Arrivederci Italia

Ciao All,

It's my last day in Verona :) A bittersweet day. All week we've been doing totally Verona things. We went to the Christmas Market, the Roman Theatre, and of course hit up the bar Re Carlo, which has a specialty drink that translates to "A Slap in the Face." Tonight we are going out to eat at a restaurant, called Casa Vino. Which was the same restaurant we ate at the first night! Full circle! So this is the last 'Adventures Abroad' post and it's been a wild ride! Thanks for all the support, and the comments, and smiles! See you all soon!

"Open my heart and you will see graved inside of it, "Italy." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wales & England: Two Different Countries!

Happy December!

Hope you are all staying warm over there in the states! Yesterday in Verona it was 60degrees and sunny. Just had to mention it in passing!

This past weekend from Friday - Tuesday, I got to go visit NANA! Yay! For those of you who aren't in the know, Nana is my grandmother who lives in Swansea, Wales, specifically "The Mumbles." Also featured on this amazing trip were my two hot messes of friends, Clara and Jenny! (Us outside a castle) They both graduated an now are part of "the real world" They decided to take the week off work and come on a European adventure with me! Yay!

The adventure started VERY early on Friday morning. I left my apartment around 4:00am to fly out of Verona to Heathrow. Heads up travelers: Heathrow Airport is one of my least favorite airports after this trip. Customs were horrible to get through, even more so for Jenny and Clara. I got there about 10:30, which gave me time to wake up, but they questioned everything. From did I know any United Kingdom natural born citizens, why I was in Italy, why wasn't I currently in school (I am?), the exact address I was staying at, ect... Like I said, it was worse for Jenny and Clara, who got there about 8:00am and were tired after an 8 hour flight. Unfortunatly for them, I had all the address for Nana and they were tricked by some questions about staying with a Natural Citizen. Anyway, we all made it through customs and managed to find each other in that mess of an airport.

Then we took the bus to Swansea, Wales where we went to Nana's house! Auntie Janet was there so we all got catch up. After chatting and introductions, we went out to eat dinner at the Woodsmen. Yum! Of course I had fish and chips! Yumm! On Saturday morning we took a drive down the beach and of course saw Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas's house. What is a trip to the Mumbles without a little celebrity stalking? We had a nice big Italian lunch on the beach, and watched it pour with rain :). In the afternoon Jenny, Clara, and I went shopping downtown Swansea and bought a few Christmas gifts! When we got home we met Nana's very nice neighbors, who made us a sponge cake! How cute! (Us and the neighbors, Jean and Tony). After having a little dinner with Nana and catching up on some "Strictly Come Dancing." The three of us headed over to my mom's friend's, Kate, house. Her son Chris is about our age and we went out with him and a few of his friends. Very fun! They were all perfect Welsh gentlemen! We ended up going to this club, that was world themed! We started off in Tahiti, but of course ended the night in New York :) On Sunday, Tony took us to church and afterwards we went off to meet Father Christmas. Being the oldest people there to see Father Christmas by decades, we didn't get a lollipop. As we were leaving though, they gave us a shot of Baileys, oh the Welsh! We walked around the Mumbles a little more and ended up enjoying the sun and walking all the way back to Nanas on the beach! That night, Nana took us to the Lindentree where we participated in Pub Trivia. We don't know much Welsh trivia, but luckily some of questions included: "Which US President was shot in a theatre?" and "What country is Berlusconi the Prime Minister of?" Another help in this trivia was the guys sitting next to us. When ever is was obvious we would have no idea what the answer would be, they passed us a piece of paper with the answer on it. All in all, we came in 4th out of 6! On Monday we had to leave to catch the train back to London. (Us saying goodbye at the train station.) To short of a trip to see Nana! I guess I'll just have to go back soon :)

On Monday afternoon we arrived in London. After dropping our stuff off we of course headed to the number one attraction on our list: Platform 9 3/4: !!! I almost made it! Look I got the cart through! That night we did a walking tour of Westminister by gas light. Very cool! At the end of the tour we got to go into the House of Commons and see parliament argue over one of their new environmental bills they are passing. We topped it off at a pub! On Tuesday morning before my flight took off, we headed over to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Then I again had to return to Heathrow where I suffered through their never ending security! The funny thing about Heathrow is they literally have HUNDREDS of gates, but they won't put the gate you're flying out of until 35 minutes before your flight, which is 5 minutes before boarding. So instead after you get through security, you have to sit in these holding areas where everyone is just staring at the monitors waiting for the gate to come up and then they run off. Amazing!

