Spring Break Never Ends
Hey everyone! Spring break does end sadly in one more week. So far I have spent one week travelling and had an amazing time. Let me tell you a little bit about where I have been this week and the highlights.
Milan: We started with two days in Milan, which to be honest was not my decision. I am not a fashionista and I know of nothing in Milan besides Da Vinci’s Last Supper and we did not even see that. By the end of the second day in Milan we were bored, but we did a lot of people watching which is amazingly fun there. Milan also has a beautiful church and a crazy cemetary that has really outlandish tombstones and looks like a little city in parts of it. I liked Milan.. good pizza and fun people to be there with, but I will not be going back.
Rome: Rome is one of my favorite cities even though we got lost when we first arrived. At 3 am we arrived and wandered until Adam asked a group of prostitutes where our hostel was and they lied to us so we walked around even more. We finally found the hostel which was nice except for a creepy guy that walked people in and out of there rooms. We spent two days there and it was just enough time to see all the major sites that we wanted to see. We started off with the Colosseum and then the Forum. We explored gardens and ruins the first day and walked through most of the old center of the city. Everything is really close together so not a lot of time is wasted walking to various sites. On the second day we did the most amazing thing ever. We saw the Pope!! We went to the Wed morning service and stood in a huge group of people until the pope came out at 10:30 and the service began. The best part was we stood next to the little road where the Pope drives through the crowd before the service. I was within five feet of Benedicto while little Polish children chanted Ben-i-dict-o and people squished closer to get pictures. After the Pope Experience we toured St. Peters and it was amazing to see the place I had studied about in Church History. Even if I am not a Catholic, the Church’s past is my past too, in a way. We spent the rest of the day wandering through the city and saw a castle and the bridges and other things.
Athens: We spent three days in athens. We walked through most of the city and explored the Acropolis and other ancient ruins. We did a small archeological dig (fake since none of us have training, but real in the sense that we were on the ancient Agorra) and I snatched a few pieces of building material before we realized we were in a roped off part and ran away. I went shopping in Greece too, it was the first place I bought things… I have a shirt that has my name in Greek… you want one too, I know. We also met a man named Nikolas who told us why Greeks all say God Bless America and that Greeks love Americans. He kept grabbing my cheeks and being silly but he gave us a lucky Greek penny and formed the basis for my US/Euro paper so I am happy about it. We ate Greek food in Athens… gyros for almost every meal that were cheap and delicious. The food there will be missed.
Aegina: a Greek island that we visited for a day and a night. It was beautiful, you definitely must look at the pictures when I put them online next week. On the island we rented mopeds and drove around the entire island a few times, exploring the beaches and ruins and mountaintops. Riding mopeds is only appropriate for places like this and coastal towns (which of course is all an island is), but where they are appropriate they are soo much fun! I think that I will upgrade to motorcycles when I get home. =) On the island we were the only people in our hostel and one of the few tourists on the island. It was low season so no one was there and the shops and restaurants did not open until afternoon if they opened at all. The atmosphere was very laidback, but perfect for relaxation after busy and crowded Rome.
I am now in Ferrara, Italy, with a my friend Riannon who I have not seen in years. After this I will head to Venice and then to Switzerland and Paris. My two weeks will end and the travelling Maria will head back to dreary Salzburg to learn German and finish her semester up. I am excited to return to Salzburg so I can digest this experience and to look at and edit my pictures (of course I looove doing that). In two weeks my friend Alison should come visit me and we will explore beautiful Salzburg further. Can’t wait for that either! I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s day and has a wonderful new week.
Much love.
