As usual, too much as happened since my last post that I could very well possibly not remember a lot of it. Hmmm.
I had a rather relaxing week (I finally managed to send out my letters! so if you got one fairly recently, you are a lucky person)
Thursday night, I went out with a few friends in Trastevere. We got drinks and french fries, yummy. Catherine was a brat (on a side note, I saw this with the greatest amount of love) that night, and refused gelato because she only wanted a beer to "tap off her night" as I recall :P ... She didn't get her beer, and she managed to use the streets as her public bathroom again. What's new? Lol. Catherine will hate me for posting this, but goodness she makes a night so interesting!
Friday morning a few of us went and enjoyed an "American" meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. Which I'm happy we went to because it's been much too long since we've been somewhere that had the atmosphere like a typical American restaurant. It made me a little homesick though because whenever I travel with my family we always go to the Hard Rock, and I wanted my parents to be there with me! But, unfortunately, they weren't. We then spent the rest of our day just shopping and walking around the streets of Rome. It was a calm day, and a much needed one.
Saturday, we went up to Janiculum Hill in Roma! I was fascinated by this place. It's the second tallest hill in Roma, and has a church built where St. Peter was said to be cruicified. The Hill itself is said to be a battle field from a revolutionary Roman and French war of some kind, I couldn't exactly tell you...does it seem like I'm getting this information off of Wikipedia? Hmm, I am. Anyways.
Everyday at noon, a cannon is fired from the hill in the direction of the Tiber river (I knew this off the top of my head). We went to witness this, which was absolutely amazing, and terrifying. My ears were rining, and my pictures came out blurry from my jumping once I heard the sound of the cannon fire. Hah.
We wandered to the Jewish Ghetto and had a fabulous lunch (fried rice balls!! yummy, and pasta amatricana) The rest of my day was rather lazy, but I'm not complaining. But wait!
I almost forgot, we had a very crazy cooking/baking party in my kitchen. Where we made cookies and cinnamon rolls from scratch :] They came out fairly well, but I think the best part of it was actually making the stuff. haha. It was a blast.
Sunday morning was Halloweeenie, and Catherine, Savannah, and I left bright and early for Milan.
The flight was easy (and thank goodness for that because we all know how i feel about flying!), now when we arrive in the airport, we catch the bus to the central station, and from there we were within walking distance to the hotel. Nowwwww, I had a moment and was extremely frustrated because I couldn't find the street where the hotel was, because it was 1) raining, 2) i was hungry, 3) i'm a lady, and occasionally we have our days of....hormonal imbalances. But we managed to find it with some help, and I immediately got some breakfast, and I was ready to start the day.
With the rain, we took the metro EVERYWHERE but it was very convenient so it wasn't too bad :]
Catherine made the "executive decision" (so she calls it :P) to head over to the church where the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is said to be. Unfortunately, we couldn't view it because you had to have a reservation, and it was a 2 week wait! Awful! We were a little discouraged, but we were off to our next stop: Castello Sforzesco, which is a castle that is now a rather large museum. It includes art from pretty much every major era, and sculptures, and furniture...etc. Catherine, Savannah, and I were most amused by the furniture room, because it displayed furniture from as late as the 2000's...hmm, what made it so special? We honestly had no idea, and it didn't fit the "Renaissance" them the rest of the museum had at all. hahah. The plain wooden chair was the most amusing to me.
After the Castello, which is also connected to Parc Sempione (which we very briefly walked into, but with the rain, it was less than enjoyable), we decided it was time for lunch. We went to the nearest pizzeria, and loveddd it :] Although it was a little pricey! Oh well.
After lunch we were off to the next museum: Piancoteca di Brera, which is one of the most famous museums that Milan has to offer. Couldn't tell you all that I saw, but I promise it was a lot and my feet hurt terribly after the walk throughout the museum. By the time we had finished that it was only 5:20 pm! We were all shocked, and had no idea what to do next. So I said we should go check out Salvador Dali!! Because I reallyyy wanted to go, but I wasn't sure if we'd have time. So we raced over to the Dali exhibit in the Palazzo Reale, but of course when we get there the line is almost 3 hours long! Which made no sense to me because the museum said it closed at 7:30, but oh well! So we decided not to wait, and we walked probably a few hundred feet in a different direction and found ourselves facing the side of the Duomo! Which was a pleasant surprise and a beautiful sight to see. So we hung around the Duomo for a bit, snapped some pictures, and then went into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is the oldest and most famous shopping center in Milan. It was breathtaking, and we even enjoyed a woman playing the piano in the center of the shopping mall.
We grabbed some dinner at a lovely restaurant right by the duomo, which included for me a spaghetti, and tiramisu that I shared with Catherine. We sat and talked for a few hours, and had a very lovely waiter that kept finding amusement out of frightening us or just acting silly. He made me want to return just so I could see what other antics he had up his sleeve.
After a long day, that consisted of rain, rain, rain, rain (I am not lying when I say the rain NEVER stopped...it was a continuous rain...a cold rain...very sad), we immediately went to our hostel, and fell asleep :]
The first stop of Monday was the Duomo! We got there at perfect timing and had no wait to ride the elevator up the roof. It was an unbelievable view, and I cannot even describe how beautiful the Duomo architecture is...it's magical and dark. I love it. We spent quite some time up there, then made our way into the Cathedral where we caught some of the All Saint's Day mass! It was incredibly moving, and almost brought me to tears. I loved the sound of church music throughout the heavy walls. It filled me with such an odd emotion, but it was wonderful.
After our Duomo experience, we grabbed lunch at a lovely restaurant (as usual), did a little bit of shopping in the area and then made our way to the Palazzo Reale to finally see the Salvador Dali exhibit! So the night before we asked a nice man that worked there what time we should arrive tomorrow to avoid long lines. Now, it opened at 2:30 PM on monday, so he said 2 PM... hmmm, he was terribly wrong. I should've known and had a feeling, but we had so much other stuff to do that I figured whatever. So we get there at 2 PM, and the line is already a few hours long, and we made our way into the museum by 4 PM, after standing 2 hours in the rain...lovely. On a side note: a very nice Italian woman asked if she could possibly squeeze into line with us because she had a train to catch and she was all alone, so we figured...okay let's just let this one woman in, and it'll be fine. Which it turned out to be! She was such a sweet personable lady, and even bought our 8 euro tickets for the exhibit!!! So she ended up spending too much money on us, but at least she offered considered we let her cut about 3 hours worth of waiting. She was really wanting to see Dali! So having to wait, but then getting a free ticket into the exhibit made for a good day all in all.
After Dali, we raced back to the hotel, picked up our stuff, and made our way to the airport. Where after waiting and waiting for our plane to get a gate number we realize it has been delayed THREE hours...until 11:20 PM.. lol. We were not happy campers. Especially since I only brought so much of my motion sickness medicine with me, and I had already taken it for the original flight time, and then I had to take it again! Lol, it's pathetic I know, but I cannot survive without my dramamine. So we ate dinner, and I read a horrible magazine that cost me 4 euro (not the 2.10 euro that they advertised on the magazine, because apparently it's "UK price" not "Italian price").....Catherine and I giggled the whole time as we read the magazine called "Company"...and it was just a waste of my money, besides getting some laughs out of it. So we finally made it home at around 2 AM, and we were all exhausted and ready for bed.
Now to get back to reality, and study for my exam that I have tomorrow. eek.
Ciao,
Kate
No comments:
Post a Comment