Be Brave.

"No Matter Where You Go, There You Are"

It's no big surprise, but I miss Italy. And I have spent a lot of time missing Italy since I have been home. Missing it in the annoying "Brig...stop talking about it" kind of way. To all of you that I have subjected to rants about good food and good places and stories on stories, my apologies. I applaud you for putting up with me this long and acting interested. (Granted I am a GREAT story teller). 

While I do miss Italy and Florence and Europe and traveling with my whole heart, I can't deny school and home and places here their worth. 

Be Where You Are.  This was pretty easy to do in Florence, adventure at my finger tips.

Thing is I am not in Florence, and I can lust after it all I want but I am back in Connecticut. So now I can either bitch and whine and miss who I was in Italy, or be that girl here. Yea, the adventures will be a little different, and the cast and crew has changed. But that doesn't make it any less amazing. I am here so I will be here, fully 100% all the way here. I gained confidence and maturity in Italy, and that doesn't stay on 43 San Niccolo, that comes with me where ever I am. 

Things are much quieter than they were last semester, seeing as I am no longer jet-setting and frolicking through Europe. This semester is proving to be just as fun and challenging in a whole different set of ways, but I wouldn't change anything.

:)

Boston or Bust!

I spent the weekend in Boston with Liz and Sara, and man oh man do I miss city living!  Being in Boston reminded me how much I love great architecture, people watching, walker's fatigue, and taking pictures.

Liz and I set out with one goal - exploring. It was great though because it was aimless and relaxed. There was no rushing to get to as many places as possible or try and be on time. We would decide on a whim whether to go left or right, the idea was to "go where the wind takes us" We found ourselves some interesting places  such as the MFA, where there was a GIANT BABY HEAD sculpture.....

There is some art I will never ever understand! Oh well!

The girl's apartment is still a work in progress, but thanks to the "design on a dime team" (Dad, Liz, Kiks and me) things were looking pretty good!

A little snippet of the living room, hello lovely red couch!

Sara and I stumbled upon a rose garden in the park across from their apartment. There were so many different types and they were all so beautiful. It's things like that I love, we just happened upon a rose garden, it was great.

It's been a couple months now being home, and I miss Florence like crazy. Two of my friends are going abroad there so I am making a "survival guide" for them the way Sara did for me!

The very end

It was our very last day and night in Florence. So. Sad.

I didn't think I would cry being back because we had already said goodbye to all our favorite places and people. Wrong, so so wrong. We were going to the luggage place and the cab driver had to go past our bridge, I was tearing up knowing I wasn't going back to my apartment at all. 

The hostel we picked was really nice though, the guy thought we were nuts because we had sooooo much luggage just for one night! We explained that we had been studying here and cleared up his confusion a bit!

Once we got all our stuff settled we went outside! It was so sunny and warm out. We went to the leather market for some last minute purchases and then went and got dinner at Gusta!

Making our pizza

om nom nom

The sun was setting as we headed back to the hostel to change so we sat on the bridge to enjoy it!

Then we went to Old Stove one last time! We had already said goodbye to Niama and other favorite going out places but not Old Stove, so we figured it only made sense to go there!

We were there for a while just recapping highs and lows of the semester (there were mostly highs) and not wanting any time to pass to send us home. The bartender kept giving us free shots of limoncello which was grrrrrreat (sarcasm, I do not particularly care for limoncello)!

Then we wandered some, had to say goodbye to another important person....

And this last night would not be complete without a walk fully around the Duomo! 

In Piazza Repubblica on the way to school there is a carousel. And all semester we have been saying we should ride it, and all semester we just haven't. Probably because in our heads we say, don't worry there is still time!

Time is up! Now or never...

It was great! One more thing to be checked off the list!

Then we went back to the hostel and packed up all our stuff to try and make sure it would make the weight limit...sort of a challenge!

Devon's flight was at 7 and mine was not until 1, however we did not want to part ways and not split a cab, so I went with her to the airport. Which meant that at 5 am I realized I would be spending 8 hours in the airport! Yikes.

Saying goodbye to her was the worst, I cried for about an hour after. Which actually was nice because I needed to kill 8 hours anyway! All my flights and such went smoothly which I was grateful for. 

And once I arrived in America I got to see my family! Never been happier :)

It was the best of times it was the worst of times..

Hmmm, Barcelona where do I begin?

Okay Friday was our last night in Florence, and everyone was really sad. And it was great to be hugging and loving everyone and seeing all the people you came to really be friends with, but it stunk because well...we're leaving. So Saturday was the day that everyone's planes were taking them back to the good ole u.s.a- but Devon and I had a flight that evening to none other than Barcelona! 

It was a weird day, we were all packed and the apartment was completely empty which was just so strange.

We make it to the airport with enough time to make sure we're not running around like crazy people, make it through checking bags and security la la la.

Our flight was going to Frankfurt and then we were to have another to take us to Barcelona- WELP the flight was delayed, which meant Devy and I were SPRINTING through the airport to make it to the next flight.

I had one hand on my backpack to make sure it didn't unzip on me, and the two of us were just flailing through the airport hoping to make it- good news, we did!

