Mum, Dad- Im in London!!!!!

London Calling!

 
Ello Mates!!! Yes, I DID go to London for Spring Break!!! March 18-23, 2011 to be exact and heres how it went!

After taking a 6:45a.m bus Friday morning to Tarquinia, then a local bus to the Tarquinia train station to the Rome Termini station, then walked to the bus station to take a shuttle bus to the Rome Ciampoano airport, I had finally conquered my 3^rd plane ride ever! After the flight we took a taxi to our pad for the next 4 nights- The Holiday Inn Express, (I know living large) where we took hot showers and the tube!

May I add, I had a minor heart attack due to realization that 160 Great Britain Pounds = 260 U.S Dollars, we went on with the rest of our stay in London!

Big Red Bus & Big Ben

Our holiday inn express was just about 40 minute train ride outside central London (we booked everything the night before) in a town called “Crawley“and the first place we tried to get food at that night, denied us with this exact phrase "Sorry mate, no trainers after 7:00" confused the lady pointed to Noah's "trainers" aka gym shoes saying "sorry you need shoes to enter, this is the best pub in Crawley". Now at this point I am flabbergasted because he is wearing ripped, holey, (purposely) bleach stained jeans and we aren’t allowed in because of his Pumas? SUCH A JOKE, so we found another nice place, got steak and chips (french fries) and made our way back to hotel to wake up bright and early for our free hot continental breakfast!  Looking back, I am so relieved I didn’t have to deal with that situation in Italian- wouldn’t have made it out alive!

Notting Hill Bus Stop

The next morning we had our amazing breakfast (consisting of: eggs, sausage, toast, crossaints (No hot cross buns : (  - but they do sell them in the stores!) toast, fruit, cereal, yogurt, muffins e.t.c)  and surprisingly unplanned ended up at the Portobello Street Market, the same market in NOTTING HILL- YES- the Hugh Grant movie!  It was absolutely grand!

This is how it went down:

While on the train talking to Ron and Rod very nice old English lads, I asked them once we get off at the train how would we get to the main attractions such as the “The Big Ben”, “Buckingham Palace”, “Hyde Park”, “The London Eye”, “Regents Park”, “West Minster Abbey” etc, and my roommate asked due to her obsession with Hugh Grant asked if they had ever been to Notting Hill, unfortunately they haven’t. 

Me in the Portobello St. Market- before I spend all my money :(

So as we approached Victoria Station (the main station in London) about to get off, our soon to be new friend Millie approached us in her awesome English accent saying “Excuse me I don’t mean to be rude but I overheard you talking about Notting Hill, GO THERE TODAY, I live there and they have the street market only today, and if you go take the bus, not the tube (the train) because the tube is terrible” so as we were exiting the station, we had our friend Millie in sight, debating whether or not we follower her creepily or go and ask her to tag along, finally after 3 minutes of speed walking she stopped to wait for the bus and I went and asked her if we could tag along, definitely wasn’t a problem.  We found out she was ONLY 16 years old, coming back from boarding school for the weekend, definitely wasn’t expecting that.  Anyways, we finally parted ways, regretting to forget to even ask for her facebook name (c’mon wouldn’t it be cook to have a friend in the UK!?) and made our way down the right side of the market, being the sucker that I am, bought 3 pairs of turquoise earrings the minute I entered the market, but it’s ok because my roommate bought a ring at the same place!

The Market was awesome, they had everything you could possibly think of, it reminded me of the Flea Market, except everyone was talking with a British accent and instead of selling corn in a cup, they were selling bangers and mash and crepes, I think the crepes with Nutella is a European thing, I cant seem to get away from them!

After dropping over 80 GBP (the conversion rate is terrible, if you really want to know how many U.S dollars that is,  1 GBP =   $0.63…)  I did come out with some very cute things, like a pair of boots!!!!  But mostly souvenirs for others…

Just eating the queens guard!

Then, on the train back, we were talking to a cute old couple who were telling us about their fascination with Washington DC, so precious!

The third day we did all the touristy crap!  We first went to Hard Rock Café- London, Buckingham Palace (where the queen lives!)  Saw Big Ben and Parliament Square, and even rode on the London Eye- at first I was skeptical as to get caught in the tourist trap, because it just looked like the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier (downtown Chicago) but it was something I’m glad I did!  We also went in the National Gallery and saw original paintings/art work from Van Gogh, Monet and Henry Rousseau.  After that we made our way to Trafalger square and Leiscester square and just wandered around.

Oh HEY- The London Eye!

