wrapping up

Things have been a bit hectic as my semester wraps up. I am now done with my finals! Since I hadn't yet made it there, on Saturday I took a day trip to Florence. Above is a picture of the Duomo. The trip wasn't so smooth. We had to take a really long train, and then I ate one of the most disgusting sandwiches I have ever tasted (microwaved bread and lettuce is not tasty). After the nasty sandwich experience, we found out we couldn't see the David which was a big disappointment. I did go to the Uffizi Gallery and saw the Birth of Venus and some other great artwork so the trip was worth it in the end for sure.

Last weekend was my trip to Tunis, which was really fun. I am really glad I got to go to a non-European country while I was here and experience the culture. I can't believe now I can say I've been to Africa! Here is a picture of the sunset in Sidi Bou Said, kind of a tourist town. All the buildings are white with blue shutters, it was very beautiful.


I can't believe the semester is already over! As a whole, it went by so fast. I leave for the US on Sunday. I have been excited to come home for so long now, but at this point it will be sad to leave. In the next few days I will be eating tons of pizza and pasta, that's for sure.

Budapest

I am a little behind, so I'll catch up a little with this post.

After a lovely birthday in Rome, I left for Budapest 2 weekends ago for a class field trip. It was a really cool experience, although there were some rough patches since I really don't like the professor who teaches the class. Basically, there were a couple times when students were late he insisted on leaving without them. One time, 6 people were late before we were leaving for the airport (which we had to take public transportation to get to- a tram, subway, and bus all the way to the edge of Budapest). Luckily, both times my friend and I argued with him and the people caught up and didn't get left behind!

Even though he was really annoying, I had a great time. The first day we walked around a little, saw a really cool church, St Matthias church, and then went to the baths in this cool old hotel- the Gellert Hotel. I didn't bring my camera in because I didn't want it to get wet so I will get a picture off the internet. It was kind of weird because none of us really knew the locker room protocol, or that we had to rent towels and so there was a lot of yelling from the intimidating Hungarian locker room attendants, but once we got to the baths it was very relaxing. After that, we went to a restaurant near our hotel (which was on the edge of the neighborhood that looks so beat up that Hollywood directors film WW II Berlin scenes there) and ate some delicious Hungarian food. It was really nice to get a huge portion since Roman portion sizes are so small, and it was pretty cheap, probably around 7 or 8 USD. The Hungarian Forint is much more favorable than the Euro.

The next day we went to a market to look at some handicrafts and I got some delicious strudel. Then we went to the Terror House, which a museum that they setup in this house on the main avenue in Budapest which the fascists and later communists used for torture. It is really a multimedia experience which shows all the destruction Hungary has been through, and was kind of depressing but very unusual and interesting. We had a Hungarian professor give the tour which was very helpful, and then he led us on a walking tour of the main avenue, Andrassy. We ended up in Hero's square which is to commemorate the Magyars who founded the country. After the class split up for the night, my friend and I went in the Museum of Fine Arts, which is right next to the square, because we had some time to kill before going to the opera. The museum was relatively small, but we only saw the permanent collection (which was free! they don't do that much in Rome) They had some pretty famous artists represented so it was very enjoyable.

After that, we went to the opera to see Othello. My friend and I got tickets online before we got there, so they were really cheap seats up in the balcony. I thought we wouldn't be able to see at all since the tickets were only $6 but we could see everything perfectly. The opera house was beautiful too. It was my first opera, luckily I knew the story of Othello, because my Italian certainly wasn't good enough to understand the singing and the Hungarian subtitles were no use at all.

The next day, we went to visit the Great Synagogue which was a really ornate church-like building and saw the holocaust memorial. Then we went back to the St. Matthias church and saw the castle. After that we left for the airport, which was difficult considering my professor was trying to explain the trip, trying to pronounce all the Hungarian stops we had to get off at. Luckily we made it back alive.

The next day, my dad and uncle came to visit until Thanksgiving, and I think they had a great time.

Now I am getting ready for my trip to Tunis this weekend. This trip is for another class taught by the same professor that tried to leave people behind. Luckily, another professor who is very knowledgeable about Tunisia is coming and I think she has planned it very well, still I will be extra careful to stick with the group!

