What Happens in Amsterdam

Our time in Italy is drawing to a close. For our last trip, Nicole and I decided to go a little wild (as we have been extremely responsible throughout these past six weeks) and take a trip to Amsterdam. A week before we were to leave, I found out that one of my very best friends from home, Aryn, was able to meet us for the weekend! Aryn is spending some time in London with her cousin, so everything worked out perfectly!

Last Friday, Nicole and I had to spend a little time in class before we could leave. Our Marketing in Italy class took a trip to the Pitti Uomo trade show. Pitti is a company which puts together trade shows and fashion shows where department stores come to see the collections of different designers, and they buy their collections for the next season. This was really interesting because we saw a lot of clothes by well known designers (Lacoste, Paul and Shark and Brooks Brothers to name a few) which won't be available for sale until around March of next year.

After spending a few hours at the trade show, Nicole and I headed back to the Florence airport to fly to Amsterdam! We first flew to Paris on a city jet, which is always an interesting experience. Our layover was very short, so we had to run to make the next flight. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the jet to Amsterdam was a normal sized airplane! After landing in Amsterdam, it took a little bit of time to find Aryn, as the airport in Amsterdam was much bigger than we were expecting! However, we soon found her. It was so good to see my best friend, and incredible that the first time we saw eachother in 5 weeks was in Amsterdam! It was sure to be an amazing weekend!

For lodging in Amsterdam, we all booked rooms at the "International Budget Youth Hostel", which made us a little bit nervous because of the name. We laughed about how staying at hostels is living on a budget anyway, so we weren't sure what another "budget" thrown in there would bring us! However, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our hostel was a row house set in front and next to two of Amsterdam's most beautiful canals, and was located in the center of the city. It was also pretty cute inside and very clean- they should probably think about changing their name! After dropping of our stuff, we headed out to enjoy our first night in the Netherlands!

I'm sure nobody here will be surprised to find out that we chose the Hard Rock Cafe (again) as our dinner destination- we just can't pass the chance for American food! We had to wait for a table, so we sat outside and drank some delicious drinks- I got something which was blue and frozen with rasberry swirl, can't remember the name but I definitely enjoyed it! Once we got our table, we had a very long and nice dinner, catching up on all the gossip and filling eachother in on everything that had been happening in our lives for the past 5 weeks! Aryn, after a little trouble with her study abroad trip to Prague, was having a fantastic time with her cousin in London. After our various meals (a shared appetizer platter, salad and macaroni and cheese for me, and cheeseburgers for Aryn and Nicole) we decided to call it a night!

Proving how good we became at getting up early, the three of us got up around six and headed out of our hostel around seven to head to the Anne Frank House. We had heard that the lines there could be horribly long, sometimes so long that you couldn't even get inside, so we wanted to make sure we arrived early enough to make it in. This was our first mistake- the American conception of "early" is very different from Amsterdam's. We arrived at the Anne Frank house around 7:30 to find nobody in line. Deciding to get a little fuel, we figured we had enough time to grab some coffee and breakfast before getting back in line. Breakfast places didn't open until 8:30 though. Laughing at how early we were, we walked around beautiful Amsterdam until a pancake place finally opened! We all got several much needed cups of coffee and shared an order of apple and banana pancakes- a specialty of the Netherlands! Finally fueled, we were ready for our first tourist stop of the day!

The Diary of Anne Frank has been one of my favorite books ever since I was a little girl. I think I first read her diary in third grade, and ever since then I have been absolutely astonished at the courage this young girl had, as well as loved the fact that the Franks were even able to find a non-jewish family to hid them. It proves to me that no matter what, people really are inherently good. It goes without saying that I have been wanting to visit their secret Annex for several years. After the family was betrayed and deported to concentration camps, only Otto Frank survived the war. It was his wish that the annex forever remain unfurnished. There were scale models of what the annex would have looked like when it served as a hiding place for 8 people, as well as pictures and clips of videos to fill you in on the history. The bookcase which hid the entrance to the annex was still there however, as well as the postcards and pictures Anne had hung on her wall. Anne's origional diary was also on display for everyone to see, as well as pages she had rewritten, as it had been her dream to eventually publish her memoirs. The entire experience was extremely emotional. We were very grateful to be able to visit the Anne Frank House, but at the same time it was very sad to learn about the fate of this innocent family. Anne wrote in her diary "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains", which is something I think everyone can learn.

