TravelStream™ news feed for member hahn105 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hahn105 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:09:04 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1229863560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1229863560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1229863560/tpod.html Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:09:04 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Florence, Tuscany, Italy

I am at home... in California... in the United States. Weird. I am also up at 5 in the morning writing this because I haven't adjusted to the time zone yet, oops.
Today was a very long, draining day. I got to Florence airport at about 4:45 am along with about 200 other students wanting to get home. They wouldn't let me take my carry-on backpack on board with me because it was "too big" even though I've used it on every plane trip for the past four months, so they charged me 125 euros to check it. They charged pretty much everyone else too for overweight bags... so the airport made bank yesterday. I got on the plane, but we sat on the runway for an extra hour because we had to wait for half the passengers who were stuck in the money-sucking baggage check-in line lol. So by the time I got to Frankfurt, I was pretty sure I had missed my connecting flight to LA... nonetheless I sprinted across three terminals to see if I could catch it. I got to the gate and the lady says "ooh... sorry. The gate closed 3 minutes ago." At this point I was traveling by myself, and so frustrated, sleep deprived, and sad about leaving Florence that I started sobbing. Crying freaks people out, so she felt obligated to help me out. She looked for other flights on her computer and made some phone calls and said, "wow. This is a problem. All the flights to LA are full for the rest of the month..." which made me cry harder... so she made a few more phone calls. She finally found something for me and told me I was extremely lucky. Now I had to fly from Frankfurt to foggy London town and make a connecting flight there. Yes! So we took off... but due to bad weather, we had to circle around in the air for about 45 minutes... which made me late for my next boarding time. I sprinted across Heathrow airport, cut like 20 people in line at check-in, and told them I had to get on the flight to LA. The guy was like, "ooh.. sorry. That flight is closed." Again, I started the water-works. And again, he made a magical phone call that made the flight un-full. I'm starting to notice a pattern. Anyway, so moral of the story, everything works out in the end if you cry really hard. And plus! I got upgraded to the "Premium" section and was served champagne right when I sat down on the plane. The good life. 

Aside from this drama, I couldn't have asked for a better last week in Florence. I spent most of my time with the people who meant most to me there, which is what made it so memorable. Finals were surprisingly stressful for such a chill semester. One night I stayed up really late studying because I had three exams in one day. When I woke up, Caryn and Carli were smiling and had french toast waiting for me on the table. Such thoughtful girls. The last few days there, my friends and I just kind of soaked up the city and went to all of our favorite places one last time. Last night, we decided to get dressed up and go out to a nice farewell dinner overlooking the river at a restaurant called Golden View. It was probably the best food I have eaten all semester, and the waiters were a lot of fun so we had a great time. We then had our last gelato at Grom... I already have separation anxiety from this place. Oh yea, we also returned our christmas bush back to the streets of Florence, still decorated. We didn't steaaal him... we nurtured him and made him pretty. I wonder if he's still there. The rest of the night we hung out with Garrett and just stayed up talking and reminiscing. It was really hard to say goodbye to Garrett because he has been one of my closest friends at Chapman for the past two years, and now he's transferring to Arizona... so this was our last semester together. :( I hate goodbyes. Saying bye to the girls early the next morning was also horrible. They live on the east coast, so at least we still live in the same country... but I know it's going to be hard to see each other. It's worth the effort though. 

Overall, this was the most incredible life-changing experience. I feel so lucky to have gotten to do so much, see so many places, meet so many beautiful people. Here is what I will miss the most, in no particular order.
-As I've already stated, I'm going to miss my new friends like crazy. We aren't going to talk about it any more because it makes me sad.
-I will miss spur of the moment trips. Never again on a weekend will I be able to throw some clothes in a backpack, hop on a train, and go to a different country for a few days. It's like this adventurous bug that bites you, and you're never the same afterwards. You constantly need to see new places and gain new experiences. I am addicted to travel now, and I hope that it's an addiction I can feed for the rest of my life. Just in smaller doses from now on, I suppose.
-I will miss the culture of Italy. The food, the lifestyle, the people. The narrow streets lined with 600 year old buildings. The appreciation of art, everywhere. People really know how to get the most of out life over there. It makes me want to slow life down a little bit... stop stressing out, take a few hours out of every day and just do whatever makes me happy. "Va bene."
-I will miss the walk from my apartment to school. I took it for granted after a while because I did it about 5 times a day... but I loved walking through the heart of Florence, dodging vespas at the cross-walk, ignoring creepy stand owners at the market (okay, I might not miss that part), and grabbing a 30 cent espresso outside of class. I think I could do it by heart with my eyes closed. 
-I will miss the view out of my bedroom window. It overlooked the main shopping street of the city, so I can't tell you how many random parades, protests, musical performers, and just weird ass people I creepily watched with Jess when we were bored. At first it took a while getting used to all the loud people and the cathedral bells, especially when trying to sleep... but now I think it will always be too quiet without it.
Things I will not miss?
-I will not miss those horrible little devil mosquitos that consumed half of my body's blood supply over the semester. 
-I will not miss the language barrier. I wish more than anything that languages came more naturally to me, and it is probably my biggest regret that I wasn't able speak more Italian. That was my most difficult class, and I was definitely the slow kid lol. But yeah, knowing the language would have opened a lot more doors while there... it was very difficult to meet and communicate with some awesome people because we couldn't really get past "Ciao! Come ti chiami? Di dove sei?......" (hi, what is your name, where are you from.) 
-I will not miss the laundromat. We had a washing machine in our apartment, but it didn't work because our landlord insisted "our american computers broke it".... ???? Which obviously makes no sense. So we had to lug our laundry and walk 15 minutes to the closest laundromat. It cost about 20 euros to wash and dry two loads. Such a waste of money.
-Finally, I will not miss the distance between my friends and family. I'm so excited to see everyone again, and not have to rely on skype or facebook!!
And now we reach the end of my final journal entry. Hope whoever actually reads this enjoyed it, I had fun sharing and reliving everything! 
Here's the link to my last photo album:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078548&l=8c799&id=35805155
Arrivaderci ;)


 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1228956060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1228956060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1228956060/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:19:33 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Siena, Tuscany, Italy

