Two school trips and more than a few altered plans later, a month of my time abroad is already gone. Finals are quickly approaching, which is giving me more than enough anxiety. How do I have so many group projects and papers due? Why haven't I found time to go the museums in Madrid yet? When will I finally try the Thai restaurant across from my apartment? But most of all, how do I slow down time in my final weeks in Europe?
The answer to the question posed at the end of my last blog is Lanzarote! I went to the Canary Islands for a class trip to look at some rocks. While I might not love the class (I can only pay so much attention during a lecture on cement sorry not sorry), the class trip was extremely cool. We took an eight mile hike up two volcanoes and explored some underground caves.
 |
| Smiling to hide the fear at how steep this was |
I was a bit nervous for the class trip because this would be my first trip not with friends, but with our entire class. How fun could it be to have a teacher around all three days? As it turns out, very fun. The town we stayed in was the "big town" of the island which is saying a lot considering there were not many stores or restaurants. But our teacher, José, was at the Heineken Club next to our hotel with us to play some pool and hang out, which was pretty neat.
We traveled all over the island and spent one day up north and the other in the south part of the island. We also stopped several times to view all the sites Lanzarote has to offer including black sand beaches, salt water coves, and black rock beaches.
 |
| Our restaurant for lunch sat on the other side of this road |
 |
| #picsformom |
 |
| Every pano ends with Faerber |
We've quickly learned that late night Papizza is always a good option as is the Palace which is a nightclub entirely free for girls.
 |
| Just sitting in Sol |
The following weekend was Spring Break! The long awaited week with my parents and a best friend from home. As it turned out, my friend Paige actually got sick and was unable to travel. We had planned to go to Barcelona just the two of us and then meet my parents in Rome on Tuesday. So I was suddenly looking at a weekend alone in this beautiful city. Luckily Lauren and Frankie were both in Barcelona with their families at times that somewhat overlapped with mine.
On my first night in Barcelona, I joined Lauren's large family for an elegant dinner in a renovated farmhouse in the outskirts of Barcelona. How they found this I don't know, but it was incredible. The Smiths welcomed me into their family for the night without skipping a beat or minding that they were adding another to this three course meal. It was wonderful.
The next day I spent with Lauren and her sister and her boyfriend. We walked along the docks and Lauren and I spent the evening with Chinese food and wine on the rooftop of my hotel. Not a bad way to end the day if you ask me.
On Sunday I had the day to myself so I chose to walk around the city and see La Rambla, which is a long strip of restaurants and stalls that led to the docks. When I got to the water, I found the docks packed full of people and rows of caravans selling different finger food with varying cuisines from around the world.
I then walked to the Sagrada Familia in the afternoon and ran into a SLU friend. I guess I'm never truly alone. The Sagrada Familia was miraculous and unlike any other architecture I've seen since coming to Europe. According to the plans shown. though, it has quite a ways to go still.
 |
| The prettiest protein salad I've ever eaten |
Finally on Tuesday, I hopped on the plane to see my dear parents. After what felt like the longest day of traveling, I arrived at our small hotel in the heart of Rome. I was quick to dive into some Italian pasta that trumps all other pasta I've eaten. My dad and I decided to walk around a bit to see the sites that wouldn't be on the next day's walking tour. The Trevi Fountain and gelato were the highlights of this afternoon.
The walking tour on Wednesday was quite the feat. We walked miles upon miles but saw sites that I could not comprehend. The dates and details of the immense structures simply blew my mind. Some of my favorite spots included the Arch of Titus (possibly because my History 111 class spent so much time on Titus and the Flavian dynasty) and the Roman Forum. Our tour guide had pictures in his binder of what the Forum looked like during its prime and it was just unbelievable. What I would give to go back and see it!
 |
| Cartography hall in the Vatican |
On Thursday morning, our driver for the week Paolo came to pick us up to take us to the house we rented for the week. We stayed in a small town called Manciano in Tuscany and I fell in love. This house was built in the 15th century and had been renovated to be a quaint little cottage. The first night we went to a small restaurant in Manciano where I had pasta that was so good I could have cried.
 |
| Buffalo pasta was my favorite of the week |
The next day we took a day trip to Siena, which is another city in Tuscany. My friend Lexy who is studying in Florence this semester was able to join us for the day too!
