cinque terre

saturday i embarked on a hiking adventure with my dear friend lauren and her lovely mother allison. the saba sisters. we left at 7am and took a few trains to get to the regaled cinque terre. which really just means five cities. you are supposed to be able to hike between each little city. they all kind of look the same with tall, thin, colorful clumps of buildings on the water. absolutely beautiful. some trails were closed so we ended up only hiking from riomaggiore to manarola and taking trains between the rest of the cities. had a lovely lunch on the water in manarola. it's fun having a mom here, i get to pretend she's my mom. and allison is a painting, no clothes wearing, hair dreading, hippie which is so my kind. we sat on the water for a while and painted with water colors. it was such an adventure, we just wandered all day. and i can't think of two people i'd rather do that with. thank you lo and allison for letting me join you. and paying for way too much. full day of travel but so worth it.

my traveling companions

cliffs we hiked

keys on via dell amore

barceloooona

barcelona. worth it. plenty of expensive travelling, but worth it. i've never seen anything like it. definitely the most unique city i've ever been. i mean gorgeous. crazy architecture. gaudi sure did know what he was doing. or maybe he had no idea what he was doing and he's just brilliant. overall i love barcelona.

thursday- 12 hours of travel. lots of waiting. and more money than we'd expected. but as soon as we got there we didn't care. while it wasn't quite as warm as we'd hoped it was beautiful. our good friend denny met us at the bus stop and we walked across the city to our hostel. i have never seen architecture like spain in my life! we had a very packed night. straight fun til 5am. literally. we hit up bo de b for spanish goodness dinner. then to a bar to meet denny's friends for drinks where we met hilarious people and played ridiculous games. then to opium- this sweet club on the beach. i mean unlike any club i've ever been too. we danced so hard until we crashed at 5. such a long day, but so worth it.

our friend ariel eating patatas bravas at bo de b

friday- after a good amount of sleep we took on the day. first to park guell full of gaudi goodness. kind of a mixture of whoville and wonderland- enough exploration to last a whole day. then we grabbed some food and had a hilariously fun picnic in a little park. and ate and ate and ate. ran to a surprise denny had for us which turned out to be a sweet fountain light show so we camped out and watched for a bit. then hit up champagneria for some world famous champagne and chicken sandwiches. so worth it. decided to get the most out of denny's blanket so we headed to the beach and looked at stars. another full, happy day.

park guell

park picnic

fountain show

saturday- got up early enough to snatch some hostel breakfast. mmm bread. went to check out sagrada familia. i have never seen a church like it in my life! again more sweet spanish architecture. got the BEST churro's i've ever laid eyes on and wandered around an antique market. went to a different inside food market and stocked up on more picnic materials. went to the beach and laid out- eating of course. an infamous local perpetually naked man named "sassquach" graced us with his presence. lucky day. we napped in a pile until it was time to eat again. of course we had to go back to bo de b. more spanish goodness. then headed out to a bar to watch the barcelona madrid soccer game. tied in the end but such a fun cultural experience to be there!

sagrada familia

churrrrrros!

beach picnic

and sunday we left. we went hard all weekend and took in as much of barcelona as we physically could. so much fun. thanks to our very dear friend and tour guide we got a full spanish experience. we love you denny. it was perfect. and i do love spain.

i am in love with this city

i can't believe i have to leave in three weeks. seriously can't believe it. i know it seems kind of far away but i just can't imagine leaving. i mean i will. and i am excited to come home. but i am not looking forward to leaving. i love this city.

florence has honestly become my home. i feel so comfortable here. i know where i am at all(most) times. i know how to get wherever i need to go. i can walk around all day by myself and never get bored. i actually do that quite often. i can walk into gusta panino and know exactly what i want. and that andrea will be working and will make my panini exactly how i like it. i spend my afternoons in between classes at volume, my favorite coffee shop, for hours at a time and never get kicked out. and i mean hours. i have italian friends. i have restaurants i frequent. i'm a regular.

florence has changed me. i am more independent and adventurous than ever (if you can believe it). i have become even more passionate about life and i feel like i know what full life means. i hope i never lose this drive. that i continue to explore god's glory every day for the rest of my life. because we're not living in forever. and i don't want to miss anything. i love god more because of the awesome things he's shown me since being here. through art and nature and people and life in general. and that doesn't stop in italy. but i do have this experience to thank for that.

i am so attached to this place i don't know how i am ever going to leave.

FUTBOL.

actually in italy it's called calcio. but i prefer futbol. so fun though. first we had a richmond university game against a school called capa. i was told this would be a. all girls and b. an impromptu pickup game. i mean i played soccer for a good 7 years. it's been a while but it would be fun. turns out it was a. all boys on the opposing team and a few bold girls on our team b. in a stadium and most of our school came to watch. pressure. i wasn't geekin too hard but definitely a little nervous about what the heck i signed up for. i warned some of the guys that i wasn't good and they shouldn't expect too much from me. they in turn decided i wasn't allowed to leave until i scored. great. so we got there and shot around a bit and pretended like we were a real team who practiced/at least knew each others' names (like the other team). we started playing and my oh my i forgot how much i love soccer. i am by no means good- quite rusty actually. but it was so fun! and our team actually worked really well together. and wouldn't you believe it i did score! it was kind of a fluke and i was totally set up but i put it in! the stands went wild it was so fun. we ended up winning 2-1 after some far more impressive goals from taylor and chris. we had an awesome team and even better fans so it was actually a blast!

