Taryn in Florence!

MONDAY: NOTTE BIANCA

This past Monday, April 30th, was the Italian Labor Day, also referred to as “Notte Bianca” (white night).  To start of my notte bianca, I met up with Maria and Marian at their new hotel, which had a very nice view of the Arno river out their windows.  We then called to make reservations at a little osteria, as we knew restaurants would be packed tonight, and headed out to check out some of the festivities.  Part of this holiday includes little bands, decorations and lights everywhere, as well as museums and places being open until 6 or 7 in the morning.  So we decided to go check out the Santa Maria Novella church, right by the train station.  The line was a bit long, but it was a warm night so we didn’t mind chatting and waiting our turn to enter.  Once we got in, we were ushered into a group with an Italian tour guide, unfortunately in Italian.  Luckily, Marian with her Spanish knowledge, was able to catch a good amount of his explanations of each religious piece and relay it to Maria and I.  The inside was absolutely gorgeous, with big frescoes, including one depicting Dante’s inferno which was very intricate and extended up to the high ceiling.  We all walked around, admiring the pieces and catching a few words every now and then from our guide, for about 45 minutes, then headed out to eat.  The osteria was about a ten minute walk away and we were all starving for some Italian cuisine.  This turned out to be possibly my best meal that I have had thus-far in Florence.  Due to it being a holiday, they brought out multiple free dishes: as a starving student, this was music to my ears and stomach J.  First, they brought out these delicious, soft, salty bread puffs that were delicious as well as a tasty bean and veggie salad.  Maria perused the wine list and was able to track down the red wine from my Nana’s village in Southern Italy, so we were sure to toast to Nana.  After that, Marian and I decided to split the massive typical Florentine steak dish with roasted potatoes.  I must admit, I do not know what makes this steak unique and different from others, but I certainly enjoyed it.  Even the potatoes were ridiculously good and we all scarfed everything down.  For desert, they brought out little macaroons that were delectable but we were all pretty stuffed at this point.  We sat, talked and recovered for awhile then thrust ourselves into the huge crowds of people packed on every street.  In each Piazza we passed, there was music blasting and even bands set up, with tons of Italians singing along and dancing.  We were able to make it through the crowds to my street, which was pretty packed as well.  I wanted to show Maria and Marian at least one of my typical spots, so we went over to Angie’s bar and got a drink with Ali, one of the bartenders my roommates and I have come to know.  After that, Maria and Marian dropped me off at my apartment and went to check out the Palazzo Vecchio.  Allie and I had originally planned on staying in tonight and getting work done, but the yells and music were blasting in through our window anyway so we thought, why not?  When in Florence right?  We went back to Angie’s bar for a bit and met up with our two other roommates, Hanna and Viv.  From there, we basically “via”-hopped, from street to street, dancing at the end of each street where dj’s were set up and making our way to different Piazzas.  It was such a cool night to be a part of, seeing all the people of Florence out and celebrating.

TUESDAY: AVICII CONCERT

Somewhat spontaneously the previous week, Allie and I had decided to get tickets to a concert in Rome put on by a dj, Avicii.   Our two other roommates, Hanna and Viv already had tickets so we thought it would be fun to all go together.  The tricky issue was that we were basically only going to Rome for a few hours, but we decided to talk to my friend Matt and get a room at the hotel he was living at for the semester, just to make sure we had a place if we needed it.  We took a train from Florence to Rome that got us in at about 8:40 at night, and luckily Matt was waiting for us at the stop to take us to the hotel.  Hanna had not been feeling well that day so she decided to stay home, but Hanna, Allie and I all got ready quickly in our room and then met up with Matt and his friend Chris to head out to the concert.  Avicii is a dj that plays a lot of dance/electronic music, so we were prepared for a long night of dancing.  We got to the concert at about 11:30 and the arena was pretty cool, with bright lights flashing and confetti shooting out into the crowd every once in awhile.  The concert was a lot of fun, even though it was packed with people, yet again, but we all had a great time singing along and dancing to Avicii.  The concert ended at about 4, later than we had thought, but we were able to get back to our hotel and grab a couple of hours of sleep until we got our early morning train back to Florence at 6:15.  While it was a whirlwind of a night, it was absolutely worth it and a great, spontaneous moment I’ve had this semester.