We then went to a cool place for dinner called “The Shakespeare”, I wish we made it to the Globe Theater, but didn’t have time…

Our final day in London consisted of shopping on Oxford Street- to compare, its like a Michigan Ave- but again, with British people surrounding you!  The first thing we did was try to get discounted tickets for Billy Elliot later that night, unsuccessful, we continued on, bought some clothes and gifts for others.  I ate Pizza Hut and it never tasted better!  Headed back to the hotel, and made our way to Dublin the next morning!

Cheerio!

Firenze…the land of the Free!

Night view of Firenze!

So, its again been a while since I have blogged, sorry, but keeping a journal is hard, that’s why my child-hood diaries lasted about 3 weeks each, shows how consistent I am with that…Anyways, I planned a trip to Florence!  Thursday before my wine and culture class, I decided I wanted to go somewhere this past weekend, so after taking an hour of my awesome advisors Massimo time, we finally got shit together. 

The game plan:

1. Friday morning buy train tickets the local travel agency, (around 30 Euros) for Florence, also by a few bus tickets to get to train.  Take the bus from Tuscania to Viterbo, from there buy a local bus ticket for a 1 hour bus to Orte train station to take the 3 hours train from Orte to Florence.

2. Party in Florence Friday and Saturday Night

Oh, hello there!

 

3.       3. Wake up at 8:00 am Sunday morning, get McDonalds for breakfast at the train station, take the 3 hour train to Rome Termini, then from Rome Termini, get lunch in Rome, walk to the metro station, buy ticket, take metro 8 stops to get to Rome Valle Aurellia Station, take 1.5 hour train ride from Valle Aurelia to Viterbo Porta Florentina train station, then wait 3o minutes to take the bus 20 minute back to Tuscania.

Sounds fun right?

Well, all of the traveling was worth it.  I was able to contact a few friends who were staying in Firenze for the semester, and they picked us up at the train station and let us stay in their apartment for the weekend! It was extremely nice of them and I was super thankful, I brought along a box of wine with 3 bottles in it to show my gratitude.  That night, we were given a map to get to “The Diner”, best place ever! I got pancakes, not the crepe kind, but FLUFFY pancakes, honestly best decision for the night, also I had half of an AMAZING cheeseburger, it was up there on the list; this Italian Chef really knew his American food!  Then, we got ready and went to a few bars that night, first we went to “Shot Café” and somehow I managed to get a free PITCHER of “Sex on the Beach”.  I think it was because I actually tried to talk in Italian to the bartender to tell him the Long Island pitcher we ordered didn’t taste right.

Pitcher of Long Island...

S/N: Firenze isn’t what you think it would be, it’s just basically a big college town/ city located in Italy, I think because I was so used to trying to speak Italian, the guy was grateful I was trying and made me and Molly (who I was splitting the pitcher with) a new and way better one (it tasted like starburst)

After that, we went to a club that was playing GOOD AMERICAN PARTY RAP, I still have the Chris Brown song “Look at me now…” song in my head.  It was a ton of fun, and since we stayed till closing, we were able to get the pastries that were left over FREE, best drunk food in Italy, literally I had 4 chocolate croissants in my hand at one point that night.

Chocolate Croissant ice cream cone....yuuuum

So as we are moving on to Saturday morning, woke up late, went back to “The Diner”, and although we didn’t get anything free, we did get a discount for being “students” in Firenze.  Together, we ordered (pancakes- yes those were mine, cinnamon French toast and a ham, pepper, onion and CHEDDAR CHEESE (so rare I discovered) omelet!  After that, we got in a few sight seeings and tour, saw the replica of the David and ALSO went to the famous Ponte Vecchio- it’s a very touristy place, after the long, but well worth it hike up the little hill, on top of Ponte Vecchio, there were about 7 stands selling tourist crap….of course I bought some J.

Ponte Vecchio! I have a post card with this view!

Around dinner time…guess where we went…THE DINER! And MORE free shit was on the way, our waiter messed up our order, ordered the wrong thing for our friend Andrea-she said she would still eat it being the nice and modest girl she is, after we dig in, the food she originally ordered came up, we were able to split the fried chicken and fries between the 5 of us for free, got a discount and Noah didn’t even get charged for his Milkshake, what a successful night.  After that, we got back kind of late, drank wine until 1:30 a.m. - literally worst procrastinators ever, we went out for about 10 minutes and then some of us came back because of the time we had to wake up the next morning.

The David

Next morning was hell, so tired, McDonalds was nice, they have “Carotine Babys” on their menu and “Kiwi on Stick”, I just stuck with a blueberry muffin and sliced apple, I couldn’t risk the chance of eating a McToast and not being to access a bathroom on the train…good ol’ McDonald gets me everytime haha.

