The most AMAZING Spring Break ever... Part 1

Hello Everyone!!! So I know its been almost two months since I have updated... but its been a VERY busy two months

Espana
Barcelona

I flew into Barcelona Friday March 19th to start my month long break! It definelty looks a lot different that I thought it would. Evan, Jenna, Emma, and Josh started our trip out right, with a delicious 3-course meal and 2.5 liters of Sangria at a place called La Fonda. The next day, we did a walking tour of the city, which including seeing many buildings Gaudi designed. Gaudi is a kind of crazy, but brilliant spanish architect who spent way too much money but whose buildings are AMAZINGLY cool. He also designed a cathedral, La Sagrada Familia. It was started 100 years ago and is not set to be completed until 2025. Saturday we also went to the Pargue Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. The park was huge and had the most interesting, sometimes random, architecture. This includes a-gingerbread like house, bridges whose supports look like trees, and a random salamander. That night we went to the Dow Jones bar, where the prices of drinks fluctuate throughout the night, eventually ending in a stock market "crash".
Sunday, we saw more Gaudi designed buildings and had churros and hot chocolate for lunch (Its a spanish thing.) We were able to get in the Picasso museum for free in the evening! We then went to Mexican (AMAZING.... i miss Mexican food) with a couple of girls we met in the hostel and then we were off to Madrid the next day!

Madrid

We didn't get into Madrid till late, but I read about an amazing tapas in my travel book. We had to go to this random apartment complex and buzz up to the roof, were the bar/restraunt was. We were able to sit on the outside terrace, the only problem was that NO ONE spoke english! I was able to pull out by old high school spanish skills and order things I knew. I would say a sentence in Spanish and then our old, adorable waiter would go on for a few minutes in rapid spanish, while i sat, smiled, and laughed. I think he was entertained by our lack of ability to communicate. This meal turned out to probably be the best I had all break! (and probably the cheapest).

The next day we toured the royal palace, and then spent the afternoon lounging in the madrid park and the Prado museum. It was a very relaxing day. At night Jenna and I had a "Good-bye Spain" dinner, and then went to back to our hostel to find 20 Irish people in our room. Needless to say, they convinced us to come out with them. The only unfortunate part was there were no bars open. Regardless, we had a blast walking around with them all night. We got one hour of sleep (it was more of a pack up, lay down for 5 minutes, oh the taxi is here sleep.) then were off to the Madrid airport!!! ( BTW in case anyone was wondering, the Madrid airport is the most amazing airport I have ever been in. Its just soo open and pretty!)


ITALY
Venice

So I hopped on my flight to venice, and then took the ferry down the grand canal, which was sooo amazing, It was just as pretty as I expected it too be. The only problem is that the streets of Venice are very twisted with no order. So it took my an hour to find the hotel ( I was by myself, Josh and Evan came later at night). Our hotel was in a cute open plaza with a church and surrounded by canals (although, to be fair, everything in venice is surrounded by canals.) Our room was AMAZING. It was huge with wood furniture, a huge bath tub with towels!!! After staying in hostels, me and my friends were very impressed. I had the whole afternoon to myself, so I walked around. It was amazing weather, so I pulled out a book and read on San Marcos plaza by the waterfront for a bit. Then the craziness ensued. I ended up standing in line for gelato behind two girls I knew from Leeds! If that is not crazy enough, 5 minutes later I hear someone calling "Anastasia?" It was two more girls from U of I!! It was so crazy but amazing to see everyone! It really is such a small world. I went back to my room and napped until Evan and Josh arrived and then we went to dinner. Pizza in Italy really is amazing, and cheap. We then walked around more and found a free concert in San Marcos square. Perfect way to end the night!

In the morning we headed over to the academia, then took the elevator to the top of the Campiano, and then picked up Kayt from the bus station. It was Kayt's 20th birthday, so we took a gondola ride to celebrate. (one cool fact about Venice: since there are no streets, ambulance are operated on speed boats, which enter the hospital through an underground tunnel.) We then went to dinner and walked around again ( I don't think I could ever get tired of walking around Venice....)

We spent our final morning in Venice on the island of Murano, famous for its glass blowing. I stocked up on the gifts for the family and then headed back to the main island to see San Marcos basilica. It was a very cold and had little light, but impressive none the less. The rest of the day was spent trying to find card for under 7 euro and playing monopoly. Seems kind of silly to be doing that when your in Venice, but we were tired and had to prepare for an overnight train to Florence. On our way out to the train station (at 11 pm) we walked to San Marcos square, which had flooded during the evening. I guess it happens very frequently, because they have these table-looking boardwalks they put out whenever it floods. It is so sad that this city has so very little time left, because it is definitely amazing and one of the highlights of my trip!!