After the tour of the Anne Frank House, the museum was hosting a special human rights project. There was a movie theatre, with clips and commericals all relating to human rights. Questions would then be asked, and everyone's answers would be displayed, as well as the historical answers of all visitors. This was very interesting, and we spent a lot of time answering questions and debating the answers, as none of the questions were ones that could simply be defined as yes or no, right or wrong.

After our tour of the Anne Frank House, it was time to do something a little less depressing and a little more fun! We headed over to a different part of Amsterdam for our "Heineken Experience", a tour of the Heineken Brewery. Heineken is a native beer to Amsterdam, so this was especially interesting. The tour began with a little bit of history about the beer's founders and their inspiration. Bottles of Heineken from decades ago were on display, as well as awards Heineken had received for being such a great beer! Then, we were taught almost exactly how Heineken is made. (From what I remember) It is made from first boiling grinded barley with water, to create a very sweet liquid. Hobs and Yeast are then added to create the best flavor, color, and alcoholic content. We got to grind up some barley, taste the barley and water drink and of course, test out the beer! There was then a few rooms displaying the advertising Heineken had done over the years. Old posters and campaign ads were on display, as well as single person movie theaters (only way to describe these extremely comfortable chairs with their own built in tv's) showing Heineken commercials dated back to the 1950's. The tour concluded with another beer (this time we opted for the extra cold version, which was delicious and extremely fresh) and a visit to the gift shop! We all bought personalized beer's with our names on them, and a little something for our family and friends.

After the Heineken Experience, it was time for some lunch! We found a great little cafe with sandwiches and yogurt, and had a nice time talking and taking a break! After lunch, it was time to get moving again! We dropped our bags off at the Hostel and walked around Amsterdam, enjoying the unique shops and sights to see. We couldn't stop talking about how impressed with Amsterdam we were. Amsterdam is a little notorious among college kids as the place to go to party, and we had been a little bit nervous to come. However, we couldn't have been more wrong! While Amsterdam's famous "coffeeshops" (which serve more legalized marijuana then they do coffee) weren't hard to find, on a whole we found Amsterdam to be a very quite, tame and beautiful place. Our mom's worried for nothing!

Our next stop on the whirlwind tour of Amsterdam was the "I Am Amsterdam" sign, which I had seen in friends pictures and knew I wanted to visit. It's a huge metal sign which reads "I Amsterdam" (the I and Am in different colors) which was added to promote tourism to the city. We had a blast acting like little kids, climbing all over the sign and taking goofy pictues. We got some great shots, and had a blast! Aryn and I then decided it was time for more shopping, so we headed over to the center of Amsterdam and spent a few hours looking in the souvenir, candy and clothing stores which lined the streets. All the shopping wore us out, so we had an early lunch at a great little place where we could sit outside and enjoy the cool weather (Nicole and I were thrilled to be a little cold, and escape the 90 degree weather in Florence for a few days). For dinner, we all got chicken sandwiches and french fries. We then had a couple cups of coffee, and enjoyed lingering over our dinner and taking our time.

After dinner, we could not pass up the chance to get a glimpse of Amsterdam's Red Light District- we are after all giggly, young girls more than anything else! We made the twenty minute walk uptown, and finally got an idea of what people were saying when they talked about how "wild" Amsterdam is. Girls wearing only bikini's were in glass windows, trying to tempt the many adolencent boys and middle aged men which toured the streets. Risque shops and shows also lined the district. We had a fun time simply being girls and giggling at the wide eyed college kids staring at the girls, as well as getting into long debates about these girl's lives- we were extremely curious to know if they got bored, how they got the jobs, and whether or not they would get kicked out of their windows if they weren't very "popular". Needless to say, we left the Red Light District one hand feeling very glad we were all in college, with job prospects and far away from that type of lifestyle and on the other hand still a little surprised and shocked that places like that really existed!

