Hello again!
After an extended leave of absence from the blogging
community for personal reasons (The Walking Dead started up again) I’m back and
ready to catch everyone up on all of my adventures from the past few weeks. Covering three countries, twenty-two
hours of travel, and over three thousand incorrect attempts at speaking a
foreign language, this blog has all the makings of yet another marathon read. In your fatigue, however, I encourage you to keep thinking of the endorphin rush that
will accompany finishing the last sentence! That feeling can barely be
described. So at long last it’s time to clear your schedules, grab a
pot of coffee, and we’ll get started.
In a recent survey, it was determined that there are over 5,000
nuns living in the city of Rome alone. About three weeks
ago, we managed to bump that total to 5,002 as my parents flew in from Dallas
for a week of exploration in both Rome and Florence. (I recognize this is a terrible joke) As luck would have it, my
mom’s suitcase didn’t make the connection from Madrid, so our actual reunion
was a little delayed, but I managed to meet up with them at Hotel Santa Maria
in Trastevere just before sunset on Monday night. Although they were quite
jetlagged from all the travel, we were extremely excited to be back together in
Italy’s biggest city. Therefore, after a quick Café Americano, we headed into
downtown Rome.
The night was a little cold, but walking at a Kent Nunn-type
pace quickly warmed us right up. We passed through famous areas such as Campo
di Fiori and Piazza Navona before finally stopping at a restaurant just in
front of the Pantheon for dinner. The rest of our evening was spent here as we caught
up on the past month apart, shared traditional Italian style pizzas, and
laughed at each other’s less-than-perfect attempts at speaking the new
language. Unfortunately, not more than an hour later I saw that both parents
were about to turn their pizzas into pillows. Therefore we paid our check,
walked back across the river to Trastevere, and called it a night.
The Tiber at night
Being a school week, I was forced back to AUR for the
majority of Tuesday. My parents decided to venture on over for lunch, however,
and got a first hand look at the small campus where I learn about the
international business world. After a quick photo shoot (which the majority
of my new fellow classmates found rather amusing) we were off to explore the
surrounding neighborhood. We passed through an open-air market, traced back through
a portion of my daily walk to school, and ate lunch at one of my favorite cafes
in the area. That night I even got the chance to take them to Raimundo’s, a
local restaurant whose owner has become pretty good friends with my roommates
and me. Or rather, as good of friends as a non-English speaker can be with a
non-Italian speaker. (I’m pretty sure he spends the majority of his time making
fun of me). We attempted to order, but as Raimundo usually does, he simply
shook his head and decided to bring us whatever he saw fit. We were delivered
Spaghetti Carbonara, and it really was the best! In a future blog about Rome
I’ll talk much more about Raimundo and the non-verbal dialogues we have, but I
definitely owe him for the best dinner of that week.
My family with Raimundo and his wife
The next day my parents and I ventured over to the Vatican
museum, which houses the largest collection of art in all of Italy. The amount
of sculptures, paintings and murals truly is amazing; it seems that hall after
hall is filled with incredible works! Being the American tourists that we were,
we each decided to rent a handheld tour guide on tape to help explain the vast
array of art in front of us. While the information was helpful, I found the
classical background music much more humorous than intended. Well worth the
money I’d say. Eventually we made our way to the Sistine Chapel, the last stop
in the Vatican Museum. It truly is an amazing place, as the entire room is
covered with some of the world’s most well known frescoes. While the Vatican
had their Swiss guards stationed at the door to prevent camera’s from ruining
the frescoes with flashes, I risked life and limb to capture this (non-flash)
photo of the chapel for you.
