What type of person are you???

I have learned more life lessons in the past four months in Spain than during my four years at college. Now this might be do the fact that my attendance record wasn't what one might call stellar or more honestly I missed more classes than I attended, but none the less my serve paid for my college so no loss there :) Living and working abroad has taught me more about myself and the real world than any textbook could ever come close to explaining. Not that I really ever read many of my textbooks, sometimes forgot to even open them up, but that's besides the point. However, I'm more than making up for lost time in regards to reading. Due to the fact that Spanish television is mierda and everything is closed from 2-6 for Siesta I've become quite the advid reader, yes, I do know how to read Ngoc :) Traveling is one of the best teachers in my opinion. It provides one the opportunity to see and experience things, people, cultures, customs, traditions, etc. that are truly eye-opening and at times mind boggling. I often find myself in situations that are uncomfortable and/or challenging and have to face my own. Every time I hear people tell me how jealous they are of my year in Spain, I wish they could experience a day in a foreign country with no friends or family and be forced to deal with the trials and tribulations of life in a different language. While traveling through Europe is fun its not always paradise in the world of sun and sangria. I'm constantly reminded I'm not in the United States when I'm forced to deal with inefficient Spanish beaucracy or walk past eighty-five year old men breaking their neck (literally) to get a longer stare. Among the plethora of things I've learned, most importantly I've come to the sad realization that 1) money doesn't grow on trees 2) work is no fun and at times hard 3) Spanish men are not tall, dark and handsome. Women, please do not continue to believe nor perpetuate this lie about Spanish men. It is nothing but a terribly exaggerated, unrepresentative falsehood. Whoever is responsible for inventing this sterotype should be punished and reprimanded because people have believed in this myth for far too long 4) when unsure of a question "si" is not always the best choice. For example, when a man asks if you want a "rollo," he is asking if you want to engage in casual no strings attaches sex, NOT a chocolate covered caramel candy! Who knew?

There is no substitute for experience. In order to truly learn about another culture one must immerse him/herself in the culture and experience the traditions, norms and lifestyle firsthand. However, after learning about the cultural norms and traditions related to dating and sex in Spain, American men can sleep soundly back home knowing I will be coming home free of any Spanish boyfriends or STDs. I’m sure many male readers just breathed a great sigh of relief, no need to continue worrying! My first couple months here I went on quite a few dates--only because I saw it as a great opportunity to 1) practice my Spanish 2) interact with the locals while learning about the city and its surroundings 3) lets be more honest, its a free meal at a nicer restaurant than I would normally go to. However, after I quickly noticed the pattern of all my dates I had to put an end to Spanish dating. What can I say; Spanish men are just not my things. Not only were all the men only interested in one thing but also none of them even cared to be the least bit discrete about their intentions. And no, there intentions were NOT to help me improve my Spanish. I recently went on a date, only because the guy was the exception to the rule tall, dark and handsome, that is.... he couldn't have been from Spain! You may be familiar with this gentlemen (if you are a faithful reader) he works at the Office of Foreigners and asked for my number when I was applying for my identification card (no shame...what government employee picks girls up at work? Only in Spain). Anywho, this date proved to be the catalyst for my investigation about the Spanish mentality towards dating and sex. The date itself went fine, he was sweet and we had a great conversation over drinks with many laughs. After telling me about how nice his place was and inviting me back, I naively thought, "sure, why not," mistake #1 of the night. As soon as I opened the door and walked into what has to be the most quintessential bachelor pad I couldn't help but wonder how many different girls had graced his couches. . . Pool table, big flat screen TV (plus one in the bedroom), view of the swimming pool, big fluffily oversized couches and of course a little mini bar....the only other thing he needed was me on the couch and the place would've been ready for a photo shoot to appear in a men’s magazine "best bachelor pad of the year." My innocence quickly faded and to my horror I realized why he wanted to take my back home, and it wasn't to show me how nice his place was nor watch a Disney move or practice my Spanish. Apparently he thought it was perfectly normal to sleep with someone after knowing them for a grand total of sixty minutes. Come on now, at least wait a couple hours before sleeping with someone I thought! (please note the sarcasm). Needless to say this was the icing on the cake, I'm forever turned off by Spanish men. (exception, el Duque, of course, he is ALWAYS welcome in Roque Barcia 5 4A)

