A relaxing weekend spent in Torino: I basked in the guilty pleasure of doing nothing! Friday dawned bright and sunny so Kate and I walked to school along the park that boarders the Po River (like the green belt!) A little exploring and curiosity led us to meander off route and turned it into an enjoyable hour stroll in the sun. We finished off the journey with tasty gelato and a much needed trip to the grocery store. Sixty Euros later my shelves in the fridge and cupboard were finally stalked again… It was a good weekend of homemade meals. I even made steak! (For those of you who know me well enough will notice that I was having a STRONG desire for American food to drive me to such extremes!). It was alright; I’m still not in love, but it did the trick. Tonight I was back to pasta.
Friday night Kate and I went out dancing and tried some new trendy bars we’d heard about. Saturday was full of cleaning: my bedroom, my laundry, my sheets, the bathroom, the kitchen, bedroom floor… Let’s just say all my traveling had left my area a little “neglected”. This afternoon (Sunday), I met Katie and we ventured to a new part of town in search of Cirque de Soleil! One of our classmates had told us that it was in town and tickets could be had for only 35 Euros (a steal of a deal compared to the $90 I paid two years ago in California). Today was the LAST showing so thankfully after a little blind bus navigating, we arrived with plenty of time to buy tickets at the door. It was a great show full of feats of flexibility, strength, and odd talent. The costumes, set, and music are always unique and add a heightened level of entertainment to the show. The great thing about Cirque de Soleil shows is that they communicate the “story” with their bodies, so I wasn’t even frustrated by not knowing Italian.
Side Note: Beautiful, warm and sunny on Friday. Bright and blue sky-ed on Saturday. Woke up today to a BLIZZARD! It snowed ALL day. Nonstop. Not even kidding.
Side Note #2: Coming home from Cirque de Soleil tonight I waited 30 mins for bus #34 – it is supposed to come every 11 mins. I finally gave up and walked to a different bus route. When I came home to vent to Kate about the unreliable bus system she informed me that bus #34 doesn’t run on Sundays. Oops. Maybe after my 4 months of living in Torino I will finally figure out public transportation. Did I mention it was miserably cold and snowing that whole half an hour?!
Side Note #3: I finally watched Gladiator for the first time. I think it will add a whole new level of reality to my imagination when I actually go into the Coliseum next weekend. Spring Break Adventure 2010 begins Friday with the arrival of Jena and Aerosol… I hope you’re excited! Rome, Athens, Santorini (pray for sunshine!).
Side Note #4: I just wanted to point out the very real fact that I am half way through my stay in Italy. Didn’t I just get here?!
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Rome... the hard way
O boy… yet another travel story of missed transportation and hectic planning. Our flight for Rome was leaving at 7:30am from Milan which means we needed to catch the 3 am shuttle bus from Tornio to the Milan airport (2 hours away). Now people that know me would predict that my morning was flawed by oversleeping, as that usually is to blame for me missing morning activities. This was not the case… the 6 of us left my apartment at 2am to walk to the bus stop. Drew specifically called to determine exactly where the bus pick-up was located and was told by an English speaking employer the location. We arrived with plenty of time to spare! After waiting for 20 minutes with 3 am too close for comfort and no site of a bus, we called the company again. This time we got a different operator; different location. After a panicked 5 minutes of sprinting SEVERAL blocks down the street and another phone call, we accepted the fact that we had just missed the bus (which we already paid 18 Euro for by the way). With no more buses, no trains, and a plane that was located 2 hours away, we were in a pickle! We called a taxi and were told it would cost 190 Euros to reach Milan… When the taxi showed up, they could only seat 5 people and we were told our only option was TWO 190 Euro taxis. After pleading with the man in Italian, we gave up and decided we’d be skipping Rome this weekend. FORTUNATELY, the man took pity on our sad little predicament and finally agreed to squeeze and extra passenger into the vehicle (illegal by the way). Two hours and 40 Euros each later, we were at the airport!