That, sadly, was my last mini vacation on this adventure! This weekend I will be enjoying Verona and their Christmas spirit. I leave on the 19th for home. No worries I'm sure something will happen between now and then, so hold out for one last post!

Have a great day!

love

Heather

Spain plus another European Thanksgiving!

Hi!

Hope you all had a good Turkey day! I miss stuffing. But I don't miss stuffing enough to be sad about going to SPAIN for the week! WHOO! We had a week off break due to the fact it was Thanksgiving! YAY! And since the University of Illinois also had a week off Jason came to visit me in Spain!

On Friday, Katie, Peggy, Terese, Brittany, and I left Verona to go Barcelona! We met up Terese's friend Jackie who graduated from U of I last May, and got a job teaching in Spain. (the ladies outside the Sagrada Familia) On Friday we got there and oriented ourselves with the city, and went to the "Magic Fountain" show which is just a huge fountain that they put music behind and then put on a water show. It was pretty cool! On Saturday morning, I conquered the Barcelona metro lines and went to the airport to pick up Jason! (Us on a metro train) It was great seeing him again! On Saturday we walked down the coast, (p.s. the Beach in Barcelona was man made for the 1992 Olympics. It used to be an industrial area, and then they dumped all the buildings in to the sea and dug up a bunch of sand. Now they are dealing with how they are to keep the beach from washing away.) and then around the Ramblas area! For dinner we had some classic Spanish food. On Sunday Jason and I hit up the city museum, so he could see some Roman Ruins, and then we all met up for the Picasso museum! Very cool! It was funny because it was Picasso's earlier works from when he still lived in Spain, so it wasn't as out there as he would one day become. On Monday we did some major touristy things and went the La Sagrada Familia. Have any of you heard of this church? IT IS CRAZY?! Construction started in 1882, funded by a private organization to help bring the Catholic faith back to Barcelona. The main architect was Antoni Gaudi, and he had a modest design until he got a huge donation and went crazy with plans for this church. He worked on it until 1926, until he came to a sudden death. Well they tried to continue his crazy plans but then there was the Spanish Civil War and some other mishaps, but in conclusion this church is STILL under construction and they don't expect completion until 2030! 148 years later?! In my realistic opinion, it won't be done. Why? The final plan calls for 18 spirals, right now they only have 6 done, and the interior of the church isn't finished yet, plus they are planning to replace every window with stained glass. This is the Wiki Page. Check it out! It's madness! We did get to go to the top of it, and it has a pretty impressive view of the city: . Another cool thing about it, is that its all funded through private donations. So most craftsmen, and construction workers, and architects, volunteer time to the building of the church as one of their final jobs. Its considered almost a right of passage to retirement (thanks Rick Steves). We also went to Parc Guell, which is a city park the Gaudi designed for a new subdivision. The subdivision was never built but the park is still there, and still being gaudy. (see what i did there?) Oh, on the way to the park we found this sign and took this picture, it was completely necessary: On Monday night we also went to a Flamanco dancing show. It was pretty cool! We were duped though, we thought dinner was included with the ticket price. It wasn't. BUT it did include all you could drink Sangria, so we had fun :) Tuesday morning we said good bye to the ladies, they were headed to Paris to continue their break. Jason and I did a bike tour around Barcelona which was really cool, and we had the perfect weather! (and I didn't fall off my bike once!)

