Rome -- GREECE -- Rome

so its been a while since I posted, but I wanted to just give a quick update---
since I last wrote, classes finished up, papers were written, finals were taken and we all said our goodbyes! it really did go by fast. Somewhere in the mix I enjoyed some excellent Italian cuisine when my aunt visited :) and did a few new sites: biking in villa borghese!

Anyway, and a quick rundown on my adventures in Roma since then:
- 2 weeks in Greece!

- Athens -a big crazy city, like rome but a little dirtier, a lot older, and ruins more centralized. good food cheap! (gotta love gyros in their greasy deliciousness)

- Paros - Chill Cyclades Island! beaches, ATVs, good local food and wine- and island where tourists end up but greeks still live. Luckily stayed in a wonderful "Pension" which was listed as a hostel but was like an amazing bed and breakfast minus the breakfast (which was okay since there was an incredible bakery on the corner with fresh spanikopita each morning!) We went from Athens Pagration Hostel where you had to pay for hot showers and towels crammed in a 6 person bunk bed dorm with a floor bathroom, to Pension Rena in Paros: no bunk beds, own bathroom, own PATIO!, fresh towels each day, and Rena even cleaned the rooms and made the beds. The cost? Rena was 2 euro CHEAPER! I was so surprised at how low cost the islands were, wasn't expecting it!

-Santorini - Touristy Classic Cant Miss it Island-- yes it was touristy, and a little more expensive but the sheer beauty makes it worth it--so many steep drop offs caused by the volcanic eruption that probably destroyed the cretan minoan civilization--towns hanging off cliff faces where all the restaurants and boutiques have stunning views of the sea--towns that are as beautiful as calendars--beaches that are as varied as crazy as the volcano itself: red, black, white, and sand--and a landscape that is incomparable (except possibly California :)

-Naxos - AWESOME low brow, traditional greek, and not pretentious, so many friendly people and so much excellent cheap food (had my 2 favorite greek dinners my two nights in naxos--saganaki and mousakka, and fish salad with fried smelts!) and the most beautiful beach sunset on a beach that was shallow for 100s of feet out. ATVs to tiny towns on the interior where the mountains are literally CUT into the face where marble was taken out, and an old town thats as windy and cute as santorini's fira and oia

-Mykonos - Wonderful, good for shopping (sandals!) and expensive cocktails if you're into that :) perfect just for wandering and having random experiences with local fishermen (trying to negotiate our way to delos after the last boat had left, so funny, and watchinganother literally catch, kill, and tenderize an octopus--its so violent!) Despite people catching octopus, the food in Mykonos was tourist oriented and not nearly as well priced or fresh as naxos. Hoping to find fresh seafood, I asked in a local market what restaurants would serve fresh grilled octopus and the guy said "None, not on mykonos, all frozen, go to athens" and it worked out since the mainland was our next destination! So we got chicken gyros instead of octopus :)

- Delphi - THE ORACLE! so the town's pretty simple, just got the oracle going on. The ruins are incredible to walk through and it was so nice to NOT be part of a big tour group (i would just listen in on a guide every now and then without having to be comitted!) all though usually a day trip place we stayed the night and made friends with a cute souvenir shop owner who cast all his own bronze figurines, got dinner at a cute restaurant, and enjoyed the easy life on the gorgeous slopes of mount parnassus.

- Athens again! - more shopping, more museums, more sites--whatever the Louvre and British museum couldnt steal ended up in the archeological museum! (so that basically includes any bronzes that were recently discovered in the sea, stuff not good enough for european collectors, and gold found at Mycenae later on by Schielmann (mask of agamemnon! and zeus!) it was tiring but incredible to see so many famous pieces. HAND MADE Sandlas from the sanal poet man in Athens--took an hour to decide, but finally settled on the PLATO model (Alexis went for the Jackie O) the guy is legit, been making sandals for years for tons of people (john lennon!) for good prices. And then we grabbed dinner at an awesome seafood restaurant and I finally got my fresh octopus! (grilled to tender perfection). We randomly met Anne, a sweet parisian girl, thanks to matching lonely planet guides and got dinner with her. She was quinticentially Parisian--worked at the eiffle tower while studying the art of perfume and she recommended us some perfumes it was so much fun!

- Last day in athens and back to rome--strange to come "home to rome" but sad to not be in my trastevere apartment. its nice to just relax and not worry about seeing everything sinc i already have sorta. Instead, Alexis and i did a "food tour" of our favorite cafes, pasta places, pizza places, and appertivo places just for old times sake :) Getting pretty sleepy so ill call it a night. ciao ciao!

Rome knows how to have a lightshow

soooo I dont really have time to update some of the finer details and hilarious moments from the past week, more of that later.