Ngoc and I have both had very back luck with men abroad. In other words, with the men we have met, celibacy seems like a better option than dating. Guess I'll just have to pick my gym routine up a little. After having discussed the issue with a broad spectrum of Spaniards ranging from highschol drop outs to people with professional degrees, men and women, factory workers to lawyers and prudes and to those holding a more liberal mindset towards sex we have come to the conclusion that there are 2 type of people in Spain

1) those who are in a relationship

2) Those who DON'T want to be in a relationship

Yes, that's right, we single handling simplified a country of over 45 million people into 2 very simple categories. It didn't take a lot of work nor thinking to classify the millions of people over here. Now you might ask yourself, what about those people who want to be in a relationship but can't find anyone? Now this is a question only a rookie would ask, someone who hasn't lived in Spain, because those people simply don't exists. You can't walk down the street, go to the mall, park, library, grocery store, disco, a party, or ANYWHERE and not see absorb amounts of PDA. These people who feel the need to display their love and affection for their partner 24/7 in any given place fall under type 1 (those who are in a relationship). While they are quite annoying they are nothing compared to the scumbags who we classify as type 2. You know you've met a type 2 person when you are on your FIRST date the guy says "I'm not looking for a relationship." Meanwhile, you are still trying to remember his name and wondering who on earth says this on a first date? Don't be fooled by this line, which all Spanish men say, because this does NOT mean they are not interested in sleeping with you, quite the contrary actually. What "I´m not looking for a relationship" really means is "I want to sleep with you couple times a week, but I don't want to be tied down, sacrifice anything for you, and quite frankly you're not worth giving up the opportunity to sleep with another willing girl..." What a line, really! It should be the number #1 pick-up line of all time "Hey honey, you're looking good, I don't like you enough to commit to anything but you wana sleep with me?" Only the smoothest of smooth talkers could've come up with that good. It has to have a 100% success rate, what girl doesn't wana sleep with a guy after hearing "I don't want a relationship" why not just say "well, you're available tonight and I want to get laid so you willing to put out or what?" This is what they are really thinking.

In conclusion, I will be staying far, far away from Spanish men for my remaining four months abroad. If you're ever in Spain, talking to a Spanish man and he slyly drops the line "I'm not looking for a relationship" you now know what he is really asking...

Besos
Ally

Hi, I'm Ngoc... Hi, I'm Ally... and we're addicted to STNHP

The first step of getting over any addiction is admitting it, but I don't really know if I ever want to get over this addiction... what would my life be without "Sin Tetas no hay Paraiso"? (for those great fans, it's better known as STNHP).
When Ally and I first came across this show, we noticed that it looked better made, like it could be something we see on American TV. It just looked more attractive than regular Spanish TV. Little did we know what would happen as we got sucked into this world. In the beginning, it was hard to understand due to the language barrier, and not knowing how to turn the subtitles on the TV didn't help either. With time we became faithful watchers, tuning in every Thursday night at the random time of 10:41 p.m. We got to know the characters a little better, remembering their names and kinda understanding the plot line. But mainly we watched it because of the gorgeous creation that is "El Duque". I guess I'm going to change my statement and say I'm Ngoc, and I'm addicted to looking at "El Duque", and his 5-o'clock shadow amongst his other great qualities. His incredibly toned shoulders and back, as well as those arms...

Sorry, got a little distracted into my "El Duque" world, but this blog isn't about him, it's about how this show has become a part of ally and my life. When the series ended, we so sad because we couldn't see the finale because we were in Italy, luckily we were able to see it online. Now that they are not showing new episodes, we couldn't get our weekly fix of STNHP, so we thought it's be cool to watch the series from the beginning... great idea right?????

So we began with chapter 1, after a long day at work. Both of us seated in front of my tiny mac watching this show online, and you can't even open it on full screen btw. Each episode is about 1.5 hrs more or less, but watching it from the beginning has made things make more sense. Some how we seem to be able to understand all the characters when they speak Spanish but the other people in the street, the people that we interact with everyday are a lot more difficult to understand... I have no clue why. So for about a week we watched one episode a night sometimes staying up to the wee hours of the night, thinking this is a little ridiculous but like true addicts we couldn't say no.

