Week break - Destination: Italy & Spain

Hello - Bonjourno - Hola - Hi!
8 days, 5 cities, and crazy times!

Be prepared for a MEGA post!
I don't even know where to begin to describe this amazing experience; words will never fully describe it in all its justice, but here goes! Shout out to my mamcita and Jim who are currently trekking through New Zealand in celebration of their wedding anniversary and mama's birthday! Thank you for always keeping me grounded, but letting me spread my wings and fly!

Friday, Saturday, 10.16-17.2008 - Destination: Stanstead London Airport
I basically lost a day of my life because well...I never slept to end Friday and I never woke up to a Saturday. Our flight via Ryanair left at 6:35am on Saturday morning, the tube closes at 12am and opens again at 6am, therefore the best and only real way to get there was my bus, walking, and then coach. We left the flat at 2am and made our way over to Stanstead Airport. It's roundabout travels and inconvenient times like these that allow students with small budgets to travel far and wide. On the positive side, it makes for some pretty good laughs. The night buses in London are notorious for drunks because they run all night, so there we were - at least eight girls and one very tall boy with all our luggage amongst the drunks and the annoyed bus driver. It also doesn't help that the buses are usually late because most of the drivers figure that its late, they're picking up the pissed (drunk in London lingo!) who don't really have a sense of time anyway!

ON A SIDE NOTE: British men aren't so fabulous. I mean yes, sure there's the accent and everything - but that only lasts so long. Their hygiene isn't up to par and apparently they don't believe in orthodontist because I haven't met a single English lad with straight teeth! Though I'm not looking for a person of the opposite gender (HI DERRICK :D), its always interesting to see whose heads you make turn. Living amongst 10 other women and in place of the lack of television, the love lives of my flatmates has become the new soap to watch! So while a large handful are having some sort of romance, while other hearts are being broken - my newly discovered long lost twin sister from different mothers (Justine!) and I discovered that the only attention that we manage to pool fall into one of the following categories:
* the over 40 crowd (umm...hi gross dude, do you realize you could be my dad?!?!)

* construction workers (it's in their blood?)

* bus drivers
* creepy, self absorbed weirdos (hi, could you BE anymore into yourself?)
so please imagine how I felt when a 40+ year old Indian bus driver handed me his number on my out....he had the broken, just from India, English accent and everything! On the plus side...if the GBP decides to gives the USD a run for its money overnight by the end of my stay here in London (knock on wood!), I might give him a call just for the free meal...JUST KIDDING!

Saturday, 10.18.08 - Destination 1: Pisa

Bonjourno! from Pisa, Italy. Barely an hour off the plane, some puzzling stares at the ticket machine and language barriers and the lot of us are off to see the leaning tower and grab our first cone of gelato! Aside from the tower....there's not much to do there, so when in Pisa, please do the following:
* travel over to the leaning Tower with all your luggage, it's what all the cool people are doing
* take a normal picture for Mom with the tower behind you
* take a pushing/kicking/leaning picture with the tower. I wish I had taken a picture of all the people doing this, because literally EVERYONE in Pisa is either taking a picture, having their picture taken, or trying to sell you something.

Saturday, 10.18.08 - Destination: Firenze!
A train ride later...we reach Firenze and after a few wrong turns of the map and a hike down multiple skinny city streets we find our hostel. In steep contrast to London, it was HOT! I was not prepared!!! Despite the lack of sleep with the conclusion of Finals and our morning spent traveling, we all headed out to explore. After spiraling down multiple skinnier streets and getting lost, we found this restaurant that was supposed to be gosh darn amazing - but - it was closed! Why? Italians just don't eat dinner at 4:30p.m.! hahaha. So instead, we found a small cafe, took advantage of their happy hour special of pizza Margarita and fanta! About 12 pizzas later we took a much needed hike to Piazza Michelangelo which has THE best view of Firenze EVER:

Sunday, 10.19.08 - Destination: Cinq Terre - Riomaggiore & Manarola!

