Greetings from Greece

Hey Josh!

I’m in Greece! We just got off the ferry ride and are on the bus to our hotel in Delphi. Just a little bit ago we were in some small Greek town that was super cute. I am surprised to say that I liked it better than some of the Italy cities because it was smaller and less tourist focused. Now it is pitch black and I can’t see out the window, but I know we are by the sea which is really cool and beautiful. Also, the roads are so windy and crazy that this typing might actually make me seasick.

The big ferry we were just on actually didn’t make me seasick! It was even bigger than I thought it would be, bro! Like, there were over 20 semi trucks in the bottom of the boat. That’s how big it was. A semi would NOT have fit in our room though. All of the rooms were basically just this tiny bathroom and two bunk beds. Luckily, I was in a room with just Elsa and Megan so we could put our luggage on the fourth bed. The ride was really fun—we played cards, explored, and chatted. I even went and danced in the dance party room. No one would dance with me though, so I just did several “Hitch moves” by myself in the middle of the dance floor. Don’t worry. The DJ was WAY impressed.

Also, the top of the boat’s view of the islands we were passing was so pretty. The views I have been blessed with seeing and experiencing on this trip have just been incredible, and pictures don’t do them justice at all. I wish I could share my mind videos of them with people, so that they could see the beautiful world God has made for us. Or at least that I could teleport people here to see the beauty.

I thought several things about the boat. I thought it would be expensive to buy anything. I was right. I thought the boat would sway back and forth while I was sleeping. I was wrong (it was more of shaking and vibrating). I thought the food would be awful. I was wrong—it was our first Greek food and it was actually pretty good meet on a skewer, rice, fresh kiwis, and French fries. The ketchup tasted odd though. I thought I would not be able to sleep. I was wrong. I slept so well—the room had no windows and was pitch black, which made for perfect sleeping. I feel very rested now.

Well, even though I didn’t get seasick on the bus, I’m starting to get carsick from writing to you. So, I will try and write soon and let you know how Greece is!

Love,

Maddie

P.S. We have started to learn some Greek, but I am really terrible at it. You have to roll the ‘R’ letters, and after trying a ton Kostas deemed that I was just getting worse. So, I guess I can’t be Greek. 

Florence Festivities

Josh:

The last couple of days I have been in Florence, Italy and it has been so crazy I haven’t had time to write to you. Good news though—I made it to 2013! Also, I have officially gotten all my photos to load to my computer; however, the Internet is really flighty here so I’ll have to wait until I get somewhere with better connection to upload them.

Florence has been so awesome. We’ve really only been here one full day because we went to Pisa yesterday and went to Assisi before we arrived the first day. So, New Years Eve was the only full day in Florence, and I definitely want to come back for longer sometime.

Since I haven’t written in such a long time (really only a few days, but when studying abroad a lot happens in that little number of days), I thought I would just give you a short ‘schedule of events’ and then go more in detail about some of the things I had random thoughts about. Because you know you want to hear my random thoughts J

Schedule of Florencian (made up word) Events:

Italy Day Four:

            --Woke up in Rome at 7:04 when we were supposed to be packed, dressed, and ready to go in the lobby at 7:15! Our alarm hadn’t gone off, so we rushed around like maniacs and made it on time. I think Rome just didn’t want us to leave J

            --A long bus ride to Assisi with GORGEOUS views of Italy and lots of winding roads

            --A gross pizza lunch in Assisi (My second food fail of the trip, at this point I was getting nervous that I would waste all of my Italian meals by choosing the gross food places)

            --A tour of Assisi and St. Frances church—the town was so quaint and adorable. It actually felt like we were in a place where people live for the first time. There were still a ton of tourists there though.

            --Bus ride to Florence (I absolutely napped hardcore on this bus ride. Yay for power naps!)

            --Arrive at a HOSTEL in Florence—not a hotel, a hostel. I think everyone in the group was freaking out a little bit, but it ended up being a really enjoyable experience--more on that and what I thought of Florence later.

            --Renaissance Dinner at Palazzo Borghese Firenze (The most fun dinner we’ve had yet—more on this later, too)

            --Group party at the hostel—most of the study abroad group really bonded this night, which was pretty cool. We definitely feel more like a family now.

