FINALLY...

A lot has happened since I last updated! I really am bad at this, but it’s so hard to find time when I don’t have internet at my house and there is always a new adventure to be had! A lot of the kids I am traveling with whose families didn’t have internet when they arrived have found ways to get it like portable modems and stuff, but I think, as hard as it is to not have internet, it’s making me talk to my host family more and spend more time at school with my classmates, instead of just sitting in my room on the computer. It’s tough, but probably a blessing in disguise. That or I’m just being too laidback for my own good again.

Well the week of Feb 11-20 we had ‘semana blanca’ a made up holiday that literally translates to ‘white week,’ because back in Illinois there is usually snow – it’s kind of like a no reason winter break. For this break me, my friend Jess (whose dad grew up with my dad and his siblings!) and Nicky, went to Rome, Italy and Paris, France. We left at 130 am on Friday morning and took a 5 hour bus ride to Madrid. From there we took a 9 am flight to Rome. Rome was very cool. We had a nice hostel, but it was a bit of a walk from the down town area. Once we figured out the metra system it was much easier. The first night we didn’t get settled til around 3 so we got some food and then took a free walking tour around the city. It was a great introduction to the major downtown sites and a preview of what we wanted to see more of. The next day we woke up early and headed out to the Colliseum. It was much bigger than I expected, and less white, but still awesome. It was cool to see something SO OLD but still pretty much intact. It was easy to imagine it filled with people, gladiators, and animals. Afterwards we went to the Roman forum, a kind of towns square with some ruins of ancient Rome. I LOVED all the columns and classic architecture. It made me really want to go to Athens in Greece, but with the current issues they are having and expenses, I’m not sure I’ll make it. I guess I’ll have to come back one day. As we were leaving, a man stopped us and asked if we could take a picture. We go to talking and it turns out he is from Granada and is traveling in Italy with his family. I pass by the plaza he lives in every day! The farther away I travel from America, the smaller the world gets. We ran into other groups from Cegri traveling in Rome more than once. Matt found us at the coliseum and we saw a group of girls at the Trevi fountain and again in a gift shop.

The next day was Sunday and we went to mass at the Vatican. What an awesome experience. The mass was mostly in Latin but they gave us a small book to follow along and the translations in English and Spanish. It was interesting to see the differences in the mass between the English and Spanish versions – nothing drastic but a few phrases had different connotations. After mass, the Pope came to his window and gave a speech to all the people. He said something in tons of languages and blessed us all. Afterwards we ate lunch and explored some of the plazas and markets of Rome. After that we met up with my friend Kim who is studying in Rome for the semester. She took us to a more residential restaurant, Don Poeta, that had, what I am sure is, the worlds best pizza. It was a very thin crust with chunks of fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil. I am hoping there is someway I can recreate that back home.

The next day we went back to the Vatican City to go on a special tour of the acropolis underneath the Vatican. Our tour group was small and was led by a man who was born and raised in Indiana. He apologized to the group (which had people from England, Australia, Poland, and a few other places) for his fast speech and thick Midwest accent. It was comforting to hear and I understood EVERYTHING (what a change!). He led us through ancient buried catacombs of pagan roman families. The site is an archeological dig that less than 100 people get to see each day in order to preserve it. When the Vatican was built they built it near what they believed was the burial place of St. Peter, the first pope and one of the depostles. The tour took us through the path of the archeologist’s search for his tomb. At the end we arrived at his long lost burial site and could even see some of his bones preserved in special boxes. Although I am not a very strong, practicing Catholic, it was still a very spiritual and moving experience. Afterwards we explored more of Vatican City and got some gelato. DELICIOUS! Afterwards we made some stops at the MUST SEES like the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. The town was very touristy, but I was still overwhelmed at times because I knew practically NO ITALIAN. There are a lot of Indian men that walk around trying to sell things (mostly useless crap that kids beg for) to the tourists and at times can be kind of pushy.