Being as warm as it was and convinced by a recommendation (SHOUT OUT to CATHERINE ABALOS!), five of us girls decided to break away from the larger group and escape North! We trekked back to the train station the next morning and took the first train to Cinq Terre where my craving for "Italy" was fulfilled. It was literally everything that I had pictured Italy to be, down to the window covers, the laundry lines, and rotund, wrinkly Italian grandmothers yelling across the way from their windows. Technology has not severely impacted or commericalized this region the way Firenze, Pisa, or Roma has been. Though it was a tourist spot, I felt it was our little secret. The heels are steep, the greenery lush and vibrant, the population - elderly but it GREAT shape! We hiked along the steep streets of Riomaggiore, ate varieties of foccacia bread (I am a prouder epicureans of anchovies, tomatoes, and cheese!) and wet our feet in the Medditerranean Sea in our own private beach! Manarola was just as gorgeous, but a wee bit more rocky. When I grow old and decide that I've through with the city - I've decided that I will be one of those rotund, wrinkly grandmothers yelling from the windows of Riomaggiore.

Favorite place in Italy: Marina in Riomaggiore

Monday, 10.20.08 - Destination: Firenze, Roma
Firenze is one of the most walkable cities in the entire world. We were able to get around so easily on foot - it was wonderful! No car, no parking, no worries! Unfortunately we weren't able to see a lot of the famous pieces of art because a lot of the museums are closed on Mondays, but that didn't rain on our parade! We visited The Dome, shopped at the San Lorenzo Market, ate gelato, GIANT calzones, and by night fall; half of us headed to Rome while the others headed to Milan.

In getting to Rome, we decided to budget our travels a bit and instead of taking the 1.5 hour train that would have cost us $100, we took the 4 hour train that cost us about $30. About 3.7594 hours of delirium into the train ride later we saw a sign for ROMA and got SUPER excited due to mad cabin fever. Add excitement, tiredness, anticipation, and ladidadida; we got out of seats and waited for the train to stop and while the doors opened - briefly wondered why the rest of the train wasn't getting up and moving about. So I decided to ask someone. Through some poor Italian and a mix of English, I asked....Roma? Termini? The lady responds...uhhhh...no...um...next! At that moment, the four of us (Melanie, Marysia, Justine, and I) heard the train blow its whistle to close and leave and I swear we might as well have tossed all our luggage backed into the stairwell of train and leap on in because the sliding door nearly missed my bottom when closing! It was the scariest 10 seconds of my life - to have been stuck at Roma Termata at 12 am in the morning; which btw is no where NEAR Roma Termini would not have been fun! Past those 10 seconds were the FUNNIEST 5 minutes ever! I had never laughed so hard in my life!

@ Roma TERMINI Train Station
Marysia, Melanie, Justine & I

WE MADE IT!

Tuesday, Wednesday, 10.21-23.08 - Destination: ROMA

So basically the next two days completely fused together because well we didn't sleep very much! Why? Because there was just TOO much to see and NOT enough time to see it all. The hostel situation was kind of interesting...7 people in one room, one bathroom which was split up into a shower stall (which we thought was the closet) and then the shower/sink area. The hostel provided us a map and the four of us literally walked from West to East the first day from the Vatican City and then North to South the second day. Roma with all its history is a truly great city. Beautiful? Not so much. Lots of graffiti and its been overly commercialized with its McDonald's (right across from the Pantheon!) but luckily no Starbucks (can't stand a chance from the Italia Cappucino!).

In the 72 hours that we were there, we probably only slept 12 of them and were most likely walking the remaining 60 of them, if not eating AND walking. Spanish steps are gorgeous at night. Italian men are quite the gentlemen! I love that they were usually all in suits, at least the ones in Rome. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see a huge crowd of them all dressed. Sometimes old. Sometimes young. Sometimes in between. Downside of Rome: Camera was acting up and being high maintenance, so sadly, I don't have any pictures after the Vatican city to the Colosseum...but I'm working on it!
My favorite part of Rome would have to be....the Trevi Fountain. We saw it at sunset. They were doing some minor repairs to the Fountain so everyone was standing patiently in anticipation. I don't know if it was because of this arrangement or if it was the time of day, but their was something about that fountain that is so beautiful and amazing. I definitely felt a sense of "Italian-ness" as ironic as the sounds given that the crowd was probably 85% tourists and 15% Italian merchants. Nonetheless, I threw two coins in so I'm coming back to Italy someday and finding love in Italy as well!

