The Pruniest Feet You've Ever Seen

**Disclaimer: this is a ranting post and its full of bitchin' and whining! You have been warned...

Ya know what you never hear people say? "I hated the Amalfi Coast," but it's true! I just got back from my weekend in the Amalfi with Bridget and I think you could wring me out right now. My feet are so pruney from walking in my soggy TOMS they are beyond recognition. If it sounds like I'm a mess, you've got the right picture. This is what you are supposed to see when you go to the coast of southern Italy:

This is what I saw:

This was the first time that I chose to travel with a company called Bus2Alps instead of planning all the shenanigans out on my own & if I could give anyone advice, I would say its always worth the hassle to plan your own trips. Especially when you are traveling with a company that still has worked all of the kinks out of it's routine. Bus2Alps it geared toward the college traveler--they promote a lot regarding the drinking/partying atmosphere but they also set up a lot of really awesome activities for you during the day... If you're lucky.

We were supposed to leave Thursday night at 8:00pm but half of the group got their departure postponed until 10:30pm because we had to pick up some people at the airport... I think thats pretty much where the trip started to go downhill. So my unlucky bus didn't arrive in the Amalfi Coast until 3:30am and had to be up at 6:00am for breakfast, ugh! Friday was our big day at the island of Capri. This day was supposed to entail taking rowboats and swimming into the Blue Grotto (one of the 7 natural wonders of the world) but due to the monsoon storms, we couldn't make it happen. Bummer? Totally, but I think we could've gotten past it--we still had tons of awesome stuff planned the rest of the weekend, right? Sort of. So when we got to Capri, we took a little uphill train to Anacapri at the top of the mountain (this is where great views should have awaited us... Too bad it was raining to hard to see anything). When we got to the top, we were left to fend for ourselves for 5 hours. In the sunshine, I would have loved 5 hours to explore the town, take pictures, sit outside and have a glass of vino and eat some gelato--but in the rain? There was literally nothing to do and nowhere to go. I'm not talking about a drizzle here guys, it was down pouring for the entire 3 days of our trip. Hello Bus2Alps, have you ever heard of a contingency plan?? How about a wine tasting inside? Lemoncello tasting? A cooking class? A movie? At least give us our freaking ferry tickets so we can go back to the hostel and sleep! 5 hours later, we sulked back to our hostel, I registered for classes (another disaster in itself) and got cleaned up for dinner.

Saturday was our big day to Positano! And half the (gorgeous) bus ride there, it wasn't raining. But sure enough as soon as we got close, the showers began again. We didn't think it was possible to get rained on harder than Friday but somehow it happened. This time, we were supposed to go cliff diving and cave swimming... Cancelled. Again. So, what did Positano entail? I ran to dip my toes in the ocean and caught a wave up to my knees--it didn't matter since I was already completely soaked and then 100 of us battled for tables at the only enclosed restaurant around. It also happened to be the most expensive restaurant around. All we could afford were $10 french fries. So we wasted 4 hours in restaurant before bussing back to Sorrento. Bridget and I were both sick from the rain and wind at this point so we ate dinner with our group and then went to bed.

Ahh Sunday, the end was in sight! Bridget and I had been cutting it close making it to the bus on time in the morning so we arrived 10 minutes early. Well, we waited over an hour because our bus was late. We signed up for Bus2Alps because it was supposed to be convenient and this was the most inconvenient trip we have taken thus far in the semester! At least the rain had let up for our last excursion to Pompeii--that is until the second we stepped outside the bus. So we ran for cover to a nearby restaurant and wasted 3 hours there until they kicked us out. With only an hour left, we headed into the Pompeii sight and meandered around until we could finally head back. Anyone who knows me, knows they should never let me pick the grocery line, I pick the slowest line each time. Well, I think I lost bus picking privileges as well because we ended up on the bus that had to stop at the airport to drop people off on the way home as well. It gave me plenty of time to stew up this blog post.

So, another thing that was really grinding my gears this weekend was the fact that Bus2Alps did a little false advertising... Bridget & I get a lot of promotional emails from the company and for this trip, Bus2Alps had a celeb guest on board! Dom Mazzetti is a comedic YouTube sensation (I had to use Google to figure out who he was, but some of his videos are actually pretty funny) and we were going to be graced with his presence! So, they used Dom as a selling feature on this trip (and I think a lottttttttt of girls signed up for just that reason) but the monkey didn't dance! Apparently, he is friends with one of our trip leaders and that's how he ended up on the tour--and Bus2Alps took advantage of the opportunity. Dom didn't interact with the anyone in the group, he didn't make videos and I never heard him even speak--much less make anyone laugh, & trust me--everyone needed a good laugh.