I am way behind in this travel blog business so I am going to play catch up! Sooo I officially leave Italy in 10 days. This whole semester has gone by impossibly fast. Yet as much as I hate thinking about the end of this experience, I can't help but feel excitement at the the thought of being at home and seeing the people I've been missing for so long. Bittersweet feeling for sure. 
This past weekend, Jess and I took a day trip to Siena about 1.5 hours away... our last adventure outside of Florence... our last European train ride. It may sound weird, but I have fallen in love with train travel. It's so relaxing, you don't have to worry about directions or getting lost, and you get to watch the gorgeous scenery as you go. I think I'm going to go into shock the first time I drive again back home... how do you drive a car again? Public transportation/walking is just so much easier. Anyway. Siena. Very cute little Tuscan town all decked out for Christmas. Italians take Christmas seriously and decorate every single street with lights, trees, everything. It probably has something to do with the fact that 90% of the population is Catholic... just a hunch. Siena didn't have too much going on other than a little outdoor market selling handmade things and clothing which was cool... there was also a really unique church, and a huge square in the middle of town. 
At the train station we met this really nice couple that we kept running into throughout the day. I should mention one downside of train travel... when you get to your destination, you just assume it's going to pull up right in the middle of town and you'll be set. No. You just sort of get dumped at the outskirts and have to find your way in... and with no real signs, and a sparse bus schedule for Sundays, we didn't really know what to do when we got to Siena. Luckily, every other tourist is in the same boat, so you form this sort of immediate bond of confusion with everyone. We ended up taking a 20 minute walk in search of the town center with this couple we met from Barcelona. Both spoke Spanish, English, and Italian really well and thus made us feel extremely dense in comparison. But the man was a geologist, and when we told him we were from California he proceeded to explain to us the impending earthquakes that are going to hit us, lol. I told him I was from Palm Springs (to which he had been surprisingly) and then was like "oo... the San Andreas fault is the worst..." So I'm considering just hanging around Italy and waiting out the whole thing. 
In other news, not much else has been going on. We are all reaching the bottoms of our bank accounts and are also getting buried in final projects and exams, so we've been taking it easy. Lately we've just been exploring Florence a bit more and checking things off of our list of things we want to do before we leave. A long time ago, I heard about this pub called "The Joshua Tree" here in Florence and really wanted to see what it was all about... because Joshua Tree National Park is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, but I didn't think it could have been related because who in Italy has ever heard of it? So we finally decided to scope it out last weekend. We walked in, and the place is covered in signs, photos, and maps from joshua tree! I was so surprised and excited. Everyone there was really nice, and the place was really chill and fun so it's one of our new favorite places to go... sort of sucks that we are discovering it so late in the semester! It was funny... one night on our way home, we noticed all these plants and christmas trees sitting outside our door. The city was about to decorate our street. My roommates and I have desperately been searching for a little christmas tree to put in our apartment, and have had absolutely no luck. So when we saw these trees, we contemplated whether or not the city would miss just one tree? Jess and I were joking about the whole thing, and then went to go meet up with some of other friends while Carli and Caryn stayed behind. When we got into the apartment later that night, we suddenly had a tree in our apartment! I wonder how it got there. It's actually more of a bush, but we have given more love to that bush than the cold street ever would... so in actuality, we rescued him. He's very pretty... we decorated him and everything :)
Unfortunately our landlord is coming Monday to assess damages to our apartment before we head home, so we will sadly have to un-decorate everything over the weekend. Our little place is going to lose all its life, I'm not excited about it. I don't even want to think about packing yet-- ughh. It will be interesting. 
Anyway, I have lots of studying to do. I wish our last week or so in Florence could be spent with a true Italian stress-free mentality before going back to the busy real world....
More photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2077723&l=df23a&id=35805155
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1227996120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1227996120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1227996120/tpod.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:06:56 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Rome, Lazio, Italy

Last week I had a special guest in my temporary home of Italia... mom came to visit! (hi mom). It was soo nice to have some familiarity. I have missed my family and friends like crazy, especially now with the holidays here. 
We had a great time together. Unfortunately one of the first days after she arrived, I had to go to class the entire day... so she went on her own and explored Florence. I guess that's one of the good things about Florence; everything is walking distance. You can just go walk around and explore side streets, and if you get lost, all you have to do is look up at the massive Dome in the middle of town and know exactly where you are. It's like a northern star. The next day we took a day trip to the little town of Cortona. I had been there before with my roommates and knew that she would love it, and had to take her. It was such a beautiful, perfect day... we ate the best minestrone soup of my LIFE at a little tucked away restaurant, walked through the public garden/park, looked in little shops, and just relaxed on a bench to enjoy the view of the countryside. Much needed day. Next day, I had a few classes.. but afterwards we climbed to the top of the Duomo, all 500 steps of it. It was quite the workout... but I'm proud we did it. The view was definitely worth it. 
Of course she was only in Italy for about a week, so it would have been a shame not to see one of the most famous cities-- Roma! Such a huge, interesting place with so much to do. When we first got there, we checked into our planned hotel.. but for whatever reason, they upgraded us to their partner 4-star hotel around the corner (bathtub with jets... yessss). Off to a good start. We then went and toured the Coloseum-- such a massive piece of history, it's so hard to wrap your head around it when you're standing inside. As much as we just want to think about Russell Crowe prancing around in gladiator gear, you have to realize that people aaacctually killed each other in front of a crowd for entertainment. Anyway it was raining, and our tour guide was this little annoying russian woman with obnoxiously bright blue eye shadow and a bizarre sense of humor... so we were sadly a little relieved when the tour was over. Coloseum was amazing nonetheless. We went back to the hotel to take a nap because we had such an early morning-- however both of us failed to set alarm clocks and we ended up waking up at like 10 pm, oops. So we just decided to go get dessert and then call it a night, and then get up early the next morning and conquer the rest of Rome. The next morning we met up with my roommates Caryn & Carli who had just come for the day, and headed over to the Vatican. Also, massive. Rome is known for really big things. It was gorgeous though. The line for St. Peter's basilica was sooo long, and the girls only had less than a day in the city, so we just decided to walk through the Vatican museum and go to the Sistine Chapel. We had a really good lunch, then took the metro over to the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. We of course had to toss a coin in the Trevi, so my mom stood up on the steps to take a picture of my roommates and I. While we were posing, this man (whom Carli later described as "very informative yet entirely sketchy") came up to us and told us about the proper coin tossing protocol. The 1st coin is a wish to return back to Rome; the 2nd coin is a wish to meet a man; and the 3rd coin is to get hitched. I have my suspicions that he just wanted us to throw more money in the fountain so he could come back late at night and put it in his piggy bank... but the idea was romantic I suppose. Afterward we explored a bit, took the metro back to the Coloseum so the girls could see it, and then suddenly it was night time and they had to leave. It was fun spending time with everyone though. So my mom and I went off on our own to go check out the Pantheon. WOW. Might have been my favorite building in Rome... we saw it at night, so it was lit up in a way that made the enormity of it even MORE enormous and mind boggling when considering it was built by the Romans thousands of years ago without any advanced technology. Very cooool. From there, we went over to Piazza Navona and had ourselves a lovely dinner outside under a heat lamp... then of course had to endulge in dessert. We had tartufo, which is basically dark chocolate gelato rolled in chocolate chips with a cherry in the middle, and topped off with panna (whipped cream). Super decadent, super fantastic. By the end of Rome, I felt like the girl in Willy Wonka who turns into a blueberry and inflates into a huge ball... we ate A LOT. 
Our last day in Rome was probably my favorite. It was a bit less crammed, less crowded, a bit more relaxed. We walked through a huge, beautiful park with ancient Roman ruins scattered throughout. It wasn't raining that day, it was perfect. We explored the area of the city surrounding the Coloseum which was a nice to see. We later toured Palatine Hill and the Forum. In the evening, we hopped back on a train to Florence. Rome wa an incredible city, but I'm glad I'm not studying there. I think I would be overwhelmed... too big, too many people, less safe than little old Firenze. 
On her last day here, I just showed her more of the town which was a nice end to the week. I should also mention that in the span of a week, my mother developed a dangerous & delicious obsession with "GROM"... my favorite gelato place. I don't blame her, it is out of this world. We went at least once a day... I don't want to talk about it lol. I bet she is going through with drawals right now... I'm sorry. It's my fault. Forgive me. Anyway, that night she was nice enough to take me, Jess, and Garrett out for a nice dinner at Yellow Bar which is a cute restaurant I have passed by many times and had always noticed how packed it was... which meant it must be good. We decided to go check it out, and it was soooooooo good. We, of course, ate way too much... but she had to go out with a bang on her last night in Italy. It's all about eating good food with good people, so I think it was a success. I'm so lucky I was able to share this experience with my mom. We had the best time :)
So the next week I had to readjust to not being spoiled and going to class, booo. But soon there were more reasons for fun and festivities! Jessica's 21st birthday was Tuesday, so we had a fun time celebrating that. We made confetti cake, decorated, went out to dinner, and then discotecaaaa. Turning 21 doesn't really have much significance in Europe, but I think she had a good time regardless lol. Random side story from the night:
So there is this "secret bakery" that is only open from 2-6 am. It is secret because it is sort of under-the-table... I think they make the pastries for all the bakeries around town. There is no sign outside except a piece of paper that says "Shhh be quiet" because people always hang around and wait for it to open and are usually really loud. But yea, secret bakery reminds me a lot of a Soup Nazzi scenario. You go in, you wait patiently in line, point to the pastry on the unlabeled rack, hand over 80 cents, receive pastry, walk away. You're never quite sure what you're going to get... if it looks good, you point. So on this particular night, I pointed to a nice little danish-looking thing. I followed proper secret bakery etiquette and was granted it, and then walked outside to meet my friends and go home. I bit down into the pastry and hit something hard. I thought it was a bone, or maybe a stem from some fruit. But no. I pulled it out, and it was a rusty nail. Yes, a rusty nail was in my delicious pastry. My friends told me to march back in there and demand a new one... I was scared, but for the safety of future customers I thought it best to at least tell the guy. I went in and (he doesn't speak english) pointed to the nail, pointed to the pastry, and then gave him a sad face. He usually doesn't show any emotion, but his face was sort of priceless. He was by no means sorry, but more like "how on earth did that get in there?" he took the nail from me, tossed it in the trash, and carried on. I checked my pastry for more nails, saw that there was none... and then ate the rest of it. Looking back, that was a completely disgusting thing to do. Will this incident stop me from returning to secret bakery? Certainly not.Anywayyyy. This past thursday, we had a makeshift Thanksgiving. Jess and Brandon had gone to Venice to continue birthday fun, so Caryn, Carli and I were a family for the night. We decorated the apartment with paper hand-turkeys and made it feel like home (or a kindergarten classroom?) I would say it was a big success though... we made stuffing, sweet potato pancakes, cranberry sauce, corn, green bean casserole, raisin bread, and most importantly pumpkin pie! We didn't have a turkey because 1) in Italy you have to reserve them crazy ahead in advance, and 2) the girls are vegetarians. It wasn't a big loss though because the side dishes are the best part about Thanksgiving anyway. We had fun together for sure. I always have so much fun with my roommates... so thinking about how we only have a few weeks left together is very saddening :( We will have to savor the rest of our time here together and have a few last hoorahs. 
I'm pretty burned out on school lately... feeling tired. I love everything about my time here, and am so lucky and grateful to do this... but lately I can't help but be excited to see everyone again back home. It's very bittersweet. Love and miss you all, see you in a few weeks!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1226919780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1226919780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1226919780/tpod.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:53:52 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

