Provence: What a Wonderful (Windy) World

Continuing the travel marathon that is marking my last month in Dijon, we rendez-voused at the train station at 8:45 on Friday morning for our last group excursion with Nathalie, destination Provence! Our trip to the south of France and the Mediterranean was kicked off by brilliantly sunny weather in Dijon, which we took as a good sign. We were full of excitement to be traveling all together once again, although the fact that it was our last excursion was strictly interdit (forbidden)—not that that stopped us from bringing it up all the time.

Our first stop was Avignon, where we checked into our hotel, which was literally next door to the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). We could see the castle out our window! We headed to the plaza in front of it for lunch, where we sat outside. It was lovely, but our lunch ended up being less than okay. It took over an hour for us to get our entrees, and then only four of us were served. It was about an hour and a half before everyone got food. I didn’t enjoy my meal, although other people did. We were all so hungry and annoyed by the time we got to eat! My dessert, however, almost made up for the rest of it. I had chocolate ganache with raspberries, raspberry sorbet and rose sauce, and it was probably one of the top three desserts I have had yet!

YUM.

It was literally sweltering out by this point, probably the hottest weather I have experienced in Europe so far. We had a tour of the palace after lunch with a really nice and informative guide. The palace was constructed in 1355 when the area was part of the Roman Empire. It took eleven years to build in total, and it was in use for one hundred years, until the last pope decided to move to Rome, where the Italians rejected him and chose an Italian pope. He returned to France and the French continued to choose their own pope for a while, but it wasn’t the official pope. The palace was really pretty, lots of stone and tiles, as well as some great frescos. My favorite room was the dining room, which was humongous. It is barren today due to decay and reconstruction, but when it was in use, the ceiling was covered with midnight blue fabric shot through with gold thread made to resemble the night sky (Hogwarts, anyone?) and the floor was made of colored ceramic tiles, each with a different pattern or picture on them. When they ate, the Pope was the only one allowed to use a knife in case one of the guests decided to assassinate him with a butter knife. The people nearest to the Pope got to eat lots of food, and the portions got progressively smaller the further down the table you were. It was okay even for the people at the opposite end, though, because these meals lasted five to six hours and included about twenty-four dishes, most of them meat! I am not sure how that is possible. No wonder most of the Popes died of gout! We also got to see the kitchen, which boasts the largest chimney in the world! The popes favored barbecue, and on normal days without guests, at least three cows were roasted.

le palais des papes

just the popes' dining room

After our tour, we went back out into the blazing sun to walk up the hill to the gardens. They were quite large and so pretty! There was even a cave-y area with a fountain and mist, and there was an amazing view of the river with another castle in the distance. It was breathtaking and the gardens were beautiful with all their flowers. I would have loved to stay there for a while, but since it was closing soon, it was a million degrees outside and we all desperately needed a toilet and the service provided there consisted of a foul-smelling hole in the ground, we concluded that it might be a good idea to go back to the hotel.

the amazing view on the climb up to the garden

kathryn et moi dans le jardin!

We had free time until dinner, so what else did we do but find the H&M? Of course! I had forgotten to bring any shorts with me, so I somewhat guiltily bought a pair, but they ended up being perfect so I was really glad I got them, especially since most of my pairs at home are quite old. We went back to the room to shower and freshen up before dinner and then we met downstairs to walk through the cobblestone streets to our restaurant.

It was a really cute place affiliated with the independent cinema housed next door and it had a lovely ambiance—as well as a good menu. I had a stew of artichoke and other vegetables that was similar to minestrone for my entrée and pasta with artichoke, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan for my main dish, which actually resembled macaroni and cheese quite a bit! Dessert came in the form of an apple crumble, which is always delicious.

Dinner was so much fun. We hardly stopped laughing the entire time and we definitely didn’t let up talking. We talked about our stay here and how insane it is that it is almost over, and we just had fun. Our group is amazingly close and I feel so lucky to have come here with such a cohesive group of people. Nathalie is so great and we all get along so well. I felt like this dinner exemplified all the great things about this semester and we talked about how we’d grown and all become friends. It was so much fun, and we had a few laughing fits in the street on the way back. As Kathryn said, Michel is going to be surprised when he sees us and finds out what he created putting us together as a group!

The next morning we skipped town at nine o’clock, trading Avignon for Arles, which is also a former city of the Roman Empire and is, of course, where Van Gogh lived and painted. We had a guided tour of the city and got to go inside the coliseum, where we learned about gladiators. It was really interesting! We had free time after the tour, so we wandered around the huge market that was conveniently going on. I bought some delicious lavender soap and we had fun perusing all the wares as well as the tempting fresh produce and desserts.

coliseum!

so many beautiful soaps!

