Who knows when I will actually write a blog for my last week of travels but here are the links for pictures:
Prague
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010127&l=0aca5&id=1279830007
Munich and Vienna
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010135&l=6a98f&id=1279830007
I have only 10 class days and then finals with a travel weekend in the middle of it all so I will be very busy these last days in Paderno del Grappa...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
It's been a while...
So, it has been some time since I have updated my blog. Things have been busy here. Trying to get through midterms and papers before my travel break.
Last weekend, Kelsey, Natalie and I tried to train to Verona but didn't quite make it. We ended up spending the day in Padova instead (The pictures are from Padova). Padova is actually a really cool city and we chose to stay there instead of buying yet another ticket to Verona since the one we bought wasn't running since it was an Italian holiday. Why they still sell them? Not sure. It was only 4 euro though.
It Italian class we had a class session of meeting with the Italian kids in high school here. So before our adventures, the girl I was talking to actually recommended for me to go to Padova because it's a college town and lots of nice gardens and shopping. I'm in!
I didn't expect the gardens to still be in bloom but they were! Gorgeous. Fun fountains as well. These Italian cities keep captivating me and I just don't want to leave!
We ended up finding a HUGE market too. Probably not the best of places to end up but we enjoyed it :-) Ended up shopping around for a while too, as well as all the other stores around. I ended up buying a couple pairs of shoes and a purse and a sweater. I didn't splurge that much, the shoes were 12 dollars of something, can't pass up cheap shoes ;-) Or cheap clothing, purses etc. It'll be interesting when I have to pack up to travel for two weeks and haul everything around with me. I've been doing pretty good though, I'm not collecting too much really. Besides my new jacket... That's basically the only thing large that I've bought.
Last week was our second formal dinner. Very exciting as well! It was actually at a hotel and well, we get free wine at these events. Not just any wine but the fancy stuff. One guy ended up jumping in the po
ol before leaving. Oopsies. The food was also good but a consenses was made that the first dinner was better. We definately got more food at the second but not as good of quality.
I am getting up at 6 am to taxi to the train station to train to milan to bus to the airport to fly to Prague tomorrow. Always nice to use as many types of transportation as possible, right? I don't have school all next week so Amy, Kelsey, Natalie and I are going to Prague, Munich and Vienna. It is going to be a blast. I will update my blog as soon as I can, but I also return to school with more tests. I only have 3 weeks of classes left, including finals.
The time is flying by. I want to be home but I don't want to leave. I would be completely content staying here for another six months and just become adopted by CIMBA.
Last weekend, Kelsey, Natalie and I tried to train to Verona but didn't quite make it. We ended up spending the day in Padova instead (The pictures are from Padova). Padova is actually a really cool city and we chose to stay there instead of buying yet another ticket to Verona since the one we bought wasn't running since it was an Italian holiday. Why they still sell them? Not sure. It was only 4 euro though.
It Italian class we had a class session of meeting with the Italian kids in high school here. So before our adventures, the girl I was talking to actually recommended for me to go to Padova because it's a college town and lots of nice gardens and shopping. I'm in!
I didn't expect the gardens to still be in bloom but they were! Gorgeous. Fun fountains as well. These Italian cities keep captivating me and I just don't want to leave!
We ended up finding a HUGE market too. Probably not the best of places to end up but we enjoyed it :-) Ended up shopping around for a while too, as well as all the other stores around. I ended up buying a couple pairs of shoes and a purse and a sweater. I didn't splurge that much, the shoes were 12 dollars of something, can't pass up cheap shoes ;-) Or cheap clothing, purses etc. It'll be interesting when I have to pack up to travel for two weeks and haul everything around with me. I've been doing pretty good though, I'm not collecting too much really. Besides my new jacket... That's basically the only thing large that I've bought.
Last week was our second formal dinner. Very exciting as well! It was actually at a hotel and well, we get free wine at these events. Not just any wine but the fancy stuff. One guy ended up jumping in the po
ol before leaving. Oopsies. The food was also good but a consenses was made that the first dinner was better. We definately got more food at the second but not as good of quality.I am getting up at 6 am to taxi to the train station to train to milan to bus to the airport to fly to Prague tomorrow. Always nice to use as many types of transportation as possible, right? I don't have school all next week so Amy, Kelsey, Natalie and I are going to Prague, Munich and Vienna. It is going to be a blast. I will update my blog as soon as I can, but I also return to school with more tests. I only have 3 weeks of classes left, including finals.
