6 Weeks

I have been here for 6 weeks as of last Wednesday. Plus as of yesterday, Sunday, I am one third done studying abroad!!

Last Sunday, the 13th, after the Alhambra, Lindsay and I were joined at dinner by 2 Italian guys. Senora said they were 15, but there is no way they were 15. They could definitely pass as our age, maybe 17 or 18.

Monday was Valentine's Day, which they actually celebrate in Spain. It's called el Dia de San Valentin. I wore a pink and white shirt, and my senora was even wearing pink. On this lovely Valentine's Day, I did basically nothing until my class at 6:30pm. I got some pictures of me copied for my class. And I got a letter in the mail from my friend Alicia!! At dinner, Lindsay and I talked to our Senora (and the Italian guys were there too but they didn't talk much) about Valentine's Day in the US and in Spain. She explained that Valentine's Day in Spain isn't just for people who are married or have boyfriends and girlfriends, but it's a time for family and friends too. I told her my family always spends Valentine's Day together too. This made me realize that it is Valentine's Day and I have not consumed any chocolate at all today. So after dinner, Lindsay and I headed to SuperSol, a grocery store, to buy some chocolate. We stepped outside and it was raining and cold. Then we got to the store and it was closed. Seriously, what store closes at 9:30pm in Spain? We really wanted chocolate and were desperate, so we went across the street to a bakery and got chocolate covered criossants. I felt very French, but they were delicious. It was a good day, but my favorite part of Valentine's Day every year is that we are halfway through February, and even better, one month til my birthday!! I am turning 20 in 4 weeks. Well I'm actually writing this on Feb. 21 so 3 weeks. It's so weird. This is my last month of being a teenager. Then I will be in my 20s!!!

Tuesday the 15th I woke up early for class, then class again, then bought literature books for my class, and then class again. Lunch was literally vegetables and fruit, but we tried this new tropical fruit that I had never seen or heard of before. It's called chirimoyas. I felt bad, I asked my senora to say it like 3 times and then I asked her to spell it and I still didn't know what it was. It is a tropical fruit, which makes sense why we wouldn't have it in Chicago, but on Wikipedia it says they are popular in the US. Senora says they're big on the coast here and in South America. They're green, but the inside is white with black seeds. You cut them in half and eat them with a spoon. They're actually really good. Then Lindsay and I had class again, her at 4 and me at 5. Then we went to the Corte Ingles to get shampoo, conditioner, gum and granola bars for my trip to Ireland, and some chocolate that we couldn't have last night. Then we went home and ate the chocolate while Lindsay introduced me to one of my new favorite TV shows: Jersey Shore. It's hilarious, and I can't believe people actually live like that. But anyway we decided we wanted to watch a movie, and all of our sorority sisters told us how amazing "Life As We Know It" was, so we saw that, and then we watched "You Again." I liked the movies, and I would recommend them both! We went to sleep at 2:30am.

Wednesday I got to sleep til noon. Then breakfast, run by the river, lunch, Jersey Shore marathon, class at 6:30pm where we watched this boring documentary about the history of Mexico (I was hoping to see beaches and palm trees, but no...), then I had salad for dinner, skyped home, and uploaded my Alhambra pictures while we watched "It's Complicated" with Jim from The Office. Today, we have been here for 6 weeks. Only 14 more to go!!

Thursday, class all day, then skyped my little sister/future roommate Kathleen at night. It was so nice to be able to see her and hear her voice!! That's basically it. We were tired and went to sleep early.

Friday, I wished 7 of my Facebook friends a happy birthday after I slept til 1pm. Lunch was at 2, and then we went shopping. Then we went to go see "Tangled" in Spanish. Here it's called "Enredados," and yes, it was the 5th time I have seen this movie. We came home and had dinner, and then Lindsay and I went to this Mexican restaurant she learned about in class. We sat at the bar and ordered Strawberry Margaritas. We didn't even get carded. It was so awesome. The bar looked like it belonged on a beach in Mexico, which was so exciting, plus everyone was speaking Spanish. We got free tapas, which were chips and salsa, with our drinks. Then we ordered nachos, which were delicious. Then we went home and went to sleep.

