So, today was my last day of teaching math. It was the last class I took over for Paula and the first one I give back, so it’s a stepping stone towards home! IN class today, we had a test on measurement (they did not do as well as hoped, but did go up about 40-50% from their pretests). After our test, we had extra time, so we made paper airplanes, took them outside, flew them, and measured how far each flew. It was such a great way to end my math time! Before sending them back to class, I gathered them in and told them that I would not be teaching their class anymore. One of my favorite students (I know I”m not suppossed to have favorites) started to cry! You’ll never guess who it was….it was the very same student who had weeks before thrown a chair because I was the “meanest teacher in the world.” Needless to say, I almost started crying (Ryan- stop making fun of me) because it feels like maybe I really did make a difference to him! Anyway, that’s my ‘feel good” story for the week….hope it inspires you all!!!!
The hills are alive…. April 20, 2009
Salzburg, Austria, home of Mozart and the infamous “Sound of Music” (only like one of my favorite movies ever!!) So, on Saturday, I dragged myself out of bed, against the wishes of every bone in my body, at 5:30am so we could catch the 6:20am train. The train ride was uneventful and I was tired the entire way. After passing through small town after small town with green fields full of cows and snow-covered Alps mountains in the background…pretty gorgeous, we arrived in Salzburg. I was immediately struck by how big of a city it was. For some reason, I had imagined it as a tiny town in the middle of the mountains (thank you Sound of Music) and the bigger city took me by surprise.
Regardless, we decided to find our hostel and drop our bags before heading out on the town. It was the biggest hostel we have ever stayed at and was run more like a hotel than a hostel, but it was nice. WE left our bags and headed to the town square. It was much like our favorite places in every city….lots of tents with little shops/food vendors, lots of people to watch and make up stories about, there was even a mini Trevi fountain that reminded us of Rome. So, we got out our PB & J sandwiches and claimed a bench to people watch. After we ate lunch, we found a neat pretzel stand with “Salzburg Original Pretzel” which is pretty much as big as your head and covered in all sorts of good stuff – like chocolate, cheese, cheese & bacon, cheese & veggies, sugar/cinnamon, and the list goes on. We decided to be good and split a chocolate pretzel. It was DELICIOUS! The best pretzel I’ve ever had!! Continuing on our good streak, we decided to investigate Salzburg on foot. We took a long walk to the Mirabelle Gardens….it has the fountain where the Von Trapp children danced! SO BEAUTIFUL…Ryan, you would have loved it because they labeled all the different varieties of flowers. True to form, Nichole found a playground and the rest of our afternoon was spent playing on the Tetter-totter and merry-go-round. What a blast! For dinner, we found a little shop that had a line all afternoon…so, if the locals would wait, it had to be good! After waiting in line for 20 minutes, we got our own Bosna..it was 2 bratwurst inside a toasted bun with onion, parsley, and curry powder. And, let me tell you, it was worth the wait!!! Can you tell our first day was spent eating our way through Salzburg??? 🙂 We ended the night by hiking up to the abbey where “How do you solve a problem like Maria” was filmed. Lucky for Nichole and Sarah, I remembered a few lines and graced them with a little song! What a great, lazy first day!
The next morning, we woke up early and took a hike to the castle; which we had heard there was a beautiful panoramic view. Unfortunately, our “go-getter attitude” got us to the castle before it opened. Luckily, using our map and trail skills that we learned from Wolfgang, we were able to find another trail and panoramic viewpoint. Feeling pretty proud of ourselves, we hiked to the viewpoint and started snaping pictures of the landscape. It really is just as beautiful as the Sound of Music makes it look! While we were gazing around, we noticed a familiar house…the VON TRAPP HOUSE!!!! Since we have been dreaming about renting bikes in some town, we decided to rent bikes, go for a ride, and try to see the Von Trapp house. And we did just that! We rode our bikes down teh lane filled with trees (the very one from the movie) and around the lake (where the Von Trapp kids fell off the boat) and to the front of the house. At first we were disappoited because there was a gate, but as Nichole rode up to it, the gate swung open…it was a sign! A sign that we were welcome to explore. So, against our better judgement, we snuck into the gated garden and explored just a little….it was like being in the movie!!! SO EXCITING!!! I was about to break into song when a butler and maid came out of the house and gave us “the look’ Following our better judgement this time, we peddled off the grounds and back onto the tree-lined street. Overall, the bikes were the best idea we’ve had yet (although at times I was scared that Nichole or sarah was going to crash and burn)! We ended our day by grabbing a few more pretzels for the ride home…this time cheese with veggies, cheese & bacon, and apple with almonds….again BEST pretzels ever!!! One more weekend, one more country down!!!
