Allie in Spain (and Ireland)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Barcelona: Another Side of Spain (or should I say Cataluña?)

Barcelona was one of my top destinations for this semester. I've always heard that's it's beautiful, and being so close, I of course had to go. Especially because of the rivalry between the 2 cities for being the greatest in Spain, I wanted to check it out for myself. I saved this trip until the end of the semester because I was hoping for good weather. This was a total fail. Although the weather ended up being better than what I expected (there was forecasted rain all weekend), it was certainly not beach weather. The idea of saving it for my last trip wasn't so great either, because by now, I am completely out of money. That being said, rather than flying my friend Kelly and I decided to take an overnight bus to save some cash. It was a long weekend in Madrid for the 2 de Mayo holiday, so flights were very expensive since so many people travel. The bus was only 60 euros, and we figured we would sleep on the way and it would be alright.

You can already see the flaws in my plans revealing themselves here.

No, I was not very successful in sleeping on the overnight bus thanks to the dude in front of me who decided it was okay to lean all the way back in his seat despite me asking him, very politely, in perfect Spanish, to move up a little bit, several times. Seriously, people don't understand the concept of being tall here! We arrived in Barcelona around 7 in the morning and like zombies, found our way to the hostel. The hostel was very clean and well-kept, but it also quickly became clear that it was that way because they were the most uptight hostel owners ever. I mean I appreciate the promotion of cleanliness and safety, but this is a backpacker's hostel we're talking about here. What college students traveling around Europe do you know who go to sleep at 11pm (the enforced lights-out and quiet hours of the hostel)? Nevertheless, it was in a pretty good location and it was clean so it was satisfactory.

Ok, so before I get into the dirty details of everything, let me give a little background on Barcelona. Barcelonians don't consider themselves Spaniards. I found the anti-Spanish sentiment to be much stronger here than in Basque Country. Everything, first and foremost, is in Catalan, then Spanish, and then English if you're lucky. I really think that pure English speakers would have some trouble getting around there. We could understand some Catalan with our knowledge of Spanish, but it's a fusion of Spanish and French so some stuff we were lost on. In the major tourist areas, everything is in multiple languages, but when you get into other parts of the city, it's all just Catalan. Maybe this is culturally insensitive of me, but I just don't get it. It's a dying language. News-flash Barcelona, YOU LOST. Madrid is the capital, and Spanish is the 3rd most spoken language in the world. GIVE IT UP, YOU ARE SPANISH. You have been part of the Spanish Kingdom since Ferdinand and Isabel, over 500 years ago. The people are ethnically the same, the cultures are very similar, the food is the same, why don't they just accept it? I don't know.

Anyway, back to the trip, despite our tiredness, we only 3 days in Barcelona and wanted to make the most of them so after getting settled in we headed off the the Ramblas - Barcelona's main drag. We sat down for some coffee and a chocolate croissant, and quickly realized that Barcelona doesn't actually have that many sites. Yes, it's full of Gaudi architecture and has a wide variety of museums, plazas etc. but in terms of actual MUST-DO things, there's not a lot. At this point, it was raining, so we were a little bit discouraged about how the next 3 days would play out. We began our walk down the Ramblas at the Plaza de Cataluña, where out of the complete blue, we ran into Michelle, the girl we met at our hostel in Rome. So crazy! We stopped and chatted with her for a bit and made plans to try and meet up later. SUCH a small world.

So we continued our walk down the Ramblas, and stopped off at all the sites - the Baroque Cathedral, the Opera House, the Monument to Columbus, the Placa Reial (Catalan for Royal Plaza) and the like. The Ramblas is a crazy place. I mean it's clearly a tourist trap, but it's very busy, fun and full of people and cute shops and restaurants. There are a street performers who act like statues. It's kind of creepy. I will shamelessly admit that we also stopped at Dunkin Donuts - I miss iced coffee in my life. As I was reading through my guide book, I realized that we had completely missed the Boqueria, which was supposed to be some giant marketplace off the Ramblas. I thought it was really strange that we could've missed something so large, so we wandered back and when we finally found it, we realized that it was really strange that we missed it. It was huge and amazing. Seriously one of the coolest places I have seen in my life, if only for my unhealthy love of food. It's just full of every type of food you could every possibly want from fresh fish and meet, to desserts, to tapas bars, to fresh fruit and SMOOTHIES. We got a strawberry coconut smoothie and it was SO GOOD. Amazing. We bought some delicious chocolate as a wholesome midmorning snack, and made a note to come back for lunch.

This walk took up the most of our morning, and it had stopped raining for a while, so we decided to walk down and at least check out the beach for a minute. This quickly devolved into us being in a harbor and having no idea where the beach was. Barcelona is not as walkable as a lot of other cities I've been to and the beach wasn't even on the map so I don't know what we were thinking trying to find it. We sat down on a bench near the harbor when I spotted a cable car going over the city. Now I don't know why, but for some reason I have some sort of obsession with cable cars/funiculars. I just really like the views and I think it's a cool way to see the city. So I made it my mission to figure out how to get on that cable car. Kelly very patiently allowed me to go on this mission. So I consulted my travel guide and discovered that there was a funicular taking you up to Montjuic, which is the Jewish quarter of Barcelona. So we took the funicular up, which was totally lame because it was under a tunnel. I was quite disappointed. BUT, when we got to the top we discovered that there was indeed a cable car that took you up through the park and to some castle. Awesome. It wasn't the same one I had seen down by the harbor (I never did figure that out), but it was a cable car with awesome views nonetheless. The castle up there was pretty cool - it was really more of a fortress/prison, but it was only built in the 17th century, so pretty young by Spain standards. It was a really nice, unexpected excursion and the views were AMAZING. You could see very clearly the Sagrada Familia and the most awkward building ever, which is for the Barcelona water company (google it, I don't care to elaborate). There is supposed to be a lot more to do in Montjuic, like an old Olympic Stadium and the National Art Museum of Cataluña, but we already had plans to go to the Picasso museum later, and by this time we were starving for lunch.

