The Amount of Times I've Contemplated Yelling at Random People is Probably a Little Excessive

Okay sorry for the absence but you know.  Sleep and St Paddy's and stuff.

Saturday, we didn't get moving until 2ish and we were lazy even then (okay well really just me).  For lunch, we decided to try Mama's Bakery because we heard they had bagels.  And yes, they had bagels.  I think it might be my new favorite place except that it's far away.  Boo.  For lunch, I had a bacon, eggs and aioli sandwich on a toasted plain bagel.  And a brownie.  It was delicious.

Delicious bagel.

After lunch, we finally went inside the Palazzo Pitti, which we had discovered on our first weekend here but hadn't been yet.  Well really, the thing is so huge, we just walked around the Boboli Gardens and even that took a couple of hours.  It was beautiful and there were places to just sit and hang out in the grass, obviously something I'm missing.  And we get in free because of our Museum Card so we're talking about going back once the weather is nice and bringing wine or whatever and just hanging out.

Yes, it was almost all uphill like that.

 Ooh a flower and some nice photography skills.

 Center looking at palace.

 Hill for sits.

Gotta practice taking my own picture.  Thoughts?

After that, we came back to the apartment where we quickly decided that none of us wanted to cook so we decided to try apertivo or apericena.  Essentially, bars have a deal where you pay the price of one drink and you get food for free, like finger foods (former) or like a whole buffet (latter).  We went to a place called Kitsch and I probably should have taken pics but I was super hungry so suffice it to say the food was delicious.  Several different kinds of pasta, meatballs, bread, fruit salad, etc. plus a Long Island Iced Tea all for 9 euro.  Pretty good.  

After dinner, we came back to the apartment and decided to go out.  So we got some alcohol, sat around playing some drinking games for a long time and finally went out to a bar where we just kind of hung out and danced for a bit.  Which was lovely.

Yesterday, I really didn't do anything.  Which was also lovely.  Stayed in for lunch and dinner and sort of got stuff done, like homework and such.  Did some legit planning for Spring Break - I now know which side of a turnstile metro tickets in Barcelona go (left).  And then we went on a bar crawl for St Paddy's Day, which was also good.  We went to three bars total, met up with some other UNC students, made some new friends, all typical bar stuff.  No Irish singing though.  I'll be doing plenty of that in Ireland, even if I'm singing by myself.

Today was blergh.  Class was fine enough except that my Holocaust teacher made me seriously consider stabbing her with my umbrella.  It takes her so long to say stuff, it's incredible.  Like really truly mind-boggling.  Italian was fine though.  Then I tried walking home.  And I got cut off by so many slow walkers and rude people.  And then kids swarmed around my path so that I had to turn around and walk around them.  Like come on, have some manners.  Move.  And then the Meta had literally nothing I wanted (including toilet paper - what the hell) so yeah.  I had a bit of a trying day.

Then I had my cooking midterm.  NOT AMUSED.  She asked the most random questions she could possibly ask and then made us write 7 lines for each question.  My hand still hurts.  Ugh.  But whatever, even if I fail, it doesn't matter because I'm not getting credit.  So ha ha di ha ha UNC.

After class, just been hanging out at the apartment reading, eating dinner and planning.  And writing this.  And now I believe I'm off to bed.  Woo.

Ciao!!

If There's No Singing In Ireland, I'm Going to Be Severely Disappointed

I'm getting really excited for Spring Break.  I really want to sing some Irish drinking songs - I've been severely missing my Irish Pub Rock radio station on Pandora lately.  I'm ready to do some singing, in English this time.

Class was fine yesterday, nothing spectacular.  Met at the Uffizi for one class - four flights of stairs first thing in the morning.  Not my idea of fun.  I really don't know what the midterm is going to be like for that class.  Not looking forward to finding out.  Other class - we started talking about the Divine Comedy in general, but I've started reading the Inferno again.  It really is incredible how complex a universe Dante managed to create.

Let's see, then I had lunch and napped.  Then for dinner, we went to Gusta Pizza, where I got the spicy salami pizza again and it was delicious.  Definitely still my favorite pizza in Florence.  After dinner, and after our food comas had settled down, we ended up going out to a Spanish bar with a couple other UNC students.  And we went to the secret bakery - Nutella croissant.  Amazing.