To be fair, some of our trip leaders were awesome and on top of their game. Sydney and Sean did a really good job of staying positive, making sure everyone was surviving and doing little things like calling cabs. If the weather were awesome, this could have been a completely different vacation, but I know this isn't the first time it has rained in the Amalfi Coast and when you pay the kind of money we did--we expected a lot more. Why not comp one of the group dinners one night? Or give a 15% discount if you book another trip with the company since our trip was horrible? While some of the ideas Bridget and I thought of would have cost the company a bit of money, its a lot cheaper than the word of mouth thats spreading from the 100 bummed out college students that were on the trip. What's more? Ahhh my finance professor here recommended me to be a campus ambassador at Michigan State next year to talk about my experience here in Rome, and you bet everyone is gonna be curious, should I sign up for a Bus2Alps trip?! Probably not.

While I'm on a bitchin' spree, I'd like to take the opportunity to rag on the Study Abroad Department at Michigan State... MSU pours countless amounts of time and money into convincing students to study abroad & it pays off as Michigan State has one of the largest study abroad programs in the nation. Between career fairs, seminars, social media marketing and professors recommending the opportunity--international experience seems to be a vital part of one's college career. That's why I've found it strange that not a single person from MSU (no program leaders, advisors or staff members) has reached out to the students they've encouraged to go abroad to see how we're doing. The first few days in Rome were a little stressful and a simple email asking 'Did you arrive safely? Have you found food and water??' could have gone a long way. Not only have they not reached out but my classes weren't approved for weeks after I arrived in Rome and it was only after hours on the phone and countless emails that the advisors got their shit together.

On another note, the American University of Rome has done a really great job of helping us integrate into the culture, get involved at school and solve issues that arise at our apartments (ahem, the bed bug incident). The student life office puts on free weekly cooking classes, plans weekend excursions and they make themselves available to answer questions about anything from what trains to take around Italia--to the best bars and restaurants to eat at. Touche.

Okay, thats all. If you read all of that, I'm sorry. But it sure feels good to get that off my chest and into cyberspace. And while my weekend was a disaster and I'm now sick--if I had to get stuck in the rain anywhere, Italy isn't a bad place to do it. And besides, Mom and Dad arrive here Friday! Woohoo, can't wait to meet you guys at the train station!

Czech Me Out!

Czech me out! Czech--Check... Get it?! Punny! Okay, moving on... Bridget and I have a pretty nasty track record when it comes to the weather, we are 2 for 2 on freezing rain during our European escapades and of course Prague fell into that category. Aside from the rain, wind and lack of sunshine, Prague ended up being a really unique place to visit. The architecture is incredible and like nothing else I've seen before--all of the buildings look like they are straight out of a fairy tale (hence whey they call it the Fairy Tale City). Also, the food was ahhhhmazing--it's so nice to not have pasta every night! The cuisine in Prague is all about goulash, stew, dumplings, sausage, skewers, hot spiced wine and beer! Yummmm... Here are a few pictures of our weekend festivities:

Slow Food in Torino

I fall in love far too easily! When I sipped my first cappuccino in Roma, I was head over heels. And Seville? I thought that was a love meant to last... But Torino, now that place is something else. You look in one direction and there is the beautifully clear Po River flowing through the city and in the other direction are the Swiss Alps dominating the skyline, pretty incredible views.

This past weekend, I headed to this amazing little city in northern Italy to study food, culture, & the Slow Food Movement with my class. We landed in Torino early Friday morning and had a private bus waiting for us--I could get used to traveling like this! We immediately headed to the University of Gastronomic Studies in a super tiny town called Pollenzo. An entire university dedicated to studying food, I think I've found my calling! The university was attached to la Banca del Vino, the Wine Bank which stores, serves, sells and acts as a museum for all Italian wines. After our tour of the wine bank and lesson on regional growing conditions, our class headed to the wine country of La Morra for some hands on experience. The drive to La Morra held the most beautiful views I have ever seen, the Alps, rolling hills, vineyards abound--everything was so green! We arrived at the restaurant and vineyard where our wine tasting and lunch would take place and everyone was pretty speechless, we were earning credit for this?! During lunch, we learned about analyzing wines--color and clarity, scents, tasting and the effects of food on taste. Afterwards, we laid out on the lawn outside of the restaurant to soak up the sunshine and nap... Studying abroad is so hard! In the photos, my professor is the one in the red shirt, sleeping :)

After our break, we toured the basement where the wine was fermenting and learned about the fermentation process, bottling process followed by a quick lesson outside in the vineyard. It's not the season for the grapes yet, but we could see where the blooms were starting to grow on the vine and would blossom come summer. The La Morra area is famous for their Barolo wine made from Nebbiolo grapes--I wish I could have brought some home with me!

