This is What Dreams are Made Of - Roma!

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So over a month ago (jeez I am horrible at keeping up with this...) my family packed our bags in Madrid and headed off to the land of pizza and pasta! (literally doe.... I didn't eat anything besides pizza pasta and gelato the entire weekend. If you think I'm kidding, I'm not. Thank you world for containing a place with so many carbs. Much appreciated.)

We had a super packed couple days, so here's the brief summaries of my Roman Holiday!

DAY 1
I took an evening flight out of Madrid on Wednesday to meet up with my family who had Tuesday morning. (I had class until 6pm on Wednesday.) On Wednesday, they went to the Papal audience and got this close to the Pope.... SOOOO glad I had class and had to miss it!
Special shout-out to the cab driver who took me from the airport to the hotel yelling Italian words at me the whole ride! love ya :*

DAY 2
We woke up and headed over to the Vatican.  Today, we took a tour through the Vatican Museum (props to Mom for buying our tickets beforehand and helping us save 3 hours of waiting in line.) where we saw the Sistine Chapel (may or may not have taken a secret pic of the ceiling...always gonna be a mystery I guess) and St. Peter's Basilica.  After, we took a Scavi tour, which is a tour of the ruins beneath the Vatican.  My mom booked this in July because they only let a certain number of people go down each day and I am so glad she did because it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  You get to see the believed bones of St. Peter and we just happened to have a British monk in our tour group who asked to say a prayer at the end of the tour, so it was super special and unique.

St. Peter's Square

In the evening, we walked through the city to hit the main tourist spots, like Trevi Fountain (I got to be Lizzie McGuire), Spanish steps (I got to be Audrey Hepburn), the Pantheon (I got to be Robert Langdon), and Fountain of the 4 Rivers. (again Robert Langdon.)  Yes, I took the classic touristy Trevi Fountain wish pic, and yes I did make a wish on love and promise to return to Rome.

I look like Lizzie, right?!?!

Vatican at sunset

DAY 3
Ancient Rome day!  We had a tour through all the ancient Roman ruins which was super cool and then we also had a tour through the Colosseum.  After a lunch looking over the ruins, we decided to find a few chapels off the beaten path which ended up being really cool.  One of the cathedrals also had ruins beneath them like the Vatican, so we went down and saw those as well.  After that we ventured across the Tiber River and took a bus to a view point so we could see the entire city of Rome.  Although it was nighttime and dark, it was still pretty cool to see! (although waiting for the bus for 45 minutes was definitely not the highlight of my trip... your public transportation system was a bit lacking, Rome!!)

DAY 4
Today we slept in a little and then headed out to Castel Santangelo, which I was SO PUMPED for because it was in Angels and Demons. (super dorky but I mean I'm not sorry bout it...) We had an audio guide for that walked ourselves around the fortress built by the emperor Hadrian. (look Mom, I learned things!!) When you get to the top, it's super windy but has one of the best views of Rome. (hence the hair blowing in the wind pic.) We finished the day by going to the Pantheon to see inside of it (which also appeared in Angels and Demons so I knew that I would be seeing Raphael's tomb which originally was not placed in the Pantheon.) We finished the day by going to the Trevi fountain during the day.

DAY 5
My last RyanAir flight with no assigned seats so people go nuts to get on the plane first HOORAY ECONOMY FLYING!!! Goodbye RyanAir, you won't be missed!!

My proudest snap chat moment

No description of meals included here because each one was a variation of pasta/pizza and a glass of white wine. Italy, you just get me.

Could not have asked for a better week with better food and better people!! Nothing beats spending a weekend in Rome with your family! (sorry Kev...)

Baby apples are the best apples

This little guy deserved its own post.
So cute. SO FREAKING CUTE.
Thank you Isabel for packing it in my lunch.

La Huelga - Quema las calles!

A few weeks ago, we received an email from the BC program director telling us classes had been cancelled because of a teacher huelga, or strike. (Technically not all classes were cancelled - teachers could decide whether or not to show up...of course none of my classes were cancelled)

In Madrid, there are three different schools BC students are able to attend: Carlos III (mine), Complutense, and Comillas.  The strike at Complu was much, much different than at Carlos.  People were setting things on fire, students were locking themselves in buildings overnight...the passionate Spanish people were definitely sending a strong message. (as opposed to Carlos where
nothing extra special happened and a lot of people still showed up for class.)

