Back to Rome

The day we traveled back to Rome was quite an adventure. Even though we barely slept the night before and were all hungover, we handled it well. The trains were on strike and we were given strict instructions to get on any train heading north, no matter its destinations. I almost felt like we were in some suspenseful movie and it was crunch time. We had to follow these instructions as if our life depended on it. So we did as we were told and eventually made it back to Rome. We didn’t do much that night; in fact I think we just went to sleep.

The rest of our time in Rome was spent hanging out with my family and walking around the city. One of the days we met up with Martin, a boy that we studied with in Procida. We spent the day walking around Piazza Navona, and getting dinner at Tammy’s favorite pizza place, DaBaffeto.

Our second to last day in Rome was by far the most memorable day thus far. We woke up early and got ourselves somewhat packed because we were going to spend our day at the Vatican. By the time we left the house, it was past noon and the sun was high. By the time we got to the Vatican, it was late enough where the crowd had cleared out. We went to the museum first which can be described as overwhelming, beautiful and HUGE. Now I know I’m not one that is big on museums, and after spending the past month in and out of them I wasn’t really looking forward to walking around. But there was something different about the Vatican. It was as if it finally hit me how ancient everything is and how lucky I was to be able to see it all.

The last place I ever expected to get on was at the Vatican…but it happened. As I was walking through the garden one of the security guards stopped me. He asked me where I was from and I told him California. He asked me how old I was and when I told him 23, he just looked me up and down and nodded. Tammy and I kind of looked at each other, laughed and then walked away…talk about a creeper. I also had a man look at me and give me a thumb up sign. HAHA. After that we left the museum and went to the basilica. After waiting in line for a little bit, we started the tour. The basilica, much like the museum is huge and beautiful. By the time we were done, we were both so tired and getting hungry. Everything was starting to close so we decided to go to dabafetto’s for our last dinner out in Rome. We hop on a bus and take a seat behind this fat older man. As soon as we sat down, this man turned around and looked at us. We didn’t know what to do, so we looked away. Then he started speaking to us in Italian. We tell him that we don’t speak Italian and he just keeps talking to us. After awhile we start to ignore him but he doesn’t stop. He pulls out his credit cards and Tammy and I just look at him and are like “WE DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING.” He looks at this guy sitting across him, smiles and kind of laughs and that’s when Tammy and I start to get creeped out. The last straw was when he pulled out this box that kind of looked like a metronome and I mean I know it’s not realistic but my first thought was BOMB haha. After this Tammy and I had had enough, we get off the next stop, god knows where and we just start walking. Tammy suggests we walk around and I was so tired and wiped out from the Vatican that I wasn’t in the mood to explore. I revisited my 5 year old self where I was near temper tantrum mode. We wait for the next bus and it finally drops us off at our destination and we walk to Dabaffetos.