On Wednesday we said goodbye to Barcelona and took the train to Madrid. Spanish trains: WAY nicer than Italian trains! They show movies, and give you headphones! CRAZY! When we got into Madrid, we walked around and went to the Prado. More Picasso. PLUS some other Spanish artists, I was pretty pumped for a change of art scene, the renaissance and I were getting worn out. On Thursday we did this cool selfguided walking/photography tour. You get this map and its a scavenger hunt type thing where you walk up Grand Via and find certain historical sites. It was REALLY FUN, plus if you find everything you get a sweet free t-shirt! AND the last stop was a little market where I finished up my Christmas shopping! Thats right, I finished my Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving! In the afternoon we went out to El Escorial which was pretty cool as well. It's like an old monastery/palace/school/art museum. Very fun! For our Thanksgiving dinner we had: bread with some kind of delicious dipping sauce, spicy spanish sausage, a half slab of ribs, with a baked potato (Jason had fries), and ice cream. Plus they gave us free lemoncello at the end! All for the low price of 12.50euro! NICE SPAIN! On Friday we hit up the royal palace and said hi to King Juan Carlos the First and Queen Sofia. That's their square they have in their palace. No biggie. They don't actually live there anymore, they only use it 12 times a year, max, to hold special events. For dinner on Friday we ate at the wildly popular Madrid based chain called "Museo del Jamon" or the Museum of Ham. They have huge hams hanging from the ceiling and a ham sandwich is only 1euro and a beer is only 1euro! It was just ridiculously crowded, they don't have tables so everyone is standing around holding ham and beer. When I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. People are in there before hitting up the clubs, or there was a group of 6 elderly ladies that cut in front of me when I went to get another beer, or just massive groups of people. It was even busy when we walked by at 9:30 one morning. On Saturday we went to Toledo! So much fun! Who knew? (Jason) We went to their main cathedral, and then we took one of those ever popular European Tiny Tourist Trains!! Love them! : Toledo was pretty cool, it was the former capital of Spain back in its glory days, and is the weapon making capital of Spain, plus the religious capital of Spain (feel the irony). I also got to learn some interesting facts such as: The pelican is the only animal that will consciously pull off its own skin to feed its young if its necessary. I just wanted to lay that knowledge on you. Plus the entire town of Toledo has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. AND in its cathedral there is a little glass heart on display from their sister city: Toledo, Ohio. How cute is that?! So cute.

So that was our week in a nutshell! We had a great time! I was sad to miss another Thanksgiving, but I'm sure we'll have stuffing at Christmas, and of course I would trade Thanksgiving for a week in Austria (last year) with Colleen and a week in Spain with Jason! Only one major trip left! This weekend I am meeting up with two friends from Sigma Kappa and we are going to visit Nana in Swansea! WHOO! Hope all is well in for the holiday season! Miss you!

love,

Heather

Mother Daughter Bonding in PARIS!!

Mom and I in Paris!
Hi All!

Hope all is well on this pre-Thanksgiving week! Getting ready to eat some turkey & stuffing? Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to Paris with my mom! It was so much fun! Of course we did some classic French things like eat quiche! Yum! We both arrived on Friday night and checked in to our lovely Holiday Inn. Then we went out and went and saw the Eiffel Tower! AMAZING! We took a little walk and stopped and had some great dinner! Yumm!

On Saturday we did a walk around Paris and went and saw Notre Dame where we ran into this picture. Now you may be thinking to yourself "Heather that is a horrible picture, it isn't of anything." But you'd be wrong. If you look closely, that lady is actually wearing a beret. That's is awesome. We then headed to the Louvre. But we got their right before they were closing, so we headed straight for Mona, Venus di Milo, and Winged Victory. But thats really all thats in the Louvre right? Then of course we did a little shopping :)

The next day we went to L'Orangerie Museum and got to see really cool Monet paintings. They had 2 rooms where the walls were covered in long water lily paintings! Here is me pondering art:.

We also checked out The Orsay Museum, which used to be a train station. You can ask my mom, I totally called it. We walked in, I said "This looks like a train station." and later with the rick steves tour he said "The Orsay used to be a Train Station." I could be the next Rick Steves.