After getting back from an exhausting fun weekend thanks to ma girls Cait and Molly, I got to look forward to studying for a week ahead of Midterms!

After midterms, I will be on my way to London and Dublin for spring break, so for now, solong!

Will blog after!

Another day…another adventure!

Ciao Ciao!

-Stacy

March 15, 2011- Mine and my Babes 2 year anniversary, sucks I’m not home to celebrate it, but he knows I love him to DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!

"Guarda, una prostituta"

Orvieto Chuch

Talking to the manager of the Orvieto Winery

 Thursday- we took an entire day trip for our wine class.  We visited two wineries and also had a little testing sesh at the last one.  It was a very interesting field trip, plus the owner of the firstwine handed me a box with 3 bottles of wine in it, sometimes it pays off to be American lol.  In between the wine visits on the miserable day, while in Orvieto, we were able to get lunch and see one of the most beautiful churches in Italy (according to Massimo, our advisor)!  Also we stopped near a place with a great view of Lake Bolsena, it was so much more beautiful during the day- sometimes I ask myself am I dreaming?

Friday I went to Viterbo to go shopping, despite the miserable weather and the inconvenience of the siesta, the most interesting part of the day was passing a prostitute on the side of the road! On our way there our adviser causally says “look a prostitute” and of course I didn’t believe her and went on with the pointless day only to find myself buying overpriced calve (peanut butter) and a few tops in their tiny mall.  But, on the way back, we stopped at a cool natural hot springs.  Saw a few old people enjoying the surprisingly hot water.  Once we got back on the road, the "prostitute" WAS STILL THERE- and I had gotten a closer look, she was ACTUALLY a prostitute. 

I saw an Italian prostitute sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in a lawn chair in the rain, reading a magazine and wearing thigh high black tights.  As I jokingly said pull over, ask how much, my adviser thoughtfully didn’t because she said she didn’t want me to get stabbed haha.  I am still flabbergasted, and knew from that moment I def had to blog about this!

Natural Hot Spring

Saturday went to Viterbo again after siesta and definitely got 2 really good gifts, one for my brother and one for my babe! Sooo excited! After waiting for the bus for an hour in the freezing cold weather, I got home and made myself some French toast- definitely amazing.

Sunday, slept late missed the carnivale celebration but I did get to meet my cool advisers niece and her friends.  I honestly loved talking with them, just from the two hours I felt like I was learning a lot! It really put me in a good mood and even cheered me up because before I am still kind of discouraged when it comes it speaking in Italian, but honestly, if I start to hang out with Chiara and Allessia and company (I forgot everyone’s names) I think I will learn quickly! After when I got home and made myself some spinach tortellini, my landlords daughter stops by and brings over homemade pizza! How could my day get any better- well for one the weather was BEAUTIFUL- no clouds, no rain, no wind- successful Sunday!
 
Monday..nothing really interesting, boring class and Dal patata!
Tuesday- went to my first Italian "discotech" It was a ton of fun! The music was bumpin, everyone was in costumes for carnivale and I was with some awesome people. 

Montepulciano!!!

First, I took a day trip with my roommate, her friend and her friends parents to a nearby town called Montepulciano- the place where they filmed a part of the movie twilight where Edward takes Bella to the Voltaire (sp?) I believe, the town was absolutely beautiful, there were Twlight souvenirs everywhere, it was actually exciting to be there knowing they filmed a very successful movie there, so all twilight fans...be jealous! After the long day, I went home, put my black can costume on (It actually was just a black cat mask and a dress that I had brought with- meow!)

Went over to Ivas host family (LOVE THEM) they had a party for the carnivale, and ofcourse they had amazing food- I also tried Tiramisou for the first time!
After dinner, we got to Bar San Marco around 11, danced and drank for about an hour, go on the PARTY BUS- and took the crazy ride to downtown Viterbo! The club was PACKED but it was worth it- drinking and dancing till 4:00 am- got back around 5:00 and passed out!
I originally had class at 9:00 am the next morning, but we talked to our advisers and they rescheduled our 9:00 am for the following day...they love us!
So now, I am writing this the morning after discotech, and I am dead tired, I have mid terms next week and a field trip to another winery tonight for cooking class...life in Italy is rough...JK!

I love it!
I miss everyone at home though!

A presto!

Another Day another Adventure!

Ciao Ciao

-Stacy

A.S.K

Dear Readers, It has been 4 days since my last blog.

