Cinque Terre Pictures.

Italy here we come!

Last weekend we were given a three-day weekend so five of us went to Pisa for a night and then to Cinque Terre for two nights. The plan was to stay at a B&B with a woman named Claudia for a night and then go to Cinque Terre and stay in a hostile for two. Cinque Terre consists of five cities that total to seven miles and we wanted to hike the seven miles through the five cities. But, of course not everything always goes as planned. So let’s start from the beginning. The night before leaving I could not sleep very well because I was anxious about my trip. What can I say? I am my mother’s daughter. When we got up in the morning we went to class and ate lunch. After lunch, we took the metro to the airport. At the metro we could not really figure out how to use our tickets to get through the gate. How many Americans does it take to figure out how to get onto a metro? The answer is five. We got to the airport and went through security, which for the first time in my life was an ordeal. Apparently, I look like a terrorist because I they took everything out of bag to be searched and found nothing. Also, my jeans would beep as I would walk through the machine and I got patted down for the very first time in my life at the airport. I felt very violated. As for the plane (RYANAIR) is not necessarily as ghetto as people make it seem, but I will say this: They do not assign seats beforehand so you have to fight for your seat. We did not notice that people were piling up their suitcases like two hours before the flight so we were one of the last ones on the plane. I was really surprised that this airline did not double book people because I seriously thought that they were not going to have a seat for us. But, they did.
When we got to Pisa, Italy found out quickly how similar Spanish and Italian were when were trying to communicate to the taxi driver. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to understand each other. We got to the B&B around eight o’clock at night and we were greeted by the owner/ the sweetest Italian woman named Claudia. She did not speak a word of English, but because of our Spanish she was able to give us perfect directions to the leaning tower of Pisa. We did not get lost once, which is very rare for the five of us. The leaning tower of Pisa is not all it is cracked up to be. It is much smaller than I imagined and I think that people build it up too much. Nevertheless, we took pictures and went to eat outside at a nearby restaurant. This was my first experience of Italian pizza and it was amazing. It is so different than in the U.S. the crust is really thin, the sauce is different, and the cheese can only be described as delicious. After our late dinner, we went back to Claudia’s because we promised her that we would not be back too late. When we woke up in the morning we had the most amazing desserts for breakfast. My favorite out of the seven that she made was a pineapple chocolate cake. The cappuccino that I had at Claudia’s was the best that I had all weekend. After breakfast we walked to the train. We were all really sad to leave Claudia’s she was the sweetest lady and her B&B was very quant and charming.
When we got the train station we accidently bought fast pass tickets that were more expensive to La Spezia. I still have no idea what the benefits of the fast pass tickets were because everything was in Italian. When we got to La Spezia we took a connecting train to Riomaggiore (the last of the five cities). We made our way to the information desk to buy passes for the trains within the cities and to be able to hike. Little did we know this purchase was going to screw us over later. Then we walked up to our hostile and got the key from a tall bald man, who ended up liking us because one of my friends started talking to him about his cats. We walked up the most hazardous stairs I have ever seen up to my home for the next couple of days. When we walked in all I could think was this is such a hellhole. The beds were not made and everything around us seemed questionable so we left faster than it took us to come in.
We walked to the second city and then realized that everything else was closed. So we moved on to plan B. We got on a train and went to the last city and tried to work backwards. The sights were beautiful. On the way we met some truly amazing people from different countries including: Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Norway, Denmark, the Netherland, and a tour group from a different part of Italy. We also ran into a lot of people from different areas of the U.S. and we kept running into someone who we already met in every city. People in Cinque Terre are genuinely really nice and I would love to go there again when I can actually hike the trails.
At the end of the first day in Cinque Terre, we were on the very last train going back to Riomaggiore and the person who checks the tickets came onto the train. We had ridden the trains all day and had not seen anyone check for any tickets (and this includes the trains from Pisa). Out of the blue this guy comes on and starts kicking people off of the train. When he got to us, he told us that we did not have the right ticket and that the lady at the front desk who sold it to us had sold us the wrong one. He wanted to give us each a 50-euro fine and kick us off the train, but luckily for us the train was already moving at this point so he only charged each of us for 5. You could tell that this man hated his job and abused his power.
For lunch on this day we had gnocchi with pesto and it was amazing (it originated in Cinque Terre). The only complaint I would have about this place was the waiter. He put bread on our table and he could speak Spanish so we asked him if the bread was free and if was not then we did not want it. His response that every time bread is put in front of you in Italy it was always free. Lies. We got a cup and bread charge. Fortunately for us this was the only place that this happened.
The first night in the hostel was really rough. We met our roommates who were all really nice. They were all around our age and traveling. Since our room was in the middle of the city we could here everything. I did not really feel comfortable there. In the mornings around five there were bells that rang in the city and the second day when it woke me up I was curious as to how many bell chimed. The answer? 54. Because of the dogs, the people in the streets, the rain, the cold, the sun coming up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and the fact did I did not feel too comfortable sleeping in a hostel, I would probably say that my on and off sleep totally about three hours each night. Taking a shower and going to the bathroom in this place was interesting to say the least. The shower had absolutely no pressure and was a cubicle that did not close all the way. But, at least the water was warm. The entire time I was taking a shower all I could think about was the mysterious corner that had a whole in the wall that seemed to lead to the outside. I really thought a cat was going to attack me since Cinque Terre was full of cats.
The second day we did not think we were going to be able to leave our city because it was raining so hard in the morning and we knew that the trails were going to be closed again, but we attempted to leave anyway and we got breakfast. It stopped raining some and we were able to make it to the third city Corniglia, which was the only one we had not seen the day before. I think this city was my favorite from what we could see of it. We got amazing gelato in this city and pizza. The gelato place that we went too happened to be one of the places Rick Steve’s had been to. I got coconut and strawberry. That night my friends cooked a really good dinner with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto. In the morning we made our way back to Pisa to get on our flight. To my surprise the Pisa airport security did not harass me. The flight back on RYANAIR seemed a lot longer and we almost died landing. No joke, I thought we were going to crash into a mountain or a house. The flights must be so cheap because the pilots do not know how to fly. I had a lot of fun on this trip and I really glad that I went on it! What am I going to miss most other than the sights? The food.

