Amsterdam!!

Im typing from a macbook store in AMSTERDAM!!!


Simply love it here, great food, museums, shops, beautiful people... really quite amazing.
craigs birthday was wonderful. hes now...20!

oh and by the way... got accepted to go to OXFORD in the spring.

get excited. IAM.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to the man who folds my laundry, holds my hand, and shares his toothbrush with me.
Love you more than mopeds, the color blue, naps, and all the pumpkin pie in the world. here's to twenty more years of driving fast cars and traveling across the world.

(if he looks asleep in the first picture, its probably because he nearly was... we got up at 8 am to do presents and breakfast together before i left for torino.)

Traveling Quotes

 “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” –Mark Twain

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

 “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

 “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” –Samuel Johnson

 “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell

cozy.

Today in Alba it is very very cold out and rainy.  Im surprised it's not snow.

Its one of those days where all you want to do is sit on the couch under a warm blanket sipping hot coco and watching a movie. Craig and I have to go to class of course, so we bundled up as warm as we could and headed out into the awful weather.  But that made these blankets from Old Faithful, a store in Canada look even better when i saw them online. sigh. maybe we can go stop by a cafe after italian class for some hot coco at least.  This weather is turning my fingers into popsicles.

Things to do list:

So much is going on this week, and i haven't even unpacked from this weekend.

Things to do:

Monday- Study for italian, go cash meal tickets and buy the remaining ingredients for pumpkin pie and some snacks for our upcoming week of traveling, wrap craig's birthday presents, go see the travel agent to pick up plane tickets and pay

Tuesday- Clean up the apartment, finish unpacking, do laundry, take my italian test, book a hostel in Amsterdam, make Craig's birthday pumpkin pie, have a little evening with pie and presents in the apt.

Wednesday- Trip to Turino with cinema class to see a museum, pack for our upcoming trips to Amsterdam and Berlin, make sure cameras, phones, and ipods are charged.

Thursday- Craigs actual birthday! Train from Alba to Milan, flight from Milan to Amsterdam. Check into hostel and get settled.

Friday- sleep in and relax.

Rome

the view from the steps of the heritage building

Andrew modeling in front of St. Peters 

Best gelato in Italy so far!

maple walnut, white chocolate, and banana!!

Before the sun had come up outside the trainstation

before sun rise at the coloseum

later in the day at the Coloseum

I hate crossing streets

it was so beautiful i had to take a lot of pictures

VIVE ROMA!

Sunrise shot

another sunrise shot

early morning lights among the ruins

more ancient ruins

nature in the busy city

isnt it lovely? i love rome.

fruit stand outside of the ruins. the guy running it threw a bucket of dirty water on chelsea, he was one of those indian guys who are always selling useless shit. at least the fruit looked good.

i dont know who this is.

The heritage building! 

best vinegar ive ever had. tangy and sweet.

fountain outside of santa maria

the pantheon... note the occulus.

ohh i want this cute little car. or one like it. it would make me so happy.

walking along the canal!

along the canal outside of the castle

a small bit of the large castle

inside the coloseum

piazza di popolo

back inside the coloseum, sorry these photos aren't in any particular order.

andrew and his delicious sandwich!!

Roma.