I haven't uploaded pictures from Budapest yet but I will have them up soon

Pictures

I put up my pictures on a site that I think will be easier for everyone to access. I have all my Venice and Paris pictures up as well as ones from Rome. Let me know if you have trouble getting to the site.

http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m62/nicknack_05/

This weekend I went to Venice and the trip went very smoothly. We did most of the usual tourist things like going to Piazza San Marco and we took the water bus to the Island of Murano where all the glass blowers are. The first day we were there we basically walked around the whole day. The next day we went to Murano, and on our way back we discovered this big contemporary art exhibition was going on. It turns out it was the Biennale, which is a famous art event that is held in Venice. There was this complex with all these pavillions, each for a different country. There was art on display from all over the world. Then there were also mini-exhibitions with free entrance scattered around the city, like we walked past a church with all these weird baroque instruments on display.

Since Venice is on the ocean, we ate a delicious seafood dinner. I had pasta with scallops and it was probably the best thing I've eaten in Italy. There were also these weird giant cookies everywhere that were in the shape of horses and covered in wrapped candies. I think they must be holiday cookies because I asked other friends who went to Venice if they saw them, but they hadn't.

Before we left, we went to a modern art museum, which was pretty small but had some cool art (there was a Klimt painting and some Metisse sketches) As we were trying to find it, which was not easy since Venice is like one big maze, we kept seeing all these people running around through the narrow streets dodging tourists. It turns out, there was some kind of orienteering competition. All these people were running full speed while trying to figure out maps of Venice. It seemed like it must have been the most frustrating thing ever.

Overall, I had a great time. Our cheap hotel was pretty crappy, but at least relatively clean and in a pretty good location. They screwed up our reservation and had to put us in the "annex" of Albergo Antico Capon, but they were very friendly and helpful so it worked out.

Now I am preparing for my next adventure- on Friday I leave for Budapest with my European History class. It should be really fun. My friend and I are going to the Opera for 400 Hungarian Farints (6 USD). Also, we are going to a famous hotel with natural spring water hot baths that are supposed to be healing. I am excited.

Here are some pictures from Venice:
The grand canal.
Sorry it's sideways- this the obligatory picture of a gondola
The Rialto bridge
The yellow building is the annex of Albergo Hotel Antico Capon, where I stayed
An orienteering runner trying to navigate Venice.

going to venice

This weekend I'll be visiting Venice, hopefully the weather won't be too dreary and I'll get some nice pictures to post next week!

paris pictures

Here's where you can see all my many pictures from my trip to Paris. Let me know if it doesn't work.

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017305&page=1&id=10301726

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017306&id=10301726

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017303&id=10301726

Paris!

I just got back from Paris, and it was truly an amazing trip. I certainly didn't see it all, but I saw a bunch of the major sites and did a lot of aimless wandering, it was a great experience.


I stayed in a place called "Mary's Hotel" and it was actually very nice. The room was really clean and the people were really friendly and helpful. The room was of course very small:


After walking across basically the whole city to get to the hotel, I went with a friend to Notre Dame and then we got falafel sandwiches in the Latin Quarter. After that, we went to Montmartre, a neighborhood that is up on a big hill. At the top of the hill is the Sacre Coeur, a big church. It was all lit up and there was a band outside playing for visitors. It was freezing, so we went into a cafe to warm up and I got some chocolat chaud (hot chocolate :) ) I made it an early night since I had to get up so early for my plane. I took the Metro back to the hotel, it is so efficient and my hotel was right next to a stop, it worked out nicely. Here's a picture of Notre Dame:

The next day I was going to go to the Louvre, but it is closed on Tuesdays. Instead, I just walked around with my friend and saw some of the sites. We went to the Luxembourg Gardens and the Pantheon and then ate lunch (I had delicious onion soup since it was so cold). Here is a shot of a fountain in the Luxembourg gardens, it was so picturesque with the leaves changing color.My friend had to go meet another friend, so for the rest of the day I just walked around and did some sketches. I did a drawing of the Seine, which I think came out pretty well, but some of the other ones are not great. And, I did do an obligatory Eiffel Tower drawing. Later on I met another friend from school and we had dinner, it was nice to just be able to meet up in Paris! After that, I took a stroll along the Seine to see Paris by night. They don't call it the City of Light for nothing. Everything is lit up and beautiful. My short walk ended up being pretty long, I saw Notre Dame, and then the Louvre, which both looked amazing at night. Then I decided to walk down the Champs Elysee, by the time I got back to my room I was exhausted. Here is one of the pictures I took at night:

The next day I made it to the Louvre, but I was pretty tired from the day before. It is not easy to navigate the museum, it is so huge and it has the long wings so you have to walk back and forth and up and down stairs. Still, it was pretty cool to see the artwork. They have an array of flemish paintings which I enjoy, there was a nice drawing exhibition, and of course the famous stuff like the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo.

