This past week was definately the weirdest week I have had since being here. Many things happened last week while in Florence, nothing worth noting on the blog but I may select a few anecdotes to share with you, depending on who you are! However, the most important part of last week when I woke up on Monday morning, we getting it over with as quickly as possible to get to the weekend which I was to spend in SPAIN!
The official plan was to leave from Pisa Airport on Friday afternoon and fly to Barcelona to meet up with Mark and Marissa (another casa fiorentina person) who went on Thursday morning. I would spend Friday night and all of Saturday with them in Barcelona and then get myself to the airport to fly off to Madrid Sunday morning. Sunday would be spent in Madrid where I would meet up with my sister and her tour group (Conard High School April Break!) and do whatever they were up to for the day. I would go to the airport on Monday morning very early and fly back to Rome and train it back to Florence in time for my 1:30PM class up on campus! Let me tell you a story that ends with me sitting here typing this.
Thursday night I packed and had everything ready to go. Skpyed with the parents, etc and went to bed on the later side. I slept in a little bit on Friday morning, which was one factor in a larger problem. I went to the Florence train station to go to Pisa, and bought a ticket direct to the airport. However, there were no trains direct to the airport, one has to know that there is a transfer involved in Pisa to take a shuttle train over to the airport. I did not know this, and two trains heading for Pisa Centrale left without me before I figured this out. I got into Pisa Aeroporto stop about 40 minutes before my flight was leaving, and check in had closed. I asked ticketing if I could reschedule in any way, and they told me a few options that would never work. One was a 200 euro flight to a town in Spain that was not Barcelona or Madrid and the other one was an 800 euro flight that day to Madrid which would have worked if it werent 800 euro or to Madrid. Duh.
So I went outside and got back on the shuttle to go back to the train to go back to Florence. I eased the pain with some cous cous and gelato hahaa. In anycase, I booked a last minute ticket to Barcelona that was leaving from Rome Saturday afternoon and all of a sudden a fairly inexpensive trip become a 10 hour, $600 excursion to get to Barcelona just in time for dinner. I arrived in Barcelona after the four hour train to Rome (I had a great conversation with an Italian old lady on the train, she was very patient with my Italian and horrible mood), a one hour flight, a shuttle bus to the subway stop, and a 30 minute subway ride, and a 20 minute walk to Mark and Marissa’s hotel. They were out on a bike ride when got to the hotel, so I decided that I would explore before the sun went down in an hour. Where? Well I had no clue and didnt care at that point, so I made my final destination…DUNKIN COFFEE. In Spain, and only Spain, they have Dunkin Donuts! Except it is called Dunkin Coffee because of their limited menu and because it tested better as a brand name in Europe. They had a product called a Dunkachino, however it was not the same. After travelling all day, they could have given me anything in that cup, but the Boston Cream donut was fantastic! And I took lots of pictures in the store itself, it was so busy!
I did get to see a lot more of Barcelona either by accident or with help from Mark after we met up around 8PM. We went out to dinner and saw a few of the “Gude Buildings” which are trademarks of Spain’s archetecture, particularly Barcelona. He designed many buildings for the city in the early 1900s, according to Mark, and they are all very bizarre. One I saw was designed to look like a castle under the sea, it had barnacles, sea weed, and rock formations and everything! After dinner, which was cheap but decent food, Mark got a call from one of his friends who is studying in Barcelona for the semester. We went down and met up with her and her friends from Dartmouth and had a good time talking till late. Barcelona, especially in the downtown area, is not by any means a city that closes down early. There were TONS of people everywhere, eating out, drinking, shouting…it was very unlike Florence. I wish very much so that I had more time in Barcelona, and definately plan on taking a very cheap flight back in the Fall to see everything else it has to offer.
I did not bother sleeping, but went back to the hotel none the less to shower before leaving for Madrid. I had the front desk call me a taxi for 3:30 and went down at 3 to wait in the lobby and read. I was not alone! Two other english speakers were sitting on the otherside of the lobby when I got there, so I asked them what they were up to at this hour. They introduced themselves as Doctors, and that they were in Europe on business, heading to the airport to fly back to the USA. We decided splitting the taxi was a good idea, and had a very interesting conversation on the way there about lots of things. He wound up paying for the cab for me which was unbelievably appreciated, and he gave me his card when he wished my good luck with the rest of college! Its always funny how things happen.
