On Monday, we had no school because Easter Monday is considered a holiday here in Spain. We went to a pueblo called Torrequemada for their fiesta, which turned out to be a bit of a waste of time because it was just for the people of the pueblo and we were like outsiders. We had to walk for 45 minutes from the bus stop to this hill in the woods/countryside where they had the fiesta. Casey and I left and went back to Caceres after staying there for like one hour. There was seriously nothing to do there. Wish I wouldn't have gone...biggest waste of time yet. Oh well. When we got back to Caceres, we went to the park for a couple hours with Shea. It was fun and good to catch up with her about our Semana Santa trips.
On Tuesday, I woke up with a very bad headache and chills. As it turns out, I was dehydrated from being in the sun for 5-6 hours on Monday and not drinking enough. Ooops. Other than going to school, I spent the day at home in bed drinking water and powerade.
On Wednesday, I felt much better and in the evening went on a tour of the old part of the city. After the tour, we went to see the Virgin come down from the mountain. Mary is the female patron of Caceres and they carried a statue of her all the way down the mountain to the Cathedral of Santa Maria. She will stay there all week. Each day they change the color of clothes she is wearing and the kind of flowers in the cathedral. There were TONS of people watching the procession down the mountain.
On Thursday evening, we went to see the festival of San Jorge, the male patron of Caceres. Legend has it that San Jorge killed a dragon and saved the city of Caceres in the 1200s. There was a theater-like production in the Plaza Mayor that lasted almost 2 hours. There was a huge dragon that was set on fire by San Jorge. At the end they set off fireworks from the roof of the City Hall. Safety standards are so different here. We were getting rained on with ashes from the fireworks the whole time. But, the fireworks were pretty good! Makes me miss the US.
After San Jorge, we went out for our last Thursday night in Caceres! We went to Divina Comedia, La Habana, and Cameron (a discoteca). We decided to go out like true Spaniards-aka stay out all night until the churrerias are open. We stayed at Cameron until 5:45am and then left to find a place to buy churros for breakfast. Luckily, we found a place that opened at 6am! We ate churros and chocolate and got home around 6:30am. It was a very fun night!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Return to Caceres and Easter Weekend
NOTE: This is the final post from my Spring Break adventures. I recommend that you go to the post called When in Rome and then read the ones above until you get to this one. There are 7 posts total because there is so much to say!
The bus we rode to Madrid was extremely small and there was hardly any room for our legs because the people in front of us put their seats back all the way. It was bad. I felt very claustrophobic...not enough room to breathe even with our seats back too! Thank goodnes for the Melotonin that Aunt Mary gave me to bring with. It is 2 months expired but still does the trick! I slept some on the bus but tossed and turned a lot trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.
We got to Madrid at 5:45am and waited for the metro to open at 6am to go to the other bus station. We got there and had to wait until 8am for our next bus to leave. We got some breakfast. On our second bus, we all slept for the first 2 hours. There was so much more room and we each took 2 seats because there were extra. We met a very funny guy named Martin who was from Austria and was coming to Caceres to visit his girlfriend and meet her family. He was concerned about "keeping his legs" because her dad had threatened him that he would cut off his legs if he did something wrong haha. He said some very funny things about soccer and I wish I could remember his quotes. He also gave us Austrian chocolate! We got to Caceres around 12pm and were so tired that we decided to take a taxi home instead of walking in the rain. So lazy of us, but it only cost like 1.5 euros so whatever! When I got back, I told my host family about my trip and talked to my parents on Skype. Changed my plane ticket to May 5.
Friday night, I went to Good Friday service at Guadalupe. It was a very very good Mass! The homily was good and it was about each of us carrying our own cross in our lives, just like Jesus carried his cross. They did pretty much everything the same as we do in the US on Good Friday.
On Saturday, I went shopping with Casey to the mall and then to the downtown stores. I bought some scarves to bring home. We still need to make one more shopping trip before coming home. We went to La Caballeriza and met Courtney's mom, aunt, and sister before trying to go to a procession. However, the procession took forever to get to the Plaza Mayor, so Casey and I left before it got there to go to the Easter Vigil at Fatima. I was surprised at how few people were at the Easter Vigil. We started just like in the US-outside with a fire and candles. There were 4 baptisms-3 babies and 1 kid who was probably 8 years old or so. The priest annointed them with oil before baptising them and put very little water on their head to baptise them. I really missed singing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" at the end. It lasted about 1.5 hours. They went really fast through everything!
This morning, I got up at 6:30am to go with Casey to the non-denominational church's Easter service on top of the mountain. We got a ride in a car to the top thankfully and got to see the sunrise. It was so cool! We listened to a reading, sang some praise and worship songs, and prayed a bit. Then, we went down the mountain and went to a cafe for breakfast. After, I came home and took a nap. At 12pm, there was another procession, so I went to the beginning of that and then went to Easter Mass at Fatima with Taylor and Clint. Once again, I was surprised at how few people there were at Easter Mass. I expected it to be packed like it is in the US for Easter. This afternoon, I did some homework and updated all of this on my blog. My host sister Maria left to go back to her university today, so I had to say goodbye since I won't see her again before I come back to the US. She is the one I will miss the most!
The bus we rode to Madrid was extremely small and there was hardly any room for our legs because the people in front of us put their seats back all the way. It was bad. I felt very claustrophobic...not enough room to breathe even with our seats back too! Thank goodnes for the Melotonin that Aunt Mary gave me to bring with. It is 2 months expired but still does the trick! I slept some on the bus but tossed and turned a lot trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.
We got to Madrid at 5:45am and waited for the metro to open at 6am to go to the other bus station. We got there and had to wait until 8am for our next bus to leave. We got some breakfast. On our second bus, we all slept for the first 2 hours. There was so much more room and we each took 2 seats because there were extra. We met a very funny guy named Martin who was from Austria and was coming to Caceres to visit his girlfriend and meet her family. He was concerned about "keeping his legs" because her dad had threatened him that he would cut off his legs if he did something wrong haha. He said some very funny things about soccer and I wish I could remember his quotes. He also gave us Austrian chocolate! We got to Caceres around 12pm and were so tired that we decided to take a taxi home instead of walking in the rain. So lazy of us, but it only cost like 1.5 euros so whatever! When I got back, I told my host family about my trip and talked to my parents on Skype. Changed my plane ticket to May 5.
Friday night, I went to Good Friday service at Guadalupe. It was a very very good Mass! The homily was good and it was about each of us carrying our own cross in our lives, just like Jesus carried his cross. They did pretty much everything the same as we do in the US on Good Friday.
On Saturday, I went shopping with Casey to the mall and then to the downtown stores. I bought some scarves to bring home. We still need to make one more shopping trip before coming home. We went to La Caballeriza and met Courtney's mom, aunt, and sister before trying to go to a procession. However, the procession took forever to get to the Plaza Mayor, so Casey and I left before it got there to go to the Easter Vigil at Fatima. I was surprised at how few people were at the Easter Vigil. We started just like in the US-outside with a fire and candles. There were 4 baptisms-3 babies and 1 kid who was probably 8 years old or so. The priest annointed them with oil before baptising them and put very little water on their head to baptise them. I really missed singing "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" at the end. It lasted about 1.5 hours. They went really fast through everything!
This morning, I got up at 6:30am to go with Casey to the non-denominational church's Easter service on top of the mountain. We got a ride in a car to the top thankfully and got to see the sunrise. It was so cool! We listened to a reading, sang some praise and worship songs, and prayed a bit. Then, we went down the mountain and went to a cafe for breakfast. After, I came home and took a nap. At 12pm, there was another procession, so I went to the beginning of that and then went to Easter Mass at Fatima with Taylor and Clint. Once again, I was surprised at how few people there were at Easter Mass. I expected it to be packed like it is in the US for Easter. This afternoon, I did some homework and updated all of this on my blog. My host sister Maria left to go back to her university today, so I had to say goodbye since I won't see her again before I come back to the US. She is the one I will miss the most!
Stadiums, Soccer Game, and Sagrada Familia
On Wednesday, we woke up at 9am, had breakfast at the hotel, got ready, and metroed to the market. There was lots of disgusting things to see at the market-goat's heads with the eyes still in them, animal tongues, pig's feet, and lots of fish-most of it still alive. Reminds me why I don't eat a lot of meat. We bought some fruit for lunch and it was very fresh and only 1 euro!
We metroed to Camp Nou-FC Barcelona's Soccer Stadium. The boys took a tour. We girls decided we had already seen one soccer stadium and that was enough for us, so we went to the souvenir store and then decided to metro to the Olympic Park Area, which the boys didn't seem to want to see anyways. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics, so we got to see the outsides of the buildings, the inside of the main stadium, and the pool area. I'm glad we went to see it!