I am happy to report that the weekend takes a lovely upturn at this point (we decided that fate was trying to pay us back). It was supposed to rain ALL weekend; I never once opened my umbrella. I had the chance to go to the Borghese Gallery and see Bernini’s sculptures (David, Daphne and Apollo) and a few works by Caravaggio (they are my two current favorites). And I even returned back to my friends safely after walking through the park for 30 minutes, after sunset, in Rome, by myself (sorry Mom and Dad… there was no avoiding it. But there were still people around jogging and stuff so it didn’t freak me out too badly. I was ready for a fight if I had to!). I saw the Coliseum from the outside (I’m saving it to see with Amanda and Jena over spring break!), the Pantheon (it was very impressive), the San Carlo Quattro Fontane church (that I’ve studied in art history classes), the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, and more churches, piazzas, café’s, gelaterias, etc. I also was really lucky when it came to the Vatican. In the morning, the line was an hour wait (at least!) to see St. Peter’s Basilica. However, thanks to Rick’s advice (aka my Rick Steve’s book), a friend and I came back in the afternoon and got in within 15 minutes! I was really excited about that. The Basilica was MASSIVE. The vaulting is huge and spans such a wide space that I wish I understood the engineering of it all. Of course it is filled with amazing sculptures and elaborate decoration, but the sheer space of it all is what impacted me the most.
After two full days of walking and site-seeing, we headed to the airport at 10pm at night (we decided to stay at the airport because our flight took off at 7am which is before we could get any trains to take us from the city center to the airport). In past airports I’ve seen, I feel like I could have reasonably slept for the night. However, Rome has its own “sleeping at the airport” culture which they apparently try to fight against by making the chairs impossible to lay on (curved bottoms, armrests, no cushion). Oh and they save on their heating bill at night too! After a night of little sleep but many laughs (it’s always nice to travel with friends that can make light of a bad situation). At the Milan airport, I split from the group and headed into the city center to catch my reservation for The Last Supper”. It was such I beautiful day out that I also climbed the stairs to the top of the Duomo (which we didn’t get a chance to do last time we were in Milan but I had wanted to). I was tired after a long weekend of little sleep and headed home on the train from Milan to Torino. I had used an old ticket Kate gave me because it was never punched so she thought it would still be good… wrong. After everyone on the train stared at me while the ticket checker man tried to explain to me in broken English that it was no good (and I tried to play the innocent “I didn’t know because I’m a tourist who doesn’t speak Italian and is such a sweet nice girl” game), I bought a ticket and paid an extra penalty fee. I’m beginning to think I need to start a “Megan learns all her lessons in Italy the hard way” fund! (By the way, I also never admitted that I got a bus ticket too… I HAVE a monthly bus pass, but of course the one day I forget my wallet I get checked by the bus authorities! I was terribly upset after being handed a 60 Euro ticket, but the USAC office said that since I really do have a monthly bus pass, I can bring that in when I go to pay for my ticket and the charge will be reduced to 11).
I am happy to report that the weekend takes a lovely upturn at this point (we decided that fate was trying to pay us back). It was supposed to rain ALL weekend; I never once opened my umbrella. I had the chance to go to the Borghese Gallery and see Bernini’s sculptures (David, Daphne and Apollo) and a few works by Caravaggio (they are my two current favorites). And I even returned back to my friends safely after walking through the park for 30 minutes, after sunset, in Rome, by myself (sorry Mom and Dad… there was no avoiding it. But there were still people around jogging and stuff so it didn’t freak me out too badly. I was ready for a fight if I had to!). I saw the Coliseum from the outside (I’m saving it to see with Amanda and Jena over spring break!), the Pantheon (it was very impressive), the San Carlo Quattro Fontane church (that I’ve studied in art history classes), the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, and more churches, piazzas, café’s, gelaterias, etc. I also was really lucky when it came to the Vatican. In the morning, the line was an hour wait (at least!) to see St. Peter’s Basilica. However, thanks to Rick’s advice (aka my Rick Steve’s book), a friend and I came back in the afternoon and got in within 15 minutes! I was really excited about that. The Basilica was MASSIVE. The vaulting is huge and spans such a wide space that I wish I understood the engineering of it all. Of course it is filled with amazing sculptures and elaborate decoration, but the sheer space of it all is what impacted me the most.
