Venice and Murano, Italy & Home

Wednesday morning we left Florence on a coach around 9:30 and arrived in Venice around 1. I drug my poor suitcase across the streets and bridges of the city (since cars are only allowed in the city to a certain point) and we waited outside our hotel in a little alley as everything got checked in and ready. We stored our luggage in an open room since we couldn’t check in yet, and then we headed out to grab lunch. Sarah, Kyle, Nate, Andy, E-Ho, Natalie, Marilyn, Maria and I went to a little restaurant on the water and I tried risotto, which is a creamy sauce with cheese. It was an interesting taste but I’m glad I tried it.

As we were walking back to our hotel, Sarah and I found Clay and Molly hanging out beside the canal, and we all decided to go to Murano together (but not before breaking down and buying some Kit Kat gelato—amazing). Venice is famous for the isle of Murano, which makes glass of all sorts. We took a boat taxi (how neat!) to Murano and immediately were ushered into a glass making show, which was so awesome to watch. You could tell the guy creating the glassware had done it a million times before. He made a pitcher and a horse standing on his hind legs right in front of us. We looked in their showroom, but it was a little pricey, so we spent the next hour or so looking at all the shops along the water. They were all virtually the same, but some of them had really different things. Most popular were tiny little glass creatures ranging from frogs to lions to monkeys, bottle stoppers, funky looking clocks, among many other things. I bought plenty of little creatures for myself and as gifts, and then we headed back to Venice (after we freaked out that we were going to get fined 40 euro on the bus taxi and jumped off).

Clay and I walked around a bit and found an Italian restaurant that looked pretty tasty, and I stuffed myself with bread and olive oil and spaghetti carbonara. It was really good. I went to bed fairly early (this traveling is wearing me down!) and the next morning Molly, Clay, Sarah and I set out to explore the city. There were only a few specific things we heard we should see, so for the first time all semester, we just wandered around the city without a plan. The isle itself is not very big at all and we covered most of the area in the day. I absolutely loved Venice. The canals and old buildings are so picturesque and perfect.

We wandered around and stumbled upon a few really beautiful churches, and then we found a Leonardo da Vinci museum. I am absolutely fascinated by him, so we all paid 5 euro to go into this interactive museum that had reproduced many of his sketches and showed how they worked. There was an example of his bullet design to his military ideas, and drawings of how he thought the body and muscles worked. It was so so neat to me because if one person had invented only one of the things he did, it would be amazing—but he studied and revolutionized so many things. Not to mention he was an incredible artist. I just loved it!

I got a piece of pizza for lunch and it was one of the best I’ve had in Italy. So delicious! As we continued walking we noticed all sorts of masquerade attire and especially masks. Apparently Marti Gras is a huge deal there and it seemed like it would have been awesome to be there because those mask shops were everywhere. We walked to San Marco Piazza and listened to a musical group including four stringed instruments and a piano by ridiculously beautiful music. It seriously gave me goose bumps. We saw the San Marco Cathedral, which was incredibly intricate and beautiful from the outside, aside from the fact that half of it was covered in scaffolding (of course). The line to get in was tremendously long, so we skipped out and headed toward the Grand Canal, which was lined with gondola boats. We found another cathedral and saw the inside of that one before finding our way back to the hotel in the maze of streets that is Venice. We settled on another siesta and slept for a couple of hours.

That night a huge group of us (Matt, Marilyn, Natalie, E-Ho, Clay, Molly, Sara, Maria, Kyle, Sarah, Nic, Andy, and I) set out to find a restaurant that Hillary had recommended to us. She said she ate there the second time she went to Venice and it was far better than any other touristy spot. So we walked for a good while to Da Paolo and I sat down to a tasty dinner of sausage pizza. We all recounted memories from the semester and did a lot of laughing. We took some pictures together as a group and Clay and I got some gelato from the place right next to our hotel, which was of course wonderful. My roommates were asleep when I got back, so I followed suit and got a good night’s sleep.

I got up around 7:30 Friday morning to take a shower, charge some electronics, ate a weird sort of breakfast downstairs, and get my back packed and ready by 9:30. We all placed our luggage in storage for the day, and I headed out with Chelsea, Ali, Jessi, Jeryn, Emily, Kara, and Jacob. Several of us wanted to go on a gondola ride and we found a deal for 70 euros for six people. We took the guy up on his offer as this was a pretty decent deal, and he paddled us around Venice for about 30 minutes. It was so cute and Italian! It was only about 12 euro per person, so I’m glad I did it.

As we were deciding where to go for lunch, the thought of free refills was brought up (a concept unrecognized in all European countries). We had heard rumor of free refills at the Hard Rock Café, and we were sold. I enjoyed a heavenly meal of sweet tea (kind of) and a huge juicy cheeseburger and garlic mashed potatoes. I knew I was coming home so soon and it was my last Italian meal but I had eaten pizza and pasta for nine days and I was really dying for American dining. We all indulged and decided lying by the docks sounded good. We walked to the Grand Canal and enjoying the sun and warm concrete until—alas, we were awoken by the Italian police! Apparently sleeping in the streets is illegal. We aren’t hobos, but I suppose breaking the law is breaking the law!

Chelsea and I stopped in the only McDonald’s in Venice to get Wifi but to no avail. So we got one last scoop of gelato (Kit Kat again) and went back to our hotel to gather our luggage. We did just that and hung out in the garden area for about an hour. My suitcase somehow made it to the bus stop area (it is literally falling apart) and Sarah, Cheslea, Ali and I hung out on a bench in the shade as we waited for our coach to arrive. The weather was so perfect! Finally our bus came at 5 o’clock and we drove to the airport and waited to check in for about an hour. Chelsea and I had fun just hanging out and talking. We got all checked in and boarded our plane, which took off at 8:20. Once we landed at Gatwick, we got on a coach to Heathrow Airport, where we met our luggage and said goodbye to Doug one last time. Chelsea and I had quite an experience transferring our luggage (we each had four suitcases) on the carts and mine even took a spill once.

We found Clay and spent the next hour or so moving around everything in our suitcases in order to have each one weigh less than 23 kilos. I was actually underweight on all of mine, so go me! After that was all figured out, we went to Arrivals, where there were open seats. I stayed up the ENTIRE night so I could sleep on the plane the next morning. At that point, I just wanted to be home. I was not feeling too hot when we got on the plane, but Chelsea’s sleeping pills knocked us out pretty quickly. I slept for most of the plane ride, and then Chelsea and I were flying through the airport in order to make our connecting flight from Chicago to Nashville. It was so weird knowing we were back in America! My suitcase had to get inspected (and they stole my face lotion AGAIN) but we made it to our gate in time.

We were a little late landing and we were told it was a bit stormy outside, but there were no problems other than that. On the way to pick up our luggage, dad, Sloan and Paige were waiting for me and I hugged them all for about five minutes each it seemed like. I was soooo happy to see them! I said bye to Chelsea once her parents arrived, and I finally had my favorite meal of all time: Cracker Barrel dumplins with biscuits and sweet tea. It was amazingly wonderful. We got on the road back home before all of the flooding hit Nashville—we got so lucky! I did all I could to stay awake (by texting, mostly) and finally I was back in my kitchen and living room (with an awesome banner, I might add), hugging Diamond and Baxter.

