London & Life Lessons

I distinctly remember the day we moved into our apartments. After I had everything settled and unpacked, I sat down on my bed and looked at the week-by-week calendar they gave us. That was probably the moment it really hit me that I was going to be over here for an extended period of time, it seemed like an overwhelming amount of weeks and it made me pretty nervous. Now I sit here, more than half way through March and I just can't understand where all those weeks went.

London
We took off from Verona fairly early on the 10th and arrived to our AirBnB around one. We finally made it to a country where we could communicate in the native language and we still had a hard time finding where to go and reading signs. I remember the man taking people's bags for the bus asking me a question and I immediately thought to myself "oh shit I don't know how to communicate what I want with this guy." But hahaha joke's on me because it was finally English!!

Our AirBnB was really close to the River Thames and just about a 10 minute walk to Big Ben so we immediately took off to explore there, not without almost being killed by about 5 cars (you have to look right, not left!!). Big Ben was stunning and a lot more elaborate than I realized. I was also surprised to find it was a lot less crowded in this area than I was expecting, I suppose it is March though. We continued to wander the city-never stopping to say "aww" at every red phone booth and double-decker bus and especially when any British person spoke. Magic, I tell ya.

We were famished so I pleaded to Madison and Elizabeth that we stop for fish and chips so we went off a little side road and found an authentic English pub bustling with English men drinking beer. I don't know where to begin with the meal here. Fish and chips are one of my favorite meals already but it was just so comforting to be served this hefty slab of golden crispy fish on a bed of fries, served with a side of hunks of bread with even bigger hunks of better.

I was truly made to eat this meal.

We must have looked a little confused when we walked in because a 50-something man came up to us and instructed us to find a table and then go up to the bar to order. I think he was a few beers in because he then came and sat with us when we were finished eating. This man was probably my favorite character in London. He asked us about the food and made sure to tell us that we "shouldn't care what anyone thinks, eat whatever you want!" He told us that we shouldn't listen to doctors (sorry, Mac) because butter was definitely good for you. He told us about how he had grown up in London and worked moving books into important places. "If you look behind King Charles III's scrolls, you will find 'Rob was here.'" I was just about snorting beer out of my nose because this man was so funny. But as much as we laughed at his stories, Rob did say something that stuck with me. He told us to never let anyone or anything scare us but he told us this like he had full confidence in us. I know it's silly but it was kind of empowering. Rob was awesome.

We then went on to scope out Buckingham Palace where we had a few failed attempts getting the queen's attention and making the guards laugh. We made our way up the stunning walkway to Admiralty Arch and entered into Trafalgar Square. We continued on to the Piccadilly Circus area which is so stinking cool. I've never been to New York but it feels like a cooler, more laid-back, British version of an area there. It was fairly crowded and there were lights and screens everywhere, displaying whatever show was being performed there that night. There were street performers and tourist shops. I just really loved this place.

We ended up finding fairly cheap tickets and told the man we didn't really care that much what show we were seeing. We were given tickets to Jersey Boys in the Piccadilly Theater and I am changed for life. I'd heard of the show before obviously, but had never really known what it was about. I'm 100% positive I did not stop smiling that whole time, I was close to jumping out of my seat. It was wonderful and now I've been on a Frankie Valli kick. Dope side note, they had a free service that allowed you to order drinks right to your seat-house rosé it is.

Pretty tired after all of our accomplishments, we enjoyed a moonlight stroll back to our place along Big Ben and the river.

The next day we were on a mission to find a place to put our bags for the day which required some effort and muscle. Along the way we stopped at this adorable, all organic place right along the river and underneath the London Eye. I am a tea fiend and I just wouldn't have forgiven myself if I didn't indulge when I was there.

All organic robust tea with this amazing scone, whipped cream and jam.

We finally came to a train station that agreed to hold our bags until midnight and made the smart move to purchase an "Oyster Card" which was only five pounds and allowed us to ride any of the buses all day-highly suggest this investment if you're going to London. Especially if you're like me and riding on the top level of the bus is an activity in and of itself. 

We took the bus (and screamed in delight the whole way) to St. Paul's Cathedral which was massive and beautiful, and strolled along Millennium Bridge. We really needed to find a bathroom and weren't feeling like paying so Madison taught me this cool new trick where you stroll right into a hotel, pretend to be on your phone and say something like "yeah, I'm in the lobby," and then find the bathroom. Travel hacks!!!!

We continued on our way to the London Bridge which was actually very beautiful and then hopped on another bus to the British Museum. The museum itself was very cool with interesting architecture-all white and spiraling. We took another bus (we really really loved the bus) to King's Cross but skipped out on the Harry Potter stuff because it was crazy crowded.

We went back to Piccadilly Circus (you can guess how we got there) and met up with Elizabeth's friend from school who is studying in Dublin and visiting London for the weekend. It's so wild to meet up with people like that across the ocean. It truly makes you realize just how small of a world it is. 

From there we went to the Ice Bar which was hard to find but SO COOL. It was tucked away in this little side-street alley-ish area that was definitely the cool place to be. They threw a cloak and gloves on us and sent us into a room made completely out of ice. We drank cocktails out of an ice cube and licked the ice sculptures (definitely not supposed to do this but yolo).

My mom really hates this next part but if you've traveled a lot, you've definitely had an experience like this so I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it. We made our way to the train station to pick up our bags and then spent an hour trying to find the stop the airport shuttle was picking us up at. We arrived at the airport around 1:30 AM for a flight that was at 6:30 AM. We found a nice spot on the ground by the men's bathroom (only open place available) and set up camp to be homeless for the night. Even now I can't stop laughing about this situation, I've never felt like more of a peasant. I really didn't sleep hardly at all because of the people stopping and staring at us. To top it all off, we were woken up by an airport employee knocking on the wall by us and saying "you must get up now, we're open for business!" Ahhh, memories. We were able to check in around 4, grabbed some Starbucks (!!!) and boarded around 6:15. When it was all said and done, we got back to the apartment around 11. I slept from 11:30 AM-7 PM and was worried I wouldn't sleep that night but I was so tired I still got another 8 hours of sleep!

Verona

I've heard a lot of inquiries about whether or not I'm actually attending school here and the answer is indeed yes! I actually had two midterms last week so don't worry about my academics! I will say it is pretty difficult to concentrate on International Marketing when you live in Italy and are planning trips to different countries every weekend but my grades are just fine;)

I dedicated a lot of writing to London because I really truly loved it so much. I've never left a place and had a feeling of unfinished business there. I felt so at home which is cheesy and overdone but there was just something so special about that city. I will go back there without a doubt in my mind, maybe for an extended period of time.

My friends went to Paris this weekend but I opted out because I will be going there the 29th-1st so this weekend I had quite a bit of alone time. If there is something that study abroad has taught me that I know for sure I will use the rest of my life, it is how to be okay with being alone. Get out of bed, get ready for the day and get out there on your own. It's scary to walk into a random cafe here sometimes where the old men stare at you and you struggle with your Italian but it has to teach you how to appreciate yourself. I can't describe it. I've really grown to enjoy my alone time and doing things just for me, all alone. I've been thinking a lot about something a dance choreographer told me one time, "you're gonna have to start learning to like yourself because you're the only person you're going to have for the rest of your life."

I also just want to take a second to say that if you're thinking about studying abroad, please do it. I get emotional when I think about it (whoa no way, me emotional?) but it really has changed so much for me. I've learned so much about myself. I've changed the way I think about the world and about other people. The old me saw all the weeks in that packet as so frightening, away from home and completely on my own but who I've become craves even more of that. Not that I don't miss home and all the people there (PS I REALLY MISS YOU GUYS) but I've realized just how important and life changing it is to challenge yourself to experience something completely out of your element. I love every minute here. How good is this dang life.

5 Cities in 3 Days

It's 12 PM (or as they say here, 24:00) and I find myself packing my absolutely huge backpack in preparation for another weekend in another country. I really don't know how I'm going to go back to normal life after doing this every weekend here...

Last Friday my study abroad group had the option to go on a weekend trip planned by our directors. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to stay in a hotel instead of a hostel and also go on a weekend trip which was completely planned by someone else and required no responsibility on my end, I decided to go and my friends chose to attend as well.

First stop, Trento
Okay so you might remember that I have already been to this city, completely by accident. For this reason, it wasn't of great significance to my friends and I though I came to appreciate our accidental trip because our group never went up the mountain or the gondola. We did have a new adventure, however, when we explored Buonconsiglio Castle.

View of the city from Buonconsiglio Castle.

Beautiful gardens, great view and lovely frescos. Castles are pretty hard to go wrong with. We also had free-time for lunch and my friends and we chose to grab pizza (one for each of us, of course) and wine in the city center where the sun was out and we could people watch. I've noticed a lot of people commenting on how good the food looks so I'm going to be sure to include tidbits about what I'm eating because I have honest to god not had a bad meal since I've been here. This meal was margherita pizza (what we would refer to as "cheese pizza") and house white wine.

Pizzas are typically eaten as a personal dish. I like to cut mine in fourths so when I say I ate four pieces, it sounds a bit more reasonable.

Next, Merano
I had never heard of Merano in my life and it is absolutely such an underrated city in Italy. If you like mountains and beauty and thermal spas and shopping and anything good then you'd probably really enjoy Moreno. It is stunning. It is completely surrounded by mountains which makes the climate mild and really lovely. It is famous for its health spa resort and really diverse vegetation (palm trees included). It was slightly misty when we arrived which gave this beautiful thick fog over the mountains. My friends and I decided that we would try out the spa. I think we're beginning to think we're the type of people that go to spas now...we aren't. It wasn't anything spectacular but dang I will take sitting in a warm pool-like bath outside if I'm surrounded by mountains. Over 50% of the population is actually German-speaking here and you can tell its proximity to Austria by the buildings and some of the typical dishes (we were all given a pretzel which was so delicious I didn't catch a picture of it). It's a fairly quiet town but seems like a wonderful place to get away from life and take in some ridiculous views.

Bolzano

I have to actually hit two days when I talk about Bolzano because this was where we stayed. We arrived here on Friday night and spent Saturday in Innsbruck but returned here and spent part of Sunday here as well. Our program directors explained to us that Bolzano is so close to Austria that to them it feels like they are in a foreign country. Most of the citizens here are actually allegiant to Austria and this is also very apparent in architecture and gastronomy. Our hotel was directly in the city center and was quite nice. We pretty much immediately went to the restaurant at the hotel because we were ready for food. I was absolutely not disappointed. After realizing "fries" were not on the menu I decided to just wing it and order something I could only make out as "mussel soup" with white wine. The "soup" came out looking more like I just ordered a bowl of mussels which was exactly what I was hoping for. The very small amount of tomato soup in the bowl gave the mussels a completely different taste than I have ever had, it was to die for.

We went back to our rooms to settle and then headed back out to a very cool wine bar with a cave-like atmosphere where my glass of proseco was only three euros. That's all I ask for.

After our trip to Innsbruck, we decided to hit up the free spa in our hotel on Saturday night. Though it was basically a hot tub, two saunas and a steam room, it was actually quite pleasant and relaxing due to the atmosphere and the fact that they provided slippers. We sipped on herbal tea and released all of our toxins and stress (we were very stressed considering it had been about 27 hours since our last visit to the spa).

The next morning we met in our hotel lobby to walk over to the gondola taking us up the mountain.  The ride was very misleading because just as we reached the top of the mountain in sight, we continued back and deeper into the stinking range but it was so cool! I never realized how into mountains I am until coming over here. These were very green, covered in tons of vineyards and spotted with adorable cottages. We finally reached the top and were given free time in the very small village there. Maddie, Mary Beth, Andrew and I found a hotel/restaurant with a panoramic view of the mountains and enjoyed one of the best spritz I've had since being in Italy.

Spritz Aperol is an extremely popular aperitif enjoyed at basically any time of day. It's made with Aperol (no one really knows what the heck this is), sparkling wine and club soda.

Innsbruck, Austria
First off, I could not sleep a wink the entire bus ride from Bolzano to Austria. Another huge benefit of going on this optional trip was that we took a charter bus together which sounds like a pain and a long drive but there was not one second of the drive that was not absolutely stunning.

We hopped off the bus and I'm not kidding you this was our immediate view:

It's a pretty small town actually so it is easy to hit in one day. It really seems straight out of a story book with very colorful buildings and snowcapped mountains peeking over them everywhere. Even in the center of the city you can see the snowcaps in the distance, it is lovely. It reminded me quite a bit of what I would imagine Germany to look like once you are deeper in the city. We walked around a bit and saw stores with lederhosen, beer and pretzels. We went to one of the biggest (the biggest?) Swarovski Crystal stores in the world which was beautiful. We grabbed lunch at this cute little place that's exactly how you would picture an Austrian restaurant to look. I originally ordered trout but the waitress informed me it was served cold which freaked me out so I ordered wiener schnitzel on a whim. If you know me, this is completely out of character. Meat that is not chicken honestly freaks me out and to be honest, I thought that veal was deer.

Wiener schnitzel with parsley potatoes and a lager, of course.

I was very pleasantly surprised. It was delicious! I tried to not ever look at what was inside the fried part and that seemed to help me a lot. I even tried it with the jam which was a great sweet/savory taste. We decided that since we were only in Austria for a few hours we would ball out so we got two desserts which were to die for.

Apple strudel. Dang. I wanted to take this home with me in my purse.

Sachertorte is the most well-known Austrian dessert. A dense chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle.

North Lake Garda

After our morning gondola ride in Bolzano, we hopped on the bus and began our journey home on Sunday. We cut our time slightly short in Bolzano since we had spent so much time there already and with the extra hour and a half or so, decided to make a stop at the northern part of Lake Garda. The southern part of the lake is technically in Verona but the north is known for being absolutely beautiful with high mountains-people think of it as the Lake Como of Northern Italy.

It truly is the unexpected moments that always end up being the best. I was completely speechless when we saw the lake. Similar to our time in Merano, it was almost rainy but not quite which cast this immaculate mist over the high mountaintops completely surrounded the dark but calm lake. I was terribly overwhelmed. We spent a very short amount of time there but I could have easily spent all day just sitting and looking over the water. Palm trees, mountains, fog and sailboats. I cannot say enough about how much I loved this place.

We returned home extremely exhausted that day. We hit five cities in less than 72 hours. I only cried a few times. This life is too good to me.

I should probably have gone to bed a few hours ago considering I have an early flight tomorrow but I've learned to live on the edge. Next stop, London!

Views

Okay what in the heck people I need someone to explain to me how we got to March because I swear I've only been here for about two weeks. At this rate I really need to get better about writing blogs more frequently because time is flying and I now have to write about three different places to catch you all up!

Mantova, Italy
We took a day-trip to Mantova (Mantua) on February 17th with our program group. To be honest, I had never heard of the town so I was simply along for the ride and had no expectations. Mantova is actually said to be the best place to live in Italy and the Capital of Italian Culture. It was definitely a well-preserved secret with basically no tourists (besides, of course, our group of 15 following our program director like little ducklings). We saw Piazza Sordello, Casa del Mantegna and Palazza Te. I can't sit here and pretend like I know much about art history but the frescos in Palazza Te were unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. Our director kept talking about the frescos we would see and I kind of brushed it off as just more art in an old palace but real frescos are so stunning. They are detailed and romantic and they were painted all over the rooms-some completely covered from ceiling to floor in the most beautiful elaborate style. It was actually very overwhelming to me.

Like any good historical architecture, the castle housing these frescos was built for the duke's mistress.

Mantua is also known for their dishes with zucca (pumpkin). However, I am not just talking about pumpkin pie or pumpkin bars here, they eat tortellini or ravioli with pumpkin in them. I figured I might as well give this a go and ordered tortello con zucca. It was quite delicious but I will say that I felt a little strange eating something so sweet as a meal and not just dessert.

Trento
Now here comes a funny story. Maddie, Madison, Elizabeth, Andrew and I spent the day after Mantua exploring Verona and we climbed up a mountain to this sanctuary which had an incredible view and was so peaceful and it was just a really awesome day. We were feeling great and adventurous and decided we'd buy tickets to explore a new city the next day. We decided Turin would be great because it is one of the biggest cities in Italy and famous for lots of things. The next morning we met in the lobby where Andrew decided to announce to us that we had accidentally bought tickets to TRENTO not TURIN. We had absolutely no idea what Trento was.

The train ride to Trento alone was worth the money we spent on the tickets. It kept getting even better when we arrived to this beautiful town at the foot of the Dolomites. We climbed up another mountain (yes that is two in two days-if you know me, you know I was not wearing the proper shoes for this) and got the most incredible view.

On our way down we stopped at an adorable hole in the wall authentic place for lunch. There was this incredible homemade bread, fresh mozzarella on juicy tomatoes and this mushroom pasta that was to die for. We got to practice our Italian and dine like the locals. We took a gondola back up the mountain and adventured around for a bit, stumbling upon a small village on the other side with absolutely no one in it-the type of place where a little old lady peeked at us through her curtains because there weren't usually people out and about.

It was here that I started to get a little overwhelmed and frustrated. The five of us sat looking out over the mountains and I had some ambience music going on (of course) and it just hit me how sad I was that I can't give any of these experiences to the people I love. I can write them down as detailed as possible and take as many pictures as I want but I can never give any of you the feeling of the wind in your hair when you're up that high. Or let you feel how easy the air was to breathe even though the overwhelming view was suffocating you. You can't hear how well the beat of the soft music went with the sound of the birds. And you for sure can't know what it's like to feel all of these things at once. This makes me very sad. I'm going to keep trying my best to describe some of these for you because this life I've been living is simply too good not to share as best as I can.

Unfortunately, on the way home we hopped on the wrong train (it was the rich people train, we knew we didn't belong) and then the wrong bus. Long story short, we had to take a taxi back into the city from about 20 miles away. But we made it!

Zürich, Switzerland
Wow. I do not even know where to start with Switzerland. At this point in my travels, I would probably call it my favorite place I have been. We took a bus to Milan and then from there a bus to Zürich for a total travel time of about 6 hours including a short layover which was not bad at all.

We got to Switzerland around 9 PM but even in the dark it was clear to see that this place was incredible. It was so stinking clean and luxurious and everyone was so nice and helpful and I swear we hit every crosswalk light. We walked along this beautiful, peaceful river to our AirBnB which ended up being very hip, cozy and quaint. This was possibly the first time we traveled without any hiccups at all...we knew right away that Switzerland was full of all the good things in the world. We we very hungry but didn't get settled and adjusted until around 10:30 so most places were closed except Burger King which we gave into. We quickly realized that Switzerland's notoriety for being expensive was indeed true and that this would be where we would be eating the rest of the weekend (my chicken strips meal alone was 14 swiss francs...).

In the morning, the beauty of this city was confirmed right away. This stunning river runs right through the center of the city and if you cross it and walk a bit, you will reach this UNBELIEVABLE calm, crystal clear lake with the Alps in the background...it was almost too much for my eyes.

I really don't even know how to explain the views of this city. It was so fresh and clear it was absolutely surreal, there were even a great number of beautiful white swans just swimming around. Not to mention the city itself. Surrounding the lake is what's known as Old Town. I am positive that this is where all storybook fairytales were inspired because that is how it felt around every corner.

We climbed up a church tower for a stunning view of the entire city and hopped on a boat for even better views of the incredible houses along the lake and a wonderful view of the Alps from the water. At night we enjoyed our only non-BK meal which was fondue. I learned that I do not like fondue. Before heading home, we stopped at this eccentric and quirky bar called Ole Ole where we played some hits on the juke box. I was very broke at this point.

I cannot say enough about the beauty of this place as well as how clean and fresh everything was. Everyone was so kind and helpful to us. This place is what dreams are made of, it was heaven on Earth. If you get the chance in your life, visit Switzerland. Make sure to save up your money before so you don't have to rely on Burger King.

Next Up

My Italian class officially ended on Tuesday so the trip to Zürich was the first weekend of a 6-weekend streak of traveling. On Friday we head out for a 3-day trip hitting three cities in Italy as well as Innsbruck, Austria. It's cheesy and said so often but it really is amazing me how much I'm growing being here. I think about when things have gone terribly wrong-missing a train, getting on the wrong bus, etc and I know that the version of myself I was in December would have cried, gotten so upset that things didn't go as planned, probably even called my parents to help me. Here I simply have to deal with it, accept that things don't always go smoothly, and figure out how to fix it. I'm really proud of myself honestly. Here's to continuing to grow.