Saturday morning we woke up early and ventured to the Porta Palazzo market, one of the largest in Europe and a huge cultural hub for both Italians and immigrants to the area. We visited the Chinese sector, the Moroccan area where we ate dried dates, passed through the fish and meat areas unofficially divided up by country of origin and ate cheese while meandering through the vendors. I found it interesting when our guide explained to us the difference between us students trying to adapt to the Italian lifestyle and culture as opposed to the immigrants desperately trying not to conform... Being students, we know that in a few months we'll go home and return to our food and traditions but immigrants try so hard to stay connected to their heritage because they'll never return to their countries and are afraid of losing their natural identities. The market is a way for them to connect with people of similar cultures, use their language & have a "taste" of home.

We had a few free hours in between appointments so a few of us relaxed next to the river. Most of the other students on the trip, besides Amanda and myself were resident students (not on study abroad) so it was really insightful to talk to them about what their italian lives are really like (we also got some local restaurant/bar recommendations)!

That evening, we all met up again to tour Eatly, the Slow Food supermarket. The best way I can describe it is similar to a gigantic Whole Foods market with food court style dining options. After our lectures, I picked up a few different jams and some dried figs in the market and dined on the most delicious steak of my life for dinner! I felt better knowing that cow had a happy life and grazed on grass instead of hormones and antibiotics--karma points!

Sunday, we toured the city of Turino; one of their churches holds the Shroud of Jesus, I had no idea! That was pretty crazy to learn about and see--gives me chills. If you don't know what it is, GOOGLE IT! We learned more about the historic city (so nice to actually have a guide) and even sampled a traditional chocolate made in Torino and their famous drink, the bicerin.

We had free time before our flight and a group of us went back to the river but we got wrapped up in conversations and ended up sprinting to catch the train to the airport! Seriously, running with a backpack and a purse is quite possibly the most uncoordinated thing a person can do--especially while trying to pull down your shirt and make sure your sunglasses aren't flying off your face. At least we provided some entertainment for everyone watching our mad dash! Overall, another fantastic weekend in a beautiful city!

Spring Break Part 3: Madrid

Tuesday morning we headed to the bus station, crossing our fingers, that we could catch a ride to Madrid. We got lucky and hopped on a 6 hour bus ride for only 20 euro! Unfortunately, due to our lack of planning ahead—none of us got to sit together and it was a long ride sitting next to strangers who didn’t speak our language. We also passed through a blizzard on the ride—it was safe to say we were dreading Madrid… Once we got to the city, we were cold and missing Seville—it seemed like the only appropriate thing to do was have a bucket of Cervezas! After a few drinks we headed to check out one of Madrid’s most famous areas, Plaza Mayor. It was actually quite dead because of the rain so we decided to grocery shop and cook our meals here since we spent way too much money on the rest of our trip. After dinner, we got ready and headed back out into the rain to explore the nightlife.

We woke up the next morning to the same weather, blah! We went to check out a cathedral, stopped for churros con chocolate and did some shopping. Walking home, we passed a threatre advertising for a cabaret show that night called The Hole. Since it was inside and not too expensive, we bought tickets--anything to get out of the rain! The Hole ended up being a really fun show, while it was in Spanish and I didn't understand anything, it seemed to be a mix of Rocky Horror and Moulan Rouge. There were fun costumes, dance and song numbers in English and some crazy acrobatics, I wish I had taken pictures! When we got back to our hostel, we had plans to go to the bar but ended up hanging out with an Australian couple who have been traveling the world together for 7 months listening to their adventurous tales until 3am. The group woke up the next morning and had a few hours to kill so we hung out in Plaza Del Sol, another famous Piazza in Madrid and people watched until it was time to catch our flight. While I fell in love with Seville and Barcelona, it was safe to say that everyone was ready to get back to home sweet Rome!