We met the boys back at the hotel and then took naps for 2.5 hours :) We got food at the grocery store, showered, and went to watch the Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona soccer game. Those are the two main teams in Spain. We watched the game at an Irish Pub and I got a Magner's :) We met college students from Hamilton College in the Northeastern US I think. One of the guys got his Blackberry stolen from his pocket by a pickpocket while we were at that bar that night. Scary! Everyone always told us how bad Rome was supposed to be for pickpockets but we had no problems there and had 2 problems in Barcelona. Thankfully all they got was Taylor's gum. Anyways, Real Madrid won!!!!! 1-0 :) They are my team! We couldn't cheer too loud because we were in Barcelona, home of the losing team.
After the game, we went to another Irish pub where we had a very deep discussion about faith and the difference between Christianity and other religions. I am so thankful for my strong Catholic faith!!! We left there when it closed and headed to a discoteca. It was the coolest discoteca we have been to! Lots of creepy guys came up to us, so Cory and Taylor had to pretend to be our boyfriends but there were lots of cute guys there too. At 5:30am, it closed and we left. Thankfully, the metro happened to be open already, so we metroed back to the hotel. On our walk from the metro station to the hotel, Lizzy convinced Taylor he needed to climb a tree to get us back to the hotel...hilarious video! We went to bed around 6:30am.
On Thursday, we woke up at 10:20am! We almost missed breakfast!!! We ran downstairs and thankfully got food before they closed it. We got ready and checked out of our hotel. They let us leave our bags there so we did not have to carry them around all day. We went to the Sagrada Familia and waited in line for 30 minutes before going in. It was very cool. Very different than any other cathedral I have seen. Gaudi designed the inside to look like trees going up to the sky. It is definitely a work of modern art. It is expected to be completed in 2026.
We met up with Bev and her family and went to eat lunch around 5pm...a little late! They were very nice and it was fun to meet someone else's family. We went shopping in Las Ramblas again and Casey and I found artists who were selling jewelery so we got lots of souvenirs! We met back up with Lizzy, Cory, and Taylor, got our backpacks from the hotel, and walked to the bus station. On our way we stopped at the Tower of Agbar which was lit up at night and was really cool. We got on our bus to go to Madrid and left at 10:15pm.
We metroed to Camp Nou-FC Barcelona's Soccer Stadium. The boys took a tour. We girls decided we had already seen one soccer stadium and that was enough for us, so we went to the souvenir store and then decided to metro to the Olympic Park Area, which the boys didn't seem to want to see anyways. In 1992, Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics, so we got to see the outsides of the buildings, the inside of the main stadium, and the pool area. I'm glad we went to see it!
We met the boys back at the hotel and then took naps for 2.5 hours :) We got food at the grocery store, showered, and went to watch the Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona soccer game. Those are the two main teams in Spain. We watched the game at an Irish Pub and I got a Magner's :) We met college students from Hamilton College in the Northeastern US I think. One of the guys got his Blackberry stolen from his pocket by a pickpocket while we were at that bar that night. Scary! Everyone always told us how bad Rome was supposed to be for pickpockets but we had no problems there and had 2 problems in Barcelona. Thankfully all they got was Taylor's gum. Anyways, Real Madrid won!!!!! 1-0 :) They are my team! We couldn't cheer too loud because we were in Barcelona, home of the losing team.
After the game, we went to another Irish pub where we had a very deep discussion about faith and the difference between Christianity and other religions. I am so thankful for my strong Catholic faith!!! We left there when it closed and headed to a discoteca. It was the coolest discoteca we have been to! Lots of creepy guys came up to us, so Cory and Taylor had to pretend to be our boyfriends but there were lots of cute guys there too. At 5:30am, it closed and we left. Thankfully, the metro happened to be open already, so we metroed back to the hotel. On our walk from the metro station to the hotel, Lizzy convinced Taylor he needed to climb a tree to get us back to the hotel...hilarious video! We went to bed around 6:30am.
On Thursday, we woke up at 10:20am! We almost missed breakfast!!! We ran downstairs and thankfully got food before they closed it. We got ready and checked out of our hotel. They let us leave our bags there so we did not have to carry them around all day. We went to the Sagrada Familia and waited in line for 30 minutes before going in. It was very cool. Very different than any other cathedral I have seen. Gaudi designed the inside to look like trees going up to the sky. It is definitely a work of modern art. It is expected to be completed in 2026.
We met up with Bev and her family and went to eat lunch around 5pm...a little late! They were very nice and it was fun to meet someone else's family. We went shopping in Las Ramblas again and Casey and I found artists who were selling jewelery so we got lots of souvenirs! We met back up with Lizzy, Cory, and Taylor, got our backpacks from the hotel, and walked to the bus station. On our way we stopped at the Tower of Agbar which was lit up at night and was really cool. We got on our bus to go to Madrid and left at 10:15pm.
Arrivederci Italia! Bienvenidos a Barcelona!
On Monday, we woke up at 5am. We had AMAZING breakfast-yogurt, fruit, cookies, and of course croissants with nutella! We got a taxi to the airport and listened to Italian pop music all the way. Got psalms and holy water through security! We took a shuttle and got on our plane. It left around 8:15am from Rome and got to Barcelona at 10:15am or so. When we were walking through the Barcelona airport, we overheard a British lady say, "If you pay a little more for your nickers, they last longer than that cheap shit." Gosh, I want to go to England!
We took a shuttle to the city center and sat in Cafe Zurich to wait for the boys. Cory and Taylor had been in Lisbon for the first part of their Semana Santa and came to meet up with us in Barcelona. We told them to meet us by the small fountain in the plaza and watched as they walked right by us to the big fountain. We decided to take some pictures of them looking for us so we hid in the trees and got some pretty good ones. We got a little to close and they saw us...oops. We eventually all met up and they weren't too mad. They never did get to our small fountain anyways. We metroed to the Holiday Inn and checked into our room. All 5 of us stayed in the same room. Taylor ended up sleeping on the floor a couple nights but we made it work.
We walked to the beach, found sea shells, swam a bit (it was freezing cold!), and buried Taylor in the sand and made outfits for him. We went back to the hotel, showered, and went to a restaurant near our hotel for supper. It was okay food. We went back to the hotel and went to bed.
On Tuesday, we got up at 9am, at breakfast in the hotel-DELICIOUS!, and walked to the bus station to try to get tickets for a bus home to Caceres on Thursday. The bus that went directly from Barcelona to Caceres was full, so we had to get tickets for a bus to Madrid and then a bus from Madrid to Caceres. We walked to the Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral that is still underconstruction and has been for over 100years. It was designed by Gaudi, a Spanish architect who we learned about in our Spanish art class. When we got there, we found out that there was a fire, so we could not go in. Apparently some 55 year old guy who had been acting suspicious the last few days set some of the priests' robes on fire in the Sacristy in the crypt. I don't know how much damage there was.
We walked to Parc Guell, another thing designed by Gaudi, and saw the famous lizard and park benches. We saw this absolutely crazy guy dressed in leopard print tights, a leather vest, and sunglasses that were shaped like electric guitars who was playing music in the park. He played "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and we all sang along. He was the most crazy person I have ever seen...I really think his brain was gone from too many drugs. Good entertainer though.
Next, we walked down Paseo de Gracias and walked past a couple famous houses that Gaudi designed. We waited in line to go inside one, but decided it was too expensive. In line, we met Rhonda and her husband-bold New Yorkers. Rhonda told us she was going to go "hablabla some Spanish to find out what was going on" and her husband stayed and talked to us. I think she assumed that we didn't know Spanish at all. Oh well. Their accents were hilarious and we enjoyed meeting them.
As we continued down the road, it turned into Las Ramblas, the famous shopping street of Barcelona. We stopped at H&M and I bought a dress. We continued down Las Ramblas until we got to the ocean and boat docks. We metroed to the hotel and went to the grocery store to get food for supper. We ate lots of cheese sandwiches, chips, apples, and breakfast cookies from the grocery store while in Barcelona to try to cut down on how much we spent on food. It was nice to eat some Americanish food for once. We were going to go out, but changed our minds and stayed in the hotel, telling stories, listening to music, and watching movies. At 2am we finally went to sleep. Taylor kept scaring Lizzy and I by standing at the edge of our bed and trying to grab our feet.
We took a shuttle to the city center and sat in Cafe Zurich to wait for the boys. Cory and Taylor had been in Lisbon for the first part of their Semana Santa and came to meet up with us in Barcelona. We told them to meet us by the small fountain in the plaza and watched as they walked right by us to the big fountain. We decided to take some pictures of them looking for us so we hid in the trees and got some pretty good ones. We got a little to close and they saw us...oops. We eventually all met up and they weren't too mad. They never did get to our small fountain anyways. We metroed to the Holiday Inn and checked into our room. All 5 of us stayed in the same room. Taylor ended up sleeping on the floor a couple nights but we made it work.
