Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Barcelona


Friday morning at 5:30 me and six of my friends set off for a great three full day weekend in Barcelona. This was my first weekend trip outside of Italy! 

First hostel expeirence. I chose the hostel Kabul for all of my friends (alot of pressure). It turned out that the hostel was absolutely amazing, free breakfast lunch and dinner (even though not the best-- we still went out). Pool table disco lights, happy hour 2 beers for 1 euro. Great people from all over! There were ten people in our room but that goodness my group was dominant by having the party of 7. I loved this hostel experience the people I met and the stories  I heard and told, I just felt like i was getting older. (weird) I loved the hostel more then the residence back in Rome, we never wanted to leave. 


Here are some of the food stands at the outdoor market! So fresh once again! 

Fruit! 

Pastries

Cathedral of Barcelona can be spotted through the alley ways in the street! 

 So beautiful! The cathedral of Barcelona 

 the Cathedral and my group of friends

 First night from the hostel we went on a bar crawl, which took us to the three most famous bars in Barcelona. In the shot bar called chipinos, there were over 600 types of shots. It was insane some the of the shots which I took included lighting the bar on fire, roasting a marshmallow in the fiery vodka, oranges and sugar on fire.. ect.. 


The Catalonian festival in the streets, basically just unorganized insanity. Children and adults all dressed up in big costumes, playing instruments.

   THE PICASSO MUSEUM!! (shout out to Uncle Tony)

 below are my favorite three painting in this museum. It was hard to get pictures because they were not allowed. 

 tiny strokes of lines makes one big fresco

 The arch!! Such a pretty day out I needed to buy some sunglasses!
 In the Park, where kids played soccer against older boys and there was a fountin


 temple of Sangrada Familia by the artist Gaudy, never finished but absolutely astounding from the outside!!! It looked like a drip castle from the beach, yet if you looked closely you could see white doves and green trees, and bowls of fruit. The line for tickets took 30 minutes but we finally got in! 


 Gaudy Museum Apartments 


 Barcelona Night life. 


 Inside Grada Familia
 Graffiti at its finest 



A church for mass on Sunday!!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Tivoli, Italy


coming home from sculpture class and a museum 




   lunch break













Crazy professor.. the wine got to him
                        beautiful fountains

Venice for Carnival!

 On Saturday February 9, my roommates and I set out for our first voyage to venice! It was a long bus ride (7 hours) we were there for 8 and 7 hours home. But the time spent there was well worth it. When we first got to Venice we hoped around multiple islands because we had an unlimited water taxi pass. One of my favorite places was muarno where we saw glass blowing.

My Rommates and I on the water taxi


^ after island hoping we went out for a long dinner for 3 hours and finished with this delicious dessert which was mousse covered creme puffs!

< typical carnival dance party scene with a live stage and music. This center was filled with many activities face painting, buying, selling, children, clowns everywhere. It was a mix between mardi gras, halloween and a big party!! WHY NOT?!

It is not only in Venice which they celebrate this, but all over Italy during February. Rome is having their biggest celebration Tuesday February 12!
 < hot red wine!! yumm 

^ everyone was so friendly there, not sure if it was the drinks or the music but this festival was not one to miss! Everyone wanted pictures with the Americans because we were dancing so crazily!

< not lucky enough to have a gondola ride, way to expensive. But the river and boats were beautiful. When we were leaving it began to snow , so good thing we did not stay much longer.