Two pence none the richer. 12/7-12/8

One night in London, one full 24 hours.
Not many people can say they've done that so i feel pretty cool about it.
Our main goal was to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. We flew in at night and mostly searched for our hostel; that's never a problem though because in our hunt for YHA we were able to see a nice part of the city and figure out the metro system too.
After dinner and finding the place we settled in and went to bed shortly thereafter with the intention of waking up early to head off to the exhibition. We had heard quite a bit about how long we would have to wait in line and how unlikely it would be for us to get in, so we started waiting in line around 8amish, and the doors opened at 10. Waiting paid off and we ended up being able to see the exhibition which consisted of sketches of faces and hands and a lot of detailed mathematical work that can be seen incorporated in Leo's "Last Supper."

I, unfortunately, had gotten a little too used to traveling alone and forgot to make sure that Isa knew where I was... so we got separated at one point. I'm not good at not roaming around, and in museums I feel like it's easy to get lost but you always know you are in a museum. So I wasted a little bit of our time with that, which I was apologetic about.
We were able to quickly see some of the art in the portrait gallery, and move onto other things we wanted to see as well.

Big Ben was more like Little Ben. The name is overcompensating.

We got to see the British Museum and take a good look around there as well. There was tons to see and very little time to do it, so aside from walking around and glancing at what we could, the two museums were the main focus of the trip. It was a nice taste of what I would want to come back and see later on in my life. But a day is fine with me because the Pound is killing us in the exchange market, so I spent a good chunk of money for a one day visit.
Two pence none the richer.

To Amsterdam, (11/30-12/3) Brussels (12/3-12/5), and beyond!

Did you know the Amsterdam, Netherlands is in Holland? I had no idea. I supposed I may have had some kind of notion, but when I stepped off of the plane in the Amsterdam airport and saw signs saying "Welcome to Holland" I panicked that I perhaps got on the wrong plane and ended up in the wrong country. It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out.

And I figured everything out on this trip. For the first time in my life I traveled alone with no plans to meet anyone I knew, and with no knowledge of the city (or country) I was going to. Aside from a couple of museums and sights I wanted to visit, I had no expectations and was on my own time and schedule. I absolutely loved it!
It was night time when I arrived in Amsterdam, and I had no idea how to get to my hostel, so I went to the information stand in the airport and asked them a cheap way to get where I was going. Everyone in Amsterdam speaks English, that was really helpful. I think it's the second language next to Dutch (or Flemmish if you wanna be old school).

For those who don't know me too well, I get lost rather easily, and when I have a map I check it every couple of minutes because I know my instincts usually take me in the opposite direction that I desire. Well, not this time! I made it to my hostel alive and by 10pm or so. I checked into a room with 19 other beds numbered and lettered bunkbeds. Luckily 15 of the beds were empty, and so it was not too loud the first night.

After I settled I went out and walked around to see this Amsterdam culture that so many people are always raving about. You hear "Amsterdam" and people immediately think cannabis, prostitution, shrooms, and all of those other interesting things that are legal in Amsterdam. Everyone always fails to mention how amazingly beautiful the city is, especially in the winter with its Christmas lights and winter carnivals out everywhere. There was one at Leidse Plein, near where I stayed, and it had stands for food and an ice skating rink. Such a fun atmosphere! So I walked around the bridges and the canals in the cold weather before I decided to get to bed.

While I was in Amsterdam I toured the house that Anne Frank and her family hid in during World War II. It's called Anne Frank Het (Anne Frank's House), but it was an office building, not really a house if you think about it. I saw the bookcase that hid the door to the attic they lived in. Some things that surprised me were how well kept some of the original things are. Amsterdam was originally built within a walled city so the stairs are extremely steep and winding. A very dangerous atmosphere for old people, or people in a hurry. I saw stairs like this in the old houses like Anne Frank's house, and I also visited Rembrandt's Het, where I saw the studio he used to work in and some of his original works are there as well. When I was there the mayor was there celebrating with a bunch of people because they finally got an original Rembrandt to return to the house. Unfortunately the museum guard would not let me join the festivities.

When I walked to the Rembrandt house it was like fate because there was a flea market all along the canal that I was following (canals are a great way to know where you are in Amsterdam). And there was also a bagel shop that made homemade cream cheese, man oh man do I miss bagels with homemade cream cheese. Can't wait for my NY bagel when I get to JFK airport. HEAVEN! Anyway, so shopping and bagels to start that day, what a great start.

During my visit I went to the van Gogh Museum of course! I snuck as many pictures as possible. None of the museums in Amsterdam allowed pictures, so that was a little disappointing. I got yelled at in the National Museum for taking pictures, RIGHT before I go to the Night Watch by Rembrandt. I got a good amount of pictures though.