There would be moments when we would have to pause the episode to discuss what was happening, such as how the editing wasn't very good in one section, or how some of the story line was not drawn out enough... we were as serious as a heart attack when discussing such topics. I think we both had at least one moment we were truly angry at editors, or people in charge because they didn't do a good job of explaining something or editing, or styling or whatever. I don't think we've ever been so focused in our lives on anything, but this show. We watch these people on TV and it feels like they are our next door neighbors although they live in some fictional world and they are definitely not the type of people we roll with. We discuss t heir lives as if we've known them forever, and it's slightly sad, but that's what happens when you're addicted to some fictional show.. But if the Duke just by chance wants to stop by for some sugar, Roque Barcia 5, 4A, you are always welcome.

Our nightly STNHP showings were a great way to practice Spanish, but mostly so

see what would happen next in the next episode. It reached a point where it really bothered me that el Duque prefers Cata over Jessi. Yes, Jessi is a prostitute, and she uses men for money, and what you would call "bitchy", but it's like come one she has super long legs, she can hold her own, she's using what she's got. Who doesn't like that? What's so cool about Cata anyways? She can't defend herself, she's selfish, and a little skinny for my taste. I pondered this question for the longest time... wondering why in the world El Duque would pick Cata over Jessi....I was seriously mad at him for choosing Cata over Jessi until I realized... it's a freakin fictional story... this is how it's meant to happen, but the believer in me still thinks there is hope that one day he'll wake up (from the dead) and see that Jessi is the right girl and he needs to drop that Cata girl because she is not good enough for her. He needs a Bonnie to his Clyde not some skinny girl who wants some breast implants. So just in case anyone wanted to know my opinion on this important issue, I'm "Team Jessi"all the way.(btw, she's the red-head, the blonde is the other girl... the one I definitely don't like).

Another problem I have with the show is that sometimes they decide to show El Duque en black briefs... come on man... that is not SEXY.. I repeat not SEXY. Now my list of things that turn me off from him has increaded to 4.. they are as follows:

1. He smokes (A LOT) and this probably leads to the next point.

2. His voice-- like many men I've met, it'd be better if he never talked at all, then it wouldn't ruin the whole mystic. In his case, I would believe that he isn't suffering from a life-threatening condition of emphysema.

3. His satin shirts, that look really cheap and make me think of some pimp but not in a good way. All I really want to say, is take that off, you look better without the shirt anyways.

4. the black briefs... what was the stylist thinking, that person has to be let go, because if you can make a man that good looking look unattractive... then you definitely don't know what you're doing.

As of right now, we have seen all the first season episodes, we have the second season, but we've seen almost half of the episodes... things are getting good. I'm sure we're not the only females in Spain addicted to this show, but we will be the first to admit it. We still have many nights to staring at the screen, and screaming at it for the stupid things that the editors/writers do... or the stupid things that each character does.. thinking somehow it would change the outcome.

On a little side note, I've started reading the book that this series is based off of... and i'm just going to leave it at that. Ciao, Ciao as I go off and dream of the most gorgeous man alive...

Un besito,

Ngoc :)

Tour of Italy

First and foremost I would like to state I resent Ngoc's statement in a previous post that I have a slight tendency to exaggerate. At least call a spade a spade--a compulsive liar would've been more accurate but none of our readers will know truth from fiction so I just try and write a good blog :)

There isn't much left to say about Italy--it was amazing and I reccommend you go if you haven't been. All I want to write about is my unfortunate ability to attract the craziest people...NO EXAGGERATION (Ngoc) we rarely go to a city where I don't attract the unwanted attention of some creepy person....while in Florence I was riding the bus, just sitting, staring at the window when some homeless guy felt the need to serenade me....needless to say I was uncomfortable...anyone who knows me knows I'm not one to fight so I just sat there half crying half laughing and what does my fiesty five foot bodyguard do to help me?? takes the camera out to get a video...enjoy!