Dabaffetos is the kind of place where if you don’t get there right when they open, you have to wait in line. Thanks to our creeper friend on the bus we had to wait. So as we are waiting Tammy says she is going to get us a drink and I said I’d wait in line. In front of me in line was this older couple, they seat them and a few minutes later the waiter leads me to a table which happens to be right next to the couple that was before me. And when I was about to sit down, the man starts to say something to the waiter about why we have to share a table and I kind of just look at him like…even if I don’t understand Italian, I understand you not wanting to sit next to me.
I sit down and then man leaves to go to the rest room, a few minutes later Tammy comes back and I start to tell her the story. I say something like “homie sitting next to us like doesn’t want to” and just basically talking trash. Throughout the dinner we come to find, his wife who was sitting next us speaks English and more than likely heard me trash talking. When I realized this, I was MORTIFIED. After the couple on the other side of the older couple left, they started talking to us. We find out they are from Salerno, the man doesn’t really speak English but his wife does. They actually ended up being really nice.
During dinner, I ordered some pepperchinos and put them all over my already spicy salame pizza. I ordered a sprite because my mouth was starting to burn, but it wasn’t helping. I started drinking water and that didn’t help either. The man next to me starts to realize what’s happening and all of a sudden he is just like “you need PAN, PAN! PAN! PAN!” I start laughing as he orders me some bread. I keep drinking my sprite and then the man is like ‘try this. He pours some wine into my sprite and then pours his beer into my drink” His wife tries to stop him, but he’s outta control. Haha. He tells me to take a sip, and as if it was magic, the spiciness went away. That moment was definitely the ice breaker. We ended up talking to them as we finished up our meal. After dinner, Tammy and I really wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain at night. Once we left the restaurant, we grabbed another mojito and started to try and find our way to the fountain. By this time, it was like 930 and my uncle had told us not to be late. So we try to hurry but we can’t find it. I stop these two guys and try my best to speak Italian and ask for directions. Somehow, we manage to get the directions and finally end up at the fountain. We throw our coins in, take a few pictures and make our way back to the metro. By the time we get to the metro, its 11:15, and the last bus that takes us back to my uncle’s house leaves at midnight. After we get off the metro, we literally run to the bus stop to see a bus waiting there. We hop on and not even two seconds later, the doors shut and the bus starts going….talk about a close call.
The next day we took care of last minute stuff, mailing stuff home, and grocery shopping because we were going to make my family dinner. We made caprese, and pesto gnocchi. I’m sure it was funny to them because the meal was so American, but it was the best we could do. 
I was really sad to leave my family, especially because I hardly ever see them, but I was ready for the next part of our adventure. ciao roma, hola BARCAAA

Procida, Italy

After getting off the ferry, the one and only thing you can do is take in the place around you. Facing the island you see old buildings, all different colors, and people sitting outside enjoying their food and conversations with others. Behind you, you can hear the Mediterranean crashing against the dock...it all seems so surreal. It may have felt this way to me because before this, I had never been on island or it could just be because Procida is gorgeous.


We all gathered near the taxi cab area to try and find cabs to take us to Tirreno, the hotel which we were staying at. I remember how we all laughed when we first saw the island’s micro taxis.

I remember as the Italian man kept telling us he could fit more people, we Americans were very hesitant. How could 6 of us and our luggage fit into this little car? Me being the worry wart I am, waited for a regular car to come. We all piled into the cabs and set out on the ride to the hotel. This ride wasn’t as bad as the one in Naples but I still didn’t feel safe. The ride was bumpy because of the cobblestones and we were all smashed with our stuff. The roads in Procida are narrow- much like alleyways so you can imagine how scary the ride was our confident taxi driver zoomed around. I remember the first time he drove through a very narrow passage way I just kept thinking... Where is he going? Is he going to make a sudden turn? Because there’s no way that we’re going to make it through that little hole… but sure enough, we did. Most of the time we were close enough to the wall that I could touch it without even stretching out my arm. It was crazy.

We get to the hotel and I honestly feel like I am on The Real World. You know how when everyone first arrives at the house, you see them explore the house and every new part that they see is better than the last? That’s exactly how this felt. We set our luggage down by the door because we have to wait for our room assignments, so we start to explore. We explore the bottom level and its gorgeous…it's as if the hotel is lost in a huge garden full of lemon trees, and pretty flowers. Towards the back there were a set of stairs, the first flight takes you to a little outdoor patio with a place to sit and eat and a rocking chair. If you continue up the stairs you reach the rooftop deck where they have a bunch of lawn chairs. In the distance you can see the end of the island where we arrived at, the Mediterranean, and lots of houses. Across from the hotel, is a little secret garden-- also owned by Tirreno. When you first approach it, all you see are big trees and bushes, but there is a small winding trail that leads you to the end of the garden where you find a sitting area with a window to the sea.
Writing this, I’m having a hard time finding the right words to describe how beautiful this place was. I hope the photos do it justice.














Our time in Procida was short, but it felt like forever. We had classes 7 days a week, with very few free days and free time. And if we did have free time, we were usually too tired to do anything. Every morning we would have to be up by 9, have breakfast (which was usually coffee, fresh loafs of bread with nutella or jam) and take the cab to the Terra Murrata (an old castle where our classes were held). Depending on the day and the schedule we would be there until noon or sometimes even four. The first hour of the day was spent with Giovanna and Michele (both who attend the school that hosted our program -L "Orientale" University of Naples). They were the ones who taught our language intensive course.

