Venice, Italy

This past weekend Mark, Darren, Beth, and I made a trip to Venice, Italy! I loved it so much! It was beautiful! It was everything I thought it would be and maybe even a little nicer! We left at 7 am on Saturday and took a train straight to the islands. It was a very gorgeous train ride! We arrived then about 11:30am and checked right into our hotel which was only a couple minutes walk from the train station thankfully :) We dropped of our stuff and headed out to find lunch! We were a little worried because before we left we checked the weather and it was supposed to rain all weekend, but for the start of our trip the weather was amazingly sunny and warm!

During the afternoon we roamed the city, stopping as we thought necessary to look into churches and such. At one point we stopped in St. Mark's Square where there are pigeons everywhere...so many you can't even imagine. So we stopped and bought feed and so then they came and perched right on us and flew all around us. It was a little scary at first but then it was really cool!

After roaming for a few hours we decided to head back to the hotel to take an hour nap which turned into a 3 hour nap, but it was okay...I think we all needed the rest. We got up then and wandered the night streets of Venice which were stunning! Oh, so romantic :) We found dinner then walked a little more and went back to the hotel to hang out and play cards.

Sunday then we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. We then went to the church down the street for mass. It was a cute little parish and we ended up sitting two rows behind an adorable little girl which definitely made my day with all her entertainment :) Again, though it was supposed to rain, the sun was out! We walked around a little more before we had to catch our train at 2:30pm. Our train then got back to Rome at about 7:15pm so we booked it back here to Bernardi to get Sunday night dinner with the rest of the group!

Although we didn't really do much in Venice it was an awesome trip! It was nice again not to have an agenda to get to so many places! Besides the fact, there isn't really a whole lot to do in Venice other than take it in for what it is!

So that is what my time has been like lately! Other than that I am just sitting around Bernardi trying to accomplish some homework for final tests and papers! That has been quite the chore and I want to get it all done before my roommates Kristen and Amanda get here in a week and a half...of which I am super pumped for!

I will continue to keep posted on anything new around here!

Love you all and miss you all!
Amanda

Mallorca, Spain

So...probably my favorite trip so far, because it was the most relaxing, was my trip this past week to the Spanish island of Mallorca on the Meditteranean Sea. We left Thursday evening on a plane to Girona, Spain. This was only the beginning of our long journey to the island. When we arrived in Girona we needed to immediately take a bus to Barcelona where our flight would leave the following day to the island. When we arrived in the Barcelona City Center on the bus we still needed to make our way to the airport so we grabbed a taxi there. By this time it was about 11:30 or so and we had just planned on spending the night in the airport to save money because Annemarie and Gabbie had an early morning flight. Unfortunately I had to take a later flight than them :(

So they departed that morning at about 8am and my flight was scheduled to leave at 12M but didn't depart until about 1pm which was a bummer. We all made it there safe though and when I arrived they were waiting for me at arrivals and we needed to hop on a bus right away to get to the Palma City Center which would then link us to a bus to get to Port d' Alcudia, which is a little town in the northern part of Mallorca. It was only about an hour and a half bus ride which wasn't too bad. When we finally arrived Friday late afternoon, we checked into our hotel, which was basically like a resort, but at only 15 euro per person a night it was definitely not resort prices! It was absolutely beautiful and very family friendly which made it more comfortable. The rest of the night was spent getting settled and walking the beach (which just so happened to be straight across the street from our hotel).

We passed by a really fun looking Tex-Mex Restaurant so we decided to try that out for our dinner. The food was amazing!!! We had sangrias, fajitas, chimichangas and they even had "Minnesota Nachos" which were simply chips and melted cheese and tomato sauce and chicken. It was so yummy!!!

The next day (Saturday) we spent outside a little bit. It was a little windy which made it chilly though so I don't think we got more than an hour of sun. We roamed the city some more and hung out. For dinner then we ended up going back to the Tex-Mex Restaurant but this time we got burgers and steak fries which were delicious as well! We also found a cute little church for mass that evening after dinner. The rest of the night we just walked the beach some more and hung out again.

Sunday we woke up hoping for a nice clear day! Unfortunately, all day it sprinkled off and on with no sunshine. So we ended up staying and playing cards and watching the olympics on the TV (the only english channel). The hotel was so nice (more like an apartment setting), that it had a stove so we decided to make dinner that night. We went to the market right across the street from the hotel and got some chicken and rice and veggies and made sort of a stir-fry. It was so good and nice to have something different and homemade for a change since the only cooking we can do here is in a microwave. We played more cards then and sat around and chatted (which is not difficult for girls to do :-p ) for the rest of the night!