Better late than never

So its already half way through January and I haven't written in this blog for god knows how long mostly because in all honestly "no tengo ganas de escribir" (I just don´t have the energy/want to). Call me lazy or call me Spanish--what's the difference? Lets be honest anyway, I tell a pretty good story, actually I can´t think of anyone mind you except my brother or dad who can tell a better story than me. Guess it runs in the family, kinda like the good looks ☺ This is mainly due to the fact that I never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Any good storyteller knows the truth is of minor importance when recounting an event to someone. My justification for lack of updates is sheer laziness and not wanting to have to spend time thinking of how to write a comically clever or whitty and funny and somewhat accurate account of my crazy adventures overseas when it's so much easier to just tell over the phone....but for our overwhelming audience and faithful followers (2..my parents and Wilson when he can see the screen, given he has had a haircut in the past 6 months) I will attempt to recapture the last few weeks of life abroad into print....which never do any my experiences justice. I suggest you just come over for a visit instead and experience the Spanish lifestyle, my Mom did and loved it!

I'll start with the arrival of my mother. For the sake of Jesus (fellow co-worker) I'll forgo the horror story of getting to the airport—but I learned my lesson—never rely on a Spaniard for anything—when your country's motto is "no pasa nada" it's a red flag that promises mean nothing and being able to rely on someone for a favor is near impossible.....afterall who doesn't respond "no pasa nada" when 2 hours before your supposed to be at the Sevilla airport your ride tells you he can't take you....when he knew ALL day he couldn't take you! For my Mom's first night in Spain we decided to throw a Christmas cocktail party to introduce her to all our friends and more truthfully it was a great excuse to throw a party. I mean who doesn't wana host a party when they live in a 9 square foot mansion...our piso is just begging us to show it off and be play party hosts. Especially with our fine china and all (compliments of the Chinese bizaar....5 plates for a euro...what a steal! If you're lucky they will last at least four washes). We could invite all of 20 people (given they all had a BMI of under 25) to our party which made making the invite list very difficult. Now I know you're thinking, yes, having a party with only 20 people must've been hard to pare the list down however since we could only think of 6 friends, including the doorman and milkman it was quite a chore trying to think of enough people to invite. After scrolling through our phones six or seven times, hoping some new numbers belonging to some guapo hombres would miracusly appeared, we somehow manged to fit quite the crowd into our piso. As you can see from the photos, we only have male friends, the reason being obvious--Spanish women are mean and jealous. If you want to argue that this is a gross generalization than 1) prove me wrong and introduce to be a nice Spanish women because I'm yet to meet one in my 6 months in Spain 2) I just lost my best tennis partner because his girlfriend was jealous of me...point proven. Back to the point, it was basically a man party and quite entertaining. The Brazilian crew were our honeary bartenders and free entertainment for the night. Mixing drinks strong enough for even the most advanced alcoholic to enjoy---inhibitions were loosened and fun times followed. Henrique left his shy side behind the door, Angelos showed off his dance moves and Alexandro put the mistletoe to good use. Unfortunatly, Elvis decided to wear a shirt, the first time I've seen him clothed, and it really was such a shame with a body like his. I know PDA and Spain are pretty much synonymous but I was hoping people would at least take into consideration my mom was at the party and restrain from the standard Spanish behavior of getting it on infront of everyone. Not for our English guest and her Bralizian babe. No, they didn't believe in the art of decscrition and wanted everyone to see their foreplay fun, in fact, they made quite the dramatic exit, no one had any doubt about what they were going to do later, or who they were going to do. Blame it on the bartenders, I guess.





My mom and I went on a day trip to Ayamonte which is a small town an hour or so away from Huelva. It's unbelievable how easy and affordable it is to travel over here rather than the States. You hop on a bus, train or plane for a couple euros (sometimes a few hundred....but who's counting) and your in a whole new city or country. We had a really fun day exploring Ayamonte and even took a ferry ride over to Portugal. The highlight was probably a zoo we accidentally ran into while walking through a park. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed sun filled skies while riding the ferry. We enjoyed a delicious dinner along the Atlantic sea and of course the company of one another.



One of my English students, Juan, was gracious enough to play tour guide to us for a day and took us all over Huelva. We went to Aracena, a small village up in the Sierras (mountains). On our way we stopped to admire Rio Tinto where NASA is currently doing research on the water. We took a tour of these amazing caves in Aracena which words simply cannot describe. Absolutely unbeliebably beautiful. I also worked my charm and scored us a nochebuena (Christmas Eve) invite, which I would like to recive props for because this was harder than you think. Ngoc and spent several days debating over who we could possibly talk into inviting us over for nochebuena which is the biggest dinner and most important night of the year, because we really didn't fancy sitting in our piso when the rest of the country was celebrating and eating their best meal of the year. We were fortunate enough to have dined on some of the best ham in the world and the dinner was probably the best dinner I've ever had. I can only imagine how many hours were spent in the kitchen going into this elaborate meal, there was enough food for the Red Army and its enemies!! My favorite part of the night was when the guests came over at, drumroll please.....2 AM.....only in Spain does company come over to say hi at 2 am.