We took the bus to Saint Marie de la Mer for lunch, which we ate right on the beach! Our restaurant was called La Playa del Sol, and it was literally on the Mediterranean. It even had little cabanas with thatched roofs. We all had salads, which was perfect for the weather and setting. I got a goat cheese salad, which had some delicious veggies on it and was pretty much perfect. We had crepes for dessert—mine was covered in house-made chocolate and raspberry jam. So good.

Then we went swimming! It had been cloudy off and on, but the sun obligingly came out as we splashed into the ocean. The water was surprisingly warm and we swam out pretty far. It was so much fun! I haven’t had a lot of experience with oceans in which you can actually swim and I enjoyed it so much. We were tanning and lamenting our short amount of time on the beach when it started raining! We made a run for the bus, and it was a good thing we didn’t decide to spend more time there because our hotel was incredible.

We drove to Aigues-Mortes, a tiny walled village where cars weren’t allowed! It was so cool. But our hotel was cooler. This was by far the best place we have ever stayed. The rooms were for four each, so Helen, Kathryn, Caroline and I shared, and it was amazing. The room was huge and the beds were more than luxurious, with down covers and pillows. There were two showers and fluffy bathrobes and slippers were provided. The dining room downstairs was beautiful and it led onto the breakfast terrace, which was equally lovely (I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!). The pool and Jacuzzi, however, were the best. It felt like we were in a resort!

Before jumping in, however, some of us decided to go into town to do a little souvenir shopping before the shops closed. I finally succeeded in finding presents for my friends back home after a semester-long search so I felt quite accomplished. ;) We hurried back to the hotel in order to have time for the pool, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hot tub.

paradise

At dinner that night, we all tried to forget that it was the last dinner of our last excursion. The food is not worth mentioning as it was another one of those ambiguous vegetarian plates and our dessert of chocolate mousse even failed-- unbeknownst to us, it had orange flavoring in it and it tasted like soap. It was fun, though, as usual. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful ladies I got to share this experience with and feel so lucky for how close we have become.

After dinner, Emily and I reprised our spring break tradition of playing cards and then we all went to sleep in the luxurious feather beds. We seriously considered going on strike in the morning so that we would never have to leave the hotel but, for some strange reason, Nathalie didn't go for it. We ate breakfast on the terrace and it felt like a movie set. It was lovely!

breakfast time!

Our ever-cheery driver then conducted us to Les Baux de Provence, a village at the summit of les Alpilles, the mountains (hills?) surrounding the area (Alpilles like little Alps). The view of the valley, cliffs and ancient castle was absolutely amazing. Despite its height, the entire area was once covered by ocean, so there are fossilized shells everywhere in the ground. Due to the climate, it is known as the Valley of Hell. Provence is host to an extremely strong and chilly wind that sweeps down from the Alps-- a wind so intense that there is a special name for it, mistral. It wasn't too bad for most of our trip, but we certainly got to experience mistral at les Baux!

the scenery was insane!

The village was somewhat wall-surrounded and everything was made out of beautiful white stone. There were quaint shops and restaurants up and down the streets and, at the top of the hill, the sprawling ruins of the Castle of the Baux of Provence. The entire area was a medieval village and the castle boasted lots of illustrated scenes in order to help us better imagine the town in its prime.

glad i wasn't around when they were chucking people over the castle walls

The castle was definitely the best part. Amy, Kathryn, Dani, Helen and I explored it for about an hour. There was an amazing view from the edges and a few cool towers. Pretty wildflowers surrounded it, and we even found a couple of secret passageways. There were also some relics like catapults and wooden stocks.

i found this secret pathway!

oops...

The stairs to get to the towers were almost vertical and the pathways were very narrow-- at one point we were basically along the edge of a cliff pressed against a wall! As you might imagine, this was a not-unchallenging feat with the mistral keeping us company. We estimated that the winds were around thirty miles per hour, and at one point I was literally blown over-- luckily there was a boulder right next to me and so I just sat down on it until the gust passed. It was quite an exhilarating adventure!

view from the castle

the stairs to the highest tower. you can't even see some of them in the photo because they were so steep!

on top of the world! can you tell it was windy?

We had lunch after that, our actual last meal, where I had yet another chevre salad (good thing I like goat cheese-- it was my third in two days) and... another fraise melba! Best ice cream dish in the world. And then it was off to the train station in Avignon for our trip back. This time we really did want to grève, or strike, as is the custom of the French. We tried to convince Nathalie that it would make more sense for her to tell Puget Sound that we were all very skilled at French and thus did not need to take our final exams and that it would be much more prudent for us to stay in Provence for the next three weeks, but unfortunately it did not work. After briefly considering making a picket line in the bus, we sadly gave up.