I met a lot of cool people while I was in Amsterdam. It's such a laid back atmosphere that being alone made it easier to meet new people. I went to the same coffeeshop a couple of times and the bartender started calling me his little sister and insisted that we take a picture together. There is where I met a group of Germans, a group of Italians, and a group of Northern Irish chaps. The Irish guys I hung out with a lot that weekend and they were great company. It's easy to lose track of time in Amsterdam.
Overall, that was definitely one of my favorite trips that I've been on in my life, and I hope I can go back some time, maybe with friends next time.

Winter Wonderland

Also, banana juice is awesome, and its basically all I drank when I was in Amsterdam.

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Seeing as it was a very long weekend and I had been willing to miss a couple of classes for the traveling cause, I went from Amsterdam to Brussels for a couple of days to see what that city had to offer.
Brussels was beautiful! It was almost impossible for me to find my hostel, so for the first day I didn't go to the hostel. I just roamed around following really big crowds of people through narrow blocked off streets that were covered in Christmas markets. There was Belgium classics everywhere like beer, chocolate, and waffles. I tried all except the beer. I didn't see the big deal. I came a cross a winter festival that was Greek themed where I made friends with the guy working the Metaxa stand. I passed St. Hubert shopping center, and did not buy a single thing (proud of me!). St. Hubert is all old and expensive shops anyway. Right next to it though is like the college student version of a St. Hubert. A little shopping center that covers ONE block but manages to hold over 200 shops inside. HEAVEN!
All i really bought in Brussels was a Christmas hat though. With Christmas music everywhere, and ice skating and such a wintery atmosphere, how could I resist!

Holiday Market next to my hostel

Brussels got lonely really quickly though because literally all there was to do was go shopping and walking around. I saw the whole city really quickly.
I went to a flea market, and came across an Orthodox church in the middle of Sunday service, which was an amazing coincidence. So of course I went to church.

I also went to see the museums they had, the National Gallery is I think around 5 museums. The Modern Art Museum was under construction, so only a small sample of the museum was on display in the Ancient Art Museum. It was easier though because those were the two museums I wanted to see anyway. I saw lots and lots of art by Flemmish artists that I had studied. It was very cool.
But mostly I walked around, ate, drank, and kept to myself on this trip. Definitely a downplay from Amsterdam, but it was good to relax and lay around doing nothing or watching Dutch television before finishing my work for the semester. Good to be stress free... or dangerous to not have a goal. Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

Belgium Waffle!

Advice for Belgium, travel around and see the country. I was only there a day so that's why I didn't go to Bruj or any of the other beautiful cities I've heard of. I don't think Belgium has cities that you should stay for more than a couple days in. Everything closed pretty early in the area I was in, even the enormous Holiday Market that my hostel was next to. It had an enormous ferris wheel and all kinds of exciting things to do.

Day Trips to Toledo 11/25 and Santiago de Compostela 11/26

We are running out of time for trips in our semester which is ending soon. Day trips are necessary. Our last day trip will be to London! Yes London for a day. We are going specifically to wait in line for hours and see the da Vinci exhibit at the National Gallery. Hopefully we get in and hopefully we will find time to see other things as well.

Last weekend we went on two day trips. The first was a NYU funded trip to Toledo, Spain. Toledo is just outside of Madrid and was only a short drive away. Once we got there we walked around the old city with guided tours of synogogues turned mosques  turned churches over time. Seems to be a dominating theme in the cathedrals of Spain. At least in the once Moorish states. Then after looking around a lot we had a couple hours to get lunch and shop around. I picked up my usual shot glass and a postcard, but that's about all.
Toledo was covered in fog when we got there in the morning, and it was briskly cold, but later in the day the fog cleared, the sun came out, and I fell asleep on a park bench.

Next we went to Santiago de Compostela which is in the northern Galicia region. Isabela and I had not been to Galicia on our journey, and now that we have the only part of Spain that we are going to have to leave out is Bilbao, unfortunately. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a famous pilgrimage sight for Catholics, which is why we ended up there. I had never heard of it until Isabela told me about this long journey from France to Spain that pilgrims travel and end at the cathedral in Santiago. It was beautiful there, and we toured every part of the cathedral. We even got to make it to a mass. During mass an Italian bishop was visiting and it was also a feast day. Since these two things were going on there was a little ceremony swinging a giant censor above the alter. We saw a smaller version of the one normally used, but it was enormous nonetheless. Probably the size of a toilet. I know its a bad comparison but that's the only universal description I could give to give you a good idea of what I'm talking about. So for about 10 minutes the censor was dramatically swaying across the alter attached to a rope hanging from the ceiling. It was very cool. Even though I'm not Catholic, or a pilgrim, I can appreciate it just as well.
Santiago was also interesting because it was our only day trip that we took a flight for. We woke up at 5am to leave the house and get to the airport, went straight to the cathedral once in Santiago, saw everything we wanted and had time to go slow and relax as well, then we caught a cab back to the airport and back to Madrid by 8p. Long day, but worth it. :)

Florence, Italia! 11/17 - 11/20

This will be brief, I'm sorry I've been behind with my adventures, but only a couple more to go and then I am done for the semester! Sadly.
I also heard that I have some blog-fans in Manchester's Milne Travel Agency! Shout out to you loyal readers! Love you Pam :D

My first trip to Italy was fantastic! The pasta wasn't as marvelous as I was hoping, but I guess pasta isn't really much to be desired when anyone can make it well if they tried. The gelato though, was definitely something we ate at least once or twice a day.
Our first night we walked around quite a bit, and explored. We ended up at a dance/show type gig where we stood and listened to the Italian jokes and singing. While the last act was singing the rooms tables and chairs were cleared out and it quickly turned into a club-like atmosphere. We had no idea what we were walking into and the smoke in the air was bothersome so we didn't stick around for more than a couple of hours.