It really wasn’t as strange to be home as I thought it would be. Everything is basically the same as when I left it—the only thing that has changed is me. I love this town and all my friends and family here. I know now the big world that lies outside of this place, and I can say I’ve been changed for good. It’s not something you can easily put into words, or pinpoint exactly what has changed. I’ve just grown from my experiences in so many different ways, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am so thankful to WKU and the Honors College for giving me this opportunity, and I owe the most thanks to all my family and friends who supported me every step of the way. I will miss my traveling adventures, the running to catch my train, the bland English food, the tasty Italian food, the Bistro parties, the cramming for British Studies exams, the running of certain miles, and all the wonderful people I met and lifelong friends I made this semester—but I will always remember Harlax10.

Florence and Pisa, Italy

Our coach ride was about three hours long to Florence. Once we got inside the city, I could already tell I liked the atmosphere better than Rome. It was still touristy of course, but there were parks and cute buildings everywhere; it seemed much more small-town. We got settled in at the hotel and decided to go out to eat together. There were 15 of us on a mission to find dinner, which we did at Christiano’s restaurant. It didn’t seem to be too fancy, but Italian was on the menu and that is always okay with everyone. I had a cheese sauce pasta that was pretty good. We also discovered that most restaurants offer free wine to students, which was taken advantage of by some. I also had the tiramisu and that was heavenly. I’m so happy I discovered that I like it! We had fun talking and hanging out and then Sarah, Matt, Sara and I walked back to the hotel together, where we found Clay and Molly and hung out in the SAE boy’s room until that got a little silly.

Monday morning Molly, Sarah, Clay, Chelsea, Sara, Rahcel, Jessi, Ali, Jeryn, Kara, Emily and I all caught a train to Pisa in the morning. The town was pretty small with all sorts of restaurants outside and shops. We went straight to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was so awesome to see! It seriously is leaning so much. Like it looks as though it might tumble over any second. We took all the touristy pictures of course, and Molly had the awesome idea of running at the Tower and acting like you’re kicking it in the air. We got some pretty funny pictures that way and a lot of laughs. Chelsea and I got macked on by some Italian weirdos, but we met a really nice American cyclist team and talked to them for a while and even got a picture with them. We went to the other side of the tower to stand on the blocks and act like you’re pushing it over with your foot. It was a lot harder than it looked, but I got a pretty awesome picture from it. We split up and Rachel, Sarah, Clay, Sara and I got some lunch at a café cleverly named Pisa Pizza. I had a ham and cheese calzone and this amazingly delicious Peach tea.

Once we made it back to Florence, also known as Firenze in Italian, we went to the Duomo Cathedral, the city’s most famous church. We weren’t allowed inside in shorts, so we just hung out on the steps for a bit and then walked around the city for the evening. It was nice to just take it all in. We went to all the markets at San Lorenzo and those were awesome. There was all sorts of leather—leather books, purses, coats, wallets, anything you can think of—as well as ties, scarves, clothes and shoes. I got some really neat souvenirs and gifts. I also found this store called Scriptorium, which is possibly my favorite shop of all time. It was filled with leather bound books, pens, desk accessories, and you could tell it was all legit stuff. I loved it so much, but I figured everything would be too expensive.

That night, we met up with a girl in Sarah and Molly’s sorority who has been studying abroad in Florence all semester. We went with her to a friend’s apartment, which was full of Americans, so that was interesting. An Italian man who the students have made good friends with made a traditional Italian meal, which was different but tasty. Hillary (Sarah and Molly’s friend) took us to a 1-euro gelato place (amazing) and we went back to the hotel.

Tuesday morning Sarah, Clay, Molly and I got an early early start and went to the Uffizi at 8 am. We got in line soon enough to be the second group into the museum, which was set up pretty differently. It was made up of two basic hallways with all sorts of busts lining the walls. Rooms went off from those corridors, and we checked out all sorts of Renaissance art. We saw Buchelli’s The Birth of Venus, which I loved so much. I’ve seen that image so many times and it was huge and beautiful in person. We saw a few works by da Vinci and I really enjoyed seeing paintings by him I’d never even heard of before, as well as a sketch he began but never completed.

We went to a Piazza that holds all sorts of replica statues including the David, as well as originals that we got to see up close and personal. The replica David’s location is where the original was kept when it was first commissioned in the early 1500s. A riot against the Medici family caused a bench to be thrown out a window, and David lost his left arm. After he was put back together, it was decided he would be kept inside and protected from then on. We went back to the Duomo (propely dressed this time) and went inside. It was far less decorated than any other cathedral I’ve been in here, but the outside made up for it. It was elaborately decorated in green, pink and white marble. Every inch had some sort of design on it, creating a breathtaking scene from outside.

We went to the San Lorenzo Cathedral and saw it from the outside since it wasn’t free admission. It was much more traditional than the Duomo, but beautiful all the same. We went through the market again and Clay bought a really nice leather duffle bag he had wanted the whole trip. We went back to the church steps and waited to meet Hillary at 11:30 after she got out of class. She took us to a local sandwich shop and I got a turkey and pesto sub on toasted bread and it was seriously amazing. It was awesome. We went to a gelato placed called Grom, which we had heard had the best gelato in Florence. Wrong! They skimped on the ice cream so much and it wasn’t all that great. But no mind! Hillary showed us the indoor food market, complete with duck and pig heads.

Next up was the Academia Gallery, and Hillary graciously let us borrow her museum card, which allowed us to skip the humongous line outside and get in quickly as long as Sarah and I passed for sisters as Clay and Molly’s cousins. It worked and we got right in! For some reason our tickets were more expensive that way, but I can’t complain. We walked into the main part of the museum and I began glancing around and my eyes were drawn to a beautifully lit area, and the David by Michelangelo hit my eyes. I know I say this about a lot of things, but it was truly breathtaking. I had no idea it was so ridiculously huge. His foot was the size of my torso plus my head. It was so amazing to see the white structure I’ve seen a hundred times in books in real life. That was worth at least the 10.50 euro I paid for admission. That area was lined with sculptures that Michelangelo started but never completed, which is just as cool as a finished sculpture if you ask me. You can see the actual makings of the art and that’s awesome to me.

We looked at another section of the museum’s sculptures and learned that the artists put nails or tacks in their plaster models in order to make it easier to create the replica. There were so many busts lining the walls. We made one last trip to the San Lorenzo market and got a good deal on a lot of ties. And after a terribly busy but awesome day, we made like the Spanish and had a siesta (took a nap) for about two hours. It was glorious and much needed. I decided that since I had only bought small trinkets and t-shirts for myself, I wanted to get something nice and memorable, so Clay and I went back to the Scriptorium shop (after we got lost). I spent about 45 minutes picking out the perfect gift for myself, and settled on a brown leather journal kind of book with lined paper inside. It’s so gorgeous and I’m so happy that I bought it. I’ll have it forever and I’m going to do something special with it. The man who owned the shop was so so nice and he engraved my initials on the front for free! He said he had owned his stop for about 20 years and told me I could order anything I wanted online.

We went back to the hotel and I finished getting ready, then walked with Molly and Clay to Hillary’s apartment where they were staying. They got changed and got ready and we went on a mad search for a pizza parlor we never found, but we went to Gusta Pizza instead which was really good. Molly and I even got heart-shaped pizzas—how cute! It was very good. We saw the Gates of Paradise across from the Duomo, which could be from the third or fourth century. They are made of bronze and were really amazing to see. We went to a pub called Bebop that Hillary recommended, as it was Beatles night. Italians singing Beatles music, how awesome! The band was really good and it would have been much more enjoyable had the place not been filled to three times its capacity. We did not stay long and I went to sleep for my last night in beautiful Florence, ready to tackle Venice the next day!