AMALFI COAST WEEKEND: DEPARTURE

After a week of finishing two big final papers, it was definitely time for a nice, relaxing vacation weekend to prepare myself for a week of cramming for finals! Thursday night at about 7, Allie and I walked to the train station to meet up with the company we were travelling with for the weekend.  At 7:30 our bus headed out for the Amalfi Coast!  I was able to sleep for an hour or two, and woke up for the last bit, due to the sharp curves we were driving around.  The views, even in the middle of the night, were absolutely gorgeous: steep cliffs leading far down into the water and mini-beaches along the coast.  We got to our hostel at about 3 in the morning.  Allie and I were sharing a room with two other girls, but we were able to snag the little back separate room with two beds so we could have our own space.  We instantly got into bed to grab as much sleep as we could before our trip the next day.

FRIDAY: CAPRI

Wake up time was 6:50 AM for us, as we changed, grabbed a little breakfast and headed out to the bus.  It drove us to a port where we got on a boat and headed to the island of Capri.  It was a bit chilly at first, as there were some clouds blocking the sun, but we could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. The first thing we were taken to was the famous Blue Grotto: one of the many mini-caves in the side of Capri.  Here, there are many little row boats that you pay to go in a group of 3 or 4 people, and an Italian rower will maneuver the boat through the tiny gap.  Everyone in the boat has to basically lie down flat, and the guide, standing up, positions the boat and at the precise time when the water level is down, pulls us through the little gap while simultaneously lying down on top of the boat (hard to describe, but don’t worry, Allie took pictures!).  Once inside the cave, the “ceiling” is higher and this particular one is called the blue grotto due to the sunlight entering the cave making the water look this gorgeous aqua-marine blue color.  They row you around inside there for a minute or two, as all the guides are singing in Italian – great acoustics in there.  It was such a cool, unique thing to do and as somewhat frightening as the initial entrance, and exit from the cave are, it was an awesome image that I’ll keep with me forever!  After that, we went on a boat tour around the whole island and our trip leaders pointed out different things like the Green Grotto, with tons of jellyfish everywhere, the White Grotto, with a rock formation that looked a lot like the Virgin Mary, the three Rocks of Capri: one being the original lighthouse that they would set fires on top of to guide boats, and another being the lover’s rock.  It was amazing to go around and see all the rock formations, cool houses on the cliffs, and I sort of got the feeling that I was in Jurassic Park with crazy steep cliffsides and seagulls circling around.  After our boat ride, we were dropped off on the island of Capri and we did the twenty minute walk up to the center of it.  We took some pictures then met up with the whole group again to grab a shuttle up to Anacapri.  Here, we got lunch with some other BC kids who were studying abroad in Madrid and ended up being on the trip with us.  Afterwards, we decided to check out the cool, single-person chairlifts that took you all the way to the top of Anacapri and the whole island.  This was the most beautiful and breath-taking view I have ever seen – the sun was out over the white buildings, with the water glistening and another island far off in the distance.  Yet another powerful moment where I just soaked in the view and felt how extremely lucky I am to be here, in a place that literally looks like a screen saver on your computer.  There were so many times that I actually felt like I was in an IMAX movie with a huge screen in front of me, as the views were just too perfect.  Once we reached the top, the view was just as amazing and we walked around admiring all the different views.  Allie, the BC crew and I found a spot of grass and decided to lay out and nap for about an hour and relax.  At about 3:30, it was time for us to head down on the chairlift again – probably an even more breath-taking view on the way down.  Allie and I then walked around a bit looking at the stores, grabbed some gelato (which unfortunately was actually a sorry excuse for gelato in Italy) and then grabbed a taxi down to the marina grande with some other kids to meet up with our group.  We got back to our hotel in Sorrento at about 6 and Allie and I, exhausted, decided to skip out on the group dinner and nap instead.  We then showered and ventured out to find a restaurant that the man at the front desk recommended called Moonlight.  When we got there, I looked at the wine list and spotted the other wine from Nana’s town that Maria made me add to my Florence bucket list, so of course Allie and I got it!  We then split an appetizer with different fried balls of risotto, cheese, olives, and potatoes – YUM.  I got the shrimp for my main course and then we both got tiramisu for desert (I had to for you, Ma) which was DELICIOUS.  After we were nice and full, we headed back and went to bed nice and early for us, at like 12.