Saturday and Sunday were relaxing days. Okay, we had no plans this weekend because, originally, we were going to go to Morocco with our program, but because of all the protests and violence and whatever is going on in Africa or Egypt or Morocco or whatever, the CEA canceled our trip. At first I was upset, but I totally understand why they did it. I was a little nervous to go to Africa in the first place, but at the same time I really was excited to get to go to Morocco. I don't know anything about what's going on there anyway, I only watch the news when my senora turns it on, and then it's in Spanish. But I think they were planning some big protest thing for this weekend. So it sucks for us, we got our trip canceled. So both days this weekend we slept late, had lunch, and pretty much just watched Jersey Shore, went online, and did homework. It was very relaxing and reminded me of my lazy days back at ISU when we would watch The OC or Boy Meets World when we were procrastinating doing homework.

On Saturday, the Italians left. When we got out of bed on Saturday, we heard voices, but we weren't sure who it could be. It was 2 adults, a man and a woman, named Henry and Michelle. Michelle said she was from Newcastle, England and Henry said he was from Ireland but has been living in Newcastle for 30 years. They are married, I found out later, and are staying for the week. We did not know they were coming, but I was obviously ecstatic to be living with English and Irish people. They know some Spanish, but we talk to them in English too. They seem really nice. They were gone all day Sunday in Cordoba with their program.

Monday, today, is President's Day!! Yesterday was the day that means we are 1/3 done, so I am on my second third of the trip. I woke up at noon, had breakfast with Lindsay, she went to class, and I went for a run. Then I met up with Angie, then had lunch with the English people, and then tried to figure out stuff for class registration. Not such a good idea- that stuff is so stressful. I have class at 6:30 tonight, and Sarah comes back tonight!!

So overall, not the most exciting week ever, but I leave for Dublin, Ireland on Thursday!!! PS I will upload photos later, they aren't on my computer yet and my internet is super slow!!!

La Alhambra

On Sunday, we went with our program to visit the Alhambra. It is the most famous thing about Granada and I can't believe I have been in this city for a month already (well actually 6 weeks =]) and have not seen the Alhambra.

I got to sleep in, which was nice. We all met up at the post office at 1:15pm, but everyone is late in Spain, so we didn't leave til like 1:30. I guess I missed the memo about emailing them if we wanted a bus, so I got stuck walking. I was a long walk, and it was uphill, but finally we got to this huge door, which looked like it came straight out of the movie Aladdin. It led to a big courtyard. From there we could see the Alhambra and this circle-shaped museum. They told us we had 25 minutes of free time, so we wandered around and took pictures. Then we met up outside of the Alhambra.

We got put into groups with tour guides. We opted for the English guide, again. I figured this was important and I wanted to actually understand what was going on. They gave us these headphone things where we could listen to our guide talking, but you basically had to be within a 5 foot radius of the guide. This was both annoying and helpful- annoying because it kept cutting in and out, but helpful when we got lost (which was often, they really did not give us sufficient time to take pictures) and knew we were close when we heard his voice.

My group of about 30 of us followed the tour guide with our extremely stylish headphones into the Alhambra. It was different than I expected- there were different places we went to. The first was what I thought was the real Alhambra. It had a lot of history...and a lot of wind. We got a beautiful view of the city, but it was very windy. On the plus side, it was also a very sunny day.

After this part of the Alhambra, we crossed and went into this other part. There was tons of Arabic art and little courtyards with fountains and pools of water. It was really pretty. We took lots of pictures, or as many as we could take without getting too far behind our group.

Looks A Little Precarious...

Saturday we decided to go hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it ended up being an adventure that I did not expect.

First of all, the day got off to a "rocky" (haha) start when Lindsay and I got to the Post Office at 10:30am to meet up with everyone. We were running late, as usual. Angie was there, but Anna, Melissa, and Karina were not. Angie knew they had gone out the night before, but wanted to come. She called them numerous times, and we waited until about 10:50. Then I sent Anna a text saying we were leaving and if they wanted to meet up with us to catch a bus.

We knew many people who had gone hiking in Monachil before, and we knew what intersection to get the bus at. However, intersections have 4 corners, and this one had more because there was a bridge. So we headed over to a bus map. We found Monachil, had no clue where we were, and had no clue how to get from where we were to Monachil. So we asked the bus driver of the next bus who pulled up. He told us to go across the streeet, so we did. There was no bus stop. We kept walking and then found one. After asking numerous people and bus drivers, we finally found the right bus stop. Allison, Angie's roommate, had told Angie that the bus comes about every half hour. It was 11:30am, so we decided to wait until 12, and if it didn't come by then to leave. The bus finally came a little after 12, and it took about 25 minutes to get to Monachil. We found a supermarket that Allison had told Angie about and we were able to buy fruit and water very cheap. Then the lady who sold us oranges and apples gave us directions to "Los Cahorros." She said we should follow the river.