We walked to the beach, found sea shells, swam a bit (it was freezing cold!), and buried Taylor in the sand and made outfits for him. We went back to the hotel, showered, and went to a restaurant near our hotel for supper. It was okay food. We went back to the hotel and went to bed.
On Tuesday, we got up at 9am, at breakfast in the hotel-DELICIOUS!, and walked to the bus station to try to get tickets for a bus home to Caceres on Thursday. The bus that went directly from Barcelona to Caceres was full, so we had to get tickets for a bus to Madrid and then a bus from Madrid to Caceres. We walked to the Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral that is still underconstruction and has been for over 100years. It was designed by Gaudi, a Spanish architect who we learned about in our Spanish art class. When we got there, we found out that there was a fire, so we could not go in. Apparently some 55 year old guy who had been acting suspicious the last few days set some of the priests' robes on fire in the Sacristy in the crypt. I don't know how much damage there was.
We walked to Parc Guell, another thing designed by Gaudi, and saw the famous lizard and park benches. We saw this absolutely crazy guy dressed in leopard print tights, a leather vest, and sunglasses that were shaped like electric guitars who was playing music in the park. He played "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and we all sang along. He was the most crazy person I have ever seen...I really think his brain was gone from too many drugs. Good entertainer though.
Next, we walked down Paseo de Gracias and walked past a couple famous houses that Gaudi designed. We waited in line to go inside one, but decided it was too expensive. In line, we met Rhonda and her husband-bold New Yorkers. Rhonda told us she was going to go "hablabla some Spanish to find out what was going on" and her husband stayed and talked to us. I think she assumed that we didn't know Spanish at all. Oh well. Their accents were hilarious and we enjoyed meeting them.
As we continued down the road, it turned into Las Ramblas, the famous shopping street of Barcelona. We stopped at H&M and I bought a dress. We continued down Las Ramblas until we got to the ocean and boat docks. We metroed to the hotel and went to the grocery store to get food for supper. We ate lots of cheese sandwiches, chips, apples, and breakfast cookies from the grocery store while in Barcelona to try to cut down on how much we spent on food. It was nice to eat some Americanish food for once. We were going to go out, but changed our minds and stayed in the hotel, telling stories, listening to music, and watching movies. At 2am we finally went to sleep. Taylor kept scaring Lizzy and I by standing at the edge of our bed and trying to grab our feet.
BEST DAY OF MY LIFE
I had been waiting for Sunday and seeing the Pope at Psalm Sunday Mass ever since we bought the plane tickets to Italy. I was SOOOOOO excited! We woke up at 5:45am and got ready, listening to Christian music on Casey's iPod. We found really good chocolate cookies in the hostel to eat for breakfast and left around 6:45am to walk to Vatican City.
We got to the line outside at 7am. We saw a guy in line wearing a plaid shirt who we had seen two times before, wearing two different plaid shirts. It was strange to think that we were beginning to recognize people! We waited in line and talked to Scott who was standing by us. He is a deacon who lives in Rome and is from Illinois. They opened the security at 8am and we got in and got REALLY good seats. We were shocked to get seats in the first place because I assumed they would be reserved for priests and nuns and such but I guess it is just a free for all. We were in the middle of the section closest to the front, on the right side of the main aisle. I sat like 5 seats from the middle aisle-which is where the opening procession would go down! We were given olive branches instead of psalms. There were huge psalms that they gave to the people in the middle aisle to hold up during the procession.
At almost 9:30am exactly, the procession began-first with the cross and priests, then bishops, then cardinals, then THE POPE!!!!!!! The first thing I saw was his gold hat! He was riding on top of a little white car. I was so happy that I cried two tears and then started taking pictures and videos. We stood up on the chairs to try to get a better view, which angered the guards and one of the guards came over and yanked a guy off his chair and said something to him in Italian and threw him on the ground. That was not very Christian of him. Pope Benedict did a blessing of the psalms/olive branches at the obelisk in the middle of the square and then his car took him up to the front altar. On the way to the altar, he went right down the middle aisle and at one point, HE WAS LITERALLY NO MORE THAN 10 FEET FROM US!!!!!!!!! He was smiling the whole way and it was so cool!!!
The people we were sitting next to were Spanish students, about our age and they were EXTREMELY RUDE!!! I was so frustrated because I wanted to tell them to leave, but I didn't. Two of them were making out, one was plucking her eyebrows and then checking to see if we saw her by looking at us in her mirror, and the others were sleeping the whole time. It was very offensive. Just guess it shows what problems there are with youth in the church in Spain. They were so disrespectful!
So other than them, Mass was great! The readings were one in English, one in Spanish, and the Gospel (the Passion) was sung by 3 priests...so cool! We got little books with all the music, readings, prayers, etc. so we could follow along. We could understand enough to know what was going on most of the time. I couldn't get anything from the homily though. I know it was supposed to be directed at youth, so I'll have to look it up and read it online. The petitions were read in Portuguese, Arabic, French, Polish, and German by a native speaker from each of those countries. For Communion, they had a Vatican staff member with each priest who held a yellow and white striped umbrella so that we could locate a priest to get Communion from. At the end of Mass, the Pope did a blessing in at least 8 different languages and everyone cheered when they heard their language.
After Mass, we met Jeff Dole, a former ISU student, who is now a seminarian in Rome. We asked him lots of questions we had come up with and he told us lots about the history of St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's Square, and the Vatican etc. He also showed us the spot where Pope John Paul II was shot, which I did not know about before. Miraculously, the bullet weaved through his organs and did not damage anything. He also told us that the obelisk in the middle of St. Peter's Square is thought to be the last thing that Peter saw before he died. He told us the story of how they moved it to its current location. He also recommended that we visit St. John's Basilica, one of the other 4 main Basilicas in Rome.
We walked to the metro and rode to the Coliseum area. We stopped at the Roman Forum gift shop to see if we could get tickets there to avoid the line at the Colliseum and a guy told us that the Colliseum was closed to prepare for the Stations of the Cross that the Pope does there on Good Friday. We were heartbroken because here we had gone to Rome and not even seen the Colliseum! So, we walked to the Colliseum and saw people going inside. Turns out that guy was wrong and we got inside! We met a couple from Texas-Lizzy's favorite couple ever-and had them take a picture of us. I think they ruined the inside of the Colliseum because the area where they would have had gladiator fights looks like a maze made of bricks. It was turned into a small city and market area many hundred years ago, which is very unfortunate. I would much rather see the area where the gladiators fought. Oh well.
As we left the Colliseum, it started to rain so we walked to St. John's Basilica. We stopped at St. Clement's on the way which is a smaller Basilican in Rome. We didn't stay there long. San Giovanni-St. John's had Mass every hour that we were there. In the main sanctuary area are statues of the 12 disciples with the weapon/way they were killed. For example, Bartholemew (I think) was skinned alive, so he is shown with a human skin in his hand. It is all made of stone, of course. In front of the altar, there is an opening with stairs that lead down, which is where the table from the Last Supper is kept. It was under glass and looked like the real thing to me. Above the altar is the box with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul.
We left the basilica and stopped at our last gelateria on our way to the metro. It was not as good as the other one, but it was still gelato! I got cream, raspberry, and cotton candy. We metroed to the Spanish Steps which are basically just steps with azaleas planted there. Nothing that special. Lots of couples and people drinking alcohol. We looked above the steps and saw another obelisk-a sign of a major basilica! So, we decided to go quickly. The nuns told us that you could get another indulgence if you went to all 4 of the major basilicas, but we only ended up getting to 3. Oh well!
As we were coming out of the basilica, the sun was setting. It was a gorgeous, red, firey ball. We got on an elevator with two couples to get to the metro station. The elevator hesitated a bit and one of the guys said, "Maybe backpacks aren't allowed." He was joking of course. When we got to the metro, we saw the father-what-a-waste from the day before at Pope JP II's grave but we could not get a picture before the metro came...what a shame! We metroed to the end of Line A and got a taxi to our hostel. We had to do some bargaining with the taxi men. They were trying to charge us double what the hostel told us it would take to get there. You're not going to rip us American girls off! The taxi driver didn't play any music or anything. It was just silent. Lizzy asked, "So has it been a busy night?" and got no response...pretty sure he only spoke Italian! We laughed so hard in the back seat, trying to be quiet so he didn't notice.
We arrived at our hostel-the Flower Inn B & B and it was the CUTEST little hostel/B & B ever!!! It had only been open one month and we found it on hostelworld and loved the pictures, so we just HAD to stay there. It was very nicely decorated and everything was SUPER clean! We went to bed at about 10:30pm. And that was how the best day of my life ended!
