Happy Thanksgiving! My semester in Spain is almost over, and I'm getting a bit nostalgic/reflective. Keeping with the theme d' jour, I've compiled a list of things I'm thankful for:
1. Cafe con leche - justifies my caffeine addiction every time!
2. Madrid's art museums especially the "golden triangle": The Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen. Going to a museum every week has been one of my favorite parts of living in a major metropolis.
3. The wonders of modern technology - skype and email (and blogs!) - that keep me in touch with my friends and family back home. I would probably be way more stressed/lonely if it weren't for the internet!
4. The fact that I stuck with Spanish for almost 10 years. Can't believe that I've gone from "Hola. Cómo estás?" to (near) linguistic proficiency. Nothing is more rewarding than having real Spanish conversations with real Spanish people.
5. The academically-wussy classes here that allow me to travel on the weekends and explore the city without being tied to my computer and textbooks. Also a welcome breather in between a tough sophomore year and what looks like to be a challenging junior spring.
6. The great people I've met on my program and in Madrid. Seriously, everyone on my program is so nice and fun. Who knew that a cross-section from every liberal arts school in the country would be such a simpatico group?
7. Plaza Mayor. I know it's one of the main tourist areas of Madrid, but I can't help loving it. It's just SO old and cool and great. This might not be historically accurate, but I can easily imagine medieval knights meeting up there for some café.
8. Tapas! Specifically tortilla española, manchego cheese and roasted green peppers. Mmmm.
9. The opportunity and ability to travel. Before this semester, I was never involved in any of our family trip-planning. In addition to being amazing and fun, my trips around Europe have taught me how to be organized, patient (especially with delayed Ryanair flights...) and responsible.
Aaand last but not least (although a bit cheesy)
10. My great family, who have always supported me in thousands of ways and who are here enjoying Madrid with me this week!
Enjoy the tryptophan!
Love,
Sophie
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
finde de tranquilidad
After three weeks of constant traveling, I am happy to finally be back in Madrid for a few weeks to catch my breath!
I really needed it, because I actually had to work this past week. Although my program is run through Hamilton and claims to maintain a high academic standard, the reality is that this is Spain and no one works that hard. Thus, I've been cruising rather easily this semester so far. I guess it's a good thing because it's given me the opportunity to travel and enjoy the city without constantly being bogged down by papers and tests. The downside is that now we're in the last month of the semester (crazy!) and my academic brain is out of shape. We don't have a library in our building and the rules about who can use the "public" libraries are really sketchy, so I've been doing all of my work in my homestay aka in my bed, which really isn't conducive to getting a lot done. Next week I have a grammar exam as well as a 10-page anthropology research paper due, so this past week I spent a lot of time in our Centro working after my classes. The work paid off, because I finished my essay on Thursday afternoon and was ready for the weekend!
Although I'd been out of Madrid (and more important, Madrid nightlife) for almost a month, I decided to take it easy and get some rest. On Thursday night some friends and I went to a jazz club in the Alonso Martinez neighborhood. It was a smaller group than usual and we could actually converse because the music wasn't too loud. It was great to catch up with some of my friends on the program that I hadn't seen in a while because I'd been traveling so much!
On Friday I went to a "cultural activity" run by the program's administration. What that entailed was walking around the Plaza Mayor area for an hour and then going to eat Mexican food. It was really fun because a) we didn't have to pay b) it wasn't spanish food and c) we got to hang out with the directors and talk to them in a non-academic environment. Although the meal we shared was technically "lunch," my roommate and I didn't get home until 6 pm! That night I went with a big group to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter 7! If you know me at all, you probably can guess that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. IT WAS AWESOME! We watched it in version original with spanish subtitles, which was not too annoying and rather funny because some of the terms had goofy spanish translations. For example, whenever anyone called anyone else "mate" (which is common in british slang, as in "what's up, mate?") the spanish subtitle would say "tío," which literally means uncle. I already knew that particular slang term, but one girl didn't and she was so confused! I guess that's one way to learn spanish slang!
Today (aka Sunday) I went to the Rastro street market again. It was just as fun/overwhelming as before, but significantly colder. It's no Hamilton, but Madrid is definitely starting to get a bit chilly! The weather is a bit deceptive because 84% of the time it's sunny out. After the Rastro I stopped home for a quick (2-hour) lunch/siesta combo and then went to meet my friends Melissa and Emma in Café Azúl, one of our favorite spots to get coffee and do homework. They have free wifi, so I brought my computer and finished my anthropology paper. I wanted to be all clear for the coming week so that when my parents and Jack are here I don't have to work and instead can guide them around Madrid! That's all for now, can't believe that I have less than a month to go!