This past weekend, sort of on a whim, I decided to go to Stockholm, Sweden. RyanAir was having a blowout flight sale and seats were going for 10 euros each way, so Jessica & Brandon really wanted to go. I was a little apprehensive at first, but just chose to go for it at the very last second. 
I say that it is a "Swedish Reunion" because the group that ended up going included Jess, Brandon, Bobby, and Garrett, which was most of the people that I went backpacking for two weeks in the beginning. It was awesome travel with everyone again. Brandon also brought his friend Tony who is studying with him in Barcelona. 
So on the first day, we all met up in Germany at the "Frankfurt Hahn Airport" (that's right, Hahn!) for our connecting flight to Stockholm. The name of this airport is extremely deceiving because it's actually like an hour or two outside of Frankfurt. We had like 8 hours to kill before our next flight, and we did NOT want to sit in the airport for that long, so we wanted to explore the surrounding area. We asked some of the airport employees if there was any cool town nearby we should visit, and they all kind of laughed at us. Some even told us not to bother leaving the airport. But we didn't like the sound of that and ended up taking a 15 minute taxi ride to a little suburb... I can't even remember the name of it. It was basically just a sleepy German town with houses, a retirement home, a gas station, a church. We must be easily entertained though, because we had fun walking around. It got pretty freezing soon so we sat in a kebab restaurant for about 4 hours and talked. 
After a while, we realized we didn't know how to get a taxi back to the airport. It's not like they drove through this place very often, we may have been the first tourists the town had ever seen. And we couldn't find a bus stop that went in that direction. We started asking around in the little shops, and came into a tiny restaurant. Brandon went up to a friendly looking German man wearing a neon yellow uniform if he knew of any buses, and he said "Are you trying to go to the airport? I can just take you. No problem. Let me just finish my coke." We all looked at each other sort of sketched out... but before we had time to have a pow wow and discuss whether this guy was just really nice or if he was going to drive us to his barn and kill us, he had downed his full coke bottle and said "Ok! Ready? Let's go." He stood up, and we saw that there was like a parking logo on his uniform, and his car had the same thing. We asked him, and it turned out that he worked as a parking attendant in the area. We decided to trust him and just go. Along the way he said, "How much time do you have before your flight? I can drive you to a bar if you want!" We were just like... "ummm that's okayyy.... you can just drive us to the airport,  please." So he did. It turned out he really was just a nice, very bored German parking attendant. He wouldn't even let us pay him. I guess we are just used to living in bigger city atmospheres and not trusting anyone, but it just proved that not everyone is trying to take advantage of you.
So we boarded our plane to Stockholm and arrived at about midnight. We checked into our hostel which was AWESOME... it basically felt like we were living inside IKEA. Everything was very modern, clean, and convenient. And our beds... omg... it was like sleeping on a cloud. It was so hard to get everyone out of bed in the morning. 
Sweden was absolutely freezing.. especially that day because it was raining and a little windy. We thought we were prepared, but ended up detouring to H&M and buying gloves and hats to bundle up. Afterwards, we took the metro to the city center. The metro system was amazing...incredibly modern and clean, and it was pretty far underground so the walls looked like caves.. but everything was painted really creatively. The stop near our hostel was underwater themed. And, unlike every other public transportation system I've been on, there wasn't a trace of graffiti anywhere. How do they do it? Anyway, so we got to the city center which was beautiful. Stockholm is made up of quite a few different islands that are all connected by bridges, so everything was surrounded by water... it was gorgeous. There were old buildings all around, but they were mixed in with the modern style that Sweden is known for. 
We took an enclosed boat tour around the main island and got to see a lot of the historic buildings and sites... we also drove through this park/natural reserve area that was beautiful with all the trees changing colors. After the tour, we went into the Royal Palace... but we got there right before it closed so we had just enough time to see the treasury room with all the crowns, robes, jewels and fancy things. We left and walked around some cool streets on a mission to find Swedish meatballs. We assumed that they would be everywhere... I mean... what other food is Sweden famous for aside from Swedish fish candy? I guess Stockholm wasn't the right areas of Sweden to find them because we couldn't find them ANYWHERE. We ended up eating Tex-Mex for lunch, haha.Because we came towards winter, the days were SO short... the sun set at around 3:30 pm. It was bizarre. It also made all of us really sleepy... and we all wanted a short break from the freezing rain, so we went back to our hostel for a power nap in our cloud beds. Of course, "power-nap" turned into a few hours lol. The hostel had free pasta in the kitchen, so we picked up sauce from the grocery store and just cooked dinner there. After dinner, we went out on the town. We heard about a bar that was made entirely of ice, so of course we had to go see what that was all about. It was the "Absolut Ice Bar"... it was sooo cool. They gave us all big furry parkas and gloves upon going in, because everything really was made of ice, including the cups, chairs, walls, tables, and bar. It was a really fun experience. After about an hour, we all started to get numb though.. so we left. 
We went back to the city center, Kungstradgarden, and noticed that there was a big ice rink a little ways off. It was free, but we came after closing so the booth was no longer renting skates. There really wasn't anyone there except a two Chilean guys chilling on a bench. Bobby went up to them and asked if they knew where we could get skates. They opened up their duffel bag, and handed him both pairs of skates they had. Then they saw that we had more people, and one of the guys took off the skates he had on his own feet and handed them to him. Seriously, we kept encountering such nice, cool people. So Tony, Bobby and Garrett skated around while Brandon talked to the Chilean guys in Spanish.. he said they were really cool guys. Jess and I wandered around the area and noticed that there was a huge cement amphitheater nearby... but it was completely filled with a bunch of little orange things. We walked up closer to it and saw that there were actually millions of little plastic bobble-men. We had no idea why, we couldn't read the Swedish signs around us... but we later found out that it was part of a public protest: for each signature that they got, they put one of the little men down on the ground. I will have to post pictures, I can't even explain it... it was so random. We ran through them and entertained ourselves for way too long, lol. When the guys were done skating, we walked around the town a bit more and then went back to the hostel. 
The next morning, we decided to see the rest of the palace. When we got there, we got to see the changing of the guards... it was quite the show. This time in the palace we got to see the royal apartments, and then a museum about the "Tre Kronor Castle." I guess where the palace stands today, a castle once stood... but it burned down in a horrible fire in the 1600s, so they had a museum showcasing some of the remaining antiques and building parts from the castle. We sat down to watch a little video about the timeline of the castle's history... and these 4 little towhead Swedish kids come running into the room. They were a little more interesting than the video, so we were all secretly watching them instead. The kids were messing around... and one of them started to lean against the curtain enclosing the room, thinking that there was a wall behind it. Well, there wasn't a wall behind it and he fell through the curtain and ate it. This sound terrible, but we all started laughing so hard... like to the point of tears. He was fine. But I think we are all going to hell anyway.
We spent the rest of the day just exploring different parts of the city including the old town, Gamla Stan. Stockholm is seriously such an interesting, beautiful place... I don't understand why it is so under-hyped. Anyway, we went back the hostel and made dinner again. While we were cooking, we made friends with this really cool guy Matt who was staying in our room. All of us went out together at night, but Jess and I had to leave early because we wanted to get an hour or two of sleep before waking up for our flight at 3 am. 
Ugh.. our last day of travel was awful. We woke up at 3 like I said... took the metro to the city center to catch an 80 minute bus, then boarded a 2 hour plane to Frankfurt. During our lay-over in the Frankfurt airport, we ran into our friend Tara who I guess visited her friend in Germany this weekend... so the three of us killed time together before our 2 hour flight to Pisa. From Pisa, we had to take a 1.5 hour train back to Florence. We finally got to our apartment at about 3 pm. Twelve hours of travel, exhausted was an understatement. Needless to say, we passed out.... but our beds definitely didn't live up to the amazing hostel beds haha. 
Overall, Sweden was such an amazing last-minute trip. It was probably the first place I've been where I truly felt like I didn't have enough time there... there was so much we didn't get to do. But what we did do was great. Stockholm would be such a fantastic place to live... such a safe & modern city, and it is so easy to navigate around. I don't plan on learning Swedish anytime soon... I still hardly know Italian, so we'll see lol. 
Back to the grind today making up lost time for homework. Mom is getting here tonight!!! So so excited!! Better finish everything before she gets here. Here is the link to all my photos from the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075696&l=ca38e&id=35805155
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225625820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225625820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225625820/tpod.html Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:12:38 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Ios, Cyclades, Greece

