Pictures coming soon.

Hey guys,

Pictures of everything and all my trips will be coming soon. Midterms are momentarily halting the process, but I assure you they will be on their way once midterms are over. Okay back to studying. Ciao Ciao.

Pondering Around Poland

Last weekend (Feb 12th - 15th) I took a school trip to Krakow, Poland. We left Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. It was such a great trip, powerful, but definitely something I will remember forever.

Thursday: We got into Krakow about 11:00 pm and had a shuttle take us to our hotel. We were set to stay in the Holiday Inn Krakow City Center. Very nice hotel in Krakow if anyone is interested in places to stay in Poland.

Friday: We started our day off with a three hour walking tour around the beautiful city. We walked to the neighboring castle and saw the city center. We went inside the Basilica de Santa Maria and just outside the Basilica we got to hear the bugle player play their hourly snippet outside on a tower window. We were left to have free time for lunch before having to meet at 4:00 pm to head to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. Those were so cool to experience. We had a private tour of the salt mines, going down into the ground only until the third level (which was about 400 feet). Everything in the mine was salt, a lot of it being pure sodium chloride that had developed over years and years of mining. After the salt mines we were provided a buffet dinner at our hotel of traditional Polish food. Which by the way, traditional polish food is delicious. They eat a lot of meat and potatoes, but also polish sausages and kebabs are to die for.

Saturday: We left super early in the morning to head to Oświęcim, the city in which Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is located. Wow what a truly emotional and powerful tour we had of the world's most infamous concentration camps. It is honestly one thing to learn about places like these in your high school history class and to think that you know what it may have been like, but when you come here, it is completely different. Auschwitz I was a lot smaller than Birkenau, but still had that heavy very depressing feeling over the camp. We got to see actual Nazi documentation of the prisoners, personal belongings of those admitted to the camps and walk through one of the past operating gas chambers. I honestly could not believe it. Visiting Birkenau was something I will never forget. Witnessing the size of this place was beyond belief. The second you arrive to the main entrance, the one you see with the train tracks going in, the camp stretches as far as the eye can see. The barbed wire fencing just stretches on for miles. Just barrack after barrack. Entering the camp itself was very powerful. We walked the same path into the camp as so many prisoners of Auschwitz had done seventy years ago. It was so unbelievably sad to think of all the innocent lives that were lost here and all the injustice that took place. Inside the camp, the country of Poland dedicated a memorial for those who died at Auschwitz. There is the same plaque engraved with the same message in 26 different languages all spread throughout the memorial all representing the different languages of those who were at Auschwitz. Such a crazy thing to get to see firsthand and definitely something I will never ever forget.

Sunday: We were able to go out again in the main part of the city, do some shopping, and chill out for a bit before catching our flight back to Florence at 4:30 pm. Overall it was a fantastic weekend and Krakow is definitely one of my favorite cities now! Poland is so beautiful and the people are so nice. There is so much history to be remembered here, but so much progress that has taken place. This is a weekend I will truly never forget. Miss you guys at home and sending lots of love back to the states!

Taking on Tuscany

Two weekends ago, I went on a 3-in-1 Tuscan tour put on by the school. We could register to go on this day trip to Monteriggioni, Siena, and San Ginignano, for only about 25 Euros. So pretty sweet deal. Each town is about an hour each away from Florence, but only about 20 minutes away from each other. We left at about 8:30 am and headed first for Monteriggioni (Mon-teh-ridge-ee-on-ee). A town of probably about 30 people surrounded by a giant medieval wall with guard towers. The town itself was teeny tiny and quite deserted, it being the off season and everything was pretty much closed. The town was still very beautiful and it sat on a hill overlooking the hills of Tuscany. After Monteriggioni, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Siena (See-eh-na). Siena was a lot bigger, but still smaller than Florence. Siena had some pretty great pizza and gelato. We learned a lot about the contradas within the city. The city itself is split up into things called contradas that are almost like subdistricts within Siena. Each contrada has its own symbol and strict ruling that everyone within that particular contrada must follow. For example, you are not allowed to marry anyone who is outside your contrada. Some contradas have allies or enemies. I don't know how I feel about some of their rules, but it was definitely interesting to learn. We got to tour the main cathedral there and we had lunch in the Piazza del Campo. After Siena, we made a quick stop at San Gimignano (San-Jimmy-nah-no). Another small town, but the most historic out of the three. The Italians call this city the "Medieval Manhattan". Very rustic with its brick towers, original cobblestone streets and the residents themselves. Overall it was great to see some other parts of Italy particularly Tuscany. While there was slush, rain, and mud, it was a great day adventure to go on.

