Cinue Terre: five lands

July 16-19, 2009 – Cinque Terre: a much needed relaxing weekend

 

We had a free weekend and after much debacle between Pompeii and Cinque Terre, I decided on Cinque Terre. Pompeii would have been amazing, but I had way too much fun in Florence so Cinque Terre was a much more affordable option! We found some campsite to stay at on Thursday night, which was sweet! It was a tarp about three twin beds wide, and that’s about it. No, that is it. They were the most comfortable beds though! And it was really cool to sleep and hear nature without getting bug-bitten. That sounded really granola-ish… We went immediately to the beach when we got there and swam and watched the sun set. It was beautiful! The boys stayed on the beach at some bar and got tanked, but most of the girls went home. It was like two and a half miles from the beach to the campsite, and our bus was the last one home. Getting drunk and stumbling two and a half miles didn’t sound like a grand idea. We went back and showered and had a glass of wine while looking at the stars. You can see the stars so clearly here; it is amazing! We heard English words so we said, “Americans?” and it turned out to be these really bad ass Aussies! It was Nick, Paul, and George. I asked where Ringo and John were, but to no avail. Anyhoo they sat there and kicked it with us for a while and we were all going hiking through the five towns the next day and all agreed to go together. The next day we had to switch hotels to a main island in Cinque Terre and it was a mess! None of our guys were man enough to go with us on the hike so it was five OU girls and the three Aussies. The Aussies went with us and were totally chill through all of it. We got situated and set off for the hike! Some guy told us to go on the number 2 path because the number 1 was really hard, so we obliged. The path from Riomaggiore (first town) to Manarola (second town) was paved and extremely easy so we were a little let down and thought it would just be a long walk. Once we got to Manarola we found a more secluded beach and hopped in, found some cliffs, and jumped. I love jumping off things, preferably into water though. It was great! After a refreshing swim, we hiked to the third town, Corniglia. The hike to Corniglia was a little more difficult. There was no more pavement. It was all uneven and a real hike. We were kind of glad to actually have a challenge, but it was pretty difficult! Corniglia wasn’t really that eventful so we just marched on through to Vernazza. The hike to Vernazza was a bitch!! It was straight up hill. Some tunnel we were supposed to go through was blocked, so we just hiked up and over the mountain. Once you climb the stairs, you climb more wilderness. Given that I haven’t worked out in, literally, years, it was friggin difficult. I was really uncomfortable, but once you get to the top it is an amazing view and a great feeling of accomplishment. We finally made it to Vernazza and stopped to refuel with some protein….and gelato. Duh. I think we took a little too long of a break because getting back into the climb was awful. The hike from the fourth to fifth towns (Vernazza to Monterosso) is the most brutal one. Apparently they get progressively harder. It was a rough hike, but at the end it was awesome. We just ran straight to the ocean and jumped in. It was a really hard, but great day. We went to a nice dinner, hung out by the harbor a little bit, and went to bed. I was pooped! I was SORE on Saturday morning. Some people wanted to go hiking again, but I said f that. A couple of girls and I went down to the ‘beach’ aka rocks by the sea, and tried to go in but it was a red flag day. No bueno. We found a cool rock place to post up on and stayed there for about five or six hours. It was a total ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’ moment. Just four chicks laying out and having a good time on some rocks by the sea. It was a fabulous day and exactly what I needed after hiking my ass off on Friday. We tried to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner, but the trains are screwy and we couldn’t get there in time. We found a restaurant with outside dining overlooking the sea and asked for a table, but none were available at the time. He said wait 15 minutes and pointed up. We saw this little balcony with one table and four chairs. Score! While we were waiting for the table some kid came up and heard us speaking English and asked us how we deciphered the menu. When we just told him to flip the page to the English side and he felt a little silly. He ended up being really cool though! He was an LSU law student just finishing a study abroad trip in France who got to Cinque Terre before his friends so we invited him to dinner with us. They made room for all five of us on the balcony and we had an amazing dinner while the sun set. Talk about a perfect evening! We stayed in touch with the Aussies and they came to the town we were eating in and we saw them wandering aimlessly and called them up to the balcony and just had our own little thing upstairs. It was a great night. We went back to our little town for a drink and a farewell to the boys we met and ended up finding the rest of our group. Kind of a chill night and off to bed. When we were leaving Cinque Terre the next day I saw Pisa as a stop and a few of us decided to go see it. When you hear people say it is anticlimactic, they are right. We took a bus out there and saw it. It’s really leanin. It does have more of a lean than you would think, so that was cool I guess. It was worth the Euro and the hour to cross it off the list of things to do before I die. The best thing about it was all of the tourists posing with it! I mean I gave in. It was too fun not to, but there were some goofy people there. We had fun. We headed back to Arezzo to work on some great homework!! Poop. It was an awesome weekend though. We got to camp, hike, relax, and meet some really great people. I love Cinque Terre too! It was such a relaxing and outdoorsy place. Weekend: successful!

Monnalisa and Il Borro

July 15, 2009 – I found my new job AND the man of my dreams in the same day!

