Just a small town girl...

It's official. I'm a small town girl. I arrived in Florence on Thursday at about 3:30, and after the stress of the huge metropolis that was Rome, Florence was a breath of fresh air. I loved it immediately. But really, I'm obsessed with Florence. I would move there in a heartbeat. Too bad I don't speak Italian... a minor detail.

So, I got to my hostel and met Rollando, the hostel owner. He was a bit sketchy. Especially because I was the only guest, and he lived there, so it was kind of like I was a guest in his house. But I had a key to my own room, so I was good. Then I wandered around Florence a bit... that's what I liked so much about it was that I could wander around and not have to use mass transit to do it. I went to the market, was glad that I didn't have any money or space in my suitcase because I would have bought everything, bought a much-needed pair of sunglasses, pointed someone in the wrong direction for the Accademia (oops...), kept wandering and found the Duomo, gawked and took pictures (yes, I was one of those people. sorry Ellen...), kept wandering, found the Santa Croce, took more pictures, wandered up to Piazelle Michelangiolo and San Miniato del Monte (I couldn't find the monks who are supposed to chant every day at 5:40... I was very sad), gawked at the amazing view, wished I had enough money to eat at one of the amazing restaurants overlooking the city, wandered back down to the river and walked across the Ponte Vecchio, took some more pictures, and then wandered back to the hostel.

At this point (about 7:30), I was getting a little worried because I hadn't gotten in touch with Katie yet, and she was supposed to get out of school at 5:00. When I still hadn't gotten in touch with her at about 9, I started to get really worried, and was trying frantically to call everyone I knew who might know how to find her. I'm not going to lie... I was kind of a mess. It was a strange and scary feeling to be in a foreign city and to have the only person who really even knew I was there be Rollando. BUT thanks to Ellen, I got Katie's mom's number in Raleigh and finally got in touch with her at about 11, and we just made plans to meet up the next day. So, my birthday was not the best of days, but the next day was really the BEST day I've had yet, so it more than made up for it.

So I had made a reservation for this bike tour through Tuscany back in about March, and I have been SO excited about it since then... it was all I had dreamed and SO MUCH MORE! Here is my shameless plug: if anyone is ever anywhere near Florence, you MUST do this bike tour. Seriously. It was amazing. Worth a trip to Italy in it's self. I'm not lying. I did take some pictures, but the sad part is that the whole day I kept wishing you were all there because there will be no way I'll be able to describe it to you! But I will try.

So, we started out and took a van about 15 minutes out to the countryside (it was so fabulous to drive through a neighborhood) and arrived at Castelle di Poppianno, home of the Guiardinni family for the past 900 years. The Count and Countess still live there (they welcomed us) but they now use it to produce wine and olive oil. We went on a tour of the winery and tasted some of the wine and olive oil (SO GOOD) and then went up to the tower and gawked at the view for a while. After that, we walked down the street to get our bikes. The town where the castle is is exactly what I thought Italy would be like... charming little winding streets, beautiful antiquated buildings, window boxes, etc. The ride was mostly downhill (we rode along the ridge surrounding the castle and then down into the valley for lunch) and every turn we made was a new amazingly beautiful scene. Streets lined with tall cedar trees, fields of sunflowers, rolling hills of olive groves, thousand-year-old castles dotting the landscape, etc. etc. etc. It was indescribable. Riding through the Tuscan hills reminded me of mountain biking class in Mentone this summer... there was even some Queen Anne's Lace lining the road! We ate at this fabulous little family-run restaurant that was delicious, then rode back up to the castle. There was a mile-long very steep hill at the end. I feel very confident about my decision to ride the van up the hill with the older women, less-than-skilled cyclers, and urchin-footed. It was absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite experience so far.

Then I met up with Katie and she took me shopping in San Lorenzo market for my birthday! She was way too sweet to me and got me a purse and a beautiful leather journal... which I will somehow find room for in my suitcase. I mean, the day was alright... I guess.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Ufizzi and Accademia to see lots of old art and the David. It was great. I love art. But I'm a little museumed-out, so I enjoyed it less than probably should have. Then we caught a train to Venice!!