Today walking home, I realized why the ancient peoples were scared shitless of Jupiter and his thunderbolt--Rome really knows its lightning! Literally the biggest brightest streak of lightning I've ever seen (actually, Texas might have had bigger lighting) shot across the black/blue sky while I was walking home at dusk. Literally jumped back in shock. Strange though, since there was basically NO thunder; maybe a baby rumble but that was it! I was expecting a crack at least. So basically Rome has awesome lightning lacking in sound effects

sorry for the randomness of this post, its 1:30am and Im procrastinating on an essay. argh. time to start....

Goeiendag and Bonjour from Bruges and Brussles! actually...

more accurately its Tot ziens and Au revoir to the capitals of beer, waffles, and chocolate. Although I am back in Rome right now at my laptop, mentally I'm still double checking itineraries, imagining how to squeeze that last souvenir into my bag, and wondering what will break next. I realize that I slowed down on the blogging as the traveling picked up speed and intensity. So to give the low down, a rough summary of the three amazingly diverse cities that I visited in the last few days...

Stockholm: "the true San Francisco of Europe" trendy, forgotten, international, beautiful snow

Bruges: "Orvieto in Belgium" medieval, gourmet chocolate, tourists, bikes, rain

Brussels: "a laid back Paris with fewer museums and nicer people" nouveau antique, chill, french, multicultural, street art

I'll update more as I get the chance but a few things for now...
FOOD has become my new obsession, but Casey Alyssa and I agreed that after this trip DETOX is necessary. I've had far too many "classic dishes" potato dumplings and pork, steak soup with bread, sweedish meatballs and potatoes (oh my God epically delicious at a random little place we found! that story for later...) traditional belgian cheeses, so many beers (sweet, bitter, blond, brown, sour, cherry, grainy...) leige waffles (carmelized with sugar), brussles waffles (with powdered sugar), belgian fries! countless chocolate pralines/ caramels/ nougats/ ganaches/ creams, and so many other delicious sugary fat things that I can't even recall. Casey always put it best: "That was delicious! but I feel like I have a brick in my stomach..." luckily we walked enough that that feeling never lasted too long :)

Long story short, its finally nice to be in my room in my apartment in my city! Although It'll be sad to not be mistaken for a german tourist, sweedish local, or native northern european, Ill get to brush up on my italian which has been forgotten for the past week.

ciao for now!

Stockholm: Tjéna from Sweden!

Hallå! Just arrived in the land of reindeer, vikings, and ice bathing! Althoug I haven't seen much of Stockholm Sweeden yet, I'm excited to explore more tomorrow. First impressions? Between the freezing (its actually 1 degree celcius!) walk from the bus station to the hostel we passed a multitude of restaurants and bars, all of them surprisingly classy and sheek. They are all super stylish with lights on the floor and nouveau art decor or minimialist design decorating the interior. We even stopped in a Radisson hotel to ask for direnctions, and the entire floor was lit up, rose shaped chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and purposeless (albeit cool looking) wavy panels emitted music (stylish speakers) and it was a Radisson!? More than all the fanciness, the best part was when right before our hostel we passed a cute little park, and I almost asked why they filled the park with white sand...it didn't take too long for me to figure out that it wasn't sand but snow! (no duh since it is freezing temp). Right now I'm just happy to be warm and in my hostel and tomorrow I'll worry about seeing more of what Stockholm really has to offer.

As far as Prague, the last two days there were phenomenal. The food continued to be the stuff that's good for a weekend: delicious but a little heavy to live off of. Today though I went to a Czech cafeteria where there was no english inside and i sorta just pointed at what I wanted. Luckily I got a two bowls of delicious soup(lentil soup and meat stew: čočkovka and Borscht) with bread (and it was only4Euro!) apparently the REAL czech food is cheap. We also got "real" Czech food the day before at outdoor vendors, and it was soo greasy! It was delicious but hard to eat too much of it. I just got the Bramborak (a deepfried potato thing with garlic, cheese and ketchup) but I tried the potatoe pancake and the intense Czech sausages (Klobasy). At the cubist cafe (Cafe Grand Orient) I tried a "traditional little czech cake" which was, as far as I could tell, a halved glazed doughnut with custard in the middle--not sure where the cake went! But last night was pretty awesome, since the restaurant we went to had beer on the tap AT our table! so when Casey and I wanted more we just filled up; pretty awesome! That's one thing Czechs really love: cheap beer, and lots of it. One thing the czechs are not good at is coffee! Alyssa and I agreed: save the euro for Italy where the coffee is twice the strength for half the price!

Obviously food takes up a lot of my touristic energy, but Prague is just such a gorgeous city, it really is enough to just walk around. Although the beauty of the city itself didn't keep me out of the Mucha museum (a czech art nouveau guy who did posters like toulouse lautrec's chat noir) and checking out the old old Jewish cemetery and synagoge. The cemetery was crazy, one of the oldest of its kind in europe, and built up on the same plot of land for many many years, its got way too many tombstones and all of them are tilted at odd angles. It would be really creepy in the snow or fog, luckily it was sunny.

