The Long Journey Home

Saturday night was family night in Via dell' Ariento.  Everyone was packing and cleaning and not wanting to leave.  It is hard to say goodbye to people you have spent the past 4 months with and saw everyday.  It was eerily silent in the building.  I stayed up as late as I could to make sure I said bye to everyone I would not see in the morning.  Around 5 I finally went to sleep and awoke an hour later to get ready to leave.  I said bye to everyone and went to the shuttle with, Jon, Ben, Lexie, Chris, Tyler, Will, and Monica.  Lexie and Chris were headed to Switzerland and the rest of us were on our way to Frankfort.  We arrive at the airport with plenty of time for check-in and to get through the joke that was airport security.

We watched the TV screen as our flight was delayed later and later.  When the airline personnel finally told us the flight was cancelled there was no possible way to catch my connection out of Frankfurt.  We were told to get our luggage from the luggage claim and then to get on a bus that Lufthansa got for us to take to Bologna that was an hour away and there was a plane waiting for us.  We finally got to Frankfurt and were left to get new flights.  Lucky for us, they put us in a nice hotel for the night.  When booking my flight home, my friend Megan was also going to Austin so I booked our flights together.  She went to go get our bags with Jon and I took care of our flights.  When the five of us got to the hotel, we ate dinner and then watched a movie to relax.  It was the first night in a week that I had more than an hour of sleep at one time.

Megan and I had a 10:15 flight Monday morning and it took us 11 hours to get to Dallas.  Im now back in the US and ready to return to Europe as soon as I possibly can.  It was an amazing semester and I learned so much from school and the people I met.  Here are some photos from my last remaining days in Florence.

The End

A College Dorm on Tracks...

That is the best way to describe the overnight train I took to Vienna and back.  There was a group of 55 people but on the way to Vienna we were split up and the two trains connected in Venice around 1am.  Most of the people in the car were drunk by 10pm and running from room to room in the crowded quarters.  I awoke to my friend Chrissy yelling "Oh, there is snow!"  I looked outside and saw the freshly covered town we were passing through.  Around 9am we arrived in Vienna and immediately got on the U-bahn to get to our hotel that was outside of town.

The group dropped our stuff off at the hotel then headed back into the city to see a few churches, grab lunch, and go to the second largest residence in the world, the Sissi Palace.  The palace was cool on the outside and the history behind it but the museum was nothing but china.  Room after room of plates and silverware.  I was actually starting to fall asleep while standing, listening to my audio guide.  Unfortunately the museum did not get any more exciting when I went to the upstairs part.  The best thing was learning about how the assassination of Elisabeth of Bavaria.  Several hours spent in the museum was enough.

We went to dinner at this pub where we had local wine and a traditional Viennese meal: kraut, potatoes, sausage (for those that eat meat), and strudel for dessert.  It was a lot of fun and after we attempted to go to a bar.  This ended up with me going back to the hotel with some people I met at dinner and we played cards before going to sleep.

On Saturday we went to the Schönbrunn Palace, which is where the largest garden in the world is.  The palace was a bunch of old furniture and the people I was with were just as disinterested with the interior as I was.  We quickly ran through the palace and then headed to the garden.

The garden was massive and had a zoo and labyrinth in it (neither of which I went to).  We walked around for a while and then headed to an art exhibit across town.  This was the best place we had visited yet.  I walked through the exhibit with my new friend Kinsey and we interpreted all the painting.  After walking through the gallery we were free to do whatever we wanted.  I walked around the small christmas fair behind the gallery with Kinsey and her roommates and then we headed back to the hotel.  I met up with Chrissy and Rebecca and we hung out until we had to meet to go to an Orchestra Concert at the Sissi Palace.

The concert was amazing.  The performers were having fun with the show and the opera singers were a nice touch.  We were free to do whatever after that so a few of us went to dinner and then an Australian pub.  Since the metro had closed we had to take a cab back to the hotel.  It was very sketchy.  The driver wasnt sure of where he was goign but luckily Jon sat up front and had a map of where we needed to go.

Sunday we went to another museum that had archeological findings from ancient Egypt, greece, and Rome and also several paintings galleries.  This museum was really nice and had mummified crocodiles in it.  The best part of the trip was after the museum we went to the Vienna Christmas Market and were set loose to do whatever we wanted.  Chrissy and I wandered around for several hours looking at all the ornaments and other festive items.

We met back at the hotel and disembarked for the train station.  The train home was very similar to the way to Vienna.  People drinking and running from room to room.  Around 12:30am we made a 10 minute stop and the 10 of us that were awake ran outside and started playing in the snow.  I ran back onto the train with frozen hands.  I finally decided to go to sleep around 330.  I awoke about 45 minutes before we got to Milan and had to switch trains.

From Milan to Florence I was unable to sit with the group so I sat with the chaperones in  another car.  My seat was right next to my Italian teacher so for the 2 1/2 hour trip I learned everything I needed to know for Italian class and she had me talk to the strangers around me.

It was a fun trip except for the boring palaces.  Its finals time.

Vienna

My New Favorite Thing.

I don't know why but I love that when a flight lands in Europe the entire plane cheers and applauds the pilot.  After the flight back to Pisa from Barcelona, an applause was much needed.  The turbulence was so bad after we went past the Spanish coast that I was being thrown in the air.