Volksfest April 17, 2009
So, last night, Thursday night, (I know you’re all shocked that I would go out on a school night, but I’m a wild and crazy girl!) we went to the Nurnberg Volksfest with some of the teachers. Volksfest means “People’s fest” The festivals start in spring and go all through the summer and start of fall. Long ago (in the time of horses and buggies), the festivals were used as a time to get the young people of different villages together to “keep the villages going” if you know what I mean (wink wink). Each town had a festival on a differnet weekend so that all the neighboring villagers could attend. Now, they are more of a social event for all of Germany. There are carnival rides, beer tents, food tests, bands, and a general atmosphere of good times! If you are from Quincy, imagine the KC BBQ and you’ve got an idea of what it’s like. If you are a Kiel, think St. Dominic picnic and add carnival rides.
We had a “fest beir” (1 Liter of beer in a glass mas) and Nurnberger bratwurst (8 little brats on a skewer with sourkraut, mustard, german bread, and potato salad) It was delicious!! Then one of the teachers, Julie, started dancing to the music and cheering for the band….we of course, joined in with the German drinking songs and made general fools of ourselves! It was so much fun! What a great way to spend a night in Germany!!! (Athough getting up for school this mornign was no fun!!)
Unfortuantely, we left straight from school and I forgot my camera (sorry Ryan) so, here is a website that has lots of videos and pictures that you can see (this is for you James…I know how much you like the pictures and that you’ll read to the end of this post! 🙂 http://en.sevenload.com/search/Volksfest/videos
This weekend, “The hills are alive with the Sound of Music as we are off to Salzburg Austria!!!!!
Insert- Lake Guarda April 12, 2009
So, this post should have been before the week in Italy, but no one’s perfect! This blog is a collaborative effort with Nichole….from BFF to BFF!!
a while ago, wolfgang (moreso than paula) brought up to us about going to lake garda, italy for a weekend…to see if we were interested…DUH, of course we are. so it happened; the weekend of 3.27-29.09, we went (lake garda is a popular holiday spot for germans). we left school immediately on friday and went home, picked up our bags and wolfgang…set the GPS and we were off. the car ride was interseting. we borrowed a couple of books on fun psychological quizzes from lora…so we did some during the ride. we learned about who is the most daring-sarah; who is afraid of success-? who has the most self-esteem-nichole…then it said she was a liar about it, lol. so the 4-5 hour drive turned out to be almost 7 hours…we drove through germany, austria (which we are against because wolfgang thinks the country steals our money, haha)/the snow of austria and then to the top of italy. Nichole fell asleep and her head was bobbng all over the place A LOT..I thought either she was going to jam my nose into the window or she was going to crash or something…everytime I described how she “slept” or acted it out..we would laugh (we still do!). we woke up in italy and it was brilliant. it was dark, but i was in italy for the first time!
that night (even though it was about 11pm) we hung out with wolfgang’s friend at the hotel’s restaurant. we were tired so after a lit while, we went to bed.