Today, woke up late and went to lunch with Liz and Jared (her boyfriend).  It was kind of awkward - he's pretty quiet and it's hard to include him in the conversation when the rest of us (it was me, Jessica and Erika at lunch) have other things to talk about.  But it was still fine.  Then I stopped at the Mercato to get some food for this weekend.  Then I met up with Alex (not our roommate, another UNC girl who we've become friends with) and we just hung out at the Cascine (the park in Florence) for several hours talking.  It started off as nice and sunny but then it got cloudy again.  Boo.  But it was still nice to sit outside for several hours just talking, nothing to do.  It'll definitely be nice once the weather gets better.

After that, I took a quick nap, had dinner (pasta and tomato sauce - too lazy to try anything fancier), read, took a shower, and now I'm sitting here.  We were talking about going out tonight but we'll see.  Hopefully, I can use the rest of this weekend to plan and study.  Blegh.

Ciao!!

Marzo Pazzo

Apparently, in Florence at least, they call March "Marzo Pazzo," which means Crazy March because of weather.  And I would have to agree.  Between the rain and the cold it's just been ick.  I'm excited for Spring Break because it means I'll get out of this weather and hopefully out of the rain for a bit.

Class today was fine.  In Holocaust we tried to read a text together but the teacher kept interrupting us.  I swear, she takes five minutes to say one sentence.  I was like, look lady, this is actually interesting can you just let us read this without interrupting?

Italian was also fine.  Sometimes I feel kind of like a know-it-all in that class, but I can't help it.  I know the answer and no one else is saying it.  So I feel like I have to intervene.  Whatever, I'm literally never going to see these kids again so who cares what they think.

Let's see, ooh for dinner we had tacos again (we had them last night too) because they were so good and we had to use up the tortillas.  So I think tacos may become a more common food in this house - which I'm totally fine with.  We found taco seasoning at the international market - a godsend really.  Now all we need is cheddar cheese and we could really be in business.  But literally, Italy doesn't have cheddar cheese.  But I will continue the search, don't you worry.

We're also talking about making nachos at some point.  So that will be nice.

And then tonight has mostly been just messing around and hanging out.  We did go out for gelato (dark chocolate, caramel and pear - heavenly) but that's about it.  I think all of us are ready for midterms to be over and Spring Break to begin.  I know I am.  I just have to plan it all.  Haha.  Yay.

Oh and they elected a new pope - Pope Francis I formerly Jorge Bodagiglio (something like that) from Argentina.  Definitely cool to be in the country while the Pope is being elected but would have been incredible to be in St Peter's Square.  Another time, another place I suppose.

Also someone's car alarm keeps going off.  If they don't stop that, they will soon see a very angry and tired American yelling obsenities out the window.  Hmph.

Ciao!!

I Get It Now

This weekend, I went to the French Riviera, including Monaco, Montecarlo, Nice, St. Paul de Vence, Cannes and Eze.  It was quite a long weekend, very exhausting but so so worth it.  I finally understand why everyone is obsessed with the French Riviera - it's breathtaking.  Oh yeah and this is a long post.  Sorry not sorry.  Oh yeah and sorry some of the picture captions are small.  But I've been working on this behemoth of a blog post for 2 days and I can't figure out how to change it.  So yeah.

Saturday morning began bright and early 4:45.  Bleck.  We were planning on leaving the apartment at 5:10 to ensure we got the best seats on the bus but after Jessica slept through her alarm, we didn't actually leave until 5:25 or so.  Luckily for us, the bus wasn't even there when we showed up so we still got the best seats (FYI on a crowded bus where you can't have a two seat thing to yourself, the best seats are the ones right in front of the door in back of the bus because you can lean your seat all the way back without worrying about squashing someone) and we managed to keep those seats for the whole trip.  So most of my bus rides ended up in me taking a nap, which was lovely.

The bus ride to Monaco took about 5 hours and I slept for almost all of it.  So, our first stop was Monaco Ville or the Old Town where the palaces, church and aquarium were.  Even though it rained on us, it was still beautiful.  We took a walking tour of the Old Town and it was essentially unfairly picturesque.  There were orange trees blooming in people's front yards while ivy crept up their pastel houses.  Really though.  Obviously the people of Monaco can afford it but still.  It was gorgeous.  We also got our lunch break here - I got a baguette avec jambon et fromage (ham and cheese) which was actually pretty good.  And I got to practice my French (although, just like I expected, it blended with my Italian).