We headed back down to the Ramblas to hit up the Boqueria for lunch. It was delicious. We went around to different tapas bars, sampling croquettes, patatas bravas, empanadas etc. We also got a fresh fruit bowl with grapes, oranges, dragon fruit, coconut, pineapple and honeydew. So yummy. We also, of course, picked up some chocolate treats.

So after that feast, it was after 4, and so we figured it was time to head over to the Picasso Museum. We were both exhausted, not ideal museum going mode, but you have to do what you have to do. Finding the museum was nearly impossible. I don't know why, but Barcelona is pretty horrible about its tourist infrastructure. Not to mention all the street signs are in Catalan. Ugh. We found it eventually, but not without a good deal of frustration and back-tracking.

The museum was pretty impressive. Barcelona was Picasso's home in his early years as an artist, so they have one of the most extensive collections of his work, especially his early work. We were exhausted, but the museum is fairly small and very well-organized so we easily made our way through everything. What was really amazing to me, that most of what was there he did before he was 20 (what have I accomplished?!?!).

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at the famous Barcelona Cathedral. As you all know by now, I've pretty much had it with Cathedrals, so we just stopped in briefly and checked it out. Yet another beautiful Gothic Cathedral in Spain (CATALUÑA?). My disillusionment with beautiful architectural works is a bit depressing (until I went to the Sagrada Familia, at least). We headed back to the hostel and made friends with some Brazilians staying in our room. They invited us out with them, and with all the infinite wisdom of college students, we decided to nap for an hour and deem that sufficient rest to go. I don't really have much to say about the evening other than that the Barcelona night life is pretty comparable to that of Madrid. I wasn't too impressed.

The next day, there was obviously no way we were waking up early. Fortunately, we had knocked out a lot of the major sites in the first day (go us), so we weren't in any rush. We woke up around 11, and headed to Parc Guell, Gaudi's famous park. When he originally designed it, it was a gated community for the wealthy, but unfortunately it was ahead of it's time. It's a bit far from the city center, and in the early 1900s all the fashionable, fabulously wealthy women wanted to be close to the most bustling areas. So it failed as a community and became a park. It's full of Gaudi's strange, psychedelic sculptures and architecture as well as some of his engineering ingenuities. For example, the water drains off the terrace to fuel the fountains below. And the benches on the terrace are "ergonomically designed to fit your body." Cool. The view from up there was amazing as well. We also visited the little museum that was formerly Gaudi's House, where he lived from 1906 until his death in 1926, except for the time which he spent living on site at the Sagrada Familia (now that's dedication). It's interesting, but skippable, if anyone's ever there. It does provide some nice background for his other works like Casa Mila and the Sagrada Familia.

So, after wandering around there for a while, we hopped back on the bus down the hill to continue or expedition of Gaudi's Barcelona. First, we stopped for a quick lunch and then ducked into Farga, a very old famous chocolate shop in Barcelona. We got a a few treats which were quite delicious. Then we headed on over to Casa Mila. Casa Mila was built by Gaudi from 1905-1910, after being commissioned by a wealthy family. Yes, people actually lived there. The outside is very unique looking, and it's full of overt religious symbols, such as the rosary being written on the cornice, as most of Gaudi's works are. When the city tried to get rid of his plans to build a Mary statue because it is exceeded the city's building code for height, he almost abandoned the project until his priest convinced him not to. He was pretty hardcore. Unfortunately we did not get to go inside, because 1) it was getting late and we wanted to have enough time for the Sagrada Familia and 2) it was 14 euros. Yuck. So we passed by, got our tourist photos and continued onward.

Next stop was the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia was what Gaudi spent most of his life working on. Construction began in 1883, and continued until his death in 1926. During his life, the only part of it which was fully completed was the Nativity Facade and the beginning of the spires of the Passion Facade. When asked to speed the construction, Gaudi was quoted as saying "My client (aka God) is in no hurry". He was very devout, obviously. He had full plans for the building, and never actually intended it to be a Cathedral. After he died, however, plans changed and others took over the project. Although they tried to follow his plans, many of his blue prints were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, so we'll probably never really know what it was supposed to look like. One thing that is certain is that it is absolutely impressive. Just in sheer size, it's pretty incredible. And the design is unlike anything I've ever seen, let alone any cathedral I've ever seen. Many of the windows are stained glass, and eventually they all will be, each reflecting beautiful colors into the nave. The original design calls for 18 spires to represent the 12 apostles, the 4 evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the largest, Jesus, which will be 550 feet tall. Only 10 have been constructed as of yet. The Nativity and Passion Facades are complete, but the largest to come, the Glory Facade has barely even begun construction. We took the elevator up the Nativity Facade to see the views and it was incredible. You could see all the construction work being done on the top and it was a very cool feeling, to be in a cathedral that is still being worked on. When we think about some of the world's most famous Cathedrals, Notre Dame for example, we think oh yeah it was constructed from 1163-1345, like it's nothing. THAT'S ALMOST 200 YEARS! This one won't be finished for at least another 30 years. Think of how many lives went it to it. It's crazy. It's by far the most impressed I've ever been with a Cathedral, and as you know by now from reading this blog, I've seen a lot of them. I hope that I can go back and see when it's all finished because I'm sure that it will be amazing.

So after that cathartic experience, we headed back to the Ramblas area for some food, which resulted in us eating Chocolate con Churros for dinner. So healthy. Happy with the knowledge that we had satisfied all of our must do sites in only 2 days, we rewarded ourselves by going out again that night. Oh college.