We got to the line outside at 7am. We saw a guy in line wearing a plaid shirt who we had seen two times before, wearing two different plaid shirts. It was strange to think that we were beginning to recognize people! We waited in line and talked to Scott who was standing by us. He is a deacon who lives in Rome and is from Illinois. They opened the security at 8am and we got in and got REALLY good seats. We were shocked to get seats in the first place because I assumed they would be reserved for priests and nuns and such but I guess it is just a free for all. We were in the middle of the section closest to the front, on the right side of the main aisle. I sat like 5 seats from the middle aisle-which is where the opening procession would go down! We were given olive branches instead of psalms. There were huge psalms that they gave to the people in the middle aisle to hold up during the procession.
At almost 9:30am exactly, the procession began-first with the cross and priests, then bishops, then cardinals, then THE POPE!!!!!!! The first thing I saw was his gold hat! He was riding on top of a little white car. I was so happy that I cried two tears and then started taking pictures and videos. We stood up on the chairs to try to get a better view, which angered the guards and one of the guards came over and yanked a guy off his chair and said something to him in Italian and threw him on the ground. That was not very Christian of him. Pope Benedict did a blessing of the psalms/olive branches at the obelisk in the middle of the square and then his car took him up to the front altar. On the way to the altar, he went right down the middle aisle and at one point, HE WAS LITERALLY NO MORE THAN 10 FEET FROM US!!!!!!!!! He was smiling the whole way and it was so cool!!!
The people we were sitting next to were Spanish students, about our age and they were EXTREMELY RUDE!!! I was so frustrated because I wanted to tell them to leave, but I didn't. Two of them were making out, one was plucking her eyebrows and then checking to see if we saw her by looking at us in her mirror, and the others were sleeping the whole time. It was very offensive. Just guess it shows what problems there are with youth in the church in Spain. They were so disrespectful!
So other than them, Mass was great! The readings were one in English, one in Spanish, and the Gospel (the Passion) was sung by 3 priests...so cool! We got little books with all the music, readings, prayers, etc. so we could follow along. We could understand enough to know what was going on most of the time. I couldn't get anything from the homily though. I know it was supposed to be directed at youth, so I'll have to look it up and read it online. The petitions were read in Portuguese, Arabic, French, Polish, and German by a native speaker from each of those countries. For Communion, they had a Vatican staff member with each priest who held a yellow and white striped umbrella so that we could locate a priest to get Communion from. At the end of Mass, the Pope did a blessing in at least 8 different languages and everyone cheered when they heard their language.
After Mass, we met Jeff Dole, a former ISU student, who is now a seminarian in Rome. We asked him lots of questions we had come up with and he told us lots about the history of St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's Square, and the Vatican etc. He also showed us the spot where Pope John Paul II was shot, which I did not know about before. Miraculously, the bullet weaved through his organs and did not damage anything. He also told us that the obelisk in the middle of St. Peter's Square is thought to be the last thing that Peter saw before he died. He told us the story of how they moved it to its current location. He also recommended that we visit St. John's Basilica, one of the other 4 main Basilicas in Rome.
We walked to the metro and rode to the Coliseum area. We stopped at the Roman Forum gift shop to see if we could get tickets there to avoid the line at the Colliseum and a guy told us that the Colliseum was closed to prepare for the Stations of the Cross that the Pope does there on Good Friday. We were heartbroken because here we had gone to Rome and not even seen the Colliseum! So, we walked to the Colliseum and saw people going inside. Turns out that guy was wrong and we got inside! We met a couple from Texas-Lizzy's favorite couple ever-and had them take a picture of us. I think they ruined the inside of the Colliseum because the area where they would have had gladiator fights looks like a maze made of bricks. It was turned into a small city and market area many hundred years ago, which is very unfortunate. I would much rather see the area where the gladiators fought. Oh well.
As we left the Colliseum, it started to rain so we walked to St. John's Basilica. We stopped at St. Clement's on the way which is a smaller Basilican in Rome. We didn't stay there long. San Giovanni-St. John's had Mass every hour that we were there. In the main sanctuary area are statues of the 12 disciples with the weapon/way they were killed. For example, Bartholemew (I think) was skinned alive, so he is shown with a human skin in his hand. It is all made of stone, of course. In front of the altar, there is an opening with stairs that lead down, which is where the table from the Last Supper is kept. It was under glass and looked like the real thing to me. Above the altar is the box with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul.
We left the basilica and stopped at our last gelateria on our way to the metro. It was not as good as the other one, but it was still gelato! I got cream, raspberry, and cotton candy. We metroed to the Spanish Steps which are basically just steps with azaleas planted there. Nothing that special. Lots of couples and people drinking alcohol. We looked above the steps and saw another obelisk-a sign of a major basilica! So, we decided to go quickly. The nuns told us that you could get another indulgence if you went to all 4 of the major basilicas, but we only ended up getting to 3. Oh well!
As we were coming out of the basilica, the sun was setting. It was a gorgeous, red, firey ball. We got on an elevator with two couples to get to the metro station. The elevator hesitated a bit and one of the guys said, "Maybe backpacks aren't allowed." He was joking of course. When we got to the metro, we saw the father-what-a-waste from the day before at Pope JP II's grave but we could not get a picture before the metro came...what a shame! We metroed to the end of Line A and got a taxi to our hostel. We had to do some bargaining with the taxi men. They were trying to charge us double what the hostel told us it would take to get there. You're not going to rip us American girls off! The taxi driver didn't play any music or anything. It was just silent. Lizzy asked, "So has it been a busy night?" and got no response...pretty sure he only spoke Italian! We laughed so hard in the back seat, trying to be quiet so he didn't notice.
We arrived at our hostel-the Flower Inn B & B and it was the CUTEST little hostel/B & B ever!!! It had only been open one month and we found it on hostelworld and loved the pictures, so we just HAD to stay there. It was very nicely decorated and everything was SUPER clean! We went to bed at about 10:30pm. And that was how the best day of my life ended!
Mamma Mia! Gratzi! Ciao!
On Saturday, we left our hostel at 9:45am. We had to check out and pack everything up to take with us since we had to move hostels that day. We walked to St. Peter's and waited in line for 1 hour and 15 minutes to get in to see the Basilica. We checked our bags with a cute Vatican guy and went in to the Basilica. The 7 sacraments were depicted on the doors, which was very cool. We also saw a statue that a man destroyed part of Mary's nose and fingers with a hammer in the 70s so now it is under glass. We saw the altar where Pope John Paul II's body will be put when it is exhumed on May 1. We also saw the guards march, which was pretty cool. The inside of St. Peter's was huge and it was GORGEOUS! We also had an opportunity to pray in a chapel for about 5 minutes before it closed which was really neat. Lizzy and I climbed 551 steps to the top of the dome to look out over the city. I bought some rosaries and we got a drink of water from the fountain outside of the gift shop (we have lots of pictures of this). We also walked through the Tombs of the Popes again. Each had a little placard about their life. It is crazy that some only served for like 22 or 31 days! We saw JP II's grave again and this time there were lots of notes, pictures, and many more flowers on it. We saw an Italian priest here that we ran into the next day on the metro. He was a father-what-a-waste if you know what I mean ;)
Outside of the basilica, Lizzy tried to take an artys picture of people taking pictures of the Vatican guards but they put down their cameras too fast...awkward! We walked to our new hostel and the owner took literally 5 minutes of attempting to buzz us in before it finally worked. Our room was huge and even had a table with chairs and a mini fridge. Our hostel actually turned out to be a bit sketch...the other people staying there were smoking pot in the bathroom and it was really dirty. But, we made it through and at least we only had to be there one night!
We metroed to the Trevi Fountain area and walked to the Pantheon. Funny story. So I said in my earlier post that we went to the Pantheon...or so we thought! We actually saw the City Hall which we thought was the Pantheon because we were reading the map wrong...it only took us like one day to figure this out haha. The real Pantheon was much older like we expected and was conveniently located by the Giolitti gelateria from the day before so we went back again! When in Rome, right? I got oreo, banana, and strawberry this time. We had supper at a restaurant. Lizzy and I ordered pesto and got a Lady and the Tramp picture. We also saw this CUTE baby girl who we named tourist baby because she would point to things in the stores as her parents pushed her in her stroller. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep around 10:15pm. Early, I know, but we had to be up very early to get to Psalm Sunday Mass the next day.
Outside of the basilica, Lizzy tried to take an artys picture of people taking pictures of the Vatican guards but they put down their cameras too fast...awkward! We walked to our new hostel and the owner took literally 5 minutes of attempting to buzz us in before it finally worked. Our room was huge and even had a table with chairs and a mini fridge. Our hostel actually turned out to be a bit sketch...the other people staying there were smoking pot in the bathroom and it was really dirty. But, we made it through and at least we only had to be there one night!