When we were done with that, we went to the Eiffel Tower and took the elevator to the top, it was freezing cold and very unpleasant to wait in line, but the view was lovely (although it was a little scary to ride in the elevator) Later that night, we tried to go to a real-life Parisian night club, but we didn't past muster fashion wise :( Nevertheless, it was a complete day.

On Thursday, I did a little more museum going, I saw the Picasso museum and an exhibition in the Grand Palais of Courbet (very enjoyable). We also did a bit of walking around and checking out shops. I think my favorite was climbing to the top of Notre Dame. The gargoyles are really cool, and the view was better than from the Eiffel Tower, in my opinion.

To finish off the trip, we went to see a movie because we were pretty tired and had to get up early for our flight. What better way to end a trip to Paris than to see Rush Hour 3, which takes place in Paris? We smuggled in baguette sandwiches and candy. It was surprisingly entertaining.

For a short trip, I think I accomplished a lot! I had tons of fun, it was just an amazing trip!

photo update

I am getting ready to leave for Paris early tomorrow morning, so I figured I'd make room on the camera for lots of pictures. Here are a few I took at the Marino Wine Festival a few weeks ago. It was a good time, as you can imagine, lots of cheap wine (it even flowed from the fountain) and delicious roast pork sandwiches.


This is a view from Marino, the town that the festival was in.


This is from a procession of people in Medieval costumes, I think they were celebrating a military victory that had something to do with Marino.

This is a shot of some of the townsfolk hanging out and checking out the crowd from their windows.

And finally, a shot of the fountain which later dispensed free wine to a somewhat rowdy crowd.

The festival was a lot of fun, there was lots of cheap street food (did I mention the pork sandwich?) and general merriment, as you would expect at a wine festival.

I will be back from Paris on Friday and will hopefully have tons more pictures and maybe some stories to tell too.

a brief hiatus

I haven't posted in a while, between being busy and poor internet connections, I have not really had a chance to update. I have been up to a lot the past week. Lindy came to visit on Tuesday and of course wanted to see everything in Rome. We went around to basically all the major sites. I finally got to the Vatican Museums and saw the Sistine Chapel, that was pretty amazing. We also went to the Colosseum, Capitoline Hill Museum and a bunch of other places. It was a lot of fun, I am so glad they came.

It was a little tiring though :) My legs are kind of sore. Now I have some midterms to take care of, but I leave for Paris in less than a week, I am really excited.

I also have a few pictures from this wine festival I went to last weekend, that was a good time. I will try to get those up too. Maybe Lindy will send me some pictures from her visit and I will put them up too.

back on track

So, this past week has been a bit hectic. This weekend my wallet was stolen, so I had to take care of canceling my cards that I stupidly was carrying around. I was ready to move on when I realized that I was carrying this important document in my wallet that says I can live in Italy that you are supposed to carry at all times. So I talked to some people at Temple and they told me I had to go to the police station and report it.

So after I finished printmaking, I got back at around 8:00 pm and went searching for the police station with a few friends. We had to ask so many people how to get there, and no one knew where it was. After an hour we finally found it. The place was on this weird side street, and it was a little scary looking, but the dudes were nice even though they didn't really speak english. My italian teacher wrote me up a little something to say and I just had to fill out a form.

So now I can move on!

more pictures

I put up more of my pictures on this facebook thing the kids these days seem to enjoy. If you click this link you can see them.

http://brynmawr.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016600&l=22c26&id=10301726

Saturday adventure

Yesterday I had planned to go to the Vatican with a friend. We walked over but the line to get in was ridiculous, so we scrapped that plan. Instead, we just walked around the city all day and I got to take a bunch of pictures. I won't put a ton here, but I'll get them up eventually.


After the Vatican rejected us, we took the short walk over to the Pantheon and went inside, not too shabby.