 

Corporate visit part duex! We had another set of corporate visits and the first was to a high end children’s clothing line called Monnalisa. We got to meet the founder and he was the coolest guy! We have been reading about these great entrepreneurs in all of our case studies and to actually see one in the mix was really encouraging. He started out telling us about how he traveled extensively as a young guy and was super rebellious and kind of lost until he saw the Mona Lisa. He said he sat there all day and watched all the people go by and (he started talking fast so I couldn’t understand fully) he wanted to make something or do something and he saw a need for nicer children’s clothing so he filled that need. He started out just buying pieces in France and London and replicating them for children (mainly girls), but when his wife came along ten years later she began to design the clothing and make it more unique which really launched the brand. It was a little weird that an older dude wanted to make little girls clothing, but he more so noticed the need in the market and combined that with wanting to make something artistic from what I gathered. He was such a fascinating and animated guy! Also, all of the clothes are machine washable, which I though was a huge selling point for this type of clothing. After hearing about the business, touring the production lines and taking pictures in his office with him, he took us to one of his guest houses where they house people coming in to buy the clothes. It was this beautiful estate slightly outside of Arezzo on a nice plot of land with a pool where people come, stay, and buy lots and lots of clothes. He took a couple of the guys from the factory to the estate in his Maserati and they enjoyed that quite a bit. He was such a great person for us to see. He had a lot of passion for what he was doing, great brand pride and vision, and is a true entrepreneur from the ground up. It was a great experience. They also have internships, which I am going to talk to some one about doing because I would love to be a part of the company and possibly open one in Dallas. They are looking at opening a store there, but want some one else to do the legwork. I’m interested to see what the legwork is and would be willing to put in the work to do it. This may be all poppycock, but it is fun poppycock. Piero, the owner of the company, wanted us to stay for lunch but we had to leave and go to the winery we were touring next. Salvatore Ferragamo Jr (original Ferragamo’s grandson) wanted to open a winery. He basically sunk $30 million into a winery that makes $200,000 in revenues per year. It was a very nice facility and very good wine, but an example of why third generation business owners typically piss away money and it was a good lesson in how to watch your costs and pay attention to the market for things, etc. It was also a good lesson in Italian wines and we got to try some good wines and had really yummy hors d’oeurves. Typically I’m more of a cabernet person, but their chardonnay was actually my favorite of the three wines they produce. My favorite part though, was Salvatore Ferragamo Jr coming out to greet us! He is a taller man with dark hair, blue eyes, tan, well dressed, probably too cocky for his own good, and had a little dog named Nikita with him. He was pretty much perfect. I got a picture with him. It was great! After a good little wine tasting we tipsily headed back to Arezzo. It was probably my favorite day so far. High end clothing and wine in one day? Heaven!  I just love Italy. 

FLORENCE!

July 9^th – 12^th, 2009 – Firenze: the city I looooove!

 

