(Source: bisognodiamore)

10 giugno

So here I am…alone in my apartment because Mildred left yesterday and I don’t move out until tomorrow. 

Yesterday was my last day of class so I took the final exam and ended up getting a perfect score of 30/30 for the entire class. Yeee. It was so sad, especially when Ida started crying. She said out of her 10+ years experience of teaching, we were one of the best classes. :) We got her a scarf so everytime she wears it she’s gonna think of us. She treated to some drinks at a bar near the school then we said our good-byes. Last night, I went out with the girls (Phoebe, Katharina, Anna & Leticia) in Santo Spirito and had aperitivo. It was a lot of fun, Anna got a little too drunk. haha I’m gonna miss them a lot! Hopefully I’ll meet up with Phoebe when I’m in London and we can hang out sometime. I really enjoyed my Italian class because we were such a diverse group! Now whenever I want to travel to England(even though I already have an aunt in London), Brazil, Russia, Japan, or Germany I’ll know someone and have a place to stay :) 

Today I had lunch with the Chiara and the GSE girls one last time. We had amazing pizza that of course, I could never finish. I saw little Elena again, she’s so precious! I’m gonna miss Chiara so much, she’s the best! I can’t imagine my experience in Italy without her. She’s been there everytime I had a question/concern and she’s also there when you just wanna hang out and grab a gelato or something.

In conclusion, this whole Eurotrip and living/studying in Italy business cost me an arm, a leg, and a kidney… but it was all worth it. Like Jessie J said, “it’s not about the money, money, money.” The experience is worth far more than any dollar (or Euro) amount. I’ve really had the time of my life and I will never ever forget this experience. I’ve learned and grown so much from this. Now the hard part is when I leave, I’m gonna have reverse culture shock. I can just imagine myself in London always saying “Grazie” or “Scusa” without even realizing I’m not in Italy anymore :( I haven’t even left yet and I already miss it. I have only 4 days left in Florence, so I’m gonna cherish it like no other. I consider Firenze as my home, and I can’t believe I’m gonna be leaving it already. I’m definitely gonna miss the gelato, lampredotto, and bistecca. And hanging out in the piazzas :/ WAHHH.

My brother and my aunt come tomorrow and we’re gonna be travelling around Italy, Paris, and London until the end of June. I’m excited but at the same time sad because it’s not gonna be the same. I won’t have my Italian apartment to look forward to going home to after the trip. Oh well, I just have to suck it up. Allora, buon viaggio to us!

After wine tasting, I booked it to Rome because my flight to Switzerland was early Friday morning from Rome and there were no trains that early from Florence to Rome. Good thing my dad has some old friends in Rome who let me crash at their place. I got to eat Filipino food after 3 months! Boy, did I miss it a lot. In the evening, we drove around Rome for a while. I got to see St. Peter’s Basilica at night- soo beautiful! We also went to this one place with great views of the city. It was pretty cool cause I got to see some new things I didn’t see before, like the Ancient Rome area with the ruins and the pyramid. 

Early Friday morning, I got dropped off at Rome Fiumincino airport and went on my way to Switzerland! Easyjet is so much better than Ryanair. It’s less strict, less ghetto, more leg space, and more comfortable overall.

I started to get really excited when I got a little peak of the Alps from the plane as we were landing. If it wasn’t obvious enough, I’m a little obsessed with mountains and picturesque scenery, which is why Switzerland is theee place for me :) We walked around Geneva for a bit and had lunch at this Italian restaurant. haha, I know. But you know what? It was the best spaghetti all’amatriciana that I’ve ever had! And technically, it is still considered Swiss because Switzerland is basically just a mix of French, German, and Italian culture. 