After that, we went over to the Campo del Fiori and got delicious falafel sandwiches. I love pizza, but man, variety is the spice of life.

With our bellies full we walked over to the Torre Argentina, these ruins that they turned into a cat shelter. Here is a little kitty that was just hanging out.


Then we went to the old Jewish ghetto, in search of pastries that were supposed to be good, but of course we arrived around 2:00 which is when stores shut down for an afternoon break.

So we walked down toward the Coliseum and walked up the Capitoline Hill and took a quick look at the Forum, you could even see the Coliseum.

Near the Capitoline Hill museum is the Victor Emmanuel memorial which a lot of Romans call "the wedding cake" since it's this kind of over-the-top huge white building. You get a nice view from the top.

Then we wrapped up our day by going over to that god-forsaken Trevi fountain that I can never find. Near there is this great gelato place, supposedly the best in Rome. The honey-cream was delicious. Here's a shot of the fountain:



I will get the rest of my pictures up somewhere soon!

my camera works!

Today was a pretty productive day, but I still have tons to do this weekend! I don't have class on Fridays, but today I had to meet my printmaking class at the Istituto Nazionale della Grafica. Our professor told us it was close to the Trevi Fountain, which is a pretty major landmark. It should be really easy to get there, but I tried to find it earlier with a friend and it took us forever to find it despite the signs on every street corner. Today I figured I'd have no trouble since I have been there plenty of times by now. I left myself plenty of time just in case, but of course I got incredibly lost! I started to panic since I was running out of time and had to ask all these police officers, nuns, and souvenir store workers how to get there. I finally found it but was 15 min late. I felt really bad, but I still saw some really awesome prints so that was good, and I don't think my professor was too upset. Afterwards, I was a little worn out so I stopped at McDonald's to get fries and a coke. This McDonald's was so intense. It was huge and had a coffee bar with pastries and everything, a gelato area, and then a long corridor leads you to the hamburger area. The fries were really delicious, I think they are higher quality than what you would find in the US.

After that mission, I went to this specialty store called Castroni and got brown rice, since that is hard to find. That store sells different "ethnic foods" other than Italian because you can't buy stuff like peanut butter in normal stores.

AND, I got a new memory card for the camera, so now it works! I am going to the Vatican tomorrow so I will take lots of cool pictures but for now here are a few from around my apartment.

This is the view from my balcony, very glamorous, I know.

This is my crappy kitchen, you have to light the burners on the stove manually.

And finally, a view of our lovely bathroom. I am still not used to the weird toilet. Also, we have a bidet. I haven't tried it but I have heard from others that they don't work.

I'll definitely be putting up more!

feeling better

On Friday I started getting sick. Inconveniently, this was the day of my drawing classes trip to the town of Tuscania. Thinking it would make me feel better, I chugged several glasses of water before a 2 hour bus ride through the hilly, bumpy countryside. That started the day very uncomfortably. The place was beautiful though so even though I wasn't feeling well I got a few good drawings done.

For the rest of the weekend I kind of just lazed around since I was sick, but I had to spend hours working on my first project for my printmaking class. It was pretty difficult, but we had our first critique yesterday and I think my print was relatively well-received.

Tomorrow for my drawing class I am going to the Coliseum. Every week we meet in a different place in Rome and just sit and draw, it is a pretty mellow class. The only bad part is that I have to get up really early.

People are starting to plan for fall break in October and I think I am going to end up visiting Paris for a few days. A lot of people are doing intense traveling every weekend, but I'm not really big on that, it takes a lot of energy! This weekend I will probably just hang out in Rome and try to see some cool sights. I haven't really done much of that yet. I might go to the Vatican again since I got turned away or check out the beach?