The time is flying by. I want to be home but I don't want to leave. I would be completely content staying here for another six months and just become adopted by CIMBA.
Monday, October 27, 2008
When in Rome...
I don't even know where to begin for this adventure... I am completely out of it today as I am trying to go to classes. I was only gone for three days. It was just a very packed, fast-paced weekend.
Friday morning we got up early and caught the train to Rome, arriving there about 1:00 in the aftern
oon. First thing we did, headed towards the Colosseum. It was so amazing to actually see. I really was in awe. We all took a tour of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Ruins and wandered the grounds. All the history and all the amazing structures. It really was a different feeling, sitting on actual ruins on the grounds and thinking about things... So worth it. Pictures don't do it justice.
Saturday we saw the Vatican, sixteenth chapel, and other religious aspects of Rome. Even just walking through the Vatican it took nearly two hours. That place is huge and there are so many statues and structures, I was a bit overwhelmed and couldn't handle anymore by the time I neared the end. The walls, the ceilings, the floors, the statues and artwork. It's almost like you have to go through at least three times, once looking down, next time looking forward and the other time looking up. It is so much to try to take in all at once.
We also hung out on the Spanish Steps for a while, a must do when you go to Italy. Even though the
high season is over with, Rome was still full of lots of people. Tourists everywhere. I left thinking I knew some Italian, can kind of converse the necessities and did not use Italian once. Everyone spoke English and honestly, I barely heard any Italian, until a grumpy gelato man got upset with me being an American, as he is speaking English to me. He mentioned something about if I can speak any Italian after I asked what a kind was, so I was like okay, and started speaking some of the little Italian I know that we were taught to order Gelato and he continued to speak English back to me. He was pegging me as that "stupid American" and I think was just having a bad day.
I have also fallen in love with southern Italy. The pizza seems better, the gelato is better, the weather is warmer. I was in t-shirts and jeans and would get hot walking around. Now I am back north and wearing sweatshirts. (I know it’s not as cold as back in MN with the snow, haha)It was a perfect weekend getaway and I basically only ate Gelato and Pizza. I just couldn’t get enough of either. The bread also was different, and I enjoyed it more as well. It really is interesting how different northern and southern Italy are. My Italian professor tries to teach us both ways of speaking Italian (As they use different words in the different areas, not including all the different dialects) and gives us a quick overview of where we will hear what words, so we all were prepared for it.
We had some interesting run-ins with pickpocketers on the metro. There were three ladies with babies when we got on th
e metro Sunday morning (The metro was packed and some people couldn’t hold onto anything). They would just bump into people and of course others would assume oh, they are just falling trying to hold onto their kids… Well the lady sitting down next to me got my attention and was trying to converse with me saying they were pick pocketing and they did it to the man next to me. It took a while to get it through because I didn’t know if she was saying if they got me and I was like no, they couldn’t, I have nothing in my pockets and my purse is still zipped and closed… But I finally got it all figured out and tried getting the man’s attention but I think he realized what was happening (the ladies were on the other side of him than me. As I was trying to get his attention he turned the other way and put his hand is his pocket, so hopefully he figured it out but I had to get off at that stop.
I told everyone else I was with what was going on, they were right next to the ladies and were like UGH! I didn’t even think of that. One lady fell into me and grabbed my arm but I just let it slip my mind what was happening. Everyone made sure they still had everything, and everyone did. We all know to watch our belongings really close and are always clenching our purses and have eyes on each others things when on public transpo
rtation and the such. There was no one around to tell anything to to try to track the ladies down so we just had to go on our day.
The sick part of it is that we walked a lot of Rome for about 4 hours and then got on the tram later on, and who is on our car again?! Two of the same ladies, with the same babies. Poor, poor kids. They did not get nice looks from us, as we all glared at them and they knew we knew what they were up to. They kept trying to get off our car and onto another section but there wasn’t room so they just had to deal with us and weren’t really attempting anything.
