Grazie Roma

Life in Rome has been pretty exciting lately.  Some of these updates are from a few weeks ago, but better late than never, right?  The Thursday before going to Assisi we went to the Scavi Tour.  The Scavi is the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica where the bones of St. Peter are.  It was by far the most amazing experience I have had in Rome.  It is so hard to describe how incredible the experience was, it is something everyone should have the opportunity to experience.    

I told you in my last post that family week was a few weeks ago and I spent it with the Magee's, so here is a rundown of the week!  On Monday of family week we went to the Vatican Museum's for Liturgy class.  It was so awesome to see so many beautiful paintings, especially the ones we've been studying all semester.  We also went to the Sistine Chapel, which we incredible!  The work was unbelievable!  Later in the day we had another liturgy class at Il Gesu, the Jesuit Church in Rome.  It was started by St. Ignatius of Loyola.  We stayed and watched a light show, which was pretty interesting!  After, I went with Rylee to her parents hotel before dinner.  We hung out at their hotel, which was really nice before heading to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Rome--Da Vito e Dina.  We met up with Tim and Rylee's friend from high school, Meghan.  It was a really fun time.  Tuesday morning we woke up early and went to the Colosseum.  It was my first time going there and it was so cool seeing it!  Can you believe that in ancient times they could fill the Colosseum with 80 thousand people in 5 minutes!  Insane!  Tuesday night, Rylee, Maggie, Jeremy, Mrs. Magee and I walked over to the North American College for adoration.  It was  a fantastic night.  There was a large group of students from Franciscan University, so it felt like being at home.  

On Wednesday morning we went to the Papal Audience.  It was one of the best experiences I have had since coming to Rome.  We saw the Pope give his weekly Wednesday morning speech and got a blessing from him!  We love you Papa!!  Wednesday night I met the Magee's at Abbey Theatre.  Abbey is the best because its an Irish Pub that has the food closest to home.  French fries, wraps, and burgers are always great when your missing home a bit!  We had a great dinner and got gelato at my favorite place--Frigidarium! It was great!!  Thursday was another great night with the Magee's.  We heard that the pizza place across from Abbey was really good, so we decided to go there for dinner.  Well it was true!!  The pizza was some of the best that I have had in Rome and after we went back to Frigidarium for gelato!  It was so fun to have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Magee before they left to go back home!  They were so good to me and made it much easier when my family wasn't there.  On Friday we went out to dinner for our Florence trip the next day.  It was a great meal and it made us more excited to go to Florence! 

Florence was a really great day trip after a nice family week.  We took an early morning train up to Florence to spend the day checking out churches for Liturgy class.  Rylee and I decided to pack our lunches so that we would have enough time to shop through the leather market.  Thanks to Mrs. Magee for bringing Rylee some peanut butter, so we could have PB&J sandwiches!  When we got to Florence we got off the train and made our way to the first church.  We went to Santa Maria Novella and explored the church.  It was beautiful.  After we walked around the city.  It was great because Florence is the perfect walking city. There aren't many street and everything is pretty close.  We walked over and took a quick look at Dante's church and then went to the Duomo.  We took some time to explore the Duomo and went back to meet Dr. Dawson.  Dr. Dawson was so generous to us and took us to a museum to see the David, the famous statue by Michelangelo.  Afterwards we were free for the day, something we did not expect at all.  We had plenty of time to shop and explore.  I went with Caroline, Rylee, and Tori to a small leather shop near Dante's church.  It was locally owned and some adorable!  I got an amazing leather purse that I am in love with!  It was a great day.  We were able to explore for the rest of the day before getting some pastries for the train ride home.  Florence was a quick day trip, but totally amazing!     

One of the things on my list of things I had to do when I was in Rome was go to a soccer game (better known as calcio in Italy).  The Monday after our trip to Florence Rylee, Tim, and I went to the AS Roma vs. Torino game!  It was so awesome!  Getting there was an interesting experience since its not in the best part of Rome.  The stadium is the old Olympic Stadium, which is really cool, but there was so much trash and beer bottles all over the place.  There were a lot of drunk men walking around, so Rylee and I were really happy that Tim was there.  We got there in perfect timing to hear the song "Grazie Roma" playing.  Now, I love sports and when I say love I mean it. I grew up watching every kind of sport, but my favorite is football (GO RAVENS).  I don't know to much about soccer, but I do know that the passion Europeans have for soccer is unmatched to that of any American sport.  Don't get me wrong, but the Colts Band, Mishael Miller singing the National Anthem for 16 years straight, and screaming O! at Orioles and Ravens games is something I love and cherish, hearing thousands of people, grown men included singing this chessy love song was amazing!  After the song we took our seat and watched the game!  Tim loves soccer, so he was so excited, while Rylee and I were a little confused.  All in all it was an amazing experience and Roma won!  I am so glad I went!! 