I love Florence. It’s just great. This sounds corny, but every city has a personality and I think mine aligns with Florence’s. It is big, but quaint. There are amazing museums, views, shopping, nightlife, great food. There is nothing this city doesn’t have (save air conditioning, wtf?). Anyways, Friday we went to Florence and started out with the David. It seemed like a big statue that I thought would be cool just because of how well known it is, but it was so much more than that. The thing is 17 feet tall! The sheer size of it is unreal. The depiction of a human in marble is incredible when it is right in front of you. Kirk told us about the criticisms and their defenses, but the structure is just amazing. Got a couple pics, one of his perfect buttocks, once again breaking the law but whatev. Every work we have seen just more impresses me of Michelangelo. Both his art and his business sense are just incredible. He loved money and he made LOTS of it. He was also a cook, so make of it what you will. After the David we headed to the Medici to see the family’s mausoleum. Once again, I witnessed the amount of work that goes into honoring the dead. It was a gorgeous mausoleum. We saw some of Michelangelo’s later statue work in there and he starts to get a little more abstract (more cooky), but it was cool to see after his previous work. The chronology allowed us to see him progress which was really interesting. I’ve never been a huge art buff, but this trip has made me appreciate it quite a bit more! We broke for lunch and checked into our hostel. I really wanted to stay in the city for the weekend because we were going back with the main group on Sunday, but I wanted to just chill and enjoy the city (shop) for a day and just enjoy it sans itinerary. About 10 others wanted to stay too, so we basically booked the entire hostel for the weekend. Our section of the hostel had a really cool fresco on the ceiling, which was fun to wake up to. We had a kitchen and a lot of space and an awesome location. Shwing! Found an awesome sandwich shop and gelato, duh, before meeting up with the group to climb the duomo! Now, last time I climbed the duomo I was working out about 5 times a week and I remembered that it was kind of a tough climb. 466 steps and three years of not working out later, it was HARD! The view at the top was amazing though. You cant go to Florence and miss that view. You would be a reh-tard (Hangover reference). Luckily I take lots of pictures, so I stopped periodically to “take pics” (right, more like catch my breath). The downside is it is really small up there so you have to share and go down in a reasonable amount of time. Bummer. I would have loved to just sit up there and read, or hell just look at the city. There’s like eight sides to that thing, eight views! Our professor, Jim, promised his daughters gelato for making it to the top, so we asked why we didn’t get any for scaling the church. Round two for gelato! (Hey, I climbed almost 500 stairs it was justified) We were supposed to go to another museum, but time was short given our dinner reservations, so he treated us to a glass of some real Italian wine I didn’t catch the name of! I don’t really care for whites, but it was pretty decent. Dinner was huge. First course was cantaloupe and prosciutto. The cantaloupe was great! Not a huge prosciutto fan. The first course was followed by caprese, which was followed by literally SIX whole pizzas. We were sitting at a table of six. That’s like one pizza per person. It was brutal. All of the pizza’s were really good though, so I didn’t mind the food baby that followed. We said farewell to the lame-os going back to Arezzo and prepared for a night out on the town. And a night out on the town we had! We got some wine and the boys got some liquor and the preparty began. The night ended with some club in Florence and we weasled (foolishly paid) our way into VIP where the guys all passed out on the couch and the girls danced on our table. Sorry mom. BUT it was either that or be groped by Italians, we chose the lesser of two evils. It was a great night. Very ridiculous. Surprisingly the next morning we were all fully functional, except a couple of the boys, so we went out in the town and shopped all day. Two of the other girls and I went to the markets mainly and bargained our way into some awesome gifts, both for others and ourselves. There was a storm rolling in so it was really cool that day, which was much appreciated. We all met back up for dinner and found a cool place on the Arno River to eat dinner. It wasn’t cheap, but it was totally worth it. We all needed a good meal after a night of debauchery and our group is really fun (both the entire Arezzo group and the people who stayed in Florence), so it was nice to sit there for a couple of hours and just hang out. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a good long while. We decided to check out the Ponte Vecchio (really famous/pretty bridge..google it) after dinner and found a guy playing guitar, one man band kind thing. We just sat there and kicked it. It was a really great and relaxing night. We met up with the group Sunday morning at the Bargello and saw more works of Michelangelo. We continued to the Uffizi where I fell in love with Botticelli. We saw the Birth of Venus and I got another illegal pic! I’m all about those illegal pics of famous artworks and it will karmically (is that a word?) come back to bite me in the ass, but I like it so whatev. Saw some more artwork and was in amazement of the whole place then left for lunch. I really want to go back to Florence and spend a day in the Uffizi to fully appreciate everything in there. After lunch we went to the church of Santa Croce to see Michelangelo’s tomb, then to another church on the opposite side of town to see where some monks used to live (this is the part of the day where I feel the pain of the weekend and stop paying attention, regrettably so), and check out a square with some amazing renaissance architecture. The square has a hospital that has been there for hundreds of years and is the starting point of the ‘safe place’ for kids. There was a lazy susan that unwanted children, for whatever reason, were placed on and the nuns would take them in and raise them as nuns or monks. Our professor’s wife place their three children on there and I got a good chuckle. No worries, she collected them before we boarded the bus. We went back to Arezzo and had a nice dinner on the balcony of some really good restaurant. There was a jazz festival in Arezzo that weekend, so a couple of us went and checked it out after dinner and it was really great! There was some jazz band from a California college that was really good! It was a really great weekend and I’m glad we got to say in Florence. Although it is really touristy, I would love to live there some day. It is just a great city. This entire experience has been completely remarkable, but this weekend put the nail in the coffin that I love it here and want to return frequently if not permanently. Viva Firenze!

PS My camera won't upload pics to the compooter for some reason, but if I can get it to work pics are on the way!

July 8th, 2009 – I wanna go Fast!

Two vodka tonics make me sleep like a baby. I woke up completely refreshed and ready for our field trip. It was a three-hour bus ride to Bologna and everyone pretty much slept, but I read that damn novel. It turned out to be a really good book. It’s called The E-Myth and was really interesting! I had a hard time reading it though, because the Tuscan countryside is GORGEOUS and I was extremely distracted. We finally arrived in Italy’s motor city to begin our tours. The first stop was Pagani and was my favorite. It is a small shop and they make luxury sports cars worth upwards of a million Euro. I don’t really get into cars, but seeing the shop was pretty neat. Daddy Pagani’s son walked through while we were there and he is a very attractive young man. I tried to scheme ways to drop my number/email, but no luck. Damn. After some cool pictures with some cool cars we headed to Ferrari. We couldn’t see the factory, but we got to get some lunch (we wondered if it would be FAST food, hahaha) and see the museum. Our tour guide REALLY loves racing cars and bikes and their history. I REALLY don’t love racing cars and bikes and their history. The cars were cool to look at, and I got some pretty great pics, but was kind of ready to go haha. We continued on to Ducati. Ducati was really cool too! We got to go see their factory (sorry Keenan, tried to steal a bike but they’re super strict about those matters), and their museum. Our tour guide was considerably better there and I got to learn a lot about Ducati. They started out making radios and telephones. Ha! The museum curator/marketing director came and talked to us for a while about the industry and we got to learn a lot about Italy and fast cars and bikes and such. Vroom. I ended up with some pretty sweet posters of cars. Bonus! We headed back to Arezzo around six after another long day of touring. I got my first Kebab when we got back and it was delicious! I love the Kebabs over here. So damn good! A couple of us caught up on Weeds season 5 and went to bed early. Pretty good day over all!

July 4th- 7th, 2009 – Independence day in a foreign country and a little bit of Homesick. Bleh.