That night we also got to up the Arc de Triomphe. Which was really cool! Inside they have really nice memorial exhibit and exhibits about arc's all over the world, including one in Brooklyn NY (Corinne, it's like we were in the same town). That might sound lame but it's not.

On Monday we didn't have much time so we just had a quick breakfast and our last cup of delicious Parisian coffee! This week I am going to Spain for 9 days so it will be a little while until the next update! Until then I will leave you with two things:

1. I have a Friend's and Family promotion still going on for the Holiday Inn. It works with any hotel under the IHC Family. Here is the link. You have to book by December 31, 2009. You can pass it on to your Friend's and Family too (but make sure you tell them my name because you need it for the voucher.)

Friends & Family!

2. I'm going to leave you with this short video of the Eiffel Tower twinkling at night!

Miss you!

Love,

Heather

Bulgaria. Yes, Bulgaria.

Hi!

Alright so this weekend I went to Sofia, Bulgaria. Now you might be sitting there thinking to yourself, "Heather, whatever possessed you to go to Bulgaria?" I will tell you now, I have no idea, but Katie and I did have an amazing time!

So Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria, and they've had a rough recent history. So it was part of the Ottoman Empire until about 1878, when it was taken over by Russian forces But Russia let it be free for a little while, up until World War 2, when it then took it over again and put it under its Communist Rule. It was a communist country up until 1989. It is no longer a communist country and is actually one of the newest members of the European Union. If you want to learn more about Sofia, here is the wiki page: Sofia.

Sofia was great other than the fact that we didn't know the language because they don't use the same alphabet as us. Even with a map it led to a lot of this: . It was a good time though! We got to see a 7,000 year old city, and everyone was very friendly. They are hoping to get more tourists now that they are part of the European Union and liked practicing English, which is helpful because we don't know Bulgarian. When we got there we went to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is a very impressive buildings. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it justice, so you'll just have to visit Bulgaria. Then we went and saw the mosque, their impressively large library, the capital building, the synagogue, and the president's house. After we ate at a restaurant that had pictures on their menu so we knew what we were ordering :) The next day we wandered through their version of Central Park and found some interesting characters. We somehow stumbled upon a Communist Rally, and were interviewed for TV on our thoughts. After that we were a little afraid we weren't going to get out of Bulgaria alive, but we did, so no worries. We also found this: . Which we think was the entrance to the Quidditch field where Victor Krum and the Bulgarian Quidditch team practice. This sign obviously says. "Quidditch field! Home of 'Victor Krum' Game today, free for Katie and Heather." You probably can't read it because you can't read Bulgarian.

That night we went to an Irish Pub for some drinks but it was the most interesting Irish Pub in Europe ever for two reasons. 1. They didn't have Guinness. 2. Because they were advertising the Big Ten Network. Apparently American college football is big in Bulgaria because the people were impressed with went to U of I. Yay!

The next day we headed back to Italy in the morning. We thought it was going to be an easy trip, but nothing is easy in Italy and traveling. Getting out of Bulgaria was fine, but getting from the Airport in Milano to Verona was a nightmare. It took us about 9 hours, and 4 different trains, due to the fact that 20% of train workers wanted the day off and took a 24hour strike. When we got back to Verona finally I looked like this, very excited to see Verona: . But as my dad pointed out: "All part of the adventure." (Note: He said this from the comfort of his own home where it wasn't raining.)

So that was our exciting weekend to Eastern Europe! Whoo! Next stop: Paris with mom! Yay!

Also please visit the Guinness Storehouse Website (which is in that link), and vote for my photo as part of the photo contest! It is the one from the last post with the Guinness and the view of Dublin. Its called "Dublin through Guinness Colored Glasses." You vote by giving it stars. Thanks!

Miss you all! Hope everyone is doing okay and getting ready for some yummy Turkey!

love,

Heather

Dublin It Up!

Hello!!

