Paris

Although I didn't have a voice the entire weekend as I continue to battle whatever weird European disease I've been plagued with, my 3 days in Paris were amazing! What an incredible city. We stayed in a hostel near the Moulin Rouge, which happens to be one of my favorite movies so it was awesome to see it in real life. We went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, which was unbelievably tall. I was scared to be up so high, and I'm not usually afraid of heights, but it had a spectacular view of the city. Words can't even describe how it felt to be looking at the Eiffel Tower when we first saw it- that is a moment I have dreamed about my entire life so I had to give myself a few moments to take it in. We saw the Arche de Triomphe, which was also very cool to see. My roommate has a friend who lives in Paris, so she brought us to her favorite restaurant for lunch and we had real French fondu, which was DELICIOUS. She then walked us around a few non-touristy cute neighborhoods, where we ate crepes (also delicioius). We went to the real Notre Dame Cathedral, which was very beautiful. For dinner we bought bread and cheese and just enjoyed it- something I have always wanted to do in Paris. The next day we saw the Opera house, which was the location of the Phantom of the Opera. We then went to Lafayette, which is a famous upscale shopping building. In the afternoon we took a trip out to Versailles, an incredible palace.

Saturday evening we went to the 22 birthday party of my roommate's French friend, who lived in a suburb of Paris. It was quiet the cultural experience. For a 22 year old's birthday party in the United States, there would be a lot of alcohol and dancing and it would be loud with a lot of people. A Parisian birthday party was the complete opposite: we stood around with about 20 college students, eating quiche and not drinking alcohol. We spoke to each other calmly and quietly, and there was light music in the background. When the cake was cut, we all had a glass of really expensive French champagne to toast to another great year for the birthday girl, who then was handed a present from everyone who attended. Everyone was dressed elegantly, and all of the girls brought along very attentive boyfriends who stayed by their sides the entire evening. We brought a bottle of wine to be good guests, but when we handed it to the birthday girl she looked at it strangely and then hid it outside on the porch. It was such an elegant and calm party that you would never know it was a college student's birthday.

Lena, my friend from Germany who was an exchange student in Dublin in my Junior year of high school, met me in Paris and traveled around with us. I hadn't seen her since she visited me for my high school graduation, and it was so good to spend time with her. It was weird that since I'd last seen her, so much has happened in my life and I've changed so much, but we still clicked like the best friends we were when she lived in Dublin. It always baffles me how much people can change separately from each other and still remain good friends. The picture above is of the two of us in front of the Eifel Tower.

On our way back to Spain, we took the normal metro/train/plane/bus transportation system that has defined our traveling around Europe so far. We got back to our apartment and discussed how we only have 4 weeks left here before heading back to the States. It has to be the most bittersweet ending I've ever had to a period of my life, but I still have a month to enjoy before I tell you all about that.

Italia

I went to Italy for my spring break and thoroughly enjoyed it. We started out in Rome, and after 14 hours of traveling we got in a cab only to experience how crazy Italian drivers really are. They didn't have lanes in the road..it was just a free for all. It was perhaps the scariest experience of the trip, and we definitely did not get into another cab for the rest of the week. We went to a restaurant near our hostel on the first night there, and our hostel was in a suburb of Rome so it was an all local restaurant. Thus, nobody spoke English, and it was my first experience in a situation where I didn't speak one bit of the language and had to get by. We managed, and had some of the best pasta ever and a liter of the best wine ever (only 2 euro for the wine...I'm not kidding when I say wine is cheaper than water over here). It was weird to feel like foreigners again, and really made me appreciate how comfortable I am with the Spanish culture now. The next day we went to the Vatican City to see St Peters Basilica, which was surprisingly a let down for being the largest cathedral in the world. I definitely think St Pauls in London takes the award for the most impressive cathedral. We then went to the Colosseum and the Palatine Ruins (which was the original city of Rome, very cool to see) and experienced more real pasta and pizza. The next day we hit up the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the steps where Caesar was killed, and a few more piazzas. That was our final night in Rome, and as we had an early train the next morning we went to sleep very early. At 3:30 AM we woke up to a strange shaking of our beds, and although it took us a few minutes to figure out what was going on, we realized we were in an earthquake. We took shelter under the door frame, and luckily our hostel was far enough away from the center of the quake that we didn't get hurt. It was a scary experience, though, and a lot of people did die outside of Rome. I am appreciative to be safe, and to have such attentive family members at home to worry about my safety :)

The next morning we were eventually able to get out of Rome and took a train to Florence. Wow. I'm going to retire in Florence. I loved the city! It wasn't as touristy and American as Rome, and it was a cute little town that reminded me of the Italian version of Granada. The next day we went on a bike tour around the Tuscan countryside, about 45 minutes out of Florence, and this was definitely my favorite part of the trip. The bike trip started out at a castle that bottles and stores wine and olive oil, which we got to tour and then taste. After riding our bikes through breathtaking scenary, we came to a family owned restaurant and had the best meal of the trip. We then rode our bikes for another hour before ending the tour. That night we had another amazing meal (calzones and gelato) and visited il Duomo, another cathedral. It was a unique building on the outside, but once again did not compare to St Pauls. While we were there, we also did plenty of shopping, people watching, walking, and eating. I was able to relax in Florence, which was much needed after the whirlwind that has been these past 3 months.

We took another train to Venice and once again traveled for way too many hours. Venice was such an interesting city with all the canals and no cars. Our first night there, the city was covered in an eerie fog and we were a little creeped out walking around the silent, foggy streets. When we came back the next morning, the city had a completely different fog-free feel. We went to the Guggenheim and took a water taxi to a nearby island, Murano, which is famous for glass blowing. As this was the end of our Italian experience, we had to have one last pizza and cone of gelato. We then spent 16 hours the next day traveling back to Granada, and it felt so good to be back "home".

That had to be the best week of food I've ever experienced, cruises included. I definitely connected with my Italian roots while I was there. I even carried on a few conversations with the locals, in Italian! I looked up a few key phrases before going, and then used my Spanish to get around the rest of the phrases I didn't know. It made me really want to learn Italian, but I'm pretty sure it would interfere with my Spanish knowledge. I also discovered that my default language is no longer English, it's Spanish. Anytime we were approached by someone speaking Italian, I would never respond in English... I always reverted to Spanish and then switched over to English since it was more likely that they spoke some English. I was glad to take a break from a Spanish speaking country to discover how much my Spanish has improved the past few months. Another thing about our trip was that we realized we took pretty much every form of transportation to get around: city busses, long distance busses, planes, trains, cabs, vans, boats, bikes, walking, and metros. What an experience! I'm pretty confident in my ability to navigate any city now, no matter what language they speak.

The picture is of me and the 3 girls I traveled with in the Colosseum. Stay tuned for more blog updates- I only have 6 weeks left but still have 2 more countries to visit!