They finally managed to get off our section of our tram but then ended up getting off at the same stop as us, again, and went directly over to the tram going the other direction. I was so angered by them… The babies were still tiny, prob only a few months old. Not a good place for kids to be all day… We mentioned this in International Marketing as we also talk about our travels and talk about what products and how to enter the markets where we visited and our professor told us how the larger cities actually have baby/kid rentals so the kids may not have even been their own. They can rent a baby for a day and then at the end of the day, the person in charge goes and collects all the babies and kids again…
The metros in Rome also
aren’t very well developed... They get packed. One time, when we went into the metro, not realizing it was so busy or we would have walked, we got on the escalator going down and about half way down we realize people were not moving away from the bottom of the escalator and well... The people on the escalator can’t stop... So there was the domino effect at the bottom. This poor older lady behind me had some dilemmas as we were piling together but luckily we were there to help her get her balance and make it safely off the escalator. It was such a messy pile up.
Even though we came back with some interesting stories, Rome was still amazing. You just have to overlook the beggers (That will use any deformity or idea possible to get money) and really just focus on what is around.
Friday morning we got up early and caught the train to Rome, arriving there about 1:00 in the aftern
oon. First thing we did, headed towards the Colosseum. It was so amazing to actually see. I really was in awe. We all took a tour of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Ruins and wandered the grounds. All the history and all the amazing structures. It really was a different feeling, sitting on actual ruins on the grounds and thinking about things... So worth it. Pictures don't do it justice.Saturday we saw the Vatican, sixteenth chapel, and other religious aspects of Rome. Even just walking through the Vatican it took nearly two hours. That place is huge and there are so many statues and structures, I was a bit overwhelmed and couldn't handle anymore by the time I neared the end. The walls, the ceilings, the floors, the statues and artwork. It's almost like you have to go through at least three times, once looking down, next time looking forward and the other time looking up. It is so much to try to take in all at once.
We also hung out on the Spanish Steps for a while, a must do when you go to Italy. Even though the
high season is over with, Rome was still full of lots of people. Tourists everywhere. I left thinking I knew some Italian, can kind of converse the necessities and did not use Italian once. Everyone spoke English and honestly, I barely heard any Italian, until a grumpy gelato man got upset with me being an American, as he is speaking English to me. He mentioned something about if I can speak any Italian after I asked what a kind was, so I was like okay, and started speaking some of the little Italian I know that we were taught to order Gelato and he continued to speak English back to me. He was pegging me as that "stupid American" and I think was just having a bad day.I have also fallen in love with southern Italy. The pizza seems better, the gelato is better, the weather is warmer. I was in t-shirts and jeans and would get hot walking around. Now I am back north and wearing sweatshirts. (I know it’s not as cold as back in MN with the snow, haha)It was a perfect weekend getaway and I basically only ate Gelato and Pizza. I just couldn’t get enough of either. The bread also was different, and I enjoyed it more as well. It really is interesting how different northern and southern Italy are. My Italian professor tries to teach us both ways of speaking Italian (As they use different words in the different areas, not including all the different dialects) and gives us a quick overview of where we will hear what words, so we all were prepared for it.
We had some interesting run-ins with pickpocketers on the metro. There were three ladies with babies when we got on th
e metro Sunday morning (The metro was packed and some people couldn’t hold onto anything). They would just bump into people and of course others would assume oh, they are just falling trying to hold onto their kids… Well the lady sitting down next to me got my attention and was trying to converse with me saying they were pick pocketing and they did it to the man next to me. It took a while to get it through because I didn’t know if she was saying if they got me and I was like no, they couldn’t, I have nothing in my pockets and my purse is still zipped and closed… But I finally got it all figured out and tried getting the man’s attention but I think he realized what was happening (the ladies were on the other side of him than me. As I was trying to get his attention he turned the other way and put his hand is his pocket, so hopefully he figured it out but I had to get off at that stop.I told everyone else I was with what was going on, they were right next to the ladies and were like UGH! I didn’t even think of that. One lady fell into me and grabbed my arm but I just let it slip my mind what was happening. Everyone made sure they still had everything, and everyone did. We all know to watch our belongings really close and are always clenching our purses and have eyes on each others things when on public transpo
rtation and the such. There was no one around to tell anything to to try to track the ladies down so we just had to go on our day.The sick part of it is that we walked a lot of Rome for about 4 hours and then got on the tram later on, and who is on our car again?! Two of the same ladies, with the same babies. Poor, poor kids. They did not get nice looks from us, as we all glared at them and they knew we knew what they were up to. They kept trying to get off our car and onto another section but there wasn’t room so they just had to deal with us and weren’t really attempting anything.