After heading back to the hostel we all fell asleep pretty quickly, worn our from our extremely packed day! The next morning, Aryn, Nicole and I really only had time to grab a quick breakfast, and stop in the casino to play a couple rounds on the slot machines before it was time to head to the airport. Aryn flew back to London while Nicole and I traveled back to Florence, excited to begin our first week. It was a long, crazy and hectic weekend but it was so great to be able to share such an incredible experience with two of my best friends. It is something I am sure to never forget!

Cinque Terre

Every visitor to Florence simply has to take a day to get out of the city and spend some time hiking and swimming in the beautiful national park of Cinque Terre. Built along the coast of Italy, Cinque Terre is five towns right next to each other, all connected by hiking and water trails. Last Sunday, after our tour of Rome, Nicole and I decided to take our day in Cinque Terre, and spend a little time with nature.

Bright and early, we caught a 7:45 train to Cinque Terre, which took about three hours (which we didn't really mind as we were still extremely tired from Rome). The train stopped at the first town- Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore has a long history of being a fishing town, so there were boats and kayaks and conoes everywhere- it made me want to jump in the water immediately! However, there was no time for that as we started our hike to the second town pretty quickly after grabbing coffees and snacks.

The hike into the second town was pretty easy- nothing uphill or too difficult. Mostly, it was a path along the coastline, so we admired the beautiful, clear blue water and even saw a sort of naturally made pool created by rocks- again I had to fight the urge to skip out on the hike and jump in the water! Once we arrived at the second town- Manarola, we had to make the choice of taking a train directly to the beach or continuing to hike through the third and fouth towns. We opted for the hike, and questioned the decision a little bit when the first part of our hike included walking up 363 stairs!! It wasn't that bad however, once we reached the top, we arrived into the beautiful third fown of Corniglia and had an awesome lunch of pesto and spagetti!

The hike into the fourth town- Vernazza was a little rough. Thankfully our stomachs were full from such a great lunch! The hike took about an hour and a half and included steep downhills followed by steep uphills! We were all out of breath and sweating, but the view was absolutely incredible and it was totally worth it! I took lots of pictures, but they really do not do it justice. The fourth town had a lot of little shops, gelaterias and a beach so we spent a little time here cooling off and getting our feet wet!

It was getting late, so the group took a ferry to the final town of Monterosso. Monterosso was a huge beach, plus resturants and shops. Nicole and I got smoothies and admired the view of the coastline and the beautiful town. All too soon, we had to get back on the train for the three hour ride back to Florence! We left Cinque Terre feeling tired, but accomplished and in awe the beauty of this little place. Definitely a good day!

Roma Roma Roma

Last weekend, Nicole and I went on a class trip for our architecture class to the Italian Capitol of Rome. Rome is a much bigger city than Florence is, so there was a lot to see and do while we were there. Carlo, our architecture teacher who also owns a firm here in Italy, with offices in Florence and Orvieto, had us meet at the train station for the 2:30 train into Rome. By 4:30 we had dropped our bags off at the hotel and set off to "discover Rome" as Carlo put it.

While Florence is mostly in the Renaissance style of architecture, Rome is in the Baroque style, so the buildings are very different than what we are used to at our home base. First stop was the Piazza della Repubblica to visit the chiesa Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was designed by Michelangelo. This was a former Roman Bath turned into a church, so all the windows are very high, for privacy. We then took the subway further into the heart of Rome, where we spent the evening walking through the city, admiring all of its famous landmarks and sites. We went to the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and several beautiful piazzas, all with fountains and obelisks in their centers. The obelisks make Rome fairly easy to navigate, as they serve as pretty excellent landmarks.

For dinner, Carlo took us to a little pizzeria which was a favorite of his when he was an architecture student in Rome. We dined on brushetta and pizza, very delicious! Next, we headed over to the Piazza del Campidoglio, which was also designed by Michelangelo. We toured that, the Roman Forum, and eventually ended up at the Colosseum. By now, it had gotten very late so it was about time to end our day. However, after learning that there was an ice bar walking distance from us, we decided we couldn't pass that up.