     Rome was pretty fabulous, not going to lie.  My mom had heard from someone else who had visited that it was over rated, but i would have to disagree completely.  Craig had decided to go to Modena, home of Ferrari's and since I wasn't about to travel in such a major city all alone, I recruited Andrew Smith and housemate and friend of mine, to accompany me.  Chelsea was already headed to Rome that weekend to meet up with her parents, who were taking advantage of their daughter being in Italy, by making a visit here themselves.  We all took a night train in. My first night train experience. Wow, night trains are rough, six people per cabin, think hogwarts express, with the sliding glass doors.  It was a bit too cramped to really sleep, but i drifted in and out of consciousness for a little while on the 10 hour train ride.  We arrived in Rome at 5:50 am... the tough life of a traveler. haha. Nothing was really open yet, so after making a quick bathroom stop in the train station, we watched the sun rise over the Coloseum. yeah pretty amazing. We walked around some ruins as the sun continued rising, visited the national heritage building, headed over to the Pantheon, and ended up seeing the fountain of Trevi on the way.  The weather couldn't have been better, clear skies perfect temperature.  We saw Santa Maria Magiore and then stopped for gelato at the best gelataria i had seen in all of italy...so many flavors!! i got white chocolate, maple walnut, and banana.  Banana quickly became my favorite flavor of gelato. so delicious!! We made a point of walking through Campo di Fiori, a famous marketplace with tons of vendors selling truffle paste, lemoncello, and olive oil.  I tried some of the best balsamic vinegar id ever had, and we all smiled and helped ourselves to sample Cinnamon and Chocolate-cello shots. Who can say no to free samples? even if it was before lunch. Then Andrew and I visited the Vatican City and headed off to check into our hostel for a nap.  We woke up later that evening and met up with Chelsea and her parents at the spanish steps for a few glasses of wine and some apartifs. mmm. Back at the hostel we met our room mates, two guys from the Peace Corps, who were vacationing from Moldova where they were stationed in eastern europe, as well as two australian guys who were spending six months traveling.  We asked everyones favorite foods (giros from greece and pastries from berlin and eastern cuisine in general), favorite places (BUDAPEST all around! but berlin came up as well, smile), and the place with the best looking girls. okay andrew asked that not me and to be honest i forget where they said.

     The next morning, i took full advantage of our hostels full continental breakfast with little cheese platters, fresh pastries, granola, milk, juice, yogurt, and meats. Then i stood in line to enter St. Peters Basilica, completely worth the 15 minute wait, it was strikingly gorgeous.  It was the only thing that has ever made me consider becoming a nun.  Luckily for craig, i didn't really look into the matter and headed off to the Castle Sant'Angelo.  After some pictures, i headed off along the canal, walked two main shopping streets, and ate lunch at the famous Piazza de Popolo.  Then I walked back to the Coloseum and this time went inside, since it was open.  Crazy actually being inside.  I watched the sunset on the coloseum while wandering up a winding path to a small church, before meeting up with andrew for some chinese food!  After the Chinese food we visited some ritzy hotels and the opera house, as well as a monostary.  We made one last stop at an eastern food vendor so andrew could munch on a giro while we waited for our train.  Another night train back to Alba with some cranky middle aged women cabin mates before we made it back to homebase for a long well deserved nap.

To Rome or not to roam...

hmmm.
traveling last weekend was so lovely... i'm thinking of hitting up Rome this weekend.
Home to the Vatican City
The Colosseum
Palatine Hill
The Pantheon
The Spanish Steps
The Trevi Fountain
and the Vittorio Emmanuale II Monument
It might put a dent in my pocket money, but for some reason i think i would regret living in Italy for four months and not visiting Rome.

so if i share my story with you will you share your dollar with me?

Cinque Terre

So last weekend i ventured out on my first trip all by myself.  Yes, my parents both probably had heart attacks. Yes, Craig also.  But i thought i managed quite well, making all my trains, finding nice places to stay, and eating all my meals.  There were a couple other girls from our group going to Cinque Terre the same weekend as i was, but they all had plans to stay in separate towns and hostels and not wanting to interrupt anyones plans, (if you know craig, you know he's gets tired walking from his car in the driveway to his house, so there was no way he was coming on a 10 mile hike, hauling ass over high set cliff sides for seven hours- especially with rain in the weather forecast) so I set off by myself on my great hiking adventure. The train ride was long but beautiful the skies were clear, and we were chugging quietly along the most blue looking sea i had ever seen. Not to mention craig had fully charged my ipod and loaded it up with Harry Potter, so i had something interesting to listen to.  After the train finally pulled into the final station, i found my hostel fairly quickly, located right off the main drag of the tiny little town Riomaggiore; and for only 15 dollars a night, i was in a dorm bed with clean sheets.  

     When i arrived in my dorm, the other beds all had luggage on them but no-body was home, so i locked my backpack to the bed, grabbed my camera and headed down towards the marina.  I think the only place i could really compare the beauty of cinque terre with would be the grand canyon, which is, i think, the only other place that has physically taken my breath away with how beautiful it is.  Right on the coast of Italy, the blue blue of the sea against the heavy grey sky, was some of the most gorgeous beaches you can imagine.  No sand, just large smooth rocks (like the kinds you find in red lobster parking lots) which would roll against each other as the waves came in and washed over them.

