Pompeii, Sorrento & Capri

in the Pompeii amphitheater 

Last weekend we took at trip to Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri with our study abroad group API. To get to those places you have to drive through Naples, which is a very interesting looking city. A lot of the buildings were left unfinished.. and it's highly populated by the Italian Mafia. Don't mess with Naples haha.

ancient drawings on the walls 

Ancient to-go food

Our first stop on the journey was Pompeii, the city of ancient ruins left from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius  around 2000 years ago. It was so neat to see how everything stayed perfectly the way it was because of the volcanic ash. We saw where the gladiators used to train and where they used to put on shows. We saw the ancient baths that all of the public was allowed to use FOR FREE. How amazing was that-they got to go to a spa every single day if they wanted. This was because they thought the only way to cleanse themselves was through the thermal baths. Since Pompeii was a port town, there were a lot of people coming in and out and they had no idea if they were bringing in diseases.. therefore it was mandated that every resident of Pompeii could use these Thermal spas.

The town would fill with water through the mountains so
they built these stepping stones to get across the roads
when it flooded-the lines were for the carriages

We saw the brothels.. definitely an interesting sight. All of the paintings were preserved so unbelievably well for being 2000 years old. In these brothels there were paintings of all of the different options with the price underneath them because it was easier that way since most of the people who used brothels were sailors (and they did not speak the same language). Also, Pompeii was really into having penises everywhere pointing the direction in which all of the brothels were.. interesting.

Pictures in the Brothels

penis pointing in the direction of the brothel

in the forum

Next stop: Sorrento. Sorrento was a beautiful little town. We stayed in a very adorable hotel which had the most amazing breakfast I've had since I've been in Europe. Audra, our API Resident Director, took us on a tour around the town and showed us all the cute shops, churches, etc. We got to try LOTS of limoncello because this area is famous for it-they also have the BIGGEST lemons ever. Audra took us into all the shops to try the chocolates (I've developed quite a sweet tooth here, not okay). That night all my roommates and I went out for appertivo and then to this cute little Italian restaurant and had our typical 4 hour Italian dinner, definitely going to miss those. In America everyone's ready to go in 45 minutes, lame.

Saturday morning we left on a ferry for Capri. This was the choppiest ferry I have ever been on and half of our group ended up vomiting the whole way there-not gonna lie I almost did too. However, we finally arrived in Capri without anyone being thrown overboard. Capri is the most beautiful city. We took a boat tour around the island but unfortunately we didn't get to go into the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto) because it was too choppy. We took a red mountain tram up to the city and walked around and looked in the super expensive shops. Then we took a bus over to Anacapri and went on the chair lift up the mountain. This chairlift was more like a lawn chair on a rope.. very interesting but goodness didn't it have wonderful views. At the top we got to explore a little bit and of course the boys thought itd be a great idea to go to the edge and almost jump off the cliff, stupid. After that we just shopped around a bit and went back to Roma!

A lovely blog about how to eat pizza in Italy: Eat Pizza Like an Italian

you think it's easy? jokes on you, it's not.

List of the places I've been

I know I've been blogging a little bit about all the different places I've been in Europe this semester. So I figured I would just make a post listing all the places I'll have been by the end of the semester here:

In Italy:
Rome
Florence
Pisa
Tuscany
Padua
Venice
Verona
Viterbo
Bracchino
Capri
Sorrento
Pompeii

All of Europe:
Ireland: Dublin, Galway, Cliffs of Moher
Greece: Corfu, Athens, Santorini
Paris
Barcelona
Brussels
London

Paris: the city of baguettes, cheese & wine!

Kayla, Dom, Bella and I booked a weekend in Paris!  Unfortunately we couldn't take the Thursday night flight.. so we had to take the one at 6am Friday morning. Well, to make that flight at the airport we have to leave our house at 3:45am to take the N6 night bus to Largo Argentina and walk to the taxi stand to meet my two friends and take a taxi to the airport. We're college kids in Europe.. obviously we're broke so we have to take the cheapest way possible. So once we got into the airport in Paris, oh wait.. excuse me in Beauvias.. because we have to take an hour bus ride into Paris. Oh and the line for this bus takes an hour.. and the airport is basically a tent. Essentially, Ryanair is very, very interesting.