            --Sleep!!

Italy Day Five:

            --Tour of both the Duomo and the rest of Florence in the morning. The Duomo is this HUGE church building that is so detailed and beautiful on the outside; however, it was actually pretty plain on the inside.

            --Visit to the Leather Shop. Florence is really famous for both its leather and its stationary, so part of our tour was a stop at this leather shop to see how they made these leather jewelry boxes. It was one of the more interesting stops of the tour and it smelled SO GOOD. I love the smell of leather. Then for the first time really the adults told us we had the entire afternoon off to go explore and hang out, so we started by looking around the leather shop for souvenirs.

            --Lunch at this tiny place by a huge outdoor market. I had this spicy penne (It was called something different, but I forget the elaborate name), and it was one of the better things I have had on the trip. It was so good—I was nervous that I would have another food fail! It would have been really upsetting to have three food fails in a row L The owner of the shop really didn’t like us very much at this lunch place though—normally the Italians don’t mind us tourists—this guy was mad at our Italian-speaking attempts and everything. He even snapped at one girl for saying ‘grazie’ wrong—we were pretty much terrified to say thanks to anyone for the rest of the day.

            --Shopping in the local ‘flower market.’ I actually didn’t see any flowers, so maybe I was confused about the name; however, there were tons of stands with beautiful Italian scarves, leather bags, and a few tourist-y things. Having the afternoon to just hang out and shop at these really cool stands was one of the best parts of the trip thus far.

            --Gelato! Even though I had been told by many, many people to buy gelato in Italy before coming, up to this point I hadn’t had a chance (or enough room in my stomach) to get any. Finally, I went to one of the most famous gelato places in Italy—Vivoli—and had raspberry/chocolate gelato. It tasted exactly like the best raspberries you could imagine.

            --Nap (It was New Years Eve! I had to prepare to stay up late!)

            --Dinner at this fancy place (I forget the name). This was the LONGEST dinner I have ever experienced. Literally. We arrived at around 7:30 and did not finish our dessert until 11:45. I’m pretty sure after the third course of pasta everyone wanted to explode. Personally, eating is one of my favorite things in the world, which meant that the 591093488 courses they served us were perfect to eat. I’m pretty sure I’m still full from that meal. It was a delicious four different pasta courses, several appetizers, several meat dishes, and a dessert trio.  SIDE NOTE: During the dinner a really drunk guy came over to our dinner and tried to sit down at one of the tables. Apparently he said something really rude, and less than a blink later Kostas, our tour director, popped up and talked to him extremely quickly in Italian to get him to back off. I’m pretty sure after that he became the superhero of the group.

            --New Years Eve in a big square. We barely made it out to the square in time to see midnight, but we got there about ten minutes before. Everyone was in a wide circle/clump thing around the square and was throwing fireworks into the middle. It was so loud. Then at midnight people went crazy and were popping champagne, breaking bottles, throwing fireworks and running around like nuts in the smoky square. I actually missed my couch-filled New Years Eve, but I made the most of the craziness. The walk back was a competition to see how many people I could get to say ‘Buon Anno’ (kind of sounds like banana) back when I screamed it at them. Surprisingly, not that many.

            --Party in the Hostel’s ‘Teen Club.’ The hostel had a raging dance session going on, so I went downstairs to people watch and hang out with friends before heading back upstairs to grab some Zs.

            --Sleep, Sleep, Sleep!

Italy Day Six:

            --Wake up at 10:30 (Sleep in day!)

            --Take a bus to a Vineyard in Tuscany (Also beautiful)

            --Lunch/Wine Tasting at the Fattoria Il Pioggio Vineyard. Although I was still pretty full from the dinner the night before, I found a way to eat almost everything at lunch. The food was so fresh and flavorful—we had this vegetable soup (I normally hate vegetable soup) that was so good I’ve been craving it ever since. I also tried all of the food on the table and each of the different wines. We learned a lot about the family’s farm, how to appreciate wine, and the huge difference between freshly grown food and our food back home. Also, the lady who told us about the family, the wine, and the homegrown food was really funny and liked our group a lot.