Love,
S
I really needed it, because I actually had to work this past week. Although my program is run through Hamilton and claims to maintain a high academic standard, the reality is that this is Spain and no one works that hard. Thus, I've been cruising rather easily this semester so far. I guess it's a good thing because it's given me the opportunity to travel and enjoy the city without constantly being bogged down by papers and tests. The downside is that now we're in the last month of the semester (crazy!) and my academic brain is out of shape. We don't have a library in our building and the rules about who can use the "public" libraries are really sketchy, so I've been doing all of my work in my homestay aka in my bed, which really isn't conducive to getting a lot done. Next week I have a grammar exam as well as a 10-page anthropology research paper due, so this past week I spent a lot of time in our Centro working after my classes. The work paid off, because I finished my essay on Thursday afternoon and was ready for the weekend!
Although I'd been out of Madrid (and more important, Madrid nightlife) for almost a month, I decided to take it easy and get some rest. On Thursday night some friends and I went to a jazz club in the Alonso Martinez neighborhood. It was a smaller group than usual and we could actually converse because the music wasn't too loud. It was great to catch up with some of my friends on the program that I hadn't seen in a while because I'd been traveling so much!
On Friday I went to a "cultural activity" run by the program's administration. What that entailed was walking around the Plaza Mayor area for an hour and then going to eat Mexican food. It was really fun because a) we didn't have to pay b) it wasn't spanish food and c) we got to hang out with the directors and talk to them in a non-academic environment. Although the meal we shared was technically "lunch," my roommate and I didn't get home until 6 pm! That night I went with a big group to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter 7! If you know me at all, you probably can guess that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. IT WAS AWESOME! We watched it in version original with spanish subtitles, which was not too annoying and rather funny because some of the terms had goofy spanish translations. For example, whenever anyone called anyone else "mate" (which is common in british slang, as in "what's up, mate?") the spanish subtitle would say "tío," which literally means uncle. I already knew that particular slang term, but one girl didn't and she was so confused! I guess that's one way to learn spanish slang!
Today (aka Sunday) I went to the Rastro street market again. It was just as fun/overwhelming as before, but significantly colder. It's no Hamilton, but Madrid is definitely starting to get a bit chilly! The weather is a bit deceptive because 84% of the time it's sunny out. After the Rastro I stopped home for a quick (2-hour) lunch/siesta combo and then went to meet my friends Melissa and Emma in Café Azúl, one of our favorite spots to get coffee and do homework. They have free wifi, so I brought my computer and finished my anthropology paper. I wanted to be all clear for the coming week so that when my parents and Jack are here I don't have to work and instead can guide them around Madrid! That's all for now, can't believe that I have less than a month to go!
Love,
S
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
getting lost in amsterdam
The title is a reference to one of my favorite songs ever, amsterdam by guster. But seriously, it was even more confusing than venice, which was pretty darn difficult to navigate! On the bright side, my travel companions (Charlie, Mike and Nzaba - it was quite a bro-tastic weekend) and I got to explore a lot of the city that we normally wouldn't have seen. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and our Madrid-adjusted bodies could not tolerate wandering around in the 10˚C weather, so we spent a lot of time hanging out in cafes and other indoor venues. Here are some photos from the wandering. So pretty!
I really wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum but unfortunately by the time we got to the Museumplein (it's a bit far outside of the main downtown where we were staying) it was 3:30 and the museums both close at 6 AND there were huge lines at both. Charlie and I did the Rijksmuseum, which has a lot of classic paintings buy Dutch dudes like Vermeer and Rembrandt. It also had a lot of scenes from the Dutch Golden Age -- shipping, trading, tulips, protestantism, you name it. I find this period of history really interesting so I had a great time in the museum. There were also some non-painting works on exhibit like Delft tiles and silver engraved plates and sculptures. Mike and Nzaba went to the Van Gogh museum, for which I will be eternally jealous because I LOVE Van Gogh and always copied his style when I did painting in high school. Although that may have just been because I can't draw for love or money. I guess that's something for my next trip...
I'm sorry this is such a sorry excuse for an update, but I actually have work this week and my parents and Jack are visiting next week so I'm gearing up for that as well!! Hopefully I'll have time to fit in another post about life in Madrid--this is the first weekend in almost a month that I've been in my home city!
