Italy and Greece

The last few days have been so fun and exciting, and we have seen so many things...

ITALY

:::VENICE:::

I met with Jami and Kelly from Georgetown in Barcelona, and then we flew to Venice. It was a very beautiful city... the pictures can explain more than my words...

:::Grand Canal:::

:::Gondola:::

:::On our Gondola ride:::

:::ROME:::

After an overnight train ride, we arrived in Rome and were able to see all of the big attractions - Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevy fountain, Spanish stairs, Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. We walked a lot, and I really enjoyed Rome! 

:::Getting ready to go on the night train to Rome:::

:::Colosseum:::

:::Inside the Colosseum:::

:::Outside of St. Peter's Basilica:::

:::Inside St. Peter's Basilica:::

:::Spanish stairs - of course we had to go after a whole semester in Spain!:::

:::Gelato break!:::

:::Trevy fountain:::

:::Pantheon:::

:::Athens:::

We met back up with Vanessa on our last night in Rome, and we all flew to Athens. We arrived late in the day, so we hit up the coffee shop for some caffeine before calling it an early night. We woke up early the next morning, and it was raining and kind of dreary, but we still made it to the Olympic Village (which is dilapidated and is in need of some major attention and help... but it was still neat to see!) and the Acropolis (Parthenon, old Greek ruins, etc.) 

:::Olympic park in Athens:::

:::Parthenon:::

:::Aegina:::

The day before Kelly and Jami flew home, we all went to a Greek island about an hour and a half away from Athens - called Aegina. It was a very beautiful island, and we were so glad that the weather cleared up and was so nice for their last day in Europe.

:::On the boat on the way to Aegina:::

:::On the island:::

:::Santorini:::

The next day Vanessa and I got back on a 7 hour ferry to Santorini - another Greek island. This is also where one of my favorite movies - Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - was filmed. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!! The pictures cannot even begin to show how beautiful it truly was. You could stand in the road at places and look to the left and right and see the sea. It was also a good break after living in hostels. We splurged and stayed in a hotel/apartment which was really nice. Everyone on the island was very nice and helpful, and we got to do many interesting things!!!!!!! 

:::Our hotel:::

:::The back porch of our hotel:::

:::Oia, Santorini:::

:::View from the top of the volcano:::

:::Riding a "taxi"... aka a donkey:::

:::What all of the beautiful buildings look like... white and blue... everyone loves UK colors!!! :) :::

:::The magical sunset in Oia:::

:::Red Beach:::

Now we are off to Romania, Austria, Poland, Barcelona, flight to Amsterdam, Detroit, Nashville, meet mommy and daddy!!!!!!!!! and back to Mayfield!!!! See you all soon!

The Netherlands and Germany

Right now, I am just waiting to go on the next part of my adventure. I recently finished my last days in Barcelona. The first day back was Sant Jordi - kind of like Valentine's day, but the men give the women a rose and women give men books. It was absolute madness on Las Ramblas because there were so many people out going to buy flowers and books. I was not happy to leave this city for good. It has been my home for 4 months now and I was sad to have to tell Bibi and my roommate, Hannah, goodbye. I have mixed emotions because I am sad that the semester is over, but I am excited about the next 20 days of traveling and excited that in 20 days I will get to see my family! … and then it is on to the next chapter of my life… getting ready for medical school (MCAT studying,

 MCAT, research at the National Institutes of Health and filling out a billion and a half medical school applications!)

So anyways, the last few days Vanessa and I have been in Amsterdam (aka Holland, The Netherlands) and Frankfurt and Köln (Cologne), Germany, and now I am sitting in a café about 5 minutes from the airport waiting on two of my friends from Georgetown so that we can go to Venice and Rome, and then meet back up with Vanessa to go to Greece.

Amsterdam 

Amsterdam was very different than I thought it would be, and it gets the Most Non-Judgmental City Award. It was even explained to us that the city is not “liberal” as everyone says, rather, they let people express themselves and do not judge. Because of this, there are some crazy things going on in Amsterdam, but it also just makes it a very interesting city. While there we went to the Anne Frank House which was very interesting and educational, but also sad to see where the people in the book were cooped up for 2 years. After going there, I know that Auschwitz is going to be terribly depressing when we finally get there. We also went on a 4 hour bike tour through the countryside. This was funny, if only you could have been here, because I have not been on a bike in who knows how long – it has been years and years – but luckily I did not crash or get hit by a car. The city is absolutely packed with bikers (more than I have seen in my entire life combined), people walking and cars, so riding a bike can be dangerous if you don’t watch out! We got to see one of the few remaining family-run businesses that make wooden clogs and cheese, and we saw a working windmill.

