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 :)