Love,
S
damrak-- one of the biggest streets/canals. you can see the train station in the distance.
sex museum. we went there. it was interesting.
most demanding/controlling street performer I have ever seen!
charlie took the same photo; according to him the biker makes it look more "dutch"
neat alley I found when Charlie and I were trying to find Mike and Nzaba
love canals!
Charlie and I in the I AMsterdam sign. I need to figure out how to photoshop the two pictures together to get the whole sign in one shot!
Museumplein: large square/park with Rijksmuseum on one end and Van Gogh museum at the other. Also home to the I AMsterdam sign.
I really wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum but unfortunately by the time we got to the Museumplein (it's a bit far outside of the main downtown where we were staying) it was 3:30 and the museums both close at 6 AND there were huge lines at both. Charlie and I did the Rijksmuseum, which has a lot of classic paintings buy Dutch dudes like Vermeer and Rembrandt. It also had a lot of scenes from the Dutch Golden Age -- shipping, trading, tulips, protestantism, you name it. I find this period of history really interesting so I had a great time in the museum. There were also some non-painting works on exhibit like Delft tiles and silver engraved plates and sculptures. Mike and Nzaba went to the Van Gogh museum, for which I will be eternally jealous because I LOVE Van Gogh and always copied his style when I did painting in high school. Although that may have just been because I can't draw for love or money. I guess that's something for my next trip...
I'm sorry this is such a sorry excuse for an update, but I actually have work this week and my parents and Jack are visiting next week so I'm gearing up for that as well!! Hopefully I'll have time to fit in another post about life in Madrid--this is the first weekend in almost a month that I've been in my home city!
Love,
S
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
penny for the guy = $10
Continuing my month of constant travel, I spent last weekend in LONDON! Two of my friends on the program, Carmen and Mike, have Swarthmore friends studing in London this semester and I decided to tag along to visit them. I thought I´d just have my HCAYS friends in England, but as it turns out I was super busy meeting up with old friends.
We flew in on Thursday night and I went to see Christine, "the best nanny in the world." I was a little nervous about seeing her, because although we´d communicated over email and facebook, I hadn´t seen her since I was 9. She´s living about 45 minutes outside of London with her husband Daniel and their adorable 2 year old daughter Lucy. I shouldn´t have worried, because Christine was just as friendly and fun as I remember. Lucy was asleep, but the adults (I guess that includes me now--weird) ordered in Indian food, drank wine and talked about old times. It was really great to catch up. We all decided it was better if I set out for London in the morning, so I stayed the night and thus got to meet Lucy on Friday morning! She´s so cute and really smart -- Christine is teaching her sign language and Spanish. They were all heading up to Newcastle to visit friends for the weekend, so I took a train to London in the morning. I was so happy to see Christine and meet her wonderful family:
As soon as I got into London, the counter-culture shock set in. After a few months of hearing and seening exclusively Spanish in public, English was music to my ears. England was really comforting because a) I have so many great memories of visiting there with my family in the past and b) the culture is close-ish-er to that of the U.S. (i.e. English-speaking and non-siesta-taking). For these reasons, I was grinning like an idiot in Liverpool Street Station. People must have thought I was crazy.
Joe and Matt are both at Queen Mary College in the East End. After finding the campus and dropping my stuff at their apartment, we took the tube to Westminister and started some serious sightseeing. We saw: Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. James´ Park, and the National Gallery. Phew! Most of the sites we just looked at from the outside because it was too ´spensive to go in. This was a theme of my trip. Here are some faux-toes:
That night, we split up and Carmen and her boyfriend had a date night and Mike, Matt and I went to Brick Lane for Indian food. I went for a spicy curry, but Mike made friends with all the waiters by ordering the spiciest vindaloo they had. He was literally sweating because it was so hot!
I wanted to meet up with my friend Rae from high school and see some Guy Fawkes´Day bonfires, but our mobiles weren´t working and we couldn´t figure out how to find each other. However, I did meet up with Talia and Zach Kwartler at a pub in Shore Ditch, one of London´s oldest areas. We had a pint at the pub and then went with a big group of Matt´s friends to this bar/club in the same neighborhood. Here´s another bit of culture shock - at both of these places, we stayed until last call. At the bar, that was 11 p.m. and at the club it was 2 a.m. For a seasoned madrileña like myself, it was crazy early!