We left for Granada early on Christmas day and saw the entire town of Huelva coming home from the night before at 8 am....again, ONLY in Spain to people party on Christmas Eve and until 8 am the next morning. I didn't mind being away from home on Christmas given I've spent the last 15 years of my life on the road playing tennis tournaments, eating three week old bounceable hotdogs, if lucky, and rarely spent Christmas with my family in front of the tree so I have no sympathy for people complaining about missing home. I wouldn't exactly say I'm the most financially independent person around town, I fully enjoy the luxury of being blessed with generous parents, but after hearing about how much people complain about missing home I've realized I'm far more independent than I gave myself credit for. Anywho, we arrived in Granada to a B&B that the owner should be embarassed to call a Bread & Breakfast. I think "The Dump" would be a more fittig name. I guess you get what you pay for...needless to say, the poor life is not for me. Better I learn that young though. I prefer a hotel in which cockroaches do not roam free, breakfast is served free of moldy bread and hot water is a commodity included in the price of the room. Ok, so slight exaggeration but the place wasn't one of our best hostel experienes. Nonetheless, it was fun to visit Granada, where I studied abroad in undergrad, and show my Mom all the places we we went out (because really no one goes to Spain to study). Too bad there isn´t a major for nightlife expertise. We went to the Science Park, Alahambra, Sierra Nevadas and walked all of Granada (let me repeat ALL) of Granada during our time there.


We came home from Granada, exhausted, and enjoyed our last day in Huelva at Parque Moret which is up a on hill overlooking the city. We rented some rowboats and spent the afternoon picnicing in the park, rowing a boat through the lake and enjoying the warm December weather. It was a wonderful 2 weeks.





Besos
Allison

Signs that it's time to go home...

We're back in Spain, and it feels great. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Spain, or see Spanish in my life. Maybe I am becoming more spanish with each day. However, our last leg of our Italian adventure was sure full of great memories... and stories. Most of the time, Ally and I must ask ourselves... what have we done to deserve such luck... weird things always happen to us... why? It's the blonde and brunette combination I think.
Anyways, after leaving Rome behind, we took the train to Florence. Normally we don't have problems with the train, however, we got on the wrong one and instead of arriving there in 1.5 hrs it took us 3.5 hrs and we paid for the fast train... so we should have known it was all going downhill from there. We arrive in Florence, and it's raining... go figure. We arrive at our hostel, which was bad, except for the fact that they made us pay more than we were suppose to because we had to change the reservation. I was too exhausted to argue, but it still makes me angry.
Florence wasn't what I thought it'd be. I guess, it's meant for people who like art and museums and the Renaissance... and we don't really like any of those things. The greatest things we manage to see in Florence was "David". That is an amazing piece of work. We sat there looking at it amazed at how big the sculpture is. We couldn't take a photo of it, but a photo wouldn't do this piece any justice, it must be see in person. It was really breath taking, and I have to say "David" has an incredible body... if only he were real...I guess I can imagine.
Besides David our adventures in Florence involved paying way tooo much for gelato. Once again, we had a Barcelona moment, and paid 10 euros each for ice cream... it was a little ridiculous, and that's how we spent the last of our money. We're just going to blame it on the fact that we couldn't speak the language, but it's a little ridiculous that we spent 20 euros all together on ice cream... when we didn't really have any money to spend.
Also on our way up to Michelangleo's Square, Ally was harassed by a homeless man, that thought that I could understand what he was saying. It's hilarious the things that Ally and I get into.. we were sitting normally on a bus, and a weird guy with a guitar comes on and starts singing, and then pulls out a harmonica. He talks and talks about how his mom is Peruvian and his dad is from Florence, and is making Ally very uncomfortable. I just like how Ally sits there and looks at me to come to her rescue... come on I'm like what 5'0'' on a good day, and I'm going to scare away someone that's harrassing her? I've decided for 2009, ally is going to have to take a self defense class, because i don't get paid enough to be her bodyguard, stylist, and everything else I do. :)
All in all let's just say that I wasn't amazed by Florence, but I think I was more ready to go home to Spain.