The Ice Bar was very fun. When we got there, we were outfitted with capes and gloves for warmth. After passing through an airtight door, we were in the bar which was completely made out of ice- the bar, the walls, the seats, everything. A drink was included with the cover, so we all had various delicious and fruity martinis- served in glasses made out of ice of course. After taking a few pictures, we couldn't stand the cold anymore, so we called it a night.

The next morning started bright and early with breakfast included with our rooms (yesss saving money!). We then walked to the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria, which was very cool because it was one of the churches in the movie "Angels and Demons" (the church where the cardinal was lit on fire, for those of you who have seen the movie). We then took the subway to Vatican City. Realizing that the lines to get into the museums were way too long, we walked into St. Peter's Square to visit St. Peter's Basilica. Nicole and weren't let in the church because we were wearing shorts (our bad) so we had time to walk through Vatican City a little bit and visit some of the shops. We were taking an extra day to visit the Vatican, so I really didn't mind. It was our fault for wearing shorts, and I really respect the fact that you need to be dressed appropriately to visit the largest catholic church in the world.

After the Vatican, we went to a modern museum designed by an American architect which housed a 2000 year old Roman Alter. It also had an exhibit dedicated to an interior designer, which was very cool. This concluded the scheduled events with our Architecture class, so Nicole and I said bye to our classmates and headed off to finish the rest of our trip. We had previously decided to take an extra day in Rome, in order to really see the city. We headed back to our hotel, checked into our new room and took some much needed showers. For dinner, we couldn't pass up the Hard Rock Cafe, and enjoyed southwest spring rolls (a favorite of mine), fajitas and a brownie sundae.

After dinner, we found a park nearby, and had a lovely time sitting and talking, just enjoying being in Rome. A little later, after deciding to skip the pub crawl we had planned on doing, we stumbled upon a little bar with tables set up outside. We enjoyed a bottle of wine while listening to live music, and had a very lovely evening.

Bright and early the next morning, Nicole and I woke up and headed back to Vatican City. We only had to wait in line for an hour, mostly for the museum to open, so I was very proud of our promtness. The Vatican Museum is one of the largest museums in the world, and holds many many wonderful peices of artwork. We saw several apartments of popes from hundreds of years ago, the Raphael Rooms, old tapestries, old maps and the library in the Vatican which housed mostly very old artifacts which were used to hold mass- bibles, tabernacles and so on. The tour of the museums ended with the Sistine Chapel, which words cannot really describe how amazing it is. It took Michelangelo about 13 years to complete the ceiling and front wall with his frescos. We learned that a "fresco" is made by painting on wet plaster, so the paint is really absorbed and becomes a part of the room, instead of just something on top of the walls. The front wall of the Sistine Chapel depicts the Last Judgement, with Jesus and Mary in the center, and people moving into either heaven or hell. The ceiling is basically panels of the story of creation in pictures. Michelangelo decided to do this so that everyone, including those who could not read, could understand how man came to be. The most amazing thing about the ceiling is the optical illusion that Michelangelo included- it appears that there are columns separating the panels, when really the ceiling is smooth. One could easily spend hours just admiring this amazing chapel.

Once we finished our tour of the Vatican Museums, Nicole and I had our chance to go into St. Peters. St. Peters is huge, and completely filled with statues, frescos, decorations and side chapels. There was a mass going on in one side chapel, held in Italian, which was very cool to see. Another chapel was reserved for private prayer, so I spent a little bit of time in there reflecting and praying.

We concluded our day in Rome by walking around and visiting the sites. We found several cute shops and another park to sit and relax in. Before the train ride home, Nicole and I finally found canolis, and shared one with a cappucino. Very delicious! It was good to get back to Florence Saturday evening, but we had a truly fantastic weekend in Rome!

Paris = Love

I can check another lifelong dream off my bucket list: visit the city of Paris. Last weekend, Nicole and I took a weekend to get out of Italy and check out one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And yes it was.