:::All of the bikes on one of the streets:::

:::Anne Frank House:::

:::With all of the wooden shoes:::

Germany

Firstly, it has to be explained that we all have a “Stupid mistake budget” while here in Europe because when traveling and not knowing the languages you are bound to make dumb mistakes that you end up paying for. We booked a ticket to Frankfurt, only to find out that there is nothing to do in Frankfurt (Mistake #1) so we booked a train to Köln (Cologne) which was beautiful! We got to see the Rhein river and the most beautiful cathedral that we have seen so far (as the story goes, this is the cathedral that holds the bones of the three wisemen). We also had a fun time in the interactive Olympic museum (designed for 10 year olds, but V and I had a blast anyways!) where we got to sit in a Bobsled (which was exciting, considering we had just watched Cool Runnings two nights before). Then we traveled 6 hours to Hahn (Mistake #2) for our flights before realizing upon arrival that we could have just traveled for 2 hours total.. so we felt dumb, but at least we got where we needed to go!

:::The Cathedral that wins the award for the best cathedral:::

:::Playing in a bobsled:::

The Beginning of an Adventure: Northern Ireland, Ireland and Portugal

As I am trying to wrap up my time in Barcelona -only today and tomorrow left :( - I don't have a lot of time to write, but I am going to put the highlights of the last week on here!

When I got back to Barcelona from Morocco and Semana Santa in Sevilla, I had finals week - the least stressful finals week of my life- and I got my grades... I passed! I tried to soak up my last week in Barcelona while continuing to make travel plans. At the end of the week one of my friends from school and sorority sister, Sarah was here. It was good to see someone from home and catch up about all of our study abroad adventures!

 

:::Sarah and I by the beach:::

Belfast, Northern Ireland

We flew to Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was beautiful, but there was not a lot to do - since we were there for such a short time - other than look at churches, gardens and other various tourist spots. 

:::St.Peter's Cathedral:::

:::The last place that the Titanic was on dry ground:::

:::Queen's University:::

Dublin, Ireland

We took a bus to Dublin after 2 days in Belfast. We got there at night, so we just went to the touristy part of town to hang out for the night. Then the next day we walked all around Dublin to see the Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, old churches and the Guinness Storehouse - since it is probably the largest tourist attraction in the city- to see how it is made - and since I am a science geek... I thought it was pretty interesting! The next day we went on a tour to the coast of Southern Ireland - saw the beautiful coast, countryside and AMAZING Powerscourt Gardens.

:::Never know when you are going to find people from Spain and get to practice your Spanish!:::

:::St. Patrick's Cathedral:::

:::Looks like I must be Irish! Haha!:::

:::In Powerscourt gardens... (photo thanks to VGirl's artistic skills):::

:::Let's see how many times I can use the word beautiful... THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE OF IRELAND:::

Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal

We flew to Lisbon, Portugal and walked around the city all day to see the town, cathedral and castle. This was a little more difficult than Ireland since they understood our Spanish, but we could not understand Portuguese. The next day we went to Cascais - a wonderful beach town - and layed on the beach and I got burnt and look like a lobster... but it was worth it. :)

:::Sao Jorge - Castle in Lisbon, Portugal:::

:::Cascais beach:::

Now I have two days in Barcelona then I am off to The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Romania, Austria, Poland... then USA.

My 21st Birthday and the surrounding week…

Well my “Spring Break” was this past week because in Spain the whole week (Semana Santa – Holy Week) before Easter is celebrated, so stores close, schools are out, etc. I flew down to Sevilla Spain Thursday, April 2^nd so that the next day at 4 AM I could get on a bus to go to Africa. I went along with other students from my study abroad program and with students from other ISA programs in Spain and Morocco.