the next morning, we went downstairs of our hotel for an italian breakfast. the hotel’s owner (i’m assumming because he did everything) and his mom (we think) had the table all set for us (since the vacation period is just starting, places are just starting to reopen after the winter…so i think we were their only guests). we had baskets of different kinds of breads/rolls, a plate of filled crossiants, a couple plates of meat/cheese (common in germany to make sandwiches for breakfast or a mid-morning meal), different butters/spreads…we also got an egg of our choice; we all chose scrambled and it was cooked in italian olive oil–oh my so tasty! i had orange juice as well. we chatted about our day and the sad news that it was very rainy/foggy, which as a shame. our hotel was on a patch of the huge lake garda, which was also surrounded by moutains. unfortunately it was so foggy that we could barely see the moutains on the other side. it didn’t even matter..we were set for that moutain. wolfgang made the executive decision that we would not do the full-out rock climbing/or that fancy ladder that goes up the side of a moutain at a ridiculous angle…but that we would “hike” or “wander” up it as the germans call it.
we changed and got all packed up for the day at the moutain. nichole and i rode with wolfgang’s friend…we made a stop at a local supermarket for fresh bread, meat and cheese for lunch food..then we were off. the roads are so narrow in italy and the cars are all tiny. we swerved around the lake and everything…i seriously felt like james bond at the beginning driving scene of his last movie. it’s like the italians built houses and set up vineyards and then were like oh shit, we forgot roads–so they squeezed them in when they could….and i loved it.
we started up our hike and nichole and i made it well known that we are in-training for the amazing race (you know, the show….that’s right, we are training for it! watch out america!). i felt good at the start…but then we found out that it was at least a 3 hour hike up to reach the summit off almost 1100 meters (= 3/4 of a mile!). we went up rocks, leaf-covered hills…we were hausy damen once AGAIN! we reached a cute little church and then it started to rain…we so desperately wanted to call it there (well “we” meaning the girls).I thought…YES rain, that means we turn around…but we kept on. we stopped at a great outlook spot for lunch…it’s raining by now but so beautiful–views like i’ve never seen. the rest of the hike was difficult; we went through tunnel-like caves that were used in WWI austria vs. germany…so we pretended we were watching out for enemies…it was fun. we had to use these steps or ladders that were made out of hardcore metal to help hike in areas that didn’t have much to hike up–again, very hausy. we finally reached the summit….WOW. the views were really awesome (we were ABOVE the clouds and fog!)….but more importantly, i was viewing from an area that i climbed. i felt good and strong. at the top, there was a large cross with barbed wire on it from WWI, i believe, and a book to sign saying “we made it”….still rainy so we snapped a few pictures (of course) and started making our way down, which i think was harder. the rain made everything slick and i swore my pants were just going to slip on off, haha. luckily we made it and we felt gross.
we drove back to our hotel, showered, rested our eyes for a little bit then got dressed (ps i realize that many of my sentences are run-on sentences). we went to our hotel’s restaurant for hot drinks…then we took umbrellas into our quiet town to find a restaurant with pizza for paula. we never found it (weird, huh?) so we ended up eating at this fancier restaurant (possibly the fanciest restaurant we’ve eaten at since we’ve been here). we were there for a few hours; europeon restaurants give you the table–there is no rush, pressure or fuss to get moving…you have to ask for the check; they just don’t subtly drop it off.
we all tried different foods…and everything was so yummy. oh and paula started off with a typical italian/europeon appetizer of melon and prosciutto (a rachael ray favorite). we also had a bottle of wine for the table and different breads/bread sticks. we enjoyed a really nice dinner of italian pasta and good company. we then ended it with dessert. I decided to get a ginger custard like desert…and a fabulous presentation (as was everything)….so to the side of it, there was crystalized red sugar design–just fancy! LOVED IT!
the next day, we enjoyed a similar breakfast…except i tried coffee. first real cup. i actually had a whole, small coffee pot to myself. italian coffee=aparently strong. it was about half coffee and the other half was sugar and really foamy (which i love) cream. i enjoyed it. i didn’t feel an effect and i haven’t had it since…but i can say i had it (the start of so many “firsts” when i’m in italy!).
then we paid for our rooms and packed up the car. we drove for awhile because wolfgang was set on taking us to this church….we drove for so long…up the moutain and around moutains–going through the fog this time haha. i was wearing wet shoes from the day before-gross….but the church, wow. worth the drive and the rain, i guess. it was built into a moutain..on a cliff. it was crazy. so beautiful. so inside of it, two of the walls were the side of the moutain–something special. i don’t get to see stuff like this ever–so i put it in my memory banks!