In sum, yet another lovely excursion (with the wonderful Nathalie to thank for it)! I am starting to feel repetitive, but I had so much fun and it was a great break. Coming up next, weekend in Spain with Amber! And just so your mind can be as completely boggled by the passing time as mine is right now, Spain will be followed by three days of classes (including three exams), during which one of our professors from Puget Sound, Michel, will arrive for a visit (we got to see Steve, another professor, tonight!)! We'll have that weekend with him, including a petit excursion to a nearby castle, and then finals week will commence. This means we'll have tests Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we'll freak out a lot on Thursday, and on Friday my parents arrive! Don't ask me how this happened because I don't know. Oh, and we have ten final exams to study for in the next two weeks. Ten. Don't ask me in what world that is acceptable or normal because I really don't know. Even though I am starting to feel ready to go back, I am still so in love with this program and this place. I am continually so glad and grateful that I got to do this, and the next few weeks are going to be crazy getting ready to leave!

unfortunately, the fields weren't in bloom yet, but we still got to see some of the lavender provence is famous for!

Weekend in London!

London’s calling! On the Thursday after spring break, I skipped out on civ class and hopped on the Eurostar to London. Even though we had just been on break, I was really excited to go because a) I was visiting my dear friend Kayla and b) I love London (and c) it’s way better than civilisation class).

To get to London, you have to change train stations in Paris, which I had never done before without Nathalie as a guide. I was a little nervous about figuring it all out on my own, but it went off without a hitch— I stopped at my train station, successfully found and bought tickets for the RER, which is a high-speed metro train that you have to take between train stations, got off and found my way to the Eurostar area. I was pretty proud of myself for figuring it out without any problems! Like everything else the French come up with, it’s kind of a complicated process.

It was weird to start hearing English when I got to the second train. I felt sort of loyal to French—I wanted to keep speaking it! I bought a snack on the train and I started talking to the server in French but he replied in English, so I replied in English and then he replied in French. My brain had no idea what to do.

I forgot about the time difference between France and England, and when my watch was close to 6:30, I started wondering about the Chunnel. It seemed like we hadn’t gone through it, but I supposed we must have. I looked out the window to try to figure it out, and I could have sworn the countryside was French, not English. But our train was supposed to pull in in a few minutes, so I had to be wrong! I spent the next hour freaking out that the train was late and Kayla was waiting and being annoyed that my ticket had been printed an hour off, until we actually did arrive and the conductor announced the time and I realized that of course there was a time change.

London is hosting the 2012 Olympics, and there were huge Olympic rings suspended from the ceiling in the train station, which was really cool. I found the tube and navigated my way to the tube stop nearest Kayla’s school, which I was glad I had done before back in January. It was so great to see Kayla again! We were super excited and I was so happy to be in London.

It happened to be Kayla’s 21^st birthday, so after I settled in and had dinner, some of her friends came over for wine and snacks. It was cool to meet everyone she’s spent the semester with, some British and some American, and we had a lot of fun!

The next day Kayla most unfortunately had a final exam, so I was on my own for most of the day. We ate breakfast together, Kayla gave me a few helpful materials like an Oyster card for the tube and a map, and I set off to explore London solo! I never used to like doing things like that alone, but I was actually really excited. It was warm and sunny out and I felt so independent as I scanned my card and got on the tube.

My first stop was the Museum of London, which tells London’s history through artifacts and scenes from the Ice Age to the present. It was so much fun to walk through and the history is so interesting. My favorite areas were the Renaissance and Victorian times. I ate lunch at the café in the museum and started reading the next book of a series Kayla and I both love on her Kindle, which she’d lent me for the afternoon (yes, I used a Kindle…). My sandwich was really good!

From there I pretended I knew where I was going and walked to the Millennium Bridge, which I did find without trouble. Harry Potter movie spot! I crossed it and walked to the Globe Theater, which was really cool to see. I love Shakespeare, and ever since my freshman year English class when we talked about the Globe a lot (and since spending four years in that classroom looking at the student-made model of the theater), I’ve always wanted to see it. Unfortunately, tours are really expensive, so I didn’t go inside, but seeing it was enough for me!

I needed to get back to the tube after that, and there were four stops on the sign I looked at, so I picked the London Bridge station at random and started walking. It turned out to be the farthest one and it was about a fifteen-minute walk, but it was along the Thames and it was sunny and I was completely content to just walk and watch the world.