So, this past week, I have done nothing really, went grocery shopping, bought unrefrigerated boxed milk again (yummy) and I am currently on the hunt for the sheets you put in the washer that allows you to wash lights and darks together.  A few weeks ago I washed some pillow covers with my blanket and sheets, and I had to lean in Italian to explain to my landlord:

Ho lavate ( I washed) questo e questo (hold up the sheets) e dopo (and after) colore combinato (colors combined!)

Ok so one thing I did was go the pharmacy and pay 50 cents (Euros) to weight myself.  I am not getting FAT! I maybe gained a kilo, according to scale, BUT to justify my 2.6 lb gain, it was right after I ate …so that’s how I’m going to look at it for now L .  On the bright side, I started to do my own form of jazzercise in my apartment when it’s pouring outside because I am loosing that kilo that I gained and will look good beach season ;).

SO AS IM WRITING THIS, CAM AND I HAD A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE. I AM CURRENTLY SHAKING right now because we had a GROSE bug experience- the worst so far.  Cam just gets out of the shower, goes in her closet, gets a pair of underwear out and screams and throws her towel right next to my bed.  She thought it was fuzz NBD right? Flicks it off and it started to move, IT WAS A LONG REPULSIVE NASTY UGLY UNSIGHTLY BUG (kind of like a centipede but the ones that don’t move extremely fast.)

SO she threw the bug along with her towel, meantime she’s BUTT naked, I’m screaming on my bed, she’s screaming in the corner of the room. I’m yelling- she yelling so finally I tell her to go get a robe on and get the air freshener spray and a broom.  As I’m FREAKING OUT and SHES FREAKING OUT AND still basically naked I am giving her pep talk and tell her how to kill this bug. LOL

Honestly I am like the mom in our apartment always cleaning and doing dishes and she is like the dad sleeping and making messes all the time (jk cam LOL) so of course I WAS NOT GOING to go near this bug- I moved the towel with the edge of the broom while she sprayed , she WAS supposed to step on it with her flip flops, couldn’t do it, so then we were screaming  and I keep telling her to step on it and she still couldn’t (meantime the bug was freaking out because we sprayed it with 3 in 1 oust) finally I tell her to get the box she got in the mail- SMASHES it.  We were dreading to clean it up because we didn’t know if the bug was dead, dying, alive, gooey, oozing fluids WHATEVER- we decided to wait for Claudio our friend (a.k.a cams boo), who was picking us up for the carnivale party concert at Bar San Marco, so we made him clean it up and is now scarred for life when going to get clothes out of our closet, especially UNDAPANTS!   

Carnivale party= classical relaxing music, not what I expected, but it was nice because they had appetitivo which tonight meant a TON of different bakery items, regret eating most of it, but it was SOO good, and I also only had a salami sandwich for dinner.  I can definitely say I don’t have a variety of food in my apartment: salami, eggs, pasta, apples, kiwi….bread, hot dogs, boxed milk…cereal, chips.  It’s bad, I truly am still living the life of a college student, minus the ramen noodles BUT replace those with spaghetti since IM in Italy lol.  However, I think I am eating a healthier breakfast- every day usually can consist of an egg with 2 pieces of toast, 1 with jam, an apple with cinnamon or peanut butter, sometimes cereal, sometimes oatmeal or almonds, with chocolate milk and water.  It’s a pretty protein filled breakfast if I don’t say so myself. 

For lunch I usually have a sandwich that I make in my apartment or pizza and for dinner usually pasta.  We don’t have an oven, just a stove top and some sort of toaster oven, but I don’t think I know how to use it 100%.  If you have any idea for easy food please let me know!!

ALSOOOO

SHOUT OUT TO MY BOO!!!!

Well anyways I just wanted to let the world know how much I love ANDREW STEVEN KATS- he is seriously an awesome person, and I know this blog is supposed to be about my experiences in Italy, but it’s also on my thoughts, and right now I’m thinking on how much I miss him and how lucky I am to have him in my life…I’m not going to lie, being apart for an entire semester, 7 hour time difference, 5,000 miles away, an ocean, a few lakes apart is HARD, but I am really proud of us! Plus, I am so thankful Skype and Oovoo and Gmail accounts with free calling exist, it’s crazy how technologically advanced our world is- so glad though!   Well, babe, I obviously know you are going to be reading this so I just want to let you know no matter where I am in the world, you’ll always have my heart! <3 <3 <3

P.S-I LOVE YOUUUU! :)

Ahh, Another day another adventure…hopefully one that doesn’t involve any bugs!

Ciao Ciao

Stacy