It is hard to believe that I will be leaving this amazing country in a few short weeks, but everything has been so worth it!

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace..."

These past few weeks have been so full of excitement! First was the realization that as of now we only have three more weeks here in Rome...unreal!  Second was all of the work coming up in these last few weeks.  And third was coming up with all of the things I want to do before I leave.  I am beginning to get to a point where I am really wanting to be at home. A week and a half ago my dad had an accident at work, fell off a ladder, broke his leg, and had to get surgery.  It was really difficult to not be able to communicate with him to find out how he was doing, how the surgery went, or even just to tell him that I was praying for him.  I'm happy to say that he made it through okay--luckily, but it may be a long recovery.  So, my family has really been on my mind lately.  Aside for the slight home sickness these past two weeks have been amazing and I'm sure the next three will be just as great!  

Last week was family and even though my family wasn't here I still had an awesome time, mostly thanks to the Magee's! On Saturday we had a class trip to Assisi for the beginning of family week.  We left on an early train and were set to see lots of churches! Our first stop off the train was the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at the foot of the Assisi hills. This is the church where St. Francis was called to his vocation and began his life of poverty.  After exploring the church we took a us bus up to the hills of Assisi. Our first stop was the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, built for St. Francis.  Before we went into the church Dr. Dawson was giving us some information on the Church, the history of St. Francis and the history of Assisi.  We were all sitting under a covered walkway when I felt a thump on my head.  At first I ignored it, thinking a rock or nut fell and hit me on the head, but a few minutes later I touched the top of my head and there was a large clump of bird poop. Yup, that's right I got pooped on by a pigeon.  Everyone was saying that its good luck, but I think thats just a dumb thing to say to make people feel better.  Thank God for Tori, who was amazing and got me a napkin to clean out my hair. After the bird fiasco of 2012 we went into the church. We walked around the Basilica of St. Francis and were able to see the relics of St. Francis!  

After seeing the Basilica we had a break for lunch and shopping. Rylee's parents invited me to lunch, so we went to a nice restaurant off of one of the main streets in Assisi.  I has some delicious lamb and potatoes.  It was great to have a nice meal and catch up with them!  After lunch we walked around Assisi and went into a few shops.  Assisi is where the original Nativity scene was created, so we walked into many shops with beautiful Nativities.  We grabbed dessert at a pastry shop and saw the Cathedral of Assisi, San Rufino. We met up with the rest of the class to see the Basilica di Santa Chiara, the Basilica of St. Clare.  There we explored the church and saw some of the clothes of St. Francis and Clare and the relics of St. Clare.  Probably the coolest thing we saw the the hair of St. Clare when she cut it all off when joining St. Francis.  After the Basilica of St. Clare we had one more church to see, San Damiano.  Tuscany is a beautiful area and it was perfect Fall!  While walking to San Damiano we were admiring the views with the colored leaves, vineyards, and olive trees.  We walked down a steep hill to San Damiano to see the home church of St. Francis.  It was amazing.  We had an amazing time in Assisi and it was an incredible pilgrimage and experience!

Well aren't we Miss Westminister Crabby?

London!!  Rylee and I had a quick flight from Amsterdam to London, it was a smooth flight and it really prepared us for the next four days.  On the flight Rylee and I sat in front of two little British boys named Freddy and Tristan.  They were the most adorable boys ever and they sang "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.  This was the best greeting to England.  And it didn't take long to remember we were in and English speaking country--the English speaking country!  It was glorious.  We got off the plane and made our way to city center.  We caught a train to Victoria Station and waited for a cab to get to our hostel near Hyde Park.  We were nervous about spending money on the taxi, but it was well worth it!  It was so fun to ride in a car on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the car.  It was certainly an adventure!