Top of the Mornin' To You! (And the rest of the day to you... (thats the proper response, did you know that?!)) Just got back from my weekend in Dublin for Halloween! Love Dublin! We arrived on Friday afternoon, walked around the city a little, and then celebrated one of the girls 22nd birthday with live Irish music! Quite a way to celebrate 22! On Saturday we took a day trip to Wicklow National Park and Mountain. Our tour guide was great! He was a little old Irishman and he drove us in his van! At one point we pulled over to the side of the road to enjoy some tea and coffee and great views: . We got to see some sweet lakes and of course I had to bring a little bit of my nerdy highschool Ottawaness into the mold and we did a Verona study abroad hands-in:. How awesome! Sorry my hair is everywhere! That night we enjoyed dinner at Dublin's oldest pub, The Brazen Head, and then went on an International Pub Crawl! Since it was Halloween of course we dressed up as people going to a masquerade! Whoo! The next morning we woke up craving MORE Guinness and headed headed over to the Guinness Factory to enjoy a pint and a great tour! Here is our entire group trying some Guinness in their tasting lab! Yumm! I don't know what it is, but Guinness just tastes better in Ireland! That night five of us went on a Literary Pub Crawl where are two guides were two actors that took us around the city and acted out some chapters of Irish Literature! We like to be a little cultured too! Pretty exciting weekend! Lots of fun, laughs and Guinnesses! Hope you all had an enjoyable Halloween with some sweet costumes! I do have to give a shout out to Mrs. Conroy for telling me her awesome costume idea! Whoo! So I'll leave you with a little joke and a view from the top:

Why should you never iron your four-leaf clover?

'Cause you don't want to press your luck!

Love and miss you all!

Heather

Out and About in Italia!

Hi!

A blog update sooo soon?!?! Awesome! Lately I've been doing some travels around Northern Italy (even though Frommers doesn't consider Florence to be really party of the North). First I got to do a day trip to Bolzano & Castelrotto! These towns are up in the Dolomites, and part of Italy that used to be Austria. This leads to the interesting situation of them not really wanting to admit they are Italian, and so everyone speaks German. The fun thing about Bolzano is it is where the Ice Man lives!

Ice Man Link you can't take pictures of the Ice Man so I included a link to his Wiki page, are some pictures of the town! This is Castelrotto, it's a really small town about 50 minutes by bus from Bolzano. You can read about it in Rick Steves ;). Terese and I went hiking while we were there and took the Path of Peace. It was pretty cool.

The next little Italian European adventure was with the group to Asiago, which is also in the Dolomites. The 10 of us spend a whole weekend in Asiago, watching them make cheese, horseback riding, and ice skating. This is Claudio and the owner of cheese factory, aka "The Big Cheese." They took us through the whole factory, it takes about a year and a half from the milking of the cow until hits the grocery store shelf, and that's just the young stuff. This is me stealing a wheel of cheese. These wheels by themselves are worth about 500euro! WHOA! We also went horseback riding, and that was a little scary. Only because we were on the edge of cliff and my horse was blind in one eye, so he couldn't really see! On Sunday we went ice skating and practiced our triple axles!

The next adventure happened to be Florence! Whoo! What a beautiful city! We took a bus tour of the city and got to see it from the top of hills. That is a picture of me demonstrating how tall I am! You know who is tall? The David! We went to see him in the Academia. Very impressive. There are two other fake David statues in Florence, one is where the original used to stand in the middle of town and the other is a bronze version and stands in Piazza del Michangelo. There is the bronze version. He is surrounded by 4 other Michangelo statues representing the seasons. The bus tour was really fun, and very informative. After that we did some walking and got some gelato. Gelato was invented in Florence around 1548, by an amateur chef in a cooking contest.

Other than those mini-trips things have been pretty laid back in Verona. I will now leave you with two funny youtube links about Italy.

Europe and Italy - this one is VERY TRUE! Especially about the waiting in lines thing!

The Italian Man Who Went to Malta - this one is about Italian accents. Even the Italians think it's funny!

Hope everything is well! Happy Halloween!

Love,

Heather