Florence & Pisa

This past weekend I went on our first overnight API (the program I'm studying abroad through) trip to Florence and Pisa. We left early morning on Thursday and of course I was late and the last person to get to the bus. Not my fault that the bus that normally leaves every 15 minutes on the dot every single day decided to not leave for 35 minutes at 6am Friday morning. I was the only person on the bus... I doubt he cared if I was in a hurry or not.

Anyway we got to Florence around 11:30 and we had free time to get lunch and explore a little. Florence is a lot smaller than you would think. It's kind of shocking how much smaller it is than Rome for it to be such a touristy city. We went to the most awful restaurant in the entire world with the worst waiter in the entire world. Imagine that. You go to Florence expecting the food to be amazing and the first thing you eat is ultimately a piece of bread.. they have no food to accommodate your friend who can't eat gluten.. even after they said they did.. and the waiter just flat out sucked.

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

Then we went on a tour of Florence and saw the ponte vecchio bridge, all these famous sculptures, the Medici family residence, the leather markets, the wild boar that you're supposed to rub his nose for good luck, etc.

After the tour I went shopping in the leather market and got sucked into a store by this somewhat creepy man.. you know he's creepy when he calls himself discount. Well I was officially a pain in the rear end because everything he gave me I kept saying no.. I told him I wanted a black jacket so why he was trying to sell me a brown one I'm not quite sure. Finally, I found a style jacket I liked but problem.. they only have it in brown in my size.. he tried to convince me to get the brown one and failed. So, he decided that since I am a nice polite southern pain in the rear end he would talk to his manager and see if they could make it for me. Yep, my roommates weren't super happy to hear that I got a jacket made overnight for me and I was still charged less than them (factory cost-heck yeah). Blonde hair is a blessing.

sleeping in the hallway

That night we went to dinner at Hard Rock, odd I know.. being in a place where the Italian food is supposed to be amazing. But by golly Hard Rock was absotively positutely amazing. Having BBQ for the first time in two months along with the best margarita I've ever had made this night amazing. Then we went out to a few pubs and a club but I was just so tired that I decided I would go back early.
Side Note: In Italy you only have one hotel key per room and it's a physical key not a key card.
So I asked the nice man at the front desk for 204, he said he didn't have it. I asked if he was sure, he insisted he didn't have it. So I went upstairs and knocked on the door, waited.. then knocked some more, then some more knocking, then some banging then ultimately some kicking. No one wanted to answer the door.. so I tried calling-five times. No answer. I sat down outside the door and contemplated whether I wanted to keep kicking the door. No, not worth it. So I texted Julia and told her I was locked out of my room and I was going to sleep in her room and to find me when she got back..she told me she'd come back now to which my response was.. "k come find me i'm asleep outside 204 on the ground" And the picture to the left is how she found me. As awesome as the typical spring break picture that would be.. don't get your hopes up that's not a drunk passed out picture, it's a "I'm tired and can't get in my room so I guess I'm sleeping here picture.

Saturday we went to a cooking class and learned how to make pasta from scratch. It was absolutely amazing and so time consuming! There is a distinct possibility that it was the best pasta I've had since I've been here. Also, I learned how to make tiramisu so watch out roomies for when I get back to America.. I plan to make you fat with pasta and dessert.

After lunch we went to the museum to see Michelangelo's sculpture of David. You aren't supposed to take pictures but I did because hello you can turn off your flash. The sculpture is absolutely breathtaking. Then we went to a church on top of the hill with an amazing view of Florence.

For dinner, Julia and I went to Il Gatto e La Volpe-best service I've had by an Italian and yummy food. When we walked in there wasn't a table immediately available so they took us to a seat by the bar and brought us each a glass of prosecco. Prosecco is an Italian white wine but its sparkling, so it is like a mix of champagne and wine.  Then we got a bottle of wine for eight euro, that's right folks, some really good wine and only eight euro. We got ribolita, which is a Tuscan soup that is cooked twice. If you ever get a chance to try it, you definitely should. Then we went out for a little bit to a bar and a club.

Sunday morning we left Florence and went to Pisa. I kicked over Pisa with my cowboy boot. The picture is a little awkward i'm not sure what I'm doing with my hands. At lunch I tried this awesome pizza that had ham, artichokes, olives and an egg on it. It was a very interesting combination but it was delicious. I feel like I blog about food a lot.. maybe I'm the next Eat, Pray, Love. I mean I'm planning on going to church in the Vatican on Sunday..that'll be interesting. Back to Pisa-on our way back to the bus a group of probably 20 short little woman came up to us with cardboard boxes. These women are also known as gypsies.. and they suck. They tried to steal from my roommate, Kayla, when she was there last weekend and she ended up backhanding one of them. But my friend Dan got in their faces and made them leave, thank goodness.

