this past weekend, IES took a group of us south to hit up napoli and the sorrentine peninsula. we left friday morning and headed to napoli first. as soon as we got there they took us to the coast to have a delicious pizza lunch (on them of course) at a water front restaurant. of course we were served a full italian meal with 3 courses. all three absolutely amazing, btw. here's a picture of the neopolitan coast from our restaurant.


and here are some of the girls with their pizzas.


this is me and lisa with our desserts. i know she loves this picture.


after lunch, they took us on a bus tour of the city since we had very little time to do this amazing city. we did make a few stops, however. this is a picture from the top of the hill looking out upon the neopolitan coast.


my roommate also decided to pose with louis, who is ridic dirty now btw.


so we did a very short walking tour of the neopolitan coast. and by short i mean like 30 minutes. we started at castel nuovo.


then we headed out towards the galleria which was so pretty. this is from the outside.


and this is one of the wings from the inside.


after the galleria we walked towards plebescito square. here's me and jesse with the palace (i think?)


and this is me and lisa in the square.


after, we headed to an area of napoli called spaccanapoli. it's the main area of napoli to visit and its super cute. all the streets are narrow and there are random churches and monasteries and thing built into it. so one of the monasteries in napoli has the original nativity set. the nativity is a tradition that originated in naples and eventually spread throughout the catholic world.


and this is me and jesse chinchillin in the courtyard of the monastery.


after we finished our tour of napoli, the whole group headed out to sorrento to check into our hotel and to have dinner on the top of the mountain. we stayed in a hotel called the capodimonte (top of the mountain) though it wasnt actually at the top. it was just a few blocks from the main shopping area and was a beautiful 4 star hotel. IES really takes care of us, i must say. anyhow, here's sara and collin in our marble lobby waiting for room assigments.


and this is me and lisa in the lobby. in case you havent noticed we take this one same picture where we are positioned the same way the entire time and its just the background that changes.


this is me with the view from the balcony. i look like im 12.


there are some pictures of our room.



and this is another view of sorrento from our balcony.


so then we had a wondrous like 9 course meal courtesy of IES and afterwards didnt feel like going out cause it was rainy and disgusting so lisa, collin, and i all chilled on collins balcon ust taking in the scenery. here's me and lisa chinchillin on the balcon. (yes that is spelled correctly.)


on saturday, we got up early to have a buffet breakfast at the hotel which wonerfully included omelets made to order and then took a bus trip out to positano. positano is cute lil fishing town on the coast of the bay of salerno. it was super cute but, unfortunately, no longer beach weather. this is the view down on positano from the top of the hill.


and this is the view looking up at positano from the bottom of the hill.


after a bit of free time, we took a boat trip along the amalfi coast over to the town of amalfi. here's the view of positano from the boat.



and here's the amalfi coast.


this is the cathedral of st. andrew which is in the town of amalfi. i have to say, amalfi is super cute but there really isnt much to do there.

one of the artifacts in this church was this like silver panel which was supposed to be like the tombstone type thing of st. andrew (i think?). heres jesse kinda smiling with it?


and this is the inside of the main cathedral.


this is the statue of st. andrew.


after our tour, we had a few minutes to chill in amalfi before departing for sorrento. this is me and jesse on the stairs of the church. this picture really taught me why you shouldnt take pictures from below looking up. i look pregnant.


after returning to sorrento, we went to this delicious seafood restaurant with the program. we had amazing seafood pasta and fish dishes. here's sara, callie, and beth at dinner. ps they gave us 7 bottles of wine for 6 people.


and this is a sad attempt at bringing back the cobra attack.


and this is beth's really cute attempt at the cobra attack.


small note to the jumbos before i continue, the cobra attack, as seen in these pictures, should be reserved for the 4 of us and only us. kthanks.

after dinner, we went to karaoke with a bunch of IES people which was kind of amazing. i mean when is karaoke not amazing? this is callie, jesse, beth, and me karaoking. i dont remember taking this picture.


after a bit more dancing and a few more destinations, we all headed back to the hotel since we had to get up quite early to head over to pompeii.

pompeii was cool but not at all what i expected. i thought it was going to be a city preserved by ashes but it ended up being a town of ruins, not quite what i expected. i mean it was really cool, dont get me wrong, but it just wasn't at all what i expected. that's their amphitheater.


