Barca!

The first places I went for my fall break (outside of the chocolate festival) was to Barcelona! I had never been to Spain but heard amazing things, especially from Shannon she studied there. I knew I had to go! Allison, Jess, Will, Tiff, Kelly, Nic and I all went there at the same time! It was so much fun all celebrating the beginning of our fall break together.
While there, we saw the gothic district of town (super ancient with winding roads and cobblestone streets,) went to Europe's largest outdoor market, La Boqueria which featured exotic produce, rather gruesome raw meats and delicious authentic cuisine. We walked the gorgeous boardwalk and main beach area, filled with vendors, street performers and live music. We visited the Catedral de la Santa Creu, one of the most massive and dark cathedral I have seen since being here. We spent one of the afternoons on the most central beaches, right in the city center. The weather was perfect… just warm enough to lay in the sand and watch the surfers ride waves in the distance.

6 of us got tapas at an adorable restaurant. Tapas are really cheap appetizers that made to share with the table. delicious! We also went a notorious shot bar known for its crazy drinks. They had over 250 kinds of shots, (some of which involved lighting the entire bar on fire, toasting marshmellows as a chaser, taking a shot from a syringe, toppings of whipped cream, chocolate, etc., etc., etc.) It was so crazy to watch it all!

On the 3^rd day, we saw a huge protest parade through the entire gothic district. The metro workers are currently on strike because the city has been cutting their wages and hours. They were so passionate- with massive banners, firecracker explosions, whistles and megaphones. It was amazing to see the degree to which they are granted freedom of speech and assembly, as law enforcement were present but not objecting to their presence or opinions.

Kelly, Eric, Nic and I visited Park Guell, one of the amazing works of Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi is one of Barcelona’s mot beloved artists who was commissioned to do some of the most famous architecture pieces of the city. His key focus is to incorporate nature and religion into his work, and as a result, has created some of the most spectacularly shaped buildings featuring amazing color, texture and design. Scattered throughout Park Guell park are gingerbread-looking houses which feature mind-blowing shape and color. The whole park is situated uphill. When we made it to the top, we climbed a massive mound with three crosses, which overlooked the entire city. From up high, you can really take in the city’s true feel: an intriguing mix of new and old; charm and grit; structure and aesthetic; city and green…

One of my trip highlights was taking a train-cart across the entire bay area of the city. Situated between two mountaintops, there are trolley carts that string you across the ocean via a connected cable wire. Leaving from the city in the cart, you end up to the beautiful area, montjuic! We then hiked to the Montjuic’s medieval castle which overlooks the port and gorgeous blue sea! Surrounding the castle is vast green space with gardens and fountains.

On the final day in the city, Nic and I saw the Segrada Familia and Casa Mila, two of Gaudi’s famous works. The outside of the houses were incredible, but we picked Case Batillo to actually go in. The outside alone was one of the most fascinating and beautiful pieces of architecture I have ever seen. As I looked at the house in amazement, I felt like I was viewing an impossibly beautiful painting rather than a work of architecture.

The outside is a pale blue with oblong windows that resemble bubbles more than glass, and the entire surfaced is accentuated with beautiful colors and detailed designs. As if the façade wasn’t amazing enough, Gaudi constructed the roof to actually look like ocean waves. It is made up of what look like scales more than shingles. Once you are on the actual roof, you can see more closely that the highest points are actually designed to impersonate a dragon’s spine. Inside of the house, Gaudi redefies the meaning of space, lighting and design in general! Even the floor is innovative and incredible in its construct. Each room left me wondering why houses are generally so boring, and why architecture in general doesn’t utilize even a fraction of his imagination and creativity! It is hard to explain how amazing the house truly was, or what the inside really was like. Look at the pictures below for a better idea J
Needless to say, I loved every minute of this crazy city!

segrada familia

casa batllo

casa batllo

casa batllo

casa batllo

view from the roof

casa batllo

dragon spine roof!

Chocolate festival in Perugia!

To kick off the beginning of our Fall Break, my roommates Dee, Gina, Kelly and Jess went to Italy's biggest chocolate festival in Perugia! We heard about the festival when we first moved in, back in August and knew it was something we had to do! We took a bus to the town of Perugia and took a cool little tram that runs through the mountains to get to the top of the city, located in the highest part of the mountains in the area. once we got to the top, we took a few pictures at the amazing view and got our chococards! the chococards are stamp-able cards you bring to vendors to get tons of free chocolate samples and accessories!
As soon as we turned the corner to the festival block, we were greeted with fudge samples and rows and rows of tents with chocolate deliciousness! we sampled hot chocolate, which, in Italy is literally melted milk chocolate in cups, fudge, chocolate-covered popcorn, truffles, bars, and a chocolate KEBAB. The chocolate kebab was a crepe-like flat, filled with whipped cream, drizzled chocolate, and sheared chocolate fudge than the lady at the stand cut fresh.

We spent most of the day there eating chocolate and then explored the beautiful little city of Perugia. The cobblestone streets and steep, hilly roads looked right out of a postcard. About every 10 minutes you can find a ledge to look off and see the gorgeous hazy mountains and the city's countryside since the city center is the highest point. It was an amazing day and such a good way to celebrate being done with midterms!!