I took the tube to Trafalgar Square, which was teeming with people, and searched around until I found the stationer’s, where I bought a new journal! With this exciting purchase tucked safely inside my bag, I started walking towards St. James’ Park. You may remember the effusiveness with which I praised London for their great signage back in January, and it is quite true, except for when you’re trying to find Buckingham Palace or St. James’ Park. The Palace wasn’t even on the map shown on all the signs. I kept following arrows to the park, but I would go in one direction and then the park wouldn’t be listed on the next sign I found! Then I would find a sign pointing me in the opposite direction. What should have been a five-minute walk turned into a twenty-minute one, but I stopped in a Starbucks (it was the first one I’d seen since leaving the States; I couldn’t resist!) and bought an iced tea, which kept me cool. (it wasn’t on the menu, but the guy seemed offended when I asked if they had them, as if there was no way they wouldn’t, but then he proceeded to make it by brewing some tea and pouring it over a cup of ice… hmm…).

I finally found the park and it was beautiful. Flowers of every color were blooming all along the paths and the water was glittering under the sun. People were spread out all over the lawns, some with chaise lounges, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was a stark contrast from my visit there in January when it was about twenty degrees outside (and we’re not talking Celsius!). I found a spot under a shady tree and opened my new journal. I sat there for a tranquil half hour, writing and watching the people pass by and enjoying the sunshine. It was absolutely lovely.

The tube was ridiculously crowded on the way back and it took over an hour! Kayla was long done with her exam by the time I arrived at the Queen Mary campus. I went up to her dorm and we hung out for a while before making dinner. It was so cool to be on a real campus again! I wouldn’t have expected to notice it or feel a difference, but I really did! There were students hanging out everywhere and studying and I was staying in Kayla’s dorms, and it was so cool. It made me miss Puget Sound!

We made dinner and decided to watch a movie. Given recent events and our possibly unhealthy obsession with romantic love stories, we made the solid choice to watch William and Kate, the Lifetime movie about the lovely new royal couple. It was absolutely awful in the best way possible and so entertaining. We stayed up late talking after that. Overall, it was such a fun day. I loved wandering around London and I was so happy, and it also was so great to hang out with Kayla again and catch up!

On Saturday, Kayla and I decided to take a little trip to Hampstead Heath, which is a huge park in the village of Hampstead. Upon arriving, we couldn’t believe we were still in London! The heath sprawled out so far we didn’t even cover it all on our walk, and it switched between beautiful wooded areas and exhilarating expansive fields, with a few ponds and a mansion thrown in. We had a picnic on the lawn and then we walked to Kenwood House, an old manor on the grounds. The house was really pretty, although we didn’t learn much about the history since there weren’t any brochures. We were enamored of the light blue staircases and the high-ceilinged library, and we had fun imagining living there with that entire park all to yourself.

We walked around more after that, around a pond and through another field. It was really invigorating and we just had so much fun.

We stopped at the grocery store for dinner supplies and realized how tired we were! It had actually turned into a bit of a hike, but it was a good kind of tired. We had pizza and made salad and then we watched another movie. We also spent a fair amount of time dancing in Kayla’s kitchen—I mean, it’s tradition by now! I’ve been working on some choreography for a while and despite Kayla’s avowal not to choreograph this semester, I thought that if I showed her my stuff I might just possibly convince her to maybe choreograph with me again. As I had predicted, she got excited about it and we started working on it together, so I think I came out of that victorious! ;)

The next morning I had pretty much no desire to leave. I absolutely love London; its energy is just exhilarating and the city has such a welcoming vibe. We went to the train station early so we could stop at King’s Cross and find Platform 9 ¾, and this time we succeeded! I took a picture with it, thus fulfilling a life dream.

My ride home was uneventful, aside from when the RER took forever and I almost missed my train to Dijon and had to run along the platform all the way to the last car where, of course, I happened to be seated. When I got home, my host mom prepared a special dinner of crepes for me, which was really nice and delicious. It was a refreshing, lovely weekend and I was so glad Kayla had been able to host me! We won’t see each other again until we’re back at Puget Sound in August, which is a weird thought! I can’t believe everything is starting to come to an end—but that is definitely a subject for a different blog post. London was lovely and I can’t wait to go back!

Break Begins in Barcelona!

All right, the long-awaited blogs about spring break have come! ;) I’m doing each place as a separate post so as not to be overwhelming, but I’m going to post them so that you can read them in chronological order of where we went. So here we go, Barcelona!

Kathryn, Emily, Helen and I left for Barcelona at 5:45 on Saturday morning. We were pretty tired on the trains and we had two train transfers (little did we know the fatigue to come… compared to other days on this trip, we were positively perky this morning!), but it was fun. We were excited. Our third train brought us into the Spanish countryside, and I was so excited to see it. It just felt Spanish to me, and everything on that train was in Spanish, and I could understand it, and it was like I could feel my brain start whirring. It was like being in Spain turned something on in my brain that had been dormant for a while. It just felt good to be there!

