Unlike Alex, my partner in crime, I have never before traveled to Italy. Because of the incredible culinary experience that I have had over the past three days, I just wanted to write a brief note specifically about Italian food. In short, Italian food is simply the best food that I have ever had in my life and I have spent the last several days of my life in a complete food coma.
Since arriving in Italy (three days ago), I have devoured gnocchi, pesto, ravioli, margherita pizza, pepperoni pizza, cherry gelato, stratchiatella (chocolate chip) gelato, mango gelato, a nutella crepe, and several pastries. Alex has been somewhat more frugal with the food than I have. But a note to anyone who has never been to Italy...come here and eat as much as you possibly can, because it's ridiculously awesome.
That's all.
Much love,
Kirsty = going to have to roll home
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friends, Romans, Countrymen
We're finally here...
Despite the best efforts of Brian Cole, we made it to Roma! And, oh goodness, Rome is spectacular. Unlike Barcelona, Rome is truly Old Europe.
We arrived in Rome on Tuesday after leaving the villa at the ungodly hour of 6am. Having already been overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of Madrid and Barcelona, we felt like old pros at navigating a new city. We found our hostel without any major hiccups and were pleasantly surprised to find that we were around the corner from Vatican City. We literally wandered into San Pietro, known to us as St. Peter's Basilica and plaza. The Basilica was larger-than-life and houses many famous sculptures by the great artists Bernini and Michelangelo. After the basilica tour, we attempted to get into the main area of Vatican City, only to be thwarted by the Swiss Guards who informed us that, "The State of Vatican is closed". What does that mean? How can a sovereign nation be closed? We later learned that by "closed", they mean that it is only open to those who pay the 14euro entrance fee, which we will be paying tomorrow (unless we can hop the large brick walls).
The next day we set out to conquer Rome. We trekked across the city to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps & Piazza di Spagna, the Villa Borghese, and the Piazza del Popolo. While we wish we could go into detail about the amazingness of each sight, we a.) don't want to bore you to death, b.) don't have a lot of time, and c.) will have to show pictures later. But rest assured, that each sight is breathtaking and we spent most of the day in awe.
Today, armed with a Rome guidebook, we tackled ancient Rome. We saw Palazzo Venetia and the Altar to the Nation, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. Wow! We can't even begin to describe how magnificent these historical monuments are. We are both physically and mentally exhausted from spending the day walking the ruins and considering the historical significance.
If anyone is considering coming to Europe, put Rome on the top of your list. It is simply one of a kind.
We send our love! Hope all is well,
-Alex + Kirsty = S.P.Q.R (google it)
Despite the best efforts of Brian Cole, we made it to Roma! And, oh goodness, Rome is spectacular. Unlike Barcelona, Rome is truly Old Europe.
We arrived in Rome on Tuesday after leaving the villa at the ungodly hour of 6am. Having already been overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of Madrid and Barcelona, we felt like old pros at navigating a new city. We found our hostel without any major hiccups and were pleasantly surprised to find that we were around the corner from Vatican City. We literally wandered into San Pietro, known to us as St. Peter's Basilica and plaza. The Basilica was larger-than-life and houses many famous sculptures by the great artists Bernini and Michelangelo. After the basilica tour, we attempted to get into the main area of Vatican City, only to be thwarted by the Swiss Guards who informed us that, "The State of Vatican is closed". What does that mean? How can a sovereign nation be closed? We later learned that by "closed", they mean that it is only open to those who pay the 14euro entrance fee, which we will be paying tomorrow (unless we can hop the large brick walls).
The next day we set out to conquer Rome. We trekked across the city to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps & Piazza di Spagna, the Villa Borghese, and the Piazza del Popolo. While we wish we could go into detail about the amazingness of each sight, we a.) don't want to bore you to death, b.) don't have a lot of time, and c.) will have to show pictures later. But rest assured, that each sight is breathtaking and we spent most of the day in awe.
Today, armed with a Rome guidebook, we tackled ancient Rome. We saw Palazzo Venetia and the Altar to the Nation, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. Wow! We can't even begin to describe how magnificent these historical monuments are. We are both physically and mentally exhausted from spending the day walking the ruins and considering the historical significance.
If anyone is considering coming to Europe, put Rome on the top of your list. It is simply one of a kind.