I'll leave you hanging on how Venice is because McKinley is ready to go to dinner, but just a few things I've learned from the past 4 days: I love small towns, the countryside, being around water, boats, and church bells. All for now... I probably won't have internet until I'm in Granada, so more then!

Dear Italian Public Transportion...

. ...you are not on my good side.

Suffice it to say that my first encounter with Public Transportation in a large city was not favorable. Apparently it didn't like me much either. Yesterday I spent 3 hours getting from the airport to Mary Louise's apartment in Rome. It should have taken 30 minutes. It ended with me crying in a train station and then again on a train to this American guy sitting across from me. That was cool... sort of. If you are ever in Rome, make sure you know which side of the city you are flying in to. And maybe knowing some Italian would be nice. And if you are looking for metro tickets, don't go to the ticket stations. Any of them. They're at the newspaper stand, obviously.

Rome. I arrived here yesterday, and it has been eventful, to say the least. My Roman adventures began with a less-than-favorable introduction to big city Public Transportation (noted above). But I decided to give it another chance this morning, and I feel like throughout the day I've greatly improved my public transportaion skills.

They say (they being my guide book) that "a lifetime is not enough".... clearly they don't know my traveling skillz. I went to just about every tourist attraction there is to see here today. I am exhausted. My feet hurt. But I did it... and it was absolutely amazing! I started off the day bright and early and headed for the Vatican Museums. I left for the train station at about 7:30, asked for help (key), and I think I may have gotten to the Vatican in the most direct way possible... amazing! I was on top of my game and got in line 15 minutes before it opened and was inside just 20 minutes later... definitely the best time to go, in case you were wondering. I went through all the rooms (I don't know what that section is called...) which lead to the Sistine Chapel, and then walked over to the Pinacoteca (painting gallery). It was all absolutely phenomenal. I do really like art, but I think anyone who has been there will agree that all of the art work is just so amazing, down to the last intricate details. I'm really glad Ellen told me to go into the Pinacoteca. I was the only person in the room with Raphael's Transfiguration... it was incredible! Sorry if the pictures all look the same to you... I tried to be selective.

So then, about 9:30 or so, I walked back to St. Peter's square (stopped on the way at Old Bridge Gelateria - another of Ellen's suggestions - and got coffee and nutella gelato). I got in line for what I thought was the Papal Audience, but what ended up just being to get into the church. But don't worry... I watched the pope speak on the big screen outside. I went into the church, wandered around with the hundreds of other people, gawked at people as they went into confession because that's what you do when you're a tourist in a church, went to the papal tombs, gawked at people as they prayed the rosary in front of tombs because that's what you do when you're a tourist in the papal tombs, etc. That, plus wandering around the square for a bit, lasted me about an hour or so, and then I was on my way once again.

After a few tries and with the help of the Americans trying to get me to buy a guided tour of the Vatican, I found the Metro station and went to meet Mary Louise and Kristin (her roommate) at the Spanish Steps for lunch. Well, they had similar problems with our friend public transportation as I did yesterday, so I was there for about 2 hours before they got there. It sounds not very fun, but actually it was really nice. I read for a while, took some pictures, people watched, took pictures for other people, and rested my eyes for a bit. I didn't see anywhere to eat around there, so when they got there we walked to Trevi Fountain, picked up a slice of pizza, and enjoyed it among the throngs of tourists doing the exact same thing.

For our next stop, we decided we had maybe been smothering Public Transportion and should give it a little space to cool off a bit. So we walked to Ancient Rome/the Colosseum. I was tired and questioning whether I wanted to go, but I'm so glad I did. We decided to spare the money and time and not actually go in the Colosseum, but we walked around and took pictures, looked in from the gates, and listened in on a few tours. It is always crazy to think about the things that went on in such old places like Ancient Rome and the Acropolis and who has walked the same steps you are.

From the Colosseum, we sucessfully took a metro to Termini, a train to Trastevere, then a bus to the grocery store and back to the apartment. It's been a rocky relationship, but I think I can say "hey, Public Transportation, you're alright after all."