We took the metro to our hostel, which was fortunately extremely close to the metro stop. We dumped our stuff in our room, which was really nice. This hostel, Be Hostel Dream Barcelona, was GREAT. I loved it. We had swipe cards for the doors and lockers, which was super handy, and the kitchen and dining area was great. It was my first time staying at a hostel, and I loved the atmosphere. It was really cool to be around a bunch of people our age from all over who were all doing the same thing as us. It makes for such a friendly environment, and I had a lot of fun at the hostel.

After happily shoving away our suitcases, we decided to walk down to the beach, which was supposedly only five minutes from our hostel. Thanks to a lot of construction, it ended up being a twenty-minute walk to the nearest open beach, but we found it! It was my first glimpse of the Mediterranean and it was breathtaking. It was warm and sunny and the water was so blue and there were real palm trees and sailboats. We dipped our toes in, but we weren’t ready to swim or anything, so we made our way back to the hostel. Or tried. We got quite lost on the way back, but thanks to bus maps and our really great senses of direction (not really), we figured it out. By then, it was practically dinnertime. We checked our email, freshened up, and took the tube downtown. We were so hungry that we stopped at the first good-looking place we saw, which actually turned out to be an Italian place (who knew Mediterranean food just meant pasta?). I had fun speaking Spanish to the waiter and we all cracked up trying to figure out what language we were speaking. I taught Emily, Helen and Kathryn a couple of phrases, and then when the waiter came we all replied in French. It was a reflex! The dinner actually kind of sucked, but I ordered fresh fruit salad for dessert and was presented with a huge bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries, so I wasn’t complaining.

my first time at the mediterranean!

Sunday was possibly my favorite day. There was a company that led tours and excursions from our hostel, as well as our two sister hostels in the city, and we took a free Gothic tour and learned a lot of history. It was so interesting! We learned about the plague, Picasso and the treatment of Jews, as well as about the Roman roots of the city and its progression into the hands of the Spanish, and the longtime conflict between the Catalan and the Spanish.

After lunch, we decided to head to Parc Monjuïc, which I had read about. I had heard there was a great view there, so we assumed that it was a regular park where we could hike up to a point or something. Imagine our surprise when we got off the subway and were presented with three huge buildings, a pavilion with big pillars, a spectacular fountain, and a huge set of stairs leading to a palace! It turned out that the park housed the National Museum of Catalan Art, the old Olympic stadium and a ton of different types of botanical gardens! It sprawled out over this huge hill, and it was amazing. The weather was hot, and we hiked up all the beautiful stairs to the top, where the palace/art museum was situated. A man up there was playing traditional flute music, and we leaned against the railing when we got to the top, listening to the music, feeling the sun on our shoulders and looking out at the most breathtaking view of Barcelona.

the palace that houses the museu nacional d'art catalan

hello, barcelona

so excited to be there!

Because it was Sunday, the museum was closed, but we explored the rest of the park and found our way to the Olympic stadium, which was quite cool, as well as into a couple of gardens. It was really fun. I spoke Spanish with a man at a food stand, and he just replied to me like normal and didn’t give me a funny look, pretend like he didn’t know what I was talking about, or speak to me differently. He just replied. It was quite a refreshing difference from the French! ;)

We went back into downtown for refreshing cones of gelato when we were done at the park. Gelato was everywhere in Spain and, of course, Italy, and being able to get it every day was pretty much the best thing ever. We wandered over to a park to eat it, where we discovered a huge festival/market in full swing! We later found out that it was the Earth Festival for two days of peace, which I thought was really cool to stumble upon! I bought a handmade African purse from a very nice man who chatted with us in Spanish for quite a while.