When my parents were here and we were on our bike tour (See: Swastek Family takes over Madrid) we were able to ride in the streets because many of them were closed for the strikes.  This is a clip of a strike about the Spanish health care system:

Not the best quality or anything and I have no idea what they're chanting, but you get the idea.

Very interesting to (kind of) be a part of.  We received a message from our program director with the list of all the scheduled strikes encouraging us to stay away.  We weren't in danger or anything, but it would be better for us to be safe than sorry.  I've gotten so comfortable here in Madrid, so it was definitely a wake-up call reminding me I'm still in a completely foreign country.

Swastek Family takes over Madrid

FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY!!!!!!!

Two weekends ago, my mom, dad, and little brother (sorry Kev you were with us in spirit?) packed up and make the trek over the Atlantic to come visit me in Madrid! (and also fit in a quick lil weekend trip to Rome too...not a bad deal if I do say so myself.)

The theme of the week was how many touristy things can we do in 4 days? (We did quite a lot, I'm happy to say.) When they first got here, my host mom Isabel invited them to dinner so we ate a feast and my Madrid familia got to meet my Michigan family. 

 

 

 

 

My two favorite women

After, my family went back to their hotel and went to bed for the night. (It was 5pm. LOL time changes)

The next day, we met up and went on a bike tour of Madrid which ended up being awesome.  I've done a lot of touristy things so far on my own (TOURIST TUESDAYS HOLLA!) but when I go to the touristy places, sometimes I don't know the significance of things or I don't really know what I'm looking at.  So this was a great way to actually learn about the things I've seen.  We hit every big site: Templo de Debod and Parque Oeste, el Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Chueca, Retiro, Prado (just the outside), Puerta de Alcala, Plaza de Cibeles, Gran Via, Banco de Espana...the fam was really able to see it all in 4 hours, which was perfect. Strongly recommend it to anyone with parents visiting!  After, we met up with Isabel and some of my friends and then all went out to lunch together. (at a buffet place recommended by Isabel who actually goes nuts when it comes to buffets.  Like I'm pretty sure she got like 5 plates of food.)

The next day (Monday) I was on campus from 9am to 715 pm (hooray 4 class Mondays!) and so they went on a day trip to Toledo. After, we all met up for dinner and were able to relax!

Tuesday was a bit of a disaster day. We were supposed to go to the Teleferico (a gondola that goes over the city and ends in Casa de Campo, the largest park in Madrid) but it turns out in October it's only open on the weekends.  Then we went to Casa de Campo by metro, but when we got there, there wasn't too much to do. So, I decided that to make up for that, I'd introduce the family to Chocolateria San Gines, and thus, chocolate and churros bumped up the day to a success. Then they headed off to the airport to go to Rome. (I'd be meeting them Wednesday night.)

It was such a great few days showing the family around my home and being able to show them everything that I've only been able to talk about over the phone. My favorite people in one of my favorite cities!

El Palacio Real - not impressive at all

Family in Retiro!

Lunch with Isa

 And the best part was that the next day I'd be meeting up with them in the land of pizza and pasta!!!!!

(To be continued.......)

Boston College does Andalucía

So I've fallen into the trap of almost every study abroad student who decided to keep a blog of the semester and promised themselves that they'd write a post or two weekly…..and then weeks go by with nothing. So sorry, world! I know how much my posts have been missed. (Do you want a tissue to stop crying?)

A few weeks ago the 40 BC in Madrid kids packed up our bags and boarded the bus for a 5 hour trip to  Córdoba in the Spanish region Andalucía. (aka the South of Spain aka warm and sunny weather all weekend aka adding on to my extra few months of summer that I've gotten in Spain can I get a hell yeah?) Unfortunately, while the trip was sure to be buckets of fun, we all went because of the art history class we're taking together with our program director, Ana……which meant not only was it buckets of fun, but it was buckets of note taking as well…..goody.