We climbed up this tower in the town square that was roughly fifteen stories high. The curious part of this climb was the human feces sitting on one of the steps halfway up. I'm not exaggerating when I say this poop reeked to the high heavens. We quickly hopped over it and hustled up the remaining flights. On the way down we could smell it once we neared the spot and again hurried to get past it. We couldn't seem to get away from the stench until we ran into the female worker in front of us who had scooped it up. We then had to follow her (and the smell) down the remainder of the flights. Arghhh!
 |
| Proud to have made it past the poop |
 |
| View from the tower |
We considered skipping the tour to go into the Duomo because as my mom says "Once you've seen one cathedral in Europe, you've kind of seen them all." I agreed with this statement until we entered the Duomo because it was covered in stripes! I've never seen a church like this before so I was glad we paid the extra 15 Euro to take a gander inside.
 |
| Stripes! |
 |
| Very average meal that I cooked for the fam |
The following day we went to a wine tasting in a the town over at an old castle/estate. After seeing some stunning views of Italy, we sat down to taste the different red wines with some meat and cheese.
After the wine tasting, we drove about 45 minutes to Porto Stefano, which is on the coast of Italy. We indulged in some more gelato as we strolled around the port before hitting the road again. Unfortunately I was a bit under the weather this week so I went back to nap as my parents continued onto the next wine tasting. My afternoon included sleeping and reading Pride & Prejudice with some nutella on crackers so I wasn't too upset about it.
That evening we went to a restaurant in Pitigliano, which is a town that has old houses up against the hill of the town. Paolo had us go to a restaurant that sat on a different hill with a view of the lit up town. The owner was adorable and super attentive to my family. The family owned restaurant was definitely the best choice for my final night in Tuscany.
 |
| Best gnocchi I've ever had |
The next day I got up at the break of dawn to make it to the airport in Pisa. There was a time change this night though so we ended up goofing up the hours and got up two hours before it was necessary at 4 a.m.! I finally hit the road to Pisa at 7 a.m. and arrived to the airport with lots of time to spare. This was a tiny airport and my boarding pass saved on my phone didn't cut it for security so I had to go print a physical copy of it. I quickly found out that the check in desk for my airline wouldn't be open until two hours before my flight so I then had to wait outside of security for two hours just to print my boarding pass to go back into security. Needless to say, there was a lot of waiting this day.
The next weekend turned out very differently than I imagined. We had planned a trip to Brussels and Bruges for the weekend but last minute had to change our plans because of the bombing. All options were rather expensive because it was so last minute so we chose to go to Santiago, Spain which is where the Camino de Santiago ends. We figured this would be the best bet because our airline Ryanair flew there and it would be easy to transfer credit for the flights. This was not the case, Ryanair was the biggest hassle with getting our money back and I officially dislike that airline.
 |
| Seeing all Santiago has to offer |
We had plans to go check out the town one day, go to a coastal town the next, and possibly hike on the third. As luck would have it though it rained constantly all but the first day. After we saw the cathedral and town (which took no longer than an hour), we bounced from restaurant to restaurant to get tapas to occupy our time.
 |
| Enjoying the three hours of sun we saw |
 |
| Highlight of this trip |
Noia was the city along the coast that my host mom recommended to us. She said that it was a beautiful fishing port town with amazing seafood and views. Naturally it was rainy/chilly when we arrived and nothing was open! As soon as we stepped off the bus Ben said, "This is the worst decision we've made so far." After wandering in the rain for 30 minutes, we found a restaurant that was open. We ate some decent seafood for a couple hours then went right back to the bus station to get the hell out of there.
 |
| This picture accurately captures the scene and our feelings towards Noia |
 |
| Will didn't love his baby squid |
 |
| Rainy Santiago |
Thank god our friend Michael can cook because I kid you not this was the main entertainment both nights. We stayed in the Airbnb after grocery shopping and sipped on wine as we cooked (as Michael cooked). The second night there was a lot of hype around his mother's recipe for a five cheese Mac n Cheese that was incredible.