It was time to leave the big city and head to Arezzo where we would be staying for the month. On the way out we stopped by the Borghese to see some great art by Carvaggi (?) and appreciate some sculptures that rich people in Rome acquired in the past. At this point I had been being a tourist for quite some time so I was kind of over it. Regrettably over it, but over it none the less. It was a beautiful museum and the house was really elaborate and had gorgeous gardens. No one lived in the house, they just used it for parties, but it was very opulent. Not necessarily the Biltmore, but very over the top! After the Borghese, off to Arezzo! I passed OUT on the bus. I love sleeping on buses. It always just knocks me out and I feel so refreshed when I wake up. Anyhoo, we finally got to Arezzo and checked into the convent. The group was pretty much divided in half. The dudes and a couple girls went to one side of the convent, and the rest of the girls were taken up to a different part of the convent. I was pretty bummed we would be so far away from everyone until I saw the rooms. They share really awkward bathrooms with each other, and we have our own per two people! Ours were recently renovated and are super duper nice and have internet, and theirs don’t. We totally scored! We went to Kirks house for a good ol’ American grill out to celebrate the fourth. He has the cutest little boys that we played with for a little while. They both speak fluent English and Italian and are learning French. I felt like an idiot. These five and seven year olds are borderline trilingual and I can barely speak English. It was a pretty good little cookout, and afterward we headed to Arezzo’s one bar to celebrate in the style of ‘Merica. After a few cocktails we heard popping outside, ran out, and it was fireworks!! There is a guy here from Chicago who runs a performing arts school and apparently puts on fireworks every year. Fireworks are my favorite, and I was really bummed to be out of the country on the fourth, so this made my night! The next day, homesickness set in REALLY bad. I wanted ice cubes. I wanted AC. I wanted a real freaking pillow/queen size bed. I wanted Dr. Pepper. I wanted SVU/House/Travel Channel. I wanted my best good friends and family. I realized I left my camera on the bus, converter blew on roommate’s hairdryer, and the fun touristy part of the trip was over. We had about 60 pages to read for Monday’s class, and reality was eating my lunch. I was pretty unhappy for a bit, but talking to some people back home made it a little better. Monday sucked too. Once we got to class we learned that the curriculum was for Harvard MBA students (two courses mind you), and we were expected to do well in it in three weeks. Wtf?! After being assigned about 70-80 more pages to read and  questions to answer in less than 24 hours, and a novel to read by two weeks from then, I wanted to kick some one. Hard. Went straight back to the monastery to begin work and finally finished around 10. Working in groups really helped. The fact that we all wanted to kill him helped too. Misery loves company! I took a couple of breaks, but pretty much worked straight through from 1-10. Some vacation.. When we got to class the next day, we learned that that was our hardest day so far. Everything else would be a little more spaced out. Thank god! We discussed the cases, which was really fun. It is a class where we read about problems with new businesses and decide what we would do in their situation. The cases are from real people’s ventures and we aren’t allowed to look on google to see that they actually did. It gets pretty frustrating, but it is fun to work out all the problems and hear everyone’s different ways of dealing with the situations. This is basically all class is. Arguing, Jim playing devil’s advocate, more arguing. Oddly enough, it is really fun. I was still feeling pretty blue after class, but as the day progressed things got a little better. We hung out with a foreign exchange dude at OU who told me about a friend of his in Arezzo so I met up with her for lunch. I love her! They have exams right now so we wont be able to hang out much, but I had a great afternoon with her, She brought some friends from Uni and we all talked and walked around while they told me more about Arezzo and asked questions about Americans. It definitely lifted my mood! We had a corporate visit the next day to Pagani, Ducati, and Ferrari and no stinking reading to do, so we hit up that bar again! Wasn’t a crazy night or anything, but we were all getting to know each other better so it was a fun night to just hang out with everyone, I used my iPhone (still doesn’t work over here!!) and was DJ for the walk home and it was a pretty fun night!

