Pisa and Florence

My group and I spent our last weekend in Italy in Florence! We spent two nights there and stopped in Pisa on our way. I unfortunately caught some kind of flu that spread to my eyes so I had bad eyesight for most of the trip. My pictures look a little funny too because I couldn't see the screen haha. The first day we took a train to Pisa to have lunch and see the tower. Here are some pictures of us!


This almost worked haha


I thought these nuns were cute taking pictures of each other


After our stop we left for Florence. Our train broke down a few times on the way there, but we still go in at a decent time. We had dinner and went out at night. The next day we spent sightseeing, but I ended up shopping instead because I couldn't see. At night we tried a lot of the local food, including paninis, pasta, and gelato. We just spent the night meeting some of the other tourists and walking around the city. Here's a few pictures:


It was a windy haha

View of Florence from the top of Michelangelo's plaza

The group sitting by the river

Tonight is my last night in Italy :( I'm actually packing right now to leave for Dublin tomorrow and then Chicago and back home on Saturday. I'll see you soon!

Venice and Paris

This weekend was another busy one! Our whole group left Friday morning for Venice. We got there in the afternoon and checked into our little hotel. We spent the day doing a walking tour and shopping. The city was full of tourists and especially Americans haha. It was pretty, but a little crowded and about 300 degrees. That night we went to a local restaurant and had seafood. Then we saw a little bit of a concert and sat along the water and people watched. The next day we toured a church and an art museum. Then we took a gondola ride and shopped some more. We took one of the ferries back to the train station and came back to Torino. Here are some pictures of our trip:







After we got back Saturday night two of my roommates and I made plans to go to Paris the next morning to see the tour de France! So we left at 7 am Sunday for the train. As we were getting on the bus to the train station I realized I had forgotten my passport, so I went back to the apartment and had to run from the bus stop to the station haha. After that there was a delay getting to our layover, so we had to sprint to the ticket office and sprint to the train where we got on as it was starting to move haha. One of the passengers high-fived us for making it haha. We rode 5 hours through the alps to get to Paris. The views were incredible out our window! The mountain towns looked fake as we rode by.

We got to Paris around 2 and found our way to the Arch de Triumph for the last strech of the tour. Somehow we got a spot only one person back along the fence and saw the riders go past 16 times! Here are some of the pictures I got. The first is a float in the parade that goes on right before they go by. Then the riders - Lance Armstrong is the one in the black and red and the winner is in the yellow!




We checked into our hotel after the tour and went to the Eiffel Tour at night. It was gorgeous!!!! We just walked around the city after that. The next day we saw the Arch closer up and the Louvre. We didn't have time to go in, but we got some pictures by the glass pyramids. It reminded me of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame haha. My camera died, so I'll get these pictures from my roommates and post them soon. We boarded the train that evening and got home in time to finish some schoolwork. Paris was a really nice city and I hope to go back sometime!

Croatia

Ciao! I am back in Torino after a really busy weekend! First, I forgot to tell you about going to Croatia. We had last weekend free so one of my roommates and I went to Croatia! We both really wanted to go to a beach instead of another European city. We took the train over night to a port city in Italy called Ancona. This is where Tony is studying, so we spent the day with him and some other people from OU. We left that night on a ferry to Croatia. We got lost trying to find the ticket office and ended up being escorted around by the coast guard. They loved my roommate because he is from Texas and they thought he was a cowboy haha. So the coast guard guys dropped us off at our boat and on our way in we met 3 backpackers from England, Austrailia, and New Zealand. We stayed up most of the night on the deck of the boat talking about our travel adventures until we found some booths in the ferry restaurant to sleep in. Here are some pictures of Ancona, the guy from New Zealand with my roommate and I, and our ferry.We got to Split, Croatia around 6 am and spent the morning finding our hostel. We stayed right on the water at a very small, family-run hostel. It had beautiful views of the sea! We just laid around the water and walked around the town the first day. We had really good food at a small local restaurant. Lucky for us most people spoke English so we actually knew how to order at the restaurants haha. The next day we got up early and went white water rafting on one of the Croatian rivers. An island guy picked us up in from our hostel and drove us to where they keep the rafts. We then loaded into a van with 6 more Croatian guys and they drove us through winding roads along cliffs of the mountains. The ride to the river was actually more death-defying than the rafting haha. Once we made it we loaded into a boat with two travelers our age from Sweden and an older man from Poland. It was a 3 ride so we got to learn a lot about each other's cultures when the rapids were weak. The river we rafted on was unbelievable! We wove through mountains and waterfalls, hiked along the edge, did cliff jumping (I didn't haha), and ended where we could swim. We also had a good guide because he joked with everyone and sang American songs while we went through the rapids haha. His favorite was "We are the champions" haha. Here are some pictures of Croatia and me getting ready for rafting.