On the bus ride back to Rome we watched Tangled-my new favorite movie and if any of you haven't seen it you must watch it. Even all the guys on my trip loved the movie.. they're a group of some great guys. AND THEN we watched Beauty and the Beast! What an amazing ending to a trip away from Rome!

Opera

Ireland, Europe's Version of Southern Hospitality

Dubh Linn Gardens

Ireland was such an amazing place to go. Seriously, I want to move there. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was so unbelievably nice.. it was kind of like being in the South again (no offense to all my Northern friends). Quite a nice change from how rude some of the Romans can be at times.

Probably the main reason Ireland was so great is because I had to plan absolutely none of it  thanks to Bus2Alps! My friend Julia and I booked it as a last minute trip to get away from the bizarre snow in Rome and it couldn't have been any easier. All we had to do was find a cheap flight, courtesy of the oh so lovely Ryan Air and hop on. Friday morning we had a tour of the City of Dublin through New Europe Tours which is a company Bus2Alps uses on the majority of their trips. Robbie was our tour guide and he was seriously the best tour guide I think I've ever had.. and after being here for two months, I've had a lot. He showed us different churches, the Dublin Castle, Dubh Linn gardens, medieval walls, Vicking remains, ha-penny bridge and my favorite, Trinity College. Mainly my favorite because Robbie did a great job and sold me on Ireland and now I want to move there for my MBA. They have a bell tower in the middle of the campus and rumor has it if you walk underneath it and the bells rings, you're a virgin. Needless to say, not a soul walked underneath that bell tower. The library at Trinity was used in Harry Potter.. so you know I was beyond obsessed.. I would just go there to pretend I was studying at Hogwarts (nerdy I know). On the tour Julia and I had our first ever Irish coffees, so yummy and just what we needed on a chilly morning!

Bus2Alps group at Guinness

That afternoon our Bus2Alps leader, Lauren, took us to the Guinness Storehouse and we toured the brewery. By the way guys, if you haven't had Guinness.. you should try it-you'll never drink cheap beer again! The brewery was seven floors and described all the processes in making the beer and on the top floor they have the Gravity bar where you can see all of Dublin. It's a pretty neat view, something I would definitely check out if you get the chance to travel there. That night we went out on the pub crawl. We started at like 4 pubs and eventually we got to O'neills where we ended up staying instead of continuing on the tour because they had an awesome band called the Galway Guards. Of course all of us Bus2Alp-ers (yep, I just created a new word) became friends with the band and hung out with them afterwards. The guy in the band who made all the crazy girls from England move because they kept hitting me while they were attempting to dance, gave me one of their cds.

Us with the band

Saturday we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. The cliffs are absolutely breathtaking. I also have never experience such a difference in weather in such a short amount of time. It was beautiful and sunny, then ridiculously windy and then we got hailed on.. all within two hours. The pictures describe it better than I can:

This explains the wind..

B-E-A-UTIFUL

Julia proposed.. like in the movie Leap Year hahah

Then we went to Galway and walked around. It's a cute little city and has really nice people. I bought my claddagh ring there. It's a ring that the Irish wear that can either symbolize you're taken or that you're single depending upon which way you turn the heart. Us Americans can't figure out which way to turn ours.. too many complicated relationships?

After we got back to Dublin, Julia and I went out with Lewis, a friend from home, for a few drinks. He showed us around to some of his favorite pubs in Dublin, they were pretty neat. It was SO nice being able to see Lew after not seeing him since summer. So we caught up on everyone we know and just talked about life and whatnot.

Then Lewis had to go home cause he had work in the AM so Julia and I ventured around Dublin by ourselves hopping in and out of different pubs that our Bus2Alps guide recommended for us to go to. It was so nice to have her as a reference since she's traveled there so many times, she really knew her stuff!

Sunday, we went shopping. 

Overall Ireland was great, It made me really excited to go on my next Bus2Alps trip-Island hopping for Spring Break in Greece! If any of you don't have spring break plans yet, you should definitely hop on that trip. They plan everything for you and include all the best attractions in your destination, so you basically don't have to do anything but show up, how nice is that? I'm probably looking forward to the booze cruise the most-lovely beaches and cliff jumping while sipping on Greek beer... but then again there's biking around the beautiful Island of Santorini.. who wouldn't want that?

