Lickety- Split of a Weekend!

Okay, so this title wasn't as clever as my past ones- but I didn't have many options about Split, Croatia!

This past weekend was amazing, just like all the others- Croatia was the entire package.. History, beaches, adventurous things,shopping,good food and nature.. what more could I have asked for for my last trip during my time studying abroad?!

The worst part was the bus ride, we left on Thursday night and drove for 12 hours to get there the next morning. After we got settled in to our hostel we joined a walking tour that took us around Split. I learned that the region we were in was  Dalmatia and that is where the Dalmatian dogs came from- but I didn't see any there:(

The tour led us around the town and then to the Roman emperors palace that was built there. It doesn't really look much like a palace anymore, souvenir stores and restaurants have been built in to the walls and throughout the palace. Some areas are still available to tour through though, I didn't get the chance to do that unfortunately, but we did go through the public areas and it was really cool- these ancient walls and rooms still standing.

So, apparently if you go up to this guy and touch his toe and make a wish it will come true!

After that finished, we went and had some dinner and I tried their special lemon beer, it just tasted like lemonade but was really good! After that we went back to the hostel because we were exhausted.

The next morning we woke up early and took about an hour bus ride to get to the river where we shot wetsuits on and our life jackets and helmets and went on our way whitewater rafting! Before we got to the rapids I was dared to jump in the water because a lot of people were, and of course I did! And regretted it immediately because the water was FREEZING!! Ha! After that, we were in the sun most of the time and the wetsuit helped a lot.    The ride lasted about 2 and a half hours and we went through a few rapids, got to drink from a freshwater waterfall that was directly from the mountains ( I closed my eyes and pretended to be at the cottage drinking from the spring). We went under a waterfall and then had the chance to climb to the top of a big rock and jump into the water, I didn't do it because I did not want to get back in to that freezing water and Ive been cliff jumping before but from much higher heights so I don't think I missed out on anything:) After that, they gave us a lunch and we were able to buy a disk with all of the pictures that the guy in a kayak took of us so thats nice!

We got back to our hostel pretty late so we just got some dinner and went to sleep!

The next day was another early morning! We took about a 2 hour bus ride to the Krka national park. It was absolutely breathtaking, you could see straight to the bottom the water was so clear and then the park around it was beautiful as well. I could have sat there and just watched the waterfall for hours!

After some lunch we left for another long bus ride back to Florence.

I can't believe how fast the time has gone and that I am already done with all the trips I planned, its crazy!


I finish classes tomorrow(Thursday) and then have my only final on Monday and then I have finished my junior year of college and my study abroad semester!

You Should Have Seen My Smiling Face :)

Another one of my life long dreams has come true, and that fact that it was during this wonderful trip of mine makes it that much more special- I got to see James Taylor in concert!

I had no idea that he was going to be in Florence, let alone on tour at all. I was checking my Facebook yesterday and saw someone post that they were going to see him that night and I immediately googled "James Taylor Florence Italy Concert" and sure enough he was a 20 minute drive away from me and the concert was starting in 2 hours. As I am looking this up, I texted my dad: "Dad! James Taylor is here is concert tonight" and his response "GO!".   Now, If you know my dad and I, this is a pretty typical move of us, always deciding to do things last minute and just hoping that when we get there with our half of a plan that it will work out:) Ha! We are known for our random/split decision trips to Pittsburgh to maybe get a ticket to see the Pirates or hope to find the guy that is selling his tickets on Craigslist before the game starts.. Anyway- I channeled my inner 'Dad and Natalie' and left my apartment and got in a taxi in hopes there would be a ticket with my name on it at the theater- and I got one! It was a lot cheaper than I thought and my seat was actually really close, I saw him and heard him perfectly. It was great- I was so lucky!

The concert started at 9, and I was in my seat waiting since 8:15 :) I didn't even mind that I was alone because the only people I would really want to see him with are in America so I was just fine!

I knew just about every song and I can thank my parents for that..Ha!

He opened with "Something In The Way She Moves" and I got chills right away, he talked about why he always likes to start with that song and its because that was kinda his starting song- he played it for Paul McCartney and George Harrison before he was signed with Apple Records- how cool is that!