July 2nd and 3rd 2009 - Ancient Rome and the Vatican City

We were meeting our group at noon, so we checked out of the hotel around 10:30 to drop our bags at the new hotel and get some breakfast before our tour of ancient Rome. Wrong. On the paper it said our new hotel was on Via delle Fornari. Wrong. After walking in circles for literally an hour, we hopped in a cab and showed him the hotel (which he had to call), and he figured out it was on the other side of Rome on Via delle FornaCi. Notice the C in the word. Typos are a bitch! We got there a little late and our prof’s wife had to come back and get us. Oops. We only missed about 20 minutes of discussion about precautions in Italy, thieves, etc. so we were good! OU has a professor on their payroll who lives in Arezzo (45 min south of Florence and our place of residence for the month), that is a PhD in Art History and he shows us around everywhere. His knowledge and delivery of information is incredible! I’ve never gained such an appreciation for art and history as he helped us see. The first place we visited was the Pantheon. He informed us of the architecture style and how these monuments were built before the person of honor’s death in order to provide tribute to their lives, basically a reiteration of what we learned in Greece. The Pantheon is the resting place of Raphael. The construction is amazing. It was built in the first or second century AD and is in spectacular condition. He explained how these places hold the heart of the city and the hole in the roof opens it up to what is going on on the inside. If it rains outside, it rains in the pantheon, snows outside, snows in the pantheon, etc. His explanation was a lot better, but I’m tired and that was a few days ago so that is the gist of it. After the Pantheon we walked down to the Forum by way of a couple of excavations. Rome is similar to Greece in that any time anyone starts digging they are likely to find some ancient civilization and have to excavate it. We saw a couple examples of how cities were just built on top of cities and the different city levels over the years. It was pretty neat. The forum was also very interesting. Everything in the entire town was contained in an area slightly larger than a football field. Law, religion, market, justice, all in a central area. Housing was outside the forum, but it was cool to see how ancient cities were organized. Post Forum we headed to the Coliseum. The Coliseum is massive! Erosion included, this place was cool. Our guide, Kirk, referred a lot to the term ethnocentrism in Rome. It is basically the ripple effect in water that there is a center and everything flows out from it like the ripples from water when a stone is dropped into it. The coliseum was no exception. The Emperor sits at the center in the front row closest to the action, and the closer you are to him the more important you are to Roman society. I wouldn’t mind going back there and taking one of those lame headphone guided tours so I can learn more about it. By that time we had walked from the Vatican to the Coliseum, and I don’t know if anyone knows anything about Rome but it’s basically trekking the entire city. I needed a nap and my attention was limited. Once we left the Coliseum we decided to walk back and enjoy the streets of Rome. Rain. Lots and lots of rain. About half way back it started POURING. Kirk said it does this every now and then and to just wait it out for a couple of minutes and we would be fine. About ten minutes later it started hailing. It hails in Rome?! We stood under the stoop for about 20 minutes before noticing the nearby cab that had been sitting there the whole time and took that home. Best 2 euro I’ve ever spent. After cleaning up and drying off the group had an authentic Italian dinner and it was fantastic! First course was bruschetta, then some amazing penne type pasta with pink sauce, unidentifiable meat we ended up giving to one of the boys, and a lemon-type cake. It was all very tasty. Being that it was our first night together, we had to go out and celebrate! We found this place called ‘The Drunken Ship’ where they had beer pong tables set up. Shwing! House rules were pretty similar, but the losing team has to buy the winning team a pitcher. Needless to say it was stiff competition. Two of the guys formed a team and played something like eleven games that night undefeated. People in our group were trying to demolish them, foreigners were trying to kill them, and it was not possible. Bummer. The next morning we started at the Vatican to explore the excavation of St. Peter’s bones. We went into the main underneath of St. Peter’s Basilica and saw the graves of dead popes (kind of creepy, they’re actually in there), and our tour guide informed us of how the excavations came about. I don’t want to give too much away because it is kind of a mystery tour type thing and ends up being really neat, but here is a tidbit of info that I though was neat. First of all, you go down this narrow stairway before entering the excavation and they tell you it is climate controlled, don’t touch, bla bla bla. I’m thinking the stairway is a little tight and we need to get in there when I realize we are already about a story underground and going deeper. She then brings up that people who are claustrophobic might have issues with the tour. Guess who’s a little claustrophobic! I think it is more the being underground, 2000 ton church on top of you feeling that bothered me, but I was concerned. I went ahead and warned her that it may be an issue. So lame, but whatev. Once we got in there we saw that it has pretty high ceilings and while it is small, it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be. Bitch. Apparently St. Peter was buried there before it was an actual mausoleum, so it is a big Pagan cemetery. Families were buried in full rooms in both caskets and urns, depending on post-mortem treatment. The detail people went into to honor their families and show honor to their dead was really cool. I guess Nero (I think) didn’t see much of this site and just built over it completely and built whatever his crazy head wanted to on top. After this Constantine, trying to rebuild Rome, built more on top so you can see the differences in brick laying and architecture when you compare it all vertically. It was pretty interesting. Also, ancient Roman masons had stamps on their bricks telling the time period so excavations told a lot more than they normally would and that is how they have gathered a lot of information. Now there is a monument constructed in front of St. Peter’s grave and they keep telling you about the monument and what cardinal directions you are facing while underground and it is very hard to follow, but important that you do. I will say though, that when you see St. Peters bones it completely catches you off guard where you are and was probably my favorite part of the tour. Don’t expect much, but you can see remains. I’m not a religious person per say, but it was a really profound place to be. I don’t even know if profound is the right word, but there was something about it down there. We went back upstairs and saw more recent Pope’s graves before leaving St. Peters. I didn’t know you cant take pics, so I took one of the most recent pope’s grave and got reprimanded. Oopsies, but hey I got the pic and he can’t delete it! You’re welcome mom. We went for a bite to eat after our long morning (probably a two hour tour), and continued on to the Vatican museum. Once again, I’ve never had a huge appreciation or knowledge for art. It’s not that I’ve ever disliked it or never been to a museum, I guess the information just hasn’t been presented in an interesting enough fashion for me to care too much. Kirk (OU guy), has a really relatable way of telling us about the ancient works that shows you the importance so he picked out some great Raphael and Michelangelo pieces to tell us about. Michelangelo was not too fond of Raphael. At all. He said he was underworked and oversexed. Ha! Regardless, they were both great artists and seeing so many of their works was really impressive. He also showed us the Laocoon (sp?), and told us about some Greek history. About an hour and a half into the museum and three hours past lunch and a liter of water later, another girl and I had to use the little girls room! We decided that we would sneak off and go to the restroom really quick and meet back up with the group in a minute. We had these little headsets where Kirk would speak and we could all hear him, so we thought we could use that as a guide. We could not use that as a guide. A little bit away from them the reception was lost and so were we. Turns out the bathrooms were farther than the guard had suggested and we were lost for about 15 minutes. Oops. We finally met up with the group literally right before the Sistine Chapel. It was close! I always thought the Sistine chapel was just the two fingers touching, and for some reason thought it was circular. Wrong! It is a series of events from the bible in great detail, and the last judgment is depicted on the front wall. Once again, no pics allowed. Once again, you’re welcome mom. Got one! It’s something everyone definitely needs to do once in their life. Ironically, our day at the Vatican was my favorite. Once we left the museum and went to St. Peter’s Basilica (the inside this time, not underneath), and walked around for about an hour. I got to see the Pieta and rub St. Peter’s foot for good luck and got some really great shots inside the Basilica. We were supposed to go in the morning after our excavation tour, but due to its’ length we went in the afternoon. It turned out to be better that way because we got to see a mass that was going on that day. They still have regular mass at St. Peters! It was really neat to be in there during that, given that I was raised catholic and know the importance. We finished up in Rome with a group dinner, which was very entertaining. Our class professor, Jim, has a daughter who is about six or seven and is hilarious! She gave us her evil eye and face and told us some awesome kindergarten jokes. It was one of my more enjoyable meals on the trip. Her two front teeth are gone and she is adorable. We told her a few jokes and on one of them she had just eaten peas, laughed, and shot peas out of her gap. It was pretty damn cute/hilarious. After dinner we went down to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain. This made me realize that people in Rome like to congregate around water at night. I’m not kidding. Every fountain/river/body of water there was a body of people right there socializing. I don’t blame them because all the fountains and rivers are gorgeous, but it was a little surprising. We walked back to the hotel by way of the market and saw a lot of American license plates, including some from Oklahoma and Texas. Ha! It was a long day, and I was exhausted so we went home and poured ourselves into bed for a long nights rest. I loved Rome. I don’t know that I could ever live there or visit too frequently, but it is a great place with a lot to see and do. Very successful and tiring two days!

