Flan de Calabazas y Italia

Hello everyone, since my last update a lot has happened, life’s been busy, lots of tapas have been eaten.. the usual.

First of, I had my first Thanksgiving away- from- home, a whole continent away in fact. As I mentioned earlier, IES was gracious enough to host us a Thanksgiving dinner that was un-traditional but still nice.

We had some nice egg appetizers and for dinner had a turkey/meat loaf thing, some mushrooms, and some mashed potatoes. When I say “some” I mean “some”- these were not American portions, so some people left pretty disappointed.

My favorite part was the dessert, “flan de Calabasas” (pumpkins). I thought it was a perfect symbol of the mix of the too cultures, and absolutely delicious (and I normally don’t even like Flan!)

I also won the photo contest for one of the pictures I took in Morocco (see woman on rocks in other post) so that was exciting. I won two free entrances to the Arab baths (about 30 euros each, so not too shabby!) I’m going with some friends on Thursday to enjoy two hours of bath-time, aromatherapy and a massage… can’t wait.

I don’t really remember what happened the rest of the weekend after Thanksgiving- probably nothing too eventful.. went out on the weekend, did homework.. the usual.

I then went the weekend after that to Italy, which was really fun and deserves it’s own post.

Italy

Let me first of say that going to Italy was the first time I was traveling alone internationally (other than coming to Spain) and since time was of the essence, I wanted to make sure everything was going to go smoothly.

Well, I got a bit of a frantic Skype message from Bri saying that Italy’s transportation systems were going on strike…the Friday I was supposed to be traveling. We were both a bit worried about how things were going to turn out. After a few calls to Alitalia, who assured me that my flight was expected to be on schedule and they didn’t expect many delays.. I woke up at 5 am to take the 7 am bus to Malaga, to catch a 1:30 flight to Rome, with a two hour layover, to fly into Pisa and meet Bri. Everything worked out perfectly, and I was ohhing- and ahhing over the Chrstimas lights in Florence by 9pm that night.

As I mentioned earlier, I was really looking forward to visiting Bri because I have heard so much about Italy and couldn’t wait to see her new home. We took a little walk around the city, stopped by the Christmas market (which eventually became a daily occurrence) and had some strudel. I was also rather jealous of her apartment set-up, which was huge for European (or at least Granada Standards). As much as I love the experience of a home-stay, and I’ve been so lucky with mine, I really do miss the independence of living on my own, cooking for myself.. etc.

Anyway, after an exhausting day of traveling, we went to bed to prepare for the next day of sight-seeing. Let me say, we took Florence by storm, I was really impressed.

First we woke up and Bri cooked a cute breakfast (haha she even bought me purple yogurt!) and we stopped by the food market to explore the fresh fruit stands, meat, fish, pasta, pastries, cheese, you name it they had it. One of my personal favorites was her dried fruit market- complete with dried Kiwis.. I had never seen that before.

We also went to the outdoor market where they sold lots of the Ventian glass, leather products, tons of scarf’s, jewelry… everything. Sort of glad that our stores are at least a bit more hidden, not so tempting to spend money.

Started the day off by visiting the Academia and the “David” aka The David- Michelangelo’s David. Before the main attraction, we saw some of the Medicci family’s instruments, and some Boticellis and Rape of the Sabine Women. One funny thing, further proof of how small the world really can be, I was standing next to a painting when I heard a girl speaking in English, who sounded an awful lot like my friend Sahar from my IES program. I turned to my right, and there she was talking to her boyfriend and looking at the painting right next to me. I knew that she would be in Florence that weekend, but what a coincidence to bump into her!

We then went into the backroom, and upon entering you are just blown away by this huge, white, hunk of a man. Yes, I said hunk. It’s incredible, the attention to detail and form… I can’t even imagine making something so perfect, let alone on such a huge scale. After making friends with David, we visited some more sculptures that were also very nice, but still not quite the same. I felt bad for the other pieces in the room, which really get over-shadowed.

Unfortunately, no pictures allowed (understandably) so the only testament to David is my 1 euro postcard, and posing in front of the replica in Palazzo Vecchio (which is where David originally was).

We then went to visit the Santa Croce basilica, where some of the greats are buried, including Gailileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. It was cool to see how each monument/tomb included elements of their lives.. and how many important people are buried in that one place.

After that we stopped for my first taste of Italian gelato – hazelnut and café yumm. The gelato shop was really cute, and I could see why many people get easily addicted.

After our sugar jolt (we also had a caffeine jolt earlier with some cappuccinos that had coco-powder in the shape of a heart) we headed over to the duomo, the Renaissance- style Cathedral that just happens to be 5 minutes from Bri’s apartment. Renaissance architecture is so different from the Islamic/ Mudejar style I’ve been studying and I was appreciate of Bri’s explanations. She told me that they use the contrasts between the white and colors/ black to reflect a pencil drawing. I sometimes wonder what it must be like an architect, spend hours working and sketching and then finally seeing your building in full 3-d form. Even if inspired by a pencil drawing, I’m sure it’s never anything like what you had imagined.

We went back to her apartment for a little break, and then ventured out to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) to look at the jewelry shops that line the bridge. From far away, the bridge looks like a bunch of buildings stretched over the river, it’s a really unique design and a lot of fun to walk across. Bri also told me that the top layer of the buildings was built so that the Medici’s could walk across without interacting with the scum of the city haha.