The next morning, we slept in, and woke up, not quite sure what to do. After some debate, we decided to get out of the city and take a day trip to Montserrat. Monteserrat is a mountain which is part of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, with the main peaks being Sant Jeroni at 4,055

feet. It is famous because it houses a 13th century monastery and the Virgin of Montserrat, the patroness of Catalonia. It is considered to be the most important religious retreat of Catalonia. It was also considered a a place of refuge for scholars and artists during the Franco years. So, like any sacred, naturally beautiful space, it has now been completely exploited for tourism. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed it a lot, but it was another big tourist trap.

After you get to the train stop, you take a cable car up, which was pretty awesome, but pretty terrifying at the same time. It takes you up every high, and the ascending views are spectacular. We did not wait in line to get inside the Basilica to see the Virgin, because it was very long and we were more interested in getting up into the mountains and doing some hiking. So, we took yet another funicular, even higher up, and we walked the beautiful mountain trail to the St. Joan Chapel, which is pretty much just ruins at this point, but the views were great. Supposedly, on a clear day you can see the Mediterranean, but we had no such luck. We then took the trail back down to the monastery instead of the funicular. It was about an hour hike down and it was very nice. By now, it was after 5, so we decided to head back into Barcelona.

After the hour long train ride, we walked down to the water to get some dinner. My friend who studied there this semester recommended this tapas bar that was supposed to be really fun and cheap. Finding it turned into a nightmare. This is just another perfect anecdote about how Spain makes no sense. So after realizing that it wasn't right off the metro station like the website had said, we went into a grocery store to ask directions. Now I don't know about you, but when someone asks me directions, if I don't know where it is, I say so, and if I do, then I'm very specific. Walk x amount of time, take this street, turn in y direction here, past ___ big landmark, etc. The guys directions were "walk straight for 15 minutes." Ok then. We tried that, and nothing. So went into a hotel an asked directions. He said to walk down the street, cross the plaza and it would be across from a hotel. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PLAZAS THERE ARE IN BARCELONA? Do you know how many hotels there are by the water in Barcelona?!?! So, after that also didn't work, we went into ANOTHER hotel and asked directions. He said to walk down, cross the big street, and it would be on our left. A bit more descriptive, but unfortunately still not accurate. We never found it. We stopped at one of the many other restaurants there and has some delicious paella. I was a bit disappointed about not finding the place, but what can you do?

So this is pretty much where the trip ends. Our overnight bus back to Madrid left at 11, so after dinner we headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and went to the bus station. Overall, I really liked Barcelona. I found it to be very similar to Madrid, but a bit younger and more modern, and with an ocean, which is hard to beat. I would love to go back in the summer when you can go to the beach and really enjoy the ocean. My photos didn't turn out too well, but here are a few of the better ones:

Plaza Cataluña

Columbus monument on the Ramblas

From the Montjuic Cable Car

In the Montjuic Castle

Parc Guell

Seriously not real looking

Yours truly, hanging out in Parc Guell

Casa Mila

Sagrada Familia

Beautiful

From up top

Gorgeous

Cable Car up to Montserrat...yikes

Pretty pretty

The main square and St. Joan funicular

Little chapel

The monastery from the hike down

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Semana Santa Part 2: Sicily - More ruins, more gelato and more adventures

Congratulations to those of you who made it through Semana Santa Part 1. It was a behemoth. This one should be a little more tolerable.

The 2nd half of our vacation was spent on the beautiful island of Sicily. Our decision to go to Sicily didn't have much reason to it. It wasn't really somewhere that I'd always wanted to go, nor is it really a popular tourist destination for most Americans. We just knew, that after a few days in Rome, we would want to relax, have nice weather, and go to the beach. It is spring break after all. So, since we were already going to Italy, we just kind of picked the most southern point that our airline flew to, and decided to go there. Now, we did do a little research, to make sure there would be things to do and there would actually be other vacationers there, BUT, upon arrival, we definitely did not get what we were expecting. It was colder than Madrid, and really not any warmer than Rome, with an average high of about 65. This is still kind of shocking to me. I mean this is the southern most point in Italy we're talking about. I don't know why it wasn't warmer in mid-April, but it just wasn't. Our plans to go to the beach were pretty much scrapped and we had to find other things to do. Now let the post begin.

We arrived in the Palermo airport around 1pm on Wednesday, after a pretty hectic flying experience. I hate flying enough as it is, and the budget airlines are really just awful. There's no organization or reason to any of the seating, so you have to shove your way into the plane, and people start lining up an hour before you've even supposed to start boarding. It is not enjoyable. But fortunately, the flight was short so we didn't lose our entire day in transit. We had to take a bus about an hour to get to the city center, and our hostel was conveniently located about a 5 minute walk from the train station. The hostel staff were very helpful, giving us a map and circling all the sites we should see, including restaurant suggestions and places to be wary of. There was also a ton of information on places to take day trips too. They also invited us to join them for the hostel-wide Sangria party that night. Fun times to come.

So, after getting settled in, we headed out to get a feel for the area. We stopped to grab some pizza which was only 2.50. Definitely not in Rome anymore. The sites in Palermo are limited. There are a few nice plazas, a Cathedral, an Old Royal Palace which is now a government building so you can't actually visit it, and the Catacombs, which we were saving for another day. After walking around for a couple hours, we had seen pretty much everything that had been circled on the map. At this point, we were a little worried with what we were going to do for the next couple days, since the weather was not right for lounging on the beach. We went on a ridiculous trek to find an actual supermarket. There were "markets" in the city, as in conglomerations of street carts, but we were looking for sandwich food and us Americans are not equipped to deal with street vendors. We need supermarkets, which there are not very many of in Palermo. We finally found one and got all the lunch stuff and snackagge we would need. It didn't take us long to figure out that people were going to be rude to us pretty much everywhere we went. It was frustrating. I mean I understand that it's obnoxious when we don't speak the language, but we at least tried and I mean COME ON SOUTHERN ITALY. Your economy is in the toilet, the least you could do is show a little respect to some tourists who are spending their money there. I will never understand the perception that Americans are rude, when I try so hard to be polite and most people in Europe are just pushy and disrespectful. That's for another post though.