Soon enough i had met the other people staying in my hostel, two guys from New Zealand (kiwis), a guy from Syracuse NY, a girl from Jackson Hole Wyoming, a girl from Ireland, and a girl from Tazmania, and we all plunged into the sea for a goose pimple-y freezing swim.  Then we lay on the rocks for a while eating some olives someone had brought along, looking out at the water and talking about our travel plans and our lives back at home. I was tired, having gotten up at 4:30 that morning to make my train, and I had refused to let myself sleep on the ride down, for fear of missing one of my stops, and so after a while i headed back off to the hostel to take a nap; though not before my new friends had made plans with me for dinner at 7.  Back at the hostel, i dozed off, and awoke later in the evening to the sound of the two kiwis, who had showered and were heading out to go get dinner supplies.  For two euros each, we made pasta with fresh pesto (cinque terre is the place where pesto supposedly originated) a fresh salad, sliced some bread, and had a few bottles of dry cinque terre wine.  After some of us cooked, we all ate, and then whoever hadn't cooked, cleaned the dishes... we settled down to a fierce game of spoons, which was played with some forks also, due to the hostel not really having all that much cutlery.   One of the kiwis was particularly excited to play spoons because he had just learned it while he had been staying in Belgium the past weekend, and was apparently his newest favorite game.  In between the rounds someone would tell a story, and the loser of each round would wear a pot on their head, for no apparent reason, other than we had made that a rule. I got heaps of great travel advice, as all of these people, all around my age, had been traveling all over the world for the past months, and were generous with their advice "when in paris, make sure to lock everything up, and don't go out at night" "Norway is the place to be, don't miss it"  "when you stay in Rome, make sure you stay in the Alexandria hostel, the staff is very helpful and the board is cheap"  I said goodbye headed off to bed fairly early, with plans to hike the entire seaside trail the next day.

And so i did. Woke up at 8, checked out of my hostel, and started off on the hike with all my weekend stuff in my hiking backpack on my back.  Soon enough i met up with some random Canadians, my age, who were hiking the trail around the same pace as me.  Kelsey and Ryan became friends quickly, as we hiked the entire trail, all seven hours, together, swapping stories and pieces of fruit.  They were rather adorable, just two friends traveling europe for a few months while they took a gap year from college.  Ryan had just won the World Championship of Tai Kwon Do which had taken place last month, and was his real reason for being in Europe to begin with.  Both of them said lots of cute canadian words like "warshroom" and they loved that i had my name embroidered on my "runners." They too, were generous with their traveling advice, had been to over 15 countries in Europe, and were headed home next month.  The hike wasn't easy, but it was gorgeous.  If my camera hadn't been running so low on battery i would have had a lot more pictures to show you.  Kelsey and Ryan hiked with me all the way to the last town, the farthest north, Monterosso, where we all hugged before parting ways at the train station.  Then i was off to find somewhere to stay for the night, scouring my tour-book and settling upon a reasonably priced hotel.  Much more expensive than my hostel form the previous night, Hotel Souvenir provided me with a hot shower, a large double bed in a room all to myself, a great view, and shelter from the rain which had just begun to pound upon the roof, and the thunder and lightening which i was grateful had waited until i was inside to begin raging.  After a hot shower, it was still pretty early in the evening, so i put my raincoat back on, and ran along the little overhangs on the side of the stores on the main drag.  I dipped into a church,which was dry, open, and had several beautiful paintings hanging on the walls, stayed for a few moments, then dipped back out onto the main street.  I found a cute little wine shop to pick up a bottle of the Cinque Terre wine, a dry white, found only one place in the whole world... here in Cinque.  The owner was hosting a free lemoncello tasting, so i had a few small shots of lemoncello, some crackers with bruchetta, and bought my wine.  Then i headed back to the hotel, let myself into my room, and ate a sandwich i had packed before i left, while reading my tour book on Venice.

The next morning, dawned clear, crisp, and freezing.  I wasn't sure if there was a continental breakfast at the hotel, and for some reason couldn't remember how to ask in Italian, although i later remembered, and ended up checking out and heading down to the towns marina.  It being a Sunday, all the self respecting stores were closed, but i wandered around some tacky trinket shops before grabbing a cafe espresso and heading off to the train station to catch my train back home.  It was all in all, a once in a life time experience, and i'm pretty pleased with myself that i hiked the whole thing, with my heavy pack, and made some new friends along the way.  Very invigorating experience for sure.