We made it to our hostel and we got a surprise when we arrived.  We knew that going to a 24 bed hostel would be interesting, but this was worse than we could imagine.  We checked in and were assigned to our room.  We walked into the room and there were 24 beds--three high to the ceiling.  It was terrifying and dirty, and scary!  So, it was me Rylee and 22 other people all sharing one room.  This was pretty bad, but you get what you pay for!  We waited a few minutes for Tim and his Dad to meet us and we were off! (Also, Tim and Mr. Kenney were amazing they trudged around in the rain trying to find our hostel--saints!)  We went around the corner and got some lunch at a local pub.  I had a sausage sandwich and tap water with ice.  The sandwich was delicious, but the tap water and ice was so exciting since you can't get that in Rome!

After lunch we went with Tim and Mr. Kenney into the city center.  We got off the tube (metro) and the first things we saw were the London Eye and Big Ben!  It was so cool.  Rylee and I split off to see Buckingham Palace while Tim and Mr. Kenney went to a museum.  We walked through St. James park and went to see the Palace.  The coolest part was seeing the Queen!! Actually, we just saw the Palace and the guards (without their hats--lame) no queen, but I was hoping!  After we met back up with Tim and Mr. Kenney to go back to their hotel to meet Mrs. Kenney.  We got there and decided to go see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall.  We headed to the movies, got our tickets and had a quick dinner at Nando's.  Nando's is a Brazilian restaurant with lots of amazing food!  It was so great!  We went back to the theater and had a great time watching the movie!  It was so good.  I've never seen any James Bond movies (I know its a crime!), but I definitely will now!!  After the movies we split up and were prepared for the next day.  Rylee and I were taking the tube and missed the last metro by 10 seconds, literally.  So, we had to walk back.  Luckily it was a pretty safe area.  When we got back to the hostel there were hundreds of people roaming around.  This might sound like an exaggeration, but here's the deal.  We were in room 51 or 59 and over half of these rooms had 24 people.  It was insanity!  The worst was the really dirty bathrooms!  Gross!  But, the beds were warm and we had clean sheets, so we got a good night sleep and were ready for the morning!

Another adventure in the hostel was being woken up at 6:30am by an alarm clock.  The alarm went off for a good 5 minutes and the whole room was woken up and it turned out the the old Asian women who's alarm it was didn't like to wear anything more than undergarments to bed.  Awkward!  A few hours later we woke up, got ready, and met the Kenney's at their hotel.  We started off the day in Hyde Park.  We walked around, enjoying the sun, and made our way to Kensington Palace, the former home of Princess Diana and the future home of Prince William and Kate Middleton!  We decided to go inside.  We saw some of Princess Diana's dresses, old rooms, and the most precious pendants!  After Kensington we went and saw the Peter Pan statue!  We walked some more through Hyde Park and then made our way to lunch!  At a local pub I finally got to try my first fish and chips!  It was delicious!  

After lunch we hopped on the tube and made our way to the Tower of London!  We were so excited to see the Crown Jewels!  We got there at the perfect time and we were able to got s tour with a Yeoman Guard, also known as a beefeater!  He was a really funny man.  His best jokes were making fun of Americans!  We walked through the towers and heard a lot of history of Tower of London, it was interesting.  After the tour we went to see the crown jewels!  They were amazing!  If I was in British Royalty I would wear the jewels all the time!  After leaving the Tower we went to see St. Paul's church and than got dinner at a restaurant called Wagamama.  It's an interesting name, but it was amazing Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean restaurant.  I had a delicious Thai coconut basil soup!  Once we finished dinner we headed over the the West End to see Les Miserable!  Tim LOVES Les Mis, he was so excited to see it.  And let me tell you it was INCREDIBLE!!  After Les Mis we walked around Piccadilly Circus and then headed back to the hostel ready for another early morning!