Thursday-Sunday, 10.23-26.08 - Destination: Madrid, Spain

I swear, if US domestic cities were more interesting and more glamorized like European cities, Ryanair and Easyjet should totally expand their network to include the US! Because even though I have to get up before the sunrises to catch a flight, I love knowing that when I get up from my nap on the airplane I'll be somewhere totally different. And that's exactly what happened in Madrid. Spain so completely different from Italy. In Italia, I felt the need to go go go and see see see EVERYTHING. In Madrid, it hits you smack in the head when you deplane - CALM DOWN. Take it slow....have a sangria - hahaha, okay, so maybe not THAT slow, but you get the point. Madrid (despite the heavy inhalation of second hand smoke, and I mean even rivaling Las Vegas!) was a vacation from a vacation. It was warm, but not too hot. The pace of life was slow. There were siestas. Lots of walking, but no rush to get anywhere in particular too quickly.

SHOUT OUT to SILVIA SANCHEZ! who supplied me with lots of good places to hang out in Madrid! Over the three nights we spent here, we hung out in Calle Mayor, Sol, and Retiro Park. They have a metro system that rivals London's, but having just come from Italy, we didn't need it. Tapas were wonderful. The Spanish are serious about their ham. Bear and Strawberries is the place to meet and sangria is the house drink - always and everywhere.
My favorite part of this trip had to be...the CHOCOLATE CON CHURROs (extremely SINFUL! but OH SO good!!!) and rowing boats in the middle of Park Retiro. For about 4.5 Euro for a boat fitting up to 4 people, you had a little piece of heaven for about 45mins to an hour. It was fabulous. Don't mess with the Spanish with living the good life!

Sunday, 10.26.08 - Destination: London
We were back to FREEZING London by 930pm on Sunday! It was freezing. It's cloudy with patches of sunshine and the daytime high is at 30 degrees F. Oh and btw, it snowed last night! Not enough to stick, but it was the first time it had snowed in London in October for 70 years! It was truly amazing, magical, and giddy! I'm finally living in the winter wonderland of boots, coats, and public transportation...plus the funny accent.

One of my flatmates is SUPER into Halloween. So yesterday, in the joy of Halloween, Gillian and I carved pumpkins for our flat. Unfortunately, Halloween isn't as hyped up over here as it is in the United States, which is a bit of bummer, but here were our masterpieces!

Today was the first day of our internships. Until December 18th, three times a week, I will be working for Other* Creative. I'm not really quite sure what they do just yet because the head hauncho lady was out on holiday, as was the Creative Director, and the blah blah blah. So tomorrow, will be my second, but real first day.

This weekend will be my first weekend in London since I first touched down in London Heathrow nearly...6 weeks (?) ago! I've been go go go for awhile so it's gonna be good to have a few weekends off. Nonetheless I've been truly blessed to have such a supporting family and the opportunity to go out and explore the world.

It's funny how you think you really do have a feel for a world...but the moment you step out of it, you realize that you did know the world - the only world you knew. They say ignorance is bliss? I beg to differ. Every person that I've encountered on this trip has taught me something. Whether they were the man that dropped me a line to go into his store, the woman in Prague that wouldn't give me direction, the guy in Dublin that told me how to spend my day, or even the lady that handed me my cone in Italy; not to mention any of the nth people either living with me in my immediate flat or building - has impacted me in someway somehow. When I left to study abroad, a good friend told me that she was worried for me - that I would come back to the United States and hate it. Another person I really look up to also told me that she can't sit still for more than a month before jetting off to somewhere. Though my time here in London isn't over yet, I understand why.

Once you've been bitten by the travel bug, you can't help but want to see more of the world.

Nonetheless, I miss you all in the States! It's mindblowing to think that October is coming to a close and I'll be heading back to the States in about a a month and a half. Seriously...mindblowing.

Give me a few days to update Picassa...internet comes in and out depending on what time of day it is and how many people are on the network, but I promise I'll get around to uploading all these pictures. If you finished reading this post - props to you for being able to read poorly written "thinking." Treat yourself to a cookie, you deserve it for sticking with me this long! MmMm..actually, do me a favor and go to the Mission District and go to Tartine Bakery for any of their lovely things or Bi-Rite Creamery and get some ice cream; or better yet - get both ^^

avec beau-coup joie de vivre,

<3 Kimmie