back in the car…and down the moutain and on a hunt for pizza for paula. after 3 tries we finally got it right! we stopped at a very local pizzeria…oh wow…this was probably more amazing than the summit or the church, to me. they made our pizzas right there–no hidden kitchen or hidden conventional oven–no way. brick oven, with wood/fire and everything! Nichole got up and asked (using less english words) if she could take some pizzas of the attractive pizza chef making our pizzas. he agreed happily (he does not speak english). but then the only other guy in the restaurant…he was sitting in the corner (and had earlier been talking to the chef like friends) started talking to be in broken-english. Nichole definitley appreciated it. She learned that this chef was the master and on busier nights, they would have some young guy top the pizzas and the master would maneuver them around in the oven (brought back SO many wonderful timothy’s memories/similarities). so she watched the master at his craft. he served us our pizzas and they were delicious. i got a vegetable pizza which was so good. Interestingly, it had potato and eggplant and each vegetable was divided into a section, not mixed up. It was served on a very large dinner plate–it cost 4 euro (unbelievable!). the master came over to check on us…and were more than fine! That guy in the corner-his name is fabio (haha….don’t think a smut novel cover…he didn’t look like that) introduced himself and Nichole got a picture with him! the master’s name is miracol and she got a picture with him as well! miracol brough us over “lemon liquor shots;” Limoncella, it’s very popular in italy to have this small drink after dinner (we had it the night before as well).
OH, the bathroom was just like a regular fine restroom, but except for the sitting down part of the porcelain, you basically squatted down…so this was the start of being popping and squatting (the first of many while being in italy)!!!
April 10- Day 9- Vencie…no Pisa!
Alas, the time had come to leave our wonderful Cinque Terre and travel to Venice…or so we thought! We left early, at 7:23am, took a train to La Spezia, the biggest one around, then another train to Pisa, then finally to Firenze in order to catch the train to Venice. Problem was, we hadn’t made reservations for the train (we were trying to be those free spirits that we have met along our travels) and we forgot that it was Easter weekend; so all the trains were full. So, no Venice for us….and possibly no going home since the night trains were quickly getting filled up. Nichole waited in line for 1 hour while sarah and I tried to make contingency plans with our timetables. Lucky for us, there were still seats (no beds) left on the train back to Munich that night. Since we had seen Firenze already, we decided to do a nearby town-Pisa. We hopped back on the train and went to Pisa for the day. In Pisa, there was little to see except the Leaning Tower. Description- a leaning tower. That’s about it. Surprisingly, it was surrounded by apartment buildings and a big church….hope it doesn’t fall! We spent the day wandering around the town and sitting on the grass around the tower people watching. Later we ate gelato and hopped the train back to Firenze.
On the night train, I realized how lucky I had been with my middle bunk on the night train down to Rome. The room was 6 seats, if you stretched out your legs, your shins hit the seat in front of you, and we were suppossed to sleep in those? I don’t think so! Needless to say, I was excited to get back home and spent the day catching up on sleep, school work, and blogging.
I hope you have all enjoyed this whirl wind tour of Italy…there are hundreds of pictures (literally) that you can all see when I get home! 6 weeks and counting!!!