After a little intro of Geneva, we took the train to Lausanne. We went to the lake and it was gorgeous to say the least. Saw some mountains from the French side. Evian, where Evian water comes from, is right across Lausanne so you could see it from a distance. We watched the sunset and it was so perfect. Then we went to dinner at this Swiss restaurant. I forgot what I had but it was basically bread with melted cheese on top. Wow, that sounds really basic but it wasn’t, I swear. haha but you get the jist.. After dinner, we just layed out on the grass near the lake and took a nappy nap. haha, so relaxing! We got home and just watched movies until we knocked out. I got to watch The Hangover 2 finally! I was originally planning to watch it in Italy but I would’ve had to watch it in Italian(‘Una Notte da Leoni 2’ haha )and that would’ve required a lot of thinking on my part.

The next day we walked around Lausanne. The city is pretty much on a slope so to go to the northern part you had to walk up a hill. But the views of the mountains and lake from there were gorgeous. We headed to the lake for a while to chill out. We laid out and took a nap on the grass by the lake again. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon, I would say!

After our nap, we headed to Gstaad (part of German Switz) because one of Chase’s friends had a chalet up in the mountains. Holla? On the train ride, we passed by Vevey (home of Nestle) and Montreux. It was the ultimate train ride of life! So picturesque! Switzerland is definitely the most beautiful place in the world. We got picked up at the train station and I met even more friends. Michel’s chalet was pretty much in the Alps in the middle of nowhere. It was so beautiful, it was surreal. I felt like I was looking at a postcard the whole time.

There were 7 of us and for dinner, Mich cooked steak and fries. It was a really lovely dinner. Not gonna lie, Swiss wine is pretty good too! After dinner we played this card game called President. We were planning to go out and check out the ‘Forest Festival’ lol but we decided to just say in and play some board games. We were gonna play Yahtzee but not everyone knew how to play (including me) so we decided Monopoly would be a lot more fun. And indeed it was. It was a ridiculously long game that lasted until 4am. It was a lot of fun because at the end it was pretty much drunk monopoly because everyone had drank so much wine.  Perfect Saturday evening? Duh.

So yeah, I spent the night in a chalet in the Swiss Alps, nbd. Walking up to a view of the Alps is a feeling like no other. I could not have been more blessed to have that opportunity. I’ve decided that I need to win the freaking lottery so I get my own chalet in the Swiss Alps. The thought of my babies running around the green meadows just makes my heart melt!

On Sunday I was really sad to leave Gstaad, but I wanted to go back to Geneva and explore. When I got there, I found out I was gonna take a mini tour of the city via motor scooter! Could this weekend be anymore perfect? So many Vespas in Italy, yet I get to ride one in Switzerland. Oh well, at least I can finally cross it off my list! It was soo much fun! Kinda scary at first, but I got the hang of it after a while. We got some drinks and sat on  the rocks on the lakeside for a bit all awhile enjoying some nice views. Geneva has this jet thing which is the world’s largest fountain, so I got to see that too.

The next day I did some pretty touristy things and went shopping for Swiss chocolates and souvenirs of course. I really wanted to get a Swiss knife but I didn’t know if Easyjet would let me fly with it so I didn’t take the risk. Later on that evening, I had some drinks with some friends and had fondue afterwards… How Swiss!

Switzerland is VERY very expensive but so worth every cent. They use Swiss Francs not Euros, but the standard of living there is so high, even more than London! I would have to say that out of all my weekend trips, this was my fave just because I’m obsessed with Switz that much :) Ahh, the land of Toblerone <3

On Thursday, June 2nd we had a GSE trip to San Gimignano and Chianti to go Wine Tasting. San Gimignano is a cute little town in Tuscany (just like all the other cute little towns I’ve been to haha). The town is known for their ‘skyscrapers,’ which are basically these towers spread out across the town. Don’t be fooled though, they’re only like 20 ft tall. Other than that, there’s not really much else to say about San Gimignano except for the fact that they are supposedly known for having the best gelato in the world. So I tried it of course, and tried their famous saffron gelato with pine nuts. I must say, it was very interesting and delish! But the winner for me was still the gelato I had in Siena.

