Wherefore Art Thou Venezia

The roomies and I went to Venice! However, it was quit cold and we couldn't see too far most of the day because it was so foggy!! It was still really fun though! Venice is not like any other city I have ever been to. The closest would probably be Amsterdam but that is only due to the many canals. Amsterdam is much more organized though. There are no main streets in Venice, the whole cities consists of twisting little streets and bridges. Although it still only takes twenty minutes to walk from one side of the city to the other. Oh did I say city? I meant island. Venice is actually a small island off the coast of Italy. We spent most of the day in Venice doing some Christmas shopping, we even hopped on a water-bus and went to the even smaller island of Murano to go shopping as well. Murano is the island where all of Italy's famous glass is made.

See!? An Island!

I can't tell you much else about my shopping excursions because that might ruin some Christmas surprises!
Venice was really pretty though. We went to the main square (St. Marco) really early and no one else was there and even though it was foggy it was really beautiful. We went inside the church and the entire ceiling was gilded with gold. It was quite awe-inspiring.

San Marco

Next up: More field studies and feeling confused about having to go back to America soon

Catching Up. Finally.

Ciao tutti! In Italiana that means "hello all!". See? I am learning something! So. My life after fall break. It's time to catch up. I've been spending most of my time researching for presentation, going on magnificent field studies, registering for classes for when I go back to the Woo, and getting my midterms back. I did really well on my midterms. Three As and two Bs! I also got As on my Italian composition and quiz that we took after we got back. I think I'm taking some pretty good courses for Wooster although it's going to be a hard semester since I'm starting Junior IS!? That is crazy. IS seemed so far away when I first started at Wooster, which feels like yesterday. Oh well. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Speaking of time moving quickly I only have 30 days before I leave for Paris! Which means that I only have 34 days before I have to leave Europe! That makes me sad but I think I'll definitely be happy to be home. But I'm not gone yet! So back to my life in Rome:
I have discovered my favorite museum in Rome, and possibly Italy. It is called the Villa Borghese and is a smaller house located in the gardens of the actual Villa Borghese built by the Cardinal Nephew Scipione Borghese. This museum has a beautiful collection of mainly Baroque and Renaissance pieces. Some of my favorites were the paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio and the immense collection of Bernini Sculptures. Here is my favorite:

Apollo and Daphne

I've also visited St. Peter's Basilica several times in the past week for field studies. It really is an amazing place. However, I did not particularly like that they replaced all of the amazing paintings with mosaic copies. If a painting was produced with oil on canvas there is no way that the same effect can be created with mosaics. The other thing that I thought was unfortunate was that you can only view Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture from far away and through a thick glass wall. Why must people try and destroy art and ruin it for everyone else? In a few weeks I go to the Vatican museums which I am excited about. I'm particularly excited to see The School of Athens.
Now, this weekend. Tonight I am catching the night train to Venice! Some of my roomies and I are going to spend all of Saturday there and hopefully get a lot of our Christmas shopping done! We may even take a waterbus to Murano, which is famous for it's glass. I'm really excited to go and see more of Italy! I'll tell you all about it when I get back to Rome!

Hello Venezia!

Frites and Sweets

Finally, Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a lot of fun but I definitely liked Spain better. Spain smelled better. Also, Amsterdam was a bit rainy. However, I still loved my trip there.

This is pretty much what Amsterdam looked like during the day. Good thing we had lots of frites (french fries) and waffles, and bagels to keep us warm! Amsterdam is an expensive city so we spent most of our time just walking around and exploring the city. We went to several famous squares (Rembrandt, Dam, etc.), the museum park, and the large public park. It was a lot of fun. We also went on a canal tour of the city which was really interesting.

This is a picture of Amsterdam at night. Everything it lit up but the main roads were brighter than usual since they already had some Christmas lights up! Rembrandt Square was our favorite place to visit at night. There are always so many people around the giant statue of the painter. Rembrandt is also a great place to find bars and the like at night. One of the nights we also ventured into the Red Light district. It was a little ridiculous. We saw some guys get a drink thrown at them by one of the window girls and the whole street just has a seedy kind of quality. But, it's an experience. After all, it's all about the story!

One of the days we were there we took a day trip to the city of Naarden where one of the people I was traveling with has a family friend. We were hosted for the day and ate a traditional Dutch lunch. This consisted of many types of bread, meat, and cheese. The most interesting thing about Naarden is that it is shaped like a star. The city was constructed in this way as a method of defense. The city has lots of underground tunnels that allowed the soldiers to listen to any changes in the movement of the lake. It was a really neat town, and at the end we even got to see a group of school children load and fire a cannon!

Below I'll put some more pictures of Amsterdam and then I'll promise to put up another post soon about more current events going on in my life!

Landmark at the Museum Park

Occupy Amsterdam: Sponsored by Banks

Real Madrid

The second part of my fall break was spent in the city of Madrid. Madrid is a very different city than both Barcelona and Rome. For starters it is a much smaller city. It is also a much more industrial city. However, it is still beautiful and full of historical sites and amazing art; enough to keep anyone busy for several days.
Our first day we flew in around lunchtime, so after exploring the area around our hostel we mainly just napped until dinner. For dinner we had paella again, because it's just that delicious. After dinner we went around to check out all of the different bars around our area. It was pretty fun, but most of the nightlife was closed because it was a Monday and most places are only open Thursday to Sunday.
The next day we did a tour of the city on a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus. This is a bus that stops at major landmarks of the city and you can get off and explore then hop back on the next bus (they come about every 15 minutes). This was a lot of fun because we got to see all of the city and explore it too! My favorite stop was the Royal palace and gardens.

