explosion of the cart & venice

Explosion of the Cart

Florentine Parade

Easter Monday in Venice

 Murano Glass shops on every corner

Saturday night no earlier than 11 pm, we were lulled to sleep by a parade marching outside our window. The next morning at 8:30 am sharp, they were back at it again. Easter had officially arrived! Sophie and I got dressed and headed out at just the right time to see Florence’s Easter tradition “explosion of the cart”. Two ox with Florentine cloth draped over their backs dragged a cart from Piazza della Republica (near where we live) to the front of The Duomo. We were shoving through the crowd to get good viewing spots, but the only thing I can compare this crowd to is Times Square on New Years Eve. Not as big of course, but it was tightly packed and people were waiting around to see something spectacular. Sophie and I lucked out and got spots towards the front. I could lift my camera, snap a photo, and see what was going on that way. People were packed all the way out of the piazza, so I was really happy we got the spot we did!

We stood for an hour until Mass was over. At that time, the cart spit a robot dove out, which was supposed to reach the alter to signify a good year ahead. I didn’t get to see any of this, but Marissa and her family were in the service and told me that the robot dove didn’t make it to the alter. People were freaking out, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from Italians. They are so superstitious —apparently their faces were filled with complete panic and they started screaming that this was going to be a terrible year.

Anyways…

At 11 am, the explosion of the cart began! It didn’t literally explode, but it was shooting off the more fireworks than I could have ever imagined. This show was more impressive than any 4^th of July fireworks I’ve ever seen! I have a short video to show family and friends when I get back home.

That night, Sophie made dinner for us and 3 of her friends coming over. It was a nice Easter dinner with new friends in Florence.

~

The next morning for Easter Monday holiday, I got up and went to the train station at 8:30 am. Marissa’s family picked me up and we began our 3-hour drive to Venice! We got a little lost on the way up, but we made it, and that’s all that matters. I was battling a sore throat, stuffy/runny nose, etc, but that didn’t take away from the beauty of this little city. Venice has so much character in the old buildings and I have to say it’s one of the most unique cities I’ve ever visited. I love the skinny, winding streets filled with water, the gondolas, and the major canals. I was in awe that everything could run by boat, including police and taxis. I couldn’t stop taking pictures—everything looked like it came straight off a postcard. Of everywhere I've visited, Italy is most true to photos, I'd have to say.

Next to Venice lies the island of Murano, where they make the famous hand-blown Murano glass. Since Venice is the hub of all the islands, they sell Murano glass in just about every shop. I fell in love with a lampshade, but unfortunately it was out of my price range! Someday sooner than later I will be back to visit beautiful Venice. And maybe I will get the lampshade.

I wish I could have stayed longer in Venice, but it was a great day with Marissa and her family topped off with a 9-11 pm dinner at my favorite Florentine restaurant “Il Gatto e la Volpe”.

My 4-day Easter weekend couldn’t have been better!

XO, SL 

lisbon

 Ruins under Lisbon in H&M.

My heaven

Umm...Hermione? Is that you? 

 Cable car city!

 

For your appetizer, canned fish. Main, canned fish. And for dessert? Canned fish.

 A fado bar (Fado is a type of Portuguese music "usually with a malancholy theme and accompanied by mandolins or guitars," in case you needed Google's definition)

 Death served in a fancy glass.

Street art 

My roommate and sweet friend!

The days I spent in Lisbon flew by the fastest. When we were leaving with our suitcases on Friday March 22 to head to the airport, I could feel the sun shining warmly on my face and was longing to take one of the ferries to a nearby island. But alas, all good things come to an end and I found myself writing this at 4 am in a cold, smelly, Milan train station. My Portuguese adventure:

Thursday March 21

Marissa and I woke up and went shopping. We got lunch at a little Portuguese cafe that had a special for a sandwich, soup, and freshly-squeezed juice for 4 euro. I have NEVER tasted OJ like that in my life...it tasted like I was drinking straight from an orange. We went back to the hostel afterwards, which i thoroughly enjoyed hanging out at. Our hostels over spring break went from terrible, to good, to mistakable-for-a-five-star-hotel-good. This one was sparkling clean, had good music playing 24/7, lots of light and windows...more on hostels later, though. At 2 pm, Marissa and I went on a free walking tour that the hostel offered, which I found really enjoyable in both Madrid and Lisbon. It's a great way to meet new people, see a city for more than what meets the eye, etc. This tour, called “Mysteries of Lisbon”, was led by Australian Henry, who told us strange things about spots all around. In 1755, an earthquake hit Lisbon and was estimated to be a 10 on the richter scale. Soon after, a tsunami (or otherwise flood) hit the city and left everything in total ruins. People debated moving the capital, but they chose to just rebuild everything. Because of that, Lisbon is basically built on top of another town. When you go into the H&M store, there is a section with glass-bottom where you can see the ruins.

