Adventure is out there!: March 2015

So much to write about. I'll try to highlight the best parts of the past couple weekends and spare you from my rambling, but it's been a great past few weekends. Two weekends ago, the future roomies and I traveled to Venice and Rome. Seeing those two cities has been a dream of mine forever. Everyone always talks about Rome... I've learned about the Romans multiple times and our fabulous pope lives there. It's one of the places that I knew I would eventually make it to but I actually went to weeks ago. It's almost sad now that it's over. But it was an amazing weekend.

We started with two days in Venice. It was very cute and quaint. It was amazing being there after hearing about it and seeing pictures of this beautiful city on the water. We took a Gondola ride and people on the bridges that we passed under were taking classic pics of the gondolas but we happened to be in them. I'm so curious after my experience abroad how many other tourists are going home with my face in their photos. Venice was amazing, but honestly, you have to see it to see it but that's sufficient. We were definitely satisfied with seeing it all in just two days. Here are some pictures of the Bride of the Sea.

One of my favorite parts of Venice was actually waiting in the train station late at night to catch our train to Rome. We were all tired and just wanting to warm up a little and eat our food, so we just camped out on the floor of the station. Two very memorable things happened:

1. There is a piano in the station. Some drunk, scruffy-looking Italian guys came in to play it. They were jamming out and must have been playing some really popular Italian songs (I'm thinking like the Italian equivalent of "Don't Stop Believin'"). They were singing and dancing and older people kept going over and joining them in singing. Eventually, there was probably a group of 30 or more Italians all swaying and singing these songs. It looked like such a great bonding moment between these all these strangers and I have never wanted to speak Italian more so that I could have sung along.

2. While all of this was going down, my friends and I were just sitting and watching. We happened to look up and straight in front of us, probably about 10 feet away, this guy was taking a picture of us with his big camera. We all just kinda looked at each other and back at him because we were so confused. We started cracking up because it was so random and we had no idea why he was taking our photo and he was not trying to hide it at all. I took out my phone and started taking pics of him then because why not? He posed too. Ah what a nut! Haha Our two theories are that either 1. we just looked really weird sitting on the floor of the train station or 2. he does the equivalent of Humans of New York in Venice but he just creepily takes pics of people and doesn't interview them (unlikely but maybe...)

Anyway some strange experiences in the Venice train station... a great place to hang out I guess.

After a kind of miserable night of sleep on the train, we arrived in Rome and I don't think we stopped moving the whole time we were in Rome! We had to cram one of the greatest cities in the world in two days. We saw all of the typical things in Rome! The Sistine Chapel was one of my favorite places. It was so beautiful but pictures are not allowed so I have it saved in my memory and if you've never seen it just look a pic up on google. My neck really hurt after standing in their for about 45 minutes.

The circus (where the Romans raced horses) with the forum in the background

Learned about this statue in my art class!

Inside of the Colosseum

Michaelangelo's Pieta in Saint Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

There were endless rooms with ceilings covered in frescos like this one

My experience in Rome was less about the places, though, and more about the people. One of those people was good ol' Jorge (Pope Francis). We ran from a bakery while eating our breakfast so we could see the pope. I cannot explain that experience to you. He was literally soooooo far away and there was a statue blocking my view basically the whole time, but I was moved almost to tears and I didn't even know what he was saying! There were literally people from everywhere in the world holding up their flags and smooching together to catch a glimpse of this amazing man. Wow, it was so great! Here are some pictures of him. So small and I zoomed in a ton on my camera, but even being so far away was awesome! He is such a cutie and I want to be his best friend... So here is Jorge way up in that tiny window:

Rome was also about the friends I got to see. I have a few friends studying there this semester and it was so great to finally see them. They took us out to have our first Italian pasta. The food was one of the best parts about the weekend! After dinner, we went out to a new gelato place that they hadn't tried yet and it was the best gelato I've ever had! Great friends and great food... that's all I really need in life.

On the Spanish steps

BEST GELATO EVER.

Reunited with my freshman floor minus Meghan

Rome from above

Thus ended my time in Rome. I will be back. This past weekend was kind of up in the air until a couple days before and I decided to take a solo trip to Cordoba, a city in southern Spain. I spent a couple days walking the streets famous for their flower decorations on their walls and in their patios. One of the highlights was La Mezquita, a Catholic cathedral inside of an ancient mosque with amazing architecture. The contrast between the two styles was amazing. I went on a walking tour and met a girl from California who has been traveling and working throughout Europe for a year. We got tapas and later drinks at a couple local places. It was nice making a friend so I wasn't alone for the entire solo trip. It was nice being able to run along the river and explore random streets on my own, though.