Florence, Spain, and Hungarian Ping Pong

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

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!