April 9- Day 8- Cinque Terre
This day was planned to be a travel day to Venice…however, after seeing Cinque Terre, we knew we couldn’t leave and had to spend one more day here! So, we got up early and went to our hostel in hopes of getting a room for another night. At first, he said, no go…it was Easter and every room was full. So, we returned to our room and packed our bags, trying to figure out a new travel plan along the way. As we were waiting to talk to him a second time…and beg for a room, we met 2 other travellers, Kelly (from Canada) and Aaron (from California) who were also looking for a room for another night. Cinque Terre has a way of dragging you in! We talked for a while, then the hostel guy said he had a room for us! YEAH!! We dropped off our bags in the tiniest room ever…beds were everywhere and headed off to the last city- Monterosso. Our plan was to start at the end, since we hadn’t seen it yet, and hike back to our city. We got off the train and found the best beach yet! The town was set up so there was one main road that ran along the beach, shops and restuarants on one side, seaside beach on the other- so pretty! INstead of hiking back right away (cause what would we do after we were done) we got some gelato…again, a must…they had Dark chocolate gelato! Picked a spot on the beach, a little set of rocks that was on the corner of the beach and kind of secluded. We each took a rock, opened a book, and laid there! It was like every great vacation should be- listening to the waves, soaking up the sun, and reading a great book! At 3pm, we realized, there was NO way we were going to hike, we might as well just stay at the beach all day, so that’s what we did. Rome=History/Party, Florence=Shopping, Cinque Terre= Relaxing! For dinner, we bought foccacia pizza from a beachside shop and took it to the beach.
When getting on the train back to Riomaggiorie, we ran into Kelly and Aaron again! We talked and decided the only fitting way to end our time (and Kellys last day in Italy) was with gelato. When we got to the gelato shop in town, there was a cake that caught our eye…it was a large tartufu…like an ice cream cake covered in chocolate and nuts….so instead of each getting gelato, we bought it, took it to the beach and enjoyed yet another perfect sunset with gelato! What a great end to our time in Cinque Terre!!!
Cinque Terre Website: http://www.lecinqueterre.org/eng/ this site has each town’s history and pictures of each town!!
April 8-Day 6- Cinque Terre
So, despite our desire to get an early start, we managed to sleep in yet again. Nichole and I explored the town a little and noticed a sign that said “damaged postcards= 10cents) We were all over that (sorry if you get one) We searched through all the postcards for the ones that were slightly torn on the corner or looked faded from the sun and picked out about 10. Then, we went to pay…unfortunately, the owner, who spoke littel English, said those were 25Cents….so much for our 10 cent postcards! After packing a bag with water and food (apples and bread from a local grocery store), not knowing what to expect on this trail (and fearing a ‘hike’ after Wolfgang’s version of a hike). After buying our Cinque Terre cards, which allow us to walk the trail and take trains between the cities, we started out. The first part of the hike was from Riomaggiore to Manarola and is called Via Del Amore (Road of Love) It was an easy walk and lots of tourists were there. Unfortuantely, we had to speed up our walking a few times to avoid the Italian field trips! (we were trying to be as unteacherly as possible this week) We stopped at a few points and walked down steep stairs to the sea. It was beautiful!
The next part was from Manarola to Corniglia. Again, it was quite an easy hike and being such a beautiful day, we took our time and went down the stairs to the rocks below often. So many flowers and interesting plants along the way too—don’t worry, Ryan, I got pictures! The other interesting thing was the vineyards. All along the mountain were terraces, each one containing 3-10 rows of grape vines. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to! Corniglia was the only town not on the sea, but we enjoyed lunch there on a park bench that overlooked a large valley which housed a local vineyard. After Corniglia, we took the train to Vernazza (the trail was closed because of a landslide). Yet again, we were stunned by the beauty of it! It was absolutely gorgeous! It was the first town of the five to have a beach. So, after exploring the quaint little town, we were drawn to the beach. On our way, we entered yet another gelateria….we had to!…and each got a cup. Outside some boys were playing soccer and the ball came flying up at us when we left. I stuck out my foot and happened to kick the ball back to them…they yelled “very good, very good, she’s a master” That may be the only English they knew, but it made me feel like a local soccer star 🙂 We enjoyed our gelato on large rocks, sunning ourselves (like turtles) watching the big boats of tourists come in and out of the harbor.