After we left San Gimignano, we headed for Castello Verrazzano, this winery/castle in the Chianti region. It’s supposedly the oldest winery in the world, very cool. They had a huge vineyard and a bunch of olive trees. I never really drank wine before I came to Italy, but now I definitely have more appreciation for it. Maybe I can drink some with my dad when he has his wine nights (usually game nights haha) So we had lunch and our wine tasting sesh. We got to try 5 different wine (one for every course) and got to learn the differences between each wine. For the antipasti(appetizer), we had cold cuts, proscuitto, salami..etc along with vino rosso. For the primo(first course-pasta), we had penne al pomodoro along with Chianti classico. For secondo(2nd course-meat),  we had some kind of meat.. I forgot, along with another wine that I also forgot. haha, my b. For dessert, we had a biscotti called cantucci/cantuccini along with vino santo. I do not like vino santo at all. I’d rather dip my biscotti in another kind of wine. After the meal, we were served grappa, or acqua diavola (devil’s water) which had 43% alcohol or some ridiculous number like that. The smell was overpowering and I just took a sip and called it a day. It was way too strong for me. Too bad we didn’t get to try any white wine because I like white wines better. Overall, great experience and soo much good food and wine!

[Insert experience in Rome here.] haha Sorry, I’ve been too caught up with stuff, but I promise to update after Switzerland!

6 giugno

Allora, this is wayyy overdue. 

Random stuff before Rome that I don’t want to forget

- Gelato festival: pera alla pepe rosa & spicy chocolate

- Passing by Vesuvio and chatting with Pauly D

- Il Latini: Bistecca alla fiorentina, crostini, moscato, limoncello, cantuccini

Our trip to Rome was on the weekend of the 28th. That Saturday, we went to check out the Vatican. We had a really cool tour guide and got to wear one of those audio things so we could hear what she was saying the whole time without having to always stand near her. We first went through the Vatican museums, which took forever, but our tour guide made it really interesting and funny. She is the only person I know who ever described Jesus as ‘sexy’ haha After the museums, we made our way to the Sistine Chapel. It was pretty intense in there. My neck started hurting from staring up at the walls and ceiling of the chapel. It was just so beautiful! After the chapel, we went to St. Peter’s basilica, aka the biggest church in the world.  They don’t play when they mean biggest, that place is ginormous. Michelangelo’s Pietá (sculpture of Mary carrying Jesus’ dead body) was there. I never thought I’d ever say this, but I got a little teary-eyed because I was really touched by that sculpture. Just by looking at it, you can feel the pain and emotions of a mother’s love that it’s trying to convey. The whole basilica was pretty intense. There were actually people breaking down in front of the Pope’s memorial. After walking around the church, we went outside to St. Peter’s Square. It felt so amazing that I was actually there because I’ve only seen these places in the movies (haha The Da Vinci Code/Angels & Demons) After the tour, the group kind of separated and some of us checked out the Castel Sant’Angelo and walked around the city for a bit. Then we had dinner all together. As always, you’re guaranteed to have amazing food when you’re with Chiara. Then something really strange happened after dinner. I drank a lot of wine during dinner, but I swear I wasn’t drunk or anything.. but I fainted for the first time! I have no idea why. I got dizzy and blacked out for like 2 seconds and then I was normal again. So weird! That’s never happened to me before. So because of that, I decided not to go out that night. Everyone just kinda went back to the hotel because they were tired too. Btw, our 4-star hotel was pretty legit.

Sunday, we did a lot of walking.. we checked out the Colosseum/Roman forums, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi fountain. I finally got to see the Colosseum! We just walked around it, but didn’t get to go inside. Which just means I def have to go inside next time! We walked over to Piazza Navona and check out the 4 rivers fountain. Rome has about a million churches and fountains. The Pantheon and the Trevi fountain were beautiful, even though they were a bit crowded. If you throw a coin into the fountain, it means that you will come back to Rome. I threw one even though I was for sure gonna come back to Rome 2 more times this month. When we went to see the Spanish Steps, we could barely see the steps because it was so crowded with Palermo soccer fans. There was a game that night and everyone in the streets were wearing pink(the team’s color). It was pretty insane. I’ve never seen so much pride in my life. It reminded me of Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, except instead of orange it was pink.  After the tour, we got gelato (honey & pear, soo good!) and lunch (spaghetti alla carbonara). 