SEC football talk all the way from Europe

‎"Suddenly, here we are today. It's not farfetched to envision Auburn-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee, Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech and South Carolina-Clemson all vanishing off the college football landscape in the near future.

And for what? So the SEC could add Texas A&M and Missouri and the ACC could welcome Syracuse and Pittsburgh? That's a lot of sacrifice for four mediocre programs. Then again, it's not about the schools as much as it is the television markets.

Call me old school, but things were so much better when there were just 10 of us in the SEC."

First night in Ireland

Well tonight was our first night in Ireland. Julia and I left right after I got out of class. Everyone kept saying it was gonna cost use 45 euro to take a taxi to the airport but.. Not to toot my own horn or anything.. I did some research and got it for 30 WHAM BAM
HOT SLAM.

excuse that comment, it just felt necessary.

We got to the Dublin airport and we were trying to figure out how to get to the hostel because the bus we were supposed to be taking didn't seem to be working right. So we're standing there in the middle of terminal 1, probably looking completely dumbfounded, and these two guys walk up to us. "are you guys with bus2alps too?" ohhh we definitely must have had the confused look on our faces because that was absolutely crazy that they happened to be right.

So we took a taxi together with a nice ole Irish man who told us all the yummy Irish things to eat. We pull up to our hostel, which is next door to the old Jameson distillery by the way, and good heavens isn't it poppin. Apparently there's a club in the bottom of our hostel? And tonight they had some kind of valentines party where people were dressed like cows an cats? I'm not really sure.. But I won't be asking questions.

So we met our group leader and there are only 14 of us on this trip so it should be a really good weekend together. Six of us went out together because of course being in Ireland the first thing you must do is try the Guinness. And have mercy, I'll never be able to drink cheap beer ever again. So yummy. The cute little pub we went to had love music so we danced and sang along. You better believe every country song he sang I got my happy butt up and danced away in my cowboys boots.

Until tomorrow,
Erin

Did you know...?

So you know how in America girls go to the bathroom together in groups and it's just a normal thing? Well in Europe it's different, especially in a club. Last night Rachel and I got kicked out of the bathroom by a man yelling at us in all Italian. Obviously, I had no idea what was going on and was so confused.. so a girl told me it's because they think people are doing drugs in the bathroom when there's more than one person in there.

Faith When I Fall

"Give me love, when I ain't got nobody. A little hope, when I ain't got none at all. Give me light, up ahead on the journey. Give me strength when I'm standing and faith when I fall."

Sex, Marriage & Fairytales: My perspective

Now this blog post is gonna be a little different.. it's not me gallivanting on about my European adventures. Just my perspective on an amazing piece of poetry. If you haven't seen this video yet, I'm kind of surprised. It's probably been floating around Facebook for about two weeks now. But if you haven't seen it, take notes. Even for those who can't (or don't want to) grasp the biblical concepts.. there's still something you can learn from this young man.

This is a constant argument that I have with a few particular people: is it better to fall head over heels or have friendship develop into something more? 

Well, I'm big on the friendship thing. That might be because I'm the friendship girl, or the fact that I immediately put everyone in the friend zone? Or maybe because I'm the offspring of the growing phenomenon called divorce? (Don't get me wrong though.. divorce can be an amazing thing-when it's not a cop out) Or maybe it's just plain because I'm scared?

There I said it, I'm scared. Who wouldn't be right? Growing up in a day and age where 50% of marriages are predicted to fail and that rate continues to grow. Oh being the Disney fanatic that I am, I'd love my prince charming to come riding in on his white horse and sweep me off my feet and go riding off into the sunset. But I mean come on.. how many princes do you know? and how many of them own a white horse?

Also, that's not really what I want. 

Here's my opinion on the matter: too many people mistake love for lust and caring for infatuation. I distinctly remember the conversation of whether "chemistry" was an essential factor in determining the future of a relationship and how it's a demonstration of love. There we were in the local Pizza Hut in the lovely small town of Greenwood, SC and the conversation began. "Said person" said to them it is the most important factor of building a relationship. My grandfather and I disagreed with "said person". Now what you need to know is my grandfather isn't your typical good ole country man where you sit on his lap and he gives you candy. No, this man is your Lt. Colonel in the Marine Corps and by damn if he disagrees with you, you're going to know about it, and why he disagrees.. and it's probably going to be a little loud too. So with the two of us.. people kind of started staring. Geeze louise, my poor grandma just begging us to stop arguing and "just shush". 

Anyway, I hate the word chemistry for two reasons:

1. It was my least favorite subject in high school & caused me to change my major in college(that part I'm thankful for).