 We arrived in Morocco, after a long bus ride and ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar,  and stayed in a 5-star hotel – not American 5-star, but still very very very nice!  (nice Spring break, huh?) and the next day we went on a tour of the city. The main part of the day we spent in the old part of the town – the Medina- where we went to an herbalist (which I had a great time in since I love learning about medicines of any type!), a rug co-op (where we got to look at SOOOOOOO many cool rugs, drink really good green tea, and, of course, buy the beautiful rugs), a leather tannery (they gave us mint leaves to smell to keep us from getting sick because the smell is so bad), and a weaving place (where they made the MOST beautiful fabrics!) In the Medina there are thousands of tiny streets – so small that cars can’t get in – the only method of transportation is mules and donkeys. That night we went to a traditional Moroccan show with music, belly dancing, and other stuff that I can’t remember –it was a long day!

:::The only mode of transport in the Medina:::

:::A really really REALLY old university:::

:::With the children when we stopped for a little while:::

:::Having a nervous breakdown after buying really expensive rugs:::

:::The tannery:::

We woke up the next morning and got back on the bus to go to the Sahara desert. After we arrived in Erfoud, we got in 4x4 vehicles to go to the desert since there weren’t roads that went out that far. We got there that night and just got settled into las haimas (the tents). It is crazy how cold it gets in the desert at night, so we all had to snuggle to keep warm!

:::On the way to the desert in the 4x4:::

The next morning watched the sun rise ---- BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, SPECTACULAR----- the pictures cannot even begin to show what it looked like that morning, and it was probably just as spectacular that we were able to drag ourselves out of the tent into the cold air at 5:30 AM! We rode camels, crawled/ran/walked/sunk-into-the-sand up a huge sand dune, slid back down the down, rode camels to a village, played with the African children, relaxed around our tents, listened to some African drumming while dancing with African children, got henna tattoos, listened to an African band that played at dinner and danced a little afterwards until 12 AM – April 7^th – my birthday!

:::The first thing I saw when I woke up - other than the roof of my tent:::

:::Photo shoot in the desert:::

:::Absolutely stunning - it's hard to describe with pictures and words:::

:::The beautiful sunrise continues:::

:::The sun:::

:::Drawing in the sand:::

:::Riding on the camels:::

:::Letting the camels take a break:::

:::The huge sand dune that we climbed - doesn't look that big in the picture but it was HUGE:::

:::Moroccan child:::

:::Henna tattoos:::

:::African band:::

On my birthday... Woke up the next morning early to go sit in the sand… it was a little cloudy, so I couldn’t see the sunrise as well, but it was still beautiful. Then we had to travel back to Erfoud by 4x4, then to Meknes by bus. When we got to Meknes we went to the Medina to go shopping there. The next thing that happened was really funny because Meknes is not a very touristy city, but as I was walking into a little store in the Medina, I saw someone with a jacket on that said Paducah, heard the southern accent, and found out there was a group of 4 or 5 people there from Paducah and the surrounding area – one of which was the father of someone who used to go to my church, but when you are from Mayfield/Paducah/Murray you can usually always find a common friend!

:::My 21st birthday:::

:::Vanessa, Hannah, Michelle and I:::

We traveled back to Sevilla where we encountered huge parades since the biggest festival for Semana Santa is in Sevilla, but we were so tired that we went to sleep. The next day we watched parades for most of the day and night and early morning because it is the biggest festival day in Sevilla. The next morning I met Jami and Kelly from my school at home, and two of their friends from Valencia, and for that day and the next we explored Sevilla – went in the beautiful and huge Cathedral, watched Parades, went into the Alcazar – a big palace with huge gardens, Torre del oro, and the local bull-fighting plaza.

:::Los nazerenos - the guys with the tall white hats:::

:::Sevilla Catedral:::

:::Jami and me in front of the big fountain in Sevilla:::

:::Friends from home - Jami & Kelly:::

:::Gardens in the Alcazar:::

:::Torre del Oro:::

:::Plaza de Toros:::

Yesterday I flew back into Barcelona. BiBi is not here… and it was weird being away from home on Easter. I am used to being with all of my family in Mayfield or Lexington… but I guess being away just makes me appreciate everything at home even more! I hope that everyone had a very blessed Easter!

¡Hasta Luego!