After two full days of walking and site-seeing, we headed to the airport at 10pm at night (we decided to stay at the airport because our flight took off at 7am which is before we could get any trains to take us from the city center to the airport). In past airports I’ve seen, I feel like I could have reasonably slept for the night. However, Rome has its own “sleeping at the airport” culture which they apparently try to fight against by making the chairs impossible to lay on (curved bottoms, armrests, no cushion). Oh and they save on their heating bill at night too! After a night of little sleep but many laughs (it’s always nice to travel with friends that can make light of a bad situation). At the Milan airport, I split from the group and headed into the city center to catch my reservation for The Last Supper”. It was such I beautiful day out that I also climbed the stairs to the top of the Duomo (which we didn’t get a chance to do last time we were in Milan but I had wanted to). I was tired after a long weekend of little sleep and headed home on the train from Milan to Torino. I had used an old ticket Kate gave me because it was never punched so she thought it would still be good… wrong. After everyone on the train stared at me while the ticket checker man tried to explain to me in broken English that it was no good (and I tried to play the innocent “I didn’t know because I’m a tourist who doesn’t speak Italian and is such a sweet nice girl” game), I bought a ticket and paid an extra penalty fee. I’m beginning to think I need to start a “Megan learns all her lessons in Italy the hard way” fund! (By the way, I also never admitted that I got a bus ticket too… I HAVE a monthly bus pass, but of course the one day I forget my wallet I get checked by the bus authorities! I was terribly upset after being handed a 60 Euro ticket, but the USAC office said that since I really do have a monthly bus pass, I can bring that in when I go to pay for my ticket and the charge will be reduced to 11).
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Travels (on the Bus and Beyond!)
I am so excited to travel more!! I had dinner with my roommate Kate tonight (the fellow Theta by the way…) and we talked about upcoming trips. I am going to join her for a few of the weekends! So far, the list includes: Venice and Verona (with the USAC program in early Feb), an extended “Italy tour” (Pisa, Florence, Siena, Assissi, Amalfi Coast, Pompei, Naples), a tentative jaunt to Paris in late February, the Cinque Terre (cities along the coast - Beautiful and great for hiking) in early March, and Austria/Croatia over Easter weekend. I’m excited to see places that I hadn’t even thought of before; Kate said fellow students who visited Croatia last semester said it was absolutely beautiful. And a lot of these areas are very outdoors-y and less touristy which will be great for really seeing the local environment and not just tour sites. With other girls, I have planned trips (these are for sure, plane tickets already purchased this week!) to Rome (late Feb) and Barcelona (late April). AND I am looking forward to having my two closest friends from home (Jena and Amanda) visit for spring break and the days surrounding it. We plan to visit Greece and another location (to be determined). Phew... It’s going to be a very busy 3.5 months, but what an experience! I still can’t believe I had the opportunity to do all this. Not to mention I fully plan on visiting all the sites around Torino on days when I don’t have class (Castles, Museums, Cathedral, Piazzas, etc). O and this other little time commitment called “school”… but who cares about that boring stuff anyway right? ;)
I had my first “Italian Culture” class today. It will definitely be fun to learn about and I think the Professor is very interesting / personable. Studio will be the most compelling and challenging (and a good change of pace from studio at U of I), but Art History is of course very fascinating to me also. Italian language class is useful, but I can tell it’s not my biggest passion… That’s all I’m taking this semester: 4 classes, 15 credits. Most of the classes also have “field trips” in and around Torino, so it’s definitely a fun/interactive learning environment.
As I’m sure you can tell, I’m still loving Italy! I must be in the “euphoric” phase of culture shock that we learned about in class today ;) We also learned it’s natural to get sick your first few weeks while your body adjusts, so no worries on that front; I just developed a little cold and am getting better already. I also took a new bus home from school today that was much faster (and stops right outside the school in a high traffic area so when I leave at 10pm after talking to you all on the internet I don’t have to dread a slightly creepy walk to a quiet street.) So another blessing to thank God for, Mom … It’s funny how accomplishing the little things can feel like such a success when you are dropped into a completely new environment.
I had my first “Italian Culture” class today. It will definitely be fun to learn about and I think the Professor is very interesting / personable. Studio will be the most compelling and challenging (and a good change of pace from studio at U of I), but Art History is of course very fascinating to me also. Italian language class is useful, but I can tell it’s not my biggest passion… That’s all I’m taking this semester: 4 classes, 15 credits. Most of the classes also have “field trips” in and around Torino, so it’s definitely a fun/interactive learning environment.
As I’m sure you can tell, I’m still loving Italy! I must be in the “euphoric” phase of culture shock that we learned about in class today ;) We also learned it’s natural to get sick your first few weeks while your body adjusts, so no worries on that front; I just developed a little cold and am getting better already. I also took a new bus home from school today that was much faster (and stops right outside the school in a high traffic area so when I leave at 10pm after talking to you all on the internet I don’t have to dread a slightly creepy walk to a quiet street.) So another blessing to thank God for, Mom … It’s funny how accomplishing the little things can feel like such a success when you are dropped into a completely new environment.
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