The next morning, Mike and I woke up early because we wanted to have time for a full english breakfast before meeting Zach and Talia at the Tower of London. I got the "vegetarian version," which had baked beans, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and hash browns. Mike's non-veggie version included sausage, bacon and black pudding. Needless to say, we were full for quite a long time afterwards.
The Tower of London was great! I remember vaguely going as a kid, but we spent the entire morning and then some checking out the crown jewels, armory, prison rooms, etc. My personal favorite was a punch bowl in the royal plate that holds 144 bottles of wine. Obviously for when the royals want to rage.
We flew in on Thursday night and I went to see Christine, "the best nanny in the world." I was a little nervous about seeing her, because although we´d communicated over email and facebook, I hadn´t seen her since I was 9. She´s living about 45 minutes outside of London with her husband Daniel and their adorable 2 year old daughter Lucy. I shouldn´t have worried, because Christine was just as friendly and fun as I remember. Lucy was asleep, but the adults (I guess that includes me now--weird) ordered in Indian food, drank wine and talked about old times. It was really great to catch up. We all decided it was better if I set out for London in the morning, so I stayed the night and thus got to meet Lucy on Friday morning! She´s so cute and really smart -- Christine is teaching her sign language and Spanish. They were all heading up to Newcastle to visit friends for the weekend, so I took a train to London in the morning. I was so happy to see Christine and meet her wonderful family:
As soon as I got into London, the counter-culture shock set in. After a few months of hearing and seening exclusively Spanish in public, English was music to my ears. England was really comforting because a) I have so many great memories of visiting there with my family in the past and b) the culture is close-ish-er to that of the U.S. (i.e. English-speaking and non-siesta-taking). For these reasons, I was grinning like an idiot in Liverpool Street Station. People must have thought I was crazy.
Joe and Matt are both at Queen Mary College in the East End. After finding the campus and dropping my stuff at their apartment, we took the tube to Westminister and started some serious sightseeing. We saw: Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. James´ Park, and the National Gallery. Phew! Most of the sites we just looked at from the outside because it was too ´spensive to go in. This was a theme of my trip. Here are some faux-toes:
houses of parliament
whitehall palace
some ivy that looked pretty
buckingham palace
st. james' park--the real St. James Gate!
big ben with the london eye peeking out from behind a building
westminster abbey
chilling with oliver cromwell outside HofP
big ben
That night, we split up and Carmen and her boyfriend had a date night and Mike, Matt and I went to Brick Lane for Indian food. I went for a spicy curry, but Mike made friends with all the waiters by ordering the spiciest vindaloo they had. He was literally sweating because it was so hot!
I wanted to meet up with my friend Rae from high school and see some Guy Fawkes´Day bonfires, but our mobiles weren´t working and we couldn´t figure out how to find each other. However, I did meet up with Talia and Zach Kwartler at a pub in Shore Ditch, one of London´s oldest areas. We had a pint at the pub and then went with a big group of Matt´s friends to this bar/club in the same neighborhood. Here´s another bit of culture shock - at both of these places, we stayed until last call. At the bar, that was 11 p.m. and at the club it was 2 a.m. For a seasoned madrileña like myself, it was crazy early!
The next morning, Mike and I woke up early because we wanted to have time for a full english breakfast before meeting Zach and Talia at the Tower of London. I got the "vegetarian version," which had baked beans, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and hash browns. Mike's non-veggie version included sausage, bacon and black pudding. Needless to say, we were full for quite a long time afterwards.
The Tower of London was great! I remember vaguely going as a kid, but we spent the entire morning and then some checking out the crown jewels, armory, prison rooms, etc. My personal favorite was a punch bowl in the royal plate that holds 144 bottles of wine. Obviously for when the royals want to rage.
tower bridge NOT london bridge (the yeoman warder was adamant about this)
some people got axed here
what a clown!
After finding a "pubby pub" and eating fish 'n' chips and a pint for lunch, the Kwartlers split to go to a play. Mike and I crossed the river (on the REAL london bridge) and went to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater and the Tate Modern museum. The Tate just opened a new exhibition by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei that is comprised of 100 million handmade, handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds.
millennium bridge, thames river, st. paul's cathedral
that's a lotta seeds, man!
After a really long day, we were totally pooped so went out for dinner and then stayed in on saturday night. But here's where the fun starts!