We spent half the day in Córdoba looking at mosques, cathedrals, architecture, blah blah blah. I'll spare you the gory details because truth be told, I don't really know the gory details… but here's some nice pictures for you to look at while I distract you from the fact that I know no information…

View of the city

La Quibla in the Mezquita de Córdoba

outsidethe city

PALM TREES!!!

Then we hopped back on the bus and drove the 3 hours to Granada, another city in Andalucía where we'd be staying for 2 nights. Highlight of the bus, you ask? Well, I have to give a big shout out to Matt Consalvo for suggesting a sing-off between the front and back of the bus. (reminiscent of the pitch perfect riff-off.) 

Note to self: never underestimate the competitiveness of 40 Boston College students competing (for literally no prize. THERE WAS NO PRIZE PEOPLE) in a small space. Yikes.

Interestingly enough, Granada has a lot of Arab influences (The muslims ruled there for quite some time way back when and their Palace, La Alhambra which was a big part of our trip, is still there now), therefore it was hummus, kous kous, and falafel for everyone! They also had a ton of restaurants where you order a drink and get a plate of free tapas with it! We spent the few days exploring La Alhambra and Generalife, the garden right now to La Alhambra that was created by the muslims to give the sultan a "summer home." It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. So many flowers, fountains, and beautiful views. 

Saturday night, all the BC kids headed out to Arab baths. BC had rented out the place for us that night (so mom & dad that's where your tuition money is going to!) and we were given the option of getting a massage while we were there.  It's a little hard to explain, but basically it's a large room with 7 different temperature "baths." They were more like mini-pools and over-sized hot tubs but the purpose was to change between the temperatures. The point was also to be silent and relax, but with our group, that was def not going to happen. I ended up getting a massage and lemme tell ya, I was a pretty happy girl after that. I felt so incredibly relaxed and was absolutely loving life.  That night was the holiday la Noche en Blanco (White Night), a fiesta started in Paris in 2002 where all the shops stay open until very early morning and there are concerts and parties, etc. We got to see the concerts and be a part of the celebration, which was super super cool.

Sunday afternoon, we hopped back on the bus, everyone with their Moroccan-inspired souvenirs (friends - be on the lookout I bought quite a few Christmas presents while I was there wink wink) and drove the 5 hours back to Madrid. The highlight of this bus ride? We watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest which definitely helped pass the time.

In Generalife. Super impressed with the Iphone camerca

View of La Alhambra

The ceiling in the palace of the sultan

La Noche en Blanco concert!

View of La Alhambra

BC Colors :)

BC fail

Soy la Reina

el Palacio Real  (lookin super tall)

For my "Tourist Tuesdays," as I decided to call them, I ventured to el Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace, in Madrid.  Now the building is simply used for tours or diplomatic gatherings, but way back when, (I wasn't paying attention during the tour the specific date seemed to have just slipped my mind!) the royal family lived in the Palace! (Roayal Family--> el Palacio Real --> Royal Palce.....Thus, El Palacio Real. Props to Madrid on their creativity, am I right!?!?) So I bought my ticket, waited in line, and then was able to enter the palace! No pictures are allowed inside the tour, so naturally I was super inconspicuous about taking secret pictures I followed that rule.  Everything was so elaborate and beautiful, I could not believe that people lived there at some point! Made my dorm room look like absolute crap. I took my time, looked through the rooms, and concluded that my version of fancy has been wrong for years.

secret picture

beautiful ceiling!

At the end of my visit, I was getting a little hungry (I'd be lying if I said this wasn't typical) so I decided to venture the few blocks over to el Mercado de San Miguel, a market that has a ton of little mini restaurant-booths selling every type of Spanish food you could ever want! Naturally, I went for a huge bowl of chicken paella with a glass of red wine (ONLY 5 EURO SUCH A GOOD DEAL...I wasn't excited or anything.) It wouldn't have been right to leave the house without buying some sort of pastry, so naturally I got two at the market to continue my 4 month pastry tour of Madrid!

All in all, another successful Tuesday Emily day!

Palma De Mallorca - How many laws can we break in one trip?

This past weekend, we headed out in the Mediterranean to Palma de Mallorca, a Balearic Island.  This entire trip can be summed up in the word spontaneity, starting with booking the flights (46 euros THERE AND BACK) and knowing absolutely nothing about the island. (One google image search and I was sold.)