June 28 - July 2, 2009 – The recovery and the interim

Mykonos was NUTS. There is no other way to describe it. The island itself doesn’t have much to do other than party and lay out. Needless to say, when we got back to Athens we were beat. We had a relaxing day in the hotel room watching 30 Rock and recovering from our crazy Mykonos adventure. For dinner we walked around, found a cool place, and did a little shopping. It was just the relaxing evening we all needed to recover. In the morning, after a LONG night’s sleep, we left Greece (tear) for Rome. Now, I’ve flown a lot in my lifetime and the flight to Rome was hands down the most turbulent I have ever been on. I did get some air on one of the bumps though. That was kind of fun. We found our hostel, got a bite to eat, and enjoyed free wine night at our hostel with some other kids staying there. We met some from Kansas, California, London, and some Canadians. After a considerable amount of wine (don’t platy circle of death with wine), we headed out to a bar. It was a pretty laid back night but we had a good time and met a lot of cool people. Random side note: we have met the most random and interesting people on this trip! We ran into a couple of guys from UT, USC, and met an Italian who loved hanging out with us. The following evening, after a lazy day of rest, we went to the guy we met from Italy’s, restaurant. He is just a server, but he showed us a really good meal and showed us around Rome that night. While sitting at dinner we saw a girl from OU that we know walking the streets and invited them to our table for a bit. Even in a huge city across the world, you run into people you know. It is a very small world. Also, walking around the city we run into people that we have met doing the same tours. On of the guys that we have seen and hung out with a lot, Garrett bought me a sweet Giraffe with sunglasses that sings and dances while we were at a bar one night. It was very kind of him. After a few good days of R&R we were ready to meet up with the group and really see Rome.

June 27, 2009 – Mykonos: best place to kill your liver

So we saw on the Travel channel that the number two beach for partying was Paradise island beach resort in Mykonos. We decided to go there for a night to check it out. The travel channel was correct. We arranged to have a bungalow with three beds and included private bathroom. It was literally three twin beds too close together and a 4x4 bathroom where the removable showerhead hung slightly above the toilet. After checking out the room, the only thing to do was to go to the beach. The Aegean sun is intense. I was applying SPF 30 like it was my job on those islands. After about four hours frying on the beach Phil and I decided to go in. After being on the beach for a little bit and derobing completely to fit in with the euro-sunbathers Grayson wanted to check out “super” paradise beach. He heard there was a party there during the day so he headed over to see what was going on. Turns out the party was dying and the limp-wristed party was beginning. He got hit on by a few gay men and ended up making friends with a girl who was on vacation with her boyfriend, but they realized they weren’t that fond of each other so this would be their last time together. Ha. Him befriending her paid off later though, because he missed the last boat out and she had her boyfriend take him back to our hotel. We were glad to see him back later that day. All day they had been advertising a DJ called ‘Hedkandi’ that was playing at the club that night. We met some kids on the bus and ended up getting a table with them at the club and drinking heavily to put up with the ‘DJ’ or whatever that music was called. The kids we got the table with had just graduated high school so they were ready to party. While one was practically showering in red bull, the other was drinking candle wax from the tea-light on the table. I wish I were making this shit up. After watching these fools get ridiculous we figured we would be responsible older college students and drink all of the vodka so they wouldn’t. Grayson headed down to the beach once the sun came up and jumped in the ocean, and I woke up with my dress and sandals still on. I would say it was a successful evening. We checked out and got the hell off of that island. I’m glad we went, but it was an extended version of Cancun that I do not wish to revisit. 