From there, we headed to one of the sister hostels to meet up with the tour company, which offered a night of tapas and flamenco for just twenty euro. Authentic Spanish food with the quintessential Spanish entertainment—great deal, right?? That’s what we thought. We met up with the tour guide and some other travelers, and it took forever to get to the restaurant. We sat down at a table with, coincidentally, a bunch of other American girls, and we chatted while we waited for our food. They brought us sangria, and it was awful. That’s not just me talking—no one liked it and it was terrible quality. (We had other sangria later that was much more delicious.) That should have been our first clue. We kept waiting for our food and it kept not coming, and after a while our tour guide came in and told us that to make up for the wait we could buy another sangria for only a euro. That should have been our second clue. We didn’t want any more of the stupid sangria so we declined. Finally a row of tapas and potatoes was brought out and we hopefully waited to be told to get some, but instead another group of students came and took it. By now it was about 9:30 and we were starving! A few minutes later, our guide came and told us we could go eat. We were allowed five tapas but we were supposed to start with three, and they served some vegetarian ones, so I grabbed three of those. They turned out to be little slices of French bread (and I mean little), a slice of brie, an apple slice and a prune. The next ones they brought out consisted of a chicken nugget on a piece of lettuce on a tiny slice of bread. Not very Spanish!! We each grabbed a few but we were waiting for more to come out. Well, it turned out that the other group we’d seen earlier was part of our group, and, not listening to instructions, they had ended up taking all our food! There were no potatoes for us and there were hardly any tapas left. We each ended up with three wimpy slices of bread and cheese or chicken nugget! The restaurant wouldn’t bring us more even though there had been a mix-up, and just as the new round of sangria was served, our guide came in and called that we had to be at flamenco in fifteen minutes, so bottoms up, let’s get going! So people didn’t even get to finish the drinks they’d bought, and we were a deliriously angry crowd as we made our way out into the street. It was hilarious in a completely horrible way—we joked about stopping at every restaurant we passed and people kept yelling about how they had eaten a piece of bread for dinner. What was worse, we’d paid twenty euro for a dinner we hadn’t received!

When we got to the flamenco club, it was standing room only. The dance was actually really amazing to watch and I was really glad we got to see it. However, I was so tired after that day and no dinner that I could hardly stand and all I could think about was food, so the experience was kind of ruined. I am glad that we saw it, and the dancers were incredible, but it only lasted half an hour and the circumstances were just not ideal. Our guide had told us he was going to find a way to fix the situation, so we gathered around him hopefully when the show was over—and he told us that he had secured a free beer and a free shot for everyone at a nearby bar in compensation. Well, that was the last thing we wanted, clearly. We took the half-hour metro ride home in silence, watching our haggard reflections in the window. It was after midnight when we got home, so I ate an energy bar and we went to bed. Voila our completely failed attempt at an authentic evening of Spanish food and dance!

The next day more than made up for the ridiculous evening before. We stopped at the grocery store and got picnic fixings and then took the tube to the beach. (Well, we thought it would let us out at the beach. We ended up wandering around for about twenty minutes and I had to talk to three different shop owners before we were given good directions, but we found it!) We went to Bella Mar beach, and the weather was absolutely perfect. The sky was cloudless, it was sunny and a light breeze kept it from being too hot. We ate our delicious sandwiches and then lay out in the sun for the rest of the day. It was lovely.

jumping for joy on our beach day

That evening, we stopped back at the store and got dinner makings, which we prepared in the kitchen at the hostel. Groceries in Spain were so cheap— our dinner of ravioli with sauce and a huge salad and dessert was only 4 euro per person! We made dinner every night after that, and it was so much fun. There were always lots of other people around and we made delicious food if I do say so myself!

On Tuesday we got up early to go to the Picasso museum, whose very very long line we had seen the day before. We thought we were being so smart by beating the crowds, but everyone else had had the same idea, and the line extended for blocks! It moved pretty quickly, though, and we had a great time at the museum. I really loved seeing all of Picasso’s work, not just his more famous pieces. I’ve never been a huge fan of cubism, but I loved a lot of his earlier work.

the illegal picture emily took of me in the picasso museum... we thought it was okay!

We were too tired and time-crunched to do another tour, so we decided to make it a museum day and headed back to the National Museum of Catalan Art. I was really tired, but this museum was so great. It was huge and spanned from Gothic to modern times. I found a few pieces I really liked.

my favorite painting at the catalan museum

i loved this sculpture of a dancer

After the museum, we took the metro to Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s famous church. We were really excited to see it, but it ended up being a huge disappointment: it’s still under construction, which we hadn’t known! There were cranes and scaffolding everywhere, so needless to say it was not as beautiful to look at. It also closes early in the afternoon, so we couldn’t go inside—not that we would have been able to that day anyway, since it turned out that someone had tried to set fire to it that morning! There was police tape all around it. To make ourselves feel better, we scoped out souvenirs (me and Kathryn) and gelato (Helen and Emily) and wandered around a bit before going home to make dinner (a delicious pasta salad).

the front of the sagrada familia

Tonight it had been decided that we would once again join the tour company for their pub crawl. We went to three bars and a club and chatted and hung out. The bars were not exactly hopping, and it wasn’t my scene, but the way we got home counted as another of our funny misadventures: we got a cab to the night bus stop, but then we couldn’t figure out which bus to get on. Due to a misunderstanding between us, we ended up waiting for one bus when we needed the other. We finally figured it out, and it turned out that although every other bus was at this stop, the bus we needed was coming to a stop across a large plaza. We started walking over, and as we went, we saw our bus drive up, so we started running. We had to stop and laugh because it was hilarious, four of us sprinting across a plaza in the middle of downtown Barcelona at 3:30 in the morning. We missed that bus and finally got home around 4:45. It was so awful we found it quite comical!

