A Brief Recap

Soooooo.  Its been a while since I've had internet, because we've either been too busy or too tired, or the hotel didn't have WiFi, which is really annoying actually.  And so, this blog has been neglected in the meantime.  So pictures will come at some other time because i don't really have much patience.  Since Venice (and briefly driving through Milan at night....the only thing we saw was this really cool palace, some designer shops and lots of gelato places), we have been to:

Florence
Siena
Pisa (we briefly passed through Volterra on the way there)
Italian Riviera
Cinque Terre (Montereggio)
Nice
Monaco (Monte-Carlo)
Antibes
beaches of Cagnes d Sur
Cannes
Avingnon (and we briefly drove through Aix en Provance, passing by the most famous block and Deux Garcons, where Cezanne and Zola hung out)
and now currently Barcelona (but we were too busy exploring Nice/the beautiful Côte d'Azur to plan ahead and apparently there is not a single room available for Saturday night in all of Barcelona.  fml)

Basically, anything on the Mediterranean has been incredible (on the Italian and French sides), and we got to see the coast from the train windows as we traveled too.  I don't think I've seen more vivid colors naturally anywhere...

Nice was our home base for exploration in France (one day we went east, one day west, the other realllyy far away, and the last Nice itself) and I adored it.  It was a really fun city (lots of love for neon), with lots of good food (amazing Indian), plus great (pebble) beaches right at one end of town.  I loved the fact that the city was so full of art, from the amazing museums (we hit three in one day) to the art decorating the public squares and tramways (including the Arc de 115.5 degrees, blacklights under bridges, glowing people, and a really mischievous fountain).  We hit the Matisse museum, the Marc Chagall, and the MAMAC (the Museum of Modern Art) which had the coolest balcony set up).  Nice had a great vibe (plus, beautiful blue sea) and I could definitely see myself living there, if it weren't for the whole language barrier thing.  My knowledge of french is limited to the essentials (merci, bonjour, sortie, 1-3, gare, pardon, interdit, danger) and completely inappropriate phrases from the "Moulin Rouge"!  It was a lot easier to understand Italian, obviously.  Next time, I'm bringing someone fluent with me so they can translate all the museum displays!  We got to see a lot of the area, such as the outside of the casino at Monte-Carlo and the celeb group hanging out there, the famous promenade in Cannes (my favorite part: a public telephone shaped like film), the bridge that inspired a nursery rhyme and the Popes' palace in Avignon, the old city in Antibes and a beach by the ramparts.  Probably the best part, besides the beaches, was the most spectacular hiking trails along the Grande Corniche, with views of the sea and the mountain ranges, plus some blackberries for me to eat along the way.

Up until Nice, we surprisingly haven't hit many museums, besides the two major ones in Florence.  That's because most of the places we visited had other sights to see (like, the entire city of Venice, the coast, or the most incredible cathedral I've ever seen in Siena).  The Uffizi wasn't as impressive as it probably should have been...I was left with a "that's it?" kind of feeling, but maybe I've just been spoiled on amazing museums (all the NYC ones, Prado/Reina Sofia, Louvre, Tate, Victoria & Albert).  Still, it was a great museum and I enjoyed getting to see works such as "Venus of Urbino, "the Birth of Venus," the ceiling frescoes, Caravaggio's Medusa, and Da Vinci's unfinished "Adoration of the Magi."  The wait for the Uffizi wasn't that bad, but the wait for the Accademia was ridiculous.  Some poor girl even fainted in line and people just jumped over her.  We were there for hours, because the line was deceptively short because they only let in a few people at a time for every 20 minutes.  Additionally, Florence museums are stingy towards students...most museums give student discounts, but in these two, only EU citizens can get discounts, even if you are studying in an EU school.  But seeing Michelangelo's masterpiece made it all worth it.  Holy shit, his "David" is really impressive.  You walk in and it commands your attention, from any angle.  It stood by itself in the room because nothing could really compare to it.  The pictures definitely don't do it any justice....just the presence of the work was incredible.  Plus, a few other works by Michelangelo were displayed in the same area of the museum and I am now firmly convinced that Michelangelo is probably the most talented artist ever.  All over Florence there is some incredible art (and sculptures...lots of naked marble men all over haha).  Unfortunately, the city itself is a bit gloomy as it used to be a fortress.  Got to see Sarah and together we saw a concert with a group of drag queens doing some sort of rock musical which was hilarious.

Other artistic highlights included the Siena cathedral which we hit next....which had the coolest mosaic stone floors, busts of every pope along the rafters, beautiful paintings everywhere and basically something to look at wherever your eyes landed.  From Siena, we ended up in the mountains, going quickly through Volterra along windy, scary roads in the dark with some very tense moments, until we stopped for the night in Pisa.  We had a very pleasant experience in Pisa, from finding a really nice hotel at the last minute for a really great price, to having the waiters wait after closing time for me when my dad accidentally left his bag with my passport under the table (and they even gave me a glass of water after I ran back).  Cinque Terre was the highlight, though.  More later.  We survived the crazy roundabout turns on the streets of Italy (instead of U-turns, because the signs are so damn confusing), the drivers who slow down to 80 km/hr on hairpin turns, and got to see the Alps, the sea, and a number of gorgeous sunsets (on the Arno river in Florence, on the winding roads of the Cinque Terre, and against the tiny cliffside villages of Toscany countryside).

Sooooo thats a small part of what has been going on so far.  I guess todays theme was art.  I'm really tired (we basically traveled all day long and walked through half of Barcelona to find the hotel) so if none of this makes any sense, that's my bad.  Hopefully I will put up pictures sometime soon because i've been taking a ton with my brand new beautiful camera.  haha.  Until next time!  xx

EDIT: we have a hotel room after the scare last night, so no homelessness will have to happen haha.  Actually we really lucked out and have a great place with a perfect location (right by the Boqueria, La Rambla, and the Gothic Quarter).  I love this city.