SATURDAY: POSITANO

Today we got to sleep in until a little before 9 to grab our bus to Positano.  It was about a thirty minute bus ride and then about a twenty minute walk down to the beach.  This was supposed to be our beach day, where we could go cave-swimming and cliff-jumping, but unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy for most of the day.  There was one boat going out for the excursions at 11:30, so we decided to see how those people fared first before we would venture out ourselves.  The boat returned and most of the crew was covered in jellyfish stings, and didn’t even end up going cliff-jumping because of it.  Allie and I decided the combination of clouds/cold/jellyfish didn’t sound all that tempting, so we stayed on the beach, laid out, napped, and got some lunch.  Despite the clouds, there was the occasional burst of sunshine, and Positano was a beautiful town, with cute little shops along the steep walk down and multi-colored buildings, which reminded me a lot of those in Cinque Terre.  Annoyingly, right as we were leaving at 4:30 the sun came out, but luckily we had a pool at our hotel so we immediately headed there once we got back.  We hung out by the pool for an hour or so, then showered and got ready to go to dinner at the other hostel that our group was staying at.  The dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet of three kinds of pasta (gnocchi, chicken alfredo, and pesto pasta), salad and French fries – all of which was scrumptious, and Allie and I had been really pasta-deprived from the night before (that’s a joke, everyone).  We then hung out there for awhile with two of our friends from BC then walked back to our hotel at about 11:30 to get another early night sleep.

SUNDAY: POMPEII

Today we woke up at 9:30 and had to pack up all our stuff to head out to the buses, as Pompeii was on our way back to Firenze.  We got there at about 11 and had to wait in a big line to buy our entrance tickets to the Pompeii ruins.  Allie and I roughed it and instead of going on the guided tour, got a map and mini-information booklet to walk ourselves around.  It was astonishing how little detailed pieces of artwork and decorations of some of the houses had managed to survive and the amphitheater was very cool to see.  We walked around, seeing the old baths, artisan workshops, and temples for about an hour then headed out to grab some lunch at the pizza place our company had recommended.  I got the pizza with a hot dog and French fries on it (yes, it IS necessary to have all that food in one meal), which was very good.  Then we walked around for the remaining half hour that we had looking at the little stands set up and soaking up the sun, as it was another warm sunny day out.  We headed out at two and got back to Florence at about 8:15.  What a weekend.  Our weather was pretty amazing, Capri is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, and it was definitely a perfect last European trip for me this semester.  I’m so glad I was able to make it here and I am absolutely coming back some day, somehow.  Allie and I are already plotting making our future husbands pay for our vacations back there (no husbands allowed though), so we are determined!  I’m still pinching myself whenever I think of that gorgeous view of Capri from the chairlift, and can’t believe that was my last weekend here in Italy, for awhile at least.  Now I am well-rested and ready to take on all my finals and come home to my family, friends and puppies in Boston!  Now if only I could figure out how to get my suitcases down the three flights of stairs…

FRIDAY: MAKE-UP CLASSES AND DINNER WITH AUNTIE MARIA

Due to two vacation days off of school, teachers at my university here reschedule make-up classes, so that we still have the same number of meetings as we should. I woke up at 9:30 and went to meet my Cultural Anthropology class at the Anthropology museum, very conveniently located a street down from me. It was much more interesting walking around one of these museums with my professor there, as she could explain the meanings behind many objects which we would have just overlooked or not understood with the Italian subtext. Most objects again did not have a description with them, so our professor was very helpful in pointing out significant items. A few that I found the most interesting were that of a huge statue, supposedly done of a South American native, shrunken heads and skulls (pretty morbid, yes but interesting - I’ll explain more!). The statue of the native man was immediately in the stairway as you entered the museum and it was supposed to be an exact-size replication of a native that the explorer Byran had encountered on one of his journeys. The statue was easily 7.5 or even 8 feet tall, overwhelming in size and wearing only a loincloth. It is unknown whether or not this truly was an accurate depiction of the people he ran into, but most likely his measurements were flawed. Nonetheless, this image spread across Europe as that of the “savage” of South America - tall, muscular, very dark, and wearing simple coverings. The skeletons and shrunken heads were pretty creepy, as they were kept in various parts of the world as trophies, showing who the owners were able to kill. There were markings and decorations on them as well, which were supposed to bind these people to be their killer’s servants in the afterlife, pretty unfortunate. It was very interesting to walk around and hear the various descriptions of everything, showing how across the world in different areas, many people actually had some similar practices and items. I then had my Criminology make up class at 12, where only 4 of us, including me, showed up. I gave my mini-presentation on my final paper, the psychological effects of solitary confinement on inmates - turns out there’s a lot of negative ones, SHOCKER. After class, I headed to the Arno River, as it was a gorgeous, warm day out and I laid out for a bit with my roommate, Cate and two of her friends from Providence College. I didn’t stay too long though, as I had to go get ready to meet up with Aunt Maria who was coming in from Pisa that afternoon! I walked and met up with Maria at her hotel and then we headed back towards my part of the city, as I showed her my apartment and we grabbed drinks - really aperativo (drinks and some little appetizers) at a nearby bar/restaurant. After sitting outside for awhile, we headed to grab dinner at Acqua al 2 (the place famous for their blueberry steak, a perfect place for Maria, huh?), which actually did have quite a lot of vegetarian options for her. I got my same Robespierre steak and she got a risotto with gorgonzola. We ate and chatted for awhile, until about 10 when it was time to head back, as she was exhausted from her earlier travels. I headed home to get to bed early as well so that I would be ready for whatever we decided to do on Saturday!