When we got back to the hostel, it was bustling with people, which was a good sign. It was a good mix of Americans, Italians, Spaniards, and other Europeans. It was nice to know we weren't the only ones who had decided to come there. We even met two Americans who were also studying in Madrid and were from Boston. It's such a small world. They had spent the entirety of their break on Sicily. We also met a Danish girl, studying in Milan, who had also been there for the past 9 days. It was definitely encouraging. The hostel ordered pizza for everyone who wanted, and we all sat down and ate together. We met 2 guys who had just finished medical school, and had spent the last week biking from Rome to Sicily. CRAZY. They had great stories. There were also some Spanish girls, so Kelly and I did a good deal of translating, although everyone spoke English pretty well. Everyone was really interesting to talk to, and it seemed that we had a good group of people at the hostel. After we finished the pizza, the Sangria Party started. I don't know if we should be proud of this or not, but America is definitely the King of card games (both drinking and non-drinking). We taught them a variety of games and had a really great time hanging out with everyone. At midnight, the hostel had to remain quiet, as to respect the people who wanted to sleep and the neighbors, so some of us went out to check out the Palermo nightlife, which is actually quite extensive. The people who had been there for the whole week knew exactly where to go, and we had a really great time.

The next morning, waking up early was not an easy task, but we had already decided to hit the Catacombs in the morning so that we could daytrip to Cefalu in the afternoon. The Catacombs were actually quite impressive. They stopped burials there in 1920, but everything was very well preserved, and in all honesty, it put the Paris catacombs to shame, in my opinion at least. Granted, it was creepy, as Catacombs inherently are. We only spent about an hour there, then we headed back to the hostel to grab our lunches and head to the train station.

Cefalu is supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages in Italy and it was only an hour away by train. We wanted to take the 1:08 train, but after some confusion at the ticket counter, we sadly missed it by mere seconds, watching it pull away. There was an hour before the next one, so we did what any respectable American would: go for ice cream. There was a place recommended by the hostel that was near the train station, and they told us to get it in the brioche and ask for fresh cream on top. This place was AMAZING. It had over 79 flavors to choose from. This situation is literally where the expression "like a kid in a candy shop" came from. I think we spent a solid 15 minutes just trying to choose flavors. I finally decided on Cappucino, Kinder Cake (kinder is a really popular Spanish candy bar), and Bacio (a combination of Chocolate and Hazelnut). They put these 3 enormous scoops into a Brioche (a rich French bread) and topped it off with fresh whipped cream. The kicker: it was only 1.70. Definitely not in Rome anymore. I paid 2 euro in Rome just for one scoop. I know that I'm talking about this more than I should, but it was simply amazing. Bread and ice cream may not sound like the best combination, but IT IS! I was almost happy that we missed the train, otherwise we may not have gone!

Full and happy, we got on the 2:08 train to Cefalu and both passed out from exhaustion/sugar overload until we arrived. The little beach side town was quite beautiful, and only could've been better if the weather were nicer. We were both so exhuasted from the night before, that we pretty much immediately headed down to the beach and just laid in the sand for a few hours, fully clothed. There were actually people in their swimsuits. Crazies. There is a small mountain overlooking the city, which a lot of tourists climb to get a nice view, but that was just not happening that day, so after wandering around a little more and seeing the Cathedral, we decided to catch the 6:20 bus back to Palermo. Upon arriving at the hostel, we were immediatley goaded by our companions to go out again. NO THANK YOU! I never wanted to see Sangria again. We were both still pretty full from the Gelato (yes, 7 hours later), but we went just to grab a slice of pizza and then headed to bed nice and early.

The next day, we wanted to do another day trip. Originally, we head really wanted to go to the Zingaro Nature Preserve, which is 7 kilometers of unspoiled coast line about 70 km from Palermo which sounded absolutely amazing. After being in cities for so long, I really would've loved to get into nature a little bit. However, we soon discovered that the Preserve was really difficult to reach in the non-summer months, since there aren't a lot of tourists. We could've done it, but it would've taken a long time and probably been really confusing. Plus it would've been expensive, so we sadly decided against it (Note to self: When I'm rich, I will go to Sicily, rent a car, and go to Zingaro). Instead, we decided to take the bus to the popular town of Agrigento, which is on the Southern coast of Sicily. It is famous for being home to the ruins of some Greek Temples.

YAY more ruins!!!

Yes it's true, we were a bit ruined out, but since we were there, we figured we should go. You're only in Sicily once, right? We researched it and everyone said that it was a must-see when on Sicily, and that it's the best way to see Greece without actually going to Greece. The bus ride took us across the island (since Palermo's on the Northern coast) and the Sicilian countryside was breathtaking. Upon arriving in Agrigento, we caught another bus to take us to the Valley of the Temples.

In all honestly, the Temples were quite spectacular. They're very well preserved, and even though it's called the Valley of the Temples, they are actually elevated above everything else so you get some great views. There were substantial remains for 4 temples: Concorida, Juno, Herakles, and Castor and Pollux. We probably didn't enjoy it as much as we should've since the entry fee was a stifling 11 euros. But we had fun and it was nice to see another town on the island. After spending a few hours there, we headed back to Palermo and got in around 6:30. We had big plans for our last night which involved basically nothing but eating.