Tuscan hills in San Gimignano

Budapest Pictures

Pictures worth way more than a thousand words.

World's 2nd Largest Jewish Synagogue

Hungarian Thermal Baths

Emily, Me, and Lauren

Bridget and Lauren

St. Stephen's Basilica

Breakfast in our hotel

Castle Hill

Hungarian Central Market

Parliament Building

Modern Art Museum

Go Engineers!

Boat Cruise

Fish for sale

Me and Emily

Apparently this is the 3rd best bar in the world

You Da Best, Budapest!

Last weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) I went on a trip to Budapest, Hungary. The trip was already paid through the school and they planned such an amazing weekend for all of us. There were about 80-90 kids who decided to go on the trip.

Modes of transportation on getting to Budapest was left up to the students and all the information we had was which airport we needed to fly into, what day to fly in, and the name of our hotel. My friends and I decided to catch the 4:50 pm flight on Thursday with Lufthansa with only one connection through Munich, Germany. Flying within Europe itself is quite inexpensive and a lot of time you can find budget airlines that will fly you for sometimes less than 100 Euros. Because we went through a larger airline our flight ended up being about 230 Euros round trip which is not too bad for being able to fly out of Florence. We got into Budapest at about midnight and took the airport shuttle to our hotel. 

Our hotel was straight up baller status (translation: It was extremely nice and fancy.) The school definitely got the sweet hook up for all of us. We were able to choose our roommates, so me and my friend Amy decided to room together. The hotel provided robes and slippers for us, heated bathroom floors, cloud-like pillows, and a to-die-for complimentary breakfast in the morning. Oh and maybe the best part of the hotel was our room had the most beautiful view of a Starbucks Coffee only about a 100 feet away (haha but seriously it was so good).

Friday was our first full day in Budapest. Did you know that Budapest is actually two different cities, Buda and Pest/Pesh at least that is how the Hungarians pronounce it, We were on the Pest side for a majority of the trip. We had a walking tour around St. Stephen's Basilica, the Jewish Synagogue (the 2nd biggest synagogue in the entire world...WOAH), and the House of Terror Museum. We got to see an archway that served as the entrance of a Jewish ghetto back during WWII. We learned so much Hungarian history that day. Hungary was actually in alliance with Hitler and the Nazi party during WWII and when the country wanted to secede from the German regime, Hitler started the deportation of Hungarian Jews to surrounding concentration and labor camps (about 600,000 Jewish Hungarians were forced to leave Hungary). The country was liberated from the Nazi party in 1945 by the Soviet Union and communism was introduced into the country. The Soviets stayed and occupied Hungary until 1989 and it was during this time Hungarians were forced to live under the rule of communist party. It wasn't until the 1990's that Hungary actually gained their independence. I had no idea that this happened or that this country was so affected by both WWII and communism.

The following day was spent on both a bus tour and a walking tour. We went to many places such as Hero's Square, Budapest Zoo, Thermal Baths, Castle Hill, and the Central Hungarian Marketplace. I will be providing pictures of everything since it was all so cool. We ended the day with a river boat cruise/ dinner on the Danube River. The all you can eat Hungarian food fest was absolutely delicious and I realized that potatoes are officially my all time favorite food. The food here is delicious and served in the hugest quantities. I loved it. The thermal baths were absolutely incredible, definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The Hungarians love their baths and go almost everyday. For about 14 euros, you get unlimited access to all the baths and given a locker to keep all your belongings in. The bathhouse had about 20 different baths. When I heard the word "baths" I was initially thinking about a good size bathtub, you know like back in the states. No these "baths" are full size pools. They have big baths, small baths, natural spring water baths, chlorinated baths, hot, cold, lukewarm, freezing, you name it. It was so much fun! It basically was like a water park, but for adults.

Sunday was our final day in Budapest. Our flight was at 4:30 pm back to Florence so that basically just gave us the morning for free time and to explore. Some friends and I just walked along the river, we saw the parliament building and relaxed in a local Hungarian cafe. It was rather cold this day, not as cold as our first day (it was a blizzard at night) but definitely way colder than Italy. Overall it was a great ending of our amazing weekend here in Budapest. I definitely love the Hungarian culture and although Hungarian is next to impossible to understand, they were so nice. So proud of their culture and their survival over the years. I will definitely remember this weekend forever and I am already looking forward to going back again some day! Sorry for the insanely long blog post and kudos to you for making it to the end. Pictures will be uploaded soon so look out for that! Hope all is well back home and talk to you guys soon! Ciao for now!

Where Beer Is Cheaper Than Water

Spending my layover in Munich, Germany indulging in one of the country's best exports.

This beer was seriously bigger than my forearm.