We woke up the next morning and were so afraid to go into the showers at the hostel.  WIth the bathrooms being so dirty, we were convinced the showers would be the same.  Thank God Mrs. Kenney offered to let us use the shower at their hotel.  It was amazing!  After or great showers we went and caught a bus to Oxford!  We got to Oxford and were immediately greeted with a quant college town!  Our first stop was The Eagle and the Child, the pub where The Inklings (the group J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were a part of) spent their time!  We had some desert and beers and it was a really great time!  After the pub we went on a tour of Oxford.  It was interesting, but our tour guide was a little crazy and was not very good, but we did get to see some of the sites where Harry Potter was filmed and the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland!  We had a great dinner after then caught our bus back to London.  We decided to hang out in the Kenney's hotel and watch Sex in the City/the Notre Dame game.  It was amazing because it was the first time Rylee and I had relaxed since we left for Fall Break.  It was a much needed night of recuperation!

The next morning was our last day in London.  Rylee and I got up and checked out of the hostel--we were so happy to say goodbye and then went to the Kenney's hotel.  The Kenney's were flying back to California, so we said goodbye and Tim, Rylee, and I headed out on our jam packed day of adventures!  Our first stop was Notting Hill.  This was by far my favorite area in all of London.  The houses were painted bright colors, people were roaming around the shop lined streets, and it was just a really peaceful area.   We walked around the area, went in and out of shops until we finally came across the Notting Hill Bookshop.  This was the location of the Traveller's Bookshop in the Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant movie Notting Hill.  It was really cool!  After walking around Notting Hill we went to Mass.  It was a little hard to find, but it was great!  We were really hungry after Mass, so we found a pub to get lunch!  Wright (my favorite 8th grade English teacher who lived in London for a few years) told me that I couldn't leave London without having bangers and mash, also known as sausage and mashed potatoes.  So, at the pub I got some and it was amazing!!  So so delicious.  I also had a strawberry-lime Rekorderlig cider.  It was so good, I feel in love!  

After lunch we made our way to King's Cross station to get a picture with the Platform 9 3/4 sign from Harry Potter and then went to Abbey Road for a picture with the crosswalk from the Beatles!  We continued walking around the city, went to Westminster Abbey, walked the London Bridge, explored Regent Street, and got dinner at another pub.  I got another Rekorderlig--I told you I was obsessed and we were pretty much finished for the night.  We went back to see Buckingham Palace one last time and made our way to the airport.  We were sleeping in the airport again for an early flight back to Rome.  This time we weren't wet, but there were no available chairs to sit in, so we had to sleep on the floor.  There are a lot of things over this break I never want to experience again, and that was one of them!  We caught our flight back to Rome and it was good to be back!

I had the most amazing Fall Break and I wouldn't take back any of it!  I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to travel so much!  Everyone should study abroad!!

Kiss me on the TULIPS!

The second half of the trip was a Godsend.  After so many insane adventures in Spain Rylee and I were more than ready to relax and enjoy ourselves, and Amsterdam and London was just that!  After sleeping the the Barcelona airport we hopped on a 7:00am flight to Amsterdam.  When we arrived the first thing (and potentially the best) we were greeted with was ENGLISH!! After 4 days of only Spanish and three months of Italian you have no idea of how amazing it was to hear some English.  Rylee and I were having some trouble figuring out how to get to our hostel, but we had two really nice English speakers help us out.  Right away we knew we were going to love Amsterdam!

Once we figured out how to leave the airport we made our way to our hostel.  Since we weren't sure how safe we would feel in Amsterdam we decided to stay outside of the city and this was such a good idea--not because the city wasn't safe, but because the hostel was amazing!  It was like a glorified dorm room!  So clean, nice people, safe, and easily accessible to the city center.  We checked in and dropped off our bags and headed into the city.  Before leaving for Fall Break we planned out our Amsterdam trip really well and good thing because it made us less stressed.  We only had one day in Amsterdam (not enough!) so it was jam packed.  The first step was finding a restaurant called the Pancake Bakery.  Along the way there we were able to walk through the canals and side streets.  Immediately we realized that Amsterdam is a beautiful city and it gets a bad rap!  We made it to the Pancake Bakery after being so confused by the street names and it was so worth it!  They have 70 different kinds of pancakes!  This place did not disappoint!  I had a bacon (yes real bacon!) and pineapple pancake.  This might sound gross, but it was amazing!  It was like a hawaiian pancake!  After the Pancake Bakery we walked down the street to the Anne Frank House.  Seeing the home where she and her hid was incredible!  