We get into Barcelona and it is POURING RAIN. Torrential downpour, nottttt looking promising for the week we planned to spend on the beach. By the time we got our bags and took the bus into the city center it was around 12:30-1 am. The directions the hostel gave us said to take the metro and go from there.

The plot thickens!

Barcelona is known for thieveys and mean people that steal your things! They're so stealth! So when one minute Devon had her wallet AND THE NEXT MINUTE SHE DID NOT...it was terrible.

We're in the metro and she realizes it is most definitely gone so she goes up to see if maybe it was dropped or something (usually the people that steal just want your cash and do not care about the cards etc.)

While she is doing that, I am standing guard  over our two rolly luggages, my backpack and her bag. This guy comes and sits down right next to her bag and immediately starts looking down at it and smiling and then waves his friends over. SERIOUSLY, we just got stolen from and now I am going to have to deal with this? (Naturally my first instinct was to pop out my umbrella so they would know I mean business, I was gonna hit them with it!) I had to grab the bag and then drag all our stuff away, meanwhile they were laughing. I hated it.

Devon came back THANK GOODNESS, sans wallet unfortunately and we got onto the metro. 

We get off the metro, and the rest of the directions from the hostel STINK. They were very vague and it was still pouring, goodness gracious it was the worst. We flag down a taxi and ask him to take us and he starts saying no because it is close and he doesn't want to take our money.

TAKE MY MONEY! IT IS RAINING LIKE I HAVE NEVER SEEN AND I AM LOST!

(while this exchange was going down my umbrella flipped inside out...awesome)

We made it to the hostel after all of that- took care of canceling Devon's cards and swore up and down that we were NEVER leaving the hostel ever.

Sunday after a whole nights sleep and a shower, we decided that we would in fact leave our hostel and see what else Barcelona had in store for us.

We walked La Rambla which is a street lined with trees and has all these vendors and little shops set up outside on the street. There were also some pretty cool street performers we spotted out there.

Flowers for sale!

THEY HAVE STARBUCKS IN BARCELONA! It went from being - 1000 points to +1000 in that moment! We were so happy...

After walking around there we went to Parc Guell. Parc Guell is a garden with realllllly cool architecture done by Antoni Gaudi. Coolest park I've ever been to! 

We spent a lot of time there, it was great/ very relaxing and exactly what we needed! 

Our hostel was more like a hotel, and we went back to check out the pool on the roof!

Mostly our agenda consisted of, exploring something in the city early in the morning and then hitting the beach for the rest of the day. It was a lovely agenda.

We went to La Boqueria- which is a large public market. It was a lot like the Central Market in Florence (sighhhh) but it had wayyyy more candy! And it was much more colorful!

We went to Bar Lobo for lunch and it was SOOOO good! Did things right and and got tapas- fried artichokes and patatas bravas, mmmmmmm! 

One of our favorite things about the beach was the restaurants and bars that were oh so conveniently close. We got this smoothie that was coconut, strawberry, banana and milk DELICIOUS! It was called the "barcelona beach" and we got one every day. I miss them, they were great. I wanted to swim in them or have a never-ending-always-refilling cup!

We were told that 1. if you are in Barcelona you have to go to Sagrada Familia or you are a terrible tourist and 2. when you go, go early to miss the line.

EVERY MORNING we set alarms for 8:30 so we could get up and go, and EVERY MORNING I was shocked when I didn't wake up until 10! However, on the last full day we had, we did it- got up at 8:30 and made it (and lo and behold there was no line!)

The architect Gaudi (responsible for Parc Guell and a lot of other really awesome buildings throughout Barcelona) started this church but died before it was finished. He left such specific instructions though that they can finish it, and are still in the process of doing so! This was on par for me with the Duomo or the Eiffel Tower, I REALLY liked it! And how cool that it is still being built?!

Me and Devy outside!

All around Barcelona were these signs for "Bicing" (pronounced bi-sthing with a little lisp) and they have all these bikes lined up at them and they are all around the city so you could go from one place and drop off the bike at another place! Devon and I decided that we should try it. So we're on these bikes still attached to the post trying to figure out how the heck they get off of there and this man walks up and puts his bike back. Devon calls out "WAIT how do you get them off?" And he asked us if we had our card

 ( har har Devon doesn't, her wallet got stolen!) SURPRISE he wasn't talking about a credit card, you need a residents card. Because only people that live in Barcelona are allowed to use the Bices (bikes)!

Pretty cool! Every time we saw someone Bicing after that we knew they were a native.

On our last night we went out to a nice tapas dinner and got some really great sangria!

I ordered more fried artichokes, patata bravas and a greek salad. Devon was getting the same and saw that they had cheeseburgers so she ordered that. Our waiter was like " Do you want one or two" and we were both kind of surprised like how in the heck does someone eat two cheeseburgers!

OH THAT'S HOW! They are bite size!

Despite its terrible beginning, Barcelona ended up being so much fun. And mostly I was just glad that Devon and I had extended our trip together (no way was I ready to leave her yet)

We safely and soundly made it back to Florence for one last great night!