Some Pictures from Florence for a Class Assignment

This shot was taken from the Mercado Central. Mac and I went Wednesday to grab some dried fruit, nuts, and peanut butter for our weekend trip to Paris. We decided to split a pizza from the upper level restaurant and people watch. I had to take photos from an aerial perspective, aka looking down. So this first shot is me at the top of the market looking down at level two. I chose to focus on the railing and not the people because I liked the visual effect it created.  The people are anonymous, as was I as the creeper/people watcher on the upper level. Then I had to head to class to upload some photos but took some side street adventures on the way. 

Mercado Central

This is a shot of the Arno River with the Ponte Vecchio bridge in the background 

What a spot to paint!! She knows what's up

And again, crazy people taking crazy engagement photos in Florence

A Long Weekend in Switzerland with a Day Trip to France:)

I got back last night from a long weekend in Switzerland. I was visiting a woman named Wim and a good friend from high school, Katelyn Fariss. My roommate from Tech, Katie Bisazza, her mama works for the same company as Wim. While on my road trip in January I met Wim because she was in the states (NJ) while I was visiting Katie in NJ. We all went out to dinner (girls night out!) and Wim found out I would be in Europe this summer. She got my contact info and was totally genuine when she said she wanted me to come visit her if I would like. I'm me, so I said I hope you're not joking cause I'm not joking when I say I will 100% come stay with you in Switzerland if the invitation is open. Thank goodness she wasn't because I made the trek! So I had four days and four nights. I spent two days with Katelyn, who is working at CERN for the summer (a European research institution that operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory), and the other time with Wim and her husband Rav and their son Gijs.

Wim picked me up from the Geneva airport Thursday night and we drove back to her house. Wim's family lives in an old farm house in Duillier (a small village in Switzerland). She is from Holland originally and her husband Rav is Indian, but was born in Kenya, lived there until he was 12, and then moved to London with his family. With their precious mixed son, Gijs (who is 7 and became my BFF), they are a beautiful and culturally rich family to say the least. We got in around 10:45 or so and I had not really had dinner and Wim had saved me a plate of left overs. We went for a night-time walk to look for fireflies (per Gijs' request) and then hit the hay. 

Friday morning, Wim had to work from home, but her cousin from Holland was also visiting and so Martine (Wim's cousin), Gijs, Daniel (Martine's son), and I took a nice walk in the morning after a big breakfast and coffee. These pics are from our morning walk.

Wim's "farmhouse"

Me, Gijs in the green, Daniel in the black, and Matsue the pup

Look what we found! A sunflower field

So many bees!

Friday afternoon I took the train to Geneva to meet Katelyn. Wim dropped me off at the Nyon station a bit late and I missed the train Katelyn and I had discussed me taking for our meet up plans. So I was late:/ She waited patiently though and we had an epic moment where I saw her looking for me so I yelled, "KATELYN!" And got to hurry over and give that sweet girl a huge hug. So great to be re-united. Friday afternoon, Katelyn showed me all around Geneva. We saw the lake, the fountain (which apparently Geneva is very proud of, so be impressed),  the Cathedral which we climbed to the top of and got to see a great view of the city, and we finished by walking to the Jonction where two rivers combine and the visual effect is amazing. After our touristy day around Geneva we took the tram back to CERN where Katelyn lives and fixed a yummy dinner of baguette, salmon, potatoes, broccoli, and white wine. We went to bed fairly early because we had a long day ahead of us.

The fountain of Geneva

We made it to the top of St. Peter's Cathedral

Check out that view. 