Oh I forgot to mention.. throughout all of this i'm very sick-can't hear out of either ears and filled with more congestion that should be humanly possible. So I can't hear for about 8 hours after our flight.

We get to the drop off point and have to figure out the French metro system.. compared to Rome's it's a little different. We finally got to our hostel and checked in and ate some yummy lunch. Took a nap (sorry, I couldn't help it.. I was so tired). Then we went and bought baguettes, cheese, meats and wine and took a short little metro ride over to the Eiffel Tower and had a lovely picnic as the sun set. Then we met up with Austin McDonnell and some of her friends who were having pizza and wine there as well. It was so awesome to see someone from back home and be able to have conversations where someone actually knew who I was talking about. A nice change since all of my roommates know each other...

The next day we went on a tour of Paris with a tour based on tips called New Europe Tours. I would definitely recommend them to you guys who are planning to study abroad. Our tour guide's name was Onno and he took us by:

• Notre Dame de Paris
• The Latin Quarter
• Ile-de-la-Cité
• Pont Neuf
• The Louvre
• Palais Royal
• Haussmann’s Renovations
• Eiffel Tower
• Tuileries Gardens
• Les Invalides
• Académie Française
• Opéra Garnier
• Musée d’Orsay
• Pont Alexandre III
• Napoléon’s Tomb
• Assemblé Nationale
• Champs-Élysées
• Arc de Triomphe
• Grand & Petit Palais
• Place de la Concorde

Afterwards we went to a lovely French lunch and I had frog legs.. to me that's not really French, it's Southern. We found a little bakery and got some macaroons and eclairs. Then we went to the longchamp store to go buy me and Kayla a longchamp. As we walked into the store I got a nice little text from Daddy reminding me that the money I have is all I get.. so needless to say it was a blessing in disguise that they didn't have the color I wanted. 

Then we went to go climb the Eiffel Tower BUT there was a protest going on.. on it.. and there were men with riffles around the bottom and the drug vans and ambulances everywhere. I was becoming highly frustrated because I didn't know what was going on. So I kind of asked aloud "WHAT IS GOING ONNNNNN" and although it was obviously rhetorical. This nice recent college graduate named Scott responded. We talked for quite a while and he was very nice.. he wanted to go for drinks but we had to go to our bar crawl.

This bar crawl was really cool-it was by moulin rouge. I met so many different people on it.. Sascha and Vivien from Berlin (Sascha went to high school in Wisconsin) then I met Matteo and all of his friends from all over Europe. There were so many other people I met, but I am awful with names and remember none of them. All I remember is having a very dramatic fight with this kid from Michigan State because of this years bowl game. Oops. Then on the way home we ran into these oh so sweet French men-NOT. They tried to follow us home on the metro and wouldn't get out of my face.. I kept it very calm and talked to them in about 6 different languages and told them to stop. It was really great. Oh did I mention all the French people around us were just laughing at us and not helping.. thank goodness for this one lady who made them leave. I was beginning to get very angry and uncomfortable. 

Sascha

The next day we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and other really famous pieces of art.. that museum is absolutely huge. I'm pretty sure it would take you an entire week to go through it all and see everything. Then we went to another really good lunch and I had this amazing seafood salad.. seriously I don't think I'll have a better salad in my life. I realize it's probably a bad thing that in all my blogs I talk about food.. and trust me you'll be able to see the evidence when I get back from Europe. Then we went to the Eiffel tower and actually got to climb it.. we only climbed to the 2nd level because it would have taken too long to get to the top and we would have missed our flight.

But Paris was great, I'm pretty sure I need more than a weekend in that city.

Ciao Parigi, Tornata a Roma!