Leaving Harlaxton & Rome and Capri, Italy

Just when I had accepted the fact that our Italy school trip would not be occurring, just when I hadn’t packed a single thing, and just when I got out of our very last British Studies exam at 11:30 am, I discovered that we were, in fact, going to Italy as scheduled. It was awesome news but at the same time caused me to panic. Clay panicked even more because he and Molly had to leave the manor at 1:10 to catch their train to the airport that afternoon since they decided to travel to Italy separately. So I returned my books for a big payback of about five pounds and rushed to Clay’s room to help him pack. We literally packed up his entire room in less than two hours. That sounds like a lot of time, but when you have four months of messiness, it’s cutting it close. We made it up to the manor by 1 and we sprinted off in different directions—Clay went to get tags for his luggage as I ran around the manor, getting his checkout sheet signed in the business office and library. It was absolutely insane and he barely made it onto the shuttle, but we got it done.

I then turned my attention to my own issues, which included saying a tearful goodbye to Alex and Susan who were leaving that afternoon for home. I hurried back to my room and tried to figure out where to start packing—which I learned had to be done by 5 that evening, even though we weren’t leaving until 2 in the morning. I began by packing my Italy suitcase, which was kind of fun to pack because it included all sorts of summer clothes and sandals, which I hadn’t seen in quite sometime. I decided I probably ought to eat something for the first time that day and made some Easy Mac. I went back to my room and began unloading my drawers and closet when there was a knock. I didn’t even bother to look because I couldn’t think who would be coming to my room to see me when we were all in a panic to pack. Then I saw someone out of the corner of my eye—it was Clay! “What are you doing here?!” I said, and he told me he had missed his train by a minute. But he was determined to get to Italy, so he got in touch with Molly, who had decided to stay back at Harlaxton until then, and they found another flight to book.

Meanwhile, I continued to pack up four months of my life in two suitcases (and a carry-on and a backpack), which I barely got finished by 5. We lugged my luggage to the manor and put it in the proper room and ordered one final time from Pizza King, which was absolutely delicious. Since everything was basically done until checkout began for me at 12:30, we had the rest of the night. So Clay and I walked “the mile” and took a few pictures of Harlaxton with the sun setting on the building, which was gorgeous. It was strange to reflect on how quickly the semester passed, as I knew it would. I couldn’t believe all the places I’ve been to in the past four months. It seems like it was some other person who experienced all those things. I still feel like the same girl, but maybe just a newer and better version. I’ve experienced so many things that are hard to convey in words, but that have opened my eyes in countless ways. This semester has far exceeded my expectations and I couldn’t be more blessed to have had the opportunity.

Everything went pretty smoothly that night for checkout, not to mention I found my room keys that I lost at the beginning of the semester, so I didn’t have to pay 25 pounds! I signed the pipes in the downstairs laundry room as a permanent mark, and then I woke up Sarah and Rachel at 1:30 who happened to have fallen asleep and didn’t get up in time for checkout. It was a bit stressful, but we made it onto the coach in plenty of time. I stuck in my iPod and slept for the three-hour ride to the airport in London. We got there at about 5, went through security just fine, and waited to board our plane until about 6:30. As soon as I sat down, I’m pretty sure I was asleep. I wasn’t even up long enough to hear all the precautions from the flight attendants (not that I haven’t heard those plenty of times this semester). I woke up once as we were flying over the Swiss Alps, and I think my thoughts got as far as, “Oh, the Swiss Alps, I should probably take a pict…” and I was fast asleep again.

We landed in Rome (ROME!) and loaded a coach to our hotel. We got settled in, changed clothes, and met Molly and Clay outside, who had made it there no problem after so many complications, and grabbed a quick bite at a pizza parlor around the corner. And when I say pizza parlor I mean to say delicious. This pizza was seriously unlike any I have ever had. All I can say is, they know what they’re doing in Italy. Sarah, Molly, Clay, Chelsea and I hopped on a bus toward Vatican City and checked out St. Peter’s Basilica, which was really awesome, but I thought it looked totally different from the outside than I expected. The Pope addresses his people from there and the inside was so gorgeous. It’s really interesting to see the trends in churches, cathedrals and basilicas all across Europe. They are all essentially of the same structure and ideas. We even got to rub Peter’s foot, which is apparently something most people do once inside.

We did the next most Italian thing we could aside from pizza, and that’s gelato. Gelato is seriously out of this world—even better than ice cream, and if you know me, that’s a big deal. I tried chocolate and tiramisu and it was heavenly. We also found a drinking fountain statue type of thing, which we all drank out of, and it was wonderfully cold water. Next we headed into the Vatican Museum, which was full of beautiful artwork, statues and tapestries. The coolest thing in there was by far the Sistine Chapel. I loved it so much. It was so surreal to me to be in the actual room where Michelangelo painted his ideas of religion on the ceiling. It was absolutely gorgeous and my breath was truly taken away when I saw “Creation.” I’ve seen that image hundreds of times in my life, and there it was, the original thing. So neat! We also saw the monument to Emmanuel II, which was a huge white building with statues at various points. It was very White House-ish. On the way back to the hotel we spotted a pretty fountain area in the middle of the road so we checked that out.

We showered once back in the room and Chelsea, Clay, Molly, Ali and I went to a restaurant around the corner from out hotel. It was awesome because it was legit Italian—the real deal. I got four-cheese sauce pasta and it was amazing. We crashed fairly early that night and woke up the next morning to find it was raining outside. We had planned to spend the day in Rome and go to the island of Capri the next day, but as the weather worked out, we decided to go to Capri that day. So Sarah, Clay, Chelsea and I went to the train station to figure out what we needed to do first. We bought a train ticket to Napoli (the REAL Naples) and spent about two hours on the journey there. Once we arrived, we learned we needed to take a bus to the ferry station and after at least thirty minutes of trying to find the right bus in the rain as well as where the heck to buy the tickets (the “tobaki” store, apparently), we made it onto the bus. The problem was, although we pressed the stop button, it went about half a mile too far before it dropped us off. So we had to walk through this car tunnel, which was swirling with dirt and dust and made me feel so disgusting, but we found the ferry port eventually. And once we found that, we discovered that the next ferry left in four minutes. So Chelsea basically threw her money at the cashier and we all sprinted onto the ferry as it was literally pulling away from the dock. It was such a close call, but it was hilarious since we made it. The joys of traveling!

The ferry ride was hysterical because the waves were absolutely massive. I felt like I was on a jet ski on the lake. My stomach was doing that weird flippy thing like it does on roller coasters, but we were all cracking up and it was so funny. Finally we made it to Capri, and our prayers were answered as it quit raining upon our arrival. We walked down to the beach where the water was so clear it looked fake. We took a tram to the very top of the island and the view was so beautiful from there. The pictures can only do it justice. We looked for a place to eat for much longer than necessary, and finally settled on a little restaurant overlooking the water. Clay and I split ravioli and pizza, and they were both amazing. The pizza was way different from the first kind we had, but it was mouthwatering all the same. We looked in some of the shops close to our restaurant and, of course, had round two of gelato. This time I got After Eight, which is the same as mint chocolate chip, and an almond chocolate combination, which was so so good.