  Forty five minutes after our depressing departure from Santorini, we arrived at the island of Ios. The island isn't as well known as Santorini, and was much less touristy. We got to the port and were picked up by our next friendly hostel owner, Kiriagos (I think?) along with four other American students who were on their fall break from Rome were also staying at the same hostel. He drove us up to the top of this hill overlooking the whole island, which is where Hotel Skala was located. It was beautiful! Once again, blue and white buildings, but here there were really old white windmills springing up all over the place.   Ios seemed very quaint and villagey, and us 8 Americans may easily have been the only non-locals on the entire island. We heard that near our hostel was a huge marble amphitheater, so we decided to scout it out. We hiked up around the hill in search of it, and suddenly this little Greek man pops his head out of his window and says "Yassu!!" ("hi") and then yells "go left! now go right!" to help us find the theater. It was adorable. Soon we found the Odysseas Elytis theater. It was very cool... we all stood down in the center of the stage and yelled out to hear the crazy acoustics.  
Afterwards, we decided to walk down the center of the village and look around. The village was like a huge, white maze of buildings and little blue doors. Soon we got hungry and decided to eat dinner. I forgot to mention that, while driving us up to his hostel, Kiriagos told us to come eat at his restaurant down in the village called "The Mills" which he and his family owned. It seemed like he had a monopoly on the whole island... best hostel and the best restaurant. And it was funny because the staff of both places was comprised of the same 4 or 5 people, which I'm assuming were his family members. We were basically the only ones at the restaurant lol, but it was good food and a good atmosphere (and free dessert again! I love the Greeks!!!) So the island, as I mentioned was pretty dead. But Ios is known as "the party island" and I'm sure it is during the normal summer season. So the 8 of us decided to bring it back to life. We had our own fun in the village, hung out with some hilarious locals, and had a really good time.The next morning we headed over to the breakfast room of the hostel and recognized our waiter from dinner the night before working there. We also saw him later that day in overalls sawing a wooden table around the corner.  He pretty much did everything for Kiriagos lol. Anyway, he told us we had to wait 45 minutes for breakfast because the cook was down at the port dropping people off. We waited, had awesome omelettes & coffee, then decided to take a 30 minute walk down to a beach.   It was too cold to go in, but it was nice to lay on the sand and relax. Unfortunately, we soon had to go back to the port and board our 9 hour ferry to Athens. We LOVED little Ios and I'm so happy we ended up going. When first planning our trip, we wanted to go to Mykonos, but the ferry was discontinued in the off-season... so Ios was sort of an afterthought tagged on at the last minute. So happy we went though.
The 9 hour ferry felt like....9 days. It was rough. I might have gone mildly insane at one point. We passed the time people watching, which was entertaining... don't get me wrong. But sitting in one place for that long on a boat isn't the best experience. We FINALLY got to Athens late at night and did not have the energy to figure out the bus system to get to our hostel, so we chose to split a taxi 4 ways. Bad idea. We got totally ripped off by the weirdest taxi driver ever... he charged us over 40 euros for a 15 minute drive that should have only been an 8 minute drive, and when we handed him the money, he did some crazy slight-of-hand magic trick and turned one of the 20 bills into a 5... claiming we didn't pay him enough. We were scared of him and he wouldn't listen to us arguing with him, so we just gave him another 20 and he sped off with his trunk still open. We were SO pissed. And when we got to our hostel (the same one we stayed in the very first night), the friendly man wasn't there... instead a grumpy woman gave us a key to crappy room. It's okay though, after such an amazing few days on the island, I felt like it would be TOO lucky to keep going on such a high note. 
That was our only bad night though, and the next morning we got to explore Athens before flying home!   We made it up to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon, the Odeon, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the other ancient monuments on the hill. It was incredible to be in the middle of so much history. We then walked down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and then went through the shops of the Plaka for a few hours. Before leaving, we had the BEST meal ever... we shared pita and tzatziki, and I had a pizza with feta, olives, and all kinds of other deliciousness on it.  
Soon we sadly trekked to the bus station to make our flight. We had a little trouble getting our backpacks on the plane, but with some puppy-dog eyes, they let us. If we had to check our luggage, we would have had no chance of making our connecting train.   Two hours on a plane, 1 hour on a bus, 3 hours on a train to Verona, and the 3 more hours on the next train to Florence... we finally made it back home at 6:30 am and walked like zombies back to our apartment. But very happy zombies, because our trip to Greece was seriously a dream come true. We had SUCH an incredible time, and we can't stop talking about it with each other and going through our pictures over and over and over again. I am so thankful to have been able to go... I have always dreamed of visiting the Greek islands. HIGHLY recommended, you must go if you ever get the chance. It's like a different world. 
It's nice to be back in Italy, but I do miss the friendly Greek people. Italians are too cool for their own good sometimes, lol. 
Here are my photos from the trip! Three different albums:                          
Athens: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074099&l=5bee6&id=35805155                                                           
Santorini: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074100&l=bf82c&id=35805155                                                            Ios: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=32445091&l=8dac1&id=35805155
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225566900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225566900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1225566900/tpod.html Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:43:18 -0500 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