The next day, and our last full day we went BACK to the Vatican City to see the Vatican Museum. It was filled with a lot of cool artwork, but the main draw of coming here is the Sistine Chapel. After winding our way through the museum, we finally made it to the chaple, and I can’t lie I was kind of disappointed. I feel a lot of the MUST SEES in Europe are so hyped up to Americans that when you finally see them, they cant live up to what tv movies and books make them seem. It was a great piece of art, but definitely not what I expected. Its kind of like when a book you love is made into a movie, the movie is good too, but it’s never as good as what you imagined in your head.

After the museum we met up with Kim one last time for the best gelato in the world ( I had banana, walnut, and chocolate hazelnut) and a night time walk around down town and one last view of the Trevi fountain and insisting that we didn’t need the Indian men to take our picture for 2 euros. It was good to see Kim – a familiar face from home, and discuss that we felt the same kind of homesickness, but still loved our time abroad.

The next morning we hit the road at 450 am to catch a bus to the airport for our 7am flight to Paris. Because we student travelers fly on very cheap flights, our flight was actually landing an hour and a half outside of paris and we would need to take a bus into the city. Well as we were approaching landing, our pilot tells us that our first airport is covered in fog so we have to land in another airport and hour and a half FARTHER than the original. We land and take a free bus to the intended airport (2 hours) and then once we get there have to take another 1 ½ hour bus into paris. Then we have to FIND the metra. THEN we have to take the metra to our hostel which is actuall in Chelles, a suburb of Paris. Once we were in Chelles we had to FIND the hostel. Keep in mind the only French I know is Boujour and Merci. FINALLY we make it to the hostel more than 12 hours later. I felt absolutely no shame when my first meal since the airport at 6 am was a Big Mac from Mcdonalds. Comfort food at its finest. We rested that night and woke up bright and early to figure out how to get into paris and navigate. After braving the metra, finding WIFI at a starbucks, buying a map for 5 euros, we make our way to the Palace of Versailles. Luckily, it was so beautiful and worth all the struggle. It seriously was a palace and it was so fascinating to see such a monumental aspect of history that I have learned about in school and seen on TV and in movies. Marie Antoinette actually LIVED here. Afterwards we made our way back down town, walked past the Eiffel Tower at night and made our way to the Arc de Triumph. Now getting to the Arc was an adventure in itself. It is located in the center of a very busy and seemingly unorganized roundabout with no crosswalks AT ALL. But there are still TONS of people standing under the arc. Afet standing perplexed for a few minutes, I turn my back and when I look back I see my friend Jess found a break in traffic and sprinted across the crazy roundabout. Now, chicken me knows there HAS to be a better way, but after a few more minutes of looking like an idiot American and not finding anything more intelligent (not even a sign!) I take a deep breath and spring across this LOCO roundabout. I make it safe but soon realized that there is an underground tunnel that takes you RIGHT TO THE OTHER SIDE safely. Lesson learned. But the Arc offered some great views of all of Paris, and I am glad we went at night to see it all lit up. So beautiful. Paris IS the city of lights, right? I’m still not sure.

The next morning we went to Notre Dame. Even though there was no Quasimoto or Esmerelda, it was still a beautiful church. We climbed the tower and got to see all the gargoyles (my favorite!!) and the massive bell! Afterwards we grabbed lunch and had crepes! YUMMY banana and nutella! Next we made our way over to the Lourve, to see the Mona Lisa. Just like the Sistine Chaple, its one of those works of art that just seem so much cooler in your head. I mean I still appreciate it, but it is much smaller in person. We walked around a little bit, but we were SO EXHAUSTED that we weren’t really appreciating anything, so we decided to call it a day and find dinner and head home.