We send our love! Hope all is well,
-Alex + Kirsty = S.P.Q.R (google it)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Death to Brian Cole
Hi everyone,
We have neared the end of our time in Barcelona! During our last week, we divided the time seeing the final sights in Barca and tanning our pale bodies in the gorgeous Spanish sun.
While in Barcelona, we walked through Barceloneta, a quaint fishing village famous for its cheap paella. That last part was a lie as we scoured the streets for paella that cost less than an arm and a leg. So no paella for us. On another day, we decided to get a bit cultured and visit the Picasso Museum. While we recognize the awesomeness of Picasso and the impact of his work on the art community, we were completely lost. Instead of quietly appreciating the genius of Picasso, we spent the time giggling and poking fun at the art. Needless to say, the security guards were not amused, and sent us many withering looks. We then spent our last day in Barcelona in the same fashion as how we began...with La Sagrada Familia. One of the most famous landmarks in Spain, La Sagrada Familia was designed and partially built by Gaudi until his death. Construction on the project still continues today. The carvings on the church were exquiste and the enormity of the church was overwhelming. We thought that was a perfect way to end our time here, but...
Right now we are supposed to be boarding our plane to go to Rome. One of the joys of traveling, however, is dealing with spontaneous changes of plan. We found someone on Craigslist who we were going to rent an apartment from. He requested that we send the security deposit for the apartment ahead of time, which we agreed to send, since we believed that everything he told us was legitimate. Unfortunately, after we sent the money we didn't hear from the renter for several days. After doing some internet research, we discovered that the renter had been running this very successful scam for a long time; he robbed us and many other travelers as well. Needless to say, we learned an extremely valuable, albeit expensive, lesson about investigating people.
As a result of this scam, we've been forced to change our plans a little bit. We will still be traveling to Rome next week for a brief tour of the Italian capital city. It's a blessing that both of us are flexible and adapt quickly! For now, we are still going to soak in Barcelona and the lovely towns of Montmelo and Monternes for a few more days. We can work on our tan, plan our revenge on the renter/asshole/robber/Brian Cole, and hang out with the people at the villa.
Hope that your lives are less robber-filled, your bank accounts fuller, and your faith in humanity more intact than ours.
We send our love!
- Alex + Kirsty = breakin' kneecaps
We have neared the end of our time in Barcelona! During our last week, we divided the time seeing the final sights in Barca and tanning our pale bodies in the gorgeous Spanish sun.
While in Barcelona, we walked through Barceloneta, a quaint fishing village famous for its cheap paella. That last part was a lie as we scoured the streets for paella that cost less than an arm and a leg. So no paella for us. On another day, we decided to get a bit cultured and visit the Picasso Museum. While we recognize the awesomeness of Picasso and the impact of his work on the art community, we were completely lost. Instead of quietly appreciating the genius of Picasso, we spent the time giggling and poking fun at the art. Needless to say, the security guards were not amused, and sent us many withering looks. We then spent our last day in Barcelona in the same fashion as how we began...with La Sagrada Familia. One of the most famous landmarks in Spain, La Sagrada Familia was designed and partially built by Gaudi until his death. Construction on the project still continues today. The carvings on the church were exquiste and the enormity of the church was overwhelming. We thought that was a perfect way to end our time here, but...
Right now we are supposed to be boarding our plane to go to Rome. One of the joys of traveling, however, is dealing with spontaneous changes of plan. We found someone on Craigslist who we were going to rent an apartment from. He requested that we send the security deposit for the apartment ahead of time, which we agreed to send, since we believed that everything he told us was legitimate. Unfortunately, after we sent the money we didn't hear from the renter for several days. After doing some internet research, we discovered that the renter had been running this very successful scam for a long time; he robbed us and many other travelers as well. Needless to say, we learned an extremely valuable, albeit expensive, lesson about investigating people.
As a result of this scam, we've been forced to change our plans a little bit. We will still be traveling to Rome next week for a brief tour of the Italian capital city. It's a blessing that both of us are flexible and adapt quickly! For now, we are still going to soak in Barcelona and the lovely towns of Montmelo and Monternes for a few more days. We can work on our tan, plan our revenge on the renter/asshole/robber/Brian Cole, and hang out with the people at the villa.
Hope that your lives are less robber-filled, your bank accounts fuller, and your faith in humanity more intact than ours.
We send our love!
- Alex + Kirsty = breakin' kneecaps
Monday, March 9, 2009
Spanish Outlaws
Hola amigos!