We went back to the bottom of the island to get our ferry ticket back, which was far less eventful than our journey there. Although we didn’t get to spend much time on the actual island, I’m glad to be able to say I went there and saw its beauty. We got back on the bus through Naples, which I must say was a pretty disgusting place. We were not in the touristy part at all, and it was covered in trash and sketchy people. We made it back to Rome at about 9:30, and Chelsea, Clay and I decided to go see the Trevi Fountain at night. We got a quick piece of pizza from our faithful place around the corner, and began our journey. It was a bit of a walk there, but it was worth it—the fountain is this massive white structure with all sorts of carvings and statues all over it. The water runs into a big pool below it, and it was lit up and beautiful. Clay and Chelsea got some more gelato (I decided to sit this round out), and we headed back to the hotel. It was a tiring but awesome day.

Saturday we woke up to more rain unfortunately, but we went through with our schedule anyway. It was kind of a bad day for me personally because all sorts of things kept going wrong for me. I definitely wore the wrong shoes because they had zero traction and the entire city is covered in stones that become ultra-slick when wet. I was sliding all over the place all day, the ATM didn’t give me my money, the souvenir place wouldn’t take my card, and I was just a little bit frustrated. I can’t complain about all the awesome things we got to see though.

First up on the list was the Colloseum. Like, THE Colloseum. I know this goes without saying but it was so OLD. It was such an awesome feeling standing in a structure that has been standing for almost 2,000 years. There were signs explaining the way the Romans used the building, and that was basically their entertainment. People and animals alike would fight and chase each other around the maze underneath the floor that would be removed. Gladiators would fight their opponents and people watched from the seats surrounding the center. There were broken pieces of rock with Latin engraved in them—that is just so cool to see. We also saw Rome’s special arc thing, which was just like France’s and Spain’s.

Next we checked out Circus Maximus, which was a huge oval track where the chariot races would be held. It was kind of strange because there were no signs or anything holding you back from just walking on the track. Next we walked through the paths that took you past all the ancient ruins that were still standing. We also did an experiment to see how well I could get around without my glasses on—I’m pretty blind, as it turns out. But once I put my specs back on, it was really cool to see. We got to see where the first democracy was held at the Roman Forum—how cool is that? I tried my first honeysuckle (weird) and got to smell real lavender flowers (yum). I also invented the adjective Molliest, which I intend to use daily.

Now you can’t forget that this entire time, everyone’s feet are getting dirty from the mud and rain, and I’m slipping and sliding all over the place. My legs were seriously about to die from keeping them so tensed up all day. But we trekked on and went inside the Pantheon, a church famous for its hole in the ceiling. It was just raining all over the ground in the center, but I bet it’s beautiful when the sun it out and it’s shining through. We got some more gelato (so tasty) and checked out the Trevi Fountain in the daytime. The sun finally came out, so the marble looking beautiful in the daylight, but there was such a ridiculous amount of people there. But we all made wishes by throwing a coin with our right hand over our left shoulder, and kept going.

We made it to the Spanish Steps as the sun became really strong and we all heated up pretty quickly. The Spanish Steps are literally just a bunch of steps leading up to a beautiful building. The Steps had rows and rows of purple flowers covering them and we enjoyed the view by relaxing there for a bit. Apparently if you live in Rome, that is the place to “be seen.” We walked up and down the streets near the Steps and went in several shops. All the stores were very fancy and expensive for the most part. Finally we made it back to the hotel, got another slice of pizza from our next-door favorite place, and called it a night.

Sunday morning our coach was leaving at 1:30, so we planned to get some sleep in the morning, get some lunch and head out. Unfortunately for us, we were awoken at about 10:30 by Kyle who said that checkout was at 11. Panic ensued as we showered and cleaned and packed in order to get downstairs as soon as possible. We were late but we placed our luggage with everyone else’s, and Clay, Sarah, Kyle, Nick, Andy, Rachel and I got another piece of pizza (I told you I’m living like an Italian!) and sat on the sidewalk in the sun. We all just chatted for a while before we had to load the bus, thus ending our adventures in Rome!

Last Weekend...Maybe.

Right now I should be studying for finals, packing and preparing myself for a week in Italy, but Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is preventing that. I'm supposed to leave Harlaxton in the early hours of Thursday morning to leave for Italy, but with the volcanic ash cloud basically hanging directly over England, flights have been suspended and no one knows when planes will begin flying again. If we can't go to Italy, we're going to try and plan another trip through trains and hopefully I'll be able to get home as planned on May 1st.

Thursday night we had our Valedictory Dinner, which involved a ceremony of "graduation" where we got a certificate and pin for surviving the semester. We then enjoyed some wine punch in the Great Hall, followed by another scrumptious dinner in the Long Gallery. It was good to spend more time with friends. There was a photo competition that I received Honorable Mention in for my picture of the streets of London. That was really exciting for me! Afterward we enjoyed our very last night in the Bistro which was an absolute blast, and Dr. Bujak even bought Jarrod, Nick and I a round of drinks for being on the winning Quidditch and soccer teams for him. It was a great last night in the basement.

Friday Clay, Chelsea, Sarah and I explored the grounds surrounded by green grass and trees. It was fun to check everything out with the spring sun shining down on us. The beauty of Harlaxton hasn't diminished since I've been here. It's still breathtaking in every way. Not to mention Harlaxton has the squishiest grass known to man. I don't know what it's made out of but I could sleep on it. That evening at 5 o'clock, David "collected" Clay and me from the manor and took us to the grocery store where we purchased everything needed to make David, Ruth and Rosalind a proper American meal. We cooked ranch burgers, scalloped potatoes and DIRT CUPS. They loved it. We got to meet their horses, Hippo and Zack, and I even made friends with their apparently unfriendly cat, Sophie. We gave them a picture of our whole family in Nottingham as a going away gift. It was a wonderful last night with them in their home. I couldn't be more thankful for David, Ruth and their family; I definitely plan on seeing them in the future.

Saturday morning I overslept (how unusual) and got ready in 25 minutes and barely made the shuttle into Grantham with Sarah and Rachel. We took a train to Nottingham (only about a 45 minute ride) and did some major shopping in H&M and Primark. I also had to purchase another suitcase because I might have bought a whole bunch of stuff this semester. We also had a major feast at McDonald's, including a chicken sandwich, a cheeseburger, fries, a Coke, and a McFlurry for me. Once we had our hearts set on McDonald's, we just decided to go for it, and it was so delicious. It was a really great day--I hadn't been shopping in quite a while! I bought a lot of things for Italy, so hopefully I'll get to go somewhere warm if not there.

That night Sarah and I got ready together in my room and we went to the Goose for what we think was our last night our in Grantham. Practically the entire school was there, no exaggeration. It was fun to spend time with everyone. We all headed to Vibe afterwards (the somewhat creepy dance place) but they have remodeled and changed a few things around so it was less gross. It was such a blast to dance and act like idiots with everyone one last time (maybe). When we were waiting for our cab home, we even got to see someone get knocked out in the middle of the street! It was so freaky and that guy was out cooold. Hopefully he made a full recovery. Once back at the manor I laid out in the front circle and saw--wait for it--a shooting star. How freaking cool is that?! It was so neat.

We're still waiting on updates on the Italy trip and our flight home...keep your fingers crossed!