We only had time to stay one night in Croatia, so we took the ferry overnight again back to Italy. Our Swedish friends from rafting were on our boat, so we stayed up talking to them and they helped us find our train back to Torino. I would love to go back to Croatia again someday! Here are a few last pictures leaving the port:

Here are more pictures from running of the bulls!

My roommates and I at the train station

One of the carnivals

This was a carnival game where the prizes were meat

My roommate Elma and I on one of the fences where the bulls run

Part of the city

Fireworks the first night

A group of French people that we met

One of the small parades

Some American friends

A stomp concert one of the nights

The actual running! They look scared haha

At the end of the running the runners try to tease the bulls and get away. This guy failed but he was ok.

After being caught in the food fight and drenched in sangria.

Some Americans and British friends

Spain!!!

Hi again! A lot has happened over the last week so I have a lot to update on. Two of my roommates and I spent last weekend in Pamplona, Spain for the running of the bulls festival. I had no idea it was such a huge event!!! It took us 18 hours to get there because the Torino train drivers were on strike and we had to find a bus to get to our airport in Milan. But once we got there, we were shocked at the thousands of people that were in the streets celebrating! Everyone had the same traditional outfit on, too. We took a white t-shirt, but we went straight to one of the gift shops and bought the rest of the gear. Here is a picture of my roommate Colby and I in our outfits!


Like I said before, the crowds were enormous! Every street had some kind of performance and people were dancing and forming their own parades with banners displaying their saint. I think this is a conga line haha:


While we were there we met tourists from all over the world. We spent one night with a group of Americans who had been going to running of the bulls for 30 or more years. Their kids were college students too so we went to some of the events with them. We also attended a bull fight, but made the mistake of buying the cheapest tickets. We had to sit in what we would call the student section that apparently had no rules haha. We stood out because we didn't know the songs and the chants, but everyone was really friendly. We also didn't realize we would be caught in an ongoing food fight of sangria, beer, fruit, and seafood haha. Luckily our American friends warned us, but we couldn't avoid it and were completely soaked by the end of the fight haha. One of my roommates has pictures of it, so I'll post those when I get ahold of them. We also didn't book a hotel because we decided to go at the last minute, so we smelled like sangria the rest of the time we were there haha. I had to buy another white outfit at the gift shop for the last day, and my hair was purple until I got back to Italy haha.

The last day my roommates decided they wanted to do the actual running after getting advice from the veterans. So I met up with a group of French people that we had met the night before and tried to get a spot on the fence to watch them. This worked out until I fell asleep on our bookbags and someone stole my spot haha. One of the French guys woke me up in time to see the running but I couldn't get a good view. I ended up going to one of the cafes right after and watching the footage on their tv haha. I was actually published in one of the Toronto news papers in a picture of me asleep on the fence... oops haha. The guy that I traveled with ran a little ways and escaped from the bulls and the girl that I went with didn't get to the entrance gate in time to actually run. So we all met up after and had a drink with some of the people we had met before we boarded our train.

Here are a few more pictures of the crowd and I'll add some more from my roommates soon!

Lake Como

Hi again! I just got back from Spain and had an amazing time! But before I write about that, I forgot to mention our trip to Lake Como last week! My group and I took a train to a Lake outside of Milan on a day we had off of class. \It was an amazing place with beautiful views!!! We actually saw George Clooney's house that he has there that's only accessible by helicopter. We also rented bikes and biked for a few hours around the lake and down small streets through the village. There were people from all over the world there, so it was a cool experience. Here are some pictures:

Hi everyone! I'm living in Torino now! I moved into my apartment with 7 other U.S. students and we started classes on Tuesday.

We spent the first weekend traveling around Milan. We saw some amazing castles, churches, and monuments and attended a Pink Floyd ballet. Here are a few pictures of me and my group!

At a pizzeria the first night! I had the flu so I look a little rough haha.

This is oustide of the site of the last supper!

The first week we explored Torino a lot and had our first classes. Our school is in a remodeled castle in a very small suburb outside of Torino. Everyone knows each other so we definitely stand out when we're around the town haha.

We celebrated the 4th of July at one of the Irish bars and found some other American students. The workers treated us to small fireworks and sparklers so it was a little more traditional. Here's a picture!

We have been meeting some locals and getting to know the city this week. We also went to a small city on Friday and did a wine tasting. It was a beautiful vineyard!!!! Today we went to another traditional suburb where they had open markets. We just spent the day there exploring and trying to speak Italian to the merchants. Right now I'm packing for Spain! Two and my roommates and I are leaving tonight for Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls. I plan on watching from a balcony or staying as far away as possible. I'm excited to see another country and use my Spanish skills!

We're also planning a trip next weekend to Southern France! I'll try to update this week, but our internet doesn't work very well. I hope everyone is having a good summer and I'll talk to you soon!