Sunday morning the guys (wisely) left before the sun was up to go back to Madrid. We had thought Sunday would be hiking so our flight wasn't until 10:30 at night. Horrifying, right? As it poured all day, we spent three hours chatting in a coffee shop then three hours at a restaurant and another three waiting at the airport where our flight took off late (just because it's Ryanair). We were happy to get out of Santiago and make it back to our beds by 1 in the morning.
 |
| Beachy restaurant provided vibes the rest of Santiago lacked |
 |
| Goodbye forever, Santiago |
Fast forward yet another school week and I'm at my class trip to Cabo de Palos, which is a tiny town in the southeast part of Spain. The hotel we stayed in was actually a hostel that our teacher asked to install wifi. Seeing as they didn't have it before, you can imagine how crappy it was. The view, however, was incredible. I had a room on the corner of the building, which provided a lovely view of the ocean.
 |
| Hostal we stayed at |
 |
| View from standing in the shower |
The first day of the trip included trips to a couple museums in the morning and a walk up to the lighthouse in the afternoon.
 |
| Cove that we went scuba diving in |
I'll share some of the more interesting things that I learned about this area of Spain. Islas Hormigas is a series of island arcs, with only a couple mountains appearing above the surface. In 1906, a huge ship with 1,000 people on board crashed into one of these underwater mountains. Five hundred people died this day. Local fishermen who had no emergency training took boats out to the sinking ship. One fisherman decided to take out a larger boat and ferried people to the nearest island above the water by creating a bridge to the sinking vessel, saving 400 lives. People were jumping off this ship thinking it would sink right away. Many women sank when they jumped due to the weight of their dresses. The kicker is that this ship didn't fully submerge under the surface for 16 DAYS. This seamount is now considered to be the best place in the world to scuba dive as more than 50 shipwrecks surround it.
Next up was the big kahuna: scuba diving. I felt as if I were cheating the system by scuba diving in Spain by signing a waiver whereas people back in the U.S. have months of training before diving. But you know, when in Spain!
 |
| Prepping ourselves for the basics |
Scuba diving was just something else. I was both nervous and excited to get into the water. Once I was all geared up, it turned out to be kind of a challenge for me. I struggled with calming down my breath. I was breathing really shallowly and too rapidly to which my instructor continually gestured to me to relax. While it all felt deeper than 5 meters, I was glad to have not gone further down. I'm not sure how long I'd be able to feign my confidence to my instructor. In the moments that I wasn't thinking about oxygen and panicking, I looked around at some of the most incredible views. There was a sunken ship in this cove and I even saw a starfish!
 |
| How good does this wetsuit look? |
After scuba diving, we were able to go snorkeling along the edge where there was a cave. We swam/crawled all the way to the back of the cave where we sat for a bit and questioned how we were so lucky to be doing this. It's not every day that you get to play in the water in the Mediterranean.
 |
| Abroad is a good time |
I can definitely say that this weekend was one of the best in my life. It's going to be difficult to part with my time abroad, but I am trying to soak it in as much as I can. This weekend I travel down to the southern part of Spain to experience the festival Feria in Seville and dance the night away in the streets. Wish me luck with learning their two-step!
Wonderful summary, Elaine. I'd like to add that your trips weren't REALLY over until we received a text saying "Hey, I'm back home." Then we could exhale.
ReplyDelete