One week?!

I can't believe I'm leaving this beautiful place in only a week. It seriously seems like I only got here yesterday...

Although I stayed at the manor for most of this past weekend, it was still a blast. Friday night, however, Clay and I took a train to Nottingham for the evening. We ate dinner at this Italian place that seemed almost American, and although it took over an hour to get our food, it was worth it. The ciabatta bread was wonderful and the alfredo that I got was unlike any I've ever had, but it was delicious. After taking so long to eat, we were in a hurry to find our movie theatre. We couldn't figure out our map and we kept getting wrong directions from people until we ran into this English couple who were about our age. They were super nice and offered to show us where the theatre was and I'm so glad they did because I don't think we would have found it otherwise! Clay and I watched Alice in Wonderland in 3D (which is somewhat unnecessary in my opinion) but I LOVED the movie. It's the first full movie I've watched since I've been here, in theatres or just on television. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday came quickly and with it came the Costume Ball, which I had heard was fairly epic in past semesters. Turns out it was just as epic for us! There were so many awesome and funny costumes. Clay dressed up as Henry VIII and I dressed up as Anne Boleyn (my freaking dream--you better believe I'm shoving that 'B' necklace in my suitcase!) so of course I loved that. Chelsea was an Asian tourist (we see those everywhere), there were crayons, bats, Lance Armstrong came, as well as Hannah Montana and the Mean Girls. We all enjoyed some wine punch before being served an amazingly delicious dinner in the Long Gallery. It was a lot of fun to hang out and talk with everyone over dinner. Finally the dance began and Chelsea, Clay and I found our own form of entertainment with a piece of Clay's costume which was absolutely hysterical. Chelsea and I also took up the hobby of "photobombing" which involves running into other people's pictures right before they take them and ruining them. That also made for a lot of laughs and the evening was very enjoyable all in all.

Sunday morning Clay and I decided to take the school shuttle to church. On Easter, Clay went to a church called New Life that was apparently full of running and screaming children, so we tried out the local Methodist Church. The lady who greeted us was very nice, and once we got inside it only took us a moment to realize we were the youngest people there by at least three generations. Seriously, everyone looked like they were going to die within minutes. It was kind of scary. The service was very traditional (no versus skipped in songs) and the preacher was quite interesting. She sounded completely normal when telling anecdotes, but when she began speaking about scripture and God, she adopted a very odd, robotic kind of voice. Strange. So about ten minutes before the service was finished, I looked over at Clay, who was staring straight ahead, mouth open, with a very dead look in his eyes. This caused me to start cracking up immediately, which Clay tried to prevent by putting his hand on my to calm me down. This only served to make him start laughing too, making our whole pew shake, and making the entire situation worse. Everyone knows it's very difficult to quit laughing when something important is taking place, such as a prayer. This laughing went on for a solid five minutes before we gained control of ourselves. Luckily for us, I think everyone in the church was deaf so we didn't get any looks or comments, but I'm sure it was a scene to behold.

Sunday afternoon Sarah, Rachel, Clay, Molly, Molly's friend Autumn who has been studying abroad in Italy all semester, and I teamed up to take on the Harlax10 Olympic games. All the other teams had intense outfits, while we were probably the least enthused team to begin with. But, you know, I say talent matters more than looks. We participated in a balloon toss (mine exploded all over my face), a relay race where you had to run with a tennis ball between your legs, a course set off by cones where one person led the rest of the team who was blindfolded, and a game where you filled up teacups with water and them downstairs to fill up your team's bucket. We did very well in all the events, earned a point for team spirit, and found ourselves in the wheelbarrow race to determine the final four teams. Molly and Clay teamed up and demolished everyone, placing us in the final competition: another wheelbarrow race. This was quite a challenge considering the course was probably the most ridiculously long wheelbarrow course I've ever seen and that gets tiring! Thankfully, Molly is a champ and Clay is Hercules, and the duo came out on top again! Thus we found ourselves in a tie with team That's What She Said. We had to compete in a one-time cheer off to determine the winner. Ours went a little something like this...

(Molly) Our thirst for victory has been quenched!

(Team) Inch by inch, inch by inch...

(Molly) We got skillz that killz, we outta control!

(Team) Row by row, row by row...

(Molly) We don't need the sun 'cause we already glow!

(Team) We just made this garden grow, WE JUST MADE THIS GARDEN GROW!

We then proceeded to break out into dance and everyone cheered, and Clay and I did the worm in opposite directions and everyone went nuts. It was basically perfect. We got first place in the cheer-off and became gold medalists in the Harlax10 Olympics. It was such a fun day with friends spent in the sun.

I can't believe that in one week I'll be saying goodbye to room 621 forever and going on one last trip...Italy! This semester has been everything I could have ever hoped or dreamed it to be; it's been more. The friends I've made, the places I've been, the things I've seen could never be replaced. I'm going to do my best to cherish what time I have left here, which shouldn't be difficult. I love this place...

Munich, Germany.

The first 24 hours of this trip involved quite a bit of traveling, so bear with me! Sarah and I left the Harlaxton courtyard at 8:20 on Thursday night, packed and ready to go. Our cab took us to the Grantham train station and we left on the 9:07 train; changed trains at Ely an hour later; changed trains at Cambridge 45 minutes later; and changed trains at Stansted Mountfitchet about 45 minutes later. We talked to an interesting British businessman on one of our rides, and on our last train a very drunk guy tried to convince us to come party with him, and a 12-year-old British boy did a very bad, hilarious impression of an American for us. We arrived at the airport around midnight and somehow by the grace of God found a squishy, comfy, leather couch in Costa, a coffee shop that stays open all night. We set up camp around us and got some food. Sarah napped while I worked on my computer, then we switched roles, and eventually we were both asleep on the couch with our alarms set for 6 am.

We stood in line for ages to get through security, and once we were through, Sara Seng and Jeremy joined us since they were on our flight. We hopped on a bus to our plane and took off at 8:10. We arrived in Munich (or Munchen in German) a restless hour and a half later. Sara Seng’s family friends picked her up at the airport, so Sarah, Jeremy and I were ready to figure out how in the world the German underground works when Jeremy’s friend, whom he wasn’t expecting to see until Sunday, introduced himself and offered all kinds of help. I honestly believe we would have been stuck in the airport trying to figure out what to do for hours if it hadn’t been for him.

So Ben helped us find our hotel, and he and Jeremy went walking around while Sarah and I showered and changed clothes. The Renaissance Munich Hotel is the bomb.com for the simple fact that they had little packets of gummy bears at reception and by the end of the trip, mine and Sarah’s room was littered with golden packets we had consumed over the weekend. Our room was so nice! We each had our own comfy, squishy beds and our own bathroom. I guess that sounds pretty normal for a hotel, but after staying in hostel after hostel, it’s a big deal!