Psh, this was going to be so easy. The river had 2 sidewalks on each side, similar to the Riverwalk in Downtown Naperville. We walked straight to a map and found the Cahorros (no idea what that means) right by the river on the map. So we kept walking, but then realized that the sidewalk ended and the street went up in a zig zag. We followed the street. It was similar to the streets that my family and I took on our way to Muir Woods in San Francisco, or the ones we took to our hike in Hawaii. AKA very curvy and on the side of a mountain. Hard to drive up, even harder to walk up. But we did see a horse. :) Okay, I thought it was a horse, but Angie thought it was a donkey. We didn't get very high up until we decided that this street was not only exhausting to hike up but also not what we wanted. We hiked back down, past the horse/donkey, past the map, and crossed the bridge to the other side of the river.

Okay, so this was obviously right. We walked along the street, but we had seen pictures of people's adventures in Monachil, and we didn't see any streets. We knew we needed some type of a trail. So while walking, Angie spotted a "trail." This was not a trail. It was grass on the side of mountain, and it was pretty much vertical. But it looked like there might be something up there, so we climbed straight up. Remember, we had backpacks too. We got up and realized that this so-called trail actually led to a cell phone tower. Fantastic. Not only were we exhausted already, but we were also hot. It was probably in the 60's and sunny. So not complaining. I took off my North Face so I was just wearing my capri yoga pants and my ADPi t-shirt. We took a break up wherever we were and took pictures. It was really pretty.

this is so not a trail

Well because we think things through so well, we had not given thought as to how we would get down. Instead of walking all the way over to the side, we figured we could basically find a way straight down. There were trees and bushes and plants and branches and rocks and mud. Angie went first and found a way down. Lindsay followed, sliding down. I took pictures to document what we were going through. We finally got down after jumping over a stone wall and ended up inside someone's private property. We heard someone and tried to make a break for it before he saw us, but the only way out was a gate that was locked and had a chain on it. Either that or we could jump over a 10 foot stone wall onto the street. Oh no. The farmer guy came up to us. I was running through possible alibis in my head. We're lost...We don't know what we're doing...We don't speak Spanish... But I could not come up with anything convincing. Thankfully it wasn't necessary. The guy smiled and asked us in Spanish if we needed to get out. Lindsay understood- I was still running through escape routes in my head- and he undid the gate for us and we were safe. I was able to say Gracias like 4 times, and then we were on the road again.

We walked up this street and then there was a point where we could follow it up, or we could take a side route into grass. We opted for the grass. Not smart. The grass turned into mud and grass, then into a field, and again we were on someone else's property. Thankfully no one was around. We did find the river, but there was absolutely no way to actually follow it unless you can swim upstream. We took some pictures and then decided to head back to the sign and check the map. On the way back, I fell into this bush and scratched up my leg. Lindsay found bumps on her hand and leg. We were getting frustrated. We just wanted to be where everyone else was!! We considered the possibility that there were 2 Monachils or that the bus had taken us to the wrong destination.

Back at the map, we found again where “Los Cahorros” was. We also saw that there was no path along the river. I was able to figure out, with my amazing map-reading skills I acquired in Italy, to find a road that would lead us to a path that would lead us to another path that would bring us to the Cahorros. I was so excited!! But then we realized that the road was the same one we had just been on. But it made sense- the road went up and we were supposed to be hiking in the mountains. So we headed back up, and put our heads down when we passed our friend the farmer whose property we trespassed on.

We followed the road up to this path that we knew we were supposed to take because there was a map. There was this mountain with tons of rocks on the sides and Angie wanted to stop for a photo break. We climbed a little bit up on the rocks and took pictures, but then Angie kept going. I followed her and we almost made it to the top. As she looked for a way above the rocks, I realized two things. 1) What goes up must come down… and 2) I might be a little bit scared of heights. We climbed a little higher, basically to the top, and then took more pictures. We climbed down safely, thank God. Then we found Lindsay and continued walking down the trail.

We got to the area that was the halfway point. On the map there were pictures of picnic tables, and it looked like a pretty important area because there were tons of arrows by it. So I figured it would be a big open area with lots of people and tables. Nope. There was a tiny building and random rock stairs that went, where else, up. So not exactly what I was expecting for a popular lunch spot. We took the stairs and followed a trail. This was what we wanted.