The day before, our hostel manager, who was just wonderful, gave us a list of foods we had to try before leaving Sicily. This seemed important (obviously, I am a Cole, after all), and I wanted to get as many as possible. One of these was a 7 layer chocolate cake, and another was an Arancini. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but an Arancini was described as being a ball of rice and meat, deep fried. Sounds excellent, if you ask me. So, with the knowledge that we were going to eat all of that later that night, we stopped a the gelato place again. Best decision ever. Seriously, it was so good, I couldn't not go back. Then we headed to the bakery, to pick up a couple slices of cake to save for later (at least we saved them for later). Despite our desire to eat ourselves into comas, go to bed early, and be rested for our flight the next day, we succumbed to peer pressure and decided to go out with the rest of the group.

We all went to the restaurant that the hostel guy recommended for Arancini, which we later found out is apparently run by the mafia. Well, if that's true, the mafia makes one mean Arancini. This thing was amazing. It literally was just a giant ball of rice, meat and cheese, covered in batter and fried. America couldn't have done it any better. I know that you are probably disgusted by my gluttony right now, but hey, WHEN IN ITALY. It's like our hostel manager told us: "When you come to Sicily, you gain 3 kilos." Oh well, the 10 pounds that I likely gained in the past week were totally worth it. Then we went out for a while, but came back much earlier than the other night because we had to fly the next day and flying after a night of partying cannot possibly be enjoyable. We enjoyed our cake before bed and it was delicious as well. There were a list of other foods and restaurants that we were recommended, but we were on a budget and only had so much time. I seriously had some of the best food I've ever had there though. I even had to get another Arancini in the airport the next day just because it was soooo good. Ugh. My diet starts tomorrow.

So that pretty much concludes the trip to Sicily. Our day of returning to Madrid was very long. We flew back to Rome, and then had a 5 hour layover before our flight to Madrid. This was made worse by the fact that crappy budget airlines don't check your bags or check you in all the way through, so we had to check in and do the whole security deal twice. Security in Europe is a joke though. In Rome, I went through and set the alarm off. He made me go again. I set it off again. He told me to just go. So safe. Also, as they checked in a colleague they were all laughing and making what I'm pretty sure were bomb jokes. I know I don't speak, Italian, but I'm really not sure what other context you can use "explosivo" in. I'm pretty sure if a TSA worker says "explosive" in any context, he gets fired and probably sent to Guantanamo (jokes, but you get my drift). I'm pretty used to airport layovers by this point though, so it wasn't too bad. The flight from Palermo was uncomfortably turbulent and so I was not doing very well. You'd think I'd be better at this whole flying thing by now, but it still horrifies me. After that experience, I decided to zonk myself out with a couple benadryl for the flight back to Madrid. We got in around 10:30, both exhausted, full and ready to be back in our own beds.

Overall, I'd say it was a very successful trip. Although Sicily wasn't what we expected, we had a really good time, met a lot of interesting people, and ate a lot of delicious food. Also, I'm really learning to enjoy the more "off the beaten path" kind of traveling. It's interesting to see and do things that not everybody has done and that you haven't been seeing pictures of for your entire life.

Only one trip is left for the rest of the semester - Barcelona, this coming weekend, so I'll write about that aftewards. More updates on Madrid to come soon as well. Here are some pictures, but you know the drill:

Palermo!

Cathedral

Most amazing thing ever

Seriously

Cefalu!

Beach - try to imagine it without the haze

La Roca. Which we didn't climb. That probably would've resulted in us dying.

Cefalu Cathedral

Agrigento!

Temple of Herakles

I'm so cool.

Temple of Juno

View from the Temples

The Sicilian countryside is gorgeous

Weeee!

ARANCINI!

Nam nam nam!

Semana Santa Part 1: Rome - Ruins, Statues, Overpriced Gelato and More

This is going to be a long one. The last week has been filled with more ruins, statues, trivia on ancient Rome, pizza and gelato than anyone probably needs in a lifetime. That's why I decided to split it into 2 blogs - one about Rome and one about Sicily. I just got back last night, but I wanted to write it now while it's still all fresh in my mind.

I think it goes without saying that I had been looking forward to this break for a long time. Living the cushy lifestyle of a college student means that going from January to April with no break seems like an eternity. All my friends in Boston had their spring break a month ago, and they're finished with classes in 2-3 weeks, while I still have another 6 weeks here. The break from classes was much needed, but it feels a little surreal now that it's actually over. Fortunately, now I am refreshed and ready to get back to life in Madrid. This break was also kind of strange in that it was certainly not a typical Spring Break. Last year, I spent a week in Florida with my two best friends, and most of my friends this year traveled to some beach-like location to spend a week of doing nothing but sitting in the sand and sleeping until noon everyday. My break was busy, somewhat hectic, and I don't think I slept past 8 more than once. Hm.

