Spain never sleeps, even though I do.

From Croatia, many of us traveled to Barcelona - It seems that when everyone was making plans to leave, someone found out about the cheap 30 euro flight to Barcelona and told the rest of the castle. In total, we had around 40 Emerson students on a single flight - some of whom were only flying to Barcelona in order to fly back to Italy.

Now, Geography class - If you were to fly to Italy from Croatia -a bordering country - why does it make sense to fly across europe twice? Because airlines hate making our lives easier.

Upon arriving in Barcelona around 6 PM, we took the metro to the Kabul Hostel and checked in - which, unfortunately, takes a LONG time with 20 people arriving at once. A group of us went out around 9 and explored the city at night, starting at La Rambla. Barcelona truly has a spirit of its own, unlike anything i've seen before. The party never seems to stop, and pop art decorates the streets everywhere. Whether its a giant statue of a lobster or a billboard-sized mural, The alternative style of Barcelona is clear anywhere you look.

Side note -  There was a point that I looked at a structure in Barcelona and remembered that I had seen it before - in a Tony Hawk game. It was an awesome realization and a little lame at the same time. 

We continued our walk, ending up at the beach, dancing on the sand. Something i've experienced over and over again is how amazing it is to be with your friends in a foreign country, doing the same things you would do anywhere else. Around 11 or 12, we arrived back at the hostel and crashed, ready for the next day of adventuring. 

Thursday consisted of lunch, fun in the sun,  and obscenely warm weather. Jacki, Deven and I traveled up to a park where Gaudi designed several statues and buildings in the morning, then got Paella on the way back to the beach. Squid ink is an AWESOME cooking tool. We lied out, then hung out at the hostel bar for a little, then went to a flamenco show. 

Friday involved more walking around in Barcelona, particularly in search of souvenirs before I hopped on a train to Madrid with Erin. We arrived in Madrid around 6 or 7 and headed straight to one of the fine art museums (for free, thanks to our student IDs), which promptly closed at 8 o'clock. From here, we walked onward to our hostels and met up again in Puerta del Sol - the city center.  Erin and I wandered in search of tapas, which ended up being cold meats and cheeses, but still pretty good. Afterward, we headed in early, planning to meet up again around 9 am. 

Now, thoughts on Madrid. I've been told that between Barcelona and Madrid, you like whichever city you go to first better than the second. I hate to fall into a trend, but it was true. However, Madrid certainly had its charm - its older and more conventional, but a beautiful city overall. I think its like comparing Washington DC to New York City - there's a distinct national feeling tying them together, but they remain completely separate entities. Neither can completely represent the country, but together they provide a nice overview.

 I had the Cliff Notes version of life in Spain.  

 

At 9, we met back up and headed to the museums again. We knew that we only had a few hours until we needed to meet up with another group of Emersonians at noon, so we didn't waste anytime. Unfortunately, we still got a little lost. As we made our way through what we thought was the botanical gardens, we realized we were not where we thought we were. 

wow, that was a doozy of a sentence to read. 

Anyways, we hit up the museum and the Botanical gardens, then walked back to Puerta del Sol to meet with Jake and Co. Then, after finding them we went BACK to where the museums were to a beautiful little pond/lake. They rented out row boats for 45 minutes, so we divvied up and rowed around. By the 30 minute mark, we were kinda just floating, soaking in the sun on the beautiful day. 

After Row-Row-Rowing around, we headed to the modern art museum, where i proceeded to overload on Picasso - seriously, some 200 hundred pieces by the guy in an exhibit is enough to drive anyone crazy. And of course, since I was now crazy, I moved on to my favorite painter - Dali. Ohhh Dali, how I love thee. 

From here, we all explored more of the city until around 9 pm when Jake and Co. went back to their hostel, while Erin and I played a game called "Kill 6 hours in Madrid!"

We spent the first half sleeping in her original hostel, since they were nice enough to let us hang out there for a couple hours. However, at 1 am we left and wandered the Spanish streets, which, if anything, were MORE alive than they had been at 9. The city truly never sleeps.

We wandered around, avoiding spending much money and at 3 am ended up back at Jake and Co.'s hostel, where we had planned to meet and taxi to the Airport. 

