Italian Alps

After a lot of hours of traveling, I arrived in Trento, Italy! I was so super excited to get there. The end of the train ride was especially beautiful and I was anxious to explore. I thought that I would want to crash immediately, but I was too excited to be tired, so I decided to take a quick shower to refresh a little bit before the rest of the afternoon. It seemed like a fair compromise.

Sam came back to the hostel after a slightly frustrating morning of trying to find trails and we decided to take a cable car up the mountain to get a view. It seemed like a chill activity, and definitely something you ought to do in the Alps.

Well, surprise! it was gorgeous.

That night we had a nice dinner and some frozen yogurt. That's right, I didn't have gelato for an entire 10 days whilst in Barcelona and Trento. It was kind of a big deal.

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Saturday turned out to be not at all as we anticipated. We started by going to the bus station to go to this town that Sam had been told was a great place to visit and do some walking. Turns out, though, the next bus wasn't until 1.30 so we suddenly had the whole morning to do something in the Trento area. We found a path near the cable car and decided to try that.

We found this WWI memorial, which was pretty cool too. And here's a picture from the ground level so you can see how far we were able to climb up.

We went for a walk along the river for a little while too and then had a picnic that consisted of baby bell cheese (among other things). The main reason to mention this is because the cheese came with a present.

A game! One of the more random things I've seen, but I was still entertained by it, even without playing it

So, 1.30 rolled around and we hopped on the bus. It was supposed to be a 20 minute ride, and we would arrive in a place with botanical gardens and lots of beautiful places to walk around. Turns out, the information was just plain wrong. 

We should have been clued in when we asked the bus driver how many stops until we should get off and he looked at us like we were crazy. An hour and ten minutes later, we were at the top of the mountain, and yes, there was snow. The bus driver said that it was the last stop and we had to get off. The next bus would take us back in two and a half hours. Oh, also it was raining.

So there was a single restaurant at the top of the mountain, so we went inside for some hot tea and cappuccinos. 

Then it started to hail.

I found the situation to be kind of hilarious actually, and pretty cool. We were really in the snow at the top of one of the mountains in the Italian Alps. Even though we both wished we could have done some hiking, I thought it was a valuable experience, and the views from the bus were absolutely stunning, so it was worth it even for that.

When the hail stopped, we walked around the area a little bit before getting back on the bus. It looked like the kind of place that would be stunning in...August.

But let's face it, it's also pretty gorgeous at the end of April.

We went out for dinner again that night, and I ordered something off the menu that I actually had no idea what it was. I guess I was feeling adventurous. I'll admit, I don't remember what it was called, and I certainly don't know exactly what it is that I ate, but basically it was 2 balls of dough about twice the size of a golf ball in cream and mushrooms. It may sound weird, but it was super delicious, and a fun little adventure, because I had never eaten anything that looked like that before.

And we got frozen yogurt after dinner again.

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Sunday was a little rainy, and if we wanted to leave our bags at the hostel we couldn't pick them up until after 2, which wasn't going to work for us, so we had to carry them around. This combination resulted in a lot more coffee, and a lot less walking than either of us were expecting. Then we headed to the train station for our very long journey home. We talked about how much less stressful it had become to travel, though. Both of us have much larger capacities for long periods of transit than we had before.

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So in conclusion, this weekend wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but it still turned out to be pretty relaxing and amazing. I still can't quite believe that I was really in the Alps. It really was that beautiful. We had really interesting experiences, and definitely a memorable weekend. 

Trento is a nice little city, and while it would have been nice to be more remote, it worked nicely to be in a town like that. The transportation was easy, and it was actually a really beautiful place to walk around. It never failed to amaze me that we could see a snow capped mountain at the end of the street we were walking down.

When we got back to Siena, we were relieved, definitely, because of the long period of travel, but it was also a little bit emotional for me. It was the last time that I would be arriving in Siena for a very long time. The next time I leave, it will be next week at the end of my program. I'm so excited for my next adventure, but it's still scary how fast time has gone by. It's been such and amazing experience, and something that I will take a lot away from. 

I'll get sappy on you again next week though, and again when I get home in June, so I'll stop for now. Just enjoy the pretty mountain pictures!

Barcelona

Ok, I know: the title of this post is super boring but I'm doing the best I can. I just came back from what was essentially a second spring break. I spent 6 nights in Barcelona, one night in the airport, 2 nights in Trento, and then returned to Siena for the last time before the end of this leg of the journey. I think I'm going to have to split this adventure up into a few posts because I'm not sure I can organize myself any other way. We'll see...I'm going to try.