We got back on the Metro with Jeremy and Ben, then hopped on a train to Füssen, a town that was about a two-hour train ride away. The German language is just astounding. There seems to be a minimum of 16 consonants in every word and they are almost impossible to pronounce. It was fun listening to Ben speak in German; it’s such a different, interesting language. Plus, I’m German! Ben asked me what I thought my last name meant, and I told him a little worker boy (I have looked it up before). And he said, “Well…kind of. More like a slave.” Oh, great. So my last name sounds super cool but doesn’t mean something too awesome…

Needless to say, Jeremy, Sarah and I all fell asleep on the ride after our less than satisfying night of sleep in the airport. We arrived and found the bus we were looking for only thanks to Ben’s ability to speak German. He lives in a town outside of Munich and studied at Jeremy’s high school for a year and they ran track together. So finally we arrived in a little town at the base of some awesome looking mountains—oh wait, let me rephrase, the SWISS ALPS—and we climbed our way up the hills, twists and turns to Nueschwanstein Castle. This crazy king of Germany, Ludwig II, commissioned the castle as personal retreat for himself. He died in 1886 and the castle was then opened to the public. It’s at the foot of the Swiss Alps and was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle, which is pretty easy to see when you compare pictures of the two.

It was so picturesque and I can definitely see how it was the model for Disney’s castle. It also offered an amazing view of the Alps, which were covered in snow and simply beautiful. We took it all in and headed back down the hills to get back on a bus to the train station, and then back to the city. The four of us went to a pizza place with rather yummy, huge slices of pizza, and I was satisfied and sleepy afterwards. Jeremy and Ben went to one of Ben’s friend’s houses, but Sarah and I decided to be lame old ladies for the weekend and crash early after such a limited amount of sleep. We had fun just hanging out in our hotel and chatting.

Saturday morning we got up around 9:30 and got ready to go in our tights, jeans, coats, hats and gloves—turns out, we way overdressed, but I was totally okay with that. It was a very nice day out. We studied the underground and mapped out our journey to Dachau, where a concentration camp from World War II is located. We arrived at the train station and grabbed a bus to the camp and rented audio guides. As we were listening to the first couple of talks, we overheard a tour that was being given in English, so we tagged along there. I figured I would retain more information listening to a real person as opposed to an electronic device, and it turns out the guide was really awesome and knew what she was talking about.

It was so incredibly interesting. Learning about the way the prisoners lived, the horrors they endured, the tortures they faced—seeing the gas chamber, crematoriums, and all the monuments was so surreal and humbling. It’s so hard to imagine what these people really faced all because of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. It is a great and terrible thing that can’t be ignored and I look forward to learning more about it. I took plenty of pictures that I’ll put on Facebook with captions to help describe what we saw a little better.

Sarah and I took the Metro to the city center, which we hadn’t actually seen yet, and quite frankly, we hardly did then. The street we emerged on from the underground was a wide shopping street, and I’m not that great at guessing numbers, but I honestly think there were a thousand people in that street. It was shoulder-to-shoulder, running into people left and right. The Easter holidays probably contributed to the amount of people there. All we wanted was food, so we searched until we found a sandwich parlor and ate a quick meal. We tried to shop, but it was seriously impossible with the amount of people there. So instead we bought several souvenirs and headed back to our hotel, where we lamely took a little nap.

Jeremy and Ben met us at our hotel at 7:30 and we decided we wanted some real German food, so we went to a restaurant called Augustiner Am Dom, in the city center (Marienplatz in German!). It was absolutely massive inside and very pretty building. I got some pretzels (any kind of bread is always good), a kind of pork dish that was really good and came with a potato dumpling. This tasted basically like mashed potatoes, but it was the strangest consistency; I’ve never eaten anything like it. It was like bread almost. But anyway, I dipped that in the sauce with my pork and loved it. The four of us stayed there fairly late, just talking and exchanging stories and discussing the differences in our culture. Once again, Sarah and I went back to our hotel and got in bed. Sarah was out like a light, but I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep because I was so freaked out I wasn’t going to wake up on time. My phone kept switching time zones and I was scared it was going to do it during the night, but thankfully I woke up on time, showered and finished packing.

We headed out before 8 and took the Metro to the train station where I had probably the worst airport experience of my life. The signs, although they were in English, were extremely unclear and we ended up trying to go through security in the wrong spot. So we had to redo the whole process and everyone was trying to cut everyone else, and they were super duper strict about the way your things went through the scanners (buckets at 90 degrees, please). Finally we made it through to our gate and got on our bus to take us to our train. There was a guy in a blue plaid shirt on there who took up two seats while the majority of the people were standing. He looked seriously uncomfortable and kept switching positions. He was just struggling with life. So we got on the plane just fine and right as the plane started moving to go to the runway, Blue Plaid Shirt stands up and tries to head toward the bathroom. The flight attendant asked him to sit down as he was turning an awful shade of green—the guy in front of him handed him a sick bag and he started coughing into it. It was sooo disgusting. That kind of stuff makes me want to gag! But the whole plane was laughing as he was clearly still wasted and getting sick. He made it through the rest of the flight and was in the aisle after we landed, getting sick again. I got off that plane as fast as possible and we made it through customs and to our train platform in plenty of time.

We had to switch trains at Peterborough, where we ran into two of our classmates, Taylor and Nate, who spent the weekend in Wales. We sat with them the rest of the way home and shared a cab back to Harlaxton as we made it home at a record early time for Sunday afternoon, around 4. I’m so glad I got to spend time in Germany and learn a little more about the place my ancestors are from. Maybe next time I’ll visit Damstadt!

Barcelona, Spain.

Let me just begin this blog with a list of things that went wrong on this trip but made it that much more epic and memorable: the rail ticket price was wrong, Clay’s ticket failed to print, our cab was late, Clay had no idea what time it was, we missed the train, Mariela was late picking us up from the airport, we forgot about the time difference, we lost communication with Mariela after turning off the phone she gave us, we forgot about the time change…again, Barcelona Airport was not available for online check in, we didn’t wake up on time…again, Chelsea busted her knee at the train station, and the train stopped before we needed it to. I will fill in all the details as I go along, so be prepared for a laugh.

First I’ll set the stage for the story of our departure. Our train was to leave the Grantham train station at 12:09 on Wednesday afternoon. Chelsea and I had class until 12 and Clay had class until 12:30 but we all arranged to leave at 11:45, which is when our cab was to pick us up at Harlaxton. The time rolled around and I left class early, where I ran into a frantic Chelsea downstairs. Apparently she had set her luggage in the Schroeder Lounge for safekeeping while she was in class; unfortunately, all the students going on the school Paris trip put their luggage in there too. Her suitcase was put in the van to go on the school trip and was nowhere to be found—not to mention our cab and Clay were MIA too.

I ran (literally) back to the Carriage House to put away my books and sprinted back to the manor to find that Chelsea had gotten the van unlocked and possessed her luggage once more. I told her to call Street Cars and see where the heck our cab was and I set off to locate Clay. I had no idea what classroom he was in, so I was just flying through the manor, poking my head in random classrooms and looking through windows. Finally I spotted Clay (who was, might I add, stretching and paying absolutely zero attention to what time it was) and I could hardly make words come out I was so stressed, so I just flapped my arms around crazily, causing the entire class to turn and look at me, and screamed, “We have to GO!” P.Sherman consented and Clay followed me out as we ran back downstairs.

Chelsea informed us that Street Cars did not even have us written down to pick up, but they were on their way. The cab arrived at 12:01 so we had eight minutes to make it to the train station, where we still had to print off our tickets—and that’s pushing it. Once we pulled up to the station Chelsea and I sprinted out of the cab leaving Clay to grab our luggage, and we ran inside—only to watch the tail end of our 12:09 train leave the station. So we talked to the train station guy and discovered that all the trains to London would have made us miss our flight, so we turned to our only option—call a cab. So we rang Street Cars (the same Ds who had just made us miss our train!) and Tattoo Man (as we like to call him) picked us up right away. It was kind of a fun cab ride because we talked to him a lot of the time (and he told us about a couple he took to the airport getting blown up in Egypt—literally) and reflected on the fact that although we missed our train we were going to make it to the airport in plenty of time.

