Italy

Dec 7
My trip to Italy may have been one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life (I feel like I say that every week.) We began our trip by taking a train into Florence. After checking into our hostel, we celebrated our arrival with hot chocolate and gelato.


We got an early start to our day on Friday, exploring beautiful Florence by visiting the Uffizi museum and the spectacular Duomo cathedral. We spent many hours walking around small picturesque side streets and ducking into cute cafes for coffee and gelato. Among the hours of exploring Italian street markets and googling at Italian men, we headed out to a classic Italian dinner – pizza and pasta – and spent the night at a bar called Faces.

Saturday morning we took a train to a Perugia. Ashely McGreevey (Rocky River!) is currently studying abroad in Perugia and gave us a guided tour of her town! It was exactly how I pictured Tuscany with the majestic fall leaves and the uphill-winding side streets. After our purchase of the very famous Perugian chocolates, we rode our train to our final destination: Rome.

They say a lifetime is not enough in Rome, and 2 days – even less. However our short time in Rome did not deter us from seeing everything we possibly could. We began with our night tour of the Colosseum – stunning. Sunday morning we got up bright and early to see St. Peter’s Basilica. Words cannot express the emotions I felt as we walked the street leading to the Vatican. After attending mass in the basilica and admiring the Pieta, we left the Basilica in search for lunch. However, as we exited the basilica, we noticed a large crowd staring up into a Vatican building. I casually asked a security guard what was going on and received the astonishing answer that the Pope was about to speak. So there I was, simply by chance, standing in St. Peter’s Plaza, watching the Pope address a crowd in Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, German, and French. Right place, right time? I am still in shock.

After being blessed by the pope, our amazing day continued with visit to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain (for lovers), Plaza Spagna, and Plaza Navarro (open street market.) The entire day was exhilarating to the point where we would leave one location to visit another, and when you though the city couldn’t get any more amazing – somehow it did.

Monday morning we visited the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Once again I was dumbfounded. We ended the day by returning to St. Peter’s Basilica and climbing the dome for the most beautiful view of Rome. I cannot even talk about Italy without becoming overwhelmed. This trip was the perfect climax to our traveling adventures.

Less than two weeks and I feel like I just got here. As excited as I am about going home, I know it is going to be extremely difficult to leave behind this amazing semester and return to reality.

Parents visit!

Nov 26

I had such a blast hanging out with my parents in Spain. I felt so blessed to be able to show my parents my world in Madrid and introduce them to the amazing people I have met here.

Together we enjoyed such delicious Spanish food, watched a flamenco show, visited the Palacio Real, took a trip down to Sevilla, and got to catch up after almost 2.5 months of not being together! They even had a chance to visit the Esocobedos. I even got to take my parents out and experience the unreal Madrid night life! I was so proud to show them my city :)

Greece

Nov 26

Despite minor delays in Milan due to fog we arrived at our wonderful destination, Athens Greece. Home of the 2004 Olympics. Such a historically vibrant city that just echoes ancient ruins and the thoughts brilliant of philosophers.


We were so lucky to be traveling with our little Greek girl, Christina. She was our wonderful guia for the weekend through the Parthenon, night life, coffee on the beach, and Delphi. We even had the pleasure of staying at her apartment for the trip.

I have to mention food considering that half of this trip was spent eating. Our travel group of 8 could not get enough feta cheese, meats, veggies, and CREPES! One day we literally got up to drink coffee and watch the sunset on the beach. Overall another amazing trip!!

Paris

I fell in love with Paris.

Definitely comes very close to Madrid as my favorite city. I traveled with the lovely Francesca to Paris on Thursday where we stayed in the 6th arrondissment with my cousins Lola and Max. The whole weekend was filled with non-stop french fun and amazing memories.

Thursday night we headed to the Eiffel Tower where we were greeted by Emily (Francesca´s friend who is studying abroad in Paris). We drank french wine while waiting till 11pm for the Eiffel Tower to sparkle. Every night the Eiffel Tower literally turns into a dazzling christmas tree on the hour for about 10 minutes and can be seen throughout the city.


Friday morning after a quick incident of being locked in the apartment, Francesca, Emily, and I explored the streets of Paris including scattered shopping, french cafes, Notre Dame, La Louvre (of course we saw the mona lisa), Les Jardins de Tulieres, and la Place de la Concorde. At night, Max and Lola took us out for fabulous french cuisine followed by a crazy night of dancing at a french club. I´ll just briefly mention key words about the night including Francesca, Madonna, Material Girl, and Euros.