Ok so, with that preface, my break started last Friday when I flew to Rome. My friend Kelly had the week before off as well so she was already in Venice and took a train down to meet me. I got into the Rome Fiumicino Airport around 7 and promptly realized that the Rome Fiumicino airport is actually really freaking far from Rome. I begrudgingly paid 8 dollars to take a bus into the city center (the cheapest option) and grumbled about how a city with a metro should ALWAYS have the metro attached to the airport. I had brought a sufficient amount of cash with me and I was DETERMINED to not spend anymore than what I had brought, so this first blow was not very promising. This was the first of many instances which would further solidify my conviction that Rome is one giant tourist trap. So after the hour bus ride to Termini train station, I attempted to get to my hostel. The directions the hostel gave from the train station said that there was some kind of trolley. I found no signage for said trolley, nor did I see a trolley, nor is the train station equipped with any kind of tourist information counter. Kind of a paradox- despite being a tourist trap, Rome is actually HORRIBLE with giving tourists any kind of guidance. I also knew that the hostel was easily accessible by metro, so I headed down, only to be accosted my some gypsies trying to get me to give them money for telling me that the line I needed was closed. Yep. Rome has 2 metro lines, and one of them closes at 9pm. Genius. One of the metro security guards told me that I could take the bus, but said that it didn't matter which direction I took it. WRONG. Neither of the buses he told me were going to the place I needed. Frustrations were mounting by this point. I knew that the hostel was supposed to be within walking distance of the train station, but walking alone, with all my luggage, in the dark, in a strange city where I don't speak the language didn't exactly sound like a genius idea. My desire for frugality is exceeded only by my desire to not be attacked in some creepy dark alleyway. So, I sucked it up and took a cab. I think that the taxi driver sensed my frustrations, so he was nice and didn't charge my all the weird extra fees they tack on to rob the tourists, and I ended up paying only 10 euro, instead of the 20 I was told it would be. That made up for the situation a little. I finally made it to the hostel around 10:30 and Kelly was there waiting for me. She had eaten on the train down from Venice but I was starving, so we were told by the hostel staff that we should be able to find something around the Coliseum. No big deal. Our hostel was in a great location - only about a 10 minute walk from there. So, my first night in Rome, I took a casual stroll by the amazing lit up Coliseum, which was pretty awesome. We shared a Margherita Pizza and each got some gelato (the first of many to come), and headed back to plan the days ahead and get some sleep.

So, for those of you who have been to Rome, you know that it's a behemoth of sites and attractions. Kelly and I both had it as one of our number one destinations to visit, so we had agreed to only do 2 cities over Spring Break so that we could spend 4 days there. Other groups that we knew were going all out and doing 4 or 5 cities in the week off, which I'm really glad we didn't. Having a lot of time in Rome was great, and even with 4 days, planning our time was still an overwhelming task.

The first day, we wanted to hit the Coliseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill. Those are all right next to each other, centered around Constantine's arch, and all pretty time consuming so we thought it would be good to just knock them out all at once. Sadly, when we arrived at the Coliseum, we found a line which would have ended in us losing our entire day. So, we decided to go over to the Forum and Palatine first, where the line was much shorter. Once we reached the front of the line, we realized something amazing. It was culture week, meaning that all the national landmarks, museums, monuments etc. were FREE! YES!!!! It was over on Sunday, so we had 2 days to do as much as possible to save money. We were thrilled to skip the 12 euro fee to enter the Palatine and happy that for once we could get the audioguide, since we hadn't spent any money to get in. We spent 3 hours seeing all the ruins of the Forum and the Palatine and it was very interesting. Kelly is a huge Classics nerd so she was constantly rattling off facts about Roman emperors and society. The Forum also contains the alleged exact spot where Julius Caesar died, which is covered in flowers and postcards. Apparently people are still mourning his death. There also seems to be a current obsession with Nero, despite the fact that all he really did was go crazy and kill a bunch of people, including his own mother. Funny how those are the guys who get remembered.

After leaving the Forum, we went over to the Coliseum again and the line was MUCH shorter, but that was only because it was closing at 2 that day. Whoops. We were a little worried about having to do it another day, but that's the advantage of giving yourself enough time in one place. We scrapped plan A, and decided to move on to some stuff we had planned for the next day to make room for the Coliseum. We stopped for some lunch at a cart and paid an absurd 7 euros for a slice of pizza and a water bottle. Tourist trap. You should never have to pay 7 FREAKING EUROS for lunch from a cart That was the only time I paid for water the whole trip since after that I started carrying around my reusable, despite how ridiculous it makes me look. We walked past the Forum of Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and Nerva. All of these make sense except for Nerva because NOBODY has ever heard of him, including us. This was where our enormous list of things to google when we got back to the hostel began. These are all mostly just ruins, except for Trajan's column, which is very well preserved. Then we came across this enormous, white marble monument and neither of us had any idea what it was. We checked our map and saw that it is Vittorio Emanuelle II's monument. This didn't really help because we had no idea who he was - add it to the google list. We were now on one of the main drags of Rome, Plaza Cavour, and decided to head to the Trevi Fountain. It was a nightmare. I don't know if Rome was just so busy because it was the beginning of Holy Week, or because it was culture week, or just because it's always like that, but we had to fight our way to the front to get our tourist pics and make our wishes. We also then realized that neither of us really knew why the Trevi Fountain was famous - another thing to google. Next, we headed up to the Spanish steps, which you really couldn't' see because they were also covered in people. Check that off the list. Then we continued on the the Piazza de Popolo, which I still don't really know the significance of, but it was quite pretty and there was some kind of Jesus Superstar presentation going on, which was interesting. We sat for a while and contemplated the fountain, statues and obelisk, and then both realized that we were dying for a mid-afternoon coffee. The curse of being accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle. So we went on a hunt for reasonably priced coffee - not an easy task. We managed to find a little shop on a side street and paid only 1.50 - still not cheap, but better than the 4 euro most places were asking for. Ridiculous. After this we headed south again toward the Ara Pacis - yay for culture week and getting in for free. The Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace) was commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13 BC after Augustus' return from conquering Hispania and Gaul (present day Spain and France), as this was the beginning of Pax Augusta. It's covered in various friezes depicting Augustus's family and the power of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This was a piece that I studied extensively in Art History, so it was really cool to see it in real life. After this, we were wandering and we ran into Kelly's friend from Venice and her boyfriend, who was visiting for break. She and Kelly had ridden the train down together and we were supposed to be meeting them for dinner later that night. We agreed to meet in one hour, so Kelly and I ran over to the Pantheon to squeeze in one more thing for the day. Pantheon actually means "to all Gods" and was commissioned in 126 by Emperor Hadrian as a temple to all the Gods of ancient Rome. It has since been converted into a Catholic Church. It was quite impressive, but I wish we had gone when it was lighter out to get the whole dome effect.