We metroed to the Trevi Fountain area and walked to the Pantheon. Funny story. So I said in my earlier post that we went to the Pantheon...or so we thought! We actually saw the City Hall which we thought was the Pantheon because we were reading the map wrong...it only took us like one day to figure this out haha. The real Pantheon was much older like we expected and was conveniently located by the Giolitti gelateria from the day before so we went back again! When in Rome, right? I got oreo, banana, and strawberry this time. We had supper at a restaurant. Lizzy and I ordered pesto and got a Lady and the Tramp picture. We also saw this CUTE baby girl who we named tourist baby because she would point to things in the stores as her parents pushed her in her stroller. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep around 10:15pm. Early, I know, but we had to be up very early to get to Psalm Sunday Mass the next day.
Bones, Buried Popes, and Boys :)
On Friday morning, we woke up at 7:30am because we had a tour at 9am. Someone kept banging on the door of the hostel and ringing the doorbell, which turned out to be the hostel man. He was quite a character. He was a 60 year old Italian man who told us that he had eaten a little to much spaghetti. He only spoke Italian, so we communicated by speaking Spanish to him. He had a serious breathing problem that sounded like someone with only one lung. Poor guy. Anyways, he gave us a fabulous breakfast! Nutella-filled croissants that were fresh from the bakery down the street! Deeeeelicious! We got ready and went to our tour.
I set this up about 1 month in advance so that we could see the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica where they found the bones of the original St. Peter in the 1940s. The hill where St. Peter's Basilica was built was at one time a cemetary where they buried important rich people from the church as well as St. Peter. They know that it is the remains of St. Peter because they tested the bones and they are from a person from the Middle East. Also, the head and feet are missing which fits with what they know about Peter because he was killed by being hung upside down on a cross. After his death, they cut off his feet to get him down, so that's how his feet disappeared. His head is in a box above the altar of another basilica in Rome with St. Paul's head...more about this later. Peter's body was marked by the Trophy of Gaeus which is a two level grave-marker type stone. The whole necropolis is kept at 95% humidity to preserve it. We also saw lots of other mosseliums with other families buried in them. Our tour ended under the basilica in a room with a bunch of coffins of Popes. We saw Pope John Paul II's grave! I really liked him as a Pope, so this was very cool to see. There were lots of roses on it.
After the tour, we went to the post office to send some more post cards. The Canadian girls from the hostel told us of a good restaurant so we tried to find that for lunch. We walked over and asked some cute Italian boys for directions. They used our map and said "You are here" in their accent. (Our policy was that whenever we were lost, we find some good-looking boys to ask for help ;)). We finally found the restaurant, called Al Giardino del Gatto e la Volpe. It was really empty and an old Italian guy who had worked for the Italian government in America kept asking us questions. We ate lunch, which was okay and were on our way.
We metroed to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in. Contrary to what the movies tell you, throwing one coin into the Trevi Fountain guarantees that you will return to Rome, not that you will find true love. However, we are hoping for both! We walked to the US Bishop's Office for Visitors to the Vatican and picked up our tickets to go to Psalm Sunday Mass. We met lots of nice nuns and priests from Indiana who talked to us quite a while. One priest told us lots of stories about saints and their miracles. He also told us that Pope John Paul II will be beatified (the first step to becoming a saint) on May 1. His miracle was curing a French nun who had the same disease as he had which led to his death. One of the nuns explained to us that we could get an Indulgence (pardon from all of our sins from birth to that point in our lives) if we went to Mass, received Communion, had Reconciliation, said a Prayer for the Holy Father, and truly intended to change our lives within 8 days of visiting the Basilica. Lizzy and I went to Reconciliation, since that was the only one we would not be able to accomplish by going to Mass on Sunday.
We stopped at McDonalds to try to find WiFi, but had no luck. Outside there was this man using spray paint to paint this beautiful pictures of waterfalls and the Colliseum. It was so cool! If we did not have only a backpack to fit things in, we definitely would have bought one or two! We walked to Giolitti, the best gelateria in Rome according to our cab driver and got some real gelato! It was AMAZING! I don't know if I can ever eat ice cream again! I got Oreo cookie, white chocolate, and raspberry. The raspberry was my favorite! It was raining a bit outside and there were tons of people selling umbrellas. Lizzy was using mine and someone still came up to her and asked if she wanted one. She was like "I've got one, thanks!" We walked to the "Pantheon" and were surprised at how white it was. We thought they much white-wash the outside to keep it looking so white. There were two guards standing at the top by two flames. Inside, there was a museum about Italy and everything was in Italian, so we didn't understand too much. When we left the "Pantheon" we were shocked to see the Colliseum just down the road. We knew that they were close but did not think it was that close. We saw tons of Roman ruins on the way. The Colliseum was lit up with blue and yellow lights at night and it was GORGEOUS!
We were going to go out, but the bars recommended by my guidebook were not very promising so we stopped at a pizza-to-go store to get some supper. The man selling the pizza asked us, "Can I...make it hot?". We tried not to burst out laughing and answered yes. We walked all the way to our hostel and went to bed.
I set this up about 1 month in advance so that we could see the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica where they found the bones of the original St. Peter in the 1940s. The hill where St. Peter's Basilica was built was at one time a cemetary where they buried important rich people from the church as well as St. Peter. They know that it is the remains of St. Peter because they tested the bones and they are from a person from the Middle East. Also, the head and feet are missing which fits with what they know about Peter because he was killed by being hung upside down on a cross. After his death, they cut off his feet to get him down, so that's how his feet disappeared. His head is in a box above the altar of another basilica in Rome with St. Paul's head...more about this later. Peter's body was marked by the Trophy of Gaeus which is a two level grave-marker type stone. The whole necropolis is kept at 95% humidity to preserve it. We also saw lots of other mosseliums with other families buried in them. Our tour ended under the basilica in a room with a bunch of coffins of Popes. We saw Pope John Paul II's grave! I really liked him as a Pope, so this was very cool to see. There were lots of roses on it.
After the tour, we went to the post office to send some more post cards. The Canadian girls from the hostel told us of a good restaurant so we tried to find that for lunch. We walked over and asked some cute Italian boys for directions. They used our map and said "You are here" in their accent. (Our policy was that whenever we were lost, we find some good-looking boys to ask for help ;)). We finally found the restaurant, called Al Giardino del Gatto e la Volpe. It was really empty and an old Italian guy who had worked for the Italian government in America kept asking us questions. We ate lunch, which was okay and were on our way.
We metroed to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in. Contrary to what the movies tell you, throwing one coin into the Trevi Fountain guarantees that you will return to Rome, not that you will find true love. However, we are hoping for both! We walked to the US Bishop's Office for Visitors to the Vatican and picked up our tickets to go to Psalm Sunday Mass. We met lots of nice nuns and priests from Indiana who talked to us quite a while. One priest told us lots of stories about saints and their miracles. He also told us that Pope John Paul II will be beatified (the first step to becoming a saint) on May 1. His miracle was curing a French nun who had the same disease as he had which led to his death. One of the nuns explained to us that we could get an Indulgence (pardon from all of our sins from birth to that point in our lives) if we went to Mass, received Communion, had Reconciliation, said a Prayer for the Holy Father, and truly intended to change our lives within 8 days of visiting the Basilica. Lizzy and I went to Reconciliation, since that was the only one we would not be able to accomplish by going to Mass on Sunday.
We stopped at McDonalds to try to find WiFi, but had no luck. Outside there was this man using spray paint to paint this beautiful pictures of waterfalls and the Colliseum. It was so cool! If we did not have only a backpack to fit things in, we definitely would have bought one or two! We walked to Giolitti, the best gelateria in Rome according to our cab driver and got some real gelato! It was AMAZING! I don't know if I can ever eat ice cream again! I got Oreo cookie, white chocolate, and raspberry. The raspberry was my favorite! It was raining a bit outside and there were tons of people selling umbrellas. Lizzy was using mine and someone still came up to her and asked if she wanted one. She was like "I've got one, thanks!" We walked to the "Pantheon" and were surprised at how white it was. We thought they much white-wash the outside to keep it looking so white. There were two guards standing at the top by two flames. Inside, there was a museum about Italy and everything was in Italian, so we didn't understand too much. When we left the "Pantheon" we were shocked to see the Colliseum just down the road. We knew that they were close but did not think it was that close. We saw tons of Roman ruins on the way. The Colliseum was lit up with blue and yellow lights at night and it was GORGEOUS!
We were going to go out, but the bars recommended by my guidebook were not very promising so we stopped at a pizza-to-go store to get some supper. The man selling the pizza asked us, "Can I...make it hot?". We tried not to burst out laughing and answered yes. We walked all the way to our hostel and went to bed.
When in Rome
I am so excited to tell you all about my travels this past week! This will be very detailed because I wrote down what we did every couple days so I didn't forget! It was so much fun! Pretty much the best time of my life ever!!!