After seeing the Anne Frank House we wandered around Amsterdam.  It is very similar to Venice in that it is so easy to get lost in the streets, but this is really the best way to see the city.  We kept wandering seeing the beautiful canals, people riding their bikes, and lots of fall colors.  We walked through the floating flower market where they see millions of tulip buds.  In the spring the area is covered in tulips, i can only image how beautiful this must be!  We kept walking and realized that it was getting close to the time for our canal tour!  Rylee and I made our way to the canal that would lead us on our tour of Amsterdam via the canals.  We got on a small boat and got an amazing tour of the city.  The perspective of the city was great!  I recommend that anyone visiting Amsterdam go on a canal tour.  This was also a great opportunity to relax!  I may or may not have fallen asleep for part of it, but it was still so cool! 

After the canal tour it was time for the Heineken Experience!  Rylee and I decided that we wanted to go on a tour of the Heineken Brewery and it was an awesome experience.  We saw some of the history, although we weren't too interested.  We saw the horses that pulled the carriages and got a taste test.  We learned how they pour the tap and why they level off the foam.  The coolest fact I learned was that foam rings are left behind with every sip you take so you can count how many sip it took you to drink the beer.  Fun fact: women usually have more rings than men because they sip their beer slower!  After the taste test we went on a 4D Heineken Experience.  It was like a roller coaster where you felt what it was like to be beer.  Hot lamps, splashing water, and spinning were all a part of the experience!  After we got two free beers and left the experience to get our complementary gift!  We walked got our free bottle opener and headed out to dinner.  We went to a famous Chinese restaurant that was delicious!  We walked past the Red Light District (not as bad as it seems if you are smart) and it was time to head back to the hostel for the night.   

Our time in Amsterdam may have been short, but it was certainly one of my favorite experiences over Fall Break!  Up next LONDON!!         

...9 times out of 10

So, Barcelona!  What an interesting experience.  It is really hard to describe how crazy this part of the trip was, but after this post you might understand why I am not really the biggest fan of Barcelona's.

After an 8 hour long bus ride from Madrid, Rylee and I finally made it to Barcelona at 7 am.  We got off the bus and it was surprising really cold!  We weren't able to check into our hostel until 1:00, so we had a lot of time to kill.  The first thing we decided to do was to find our hostel so that at 1:00 we knew exactly where to go.  We knew our hostel was right near Sagrada Familia, a Church designed by the architect Gaudi, but we had no idea where that was in relation to the bus station so we decided to start walking.  First, we had some trouble getting out of the bus station, but once we finally did we turned right and started walking. Right did not seem right.  We got turned around so many times and after about an hour we finally saw signs for the Sagrada Familia.  It took us about another 45 minutes to find the church, it was one of the most interesting buildings I have ever seen.  It literally looked like it was melting.  Trippy! About 20 minutes or so after that we found our hostel.  But we still had 4 hours until we could check in.  We thought it would be a great idea to walk to the Olympic Port and the beach.  On our way we walked past the bus station--only four blocks from the hostel.  Rough!  Two hours later we got to the port.  This is when we found out the Barcelona is not a walking city.  Things are really far away.  We were super tired so we fell asleep on a bench.  After checking out the port and beach we started walking back to the hostel.  Our feet were really hurting and it was another long walk back, so when we got to the hostel we were ready for a nap.  We got there around 1:15, what we thought was 15 minutes late, but it ended up being 45 minutes early!  They wouldn't let us check in until 2:00.  After waiting for 45 minutes we finally were able to check in, we got our sheets and went up to the room.  We quickly learned there was no heat and we only had a sheet to cover up with--no blanket!  We had a really cold nap, but we decided to go out for a nice dinner in the center of town.  

We walked for about an hour to Las Ramblas, the center part of the city.  Clearly our hostel was pretty far out of the way.  Rylee and I found a good place dinner and had a great time eating, drinking, and chatting.  After dinner we continued to walk around and decided to got some hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts!  That's right, Spain has Dunkins!  So great.  We hung out in Dunkin's for a while and decided to walk back to the hostel.  When we got back to the Hostel we were getting ready for a cold night!  When we woke up the next morning and went to shower.  Unfortunately the toilet didn't work at all and the shower/tub had an inch of standing water. Gross!  We went to check out, which we were more than happy to do.  The hostel seemed great and kept our bags for the day.  The place they kept our bags had no roof...weird.  It was supposed to rain, but they promised us they would move our bags inside if it started raining.  We were off for the day.  

