Pizza and Pasta!

Oh Italy! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that many carbs in one weekend in my entire life. Three full days of pasta and pizza…heaven on earth. We arrived in Milan Thursday night and couldn’t wait to try the food. All that was open was a tiny pizza place close to our hotel, which turned out to be pretty good! The waiter was an old Italian man who might have been the peppiest person I’ve ever met. Every time he brought us something he did it with pep in his step! He was so cute! After a delicious dinner of pizza we went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up with the intention of seeing di Vinci’s Last Supper. We took the metro to the Santa María de Grazie where the Last Supper is painted on the outside wall of the church. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that you had to make reservations in advance to see it! Luckily there was an opening at 4:15 so we were able to return to see it! I must say it is absolutely incredible in person. Pictures just don’t do it justice. I fully recommend for everyone to go and see it sometime in their lives. Di Vinci didn’t paint is as a fresco, but instead he used a technique which didn’t preserve as well as a fresco so it’s a little faded but still incredible. From there we went to the Sforzesco Castle, but we didn’t actually go in. It was pretty impressive from the outside! We took a walk down the Dante Street and shopped a little. We then went to see the Duomo (the Italian cathedral). It’s beautiful!! I tried to get in to see the interior, but apparently you can’t go in if you’re in shorts! How horrible!! Once I googled what the interior looks like, I’m so sad I missed it because it is incredible! If only I had known that I needed to wear pants! We then took a 2.5 hour train to Venice!

As soon as we got to Venice we took a waterbus to our hotel. It was kind of like the metro system but on water! It was very cool! I just love that everything is on water. There are 420 bridges in Venice so you can cross all the canals. Amazing! When we woke up the next morning we went to the Rialto Bridge and saw the Grand Canal. From there we did some shopping and “got lost” in the streets of Venice. It was really fun to just walk the streets and find open air markets that you could shop at. We found a little bridge and decided to take a gondola ride with Georgio. Georgio sang to us as we rode through the little canals and into the Grand Canal. It was definitely an experience! I loved it! We ended up having a delicious dinner in a restaurant that had an inside garden. After three courses we were definitely full! It started to rain so we had to run to our hotel in the rain because since the city is on water, there weren’t any street taxis to take us to the hotel.

The rain continued as we got up early to take the train back to Milan on Sunday. We were able to tour Milan a little more before we had to go to the airport. Once we stepped into the airport it was chaos! People were everywhere trying to check their bags! We all had a backpack and shared a suitcase that held all of our purchases from the trip (pasta takes up a lot of room!). Once we had the bag checked we made it to our gate only to see that our flight was delayed an hour due to the rain. We waited until we were able to board, but then we had to run through the rain onto the tarmac so we could board the plane. Que horrible! Once we were on the plane we had to wait for traffic control to let us take off. I fell asleep immediately, but once we got to Madrid traffic control told us there were too many planes in the Madrid airport and we had to wait for it to clear before we could land. This caused us to circle Madrid for an hour before landing. By the time we landed it was 1:00AM and we knew the last bus to leave was at 1:45AM from the other airport terminal. Once the bag appeared from the baggage claim we were out of time and stuck in Madrid! We ended up having to stay at a hotel in Madrid for the night before returning to Valladolid in the morning. It was a disastrous day! In the midst of it all, I realized I left my phone on the plane because we were in a rush to try and make the bus back to Valladolid. I’ve checked many times, but the airline can’t seem to find my phone even though I know I left it on the plane. Que triste! Excluding Sunday, it was a wonderful trip! I really enjoyed Italy and now I would love to explore it some more. There are so many more places to see!

Tonight is the final group dinner before we leave. It’s sad that I’m going to be leaving my home for the last six weeks. I really enjoyed my Spanish host mom; she was so sweet! Only 2 more days until I reunite with my family; they landed in Spain this morning! On Friday I take a train to Sevilla and explore a little of southern Spain. I can’t wait!

Barcelona in a Nutshell

Barcelona: Gaudí’s dreamland. Whatever he imagined, he made. Everything he created is wonderful in it’s own crazy, unique way. I’ve never been more impressed with a church in my entire life. Spain is full of churches. In fact, a city is not recognized as a city until it builds a cathedral (a little fact I learned in my Art History class here). Once you’ve seen five churches it seems like you’ve seen them all. La Sagrada Familia is nothing like that. Gaudí wanted to create a Basilica that demonstrated the life and history of the Holy Family. Work began when Gaudí was still alive and it’s still unfinished. Each façade represents something different and significant in Jesus’s life. The inside is just as amazing as the outside. I can’t even put into words how much I loved La Sagrada Familia, but I’m sure once I get back I’ll discuss it with everyone I see!

Barcelona was definitely event filled. We visited La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, FC Barcelona and Las Ramblas. Everything was wonderful! We rode a tourist bus around the city to get the full picture of Barcelona and it was definitely worth it! Park Güell is another one of Gaudí’s creations. If you’ve ever seen the finale of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 7, it takes place in Barcelona and specifically the Park Güell (this is the one where they are deranged brides for the final runway show!). The whole park is funky and the entrance buildings slightly resembled gingerbread houses, but it was so neat! Gaudí was inspired by nature, so this was an easy thing for him to create. FC Barcelona is the “fútbol” stadium (for the English speakers: fútbol is their word for soccer). It was very expensive for us to take the tour so we only saw the outside, but the Spanish really love their soccer!

Of course knowing my luck with trips in Europe it started to rain on Saturday. When I say rain that’s a complete understatement. I was shopping at the market on Las Ramblas when the sky started to turn VERY dark. I figured I had some time before the rain hit, but I was so wrong. We had just finished walking around the stalls when the sky opened up and poured rain. We immediately ran to the street corner and tried to hail a taxi, which proved fruitless. Not one taxi would pick us up since we weren’t at a specified “taxi stand.” Thanks Spain! Once we finally made it to the taxi stand it took another 20 minutes to get a taxi to stop! By now I’m utterly drenched and miserable. I couldn’t see anything around me because of the downpour. Finally, a cab picked us up and took us back to our hostel (I’ll get to that part!). When we got out of the cab the water was up to mid-calf and it was hailing. This was not little hail either, but hail the size of a ping-pong ball. Not only did this hurt, it made it impossible to get into the lobby of the hostel. The whole downstairs of the hostel was flooded, but thankfully we were staying on the second floor. What a disaster! My Spanish mother told me about a similar experience she had in Barcelona before I left, but she assured me it wouldn’t rain. She seemed to think it doesn’t rain in July, only in August. Needless to say, once I returned to Valladolid I told her the whole story until she was almost crying she was laughing so hard. Oops!

 One of the girls here knows a friend who staid in Barcelona for a period of time. Apparently she recommended this hostel, which turned out to not be that bad. It was more of a hotel than a hostel. Sarah and I were able to have a room to ourselves and it was clean, so I was happy. The funny part was the bathroom. It was TINY! I’m pretty sure you could use the bathroom, put on makeup and shower at the same time. Sarah said it compared to the bathroom she had on a cruise. Don’t worry, I’ll post pictures! This fancy hostel even had a pool on the roof, which we never got to use due to the rain, but at least it was well equipped!

Looking back on it, it was a wonderful trip. I definitely came out of it with many stories to tell and a new favorite building! I don’t think I got to fully experience all Barcelona has to offer, so I’d love to return in the future. As for now, I leave for Milan and Venice tomorrow. I can’t wait! It’s surreal that I’ve already been here five weeks. Time flew by! The family arrives in exactly a week and I can’t wait to see them! It will be really fun to spend time with them in a country I love. 


We were just a little wet!