I made the Madrid flight just fine, and got into Madrid around 8AM. I grabbed my unncessary luggage and went to find out how to get to my sister Emily’s hotel. She was staying at a Hotel that started with “Gran Via” and luckily there is a subway stop by the same name! The man told me how to get there, it involved a 40 minute subway ride over three seperate lines. Urgh!! I eventually made it to the stop and surfaced in Madrid!!! What a busy city, even on a sunday morning! And it was cold…spain, shouldnt it be warm?? Anyways, the real problem was that there were about 500 hotels within eye distance that were names Gran Via Something….so I called the number and discovered which one it was, of course the one I was standing under. Went inside and called up to Emilys room, she wasnt awake yet!
She came down stairs, but took enough time so that I could run across the street and get Starbucks (!!) and we hugged and talked for a while. She went to breakfast with her group upstairs, and I went out to get her some cash from her ATM card. We all gathered in the lobby at 11 (after I ate the largest orange in the entire world) and went to start the day. The first thing the teachers took us to was a never-ending outdoor market, which reminded me of ones they have in NYC sometimes. We did a little walking there but quickly got tired of walking with our wallets in our underwear to prevent them from being stolen, so we exited and went to see other things. I am so glad we did! Emily took me to see a few of the things they saw the day before, including an awesome view over modern Madrid, the old monarchy palace, and the King’s gardens. It was warm by then, and we had a lot of catching up to do after three months!
We met up back with her group around 2PM and did some last minute shopping at the market. We were allowed to go to lunch by ourselves, and Katie and Molly came with. We all went to Plaza del Mayor, which Samantha Brown features in her review of Madrid on the Travel Channel! It was a very loud and active square that was surrounded on all sides by very ornate apartment buildings. It reminded me of a square in Paris I saw two years ago! In one of the windows, a couple were spending the afternoon entertaining visitors in the square by putting on a play on their balcony (including costumes, props, etc)…it looked like Othello? Also, kids were all walking around with plastic trumpets….its a good thing lunch had an expiration date on it before an extremely fatigued Patrick killed one of them.
In the afternoon, we went down to see the large El Prado museum in Madrid, which is their answer to the Louvre. Very nice, the main exhibit was unfortunately under renovations but everything else was nice. The high schoolers were running on empty, as was I, so we decided to head out a little early after seeing all of the important things. The museum was free after five, so there wasnt much guilt! We grouped up again (the group was broken up into sub groups of 6, each with a team leader that had to report to Ms. DiPoi if everyone was there) and moved our way through downtown Madrid to dinner. Dinner was something else! All very good food, I had a pretty good starter and a great main of duck in mustard sauce! I offered at the end to pay for my portion of the bill, however they told me I could not, that I was their guest. Back at the hotel after dinner, Emily and I tried to go to the Dunkin Coffer down the street, but it was 11PM so they had closed. We said our goodbyes so I could maze myself back to the airport via subway before the system shut down at 12am.
Just a small thought: two years ago I was on a very similar trip at Emily, only in Paris and Italy with a group from CHS. It was so interesting seeing it from my new perspective! Lots of people asked questions about my time in Italy, and I wanted to answer them all without sounding too pompus or privledged for having been here in Europe for so long. I hope they all understood how easy (it should be) to fly from Florence to Madrid to spend the day, and that I wasnt bending over backwards to spend time with High schoolers to crash their party. i think they did?? In any case, it was lots of fun spending time with them all, and in a new European country. I thanks Ms. DiPoi and the other shaperones (including Mr. Melion?!?!) for hosting me.
At the aiport, my flight did not leave until 6:35AM…after not sleeping for about a day and half, I was ready to be asleep. I did so on the floor of the check-in area because I simply stopped caring! Many others were doing so as well. I tried to do laps around the terminals, but around 2AM i just couldnt any more! The flight was fine, it took me to a different Roma airport than the one I flew out of so it was an adventure getting to the Tremini train station. After a bus and a long subway ride, I got on a slowboat train to Florence, and finally got in around 3PM. AHHHHHH so travelling…never again..
I am kidding, this weekend I am going on a trip with NYU to Prato, to see the Chinatown of Italy and visit a factory where they make Biscotti. Saturday and Sunday, will finally be Cinqueterre and hopefully good weather. Other than that, I am going to bed because I DESERVE it. Italian elections ended at 8PM today, I wonder whos going to win???? Oh I bet itll be Verlutroni! Hahaha good night.