            --Long bus ride to Pisa.

            --A guided tour of Pisa. It was a lot more elaborate of a town than I had imagined. It was pretty exciting to see the leaning tower after I’ve seen it in pictures (AND ON ARTHUR…go PBS) for forever. The tower is 15,000 TONS of marble. It’s crazy that it stands up as much as it does with that kind of weight. After the tour we had a little bit to roam around the town and see its quaintness, which was nice.

            --Long bus ride home (Lots of  bus time today)

            --Dinner at this Pizzeria off of the Piazza di Independencia (We were craving pizza after Pisa) where I got this focaccia that was delicious. It was this pizza with a top of crust on it, so double the crust basically.

            --Hang out, Pack, Clean, Chill/Watch people play pool in the Teen Club.

            --Go to McDonalds (shhhhh…) with Molly, Kyser, and Haley where we got cheeseburgers and fries. It tasted so good to have something other than pasta. Plus, they had a McFlurry with Nutella mixed in, these delicious seasoned fries called ‘Miami Fries,’ and chocolate doughnuts. McDonalds here don’t give out ketchup often, wouldn’t customize my cheeseburger (no pickles, no onions please? No, no. Cheeseburger), and allow dogs in the restaurant!  Overall, I’m glad we secretly went…don’t tell anyone though J

            --SLEEP!

Today:

            We are supposed to leave the hostel soon, take a five hour bus ride to this port called Ancona where we will leave on a huge ferry, and then take the boat for 24-hours to Greece! I’m not sure if the boat has Wi-Fi or what it will be like at all. I know I will have a blast no matter what though! If it has Wi-Fi, I will post this then. If not, I will have to wait until we get to Delphi. We will see…

A few more follow up notes:

Going back to the whole hostel thing! I was worried we would have to share rooms with strangers, sleep on the terrible floor/fungus infested beds, and that it would just be overall a bad experience. However, it was actually really nice, clean, and everyone was friendly. It was called PLUSflorence, and was definitely geared toward younger folks. I stayed in a room with five other girls from the group, and we had two bunk beds and two regular beds. Plus, the mattresses were actually comfy even though I wished I had my own pillow. Sharing a bathroom between six girls even ended up working out! The basement of the hostel had what the group deemed the ‘Teen Club’ because it had pool, a wii, a dance floor, and a bunch of booths everywhere. At night, everyone would hang out in the ‘Teen Club’, which ended up being a great bonding experience.

The one night we went to that Renaissance restaurant I had mentioned, and it was seriously the most fun dinner in all of Italy. We walked into this old castle where the workers were all dressed in costumes and walked into the main dining hall where the set up was pretty fancy. They had a  ‘welcome drink’ for us when we came in, harp music playing, dancers and different dances, and several games that we played throughout the night. They got several people to participate in the games, which was absolutely hilarious. I’m not sure how much we paid to go there, but I would definitely recommend it for anyone who comes to Italy.

Alright, that was the trip to Florence/Assisi/Tuscany/Pisa! I can’t wait to come back and hang out in these towns for longer because they are really so adorable. I’d love to bring you and the rest of the family back because I think you would love it. I really think you will love Greece though, Josh. You know, with all of the Greek mythology stuff that happens there. I can’t wait to tell you what happens there, too.

Love,

Maddie

Quick Update

Hey Josh--

We switched places yesterday, so I haven't had time to write. I'll give you a quick update for now and send you something longer later! We left Rome, drove through and stopped in Assisi, and are currently in Florence, Italy! I haven't seen too much of Florence yet, but we had the best dinner yet last night! I'll let you know more on that later. Today is New Years Eve, so we get most of the afternoon free to celebrate. We're staying in a hostel in Florence. It isn't terrible, but it's still a hostel. Alright, more details later--I promise!

Love,

Maddie

Ramblings from Rome, Day 3

Ciao!