Monday we woke up to the bright sun shining that we had been so patiently waiting for for a few days. We got all packed up and got checked out and then left our luggage at the hotel so we didn't have to lug it to the beach or pool. Need I say more...the sun was shining all day....where do you think we were? :) We spent our last day between the beach and the pool until we had to get on our bus at 6pm to get back to the other side of the island. The problem was that Tuesday was a National Holiday so we had to get there a day early because buses would not be going out for us to catch our flight. So again we ended up bunking it at the airport, only this time in Mallorca. We had a 7 am flight back to Barcelona so we stayed there until then and got our flight then on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, after arriving in Barcelona, we needed to find a way back to the Girona airport which would take us back to Rome on Wednesday. We had a little confusion and difficulty find the correct means of transportation to the airport but with patience it all worked out! We finally arrived to Girona at about 11am where we had a hotel room waiting right across from the airport. We were all so exhausted and it rained all day so we pretty much spent the day in the hotel sleeping and playing cards and reading a little bit.

We woke up Wednesday morning at about 5am to get ready and pack up for the airport for our flight that was leaving at 8:50am. It felt good to be step by step closer and closer to getting back here to Bernardi. The flight went well and we got back easily once we got into Rome. We got back to Bernardi at about 12M and it felt so good to see familiar faces again. It's like coming back home here. While in Europe Bernardi is my home and you get that feeling like when you are really at home where you just want to get away for a while but you always feel best when you are back at home where you started.

The trip overall was amazing! It was beautiful and relaxing and highly recommend it to anyone!

So that's all I have for now. I hope this continues to give you a taste of what I am experiencing here. This weekend I will be traveling to Venice and I am very excited for that trip as well! I will give you updates again (especially on that trip) as soon as I can!

Lots of love!
Amanda

ASSISI

Very briefly I will tell you about my trip to Assisi and Gubbio, Italy. On Sunday of last week Fr. Carola took us on this free trip! Most of the day was spent on the bus, but we were able to experience some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in Italy since arriving here in February. We had mass at a cute little church and then a picnic lunch. The rest of the day was spent riding the bus taking in scenery and another couple stops at churches. It was a long but beautiful day! And we were all very grateful it was free ;)





Stay tuned for more travels :)

Vienna, Austria

After everything that went on Easter weekend, I started to slowly feel a little better so I decided to book a flight to Vienna, Austria to meet up with the rest of the group (consisting of Gabbie, Maggie, and Emily). I woke up Thursday not feeling the greatest so I was a little unsure if I should even be going, but I was determined not to be out another two flights and hotel rooms.

I arrived at the hotel at about 4pm and decided to take a nap while I was waiting for the rest of the girls to arrive from Salzburg. That night was pretty much low key though. All we really did was go out to dinner after they arrived and came back and went to bed early because we knew Friday would be a long day!

We saw quite a bit of Vienna on Friday! We were hardcore tourists which was a little rough because I was not feeling very well, but I made the best out of it as much as I could.

Our first stop of the day was to Starbucks! Not that Starbucks has the greatest coffee, but it was actually coffee you can get "to go"! Not gonna lie though my Cinnamon Dolce Latte and Apple Cinnamon Muffin were quite amazing!

Next we headed to Saint Stephens Church which was beautiful! Annemarie and Beth had a hotel room two doors down from us so through notes back and forth under our doors they told us that Justin and Darren were also there in Vienna and they wanted to all meet for lunch. So they attempted but our group seemed to have looked for them at the wrong metro stop so they were never able to meet up for lunch.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the city and visiting a palace which was absolutely gorgeous! It makes me want to be a princess...I could easily live in a place like that! ;-)

On our way home after dinner, we were bummed thinking that we may never even get to hang out with Beth and Annemarie, only two doors down in the hotel. We stopped in the metro to buy our day tickets again and all of a sudden they come running up to us with Justin and Darren. We were all so shocked and happy to see them! Especially Justin and Darren because they had been gone for almost three weeks already doing their own tour throughout Europe, seeing 15 countries! They were heading back to the hotel to hang out so we all went back and played cards and had some wine for a few hours!

Saturday I was able to sleep in and decided to spend the day with Annemarie and Beth because they were going to have a more laid back relaxing travelling day. We pretty much just roamed the town and enjoyed each others company taking in the city. We were stopped in a chocolate shop when all of a sudden Mark yelled our names and him and Kory were roaming the city as well! That was another exciting event! So we hung out with them for a bit.

After a bit we then ran into Katie and Natalie too! We split up and walked around and then met later for these amazingly delicious desserts you see in the picture! YUMMY!

When we finished with dessert Beth and Annemarie and I decided to go to mass at a cute little church. It was all in German which made it a little difficult to understand but it was still nice!

The day was pretty much over then because we needed to meet back up with the rest of my group to get to the airport to head back to Rome. Even though there were a few bumps in the trip with my not feeling well, it still turned out alright.

Well, that's that and nothing much has happened since! Relaxed on Sunday and went back to classes yesterday (Monday). We are in the final stretch and I will probably be home in about 7 weeks from tomorrow (Wednesday).

It has been a blast here and the community and awesome friendships that continue to to form are one of my favorite aspects! In the weeks to come I plan on for sure getting to Spain, Venice, Capri, Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, Assisi, and Sperlonga. Who knows what else will be thrown in there as well :)

I will keep you all posted on all that continues to go on here as the weeks unfold in Europe!

Love you all!