Speaking of weather, we definitely got full experience: Snow when we arrived, Sun the second day, Clouds and rain the third day, and WIND right as we were leaving. Schizophrenic weather is just accepted in Europe as it is in most of the US, its hard to get used to after the perpetual sun of socal and the temperate weather of the bay area. Luckily it was sunny the day we did an epic walk up to Petrin tower. Its literally a mini eiffle tower that sits on a hill so Prague can boast that their Petrin tower is as tall as the eiffle tower--sorry prague, its sitting on a f-ing hill!! when your "tower" is 90% hill and 10% tower and the eiffle tower is 100% tower its a little dumb to draw comparisons! oh well, they should be proud of the view it offers though; the top is so high up that you could see all of prague and I swear you could sense the curve of the horizon.

Oh! and upon Ingrid's advice, I tried Beckerovka, the afterdinner drink, and I really liked it! I know I had tried it before, but I had forgoted the burning, flavorful, medly of flavors that were involved. Alyssa even foun a beckerovka truffle! pretty cool. Although Im still eating chocolate, I'm holding out a little bit until Brussels where all hell will break loose: Belgium, the home of Leonidas, godiva, and so many independent chocolatiers...cannot wait!

for now, off to bed... goodnight! and take care
or as the swedes say,

God natt!
Ha det så bra

PRAHA ~ where you can have a snowy spring break

Nazdar! (which I hope is hello in Czech...)
and wow, Prague (Praha according to locals) is everything I imagined and then some. Its got the confused quirkiness of eastern europe (1Euro=25Crowns? so confusing.) the beauty of the west (not bombed during WWII) and a vitality in its youth (counter) culture: bars, cafes, trendy shops almost outnumber the cheesy tourist joints.

Today was a fabulous introduction. After a few hours of sweet sleep we set off for Fuminico, our wizz air flight, the Prague busses, and underground finally arriving at our hostel (in the center of town) and the FREEZING weather. About 30F, it was a big shock after Rome has just started to warm up into the 70s. (not a very springy spring break)

although the city is wonderful (and relatively cheap) the BEST part was that it snowed today! Real, puffy, silently falling snow! Its a big deal for me as a sheltered socal kid, spoiled by the perpetual 70F weather of california. so we walked around the city with a free (youth oriented) walking tour as giant puffy flakes of snow fell and melted on our jackets, hats, and noses. the tour guide was hilarious. besides dropping the f-bomb at every chance he got, he told stories and jokes and the hidden messages in odd statues that had us all laughing and forgetting the cold weather.

The coffee = not as good as Rome, (but the cappuccino's steamed milk was pretty incredibly frothy, mmm)
the hot chocolate = ain't got NOTHING on spanish hot chocolate (which wins hands down)
the Beer = DELICIOUS and cheap

more for later
for now, more sweet sweet sleep

Here we go...
So after many many hours of studying flash cards, notes, images, followed by four hours of continuous writing I'm finally done with midterms! Although the prep work sucked I actually enjoyed taking the tests. I got to just write and write about art, and even if I forgot a date here and there, it was way less intimidating than an o-chem synthesis or bio lab identification.

Before I depart for imminent break I want to just give some background flavor to life here in Rome...

unfortunately Rome is NOT like Roman holiday would have you think. The streets are more daunting the cars crazier and the tourists more everywhere. And so far, no Gregory Peck has offered me a scooter ride (plenty of Italians yell "ciao bella!" even when I'm bundled up like a marshmallow) The little flares of Italian life seem to be canned in the pizzerias and over the top boutiques on the street side. I always thought Rome would be children playing ball in piazzas, fruit and fish vendors trying to get you to buy, church bells ringing on the hour, and laundry hanging strewn from the apartments, but the busses, cars, huge boulevards and hoards of tourists make it hard to find the simple Italian life. But after being in Rome for a few months now, I've found that the big city is only big when you let it be--by avoiding the big tourist sites and enjoying the lesser known monuments and museums (and living in Trastevere) I've gotten to know Italy for the smaller details and every day pleasures.

So far, some of my favorite memories have been
getting gelato from Giolittis since its the best!
losing my way behind Giancolo hill and finding a spectacular view
Reading on the Pantheon steps
Walking to the Trevi fountain at night
Going to the il Forno in Trastevere nearly every day
Walking across the Ponte sisto! (every day)
having Marco know I want "un cappuccino!" when I walk into the cafe
eating pizza on the Pantheon porch
taking pics of children and old Italians at the open air market
The desert calzone at Dar Poetas
taking my sketchbook almost everywhere
coming home to Trastevere

The best part is that every day is different, whether schizophrenic weather, class in a museum, or hour long walks home, Rome continues to surprise me!

sadly leaving this place that has become so much of a home
and off to explore what Prague, Stockholm, Brussels and Bruges have to offer!

ciao for now!

Almost done...

Inspired by my friends blog, against better judgment I just set this thing up. Granted I won't be on it much since we are all off for break in a day or two! Back to reading about Michelangelo and Raphael and anticipating the post midterm gelato I plan to indulge in tomorrow at about 6:35pm :)