After a short train ride back to Riomaggiore, we to a local restaurant. Nichole got her foccacia pizza, Sarah got Spaghetti with mussels, and I got the most amazing Pesto and Cheese lazanga ever! It was so fresh and hot and just delicious! We took our bottle of wine (purchased in Corniglia from a local enoteca-wine shop) and dinner down to our rocks and watched another sunset while eating our dinner. We were joined by some local seagulls hoping for some of our delicious dinner! When we got back to our room, Emil, Knut, and Wilma were returning from their hike as well. We spent an hour talking to them about Sweden and the US and they tried to teach us some Swedish words…Wilma tried to teach us Finnish. We failed miserably! But, we did learn that their language is much more song like than English. They have such a soothing way of talking. After they tried to teach us Swedish, we asked them what English sounded like to them. They did some hilarious impressions of southerners with mouths full of tobacco! It was a great way to end the night! I love our little chance encounters that teach us so much about culture!!!
April 7-Day 5- Firenze/ Cinque Terre
If I haven’t mentioned it before, Firenze means Florence!
We began our day on the search for that Florentine hot chocolate and we were not disappointed. After asking Leonardo, our hostel owner, we walked to a little cafe, definitely out of tourist central, and found what we were looking for. We ordered a chocolatte calente..which surprised the locals because they only have cappicino in the morning. When the worker made it, he took a scoop of something (like chocolate icing) and added milk…then he whipped it together and warmed it. It was DELICIOUS and very thick, I even bit into a chunk of chocolate while drinking it. Fabulous way to start the day!
After our hot chocolate, Sarah went to Academia, an art gallery, to see David (the famous Michealangelo statue) and Nichole and I went to the San Lorenzo market. It was a huge open air market with everything from jewelry, glass plates, leather purses/wallets, scarves, paintings, and so much more! We spent 2 hours walking around and making strategic purchases for those of you reading this 🙂 Luckily Leonardo had told us that bargaining is a must at this market, so we got some good deals! Roma had been our history town, Firenze was our shopping town! Around lunch time, we stumbled upon a large building in the middle of the market. We were unsure what it was, but a lot of people were coming and going with food, so we decided to check it out.
We walked into a huge warehouse with nothing but fresh foods! It was a food market, much like the one in Barcelona. The first floor was devoted to meats, cheeses, nuts, and dried fruits. The second floor was all fresh fruits and vegetables. It was crazy! The first thing we saw looked like a slimy blanket of sheep’s wool….it was really tripe (stomach lining of cow) a delicacy of Florence. We actually saw a guy carrying in half a cow…that’s right, he carried it over his shoulder, hung it on a hook, then chopped off a hunk for the lady at the counter- very european butcher shop! The fruits and vegetables were so bright and fresh; they looked like they had come straight from the trees that morning. It smelled amazing! Nichole and I bought some oranges and bananas and enjoyed lunch on the steps. We wandered through the market for another hour, then went back to the hostel to meet Sarah for our train to Cinque Terre.
While Roma and Firenze had been amazing…Cinque Terre did not disappoint!! As the train moved from the big city to the country, we saw the hills of Tuscany…think “Under the Tuscan Sun” movie and you’ve got exactly what we saw in your head! Soon, we started going through tunnels and the ride seemed boring. Just when you didn’t expect it, we reached the end of the tunnel and saw sheer cliffs dropping off into the Medeterranean Sea. GORGEOUS!! I can’t even describe it…you’ll have to look at the pictures! We entered Riomaggiore, the first of 5 towns (Cinque Terre means 5 lands) along the coast and wandered through the town. Finding our hostel, we checked into our room, dropped our bags, and rushed out to the rocky beach to enjoy sunset. I know I keep saying this, but surreal experience…it was like we were in those postcards you always see. Imagine- huge cliffs, houses that look like they will fall into the sea at any moment, narrow winding street, even narrorer staircases that lead to houses high on the mountain, big rocks to sit on, a huge sea spread out in front of you….surreal. We had dinner from a little caffe and went back to our room. There, we met our first Swedish friends, Emil, Knut, and Wilma. They were on holiday and had been in Cinque Terre for 2 days. They were so fun to talk to and we learned a lot about Gotland, the island where they live. I think Sweden may be next on my list of places to visit (Ryan get ready!!) We went to bed fairly early with hopes of getting an early start to our hike the next day.