So for fall break, my roommates Jessica, Caryn, and Carli unanimously agreed that we had to go to Greece. Sure, it may have been off-season... sure, it may have been difficult to get there and back.... but any minor troubles along the way were WORTH IT, without a doubt. I had the time of my life.
Starting out, we had to make our way to Athens. To do this, we had to take a train from Florence to Milan, take a bus from the train station to Milan Malpensa airport, take a plane to Athens airport, and then take a bus from the airport to the center of the city where our hostel was located. Long dayyyy. But luckily we were greeted by a very friendly man at Dioskouros hostel who was soo hospitable. He upgraded us to our own 4 bed suite, arranged our taxi to the port for the next morning, gave us a good restaurant recommendation, and basically made us feel less confused about life. One of the first things I noticed about the country of Greece is how genuine and friendly all of the people were...  wherever we went, people didn't hesitate to help us out and make us feel at home. In Italy, or at least Florence, people sort of act like you're in their way or bothering them all the time... so it was refreshing and made our trip that much easier. 
Anyway, it was night time at this point and we were starving from traveling all day, so we sought out the restaurant that the man recommended. It was this little family-owned place with theeee most amazing authentic Greek food I've ever had... and for only 5 euros per person! There was no menu; just a man walking around with a giant platter filled with different dishes. He came up to us, we each pointed to something that looked good, and split 4 dishes between us. Then they gave us an amazing complimentary dessert... it tasted sort of like bread pudding, I don't even know. I wish I knew the name of it so I could hunt it down again. 
So afterward, we went on a mission. Before coming to Greece, Caryn did her research and discovered that there were 10 Starbucks locations in Athens... we had to find one. Call us pathetic, but going two months without chai was hard on all of us. So we hunted it down and had a glorious chai latte party served by cute Greek baristas, who then kindly pointed us in the direction of a hill where they said we would be able to see the Acropolis lit up at night. Warm cups in hand, we finally made it up the hill and sat on rocks to look around at the city lights and hills topped with ancient ruins... it was a little surreal.  We made it back to our hostel eventually (street signs entirely in Greek made it difficult to find our way around) and then passed out. 
A few hours later in the wee hours of the morning, we woke up and went to the port Piraeus to catch our ferry to Santorini. The ferry was 8 hours long. Eight. ahhh. Lots of sitting, sleeping, reading, snacking... but once we walked out on the deck and saw the view of Santorini in the distance, it didn't matter. 
We pulled up to the port at Santorini, and waiting for us was George-- the amazing owner of our hostel, "Pension Stella."  This man was the NICEST most accommodating person. He owns the adorable little hostel with his wife (Stella). It may have been because we came during the low season, but he treated us like royalty. He picked us up from the port, and in the car we told him a few things we were thinking of doing while in Santorini. He listened, and he did everything possible to make it happen.   We pulled up to the hostel, he single-handedly piled all 4 of our huge backpacks on his back, showed us our cute room, made us all coffee (which was delicious, I want to know how he made it), then drove us to the bus stop and told us we had to go to Oia to watch the sunset.  The island of Santorini is broken up into a few little towns... Oia is situated at the end and is said to have one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. It was a little cloudy that night, but what we saw was still pretty amazing. We all sat on a wall and were able to see the entire side of the island covered with white-washed buildings & blue domed roofs. So gorgeous.  We walked around the shops of Oia for a while, and then took a bus back to Fira town where we had an... interesting dinner at "Nikolas." Jessica's shrimp still had eyes and legs on it, and Caryn & Carli's fish still had it's skin and bones. The chef in the back was hovering over the stove with a cigarette in her mouth, and our waiter was too absorbed in a soccer game on the TV to give us our check lol. You win some, you lose some win it comes to Mediterranean food I guess. Later that night we decided to check out the town and find something to do... but it turned out that we pretty much had the island to ourselves lol. 
Next morning, George greeted us with his famous coffee and some coffee cake, and drove us to the top of the Old Port. We took cable cars down the cliff, and hopped on what looked like a pirate ship   to go visit the nearby volcano, Nea Kamena. Once we got there, we hiked on the volcanic rocks to the very top of the caldera and looked out at the awesome view over the Aegean sea.  We hiked back down and boarded the boat again, which was supposed to take us to another volcano, Palea Kameni, known for it's hot springs that you could swim in. So we all pictured a nice little natural hot-tub on land with hot bubbling water and were looking forward to a little relaxation. Well, we were wrong. The boat pulls up maybe 50 yards away from shore, and the captain announces "We can't bring the boat up to shore because it's too shallow. But do you see over near shore where the water turns into a brownish color? That's where the hot springs are! If you want to swim in them, feel free to jump overboard and swim over for a while." We all hesitated... we weren't too eager to jump into the cold ocean. We saw these 5 Australian guys who were on the tour dive head first off the ship, and we yelled over the edge of the boat "Is it cold???" And of course they were like, "nahhhhhh just get in! It's not bad at all!!" So we decided, hey, we are only in Greece once, lets just do it. So we plummeted into the water, which by the way WAS cold, and swam as fast as we could to the warm part of the water. It wasn't very hot at all despite being called "hot springs."  We looked up at the little volcano next to us, and there were wild goats and chickens running around. Soon after, we decided to go back to the boat... and like pulling off a band-aid, we swam as fast as we could back through the cold ocean water. It was such a crazy, fun experience.The boat soon took us back to the Old Port at Santorini. To get back up to the town, you could either take the cable car or ride donkeys up the zig zag path along the cliff. It was really a no-brainer, we took the donkeys. There was a little man wearing a greek fishing hat at the port yelling "DONKEY RIIIDE DONKEY! DONKEY RIIDE DONKEY! YOU! FOUR GIRLS! DONKEY RIDE!!!!" So we followed him.  We thought that maybe they would help us get situated on the donkeys and lead us up together. No. We each hopped on a donkey, and they immediately tooook off. Jess & Caryn's donkeys were best friends apparently, and they trotted alongside each other happily the whole way. Carli's donkey must have been on steroids because it was bigger than a horse, and she is the smallest one out of us all at about 5'2", so it was pretty funny to watch. My donkey was really stubborn and decided it would be a good idea to stand at the very edge of the cliff wall for minutes at a time without moving. The whole thing was so hilarious. I can't believe we made it up alive.   So we made it back in the town, and our clothes were still wet from the "hot" springs and now smelled like donkey poo, but we were not done with the day. We went back to Fira, and George helped us rent ATVs so we could drive around the island. Each of us were prepared to fork over around 30 euros, because that seemed like what you would pay to do something like that back in the US. But it ended up being 7 euros per person to rent for 24 hours. Crazy! We weren't complaining though.  We drove down to the black-sand beach Kamari, then drove to a grocery store to pick up food to cook for dinner back at our hostel. Later we drove back into town and bought hot chocolate :) Next morning we got up and went out for another drive around the island. We went to another beach, but when we got back on to head over to another area, Carli & Caryn's ATV broke down. We had to call and wait for the guy to come help us out, but he ended up having to drive them back and get them a new one.  Jess & I continued on our journey and explored a little longer, but then sadly had to go home and back so George could drive us to our ferry. It was so hard to leave such an amazing island with such nice people, but we were all curious about our next destination, Ios....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223913480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223913480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223913480/tpod.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:33:16 -0400 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Nice, Provence, France