SATURDAY: TRIP TO VIAREGGIO

At 9:30, Maria and I met up at the Ponte Vecchio and headed to the train station, as she had looked up various trains to Viareggio, a nice beach town that I had actually gone to earlier this semester for the Carnival. The weather was supposed to be miserably hot in Florence so we wanted to get out and thought the beach would be a perfect escape. We got on our train, after struggling a bit with the fast ticket machines (I had to admit it, don’t tell Maria though), and it took about an hour and a half to arrive at Viareggio. The weather was pretty close to perfect here, sunny and warm but not sweltering. We walked for a bit to get to the beach and scoped out a nice little restaurant to grab lunch at. I got the seafood risotto and Maria got the penne with pesto, both very delicious and the view wasn’t too bad either - we were sitting right near the beach, looking out on the glistening water and soft sand. We had a leisurely lunch and grabbed a spot on the beach at about 2. I slept for a bit as Maria walked around and took in the Viareggio views. At about 3:15 it was time for us to head back and grab our train so we could meet up with Maria’s friend, Marian, who was coming in from Madrid. We of course had to grab some gelato along the way, which was very good, but I’m still sticking with my Gelataria de’ Neri being the best :). We got back to Florence just before 6, parted ways so I could shower and she could meet up with Marian, and planned to meet up for dinner. We met at 7:30 at this little festival that was going on in the Piazza Santa Maria, right by the train station. Maria, Marian and I had some wine and beers, grabbed some plates of cheese, bread and salami and chatted for awhile, enjoying the warm night weather. At about 10:30, it was time for us all to head back, especially me as I needed to wake up nice and early for my trip to Cinque Terre the next day! It was great to meet up with my auntie in such an amazing place, and also to see Marian, who I had met in Madrid in high school during my exchange program. Fortunately, they don’t leave until Tuesday so I still have time to see them more!

SUNDAY: CINQUE TERRE

Today, my remaining roommates, Cate and Courtney and I all woke up at about 6:30 to meet up with our travel group at the train station. We left Florence at about 7:30 and arrived at La Spezia at a little after 10. We then grabbed the short train-ride to the first of the 5 towns (as Cinque Terre means “Five lands” all connected by a hiking trail), called Riomaggiore. The views were immediately breath-taking, cliff-side along the water with different colored houses scattering the hills. The weather definitely could have been better, as it was a bit cool and sprinkling from time to time, but this ended up being a blessing in disguise for our hike later. We did the mini-hike to the second town, Manarola, along the way climbing on rocks and taking pictures of the amazing views (well, I watched others take pictures of the amazing views - which I will be stealing from them shortly :) ). In Manarola, there were more rocks to climb on, but unfortunately due to the terrible flood they had last year, the hiking trail to the third town, Corniglia, as well as the hike from Corniglia to the fourth, Vernazza were both closed. We could walk a bit of the trail at Manarola but had to turn around and head back to the train in order to get to the other towns. The train was taking a very long time, so we decided to take the train to the fourth town, where we were told there were good places to grab something to eat, then do the final hike, and head to the third town on the way back if we had time. So we got to Vernazza and found a little restaurant to grab some lunch. Cinque Terre is where pesto originated, which was fantastic news for me. I order the penne pesto and it was DELICIOUS, definitely a good choice and clearly a specialty of this area. After we were nice and full, we headed out to find the trail to the last town, Monterosso, which was supposed to be a true, semi-grueling hike - and that it was. There were very steep inclines with tiny half stairs along the cliffs, giving me flashbacks to the Road to Hana in Hawaii that my dad forced - I mean eloquently CONVINCED us to go on (better pops?). Now I was very grateful that the sun was not out beating down on us as we hiked through this trail, weaving along the cliffs and overlooking the beautiful water beneath us. We kept seeing the 5th town, and more temptingly, the beach ahead of us so we trudged along, panting a bit but continuing to walk. After about an hour of weaving in and out, up and down, we finally made it to the end. Even though it really was not very warm at all, after that long hike, I decided I had to go into the water if I came all this way. So I swam out, dove in, and ran right out of there as fast as I could. We were actually cutting it a bit close to catch our last train back, but of course we had to grab some gelato for the way back - again very good, no Gelataria de’ Neri status though. We got back to Florence a little before 8 and it was a huge relief to take off my shoes, shower and get into my comfy bed, exhausted after a long day. Cinque Terre was absolutely gorgeous and a very unique place that I’m incredibly glad I made it to. Even though the weather was not at it’s best, the cliffs were still beautiful and I really enjoyed taking in the scenery around me. It is crazy to think I only have one more full weekend of my abroad experience left, although there are still two more papers and other assignments standing in my way! Ciao for now mia famiglia e i miei amici, I will be grabbing the Cinque Terre pictures as soon as I can!