Cinque Terre

 One weekend in March we all had Friday classes so we couldn't really travel anywhere for the weekend. We went out Friday night for a little bit and all of the sudden decided we would get up really early and grab a train to cinque terre. So Kait, Kayla, Julia and I got up really early and went to the train station.. unfortunately had to wait until 9am to get a train. On the train we didn't really understand how seating worked so we just got to a place and sat down. Well it happened to be first class.. and people came to their seats BUT only Julia and I had to move. We moved to second class and sat down, someone came to that seat, so we got up and moved to another, some one came to that seat. Then we decided to stand by the bathroom.. so we stood for a little bit. (AKA Julia sat in the stairwell on the train) Then the ticket person came around and he told us in his broken English that he'd find us a seat.. so he did. And then someone came to that seat.. so we moved again.. and then again.. and finally decided to stand for the duration. All the while, Kait and Kayla comfortably sat in first class.

 Then we got to Monterosso and met a nice man in a pizza place and he told us where to go hiking. Good Lord. Hiking in Cinque Terre is pretty intense.. but man the view was pretty cool. Then we went over to Manarola and had dinner at a really cool seafood restaurant and took pretty pictures of the sunset. At dinner Kayla proceed to break her wine glass(I think that's the 10th thing she's broke this semester). Then after dinner we decided to go back to the main train station to get the train home. Well we couldn't find a ticket dispenser.. and the price for not having a 1 euro ticket is 50 euros.. COOL. So we hid in the bathroom on the train until we got there. THEN at the creepy train station with all the homeless people the ticket machine wouldn't let us buy a ticket for our 1:30am train home-AWESOME. So this Italian girl tried to help us it wouldn't work for her either and she almost missed her train. We were quite struggles that night.. never in my life would I have ever though I would have to sleep in a train station.

So when the train got there we asked the conductor if we could buy tickets for the train.. and he told us it was sold out. However, he let us buy standing room only tickets for 30 euros and i got to sleep on a little fold down chair on the way back for 5 hours.. when we got to Rome it was bright outside. Oh and by the way, Julia slept in 1st class the whole night.. So out of everyone the only person who didn't get 1st class was me. Typical.

BUT Cinque Terre was pretty cool.

Hi from the beach in Greece!

SPRING BREAK: Greece

Hello to all! I'm finally updating my blog about my Spring Break! About time right?

 

Since our trip was with Bus2Alps all we had to do was show up Friday morning around 9am at termini station in Rome and rode a bus to acacoa and then got on a cruise ship to overnight cruise to Greece! The cruise was pretty cool and all considering it was a ferry. It has two bars and a discoteca. We upgraded to cabins instead of the airplane style seating so we could have a nice night of sleep. In the discoteca there were 13 year old greek/italian men hitting on all of the college girls, can you say awkward? AND I ran into a group of people from Clemson who know Brooke! Such a small world!

We woke up in Greece and immediately made our way to Corfu island and to the pink palace!

Such a fun place :) we went out on the beach for a while and by sundown when everyone was showering I somehow magically ended up at happy hour with the Australian and New Zealanders. And I met Trent who wanted to call Neal and tell him he was taking me home with him and marrying me. But he said since I was from the south he had to ask for my dads permission first, sweet guy. And then there was Jamie.. Oh what a smooth talker Jamie is. Haha that night we had a yoga party which was quite an eventful time-including lots of ouzo and plate smashing (I ended up with a knot on my head, go figure). By the end of the night I ended up with blood all over my toga cause Jamie got a bloody nose. Second one of the day I might add. No worries ladies and gents, the night ended with "no tom foolery I promise".

The next day we went on an atv safari around corfu...and thank goodness I grew up in the South and know how to drive a 4 wheeler.. because no offense but some of the Northerners had ZERO idea what they were doing. Not even 100 yards away from the Pink Palace a girl ran into the guardrail and had to ride the rest of the way with the guide. Then there was the girl in front of me. So I was keeping my distance because I just knew there was going to be a problem, but Kris being the crazy man that he is.. decided he was going to go around me. Ultimately it ended up in a girl driving her atv off of a cliff. Thank goodness she was smart enough to know to jump off.. don't worry, she's perfectly fine.. the ATV..not so much.

That night we all hung out at happy hour again & then had a marvelous greek dinner and then had to hop on the bus to take an overnight ferry/bus ride to Athens! Worst bus ride ever. I sat in the very front behind he bus driver who had his window open the whole night and it was probably 2 degrees outside. So sleeping for me was very minimal. We went over a bridge that looked a lot like the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, made me miss home a little.