They finally managed to get off our section of our tram but then ended up getting off at the same stop as us, again, and went directly over to the tram going the other direction. I was so angered by them… The babies were still tiny, prob only a few months old. Not a good place for kids to be all day… We mentioned this in International Marketing as we also talk about our travels and talk about what products and how to enter the markets where we visited and our professor told us how the larger cities actually have baby/kid rentals so the kids may not have even been their own. They can rent a baby for a day and then at the end of the day, the person in charge goes and collects all the babies and kids again…
The metros in Rome also
aren’t very well developed... They get packed. One time, when we went into the metro, not realizing it was so busy or we would have walked, we got on the escalator going down and about half way down we realize people were not moving away from the bottom of the escalator and well... The people on the escalator can’t stop... So there was the domino effect at the bottom. This poor older lady behind me had some dilemmas as we were piling together but luckily we were there to help her get her balance and make it safely off the escalator. It was such a messy pile up.Even though we came back with some interesting stories, Rome was still amazing. You just have to overlook the beggers (That will use any deformity or idea possible to get money) and really just focus on what is around.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Quick check-in
I'm almost done with another week of classes and then I am off to Rome for a l
ong weekend. I am getting up early tomorrow (Friday) morning and catching a train down to Rome. Natalie and I booked our own hostel and are just worried about the two of us but we are technically going with another group of 7. At least on the same trains/taxis etc.
I am so glad to be done with this week but also am not looking forward to the weeks to come. We basically only have 22 class days and 3 final days left, basically 3.5 weeks left of classes... How weird is that?
Last week we went on a field trip to Pasagno for a class to see the temple. It was only a 15 min bus drive so we were there for about an hour and a half, saw the temple and a
te some Gelato (Always a good treat). A group of us also went to the top of the temple (cost 1.30 euro) and were able to look out over the whole town and area as well as all the dolomites. It really was a great view.
Another class is going to try to schedule a trip to Verona for a day, if possible, and I have the same teacher for another class, so I've already told her if it happens, I'm going to join her other class for a day. I really hope to get there sometime, it's only about 1.5 hours away, depending on transportation.
ong weekend. I am getting up early tomorrow (Friday) morning and catching a train down to Rome. Natalie and I booked our own hostel and are just worried about the two of us but we are technically going with another group of 7. At least on the same trains/taxis etc.I am so glad to be done with this week but also am not looking forward to the weeks to come. We basically only have 22 class days and 3 final days left, basically 3.5 weeks left of classes... How weird is that?
Last week we went on a field trip to Pasagno for a class to see the temple. It was only a 15 min bus drive so we were there for about an hour and a half, saw the temple and a
te some Gelato (Always a good treat). A group of us also went to the top of the temple (cost 1.30 euro) and were able to look out over the whole town and area as well as all the dolomites. It really was a great view.Another class is going to try to schedule a trip to Verona for a day, if possible, and I have the same teacher for another class, so I've already told her if it happens, I'm going to join her other class for a day. I really hope to get there sometime, it's only about 1.5 hours away, depending on transportation.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Barcelona and Lisbon
I know it has been a while since I've given an update but the internet has been hating me here. I finally was just able to upload some photos on facebook today and before 
I started writing a blog and then it failed as well.
As most of you already know, I took a travel week to Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal. Both cities were a blast but I we were a little worn out by the time we got to Lisbon.
We flew to Barcelona and stayed there for four nights. We were in a brand new hostel (About a year old) and was made very urban. More like a hotel than a hostel... So didn't get the hostel vibes. Barcelona grabbed me right away and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's all the things to do, the city, or even being right on the ocean.
We spent the first 2.5 days touring Barcelona, taking the metro and walking
everywhere. We saw a lot in under two days, including the park, the 92 Olympic stadiums and a famous cathedral that isn't going to be finished for many more years. The last full day we were there some of the group split off and went to a coastal city, but I stayed in Barcelona and shopped. They were very smart when they put a mall at the end of a pier. We didn't even realize it was a mall at first but once we entered, it was deadly. Good clothing stores for cheap. What more could someone ask for?