and this is the two different ends of the main street in pompeii.



and this is pompeii. it's ac excellent picture because it shows one of the main areas as well as the asian tour group taking a picture, woot.


and there are the random a people. i really wanted collin to jump in the picture but she didnt quite make it before they dispersed.


these are some pictures of bodies preserved after the eruption. if i remember correctly, the tour guide actually told us that these aren't bodies preserved by ashes. in fact, they found moldings of where the bodies were but had decayed and then filled in those moldings with concrete and displayed them.



and this was our last stop in pompeii, the temple of apollo.


after pompeii, we just had a nice lunch altogether and then headed back to rome. a good weekend altogether, fall break next week!

ps im sorry this entry was posted so late but my internet stopped working for a while and then fall break started so i was unable to complete the post until after break.

winnie comes to rome!

so as my bus pulls into termini from the airport after a weekend in barcelona, winnie gives me a call informing me that they are at termini waiting for me. i can't even tell you how happy i was to see winnie for the first time. seriously, i love it here and i wanna come back after graduation and i LOVE traveling every weekend, but i really am starting to miss home. i miss my bed, my house, my mom, my sisters, my car, my friends, my phone, diverse foods, and tufts. so anyhow, seeing winnie had to be one of the most refreshing things ever. don't get me wrong, seeing alex was awesome as she was my first familiar face in such a long time, but i guess the fact that ive known winnie for like 8 years now and have been good friends with her since pretty much day 1 makes her such a huge part of my life. so i met them (winnie and her friends sean and tim from michigan) at the station and took their bags to bring home so that they could start sightseeing while i showered and did my usual recuperation after the weekend. i stayed home and did a bunch of stuff that needed to be done (laundry, shower, upload pictures, etc.) and then lisa and i met them out at piazza navona for dinner. we chose a random restaurant right on the piazza and had a lovely dinner. we came back and tim and sean passed out from exhaustion almost immediately and then winnie decided she wanted to go out. i was far too tired cause i barely got any sleep in spain and didnt even get to nap when i got home so i directed her in the right direction and gave her my cell phone and keys and instructed her not to die and to get home safely. i ended up sleeping in valentinas bed so that when winnie got home she could just go right to sleep in my bed. it actually worked out quite well that valentina went to sicily this weekend and isnt returning til tuesday or wednesday cause tim and sean needed somewhere to sleep and my apartment really isnt all that big.

anyhow, sean woke me up this morning and we got ready and had breakfast at the paris bar before heading to the vatican. we took the bus and train out to la citta vaticana. ive already been there a bunch of times, but it was the first time in rome for all three of them and, as architecture students, the vatican was amazing. well i guess to anyone of any religion or major the vatican just happens to be an amazing place. so we first went into the basilica and spent quite a while in there. i didn't take too many pictures cause sean took a bunch and i'll just post some of his. well here are a couple, i'm choosing only the pictures with people in them.









after, we headed down into the tombs of the popes and then i dropped them off at termini. we made it to termini just in time for their train back to venice and, 5 minutes before their train was set to depart and i was already out of the station, i realized i was still holding tim's sweater! so i ran back to the train and realized that their car was like halfway down the train and ran on, hoping it wouldn't take off with me still on it but couldnt find them. so i ran down to the other end of the car to see if they were sitting over there and winnie saw me running down the train so she met me at the door so i could give her tim's sweater. i have to say, saying goodbye to winnie this time around was one of the saddest things ive had to do in a long time. i mean, leaving home to come abroad wasnt that sad because of how excited i was but seeing winnie has made me quite a bit homesick. also, winnie is super awesome cause she went to target to buy me all the american stuff i needed and lugged it all the way here and also left me a few surprises. at my request, she ran to target to get me ziploc bags, gum, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, and deodorant. she also quite nicely surprised me with granola bars and trail mix which is pretty much the best thing ever.

ok well that was my lil rant about how much i love winnie and miss home.