Once in the airport, we grabbed some Burger King and observed this group of interestingly gross Spanish kids until we left. Finally we arrived in Barcelona Airport where we were so excited to be picked up my Chelsea’s family friend, Mariela, and be taken care of all weekend and not have to worry about a thing. While she did take care of us, that didn’t happen right away because, problematically, she was not at the airport. So we waited around for her to arrive but had no success finding her, so Chelsea paid for Wifi and we attempted to reach her through Skype—we ended up talking to her daughter and husband who told us she had gone to the wrong terminal, so she arrived late, but we were so relieved to see her!

I have to mention that beforehand, Chelsea bought train tickets for 17 pounds or so (that ended up being useless as we missed our train), but Clay and I tried to purchase the exact same tickets and they were over 30 pounds each, yet still 17 pounds when Chelsea looked online. She had to buy our tickets for us and we paid her back. Not to exclude the fact that EasyJet simply refused to allow Clay to check in online and print his boarding pass until an hour or so before we had to leave. The trip gets better, don’t worry. And by better I mean more ridiculous.

So we met Mariela, whom I was able to tell right away was a sweet person. She is fluent in English and Spanish having studied in Canada and the United States many times—she and her husband both got their Masters from WKU, and that’s how she met Chelsea’s grandma and they have been friends for many years. We rode with her back to her little town called La Garriga, about 45 minutes from Barcelona in a car, and we ate at a delicious real Italian place that was literally right next to her apartment building. The pizza was wonderful and I tried tiramisu, which I thought I didn’t like, but I actually loved it! Looks like Olive Garden will be getting some more of my money…

We got settled in Mariela’s flat, which was quite tiny, as she is normally there by herself because her children are all in college and her husband is a professor in Madrid. Chelsea and I had our own room and Clay had his own and it was so nice to not have to worry about our belongings and come and go as we pleased. We also lived with Romeo, Mariela’s “handsome gato” as she called her cat, for the duration of our stay. The three of us stayed up and talked a while before we called it a night and set our alarms in order to go into Barcelona with Mariela the next morning.

Unfortunately for us, our iPhones didn’t recognize the time change into Spain, and we woke up an hour late. Mariela insisted that we eat breakfast and take the train into town, so we had a lovely Spanish breakfast on a Spanish balcony overlooking the little Spanish town. It was so neat, besides the fact Romeo (pronounced Roh-may-oh in Espanol) might have licked all over our ham. No big deal. After breakfast we walked two blocks to the train station and bought tickets to the center of Barcelona. We had to wait a bit for the train and then it was about an hour ride into town. We arrived at La Placa de Catalunya and when straight into El Corte Ingles as Mariela had instructed and located a map of the city after a good 30 minutes of searching. The map was absolutely massive so I’m sure we fit right in with the crowd as we were searching all over it.

The city center was very pretty with two huge circular fountains and a grassy area in the middle. We ate lunch beside one of the monuments and continued to La Rambla, a wide street full of shops of all kinds. There were souvenir places, a section of shops with all sorts of cute and cuddly animals such as baby chicks and rabbits, and a garden section with flowers, cacti and cute little orange trees. We also stumbled upon a HUGE fruit and vegetable market so we checked the whole thing out and were disturbed to find that not only were there rows after rows of colorful fruits and vegetables, but there were meat stands with whole heads (eyes and teeth included) of what I think was a goat. Needless to say, I didn’t purchase any goat heads and we continued down the street until we reached a statue of Christopher Columbus, who was pointing the way to the Americas. He was commissioned by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to explore west in the 15^th century, in case you were wondering.

We crossed a bridge over water that was covered in pretty sailboats and explored the mall we passed and of course I couldn’t resist the most amazing looking ice cream ever known to man. We finally found the beach and while Clay and Chelsea searched the shore for neat rocks (which they found), I just kind of took everything in and listened to the waves. We took some pictures and were lucky enough to get a few shots of the naked man who was walking the beach, which is apparently completely normal in Spain. We headed back to the main area and saw Barcelona’s Cathedral as well as another market, which had a lot of neat antique stuff but it was super expensive. Mariela picked us up at El Corte Ingles (we were able to communicate because she gave us one of her three phones for the weekend) and we bought the ingredients to make cheese quesadillas once we arrived in La Garriga. We then picked up Mariela’s son, Rodrigo and his enormous dog, Tesca. It was interesting to chat with him, and after scarfing down quesadillas at Mariela’s, we called it a night.

The next morning I was thrilled to find the sun beaming down on Mariela’s rooftop terrace, so we donned our bathing suits and laid out in the warm sun for a few hours. It felt so weird to be outside in anything less than two layers and a winter coat, but I loved it! I got some much needed sun and relaxation. We decided we had plenty of daylight left, so we took the train into town again and then, after much confusion and translation, figured out how the work the Spanish Metro and went to a cathedral Mariela absolutely insisted that we see. It’s called La Sagrada Familia (the sacred family) and was designed by Gaudi, a very famous Spanish architect. It is one of the most organic cathedrals ever built, based on nature and free-form shapes. We went to the ticket office to get inside the cathedral and they informed us it were closing in 25 minutes and the towers were closed, but we wanted to go through it since we were already there. So we paid our 10 Euros each, and walked into what looked like a construction sight. Scaffolding was built to the ceiling, the entire center of the cathedral was roped off because workbenches cluttered with tools took up all the space, and little slivers of stained glass windows could be seen through gaps here and there. It was very beautiful and different from any other cathedral we had seen, but it looked like they were rebuilding the thing! When we told Mariela the whole place was under construction, she said, “Yes. They’re building it.” Turns out, this structure has been being built since the 1800s and we witnessed the construction, which is pretty cool if you think about it, just not what we were expecting!

Chelsea had on a dress, I wore a skirt, and Clay sported shorts, which is apparently absolutely insane to the Spanish even in 70-degree weather. They’re so used to the hot that they were cold when we were warm. We got all sorts of looks and comments, which was interesting I suppose. We hopped back on the Metro and went to Parc Guel, a famous lookout point over the city, similar to Sacre Coure in Paris (I think it’s pretty cool I can casually compare the two…). The park was located in a somewhat shady section of town, but it was very pretty and offered a wonderful view of the city. The sun was shining down on the buildings, making them all orange and gold and yellow. We checked out the whole area and saw, what I learned after returning to the UK, what was used as a runway on an episode of American’s Next Top Model. Neato!

We got back to La Placa de Catalunya and broke down for some American food at the Hardrock Café. It was absolutely amazingly wonderfully tasty—I got a cold glass of sweet tea for the first time since I’ve been here, mashed potatoes and what was surely the best cheeseburger I have ever put in my mouth. It was nice to be in a recognizable atmosphere at least for a little bit. After dinner we went back to our cute little town (after waiting for a train for about an hour and a half—there is absolutely no time schedule for the trains!) and hit the hay.