Saturday afternoon included a visit to Montmarte and La Sacre Coeur. Here we were able to meet up with my other cousin Sacha and Pat (friend of Katie Donnelly´s also studying in Paris.) Montmarte is a bit bohemian and encompassed everything french you can imagine. We even got amazing creapes!
Towards the evening we went out for drinks (and bread & cheese.)

Saturday morning, Fran and I went to a french farmer´s market to buy ingredients for our big american pancake breakfast we planned to make for our wonderful hosts. We had tons of fun trying to speak french and . . . we ate more creapes! I love french food. However, our american breakfast was quite a success.

This weekened was wonderful not only because I was in able to enjoythe city of lights and practice my french, but I also had the opportunity to spend time with family I hadn´t see in way too long. After being in withdrawal from lack of cheese, bread, pastries, and NUTELLA, I return to Madrid for 2 days before leaving for Greece on Tuesday!

Cordoba and Granada

Oct 27

Well . . . last weekend was our BU group trip to Cordoba and Granada. We stayed in Cordoba from Thursday to Friday morning and headed to Granada for the rest of the weekend. What a crazy trip! In Cordoba we went to see the Mezquita, and in Granada we saw the Alhambra. Both of these were AMAZING. It was just overwhelming.

This weekend we also had two 21st birthdays in the group – Alec and Mark! We took part in the “Botellon” in Cordoba, and the university night life in Granada. On our way home we also stopped at the Don Quixote Windmills.

Mallorca

Oct 18

This past weekend I traveled to Mallorca (island off the coast of Spain) with Aileen and Baylee. We were invited to go by Javi (a Spanish friend who we met through my cousin Astrid.) His uncle was so kind and put us up in a hotel with an ocean view! Not to mention Javi took us out to fabulous lunches and dinners at historical European homes and hotels. Unfortunately it rained all weekend on “the island where the sun always shines,” however this gave us a unique opportunity to explore the island instead of just laying on the beach (our original plan). On Saturday we played in Castle Bellver, exploring every inch of it and taking fabulous pictures from the top of the castle.
After the castle, we drove to a small town called Valledemosa which lies in the mountains of Mallorca. The town was so cute and also had an incredible view of Palma de Mallorca.
Night life in Mallorca was a blast – especially since we had access to all of the clubs currently “de moda”. Overall just another amazing weekend!

P.S. Since my last post I have decided to travel to Paris and Greece in November and to Italy in December!! And . . . my parents are coming to visit in November! So happy!

Salamanca

Oct 2

After our Real Madrid night (and a long day of classes and work), we went out to celebrate our friend Baylee’s birthday (Northwestern). We went to a famous restaurant called Gula Gula. This restaurant had amazing food and was followed by a very interesting show . . . a drag show. Yes, this was my first experience and I could not stop laughing the entire way through.


This past weekend we went to Salamanca from Friday morning to Saturday night. Salamanca is about 2.5 hours away from Madrid. We took our bus there Friday morning, found a cute hostel, and took our siestas till about 6pm. Salamanca is pretty much a college town, famous for its night life supported by the students. Our night out was fabulous – making it our 3rd consecutive night with less than 3 hours of sleep. The next day we explored much of the historic part of Salamanca including the gardens of San Esteban, the Cathedral, and the Convent. Such a beautiful European city, I loved it.

REAL MADRID

Oct 2

This past week has just been non-stop jam-packed full of Spain craziness. We started things off right by attending our first Real Madrid soccer game. We went all out supporting our home town team with the official jerseys and we only pay $25 for seats that were 10 rows back and had the most amazing view of the game. Real Madrid won (of course!) 2-1 against a Greek team called Olympiacos. I can’t believe I live on the same street as the stadium. Our street becomes crazy with the 64,000 fans that were there, I would almost compare it to Fenway Park except it feels like every game is the World Series here. Just an amazing experience – can’t wait to do it again (I might just become a Real Madrid addict).


Last week I also attended a Flamenco show. It was called Tarantos, a Romeo and Juliet type romance but through the beautiful dance of flamenco. You have no idea how tempted I am to take flamenco classes here!!