To start off, on Wednesday, I went to one class and skipped the rest...no big deal! We left Caceres at 12pm on a bus to Madrid. On the bus ride, they played the movie Wooly Boys-an American movie dubbed over in Spanish about some sheep herders I think. We met a girl from New Orleans who was working for the government in Caceres for a year and was traveling to London for the next week. Once we got to Madrid, we went to our favorite hang out-Doner Kebab, which we renamed Loner Kebab because Lizzy will be all alone on her last trip to Madrid and will have to go by herself! We rode the metro to the airport and this super cute little Spanish boy kept staring at us. Then, he became shy and a hot German guy told us that "he didn't like us anymore."
When we got to the airport, a lady with bright yellow hair and a bright yellow suitcase had us show her how to get to Terminal 1 (the same place we were going). We went through security and sat around waiting for our flight to leave. It was delayed 1 hour so we did not leave Spain until 10:15pm! On the plane, we met girls from the US who were studying in Salamanca and were going to Rome as well. We arrived in Rome around midnight and were shocked to find out that there were no customs to go through. I guess that since we stayed inside the European Union, we did not have to go through customs. The sad part is that we were unable to get our passports stamped :( We found a very nice cab driver to take us to our hostel. He asked us what we thought about Obama and told us the best restaurants and gelaterias to go to in Rome. We were able to communicate pretty well with the people in Rome because many of them spoke English. If they only spoke Italian, we spoke in Spanish since the two languages are pretty close. Our hostel man met us at the door and the 3 of us with our very full backpacks plus the hostel man (who was by no means small) crammed into a tiny elevator and rode up 4 floors to the hostel. He showed us our room and we went right to sleep.
On Thursday, we woke up early-6:30 am because we had tickets to enter the Vatican Museums at 8am and did not want to be late. Our hostel owner showed us how to get to the museums. We got our tickets online, which I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone planning to go to the Vatican because we did not have to wait in the long line. Also, the museums are not open to people without advanced tickets until 9am, so there was like no one there for the first hour while we were walking around, which was nice. We stopped at a coffee shop inside the museum and got Italian coffees with little hearts from the lady adding the milk. I still cannot drink coffee but was so desperate for caffine that I did.
Next, we went to the Sistine Chapel. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! The walls are filled with paintings by Michaelangelo and it is so gorgeous!!! It was my favorite thing that I saw in Rome. The paintings depict Jesus's life and Moses's life. There is also the famous Creation painting with two fingers touching, which is actually part of a larger painting of two people, which I did not realize before seeing it in person. It was SO cool! I could have stayed there all day! Another note, I would recommend getting the audio guides for 5 or 7 euro because they went through each painting and pointed out things that I did not notice at first glance.
We went to the gift shop and got some postcards which we wrote in a little garden outside of the museums. It is a big deal to send postcards from Vatican City because it is its own country and has special stamps. While sitting outside, Casey noticed that the guy at the table next to us was wearing a hat that said Nebraska and Lizzy was very excited since she is from Omaha so she talked to him and took a picture with him.
After leaving the museums, we went to get our first pizza and gelato! I got chocolate and Mister Nico, which were both delicious of course. As we were walking back to our hostel, we passed 4 college students and Casey noticed that one was wearing a get your Sig Ep heart on shirt which could only mean one thing...they were from Iowa State!!! It was Casey's dream to run in to someone that we randomly knew in Europe, so here was our chance! We ran after them and found out that they were from Iowa State and were studying in Wales. We talked about people we both knew and told them where we got our gelato and were back on our way to our hostel. How crazy that we would find other ISU students like that!
Back at our hostel, we took a nap since we had not slept very much the night before. We met other girls in our hostel who were from Canada and they told us that we were in luck because it was culture week in Rome and lots of museums, including the Colliseum, had free admission. Later that afternoon, we metroed to the Trevi Fountain. On the metro, we met a couple from North Carolina. The guy was stationed in Italy for the Marines (we think) and they were nice to talk to. On our walk to the fountain, we passed by White Restaurant which serves pizza and gelato. We went in and the Italian guy serving the gelato tried to give Lizzy a sample and ended up putting it on her nose.
By the time we got to the Trevi Fountain, it was dark and it was all lit up. I never realized that it is actually attached to a building and is not free standing. We took pictures and a super nice guy came up and talked to us. He was from southern California and was on a trip to Rome with his sister and dad. His sister got tired of waiting for him to finish talking to us so she pretended he was her husband to try to embarrass him and get him to leave. It was pretty funny.
We went back to the White Restaurant and got a pizza to split. It was good. As we were leaving, a waiter was staring at us and dropped a whole tray of glasses. We just walked away and laughed. We decided to go out for a drink and followed my guidebook to Trinity College Bar-an Irish pub. It was pretty much an American hang out but that was okay with us! I got a Magner's which was good. The bartender, who was wearing a sweatervest kept staring at us and started playing music we listened to in middle school. We could not believe some of the songs he played. There were also some creepers there but we ignored them for the most part. One guy was just sitting in the corner dancing to himself...strange. Anyways, there was a super cute American guy who did a trick with a euro bill and some euro coins and he taught me how to do it too.
Around midnight, we left the bar and it was raining. We started down the street and ran into the guy who taught me the money trick, which was slightly awkward so we turned around and crossed the street. We were just about past the guy and his group on the other side of the street when Lizzy slipped on the wet cobblestone and grabbed Casey to hold herself up. We are pretty sure the guy and his friends saw and were all dying laughing as we got to the next building where no one could see us. We were laughing so hard. We took a cab to our hostel and went to bed after a very successful day...2nd best day of my life!
To start off, on Wednesday, I went to one class and skipped the rest...no big deal! We left Caceres at 12pm on a bus to Madrid. On the bus ride, they played the movie Wooly Boys-an American movie dubbed over in Spanish about some sheep herders I think. We met a girl from New Orleans who was working for the government in Caceres for a year and was traveling to London for the next week. Once we got to Madrid, we went to our favorite hang out-Doner Kebab, which we renamed Loner Kebab because Lizzy will be all alone on her last trip to Madrid and will have to go by herself! We rode the metro to the airport and this super cute little Spanish boy kept staring at us. Then, he became shy and a hot German guy told us that "he didn't like us anymore."
When we got to the airport, a lady with bright yellow hair and a bright yellow suitcase had us show her how to get to Terminal 1 (the same place we were going). We went through security and sat around waiting for our flight to leave. It was delayed 1 hour so we did not leave Spain until 10:15pm! On the plane, we met girls from the US who were studying in Salamanca and were going to Rome as well. We arrived in Rome around midnight and were shocked to find out that there were no customs to go through. I guess that since we stayed inside the European Union, we did not have to go through customs. The sad part is that we were unable to get our passports stamped :( We found a very nice cab driver to take us to our hostel. He asked us what we thought about Obama and told us the best restaurants and gelaterias to go to in Rome. We were able to communicate pretty well with the people in Rome because many of them spoke English. If they only spoke Italian, we spoke in Spanish since the two languages are pretty close. Our hostel man met us at the door and the 3 of us with our very full backpacks plus the hostel man (who was by no means small) crammed into a tiny elevator and rode up 4 floors to the hostel. He showed us our room and we went right to sleep.
On Thursday, we woke up early-6:30 am because we had tickets to enter the Vatican Museums at 8am and did not want to be late. Our hostel owner showed us how to get to the museums. We got our tickets online, which I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone planning to go to the Vatican because we did not have to wait in the long line. Also, the museums are not open to people without advanced tickets until 9am, so there was like no one there for the first hour while we were walking around, which was nice. We stopped at a coffee shop inside the museum and got Italian coffees with little hearts from the lady adding the milk. I still cannot drink coffee but was so desperate for caffine that I did.
Next, we went to the Sistine Chapel. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! The walls are filled with paintings by Michaelangelo and it is so gorgeous!!! It was my favorite thing that I saw in Rome. The paintings depict Jesus's life and Moses's life. There is also the famous Creation painting with two fingers touching, which is actually part of a larger painting of two people, which I did not realize before seeing it in person. It was SO cool! I could have stayed there all day! Another note, I would recommend getting the audio guides for 5 or 7 euro because they went through each painting and pointed out things that I did not notice at first glance.
We went to the gift shop and got some postcards which we wrote in a little garden outside of the museums. It is a big deal to send postcards from Vatican City because it is its own country and has special stamps. While sitting outside, Casey noticed that the guy at the table next to us was wearing a hat that said Nebraska and Lizzy was very excited since she is from Omaha so she talked to him and took a picture with him.
