wasting time while it rains in Florence..

I have one more paper to write, one more test to study for.
Yesterday was our first full day in Florence.  Once again so happy to be back in a some-what familiar city.  Alisha (one of my current roommates and friends) and I had an early start.  We ate breakfast and walked around until we found ourself in front of the Uffizi Gallery and decided we better get in line.  In our 45 minute que we started talking with the American couple behind us.  They were from Pennsylvania visiting their daughter and her husband who lived in Florence.  We talked about what they had done in Itlay, what they did back at home, the nature of our program, I do not even remember much else.  All I remember thinking was how nice they were and how glad I was to meet friendly Americans with good hearts and intentions.  Alisha and I championed the Uffizi.  I got to sit on the ground in front of one of my favorite paintings of all time.  Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas (which they failed to have a postcard for, unbelievable).

We then got a little bit lost, continually contemplated going to see Michelangelo's David, but didn't.  Got lost, ate gelato, went to a vintage store, made it back to our hotel/ hostel around 5 pm, completely sore and tired, but feeling very accomplished.  I then had a normal night of doner kebabs, paper writing, a good game of Go Fish, and Whose Line Is It Anyway clips on YouTube.  

Another early start this morning as Alisha and David and I went to see the David.  Breakfast and another 45 minute wait.  About halfway through we started talking to the American couple behind us.  They were in their mid-50's like the first couple, and from Connecticut.  We talked of our travels, our majors, Westmont, their experiences in Israel, their children and coming grandchildren.  Once again, such nice good-hearted people.  As we parted ways in the museum the man said to me. "You have very lucky parents".  I do not feel like that is a sentence people throw out lightly.  It was one of the best compliments I have ever received.
They made me miss being at home with my own parents.  Cold weather always makes me miss home, especially wind and rain.  I think of my fire place, my dining room table, playing cribbage on the living room carpet, the sound of rain tapping on my bedroom window, driving through my wet neighborhood streets.  Sometimes when it rains I have the overwhelming urge to sit out in the middle of the worst of it, looking up and the sky as I get irreversibly soaked.  I honestly don't know why this is.  On my late drives home in the winter I roll down all the windows and drive fast enough to fill my car with as much cold wind as I possibly can.

Tomorrow I will hopefully be going to the Cinque Terra islands.  And on our last day my hopes are to climb Brunneleschi's dome, see the inside of the Duomo, and watch the sunset from Michelangelo's hill.


Until then, I will sit in the lobby under the skylight, listening to Horse Feathers, editing photos and avoiding homework.

change of scenery

I am sitting in a hotel in Venice.  Waitwaitwhat?  What?  Yes, ok.  I am in Venice, Italy.
I cannot believe I am finally here.   Most everyone on the trip has said the same thing-

We have all had these marking points for ourselves.  Places we were really looking forward to that split the trip up into sections.  For me it was to start in London, then go till Paris, then I finally got to see what Germany was like, and then it was Italy.  A place I had already seen but a place that I had loved.  And now I'm here!  We are here for three weeks and then it is Israel... and then the trip is done!  It is just mind-blowing.

My time in Mittersill was wonderful.  Like I said, it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen in my life. It snowed the first two nights we stayed there.  We had class every morning till 1, then we would all eat soup together for lunch, and study until we went to sleep with about 2 hours of of a study break when we would break free from the castle and breathe the mountain air.  We wrote papers and studied hard for an entire week,  all getting a a serious case of castle fever.  I barely changed out of my pajamas the whole stay.  Each night the 'wine cellar' was open when we could all buy cheap beer and wine from Colby for a euro in our classroom.  Totally worth it.  We also had a day trip to Salzburg to see Sound of Music sights and Mozart's home.