this past weekend i traversed out to barcelona with collin and lisa battaline. our flight left ciampino airport at 645 am which mean we had to be there by 6 which meant on the shuttle at 430 am which meant out of my house by 330. so i was supposed to get up at like 220 to shower and stuff but i think i set my alarm incorrectly and so i got up at like 315 when lisa called to see why we werent at our designated meeting place. anyhow, we found our bus and got to the bus station in time to catch our flight and all was well. weird, my sociology professor was on our flight to barcelona and she totally recognized me but didnt say anything. ah well, i wasn't upset about it. so we get to girona which is a small town outside of barcelona and collin takes a bus into town to get to the dali museum to meet kaylin while lisa and i head straight into the city. we get into the city around 10 and walk from the station to our hostel which isnt too far. we decide to check in and drop off our bags so we can at least go get something to eat considering we had already been up for like 7 hours and hadnt had anything to eat yet. we went to some random sandwich place (kinda like quizno's) which was awesome since we dont have such things in italy and then headed back to our hostel to get our rooms and shower and stuff so we can start our day. collin and i were in a 14 bed mixed dorm. it actually wasn't that bad but living in a hostel is definitely like a frat house in that it's just like ridiculously busy at all times. esp since our hostel was like the place to be, being that it was on the same street as casa mila and casa battlo and only a block away from la rambla. anyhow, here's a picture of our room. the beds were fairly comfortable but they only gave you a fitted sheet and a pillow case so i felt a bit exposed when i slept. oh well, no harm done.


so after freshening up we started walking north on our street, passeig de gracia, and stumble upon casa battló. so this was a house that gaudi designed on passeig de gracia. it's really colorful and wavy. we decided not to go inside this one cause casa mila is up the street and we were much more interested in that one (and the line was shorter). anyhow, here's the best picture of casa battló i could get.


so we continued down passeig de gracia and come across casa mila. another gaudi building, casa mila is also known as la pedrera. here's the sign outside the house.


this is me and lisa waiting in line to get into la casa mila. the italian fam in front of us had brought a full line of antipasti to enjoy while waiting in line. it was so weird. they had like canned olives and small personal bottles of wine for each person.


so the line was a bit of a wait but really not that bad considering how much of a tourist attraction it is. so casa mila is like...you go up to the attic and look at the models of the attic and then head out onto the terrace where gaudi designed all the airvents and things to be really cool chimneys. first, here's the courtyard you see when you first come in.


here's a picture of me sitting amongst the chimneys. luckily, it wasn't raining nor was it very crowded so i was able to take good pictures.


we also were able to take pictures of the two of us together (since collin was at dali). this is me and battaline with a bunch of different chimneys.


i know there are tons of pictures from casa mila but i really loved it up there. anyhow, here's another picture of me and lisa just one the terrace.


so from up there you get an awesome view of the city. this is me and lisa attempting to take a picture of ourselves with the view in the background. we managed to get la sagrada familia in there too.


there's this one big chimney on the roof that was really pretty and was easy to lean on since you cant really sit on the steps. here's me chillin on the chimney.


so after casa mila we hit up starbucks which was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. jesse (current roommate) and i always talk about how we could use a cup of starbucks right now and how we kinda wish they had that here. frickin spain of course has them so right after casa mila lisa and i ran to the closest starbucks and i got my vat of coffee, decaf as i almost always do. anyhow, after starbucks, we walked over to la sagrada familia (the sacred family). so this church was started by gaudi in the 1880s and still hasn't been finished. it's not a cathedral, but rather just a large roman catholic church that is supposed to be a mixture of a dragon's cave and whipped clouds. well, it's supposed to finished in 2010 so now it's still under major construction. here's a picture of it up close.


after the church, we headed down towards the water to see what we could encounter. first, we wanted to do the beach but it was a little too chilly to spend the day at the beach so we decided we would just walk south and probably hit so many things that we could just go see the beach and perhaps just enjoy the sounds of the ocean and the company of the locals. along the way, we hit the arc de triomf. it was kinda refreshing to see an arc that wasn't made of marble. here's lisa and me with the arc.


so after a lot of walking and lots of random sightings we finally make it the beach. the beaches in barcelona are gorgeous and people are frequenting the shore at all hours of the day. it was a lil chilly since its mid october but the waves were crashing and plenty of people were still surfing. here's me taking in the sun and trying to get rid of some of my paste (with a sweater on).