Then he played some of his new songs because he is 66 years old and still making albums..just great! His newest album was made with the band he played with there, he had a pianist, bass player, drummer, electric guitar and 3 backup singers. (The one guy was from Cleveland!)

He also played some of my favorites, Fire and Rain, Carolina In My Mind, You've Got A Friend, Shower the People, How Sweet It Is, Mexico, Handy Man AND my absolute favorite Your Smiling Face:)

I had such a great time and can finally check this off of my bucket list- Im sure I will be singing his songs the rest of the time that I am here:)

Just Another Manic Monday.. And a weekend trip with gerMANY beers:)

I can not take credit for this posts awesome name.. my parents helped me with this one:)

I thought I would make a video of my normal Monday! So, this shows my walk to the first school building and I go up to the Library. Then, I head to my second school building which is next to Santa Croce! My classrooms are in there and then in between classes I go to Pino's, its the BEST panino place in Florence- I love it! And after that, of course Gelato! Im sorry its so bumpy but I had to fast forward it or the video would be like a half hour haha but I tried


http://youtu.be/CWO9TNCtrGw


So, I spent last weekend in Stuttgart, Germany with my friend Julia! She was a foreign exchange student in Amherst about three years ago and I was able to go and stay with her and her family for the weekend! It was great:) Stuttgart was beautiful, it was so nice to see green trees and grass- you don't see much of there here in Florence. My plane ride there was scary.. the plane was so tiny I felt every bit of turbulence :/ But when I landed, Julia was waiting to pick me up and we went to her house for some lunch. I tried Maultaschen ? (don't ask me to pronounce it) but it was delicious:)

And then I had a German beer that tasted like sparkling lemonade :)

Julias mom had a brunch on Saturday morning with some great food too!

After that we went Dirndl shopping! That is what the typical dresses that you think of when you think of German outfits are called. I love mine!

Saturday was the festival and this thing was HUGE! You walked in and through so many stands of food and games and there were a bunch of rides, it was great! Then there was a huge tent where the concert and stuff there, it was so much fun:) Everyone was so happy and it was just great!

Then, we got these huge beers-that the waitresses were carrying four of these in each hand at a time and taking them to the tables.. My hand was hurting just holding the one and I had to use two hands! It was so huge that when I would drink it,it would cover my while face and I kept having to wipe the foam off of my forehead! Ha!

Another great trip:)
On Thursday I will be headed to Croatia!

I am so excited that the next plane ride I will be on will be the one that takes me back home!! 19 more days:)

A Night at the Opera!

"Was that a high C or Vitamin D?"- Otis B. Driftwood, A Night at the Opera (Groucho Marx) :)

Groucho Marx gave me high expectations for what goes on at operas.. My night was much less. . . interesting than the night in the movie "A Night at the Opera" but it was still an amazing experience:)Haha!

Im sure you've probably guessed,but I went to see an opera last night! It's called "La Traviata", I am sure you've heard of it- if not I know you have heard some of the songs that are in it. When I signed up to go to this I had no idea I would recognize any of the music that they would play-but I did! They are actually the songs I think of when I think of opera!  (Like I knew of the one song, Sempre Libera, because it is preformed in the movie The Princess Diaries 2!)

                                          I guess the theater is pretty new, it was huge!

It was conducted by Zubin Mehta, the main character Violetta was played by Eva Mei, along with the other main role of Alfredo played by Ivan Magri. According to my Wikipedia search- they are very successful! I guess they would have to be though, they are preforming in a major opera in a huge city!

What was really amazing to me was how surrounding the sound was, the orchestra played beautifully and it filled the room and then the singers sang over it without any microphones- it is SO impressive. I can't even count how many times I got goosebumps because of the sound in that room, I can't explain it!

So, we had a meeting the night before and someone came in and talked to us about the show and the background and told us what we should expect.. I mean, the opera was in Italian- so how were we to know what was going on without this preview! So they told us the whole story and what happened at the end and even watched some clips of it- and it turn out that they had screens set up above to stage that showed english subtitles! So I was able to really follow along, I was really happy about that.

The show began and there were these huge mirrors that were lifted up from the stage and used as the backdrop so it was set at an angle where we could see the floor- and instead of having backdrops, the scenes were on the floor on these big sheets and as the scenes would change, they would just drag the sheet off of the stage and the new one would be under! This was great because it let us see everything that was going on besides what was just going on at the front of the stage.