Bullfights and España game day.

Today I went to the stadium to see where the bullfights were held in Valencia. We did not get to see one because they do not have bullfights until July here, so I will not get to see one in Valencia. In all honesty I am so glad that I do not even have the opportunity to see a bullfight. After learning about them from my culture class and see some videos of them I think it is a horrible sport. But, I guess that that just comes with the culture of this place. Also today was the Spain versus Switzerland for the world cup and I was able to watch the game with the students of the dorm in an auditorium here. Normally I am not someone who enjoys watching sports, but I can genuinely say that I like soccer. Unfortunately we lost 0-1, which was ridiculous because Spain had way better plays. Here is a picture of me at the bullfighting stadium.

Barcelona Weekend!

Where do I begin? For starters I absolutely love this city. It is beautiful and I love the markets and performers everywhere. With that being said I ran into a bunch of crazies. On Las Ramblas (the main street in Barcelona) there were street performers that were cool to see. My friend got picked to go in and part of a street performers act. She and six other people (including a man wearing a pink wig and very sluty women’s clothes) were asked to stand in a line while a performer did flips over them. Also, we went to a fruit Mercado and while we were walking around a guy wearing a thong and a facemask was walking around as if nothing were wrong. To finish off the crazy while four of us were walking down the street we experienced a naked bike parade. There were at least twenty naked people slowly biking around Barcelona. All I can say is ‘only in Barcelona.’
For those of you who want to go to Barcelona let it be known that it cannot be done in a weekend. Although I had a fantastic time, the entire weekend I was overwhelmed because there were so many things to do and something’s just had to be crossed off the list. Friday night we walked around the city and got gelato at a place that was ridiculously over priced, but was so much better than any gelato that I have ever tasted. I had mango, coconut, and nutella gelato. We got to pick three flavors and they would make it into a flower. On Saturday, we woke up early and did the longest and at times boring four-hour tour of the city. I got to see a lot of things, but in a sense I did not really like the bus tour because I feel as though I did not get to experience the city. I only got to see it through a window. I got to see some of the works of Antoni Gaudí and I have never had more appreciation for architecture as I do now. The ideas and the work that this man did are incredible. I was able to see two houses that he designed, park guell, and the sagrada familia. It was incredible. This man truly did his work for the people. The Sagrada Familia was supposed to be a place for people to go worship, but this place is still being constructed. Its estimated to be finished by the year 2030 and was starting to be built in the year 1882. I think that my favorite thing that I saw on this trip was the park guell. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the park.
On Saturday night a group of around ten of us decided that we wanted to watch the U.S. vs. England soccer game at a pub that the concierge recommended to us. After being lost for 30 minutes we finally found the place and the 50 person long line that went with it and this is when the journey truly began. How do you make ten people in a group happy? The answer is that you can’t. It is absolutely impossible to get ten people to agree on a restaurant within a certain price range and with a T.V. to watch the game. After asking many locals of some places that they would recommend that we go I have learned something about Spaniards. Spaniards have no idea what the names of roads are or the names of places. Therefore, when they say that they know of a really good place that they ‘think’ has a T.V. and is reasonably priced that is a few blocks over and is in front of a bakery do not believe them. You will not find such a place. Do you know how many bakeries are in Barcelona? A lot. And something that does not help narrow it down is that you do not know the name of the bakery or the fictitious restaurant that is supposedly so amazing. After visiting several restaurants that were either to expensive, did not have a T.V had to long of a wait, or they would not let us sit at a table because we were only ordering tapas we had had enough. So where did we end up? Reliable subway. We took the food back the hotel and watched the game on the big screen in the lobby. It was the best decision we could have made.
Overall I had a very good weekend in Barcelona, but honestly I am glad to be back in Valencia. Barcelona is way to busy for me and I feel too uneasy walking the streets. Also, I had another uncomfortable meeting with an old man over here. The old men here are in Spain are very creepy. I tried to let the old man walk in front of me, in which case he paused and said, ‘no guapa tú pases primero.’ Translation: No beautiful you pass first. Then he grabbed my wrist and put his arm around my waist and guided me across the street. F.Y.I people here have absolutely no boundaries.