On our first stop in Salzburg we stumbled upon this incredible playground.  43 college students on a playground made for children but lacking serious safety precautions = awesome but disastrous.  After being stuck in the castle for 5 days.. we went wild.  The playground was full of millions of different kinds of swings and spinning devices high above the ground, even a zip line.  We jumped on everything and expounded all of our energy until, unfortunately, one of a girls was being pushed by three guys on the zip line and got so much air at the end of the line that she split her head open on a metal beam.
here's a little bit of what I saw:

(view from hill by our castle)

(I want one of these cows when I grow up)

(one of our study breaks/ play dates)

But now we are in Venice.  I came here 4 years ago with my mom and I am still trying to figure out how it feels different.  Maybe it doesn't.  I am just noticing more.  I went to mass at Saint Mark's Basilica this morning and my appreciation for the art and the architecture is obviously far superior than it was 4 years ago.  This is absolutely my favorite church in Europe.  The domes, the gold, the mosaics.  It is stunning, but not overdone.  The mosaics are simple in nature that I am not overwhelmed by them as I am with so many Renaissance and Baroque alter pieces and sculptures.  And then of the course the architecture is unbelievable.  A church that took two centuries to complete, drawing from both Eastern and Western styles.  I also have a new appreciation for the technology it took to build Venice.  Never thought I'd say that before...

Being by the water feels so incredible.  I am so in love with the mountains that I forgot how wonderful the ocean truly is.  In one day we went from the crisp mountain air of the Alps to the salty breeze of the Adriatic Sea.  It is so windy by the water, oh how I love the wind.

But, with all of it's wonderful things- Venice is a tourist town.  Every single street has shops on it.  So many shops.  Apparently all you need to survive in Venice are glass animals, lingerie, fur coats, jewelry, leather shoes, squishy rubber pigs that continually flatten and reform, and handbags.  Because that's all they sell.  And really, you don't need any of that.  Also, there are practically no locals whatsoever.  Just the 20 MILLION people that visit every year.

So what is the 'feeling' of Venice?  Fake romanticism encouraged by the cheesy gondola singers?  The preserved culture of a place with few inhabitants?  A sinking city that was once a refuge but soon became a town based on money and pleasure, now turned into a tourist trap?


I can't leave on that cynical of a note.  Yes, I believe all of that about this place.  But romanticism, even if fake, feels nice every once in a while.  And I am so happy to be in Italy.  And it is beautiful.  And I am here with so many incredible friends.  And I am very blessed.

Schloss Mittersill

We left Vienna this morning.  Vienna was nice for its lack of agenda, but not much other than that for me.  I had some notable meals with wonderful people and discovered a new artist to love (Gustav Klimpt).

What comes next I cannot fully describe.  Please know that I am not one for exaggeration.  I would not do that to you.  I have no reason to. I do not need to make this trip seem more incredible than it is.

Today I saw the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.

We drove through the Austrian Alps and I was utterly speechless for the two hours we traveled.  I sat by the window listening to Ray Lamontagne, trying my hardest to absorb everything I was seeing.  I could not open my eyes wide enough.  I kept thinking of how thirsty I felt.  I saw such beauty that all I could do was thirst for more.  I didn’t have my camera on the bus so all I could do was look.  I do not need pictures to remember everything I saw today.  I don’t think I could ever forget it.

It had rained all day.  The mist and clouds sat in the valleys of jutting mountains, all covered in trees and rock faces.  They clung and lingered and hid the peaks. The mountains stand so tall.  Ones off in the distance had snowy caps and we all wondered if we would find ourselves in snow.  Streams and little waterfalls trinkled on the sides of each of our turning roads.  The villages were infrequent, small, scattered, and colorful.  We saw rivers and lakes, some of even a turquoise blue that you would find in the tropics.  They rush in the quietest way.  And the trees, oh the trees.  Most were green and full- birches and oaks and so many kinds I have yet to learn the names of.  The pines are so thin and tall with needles only at the very top.  In every grove and along every road there would be a few yellow and orange trees transformed by Fall.  Their leaves have not yet fallen but then seemed to float on the branches awaiting the next strong wind to send them dancing.  As we drove up and around the giants of land, we made it high enough to reach the snow.   It was thicker than a dust, just enough to flock trees but not covering all the ground.  The bus was full of joyous yells and laughter as snow smeared our windows.  Everyone chattered of snow days and sledding with the fondest memories.  But I missed the forest below instantly.  As we drove back down we saw the sun break out on the greenest valleys my eyes have ever known.

I now sit in the top room of a castle in the Alps.  I have a slanted wall with wood paneling and two small windows.  Erica and I have used our scarves to decorate our cozy space.  I can hear the rain steadily pattering on the roof and I am content.