April 6- Day 4- Firenze
Sleeping in is an art form, an art form which we mastered on Day 4! Our bodies, at least Nichole and mine, said to stay in bed forever, but Sarah won out and at 10:30am, we left our room. We didnt’ really have a plan for the day, so we just wandered around. The Duomo, or Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flower), was our first stop. It was designed to be the biggest Catholic church in 1294. What made it unique to us was the outside. It was covered in green, pink, and white marble and was unlike anything we had seen before. In the basement, there were remains of a previous church which the Duomo took the place of. As we continued our wandering, we found the Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, which had built in shops (expensive ones we couldn’t afford) and we window shopped. There was a small open air market called Mercato Nuovo, where we perused the crafts- leather is a big deal here! For a great view of the city, Leonardo (owner of our hostel) told us to visit Piassa de Michaelangelo. So, we ventured up to get view. We got a little lost, but it was such a beautiful walk, through the Tuscany hills, with vineyards and gardens all around, that we didn’t care. When we got the Piazza, the view was amazing! True to form, we decided to sit in the park, drink a bottle of wine, and enjoy people watching (we are such creatures of habit!)
When it began to get cold, we returned to the center of town and decided to get some food. Rick Steves (our tourist guide book author) suggested Leonardo’s Careteria for good, but cheap pasta…so we found it. Unfortuantely, it was closed until 7pm. To occupy our time, we visited yet another Piazza del Signoria. Much to our delight, there was a carousel! We paid our 1.50 euro and hopped on! After a nice little ride, we sat in the Piazza, listened to a band play traditional music, and watched little kids dance. On our way back to Leonardo’s cafeteria, we found a vintage shop, so of course Nichole had to go in! After browsing the selection, she did find a shirt for 5 Euro…a nice vintage purchase!! Finally, we went to Leonardo’s cafeteria…and let me tell you Leonardo was good to us in Florence! First the hostel, then the amazing (but cheap) pasta! It was so good and our first sit down pasta dinner. Italy definitley lived up to it’s reputation for good pasta! To end the night, we attempted to find Florentine hot chocolate. Sharon, a speech pathologists at our school, told us that Florence has hot chocolate so thick, a spoon stands up in it! Our first attempt, sadly, was a failure…the hot chocolate came from a mix and was not very thick…good, but not what we were after. That night, we drifted off to sleep with dreams of thick Florentine hot chocolate!
April 5- Day 3- Roma/Florence
Because Rome is HUGE and there is SO much to see, we felt that 2 days was just not enough. Sarah wanted to visit the National Museum and Nichole and I were not oppossed to spending another day visiting National monuments, people watching, and hanging out with Sean. We dropped Sarah off at the National Museum and decided a fitting end to our stay in Roma was a bottle of wine on the lawn of the Colesseum. So, Sean picked up a bottle of wine for a whopping 2 Euro adn we claimed our patch of grass.
The sun was shining and as we laid out, Sean suggested we make up stories about the people we saw….he was meant to travel with us! 🙂 We sat for 2 hours just talking (it’s nice to talk to someone in the same situation as you from the same place as you), making up stories, and laying on the grass. Near the end of our hours, we decided the only fitting end was to do model posses in front of the Colesseum…so with no shame, we modelled in front of the Colesseum…SO FUN!!
After meeting Sarah back at the hostel, we visited our favorite doner place, got doners, and ate on the same curb we had spent the first night. In Nichole’s words “I’m a curbside girl.” (Side note: We would sit at outdoor tables, but we’re too cheap to buy something from the stores that have outdoor seating- so curbs it is!) We said goodbye to Sean, promising to stay in touch, and hopped the train to Florence.
After such an exciting time in Rome, we were sad to leave, but Florence awaited. We arrived a little before dark and spent an hour walking around looking for our hostl. We like to say we took the scenic route! We finally found “Leonardo’s House” which had a sign the size of a dollar bill and checked in. After checking in, Sarah wanted pasta, so we ventured out to find pesto pasta….DELICIOUS! We went to bed early and enjoyed our first night in a private room!
Brooklyn's German now 