On Wednesday we took the Gaudí tour and saw the different houses/palaces he built in the city. It was super interesting and the buildings are so cool. My favorite was the house he dedicated to St. George (who slayed the dragon), for all the architecture is symbolic. The colored shingles of the roof are the dragon’s scales, the spiral staircase inside is its spine, and the balconies, which look like eye sockets of a skull, represent the people who were killed by the dragon. The mosaic tiles on the walls are the confetti from the celebration of the dragon’s death, with the balconies alternatively being masks from the celebratory ball that was held.

casa de san jordi

flower stand on la rambla!

We got falafel for lunch and some gelato and found ourselves in the middle of La Rambla, the huge, famed street market. We walked around, which was really fun, and then we took the metro to Park Güell, the park that Gaudí designed. It was amazing. High up on a hill, the park sprawled out across a lovely wooded area, with winding paths, sculptures and houses all designed by Gaudí. It was much bigger than we’d imagined and it was so much fun to explore. Aside from our day exploring Parc Montjuïc, this was definitely my favorite place we went. It was so beautiful and at one point there was even a man playing Spanish guitar, making the experience feel complete.

the four of us in park guell!

the famous dragon

And that was our last day in Barcelona! Barcelona was probably the place where I had the most fun on break. It felt like we were always exploring and discovering all these amazing, fun things in the city. We kept turning to each other and saying, “Oh my god, you guys, we’re in Barcelona!” and everything seemed so exciting. I loved speaking a little Spanish (and reading Catalan, although since it’s a mix between Spanish and French that really confused my brain!). The four of us had a really good time traveling together, too. In general, it was a great travel experience and an amazing start to break!

the view from park guell

Italy = Incredible!

On Thursday, we woke up at 3:30 in the morning to catch our flight to Italy! Helen, Emily and I bid Kathryn, who was going to meet a friend in Greece, a sad goodbye and started off on what I thought would be the most tiring travel day of the trip (once again, I spoke too soon!). I woke up with a sore throat and it got progressively worse throughout the day. I remember this day in a literal haze. Our flight to Italy was very smooth (despite the fact that everyone started clapping upon landing… I thought it was just a European thing and was happy to join in but Helen and Emily, who have both traveled a lot in Europe and had never experienced that, were wondering if we had unwittingly survived a near-death experience. We were laughing about that in a sort of freaked-out way when they played a fanfare over the intercom, making it that much more ridiculous!).

We had to take three trains after that to get to Riomaggiore, the city in Cinque Terre in which we were staying. It was a huge struggle in the Pisa airport to figure out our train tickets. Let me just say that Italy is bad at trains. They are efficient and on time but there are no signs and it is pretty much like they expect you to have the map of Italy memorized in order to know which train to get on. It can make for a real hassle. Plus, I felt so yucky and it was made worse by how tired I was—I napped every time we got on a plane/train but I always felt even worse each time I woke up. I was so groggy and out of it by the time we got to La Spezia, where we got off the train too early and had to sit and wait in a train station for the next train.

We finally arrived in Riomaggiore by way of a long tunnel—so we didn’t know what was waiting for us outside the train doors. When we stepped off the train, we were greeted by the wide Mediterranean sea, with cliffs and trees on either side. We were on a bridge, and this magnificent view was literally two steps away. It didn’t even feel like a train station. We ran to the edge of the bridge to look down at the water, and it was completely breathtaking. It was the best welcome ever!

riomaggiore!
our building is the third one on the left (right next to the building with green scaffolding)

This fairytale only got better as we trekked up the one main street to our hostel. The hostel isn’t one building since the city is so small and hilly; it owns lots of different rooms throughout the city. We followed the man to our room, and were blown away to discover that it was basically sitting on the shore. Our room was up some stairs, and we ran to the window when we got there. We had a view out of a movie—we could see the shore and the rocks and lots of boats, and across from us there were other buildings with real Italians on their balconies and clothes on their real clotheslines. There was also a hill across from us with steep steps that led to a restaurant and down to the rocks.

our building is the one on the right (!!)

riomaggiore!