After leaving the museums, we went to get our first pizza and gelato! I got chocolate and Mister Nico, which were both delicious of course. As we were walking back to our hostel, we passed 4 college students and Casey noticed that one was wearing a get your Sig Ep heart on shirt which could only mean one thing...they were from Iowa State!!! It was Casey's dream to run in to someone that we randomly knew in Europe, so here was our chance! We ran after them and found out that they were from Iowa State and were studying in Wales. We talked about people we both knew and told them where we got our gelato and were back on our way to our hostel. How crazy that we would find other ISU students like that!
Back at our hostel, we took a nap since we had not slept very much the night before. We met other girls in our hostel who were from Canada and they told us that we were in luck because it was culture week in Rome and lots of museums, including the Colliseum, had free admission. Later that afternoon, we metroed to the Trevi Fountain. On the metro, we met a couple from North Carolina. The guy was stationed in Italy for the Marines (we think) and they were nice to talk to. On our walk to the fountain, we passed by White Restaurant which serves pizza and gelato. We went in and the Italian guy serving the gelato tried to give Lizzy a sample and ended up putting it on her nose.
By the time we got to the Trevi Fountain, it was dark and it was all lit up. I never realized that it is actually attached to a building and is not free standing. We took pictures and a super nice guy came up and talked to us. He was from southern California and was on a trip to Rome with his sister and dad. His sister got tired of waiting for him to finish talking to us so she pretended he was her husband to try to embarrass him and get him to leave. It was pretty funny.
We went back to the White Restaurant and got a pizza to split. It was good. As we were leaving, a waiter was staring at us and dropped a whole tray of glasses. We just walked away and laughed. We decided to go out for a drink and followed my guidebook to Trinity College Bar-an Irish pub. It was pretty much an American hang out but that was okay with us! I got a Magner's which was good. The bartender, who was wearing a sweatervest kept staring at us and started playing music we listened to in middle school. We could not believe some of the songs he played. There were also some creepers there but we ignored them for the most part. One guy was just sitting in the corner dancing to himself...strange. Anyways, there was a super cute American guy who did a trick with a euro bill and some euro coins and he taught me how to do it too.
Around midnight, we left the bar and it was raining. We started down the street and ran into the guy who taught me the money trick, which was slightly awkward so we turned around and crossed the street. We were just about past the guy and his group on the other side of the street when Lizzy slipped on the wet cobblestone and grabbed Casey to hold herself up. We are pretty sure the guy and his friends saw and were all dying laughing as we got to the next building where no one could see us. We were laughing so hard. We took a cab to our hostel and went to bed after a very successful day...2nd best day of my life!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Past Week: Tanning, Tapas, Talking, and Torta-making
Sorry for no update in a long time! The weather has been so nice that I have been going to the park almost every day to get some sun! I have gotten burned once but we are all getting pretty tan :) We go to Park Rodeo and lay in the grass next to a fountain and if you close your eyes, the fountain sounds like the ocean. Also, there is usually a bit of a breeze and that sprinkles us with little drops of water. Just like being at the beach. I could seriously live at Park Rodeo in the sun for the rest of the time here and be content!
Last Wednesday, we went to Salamanca on an excursion with all of the Americans. We saw the University which has been there for like 700 or more years. It is the oldest university in Spain and is where my host sister Maria studies. We found the frog on one of the faces of the main building, which is supposed to make you lucky. We also visited the cathedral which was beautiful as always. Saw the Plaza Mayor and a park and that was about it. I really liked Salamanca and I wish the semester in Spain program was there instead!!
On Thursday, we had class, I taught the ninos, went to Parque Principe, and then we went out at night. We started at a bar in the Plaza Mayor which is finally open (it was under construction before) and then went to Corral and Divina Comedia and eventually got in to the Cameron (the best discoteca in Caceres) for free by saying that we were Erasmus students. Normally we would have to pay 6 euro, so that was a good deal! Casey and I were going to try to stay out all night and get churros at 8am but we got too tired and went home around 4:15am.
On Friday, Casey and I got churros and then went around Caceres to visit different medical buildings to try to get info about the medical system in Spain. We went to the Red Cross, a hospital, and a clinic. We didn't get too much info but it was lots of fun looking around. We had to make a presentation for my phonetics class and decided to do it on medicine since we both want to work in the medical field. We worked on our presentation some and then I went to Parque Rodeo with Shea. At night, we went shopping at the mall but it was mainly a looking trip. We bought a cake mix and salad and Casey, Courtney, Lizzy, and I had supper at my house since my host family was gone. We had fried eggs (courtesy of Lizzy), sauteed mushrooms (courtesy of Courtney), delicious salad (courtesy of Casey), and a goat cheese and spinach pizza (courtesy of my host family-what I was supposed to eat for supper). We also made a chocolate cake (called torta in Spanish) and put Hershey's kisses in it. That's what made it good! Between the four of us, we ate the whole thing :)
On Saturday, we went to the Feria de Extregusta, which was a tapas fair in the central part of Caceres. There were TONS of people there and like 70 different tapas we could try. Tapas are like appetizers. I had a chicken empanada with some sort of fruit sauce on top, a hamburger (best European burger yet...almost like a hamburger from the US!), and this AMAZING chocolate dessert in a cup! It was all really good! After the tapas fair, I went to the park with Shea for an hour and then went home to work more on my presentation I gave on Monday in my phonetics class.
On Sunday, I went to Mass at Fatima with Lizzy. In the afternoon, I went to Parque Rodeo with Shea for 2.5 hours. This was the day I got a sunburn. When I got back home, my host family had returned and they were so concerned that I was sunburned. I really don't think it is that bad and not as big of a deal as they make it. Oh well. I'll be wearing long clothes around home for the next couple days. I finished my presentation and practiced with Casey.
On Monday, we gave our presentation, which went pretty well! We didn't get a grade yet but I don't think our professor will be too hard on us. I Skyped mom and dad for the final times yesterday. Then, I went to the park with Shea and Claire. Last night, Casey and I had an intercambio and practiced our Spanish with 3 adults from Caceres who are trying to learn English. It was a very good experience! We were a bit surprised that the people were adults but it was really fun talking to them and one of the ladies is going to introduce us to her son and his friends from Caceres who are our age when we get back from Semana Santa so that should be fun! They all wanted to learn English so that when they travel, they can understand things. I had never thought about that before-there is always a sign in English but not always other languages. After our intercambio, we went home for supper and then went out to celebrate Courtney's 21st birthday!!
Today, I went to my classes and am getting ready to go teach the ninos one more time. We are learning about animals today and I am going to teach them the Old MacDonald and I'm Going on a Bear Hunt songs. I will probably go to the park for a bit. I also need to go to the mall and pack for Italy/Barcelona! WE LEAVE TOMORROW!!!! SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!! Visiting Rome is on the list of things I want to do before I die and I am so excited to have this opportunity!!!
We will be in Italy from Wednesday night-Monday morning. We plan to see the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, Tomb of St. Peter, Colliseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. We are planning on going to Psalm Sunday Mass at St. Peter's and will hopefully meet up with Jeff Dole who is a seminarian studying in Rome right now (he used to go to ISU). I am also hoping to see my friend Abby who is studying abroad in Ireland but will be in Italy during the weekend. I'm also hoping to have lots of pasta, pizza, and gelato!
In Barcelona, we are planning on visiting the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, the beach :), and Las Ramblas. We will be in Barcelona during the last FC Barcelona v. Real Madrid soccer game so we will definitely be going to a bar or somewhere to watch the game! Those two teams are the biggest rivals in Spain, and I hope Real Madrid wins!!!
We will return to Caceres next Friday so there definitely won't be any blog updates until at least then! I am SO excited! This next week is going to be something I will NEVER forget!!
Goodbye!!!
Last Wednesday, we went to Salamanca on an excursion with all of the Americans. We saw the University which has been there for like 700 or more years. It is the oldest university in Spain and is where my host sister Maria studies. We found the frog on one of the faces of the main building, which is supposed to make you lucky. We also visited the cathedral which was beautiful as always. Saw the Plaza Mayor and a park and that was about it. I really liked Salamanca and I wish the semester in Spain program was there instead!!
On Thursday, we had class, I taught the ninos, went to Parque Principe, and then we went out at night. We started at a bar in the Plaza Mayor which is finally open (it was under construction before) and then went to Corral and Divina Comedia and eventually got in to the Cameron (the best discoteca in Caceres) for free by saying that we were Erasmus students. Normally we would have to pay 6 euro, so that was a good deal! Casey and I were going to try to stay out all night and get churros at 8am but we got too tired and went home around 4:15am.
