Once again, I have returned home to Spain and my oh my, does it feel nice! It has been one heck of a week! I enjoyed everything that we were able to see, but I’d be lying if I said that it was easy! ;)
I left Valladolid early on Thursday morning (the 21st) to go to Madrid, where I met up with the group from East. I really enjoyed seeing them and spending the day with them, and I also enjoyed my first little taste of true independence—traveling alone. It was also my first taste of Madrid, as I had only seen it’s bus station and airport before. It was a gorgeous day and I appreciated the opportunity to see a little bit of Madrid with a group of cool people.
On Saturday morning I met Katie at the airport for our 7 a.m. flight to Rome, and when we arrived at the Rome Ciampino airport, it was raining. Little did we know, we would be in Rome for only about 5 hours when it was NOT raining! We checked into our hostel and headed to Vatican City in hopes of seeing St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately both closed early due to the preparations for Easter. We were fortunate, however, to find some cool ponchos that we sported for most of our time sightseeing! We looked like tourists, but we were pretty dry! ;)
After the Vatican, we went to the Colosseum, which was pretty amazing. I found it sort of funny that all of the ruins and famous sights in Rome were in the middle of modern-day society, in between apartment buildings and stores, or in the case of the Colosseum, immediately outside a metro stop. We stood in line for a while and finally made it inside, and while it was still raining cats and dogs, it was a really cool experience. The first of many on this trip that just seemed sort of surreal—standing inside of something that is, first of all, so old and has stood the true test of time, and second of all, so famous and known around the world. We took a bunch of cool pictures, and walked around inside of it for a while, and then decided that it was time to call it a day. Thankfully our room in our hostel had a radiator that we could use to dry our wet clothes and shoes!
On Sunday morning we were back to the Vatican before 8 a.m., and to our GREAT surprise, we got seats in real chairs really quite close to the altar. It didn’t rain for the first hour or so that we were there, but of course, as we sat waiting, it started storming about 45 minutes before mass started. Everything went on as scheduled, but it was quite cold and VERY wet, and the view through the umbrellas wasn’t quite what we had planned for! We were happy that even though we didn’t get to see St. Peter’s Basilica or the Sistine Chapel, that we did attend Easter mass given by the Pope!
Thankfully shortly after that rainy ordeal, the rain ceased for a few hours and we were able to see the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. We were on a really good streak until we were at our last sight of the day—the Roman Forum—and we were caught in a relatively violent hail storm. By the time it was done, there were broken umbrellas EVERYWHERE, and we were ready to go back to the hostel and be warm and dry! Unfortunately we didn’t see hardly any of the Roman Forum, but the storm was an experience in itself.
On Monday we traveled to Florence, where the weather wasn’t any nicer to us. We stayed in a Camping hostel, meaning that we slept in a tent. That wasn’t really a great idea, although if the weather would have been nicer it would have been absolutely perfect. We again braved a storm to go see the Duomo, and then on Tuesday morning we woke up and went to see Michelangelo’s David, which was incredible. We had good luck getting in to see that, as well, we hardly had to wait in line, and then for some reason there was no admission fee! We definitely didn’t complain! ;)
On Tuesday afternoon we took the train to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was yet another surreal experience. It was the first time we saw the sun, so we laid on the lawn next to the tower for a while, and then strolled back to the train station and ate delicious gelato. Tuesday night was much more comfortable back at the camping hostel—the temperature was a little bit higher, we took a long walk and then nice hot showers before bed, and we asked for more blankets! Although the first night in the hostel was less than ideal, the hostel was in an amazing location—on a hill very close to Piazza Michelangelo, which is famous for having the best view over Florence. Very, VERY pretty, especially at night!
Wednesday was a day of travel—we took the train to Milan, and then I took a bus to the airport, flew to Barcelona, took a bus from the airport into the train station, and then the metro to the hotel where I again met up with the group from East. It was a long day and I was very glad, once again, to be safe and sound and warm (with people I knew) at the end of the day! I spent most Thursday on my own walking around Barcelona, and then ate dinner and spent the evening with the group. I think that day was probably my favorite of the whole week! Katie flew in late Thursday night, and we were both pretty exhausted.
We really enjoyed Barcelona—we had a very nice hostel, we went to the Picasso Museum, La Boqueria (a really cool market), the Chocolate Museum, the Olympic Stadium (which was probably our favorite part of Barcelona, even though the Olympics were there a good 16 years ago!), the Sagrada Familia (a church designed my Gaudi) and other Gaudi Houses, Parc Guell (also designed by Gaudi and very cool), and the FC Barcelona stadium (soccer, for those who don’t know!), where we saw Ronaldinho, a very famous soccer player in Spain. He was working with a trainer on the team’s practice field, and he smiled at us and we got pictures, so we were pretty darm excited.
Although we loved Barcelona we were very glad to head back to Valladolid—we took a 10 hour night bus on Saturday night and got home around 9:30 yesterday morning. It was a loooong and uncomfortable ride, and I was mighty glad to see the bus station!
I started classes again—and I only have NINETEEN days of them left! I have only 48 days left in Spain—19 days of class (no classes on Mondays, how nice), 13 days of traveling, 2 school excursions, a big paper to write, and a week of exams. Incredible, really, how fast it has all gone. And there’s still so much left to do! Unfortunately there is no longer internet in my house—I’m not sure if it will return or not, but at the moment it’s looking unlikely. I will get pictures (at least SOME pictures) up as soon as I can, but it might take a little while. I leave for Ireland on Thursday, so there will definitely be another update and even more pictures to share after that.
I hope that everyone had a great Spring Break and a very Happy Easter! Hasta Luego!