June 26, 2009 - June 27, 2009 – The island of Paros

We woke up (on time too!) and headed down to the port to get our ferries. The only tickets left when we bought them were in the smoking section. While I do enjoy my cigarettes, the man at our table literally smoked an entire pack in the two and a half hours it took to get to the island of Paros. This is where we learned of MJ’s unexpected death. Billy Mays and Farrah Fawcett too? What a sad day L Needless to say, I was ready to get off the boat! The ferries are huge, by the way. They are really nice inside and you can walk around and get food or shop. Our hotel in Paros was AMAZING. We had a small kitchenette where Philip and I made tortellini for dinner, a pretty large room with three beds, and a balcony with the best view. It had a couch, chair, table, and breath-taking view. Most of the time in Paros was spent on a beach or on that balcony. Both days we went to different beaches pretty much all day and partied at night. Paros is a small island, but has big nightlife. There were two bars with two floors right next to each other sharing a big courtyard. They were packed with people and 9 euro drinks. We had a great time. We ran into two guys from Cyprus and ended up climbing out on some rocks for some chillaxing and talking. We tried to meet back up with them in Athens, but it did not work out. Greek people live on a very different schedule than us. Dinner is around 9 or 10, and they go out around 130 or 2. Both nights we went out we didn’t go to the bars until around 130 and didn’t get home until about 5. Party party party! It was nice getting home that late though because you can just eat some snacks on the balcony and wait for the sunrise before going to bed. I wish we could have stayed on Paros longer. It was a really nice island. It was the perfect mix of relaxing and craaaazy nightlife. We also met some really fun girls that were staying in the apartments next to our hotel. They were from Athens and one of their dads is a famous singer in Greece! When his song came on at the bar she jumped up on the bar and it was really fun. She also got us into a really nice club in Paros where I took a picture around 430 from an elevated surface and you can see the club is still PACKED. Good times were had. I love Paros and fully intend on going back, hopefully sooner rather than later.

June 25, 2009 – Athens history lesson!

So Philip has a third or fourth aunt/cousin/relative in Athens that helped us plan our trip and made this whole experience much more enjoyable than it could have been. She met us around 9:30 in the morning and took us down to the metro. The metro is basically a subway, but they are so clean and not scary! Athens has really cool metros because when they dig into the ground the always find ancient artifacts and things. They put what they find on display in the metro so every station is a mini-museum. Tre cool. We walked around that for a minute and she helped us get acquainted with the system. After this we went up to Parliament to watch the changing of the guard. I have pictures. It was mildly humorous. I hate to say that about a government ritual that is so highly regarded, but their routine is just silly. They wear a uniform with funny little black puff balls on their shoes and do some weird kick when the walk. It was entertaining. We proceeded to the Benaki museum for a quick trip through ancient Greek history. The Benaki museum is the largest personal collection of Greek artifacts in and was donated by Mr. Benaki to make this really nice museum. It takes you through the Cycladic period, Renaissance period, and one of more recent (by recent I mean the past couple hundred years) periods. It was an hour lesson of about 2000+ years of Greek history. I would have liked to spend more time there! It was especially interesting because of the course I took on freedom in Greece. They had a lot of helmets and armor from the hoplites of the Greek army. Very neat! The jewelry in the museum was incredible. It was all very intricate and elaborate. I go with a ‘less is more’ approach to jewelry, but this was beautiful. They also had a lot of paintings in the museum that were really good. She was telling us how a lot of Greek painters moved to Venice and into Italy so a lot of that time periods Greek and Italian art overlaps. She also informed us that if it weren’t for the Turkish invasion of Greece the renaissance period never would have happened. Apparently at the time there were a lot of scholars and well educated people, but upon Turkish occupation they fled and spread their knowledge. That might not be completely accurate, I was told this story a week ago, but that is the gist of it. From the top of the Benaki you can see into the facility where the guys in the change of the guard practice their little dance/routine. We proceeded to go down to the port to pick up our tickets for the ferries to the islands. We thought the ticket pickup would be quick and the port wasn’t that big. Wrong. It is a chaotic massive port and we would have been lost without His aunt’s help. When we got down there the ticket machine was in Greek and our ferry was in the afternoon. His aunt printed our tickets and talked to the agents to get our ticket switched to the morning ferry…7:30 AM. Woof. It turned out to be a godsend though because we got two full days on the island of Paros. Paros is my new favorite place in the world, but more on that later. We went back into downtown Athens after leaving the port and has a bite to eat in the agora (marketplace) at Monestariki. It was a large square with lots of shops and restaurants and action. We ate souvlaki, which is gyro meat on a pita served with onions and tomatoes and some sauce. Quite tasty. We then headed to the agora beneath the acropolis and saw a lot of artifacts in the Roman part of the acropolis, saw the temple of Hephaistos (5^th century BC) which is the most well preserved temple, and saw a couple of other ancient things that have been well preserved. She took us to the other side of the agora to where you can climb the acropolis and see the Parthenon and things. There is a museum now at the base that is really great. It just opened two days before we arrived, so we were unable to get tickets to see the museum, but we walked around the front of it and checked it out. The floor in the area leading up to the museum is kind of trippy because it is all thick glass cutouts that display what is underneath. When they started digging they found the remains of an ancient civilization and they are displayed beneath the glass. We left Phil’s aunt for the day after this portion of the tour. She could not have been more helpful, informative, amazing, saint-like and we really appreciated that. Now to climb the acropolis. This was at about 5 PM so the heat was pretty rough. Totally worth it though. It is a pretty tough climb because it is steep and very tall. Also, the rocks there are stepped over by millions of people per year so they are very slick. We got to the top and walked around for a while. The size of the Parthenon was very impressive. Another couple of history lessons we got were about the war with the Turks and the German/Greece portion of WW1. In WW1 Hitler thought Greece would be a pushover so he left them to the Italians. It took the Italians 6 months before Hitler intervened and pretty much destroyed Greece. While it was a defeat, the Greek hold up set Hitler’s troops back 6 months so they were unprepared for the rest of the war. Go Greece go! Also in the war between the Turks and the Italians the Turks used the Parthenon as an arms base and the Italians shot numerous firearms and missiles at the base destroying most of the Parthenon. After this the Turks and the Brits took a lot of what was in the Parthenon, which is why it is so deteriorated. Interesting stuff! After the acropolis hike, we were walking down the slick steps and I ate it. Ouch. I have a sweet bruise on my forearm, but I think my pride was hurt more than my ass/hands/arm. We got to eat dinner with Phil’s cousin and he showed us some really great Greek seafood and liquor. I don’t remember the name of the liquor (not because I was hammered, it was just complicated), but we ate shrimp, calamari, sardines, and some black dot fish I couldn’t pronounce. It was all really good, and I figured out I do like seafood! For dessert we got two dessert liquors and then walked around Athens for a little while. We went to some bar in Koloniki (very ritzy part of Athens) called city that was a little too posh for my taste. We finally made it home around 330, which was good considering we had a 530 wake up call to make it to our ferry. Woof. All in all it was an informative and fun day. 