Fast forward about 5 hours and we landed in Frankfurt, Germany to find it SNOWING. Seriously Europe, get it together. Fast forward another 8 hours and we arrived at the castle, just in time to miss Dinner. Bummer. 

The Cursed Isle of Croatia

Now, before I begin, I don't fancy myself a geographer, so Croatia might not be an "Isle." In fact, I'm pretty sure that it isn't one.

Still, doesn't it sound cool that way?

So, as fun and exciting as Croatia was, it seemed to have something against emerson as a whole. It was reminiscent of LOST in the way that things just kept going wrong. Murphy's law was in full effect. 

If you read down this page, you'll recall that half of the things we had come to see were closed to the public for some reason or another. Nonetheless, that was the least of our problems. 

Saturday - After a night of partying, around 12 of us were jumped on isolated occasions by the same group of Croatian teenagers while walking back to our hotel. No one was badly injured, but I spent a couple hours in a Croatian hospital and then a Croatian Police Station. 

Time to cross those off my list of things to do before I die...

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: no one is badly hurt, including me. You can breathe, grandparents.

Sunday - During a day excursion to Bosnia, 5 people (out of 40) had forgotten their passports. After 2 hours or more of driving, the entire bus was forced to turn around at the border. Fortunately, I was NOT on the bus. However, the ones without the passports got the coolest souvenir ever - A rejection letter, telling them they were forbidden to enter Bosnia. 

Monday - Earthquake at 2 am, followed by a mysterious illness in one Emerson student and a less mysterious food poisoning incident in another. 

I wish I'd been awake for the Earthquake.

Tuesday - After swimming in the Adriatic sea, several students had their first encounter with sea urchins. Fortunately, I've got urchin-dodging skillz. Also, Caitlin got electrocuted. Seriously though, who electrifies a LADDER?

Wednesday - Since it was only a half day in Croatia, I don't think we had TIME for anything to go wrong. 

Anyways, despite Dubrovnik being deadly, everyone is OK and I actually really enjoyed our excursion. Mmm... lots of cheap ice cream. 

Also, Croatia's cool for putting a fish, a bird and a bear on their coins. 

From here, we journeyed onward to Barcelona - but more about that later...

Croatia, an Academia-Free Zone

Friday Morning - March 28th. 

 6 AM - Get up, grab your bag, go get some breakfast, Hop on a bus. 

 8 AM - Arrive at Dussledorf-Weeze Airport. Sit around for 4 hours. 

12 PM - Board Plane to Split, Croatia

12:15 PM - Listen to Jacki's hilariously bad joke about Croatia. 

  "Man, I hope our half gets there, 'cuz I hear the plane is going to Split!"

12:16 PM - Remember exactly why I love my future roommate.

1 PM - Arrive in Paradise. 

As soon as we arrived, it was clear that Croatia was not going to be an ordinary trip. It was beautiful from the minute we stepped off the plane, and even waiting in the airport to get through customs was better than normal. We spent the next 3 or 4 hours driving down the coast to Dubrovnik. We arrived at 10 PM, so clearly my times are a little confused, but you get the idea. 

After dropping our bags off in the rooms at the super-swanky Hotel Lero (and getting a free dinner courtesy of DJ Dulcia!), a few of us went out and explored. We were searching for a beach, which took us through the city center and to some rocks jutting out over the water instead. We sat and talked for a while, admiring the water and discussing plans for drunken hide-and-seek in Dubrovnik's city walls. 

Side Note: Drunken H+S never actually happened.  Bummer, it would've been crazy.

We got back to our Hotel by 1 am and promptly crashed, expecting a full day of activity to come.

We awoke around 8 am, went to breakfast, then had teacher-guided tours of Old Dubrovnik, similar to London. The only difference here was that no one, not even the teachers, knew much about Croatia. 

After the first tour of the City Wall, we disembarked for lunch. I saw a mass of pigeons that I could liken only to Hitchcock's The Birds - they sat in wait, flocked around and divebombed for food. 

It was Awesome. 

After this, the Renaissance Art class gathered and toured one of the local churches... Well, we tried to - turns out the planned adventure was based on misinformation and exhibits that should have been available to the public simply weren't.  This became a recurring trend all week, often followed by going to a cafe and bonding over a drink with the professor and going to the beaches to enjoy paradise. 