Now I gotta go to class...

class

I started class on Monday, and I think it is going smoothly so far. I am taking two history classes, one is on Mediterranean History and the other is post WWII European history. The first has a trip to Tunis and the second has a trip to Budapest, so that will definitely be exciting. I am also taking introductory Italian which seems pretty laid back and will be very helpful. Yesterday was my first printmaking class which kind of scared me because I was the only person who didn't have an art-related major, but we will be learning all these cool techniques that I have always been interested in trying so I will just have to work hard and hopefully do a good job. I still have to go to my Rome Sketchbook class tomorrow. I don't think that will be as intimidating because the section is specifically for non-art majors and drawing is a little more straight forward. I don't think Italian or the History classes will be too difficult, but the art classes I think will probably be quite time consuming. Anyway, now is my chance to spend all this time drawing and printing, so I might as well! And I will have some artwork to bring home for sure.

activity galore

I am suffering from some bad blisters after all this activity. Saturday night was this thing called la notte bianca, which is this big party where all these museums and churches have cool exhibits and people stay out all night walking around and going to performances in all the piazzas. It was a little frightening to see so many people in one place, is especially with the lack of public bathrooms. I went with some friends to see a circus performance and then we walked around the Villa Borghese. The buses were packed, so we ended up walking home, which was kind of painful after walking around all day. We got back late and then had to get up early for an excursion to the hill town of Todi and this medieval style traditional lunch.

I didn't get any pictures but here is one I stole from someone. This is a view of the town:The meal we ate later in the town of Titignano (i may have spelled that wrong) was a 4 hour deal. It was pretty tasty, and the banquet hall was in this intense castle kind of building. I will try to get a picture from that place, it was also beautiful.

Today was my first day of class. I think I will have a lot of time in class since I have 5 classes and 2 are classes which have a lot of class time, but I don't think the workload will be too bad. Thinks are looking good!

the day from hell

Today I had to do all kinds of paperwork and boring stuff for school. Italy requires the stupid and expensive "permit to stay" to live in Italy, in addition to a visa. It was a pain and took hours. I did get to get some groceries today and cooked an actual meal- pasta pomodoro and arrugala salad. Hopefully tonight I will go out and explore some of the night life?

another day...

Today we went on tours of the main area of the city and learned some practical information about ordering food, what stores sell what, and getting around on public transportation. It was really helpful, but I'm a little wiped out from the walking. The buses and subways help but no matter how you slice it, i'll be doing a lot of walking! We walked all around the major areas. That piazza I went to on Tuesday turns out to be "the" piazza in Rome- the Piazza del Popolo and it's near my school. We walked through there down the Via del Curso which is pretty famous and took a bus down to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. After that, we went to the Campo de Fiori and ate pizza for lunch. They have restaurants here that sell only baked food by the pound, quite a concept. It is an experience getting pizza, because they just have random chunks, there aren't set slices, and people don't really form lines, you just push right through and try to point out what you want. We ate in the Piazza Navono, which used to be an ancient horse-racing track built in the year 17 AD. Then we figured out a way to get back by bus and subway, which was good. It makes me feel better to know some basic info about getting around and I'm glad I got the monthly bus pass.

I still haven't had a chance to do any good shopping, so I went out to eat tonight. We ate at a Trattoria near the Spanish Steps. I had lasagna and it was quite tasty, not too expensive either.

day two

So today was much better than yesterday, I started to feel a little more comfortable. First of all, I got a full night of sleep. I slept like a rock and I think I'm over the jet lag. Although it's weird to think about the time difference, it reminds me of how far away I am.

Anyway, after a short orientation meeting, I went to the outdoor market and got a few things and then to the supermarket to get some food to hold me. I am still a little overwhelmed about cooking and stuff, but I am feeling much better. The outdoor market is really cool. It takes up like 3 blocks and has everything, plus it seems pretty cheap and there's great produce, and bread, and oh yes- italian coldcuts.

After I got a bit of food, I went with a friend and one of my roommates to explore a little. We went over to the vatican, and then went into this museum in a cool fortress-castle building. at the top was a great view of the city.

Unfortunately, I can't get my camera to work or I would have great pictures to post. I think I might have to buy a new memory card or something?

Tomorrow I'm going on a walking tour and hopefully getting a better selection of food, we shall see!

I made it

So I am finally sitting in my lovely apartment in Rome! It was a difficult journey in which I looked foolish from time to time, but I did make it. The apartment is better than I expected it to be, I think it will be quite comfortable. I am feeling a bit frazzled though- even the thought of having to buy some shampoo and toothpaste is stressing me out. I think getting out and doing some exciting things will get me in a better mood though. Hopefully I will get some pictures soon!

The Journey Begins...

I leave on the first leg of my trip today. I'll be driving down to NJ for the weekend and my plane leaves Monday! My next post will most likely be from Rome. Wish me luck!