Alrighty then, so it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these. Much has happened since my last adventure. Where to begin….
So, I had class in the Colosseum, which was pretty stinkin awesome. Oh, and the day before that, I went to mass at St. Peters. It was the first time I had been inside and it is un.be.liev.able. Seriously, that place is crazy ridiculous. It was hard to concentrate in church because there is so much stuff to marvel at. Also, there was the cutest Italian kid two pews up and I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to steal him (don’t worry, I didn’t). Oh, and then there’s the whole mass being in Italian thing, so that made it hard to focus as well. I could understand the order of things and what was happening when since all Catholic mass goes in the same order, but the priest lost me during the homily. Something about brothers and sisters, and then he just went off. He was pointing all over the place and raising his voice, so I think it was something important. When I am fluent in Italian at the end of the semester, I will know what is going on and I’ll report back on how the Pope thinks you should be living your life. Be ready for that.
Back to the Colosseum and its awesomeness. It makes me a little sad that it has been destroyed by man. During the Middle Ages, people took all the metal and bronze supports out of it, so that is why there are holes all over the outside. What were those fools thinking?? It had already been there for like, 1000 years! Also, interesting fact, it has been struck by lighting twice. I mean, that only happens like, once every 1000 years...but since its been there for 2000, it makes sense. Another interesting fact, the only reason people had to stop destroying it was because some pope way back when declared it a tribute to martyrs since many Christians were executed there (before Catholicism was the cool thing to do) and now the church is still in charge of it and they do stations of the cross there during Lent. So we might go try to see it sometime. Speaking of Lent, I think I am going to give up soda and possibly sweets. Giving up Nutella and gelato would be pretty tough, since they are basically the loves of my life, but when in Rome….give up something important or the Bennedetto will find out and be upset. Oh, and back to the Colosseum, its funny because outside, there are all these men dressed up in Gladiator or Senator outfits and they stand around and smoke cigarettes and try to con you into taking pictures with them. Some guys from our class did and then they’re like, ok, 5 euro please. And then its like, crap, I have to give it to him because he has a sword. I mean, I doubt he would chop your head off, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances.
Moving on to my big adventure, Barcelona! We left wicked early Friday morning (3:00 AM) and flew out of Rome at 6:55 AM. I would not recommend such early flights out of anywhere. Other than there being no traffic at this hour, there are not many other benefits to ridiculously early flights. Anyways, the flight and getting to Barcelona went smoothly and we made it to our hostel in one piece. Turns out they had overbooked the hostel, so they set us up in the apartments next door. And the man was all apologetic because we had to be on the fourth floor (which meant a lot of stairs) but the apartments turned out to be really nice, so it wasn’t bad at all. We had our own bathroom, a kitchen, tv, a washing machine, and rooms to ourselves (instead of 16 other people). It was four of us, and then 4 other random people. We met 2 other girls who were from Switzerland and were really nice, so it was fun to talk to them, even though they made me feel really dumb because they both knew like, 6 languages and I was struggling along with my pathetic Spanish and even worse Italian. But whatever, my English was better than theirs.
Anyways, Friday we were all really tired (again, early morning flight, no good) so we took a nap, and then wandered around and went shopping. Spain is sooo different from Italy so it was really interesting to be in a new country. First of all, they are much more commercialized (I think that is the word I’m going for). They have much more chain restaurants, shops and different cultures thrown in there. Instead of just McDonalds, they had Burger King, KFC, Dunkin Doughnuts, Starbucks (they seriously had 80, all within 15 minutes of each other), Subway (woo hoo!), and something else random I can’t remember. They also had a lot of Spanish chains, which Rome doesn’t have too many of. I honestly did not really enjoy the food I had there. Granted, I had to eat pretty cheap, so I mainly had sandwiches, but even those were not very good. Especially compared to panini’s, which are very fabulous. I broke down one day and had Burger King. Don’t judge! I was starving and I knew I would actually like it. Plus, it was the first hamburger (beef, really) since I’ve been here. And it was delicious, so I am not ashamed. They also give out free ketchup and mayonnaise there, so that was nice. Oh, how I’ve missed mayo. The best meal was Saturday night when some girls we met cooked authentic Spanish food for us. I don't what it was exactly, but with the extremely cheap Sangria we bought, it was fabulous. I know we had cheese crepes for dessert, but the actual dinner, I don't have a name for, other than delicoius wonderfulness.