We went out to explore a little, since it was still light and warm outside, and we ended up walking down the Via dell’Amore, which is the path that connects Riomaggiore with Manarola, the next city. Cinque Terre is made up of five villages and the entire thing is a national park, so there is a trail that connects all the cities. It makes for a great hike if you do the entire thing, but the part between Riomaggiore and Manarola was more of a leisurely stroll, which was perfect after our long day. We took about a billion pictures, for the view was more beautiful than we could have imagined. It is also the path of love, so there were statues and monuments all along the path dedicated to love, and people had put locks with their and their partner’s names on them all along the rails, as per tradition, to lock in their love.

via dell'amore

manarola

That night, we ate dinner at the best little restaurant. We got to eat on the patio and the servers were so nice, especially when we tried to use Italian to order. We had delicious pizza and it was so much fun! We were in bliss.

so excited for gelato and italy!

Unfortunately, I woke up rather sick the next day and had a fever, so I stayed in the room all day while Helen and Emily hiked to the beach. I went with them to dinner that night, but I was pretty out of it and my soup wasn’t very good anyway. I did find a cup of strawberries at the gelato shop on the way home, though.

sunset :)

The next day, it was cloudy, but I was feeling a lot better. We decided to postpone our beach plans for the next day since we were afraid it was going to rain, so Emily and I spent the afternoon exploring the town. We went in every single shop, and it was really really fun! We picked up some good souvenirs and it was quite enjoyable. We had our first pieces of focaccia for lunch, which was to die for. That afternoon, we met back up with Helen and sat out on the rocks with our journals, which was quite agreeable. I also bought a deck of cards, which turned out to be a good purchase, since Emily and I got just a little obsessed with playing card games for the rest of the trip. We also went back to the restaurant we’d first been to this night and it was really fun, although they accidentally brought me meat sauce and I may or may not have eaten a tiny morsel of beef! They brought me a new one though and it was fine… I guess now I can say I tried meat while I was abroad!

relaxing on the rocks :)

The day after was Easter! Luckily, nothing was closed. We did a repeat of Helen and Emily’s hike from Friday but I actually got to go this time, even though I was feeling kind of worse. We walked to Manarola, and from there we took the train to Vernazza, which is supposed to be the most beautiful of the cities. It was certainly the busiest one, but I think it was only the most beautiful from a distance. It was definitely the best view we saw, but it wasn’t my favorite village. We hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso, the last village where there is the best beach. There are no words how to describe how gorgeous the hike was. It was pretty rigorous, too, and we relaxed on the beach with gelato once we got to Monterosso.

hiking!

vernazza!

That night, we tried a new restaurant, and this is noteworthy because I had the best pesto I have ever eaten in my life there. It was SO DELICIOUS. I also got chocolate gelato over strawberries after dinner, which was equally amazing. We ate it sitting on the dock outside our building, which was beautiful and peaceful—until two separate groups of Italian guys came calling, which was just funny.

there were lots of sailboats everywhere!

That night, we had a little adventure in our room. Ever since Emily had taken one good shower on the first day, we hadn't been able to get any hot water in our room, which mystified us since obviously Emily had not used up all the hot water the first day and it had never returned. We eventually decided that there just must be bad plumbing in the village, as if it was some primitive location. So none of us had had a good shower for almost five days, we'd just hopped in and out of the icy water a few times. Well, the last night I was brushing my teeth and I looked up and happened to notice a hot water heater suspended from the ceiling. I started cracking up and pointed it out to the others, since I thought it was funny that we even had a hot water heater in the room and we still couldn't get hot water. Emily came in to examine it and started turning dials but nothing seemed to fix it. She hit the light switch and we started to leave-- but then we noticed a tiny Christmas tree-like light on the water heater that had suddenly illuminated. She had accidentally hit a switch whose purpose we hadn't been able to figure out, so we'd just left it off-- the switch to turn on the hot water heater!! Someone must have turned it off the first afternoon and we hadn't touched it since. We left it on overnight and sure enough, there was hot water in the morning!

the trusty water heater and its light

On Monday, we made our way to Pisa, which wasn’t too difficult. It had gotten quite hot out, which was nice! Most everything in Pisa was closed since it was Easter Monday, so Emily and I had lunch at the first good place we saw—and ended up getting charged 5 euro for a lemonade! From there, we walked to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I have to say that this was a slight disappointment. It was much smaller than I thought it would be! We had fun taking silly pictures by it, though. Afterwards, there wasn’t much else to do. Pisa isn’t actually a very interesting city. We went back to the hostel and hung out until dinner, which was quite fun although the food wasn’t great.

Cinque Terre was amazing. I absolutely loved it. It is the most beautiful place I have ever been to. Even though I didn’t feel good and didn’t even really go to the beach, it was still my favorite place, which says a lot. It was so amazing and tranquil and breathtaking. It is one of my top three favorite places I have been so far in Europe, and I am so, so glad I got to go there. Riomaggiore was a great town to stay in and all the people were so nice. Helen, Emily and I had so much fun together and our surroundings were magnificent. I already want to go back!