Pisa was interesting in that we didn't have a hostel cuz' we flew out at 6:45 the next day, we thought we'd spend the night at the airport. I have never felt so homeless in my life. We walked around Pisa and tried to find something to do... but the only thing to see in Pisa is the tower, and we saw that. We had so much time on our hands, we played cards in a bench in a park, we got attacked by birds as we were trying to eat our favorite meal of bread and cheese... it was great. As the time neared to go to the bus station to get our backpacks, we thought.... um I don't think the airport is open all night, and we tried to figure out what we would do. But first we spent a couple hours in the McDonald's playing cards, and when the police officers came to kick out the homeless guys, I was like, "please don't come over here, and kick us out... we don't have anywhere else to go, and it's cold outside." Luckily they didn't come over to us. We took a 5 minute train to the airport, and when we got there, we found out it does indeed close from 1-4 am, so we had to get out of there, and go who knows where.

However, in the airport we met Trisha, another auxilary who works in Bollullos as well. We met a guy named "Pumpkin". He has a Chinese name, but it was impossible to say, so he said the translation is Pumpkin so that's what we called him. We played cards and hung out until they kicked us out of the airport. Then we all grabbed our stuff and walked back to the center of the city, which was like 15 minutes away from the airport... so we wasted 1.10 on a ticket, which we didn't even need to do. When you're poor 1.10 is a lot of money... In the end, we spent the 3 hrs or so in ttrain station, cold, bored, and unable to sleep. It was a group of Ally, Trisha, and I. Plus our two new friends, Miguel from Cadiz, and Pumpkin from China, but currenlty living in Pisa. Pumpkin and I had lots of time to talk, he is one funny guy, he didn't speak Spanish and it was a little difficult to communicate but when I did manage to communicate he was hilarious. It's one of those things you had to be there for.
When we finally made it back to the airport, and checked in, we had a man down moment, because Pumpkin's visa was expired and he could only travel in italy, he couldn't go to Spain... that was such a sad moment. We all felt really bad, because Pumpkin had went through the whole spending the night at a train station, and everything... for nothing. I thought he was seriously going to cry, I was going to cry for him. We came up with some alternative plans, such as walking, training or even possbily biking, but I guess that wasn't really an appropriate time for jokes.
When we finally got on the flight, Ally and I went straight to work figuring out how we were going to get comfortable cuz' we were going to definitely sleep it out... I did manage to sleep most of the time and when we ended up in Sevilla it was great to finally be back home. We still had a little adventure to try and catch the bus to Huelva, luckily we caught it on time... and then we were finally back at Calle Roque Barcia 5, 4A. I'm never going to say this again, but it was nice to be home.
Although the trip was amazing, I've realized that traveling for long periods of time is not my thing... or maybe I just need better hotels and a remote control luggage thing. I don't know whatever it is, it felt great to be home. From our italian vacation, Ally and I learned, that we're never going to travel in the winter unless we're going to somewhere warm. In the end, it was worth all the almost frost bite moments, but I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

Un abrazo,
ngoc :)

