Wednesday, April 27, 2011

italiaaaaaaaa!

post 2 for today!
last week was our break for semana santa (aka - the week before easter).  so naturally...we traveled. since i'll be home in a week and a half-ish to tell you ALL about these trips in person - here's the condensed version :)

1. we flew into milan, italy friday night.  saturday we explored the city for a bit

we found the duomo!


2. saturday afternoon we took the train from milan to verona.  saturday night we explored the city a bit and found some interesting sights.  sunday morning we got up to do some exploring and find juliet's house (officially obsessed with the movie letters to juliet. watch it NOW if you haven't seen it.) 

verona by night

the i <3 jesus festival we found

juliet's house!

shakespeare and i both LOVE verona
3. sunday afternoon we took the train from verona to pisa (ps - in case you haven't noticed, i am a HUGE fan of public transportation now. and pretty much a professional at taking trains).  we went to the leaning tower in pisa on monday morning. annnnnnnnd...thats it. thats all there is in pisa.  but we enjoyed our fake senior picture time there :)
i am SUCH a tourist.


4. on monday afternoon we walked flew took the train (DUH) to ROMA!! monday night we were pooped and chose to devour authentic italian pizzas and sleep.  tuesday we explored st. peters basilica, the vatican museum (and the sistine chapel), and trevi fountain.  tuesday night i was sicker than a dog.  but wednesday morning i was ready to rock and roll to the colosseum, the roman forum, and the pantheon. rome was incredible and i hope that the big bucks 20 centavos i threw in the trevi to guarantee a return trip works :)
hangin out at the collosseum 

in st. peters square

at the top of st. peters basilica. thats a 551 stair trip (one way).

throwin the big bucks in the trevi
4. wednesday night we took the train flew to BARCELONA! we got there the night of the HUUUUGE barcelona - real madrid soccer game.  luckily all the soccer crazies were watching the game so we had no problems on the metro to our hostel.  thursday we planned to have a beach day but mother nature had other ideas. so we sat on the beach in scarves and jeans. barcelona was WONDERFUL. loved every part of it.  we visited the olympic port, las ramblas, la sagrada familia, park guell, a holy week procession and other crazy things.

the magic fountain on our last night in barca

cool beach day.

the famous lizard in park guell - designed by gaudi (who is a GENIUS)

just climbed a mountain in park guell to get here

la sagrada familia - another genius gaudi project that has been under construction for 100+ years

at la sagrada familia  
the inside

part of the procession

again 

port vell by night - tropical paradise 

port vell by day 

friendssssssss!!
we returned to santiago on easter sunday (exhausted as ever).  today we had our last activity which was a picnic in the park.  we totally hippied out and the boys played the guitar so we could have a sing-along. it was a nice relaxing way to end our time here.  tomorrow is our last day of class for the week. we have one more big assignment due monday then finals.  can't wait to say SEE YOU NEXT WEEK on sunday! yay! it feels like just yesterday that i got here but now i am SO excited to come home and share all my adventures!

adios for now! xoxo - t





camino de santiago

you're in luck. today i'm double posting because i have some free time and lots to share.

a couple weekends ago we went on the camino de santiago.  for those of you who don't know, santiago de compostela is where the found the tomb of st. james is said to be found.  the amazing cathedral that i have posted pictures of was built on the site of his tomb and since then people have made pilgrimages here to pay tribute to him.  santiago is the third holiest city in the world (behind jerusalem and rome).  the pilgrimage to santiago was the safest one so thats the one many took.  most people start the camino in the france area and walk from there to santiago.  it takes about 30 days to do it when walking about 30km per day.

we did the 'cheating' version of the camino. :) we left santiago on a saturday morning and took a bus to a city about 2hrs from santiago.  from there we set off walking to another close town where we ate lunch. after that...we walked some more. then took the bus to the town where we spent the night.  we did the same thing on sunday until we reached the cathedral.  you could tell we weren't real peregrinos (spanish for pilgrims) because we were smiling and laughing waaaaaay too much when we got there.  the camino was an amazing experience and i would love to do the full camino someday (maybe...)


the yellow arrows that mark the way of the camino

tonya and i following the camino signs

just playing on the rock bridge :)

waaaaaay too close to cows for my liking

the camino map

just enjoying the view during a break