Then we moved onto the history course with Professor Fogu. Professor Fogu was also one of the most legit professors I’ve ever had. He was very selfless and was always offering us his things and doing his best to make sure that we were okay. He was great. But back to the course-- Some days we had all day field trips where we would go to places like Pompeii. The course was designed in a way where we would learn about something in lecture and then take a field trip and see it for ourselves. Obviously some of the places have changed in appearance and existence, so we were taught in a way to visualize how it used to be. We visited a lot of museums and archeological sites which were fascinating. Everything was rushed but I saw a lot of things that I would not have seen unless I took this trip. We had a lot of interesting guest speakers/hosts/guides that were able to teach us more than we would ever learn from a text book or movie.

I could post our itinerary for you but I wouldn’t want to bore you. We spent a lot of time on the neighboring islands Ischia and Capri and went to cities like Cuma, Baia, Amalfi (my favorite) and many more. Just know it was a very packed and intense 3 weeks, and although I hate history, the class I took on the island of Procida was one of the best classes I have ever taken. I can’t imagine a better way to end my undergraduate career at UCSB.

I spent three weeks living on a beautiful island, drinking peroni and .88 cents German beer, listening to I love college (on repeat), eating caprese and gelato on a daily basis, taking midnight dips in the Mediterranean, watching movies, trying to find things American, saying ‘Ciao’ to the little old lady who would wait for us to walk by every day, and playing cards with new friends that I was able to share this crazy experience with.

more pics of procida:





The most memorable night in Procida by far, was the last night. We received news earlier about the trains being on strike not working for the next day. Some people were freaking out because they had flights to catch and different places to be but our professor kept reassuring us that it would be okay. I remember him saying “just get on any train heading to north to Rome and don’t worry” haha. Crazy Italians.
That night we had our goodbye dinner where we got to share our last laughs and drink ridiculous amounts of champagne. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and just hung out waiting for the one and only discoteca on the island to open. We all sat in the secret garden with the window to the sea and talked about the trip. We said our thank yous to Fogu and talked about all of the funny things that happened. That night, we probably didn’t get to bed until like 5 AM and we had to be at the ferry at 8 AM the next morning.






I won’t forget how miserable everyone looked that morning. Hungover (or still drunk), tired and all a little bit sad that this was all ending. It was hard to say goodbye to Procida, but I know that if I am ever in Italy again, I will make it a point to go back and visit. And thinking about it now, I would give anything to be making that walk from Terra Murrata to Tirreno, just to see the Corricella at sunset. :)


I almost ended this blog without mentioning the best thing about Tirreno; they have the best workers ever. I will probably never forget Goffredo, the nicest man I encountered in Italy. He was the owner of the hotel and he did everything within his power to make sure that we were treated properly. If anything was broken, they’d fix it; they cleaned our rooms weekly and provided us with anything that we needed. I remember one day I was trying to talk to him and we were having problems communicating because he didn’t speak English. (But to be fair, his English is better than my Italian) and I remember him apologizing and I felt so bad. I tried telling him not to apologize because we are in his country and I should be the one trying harder to speak Italian. I wish I could again thank him for all that we he did for us those three weeks there, but I guess it will have to wait until I return to Procida!

The Beginning of the trip to Arriving in Procida

Can you imagine going from being a college student, to graduating, to packing up an apartment you lived in for a year, to moving back home, then packing a tiny suitcase to travel to a country you’ve never been to before for two months…all in the matter of four days?

Seems crazy doesn’t it?

Well it was.

I tried to start packing before my graduation day to save time but that was nearly impossible with finishing finals and trying to spend as much time as I could with people before we parted ways.

I graduated college on June 14, 2009, moved home on June 15th, went to the dentist in Palo Alto, had my hair done in Gilroy on June 16th, and On June 17th at 3:00 pm I went to San Francisco airport to fly out to New York.

