Spring Break 2009

Wow. How time flies. I cannot believe it is May and I am home for the summer! I'm loving not having to stress about school and such, but before I get to the end of my semester in Valencia, I want to go back and write about Spring Break. So it was 11 days, 6 cities and probably the best vacation of my life! Realistically, I'm not going to be able to write about all 11 days in one post, so I'll start at the beginning and do the rest in installments!

Day 1

I started out the trip by taking a 2 AM bus to Barcelona to meet Lauren. That is one nice thing about Europe, the public transportation is amazing, you can get just about anywhere at any time of day or night. So I either looked at the bus schedule wrong, or the time was posted wrong, but I got into Barcelona an hour before I was supposed to. I hung out in the bus station for about an hour waiting, and it was a little creepy. There were lots of homeless people sleeping in there and I had heard many stories about Barcelona being the #1 pickpocket city in the world, so I was a little worried. Everything was fine though, and I met Lauren a little later.
Our first goal was to walk to the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudí which they started building in the late 1800s and is still ongoing. The projected completion date is 2028. Well we started walking the complete wrong direction, of course and ended up near the beach - which was gorgeous! When we got on the right direction, we eventually found the church. It was pretty incredible to see - the architecture is amazing! We paid 9 euro to go inside, and I have to say I was disappointed. There wasn't much to see for the price we paid.
Our next stop was Guell Park - more Gaudí! We got there and walked around a bit, looked at the statues and sat on this huge bench that stretched around an open area, with a spectacular view of the city. After that, we decided to head for the beach. So we took the long walk down Las Ramblas, a huge touristy street with vendors and attractions. On the way, we stopped at the Central Market. The amount of fresh food there is so cool - nothing like the markets at home. They have fun stuff like fresh squeezed juices!
We sat at the beach for a couple hours & I wrote some postcards. It was very relaxing and a gorgeous day. Great way to spend the end of the trip in Barcelona. Then we walked back to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport. That night we flew from Barcelona into Rome. From the airport in Rome we took another bus into the city. I was already starting to get sick of all the transportation and it was only day 1! Luckily the hostel was very close to the train station (where our bus dropped us), so it was a short walk to the hostel where we crashed for the night. The Rome hostel wasn't the nicest. It was old and rundown, but i felt safe & it was clean for the most part. So I could live with it for the next 3 nights.

Day 2
We started out Day 2 by taking an early train to Florence. It was only 1.5 hours on the fast train, so we got there right away in the morning. We walked from the train station into the city & stopped to get 1 euro croissants on the way - oo yum! Then we decided to climb the tower next to El Duomo, the cathedral in Florence. It was nearly 500 stairs up to the top - talk about a work out on spring break! The view was gorgeous of course! You could see the entire city from up top. I'm so glad we climbed all the stairs!
After that, we went inside El Duomo to look around. The inside of the church was pretty too, but I have to say there is something about the outside of Italian churches that is just breathtaking. I think it is their use of marble. There is nothing like it in all the rest of Europe. We wandered around for a bit after that and then got in line to see Michaelangelo's David - the REAL one. We thought the line would take longer than it did, so that was a relief. It was really cool see THE statue carved 500 years ago. The same statue talked about and shown in pictures, I can now say I have seen in live person. I was pretty excited to say the least!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We got some lunch at a cute little sandwich shop, and when we were done I went upstairs to use their bathrooms. Now I have heard stories about Italian bathrooms, but I didn't think I would actually experience this in my 5 short days in Italy. The toilet was basically a hole in the ground. There was a toilet seat around it - but it was on the ground. At first I thought I was in the wrong bathroom, so I went back out to check the door. I discovered that I was in the right place, and then could not imagine attempting to use the toilet in that awkward position, so I left. I really didn't need to use the bathroom that bad!
Then we wandered down to the Ponte Vecchio where they sell all the gold, and walked through a market. One young guy tried to sell Lauren a t-shirt by telling her she would get a free boyfriend! That was pretty hysterical! Pretty sure that relationship would be illegal, as the kid looked like 16! Later we walked back to the train station to check out tickets for the ride back to our hostel in Rome. We had originally wanted an authentic Italian dinner, but found we didn't have time for that, so fast-food pizza it was. Mine had spinach instead of tomato sauce, which I was disappointed because the sauce is my favorite part. It was an interesting choice though and I enjoyed it. Then we took our long train ride back to Rome. We wanted the cheaper ride, so of course it was like 4 hours long - stopping in every other city. By the time we got back, it was late so we walked to the hostel in Rome and crashed again for the night!