We had a lot of free time so we just walked around the city. I’m so glad I’m coming to Rome again, there’s too many things I didn’t get to go see that weekend. Roma, see you soon!

I can’t believe I’ll be leaving Firenze soon. Sad, sad times! I’ve gotten so used to the language, people, and life here that it would be weird to leave. I’m gonna miss my Italian class, Ida, gelato (even though I’ll still be able to have some in Rome and Venice), grocery shopping at Billa and Centro, the Duomo :( Wah, ok moving on to less depressing topics.

Last Saturday, I went on a trip with the school to go on a “Tuscany tour.” We got to see Monteoliveto, Pienza, and Montepulciano. These little towns are deep in the heart of Tuscan hills, and are known for their cheese and wine. In Pienza, I tried ‘pici’ which is homemade spaghetti with pecorino sauce I think. Omg, it was so delish! Montepulciano is where New Moon was actually filmed in (not Volterra).

Sunday, we had nothing planned so we decided to cross some things off our list. (‘things to do/try/eat before we leave’ list). We crossed off lunch at ZaZa, where I had this super amazing ravioli with truffle sauce. Bombtastic. It kinda reminded me of the pasta I got at Golden View my first night in Florence. After lunch, we went to the Academia and saw the statue of David (the real one). He’s so much bigger than the replicas! After that we got granitas, a must on a hot summery day!— It’s getting hotter and more humid here, kind of gross. Then we went over to the Pitti Palace and checked out some other museums, then took a stroll in the Boboli Garden. I never realized how huge the garden is! It’s like 10x bigger than the Palace, and the palace is pretty enormous! For dinner, we planned on having bistecca alla fiorentina (massive Florentine steak), but decided we weren’t hungry enough for it. We were kinda bummed since we’ve been looking forward to it all weekend, but for sure it’s going down this Friday! No exceptions. Instead, we went to Tijuana and got nachos and burritos instead. haha After dindin, we walked up to Michelangelo since we’ve never been there at night. We chilled there for a while and had sangria while enjoying the majestic views of the city.

Our final weeks/days in Florence will definitely be spent devouring many Italian noms. Today was the start of the gelato festival and we def celebrated by gelateria hopping. We got gelato from 3 different places, one after the other. And we’ll probably get some more later. I don’t know why we hadn’t thought of this before. And we just got an unexpected call from Chiara inviting us to dinner at Golden View, aka my favorite restaurant eva. Just as we thought we’d never be able to go back there since it doesn’t fit our budget.. Well I guess we’re getting free dinner tonight! :) I won’t be surprised if I get into a food coma tonight. Besides, I need it anyway since I got practically no sleep last night because the mosquito situation is getting a little out of hand. They’re driving me insane!

On a brighter note, I’m so stoked for Roma this weekend!!

Well, I’m a little behind on this. I never wrote about Pisa and Lucca, but it’s fine since there isn’t much to say about them anyway. Pisa, as most of you know, is home to the famous leaning tower. They have a beautiful church and baptistery too, but other than that, there’s not really anything else in Pisa. Same goes to Lucca, it’s just a small cute little Italian town in Tuscany. Nothing too special. K, moving on to my Spanish adventures. 