Thursday, Nicole and I set off on a 3pm flight (which was delayed, thank you yet again Air France) for Paris. We arrived at the Charles de Gaul Airport around 5pm, and quickly learned what a large airport it really was. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, we finally found the RER train which would take us into the heart of Paris and to our hotel. We were a little nervous about the hotel, having never stayed in anything booked at "hostels.com" but we were pleasantly surprised. It was small, but clean and we had our own room and bathroom. And of course, we did not spend a lot of time there. After dropping off our bags, the first thing we did was to set off for the Eiffel Tower. We just wanted to see it. Being used to Florence, where everything is in walking distance, we set out with a map and assumed we could walk there. We were quickly corrected when we realized we were only walking further into the outskirts of the city. As Nicole put it, "We would come to Paris, and immediately start walking out of Paris". Once we realized our mistake, we jumped in a taxi and told him to take us to the Eiffel Tower! On the way there, we passed the Louvre with its magnificant Glass Pyramid entrance. After about 15 minutes (and a 20 euro taxi ride, proving that there was no way we could have walked) we were astonished at the symbol of Paris. We were perfectly happy just looking at the tower that first night, and took several pictures of course. We then went to our first french resturant, and had a satisfying dinner of salad and croque monsiours, which is a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.

Day two in Paris we woke up early and ready to explore the city! We grabbed some coffee's from McDonalds and headed into the subway to tour the Louvre Museum. The Louvre is one of the biggest museums in the world, and somewhat overwhelming. We only had a few hours to spend at the Louvre, so we checked out only the major peices. It was incredible to see the Mona Lisa in person. People always say that when you do see her, its kind of underwhelming. The painting is covered with glass, kind of all in a corner by itself. However, I thought it was so incredible to see in person a painting that is so famous. And the Mona Lisa Smile is also very intrigueing- what is she smirking about? I learned that many centuries ago, a man actually fell in love with the Mona Lisa and stole the painting, keeping it hid under his bed for years. Next, Nicole and I traveled across the museum to see the statue Venus de Milo. It is a very old sculpture of Aphrodite which was found on a greek isle. Her arms are broken off (and had been when the sculpture was found) and it was neat to learn that she is actually two separate peices of marble held together. After wandering around the Louvre for another hour or so, touring the medieval and egyptian collections, it was time to move on to something new!

Nicole and I had previously booked a "hop on, hop off" bus tour for our time in Paris. It stopped at all the major tourist sites, and included a commentary for while the bus was driving. With a little bit of difficulty in finding the bus at first, Nicole and I hopped on to travel to our next destination- the Notre Dame Cathedral. I love touring old churches, which is something my family and I have always done on vacations, so I was extremely excited to see Notre Dame. Built as a gothic cathedral, it is very different in appearance than most catholic churches. Two huge bell towers make up the front of the cathedral, and the back is covered with even more bell towers and statues of gargoyles meant to protect this beautiful site. We learned that every bell has a name and a rank; some bells are rung hourly, while others are only rung on special occasions.

With all this learning, Nicole and I decided to take the rest of the day to have some good old fashion fun! With lunch at Starbucks (yes...we found a starbucks. amazing) and a quick stop at the Gallery Lafayette mall to pick up new longchamp bags (we were in paris!) we had a very nice mid morning break before our afternoon destination. Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris was very cool- it had the same warm and welcoming feeling as Disneyworld in Orlando does, but with a French twist. It was also very nice to have a little taste of home. We went for the big thrill rides first- the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster. With a little nervousness that the ride controllers would forget to repeat important information in english for us, we had a great afternoon of thrills and chills. Next, we headed over to the other park for more relaxed fun. Nicole was very excited to ride Thunder Mountain, which is her mom's favorite ride at Disney. I was anxious to ride Space Mountain, which impacted my life greatly as a child, but unfortunately it was closed. We of course rode the obligatory "Its a Small World" before the park closed at 7. For dinner, we chose Planet Hollywood in the Disney Village. With our dinners of a bacon cheeseburger (Nicole) and a Southwest Chicken Salad (your's truly), we left Disney feeling full and happy.