We got to the island, freaking out because we had booked 2 hotel rooms for one person each soooooo we would have to somehow sneak in 6 people.  I'm not even going to pretend that throughout our entire breakfast, we came up with the lie that we were visiting friends studying abroad here. (Shout-out to Holy Cross for sending people to Mallorca because that fit perfectly with our plan!) Turns out it didn't even matter because the hotel owned two buildings, and our rooms were in the building that did not have the reception are! Hence, two hotel rooms were shared between 6 people. Classic study abroad.





The first day, we had absolutely no plan whatsoever.  This is how we ended up getting fish pedicures... Apparently it's a thing where you stick your feet in a little bath and this type of fish called "doctor fish" come and nibble away the dead skin on your feet.  It feels like when your foot falls asleep and is tingly, so it was SUPER weird. I also hate fish soooo it took a little getting used to, but once I did, it felt kind of good!
We also got a free drink and a discounted group price, so it was definitely well worth it.

Then we explored the beach area.  It was a sleepy little beach town (because it was October which is the off-season) with so many little shops with the weirdest souvenirs ever.  We shopped around for a bit and then saw some people riding around in bikes....

Oktoberfest with palm trees!

Naturally, we decided to find a bike rental place and hopped on some and road them down the beach for an hour or so.  While we were riding around, we passed a huge tent and people dressed up in German attire and lo and behold, we found the Platja de Palma version of Oktoberfest.

We couldn't just skip Oktoberfest, so after the bikes, we stopped by and enjoyed a stein and some pretzels.  I can now leave Europe saying I went to Oktoberfest so mission accomplished. (it counts guys, I swear!)

Sunset on the beach!

That evening, we went into the city center to go out to dinner! Turns out you have to pay for paella by person, so by saying 6 of us were eating it, we would have had to pay for 6x13 euros! So instead we lied and said only 4 of us were eating so we only had to pay for 4x13 euros.  (another lie to make things cheaper - check.)  That night, we found postcards with really cool tropical looking places, like places with cliffs and coves and small beaches.  We asked someone how we could get there, and they jokingly told us the best option we had would be to rent a car and drive across the island.

The next morning we woke up and decided we were going to rent a car. No matter what, we were going to see these cool places.  We rented out the only automatic car in the rental company, and then set off for Formentor, cliffs that were on the opposite side of the island.  We road tripped and got a little lost once or twice (we did get a traffic circle tour of the city, so that was cool I guess.) and then an hour-ish later, we started driving up a mountain.  We finally got to Formentor, and it was worth the spontaneous decision to rent a car.  It was by far one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and I am so glad we were able to.  The view was incredible and pictures do not do it justice.  We drove back down the mountain and found a small beach called Platja de Pollenca, where we randomly saw paddle boards and decided to go paddle boarding! So....paddle boarding in the Mediterranean can now be checked off my bucket list! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and were just getting ready to go when one of the girls I was traveling with got bit by a spider fish.

What's a spider fish you ask? Well, it's a fish that hides in shallow water, waiting for its prey to swim over it and when it does, it shoots little stingers up and injects poison into its prey.  This led to one girl in a lot of pain and 5 people clueless as to what was going on.  Apparently it's very common, because the lifeguards were very unconcerned and knew exactly how to handle the situation.  What could have been a horrible day was made just a little bit better because the lifeguard was one of the most attractive people I have ever seen. PLUS he spoke perfect English and had a British accent but he looked like a Spaniard.  So at least we had something nice to look like while the poison was draining from my friends foot! (thoughts from a glass-half-full kind of gal.)

After, we drove back and made it back to the rental company with 15 minutes to spare before we were charged extra! (phew) We laid low for the rest of the night and then were up at 5am to catch a 730am flight.

BC in Platja de Pollenca, Mallorca

I would have to say this was my favorite trip so far.  Everything was so spontaneous and there were no huge sights that I felt pressured to go and see.  It was super relaxed, and everything was spur-of-the-moment, let's do it because we feel like it kind of things! Definitely planning to go back there later in life because Palma de Mallorca was such a great place!
(was this last paragraph corny enough for you?)