Bonjour,
This past weekend I took a trip through the school to Monaco and the south of France... the cities we traveled to included Montecarlo, Nice, St. Paul de Vence, Cannes, and Eze. Beaauuutiful. 
We had to wake up at like 3:30 am to make the bus, on which we would pass out for the next 5 hours. Our first stop was Montecarlo in the Principality of Monaco (right between Italy and France on the Ligurian coast). The city was very glaaaamorous.... only the extremely wealthy can afford to live there. I don't think I saw anyone who looked like a resident the entire time I was there... I guess they were all too busy sitting on their balconies in furry bathrobes. Montecarlo is famous for the Grand Prix and for its casinos, namely the Le Grand Casino. Unfortunately our weekend was a little rushed so we didn't have time to go into it. The most recent James Bond movie "Casino Royale" was filmed in Monaco... and I kept waiting for Daniel Craig to emerge from the ocean in a tuxedo, buuut my hopes were in vain. Anyway. When we first got to Montecarlo, we went on a guided tour lead by a little squeaky woman (she literally made squeaking noises after every few words, I don't know what her deal was.) We saw the "changing of the guards" at the Prince's Palace, walked through a cathedral, and enjoyed the views of fancy high-rise buildings lining the coast. I wish we could have spent a little more time there, but we had to fit everything into 2 days... so we got back on the bus and headed to Nice, France about 40 min away. 
Nice was also very beautiful and luxurious... I felt a little out of place the entire weekend, lol. We were given a few hours free time, so a group of us headed down to the beach and soaked up some sun. The weather was amazing for October... it felt like summer (which also meant that I saw a few too many Europeans in speedos, but it's all part of the experience). We walked around the town for a while. Nice is an interesting mix of pristine/modern and historic... there were awesome modern sculptures placed throughout the city, and the public transportation was this crazy, sleek monorail system. We then headed back to our hotel (which, by the way, was gorgeous and RIGHT on the water... the view from my room was amazing) and had dinner. I wasn't very impressed by the food, though. It was like fish broth soup and a weird fish fillet with what seemed like frozen veggies. Oh well. After dinner, my friends and I had a fun time roaming the streets of Nice at night. Perhaps the most entertaining part, sadly, was watching this interpretive dancer/ Michael Jackson impersonator/ homeless Frenchman dancing on the street. He even scaled the traffic signal while dancing. I was impressed...lol. We also went into a casino just to see what it was all about. I didn't gamble, and I don't think anyone ended up winning anything, but it was still cool to see. 

The next morning we got up early and took the bus to a small town up on a hill called St. Paul de Vence. I absolutely LOVED it.. it had such a quaint, artistic vibe. I guess this town is where a lot of artists escape to, so we saw plenty of galleries and shops with hand-crafted jewelry, pottery, etc. It was a cool experience going here because it didn't feel like a huge tourist destination... more like an out-of-the-way little french village. 
Our next stop was Cannes, home to the famous Cannes Film Festival. Of course, we walked along the main strip with all of the hand-prints and red carpet. It was sort of like a toned-down, seaside Hollywood. The port was pretty cool, it was filled with really old wooden sailboats... Cannes used to be mainly a fishing village before it was taken over by movie stars, so it was pretty historic and not quite as glitzy as hollywood. The city, of course, was gorgeousss and it was a perfect, sunny day. We started out wandering the town as a big group, but Garrett and I were hungry and started to get frustrated that nobody was making decisions on what to do (you know how that goes)... so we went off on our own and decided to make a mini-splurge on a really good seafood meal. SOOO GOOOD.. it definitely made up for the weird hotel dinner from the night before. 
The last stop of the day was in Eze to tour the Fragonard Perfumerie. I guess it was pretty cool... but I was so exhausted at this point and getting sick of being herded guided tours that I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. We went on a tour of the factory and learned how the perfumes were made, and then were led into the store. Most of the girls on the tour went nuts and bought tons of expensive perfume. The guys were a little less enthused about the whole thing. And I just didn't feel like spending money (sorry if you wanted French perfume Mom, I'll make it up to you some day.) 
Overall, a very lovely weekend in the French Riviera. Happy to be back in friendly Italy, though :)
Tomorrow night I am going to Puccini's opera "Tosca" (yay for taking advantage of free things through the school), so I'm excited to experience a little more Italian culture. Then possibly taking a day trip to Rome on Friday because my Eurail pass is expiring next week and I still have 1 day left to use. Hopefully I will get to go back to Rome next month and spend a little more than a day there... it doesn't seem like enough time to do everything. Then Saturday is the Euro Chocolate festival (hallelujah)... then Sunday I'm thinking about doing a Tuscany biking trip to see more of the area surrounding Florence. Then the following week will be midterms (UGHHH).. and then Fall Break! I am constantly boggled at how fast this is all going by. 
Please slow down. 

PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072676&l=3a45f&id=35805155
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223241360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223241360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1223241360/tpod.html Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:12:13 -0400 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Venice, Veneto, Italy

Honestly though, Italy is just superior to... everywhere. There is just so much awesomeness crammed into one little country, it is impossible to experience it all. But I'm trying as hard as I can.
Ok, so. Friday Jessica and I ventured to Venice. We were able to do it all in one day-- we left on a 6:30 am train, got there at 11, were able to explore plenty of the city as well as the island of Murano, and we made it back to Florence at about 10 pm. LONG day, but so worth it. Venice just doesn't seem real to me... water instead of streets, boats/gondolas instead of cars. Even the police, ambulance, taxis, and postal service traveled by boat. And it was so beautiful... mini orchestras playing in the streets, shops filled with Venetian masks and glass jewelry, canals around every corner. I guess Venice is just one of those places that I've always heard about and seen in pictures, so actually being there was a little dreamlike. But yea, Jessica and I wandered the city for a few hours,  gawked at the glimmering basilica in Piazza San Marco while dodging thousands of aggressive pigeons, and then took a water bus over to the island of Murano which is famous for glass blowing. We actually got to watch some glass blowers at work which was a very interesting experience... unlike anything I've ever seen before. 
Oh yes... we had a funny and slightly scary experience with the water bus. It is basically a boat that operates like a metro system, going in a giant loop around Venice and the surrounding islands. We were trying to get to Murano as I said before, but were unsure of exactly which stop to get off at because there was no map on the inside of the boat.  So us being the geniuses we are, decided that Jessica would leave her stuff with me while she stepped onto the dock for a second to check the map. And of course, right when she stepped off the boat, the gate shut behind her and the boat took off. I had ALL of her stuff, ie: purse, money, cell phone. Now, an intelligent person would come up with a quick plan, like, "Jessica, stay there! I will come back and find you!" But no. We both just started laughing hysterically. After a few minutes it started to settle in that I had no way of contacting her and no idea how we would meet up again... the loop of the boat takes over an hour, so going around again didn't seem like the best plan. Luckily, there was one more stop on the same island, and two nice gentlemen told me how to walk back to the previous dock. And luckily, Jessica DID stay put instead of trying to find me, and was waiting like a faithful labrador by the water. It could have turned out so much worse... at one point I thought that we would just have to go our separate ways and meet back at the train station that evening. Reunited and it felt so good. 
Overall, loooved Venezia! It would have been awesome to ride in a gondola, but neither of us were willing to pay 80 euros for a half-hour ride... so we just took a photo with a gondolier instead :)
Saturday, Jessica had a few friends visiting from Granada, Spain so we all hung out around Florence. We decided to go to the Accademia musuem and see Michelangelo's "David." I have been avoiding museums and basically ALL of the major tourist attractions in Florence because every day is a mob scene of tour groups, but I decided it wouldn't hurt to wait in one line this time. And it wasn't that bad, a little less than 1 hour. The museum was really nice, and seeing the David was a little trippy. There was also a wing of the museum with 500 year old musical instruments, which the band-nerd in me enjoyed. But yea, somehow this day at ONE museum was more tiring for me than our whole day-trip to Venice.. I was wiped out. Maybe I've just been on the go constantly and it's all catching up. 
But there is no time for sleep! There is so much more to do and see! Sunday, my three roommates and I took a train to Cortona, the village where "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed. And of course, we watched the movie right before we went so we would be able to recognize things. When you see the movie, you just assume it's all a movie set... there's no way a place could aaactually be so perfect. But wow, the real thing is SO SO SO SO SO SOSOSOOSSOSO beautiful!! This seriously is toward the top of my list of places I've been. Absolutely gorgeous. The town was up on a hill overlooking the countryside with perfect fall weather... the leaves were changing colors. Our day here was pretty relaxing... we spent an hour or two at an adorable cafe with an incredible view. Then we just wandered the streets of Cortona, took a bazillion photos of every little thing around us, went in a few ancient churches, ate gelato (duh), and spent ample time just staring out into the distance in peace. It was nice to get away from the city for a change. Tuscany is heaven. End of story. I understand why Diane Lane impulse-bought the villa in the film... there is no such thing as willpower in Cortona. 
Now I am exhausted. SO glad I don't have class on Mondays, I always need that day to get my life back together after these busy weekends. Ciaooooo
Here are my photos. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072073&l=60452&id=3580515
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222808580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222808580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222808580/tpod.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:17:07 -0400 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Cinque Terre, Italian Riviera, Italy

Such a packed weekend!

Jessica was gone to the French Riviera to celebrate 4 years with her boyfriend (lucky girl!), so Caryn, Carli & I did a few things together this weekend. My roommates are amazing, I still can't believe how much I lucked out. I hear other girls at my school constantly talking crap about their roommates and am happy that I have no impulse to do the same :)

Friday our school hosted a free wine tasting trip at a Chianti Farm. It's really funny how the Italians operate... organization and planning just aren't a big deal. We weren't given any prior information about this trip whatsoever, we didn't know where exactly we were going, how far away it was, how long we'd be gone... they pretty much just told us to show up at a meeting point to get on the bus. It's just funny because in the US, they would probably have detailed itineraries for us & some paperwork, etc. Anyway, it makes living here a little more adventurous. So about 80 of us got on some buses, and about an hour later we ended up at the top of a hill at some 12th century castle which is now a vineyard/winery. They gave us a little tour of the castle and then led us into a dining room. None of us had eaten lunch so we scarfed down every available piece of bread and cheese in the vicinity. We tasted 1 white wine, 2 red wines, and a dessert wine... I don't know much about wine, but I kind of only liked the white one (which is sad because the red ones were supposedly reaallllyy nice wines famous in Tuscany). Afterward they herded us back on the buses. A lot of the other students had too much to drink and one girl threw up on the other bus... and I'm pretty sure every Italian person was shaking their head at the stupid Americans. This aside, it was a fun little trip.

Saturday night we went to a soccer game (or "Calcio" as it is called here)... Fiorentina vs Genoa. It was a cool experience because I had never been to a pro soccer game before. Earlier that day we went around to the vendors and bought some purple gear to fit in with the fans. Also earlier that day, there was another parade on our street for who knows what. Everyone was dressed in Renaissance clothing, and there were some guys twirling flags. Okay. Back to the soccer game. Our seats were right down next to the field, so we were close to the players. The Genoa fans were put inside this giant cage and were going nuuuts the whole time, singing and waving flags around.. and when Fiorentina got a goal, our fans were taunting them from outside the cage like they were zoo animals. Oh yea, the half time show... three guys wheeled out a GIANT carton of milk and plopped it on the field. Ten minutes later, they wheeled the milk off the field. It was quite the show. I'm guessing that either Mukki milk was the sponsor, or the Italians really love their "latte".