Thursday afternoon I flew to Barcelona with my friends Chrissy and Rebecca.  We arrived to our hostel off of Paral.lel Ave. around 6 and then went to go get dinner.  Las Ramblas is the most famous street in Barcelona.  We walked to here after checking in to the hostel and had the best paella at a restaurant a little ways down Las Ramblas.  While eating dinner, the two ladies next to us ask where we were from because they recognized our non European accents.  They asked us about what we were studying and what we thought about living in Florence.  One was there on business and the other was there to visit because it is easier for them to get together outside of England than when they are both at home.  They were incredibly nice and gave us some recommendations for our stay in Barcelona.  After dinner we started to walk back to the hostel and decided to get some more sangria.  We went to this little cafe type place and had some fresh made sangria and our waiter kept bringing us random things like incense and chips and we couldn't figure out why.  We headed back to the hostel to get a little sleep because we wanted to cover a lot of ground on Friday.

We got up and headed across the city to Parc Guell.  When we got off the subway we walked a little ways down the street and then tuned the corner and saw the network of escalators that went all the way to the park.  With each level, we could see more of the city below us.  When we finally reached the top and entered the park I saw a familiar friend, prickly pears.  This is something I have not seen in 4 months.  We walked to the top of the park where the three crosses were.  This seemed to be the top of the hill and we could see past Barcelona and to the sea.  Unfortunately it was still cloudy but we had an amazing view of the city from our high vantage point.  We continued our journey through the park and saw the viaducts and a giant plaza that was surrounded by mosaics made by Antoni Gaudi, the designer of the park.  Where we exited was actually the main entrance and each side of the gate had a house that represented Gaudi's signature architecture. We left the park and continued down the hill that used to be known as Montana Pelada (bare mountain).  We went and saw the famous church Gaudi designed.  The church looks like it is melting sand on one side and very geometric on the other.  Construction started in the 1800s and is still not done.  World's longest construction project it seems like.

The next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Arts where there was an exhibit containing award winning press photographs.  The nice thing about Barcelona compared to Florence is it isn't nearly as touristy.  We were able to walk to the museum without being stuck in tour groups.  The museum appeared to be the best place to skateboard in the city because there were kids all around it skating and a huge art piece made of skateboards was on an outside wall.  We walked inside and saw huge piles of rice on sheets of paper scattered around the room.   Each pile of rice represented a different statistic.  One of the more interesting comparisons was of millionaires in the '80s and millionaires today.  The photography exhibit was stunning.  The photos were from all over the world and captured many different emotions and events.  One of my favorites was an image of a group of Congolese carrying a mountain gorilla tied to a make-shift stretcher.  They were trying to rescue the massive animal that had been shot during a firefight between the different militias.

It was late in the evening by the time we left the exhibit so we went down toward Placa Espanya to see the Magical Fountain.  There was still time to waste so we went and checked out an indoor market that was full of seafood and fresh produce.  It was a smaller version of Mercato Centrale but I liked it better because it is open until 8 instead of closing at 2.  We went and had some sangria and tapas then walked over to see the fountain.  The water is lit up and goes to music.  It was really cool to watch and I attempted to get some photos without my tripod.  The show ended and we were hungry and wanting to see the beach so we headed to Barceloneta down near the port.

The beach was cold and desolate but that is probably because it was so late at night.  I ran around for a little bit while the girls sat on a bench and then we headed back toward the hostel but stopped for some more sangria on the way.

It was raining when we woke up in the morning but that didn't stop us from heading out and going to the Picasso Museum.  The museum showed his work from when he was a kid all the way up to the start of his cubist phase and to his death.  It was really neat to see an artist's progression from an unknown child to one of the most world renown artists.  After seeing his work we went and grabbed lunch and then headed to Port Vell.

The sun had come out and it was a bright afternoon.  We walked along the harbor and stopped at a little outdoor market.  We walked up Las Ramblas toward the hostel and looked at some more stands selling jewelry and crafts.  The girls were tired so we went back to the hostel so they could take a quick nap before I drug the to the beach again to take pictures.

An offshore storm was creating some big waves and there was some lighting in the distance.  I tried taking long exposures of the waves but they didn't appear as dramatic as I hoped but I still got some interesting shots.  I took some long exposures of Rebecca, Chrissy, and me and of the boardwalk.  It was getting really late so I dropped my camera gear off at the hostel and we headed out to get dinner.  Around midnight we found a restaurant that was full of people watching the Barcelona-Seville soccer game.  We had some more paella and sangria (thats pretty much all I had this weekend) and headed home because it was already 2 am and we needed to get up early to check out.

Sunday we went to lunch and then headed out.  We didn't really do anything except walk down Las Ramblas and saw all the animals that were sold on the street.  There were birds, rabbits, turtles, and fish in cages and aquariums everywhere.  The hour long bus ride to the airport was really neat because I talked to a girl living in Grenada for the semester and it was interesting to hear about someone else's study abroad experiences and I got to see some snow-capped mountains.

The flight back was full of turbulence and laughter.  It was so funny to see everyone freaking out as our plane dropped and rocked side to side for about an hour.  We were lucky with weather because it rained the entire weekend in Florence.

I am heading to Vienna tomorrow night for the weekend for a school trip and hopefully will get to see some snow.

Barcelona

On Monday I found out that this photo I took is being used for the poster to advertise for the school's art show and it is also selected for the show.  I might have more pictures in the show if they are picked.