On Friday, Casey and I got churros and then went around Caceres to visit different medical buildings to try to get info about the medical system in Spain. We went to the Red Cross, a hospital, and a clinic. We didn't get too much info but it was lots of fun looking around. We had to make a presentation for my phonetics class and decided to do it on medicine since we both want to work in the medical field. We worked on our presentation some and then I went to Parque Rodeo with Shea. At night, we went shopping at the mall but it was mainly a looking trip. We bought a cake mix and salad and Casey, Courtney, Lizzy, and I had supper at my house since my host family was gone. We had fried eggs (courtesy of Lizzy), sauteed mushrooms (courtesy of Courtney), delicious salad (courtesy of Casey), and a goat cheese and spinach pizza (courtesy of my host family-what I was supposed to eat for supper). We also made a chocolate cake (called torta in Spanish) and put Hershey's kisses in it. That's what made it good! Between the four of us, we ate the whole thing :)
On Saturday, we went to the Feria de Extregusta, which was a tapas fair in the central part of Caceres. There were TONS of people there and like 70 different tapas we could try. Tapas are like appetizers. I had a chicken empanada with some sort of fruit sauce on top, a hamburger (best European burger yet...almost like a hamburger from the US!), and this AMAZING chocolate dessert in a cup! It was all really good! After the tapas fair, I went to the park with Shea for an hour and then went home to work more on my presentation I gave on Monday in my phonetics class.
On Sunday, I went to Mass at Fatima with Lizzy. In the afternoon, I went to Parque Rodeo with Shea for 2.5 hours. This was the day I got a sunburn. When I got back home, my host family had returned and they were so concerned that I was sunburned. I really don't think it is that bad and not as big of a deal as they make it. Oh well. I'll be wearing long clothes around home for the next couple days. I finished my presentation and practiced with Casey.
On Monday, we gave our presentation, which went pretty well! We didn't get a grade yet but I don't think our professor will be too hard on us. I Skyped mom and dad for the final times yesterday. Then, I went to the park with Shea and Claire. Last night, Casey and I had an intercambio and practiced our Spanish with 3 adults from Caceres who are trying to learn English. It was a very good experience! We were a bit surprised that the people were adults but it was really fun talking to them and one of the ladies is going to introduce us to her son and his friends from Caceres who are our age when we get back from Semana Santa so that should be fun! They all wanted to learn English so that when they travel, they can understand things. I had never thought about that before-there is always a sign in English but not always other languages. After our intercambio, we went home for supper and then went out to celebrate Courtney's 21st birthday!!
Today, I went to my classes and am getting ready to go teach the ninos one more time. We are learning about animals today and I am going to teach them the Old MacDonald and I'm Going on a Bear Hunt songs. I will probably go to the park for a bit. I also need to go to the mall and pack for Italy/Barcelona! WE LEAVE TOMORROW!!!! SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!! Visiting Rome is on the list of things I want to do before I die and I am so excited to have this opportunity!!!
We will be in Italy from Wednesday night-Monday morning. We plan to see the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, Tomb of St. Peter, Colliseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. We are planning on going to Psalm Sunday Mass at St. Peter's and will hopefully meet up with Jeff Dole who is a seminarian studying in Rome right now (he used to go to ISU). I am also hoping to see my friend Abby who is studying abroad in Ireland but will be in Italy during the weekend. I'm also hoping to have lots of pasta, pizza, and gelato!
In Barcelona, we are planning on visiting the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, the beach :), and Las Ramblas. We will be in Barcelona during the last FC Barcelona v. Real Madrid soccer game so we will definitely be going to a bar or somewhere to watch the game! Those two teams are the biggest rivals in Spain, and I hope Real Madrid wins!!!
We will return to Caceres next Friday so there definitely won't be any blog updates until at least then! I am SO excited! This next week is going to be something I will NEVER forget!!
Goodbye!!!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Profesora Ana Tries Again
This afternoon, I met with the ninos for the second time. It went so much better! I went over to their house and taught them about colors and shapes. This time there were only 2 boys and they listened so much better and I was so relieved! I discovered that they liked to color so they made paper snakes with each segment of the snake body as a different color. I tried to teach them Twister but they didn't really get it. We also played Simon Says. It is kinda fun playing little kid games again!
Today it is 90 degrees and the people of Caceres are walking around in jeans and light, long-sleeved jackets...how are they not dying of a heat stroke? We have had gorgeous weather here for the past few days, which is great! I am starting to get tan! My host sister said that in spring, when the sun starts shinning, it never stops. I love it! I am getting anxious to get to Barcelona and go to the beach! One week til I go to Rome by the way :)
Today it is 90 degrees and the people of Caceres are walking around in jeans and light, long-sleeved jackets...how are they not dying of a heat stroke? We have had gorgeous weather here for the past few days, which is great! I am starting to get tan! My host sister said that in spring, when the sun starts shinning, it never stops. I love it! I am getting anxious to get to Barcelona and go to the beach! One week til I go to Rome by the way :)
Toledo and Trip to the National Park
On Sunday, Lizzy, Cory, Casey, and I went with some Erasmus students to Toledo, which is a city about 1 hour from Madrid. The city is built on hills and there were lots of inclining streets. We saw la Iglesia de San Tome which is where El Greco (an artist from the 1600's) painted a famous painting that we learned about in our Spanish art class. It was cloudy and a little bit cold because of the wind, so we tried to find things to do inside but not much was open since it was Sunday. We went to a couple bars, ordered tapas, and sat and talked to a guy we met who is studying to become a doctor. To become a doctor in Spain, you have to go to 6 years of school which is like a bachelor's and medical school combined. Then, you take one year to study for an exam. After you take the exam, you do a residency for 4-5 years, depending on your specialization. It was really interesting talking to him because Casey and I are going to do a project on the differences in health care systems between Spain and the US for our phonetics final speech. At the last bar we went to, they had Bulmer's cider that I had in Ireland, but this time pear instead of apple. I was so surprised they had it and tried pear, which I liked even better!
On Monday, we went to the national park in our state called Monfrague. They canceled our classes so we spent the whole day there. I had already gone with my sister but it was fun to go again with everyone else. I got a little bit sunburned...thank goodness my host mom didn't notice or I would have been in trouble for not wearing enough sunscreen. We climbed up to a castle, hiked down a mountain, and spent a lot of time just standing and looking at the landscape.
On Monday, we went to the national park in our state called Monfrague. They canceled our classes so we spent the whole day there. I had already gone with my sister but it was fun to go again with everyone else. I got a little bit sunburned...thank goodness my host mom didn't notice or I would have been in trouble for not wearing enough sunscreen. We climbed up to a castle, hiked down a mountain, and spent a lot of time just standing and looking at the landscape.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Fiesta de Primavera y Nuestra Fogata en la Montana
On Thursday night, we went to the Fiesta de Primavera (Spring Festival) in the outskirts of Caceres. We took a bus there and it was an area with open patches of grass-like a parking lot for tailgating. It was crazy how many people were there! Like literally all the young people from Caceres went. We ran into lots of people we knew. Everyone buys alcohol from the grocery store and then just takes it to the festival to drink there. There were lots of cars with their stereos turned up full blast but every car had a different song playing so it was hard to find one beat to dance to. For a while, we went and stood by a car and danced until we met these creepy Spanish guys so we left. We stayed there until about 3am and then took the bus home. It was a good night.
Last night, we climbed the mountain at about 7:45pm to watch the sunset over Caceres and then had supper and a small (probably illegal) bonfire at the top of the mountain. Cory, Mindy, Alex, and Taylor worked really hard at keeping the fire going since it was a bit windy but we made it last the whole time we were up there. We roasted marshmellows and made smores. We also sat around and told stories and it was a great group bonding time as 15 out of the 19 of us were there. We stayed up on the mountain until midnight and then went home. My host mom and sister could not believe we were up there for so long! It was probably my favorite night in Caceres so far.
Today, I am planning on Skyping Patrick and Dad, doing homework, and going to Mass tonight at 8pm. One of our friends from Germany (who goes by Banana) has a birthday party tonight so we will probably go to that for a little while and then sleep some before we leave for Toledo at 6:30am. It is a city about 3.5 hours from Caceres and Lizzy, Cory, Casey and I are going on a day trip there on Sunday.
Last night, we climbed the mountain at about 7:45pm to watch the sunset over Caceres and then had supper and a small (probably illegal) bonfire at the top of the mountain. Cory, Mindy, Alex, and Taylor worked really hard at keeping the fire going since it was a bit windy but we made it last the whole time we were up there. We roasted marshmellows and made smores. We also sat around and told stories and it was a great group bonding time as 15 out of the 19 of us were there. We stayed up on the mountain until midnight and then went home. My host mom and sister could not believe we were up there for so long! It was probably my favorite night in Caceres so far.
Today, I am planning on Skyping Patrick and Dad, doing homework, and going to Mass tonight at 8pm. One of our friends from Germany (who goes by Banana) has a birthday party tonight so we will probably go to that for a little while and then sleep some before we leave for Toledo at 6:30am. It is a city about 3.5 hours from Caceres and Lizzy, Cory, Casey and I are going on a day trip there on Sunday.
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