It’s day three on my once in a lifetime journey, and it has been a really long day. The group participated in a lot of “guided tours” which basically means that I have five zillion facts jiggling around my brain right now—hopefully I remember them tomorrow. You would love these tours, bud, since you’re into history and everything. Rome is such a history-rich city. Seriously, even the new buildings are just built on top of crumbled old buildings and famous dead people. Cool and creepy—AT THE SAME TIME.

So, this was our schedule today:

            Wake up at 7:30

            Visit the Coliseum

            Visit the Public Forum

            Lunch around 2:00

            Visit the catacombs

            Visit the Spanish Steps

            Window shop in the rich people areas

            Dinner around 7:00

            Chill/Free time

See? It was a pretty packed day, but I am feeling five thousand zillion times better today and it was really nice weather outside. I keep hearing about how home has snow out the wazoo, but here it is in the 50s and feels glorious. While we were at the coliseum in the shade we were all a bit chilly, but every other moment has been just wonderful.

Speaking of the coliseum, I think it was one of my favorite places that we’ve been to so far! It was so cool seeing the giant theater/arena and the technology they had in those days to raise fighters from underground. There was so much thought into the design. I was impressed, at least. I think it would be so awesome to redesign the coliseum and sell tickets to people to go see a reenactment of sorts—without all of the blood and killing. Million-dollar idea? Yes. After the coliseum we went to the public forum, which was cool but honestly I was getting a bit hungry and tired of new information at that point. I’m not as capable of information absorbing for long periods of time as you are, bro.

I started to get hangry (OH NO), but we made it to this little café on top of this building in the middle of Rome before that terribleness happened. It was the most gorgeous view of Rome—a full surrounding view while just snacking on a delicious salami sub. Seriously amazing. I also had coke in a bottle, which they gave to me with a tiny little cup. Unaware what I was actually doing, I just drank straight out of the coke bottle. Apparently they don’t wash them—they just recap them. So, yes, that was nasty. Thanks to Robyn for letting me know AFTER I drank the entire coke J Lesson learned though.

After lunch we headed to the catacombs, which is basically just where a bunch of dead people were once buried. It’s kind of claustrophobia-inducing down there and really it’s just creepy overall. However, it was the one time in my life where there were giant red buttons on the wall and I was allowed to push them when I felt like it! Those buttons controlled the lights in the group coffin, so that was fun! Completely exhausted we headed to the Spanish steps, but a short nap on the bus reenergized the group—so, I was ready to try out the language I actually do know—Spanish! Apparently that’s not what the Spanish steps are for, though. In fact, they are pretty much just steps. Good news though! There was a GOSPEL Christmas music festival going on while we were there. It was so fantastic—I knew all the songs, so I sang along. They were singing in Italian mostly though, so that was a bit of a problem.

After we pried ourselves away from that we just did some window browsing and headed back to the hotel. We even survived the metro ride back home—we were literally packed on like sardines all smushed up against so many people we didn’t know. It was uncomfortable but we made it. I didn’t even get pickpocketed! Just picture me koala-bear-wrapped around my bag, and that is how I avoid being stolen from. It has been effective so far (affective? Something like that)!

Once at the hotel a small group—Megan, Elsa, James, and Christian—all headed out to find some dinner. We stopped in this place where the greeter guy (a lot of the restaurants have English speaking people standing out front to attract tourists, offer “deals”, show off the menu, ect.) convinced us to eat at this little restaurant by the train station. Our waiter spoke absolutely zero English and was utterly confused by us. Also, my pasta that was supposed to be Fettuccine with Ragu tasted exactly like Spaghettio’s. Except not the good Spaghettio’s—the off-brand mom would make us eat from Aldis with the gross meatballs. It was my first Italy food fail.

Exhausted after the long day, we headed back to the hotel where the best thing ever was waiting for me. Okay, Okay. It wasn’t a bottomless Dr. Pepper in a Styrofoam cup with ice. So, the second best thing—my luggage!!! I am so pumped to finally have my lovely luggage back. Thank you Delta for finding me before I left Rome.

A few more random notes:

            --Today in the train station we started counting the number of couples we saw publically eating each other’s faces. We are already at four couples snogging disgustingly.

