous cities but it felt so authentic which was so much better. We visited some shops, I bought myself some Chucks which was the best decision I could have made, it really lifted my spirits and relieved my soaked, swollen feet.

Then, as we were heading back to our hostel I saw our friend the umbrella vendor and I took action, I was had! I marched right up to him and I just said, hi, you sold me this umbrella this morning, remember? now it is broken and I’d like another one. So with those glassy eyes he surrendered and gave me another umbrella free of charge. Three umbrellas for 5 euros, not too shabby! I was proud of my haggling. We then got our last cappuccinos in Catania and experimented with this little green cake called “cassatella” which was divine.

Our next stop was to be Naples and we were taking a ferry from Catania. We walked outside and it felt like we were underwater. It was raining so hard, I don’t know why we bothered with our umbrellas, I guess we just really wanted them to be useful, but they were a joke. They kept blowing inside out and pulling us around. At some point we all just lost it and could not stop laughing because it was so ridiculous. We were practically wading in the puddles and the rain was just slapping us in the face. So we finally got up to the ferry and they told us that we had the wrong ticket, that we needed the voucher. So we had to go back out into the monsoon and go to the ticket office and get vouchers. The workers were just staring at us and cracking jokes about us in Italian. But we got our vouchers and got on the ferry which I guess we thought was going to be luxurious or something. We were very wrong. We were brought to our room, which was fine. We unloaded the contents of our bags which were completely drenched; I had to lay out everything to dry. We set aside our pathetic bargain umbrellas whose spokes were actually twisted, beyond the point of repair. We changed and went to the “restaurant” for dinner. It was not okay. First of all, for me, since I couldn’t really eat any of it, the food sucked and it was way overpriced. I think I spent 11 euros on a piece of bread an some spinach, which turned out to be a complete waste since as it turns out, I get sea sick. Who knePw? I couldn’t eat, and I felt so dizzy. Everyone kept telling me not to think about it, but I failed and it was all I could think about!

Anyway, after dinner we went to the “lounge” which was just a bunch of tables and chairs set up around TVs. It was one of the most awkward situations of my life because we were not only the youngest people on the ferry, we were some of the only women. The rest of the ferry goers were all old sea men or something, but they basically harassed us the entire time. I actually got really into the show that was on; it was some kind of talent competition but it was really intense, singing, dancing, acting, it had everything. So when we got up to leave and go to our room, we realized that two men had been watching us and followed us. We were a little nervous about that so we quickened our pace and tried to lose them. Luckily they were hanging back a bit because they were trying not to be too obvious, so as soon as we turned the corner we bolted and ran to the room. So we made it, everything was okay, except for the fact that our neighbors were a little too friendly. The walls were pretty thin, and they kept trying to talk to us through the wall. They’d say things in Italian and giggle, and then they’d say, you speak English, and giggle some more. We just tried to ignore them, but I shared a wall with these creeps and I had trouble sleeping because of the whole sea sickness thing. Needless to say, when the ferry docked, I practically kissed the ground.

E fortuna!

beautiful Napoli

Naples! We were lucky with one nice day in Naples. We checked into 6 Small Rooms Hostel, owned by Aussies, inhabited by Simon, a really fat cat that I squeezed all the time! We didn’t really know what to expect from Naples other than ballin’ pizza, since it is the birthplace of pizza. So that was the first thing we set out to do, get that perfect pizza. Along the way, we stopped in a lot of shops, and street vendors. There were these tiny little yellow flowers everywhere, literally every single place was selling them and we didn’t know why, but we later found out it was a day for “Le Donne”, essentially women’s day. People buy the little flowers and give them to women, pretty nice tradition. We walked into this pizza place which was recommended to us, of course it was the wrong time, there was no one in there, although they were setting up for a party, which we may or may not have crashed…oh well. Anyway, the pizza was to die for, and we were very happy. We spent the rest of the day just walking around and enjoying the nice weather. We were walking down one street in particular when we heard a splat, and yes, my friend Danielle got pooped on. We were hysterical laughing, because she predicted that this would happen, and it was all too fitting. We went into the nearest cafe and asked for napkins but they only had rags, so we explained to one of the guys who worked there and he wiped the poop off of her, how sweet. Of course we were all cracking up and he assured us “e fortuna! e fortuna!” it’s good luck! it’s good luck! We were praying that it really was good luck, but I’m not so sure that it was…

The rest of the night was lovely, we went down by the water as the sun was setting and sat by a castle and just soaked it all in. There were some stray dogs that really liked us and I wanted to play with them soooooo bad, but I couldn’t :( But they almost followed us back to the hostel. We got gelato, which was my personal favorite gelato of the trip, there’s a bit of controversy, most people preferred it in Rome, but I think Naples was my favorite. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it! So we got pizza again that night and it was to die for, pesto pizza to be precise, and I was in ecstasy.