After we were satisfied with our pictures, we headed back to Cavour to find Scholar's, the place we were meeting Emily and Jason. Emily knew of Scholar's because her sister studied in Rome a few years ago and it was her favorite place. That being said, it's an Irish Pub. So very Italian of us. But the food was good and the atmosphere was nice. All the waiter's spoke English, which is usually a plus. After eating, we left to get some gelato near the Pantheon, and Emily and Jason decided to turn in for the night. Kelly and I were torn between our desire to go out, and the knowledge that we had to get up early the next day to beat the lines at the Coliseum. The college students in us won that battle and we headed back to Scholar's, where the Real Madrid and Barcelona game was on, so it was a zoo. It was a lot of fun though and we ended up meeting a bunch of not only Spanish people, but people from all over who had congregated to watch the game. Yay for not paying for a single drink all night. We ended up not going home until around 2, but meeting people from different countries is one of the best parts of traveling, so I'd say the next day's exhaustion was worth it.

The Coliseum opens at 8:30, so our goal was to get up at 7:30 and be there a little before it opened and hopefully avoid an enormous line. Given our decisions the night before, it's not hard to guess that, that didn't actually happen. We woke up at 8:30, which was still pretty impressive, got to the Coliseum a little after 9, only to find another enormous line. Oh the curses of culture week. Fortunately for us, we found a loophole. The tickets we had bought at the Forum the day before, we also valid for entry to the Coliseum. We showed the guards that we already had the tickets and the let us surpass the line and go right in. SCORE! From then on, we told everyone we met to go the Forum first, because it seriously saves your entire day. After getting inside the Coliseum, we got an audioguide and began the tour. It actually took us a lot less time than I had expected. Of course, it is impressive and awe-inspiring, but there's not really much to do other than walk around and get a good look at it. We spent about an hour and half inside before we felt we had had our fill.

After this, we walked over the the National Museum. This is filled with artifacts, mostly from ancient Rome, ranging from Roman coins, to sarcophagi, to some of the most famous ancient Roman statues, including the Seated Boxer, the Via Labicana Statue of Augustus and the Discobolus. Once again, these were a lot of things I had studied in art history, so it was great to seem them. The coin exhibits were also really interesting. The Romans were really into their propaganda. The sarcophagi are always impressive as well. You can only look at statues for so long though. Eventually, we ended up imitating all the statues we saw and taking pictures of said imitations. Go America. We spent about 2 hours here, until we were ready for lunch.

We managed to find a restaurant that didn't charge you for seating, which seemed like a miracle, so we ate and ended up spending around 10 euro each, including dessert. Then, we went on a little excursion to a small church called Santa Maria della Vittora, which I wanted to visit because it houses the famous statue "The Ectasy of Saint Teresa." For those of you who don't know the story behind this, it's sort of awkward to explain, so I'll let you go to google for that one. Just know that it's a High Roman Baroque, done by Bernini, so it's legit and that's why I wanted to see it. After that little excursion, we went to the nearby baths of Diocletian, which are basically just ruins at this point. Back in the day (306 AD), they were the most extravagant public baths ever, with an area of 120,000 square meters and the capacity to hold about 3,000 people. Sounds super hygienic. After Rome collapsed everyone started bulding through them and in 1562, Pope Pius IV decided to build a Basilica right on top of them. Great plan. We still spent a lot of time there, looking at the ruins and reading about the history, plus there's a museum attached which houses a bunch of old artifacts. We also found a coffee machine with 35 cent cappuccino and we stayed long enough just so we could have 2.

By the time we left the Baths, the day was pretty much over and we were losing daylight. We started heading back to the hostel and stopped at a little cheapy looking restaurant for some dinner, which we fortunately only spent 7 euros on. By the time we got back to the hostel, we were wiped so we headed to bed pretty much immediately.

Day 3 (yes, we're only on day 3) was another big one - the Vatican. We decided to let ourselves sleep in and take a little piece of advice from our favorite travel writer Rick Steves, who said that if you go around noon, the lines will have died down. Spoiler alert: he was wrong. We woke up around 9:30, had our free hostel breakfast, and decided to run to the store. After spending way too much money on food, we wanted to go buy some sandwich supplies for our lunches for the next 2 days. 9 euro for everything we needed including fruit and cookies. Win. During breakfast, we had been chatting with an American girl who had just arrived at the hostel. She was studying in Chester, England, but on 3 week break for their reading period. She was in Rome for 3 days and traveling by herself, so we invited her to join us.

Upon arriving at the Vatican, we sadly discovered that Rick Steves was wrong. The line for the Vatican Museum was a monstrosity, so we headed over to St. Peter's first. I'm not sure how to describe St. Peter's to you, other than to say that it was as incredible as it's made out to be. From the outside in St. Peter's Square, you don't recognize it right away because the dome is sort of hidden in the background. They were also preparing for Easter so the plaza was a zoo, with rows of chairs all lined up. The inside is absolutely breathtaking though and the dome is even more massive then you would imagine. I wanted to see the Papal Tombs, but the line was really long and we knew we were going to have a long wait to get into the museum, so we skipped it. I guess that's the drawback of coming to Rome during Holy Week.