We left for Spain on Wednesday morning. It was a pretty hectic morning because we had a little unfortunate situation on the bus, which caused us to miss our train to Pisa airport. We then had to take a different train, and change to another train..etc. Our plane boarded around 9:30 and the gate supposedly closed at 9:40. Except, we didn’t get to the airport til 9:45.. which meant we had to run to check in and run through security. Fortunately, we made it by 2 seconds, literally. We were the last ones to get on the plane. The flight was only about 2 hours. When we got to Madrid, we walked around and killed time while we waited to meet a friend. We went into a grocery store, El Corte Ingles, which is also a department store.  That store is pretty amazing because they have everything.. Plus, everything is much cheaper. (at least compared to Firenze) In Italy, stamps are €1.80. In Spain, it’s only €0,80! That’s half the price! Ridiccc. And their public restrooms & grocery bags are free! Anywho, we met up with Mildred’s friend (who we were staying with) and chilled, got food (tried jamon soup!), and chilled some more at this huge park called Retiro Park. What’s pretty interesting about Madrid is that it doesn’t get dark until about 10pm, so we were at the park at 9 and the sun was still up! Def threw me off! When it got dark, we headed to a cerveceria (similar to a bar, but they mostly have beer) and had tapas (similar to little apetizers) for the first time! Beer is a huge thing in Spain. They even drink it for breakfast! And they serve it with your meals at McDonalds! Since I’m not a huge fan of beer, I got sangria instead. And it was the most amazing sangria ever. Since it was Wednesday, they had this special where everything was only €1! So I had nachos and I think 2-3 little sandwiches. Oh, and I rekindled my love for chorizo! Can’t wait to go back to London because my uncle cooks them all the time! 

Thursday morning, we woke up early so we could explore a lot. We walked A LOT. Souvenir shopped, sightseeing, the usual tourist activities. I’m the kind of tourist that takes lots of time to actually see things in the city and not just go out at night. Especially since we were only in Madrid for 2 nights. We wanted to see as much as possible, and granted, we did! For lunch, we had a ‘menu el dia’ which is a lunch special where you get 2 courses + dessert & drinks for a fixed price. The one we found was only €10! I got paella for my 1st course. Bomb. Roasted chicken for my 2nd. Also bomb. And the sweetest pineapple in my life for dessert. That’s what I call a good deal & a good meal.  For dinner, we had paella again. We love it too much! haha Then we headed off to the bus station because we were taking an overnight coach to Barcelona. Waaay cheaper than taking a train. And the bus was awesome. It had individual TVs and wifi! The only thing was that there was this musty moodkilla on the bus. Thank goodness I knocked out pretty easily.

We arrived in Barcelona Friday morning and found a hostel. This was my first legit hostel experience. My first one in Florence wasn’t really an experience cause it was so nice. This time, we stayed in a crowded dorm-style room for 10 people! So European. We met 3 Americans, 3 Argentinians, and 1 French dude. They were all pretty normal. haha except maybe for the one American guy who winged life. He had no plans and just lived day by day. I mean, that’s cool and all, but that ain’t normal! He didn’t even know where he was gonna go or sleep the next day! Too intense. We ate lunch (paella again lol) But it came with tapas and a Catalan dessert as well. We walked a TON. Got to see the Sagrada Familia and a ton of other attractions! For dinner, we decided it was gonna be a strictly tapas & sangria night. And indeed it was. We tried this Catalan tapa called tomaquet, which is basically tomatoes on bread. But it’s soo good!! We also got this octopus thing, fried cuttlefish, chorizo, and crema Catalan (similar to creme brulee) Everything was soo delicious! I realize I sound like such a fatty always talking about food. haha What can I say, it’s one of my passions in life!

Saturday morning, we explored Barcelona some more. I would talk about all the stuff I saw, but there’s waay too much. I don’t even know what most of them are called anyway. I just mostly remember all the food we ate. haha For lunch we ate at this place near the beach called El Rey de Gamba. And seriously, they are the kings of seafood! We had tomaquet again! We also had another type of octopus dish and fideua (basically paella w/ noddles instead of rice) with mussels, shellfish, shrimp, squid, octopus, and other seafood. I am in love with fideua!! It’s sooo much better than paella! I think that was one of the best meals I’ve had in life. haha After that massive meal, we walked around Barceloneta and saw the semi-nudist beach. I thought everyone was gonna be naked, but I only saw a couple of topless people. Kinda awk. After that, we walked around some more and did a little shopping. Then off to the station again to catch our overnight return trip back to Madrid. I felt like we were so restless and always on the go! I can’t even imagine what’s it’s gonna be like in June when I go backpacking the whole month! 