Barcelona also had a totally different atmosphere from Rome. In Rome, there are these crazy people trying to sell you umbrellas, fake purses and sunglasses, mini statues of THE DAVID, or something else completely useless all over the place, but there wasn’t any of that there, which was really nice. They also didn’t have as many people begging in the streets. Instead, they have people dressed up in these crazy outfits that sit perfectly still until someone gives them money, and then they do something retarded, like wave or bow and you’re allowed to take pictures with them. They get really pissed if you take pictures without giving any money and will yell at you, so you have to be sneaky and get a picture while someone else is posing, so they don’t really notice you. I didn’t take any though, I am always nervous they are going to flip out on me and I’ll get beat up by someone dressed up as a mummy or something. However, Spain isn’t too much better because instead of homeless people in the streets, there are prostitutes…but at least they are offering some sort of service for your money and not just sitting there with a cup in front of them. That made it a little sketchy to walk down the street at night (they were there during the day too though), but otherwise, it was ok. The street our hostel was on was a little skeezy, but nothing bad happened. And, it was right by this park that had a giant cat statue in it, so that was cool. I didn’t get a picture of it because my piece of crap camera died while halfway through the trip, but trust me, it was crazy big.
So we didn’t do much Friday except spend an excessive amount of time in Sephora and Zara (possibly the most fabulous stores I have ever been in) and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Saturday we went on this bus tour thing where you could get on a tourist bus (double decker!), ride around to all the cool places in Barcelona and get on and off wherever you wanted. We went to this church called the Temple of the Sacred Family, which is seriously the most ridiculous building I have ever seen. It was a mix of every architectural style you can imagine. I didn’t go inside because it cost money, but I did admire it from on top of the bus, and across the street at Starbucks, where I enjoyed a caramel frappacino, which later turned me into a psycho because caffeine makes me crazy. The sugar high later put me running a million miles a minute, it was interesting. Anyways, we were supposed to see a parade for Carnival, but we missed it, so we went to see the magic fountain instead. I don’t have any clue as to where we were, but there was this huge building at the top of a hill, with fountains going all the way down to this big square, that had an enormous fountain in the middle of it. There were millions of stairs we had to go up and down, but I was still high on the frappaccino, so I ran up and down them, no problem. The fountain was magical because starting at 7, it did a little song and dance for everyone! It had lights and music and the water would do all kinds of crazy things. We watched for probably 45 minutes, it was soo cool! It was definitely my favorite part of Barcelona. I took a ton of pictures and then I got the fabulous idea to take video and then my stupid camera died, so I only got like, 10 seconds. Sad times. And since you cant hear it, I will tell you that the “BARCELONA!” theme song sounded like it was sung by Queen, so props to Barcelona for that.
Well, since this is already a novel, I’ll wrap by saying we went to a bar that night, there were lots of people dressed up in crazy costumes for Carnival, and some jerk playing a xylophone, so we didn’t stay long. Sunday the weather sucked, so we rode around on the bus some and then went back to Sephora and Zara, where it took a lot of self control not to spend the rest of my savings. Oh yeah, I spotted 46 mullets over the 2 days (I didn’t start the tally until Sat)…those people were mullet crazy! And there were all sorts of varaties…including dread lock mullets! WHAT?? Spain was pretty progressive everywhere except the hair department..it was very sad. Anyways, we had a metro adventure, but other than that, the route back to Rome went smoothly. The plane ride was interesting though, everyone was like, cheering and clapping when we took off and landed, it was bizarre. Crazy Italians. Getting home from the airport though was a big pain in the butt, but I learned not to depend on the night buses and to spend the money on a cab. Next week…Naples and POMPEII!!! So pumped!
Ciao ciao!
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