and here's me chillin on the boardwalk in barceloneta. barceloneta is the suburban town of barcelona that is situated south of the city right off the water. it's supposed to be known for american style pizza restaurants and tex mex, but we didn't have either of those. anyhow, the town was super cute.


while walking back along the shore towards the city, we encountered the dock where everyone parks their boats. this is the dock...i took a picture cause i saw all the boats of different sizes and thought of my sister and her boat.


so we decide to buy tickets to the stomp imax presentation but it doesn't start for a few hours. we keep walking along the path and find a mall! a freaking mall! i havent seen a mall since i left the isle of stats. not that malls are really that cool but i kinda miss them and i kinda miss the ridiculousness of the staten island mall. anyway, here's a picture of the mall (with a lot more affordable shopping thatn italy.)


we wander around the mall for a while and exit at every exit to see where it leads us. we end up on a dock at some point with a beautiful sunset which battaline and i romantically enjoyed. actually, i went to take out canteloupe (my camera) and the charm of PJP2 and benny fell off and fell through the planks of the dock. i was super sad but then realized i bought quite a few of those so it should be fine. anyhow, this is us with the sunset.


after shopping some more (though not buying anything) we catch site of mcdonalds and decide were not hungry enough for real food so we grab some mcdonalds. its kinda awesome cause i got a happy meal which included, chicken nuggets, potato wedges instead of fries, soda, a toy, and a desert for like 3,30. the toy is this lil music playing thing and here's a picture of lisa rocking out to her happy meal and the song from girls around, a girl group that our toy was based on.


so we still have some time to waste after dinner and we walk around towards the aquarium. there's this shark mouth outside that is no longer completely inhabited by children and we decide to take a picture with it. and by we, i mean I. do i look scared or just plain silly?


our stomp IMAX showing was so so cool. it was like this documentary style thing where it showed the rhythms of the world. here's me and lisa all taken aback by the super effects of IMAX.


after the IMAX, we just walked back to our hostel which was like 30 minutes but still a nice walk and there were so so many people around even though it was past midnight and nothing was open. on saturday, we got up early to have breakfast and then walked to parc guell, a park designed by gaudi. there are SO many tiles that go into everything gaudi designs. even the park sign shows this!


here's a picture of me at some part of parc guell. i wish i knew the names of the sections.


parc guell is an UNESCO world heritage sight and is actually famous for a lot of things, the longest park bench in the world being one of them. so many shards of glass went into designing and decorating every part of the bench.


here's a detail of the bench.


from the parc bench, you can get a really nice view of the city as well as a pretty view of the main buildings.


theres also an area with all these columns and random lil designs on the ceilings. this is one of the designs on the ceiling.


and here i am with the columns.


if you exit the parc through the main entrance, you can get a reall pretty picture of the buildings, parc bench, and colonnaded area.


the parc was rather crowded so we headed out and decided to hit up el corte ingles. its kinda hard to tell you how awesome corte is given that it has pretty much everything you could possibly want.



after corte, we headed towards the gothic quarter. the gothic cathedral COULD have been pretty if it wasn't completely covered in scaffolding.


here's a random street in the quarter.


there's lisa in the gothic quarter.


after this, we headed back to the hostel to meet up collin and get ready for the symphony. lisa and i got tickets to attend the symphony at the palace of music (palau de la musica). this is the outside of the palace on the side.


and here's the inside of the palace. it's so ornately decorated and there's so much going on in there.


the ceiling is especially known for the stained glass.


and there are also stained glass windows on both sides of the palace.


here's me and lisa enjoying the persony things we do like the symphony.


and this is the front of the palau.


after the symphony, we settled down for people watching, sangria, and paella with collin and kaylin. i have to say, barcelona is definitely one of my favorite cities ever and i was kinda sad to leave. one of the things i loved most about it is that its a lot more laid back than rome. you can wear sweatpants outside and not look like a total idiot. they also have tons of american stuff! dunkin donuts, starbucks, KFC, pizza hut, subway. all stuff that italy would never even think of having. freakin italia. ok well that's it for now i guess. winnie's here now with a few friends from mich so im gonna go meet up with her for dinner. ill post pictures and stuff from our adventures while she's here and then next weekend...napoli, the amalfi coast, and pompeii!