Barcelona seemed to be non-stop, early rise and see as much as possible. We didn't go in many places, only the Picasso Museum, since that was free the Sunday we were there. I found a lot out about Picasso that I never knew or that he even did ceramics for a while. The Arc de Triomphe (Barcelona style) was in a very nice park with palm trees everywhere (Those always grab me, just love them)
After we all were worn out from Barcelona, we headed to Lisbon. We lande
d in Lisbon and were immediately reminded of San Francisco. Very hilly city with trams everywhere and a golden gate bridge (looked very similar). Lisbon was very laid back and we would split off in group of two or three and some actually tried sleeping in in the hostel. This hostel was very cute and very much a typical hostel. Met some other great people traveling, even some other study abroad students studying in Spain.
We actually ate at Hard Rock Cafe twice while in Lisbon and all us Americans were able to get our fix of American food. One day three of us went to the beach, I'm sure it would be full of tourists during the summer. Had cute restaurants and shops along the boardwalk and jet ski and boat rentals during the day. Only three of us went cuz it was raining when we left the hostel and we didn't care while everyone else didn't want to go wander in the rain. Little did they know by the time we got to the beach it was already clearing up and the sun was coming out.
The city was very condensed and it was easy to walk everywhere but it also had all types
of public transportation including a metro, buses and a tram. This capital city knew how to make sure people got around.
Another day we went to another touristy area with a castle literally on a sandy beach. It actually was surrounded by the water and was just a little ways out. People were filming a movie in the field behind it and Natalie and I almost walked right through it, being completely oblivious. We don't know any Portugese and when some guy started trying to talk to us we just ignored him and kept walking figuring it was someone trying to get us to purchase something (Or previosly some guy tried asking some members of our group to be IN a film) but then realized that he wans't trying to get us for something but was actually directing a film... Oops.
The streets in Lisbon were gorgeou
s, with decorated coble stone everywhere. It was interesting to see what designs they put and there even were fish designs near the aquarium.
It's just amazing how old some of these cities are and the building structures they have. It's also interesting to throw ourselves into new countries knowing basically nothing about their language or culture. Barcelona was pretty easy since 3 members of our group spoke spanish, although in Barcelona they speak Catalunyan but it was still basic to ask questions and get our point across. Portugese? No one knew. We just threw ourselves in and managed the best we could.
This past week of school was very busy and so will be the coming week. I was planning to go to Milan this weekend but am very g
lad I didn't as I have lots of homework to get done for tests again next week...
Today I am going to Bassano del Grappa, a city about 20 minutes away from here. They have a Saturday market and also is one of the bigger cities in the area. It will be nice to actually see more places around where I am living instead of always leaving. This actually is my first weekend staying in Paderno. I am already liking it. There's no need to rush off to other places, I need some time to relax.
Photos on the right - Barcelona
Photos on the left - Lisbon
More photos can be found at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007984&l=4015a&id=1279830007
P.S. Dad or Sarah, I hope you are ready to change and wash my sheets weekly and clean my room twice a week. I am really getting used to this way of life :-)
I started writing a blog and then it failed as well.As most of you already know, I took a travel week to Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal. Both cities were a blast but I we were a little worn out by the time we got to Lisbon.
We flew to Barcelona and stayed there for four nights. We were in a brand new hostel (About a year old) and was made very urban. More like a hotel than a hostel... So didn't get the hostel vibes. Barcelona grabbed me right away and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's all the things to do, the city, or even being right on the ocean.
We spent the first 2.5 days touring Barcelona, taking the metro and walking
everywhere. We saw a lot in under two days, including the park, the 92 Olympic stadiums and a famous cathedral that isn't going to be finished for many more years. The last full day we were there some of the group split off and went to a coastal city, but I stayed in Barcelona and shopped. They were very smart when they put a mall at the end of a pier. We didn't even realize it was a mall at first but once we entered, it was deadly. Good clothing stores for cheap. What more could someone ask for?Barcelona seemed to be non-stop, early rise and see as much as possible. We didn't go in many places, only the Picasso Museum, since that was free the Sunday we were there. I found a lot out about Picasso that I never knew or that he even did ceramics for a while. The Arc de Triomphe (Barcelona style) was in a very nice park with palm trees everywhere (Those always grab me, just love them)
After we all were worn out from Barcelona, we headed to Lisbon. We lande
d in Lisbon and were immediately reminded of San Francisco. Very hilly city with trams everywhere and a golden gate bridge (looked very similar). Lisbon was very laid back and we would split off in group of two or three and some actually tried sleeping in in the hostel. This hostel was very cute and very much a typical hostel. Met some other great people traveling, even some other study abroad students studying in Spain.We actually ate at Hard Rock Cafe twice while in Lisbon and all us Americans were able to get our fix of American food. One day three of us went to the beach, I'm sure it would be full of tourists during the summer. Had cute restaurants and shops along the boardwalk and jet ski and boat rentals during the day. Only three of us went cuz it was raining when we left the hostel and we didn't care while everyone else didn't want to go wander in the rain. Little did they know by the time we got to the beach it was already clearing up and the sun was coming out.