After a week of dreary weather (55 degrees and rainy), we finally have some sunshine! Because of this, we have spent much of the last week lounging by the villa pool and the local beach. Now we both are tan (Alex) and sunburned (Kirsty).
However, we haven´t been 100% lazy as we made plenty of time to continue our Barcelona education. We walked through the Cathedral de Barcelona and saw tapestries and sculptures from the 1300´s. It´s hard to conceptualize how old that is when we live in a country that is only a few hundred years old! We also got to climb to the top of the cathedral to see the Barcelona skyline. Unfortunately, we are discovering a pattern in Spain as many of the sights are under construction before the huge summer tourist season. The cathedral was no exception so instead of seeing the gorgeous facades of historic buildings, we are left to use our imaginations as many buildings are covered with scaffolding and construction material.
This past weekend we were able to acquire tickets to see FC Barcelona in action. For those less familiar with soccer/english football, FC Barcelona is the best professional team in Spain. Its stadium, Camp Nou, is the largest in Europe and holds around 98,000 people. The energy in the stadium was amazing and the game was super exciting. Americans don´t exactly appreciate the sport of soccer so it was pretty special to be in a place where everyone feels extremely passionate about the sport. We even got into the spirit by wearing fabulous FC Barça uniforms and joining in the cheers of ¨¡Viva Barça!¨. Who knows? Maybe we´ll even become hooligans!
Speaking of hooligans, we´ve developed a bit of a rebellious streak. Faced with the aforementioned construction and unpredictable train schedules, we´ve taken to a life of crime. We found that it´s both easy and fairly common for Spaniards to avoid paying for trains. Some simply walk through the broken gates without buying a ticket, while others sneak through bushes to get on to the train platform. Sorry parents, but we have done both. Hopefully, we won´t be calling you from a Spanish jail in need of bail money.
On another day of law-breaking, we decided to take a trip to Park Güell which is famous for containing an amazing array of Gaudi´s work. Unfortuately we entered the park from the wrong entrance, and without a map, we found ourselves lost and without a sense of direction. We knew we were supposed to be in a park with people and art, but all we saw were trees and German hikers. We followed said German hikers who led us to another entrance, but were dismayed to find that the entrance was blocked by a huge steel gate and a sign that said something in Spanish, but looked like it meant "Do Not Enter. Under Construction". Undeterred, we got skinny and squeezed and climbed our way through a narrow passage between the fence and a rock wall. We thought we were victorious when we finally saw many tourists and crowded walkways. Too bad we were in a construction area that had been completely fenced in from all directions. We had to squeeze through another fence, this time trying to hide the fact that we were clearly not where we were supposed to be. Oh well, we did it! Park Güell was beautiful and amazing, and it was definitely worth becoming Spanish outlaws to see Gaudi´s art.
We hope everyone is doing well and surviving the end of winter. We send you our love!
- Alex + Kirsty = not arrested (yet)
After a week of dreary weather (55 degrees and rainy), we finally have some sunshine! Because of this, we have spent much of the last week lounging by the villa pool and the local beach. Now we both are tan (Alex) and sunburned (Kirsty).
However, we haven´t been 100% lazy as we made plenty of time to continue our Barcelona education. We walked through the Cathedral de Barcelona and saw tapestries and sculptures from the 1300´s. It´s hard to conceptualize how old that is when we live in a country that is only a few hundred years old! We also got to climb to the top of the cathedral to see the Barcelona skyline. Unfortunately, we are discovering a pattern in Spain as many of the sights are under construction before the huge summer tourist season. The cathedral was no exception so instead of seeing the gorgeous facades of historic buildings, we are left to use our imaginations as many buildings are covered with scaffolding and construction material.
This past weekend we were able to acquire tickets to see FC Barcelona in action. For those less familiar with soccer/english football, FC Barcelona is the best professional team in Spain. Its stadium, Camp Nou, is the largest in Europe and holds around 98,000 people. The energy in the stadium was amazing and the game was super exciting. Americans don´t exactly appreciate the sport of soccer so it was pretty special to be in a place where everyone feels extremely passionate about the sport. We even got into the spirit by wearing fabulous FC Barça uniforms and joining in the cheers of ¨¡Viva Barça!¨. Who knows? Maybe we´ll even become hooligans!