Roaming Rome with Romans

Hi everyone!!!! After leaving Venice, Ally and I made our way to Rome. The ride was incredibly boring because neither of us had anything to do... I couldn't read because I'd get sick, and also we didn't bring our iPods because we didn't have anyway of charging it without bring my computer. Hence we had no way of entertaining ourselves. To make things worse, we ended up sitting in different areas, because we didn't buy two tickets together... after multiple attempts to try to sit together, I just had to go sit all by myself and looked out the window.
However, a really funny thing happened to me when I sitting alone, and bored out of my mind. The guy next to me happened to be watching a Woody Allen movie, and I didn't want to be rude and be all up in his grill, so i tried to watch it out of the corner of my eyes... then he caught me and offered to share and I said, no it's not a big deal. But then eventually he put on the English subtitles for me. But yeah, like Tram would say, I was being super American and all in his space, but in my defense... I was bored... nothing to do, and I'm sure most people would have looked, and I couldn't help laughing because there were funny moments. Anyone, in the end my new friend, is Angelo and he happened to be coming from Venice also and going to Rome. He offered to give us a tour of the city, so I made a friend on the train... weird, but it really made Rome a very interesting trip.
After getting off the train, we went to our hostel, which was close to the train station, but that was probably the only good thing about it. Unlike Ally I don't exaggerate as much, but this by far was the worst place we've ever stayed in, and we both decided we can't ever do this again. We definitely didn't spend much time in the hostel. Our first night we walked around Rome. Although it was my second time to Rome, I never got to see Rome at night, and it was really beautiful, although I was scared for my life because Romans don't seem to be very good drivers.
For our first official day in Rome, we went to the Colesseo, Roman Forum, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The Colesseo was cool, but the inside to me was not as interesting, I liked the outside better. I think Ally and I have watched way too many Hollywood movies with the Colesso and we had a different image in mind. The Forum was like it was 2 years ago. Ally really liked the Tomb of the Fallen Soliders which was in the Venice Square, but I personally perfer "Valle de los caidos" in Madrid better. But either way, it is still an amazing building. Later in the day we met up with Angelo and he gave us the official tour. I prefer having a tour guide, because that means I don't have to read the map and figure out where we're going, I just follow.
However, a funny thing about having a tour guide, is that Ally and I usually don't listen, we just like looking at the building and momuents, and rarely question about the history. Of course Angelo, had to know every single thing about Rome and we felt a little uncultured next to him. We walked all of Rome basically with Angelo that afternoon, night him telling us everything and us partically listening. However, give us a credit because now we can distinguish between St. Peter and St. Paul. Near the end we went on a search for food, and it seemed that everything was closed, and it was really funny when we were all tired, and our legs were sore, but finally we managed to find pizza... and all was right in the world again.
The following day, we went to the Vatican and it seemed that everyone else decided to do that too. Although it was my second time to St. Peter's Basilica, it's still one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. Angelo says that St. Mark's is better than St. Peter's but I'm going to say... I don't think so. It's hard to capture the essence of the basilica, it's incredibily incredible. Like Ally said, you can't look at any other churches in the same way after seeing this one. Since I did not climb the domb last time I was in Rome, Ally and I decided to do so, but we decided to be cheap and save a few euros and walk all the way up. Let me just say... we were the only people not to take the elevator up. We walked over 500 steps up the dome. There were red stairs, white stairs, narrow, wide... all types of stairs, you name it, we climbed it. I thought I was going to die because it was a lot of stairs... I'm weak and lazy. However, we made it. The view was incredible although there were lots of people around. Because nothing can be higher than the Basilica, being at the top gave us a beautiful view of Rome. It was worth the ridiculous climb to see the view. The Vatican museum was also a wonderful sight. To be honest, Ally and I are probably not the most "museumy" people, but the Sistine Chapel is amazing, and the Raphael things aren't shabby either. After seeing what Michelangelo has done by the time he's like 23, 24, I'm like what have I done with my life? Where are my sculptures and paintings? i should stop sitting in my piso and watching "sin Tetas no hay paraiso" and start painting or something.
After our trip to the Vatican we took a short break and met up with Angelo for our second day of seeing Rome. We went to dinner at this restaurant that was really famous, but right now I don't remember why... don't tell him I said that though. The food in Italy was okay, I didn't find it to be spectacular, but it's better than the options in Spain (sorry...). Either way after dinner we went over to Angelo's sister, Alessandra's apartment. We met her friends and we all went out for this fiesta, which I'm still not quite sure what it was. There were tons of people in the streets, and it was crowded everywhere. It was nice to have friends and people to hang out with on our travels. We usually just have each other, so it was a nice change.
All in all, when I think about Rome, I think of all the history and all the cool things they have there. You could be walking and see some modern buildings and out of no where pops the Trevi fountain or something ridiculous like that. You just don't see things like that in Seattle. Also the buses here are out of control, if you don't like being touched by random people, don't ride the bus in Rome. Although I like Rome, I think after two visits, I'm pretty Romed out.
Although I enjoy traveling, and seeing new places, after my time in Rome, I really started missing being in Huelva, not because huelva is better, but because now I see Spain as my home. Even if it's not "home, home", it's still a place where I have my own place to put my things, I'm not living out of a suitcase or in our case a backpack. I started to really miss Spain... but we still have two more cities to go before we get back. I guess it's the cold that makes me think of crazy stuff as missing Huelva.
Okay, that was Rome, hope everyone enjoys the pictures, we have more, but it's impossible to post them all.