FRIDAY

At about 5:45 AM Friday morning, Allie and I dragged ourselves out of bed and called a taxi to take us to the airport for our early 7:50 flight.  The flight was about an hour and a half long, and we were lucky enough to have the middle seat open so we could stretch out and get a nap in before we walked around all day.  We landed and had to struggle through a huge line at customs, which took about an hour and a half, after which we had to track down a bus to central London and from there the tube.  Finally, after taking pretty much every form of transportation possibly, we met up with Allie’s friend, Mallory, who we were staying with in order to drop our bags off and plan out the rest of our day.  I had made a little list of things I wanted to see before getting there, using my handy-dandy Let’s Go Europe book my dad got for me (POPS, YA HAPPY NOW? I USED IT!!).  From there, we headed out to see the sites!  The weather was pretty nice as we started out, sunny and fairly warm.  We hit up Big Ben first, then saw Westminster Abbey too.  As we were walking to Buckingham Palace, in typical London fashion, it started pouring.  We took a few pictures outside there though, and were able to catch a glimpse of the goofy guards marching around in sync with each other.  After that, we headed to Tower Bridge, which had a gorgeous view of the city and also saw the Tower of London, both in the bright sunshine as the random rain had stopped at this point.  Allie and I were pretty exhausted with all the walking around having been up so early, so we headed back to Mallory’s dorm at like 5:30 so we could nap.  At about 8:30 we went to dinner at a delicious Thai food place, which I was ecstatic about since I hadn’t had Thai food since I was back in the States!  I got the chicken satay with peanut sauce and the chicken pad thai - both amazing.  After dinner, we headed back to get ready to go out.  The three of us headed to a famous London club, Fabric, which had a bunch of different levels, loud music and tons of people.  The lights that they had were really cool and we had a blast dancing for a few hours until it was time for us to head back and get some sleep.

SATURDAY

Today we woke up at about 12:30 and headed out to find us some bagels, which Allie and I were craving.  We walked down to the main shopping area on Oxford Street, got some food, and walked around looking at all the different shops.  We also met up with two of their other friends from BC, one of whom is abroad in London as well and the other in Madrid.  After talking to them for awhile, we realized it was getting a bit late and we wanted to go check out the British Museum.  We got there at 4 and headed immediately to the Rosetta Stone first.  It was awesome to see such a monumental item, with the tiny symbols and hieroglyphics all over it.  We took a look at the museum map and decided to hit up all the rooms with Egyptian stuff in it, as second grade me was obsessed with Egypt and Allie and Mallory were interested in it as well.  We saw a bunch of Egyptian statues of Kings, lots of mummies and sarcaphoguses, and even some actual skeletons.  There were a couple unique mummies of cats, dogs, and even little crocodiles.  Unfortunately, the museum closed at 5 so we couldn’t see much more but we decided to head out and do something else productive: shop :).  We grabbed food along the way at Chipotle, as Allie and I were missing burritos too, and walked around shopping on Oxford Street for a few hours.  After shopping, we went back to Mallory’s apartment to shower and get ready to go out again.  We met up with the two girls we had seen earlier today in an area called “shore ditch” that had a bunch of different bars and clubs.  We went to a mini-club called 333 which had two floors/separate areas, which at first made it difficult for us to find the other girls as we didn’t realize there was an upstairs too.  The music here was pretty funny to us, again what we would consider “oldies” from middle school, and it was so much fun to sing along and dance with a bigger group of girls.  We were here actually until the bar closed at about 3 and taxi-ed home, pretty tired from another action-packed day and night.