2. Because in my opinion, and please do remember this is all my opinion, people have a common misconception of what chemistry as a foundation for a good relationship actually is. 

Hell people, why do you automatically have to turn chemistry in to lust? You know chemistry can just be the way you get along, the simple ability to have a free flowing conversation. Now I'm not saying there's not a physical part to a relationship because there definitely is. Here's what I'm saying: Physical fizzes out. That is from a relationship that is solely built on the physical. And don't tell me I'm wrong.. because I'm in college and I've seen it happen to the best of friends. Why do you think it's so complicated and there's all that drama of "are we really together" "he's a jerk" "he just wants to sleep with me"? Well hell, why wouldn't he just want to sleep with you when you made it so easy for him to do in the first place? Once again, in my opinion, healthy stable relationships are built differently and the physical aspect works in them without making one of the partners (in most cases the girl) become mental from the constant emotional drainage lustful relationships cause. 

The reason I say friendship is the best route is because of this: Too often when a couple rushes into relationships, they don't know things about their counterpart, and over time as they learn quirky habits & they're quick to dismiss the whole relationship. So tell me this... I know each and every one of you has a friend with quirky habits and you love them for it right? So why is it that in a romance relationship we use it as a cop out? 

When you build a foundation of actual reality, good morals, trust, and I know this is a little far-fetched for some of you.. but the Bible, that's when you get something that lasts. 

Like my grandfather says: If you're in the relationship for all of the right reasons, you'll work through the hard times and one day it'll be 56 years later and you'll fall more in love every single day. And you know what.. that's when you have yourself a fairytale. 

                                             

Blessed

So I'm extremely excited right now and can't focus on anything else so I figured I'd share some of my travel plans for the next few weeks..

This weekend: Florence and Pisa ... I cannot wait to take a picture kicking over the leaning tower of pisa with my cowboy boot.

Next weekend: IRELANDDD.

Spring Break: Island hoping around Greece: Corfu, Athens and Santorini!

It's quite possible I'm going to get hit...

Italia: The world of smart cars…

Whenever I get back to America I wonder if I’m going to drive like an Italian. No regard for stoplights, pedestrians or even the other cars on the road. It’s crazy! Vespas weaving in and out of traffic. Buses almost running people over. Cars parked wherever they can find a spot. It’s truly something you must see to fully grasp understanding of the constant honking.

NYC’s got some competition from Roma.

The weather outside is frightful...

but no heat in Roma isn't quite delightful...

So Roma officially had their first winter snow storm in 26 years while I am here. Last Friday while in Italian class all of the sudden there were the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen falling. So by noon they had to cancelled class... that's what they get for trying to make us have Friday classes. I wasn't expecting it to be much.. you know a typical southern snow storm. Well let me tell you, Romans respond worse to snow than southerners do.. they literally had no idea what to do. EVERYTHING was closing and it took Rachel and me two hours to get home on the bus.

So needless to say we spent all weekend in the apartment because it was freezing cold and absolutely everything was frozen. However, of course we were going to manage to make it to the superbowl. Especially since they decided to cancel Monday classes for inclement weather.

We went to Abbey Theatre, one of the famous Irish pubs in Rome, to watch the game. However, we had to get there at 8pm just to be sure we could have a table. By the way, the game started at 12:30am here. But it's fine.. we ordered lots of American food. Sometimes I just can't eat the pasta anymore.. so we had nachos, chicken wings, chicken tenders and french fries over the course of the eight hours we were there. So it was beyond the longest night.. especially since the Patriots lost. Yes, I know you're all giving me a look right now for pulling for the Patriots.. so let me explain.

1. I live in the south and could care absolute less about people who care more about their contracts than the actual sport.. so I prefer college football all the way.
2. My roommates are die hard Patriots fans, I mean I would be too if I were from Massachusetts.
3. Claudia, my roommate, has stayed up till like 5 am every Sunday the Patriots have played since I have been here, that's some dedication right there.

So why not? Yeah, yeah, yeah.. I get that the Manning brothers are some of the most respectful professional athletes out there. I chose to pull for the Patriots, get over it (Jackson and Dad).

Ciaooo

Verona

Juliet's Breast

The picture on the right is from Juliet's house. the legend has it that if you touch Juliet's boob with your left hand you will have good luck in love. So with my awful luck of course I had to do it. The amount of people trying to touch Juliet's boob is absolutely ridiculous.. you'd think the entire world couldn't find love. Or maybe it's that they have a false sense of the word love. Ironically, the "city of love" that has become Verona has the highest divorce rate in Italy. Seven out of ten couples end up in divorce here. It's quite possible this is because they live in a town so infatuated with the idea of fantasy that they don't understand as much as we'd love for life to be like that, we don't live in a fantasy world. Don't get me wrong, there definitely are fairytale romances out there.. but they're rare. Everything can't be perfect.



