HANNAH!

Sorry it's been so long for a post to come up, I've been pretty busy with school and whatnot. I just finished two finals today and have one each of the next three days. Last week Hannah came on Wednesday and we had a great time. She got in late on Wednesday and we went to the Tea Room for a while and closed it down, it was really great to get to talk to her some more. The next day we had class but for our lunch break we went to the hot sandwich place where I hadn't been in a while. We went to cooking class right after Italian and made meatloaf and ravioli and cream and fruit cake. It was delicious and I was stuffed again. We went out at night to the Galeria by our place because we know the bouncer because we work out with him so we got discount cards there. It was fun and we were out til three. We woke up the next day and we went wine tasting with the group. It was fun we got to tour the castle and then taste a couple wines from there. It was where Chianti Classico was started, which was immortalized in Silence of the Lambs. We went out again that night and then had a picnic the next day in the park. We walked Hannah to her train and her short trip was over. It was great to see her and I'm excited to see everyone when I get back.

Amsterdam

We woke up early with aforementioned feelings of unwellness and made our way to the train station. Oz had told me that the tickets from Brussels to Amsterdam would be about 40 Euro, but we got there and the lady told us 75. I freaked out on her and we got it down to 45 with much pleading and begging. We got to Amsterdam after the three hour voyage and went to find our hostel. Our hostel was in the middle of the Red Light Distrcit, which is actually the safest part of Amsterdam with all the police and security cameras. The hostel was a bit sketchy because we had to lock our things in oil drums to keep it safe, needless to say I kept my things on me the whole time. We walked around in all of the very liberal town that is Amsterdam, we went in a coffee shop and also got the best Chinese I have ever eating, called Wok to Walk. We took in the sights and smells of Amsterdam, we went to the Anne Frank House and then went home to take a nap. We got up and went out for a night on the town. Amsterdam is actually one of the cleaner cities I've been to, no really sketchy people or bums as far as I saw. We went to a bar and met some people from Texas and hung out with them. We woke up the next morning and decided to take the free three hour tour that our hostel offered. It was really good and I learned a ton about Amsterdam, not just the sex and drugs part that everyone thinks of. We returned to Brussels and had a few more beers and some more fries then got on the plane and headed back. This was a really relaxing weekend, filled with fun and food.

Brussels

We flew into Brussels on Saturday morning. We had to get up very early for our flight at like 4 or so and walk the 40 minutes to the train station because the buses don't run in Siena at night. We thought that the girls were going to miss the train, but they made it just in time and we got to the airport and settled in like we always do. We flew into Charleroi, which is 40 minutes south of Brussels so we had to buy the ticket to the central station. We got out into the center Brussels and Oz had given me a ton of stuff to do while we are there. We checked into our hostel, which is the coolest one I have ever stayed at. It had a cool lobby and bar downstairs and our room was really nice and I wasn't worried about people taking my stuff like later in the trip. We left here and went exploring, we saw the really big palace and then got into the middle of town and there was a huge parade going on. I don't remember the name offhand but I will when I get back, but it was just like people who dressed in the same theme and made their floats out of papier mache. There were fish and pirates and skeletons and tall people but mainly pirates. We left here and got down the best part of the trip: Eating. We went and got the famous Brussels fries, covered in sauce, I got Samurai sauce which was pretty hot. Then we got a belgian waffle for dessert, it was unreal. We walked around a bunch and then headed out of town to see the Atomium which housed the 1958 World's Fair. It was cool but it was closed by the time we got there. Apparently it has simulations of many European countries in it. It is hard to describe, just check it out online. Then we went back and started to watch the sunset next to the justice palace, but we were all pretty tired from the day and took a nap. We woke up and decided we didn't want to go out but we wanted to sample the famous Belgian beer that we had heard about earlier when we where checking out the Mannekin Pis, which is the symbol of Belgium. It is a tiny statue of a little boy peeing, and was kind of funny. But we went to a place across the street for our first taste of the beer. I had the Gueze, which is a sour beer. It was really good. Well that night John and I went out and bought a bunch of beer each so we could really test all of the different kinds. Apparently they are much higher alcohol content but you can't taste it, because the next morning did not find us very well.

Last day in Spain

I woke up early because I had to check out but the people let me keep my bags in the hostel because my flight was at like nine PM. This day I hung out with people at the hostel and then went to the science museum. The science museum was the coolest ever and it was just really hands on, I put a bunch of pics up on facebook that would be a lot easier to see than for me to describe I guess. I left here and made my way back to the airport. I made my flight just fine, and got an emergency exit seat. I can never sleep on planes and this ride was no different. I got back to Pisa and met up with some girls from my program randomly. We realized no trains left for Siena until like 5 30 the next morning, so we made a midnight Leaning Tower run. I didn't have a place to stay so I slept in the train station. I tried actually. A crazy lady kept yelling at me so I went away and did the reading that was do in class in like 6 hours. I finally got into Siena at like 7 30 AM and then realized I had class at nine, by the time I made it to the bus stop to take me home, it was 7 45 and the next bus didnt leave until 8 15,s o I just went to AHA and slept in front of the door, since it didnt open until 8 45. I was woken up by my teacher and then went to class. I was fine through this class, but I kept falling asleep in the middle of Italian. I would honestly be talking and then fall asleep, it was bad. I went home and slept from 6 PM until 10 AM the next day. It was a great trip and probably the best time I've had since I got back from Greece.

First Full Day in Spain

This day was a pretty relaxing one during the day. I woke up and made my normal meal of traveling, which is bread and nutella, and orange juice. Mom, I would suggest trying some it is delicious. I finished the meal and made my way on the Metro to the beach. I hung out there for like six hours, and got a little color. I met some German girls who I hung out with for the rest of the afternoon. We had late lunch at a good place where we got sandwiches and drinks. One of them had pretty much perfect english and had studied in the US for a long time. We parted ways and went back to the hostel to hang out for a little bit. I met some girls from Canada as well as people from other parts of Spain. I translated for them for a while then went out to eat. I finally had real meal of Spain. I had Chicken Paella, which was delicious and Horchata, which was ok. Horchata isa milk with sinnamon in it. Paella is a rice dish. I walked around the old city a little while longer, then made it back to the hostel. Where we had a few drinks then went out for Tapas. Tapas are like hors d'oeurves. Just small things that you eat before you go out. We got to the bar at like midnight, which is customary here. It was really fun. The bar had all types of flags up on the ceiling but we did not see a Canadian flag, so the girls drew one and the bartender hung it up. I met some really cool Spanish people and talked to them about what disco we should go to. We went to the dance club at about three and then stayed til five, which is pretty normal for students. It was really fun and I went home and crashed.

First Night in Valencia

I got into Valencia, after sitting next to a very nice Italian women and talking for a while in Italian on the plane. I found my hostel after a bit of trouble, I was pretty rusty with my spanish so I had a hard time thinking of the words to say at first to find directions. I found it and it was the coolest hostel I have been in. It was run by Australians and British like many of the ones that I have been to. This one was very clean and had tons of services that can be used for free, except the internet, but that was very cheap. It had five floors and the top one was a lounge with pool and foosball and books and TV and an outdoor porch to hang out on. There was a huge kitchen with some free food and lots of tables to hang out on. My room had almost all Italians in it, and I talked to them in Italian as much as I could, but it usually goes to English after I have exhausted my vocabulary, but they are more than welcome to help me out. For the whole weekend I spoke Spanish, unless I met people in the hostel who spoke English and not Spanish. After checking out the hostel, I went to the old district of town where all of the old moorish and arabic buildings were. This type of architecture is typified by its geometrical designs, which are really intricate. I went in cool church with a nice altarpiece and roof from the 15 century. It looks a lot different than Italian art, a lot more advanced and realistic for the same time period. Also, in the church was a relic. It was someones arm from the 14th century, it looked really old and wrinkled. After this I just wandered down to the river area which is really developed and has tons of public paths. It has a fountain just like the Ballagio in Las Veags, where the water fountains are synced with music. It also has a really cool children's park with lots of hands on activities and learning stations with mini golf and life size chess and a big play station. After this is a series of waterfalls and cool landscaping that leads to the City of Arts and Sciences. The first one is the Museum of Art, which looks very futuristic and looks like a killer whale to me. The next building is the Hemisferic, which is a hemisphere of dome of glass and underneath is a dome of plastic or metal where they house meetings and conferences. Next to this is the science museum, where they have the coolest science museum I have ever been in, but I will explain that later. Next to this is a really cool Aquarium that is really futuristic looking to, you should check it out on line if you can. They are building more stuff next to it that looks pretty cool. After walking down this big strip I decided to walk back. It started to downpour so I jumped from awning to awning making my way back in the rain. I got online when I got back and wen tot bed early because I was tired.

First Day in Valencia

So I woke up Friday morning and I still had to buy my train ticket to get to Pisa and pack, I managed to both in quick time and then made the train that was just leaving to Empoli, the changing point. I met some really cool people on the train from Michigan and talked to them for a while. They were going to Pisa Centrale and I was going to Pisa Airport. I assumed that since they were so close that they would be on the same train so I mindlessly followed them on the train, bad idea. After their stop I rode the train for a half hour and then had to get on the train going the other way to get back to Pisa Centrale. I got out and caught the bus taht was just leaving to the airport and then sprinted into the checkin area where I caught the person before it closed. Due to the Ryan air policy of free seating I still got an emergency exit row. Nice, More to come later.