SUNDAY

Today we woke up at about eleven to head to this more artsy area called Camden, which had a bunch of crazy shops that we had fun walking around in.  One of them was called, Cyber Dog, and had a ton of neon, futuristic looking clothes.  As you went down to the different floors of the store, they had black lights on and blasted dance music, making the neon clothes stand out much more and making me feel like I was in a night club in the middle of the day.  We walked around here for awhile and grabbed some food at the little stands that were around until it was time, unfortunately, for Allie and I to grab our things and head back to Florence.  Our flight was at 7:50 at night, but again we had to go through the whole debacle of tube-bus-airplane, and made it back to Firenze at about 11:15.  It was another amazing travelling weekend that made me realize just how little time I have left here!  Allie and I actually made a Florence Bucket List of all the places that we have to go before we head out, and it really hit me just how much I’m going to miss it.  As excited as I am to head back to Boston, I really want to make sure I appreciate the just-under three weeks I have left here in beautiful Italia. 

DEPARTURE TO PRAGUE

After my Mafia class ended at 8:30 pm this Thursday, I had to rush home to quickly grab my bag and my roommate Allie to head to the train station and get on our bus!  We got there, panting, at about 8:50, found our group, and lugged our stuff down to the bus.  There were probably about 70 of us total on the trip, and our group leader, Jenny was very enthusiastic in welcoming us and giving us a break down of the weekend ahead of us.  Following her little intro, we watched a few movies and Allie and I attempted to get some sleep on our long 12-hour bus ride!  Unfortunately, it was pretty bumpy and uncomfortable, so we were in and out of sleep for the entire ride.  We finally arrived to Prague at about 9 am on Friday morning.

FRIDAY: THE TOURS BEGIN

Once we arrived at our hostel, the Mosiac House, we got our room assignments and headed up to leave our stuff, change and head back down to get some breakfast and LOTS of coffee.  Allie’s friend from school, Emily, who is currently studying abroad in Paris was planning on meeting us there, but we weren’t sure exactly when she would be able to meet us.  The hostel was extremely nice, and known as one of the nicest in Europe.  The breakfast was just as good, and Allie-and-Taryn approved, as we scarfed down tons of hash browns, which we hadn’t had all semester.  After two or three cups of coffee, it was time for us to meet our tour guide for our first walking tour of the weekend.  With excellent timing, Emily showed up just as we were about to embark on the tour, so she found out where we were headed and planned on meeting up with us there a bit later.  

We headed out at about 11:15 and the first spot we went to was Old Town Square.  We lucked out with the weather completely: we had heard it was going to rain all weekend and while it was a bit chilly, the sun was brightly shining.  The entire square was filled with different stands of food, jewelry and other knick-knacks.  Our guide showed us the Astronomical Clock there, which apparently had been voted the second most disappointing tourist spot in all of Europe (number 1 was the Mona Lisa), yikes.  It was actually a pretty cool, tall clock tower, with two clock faces and some mini-figurines.  Four of them at one point of the tower symbolized vanity (a little man with a mirror), greed (a little man with a money bag), death (a skeleton, hard to misinterpret that one), and fun/entertainment (a little man with a guitar).  Every hour on the hour from 9 am to 9 pm, the clock would go off and the skeleton would nod it’s head, “yes” as if to say death is coming, while the other 3 figurines shake their heads, “no” as if to be in denial of their inevitable doom.  Also, three mini-doors open up above those figurines, and more little statues appear.  We did not get to see this actually happen, but again, our guide assured us we weren’t missing much, besides disappointment in how lame it was.  She then pointed out the Our Lady Before Tyn church, which had two towers called the Adam and Eve towers.  They got this name from one tower being slightly taller and wider/”stronger” looking (the Adam tower) than the other shorter, thinner more “fragile” and “delicate” tower (the Eve tower) - she commented on the inherent sexist attitudes that gave the towers their name and I prefer to think of the Adam tower as being the fat, clumsy tower, as opposed to the classy, elegant Eve tower (Ma, I thought you’d approve of that one).  She then gave us a mini-history lesson about how Prague was constantly being attacked and had to be on the guard, especially at the time of World War II and how it was not appreciated for it’s many cool inventions: the microwave, soft contact lenses, sugar cubes, and more (she was very enthusiastic and sarcastically proud of these accomplishments).  

After that, we headed to the New Town Square.  This area had a bunch of shops that we knew, as well as some staple-American spots like McDonald’s and Starbucks.  We had a bit of free time here to grab a coffee and sit down for a bit before heading to our final stop on this tour.