The city was very condensed and it was easy to walk everywhere but it also had all types
of public transportation including a metro, buses and a tram. This capital city knew how to make sure people got around.Another day we went to another touristy area with a castle literally on a sandy beach. It actually was surrounded by the water and was just a little ways out. People were filming a movie in the field behind it and Natalie and I almost walked right through it, being completely oblivious. We don't know any Portugese and when some guy started trying to talk to us we just ignored him and kept walking figuring it was someone trying to get us to purchase something (Or previosly some guy tried asking some members of our group to be IN a film) but then realized that he wans't trying to get us for something but was actually directing a film... Oops.
The streets in Lisbon were gorgeou
s, with decorated coble stone everywhere. It was interesting to see what designs they put and there even were fish designs near the aquarium.It's just amazing how old some of these cities are and the building structures they have. It's also interesting to throw ourselves into new countries knowing basically nothing about their language or culture. Barcelona was pretty easy since 3 members of our group spoke spanish, although in Barcelona they speak Catalunyan but it was still basic to ask questions and get our point across. Portugese? No one knew. We just threw ourselves in and managed the best we could.
This past week of school was very busy and so will be the coming week. I was planning to go to Milan this weekend but am very g
lad I didn't as I have lots of homework to get done for tests again next week...Today I am going to Bassano del Grappa, a city about 20 minutes away from here. They have a Saturday market and also is one of the bigger cities in the area. It will be nice to actually see more places around where I am living instead of always leaving. This actually is my first weekend staying in Paderno. I am already liking it. There's no need to rush off to other places, I need some time to relax.
Photos on the right - Barcelona
Photos on the left - Lisbon
More photos can be found at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007984&l=4015a&id=1279830007
P.S. Dad or Sarah, I hope you are ready to change and wash my sheets weekly and clean my room twice a week. I am really getting used to this way of life :-)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
School is getting busy...
School is very busy this week as teachers are trying to get tests and papers done before our first travel week. I seem to be doing homework or seminars non-stop and it's only Tuesday morning. I am excited for the travel week though, as I will be in Spain and Portugal.Last week was my 21st birthday, so basically the whole school went out and partied for it. We went to a local pizzeria/bar and had dinner and drinks to celebrate. It was an awesome festivitie, and probably the biggest get together o
f the school since we have been here. Definately a different experience.I spent last weekend in Cinque Terre on the Italian Riveria. It was beautiful. The Mediterranean was gorgeous and blue and still very warm. The 5 towns were extremely cute. Not a 'young crowd' attraction but still a must see place. We hiked and trained between the towns and made a point to make it to all of the 5 cities, Manarola (Where we stayed), Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, and Riomaggiore. All the towns had a different cuteness to them and had different draws. The hikes, which I'm usually not in to, were also beautiful. It was great to go up the mountain side above the sea and look at the cities from above and the sailboats in the distance. It was a very fast-paced weekend but definately was worth it.
Now I must cut this short and get back to writing papers and studying for tests. I have a feeling I am going to sleep for weeks straight once home with non-stop school during the week and traveling on weekends. (I'm sure that won't happen though, since I'll be excited to see everyone again and enjoy winter in Minnesota. Snow!!)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Made it to Slovenia!
This is going to be a very condensed version of my weekend. I don't think I am going to be able to keep up with writing about my excursions.
My weekend was AMAZING! We took a field trip to a WWI Memorial and a castle in Trieste and from there we were given the option to be set free or ride the bus back to campus. We decided to make it an adventure.
