Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2009
Ok, wow. I have a lot to talk about, don't I! You can blame me a little but cut me some slack; my computer broke! I also had a horrible case of strep throat that made me bedridden for two weeks, didn't respond to the first round of medication, and only went away after I was put on steroids. And I was sent to a gynecologist (because he spoke perfect English). So come on, give me some sympathy!
On the plus side, between my robbery, sickness, and broken computer, I've learned a whole new vocabulary. Rubare = to steal, mal di gola = sore throat, cacciavite = screwdriver, garanzia = warranty. (The most recent addition is terremoto = earthquake, more on that later.)
This is going to be a long entry, hopefully I have the motivation to finish! Let's try this with a more simplified strategy:
Venice
...was amazing for photography. Not only were the alleys and canals picturesque, but the colors were vibrant and amazing. You all know how much I love photographing water, imagine my glee when I arrived on a city built on water! My hostel was super awesome, too. It was more like staying at someone's house than at a hostel. The guy who ran it studied to be a chef in Florence, so he cooked us all dinner one night. All of us sitting around the table was like a UN meeting: Americans, a Canadian, Australians, an Italian, Brazilians, a Russian, etc. The city itself was nice, though it was expensive. We went on a gondola ride, of course, and I annoyed the gondolier by asking him millions of questions. Apparently gondolas are passed down from father to son, so every gondolier that you meet has that history. He's also crashed the boat a few times and fallen off twice! He's never tipped the boat so his passengers fell in (or so he says).
Bologna
was awesome. I wasn't too concerned with sightseeing (what sights are there to see, anyway?) so it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy the vibe of the city instead of frantically trying to get everything done in the short amount of time that we had there. There was a sweeeeet open market there where we spent a lot of our time. This was an expensive trip for me because I did a lot of shopping, but I bought really practical things (jeans, sweatshirt, sunglasses, all of which I wear practically every day). Look at me trying to justify this!
Milan
was nice, but I wasn't overly impressed by it. It seemed pretty dangerous at night and there really wasn't much to do. The Duomo was cool, but how many duomos do I have to pay my (father's) hard-earned money to go in? The coolest part was that it was Carnivale, so all the little kids were dressed up and throwing confetti in the piazza.
Florence
was my first trip alone! I did a daytrip, so I didn't have time to go to the Uffizi (the line was hours long). It was a bummer, but I did all the other major things that there is to do and I spent a lot of time taking photos (which I can't find now) and at the open market. Florence was really pretty and really cool.
Cairo
WAS AWESOME. We all agreed that this was the best trip we could possibly go on. We stayed with Elyse's family friends who work for the State Department at the American Embassy in Cairo, and they were amazing to us. We never felt unsafe (maybe harassed a little, but by relatively harmless men who had never seen a western woman) and they were more than hospitable. They gave us a tour of real Egypt, which we all appreciated. Of course we did the pyramids and the tourist things (not the Khan because there was a bombing there two weeks before we left), but we also went to a camel market (I have amazing pictures of this, we were the only Westerners there are there were more camels than people) and to an orphanage in a neighborhood called Garbage City. We all went home with a better appreciation of how lucky we are in life. Pardon the cliche.
Prague
was really pretty. And coooooold!! Kind of a shock for me, going from the 95 degrees of Egypt to the 10 degrees of Prague. We stayed in the nicest hostel in the world. Also the cheapest. Prague was cool because it was a quaint little town that was actually a huge, bustling city. Czech is the most impossible language, I've decided. We also went to a Mexican restaurant (they don't like ethnic food in Italy). I'm STILL thinking about it, that's how amazing it was.
Barcelona
was amazing. I loved the colors, the vibrancy, the energy of the city. It basically made me want to learn Spanish AND to go to Mexico. I know, I know, they're different countries, but I'll have to practice my Spanish somewhere! And I feel as though Mexican travel will be a lot more feasible than European travel from now on. My hostel was REALLY cool, it was basically a home. The owners were really nice and welcoming, and they spoke to me in French after they found out that I (kind of) knew it. The owner's father didn't speak English, so I didn't have a choice but to speak French to him. One of the owners told me to never ever forget French because I shouldn't be afraid of branching away from English. I didn't tell him that my "French" is really Fretalian now and that every day that I spend here I lose more and more. (But he knew after I told him that his hostel was "molto joli".)
Malta
is basically my favorite place in the world. It was beautiful, the weather was great, everyone spoke English (it's an official language), it has interesting history, I was the only American on the island, and everyone was so excited when they found out I was American! It was so weird. Basically, Malta is Italy with a bunch of British people. I took an excursion to Gozo, Malta's sister island, one day. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. SO pretty, SO interesting. I'm so glad I did it!! I stayed with Auntie Toni, a friend of the family whom I had never previously met, and she was a great host. Summary: Malta = yay.