The next day we had planned to take a ferry out to Ischia, a small island off the coast of Naples that is supposed to be one of the most beautiful destinations in Italy. We were all so excited, but of course when we woke up the skies were gray and it did not look good. But we were determined to at least see the island. So we got on a ferry (I was not very excited about it) and it took about two hours to get out there, and by the time we got there, we were doomed. It was raining, hard. We were devastated. We started walking around looking for some kind of tourist office, and found a pastry shop instead, go figure. The pastries we got were out of this world. There was one that was just flaky and chocolatey and powdery and all that’s good in the world. The other one was like a little pie with chocolate, nutella, and ricotta cheese and it was probably the best pastry I’ve ever had, yup. So we asked the owner if there was a tourism office and he said yes, but it’s not functioning. :O What are we going to do? Just walk around this island in the rain all day? Well, that was kind of the plan, until this guy came out of his store and tried to sell us umbrellas. We figured we might as well, so we go into the store and he’s trying to sell us Marilyn Monroe and Betty Boop umbrellas for 18 euros! I don’t think so! We realized that the store was also a car rental place, so we asked how

Il fungo!

much it would be to rent a car, and it turned out to only be 20 euros, so we figured that was probably a better deal than an 18 euro umbrella. Thank god Danielle knows how to drive stick, he sets us up with this tin can of a car. It’s a Panda, plaid interior, the works. Of course we stall, get caught in more than our fare share of dead ends, hold up traffic, try to get gas and communicate with the Italian attendant to no avail, applaud every time we get to a new gear,etc. Despite the fact that it was kind of disastrous, Ischia was still really beautiful, and I can only imagine what it looks like during the summer. I’m sure all of us will be back, if for no other reason than those pastries! Of course we found ourselves an adorable restaurant with an artichoke that I would kill for right now. We’ll be raving about that for awhile. After lunch though, we realized that we had only made it about a quarter of the way around the island and we only had about an hour and half until we had to return the car and take the ferry back to Naples. Our map was completely useless, it basically had two main roads marked on it but all of the signs contradicted one another and we were really lost and we drove around in circles for awhile before we realized that we would not have time to go all the way around the island, so we just had to go back the way we came. The only problem was that we came down a one way street…after much deliberation, the executive decision was made to just go for it. We survived, but it was clearly not okay. We really had no other choice though, it had to be done. Luckily, Ischia’s not too busy in March. So we returned our car, our renter was very relieved when he saw us pull up, I don’t think he had very much faith in us and hopped back on the ferry to Naples, went back to 6 Small Rooms Hostel, said goodbye to Simon, and headed for our train to Rome.

Since I had already been to Rome once before, and I had taken a train in Italy before I had pretty high expectations for this train, mainly that there would be a Harry Potter-esque snack trolley, since there was one last year. Alas, there was no snack trolley, although it did have the cool compartments and assigned seats. Although our compartment companions did not like us at all. We only talked for the first few minutes we were in the car, and even then we were whispering, we still got dirty looks though, whatever, it was fine. We got into Rome late and took the metro to our hostel and pretty much went right to bed to get ready for the busy day we had planned. The other girls in our rooms were really nice, and the Ciak hostel was decent, but our bathroom was vile. It reeked or mildew and the entire shower was covered in mold. I pretty much wanted to vomit anytime I opened the door. But we set out that day and hit the Colosseum first which was really cool because last time I was there I didn’t get the guided tour, but this time we paid for the tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum and we had the best tour guides. For the Colosseum we had Roberto, the only Italian tour guide, and he was hilarious. He would make fun of all of us, ask us trivia questions, and refer to anything sexual as “feeky feeky”. He was also very knowledgeable and we learned a lot from him. We were lucky to actually have a really nice day in Rome, when I was there last year it was all rain all the time.