We decided to start by going to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi.  The park looked exactly like Candy Land.  The mosaics and architecture was really cool, but also pretty trippy!  The best was the getting to the top of the park and seeing the view of the whole city!  A redeeming quality to Barcelona.  Then it started to drizzle.  The rain wasn't too bad, but we were not too happy about it!  We started walking back down to Las Ramblas.  ABout a two hour walk there!  On the way we decided to got some lunch!  We stumbled upon a Turkish restaurant and we deemed it "Turkish Delight."  It was so delicious!  After an amazing two and a half hour lunch we headed to see some more Gaudi buildings.  After checking out the Gaudi buildings we were back down to Las Ramblas.  We walked around to MareMagnum, which is basically a mall on the water.  It was a pretty cool site and the sun was also starting to set!  After we went to an outdoor mark on Las Ramblas and got some dried fruit and amazing juice!  

After the market it started to rain a lot!  We were walking back to the hostel to get to the airport, where we were sleeping for the night.  Yes, since we had a 7:00am flight we decided to be cheap and sleep in the airport.  On our hour walk back to the hostel there was a downpour!  We got completely soaked.  It was a mess.  When we finally got back to the hostel we went to get our bags.  We quickly found out that the hostel did not move our bags.  They were drenched outside and in!  Every piece of clothing was soaked! So, our bodies, our bags, and our clothes were cold and wet and we still needed to get to the airport, where we were going to sleep. We again took the cheap way and spent 4 euro to take a metro and a bus to the airport.

At this time we were over Barcelona.  But, Barcelona was not ready to stop messing with us!  at the bus stop a creepy man came up to us and kept assisting that we had something on our backs.  We were really creeped out and were doing whatever we could to get him to go away.  Once he left Rylee and I laughed it off, but we new it was time to get out of Spain!  A few minutes later Rylee turned around and I realized there was stuff all over her back.  She looked at mine and the same stuff was there.  Out backpacks, legs, clothes, and hair were covered in creamy white stuff.  We came to the conclusion that it was lotion, but we had no idea how it got there.  Our best guess are that someone accidentally squirted some lotion, but the more likely scenario was that the creepy guy sprayed the lotion on us so we would take our nags off so that he could grab them.  It was a mess, but we were finally on our way to the airport.  When we got to the airport we spent 45 minutes in the bathroom attempting to dry our clothes with the hand dryers.  We got a terrible night sleep, but 12 hours later it was Adios Barcelona, see you never!

This was the perfect example of the system beating us.  Actually we got our asses kicked by the system in Barcelona!  It was a disaster and we are still a little bitter.  Beating the system 9 times out of 10 is great, but that one time when the system wins sucks!   

Beating the System...

Last weekend Rylee and I headed out on our 10 day Fall Break.  We had planned our trips to Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, London, and Oxford.  We had the most amazing time, but we definitely had our fair share of twists and turns.  Here is a break down of our itinerary: Madrid: Saturday, October 27-Sunday, October 28. Barcelona: Monday, October 29-Tuesday, October 30. Amsterdam: Wednesday, October 31. London and Oxford: Thursday, November 1-Monday, November 5.

To make this easier to handle, both reading and writing wise, I am breaking the posts into four--Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and London.  Here comes Madrid!  Before I get started you should know that a few weeks ago while in Venice, Rylee and I came up with our motto for our time abroad.  "Beating the system 9 times out of 10"  We have found ourselves in many situations where we "beat the system" like getting to the train station early, finding our trains easily, find cheap ways to get places, etc. Why only 9 times out of 10?  Well, because you can't always beat the system. This motto carried on to Fall break and became a common theme in everything we did.  

Rylee and I were so excited to get Fall Break started.  The greatest success of my life potentially was packing for all ten days in one back pack.  If anyone knows me at all is that I always overpack, so this was a big deal.  Early Saturday morning we took a bus to the airport and flew Easyjet to Madrid.  Cheap European airlines like Ryan Air, Easyjet, Vueling, and Wizz Air are great, but they have so many baggage restrictions and are pretty cramped, so make sure if you fly with them that your bag will fit!  Luckily Rylee and I only had back packs!  It was about a 2.5 hour flight to Madrid which was great!  