The Sistine Chapel
We woke up early on Friday morning and boarded a bullet
train bound for Florence. Having explored most of Rome during the preceding
week, it was really nice to have the opportunity to travel to another major
Italian city for the weekend. The train ride itself was a very cool experience,
as the one and a half hour trip took us through the snow-covered, mountainous
region of Tuscany. Passing by castles and small Italian villages really does
seem so surreal, especially at 240 km/h! Upon arriving in Florence, we dropped
our luggage off at the hotel and soon set out into the city. Architecturally,
Florence was extremely beautiful. The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore towers
over the rest of the city, which is surrounded by the mountains of Tuscany that
I mentioned earlier. We began our tour of Florence at the Accaedmia Gallery
where the David statue is housed. I had always heard that this statue is
amazing to see in person, but never imagined the scale of it; it’s almost
fifteen feet high! Once again, the impulse to snap a quick photo seized me and
I stealthily took advantage of the situation. My dad, on the other hand,
attempted to do the same without a clear and proper understanding of how technology
works. That’s what you call a recipe for disaster. After the brightest flash
the Gallery has ever seen and an automated “click” noise set on loud,
the guards swooped in to express their displeasure. Seeing this whole situation
coming from miles away, I luckily ducked away and made a clean escape.
Michelangelo's David
15 feet tall!
After leaving the Gallery we ventured to the center of the
city and decided to climb to the top of the Doumo on top of the Basilica di
Santa Maria del Fiore. While my mom ended up not being the biggest fan of the
narrow ledges and significant drop-offs associated with the ascent, reaching
the top was well worth the trip. From this vantage point the entire city of
Florence, as well as the surrounding regions, are visible. It was a perfect day
and the landscape really did appear like the picturesque Italy you imagine from
back home in the States. For those of you who have read my earlier blogs, it’s
about as close to Paderno del Grappa in terms of natural beauty that I have
encountered so far. We ended the night by making an appearance at the annual
Italian chocolate festival, which “coincidentally” took place the very same
weekend that we were in Florence. As you can see by the picture below, no one
was complaining. At this point my parents gave me the option of choosing any
restaurant I wanted to eat at for our last big meal, and after a month of
Italian food, the Hard Rock Firenze was an easy choice. Best cheeseburger ever.
From the top of the Duomo
Father and Me
We're waving at the bottom!
At night
Chocolate Festival
The next day we concluded our weeklong adventure in Italy by
visiting the Uffizi Gallery, which holds a large amount of Medieval and
Renaissance artwork. While artists such as Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci again
fill the halls with masterpieces, I found a certain original sculpture of a
razorback to be the most interesting piece in the museum. Woo Pig Sooie.
The Original
View from the Uffizi Gallery
After a few more hours of trekking around the city, the time
came for us to board the train back to Rome and ultimately part ways until our
reunion this summer. Looking back, that week with my parents has definitely been
one of my favorites in Europe so far. I’ve learned that there is something truly
special about getting the chance to share new experiences and adventures with those
close to you. While Italy offers so many incredible venues to see and explore,
having the opportunity to enjoy them with my parents made the entire week even
more special, and I feel greatly blessed for that.
Great week!
Fast-forward about six and a half days and I’m once again
sitting at the airport in Rome, this time bound for Budapest, Hungary! This
idea actually came about in the simplest of ways, my roommates and I checked a
discount travel website for the cheapest flights out of Rome and Budapest was
the winner. (For 44 Euros, or about $60 round trip) After a two-hour flight, we
landed in this entirely new country around midnight, speaking no Hungarian and
having no Forints (the local currency). As you can imagine, we knew immediately
that this would be quite the experience. After hunting down an ATM and
negotiating a shuttle with the one stand still open at the airport, we rode to
our hostel in the heart of the city and called it a night. As you can see,
first impressions can be deceiving.
Courtyard outside our hostel, I promise it gets better!
Our first morning in Budapest began in the only possible manner it could have, with me immediately hiking over to the local Starbucks (Which
they don’t have in Italy) and establishing it as the meeting point for our
group. Being such a difficult and scarcely known language, almost everyone in
Hungary spoke English alongside Hungarian, so the barista could easily understand
my coffee order. He brought it out to me personally and said, “American style
coffee. Just like home.” It was then that I decided Budapest was the greatest
place in the world.