We climbed through trees and rocks and made it to a bridge. We knew there was a bridge in Monachil that was like in those movies- long and unstable and capable of dropping you at any minute but you always get to the other side anyways. So we got to this bridge, and I know it wasn’t as long or creepy as the one in other people’s photos, but it was still pretty cool. It reminded me of that scene in Horton Hears A Who where he has to cross the bridge. PS if you haven’t seen that movie, go rent it. Seriously, it’s awesome.

just a straight plummet to certain death...

After the bridge, we got to this grassy area. We saw a sign that said “Cahorros Altos” with an arrow pointing up. Altos means tall, so we decided to climb up. This was, again, very steep. It was like 3pm and we were ready for lunch. We got to the top and there was like a plateau of rocks. We had our picnic lunch of sandwiches and fruit there. Then we took a lot of pictures. We were basically in the middle of the mountains.

Then we decided to head back. We heard that the last bus came at 5:45, and we wanted to be there at 5:30. So we got there at 4:30. Despite it taking hours to get up, it only took us 20 minutes to walk down. Then we waited about 2 hours for the bus because we had no clue what time it was going to come. Overall it was a fabulous day!! It was so fun and it was good exercise. Plus I got to see more of Spain!!

Ronda

Sorry I'm like always behind on this, so I thought I would catch up. This week classes started. They are all in Spanish and are kinda boring. I mean, I'm only taking these classes to help me graduate. But some of them I think could be interesting, but my teachers just lecture for an hour and a half. In Spanish. But Wednesday marked the day that I am officially one fourth done studying abroad!! And Thursday could not be over with soon enough. I went on a run with Angie, Lindsay and I booked a flight for Easter Break to Switzerland, and our roommate Sarah left for her fabulous 11 day vacation to Amsterdam, Prague, and Dublin.

Friday I went on a trip with the CEA, my program here. We went to Ronda, Spain. Don't worry, I had never heard of it either. Although apparently it's famous in Spain. It's like one of the oldest cities and I think they are famous for bull fights too. So we met at the post office at 8am and got to Ronda at about 11:00. But the ride wasn't really 3 hours, we left late and stopped randomly at a bar halfway through. We then got a tour of the city.

Little geography: Ronda is inbetween the cities of Sevilla and Malaga. It is located in the province of Malaga. So the province of Malaga would be like the state of New York, and the city of Malaga would be like NYC. It was south of Granada, so it was like in the 60's and sunny. The guide said if you look through these like 2 mountains, you can see the rock of Gibraltar. I thought that was really cool.

They told us that we could either go with an English speaking guide or a Spanish speaking guide. Not a tough decision- I obviously went English. The first thing we did was walk to this little gazebo-type building on a ledge and look at the view. It was absolutely gorgeous. Our guide Armando explained that right now we were in the Mercadillo (I think that's what it was called) and he pointed to the houses on a ledge across this bridge and said that was the old town. The rich people lived there like 200 years ago. They even used the houses as summer homes. When they would go shopping, they would cross the bridge to the much bigger Mercadillo to buy stuff so the merchants didn't have to pay the taxes. At least that's what I got out of the tour.

Then we crossed the bridge, or Puente Nuevo. That means New Bridge in Spanish, but the bridge was built at the end of the 18th Century, so I wouldn't really consider that new. It separates the town from the marketplace, and, according to my map, it is the "real symbol of the city."

<--- This is the Puente Nuevo. Its huge!!

We looked at the old houses. Many of them have been turned into hotels or restaurants because the owners could not afford them anymore. This was the actual town of Ronda, so the houses were bigger. Many had gates on the windows, which is a sign of wealth. The more detailed the gates, the richer. Plus they also put gates on the bedroom windows of their daughters so that boys could not climb up and girls could not sneak out.

Our tour ended in a museum/palace/house. I'm not totally sure what it was, because the sign said museum, they said people lived in it, and it was huge. It had a courtyard inside. The ceilings and doorways were shorter than normal, and the guide said it was because back then people were shorter. He told us how short, but he said it in meters, so that meant nothing to me.

house/palace/museum

Then he took us back to the bullring and told us we had 3 hours of free time until it was time to go back to Granada. In order to save money, Lindsay and I brought lunches. We lost everyone else we knew because they went with the Spanish group, but eventually they had the same idea we did, and joined us for lunch. I loved just looking at the mountains. It was such a pretty view.