Our last destination today was the Jewish quarter where, as the name implies, all the Jewish people had been forced to live up until a king finally allowed them to live wherever they wanted.  In this area, our guide was able to point out this huge metronome that was up on a hill overlooking Prague.  Previously in it’s spot, a gigantic Stalin statue had stood, but after his fall, the people destroyed it.  She gave us a fun fact about how when Michael Jackson was there for his world tour, a big, blow-up MJ statue had been put there and still today, a group of his fans in Prague have been petitioning to put a real MJ statue up there - from Stalin to MJ, what a noble upgrade.  She then showed us the Pinkas Synagogue, which inside had a WWII memorial of a bunch of drawings done by children in concentration camps.  A woman had decided to allow the kids to get out their obviously depressed and frightened feelings through art, took the pictures, stored them in suitcases and hid them in the concentration camps, which after the war were discovered and put in this building.  I really wanted to go inside here, but unfortunately it was closed until Sunday.  She also told us that Hitler had loved Prague and wanted to actually preserve the Jewish quarters here, as a sort of exhibit of an “extinct race” - a disturbing and creepy idea, that luckily failed and was preserved for other reasons.  From there, she took us to a bridge overlooking the river, and pointed out the Charles Bridge to us, named after their most beloved Czech, Charles IV.  

We then had free time so Allie, Emily and I went to a little place to grab bagels, yet another simple food I had been missing.  We hung out there for awhile, glad to finally be sitting down, then headed back to the New Town Square to check out the shops for a little.  We were absolutely exhausted, so we headed back to the hostel, napped, showered and went to meet up with the group at 8 for the Prague Clock Tower Pub Crawl.  We started at one underground bar, only for the pub crawl participants, and met 3 Australians from Melbourne who had just moved to London but were busy traveling everywhere from Chile to New Zealand, to Prague.  It was cool to hear their stories and experiences, although one of them was a bit too fond of criticizing America (I must admit, they did a hilarious impression of American tourists waiting in line: “TWO HOURS?!  You MUST be joking.  Hey man, did you do it?  Was it worth it?  Huh, was it worth it??”).  After that, we headed to another bar where Allie, Emily and I were actually starving and chose to order dinner instead.  From there, we headed to one more little underground bar, where we danced for about an hour until it was time to head to our final club called, the Roxy.  They were having a special foam party tonight so there were bubbles covering the floor up to my knees.  Allie, Emily and I had a blast dancing here for awhile and running around in the bubbles until we decided to head on back to the hostel and get some rest before our next big tourist day.

SATURDAY

Today we woke up, grabbed breakfast and met up with our program leader, Jenny, who was taking us on a tour of her own at 11.  It was actually nicer out today than yesterday, fairly warm and very sunny.  The first place we went was the Charles Bridge and we walked down this bridge for about a half hour.  We made sure to rub the queen plaque and NOT the dog plaque on the bridge (if you rub the queen, it’s supposed to bring good luck while the dog brings bad luck - a story I’m a bit skeptical of as a dog-lover).  We also went to the spot where there are 5 little stars, which you are supposed to place one finger on each star and then you are destined to return to Prague!  There was a beautiful view from the bridge, and it was nice to casually stroll around looking at the different pieces of art and jewelry that were along the bridge.  

After this, we headed to the John Lennon Wall, which was a bit different than what I had expected.  I had pictured a HUGE chunk of wall, isolated and almost dropped right in the middle of a field or something, covered in crazy pictures and quotes.  This was only partially true, as the wall was not very big but it was covered in colorful writing, peace signs and inspirational quotes about peace and love.  We of course took a bunch of pictures here, including one that I convinced Emily and our guide, Jenny to do with me: a mini-pyramid (pictures soon to be stolen from Allie, once she puts them up).  We wrote our own little things on the wall, to leave our mark, and then we were off again, to see another pretty view of the river.  From here, we had some free time so Allie, Emily and I went to grab some food before the next optional tour that we had signed up for at 2:30.