So here we go:

Friday morning, I got up and hopped on a bus to Rome to meet up with my cousin and her friend, Serap. They had done their Italy vacation and we were all about to head of on our next adventure to Barcelona. I had decided that if I had to get to Rome, I should do one thing there before going to the airport. I picked the Roman Forum because it was one thing that I had wanted to do on my last trip but didn't have the time. I did have to carry my bag around the whole time, which was mildly annoying, but it was still super cool to go see. I'll admit I didn't spend as much time really reading and taking it all in as I maybe would have earlier in the semester, but I'm glad I at least got a taste of it. As horrible as this may sound, I may be getting a little bit desensitized to really old things. Not that I don't still appreciate it, but I've just seen so much in the last 3 months that it can get a little bit overwhelming.

So...here are a few pictures from the forum. I photographed some of the signs to read later, so feel free to try to read them if you're interested. If not....I totally get it...skip to the prettier pictures later.

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A bunch of uneventful traveling later, we arrived in Barcelona. We made it to our hostel without much trouble, but it did involve asking a couple of English men, who thought we were pretty ridiculous, for directions. I was a little bit nervous about being in a dorm hostel situation. We were sharing a room with 6 other people and that seemed like a lot to me, but it was no problem at all. We had a chance to chat with new people, and the hostel was 100% safe. 

The first thing we did the following morning (we ended up cooking dinner in the hostel and having an early night), was a bike tour of Barcelona. Unfortunately, Hannah fell close to the beginning and was unable to finish the tour, but I continued on to the end. Luckily they gave her a full reimbursement, otherwise it would have been a lot more frustrating.

The bike tour was a really cool part of my time in Barcelona, though. Bikes are a great way to cover a lot more ground pretty quickly, and while it had never really occurred to me to do a lot of group activities, it was really fun to chat with the other people on the tour and learn about their stories a little bit. It was also a great overview of the city that I was about to explore for the next week.

Rambla del Raval
This is one of the places that was beautified when the Olympics came to Barcelona in 1992.

Sagrada Familia
It's still not finished, and there's honestly a question of whether it ever will be. 

A Gaudi Creation!

After the market, Hannah and Serap showed me the food market next to La Rambla (the main pedestrian road in Barcelona). Camilla had told me that I would love it there, and she was right! The amount of amazing food was overwhelming and we vowed to come back to the market as much as we could during our week there. My lunch consisted of coconut juice, an empanada and chocolate covered strawberries on a stick. I was in heaven.

That night we went to see the Magic Fountain. Even though it was exactly what you would expect of a giant fountain with colorful lights and music, it was still beautiful and magical. We spent a long time walking around, staring at the fountain, taking cheesy pictures, and going all the way up to the top to see the different views. Hannah and I got churros con chocolate, but they were from a street vendor and definitely not up to par with how good they should have been. It was still a fun experience though...and I can legitimately say that I've eaten churros at the magic fountain in Barcelona.

The Magic Fountain show just beginning. 

Pretty sure that's the art museum. Just as stunning on the outside.

You can see the magic fountain glowing red all the way down below. 

The next day was supposed to be pretty rainy, and while the weather wasn't great, it really wasn't that bad. We decided to walk around the area near the Picasso Museum with a lot of cool Gothic architecture and then go inside the Picasso Museum after 3pm when it became free to visitors. That's right ladies and gentleman, free! It's my favorite price.

During our walking around, we explored the Cathedral a little bit. 

We didn't go inside but we did go into a beautiful courtyard area complete with a little pond, goldfish, and these feathery friends.

So anyway, about the Picasso Museum. To remain brief, I thought it was super interesting. The museum showed Picasso's work throughout his life and we were really able to see the drastic style changes. We read some of the large paragraphs on the wall that gave an overview of his life at the time, which helped us to understand some of the background. There were also 4 rooms at the end that displayed work by artists who were heavily influenced by Picasso. While my capacity for long museum visits isn't exactly at its maximum right now, I was really glad we had a chance to go check it out. I had no idea that Picasso started out painting such realistic and intense subject matter at such a young age!

That night we had our first meal out. We picked a somewhat touristy fixed-price menu but we really wanted tapas and paella and it seemed like the most affordable way to do that. We got our three tapas and paella and splurged on some sangria but it was totally worth it. It was a super fun meal, and one that you has to be done whilst in Spain, just sayin'

Paella!