The line for the museum was still long, but we really didn't have a choice. We weren't going to come back the next day, and the Vatican was the only thing on the agenda for that day, so we waited. For 2 hours. They need those signs, like at Disneyland. It really wasn't too bad though. Since we had just met Michelle, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other and swapping stories about being a foreigner in Europe. Her impression of England was basically that a lot of the people were very closed off and hard to get to know. She had been to Cinque Terre before coming to Rome, so we talked about that since I was just there. Also, turns out she's going to be in Barcelona the same weekend that Kelly and I are going, so maybe we'll even see her again. Meeting people while traveling is always so interesting. We continued sharing our experiences, ate our sandwiches, and eventually made it to the front of the line.

The Vatican Museum, like the line to get into it, is a monster. I had no idea how much was in there. It houses everything from ancient Roman artifacts, to tapestries from the Middle Ages, to Renaissance masterpieces. Of course, the main reasons everyone goes are for the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Stanze. But the Vatican, in all its wisdom, put these at the very back, so you have to look at everything else before you get to them. It was extremely crowded, and not really that pleasant of an experience, but it was worth it to see some of the world's most prized works of art. Despite the fact that I have no creative or artistic ability, I still appreciate it and I love learning the history behind it all.

The Raphael Stanze was commissioned by Popo Julius II in 1508 for his private library in the Vatican Palace. Julius died in 1513, but the work was continued under the direction of the Medici Pope Leo X. The Stanze is a series of frescoes on the walls of 4 rooms. Many of them are tributes to Constantine, as he was the one who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. These include the Baptism of Constantine, the Vision of the Cross and the Donation of Constantine. There are also many which depict bible stories. Arguably the most famous of the frescoes is the School of Athens, which is a tribute to the intellectual fervor of the Renaissance, and is supposed to portray the acquisition of truth through reason. It was supposed to go over the philosophy section of the Pope's library. This work includes portraits of Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and Raphael himself, among other innovative thinkers. Ok, I will stop sounding like a text book now.

Next, we came to the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who haven't been there, pictures don't even do it justice. The sheer size of it, not to mention the detail of all the individual paintings, makes it seem impossible that it took Michelangelo a mere 4 years to complete. It was also commissioned by Julius II, and completed from 1508-1512. We sat for a while, just observing the frescoes, and ended up getting into some interesting conversations about what it all meant. One of the most famous paintings, The Creation of Adam, is thought by many historians to actually portray the human brain. If you look at the shape of the huddle in which God is flying, you can't really deny that it looks like a brain. Studies have shown that the different figures actually represent different parts of the brain as well. Interesting. Also, many historians believe that in another image, which portrays the Pope, a nearby baby is giving him the Medieval equivalent of the finger. Seeing as how Julius II was openly called "Papa Terrible," "the "Warrior Pope" and was generally disliked, maybe Michelangelo was just letting out some frustration. God only knows how many secret images are in there (hehe). It was pretty incredible though. After sitting for a while, we had to leave because the museum was closing.

After the Vatican, we walked across the Tiber River to Piazza Navona and sat for a little while. There are way too many plazas in Rome, Then, we wandered over to see some ruins that Kelly wanted to look at, Area Sacra di Torre Argentina, where 4 Roman temples and a theater used to stand. It is also currently a no-kill shelter for homeless cats. Adorable. By now, we were pretty hungry, so we walked over to Campo de Fiori, and popular bar/restaurant area, and stopped for some dinner. This was the only time we really ate a real restaurant. I had pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce - it was pretty good, but not worth the 11 euros I spent on it. Not really interested in spending another night out in Rome, we headed back to the hostel after dinner, stopping for some gelato along the way.

Ok. Last day in Rome. Since we felt that we had pretty much exhausted all of our Roman sites, we decided to take a little day trip up to Tivoli to see Hadrian's Villa and Michelle joined us again. The bus ride was only about an hour, and finding the Villa was somewhat challenging (once again, poor tourist infrastructure) BUT it was definitely worth it. It may have actually been my favorite part of Rome. It was constructed during Hadrian's reign, in the 2nd century AD as a getaway for the emperor. Although it is mostly ruins now, the unique thing about this site is that you actually get to walk around and interact with the ruins, rather than just seeing them from behind a gate. Many parts of it are still well preserved, like the baths, the theater and the water gardens. The complex is absolutely enormous and has beautiful views of Tivoli and the countryside surrounding the area. Although there was more in Rome that we could've done, I'm really glad we took that trip because the Villa was well worth it. We stopped for some gelato (again) on our way back to the bus, and headed back to the city. After getting back into Rome, we decided to run to the market and buy some pasta to cook - another good money saver. It was actually really delicious. Although our flight didn't leave until 12 the next day, getting to the airport is an ordeal, and you can never be too careful with the budget airlines, so we had to get up pretty early anyway. After an exhausting 4 days, we were looking forward to spending some time in the much less site-intensive Sicily.

So that pretty much concludes the Rome portion of the trip. Sorry it was so long haha. Rome is somewhere that I've always wanted to go, and I'm glad that I was able to have the experience. Now that I've done it though, I'm not sure if I would ever do it again. It's hectic, busy, crowded, expensive and pretty much a giant tourist trap. But there's so many amazing things to see, it's worth it to deal with all of that, but probably just once.

Note - Google Search Results:
Nerva: Nerva was emperor from 96-98, only 15 months, which is probably why nobody has heard of him. He was 65 when he became emperor, after a lifetime of service to Nero. Poor guy.

Vittorio Emmanuelle II: The King of Italy from 1861-1878, during the wars of Italian Unification. He is so important because he is regarded as the person who successfully united Sardinia, Savoy, Piedmont, and other feuding regions into one.

Trevi Fountain: The site of the fountain used to be the terminal point of the city's aqueduct and the actual fountain was constructed beginning in 1730 under the commission of Pope Clement XII. I guess it's just famous because it's awesome. An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day.

Yay for learning!

Here are some pictures, but check out facebook to see everything: