Do as the Romans do...then jet to Barcelona!

Sorry for the massive delay in blogging, the past 9 days since getting back from my week long excursion has been a bit tiring! 

Rome, Italy:

2 Tuesdays ago the entire Santa Charia study center backed up their belongings for a 3 days trip in Rome, but I along with 7 other friends packed enough for 3 days in Rome and 3 days in Barcelona, Spain...did I mention this all had to weight no more than 10 kg (around 22 lbs) and fit in a conveniently small bag- thank you RyanAir and your ridiculous baggage restrictions. But we were all able to do it, and we were on the 8 a.m. train to Rome!

Let me start off by saying, I knew everything Rome had to offer, but I was so excited by the fact I was going to go to Spain, I kind of discounted Rome...until I got there...so far, this is the best city in Italy, and I cannot wait to go back in a month with my amazing mom and aunt (yes! they booked tickets! I'm beyond excited!)...but back to Rome. We arrived around 11 in the morning and had till 2 to settle in to our hotel, find food, and get the essential bus/metro/museum passes we needed. Let me start off with the hotel room- smelled like tequila- yummm (but not). It was clearly an old hotel...so everything just looked old, but it had wifi in the room and an EXTREMELY hot shower (which is a rare commodity in Santa Chiara) so other than the rock hard beds it was pretty decent, especially because the location was so good. We were also close to Piazza Nouva, which had a lot street performers and artists scattered throughout the Piazza. 

Piazza Nouva

Statue under the obelisk at Piazza Nouva

Original Caravaggio painting

Before our tour at 2 we grabbed lunch at this small cafe tucked down an alley way, but Chloe had found it in Rick Steve's one of the best places to eat under 10 euro...and it was! Salami, fresh mozzarella, arugula and olive salad on a pizza sandwich...I was in heaven! We quickly made our way back to the hotel to start our first tour, where we saw a lot in not a lot of time. Our tour guides name was Carol Anne, and to call her annoying is an understatement...she talked to us like 3 year olds, so for the majority of the tour that day we all had our headsets turned off, haha. Our first stop on the list of things to see was Campo di Fiori, which contained a lot of open air carts to purchase clothes, food, sunglasses, kitchenware- you name it, they had it! We kind of just wandered in and out, saw some of the Italian government buildings on our way to...THE PANTHEON! I was really excited to see the pantheon because it is the oldest standing dome, not to mention the fact that it is all still original; most ruins have been rebuilt somewhat, but not the Pantheon! It was truly an experience to walk in there, and just see the vast expanse this dome spans, and see no columns, and then to think that it was built in ancient Roman times- this was my favorite Roman structure that we saw in our 3 days time.

THE PANTHEON! SO COOL!

Oculus and coffering of the pantheon.

Bad fake dome in a Church in Rome. (yes this is a painting b/c they ran out of money!)

From there we continued on to the Trevi fountain which was crowded like no other, yet we all proceeded to take super touristy shots throwing coins in the fountain (1 is for a speedy return to Rome, 2 is to find love in Rome...don't worry Cody, I only threw 1!). Our tour continued to take us to the Spanish steps which were crowded as well, but really cool to see...like I said before, a lot of the stuff I knew was in Rome I had studied, but didn't realize how cool or beautiful it was...the Spanish steps falls under that category.


Our tour concluded at the steps, which is also in the fashion district of Rome (near Valentino's house) so of course we did some wandering and window shopping to find dinner. After dinner we ventured out to try and find a Carnavale party since it was Fat Tuesday, which was a huge failure...but we did go back to visit the Trevi fountain at night as well as the Spanish steps, which I highly recommend 1) its less crowded and 2) the lighting is so much cooler for both sites.

Trevi Fountain!

Spanish Steps

 Wednesday morning we had an early tour with a new tour guide, Rich, who was much more entertaining, but  also a bit of creep (he would turn his microphone off to have conversations with girls...and he told me and Clara "I bet you two could take down some gladiators"- in reference to the Colosseum). But the first stop on our tour with Rich was to this small park of temple ruins near our hotel, that is now being turned into a cat sanctuary...I don't know what it is with Romans and cats, but they love them...and they are everywhere! We made our way to the Roman Forum and Colosseum from there, but on the way we passed though the Jewish ghetto in Rome (I swear Rich knew I was Jewish b/c he kept making eye contact with me the whole time!) When I go back to Rome I would kind of like to go into the synagogue there...the exterior was at least prettier than the one I saw in Siena.