Royal Palace & Gardens

Some of the other sites were the government buildings and the cathedral. There is also the two art museums: El Prato and the Reina Sofia. We visited these the next day along with the botanical gardens. However, this blog would not be written by me if I didn't tell you all about our dinner adventures! For dinner we went to a restaurant that served traditional Spanish stews and had a Michelin Star! I was quite impressed. The stew was absolutely delicious. They serve it in a ceramic jar and the waiter then pours out the liquid onto a bed of noodles. Then you scoop out the meat and potatoes and vegetables and add them to the broth and noodles.

The waiter told me I had to hold my napkin like that.

Francisco de Goya 3rd of May

Now I can tell you about the art museums! The first museum that we visited was El Prat. El Prat is the largest art museum in Madrid. It houses the masterpieces from artists like: Carracci, Caravaggio, El Greco, Velasquez, and Goya. My favorite was the paintings by Goya. The museum had his black paintings as well as the famous 3rd of May. I didn't realize how large some of the paintings are! The Reina Sofia museum was dedicated to more modern art. There I saw many paintings by Salvador Dali and Picasso. The main attraction of the museum is Picasso's massive Guernica. 

Temple of Debod

That night we went to watch the sunset at the Temple of Debod. The Temple was brought to Madrid from Egypt and is placed on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. On our last night we also went to see a flamenco show! It was lots of fun! There was a live band and it was really interesting to see the different styles of flamenco and all of the different moves. It's a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be! There is a lot of foot stomping! And that's about all we did in Madrid. We were just super touristy.
The next installment of my Fall Break blogs will be all about Amsterdam!

Pablo Picasso Guernica

 

 

Me Encanta Barcelona

For about the last ten days I have been traveling around Europe. The first stop on my adventure was Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe, hands down. It is absolutely amazing there. We stayed at a really nice hostel close to one of the main streets and only a short walk to the harbor. The first day only three of us had arrived and we took a walk on La Rambla (The main street with lots of shops and restaurants) and ended up stumbling upon a market. However, this was not just any market. This was the Mercat de Mercats which is a market that is only held once a year is hosts some of the best of the best foods and wines of Barcelona. We spent just about three hours there grazing on cheeses, salamis, and seafood while sipping on Spanish wines. It was so much fun. And the longer we were there the more people we knew kept showing up!

This is the Mercat de Mercats

This is a sample of some delicious looking food that we saw and sampled

This served six with leftovers

The next thing we did was walk around some more and then head back to our hostel for a siesta. This was completely necessary since we needed to make room for the dinner that we were going to that night. We went to a place near the beach to try some authentic Spanish paella. It was amazing. Definitely one of our best meals. We even got sangria to go with our food! It was a little too sweet for me, but still quite good. I think I prefer Italian wine though, the Chianti that we had in Florence is still my favorite. After dinner we spent some time running around on the beach at night which was a lot of fun. Then we were off to discover Barcelona's famous night life. The club that we went to was huge and we danced and sang to the music all night. It is true that the locals stay out until 6am but we got tired before that, probably thanks to our giant dinner, and went back to the hostel to sleep. The next morning we met up with one of my roomies', Sara's, cousin. He is an architect who lives in Barcelona so he took us on a tour around the city and we got to experience Barcelona the way that the people that live there do, not just like a tourist. For dinner that night we had Tapas, a traditional Spanish dish which is essentially many different types of small servings that you choose from. Some of our favorites were the potatoes bravos (spicy potatoes), the ham croquettes, and the stuffed red peppers. The next day was devoted to experiencing the architecture of Gaudi. It was great to have an architect as our guide since he was really able to explain the importance and style of Gaudi. Here are some examples of his works:

It's so wavy!

It has a rainbow roof!

<- This church is possibly Gaudi's most famous work. It is called the Sagrada Familia and it is still under construction, long after the death of Gaudi. The four towers that are visible in this photo are only four out of twelve, one for each apostle. On the other side of the church there are scenes from the Passion carved into the facade.

This was our last day in Barcelona and we treated ourselves to an American comfort food done the Spanish way: burgers. More specifically, the best burgers in Europe and possibly the World. Yes, they were that delicious. We were unable to stop talking about them for a week. If you are ever in Barcelona, the restaurant is called Kiosko and it is amazing. The burger pictured is the Manchego burger with goat cheese and caramelized onions.

One of the most interesting things about Barcelona is that it is part of the region of Catalonia in Spain. Catalonia is currently trying to separate from Spain and become it's own nation. This is spurred by a sense of regionalism as opposed to nationalism. Catalonia also has their own language. It is more like a mixture of Italian and French than Spanish, and I actually found that I was able to read it better than normal Spanish.
Now, here are some more pictures of Barcelona:

This street had a Roman Triumphal Arch at the end!

At the beach after dinner

How perfect does this look?

Tired, on the boardwalk, and happy to be in Barcelona!