Spring Break Part 2: Seville

We arrived in Seville on Sunday morning and it was love at first sight. People told us that Barcelona was the least Spanish city in Spain and I felt like I was in a different world once I set foot in Seville. The air was hot, flowers and trees were blooming and the pace was s l o w. If I could have bottled up the scent and wore it as a perfume, I would have—I was seriously in heaven! Seville’s streets are horribly labeled, terribly windy and confusing & I absolutely loved it. If we saw a restaurant we wanted to eat at or a store we wanted to stop in, we did it right then because the chances of finding the same spot twice are slim to none. An English-speaking stranger offered to help us find our hostel and like everything else in this tiny town, I was obsessed. It was a really funky, eclectic place with 2 balconies and a rooftop terrace with a hammock—I never wanted to leave. Amanda, Alysa & I finally dragged ourselves off of the rooftop and went out for some delicious tapas! Amanda got this seafood stuffed avocado and it was amazing:

After our meal, we headed back to the hostel to relax on the terrace and read for a while before heading out for the night. We ended up at a place just down the street for a glass of sangria and a lesson on cooking Paella—I’ll make it when I get home, Thomas you will love it!

Monday morning, we woke up early and headed to check out the largest gothic church in the world, Seville Cathedral, which also happens to be the place where Christopher Columbus is buried. We actually bought the information guides (a first!) so we could understand what was going on. It was pretty interesting to learn about the church, but it still didn’t compare to La Sagrada Familia! We climbed to the top of the dome afterwards and had incredible views of the city, which made it worth our while.

Like I said, the weather was hot, hot, hot so we headed back to our hostel, threw on our swimsuits and roasted in the sun with a bag of oranges and a bottle of wine. I enjoyed every second of that sunburn I earned!

A little crispy, we headed to Seville’s other main attraction: the largest wooden structure in the world… It looks like a waffle and was less than spectacular but we enjoyed hiking to the top nonetheless and enjoyed another beautiful view of my favorite city.

That night, we cooked up a delicious Italian meal and surprised our fellow hostel mates. Everyone that came into the kitchen was shocked that Americans were cooking! Apparently that’s a pretty common stereotype. We stayed in the rest of the night just hanging out and wishing we never had to leave the sunshine in Seville…

Spring Break Part 1: Barcelona

The girls of Portuense 100 all went their separate ways for Spring Break... Bridget headed to Greece and Turkey with her dad, Molly went to Brussels & the Amalfi Coast, I think Talia may have headed to Switzerland?! Too many incredible adventures to keep track of! My plan was to head to Spain with some girlfriends from school for the week. One week, one backpack. Camera, clothes, toiletries, shoes, purse etc. all had to magically fit into the backpack that RyanAir allows you to carry on the flight. Hello struggle city! After a packing fiasco Thursday night, we headed out early Friday morning and landed in the Barcelona sunshine! We wasted no time after finding our hostel (incredibly nice--balcony, electronic door locks and free breakfast!) and headed to Park Guell, also known as Gaudi Park. Almost everything we managed to see in Barcelona was the work of Antoni Gaudi--all mind boggling and fantastic! You might be able to tell from the pictures that this is where the term 'gaudy' originated...

After our trip to the park, we went out for a delicious meal by the marina and feasted on Paella, a Valencian rice dish with all sorts of interesting seafood. After dinner we sat and enjoyed the sunset before heading back to our hostel and then out again for the evening on a (lame) pub crawl put on by our hostel.

Saturday morning, we started the day of with a healthy breakfast of churros con chocolato and cappuccinos--this was the first of many churro experiences in Spain. It's a good thing they don't have these in Roma or I would be in serious trouble :)

Following breakfast, we headed to another one of Gaudi's masterpieces, La Sagrada Familia, the most incredible church I have ever seen in my entire life. It's been a work in progress for over a century since Gaudi was hit by a tram and died during his work on the building!

After gawking at the church for a few hours, we headed to the most colorful fresh food market in Europe: La Boqueria. We gorged ourselves on cheap papaya, pineapple, mangos and pureed fruit smoothies--yum!!

We hung out on the dock at the pier for awhile before seeing one of Gaudi's last treasures, Casa Batllo. He designed and created the building for a middle class family in 1877--but today it's more of a tourist destination... The outside is covered in mosaic tiles and my pictures don't do any of his work justice!

Amanda, Alysa and I stopped at our hostel for showers (far and few between on this trip!) and went out for a typical tapas dinner. Most restaurants in Spain don't serve main courses but you order a few mini dishes (tapas) and share. Someone at our hostel explained to us that tapas means 'to cover' and restaurants used to serve them in plates that fit right over the top of your drink. Since many Spanish drinks like Sangria are so sweet, it was meant to keep the bugs out of your cup while you enjoyed your food! We celebrated St. Patty's Day in Barcelona with a few beers and then headed home before our early flight to Seville!