our lovely roooooms came to cheer us on!

representin the ladies

sunday we went to an actual fiorentina milan soccer game. got there and wouldn't you know it our school got us 3rd row seats. and this was a seriously big game. italian soccer fans are bloody nuts. it was awesome. we went with some boys from our program who bet us that milan would win. well they're number one but we stuck with our home team. and we lost so now we have to make the boys dinner. but the game was a perfectly italian cultural experience. they love their soccer. even though florence isn't that good. it was quite an event.

the girls at the game

greece vid

a lil greece vid

song: generator^1st floor by freelance whales

arno rats

i can't believe i haven't written about this sooner.

there are rats in the arno. not little scurrying rats. like huge stampeding rats. we heard about them and assumed the were a legend/exaggerated. and how horribly understated they were...

i wish i had something to show exactly how big these suckers are. 3 feet on average including their tail. at first we thought they were actually beavers. but close inspection and pictures prove they are nothing but rats. and don't worry there's a huge nest of them right by our house. we've actually become quite fond of them and enjoy showing them off to visitors. they don't bother us. they're just huge. freakishly huge. and real funny. so in case you ever hear a tall tale about huge mutant river rats- know it's real life.

top five things i miss/don't miss

top 5 things i miss about the u.s.:

1. peanut butter.

2. any concept of lines or taking turns. and personal space in general.

3. the ability to wear a sundress in 70 degrees without getting touched/stared at like you're sunbathing in the arctic.

4. free water in restaurants.

5. drying machines.

top 5 things i do not miss about the u.s.:

1. having to tip anyone ever.

2. the mediocre quality of pizza, pasta, and gelato.

3. the general "rushed" feel of everyday life/need to be busy all day every day.

4. expensive airfare. and inability to hop to any country at any moment.

5. textbooks.

and of course i miss you all. i'll come home eventually i think. just not yet.

greeciest week ever

greecey perfection. the best spring break we ever could have imagined. all we had was a plane and a hostel for a week on a random greek island we knew nothing about. and from there... we just let life happen.

rhodes is one of the biggest greek islands. such a chill place. we stayed in a village called haraki that was literally just a quarter mile strip of beach and a few houses and shops. plus it's not tourist season yet so most places were closed. we stayed in haraki mare apartments which was lovely. we had a cute little loft only 50 feet away from the beach. run by stella and eleftheria- the most hospitable sisters you'll ever find. and we were actually the only tourists in all of haraki. therefore we befriended the locals. the only bar/restaurant open was haraki dreams owned by a lovely man named mike. friends with bartenders= big connections and free drinks and crepes.

mike's bar

orange festival. the first full day we were there we walked a couple miles to another village that was holding an orange festival. we didn't really know what that meant but man was it worth it. so greek. music and dancing and free food. we were obviously the only non-greeks. we just sat for hours and took it all in. there was a stage where greek performers in cool costumes would dance. on the ground, impromptu dance circles would form when popular songs came on. people would just gather and dance and they all knew the steps. i was sitting in my seat trying to learn the footwork. got some down. mostly we just sat and creeped. and took pics.

orange festival

greek dancers

several days were spent doing absolutely nothing. waking up whenever we woke up and laying on the beach all day. so relaxing. no agenda no plans. just straight chilling. we hiked up the rocks by our beach one day. i can't get over how beautiful greece is. like untouched natural beauty. it's my kind of place. blue skies and clear water doesn't hurt either. watched movies on my computer at night. read. wrote. talked. ate. we needed this.

rhodes from the mountain

lindos. another village by haraki of whitewashed houses. the way i picture greece. we walked around and went in a bunch of shops. explored. took pics. laughed. ate gyros. decided we wanted to ride donkeys up this hill to this castle thing called acropolis. lo and i got on our donkeys and ju was behind us. next thing we knew ju's donkey was running away and the guy was not holding the reigns. her donkey ran most of the way up the hill with her bouncing all over and lo and i dying laughing behind her. worth it. walked back down from the hill and wandered around more. very cool little village.

overlooking lindos

riding donkeys

one night at mike's bar a guy walked in who we recognized as a performer from the orange festival. so we talked to him a bit. and the next night ended up at his bar in the next village. his name is spiros and he is loads of fun. we danced and sang all night at his bar with him and had a blast. the next day he took us into rhodes town and we walked around and did more exploring. he's a local so he knew all the sweet places. and he took us to all of them. he was so nice and went far out of his way to make sure we had a great time. which we did. he even took us into this secret cave in the side of the mountain next to our apartment. so fun. we hung out with him and his friend angelos for the rest of the trip. they were great. greek friends. legit.

rhodes old town

girls and spiros

the last night we were at mike's with a bunch of retired british couples. hilarious. we played bingo. i won a lollipop. everyone made fun of me for picking the lollipop over a bottle of wine. whatever i know what i want. then i won again with a full board but gave it to ju so she could be a winner too. we won 14 euro! and used it to cover our drinks and crepes. sang karaoke with a hilarious woman who we dubbed barb. very drunk. very into karaoke. not very sure of the words. ever. we laughed for about 3 hours straight that night. life is so funny. we definitely left haraki with a bang.

me and my winning lollipop

so overall i would say it was the best spring break ever. better than we'd imagined. i hope i travel like this for the rest of my life. and live. life is good. god is great.