Day three in Paris was just as fun and exciting as day two. We woke up to find the weather very rainy and cold however, which we were unprepared for. We headed back to the Eiffel Tower first thing in the morning, because what trip to Paris would be complete without viewing the city from 300m above? Thankfully, we arrived at the tower early enough that we did not have to wait in line. After riding the elevators up and up and up, the view at the top was absolutely incredible. You could see the Louve, the Seine, Notre Dame, the Luxemburg Gardens and much more. There were pictures of the city at every angle with the major sites pointed out, so it made it very easy to pickout all these famous landmarks. After the tower, we decided to just ride our bus around the city for a while, and take in a little bit of the history of Paris. An extremely exciting moment was when we were waiting for the bus- Barack Obama was actually in Paris the same time as we were to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day and all of the American Lives lost. Obama's motorcade actually drove right by us- we saw the Presidential Limo with American Flags and everything. Very exciting. Another cool moment was when we stopped in a store to buy sweatshirts (it was so cold!) and Obama came on the television, with the French President. The french workers in the shop were very excited to see Obama, and as the National Anthem played, I don't think I have ever been prouder to be an American. On our bus tour, we learned that Napoleon the I and the III basically designed the entire city, and made it so beautiful through their lavish and expensive tastes. We saw the square were Louis XVI was executed and the towers where Marie Antoinette was held.

After riding the bus around for a while, Nicole and I stopped to go to the other famous parisian art museum- the Musee D'Orsay. While the Louvre holds mostly very old and religious peices of art, the Musee D'Orsay is more modern and contemporary. Again, picking our favorites, we spent a lot of time admiring the amazing paintings by Vincent Van Gough and Monet. They were all very beautiful. I enjoyed the Van Gough's the most because they were almost three-dimensional. You could see all of the tiny brushstokes me made to give his paintings their texture. We also went in the "Gold Room" which was basically a ballroom, but was so beautiful with its gold trim and bright lights. As it was getting late in the day, Nicole and I decided to finish the bus tour and stop at the Opera House, which was of course very beautiful as well.

Saturday night was our "big night" in Paris. We had previously booked a tour which included dinner at the Eiffel tower, a cruise down the Seine and a show at the infamous Moulin Rouge. Dinner at the 58 Tour Eiffel resturant was amazing- we ate ceasar salad, chicken with potatoes au gratin, and a desert of espresso, chocolate lava cake and ice cream. The french wine was also very good. The river boat cruise was very interesting. We passed through about twenty bridges and pass all the famous monuments of Paris. We learned even more about the city, and joked about how we were going to leave as experts on the history of Paris.

The show at the Moulin Rouge was extremely cool. After waiting in line with aching feet, they packed us all into the theatre and started popping the champagne! The show was a mix of dance and entertainment acts. The famous can can like in the movie Moulin Rouge was very cool. The show went very late, about one in the morning, so thankfully the tour group arranged for everyone to be driven home. We got home and immediately went to sleep we were so tired!!

Bright and early the next morning it was time to fly back to Florence! It was an amazing weekend in Paris, and we made a lifetime of memories.

463 Stairs

Any trip to Florence wouldn't be complete without the journey up to the top of the Duomo. The Duomo is probably Florence's most widely known landmark. Massive, it can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. Including a museum, a church and the hike to the top, there are many things to do at the Duomo.

Sunday, Nicole and I decided to go to a mass at the Duomo. Very long and in Italian, we couldn't really understand what the priest was saying, except for parts we would already know as practicing Catholics. I am very glad we decided to attend church, and it is something we will remember forever.

Yesterday, we decided to make the journey to the top of the duomo. 463 stairs, it was the equivalent of climbing up about 38 flights of stairs. At some points, the ceiling was very low (my dad would have had to crouch over) and the stairs got very steep. However, once we made it to the top (panting and sweating) the view of Florence was absolutely amazing! Definitely worth the 8 euros and unintended workout!