Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Reading week part 1 : Italy

hey everyone! So I made it home alive from my eurotrip, but since theres so much to write I'm splitting it up into 2 parts- rome/florence and munich/prague. so here we go with italy:

last monday we took ryanair into rome. it was a pretty short and smooth flight, and we made our way to the hostel once we landed and picked up our bags. I had been to rome once already, and now after seeing it twice i decided it's one of my favorite cities ever. I love it. we got to the hostel a little late at night which was by the train station. it's not a nice area, but the hostel was surprisingly big and clean. we shared the room with 2 other people- older people travelling alone, but that was fine. once we dropped our stuff off and changed it was almost 10pm, so we went around the corner to have dinner. i indulged in some amazing gnocchi and red wine, then we headed back to the hostel for a few drinks. we didn't think it was a good night to go to a club or something since it was monday and it was already really late, but we met up with the boys from our program outside the colloseum. it looked AMAZING at night. the night itself was kind of a bust since we didn't end up doing anything, but seeing the colloseum all lit up was definitely worth it.

the next day we got up early and got moving. we decided to do a hop on/ hop off bus to make sure we saw everything we wanted and it is an easy way to get around. our first stop was the colloseum again- we didn't go inside but walked around it and took some pictures. after this we took some pictures of the forum, then headed back to the bus. it took a looong time for the bus to come- i think we chose a slow running company- but it took us next to the victor emanuel III statue (aka wedding cake). this monument is HUGE. here's a picture from it of steph jordan and me:








next we took a walk to both the pantheon and trevi fountain. we had lunch along the way, and i tried spaghetti carbonara. it was fabulous, of course. we also got some gelatto finally. delicious. here is a picture of me in front of the trevi fountain:




so far we had already accomplished a lot- and i honestly can't remember what else we did. i think we walked around some more then hopped on the bus to see the vatican. we only drove around it, but it was pretty cool. we had intentions of getting off at the next stop but the bus just kept going. it was weird but it took us all the way back to the train station. we were bummed but decided it was shower/nap time. for dinner, we met up with a kid studying in rome that steph jordan and dawn had met in barcelona. he took us to a place for dinner where we had 2 liters of red wine (way too much, but of course we drank all of it), and i got penne alla vodka. once again, amazing meal. the rest of the night was bar hopping- it wasn't that wild but still had a good time.
our last day in rome we intended to get up and do a tour of the vatican/sistine chapel. however, once we got there we realized it was wednesday and there was an appearance by the pope going on. we walked through security and saw a man in white sitting at the head of the audience- naturally, we freaked out thinking we were watching the pope! dawn asked a nearby nun if it was really him and she just laughed, so we realized it wasn't actually the pope- sad. but it was still cool. it was unfortunate though we couldn't do a tour since the chapel wasn't opening until way later that day. we stuck around for a little listening to some priest talk in a difference language then headed out. we started walking towards the sistine chapel, stopping for lunch on the way. i had bruscetta and a salad. nom. the spanish steps weren't as big of a deal as i had imaginged, so we took a few pictures and left. it took us a loooong time to get home since we made a wrong turn getting off the metro, which led us to rush to catch a train to florence. we made it just in time though, and we were off to the next city!
I had plans to stay with a friend from high school (sam) in florence, but he was still in class when we arrived so i tagged along with the other girls to see their hostel. we got a little lost on the way there- partly because the hostel wasn't a legit hostel. there was no sign on the door, and it was up a few flights of stairs in a sketchy building. the lady who let us in was old and mean and it appeared that there was only 1 room in the whole hostel (which was basically just a hallway). after some discussion, the girls decided this was not what they had signed up for and bailed. we left and realized they were semi-stranded in florence. we found an internet cafe though and they were able to find another place to go. i, however, was freaking out because my phone wasn't working. i got in touch with sam, but couldnt make calls or get texts. i got the address to his place and it took me about 10 minutes to find a taxi, but i finally got there. however, when i went to call him, my phone told me i couldnt. this was my first panic attack of all semester- i had no way of calling anyone, i was on a side street at night in florence, and i had literally no idea where i was. great. i started walking towards an area down the street that looked like it had a couple shops- and asked for a phone in a couple places. one place said no, and one place had no idea what i was saying. i saw an american boy jogging by and frantically flagged him down to use his phone (he looked like one of the 50,000 college students from america studying in florence, so i figured he wouldn't try to kidnap me). right as he was about to help me sam called and stayed on the phone with me until i got to the right apartment. it all worked out, but i was nervous for a few minutes.
once i was settled in I met sam's roommates who were all really nice, then we went to dinner with one of them. we went to a place called dante's that has free wine, water, and bread for students. it was awesome. i had tortellini with meat sauce for dinner, followed by amazing tiramisu for dessert. after a couple bottles of wine, we headed back to the apartment before going out. we drank some more wine, then got in touch with my other friends to meet us at a club. we met up with them a little later, had a drink at one bar, then went to a club that was filled with locals rather than tourists. i had a blast. we stayed there for a while dancing and drinking and taking pictures with random people. i would post one, but most of our eyes are closed in them and they aren't very flattering. our walk home took forever since we kept stopped to talk to people on the street. we finally got home and then i realized i was sleeping on a couch of an apartment filled with 8 guys. they were all awake and started throwing things at each other and wrestling. i guess that is what boys do? someone threw my boot across the room and at that point i realized i needed to take cover. finally they all got tired and realized they had class in 3 hours, so we all went to bed. the next day i slept in, which felt great, and met up with sam and my friends for lunch. we went to an AMAZING pizza place. best pizza ive ever had in my life, no joke. afterwards, we walked down the ponte vecchio and towards the uffizi. we split from my friends, who i would see back in dublin in a few days. sam and i took a walk towards his apartment, and it was time to chill for a bit. i really didn't do any sight seeing in florence- we had walked past the duomo multiple times so i didn't feel like i missed out, but I was in the mood to just relax since I knew the next few days would be hectic. i arranged with my guy friends (who i would be travelling to munich and prague with) to meet at the duomo that night to catch our train to munich. i said goodbye to sam and his roommates, and was on to the next city. i met drew, colin, and sammi at the duomo and we walked to the train station. I'll pick up here next time!

1 comment:

  1. amazing trip Emily. i hope you took pictures of the food. Glad you weren't stranded in Florence - just what a mother wants to hear. Did you try the wine when you were there??? ha ha

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