Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona to visit my roommate from Maryland who is currently studying there. I have to make this brief because I have homework to do, so here are the highlights:

Let me preface this weekend with the fact that I think I had an ulcer! I ate too many oranged on Wednesday and my stomach hurt incredibly from Wednesday night until this morning. I finally made a doctor's appointment today and of course I am feeling infinitely better.

Got to see my friend Jess too! She is studying in Paris and came for the weekend too.

Went to Parc Guell on Friday. IT WAS SO COOL. I absolutely love the work of Gaudi. If you don't know his stuff, you should probably google it right now! So much color! The weather was beautiful and there were a bunch of small children who had the cutest uniforms going on field trips in the park. We walked around and shopped a little. And got sushi! Which was extremely exciting.

Vicki lives above a hostel and the hostel people go out everynight and bring the guests. We went out with them on Friday so we could get into the club for free. First we went to a bar and I had the tastiest shot ever! It was a mojito shot and it had lime juice, rum, mint, and sugar. It did not taste at all like alcohol (and probably didn't have much in there- mostly sugar). Then we went to the club. It was one the beach which was cool, but Vicki had never been to it and it ended up being kind of lame so we were home by 3am.

Got a good 7+ hours of sleep and were out the door by 11. Walked down to the beach and walked along it. Then we went to my favorite part. Barcelona Beer Festival! It was the first time they had this festival and it was amazing! Entry was free, and then inside you would pay for a glass and then tokens. Each beer was a different amount of tokens. I ended up getting 18 tokens and got to try 7 different types of beer and spent less than 20 euros. The atmosphere was perfect; it felt like summer. My favorite beers were Meantime (London) Cranberry Stout and the same brand's Yakima Red. There was a really interesting one from Denmark by Cervesart called Cat Porter that had hints of chocolate and coffee but was SMOKED which gave it a really interesting taste. We got empanadas too! Which were delicious, especially since we were all a little drunk.

We didn't do anything Saturday night because when I got home my stomach started hurting pretty badly again! I had totally forgot about my condition and had drunk a glass of sangria at dinner. The citrus fruit in it made my stomach go crazy.

Sunday we just lazed around La Ramblas.

It was a grade A weekend and next week I will be in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin! Yay spring break!

Cows on parade

This was the type of weekend that confirms why I wanted to come to Italy.

So, Leah and I decided we wanted to get out of the city, so after doing some research we found a farm stay near Sora, which is nearby the Abruzzo National Park. We got to take a double decker bus! Which was so much fun, but extremely bizarre, because it would stop in places that seemed completely random. Like on the side of a busy road, or someone’s house. We could not figure out the system for it. We made it to Sora and had to go to a pizza place that the owner of the hostel told us to go to, where they would get us transportation. We figured they would be calling us a taxi, but when we got there a large man, who only mumbled, presumably named Frederico (it was Ferderico pizzeria) asked us if we could wait 10 minutes until his wife got back with the car.

We had no qualms about going with him, because the hostel told us to go there. But about 5 minutes in after driving through this creepy driveway worries started seeping in. Is this going to be where he kills us and chops us into tiny pieces? There are only two doors on this car, I would have to break a window to escape… But of course, two minutes later we arrived at the farm stay and he greeted Antonello as simple Nello and all was well. Antonello showed us our room and told us he saved us some dinner. We had rigatoni with white beans and sauce, carrots, salad that had oranges and raisins, and the best wine I have had in Italy thus far. We “settled up” and chatted about what we were going to do the next day. We decided to do a hike to a waterfall and he gave us a detailed map.

Woke up bright and early on Saturday and had a typical Italian breakfast- bread with jam and NORMAL coffee. Leah and I had 3 cups each. Then we went on our way.  We had to walk from the farm stay into town, and then find the trail. It usually takes about 45 minutes or so to get into town. This particular morning was extremely foggy. As we were walking into town on a sort of busy road a woman pulled over. I was thinking she was going to ask for directions, but then was like, “Dove vai?” So we said Pescosolido, then she was basically like get in the car. Leah and I looked at eachother and the woman was saying, “Vai, vai!” Like, let’s go! So Leah was like, just get in the car and I did. This woman was probably around her late 60s wearing sunglasses (even though it was foggy?) and a leopard print hat. We were quiet for a while, but then started conversation. She is an artist and sometimes goes to New York or Detroit to display her work. Here’s her website! http://www.tizianamonti.com/

She invited us in for a cappuccino, which in hindsight, we should have accepted, but instead told her we must be on our way. It took us a while to figure out where we were supposed to be going because the fog was so bad. We could probably see 10 meters tops.

So much fog it looks like a gray background!
Thanks Padre Pio, for showing us the way.

On the way back. Look how it cleared up!
There is actually life!

 It started to clear up a little right as we hit the bottom of the trail and were surprised with… COWS.

First cow sighting.
We didn't know what was to come...

It was kind of scary actually. I know cows aren't usually thought of as scary, but they kind of were. Someone had just fed them, so they were all walking up to the trough.

Cow parade.

Once they all started mooing at each other and staring at us we figured we should back off and let them do their own thing. We watched from afar for a little and then followed behind them.

Our view during the hideout.

The hike was GORGEOUS.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
SO PRETTY.

Making friends with the possibly wild horses on the path.

This was the most nerve-racking part of the hike.
No, my camera is not tilted.

What we looked at while we ate lunch and thought about our options.
Also, from here we could HEAR the waterfall.
So depressing.

But when we were about 30 minutes away from the waterfall, we found a tree on the extremely narrow path with no way to get around it, without the possibility of falling to our deaths in the gorge. FOILED AGAIN.

Stupid tree. I hatechu.

The cows were a lot less scary on the way down, because they weren’t feeding although we did feel like we walked into a party we weren’t invited to…

Cow party.

Had dinner at the farm again. Pasta with a chickpea sauce and a little pasta with pesto, broccolitini, and salad. Leah and I got a half litre of wine and found out that the snow was really devastating! Besides downing a bunch of trees (which got in the way on our hike the next day, also), it totally ruined a bunch of crops. Usually the farm produces about 400 litres of wine, but this season they only expect to produce 60. That is 15% of their normal production! We also had a nice long chat IN ITALIAN with the hostel owner's friend. This made me extremely happy because it reassured me that I know Italian and can keep a conversation! The language is so much a part of the culture here, I am happy that I know it because it really allows me to understand not just the people better, but Italy itself better.

We also met a family from San Diego that is living in Napoli (the wife is in the navy) and since Leah was planning on going to Napoli next weekend now has somewhere to stay! Meeting people really is the best thing about travelling. I’m getting sort of lazy and have to study so I’ll make the rest short.

We hiked to a castle! And it was really cool.

The whole hike down we had to traverse fallen trees.
Most of them were worse than this.

Going to Barcelona next weekend to see VICKI. And I am unbelievably excited about it.

Study time... or bedtime. Ciao.