Roman temple ruins

Arch of Augustus

Synagogue in Rome

 We finally made it to the Roman Forum after passing the gate of Augustus, and it was pretty awesome- just to see all these huge remnants of the temples and homes still standing...and that they are so old! I just felt really small walking through all of these partial structures that are still pretty massive. After exiting the Roman Forum we passed by the Forum of Trajan, but didn't get to go in, so I don't have any good pictures of the Trajan column, but hopefully when I go back in April we can squeeze that in. 

View of Roman Forum 

Roman Forum

more Roman Forum

Temple of  Romulus- founder of Rome

 Next is what you have all been waiting for...the Colosseum. The sad part- I wasn't totally impressed. Over 50% of the structure standing now is modern architecture b/c if it had not been rebuilt it would have collapsed. I guess it's cool to see the part that is still standing, but most of it isn't even original. Don't get me wrong, the architectural design of it is amazing- this place could hold up to 50,000 people and be emptied in a matter of minutes, as well as the fact that the first 2 levels could be flooded to re-enact naval battles. 

Colosseum!

Pretty cool

Interior of Colosseum

After the Colosseum we were free to go see what we wanted, so I went with a few other friends to see the Ara Pacis by Richard Meier, the Renzo Piano music park and the Zaha Hadid Maxxi Museum. First we walked to the Ara Pacis which contains the altar of peace commissioned by Augustus, but the building is completely modern (and glass) and my first Richard Meier building to see in person- so beautiful! To get to the other two  we took the metro to Piazza del Popollo, which apparently is where the Carnavale celebration was because we saw them taking it down. We then hopped on to a trolley that took us to the area where the 2 other buildings were. Even though we weren't able to go in to either of the buildings due to time, it was cool to go from seeing some of the oldest structures in the city to seeing some of the most modern architecture to date. The Maxxi Museum even had an outdoor exhibit we got to walk through that was a completely recycled house built on premises that school children helped build- pretty cool! 

We ended our evening with a 10 euro all you can eat pasta bar, which everyone got their money's worth out of, which was good because later that night we went to a bar near our hotel that had a 10 euro special for 1 hour. 

Piazza del Popollo

Richard Meier Building

Ara Pacis inside the Richard Meier building

Renzo Piano music park

here you can see how big the park is

Zaha Hadid's MAXXI Museum

Entrance

Cool installation- in the wind it sounded like the ocean

Interior of MAXXI Museum

 The next day we didn't have a tour till after lunch, so we went to the open air market to get some dried fruits and nuts for our day trip and get some more delicious paninis. At 1:00 we made our way over to the Vatican. The two highlights of that tour (it was a long one- 4 hours) was definitely St. Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. St. Peters was just so massive, and ornate, and especially after working in my stone carving class, I REALLY appreciate all the hand carved sculptures and detailing. The Sistine Chapel was awesome, well...because...it was the freaking Sistine Chapel! I snuck some pictures in there (totally not allowed) so you can thank me for that! We made it an early night since we had to be up at 5:30 to catch a plane to Barcelona!!!!

Oh, hello Vatican!

Interior of Saint Peters Basilica

One of the Pietas- not the original :(

Laocoon statue

School of Athens original!!!

Sistine Chapel...ssshhhh!

 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain:
Since we were already in Rome near the airport, we figured we would take advantage of this and...well...go to Barcelona to see all the Gaudi-esque architecture, see our fellow A&Mers in Barcelona, and celebrate Clara's 21st birthday! 


First off, you must know, and I am not quite sure why, but Barcelonians (?) have a lisp...so Barcelona, becomes "Baarrthhheelllonnaaa". So that took us about half a day to get over, especially when we got to our hostel greeted with "Welcome to Barrthheelloonna and Hothel Kabul". After getting lost, and walking every which way AROUND our hostel, we finally found it, checked in, and grabbed lunch on La Rambla, the main street leading to the beach in Barcelona. We kind of suckered in for lunch, because we were obvious tourists, but we had the native cuisine, and now I've had Paella! After finishing lunch we gathered our cameras, maps, and headed over to the Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. This was my 1 must see, because this was the first model I ever built in high school for my drafting class. So I was super stoked to actually go see, touch, and walk around the Pavilion. When we got there I was just kind of put at ease. I love his style, and the "clean" feeling you get being inside his work, as well as all the reflectivity present in this pavilion (that's the whole point of the pavilion- reflections). After spending about an hour taking pictures and walking around, we wandered over to another sculpture garden we wanted to see, and then headed towards the beach for a beautiful sunset. We stopped at a supermercat on the way back to the hostel to grab snacks in case the dinner they served us ran out, and we stocked up on pb&j, bread and oreos...oh how we miss good ole fashioned pb&j. After dinner we contacted and met the A&M Barcelona kids at their dorm, and just hung out and discussed the festivities for the following night...Clara & 1 other girls birthday!