The WWI Memorial and Castle were a lot of fun. The Memorial even had trenches that you could go into and walk around, kinda crazy to put it into perspective. I didn't actually go into the castle because it cost more money, but I did walk around the grounds. It was right on the sea with woods and ponds all around.
We stayed until 10 pm in Trieste wandering the city until our train left for Ljubljana, Slovenia. Trieste, Italy is a beautiful city right on the sea and we were able to go out on a pier and watch the sun set.
We arrived into Ljubljana at 2 in the morning, only to leave at 2 am the next morning, leaving a total of 24 hours here. Our walk to our hostel seemed kind of sketchy. We didn't know the city, didn't know the language and didn't really know where we were going. Everything was completely fine and Slovenians are really nice and confirmed we were headed in the right direction to get to our hostel (My group was just four of us girls but there were probably about 50 of us from school that ended up there over the weekend). There also were broken bottles and graffiti everywhere on our path to our hostel so we were all of a sudden what we got ourselves into...
The hostel was very nice and there were a bunch of Brit's there celebrating a bachelor party. We pretty much got our keys and went to our room ASAP so we didn't have 8 old drunk men talking to us.
When we woke up the next morning when we woke up, we realized Ljubljana really is a beautiful city. Has a completely different vibe at night and during the day. Our hostel also was in the hotel/hostel area but not actually in the city center so there wasn't any night life by us to pass.
We wandered around Ljubljana and took a bus to Bled in the afternoon, where there is a lake formed by Glaciers. Both were very amazing places and the lake is beautiful in itself, not to mention the cute little town. We also were able to eat Mexican food in Ljubljana for dinner, which was a nice change from pasta every day for lunch and dinner.
We got back to campus this morning at about 10 am, after walking the Sunday Market in Crespano. It was a very fast paced weekend but worked out really well since we took night trains and didn't lose daylight hours and only had to pay for one night at a hostel.
The internet gets too slow here when everyone goes on to load pictures onto this blog page so here is the link to my facebook photo album with some pictures of this weekend.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006869&l=520d9&id=1279830007
My weekend was AMAZING! We took a field trip to a WWI Memorial and a castle in Trieste and from there we were given the option to be set free or ride the bus back to campus. We decided to make it an adventure.
The WWI Memorial and Castle were a lot of fun. The Memorial even had trenches that you could go into and walk around, kinda crazy to put it into perspective. I didn't actually go into the castle because it cost more money, but I did walk around the grounds. It was right on the sea with woods and ponds all around.
We stayed until 10 pm in Trieste wandering the city until our train left for Ljubljana, Slovenia. Trieste, Italy is a beautiful city right on the sea and we were able to go out on a pier and watch the sun set.
We arrived into Ljubljana at 2 in the morning, only to leave at 2 am the next morning, leaving a total of 24 hours here. Our walk to our hostel seemed kind of sketchy. We didn't know the city, didn't know the language and didn't really know where we were going. Everything was completely fine and Slovenians are really nice and confirmed we were headed in the right direction to get to our hostel (My group was just four of us girls but there were probably about 50 of us from school that ended up there over the weekend). There also were broken bottles and graffiti everywhere on our path to our hostel so we were all of a sudden what we got ourselves into...
The hostel was very nice and there were a bunch of Brit's there celebrating a bachelor party. We pretty much got our keys and went to our room ASAP so we didn't have 8 old drunk men talking to us.
When we woke up the next morning when we woke up, we realized Ljubljana really is a beautiful city. Has a completely different vibe at night and during the day. Our hostel also was in the hotel/hostel area but not actually in the city center so there wasn't any night life by us to pass.
We wandered around Ljubljana and took a bus to Bled in the afternoon, where there is a lake formed by Glaciers. Both were very amazing places and the lake is beautiful in itself, not to mention the cute little town. We also were able to eat Mexican food in Ljubljana for dinner, which was a nice change from pasta every day for lunch and dinner.
We got back to campus this morning at about 10 am, after walking the Sunday Market in Crespano. It was a very fast paced weekend but worked out really well since we took night trains and didn't lose daylight hours and only had to pay for one night at a hostel.
The internet gets too slow here when everyone goes on to load pictures onto this blog page so here is the link to my facebook photo album with some pictures of this weekend.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006869&l=520d9&id=1279830007
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