Part 1: Carmen was staying an extra day and flying back monday morning, but Mike and I were leaving on Sunday morning at 8:20. We set alarms for 5:30 and proceeded to pass out. Somehow, neither alarm went off! We woke up at 6:30 and RAN to the bus station to get to the train station to take the train to the airport. We got to the airport at 8:00 A.K.A. TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE OUR FLIGHT LEFT AND SOMEHOW MADE OUR FLIGHT. WHAT?!
Part 2: While we were waiting in line to get on the plane, I ran to a little stand to buy some juice and a snack for the plane. I got on the plane, and realized I didn't have my wallet! In a panic, I ran up the aisle and asked the flight attendant if I could go back and look for it in the store. He said I couldn't, but one of the tarmac dudes in an orange vest volunteered to do it for me. 5 MINUTES LATER HE WALKED UP THE AISLE IN THE PLANE AND HANDED ME MY WALLET WITH ALL MY MONEY AND CARDS AND EVERYTHING THERE. WHAT?! x2
I've been extremely careful ever since because I think I used up all of my luck for the next 10 years that morning. After those two adventures everything went smoothly and I was back in my house in Madrid by noon. Wowza!
Besos,
S
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
but really, i PROMISE this is the last venice post
We did so much stuff and I want to share it all! Unfortunately that gets rather lengthy, so here's a list with pictures of what Dana and I did over the rest of the weekend. 
- Hung out in the Jewish Ghetto, tried and failed to go to the Jewish Museum because it was Shabbat. Whoops! We ended up going back on Sunday morning before taking the bus to the airport.
- Tried to find the best pizza in Venice as per a guidebook I read (see a theme here?). Failed, but ate delicious ricotta and spinach calzones anyway.
- Met up with Sarah, one of Dana's camp friends and Jen's college friends, who is currently studying in Prague -- small world!
- Went to the Galeria de la Academia de Venezia, a small art museum.
- Rode around on lots of vaporettos and wandered around a lot of streets, canals, and bridges.
- Went to the Punta della Dogana, which used to be a shipping/weighing center but now houses a modern art museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed when we got there, but we were able to stand on the peninsula and take some great photos of Venice and Giudecca Islands, the Grand Canal, and parts of the lagoon:
- On our last night, we ate some more pizza (not as good as the first two times, alas) and went to a chamber music concert of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Although we were the youngest people there by about 30 years (and the only ones not on our second honeymoon), we loved the music and had a great time.
- Sunday morning it rained, so we headed to the Jewish Museum (mentioned before), had a GREAT LAST MEAL of pizza - margherita and sundried tomato/rocket - before heading to the airport.
That's all, folks.
Love, S
the search for delicious -- venice, pt. 2
Despite getting a combined 5 hours of sleep, Dana and I lost no time exploring Venice. We took a vaporetto, or water bus to our hostel on Guidecca Island, which is not one of Venice's "main" islands but is pretty close and way cheaper and less touristy. Our hostel was rather uncreatively named "Ostello di Venezia." It was in an old granary building, so it was very large and had these rustic-looking wooden beam ceilings. Dana and I stayed in a dormitory room with 12 other women (the floors were single sex). Along with our bunk beds, we got sheets and blankets and pillows, a locker with a key for our stuff, access to a bathroom with hot showers, and free breakfast of coffee, juice, and rolls with jam and nutella. This was my first hostel experience and I'm happy to say that it was a positive one. Here is the view from our hostel at sunset:
After dropping our bags, we ate some delicious pizza at a restaurant next door that somewhat hubristically advertised that they had the "Best Pizza in Venice Here." We weren't sure if it was the best, but it was pretty damn good and fresh out of the oven. Later we headed to Murano, one of the outlying islands that is world-famous for glassblowing. Here are some pictures:
We watched a man make a horse out of molten glass, wandered the streets, and eventually bought some glass earrings. After boat trip back to Venice regular and some pasta near Piazza San Marco we were ready for bed by 9pm. Unfortunately there was a very loud and obnoxious Italian school trip also staying at our hostel, so we had to endure lots of giggling 15-year-olds in the dormitory until their caretaker came by and yelled at them in Italian. Gracias a Dios!