Kabul Hostel in Barcelona!

View from the Hostel

Barcelona Pavilion

Front doors

I love this building!

We couldn't sit in the Barcelona chair, so this was as close as I could get!

Statue in the Pavilion reflection pond

Coast of Barcelona!

 Saturday was an early morning filled with Antonio Gaudi. In 1 day we were able to see the inside of Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, the outside of Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. I could go on for hours about how amazing all his architecture is, but the pictures are beautiful. I have way more than I was able to post. Sagrada Familia- it is quite deceiving because on the outside it is completely grotesque, and the interior is so beautiful, light and airy, and it is NOTHING like what the exterior appears to be. We were in there for at least an hour just walking around- beautiful. The church won't be finished till around 2020- it will be incredible to see the final work. Next we metro-ed over to Parc Guell, a park designed by Gaudi. Before we entered we stopped to get bread, salami and brie, and we picnic-ed in Parc Guell- probably one of the coolest things I've done. From the top of the mountain we could see Sagrada Familia as well as the coast, and a whole lot of the city. We wandered around the park for a solid 3 hours, then made our way slowly back home stopping outside of Casa Mila and Casa Batllo. All of the architecture within Parc Guell, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo look like something out of a story book, and each time we stopped at one of the buildings I just said "I can't believe I'm standing outside of the _____ right now!" On the way back to the hostel my friend Alli and I stopped for some hot waffles covered in chocolate sauce and catalonian creme- yum!

Sagrada Familia

what it should look like when it's done

Even more beautiful in person.

so cool inside!

Ceiling of the Sagrada Familia

View from top of Parc Guell

Me in front of the guard house at Parc Guell

Parc Guell

Casa Mila!

Casa Mila

Casa Batllo

Catalonian Waffle!

Dinner that night was Clara's choice...McDonalds! Haha. I went down the street to grab a panini, and after dinner the birthday festivities began! The kids that stay in Barcelona had a cake to celebrate the birthdays, and from there we went to a famous shot bar, Chupitos. They have over 200 different shots, some flaming and some not. Clara took a shot for her birthday and then we were off to another famous bar, the Black Sheep. Chloe was serenaded by a random guy, and then we were off to the club...
RAZZMATAZZ!
I cannot even begin to express how much I am in love with this club...it holds up to 4,000 people, has 7 different dance floors, and the best part...techno, house and indie music! It was heaven! Especially since on the main dance floor the DJ was playing some of my favorite bands- Two Door Cinema Club, Phoenix, Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie. When everyone goes country dancing in College Station I dream of clubs like this! We stayed there for about and hour or so- we had to peel ourselves off the dance floor it was so much fun, but we had to be out of the hostel by 11 the next morning.

Happy 21st Clara!

At the club...love!

Alli, Katelyn, Clara, Chloe and I at Razz

this is 1 corner...of the main dance floor...there are 7 dance floors...CRAZY!

Roomie & Pisces Love! Happy 21st Birthday Clara!

We spent all day Sunday on metros to the airport, flying, busing, and finally a train back home to the lovely quiet town of Castiglion Fiorentino...and the best part- NO ONE GOT PICK POCKETED IN SPAIN! WHOOP!






I stole some of Clara's photos off of her camera, so here they are:

"Embody the statue"- Barcelona Pavilion, Spain

It's all about reflectivity- Clara, Me, Chloe- Barcelona Pavilion, Spain

In the Viaducts at Parc Guell- Barcelona

Chloe, Alli, Clara, Me & Katelyn in front of Casa Mila, Barcelona, Spain

Wishing in the Trevi Fountain!- Rome, Italy

Clara, Katelyn, Erik, Me, Robert, Alli, Chloe on the Spanish steps- Rome, Italy

Trevi Fountain at night- SO PRETTY!

LOOK DAD! Italy is Kosher!

Outside the Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum!

Thank you to everyone who read this blog in its entirety...I know it was a long one, but it was a FULL 6 days! Expect another long one in a few weeks after Venice, Paris, Dublin and London- all in 13 days!


Ciao!