Besitos,
Ngoc :)

Our New Year's Resolution: Not to turn into snowmen

Greetings everyone. I hope this post finds everyone warm, safe and enjoying a wonderful new 2009! I myself am currently freezing in my piso, but trying my hardest to finish with the updates of our Italian Vacation.

Because we had so much time off, Ally and I decided to go to Italy for 10 days. The plan was to fly into Milan, then go to Venice, Rome, Florence, then home from Pisa. We thought it was going to be ridiculously fun and awesome, which it was... but we forgot one minor detail, it's winter time here, and it's FREEZING!!!! So our lesson for this trip was don't travel from a cold place to an even colder place... or better yet, don't travel at all during winter vacation and stay in Spain, where the whether is cold, but not 1 degree celsius or even zero.

Anyways, back to the recap. We left Huelva the night of the 30th and spent the night in Huelva with another Seattlite, Maria. She was kind enough to let us stay at her place since we flew out so early the next morning for Milan. When we arrived in Milan the weather was cold. We went to our hostal and it turned out to be a really nice hotel, it's probably one of the best places we've stayed in... if only they were all like that. You can see the video below. The breakfast was also amazing. But besides the hotel the only thing in Milan was the cathedral, while it's cool... eh I was super impressed. However, for new year's eve Ally and I thought to walk around and go to the big plaza and maybe there'd be a countdown or something... but it was snowing... and we were freezing, and after toughing it out for a few hours, we couldn't bear to stand outside after they kicked us out of the metro, so we headed back to our hotel and watched some TV. All in all, it was an uneventful way to ring in 2009, but it was better than turning into a snowwoman.

After Milan we took the train to Venice. Upon arrival we walked out of the train station and the city was amazing. Although once again... COLD and cloudy. We followed the instructions to find our hostal, but it turned out that they weren't very accurate due to the day being Jan 1st, and nothing runs properly on that day. But in the end we managed to find our hostal and it wasn't in Venice, Venice it was a 10 minute bus ride from Venice, which was a little annoying. After settling into our room, we decided to go in search of some food. Because of the holiday there wasn't anything really open, we saw a few bars but there really wasn't much to eat. We were both so cold and hungry while we walked, but everything seemed to not be what we were looking for. Finally I noticed some lights and we go over there.. it turned out to be a Pizzeria & Restaurant. So in the end we found food, and no one was frozen.

The following day we went into Venice, Venice and started to see the city. We almost got a ticket because we didn't have enough bus fare. We only had one ticket, but two bodies. I just assumed that no one would check, but of course, because we are the luckiest people in the world, there had to be people checking, and they caught us. I was trying to play dumb, like we didn't know we had to verify it. The officers didn't really speak English, and we don't speak Italian, so let's say it was a scary situation, and when he began to write down something that looked like a ticket in my mind I was like, "Mierda, joder, joder, joder, joder!!!!" Ally looked at the paper and it said 180... and panic set in and we both looked at each other trying to figure out what to say. After asking whether we could just buy a ticket on board, the officer tells us that we just pay him, and I say how much, he said 1.80. He was actually writing us a receipt for our ticket on board, and it wasn't a fine... thank BUDDHA!!!! That was a close call, but we made it out.

Now, how was Venice you ask? It's hard to explain the beauty of the city, but it's also hard to appreciate it when you're worried about not feeling your toes or fingers. There is something about Venice that is very alluring, probably because it's a city that uses boats instead of cars. I don't know, whateverthe reason I loved it and it's my favorite city in Italy as of now. We walked all day, everywhere around Venice, we went to see St. Mark's Square which was nice... but not spectacularly fascinating. We decided it'd be an awesome idea to take a water taxi... unfortunately it was foggy, we couldn't see anything, and did i mention it was VERY COLD. We were freezing, and Ally seriously thought she had frost bite on her toes, because she couldn't move or feel them. It was quite uncomfortable.

Our last day in Venice was relaxed, we walked around some more, tried to get some better pictures, because the sun decided to show up, of course right as we were about to leave, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

That's the first part of our adventures and now we're off to Rome, Florence and then Pisa.

Besos,

Ngoc :)