            --Today I borrowed clothes from Robyn, the study abroad office representative who is basically in charge, because I still didn’t have my luggage. She had gotten the pants for Christmas and hadn’t worn them yet, so she kept saying Merry Christmas to me since I borrowed her Christmas pants. They were a bit big, but at least they were cute! Did I mention I love having my luggage?

            --I have a ton of cool photos and a friend said I could borrow his photo card reader soon, so I will hopefully do a photo post soon!!!

That’s all for now!

Maddie

P.S. Sorry I am posting this so late—my internet at the last hotel was being mean and we have been traveling a lot today!

Rome, Day 2

Buono sera (Good evening) Josh,

Hey there. It is the end of the second day of Rome exploration, and thought I'd shoot you a letter. I slept so well last night after not sleeping for an entire day and a half, and I am almost oriented time-wise here in Italy! This morning we woke up and went down to the hotel breakfast. I'm not sure what I was expecting (Waffle maker, maybe?), but the course was totally different! There was glass china and silver and all sorts of fancy serving dishes, and the food ranged from these little cream cheese puffs to dark chocolate fountain to fruit cocktail. I didn't eat too much because I still didn't feel very well, but it was quite the fancy spread.

After that we headed out on this big bus to our destination, the Vatican. The whole bus ride I just could not get over the fact that the buildings are SO cool looking. There are people eating outside of restaurants everywhere--exactly like a movie scene. And the streets are absolutely crazy. They are tiny and lots of itty-bitty cars and scooters parked every which way on them. Being a driver here would be nuts. When we finally got to the Vatican I was still amazed by the looks of the building. It was just the coolest mix of old-looking stuff right next to fancy flat screened televisions. We went and saw a super cool art gallery, and our tour guide was fabulous. Normally I don't like stopping and looking at every painting in an art gallery because I get bored, so it was nice that the tour guide just told us some really cool stories about several interesting paintings. After all of the build-up to the Sistine Chapel, I was not as impressed as I should have been. There were a billion people trying to look at it though, so it was hard to concentrate on the different scenes.

After we finished that tour we headed to a gift shop nearby where you could buy things and they would send them to be blessed by the Vatican and then delivered to you as soon as possible. Several people had rotaries blessed and got them back as soon as tonight. There was a wall of shot glasses in the gift shop, but I'm not sure you could get those blessed. Maybe if you call them communion cups?

We grabbed food at this delicious cafe nearby and I got a sandwich with the most delicious bread before heading to the Castle of the Angels with the group. It was this gorgeous castle with the most beautiful views of Rome. You could go up to the top and walk around the whole circle to see the entire city. They also had the prisons of the castle open for visitors to see which is not a usual thing for Rome. Normally the prisons are closed, but they opened them for a short period of time and I got to see them! Let's just say, I'm glad I'm not a prisoner.

After that we headed back to the hotel for a break, but I found out they still cannot find my luggage that was lost, so I had to go see if I could find any clothes to wear for tomorrow. Everything was super expensive though, so I am just going to mooch off of the kind people on the trip with me :)

The last trip of the day was this night tour around Rome. We saw a ton of huge monuments lit up by lights, Christmas lights were on everywhere, and people were out and about. It was gorgeous. We stopped in this square to grab dinner, and this guy basically counted the number of people in our group and told us he got a table for us, so we were like 'umm...okay...I guess we will eat there' and the food ended up being delicious! In Italy they include the tax into the food prices, I guess. So, it makes you feel better when you have to pay because it is never an additional percentage to what it says--convenient. Seems like an idea shops in America should adopt :)

A random story--I went to the bathroom with another girl on the trip and it was incredibly creepy. Restrooms in Italy are odd anyway because apparently they don't like seats, they are co-ed, and sometimes you tip/pay a bathroom attendant to use a restroom. Plus, there are like a million buttons to flush. The first time I used the restroom, I went with another person on the trip and we actually paid two euros (approx. three dollars) to pee. We had no idea why people were throwing money in the basket by the man distributing paper towels, so we WAY overpaid. Anyway, so we went to this incredibly creepy bathroom and it had a single lightbulb that was green and flickering back in this dungeon-like room. Seriously the creepiest thing ever.