As the day progressed, I forced myself away from my
kind-hearted coffee friends and embarked on a walking tour of the city. Our
guides were two college students from Budapest who were extremely funny and
very informative when it came to the city! One side of the city “Pest” is very
flat and houses many of the old communist buildings from the rule of the Soviet
Union. On the other side of the Danube river lies “Buda” an extremely mountainous area
that seems to directly contrast Pest. All in all, the city comes together as
one of the most unique places I have ever visited. Everyone was very friendly
and eager to talk about Hungarian culture! We ended the day in the Jewish quarter of the city, located
just by our hostel. Some of the best restaurants, pubs, and bars were located
in this area, which again afforded us the opportunity to truly see what life in
Hungary was like.
Looking towards the "Buda" side of the river
Crossing the Danube
Looking back towards the "Pest" side
The Danube
St. Stephen's Basillica
Our tour guides
Our flight back to Rome the next day again wasn’t scheduled until
late at night so most of my group decided to visit the Turkish Baths that take
advantage of the natural hot springs located in the city. I instead took the
opportunity to explore a new area of the city and soon found myself wandering
in a big city park. After a few quick minutes I spotted some ping-pong tables
and was drawn to them like a magnet. At first, my plan was to only watch as the
older Hungarian men played away, but after they offered to take me on I
couldn’t resist. As the one-time defending champion of the Dunham’s-Friend’s-New-Years-Eve-Party-Ping-Pong-Tournament
there was no way I’d back down from this challenge, titles like that don’t come
easy. As we played, I learned that the ball we were using was over 40 years old
and came from former Czechoslovakia. One of the men had played with it almost
every weekend during that entire span, which instantly turned my entire attention to
making sure I didn’t do anything to lose it or hit it down a drain. Against all
odds, and with all my willpower, I was able to avoid that harrowing situation. Getting
the chance to play ping-pong with the Hungarians really was a perfect end to
the weekend. I would have never thought in a million years that I would end up
in such a situation, but it truly is a great testament to how incredible
studying abroad can be!
For those of you still reading the blog, I’m quite
impressed! I’m guessing only my loyal 13% have made it this far, and I promise
the end is in sight. Just one more trip to go! And for those of you thinking of
quitting here, I offer you this:
Now let’s embrace those goose bumps and fast-forward one
final time to this past Friday when I found myself, once again, on a flight
over the Mediterranean. This time I was bound for Seville, Spain! I was really
excited at the opportunity to finally put all those years in the Spanish
classroom to the test, as well as to see my friends Anna and Caroline who are
studying in the city this semester. My first actual attempt at speaking the
language came during the taxi ride from the airport to my hostel. We we’re
driving down Av. Kansas City and naturally I tried to explain to my driver that
I was born in Kansas City. Evidently he was not as excited about this fact as I
was.
Shortly after meeting up with Anna and Caroline at the hostel,
we set off for a local Mexican restaurant (Close enough to Spanish food…) and
caught up on our study abroad experiences from the past few months. Again it was
a ton of fun to be back in the company of old friends, and after hours of
talking we discovered it was already time to call it a night. The next day,
however, was full of walking as they took me on an entire tour of the city,
from Plaza de Espana (Where a certain movie some may recognize was filmed) to
the “mushrooms”, a giant sculpture in the middle of the city. Of course, as is
always the case when a Starbucks is near, we spent a large portion of the day
enjoying our daily coffee. Or in my case, enjoying my four daily coffees.
Yum
Plaza de Espana
Nerd Alert
The next morning the three of us met up one last time and
walked downtown for breakfast. We ended up eating at a restaurant known for their
tortillas. As I soon found out, tortillas in Spain are much different than
tortillas in America! Essentially they were a huge egg, cheese, potato, and
onion omelette; a perfect way to end a relaxing weekend. My time in Spain was
marked by a lot of poor pronunciations, some difficulty dealing with the
European’s constant need to bundle up despite the eighty-degree heat, but most
of all a lot of laughs with some good friends.
This leads me to today! I’ve been in Italy for 45 days, visited
5 incredible locations, and consumed over 345,000 calories worth of pasta. Next
up is a return to Florence this weekend before Megan and I head off to Germany
and Switzerland for Spring break! I promise to do a better job of keeping
everyone updated (And keeping my novels to a minimum) but for now you’re up to
date in my life. I hope everyone back home is doing great, ciao!