Amanda

Easter

THE ONLY PICTURE I HAVE FROM EASTER VIGIL!

Saturday was kind of an eventful day!

Saturday we slept in a little, but then by like 10 or 1030, Catherine, Isaac's sister, and I headed out to go shopping for a few hours. On our way out we ran into a couple of the guys who were able to get us tickets to the Easter Vigil. This was the Mass they told us no way would we be able to get tickets to, but yet again, we got them!!! We were all excited! We got back from shopping and got ready to head to the Vatican at 4pm. The Mass didn't start til 10pm and the doors opened at 8:15p but we wanted to get a good spot in line, so we had to wait 4 and a half hours to get in.

In the meantime, I had started the day with a headache. As the day went on, my headache progressed to a migraine. By the time we got into St. Peter's the pain was so intense I was shaking! I can't explain what it was like, all I know was it was intense and I don't remember much of what happened after that because of that.

From the little I rememeber and what my friends here told me, I told Emily that I was in so much pain that I felt like I could go to the hospital. She then got out her blackberry to try and email Thanos and to try and find a cell phone to call him to have him come pick me up. In the meantime, they took me to the first aid in St. Peter's and they took my pulse and blood pressure. My pulse was normal but my blood pressure was really high. They were concerned so they wheeled me out and had an ambulance take me to the hospital.

Not going to lie, I didn't like the Italian hospital at all. I was hardly coherent to know what was going on around me. They also wouldn't let Gabbie come in with me and they barely spoke English. So all they did there was make me wait 2 hours and 45 minutes of the three hours I was there out in the waiting chairs. For the 15 minutes I was in the room, they took my blood pressure again and pulse and then gave me a shot of I don't even know what just to take the edge off. I was finally able to go home after midnight with not much help.

I was supposed to leave for Prague Sunday morning but unfortunately I had to cancel that and my trip to Salzburg! It wasn't worth me dying over though and I wasn't in any condition to travel thats for sure! So almost everyone was gone by Sunday afternoon. Luckily there were a few guys around that were able to help me out that didn't leave until Monday afternoon. It was a rough few days but now (Wednesday) finally I am feeling mostly well!

It was a relaxing couple days sitting up on the terrace in the sun by myself as I got better!

So tomorrow I will leave in the afternoon for Vienna, Austria for a few days! I am excited to get out of Rome again for a couple days!

I will update hopefully on Sunday when I get back!

You all continue to be in my prayers here and I hope you all had a very Blessed Easter with friends and family!

More to come soon!

Arrivederci!

ps...sorry I don't have any pictures from the Vigil but since I wasn't there I couldn't take any ... I am getting some from those who were there though so whe I do I will place them in the blog!

Holy Week in the Eternal City!

Hello all! I apologize, yet again for the delay in writing! Holy week was very nice here, very relaxing as many had begun travelling. Most of the week was spent sleeping in and hanging out at Bernardi. There were a few families here for the week which was very fun!

One day, Wednesday I believe, Gabbie and I took Bill's eight year old sister, Bobbie to the zoo! It was so much fun to spend time with a kid again. That is one thing I really miss being over here, no interaction with children. The zoo was great though! I saw animals I never even knew existed and even though it rained most the time we were out it was still a lot of fun. We then came back and watched a movie with her and went to dinner. It was definitely a fun day and exhausting day for her.

Thursday we got up early and went to the Chrism Mass at the Vatican by the Pope. It was good to see because we weren't able to secure tickets for the Last Supper Mass. Because if that we went to Saint Maria Maggiore church for mass that night which was beautiful even though it wasn't in English.

Good Friday we ended up, surprisingly, getting tickets for the service at the Vatican. We even were able to dye easter eggs which was a ton of fun!!!

We had stations here in our chapel in the afternoon and then got ready and headed to the Vatican a few hours early to get in line for the Good Friday service. It, as always, was very good! I wasn't feeling well so I came back afterwards and some went to dinner and some to the Stations at the Colleseum, of which we heard afterwards was a complete crazy riot because the Pope did them and you weren't required to have tickets.

Overall, the week was nice and relaxing!

Palm Sunday

So today was pretty amazing and the day is only half over. We woke up this morning at 6 am to get to St. Peter's by 7:30 for the 9:30 Palm Sunday Mass. Time went pretty quickly though and we actually thought we had a little poorer seats even though we got there so early. They turned out to be the best seats though! We happened to end up near the middle back aisle. Then we realized that the Pope would be walking right along that aisle. So we turned around and went two rows back and waited...as patiently as we could I guess. The procession began and before you knew it there he was right smack in front of me and I touched him!!!! I was so shocked...never actually thinking I would ever touch the Pope! About a minute later it hit me that it actually happened and I began to cry! He is so beautiful and happy and it hit me! So that picture above has no zoom!!! I was that close!!! It was definitely an awesome way to begin Holy Week!

The rest of today will just be spent relaxing...probably up on the terrace in the gorgeous weather we have been having here the last few days!



I hope you all are doing well and I will keep in touch with things as they occur!



Ciao!