The Jonction

 Saturday was our day trip to Annecy, France. We did a ride-share type deal, which was great because it was easy pick up and drop off and cheap BUT it meant we had to wake up at 6am and did not get back to CERN until 11pm. Long day, but I was with my girl Kae so it was all good. We arrived in Annecy, before it even woke up haha (8:30am) so we got some morning pics of the lake, got a chocolate croissant, coffee, and split a nutella waffle. Moderation?? NAHHHHH. We then walked around this antique market which apparently only happens one Saturday every month so we picked a good weekend to visit Annecy. We went to the main Cathedral, walked to the castle (Chateau d'Annecy), came back down and visited the old prison (Palais de I'lsle), and then headed to the Lake to eat our picnic lunch. After we relaxed a bit and re-fueled we headed to the mall and walked around for a bit looking at all the sales. When we came out there was a demonstration about the Gaza Strip/ Israel conflict. Katelyn stood and watched from a far, but I of course got right up in there to take some pictures and witness the event which I found extremely fascinating. After that riveting Annecy drama we headed to view some more Cathedrals, then ended up back near the lake and just had some great girl talk. Once we got hungry we headed to dinner at this traditional restaurant that our carpool dude recommended we go to. I had quite the incident in the bathroom.. I slipped on the freshly mopped floor (there was no sign in my defense!), and then when standing up after using the potty I slammed my head into the concrete ceiling (because I'm a giant and of course it was the tiniest, most oddly shaped bathroom). Anyways, dinner was amazing. We split a cheese fondue and a fish and fries meal. Oh and got some nice white wine of course:)

Good Morning beautiful lake!

Noms on noms on noms

The view from the bridge right where we ate breakfast

View from the Castle

Democracy, eh

Look what God painted in the sky for us:)

Good night Annecy:)

So Saturday we were on our feet from 6am till 11pm, so clearly we weren't active enough... so we decided that Sunday should be a hiking day. Seems only logical. Mt. Saleve is a huge mountain as well as crazy steep. With our two previous days of walking in mind and with Katelyn's knee (she is still recovering from a torn ACL injury), we decided that a cable care was the way to go. This seemed to be the popular thing to do anyways. So we took a tram, a bus, and a cable car and finally made it to the top. Once at the top, there is still a bunch of hiking to do. So we hiked all around it, through forest, meadows, and more. The views were amazing: on one side the Swiss Alps and other other side the Jura. 

View from the Cable Car

Love da cows

 Sunday evening I headed back to Wim's house and had dinner there. After dinner Rav and I had an epic religious discussion. His family is Indian and practices Sikhism. Last semester I took a class called Asian religions and so I had a very small base knowledge of the religion. He was super open and explained the religion to me, his scale of practice, his families background with the religion, etc. He was super patient as I asked him various questions and explained my religious background. It was one of those conversations that stems from another one (I had asked him to tell me Wim and his dating/marriage story), and then before you know it a few hours has gone by. Anyways, that was one of my highlights of the weekend for sure. After that we all drove to the train station to pick up some Aussie boys backpacking around Europe that Rav knew and had offered to let stay at their house. The boys loved my accent which was hilarious to me. It was fun to hear their stories as well, they are quite the adventurers. Later that night we all went outside to the street to watch a local fireworks show.

Monday Wim had to do some work from home again so I did my own thing. I took a long run, she gave me a route. It was hard to explain and I didn't write it down or anything... so the moral of that story is that I was doing soooo well.. I went straight through the round about, I kept going straight, I took a right at the farm house with the private airport on my left, I kept running, took a right on the next main street, did the left loop she spoke of.. then ended up in a field. Hmmm, I mean like a gravel road... but sunflowers on my right and corn or wheat or something on my left. I found out later that I was right in doing that!! BUT I started freaking out, thinking I had made a wrong turn so I turned around. Then I had a really hard time figuring out the best option for getting back since well I don't know the area at all. OHHHH and there was big storm rolling over the mountains, approaching me fast. Awesome. I tried to stay calm and just started running back to the train track because I knew I could retrace my steps from there. BUT then I saw this lady on a farm hopping in her van... so I ran over to her and asked if she spoke English... she said not really. I tried anyways. I tried to explain that this is the address I am trying to get to and I pointed to where I thought it was. She said she thought I was right... then she said she was short on time but would give me a ride. I'm all about vibes, as many of you know and I am a skeptic of things/people in general BUT I was getting good vibes and figured I could roll out of van if worst case scenario and she tried to kidnap me. Plus it was ride with her or stay lost and get caught in a valley thunderstorm. Anyways, I jumped in her hippie van with her two big dogs and we headed out. I started to recognize where we were, so I directed her to Wim's house and she dropped me off. She spoke more English than she lead on, which was good haha. She was super nice and told me to enjoy the rest of my time in Europe. It all worked out in the end, but man o man could that have ended a lot worse hehe. By the end of that little adventure and my shower and packing it was almost time to head to the airport. Wim took Gijs and I to see the lake one more time, and then to the UN building to see the memorial and such. Had to get my tourist on for a little bit longer before heading back!