Before we caught our plane back to Italy on Sunday, we explored Madrid some more and got to see the soccer stadium. Oh how I wish I could’ve had time to watch a game or a bullfight! Omg and we almost missed our flight again! haha We barely made it by 2 mins..again. I love how we always manage to wing it and still make it. When we arrived in Italy, we headed straight to Gusta Pizza. haha We missed pizza and Italian food a lot! We have this rule that when we’re traveling, we’re only allowed to eat food that is local to that place. Anyway, Gusta was a very Italian place with many Americans. While we were eating, we met this random Dutch girl who told us her life story and how she was connected to the Gusta family. haha So random.

To sum up: Spain was really beautiful and I had a crazy amazing time, but everytime I go on these little side trips, I realize more and more that Firenze really is my new home away from home. <3

Monday was a regular day. We had our usual routine of going to school in the morning, San Lorenzo market to buy my usual fruits and veggies (esp. arugula & pear for my salad <3) Speaking of market shopping, I realized I know nothing about cheese or bread because when I tried to buy some pecorino cheese for my Golden View Salad, I was surprised to find that there are 510 types of pecorino fresco and 308 kinds of bread. It was so hard to pick! Sigh, such a noob. Then as we were walking home, we saw our new neighbors. We noticed a camera crew and the first thing that came to mind was.. Jersey Shore. And we were right. We’ve been expecting them for a few weeks now. I love how the local Italians had no idea were all confused and had no idea who the heck they were. I’m a little confused though how the show is gonna run because the mayor of Florence said they weren’t allowed to film in clubs, bars, drinking in public, or at the historical sights. lol So what the heck are they gonna film? They live literally down the street in back of our apartment so we might stalk them when we’re bored. After our little ‘celebrity’ (lol not really since they’re not really celebs) sighting, we went to Istanbul aka the new spot and got our usual shawarma. Nom. We downed the shawarma with delicious gelato afterwards. OH, LA VITA BELLA. Life really is beautiful. 

I rushed through this as fast as I can. I know I missed a lot and made many mistakes, but whatevs sbi. Take it or leave it. Ciao! 

Last Thursday, Mildred & I took a little daytrip to Siena since it was one of our free days off school. It’s a cute little town, with a  beautiful cathedral and a huge plaza known for holding the Palio. I wish I could go just to see it cause I’ve heard its a crazy fun time. We only spent a couple of hours in Siena because it was so small, you didn’t really need much time to explore it. One of the highlights of that trip was the bomb gelato I had and the Mexican food. Yes, I had Mexican food twice that week. Maybe in honor of Cinco de Mayo next week, haha.  And it was amazing… even better than Tijuana! 

Friday, we flew to Belgium and spent the night in Brussels. We didn’t see much that night since we were exhausted and we knew we’d be back Sunday to explore more. 

Saturday morning, we headed for Amsterdam! I love though how the Brussels train station smelled of waffles and chocolate. It was almost impossible to not get one. So I did, and that must have been my best decision yet. It was topped with caramelized sugar, yum! That and the Belgian sandwich I got made the train ride to Holland so much better.  <3 Anywho, moving on. So during the trip, we noticed so many people were wearing orange. We had no idea that we were going to Amsterdam on the biggest holiday of the year, Koninginnedag or ‘Queen’s Day’.. in celebration of their queen’s birthday. How fortunate of us! I didn’t even know the Netherlands had a queen, lol. (Orange is the national color of the Dutch Royal Family) There were tons on people when we got there. It was basically a huge party in the streets of Amsterdam filled with endless entertainment. Good times and good food left and right. “So much food, so much shops, so much fun!” lol When people think of Amsterdam, they probs just think of weed and the Red Light District. haha but Amsterdam is so much more than that..it’s a beautiful city with beautiful architecture. Ps. The Red Light District was really interesting to see. The prostitutes on the windows were so awkward. They were just standing there waiting. I noticed that men walked a lot slower than women while walking by. Some even just stopped and stared. The end of the night was a bang. The fries, the pastry shop.. lol oh man. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I had Mildred with me to lead the way! Queen’s Day is kind of the most awesome thing ever. I propose that the US have a day like it to celebrate Obama or George Washington or something. I found this little quote to sum it up:

“Friendships – and community – will be formed. For me that’s really what Queen’s Day is all about. It’s not an outburst of patriotism, it’s not even about the popularity of the royal family. It’s about a sense of belonging. For one day, everybody is the same in Holland. Bright orange and barmy.”

(Sunday) The next day, we went back to the city center and explored more.. ate more.. (pancakes, yum! but not the same kind of pancakes we have in the US) In the afternoon, we caught a train back to Brussels. We just explored Grand Place and it was beautiful! We def had to come back again the next day. 

On Monday, we left early to explore the city. The first thing we saw was the Atomium aka the huge metal balls. It was freezing cold that morning, so we just took pictures of it, ate our food, and left. haha We then walked to find the royal palace. Again, I had no idea Belgium had a queen too. lol I feel so ignorant not knowing anything about Europe. We went back to the city center and the first thing we did was eat waffles, of course. Even though it was super cold, I had mine with ice cream and it was soo delicious. Right after, we were yearning for something salty so we had fries. haha Fries is apparently big in Amsterdam and Belgium. I had it with andalouse sauce, which I’m not really sure what it is exactly, but it was good! After that, the souvenir and Belgian chocolate shopping commenced. I even had to buy another luggage bag (whom I’ve named ‘Charleroi’.. pronounced as Sha-leh-wah after the airport lol) because we bought so much. We had to pay Ryanair €35 extra, but whatevs it’s all worth it. Love me some Galler, Neuhaus, Leonidas, Jacques, and Cote D’or! (Funny little sidenote: I realized how out of the loop I was when I had to find out from a chocolate store owner in Brussels about Bin Laden. Kinda sad I don’t even have a clue what’s going on back home! Ridic.) Later on that day, we hung out with Celine and Nathan and they drove us around some parts of the city that we didn’t explore. We had dinner at this Greek place. Then we went to this pub and tried Belgian beer! I’m not really a fan of beer, but peach beer is amazing! The cherry one was good too. I had a blast. It was such an amazing trip and we met lots of really cool people :) Thanks to Matt, Pieter, Nathan, and Celine for everything! We flew from Charleroi bright and early Tuesday morning. 

When we landed in Pisa, we were so relieved to be back in Italy. We missed hearing “Allora” 20 times a day. It was funny how when we first got to Belgium and Amsterdam, we always said “Scusa” and “Grazie” to everyone, not even realizing that we weren’t in Italy anymore. They speak mostly French and some Dutch in Brussels, so it was kind of hard to communicate, but we got by. Amsterdam, however, was basically an English speaking country. They spoke Dutch and German, but I felt like almost everyone spoke perfect English. Without an accent or anything. I was impressed. When we got to Florence, we immediately got some gelato cause we missed it so much. Mildred was craving pizza so bad. haha Oh Italy, I’m gonna miss you so much when I leave! 

We went back to class on Wednesday. We brought back some waffle crisps for the class, we missed them a lot! :) After class, we had lunch/dinner potluck with the girls at our apartment. Anna brought a mushroom with bacon French dish topped with a type of Russian sauce. Kat brought couscous salad. Yucca made pasta. Leticia brought Brazilian desserts. Phoebe brought chocolate strawberries. Mildred & I made salad with lettuce, arugola, pecorino cheese, pear, and honey (which I discovered from my first Italian restaurant here in Italy). Everything was exceptionally good! We had a hearty 3 hour Italian meal filled with many laughs and games (telephone and pictionary) haha After the meal, we felt so bloated that Mildred & I decided to take a passegiata (walk) to digest some of the food we just ate. haha We walked pretty far to the outskirts of Florence, I don’t even know where.. But when we got back to the city center, we got some gelato and granita again. hahah so much for digesting. But it was all worth it.