Friday dawned just as beautiful as the day before and after nearly 12 hours of sleep only slightly disturbed by chatty teenagers, we were ready to hit the streets (or rather, canals). In the morning we went to the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Rialto Bridge area. These are pretty much the only "tourist" sites in Venice; we learned pretty quickly that people come to see the city itself. I really liked the Doge's Palace. Before the Italian Republic, Italy was just a bunch of city-states that functioned independently. The office of Doge had no specific individual power and actually couldn't leave the palace without the Council's permission, but nevertheless was Venice's figurehead. Within the palace, we also got to see the dungeons and armory. To get to the dungeons from the palace, we passed through the famous Bridge of Sighs:
According to Lord Byron, prisoners were taken over the bridge on the way to their executions in order to have one last glimpse at beautiful Venice. This is most likely a byronic load of b.s. because a) the prison was only a short term holding-place for petty criminals and b) the bridge was built after those kinds of public executions were phased out. There's also a local myth which claims that if a couple kisses under the bridge at sunset in a gondola, they will be happily married for the rest of their lives. That sounds like a complicated endeavor to pull off, so maybe it's true!
That afternoon, we spent a lot more time wandering around and generally getting ourselves lost. Dana's map and spectacular sense of direction were assets; my directional arrogance and lack of map were definitely weaknesses. After a few hours of aimless strolling, a gelato, and a quick nap at the hostel, we ended up in Campo Santa Margherita by dinnertime. We split a buffalo-mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil pizza at a restaurant that MAY have had the best pizza in Venice. It was definitely the best we tasted. Afterwards we walked over to the Venice Jazz Club to drink Bellinis and attend a concert.
Dana and I fell in love with the singer, a 40-something Venetian woman whose voice was so beautiful that I wanted to record it for lullabies for my future children. Plus she was singing in Italian, which sounded super glamorous to boot. After a long day of walking and eating, we were ready to sleep by 11. Here's Dana on our luxurious bunkbed:
Sorry to make this post heinously long. If you haven't tired of this topic, stay posted for my next and FINAL venice post.
Besos,
S
After dropping our bags, we ate some delicious pizza at a restaurant next door that somewhat hubristically advertised that they had the "Best Pizza in Venice Here." We weren't sure if it was the best, but it was pretty damn good and fresh out of the oven. Later we headed to Murano, one of the outlying islands that is world-famous for glassblowing. Here are some pictures:
We watched a man make a horse out of molten glass, wandered the streets, and eventually bought some glass earrings. After boat trip back to Venice regular and some pasta near Piazza San Marco we were ready for bed by 9pm. Unfortunately there was a very loud and obnoxious Italian school trip also staying at our hostel, so we had to endure lots of giggling 15-year-olds in the dormitory until their caretaker came by and yelled at them in Italian. Gracias a Dios!
Friday dawned just as beautiful as the day before and after nearly 12 hours of sleep only slightly disturbed by chatty teenagers, we were ready to hit the streets (or rather, canals). In the morning we went to the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Rialto Bridge area. These are pretty much the only "tourist" sites in Venice; we learned pretty quickly that people come to see the city itself. I really liked the Doge's Palace. Before the Italian Republic, Italy was just a bunch of city-states that functioned independently. The office of Doge had no specific individual power and actually couldn't leave the palace without the Council's permission, but nevertheless was Venice's figurehead. Within the palace, we also got to see the dungeons and armory. To get to the dungeons from the palace, we passed through the famous Bridge of Sighs:
According to Lord Byron, prisoners were taken over the bridge on the way to their executions in order to have one last glimpse at beautiful Venice. This is most likely a byronic load of b.s. because a) the prison was only a short term holding-place for petty criminals and b) the bridge was built after those kinds of public executions were phased out. There's also a local myth which claims that if a couple kisses under the bridge at sunset in a gondola, they will be happily married for the rest of their lives. That sounds like a complicated endeavor to pull off, so maybe it's true!
That afternoon, we spent a lot more time wandering around and generally getting ourselves lost. Dana's map and spectacular sense of direction were assets; my directional arrogance and lack of map were definitely weaknesses. After a few hours of aimless strolling, a gelato, and a quick nap at the hostel, we ended up in Campo Santa Margherita by dinnertime. We split a buffalo-mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil pizza at a restaurant that MAY have had the best pizza in Venice. It was definitely the best we tasted. Afterwards we walked over to the Venice Jazz Club to drink Bellinis and attend a concert.
Dana and I fell in love with the singer, a 40-something Venetian woman whose voice was so beautiful that I wanted to record it for lullabies for my future children. Plus she was singing in Italian, which sounded super glamorous to boot. After a long day of walking and eating, we were ready to sleep by 11. Here's Dana on our luxurious bunkbed:
Sorry to make this post heinously long. If you haven't tired of this topic, stay posted for my next and FINAL venice post.
Besos,
S
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)