Week 9

For spring break, I started off by going to Barcelona with Lois and Vijay. It was great going back to Barcelona again, and this time I got to see much more of the city because last time I was so busy being tattooed I missed out on a lot. Sadly, my favorite place in Barcelona, the Cascada Monumental, wasn’t running yet though. It’s this huge fountain in the main park of the city but it was sadly still drained for winter when we were there. We also got to see park Guell, the Picasso museum, and the impressive Sagrada Familia. It was crazy because at the Picasso museum we ran into the parents of another Aggie, they stopped to talk to us because Lois happened to be wearing a Texas A&M shirt. Then we got in trouble because, being Americans, the conversation got way too loud in the museum. Park Guell was also really cool but crazy crowded. I really like the gingerbread inspired guard houses. Hardly anything can top the Sagrada Familia though, it has to be one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen. It is unbelievably massive and the inside looks and feels like a pristine, white forest. It’s hard to describe, and it’s yet to even be finished! One of my favorite things about Barcelona is the presence of public drinking water faucets all over the city. It’s such an unusual thing for the places I’ve been to in Europe and contrary to the attitude regarding water I’ve seen almost anywhere else. This attitude was most exemplified by the Font de Sant Jordi in the Barcelona cathedral. A decorative fountain in a courtyard of the church that had drinking water running through it, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere else. It’s become a running joke between me and Lois that the criteria we judge any fountain with now is with whether you can drink the water or not. Something bad that happened in Barcelona though was dealing with Vijay’s nosebleed. Our second night there he got a nosebleed that just would not stop, even after two late night emergency room visits. Unfortunately, he wound up deciding that after two days of profuse bleeding he needed to cut his spring break short. He decided to fly back to Bonn where luckily the German doctors were able to finally stop the bleeding.

After Barcelona Lois and I went to Rome where we met up with Kate, Nicky, IBK, Corey, and Alwin. Rome was fun but I can’t imagine going there during peak tourist season. The crowds weren’t even the worst part though, it was the people that come to prey on the tourists that were just awful and annoying. Everywhere we went we were constantly hounded by people trying to scam us into paying them for all manner of B.S. I do think it was worth it but I recommend that anyone who goes to Rome goes there in the dead of winter, just bundle up and avoid the crowds and scammers. Hands down the best part of Rome by far though was Frigidarium, the best gelato I have ever had. We went 5 times in two days. The gelato itself was fantastic but they also dipped the thing in either dark or white chocolate. It was funny two because the last time we went the guy that was working there gave me an extra scoop because he recognized me.

After Rome we went to Cinque Terre which was incredible and a wonderful change of pace from Rome. We managed to just miss the tourist rush so the trails weren’t crowded and the weather was still nice enough. I did manage to leave my water bottle on a train on the way there though and since the Italian train systems don’t have any sort of lost and found system like the German ones it’s just gone forever. Maybe next water bottle I get I’ll paint my number on it or something. When we were on the trails there was this one spot with a ruined lighthouse where we could see all the villages along the coastline. We got super lucky because as we came up to it was far too foggy to see anything but after just a few minutes it cleared and we got to see the full view. We managed to make it pretty far along the trails, only two towns from the end, but then we got rained out so we decided to head back on the train.

After Cinque Terre we went to Bergamo near Milan to catch our flight. Didn’t really do much of anything there except sleep at our hostel because our flight out was so early in the morning. That was a rough day of classes, but it could have been worse.