On Sunday, a bunch of us signed up for an excursion to Cinque Terre, which are 5 little coastal towns a few hours away. They were gorgeouuussss! There is a hiking trail connecting all the towns, and it basically runs right along the cliff overlooking the sea. We hiked the first three trails, and the 3rd one was pretty challenging... kind of an awakening to how out of shape I am lol. Luckily we were able to stroll the next town, try out the famous pesto (mmmm), sit near the beach and relax. A ferry took us to the 5th town where we ate dinner with our guides, who by the way were sooo weird, but in a very entertaining way. We had about a 10 minute conversation about buying houses in Narnia. Anyway, it was a beautiful, perfect day in a beautiful, perfect location!

Time is flying by so fast. I can't believe I left home over a month ago. I'm already worried about how soon I will have to wake up from this dream. I already know October is going to be gone in the blink of an eye because I have trips planned for every single weekend. Jess and I are thinking of going to Venice this friday, hooray! Gondola time!

Classes are going great... although still having a hard time with Intermediate Italian. Today I had to give a "show & tell" presentation to the class in Italian (memorized) about one of my hobbies, blegh. I LOOOVE my oil painting class... worth the outrageous class fee. Probably couldn't keep it up once I get home though, oil paints are absurdly expensive. Tomorrow for Art History we are taking a field trip to the Church of San Miniato.

That about covers it for now, until next time, arrivaderciiiii <3

Photos: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071606&l=fa631&id=35805155
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222107120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222107120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hahn105/1/1222107120/tpod.html Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:59:05 -0400 Sara Does Europe (with style).

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Capri, Campania, Italy

I just returned from an excursion to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri this past weekend hosted by my school, Lorenzo de' Medici. WOW. Who wants to buy me a vacation home and/or yacht in Capri? Any takers??

Really though, the trip was a wonderfullllll x 1000. Saturday morning, we had to wake up at 4:30 am to meet at the bus station at 5:30. Not a soul was outside, which was a little eerie considering that there are usually thousands of people crowding our streets. Anyway, the bus ride to Pompeii was 5 hours, but we were obviously able to sleep at that ungodly hour so it was bearable. Our guide was named Lucca, he was awesome. He's an advisor at my school but leads trips like these every so often. Such a nice guy! My friend was joking around and said that you could punch Lucca in the face and instead of getting mad he would just say...."Why you do this?"

We took a three hour walking tour of Pompeii, the biggest archaeological site in the world. Mount Vesuvius still towers over the area, but is probably half the height that it was originally before the big eruption in 79 AD. Before coming to Pompeii, I was under the impression that it was just a few ancient buildings here and there, but an entiiiire city was preserved... so the site is enormous. It seriously baffles me to try and grasp just how old everything is, and it puts things in perspective. The US is so young that we still measure the age of our country in hundreds of years... but to think that the Romans lived here THOUSANDS of years ago doesn't seem real... and they were still so advanced.

The tour was amazing. Everything seemed frozen in time. Frescos were still on the walls, there were still wheel ruts in the streets from the carriages... and the most tragic thing was seeing peoples' bodies still posed as if trying to protect themselves from falling debris. We went into houses, the first known colosseum, the forum, and amphitheaters. The whole thing was just a really surreal experience. Very cool. There were also really well-behaved stray dogs everywhere, which everyone was excited about lol.

That evening we got back on the bus and headed to Sorrento, a town that sits on cliffs next to the sea. SO BEAUTIFUL! If you've ever seen the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, she goes to Positano which is nearby and very similar to Sorrento, just to give you an idea. Our program hooked us up with a four-star hotel, Hotel Michelangelo.... so nice! Jessica and I were assigned to room with two other girls, both named Melissa, and we ended up hanging out with them the rest of the trip because we all had so much fun together. Everyone had dinner in the hotel that night... and it wasn't just a dinky little meal. It was four courses, and I don't know if I've ever been that full in my entire life. Tortellini, risotto, a chicken dish, and then three different cakes. It was heavenlyyyyyy. As tempted as we all were to crawl on our hands and knees back to our beds and pass out (nobody could move), we all walked into town for a Limoncello tasting. I don't think I'm a very big fan... it was like a very strong slap in the face... and stomach. But it was a cultural experience so that was cool.

The next morning we took a boat to the isle of Capri. It was a perrrfect day so we were all excited for our trip into the Blue Grotto, a famous cave with glowing blue water inside. But as we arrived to the island to buy our tickets, they said the Grotto was closed because the water was too choppy on that part of the island. Everyone was bummed, but we still got to do some amazing things. First we got on a little boat that went around the island and through some other less-famous caves. The water was SO BLUE... like aquamarine color... it looked like a swimming pool or something. So beautiful. However this part of the journey was a little difficult for me because I started to feel really sea sick (a combination of the big waves, stuffing my face the night before, and the very acidic Limoncello)... luckily the tour was short enough that I didn't have to spend time bending over the side of the boat. Then we had about 5 hours of free time, in which we had some AMAZING gelato (the flavor was Fantasia di Capri or something, and I would honestly go back to the island just to get it again), and look in some cute but VERY expensive stores. But the best part was taking a chair lift to the highest point of the island. It was like a ski lift with individual chairs suspended from a cable, sort of intimidating at first but SO WORTH IT!! Getting to float above the most beautiful island I've ever seen was indescribable. And the view from the top was spectacular.

We then took the boat back to the port of Naples and boarded our bus to Florence. This time the bus ride felt yeaaarrs long, so we were very relieved to come back to home sweet home. Yes, I love that I can call my apartment in Florence "home." Anyway, one amazing weekend, wouldn't trade it for the world.

My advice: Drop what you are doing and GO. TO. CAPRI. ASAP.

Today I am just playing catch-up, which means procrastinating on some homework for my classes tomorrow. Oh yea, I got my first "Italian hair cut" today lol. It was a unique experience... Italians take their sweet time with everything so it took a total of 3 hours, but I was happy. I actually got it done at a hair academy because it was cheaper, but it was all so professional. One of the teachers I guess cut my hair, while one of the students washed and blow dried it. The student didn't speak very much english at all, so our conversations were pretty funny. He asked where I was from, and I told him southern California... and he got all excited and was like, "OH! Like the.. um... telefilm "THE OC"!... you know.. uhh.. Marissa and Ryan!" and then he ran over to the magazine rack and flipped to a picture of Rachel Bilson, one of the actresses from the show, and then pointed at me lol. It kind of worries me that the world's vision of California is paralleled to that show... yikes.

Well, that is what I've been up to, among other things. Loving Italy more and more every minute, except for the mosquitos, but I will cope. My friends and I are in the process of planning our fall break trip to Greece, so if anyone has suggestions or advice I would love to hear it. We're thinking Athens for a day, then spending 4 days in Mykonos and Santorini. I've been dying to go to the Greek islands my entire life, so I hope everything works out.

Love and miss everyone. PLEASE write to me or e-mail me and let me know how you're doing, the distance is feeling greater these days. And hey, if you're bored and feel like writing me actual mail, I would love it!! My address is:

Sara Hahn
c/o Scuola Lorenzo De' Medici
Via Del Melarancio 6/R
50123 Firenze, ITALIA

Give me your addresses so I can send postcards!
Oh yes, and if you would like to see more of my photos from this past weekend, copy this link:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071186&l=a2bd4&id=35805155

Ciao :)
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