I said bye to my dad and I wasn’t even nervous at all. And knowing me, I should have been. I had never flown by myself before and hadn’t flown since before 2002. I didn’t know about all of the new security checks or procedures or what exactly to do.

But I did it, I arrived in New York and walked to the baggage claim where Tammy was already waiting. Apparently she left later than me and arrived before I did, whatever. J

Our flight didn’t leave until 5pm the next day, after paying a ridiculous price for a hotel room for the night; Tammy and I spent the day at JFK waiting for our flight. We ate McDonalds, skyped friends and waited patiently (secretly anxiously) for the trip to really begin.

At 5, we boarded the plane, got ourselves settled, and mentally prepared ourselves for the 8 hours that we were gonna spend on the plane. I remember sitting there and saying a prayer…I thanked god for the opportunity of the trip and prayed for a safe flight. About 15 minutes after I said my prayer, the stewardess got on the intercom and asked us to pack up our stuff, we were going to have to change planes because they had found problems with the one that we were on…weird right?

So Tammy and I packed up our stuff and walked down 30 terminals to where our next plane was going to be. We boarded the plane and by 8:00pm were finally on the runway getting ready for take off.

Once on the plane, Tammy and I cheers-ed our complimentary shot of jack and finally said goodbye to America.




–

Roma.

Two bendryls, no sleep and 8 hours later we arrived in Roma. Needless to say, the state that I was in was not enjoyable. My excitement was being over taken with drowsyness and crankiness. We waited close to an hour to go through customs where I got my first taste of Italian culture. The guards were yelling in Italian, women were being aggressive in line and I kind of just stood back and watched it all. I tried to be aggressive and cut but little Italian women are intimidating. Haha

Finally we got through customs and made our way out to find my aunt (whom I had never met) and my cousin. We finally met them and they showed us our way to their car. The tiniest car I had probably ever seen. Somehow we managed to fit our luggage and us. Never I had I felt like I was a giant until I got into their car. Talk about everything being bigger in America.

As we drove to my uncle’s house, funny enough, the first song we heard on the radio was Lady Gaga. When we got to my uncles place, Tammy and I unloaded our stuff and made our way to his apartment. When we got to the elevator, Tammy and I Just looked at each other…it was smaller than a pantry! There was no way that the four of our luggage and us were going to fit, but my aunt insisted that we try. I also forgot to mention, my aunt doesn’t speak any English…so just keep that in mind as we all tried to fit into this elevator. As we squeezed I look around and saw that the maximum capacity for the elevator was four…they definitely mean four Europeans, not Americans. haha.




The first day we got there we basically slept. It was so great seeing my uncle again. The last time I saw him; I was 9…so it had been a good 14 years. We talked for a bit but then Tammy and I fell asleep. We woke up to a wonderfully made lunch and then slept again and woke up in time for dinner.

After dinner, my cousins Isaac, Sara and Isaacs girlfriend took us out for gelato. When we got to the gelato place, I was overwhelmed by all of the choices. I didn’t quite understand how it worked but Isaac explained that they don’t charge you by scoops but by flavors. I remember looking around and seeing that the gelato cost 1,000. I looked at Tammy and I remember saying “ im not paying a THOUSAND EUROS for ice cream!” and that was when she explained to me their “,” was the same as our decimal. That was my first lesson with how to spend euros and gelato. Let me tell you…Gelato and I fell in love at first taste.

After we all got our gelatos we walked around a saw some sights but then headed back home, the next day was going to be a big one. You would think after sleeping all day Tammy and I would have a hard time falling back asleep, but as soon as our heads hit the pillow we were out.

We woke up the next morning and my aunt had set up an Italian breakfast for us. Crackers, sweet bread, and coffee. After we all got ready we set out for my first day in Rome.

Within these first two days I experienced a lot of firsts…flying by myself, crazy Italians, gelato, home made Italian meals, euros…next was public transportation.

Being from California… I have never taken a metro or subway. I thought we would be driving everywhere but I was wrong. We drove to the nearest metro station and then hopped on the metro to go to the coliseum.