"Erin & ______"

Yeah, I knew you guys would find that funny. Also at Juliet's house is the gate of locks (i'm really not sure it's actually referred to as that.. but that's what were going to call it). So you are supposed to write your name and your lover's name on a lock and lock it on the gate and then the two of you will be "locked together forever". Well, I had the lock, a pen and I was in Verona.. I was only missing one thing, "the lover". So I just put a blank.. maybe someone will fill it out for me.. maybe I'll just have to return and fix it one day.. or maybe it's just never meant to be filled out?

#truelife

I've been drinking wine since 2pm... yesterday.

Venice

Veneto Weekend, Part Two: Venice


Saturday morning we woke up and took a train ride to Venice and once we got off the train Julia and I went and got espresso at a cute little cafe by the grand canal. Did you know that in parts of Europe you have to pay to go to the bathroom? SO we're so bright.. why not go pay almost the same price for a drink and then go there. Look at me tricking the system.

Well we met with the tour guide and we started our walk.. did you know that Venice is really made up of over 100 tiny islands? It's crazy to walk through a little alley and then all the sudden run into a canal that runs between some of the most beautiful buildings to ever exist. We saw churches, museums, houses, little tiny hidden courtyards... etc. However one of the most interesting things to learn about was Rio Tera De Le Carampane.

Rio Tera De Le Carampane

Rio Tera De Le Carampane is the area where the prostitutes used to live. They would stand topless in their open windows trying to ensue the sailors that came in and out of their town for their "services". They were restricted to do this only at certain times of day and they were not allowed out at certain points in time. I don't remember all the details.. I guess that's what I get for waiting so long to blog about it huh? 

We went to lunch at a really awful restaurant.. I've never ever EVER been felt rushed to get out of a restaurant as much as we were there. And to think Italians spend 3 hours at lunch.. I'm pretty sure we were just in a very touristy area. 

After that I HAD to find a mask.. there was a super pretty one I wanted to buy but it was 51 euros.. and I realized the image I had in my head was me wearing it with a wedding dress like in A Cinderella Story.. As beautiful as that might be, that's not quite realistic. Unless my future husband wants a little mystery in our wedding? Replacing the veil with a masquerade mask (called maschera in Italian)...? So I just bought a normal cheaper one instead. 

We were determined to take a gondola ride but not to pay 80 million dollars.. I mean euros. So we walked away from one offer and then the little man started chasing us down the road and offered us a gondola ride for 15euros a person.. which is a pretty good deal. So Julia, Isabella and I got in one gondola and Kayla, Kait, Claudia and Kimi got in the other. Marco was our gondola driver and we tried oh so desperately to get him to serenade us. Let me tell you, gondola rides may be kind of cheesy but it would probably be the most gorgeous and romantic thing you could ever do. Besides grabbing Juliet's boob in Verona.. we'll get to that in a little bit... 

Seriously, I'd return to Venice with my future husband and stay in an adorable little bed and breakfast on the grand canal and take romantic gondola rides by moonlight? I mean.. a girl can dream can't she?

Me, Daniel, Paul and Birthday boy Phil!

That night we went back to Padua (what a wonderful city by the way.. NOT) and we had to celebrate Phil's 21st!! So we decided we would walk around until we could find a large gathering of Italians and just go there.. and surprisingly that worked wonderfully. This bar had GREAT drinks.. I finally got my margarita! So at this bar its kind of odd and there's a shot counter and that's the only place you can take shots. So Julia and I went up to the counter and we asked this guy what shot we should get.. HE FREAKED OUT! Because he only spoke Italian and these American girls were talking to him.. so he started like jumping up and down and then he grabbed his friend, the only one who spoke English. So they proceeded to try to get us to take this absolutely awful shot. Thank goodness for the bartender who warned us: "the last girl who took this shot threw up all over me". AWESOME.. so we skipped that and went for tequila shots. Now these tequila shots weren't like Athens tequila shots.. you get a real shot glass and a lemon and some salt. TOP NOTCH right there. But about Padua sucking.. what kind of town with 65,000 college undergraduates has bars that close at mezzanotte and the only discoteca is trenta minuti di distanza, not okay.

Me and the Birthday boy!!

Sorry the end of this post might be a little confusing.. we've been stuck inside all day because of the snow storm so I might have had a few glasses of wine...