We crossed and walked along the Amo river to visit another church on top of the hill. After a bit of a walk, I got a great view of Florence (despite the overcast weather) and visited the church San Miato. We came at that particular time to hear the Gregorian monks chant, which was really cool, I don’t think I’ve seen a live performance before and they have very impacting voices. On a side note, I found this church to be kind-of-creepy and funny at the same time. To conserve money and energy, the lights inside don’t work unless you put a euro coin into the nearby machines. Being the poor/cheap students that we are, we had to wait patiently for someone else to put in a coin before really being able to see it haha.

Before the monks, we also visited the cemetery where the author of Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi) is buried. We searched for a while, but the cemetery was pretty packed and chaotic with tombstones and monuments all over the place, so didn’t have any success. A voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that the cemetery was going to close, so we decided that even if we couldn’t find him, Collodi wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon so we would have to find him some other time.

After walking in the cold, we again stopped by the Christmas market to get some Vino Brule (warm wine) and cookies. We sat in front of the Santa Croce, and people/dog- watched.

That night we went to a nearby Tratoria, literally 30 feet from Bri’s house that she hadn’t had time to visit. After seeing Italy prices (museum entrances were upwards of ten euros) we were both impressed to find such a cute place, with such good food at a good price. We split the risotto with porcini mushrooms and a homemade pasta in red-sauce. They were both so yummy, and after some nice wine left feeling pretty good : ) There was a table of Italian girls in the other room, who were feeling even better and were singing at the top of their lungs in the restaurant haha.

The next day we re-visited the Christmas market (notice a trend?) and we found the Hungarian booth that was selling palinka and another one selling dolls ( there were a lot of booths with food/products from other countries). After living in Spain, whatever Hungarian I had left in me from when I was younger is buried underneath vosotros conjugations, because it was a really embarrassing exchange. I understood what they were saying, but I could only blurt out half-responses, half in Hungarian half in Spanish.

Anyway, after that we had planned on climbing to the top of the Duomo but it was closed on Sundays. I was a bit disappointed, but I had already seen a great view of the city, and it was an absurd amount of steps- no elevator in the duomo! We then met up with two of Bri’s apartment mates to visit the Uffizi, Florence’s world-class art museum.

One of Bri’s apartment mates is an art history major, so it was great touring the museum with her. We saw Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus, Tizian’s Venus of Urbino (a scandalous piece), Michelangelo, Raphael, and Parmigiano’s The Madonna with the long neck. The museum was a lot of fun, but exhausting, there is just room after room of pieces and apparently quite a few of the rooms were closed. I really liked the set-up of the museum because it was converted from old office buildings built by the Medici’s and on one side the windows open up to a cool courtyard and have great views of the city.

After a few hours there, we decided a break was in order so Bri and I went to one of her favorite pizzerias to have some famous Italian pizza. It was good, very fresh, and I hadn’t had mozzarella in ages.

At one point we also went to the leather school, a really cool place Bri had found where you can see the leather workers make some of the famous Italian leather goods. Since it was Sunday, there weren’t many workers, but we saw one of the workers emboss a little card box and saw some of the store.

We went back to her house, and later ventured back out to look at leather purses, and visit the outside of the Pitti palace, the Medici palace. We then went back to the Christmas market ( what’s the count at now?) and looked at some gorgeous amber rings that were really pretty but too big.

That night, Bri treated me to a home-made dinner and I had a lot of fun relaxing and helping her cook. She made a delicious meal she had learned in her cooking class (pasta, egg plant, tomatoes, fresh cheese- all that when put together looks like a volcano). After stuffing myself ( I think I will always associated Italy with that feeling) we had a relaxing night at her house and I went to bed pretty early since I had to catch the 3 am bus to the airport.

Early the next day I walked with Bri and her apartment mate (both of them had been up studying poor things) to the bus station and said Bye. It was a weird good-bye, because even though I was going home to another country, we both will be returning to the states in less than a week. We talked a lot about our experiences abroad, how we feel about going back.. Can’t believe it’s here already.

Got back the twelve hours later to Granada with no problems, and met- up with my group for a group project. I loved Florence, I can see why Bri likes it so much, but a lot really surprised me. I hadn’t expected it to be so small, but still so packed with history/art/ culture etc. I’ve also grown accustomed to the Spanish night-life, tapas bars etc. and seeing families out in the streets even at 12 at night.. The streets in Florence were pretty quiet. I also couldn’t believe how many Americans there were, I think probably because Granada is larger us Americans are diffused and less obvious (though you still can tell) but I had not expected that in Florence.

After visiting Florence and getting a (literal) taste of Italy, I really would like to go back and explore more. It wasn’t as chaotic as I had thought it would be, and though I can see why it might be frustrating with random laws (like the internet cafes that demand to copy ID because of “terrorist activity”) I really liked the people and their attitudes. On my flight home from Milan, I sat night to an older man (probably about 65 ish) who was really sweet and told me about his daughter who was a psychologist. He offered his sandwich to me, and even tucked my jacket around me when I feel asleep.

However, even though I was sad to say “ciao ciao” (they like to say it twice in Italy) and I was again relieved to get back home to Granada, which truly has become a home. That being said, I have very mixed feelings about going back, part of me looking forward to the holidays with my family and friends, and the other part wishing I could stay here. I’ll probably talk more about this later, but even though conflicted I’m actually lucky to be in this position. Like my Mom told me earlier, even if harder, it’s so much better to leave an experience wishing for more than running frantically away.

The Duomo




















In front of "David"















In front of the Hungarian Booth















Bri and her gelatto





















Michelangelo














Puente Veccio in background




















Uffizi



































Capucchinos