Once we go to Athens we went on a walking tour and saw the oldest Olympic Stadium, the Parliament, the really funny looking guards with balls on their feet, the Parthenon, Athena's temple and a bunch of other things. It's definitely not the magnificent Greece everyone thinks of, but it's still a really cool city! Everyone is unbelievably nice and the gyros are to die for. It was such a nice change eating meat instead of stinkin carbs all the time! I bought some greek sandals from a nice little man and some jewelry for some family and friends. Then we went out to this amazing dinner for 15 euro: fried cheese, breads, calamari, some other things i dont remember, and veal. DELICIOUS. Oh and I forgot to mention: unlimited wine. So much unlimited wine that out of the 140 of us one guy got so drunk he threw up on the table, passed out, hit his head on his plate which broke and food flew everywhere.. and he had to go to the hospital to get stitches.. interesting huh? Then we went to my first ever hookah bar, because that was one of the only things open at 10pm. And the Clemson people decided to play big booty in the bar? Very interesting.


The next day we went to a beach in Athens and spent the day there, finally some more relaxing in the sun! The water was unfortunately freezing so I didn't go in. I met some nice friends that go to Northeastern and on the tram back to Athens we witness someone stealing an old mans bag, it was soooo sad.

Then we go to Santorini! YAY! There I saw red sand beaches, black sand beaches, cute little towns, the mamma mia house, the sisterhood of the traveling pants house, the famous windmills and unbelievable sunsets. In Oia, we met the man who owns the hotel in the windmill.. I was kind of climbin the the scaffolding.. he didn't like it very much. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride a donkey, so I'll probably be going back.

Kony 2012: Everyone Should Take Part

In my opinion, it's truly upsetting to see the negativity some people have towards the Kony 2012 movement. There are those saying people don't really care because this issue has been going on for ten years and everyone just now wants to join the movement. Or those saying we'll just forget about it in a month. I kind of see where you're coming from because there are so many issues in America, too, but you're not helping the situation any. I understand there may be many issues with Invisible Children as a company.. but I don't think that's the point the majority of people are feeling for this. It's not that they necessarily want to help the company. People just want other people to be aware of what goes on every single day.


Trust me, I was there in my high school auditorium freshman year learning about invisible children and buying bracelets to show my support. That's not the point. Don't you understand it's the fact that now, because of the events happening today, because of today's use of social media to spread information in a viral way, people can no longer be ignorant about this issue. Because back in October policy makers decided to help advise the Ugandan army not for reasons of self-defense.. but because it was right. It's not that people didn't care before, they did. It's that now, we have the ability to make our voices heard, we have the ability to make this work. If you want to have some sort of action taken, you must be heard.

And if someone wants to help a cause that's trying to stop one of the world's worst war criminals for murder, sexual slavery, mutilation, rape and abduction, who are you to say it's a dumb idea and that they don't care? Honestly, you might not have taken the time to watch the video. But then again, maybe you have and still choose to be negative.

But if you haven't... please, for all of us, take the time.. your opinions might change.

Stop Kony 2012

One thing I hate about Rome..

The exorbitant amount of people smoking, all the time. I breathe in more second hand smoke than I ever should and I always have a headache.

Gross habit. If you wanna do it, stop blowing it in my face.

Pope Benedict Giving the Benediction

So punny right?

After mass

This morning my whole apartment got up and decided to go to mass at the Vatican. For myself, being Protestant, it was quite an interesting experience. When I go to church I don't have to cover my knees, shoulders and wear closed toed shoes. I understand the idea of respect; however, in my opinion, God sees you every day doesn't he? Anyway, it was pretty neat to hear it all in Italian and a little bit of Latin. Surprisingly, I actually understood some of the sentences he was saying-yay for actually learning something in my Intensive Italian course!

the masses of people

Afterwards we went and waited in St. Peter's square for the Pope to give the benediction. There were so many people there! The Pope even greeted the students from the US! It was all-around a really great experience and if I'm in Rome next Sunday, I'll be going to mass again!

even more people

THE POPE!