I snuck lots of pictures of art on this trip. No pictures were allowed anywhere we went inside. I could snap plenty of the fake David's outside the Uffizi Museum. The Uffizi Gallery had amazing Renaissance artwork that I had studied, and like I always say, the more you know before you go the better you like the show, cause you know. I've never said that before but it sounded nice, and it rhymed. Rhyming things are nice.

The Uffizi was very cool with its Botticelli, da Vinci, Michaelangelo and whatnot. After that the boys went their own way because they have no patience, and the girls and myself headed to the Duomo. Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo) is one of the largest Catholic Cathedrals in the world, and it was designed to be THE largest originally. It was beautiful inside and I enjoyed looking around very much. I just love visiting churches in general, and other places of worship. There's God in all of them and its cool to see how other people worship compared to what I grew up knowing.

My family and I headed to the Acaddemy Gallery where the David statue by Michaelangelo stands. No pictures allowed, but the rule didn't go over too well with me. :X Just gotta be sneaky about it. Only once in all of my traveling has someone actually asked me to delete a picture I had taken, but a lot of times they have asked me to shut off my camera. I can do that of course, because I had already taken the picture I wanted. I don't get why pictures arent allowed without flash, it makes no sense to me.

We ate a lot of long and fulfilling meals while we were in Italy. For my brother and I it was our first time in Italy and so we didn't really have any expectations, and I had seen all of the sights I wanted to see. Everyone else had already traveled Italy and seen everything so it was really up to where my brother and I were dying to go.

One of our nights in Italy we went to an opera "The Marriage of Figaro." Now, everyone who has heard one opera song in their life has heard the Figaro song that I know nothing about... You know... FIGAROO FIGAROO FI_GA_ROOOOO! This opera was not that. It was about adultery and trickery and whatnot. Quite funny actually. It was my first ever, and I loved it! If I understood Italian it would not have been as cool because it all sounded so beautiful without understanding. The opera was in a evangelical church and it was quite quaint. I'm glad it was in a cold church instead of a big opera house like I kind of expected, it was more homie. My mom said that most operas shes heard of or seen in Italy are all in small venues like that. Friendly and personal.

One thing we definitely did a lot of... We shopped a lot on the streets in Italy. The leather was so cheap compared to everywhere else I've been in Europe. We shopped so much that I have lost most of my desire to buy any other things in Europe. Seriously. And that is an important statement because it is coming from the lady who has gone from one purse to 12 in her 4 month stay in this Western world! 1 to 12. Think on that for a second. I should get rid of some of them... BUT THEY'RE ALL SO PRETTY!
Anyway, shopping in Italy was like going to Morocco, where all of the stores give you a good price. But when you're among tons of good prices you always want better prices, so bargaining down is necessary.

Tips to good bargaining:
1) Never take out your money, and always keep small bills separate.
2) Check every nook and cranny for mistakes the creator may have made on the item
3) For every mistake you find tell them you want a discount
4) Never make an offer first.
5) Always go maximum half the offer that the seller gives you, and move from there. But sometimes you just know what something is worth, so you can go with your gut too.
6) Never change your price. Always make the vendor lower his/her price first.
7) Only go up in price an eighth of what you started. Vender wants 100, you offer 50. Vendor offers 90, you say 60. Don't change your price too much because then the vendor knows you're easy.
8) Always compare the item you're bargaining to the same item somewhere else. "You're selling this for $20? The guy over there is selling for $10."
9) If the vendor isn't having it than fiddle your fingers and leave the store very slowly, no one selling something likes to see money walking out of their store.
10) Be playful with the vendors. If you are nice and pretty you will get better prices. Many people do this for a living but its also a game of bluffing, like playing poker for a living.
11) Most importantly, NEVER bargain when you aren't 100% positive you want something. If you are a good bargainer, the vendor will lower the price and you'll have to buy at that point. Why waist 10 minutes bargaining for something you don't really truly want anyway? Oh yeah, cause its fun. At one point in Italy I annoyed a vendor so much with my lowballing that he gave me a bag for free. Oh, I forgot to count that... 13 purses.

We were treated wonderfully in Italy, and everyone was very friendly. Our lovely travel agent sent some wine to my parents' room and we felt right at home with all of the wine and food we absorbed in our short weekend.

Gratzie Italia.