I feel like my life right now is a vacation. I’m gonna miss it so much when I leave! Time is going by so fast. So much to do, so little time! There’s still about a million things I wanna see and try and I only have a little over a month left in Italy, wahhh :/

On a lighter note: Happy ‘Cinque di Maggio’ haha. Holy mother this was long!

I know this is kind of overdue, but I wanted to get it done before too many things happen so I don’t have to cram everything down all at the same time. This past weekend, aka Easter Weekend, I went to Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre is composed of 5 villages: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Palme, was in Monterosso, the farthest town. Saturday was a super long day because I woke up at 5:30 to pack and get ready before we had to meet at the train station at 7. We changed trains 3 times at Pisa, La Spezia, and Cinque Terre, which was kind of annoying. Once we got there, we started the 9+ mile hike from Riomaggiore back to Monterosso. We were kinda bummed because the weather wasn’t so great, but it ended up working out anyway cause it would’ve been too hot to hike if it was sunny. You really do sweat up a storm climbing up those mountains. It took us a total of about 6 hours because we made stops in between towns. It was the ultimate hike of life, and I’m glad to have done it! I can now say I’ve climbed enough stairs and hills to last me a lifetime. UCLA’s hills got nothing on 5T. It was so worth it though! The views from up there were breathtaking. Apparently, more than 30 people die a year hiking that trail. And I almost witnessed one of them!! While we were passing through one of the narrow ledges (with no bars or anything to protect you from falling), this man missed his step and almost fell off the cliff! It was so scary! Thank goodness Maiyah came to the rescue and caught him on time! It would have been traumatizing to watch someone fall and die!! 

We made a pit stop somewhere for some freshly squeezed lemon juice and it was so refreshing! Refreshing in so many ways ;) Then we made another stop in Vernazza for some pesto pizza. It was hands down the best pizza I’ve ever had. Especially if you add some chili sauce on top, oh my.. molto buonooo! Sooo good I had to come back to Vernazza on Sunday for some more! haha The area was particularly known for good “Genovese pesto” and I completely understand why now! After the heinous hike, we all went back to the hotel to shower and then got ready for dinner. We ate at this restaurant called Belvedere or something. Since we were on the coast, we had seafood :) Mixed seafood salad to start, then AMAZING seafood risotto, and then swordfish fillet. And this fruitty dessert to end. After dinner, we headed to this “American bar” haha They had really good long island iced teas! For Sunday, we only had kayaking planned, but we ended up not going because of the weather. Plus, it was Easter so they were probably closed anyway. So we just spent the day walking around town shopping. Oh yes, and we went back to the other town to get some more pizza! Soo worth it! After that, we just chilled out on the beach. After Tree Experience and this weekend, I was sore like no other so it was nice to just lay out and just relax for a bit. 

Monday was a holiday, so we didn’t have class. Unfortunately, I was too tired and sore to function so I didn’t do anything. haha Tuesday was Orquidea’s 21st birthday. The two of us went up to Michelangelo (she’s been here longer than me and she’s never been!) and San Miniato. We chilled there for a while and it was really nice because the weather was perfect. Then we went to get some gelato at Emporio. For dinner, we went to Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant!! I had a burrito! I’ve missed Mexican food so much! It doesn’t compare to California’s burritos, but that’s pretty much the closest thing I’ll get to it here. Again, not so Italian, but I just had to have it! They’re nachos were pretty bomb too! But my faves have to be their strawberry and mango margaritas <3 After dinner, we went to their apartment and played “Cheers Governor!” (pronounced ‘Cheers Govna!’ lol) It was so fun. I’m pretty sure Orquidea had a great birthday, she was dunzo by midnight haha :)

Tomorrow, we don’t have class again so we plan on going to Siena (hopefully it doesn’t rain!) And this weekend, ahhh!!!! :)))