After that, Lindsay and I went shopping. She wanted new shoes and I didn't want to spend my money. She ended up buying a pair of shoes and a scarf, and I bought a scarf too. Just walking up and down the streets reminded me of California. There were palm trees and good weather. We kept saying that it felt like there should be a beach or an ocean around, but there wasn't. It was like a beach town with no beach.

Then we went back to the famous bullring and met up with everyone else from the CEA. We waited around until we got on our bus and then went home. I slept on the bus, but I slept on the way there too. Then we walked home. It was a really fun day!! I really didn't expect much from Ronda because I didn't really know anything about it. But it really did surprise me. It was a beautiful city and I'm so glad I got the chance to visit. :)

angie and anna in front of bullring

the view

Venice

I could tell we were getting close to Venice when I looked out my window and saw water. Plus there were a lot of boat dock places for people to store their boats. I felt like I was on my way to the Chain-O-Lakes, when you look out the window and see lakes and places that hold boats. We finally arrived in the city built on water at like 11am.

This is the city where they filmed “The Tourist” and the beginning scene of “The Italian Job.” I was basically expecting what I’ve seen in the movies, kind of like Verona. We stepped out of the train station and automatically saw water where normally streets would be. The first thing we did was actually go on a gondola ride. It was such a great experience!! And we read in Angie’s Europe book to experience Venice from a boat and I’m so glad we did. It was so surreal- I felt like I was dreaming. The city was so beautiful.

We only really wanted to see the Plaza San Marco and the Realto Bridge. I really don’t know what is up with Italy and famous bridges, but there was one in almost every city we visited. There were thankfully signs to get to those two sights. We walked through the city past tons of shops to get to the Realto Bridge. We knew it was the Realto Bridge because it was big and there were tons of people on it. There was also shopping, so after our photo op, we bought some souvenirs. Okay, I bought some souvenirs.

Venice, or Venezia in Italian, is famous for its blown glass. It is also obviously famous for being on water. Although we learned that Venice is actually sinking. The water level has gone up about a foot in the last like century and it is expected to continue. That made me really sad. It is such a beautiful city. It just blows my mind that it is actually built on water. There are bridges and water everywhere.

So after the bridge, we headed for Plaza San Marco. It was a big plaza with a church, lots of restaurants, and a great view of the water. I think it was an ocean, maybe it was a sea… I seriously need to learn Italian geography. It was definitely north though, we were freezing. So we got to the Plaza and Angie and I went into the St. Mark Church. (San Marco and St. Mark are the same person.) The church was so beautiful. The ceilings were gold and the architecture was really pretty. Although we both agreed that the Vatican basically ruined churches for us- nothing could possibly measure up. When I go home I’m going to have serious issues with my modern St. Margaret Mary Church. That’s what is so cool about Italy and just Europe in general- the architecture. If something was built in the early 1900’s, that’s like super old in the US. But here things were built like in the 1400’s and are still around today.

After the church, which I believed was prettier on the outside, we walked around the Plaza. We took pictures and walked along the water. Then we ran into 3 girls from the CEA!! We were so surprised we ran into each other!! We took a picture and talked with them for awhile. Then they left and we were hungry so we decided to get lunch.

That was easier said than done. We basically walked to the other side of the city again to find a place cheap enough to eat. Plus we got to warm up inside. I got a hamburger, so did Angie, and Lindsay got some type of Italian food that I had never heard of. We decided we all liked our food, and we were ready to go back outside.

Thankfully the sun was actually out. We walked back to the Realto Bridge and got some gelato. The guy in the store took a picture of us.

It was our last gelato in Italy and it was delicious. Then we ran into more people from the CEA. Seriously, was this like meet up in Venice day?? We had a few hours before the train and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get back. Venice is very easy to get lost in, especially because all the signs point you towards the Bridge and Plaza, but not the train station. We shopped around for a little, and then hung out on the bridge for awhile and took more pictures. I just loved staring at the city. The sun felt so good and it was so fun to watch the boats go by. I thought of summer.

these are for my dad.

he loves wood boats. there were a ton in venice.

we used to have a boat, but we sold it. my dad said it was either the boat or my college fund...

It was finally time for us to start to head back. We got lost and a nice English couple helped give us directions to the train station. The water-instead-of-streets is awesome, but when you’re lost, it sucks when you hit a dead end. You can run across a street, but you can’t exactly swim across a canal in Venice. We found our way back early and were able to get an earlier train out of Venice. About 4 hours later, we were back in Rome.