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Our next adventure was Park Guell, a super famous park designed by the one and only Mr. Gaudi. We declined to pay the entrance for the 30 minutes in a fixed time slot to see the paid part, but we were able to see a good portion of it from the outside, and the rest of the park was also beautiful. We spent some time walking around and exploring the vastly different wildlife than I'm used to in my day to day life. There were also some awesome views of the city but the weather wasn't super conducive to beautiful pictures. I tried though...

In the afternoon, we did more walking, and ended at Barcalonetta, the city beach about a 30 minute walk from our hostel. I was wearing sneakers and a sweatshirt (I know, I really dressed up that day) so we didn't exactly sunbathe, but it was still nice to see the beach and relax there for a little while. We also had the pleasure of observing a young couple buy some rather questionable-looking mojitos from a man walking up and down the beach selling them. There were also people selling beach blankets, beers, and massages. We didn't purchase anything.

That night, we went to The Travel Bar for dinner. Normally I'd be super opposed to a place called The Travel Bar because....seriously? but we got a voucher for a free dinner there and we were totally going to take them up on that. Also, the meal was actually really good. It was chili with rice, which I think I super appreciated because I haven't had chili in months. We bought a pitcher of sangria so we were paying for something, but we got the meal for free...ok I know I've been going on about this free meal for a while, but I think I'm entitled to get excited about free food :)

Also, it was great that we went to the Travel Bar because they have all sorts of different events and tours designed for travelers to see the city and meet each other. We ended up doing a walk tour they hosted, which ended up being another highlight of the trip. 

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So the next day we explored another beautiful park which is also where the Olympic Stadium is located. It was actually really cool to walk around the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. I didn't realize how much the Olympics of 1992 changed the city of Barcelona. It totally makes sense though...that kind of international attention is a perfect opportunity to beautify the city and there was a ton of work done to make the city safer for visitors. 

That afternoon we did the street art walking tour. There was a guy from South Africa who moved to Barcelona and is now studying street art. It gave me a whole new perspective about graffiti. I still have strongly mixed feelings but I really appreciated learning the politics and understanding some of the symbology depicted in the art. 

This one has a very anarchist message but in a supper sassy way so I thought it was funny. Also the sticker over the face is the sticker of a street artist that is very active in Barcelona. We saw their sticker around a lot after it had been pointed out to us.

This is the tour guide. He got super excited about graffiti. 

I don't know if you can see the writing, but this artist is pretty opposed to Disney.

We saw various jellyfish around the city as well.

This famous profile was made by using a number of different stencils. One for each color. Pretty cool, eh?

This building used to be inhabited by squatters but has since been shut down by the government. There's still some super awesome art on it though.

Also, I have to show you my dinner. It was also from the food market, and it was so delicious.

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The next day was our full beach day. I don't need to ramble about that because we literally lay on the beach all day. And it was glorious.

I ended up buying a towel which proved to be super useful both at the beach and at the hostel for showering instead of paying 3 euros per use.

This is actually the town of Sitges. We decided to go a little bit outside of Barcelona to go to the beach because it was supposed to be a prettier beach and we were super glad that we did. It was gorgeous.

That night, Hannah and I went out to celebrate my birthday. It was a lot of fun to talk to people from all over. We made friends with a girl from England and spent the whole night with her. It was a highly successful night and a great way to bring in 21.

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Thursday, my actual birthday, we really didn't do much. We had to check out of the hostel at 10am so we were exhausted from having been up the night before. We got a really delicious Spanish omelet and coffee for breakfast, spent a good amount of the day wandering around, and then returned to the hostel to get Hannah and Serap's stuff. Not only could we leave our stuff there all day, but we spent a few hours hanging out at the hostel in the afternoon even though we had already checked out. It was quiet there that day and they didn't mind. 

I had the rest of the day to myself after Hannah and Serap went to the Girona airport. I went for another walk and took myself out to dinner before going to the airport for the night. Spending the night in the airport wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it really wasn't that bad. I basically got 2 hours of sleep but I was able to stay awake for the entire day for the beginning of my adventures in Trento. I'm going to cut off this super long post, and attempt another one for Trento.

Arc di Triumf

Gorgeous fountain from my afternoon walk.

It was a great week in Barcelona, and really fun to settle into a new place and spend a full week there. Barcelona is a beautiful city and I got to talk to a lot of really nice people. Very different experience from my other trips but very positive in different ways.