Wednesday, May 30, 2007

BCN


we actually took a bus to Pisa at some ungodly hour of the night to catch the flight to barcelona
we walked around pisa for a few hours before our flight. pretty surreal seeing the leaning tower of pisa in the middle of the night...we had to sneak in..it was pretty stealthlike of us!

When we got to Barcelona, we stayed with my crazy aunt...i'm talking CRAZY and annoying too..but whatevs..i didn't prepare the girls adequately enough...hahha.
We woke up late and had some breakfast that she cooked for us.
We went out that night to la oveja negra (the black sheep) where they have really good sangria..but its a total young touristy bar...but fun..

it was really hot so sangria was like HEAVEN!

we went shopping...and we got some pants that Bekah could NOT figure out! haha.




got it.

we went out another night...i can't remember where we went..but we met up with some spaniards...

we were only there for a weekend, but it was such a blast.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Outtings in Firenze.

Some random outtings around town..

We went to Calcio Storico.

Its an incredibly violent soccer-football-rugby-based ball game. Its a huge procession with people in costume before every game. And ten seconds into the game....someone is on the stretcher almost guaranteed!


procession
game
i think the verde won.

Rowing Team

so i lied..there are some cute guys in italy....they belong on the calcio teams and the rowing teams.
these dudes were on the rowing team and the one on my right came up to me on the street and invited me to check out the rowing club...so i took some of my gal pals and we went down...to the club..hehe.

its like this elite rowing club with boats and practicing equiptment...blah blah. he said that the last remaining member of the medici family was a member of the rowing team as well...where was that guy? i want to meet him! unfortunately, according to whats his face...the medici guy is gay.

some random pictures from nights out.





the Fourth of July...

we spent it in Cascine park..OK! what the hell were we thinking! you know how in fairy tales there a map with an area clearly designated as dangerous...like this...
and then the stupid characters go there anyway and then get eaten and die?

yeah..it was like that, except with naked transvestite prostitute drug addicts. it was great fun!

We went to Cascine park at night (very dark) for a barbeque...now before it was too dark, a few girls and i decided to take a cab back home, since the walk back out of the park was VERY VERY dark. so we walked over to a well lit area. stood in a little island and couldn't figure out why all these cars were driving around us and checking us out.

come to find....there are prostitutes there and those were their customers...but wait. it gets better.

there was a transvestite prostitute wearing a sarong and a bra not giving a crap who saw (her? him?) and (she? he?) was walking around with (her? his?) pimp...and a big gust of wind made its skirt fly up...HOLY GUACAMOLE..yes wherever your imagination is going is probably the right place!

DON'T GO TO CASCINE PARK..or maybe..do...it was exciting.

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre...5 lands?

On the coast, there are five little cities, each with a distinct character. You can hike from city to city, but i think we took the train.
We actually had to take like a million different things to get to Cinque Terre. Its NOT that simple. We went for the day, left at like 4am to catch the train...but it was amazing!


The cities are.

Monterosso
Vernazza
Corniglia
Manarola
Riomaggiore

We walked around.

swam all afternoon!

ate at this restaurant at the top of the hill.
thats bekah the mermaid!

the rocks were slippery with moss...and i was standing on them and i'd constantly slip off. i also got bitten by something called a fish frog? or something, but it left me a little splinter in my toe which sara dug out with the back of her earring..thats when i knew she loved me!

Romina Romina Bo Bina Banana Fana Fo Fina Mi My Mo Mina...MINA!

My cousin Romina also lives in Italy. I've known her since I was born. The most amazing artiste...She goes to the academy where the David is. She was another reason why Florence was where I wanted to go. I love her to death. (THERE YOU GO MINS. NOW CAN I HAVE MY $20?) just kidding. haha, its $100.
thats her on the right with her eyes closed. argh! i didn't have one with her eyes open.

in the studio (back there behind that big piece of wood) and rosa her roomate.
rosa smoking with her feet. she could speak a little english, and i could speak a little italian...together...mmm we were interesting. even more so with my roomate bekah who tried to speak to her. OMG that was too much...to much funny.
romina's room. she painted that mural back there.
makes me happy.

this girl is awesome...and would bike to my house in the heat of florence.

and she just got commissioned to create a work for the city of Rome. yay mins!

Via Ridolfi.

If these walls could talk..

they would say.
these girls spent a lot of time reading.

and cooking
Rachel cooked us fried chicken. She invited a bunch of people over and it was such a fun night.
aren't they cute?
and very little time drinking.


Via Ridolfi was a homebase for like 8 girls..although only 6 lived there (for the most part). We didn't have hot water for a few weeks, we were constantly sweeping, it was hot as hell, and our washing machine often trapped our clothes in soaking wet and wouldn't let us have it back for days...but we loved that place.

We spent a lot of time reading because we didn't have a tv nor did we have the internet. Some nights Sara would read aloud from a book (i can't remember what the name was) but it was about these young boys and their sexcapades. It was definitely a good read.

We traded books around amongst ourselves too. I think Angels and Demons by Dan Brown circulated a lot. I also read Memoirs of a Geisha and Pope Joan that summer.

thats Bekah with her mouth full of watermelon. there was a fruit stand outside our apartment that stayed open til 5am. that was awesome...

but they opened pretty late during the day too (since they were open all night). so when we wanted fresh fruit in the day, we'd go to the market.
the market was probably one of my most favorite things in florence. loved it.

Monday, May 21, 2007

the Tuscan countryside.

And yes..its just as amazing as you can ever imagine.



San Gimignano.

we all went to san gimignano and stayed at this old wine place. with cellars and grape vines and olive groves.




these pictures dont really do it justice. but know, it was so amazing.

on top of this little hill, was a swimming pool, which we all were so excited about since italy in July is like a furnace. on each side of the hill were olive groves. aaaah. i can't even explain how amazing this place is. its my happy place.



it was so peaceful. i decided to meditate...on my blowup caterpillar.


oh just a casual dinner. a lite bite if you will
umm yes. that was only the appetizers.

dinner outdoors.

drinking games indoors. who plays drinking games with red wine? only in the tuscan countryside.


We then took a few day trips around the different cities in the coutryside...

Siena.

In Siena they hold the palio event. The city is split up in different regions and people are assigned flags. They receive their flag during their baptism of sorts..and every flag has a horse and then they race the horses...and then whoever wins the race is well..umm the winner.

check it out.

kids wearing their flags.


each flag has an character...see here...contrata della goose ( i dont know what goose is in italian)the arena. we were there on the day of the palio races...but we didn't stay for the actual event because apparently its a madhouse. i usually like madhouses so i was bummed.





the girlies.

i liked this cat.