Btw's... there are pictures up on Picasa from Rome, but I couldn't get them on the slideshow, so just click the link on the "keep in touch" section.

The bright side of disaster: Santorini, Greece

So sorry for not posting yet... I just now got wireless for the first time!

Well, Greece is absolutely amazing. The pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice! McKinley’s mom sent her with a book by the same title as this post… it ended up describing our first day and a half in Greece just about perfectly. Traveling over there was better than expected. Especially until we got to the Santorini airport on Wednesday, Aug 20 and found out that our bags were still in Athens and my claim ticket was in the hands of the woman who took my boarding pass in the Philly airport (minor disaster #1). So we spent the morning of the first day in Santorini (Thursday) riding the bus in the clothes we had lived in for about 48 hours back and forth to the airport, but FINALLY GOT OUR LUGGAGE!! On the bright side of disaster, we got to become best friends with the man who drives the bus from Oia to Fira before the first day was even over!

After getting back to the hostel, putting on clean clothes, and putting on deodorant for the first time in 2 days, we decided to go down to the port below Oia, the village we were staying in, and go swimming because we knew there were rocks to jump off of (from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, obviously). And now the adventure really begins… so, we spent a considerable amount of time picking out the perfect spot to spend our afternoon, away from topless women, and where we had a beautiful view of the harbor and were close to this awesome island we could swim to. And let me tell you, this spot was PERFECT. So, we dropped off our stuff and jumped in, and as I jumped in, I felt my foot scrape against a rock… it kind of hurt, but I thought I just scraped it. Then it started to really hurt, so I looked at it, and guess what? There were about 50 little black spikes sticking out of my foot. Why? Oh, because I stepped on a sea urchin. Yes, a sea urchin. In fact, Meredith and I both had stepped on sea urchins as we jumped into the crystal clear Aegean Sea (only later did we learn that Ellen had also had a very similar experience at a completely separate harbor… apparently this is common? Or are we just prone to disaster…). It seems that the growth covering the rocks was not moss but in fact those devilish little animals. But were there any signs posted or warnings in a single one of the twelve thousand travel books we read about these dear little creatures? Of course not. That would be far too logical. And if you have ever stepped on a sea urchin, you will know that the pain is quite intense, and only grows with time. But don’t worry… only a little over half of sea urchins are venomous.

But hey, on the bright side of disaster, as I treaded water with one foot and McKinley picked spikes out of the other, some nice Greek boys with a boat came up and rescued us, and we made it back to our hostel where the owner proceeded to attempt to suck a few spikes out with a contraption called “The Extractor”, which filled with blood but extracted no spikes. He then told us that the others would just have to stay in there, and that in a few days we would harden to the pain. We did not think that was satisfactory, seeing as our feet were still throbbing with intense pain and walking was quite a challenge. So, we spent the rest of the afternoon soaking our feet in olive oil (apparently that loosens them? I am not convinced.), and we let the three healthy group members pick the spikes out of our feet. And that was day 1.

The rest of the trip was not quite as eventful, but equally as fabulous. On Friday we ended up moving from our youth hostel in Oia to a villa that Ellen found for us just outside the main town of Fira. The hostel was really quaint and in a fabulous location, and the owner was great seeing as he spent 30 minutes picking sea urchin spikes out of my foot, but there was no air conditioning and it was kind of smelly. That afternoon we basically sat around the pool tending to our urchin feet (I went and explored Fira for a while), and then Ellen insisted upon making us delicious pasta for dinner that night… clearly she had to force it down our throats.

Saturday, we decided to go tour a winery… sadly we missed the last tour in English. But we did get an adventure out of it, because we hitch-hiked back to the bus station… and by “we” I mean all 6 of us. Did I mention that there were 7 people in that smart car? It was quite a feat. That afternoon we all split up and explored Fira a bit more. Ellen and I decided we wanted to fit in with the cruise ship crowds, so we took a cable car down to the port in Fira, walked around a bit, then took a donkey back up. After the donkey man offered Ellen his hand in marriage, he put us on some donkeys and sent us on our way. It was pretty fun... but we definitely smelled like donkey the rest of the day.