We stayed at the same hostel in Ciampino, so we took a 10 minute train ride and then got to our hostel. We got a different room and found out that checkout was at 10, so we couldn’t sleep in. I was mad. We checked our schedules. I got even more mad. I have one class, Latin American Civilation and Culture, Monday Wednesday at 6:30pm. I can’t focus that late, especially if it’s in Spanish. And all my classes are in Spanish. My other 4 classes are obviously Tuesday Thursday, and they go from 8:30am-10am History of Spain, 10am-11:30am History of Spanish Music, 1pm-2:30pm Oral and Written Production (it’s a mandatory class), come home for lunch, then my last class is Spanish Literature at 5:00pm-6:30pm. Try not to be too jealous of my classes. PS I’ve never had a teacher who actually does not speak English before. It’s so weird to have a language barrier with your teachers.

Anyways, back to Italy. So we went to sleep, got up, checked out at 10:15 (haha we were late on purpose), got our free “breakfast” aka cappuccinos, but I hate coffee, so I didn’t even drink it, and then walked around Ciampino. We wanted like a super market to buy a cheap lunch, but obviously it was Sunday, and everything closes down on Sundays in Europe. So we just walked around enjoying the heat and the sun and talked about the summer. Then we got to the airport, got on our plane, and flew home to Sevilla.

We were so excited to be back in Spain. Is it sad that I was so excited to be in a place where people speak the same language as me? Yeah. We hopped off the plane (at LAX… haha jk I wish) speaking Spanish while the airport guy laughed at us obvious Americans speaking Spanish. We got a 3 hour bus ride back to Granada and I was so happy to be home again. Well, Granada home.

Italy was absolutely amazing. I’ve always wanted to visit this country and I totally loved it. Each city was something different, which made each one special. During Rome, I got to see the typical Italy tourist-y stuff I’ve always wanted to see, like the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain. The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack was playing in my head the whole time. It was the biggest city, and my first impression of Italy. They had amazing pizza, wine, and gelato. Florence was beautiful, especially the view. That was my favorite part of the city. Plus it was really amazing to be able to see the city where some of my sorority sisters studied abroad. Verona was more of a small town, and people there were so friendly! Plus all the Romeo and Juliet stuff was really fun. I kept thinking of the song Love Story by Taylor Swift. Venice was absolutely beautiful. I loved that the whole thing was on water and their form of transportation is boats. The weather in Italy was beautiful. And I have a whole new appreciation for Dean Martin. I realized that everything I learned about Italy was from the movies, and the real places aren’t exactly like them. They’re even better.

Peace love and gelato <3

throwing in one means someday you will return to rome... <3

Verona

To get a free train ride since we had passes, we had to stop in Prado, and then literally run through the train station to get on the train exactly one minute before our next train left. Then we switched again in Bologna. Once we finally arrived in the Verona train station, and we were starving. We thought “what’s cheap?” McDonalds!! Plus, it reminded us of home. So we ate in McDonald’s. It was not that cheap, but it was so worth it. We found something amazing while we were ordering our food: boxes for donating to the Ronald McDonald House!! We took pictures donating change. For those of you who don't know, my sorority's philanthropy is the Ronald McDonald House.

Then we left the train station for our hostel. We were given no directions and we were walking around Verona alone at night. Real smart. Thankfully we found 3 women who pointed us in the right direction. Then we asked a guy for help, but he didn’t know where we were going, but then another guy actually took out his phone and mapquested our hostel for us. The last thing Angie said before we walked in the door of our hostel was that she was giving it two thumbs down. But fortunately that was the worst part of Verona.

A dog greeted us at the door, which was automatically a good sign. The hostel was actually more of a B&B. The guy who worked there showed us to our room- which was basically like a loft on the third floor. There were beds, an armario, a TV, a desk, and a mirror. The guy gave us a map and told us all about Verona and Romeo and Juliet. I guess they were actually real people. Their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, hated each other. The story isn’t real though, like they didn’t die for each other. I’m not sure if they fell in love. They were just an inspiration for the story. Juliet actually was from Verona, but Romeo was from Vicenzo, which is where our hostel guy was from. He told us to buy the Verona Pass if we were going to more than one attraction tomorrow because it can save you money. Then he left and we just watched TV and went to sleep. We watched the Cosby Show in Spanish.