We walked out of the metro station and the first thing I saw was the coliseum. I wont ever forget the feeling I felt when I first saw the Coliseum, standing tall in all of its glory. It was much bigger than I had ever imagined. The only word that I can use to describe it is epic. We crossed over and the closer I got it, the more I was falling in love with it. Im not sure if it was because I had never seen anything like it or what…but I was amazed.





That day we went around and saw the Fontana de Trevi, the Plaza del Parlamento, the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. We ate at a small pizza place outside the pantheon and just walked the streets of Roma taking everything in.

Fontana de Trevi


The Spanish Steps


Pantheon

We got home that night in time for dinner and rested because we’d have to wake up early to take the train to Naples. That morning we woke up to the sounds of rain hitting our window. I checked the weather and found that we were caught in a big thunderstorm. Here I am, a California girl stuck in an Italian rainstorm with only a light sweater and flip-flops to protect me…cool.

My aunt took us to the train station and helped us get our tickets, while waiting for our train we met some students that were apart of our program. The ride to Naples wasn’t very long, its funny how it takes you maybe 12 hours to cover all of California and you could travel a fourth of Italy in about 3 hours. Once we got to Naples, we meet our third roommate Iona at the train station and took a cab to the port. The cab ride was like taking a cab in Tijuana but 200x worse. I saw things I would have never seen like a man riding a scooter, holding his baby. Luckily, we safely made it to the port and it was a close call but we boarded my first ferry ride to Procida. We spent the ferry ride meeting others in our program, debating if it was time to celebrate with Mr. Daniels or what. On the ride we passed by many islands and I just took everything in. How clear and blue the Mediterranean is, the pretty homes and buildings on the islands that we were passing and just how beautiful it all was.




When the ferry stopped in Procida, we all got our stuff and hurried down. As we stood on the bottom level, I remember feeling really anxious. We waited as they tied the boat up and the big boat door opened slowly, exposing the dock, which lead to the beautiful island that I would be living on for the next 3 weeks….





Hello Procida.

Eurotrip 2009... The Beginning.

This past summer I traveled to Europe for the first time with my friend Tammy. I will explain details about the trip in a bit, but first i want to say that the entries that I post about europe can also be found at Tammy and I's Travel site . Im simply going to post my blog entries here but if you are interested about reading our trip from Tammy's point of view, please visit our other site!! :)

Now...About the trip:
With the impending weight of college graduation and all the life decisions that come with it looming ahead, there is a lot of pressure placed on the soon to be college graduate. Everyone deals with this pressure in the most productive way possible. The best and most efficient method though, is to get the hell out of the country. Realizing that the freedom of schedule we have experienced in college will not always be a luxury, with the life plans and work schedules that would most likely be in our near future, this was the perfect time to take an extended trip. So within two days after graduation, we managed to hurriedly pack our whole college lives into whatever boxes and trash bags we could find, toss them in the corners of our parents and friends homes, packed for two months, and headed off to the greatest adventure/distraction we could have dreamed of. It encompassed twelve cites in Italy, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Dublin, and London. Three weeks of study, followed by five weeks of exploration, and here are the millions of things we want to tell you about it…


But first here is a little bit about me...

Depending on who you are my name is Gellane/Gallane. I was born and raised in Mountain View, CA but moved to a small country town named Hollister when I was 10. I lived there until I moved to Santa Barbara to finish school. After two amazing years at UCSB, graduation approached quickly and I had no plan or any idea of what I was going to do come June. That all changed one lazy day in Santa Barbara, when my friend Tammy came over to watch movies with some In and Out. She asked me if I wanted to go to Italy this summer, and of course I said yes. A very hopeful yes. Traveling was something that I have always wanted to do but never had the means to. After she told me about this travel study program, I looked into it and knew I had to make this happen. Less than a month afterwards, tickets were booked, flexible plans were made and we were counting down the days…not only to graduation but as cliché as it sounds, a once in a lifetime experience.

The End..