Speaking of hooligans, we´ve developed a bit of a rebellious streak. Faced with the aforementioned construction and unpredictable train schedules, we´ve taken to a life of crime. We found that it´s both easy and fairly common for Spaniards to avoid paying for trains. Some simply walk through the broken gates without buying a ticket, while others sneak through bushes to get on to the train platform. Sorry parents, but we have done both. Hopefully, we won´t be calling you from a Spanish jail in need of bail money.
On another day of law-breaking, we decided to take a trip to Park Güell which is famous for containing an amazing array of Gaudi´s work. Unfortuately we entered the park from the wrong entrance, and without a map, we found ourselves lost and without a sense of direction. We knew we were supposed to be in a park with people and art, but all we saw were trees and German hikers. We followed said German hikers who led us to another entrance, but were dismayed to find that the entrance was blocked by a huge steel gate and a sign that said something in Spanish, but looked like it meant "Do Not Enter. Under Construction". Undeterred, we got skinny and squeezed and climbed our way through a narrow passage between the fence and a rock wall. We thought we were victorious when we finally saw many tourists and crowded walkways. Too bad we were in a construction area that had been completely fenced in from all directions. We had to squeeze through another fence, this time trying to hide the fact that we were clearly not where we were supposed to be. Oh well, we did it! Park Güell was beautiful and amazing, and it was definitely worth becoming Spanish outlaws to see Gaudi´s art.
We hope everyone is doing well and surviving the end of winter. We send you our love!
- Alex + Kirsty = not arrested (yet)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Barcelona is gigantic.
Hello friends and family!
It has been a bit since we last wrote and we have done so much in the meantime. We are still settling in to our villa but have enjoyed spending more 1-on-1 time with our villamates. One of the people, Greg, is the chef for the villa and has taken us under his wing. We have learned the fine techniques of crushing garlic, chopping onions, and peeling potatoes. Hopefully we graduate from the veggie preparations and can move on to the meats soon. But be thankful that we are learning this great skill so we can someday make food not prepared in the dorm.
One great thing about the villa is it´s proximity to the mountains surrounding Barcelona. After a steep 5-minute walk through the neighborhood, we are immediately connected to trails through the hillside. We have been on two hikes so far. One to a lookout tower overseeing Barcelona and its surrounding villages. The other through the hills and down to a nearby village. Its pretty phenomenal to see the city from this perspective.
We are still getting acclimated to the city of Barcelona. We spent one day wandering through the Gothic Quarter and roaming the narrow cobblestone streets. Another day we made it up into Montjuic, an old district of Barcelona containing many gardens, a castle and the 1992 Olympic Stadium. Unfortunately, we still haven´t found a way to upload pictures but we wish we could show you all the beautiful scenes.
We have discovered one great thing about Barcelona, and Spain in general, is the sunny weather and 75 cent bottles of wine. Hopefully everyone is doing well and managing to stay warm in snowy times.
Miss you and love you all!
- Alex plus kirsty equals spanish language experts.
It has been a bit since we last wrote and we have done so much in the meantime. We are still settling in to our villa but have enjoyed spending more 1-on-1 time with our villamates. One of the people, Greg, is the chef for the villa and has taken us under his wing. We have learned the fine techniques of crushing garlic, chopping onions, and peeling potatoes. Hopefully we graduate from the veggie preparations and can move on to the meats soon. But be thankful that we are learning this great skill so we can someday make food not prepared in the dorm.
One great thing about the villa is it´s proximity to the mountains surrounding Barcelona. After a steep 5-minute walk through the neighborhood, we are immediately connected to trails through the hillside. We have been on two hikes so far. One to a lookout tower overseeing Barcelona and its surrounding villages. The other through the hills and down to a nearby village. Its pretty phenomenal to see the city from this perspective.
We are still getting acclimated to the city of Barcelona. We spent one day wandering through the Gothic Quarter and roaming the narrow cobblestone streets. Another day we made it up into Montjuic, an old district of Barcelona containing many gardens, a castle and the 1992 Olympic Stadium. Unfortunately, we still haven´t found a way to upload pictures but we wish we could show you all the beautiful scenes.
We have discovered one great thing about Barcelona, and Spain in general, is the sunny weather and 75 cent bottles of wine. Hopefully everyone is doing well and managing to stay warm in snowy times.
Miss you and love you all!
- Alex plus kirsty equals spanish language experts.
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