Friday, May 15, 2009

Just Keep Your Eye On The Prize

The draft about my trip to Italy is still in the works, and will be published once it is complete and to my liking. Please bare with me, as I have had a very busy past two weeks with flying home to Chicago, flying to Tucson soon after to begin my summer internship, and then flying back to Chicago this weekend to tend to family matters. However, I have not forgotten about my Italy entry, so do not fret! I appreciate your patience with me.

In regards to my last entry, jet lag was a killer. My body was confused for three days after returning to Chicago. I would take long naps in the late afternoon out of necessity. I recommend thinking about and preparing for jetlag both on your flights to and from overseas destinations.

As for right now, if you have any questions for me about studying abroad (especially in London or even about my London program), feel free to comment and ask me. I will address them as best and detailed as I can.

Monday, May 11, 2009

What I Did In Italy - Part 1

Saturday, April 25:


On Saturday morning I left Palace Court at 6:30 am to take a cab to Paddington station. I got there about 6:45 and waited around the station for 15 minutes for the Left Luggage office to open with everything I owned in tow. Finally it opened, and I easily stored my two massive suitcases. From there, I took the tube to Liverpool Street. At Liverpool Street, I got on the Stansted Express train and took it to Stansted Airport. When I was checking in at Stansted, I realized that I had signed up for online check in when I ordered my tickets, so they charged me a large fee for checking in at the airport instead. Budget airlines are so tricky with the ways they decide to charge more money.

Since I woke up so early that morning, my flight to Pisa Airport was pretty uneventful. I slept most of the way. The only cool part was when we were descending, the pilot flew over the Mediterranean Sea, which was a gorgeous turquoise color. We could see sail boats and the shadows of underwater reefs from the air. Also, we could see the Tuscan coast and the Leaning Tower of Pisa during the descent. The views were absolutely stunning!

When I got to the Pisa Airport, I just followed a group of three older British couples, because I heard they were headed to Florence as well. It was slightly complicated, since there are only two direct trains from the Pisa Airport to Florence each day. Either I had to wait four hours for the train, or I had to catch a bus to Pisa Central Station and then take a train to Florence from there. By following the couples, I found out how to buy a bus ticket, where the buses picked up, and how to get to Pisa Central. I went to the ticket counter right away and bought my ticket to Florence for 5.60 euro. Shortly thereafter, I tried calling Derek, and started to freak out that my phone didn't allow me to dial his number. I probably tried 30 times.

Somehow I got on the train to Florence after some wait at the station, and I spent the first half of the train ride desperately trying to find a way to contact Derek. I even called Talk Mobile's customer service internationally, and they were absolutely no help. Then I called two of my friends as well as my parents. I was really nervous about having used up most of my talk credit and not having a way to "top up" while in Italy, and finally Derek called me to see where I was. I told him that I had been freaking out because he hadn't sent me the name of the hostel or directions how to get there like I had asked him several times to do (since he had made the reservations), and I was really insecure in a foreign country by myself with no way of contacting him. He re-assured me that he would pick me up from the train station and that I didn't have anything to worry about anymore. (Of course he was 20 minutes late picking me up from the station due to him getting lost, and I yet again freaked out for a little while.)

After we found each other, we walked around Florence for a while enjoying the city. It's really pretty, and my favorite place we went that night was a pizzaria in the Piazza Signora. I ordered my meal in Italian courtesy of the handy-dandy Italy guidebook that I borrowed from my uncle Frank.

On our way to the hostel from the restaurant, we stopped at a delicious gelateria where I had my first taste of Italian gelato! Needless to say, it was devine.

That night we stayed in an 8-person hostel room at the Hostel Santa Monaca (which was pretty nice). It was interesting because everyone else in the room spoke English, even though everyone else was from Holland, Italy, and Japan. I really enjoyed learning about their reasons for travelling in Europe.

Sunday, April 26:



On Sunday, Derek and I wanted to get a head-start on sightseeing, so we woke up early and started walking around Florence. We stopped at a coffee shop along the way, where I hoped I could find a mocha. No such luck. That was the beginning of my disappointment in finding out that Italy did not invent the mocha, and that it must have been Starbucks. Also, Starbucks does not exist in Italy. Another interesting tid-bit about Italian breakfast is that it's not big, and includes just a small cup of cappuccino with foam and a "sweet" such as a donut or glazed croissant.


As for sightseeing, we went to El Duomo, the outdoor market, the Ponte Vecchio, and outside the Ufizzi. We didn't go in that art museum because the line was estimated to take 3 hours. It would have come in handy if we had reserved tickets in advance. With that, it was raining off and on the whole time, which means my pictures are kinda drab-looking. However, we did go inside the Accademia de Arte and saw "The David" as well as other cool statues! That was an amazing cultural experience, for sure.


Then, around sunset, we followed what our guidebook told us to do and we went to the lookout point (Via de Michaelangelo???). Even though it was really cloudy, it was a cool climb and had pretty views!


For both lunch and dinner we ate at El Dante Pizzaria. At lunch, Derek spilled water all over the table at lunch. We had the same waiter for dinner, who was very nice and recognized us as the people who spilled water during lunch. During our dinner trip we ate with our roommate named Lincoln from Singapore. Then the three of us went and got gelato before heading back to the hostel to go to bed.




Monday, April 27:


Monday morning Derek and I woke up very early and took the train to Siena from Florence. It was a pretty cloudy day with the occasional rain bursts. When we got to the Siena train station, we didn't know which bus to catch. Also, I was pretty hungry so I decided to get some food from the grocery store in the train station. However, when I took the apple up to the register, they started talking to me in Italian about how I needed a ticket for it. So I told them in English that I just didn't want it anymore. Needless to say, they didn't understand me, and I basically made a fool out of myself. The woman behind the counter went to the other side of the store for me to get a ticket for my apple, holding up the line. I felt so badly.





Anyway, after that we went downstairs and couldn't figure out the bus system because there was no bus map and the timetable was in Italian. After trying to figure out the bus system for about a half hour, we decided just to take a taxi to the hostel.





The hostel was very simple, but fine for just the night. It was kinda far from the city, but I hear it's the only hostel in town with linens. So we took a bus to the city and then started walking around. We ate at a restaurant that some friends of Derek's recommended, which was near the Duomo. Then we went and checked out the Duomo, the Piazza Central, and the big fort near the bus station. Siena is very old, and all of the buildings are an earthy reddish brown color. Also, the city is very historical, because back in medieval times it used to be a huge rival to Florence.





For dinner Derek and I went to a local pizzaria near our hostel that ended up being very delicious. I had learned how to say sausage pizza in Italian by then, so I had the sausage pizza and Derek and I both had the house wine. By the time we were done with our meal, the entire restaurant had totally filled up and there were people waiting out the door. It obviously was a good place to go according to the locals. The only downfall about that night was that after we were done with dinner (around 8:30) there was literally nothing for us to do around our hostel. I tried to go to the combination McDonalds/gas station to get something to read, and even the gas station was closed. I recommend bringing a fun book to read when you're travelling for times like that when there is literally nothing to do.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Sleep

I am suffering from jet lag. Please be patient with the Italy update. It will come. I am giving you my word.