Photo-journey of my run.. before I got "lost" hehe

3-legged chair represents the wounded soldiers

Me and Gijs outside the UN building where Rav works

Back in Espana, I just couldn't stay away:)

    This weekend my roommate Ana and I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain. We stopped in Pisa and Girona on our way, but our final destination was Barcelona. We arrived in Girona, Spain Thursday at 9:15pm. Family friend Mariona picked us up and took us downtown for Tapas and drinks. It got pretty late so we headed to Mariona's apartment and hit the hay. Mariona had work in morning, so Ana and I woke up, showered, packed up, and headed out. We took a bus into the city center of Girona to have breakfast. Then we went to see the Cathedral and other sites of Girona, then caught the noon train to Barcelona.
    After arriving, taking the metro, and walking, we arrived at our hostel around 1:45 or so. We dropped our stuff and headed out. Ana is super chill and likes to go with the flow. She didn't have any sites in particular she wanted to see or any plan, so she was happy to let me be in charge.. which we all know I like:) I'm good at planning though and directions and such so I enjoyed planning the weekend. And she speaks Spanish because she is from Columbia, so she was our translater. Anyways, I wanted to see lots so I got a map and planned the best route and decided what to see when. I found a candy shop for Ana (we both have a slight candy obsession) and so she was happy. Friday we saw the Gaudi buildings, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, and Parc Guell. We did a bunch of walking. Parc Guell is kind of far away, aka not the city center. We had to take a metro out there and then walk/ escalator up the most intensely steep street ever haha. We made it though, and it was so worth it! You could see ALL of Barcelona from up there. The mountains and the castle on one side and the beach and skyline on the other. So cool. We came down after walking all around, recharging, and filling up our water and such. We found this souvenir, discount, random stuff shop on our way back to the metro and we went wild in there. It was this sketchy place owned by an Asian family. They had great deals on magnets and other touristy stuff. I even got a cheap pair of knock off vans, my vans I brought here are genuinely falling apart, I'm not exaggerating. Oh and this random Hispanic lady came up to Ana, grabbed her arm and tried to come home with us. Yep. Her daughter came up as she was approaching us and tried to diffuse the situation, but this elderly lady was not having it. I mean she was snarling at the person she was with. Ana speaks Spanish so she told me everything that happened. Apparently the old lady was saying "Vamos (we go)." Then to her relative, "I am going home with her, not you. I want to go with her." And the lady, whom I'm assuming is her daughter or relative, was saying "No, you can't go with her. You don't know her. She is going to her house and we are going to ours." It was hilarious (for me cause I was three feet away dying laughing at Ana). The old lady would not let go of Ana and her daughter kept trying to pull her away but literally couldn't. We think she may have had alzheimers, which is obviously not funny but the situation was quite comical. It created quite a scene and went on for a solid 4 or 5 minutes which felt way longer. SO RICH. But we got our stuff eventually and headed out. We metro-ed back to our hostel, showered up, and headed out again. We went for Tapas, which is very normal in Spain. Then we made it to the 10:30 show at the Magic Fountain. It was just beautiful, packed with people, and they were playing some great classic songs to match the light show. After the show we stuck around to take some pics and then walked back. Another great story... Okay, so I had heard about getting churros con chocolate in Spain... so we did. I was under the impression that it was churros and this chocolate fudge/pudding type thing you dipped them in AND I had seen exactly what I wanted the day before! So we ordered and they gave us churros and hot chocolate. LOL. Ana and I were dying. So typical us. It's freakin summer and we order hot chocolate and churros. Oh well, it was still amazing. Last stop of the night, DA CLUBSSS. So Barcelona is know for being a crazy party city, and it is. I knew that I had wanted to go out while there, and knew I didn't want to drink much, and then get ready for this. Thursday, in photography class, I got an assignment to take pictures at clubs. We had learned about taking pictures of things that are "normal" to people our age, things that are regular things that we have access to. Our professor suggested clubs. He said, 'don't drink one night, go out with your friends, and be the sober one taking pictures of the night.' I did and it was actually more fun than I thought. I got to mess with my aperture and shutter speed and get some really cool pics with all the lights and such. Sadly all they played was techo music though which was disappointing and Ana and I couldn't really get into it:/ So eventually we gave up, sat on the beach, and people watched. Got home at 3:45am, and had to wake up at 9. Somehow, I was feeling fine. I really did not get tired until Saturday night.
     Saturday we did the classic Barcelona sites and made it down toward the beach. We walked down Las Rambles street, a very famous street filled with shops and flower stands and street performers. After that we walked along the the ports, headed toward Parc de la Ciutadella. Once at the Parc we walked around it, saw the fountain, the parliament buildings, and the lake. It was now about 2 something, and we wanted to head back to the hostel to pick our stuff up. We stopped at the Arc de Triomf to check it out, then metro-ed home. We grabbed our bags, I changed into my bathing suit, and we headed to the beach. Ana wanted to read and wasn't feelin the beach, so she got a drink and chilled at an outdoor restaurant. It was actually really nice because she was able to watch our stuff so I just brought my towel and Iphone down to the beach. I laid out for an hour or so, swam a little, and then joined Ana to dry off. After that, we headed to dinner. We found this place with quite the deal. Sangria, bread, a starter (she got calamari and I got mussels which we shared with each other), an entree (she got Paella and I got salmon which we again shared), and dessert ALL FOR 11.45 euros. I was stoked. We had sandy skin, salty hair, and full bellies. It was time to begin the journey home. Bus (7:30) Barcelona to Girona, fly (11) Girona to Pisa, bus (12:45am) Pisa to Florence, taxi (2am) to our apartment. We didn't get in bed until 3am- TOO LATE! Or early... Anyways, we went to bed and slept so hard till noon today. It was such a great trip:)