June 24, 2009 – Journey to Greece

This was a great day. We flew into Athens. Had a very interesting meal on the plane. It was some kind of Greek cheese and ham with a little caprese salad, stuffed grape leaf, and some tortilla wrapped up with a fishy smelling meat and cream cheese. I did not eat the suspicious smelling roll up. Everything else was really good! European airlines sure are nice. From the airport we had to take a bus into downtown Athens. Europeans aren’t really big on seated transportation, so it was an hour of standing and holding on to a pole, my backpack, and 50 lb duffle. Naturally I ended up flying into a little old Greek man. Very graceful. Once we found our hotel we got cleaned up and went for dinner. Now, the streets in Greece were designed to confuse the pirates when they were chasing people through the streets. Consequently, they confuse tourists. Our hotel receptionist dude (who has a great sense of humor) took us to the Plaka for dinner. We ate outside at a little taverna. We wanted some authentic Greek meal, but once we realized that we could understand the language around us at all the tables we knew we were at a very touristy eating establishment. We just told the man what kind of meat we wanted and he surprised us. I was surprised with chicken covered in a thicker longer rice and melted cheese over the top served with French fries. Yum… Anyhoo, it was a cool place to sit because there was a lot of outdoor dining and people in the streets. After dinner we walked around Athens for a couple of hours. It is huge and very confusing. We stumbled upon parliament which is huge and has a really nice courtyard with a fountain and people selling fake goods (purses, sunglasses, bootlegged DVDs, etc). The courtyard is all marble and is very pretty. Speaking of marble, there is a really cool graffiti painting across the street from our hotel talking about the marble in Athens. I guess the Brits just took a lot of marble pieces from Athens and Greece wants them back. England said they would loan the marble back for a steep price, but ultimately they would want it back. They stole it though! Weird little debacle. After this we roamed around a bit more.  We ended up at a little outdoor restaurant that had a big Greek men’s band with authentic music. Very cool. It was a lot of clarinets and drum kind of things. We decided to try Ouzo. Ouzo is Greece’s pride and joy. They only make it on one island and it has an anise seed flavor. We had all been warned about its strength, so we proceeded with caution. We did not like the Ouzo! Anise seed is not the best flavor, so we just had a couple of beers. We walked around Athens afterward for another hour or so and then came back to the hotel. Pretty decent first day in Athens! 

June 23, 2009 – It begins

Today we left for Milan. It was a nine-hour flight. Pretty decent flight. British Air is a lot more hospitable than American! Got to watch Gran Torino, which was really good, and fell asleep in Twlight…twice. Once we got to Milan we went to our shanty of a Holiday Inn. 190 euro for one night. Middle of NOWHERE. We sat in the bar and had a drink around six because the restaurants don’t open until 7:30. Bummer. While we were there we met two German pilots and got to chatting. They are kind of contract pilots and fly when they are called out. Apparently they get to fly to some really cool places, but they can also get stuck in places like the middle of nowhere in Milan with us. Without a car, the group of us (Germans and Americans) walked down a major highway to the only restaurant in the area. It was a big pizzeria that looked like it turned into a nightclub/pub after dinner. The food was good and the Germans were very entertaining. The pizza I thought I ordered had cheese on it, the pizza I received had some kind of tomato sauce and olive oil put through the oven. Regardless, it was very good. We bought a bottle of wine at the restaurant and took it back to the hotel for enjoying. They let you take drinks with you out of the restaurant, like to-go style. It is weird, but surprisingly convenient. The wine and olive oil here are just fantastic. I want to bring some olive oil home with me but it is really hard to transport. Enough about Milan though, off to Greece!