Really, Really Awesome. 

Truly, we were in bliss. That night we headed to a bar called Fresh, run by a Canadian-turned-Croatian, followed by dancing at Fuego, a latin dance club. It was a great time... 

But then we learned that Croatia has a dark side - something no one was ready for.

More to come...

Roamin' through Roma!

Onward to our mini-day in Rome. We arrived at our hostel around 1 or 2 PM and found that the beautiful weather we had in Venice decided to abandon us. Instead, we were left with grey skies, clouds and a constant drizzle. We made a stop for a quick lunch then  set out on our path to the Vatican. Something about the rain seemed to make everyone want to go into the great chapel, leaving us face to face with a line that went ALL the way around Vatican city. 

I think when I lost my foreskin, I also lost the urge to wait in line for an hour and a half to see shrines to Saint X, Y and Z. 

from the Vatican, we journeyed to the Spanish Steps which gave us a beautiful view over the streets and rooftops of Rome - its amazing how even here, over 1000 km away, I was reminded of the french rooftops that I had seen a month before in Paris. Then we moved onto the Pantheon - a Massive Roman temple converted for use in the christian faith. 

After these cultural experiences, we found a great restaurant where they offered us free wine. How could we resist? We enjoyed a delicious meal and headed to the Trevi Fountain, Rome's most romantic spot. 

Legend is that upon visiting the fountain, you are supposed to turn your back to the water and throw a coin over your shoulder while crossing your heart - Throwing one coin means that you will return to the fountain, throwing two means that you will fall in love at the fountain sometime in the future. Oh, and if you DON'T fall in love there before you die? You should have come back to the fountain at least one more time.

You can't make this stuff up. 

After the fountain, we wandered the streets, soaking wet as we ate Gelato and roasted chestnuts on our way back to the hostel. Once again, we sat in the lap of luxury and had a private room with a private bathroom. Never mind that the shower didn't have hot water until the morning, it was still pretty awesome. 

The next 2 days were spent at the Italian Farm stay, our foray into Agro-tourism. Though relaxing, it was a little frustrating that it rained all weekend. Most of the activities at the farm involve being outside and dry - something that simply did not work out for us. No less, we still had a good time and enjoyed the company of the other families at the farm - the meals were delicious, and Cait, Brian and I had a miserably wet adventure on saturday including the most awkward experience of our young lives! Still, very fun. By the time we left on Monday Morning we were sad to leave, and a little angry to watch the sun come out as soon as we hopped on our bus back to Rome. 

As we basked in the glow of the bright yellow sun, we hopped on a Metro and stopped by the Colosseum to see it in all it's glory. It's pretty massive, especially when considering the ancient Romans didn't have the tools and technology of today. After our hasty traipse around the magnificent structure, we hopped on our trains and planes and made our way back to the kasteel for a week of classes before our Croatian adventure. 

Oh man, we had no idea what we were about to get ourselves into...

Italy, for real this time! First stop, Venice.

Hey, remember that time I disappeared for 2 weeks and didn't write about my amazing adventures in Italy? 

Of course you do.

It all began Wednesday night, when the four of us (Kristen, Caitlin, Brian and Dan... me...) headed out to Venice. We arrived at the airport, took a brief bus ride, then waited for our shuttle car to drive us to the hostel. Upon arrival we found what looked less like a hostel and more like a 4-star hotel. Art on the walls, gold everywhere, it was, for lack of a better term, stunning. With our own private room and bathroom, we lived like royalty for the next two days - albeit a bus ride away from the city center. 

Venice was gorgeous, simple as that. The canals gleamed in the sunlight and the stone buildings seemed to grow straight out of the water. In the city center, in front of the HUGE church there was the famous pigeon gathering spot, so we spent almost an hour getting them to land on our hands. Surprisingly, it wasn't painful or even creepy to hold the pigeons - it reminded me of having a parakeet - a really big ugly parakeet with fleas. 

From here, we moved on and continued to explore Venice - we met up with more Emersonians for a nice Gondola ride followed by Gelato and dinner. Fast forward a little to 10:30, when realized we had half an hour to cross the entire city to make it back for our shuttle to the hostel. 

Damn, we were fast. 

 

We went back to the hostel, slept and got ready for our mini-day in Rome!