The next morning, we slept in until 9:30am. Verona is a small town and we knew this day would be more relaxed than Rome or Florence. We bought the Verona cards and then went to a store that advertised boots for 10 euros. Angie and I each bought a pair of Italian boots. Then we headed for the Arena. It’s a big historic thing- it’s super old and looks kind of like a mini version of the Coliseum. We got in with our Verona Cards and went exploring. Basically, there was an oval courtyard with sand/dirt on the ground. Then there were stone steps going all the way up. We climbed all the way up and took pictures. Then we wrote ΑΔΠ in the sand and took more pictures.

The next stop was Juliet’s tomb. Remember, she was a real person. We got into the museum part, free again with the card, and walked around this building looking at paintings and sculptures of Romeo and Juliet. Then we tried asking the people how to actually get to the tomb, which didn’t go over well, because we don’t speak Italian. We figured out we had to go into this courtyard, go down these stairs, and there were tombs for Juliet and her family.

That wasn’t as fun as we thought it would be so we decided to go to the place we were excited for most- Juliet’s house. Now for those of you who have seen the fabulous movie “Letters To Juliet,” you should. Like legit, go rent it now. It’s amazing. That means you Lauren… But trust me, the Verona part of the blog will be much more exciting if you do.

Juliet’s house was a little different than the movie. We almost walked past the house because it’s in like an alley. There was graffiti all over the walls. But we walked through the arch and saw the balcony. The movie does not show you the 2 souvenir shops on the left side of the plaza in front of the house; but the movie does show you a wall that is not there in real life. The famous wall, the wall that thousands of women flock to each year to stuff letters into, was gone. We think it used to be there, and it got too popular after the movie, so they took it down. But honestly I have no idea. We did go in the house, which was very pretty. They had old stuff that was used during the time of Romeo and Juliet and during the movie. Not the Leo DiCaprio one, the other one that I’ve never seen. In the house there is a room that contains 4 computers and a red mailbox. You can handwrite a letter and put it in the mailbox, or you can email Juliet. The computers also explained about their lives and the life of Shakespeare, which I obviously could not care less about. My favorite part of the house was taking pictures on the balcony. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the house, and I felt like I was in the movie!! But I wish there was the wall from the movie and I thought it would be a bigger deal.

After the house, which was my favorite attraction but still sort of a letdown from the movie, we went looking for Romeo’s house. I know, he didn’t even live in Verona. It doesn’t matter, we couldn’t find the house anyway. Since Verona is so small, the maps don’t exactly contain a lot of street names. We ended up at the river, which was what we wanted to see next anyways. Our hostel guy told us about some famous old bridge being important for some reason but I can’t remember. We stopped along the river for a photo shoot. The pictures were so pretty. The 3 of us agreed that, if we had to live in Italy, we would pick Verona. It’s a small, cute little town that has mountains and a river and beautiful views. Everyone was so nice too and I felt very safe there.

letters to juliet

balcony

by the river

the town of verona

We crossed the river to get to this place called the Roman Amphitheater because we were told there were amazing views of the city. We made a pact not to look at the view until we got to the top. That was a lot harder than it sounded because we walked up, couldn’t figure out how to get higher, took an elevator, walked through a museum, and finally figured out where we were. Then we looked at the city. It was so beautiful, but 24 hours ago I had been looking at Florence, and you really can’t beat Florence. We sat up there and talked for awhile and took pictures. We talked about how much we loved Verona, but also Florence and Rome, and how every city had something different to offer.

roman ampitheater

the view

We headed for the train station while it was still light out to look up times for tomorrow morning. That took about an hour, but on the way, we saw the sunset. And some lady gave us directions in Italian and we actually understood them. On the way back it was dark, but we found our way back way easier than we had the night before. We wanted dinner, but found it cheaper and easier to go to an Italian grocery store and buy random food. We got oranges, apples, crackers, cheese, 3 huge water bottles, iced tea, wafers, and a bar of chocolate. All for under 10 euros, but we did get made fun of by some Italian grocery shoppers. I’m sorry okay, but in the US we don’t have to weigh our own fruit and print out a sticker… We ate it in our room while watching, wait for it, The Secret Life of the American Teenager (in Italian), and then House and Grey’s Anatomy, IN ENGLISH!! Ahh best day ever!! And I don’t watch either of those shows… I fell asleep in the middle of the second Grey’s episode.

sunset in verona on the way to the train station

me on juliets balcony