I did have a guided tour of the Roman Forum last time, but this guide showed us entirely different parts and had a totally different style, so I was really glad to do it again. We also saw the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and the Fountain of the Four Rivers (which I didn’t get to see last time), the Pantheon, The Arch of Constantine, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and Vatican City. While I like Rome a lot, it’s kind of a let down compared to the other Italian cities just because it’s so touristy. Everyone speaks English and any time I would try to speak in Italian with people, they would just start speaking in English. We continued our gelato tasting tour though, and some of my friends claim that Rome was their favorite, though my vote still goes to Naples. I remembered where one of my favorite restaurants was that I went to last year, right near the Trevi fountain, and so we decided to go there since I knew it would be good, and good it was. I had delicious gnocchi and salad and the waiter (same guy as last year) picked out a great wine that complemented our meal. I think I’ll have to make it a tradition to go there if I ever get the chance to go back. We also ended up at a place for lunch that I went to last year without realizing it. We walked in and as soon as we sat down I got extreme deja vu, and after eating the bruschetta I knew that I had been there before, made no difference to me, I loved it. The worst thing about Rome was that I didn’t get to see Rachel! I was looking forward to that, but our schedules just did not work out.

So then there was the train fiasco at Termini. We arrived in Termini with what we thought was enough time to board our train without freaking out, but we were quite wrong. Our destination was Firenze, a.k.a Florence so we looked on the departure board and saw that there was a train headed for Florence on a track that ended up being the furthest track from where we were. So we looked like fools running towards this train, we barely got on in time, but we thought the coast was clear, we got on the train. However, we ran into one of the workers and he looked at our tickets and informed us that we were in fact on the wrong train. OH NOOOOOOO! The good

View of Florence for Piazzolo Michelangelo

news was that it was still going to Florence, the bad news was that it was going to take approximately double the time. There was nothing we could do about it, so we just made the best of the situation and played a dozen hands of rummy and then slept. We finally arrived in Florence and we were running so late ( we were supposed to meet one of Danielle’s friends for dinner). We checked into our Greci Hostel and it ended up being a really nice room, all to ourselves, with our own bathroom, and big beds! We got ready quickly and headed out for dinner which was mighty tasty, particularly the fresh mozzarella, I will say it was probably the best I’ve ever had ( I had a lot of bests over this break). Dinner was great, then we headed out to a bar which was fun too, and then we just crashed. We woke up in the morning, very excited for Florence, and rightfully so. I think Florence was my favorite city, it’s so hard to pick a favorite! But I just loved it, I liked that it was really small and it was just really beautiful, plain and simple. We were looking for a place to eat, but we didn’t want to fall into a tourist trap cafe, so we went down this little side street and found this restaurant which was wonderful, they had very fresh homemade bread which they were very generous with and the food was very authentic, clearly homemade. The only questionable thing about this restaurant was the priest that came in, asked me if I was Christian, and after I said no, sprinkled holy water on me and the rest of the dining area. It…was…odd…

But the rest of Florence was not odd at all. Again, my art history classes really made me appreciate everything more than I would have if I had not learned about the city. We saw Brunelleschi’s Duomo and Ghiberti’s Baptistry doors. We walked along the Arno and across the Ponte Vecchio. The leather markets were daunting, vendor after vendor selling some really nice things, it all kind of melted together after awhile, but it was still really cool to be a part of. There was only one thing wrong with Florence, and I don’t blame Florence, I blame Italy as a whole. The one day we were in Florence Italy decided to go on a nationwide strike which affected the Uffizi, as in it was closed! The one day we were there! We were looking for the entrance and this is what we found:

Come on!

I was not very pleased! I still loved Florence anyway, despite this major let down, and I was very sad to leave, although all that traveling and homelessness, and showerlessness really made me miss Paris. We got on our train from Florence to Paris (which was under threat of being canceled because of this strike) which was pretty tight quarters. It was an overnight train so we had beds, but they were stacked on top of each other, and there wasn’t room for much else in the room, so we basically had to stay in bed for 13 hours. It actually wasn’t that big of an issue since we were so beat, but it was still kind of a long time. By the time we got off the train I was so jumbled I said grazie, I mean gracias, I mean merci…I had no idea what I was doing. Took the metro home from the train station and got back to living in Paris. And so concludes the story of my spring break! If you have read all of this, I am impressed.

Off of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, just one of my favorites