 Garden (with a hint of the Mediterranean in the background)

 Typical Monaco street

 Grave of Grace Kelly

 Me!

 One of the harbors

After our tour of Old Town, we went down in Montecarlo for our other walking tour.  Which was essentially just the tour guide leading us up to the square with the casino and then letting us go.  We really didn't have any time so we basically took pictures, went in the casino for a hot second and then got back on the bus.  Again, another gorgeous area.  Definitely a must-go-back-to place.  Especially in the summer when the weather's nice.  I kind of want to live there now.  But, as I am now aware, it's super difficult.  There's only like 30,000 people in the whole country but only about 5,000 are citizens.  Tough break.

 

One of the most famous bends of the F1 Grand Prix - I've never watched it but now maybe I'll have to, since I've been there

 Me with the casino

Casino - it's huge!!

Then it was off to Nice.  We were on the bus for about an hour - during which our guide did not stop talking the whole time so I couldn't even nap.  Rude.  And she just kept repeating herself.  Yes, thank you, I know how many inhabitants are in Monaco now, you don't need to say it for the 5th time.  Anyway, on our way down into Nice, we stopped at a lookout overlooking the city and I was already excited.

View of Nice

 Yours truly

Flowers growing by the lookout - I thought they looked very South-of-France-ish

Then we drove down into Nice for real.  After making several circles around the city, we finally pulled into our hotel.  We essentially got to drop our luggage and sit for 5 minutes before it was time for our walking tour.  We took a very quick tour of the historic part of Nice, which was really pretty.  The buildings are all done in the typical pastel colors of the Mediterranean but with more reds and blues.  There were cafes everywhere and chocolate stores and yeah.  I definitely felt like I was back in Paris.

 Street - see the colors?

Cafes

Market - in the morning, it was all flowers but at night it turned into restaurants

A restaurant done in the red and blue I liked - with cute little lights too

After our walking tour, we had about 2 hours of free time before dinner so we made a beeline for the beach and essentially just traced it around Nice for a long time.  The beach was made of pebbles - so no walking on it but don't think for a second I didn't touch the water and we didn't take lots of silly pictures on the beach (I think the best ones are on Facebook).  So we hung out on the beach for a bit and then followed the path next to beach around for awhile, passing a soldiers' monument and ending at the harbor.  Even though I couldn't walk on the beach, it was still so refreshing to smell salt water and to touch the ocean.  And now I officially can't wait to go to the beach this summer.

 Beach

 See I told you - pebbles

 Water hitting the rocks - I felt like quite the photographer for getting this

Normal picture

 Silly photo

 Harbor

 All lit up

After walking around, we went back to hotel and got to rest for about 20 minutes before meeting up for dinner.  I was so excited for dinner and then so disappointed.  They had the chance to give us really good food and they spoiled it.  We had nicoise salad (tuna, eggs and olives) which was fine, but then we had some weird chicken dish that was essentially just baked chicken with brown sauce that tasted like nothing except strong lemon.  So that was not really anything.  We of course had pommes frites which were good and for dessert, we had ice cream cake which was fine except we literally watched them cut it out of a box.  Not impressed.  After dinner, some of us went and found a cafe where we got a milkshake kind of drink and a Nutella and banana crepe - which was awesome.  I'm definitely going to indulge in crepes in Paris.  And now I'm really excited and hungry again.  After hanging out for several hours, we all just went back to the hotel and crashed.

Salad

 Chicken and pommes frites

Ice cream cake

The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast at 7 and departure at 8.  We were seeing 3 cities that day so it was going to be a long day.  Our first stop was St. Paul de Vence, which was a medieval town on a hill.  It actually reminded me a lot of Peniscola except that it wasn't surrounded by the Mediterranean.  So yeah, it was beautiful.  And really small so we basically walked the whole city in an hour or so and then it was time to leave.  I did get a macaroon before we left - raspberry and it was delicious.

 Village

 Stairs

More silly pictures

 

 Me!

 Macaroon

Art installation - some woman put up all these different colored glass panes walking up to the village and encouraged you to take pictures through them and email them to her.  