The train transportation, however, was not as fun. Our train from the mainland left @ 3:15 am, but at this point it was only midnight. So we made our way to the mainland station and that was when the problems began. The station was sooo sketchy. The room where we got our tickets was filled with about 40 homeless people, so we got tickets and headed to the platform- 3 hours early. Then, it got really cold, like 35 degrees cold. I luckily had a sleeping bag with me, but my friends were freezing. Eventually the train came, which we thought would make us happier-> it didn't. It was a Harry Potter style train with vestibules where people sat. Well Trenitalia overbook the train, so we had to sleep in the AISLES outside the vestibules with people stepping on as they walked by. The good news was, though, I woke up to the tuscan landscape!


Florence
It was 6 in the morning, so we (Kayt, Evan, and I) dropped out stuff of at the hostel and headed to the museums to start standing in line. We ended up at the Academia first, which houses Michangelo's David (third in line!). David was HUGE!!! I have never realized how big the statue actually was (15 feet tall). Unfortunately, the rest of the museum was not as interesting so we headed over to the Ufizi gallery, to stand in the never ending line. Fastforward 2 hours and we are in!! It was huge, with lots of corridors filled with sculptures. Afterwards, we were exhausted and grabbed some dinner before passing out at the hostel so we could wake up at 6:30 am to go to Cinque Terre .

EXCEPT..... we forgot it was daylight saving time (i blame the hostel), so we woke up at 7:30, so we had to take the 9:30 train. The train ride was 2 hours and not too bad, until we got off at the wrong stop (There are two La'Epezia stops on the same line, brilliant). Luckily, Evan had his garmin, so we were able to walk to right station. We finally made it, and the view at Roimaggiore was stunning! We were on a rocky cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. We started walking to the next town Manarola, which was a pretty easy walk. The hardest trail was to Corniglia, which was all uphill. We ended in Monterosso where there were beaches and a beautiful boardwalk. Most restaurants were closed (palm sunday), but we found a delicious pizza place with pesto pizza (pesto was created in Cinque Terre!). It was so nice to get away for a day, especially with such good company.

We started our last day in Florence by touring the Duomo. We then walked up the campenerio (414 steps), which had amazing views of the city. Finally, we went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence before Kayt and I got ready to head out to Roma!

Rome

I was lucky enough to be able to stay with Colleen, one of my best friends from school, while in Rome. She came and picked me up from the train station and brought me back to her place where we caught up and then crashed for the night. The next day I was able to fit in the Colosseum (AMAZING and huge), the Roman Forum (interesting collection of buildings including the square where Julius Caeser was stabbed and HUGE storage buildings made with arches), and Palatine Hill. It was really interesting to see in person how basic the roman architecture really is. We got lunch in a candy store and then headed off to the pantheon, which was unfortunately under construction. We were still able to peek inside, though. I then headed back to Colleens to get ready for her 21st birthday party! We got together with everyone on her program who was from UIUC and sampled the wine Colleen had made, "wine not" and then headed to the bars. We had a great evening which include getting driven home by Italian men.

The next day me and Kayt headed off to Pompeii at 6:30 am. After a bus and two train, we were there! Pompeii was as amazing as I expected it to be. It is crazy how you feel like you've gone back in time when you visit. The craziest part is they have only excavated about a third of the city. On the way back to Rome, we stopped at Naples to experience the birthplace of pizza. The pizza was delicious, but the city was very trashy and dirty. When I got back to Colleen's place, there was homemade past cabanara waiting for me and a couple of episodes of arrested development.

Our last day in Rome was dedicated to Vatican City, I got lost (which is unusual for me, but was kinda cool to see more of the city then i expected) and ended up walking there. I did stumble upon Roma Hill, which was a beautiful park with sweeping views of the city. We got to the Vatican hoping to go straight into St. Peters, but Holy Thursday service was going on and the line to enter wrapped around the half the city (Its a small city.... but the line was LOOOONG) so instead we grabbed lunch and headed to the Vatican museum. Usually the line takes 2 hours, but we got in the museum after only 15 minutes of waiting! We walked through most of this extraordinary museum. My favorite objects was a huge bowl and box made of a precious purple marble that does not exists in the earth anymore, and most of existing marble belonged to the vatican. The map room was also amazing. The museum ended in the Sistine Chapel. We then went out a door that said "no exit" and ended up at St. Peter's Basilica. It was MASSIVE. The letters on the veiling were as large as a person.

The next day I shopped for a little big before going to the station to catch a train to the airport. Problem was the train went to the other airport, so we ended up catching a cab. Off to Slovakia!