Saturday morning we walked outside Mariela’s apartment into a full-fledged market full of fruit, vegetables, breads, clothes and shoes. We bought some breakfast donuts, all sorts of fruit and I bought some awesome white Spanish shoes for 6 Euros. We bought a baguette from the local bakery as well as some groceries for the rest of our stay, and took everything back to our rooms. We changed into our bathing suits once more and made our way into the city and planted ourselves on the beach. It was beautiful and sunny and I couldn’t have been happier to lie on a towel in the sand and get HOT. We met up with our friends Sarah, Molly, Russell and Susan who had been in Madrid for a few days and then came to Barcelona. We hung out with them on the beach for a while and traded stories about our trips thus far, and decided to get a nice dinner together. We went to a tapas (appetizer) bar where Clay and Russell dominated all sorts of all-you-can-eat tapas, while the rest of us ordered normal meals and shared pitches of sangria with super huge straws.

The plan we set up with Mariela was that she would call us that evening and let us know when she would be through Barcelona after she picked her husband up from the airport so we could ride home with her instead of taking the train. Chelsea checked the phone she had given us at dinner and noticed it didn’t have much battery life left, so she turned it off in a haste to save power. I told her she ought to just call her now and we could work out a plan in case the phone died. So Chelsea turned the phone back on to discover a four-digit pass code was needed to gain access to the phone. This was a problem, as we had no idea what the pass code was. We tried 1234 and 0000, when the phone told us we only had one more guess. We didn’t want to mess it up, so we gave up on the phone and decided to try and find Wifi somewhere to call Mariela via Skype with the phone numbers I happened to have saved in my phone, given to us by her daughter, when we were trying to reach her at the airport. We couldn’t find a place with free Wifi after trapsing around the city, so we decided to try our luck with a payphone. We knew one of the numbers belonged to Mariela’s husband, so we waited until we knew his plane had landed and attempted to reach him with what little change we had between us. We had no idea how to dial the number, if we needed a country code or an area code, or how to even purchase a call. So we waited about an hour for the last train to take us back to La Garriga, where Mariela was waiting for us—she must have been so worried after we basically disappeared! But she knew we knew the way home, and we got back just fine, but it was a hilarious situation to be in on top of all the other incidents of the trip.

Sunday morning we woke up an hour later than we had planned and finally decided to change our phones to Barcelona time, and took the train to the Arc de Triompf (like the one in Paris). We made our way to the Barcelona (or Barthelona, as we like to say now) Zoo after a lunch of microwaved pizza—actually pretty tasty. We walked through a pretty park to get to the entrance and enjoyed looking at all the animals at the zoo. We saw all the usuals—giraffes, lions, hippos, every kind of monkey ever, zebras, dolphins, tortoises, bears, gazelles, and we even saw a peacock try to mate with another peacock. He spread his feathers out, which were absolutely gorgeous, and then vibrated from head to toe. It was so cool! It seemed like half the animals we saw were lying on the ground, sprawled in awkward positions, so Clay came to the conclusion that someone darted all the animals half an hour before we got there, which seems pretty accurate to me. We had some time to kill, so we laid down in the grass in the park outside the zoo and soaked up the sun. I’ll admit I took a bit of a catnap before Mariela and her husband, who had arrived the night before from Madrid, picked us up and we went back to her place.

They showed us around La Garriga, which is a very old, cute little Spanish town. The sun was setting and it was a great night to be outside. We had to wait around to eat dinner because it’s protocol to eat around 8:30 or 9 in Spain, which is late even for Americans, and especially for Britons. I had a traditional Spanish dish called paella, which is spicy rice with seafood like shrimp, squid and muscles. I tried all of it and I really liked it! We also all shared traditional Spanish bread, which was of course wonderful, and Clay, Chelsea and I each got a different dessert and tried each other’s. Mine was the best, if I do say so—warm chocolate brownie with gooey chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Mariela and her husband insisted on paying for us (a trend of the trip) and it was really enjoyable to talk with them for the evening.

Once we got back home, Clay and I had to print off our boarding passes and check in online for our flight the next night, which we attempted to do. It became a problem, however, when Barcelona Airport was not an option on the list of departures, even though the site told us our flight was from Barcelona Airport to London. We tried to call the service desk but the lines were closed for the night, so we had no choice but to wait and call in the morning. We wanted to get going early the next morning, so I set my alarm for 8, and woke up at 9—what a complete fail. So I jumped in the shower and we all got ready, and we called EasyJet to see what the deal was. I explained our problem to the lady and she said, “Oh well you can’t check in online because Barcelona is the only airport that doesn’t allow online check-ins.” Wow, thanks, it would have been helpful to know that before we tried to check in! So we had nothing to worry about and began our day by going to the train station.

The trains only arrive every once in a while and there is no set schedule (I have no idea how anyone accomplishes anything in Spain) so you basically had to take your chances and hope you didn’t have to wait an hour. As we walked up the stairs to La Garriga’s train station, we saw our train approaching. In order to get to the ticket office, you have to actually cross the tracks, which Chelsea realized and said, “We have to beat the train!” So we took off running down the platform and across the tracks, up the stairs and—Cheslea was DOWN. Her shoe slipped on the uneven, wooden stairs and she fell down hard, laughing and in pain at the same time. I told Clay to buy the tickets as quickly as he could and I helped Chelsea up the stairs, hardly able to breathe I was laughing so hard. The train was stopped as Clay was trying to register our tickets (a kind of machine that validates your ticket) and Chelsea was slumping against the bench, clutching her knee. The doors to the train closed and it was about to take off when the ticket guy on the train must have taken mercy on our situation and opened a door for us, so I told Clay to come on whether he had registered our tickets or not and we ran (well, Chelsea limped) onto the silent train that was staring at us as we were laughing and crying and laughing some more. Chelsea’s knee had a huge purple bruise on it and was already swollen, but she said it was worth the sacrifice of making the train. It all just happened so fast and was seriously hilarious.

So we were safely on the train to the Arc de Triompf stop, when the train stopped at a station we were unfamiliar with. Apparently, as a nice Spanish boy kindly informed us in broken English, that the train stopped there and we had to get off. Perfect! We had to figure out where to go on the underground and finally made it to our stop after a long and eventful morning.

We went to this beautiful area we had seen in pictures and wanted to check out. A huge golden statue was on top of a stone structure with stairs leading up either side. A gorgeous waterfall covered in greenery cascaded down the front of the structure into a beautiful pool of water with several fountains and statues that popped up here and there. The pictures do it better justice, but it was seriously breathtaking. I loved it! Right next to that was a little pond with rowboats you could rent for only a few Euros, so of course we partook of that and rowed around the pond (I was a far better rower than Clay), and we ate lunch in the boat. We were surrounded by little turtles and tiny ducklings. It was so neat!

We went back to La Rambla to purchase a few last minute gifts and postcards, then went back to La Garriga for the last time. Mariela cooked us a wonderful dinner of chicken and four-cheese pasta with bread and tasty vanilla yogurt/pudding and we gathered everything for our journey home. Mariela and her husband took us to the airport and bid us farewell (we were so lucky to have them as hosts!) and questioned the legitimacy of BMI Baby, which was the airline we were flying with. It was amusing. We waited around in the airport and took “reaction pictures” which turned out to be quite hilarious, boarded our smooth flight, and were picked up by Tattoo Man at 1:30 am or so. It was nice to be back at Harlaxton despite the cold, but the long holiday (that’s what they call vacation here) I was able to take to Barcelona was relaxing, aside from the interesting situations we found ourselves in, and so much fun.