At the end of the bus tour we went to see the Vatican at nighttime and we were taking pictures when our guide, Kostas, pointed out that the lights were on in two of the windows. Apparently that means that the Pope is home and that he is in those rooms. So, of course, I yelled 'HI POPE' and waved frantically. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm the coolest Murray State student ever. Also, now I can tell all those Facebook people that said to 'say hi to the pope' that I actually did!

Well, that is the end of the day. Sorry my letters are such a random assortment of business of what I am doing. I wish I had more time to discuss my thoughts. Maybe you can think about a few of them before the next time I write? Here they are: (1) For those who live in Italy, how would it feel to wake up and be surrounded by this much history every day? (2) If my house had fancy designs and columns on it, would that mean I could let it get dirty and it would still look beautiful? I mean, it works on ancient roman buildings... (3) How many people can make it through such an entirely long, detailed and boring post of mine? If you made it through...a woot woot for you!

Ciao (goodbye),

Maddie

P.S. Still working on the picture problem

Too Tired for Words...almost

Alright. I'm exhausted and everything is in Italian on my computer, but I am going to attempt to write you a short 'wrap up the end of the day' note before I get so wrapped up in tomorrow's day. By some sort of miracle we made it to Rome, but on the flight I got pretty dang sick. I'm talking cold, chills, puke-y, ect. Then when we got to Rome we found out that our luggage did not make it! Sad day, right? It should be here by tomorrow night though. GOOD THING I PACKED AN EXTRA OUTFIT IN MY CARRY-ON! Score two for girl scout Maddie.

So, we got here and had to mess with baggage stuff for a few hours before we finally met up with the group that flew in earlier this morning. We missed some cool fountains, but still got to see a lot of Rome. Let me tell you, it is gorgeous. Exactly like what they show in the movies. I still can't get my pictures to load, but you will be amazed!

With being sick and everything, I had to sit down to avoid throwing up. I did a ton of really interesting people watching though which was a blast. Finally by dinner, my medicine and the water kicked in and I started to feel a bit better. The dinner was provided as a part of the trip and it was about four delicious courses--the main one being pizza!

I'd love to tell you more, but I am so so so exhausted from this jet lag I can hardly think.

I love you,

Maddie Moo

Take Off

Hey bro!

I am currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!! After our flight was delayed 2 hours, we finally made it onto the airplane. The delay meant that we made it to the New York airport in just enough time to RUSH to the next flight. It was really funny because we asked for directions to our gate (we were so confused), and this guy gave us the most backwards-upside down directions you could possibly imagine. We had to walk OUTSIDE the airport in the freezing rain around to another entrance. Turns out there was an “airtrain” to take to avoid that. Then we had to go through security again, and since we were late I was completely focused on just getting through as fast as possible. I did, however, appreciate the fact that the security guard thought I was Italian, so he spoke Italian to me! I had no idea what he wanted me to do, but at least he noticed the last name!

So, here I am on the GINORMOUS airplane 2377 miles from our destination. I have watched two movies on the little televisions in the seat, and I am about to take a nap. I found some medicine in the airport, so that is helping me feel better and feel sleepy! A little bit ago they brought us dinner and I got the pasta—definitely hoping that the pasta in actual Italy is a lot better!!! It was absolutely disgusting. I ate like three quarters of a bag of goldfish crackers though, so I am doing fine!

I am getting kind of sleepy, so the nap I’m about to take will hopefully be good. We do have to go an entire day once we get there though, to avoid jetlag! So, that will be tiring. I’m sure I can do it though—Italy is going to be so awesome that it will be worth it. Once we get there we go straight for a tour of the city and dinner. I probably won’t get to load this post until after then. I have absolutely no idea what time it is, or where we are. I think it is around 1 am?? Italy will be seven hours ahead.

For some reason I can’t load my pictures right now, but I will figure it out soon. And then I can show you the boring flight photos!! These abroad blogs aren’t very interesting so far, but I can’t wait to get there to have more things to say to you!!

It’s going to be a long day, and I am SO ready for it.

Peace and blessings,

Maddie