I wish I had a better picture- but you can kinda see here how the mirrors are and that you can see everyone in the background because of it:)

SPOILER ALERT-      I am going to give away 

the ending.. Skip down past the picture of me and my friend if you don't want to know what happens:)

Ill give a quick summary of the 3 act play- In the first Act, they are at a party in Paris that is put on by this woman named Violetta who is has a fatal disease that nobody knows about except her. Alfredo comes in to the party and confesses his love for Violetta but she tells herself that there is no such thing as true love and she could never really love anyone and that no one would ever truly love her. Alfredo ends up convincing her of his love and that moves to act 2 where Violetta and Alfredo are living in the country and very are happy. One day while Alfredo is away, his father comes unexpectedly and pressures Violetta to leave his son because his daughter can not get married to the one she loves if Alfredo is together with Violetta. So, she ends up leaving him but does not tell Alfred the reason. Alfredo gets pretty angry about it and goes to find her at another party that is in the city. She arrived with another man and Alfredo goes crazy and said some awful things to Violetta and immediately feels bad about it. That leads to act 3 where Violetta is very very sick and weak and can tell that the end is soon. She gets a letter from Alfredo's father saying he has told Alfredo the truth and about the sacrifice she made for his family and that they are coming to see her and to hang on. Eventually, they arrive there and all is forgiven- shortly after she sings about feeling no pain and that she has all the strength back that she had once before but it was actually that she is finally at peace and happy again and falls to the ground and dies.. :(

I guess this play is based on a true story about a woman that lived in Paris and died very young. It was great, the costumes, the set, and the sounds were all so beautiful! I am so happy to have had this opportunity- and an excuse to dress up:)




P.S.- This has nothing to do with the opera but when I was looking for a good quote from Groucho about the opera and from the movie I found myself looking at so many others that I just have to share because they are so funny! Divertiti!

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read"

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member"

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know."

"Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know."

"He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."

"Ive had a perfectly wonderfully evening.. But this wasn't it"

Haha okay, Im done:)

Ciao!

Greece-ster break! :)

I know, I know- the titles of my blogs are just getting better and better.. Instead of Easter Break-Greece-ster Break.. its perfect!!:)

We went on this trip through a student travel company, so there was a huge group of people with us. We left Thursday morning for a 4 hour bus ride to the coast and then got on a cruise/ferry boat for a 17 hour trip to get to Greece. When we got there, it was another hour and a half ferry ride to get to the island, Corfu, where our hostel was. SO. MUCH. TRAVELING.

We got there Friday afternoon and we were just exhausted, but luckily we got to do the most relaxing thing ever- lay in the sun on the beach:) We were really lucky with the weather, all week I had been checking it for the weekend and it said it was going to be rainy and cold- but turns out it was nice enough to be in shorts- I even got sun burnt!(Even though thats not a very difficult thing.. I was very pale) And some people were even swimming!!  We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and then headed back and got ready for dinner at the hostel.

All of the food was very good, and most of the time I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures.. Ha! But I did take a picture of this awesome baklava :)

The next day we had to wake up pretty early to go sign up for any activities we wanted to do. There was a boat ride along the island, kayaking, and other things and we decided on the ATV tour around the island. It was a little cooler on Saturday so being on land sounded like the better option! We rode about 2 hours up a mountain and stopped at a beautiful area for lunch that had a great view of the island.

I guess Corfu is a vacation destination, so a lot of people have summer homes here. So, the population doubles when summer comes around! 

After our lunch we rode back down and stopped for a little bit at a cafe where I got some Greek coffee, it was very different- I've never had a coffee that had texture to it, it was very gritty and you aren't suppose to drink it all the way because at the bottom was clumps of the coffee. Very different!

That night we had another great dinner and it was Toga Night! We were given pink togas because we were at the Pink Palace :) My friends and I had a hard time trying to figure out how to tie a toga.. and the wifi was terrible so we could not look it up- but eventually we figured something out and they turned out really cute! After the dinner, there were greek dancers and plate smashing!!

I loved Greece! I can't wait to go back some day and explore the other islands:)