The trip was a lot of fun, although we had our fair share of fights, we saw a lot of the country we hadn’t seen before, had a lot of good laughs, and had our first cross country road trip together. Im pretty grateful that I was able to do this trip, and I’m glad that I got to do one last thing with Sara before she moves to Germany and lives the married life. It was quite an experience and definitely something I would be up for doing again. Id love to take an even further southern route or a northern route, going through Montana (check out Yellowstone), Colorado and all of those states that im sure are beautiful but we don’t pay any attention to.
After this trip I can say I have no desire to go to Arkansas, Oklahoma or Texas again (although ive promised some id give dallas a chance) but I wouldn’t mind spending more time in New Mexico and Tennessee.

After thinking about all the songs that we heard, I think our soundtrack for this trip would have to be:
1. Zac Brown Band- Toes
2. Ke$ha – Tic Tock
3. Taylor Swift- You Belong with me
4. Tim Mcgraw- Live like you were dying
5. George Straight- Carrying your love with me
6. Carrie Underwood- The More Boys I Meet
7. Carrie Underwood- I Aint in Checotah Anymore
8. Miley Cyrus- Party in the USA
9. Train- Soul Sister
10. And various other country hits.
And to recap, the Southern places we ate were:
1. The Cookout
2. Cubbies (hushpuppies and frozen custard)
3. Bojangles
4. Jersey Mikes
5. J. Alexander
6. Shlotzky’s Deli

Arizona & the Grandest Canyon of all

December 15, 2009
I woke up this day a bit more excited than most of the other days because today was the day that we were going to the Grand Canyon. I’d had never been before and had been looking forward to it all week. I was also really excited because of the snow everywhere. It was kind of refreshing to see the snow because id been so used to just sun or a little bit of rain. Living in California is like living in a bubble when it comes to weather. It rains but definitely not as much as other states and the weather is definitely better in California than most other places.




So we left the hotel relatively early and drove up towards the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The north Rim was closed because of the snow storm. On the way to the Grand Canyon we saw a bunch of Indian reservations. It had never occurred to me that I haven’t seen many native Americans in real life or an actual reservation. So seeing them from the high way was pretty cool. Although the reservations do seem to fit the stereotype of being rundown, lots of broken down cars in the front yard etc etc. It took us about an hour to get up there and an hour back but it was well worth it.







Everyone had described the Grand Canyon to me as amazing, gorgeous, breathtaking, and don’t get me wrong, it was gorgeous…it was vast, gorgeous (even more so with the snow) and a lot to take in…but I wasn’t amazed by it. When I was in Rome and I saw the Colessum for the first time, I was a bit taken back by how epic it was. I was amazed and fell completely in love with it. I was half expecting to feel the same way about the Grand Canyon but that feeling wasn’t there. But don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, a definite must see and I want to go back and like go camping, hike, spend some time there and really try to take it all in. It was beautiful and I think everyone should go and see it.













After the Grand Canyon drove the hour back down to the I-40 and set the GPS for home. On the way we saw a place off to side having to do with the Flinstones. They apparently had campsites in the back and a restaurant called Freds Diner. Obviously this wasn’t something we could just drive by. Sara make a U turn and we went back and checked it out. The place was really weird. Really really weird. We walked into Fred’s Diner and the first thing we saw was a cut out of BamBam and a Moose head on the wall. We walked further into a shop selling Flinstones merchandise, native American jewelry and a lot of other random stuff. Sara and I walked towards the back and saw a couple of tables set up, which we assumed was Fred’s Diner. After walking around for a bit, we both started to feel dirty, it smelled so bad in there and we were surrounded by so much crap we needed to get out. Lisa stayed in for a bit and shopped around while Sara and I walked around the outside area to see what else this place had to offer. Once Lisa was done, we left.









The rest of the drive was rough, because we all knew the only thing to look forward to now was getting home. Towards the end of it, like by the time we reached Bakersfield, we all get a little restless. All of our phones were dying, we still had two more hours and we all just wanted to get out of Sara’s car and into our beds. We finally got home that night around 10 pm.