Then it was off to Cannes.  We just got more free time on our own, so we walked around for a bit, including walking through an antique market, walking past the big theater (including the stars handprints) and along the beaches in front of the famous hotels and such.  We also stopped for lunch at this small cafe where I got a croque-madame - yumm.  Another food I'm going to have to repeat in Paris.  After lunch, we walked back towards the bus, did some more fun poses on the rocks and I actually got to walk along the beach and put my feet in the water, since it was a sand beach.  Cold but refreshing.  And then sadly, it was time to leave.  I'm glad we got to see so much but we were really rushed and I definitely need to go back to all these places.

Theater where the film festival is held

Julie Andrews' handprints

There were cafes that were literally on the beach - unfortunately, they were also super expensive.  But maybe one day when I have boatloads of money

Entrance to the Carlton - the most famous hotel in Cannes

Lunch - delicious

Real sand beach - so jealous

 Me!

After Cannes, we went to Eze.  Okay really, we went to a famous perfume factory outside of Eze.  We didn't have any time to actually go up into the city, but the perfume factory was pretty cool.  And they had some really nice smelling perfume.  I thought about buying some but I ended up not doing it.

I really don't know what I want to do for souvenirs.  I feel like I need to have something from the places I go but I can't think of what it could be, besides photos.  I really don't collect postcards or maps or flowers or patches and I don't really need anything.  Maybe I'll get a brilliant stroke of genius soon.

 Beakers and stuff for making perfume

Distiller thing

 Eze from below

After Eze, we began the long journey back to Florence.  We got stuck in a couple of traffic jams, stopped for dinner where I got the Italian equivalent of a Lunchable (bread, salami and cheese in a pack) and eventually got home around 11.  Once we got home, I talked to the family, did homework and collapsed into bed.

Monday was nothing too special.  Holocaust class was fine.  She started talking about the final paper and I was like, "Uh huh like I'm totally thinking about that right now."  No.  Italian class was also fine.  We covered something I've been confused about so that was nice.  Got more tuna to make tuna salad sandwiches for lunch.  And chips and salsa.  

Then it was cooking class.  We had a quiz - not entirely sure how that went.  And she talked to us about the midterm - not entirely sure how that's going to go.  I hope it's something where even if I don't know the specific answer, I can at least say something.  And honestly, I think her English is so bad that even if it looks right she'll give me credit.  And she likes me because I went to the restaurant visit.  So I think it'll be okay.

For cooking, we made a lot.  Gnocchi with potatoes and a butter and Parmesan sauce (good but the students forgot to poke holes in them so they were more like pasta lumps but still good), gnudi (essentially the filling of gnocchi without the pasta) with ricotta and spinach dipped in a tomato sauce, tomato soup (pretty good but not really soupy enough for me), chicken cacciatore (really good and something I can make here so I will definitely be replicating that) and for dessert, cantuccini with Vin Santo (also pretty good - little too soft to be real cantuccini but still good).

Pappa al pomodoro - tomato soup

Gnocchi (top) and gnudi (bottom)

 Chicken cacciatore

 Cantuccini con Vin Santo

So finally, that brings us to today.  Had a museum visit this morning - not particularly interesting and it was raining.  It's been raining for like two weeks here.  I hope it clears up soon.  Liz is probably not too happy with the weather - her boyfriend is here for the week.  Bad news - we don't see her but good news - I get my own room for a week.  Oh yeah.  Then me and Jessica went to the international market which no one had told us about before now.  And there we found taco seasoning, soy sauce, baked beans, tortilla chips, salsa, Betty Crocker products, etc.  We were happy we found it but annoyed it took us so long.  And we can't even have any of the Betty Crocker stuff because it requires an oven.  Which we do not have.  Not amused.

After a quick nap, I had my literature class, which was fine.  We did a general introduction to the Divine Comedy so I'm hoping next class we get to do the Inferno.  The fact that I'm so excited is probably kind of sad but whatever, I don't care.  I love the Inferno.  And I'm excited to read the other two.  After class, I had lunch, read (reading the Casual Vacancy finally - I'm reserving my opinion until I'm done), took a nap, messed around and now I'm finishing this.  And tonight for dinner, Jessica and I are making tacos.  Well, we're going to try.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Tomorrow should be fairly average.  Keyword:  should.

Ciao!!