We met up at the Rudolfinum concert hall (yes, I had to look that name up again, I could not for the life of me remember that one even when we were there) for our Prague Castle tour.  Our guide was this goofy, middle-aged possibly Australian guy, Colin, who led us to the steep walk up to the palace area.  The view overlooking the city was gorgeous and he pointed out a few cool things to us: one was a tower that had been voted one of the ugliest in Europe, that was very tall and had 10 random baby statues climbing up the columns of the tower.  He also showed us another tower which was supposed to be a replica of the Eiffel tower, but definitely fell short of it’s impressiveness (or at least, what how impressive I imagine the Eiffel tower to be, since I won’t be able to make it there this semester).  From there we walked into the actually Palace complex area and he pointed out a strange naked boy statue, that was supposed to signify the youth walking unencumbered/uninhibited into Communism.  He was staring up at a tower known as, “The Black Tower” although it was white with a red tile roof.  Previously, the tower roofs had been covered in gold and there was a big fire which turned all these buildings black, hence the name.  They restored and did work on this tower however, which made the walls white again and the tiles on the roof red, yet the name “The Black Tower” still stuck.  After that, we saw the biggest church in the area, St. Vitus Cathedral, which had possibly the most beautiful stained glass windows I’ve ever seen.  They actually have concerts and different events in here, and it was a pretty large building.  After that, Colin showed us where the Czech President lives, and told us the pen-stealing story, which our first guide had actually told us about too: at a meeting between the Czech President and the President of Chile, the Czech President was staring at this commemorative pen in a box, opened the box, examined it, looked around, sneakily passed the pen under the table from one hand to the other, pocketed it, fixed his suit, then closed the box and pushed it away from him, as if nothing happened (the video is all over youtube, if you would care to see it for yourself).  This thoroughly embarrassed the Czech people, who are already shamed enough by the corrupt government that they have, and as a joke one day, many Czech people actually mailed the president a bunch of pens, since clearly he was desperate for them.  From there, we went out and Colin told us about the guards of the palace, who volunteer to stand there and are not supposed to move at all.  Again, I saw this as a prime mini-pyramid picture moment, so Allie, Emily and I formed a mini-pyramid in front of the guard, who MUST have been amused by our antics.  We then saw some more pretty views of the city and Colin showed us a building that had been used by the secret Communist police to torture and imprison many Czech people (they even used the kids of the city as unintentional spies: they would go into schools and show kids pictures of different characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in the form of a game; if the kids could tell them who the characters were, they had clearly been watching Western TV, and therefore, they would track down their parents and arrest them).  After that, we saw another government building where one of their 5 defenestrations took place (the Czech people apparently protest by throwing the people that they don’t like out of windows, seems pretty effective to me).  We finally ended at a monastery where the monks apparently brew delicious beer and they have a weird animal collection.  In earlier times, the monks had been very naive, as they would never leave the monastery.  So people would take advantage of this and take animals such as a rabbit and a fox and sew a rabbit’s head on a fox’s body, then show it off to the monks as some exotic creature they had found in their travels.  The monks, amazed, would pay the people for their crazy animals, and put them in this exhibit in a building there.  We weren’t able to go see the exhibit, but apparently it’s quite amusing and filled with ridiculous-looking animals.  

After that, we headed to a cafe and grabbed a little something to eat, as well as bought some souvenir t-shirts.  We then headed back to the hostel to get another nap in before we ate dinner at our hostel at like 9:30.  I got the quesadillas - can you see the theme of the food this weekend? (everything that Taryn has been missing).  We then got ready to go out and meet up with the group.  We went to the famous 5-story club here, that has different music on each of it’s floors: radio hits, dance, oldies, hip-hop/r&b, and a chill out floor on the top for when you get tired.  We checked out each of the floors, which were all pretty packed with people.  On the top floor, I actually ran into a girl from BC who was studying abroad in London but visiting Prague for the weekend as well!  We headed back down to our favorite one, the hip-hop floor, which was probably the most crowded, and danced here for like three hours.

SUNDAY: BACK TO FIRENZE

We left Prague at about 10:30 for our return 12-hour bus ride.  It was pretty rainy out, which actually I was happy about since our weather was the best it could have been, and I didn’t mind being on a long bus ride since the weather was gross.  The drive was actually really pretty, with a feel of us almost being inside a volcano, or the Alps, as there were big hills surrounding us, with castles, cool houses and little villages spread out everywhere.  We watched a bunch of movies, stopped twice for lunch and dinner, and got back to Florence at a little after 11 pm.  It was an absolutely amazing weekend: I had definitely been ready to see someplace new, and so far Prague has been my favorite and most different city that I’ve seen here.  It was absolutely gorgeous, we lucked out with the weather, and we packed a lot of touristy things in in just two days!  It was a great weekend but now it’s back to almost-reality in Florence, as I have a bunch of research papers to do…but I have London to look forward to next weekend!  That’s all for now, pictures to come and I’ll be back here next week!  Baci e amore a tutti! (Kisses and love to everyone, trying to get some more Italian in here) :)