We went to Barcelona with all intentions to find a candy shop, and we were not disappointed:)

Casa di Gaudi

La Sagrada Familia Cathedral 

It just kept going up...

The view was worth it though

Magic Fountain Show

It was so fun and it was free!

Churros con chocolate

Ana and I with our roomies, headed to da club haha

Shoko Club

Cool shutter speed effects

Street Performer on Las Rambles Street

The fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella

So regal

Arc de Triomf

Florence Be Treatin Me Right

This weekend is my last official weekend in Florence:( Next weekend I am headed to Barcelona, then off to Switzerland, next Paris, and then Megan will be here and we will set off on our own adventures. As you know, Friday I went to a vineyard for a tour and wine tasting. Later that evening, all the roomies fixed dinner at home and we ate outside on our patio and jammed to some tunes. We then headed out for gelato, some picture taking, and bought some new wines on our way home. We played cards, had some wine (one was a super light white which was pretty good and the red we got was eh haha), THEN we went out dancing. It was a ton of fun. Today I had some adventures planned that my roommates kindly accompanied me on. First I took them to this hole in the wall for lunch. A program director had told me about it and I really wanted to venture over to it and check it out. It is so sketchy haha, my favorite. Genuinly does not have a name... just a poster that says street food and some Italian stuff. Anyways, it is this, as I said, hole in the wall. It is owned by this sweet old lady and her family. They make some very unique things I hadn't tried yet in Florence (more traditional things). They had pizza that was almost like a pizza on top of a pizza. As in there was crust on top and bottom and then the cheese and sauce and such was in the inside. I know what you are thinking... CALZONE DUMMIE! But it isn't I promise. BECAUSE, they have calzones. AND fried calzones, which my roomie got and I tried a bite- it was delicious. They also have frittelli di riso and palenta. I tried my roomies palenta, it was pretty good. It is some weird fried cornmeal thing. I got a frittelli di riso and it was so yum. My one roommate, Caitlyn is a career student about to get her culinary degree as a pastry chef so she was able to tell us how you make the tasty treat, which was really cool to learn about. The general point is that there is rice, custard, orange flavor, and other good noms balled up and fried. Oh and then lightly sprinkled with unrefined sugar! You wouldn't wanna eat them often for your colons sake, but they are a good treat once and a while. Then we headed to this massive park called Parco delle Casine. We just ventured around, there is a lot going on. The typical trees, grass, benches area. In addition there is a community pool, tennis courts, and pavement for biking or roller blading. Next we trekked over the river to the Pitti Palace to visit the famous Boboli Gardens. Beautiful!! Unfortunately, a storm was approaching fast so we had to cut our visit short. Overall though, a great day full of walking, adventures, good conversation, and yummy food. Tonight, dinner at home and just hanging out.

A dutch angle shot of the Basilica di Santa Croce

Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace

A beautiful fountain inside the Boboli Gardens