Amster, amster-dam dam dam!

The second weekend in October, Nic and I took a weekend trip to Amsterdam! Although the weather was pretty freezing, it was a great time. Our hostel was perfect, situated right near most of the museums and parks in the city and extremely homey. One of the things that immediately struck me was the Dutch language that we heard and saw everywhere. It was unlike any other language i've heard before!
Everyone always talks about the red light district and crazy nightlife there but what I was surprised by was how gorgeous the city was! Much of the downtown area is built on canals and the sight of water between all the pristine, ivy league college-looking buildings was so pretty! We visited the Van Gogh museum (where I saw my favorite painting: sunflowers!), went to a few markets and explored the whole city. The red light district was so crazy...the city does not get its reputation for no reason!

Birthday dinner at Il Latini

For a belated birthday celebration, my roommates, our friend Will and Nic all went out to the infamous Tuscan restaurant, Il Latini. We had heard from some friends of my roommates who studied in Florence and read online that it is THE restaurant to try in Firenze. We were all so excited to take a break from our grocery store, boxed pasta and eggs that we make nightly and treat ourselves to true Tuscan cooking and eating.
I thought it wouldn't be totally necessary since we went on a Tuesday night, but we made a reservation to be safe. That night, as we turned the corner of the street at the restaurant, we were shocked. There was a mob of at least 75 people waiting to get in. The man at the door was shockingly calm, and after about 20 minutes, we finally were called to come in. They led us to an adorable little patio courtyard outside that was perfect! And the experience began...
Il Latini doesn't have a set menu or entree list. All the food is served family-style, where you pay a fixed rate and get enormous portions of everything under the sun and unlimited wine to share with the table. The menu always changes based on what's in season and the freshest! First, they gave us a quinoa salad, bread and cheese platter to share. The cheese was alone was so good I felt like I could leave happy just having that! Next, they brought out antipasti of meats, fresh melon, crostini and sauteed veggies that melted in your mouth!
They timed everything well so that we weren't dying of exploding bellies and followed this with 4 different types of amazing gnocci, ravioli, linguini and penne. After, they brought a platter with limitless savory meats for all the meat-eaters which I heard was divine! To cleanse our palate, they followed this with more fruit. Then, my favorite part: the dessert! Fudge-soaked truffles, tirimasu, raspberry cheesecake, fruit tarts and Millefoglie (a creme and crust layered pastry sprinkled with confectioner's sugar that means "millions of layers," due to the fact that it looks like a lasagna of creme and flakiness.) Of course to end it, the gave us dessert wine, limoncello and biscotti. DIVINE! we left feeling like we had eaten enough to be full for three years! As I've discovered about many cultural things, Italy takes something as simple as "dinner" and makes it into an amazing experience and production that leaves you wondering why you usually do things so boring!

line to get in!

the group :)

inside of the restaurant

so long overdue-Venezia!

So, I have been completely negligent of my poor blog! I haven't been updating anything for a few weeks and it is so sad!

So here is a pathetic recap, lacking detail and time!:

First, Nic visited for my birthday weekend and he took me on a surprise trip to Venice! It was incredible. The entire city is amazingly peaceful and ancient. There are no motorized vehicles on land there, not even bikes! The whole city is made up of tiny islands connected by walking bridges and the only vehicles they use are boats. Taxis, ambulances and buses are all boats! The first night we got there, we walked around for hours looking for our hotel (as soon as we got off the train, everyone warned us that there is no labeled street names OR logically numbered buildings.) Navigating around the city is an adventure to say the least!
We finally found our hotel after hours of searching, checked in and were shocked by how nice it was. we then went out for an amazing dinner of delicious wine, pizza and pasta. We came back to our hotel around 2am and were welcomed back by the hotel attendant shouting at us in Italian. After being thoroughly confused for about 15 minutes, we realized that all of our belongings were outside of our room's door. Apparently, there are three hotels with the same name in Venice and he hadn't checked our name when we checked in. We were in the wrong hotel.
Confused and stressed, we gathered our belongings and were faced with the daunting task of finding our REAL hotel. After another hour of searching, we called and struggled to explain in Italian our situation. The woman on the other line managed to tell us that she was sending her husband to get us. He arrived enraged, screaming at us in half-english, half-italian, calling us "irresponsible young Americans...."uncomfortable and mortifying, to say the least. He finally led us to our hotel where we slept for about 4 hours before we woke to him bringing us breakfast...slightly awkward.
We spent the next day soaking up the city's beautiful sights, going to markets and to Piazza San Marco (an enormous square with amazing byzantine-styled basilica,  overlooking the beautiful green-blue water.)
Things got a little rough again when we discovered that every single hostel, hotel, bed and breakfast was completely booked that weekend and there were no trains back to florence until the following morning. We may or may not have had to stay out all night, without sleeping, but roaming around the beautiful city and eating wine and cheese on the water wasn't exactly a punishment. Since we had all night, we went out to a few restaurants and an adorable little wine bar. The city is completely unlike anywhere else in the world. There are no words for the sights, so here are some pics!