I could not post a lot of pictures on here from Barcelona, so instead I made a web album to put more pictures. It is http://picasaweb.google.com/berrygm/Barcelona#5482998964144078578 I hope that it works!

Pictures of the Gargoyles

I have better pictures of the weird things that the gargoyles are doing, but you need a zoom to see them.

I hate sand.

Today I went to the beach after class and I officially hate the sand here with a passion. I have taken a total of three showers today. Two of which I tried my best attempt to get all the sand off of my skin and out of my hair. It cannot be done. I am finding sand everywhere in my room and I have one question. Where is it all coming from? How is it that I found sand on a purse that I did not event take with me to the beach? These are all questions that I would like to be answered. I had an interesting experience on the bus ride home today that will never allow me to give any man the benefit of the doubt while I am here in Spain. This old man sat next to me on the bus and proceeded to place his hand on my leg, but not completely it was mostly on his leg (Since he was old I did not think he realized). Not thinking anything about it I kept talking to my friends who were sitting in the seat behind me. After about 20 minutes the man got off of the bus and I made eye contact with him through the window. Rule number 1: Never make eye contact with anyone. While the bus was pulling away he proceeded to blow me a kiss. I am officially scarred for life. From now on I do not care how old you are or how innocent you look I will not be giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. Anyways, my homework for today was to go to a cathedral and take pictures of the gargoyles and zoom in on them to see what they were actually doing. It was very interesting to say the least. I will post pictures later. The group is leaving for Barcelona tomorrow so I will not have access to a computer until Monday. So I will try to post it by then!

What did I learn about myself today?

I have absolutely no desire to go to a soccer stadium even if involves some insight into a different culture. As many of you know, Spain I known for their soccer. For some reason I thought I should pay five Euros to go tour the soccer stadium because I thought that maybe it would be different, I thought that we were getting free t-shirts, and I thought we were going to be able to watch an actual game. I was wrong. We did not do any of those things. All I got to see was the stinky locker rooms and the area where the rich people buy tickets so they can be in the air conditioning. The experience was ridiculous. People were so excited to get their pictures taken in the press area, but not me. I do not understand what the big deal is. I guess for the guys on this trip it was exciting being in the same area that the athletes were, but the soccer players are just people so I do not understand why people think they are so important. Soccer players are just doing their jobs and people get all excited over it. But moving on, in the morning five of us walked to the Ciudad de las artes y ciencias, which is an area where the buildings are very modernistic. I really enjoyed it. It was the longest and the hottest walk I have ever taken. According to Google maps it said that it was 8 miles each way, but it definitely did not feel that long. To finish off the night we went to a zumería, which is a place that makes drinks out of fresh fruit. I had the most amazing strawberry banana smoothie that I have had in my life. Of course it was expensive, but the place had an islandy feel and the drink was amazing. So, am I planning on ever going back to this place? Absolutely. Attached are some pictures from the what I did in the morning, the smoothies we had, and a sign for a restroom that I found rather amusing so I thought I would share. Also, the picture of the thing that kind of looks like a person is actually a kids playground. It was huge. Oh something I forgot. Today there was a national strike because the government is trying to decrease salaries for workers from five to fifteen percent. What does this mean for me? No school!