Catania
This is where my story gets interesting. I flew into Trapani, the opposite side of Sicily from Catania, where I had a hostel reservation. I was prepared to spend all day on trains. First, I took a bus to Palermo, but not the one that I meant to go on, so I had to navigate my way through the city to find the train station. When the train finally came, I couldn't help but laugh out loud; it only had two cars! It was like the short bus of trains. I had to take the train to Caltanisetta, where I had a transfer to Catania. But I've learned that things never work how they should in Italy. The train stopped at a random station between Palermo and Caltanisetta, the employees told us to get off, and so we did. Meanwhile, nobody spoke English, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I finally found a guy who spoke English and was going to Catania... I decided to follow him around. He was from Ecuador, but his English was so perfect that when he told me he was from South America, I thought he said South Africa. He found three Italians, around our age, who were going to Caltanisetta and promised that they would help us find our way to Catania. We figured, "what do we have to lose?" and got on a train with them. The train basically took us into the middle of nowhere. One of the guys kept saying "we are in the middle of nowhere!" and since he was a native Sicilian, that was anything but comforting. From there, we took a bus to Caltanisetta. By the time we got there, though, the last train to Catania that night had left. One of the Italians invited me to stay with her. I know I just met her, it was risky, etc etc, but here were my options: a) go stay at her house with her family, b) sleep at the train station, c) wander around an unfamiliar city at night, alone (unless the Ecuadorian wanted to come), trying to find a hotel. I felt as though A was the best choice, and it was great! Her family was so welcoming and force fed me like a stereotypical Italian family. They also spoke no English, so I got some good practice. I'm pretty sure my Italian improved tenfold from the time I spent in Sicily. They said that I spoke Italian very well. 😊!! We all went to one of their friend's houses after dinner and they were so entertaining! I woke up the next morning, made it to Catania safely, and did not regret my decision at all. Catania was nice, even if it was a little sketchy. I think I might be becoming too accustomed to European beauty because I didn't find it overwhelmingly pretty, like I had heard. But it was fun, the Ecuadorian and I spent the entire time together, so it was nice not being alone! We did an excursion on Mt. Etna, which was SUPER COOL.
Sorrento
All of my friends here are doing Sorrento, Amalfi, and Capri on the weekend of the 24th, and that's when my parents are coming, so I decided just to do it by myself while I could. Sorrento was so pretty! There was a lot of shopping, and it was all decently priced. My hostel was also part of a day spa, easily the nicest hostel I've ever been in and competing with a lot of my hotels.
Capri
was pretty, but I didn't experience the hype that I've heard so much about it. It was basically all designer shopping and I wasn't really prepared to indulge in that. I did, however, treat myself to the typical Caprese handmade sandals. Even with this purchase, my Sorrento/Capri trip has been my least expensive one so far (I think. Excluding Florence, probably). I'm pretty impressed with myself!
SO those are my trips so far, I'm glad I at least got some thoughts down, even if I didn't go into as much detail as I would if I had written individual entries about each place. My future trips (at least what I'm planning right now), in order: Rimini/San Marino, Croatia, Switzerland, and Greece. And then America, I guess. It's weird that I'm so close to the end!!
So the reason that I had time to write this today was because my professor canceled class due to a "family emergency". There was also an earthquake, magnitude 6.3, this morning at 3:30, 60 miles from Rome. I hope it was just a horrible, horrible coincidence.
I've never been in a major earthquake before, so this is pretty exciting to me. I woke up feeling myself shake. At first I thought it was just that weird feeling that you get when you wake up and your body doesn't know what's going on, then I realized that I was coherent and still shaking. Then, I thought it was my bed shaking, or that I was moving the bed, but I wasn't sure why. I then heard the windows, doors, walls, everything rattling. It was totally creepy!! All of the movement was amplified through my mattress, of course, so it was like I was lying on Jello. This went on for forever, it seemed, and I was still too disoriented from being jostled awake to understand it. It wasn't until after the shaking stopped that I realized that it must be an earthquake. I wasn't sure, hello, I'm from Michigan, so I went on Facebook to see if any of my friends in Italy were online. I also checked the news, then I realized that they probably aren't on top of their game enough to report an earthquake two minutes after it happened, especially since I was checking American news. I figured it was either an earthquake or a bomb went off nearby and we were about to go down (I guess I'm still a little scarred from 9/11?). Meanwhile, two of my roommates and I met in the hallway and said things like "you felt that, right?" The other two remained in their beds, one asleep, the other awake but not realizing why she woke up. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced, my whole world was in motion. My door was closed so it was just shaking violently, but the door that separates the bedrooms from the common areas was apparently open and swinging wildly. My favorite part was realizing that it was an earthquake, seeing lights turning on, and toilets flushing. Guess everyone woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee! Luckily, there was no damage in Rome, but there was really bad damage 60 miles northwest where the epicenter was. Some of my roommates and I are looking into finding out if we can help with the relief effort.
I am completely exhausted from writing now. The State game's on at 3am my time, so I'll be up early/late to watch that. Go green!!!
I promise to write more often, too!
By the way, here are some links to my pictures:
Rome
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2631841&id=2356834&l=81040927d4
Barcelona and Catania
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2677404&id=2356834&l=ce665e4653
Venice, Milan, Bologna, and Prague
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2642356&id=2356834&l=c3fcd3d946
Malta
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2642356&id=2356834&l=c3fcd3d946
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.037s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lizzie
non-member comment
earthquakes = fun!
Some people pay good money to make their beds shake like that!