Sunday we went to the black sand beach at the south end of the island. We were interested/nervous to see what the hot sand would do to our urchin feet, but surprisingly it worked a few of the spikes out! Way to go, volcanic sand!

This morning (Monday) we caught an early flight to Athens, where we will be for the night. We did the Acropolis thing this afternoon, and that’s pretty much all there is to Athens. But we are in a great little part of town (with a STARBUCKS!!) so we've just been walking around/enjoying the internet the rest of the day.

Other than the fact that I may have begun to pick up the Euro-smell (cigarette smoke, un-deodorized bodies, and dirty streets), from what I can tell, I really like Europe. But it perplexes me to think that they have missed the boat on a few things. If someone could tell me how Crocs made it here, but not deodorant or Ziploc bags, I would be grateful. On the bright side, they DO have Special K with Red Berries, and Ellen has informed me that in Italy the clothing brand of choice for those inclined toward the “punk” style is none other than… Carhartts. Italy here I come!!

P.S. I put pictures up, so if you click the link at the side, you can see them. I think it's easier to view them, and they load faster, if you click "view slideshow". Enjoy!

Advice on simple living...

After packing for the next four months in a backpack that weighs a mere 24.8 pounds, I have gained some new perspective on living simply. I like to pretend I'm going to be on some hardcore reality show like survivorman or Amazing Race where they look all awesome and rugged when they wear the same dirty clothes over and over again (I even put a tear in a few of my clothes just for the effect). One day maybe I'll pass on some of this newfound wisdom to all of you travelers and dorm room livers, pack rats, and those who desire their lives to look like the pages of RealSimple.

On a different note, I have information on my homestay in Granada! I will be living with a woman named Ana Soledad Ortega Chinchilla (yes, her last name is Chinchilla, like the rodent.), who was my friend Allyson's homestay madre last fall! Allyson loved her and said the apartment is in a great location. This is good news... it means I can check not being fed and having my toilet paper rationed off the list of things to worry about. I will also have a roommate, which will be especially good for the first few weeks (someone to share the awkward moments with...).

So, this is my last time writing from the U.S. I will hop on a plane tomorrow morning and soon enough I'll be in Santorini! On this, the eve of my departure, I leave you with a promise: I will return. And here are some reasons why...

Things I will come back to the United States for:
-cereal (specifically Special K with Red Berries)
-my bed
-mudsliding at Wake Forest
-the option to make my own food
-American football (Wake ranked 23, Bama ranked 24...)
-to wear my overalls (they didn't make the cut on the packing list, sadly)
-Christmas music on 96.5
-and of course to see all of you!

Welcome!

So, I've always thought that blogs are kind of cheesy, but here I am, making a blog... I figure it's the best way to keep everyone updated on what's going on in my life without clogging up your inboxes... now you can stalk me as often or as little as you like.

I've had a fabulous summer at Camp DeSoto, and am now home and making preparations to leave for Europe on August 19th!!! As most of you know, I'll be spending the semester studying in Granada, Spain. Granada is in the southern part of Spain in the Andalucia region (click on the map to make it bigger), and is known for it's main tourist attraction, La Alhambra, which is a big palace that overlooks the city. I am going through a study abroad program called IES, which has centers all over Europe mostly. I'll be taking classes at the IES center from their professors with other IES students and living with a homestay family.

BUT before I do that, I'm spending every penny I earned this summer to travel in two of the countries I have always wanted to see--Greece and Italy!! I'll leave on August 19th to spend a (what will surely be heavenly) week in Santorini, Greece with 5 friends from school, and then I'll fly to Italy and hop around to different friends in Rome, Florence, and Venice before heading to Spain at the beginning of September.

I am so excited about this semester and everything that I am going to experience!! I absolutely love traveling because I love learning about and experiencing other cultures and their people, and I hope to do a lot of that this semester. Plus, I just love a good adventure... who knows what will happen? So bookmark this page, or just go ahead and make it your homepage, because I know you'll all be sitting at your computers hitting "refresh" just waiting for me to update again...

That's all for now... I'll make sure to let you know if anything exciting happens in my life (that's what you do on a blog, right?)