The next day (and of course the coldest, cloudiest, rainiest day in Paris) we went to climb the Eiffel Tower. Of course we climbed the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Why? 7 euros cheaper. Haha. So with umbrella in tow I climbed God knows how many stairs for a semi cloudy view. But it was worth it and I have done it! Afterwards we set out to find the Moulin Rouge. We found it and took some pictures, but didn’t really explore too much. The rain was soaking through haha. We found a nice place to eat and then had crepes for desert. We took the train back to chelles, packed up and got ready for our trip home. We flew out of Paris this time at noon and arrived in Madrid around 330. We took a bus at 430 back to Granada and finally made it back by 10 pm. I never thought I could miss a place that wasn’t my HOME so much. It’s a good feeling to know that Granada is finally a place I feel comfortable in, at the very least its not so foreign anymore.

One thing that I never expected that leaving Granada and Spain would make my Spanish BETTER! After being surrounded by Italian and French, languages that I am more than lost in, I realized that I know more Spanish than I give myself credit for. If I could survive and get my message across in absolutely foreign languages, I am more than competent in Spanish. I thought about all the things that I did before I left for Italy, like go to the post office, shop for some snacks, and even go to the office supply store and ask if they could photocopy my passport and visa, in color, put them back to back, and laminate them and I did ALL of this ENTIERLY in Spanish. Besides that I go to class every day in ALL Spanish and live with a woman who speaks no English. I like to watch the telenovela Frijolito with her, and a majority of the time I can tell what is going on. I’m definitely still learning, but I think it took leaving to realize how much I did know.

The next week of school FLEW by, and the closer to the weekend it got, the more thankful I was that I didn’t have to pack up my bags and hop on a train again. I am so thankful I got the opportunity to see Rome and Paris, but 10 days was exhausting and by the end I felt like I wasn’t able to appreciate the culture and museums as much as I wanted to because I was just so exhausted. I love history and museums, but I am definitely more of an outdoor adventure type of vacation. Luckily there was a pretty big group of people staying in Granada that weekend, so a group of 11 of us decided we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and visit Nerja beach, a 2 hour bus ride away from Granada. We booked a hostel for one night and got on the 9 am bus. The bus ride alone was incredible. The mountains, valleys, olive trees, and finally the first glimpse of the sea! Nerja is on the Medeteranian coast of Spain and once we got into town, it looked just like a postcard. The houses were all white with brown or orange roofs with blue accents in front of the tall palm trees and blue ocean. I seriously couldn’t believe my eyes. We got to our hostel and again were pleasantly surprised. For as cheap as it was, it was actually more like a hotel and was very nice and accommodating. One of our rooms had a balcony and the sun and weather were gorgeous. We got into our swim suits as quick as we could and made our way to the beach. I’d say it was around 75 degrees out and clear skys. The water was too cold to swim in but it didn’t stop us from playing in the water a bit. We got some bottles of tinto de verano (red wine mixed with lemon pop) to share on the beach. It was a PERFECT day and we all left with rosy cheeks. The beaches are much more rocky than any I have been to before with big rocky cliffs all around and small pebbles instead of sand. I usually love searching for shells and brining my favorites home, but there were so few shells that I had to make it home with a few awesome rocks instead. It started to get cold around 330-4 so we packed up and went to find dinner. We found a cheap restaurant that had REAL hamburgers. Now, a lot of places in Spain (aka the land of pork and ham) have hamburgers but they are either 1. HAMburgers and made of pork or 2. Not on a bun. Weird I know, but these were real BEEF burgers. Still no Joe’s Burger (I miss you so much!) but it was a good try. Afterwards we all just hung out in our hostel before heading to bed. We really did pick a great group to travel with. We were all so laid back (it could have been our amazing destination) but we bonded a lot and got along so well. The next day we woke up and did it all again. 5 people headed home that night, but me and 5 other girls couldn’t resist, so we booked a second night in the hostel. We had a 4 day weekend and would have nothing better to do in Granada, and it was SO worth it. I have tan lines and freckles and its only the beginning of March. I can’t wait to go back, and also to the beaches in Portugal. So much more my style.