When we got there Rylee and I were searching out customs so that we could get our passport stamped, but we had no luck.  Disappointing!  After getting out of the airport we got on a bus that we hoped would take us to the city center.  Unfortunately, neither of us speaks Spanish, so we were guessing the whole time in Spain.  We got off the bus at a bus terminal which amazing was exactly where we needed to buy our tickets for an overnight bus to Barcelona. (Beating the system...)  We bought out bus tickets for Sunday and headed into the city in search of our hostel.  Without a map we managed to figure out exactly where our hostel was, again beating the system.  We checked into our hostel and it was definitely a "don't judge a book by its cover" moment.  The door to the hostel looked really sketchy, but the inside was really nice and clean.  The desk person was also really nice and gave us a map with all the major places we needed to see while we were in Madrid.  So, we headed out!  Before getting out into our exploration of Madrid we stopped to get some lunch.  They had some delicious nachos and quesadillas, something I have been craving, so it hit the spot!  This was also out first time having Sangria, which was delicious!

We walked through the city to a nice park and saw some amazing fall leaves and a cool glass house.  The best was the fall weather and the colorful leaves.  We haven't had any real fall weather in Rome and I have been missing it, so Madrid was a nice change!  After the park we headed over to the Prado Museum, which happened to be free (beating the system).  We saw so many Christian paintings, so Rylee and I were quizzing ourselves.  But, since were not really museum people we were off to other adventures.  We were walking around the city taking in all of the modern buildings and excitement.  Madrid, and all the other cities we visited, were so different than Rome.  Rome is a very ancient city.  Everywhere you turn there is an ancient monument or historic church.  When we were in Madrid there were high rises and modern buildings on every corner--very different.  We headed to check out Plaza Mayor, the main square of Madrid and went to the San Miguel market where we walked around for a bit.  After walking around San Miguel, Rylee and I went across the street to the Museo de Jamon, the Museum of Ham, for dinner!  We had one euro sandwiches and one euro beers!  Thats four euro for two people, out-smarting that system.  After we walked toward the Cathedral and Plaza de Espana, which led us right to the Gran Via, the main street in Madrid.  We walked up the road and found a Starbucks!  It has been so long since I have had a one and the Apple Caramel Latte was fantastic!  We ending up spending three hours in Starbucks talking before we went back to the hostel for the night.

The next morning we woke up early to have breakfast and to check out of our hostel.  Luckily they let us keep our bags there for the day so we didn't have to carry them.  We started walking and managed to get ourselves back to the Gran Via.  We made what we thought was a wrong turn and made it to the best view of the city!  It was definitely a good find!  After over looking the city we walked down to the gardens of the King and Queen's Palace, which led us to the Palace itself.  After visiting the Palace we went to mass in the Cathedral next door.  The Church was beautiful and the mass was good, even though I may have dozed off a bit.  After mass we continued on to a local market where I bought a scarf for three euro! Deal.  We kept exploring and made our way to get some tapas for lunch!  Tapas and sangria was amazing!  We got so lucky with the restaurant we chose since we don't speak any Spanish the waiters helped us translate.  It was a great meal all around.   

We found ourselves after lunch with a lot of time before our bus to Barcelona, so we just started walking.  We made it to the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum in Madrid.  Long story short, it was interesting, again we are not museum people.  While still attempting to waste some time we went to get hot chocolate.  This proved to be a pretty difficult experience, since we didn't know the language or the culture.  We wen up to the bar and it was just awkward.  Again, beating the system, a nice man from Houston named Jose who is working in Madrid for his job.  He, knowing Spanish, helped us translate and sat with us while sipping what we thought was hot chocolate.  FYI, hot chocolate in Spain is literally chocolate that is hot, made for dipping churros in.  So, Jose ordered us some churros and it was delicious!  Jose was gracious enough to pay for us and it was so nice to meet an talk with someone from the U.S.  We decided to head back closer to our hostel so we could get our bags, but not before grabbing one last Spanish cervasa!  We went to a a bar and while attempting to order, the language barrier came back to haunt us.  Again, we were lucky enough to meet a nice guy from the Dominican Republic who helped us order.  After that it was time to get our bags and head to the bus!  After a 45 minute walk we hopped on our bus and it was adios Madrid and hola Barcelona!