Next, we tried ginjinha liqueur. The first one we had at the hostel was “the worst kind ever made”, and Henry told us we had to taste the bad to enjoy the good (debatable). So this next one we had on the tour was at a little hole-in-the-wall bar, and it was good! The ginger berry is actually not a great-tasting berry itself, but Portugal is famous for taking not-tasty things and making them good. They do this with the ginger berries, and also codfish. It used to be thought down upon to eat cod, but now it's one of Portugal's most consumed foods.

We went around the town and saw some Fado bars, a place that used to be an orphanage with blue and white tile covering it, a palace where people from a different part of portugal come and meet, and more. Of course there was more ginjinha to be had, along with mini beers which seemed to be the drink of choice there (Marissa and I never gave those a try). One of the “Mysteries of Lisbon”, I decided, was how our tour guide could sling back so much alcohol and still be standing. To be Portuguese, or just to live there, you have to be able to drink all day and all night long...a lifestyle I could never personally enjoy.

We climbed a hill and admired the street art, and then got a great lookout view of the ocean. There was a guy playing his guitar and singing, which I've found to be extremely common in Europe. Next we visited a canned fish shop. Like I said earlier, fish used to be thought of as nothing special or important, but they found a way to make it appealing. This store had walls chockfull of canned fish with different spices and flavors. The one I got was delicious and only costed one euro: a perfect lunch the next day!

Our last stop on the tour was in a cafe where a famous Portuguese writer used to frequent. He was a drunk, and off of none other than infamous Absinthe. This cafe has some kind of loophole that makes it one of the only legal places in Portugal to sell Absinthe, so needless to say, we all took a shot of it. This drink is NOT for babies like me: the bartenders grunted and clapped as each of us were taking them. My mouth went numb, my eyes watered and my throat got scratchy. Not my cup of tea. We headed back home and ate dinner at the hostel—cilantro/lettuce salad, creamy potato soup and the casserole entree of cod fish, spinach and a crumbly corn bread topping. Yum.

Friday March 22

The next morning I got myself up before 10:30 again because that's what time breakfast is served until. Cheese, bread with homemade apricot jam, crepes with jam, coffee, and cornflakes with chocolate power. For our last day in Lisbon, Marissa and I sat next to the coast and took in the scenery. My right foot was KILLING me by this point—bringing nothing but Steve Madden combat boots on a backpacking trip was a serious mistake. If I could go back and tell myself something in advance, it would have been to suck it up and just wear tennis shoes. Our flight to Milan that evening went without a hitch—it was once we got there that the trouble began. When the bus dropped us off at the train station from the airport, it was midnight, and the next bus wouldn't come until 6 am. A hotel receptionist had enough of a heart to let us stay/sleep in the 4-star hotel's lobby lounge until 5 am, and we arrived in Florence later that morning.

Random:

-As seen in a picture above, college students in Portugal look like they're dressed based off a Harry Potter book. Interestingly enough, Harry Potter is actually slightly based off Portugal--J.K Rowling lived there for a while. Aside from the uniforms, another uncanny similarity from the books to Portugal is that they used to have a leader that nobody would ever mention. The Portuguese literally feared dropping his name in conversation. Now you tell ME who that sounds like!

-I'm so thankful for the wonderful weather I got in Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. I wouldn't have minded it being 10 degrees warmer, but there was hardly any rain the entire week. And in Europe, that's hard to come by.

XO

madrid

 Things people do for money on this continent...

 Geographical center of Madrid 

 The oldest restaurant in the world

 Where the nuns hand you your cookies

I can’t believe two weeks ago today I was in Madrid. Time seriously flies. I’m glad I wrote all of this in a journal or else who knows what I’d accurately remember. Adventures are as follows…

March 18

We took an early morning train to Madrid from Barcelona. The scenery was beautiful: I saw coastlines, mountains and rivers. This was the nicest train I’ve been on in my life with features such being high-speed, smooth, having comfortable chairs, complimentary headphones…the whole shebang. The moment we arrived in Madrid, I immediately used my Spanish to ask how to get to the Metro. Once we figured it out and got off at the Sol stop, we quickly found our hostel and were pleasantly surprised by now nice it was. Marissa and I immediately dropped our bags and headed out for exploration, starting at Gran Via, Madrid’s big, touristy street. As we were walking between the tall, building-lined street, all we could think about was food.

Marissa and I took a chance and went to a random, small outdoor café. I got Sangria and our waiter brought us complimentary meat on bread slices and green olives. An update on my taste bud maturity: I officially like green olives! I’ve been waiting years for this. Next came the meal: French fries topped with one-two broken eggs (sunny side up), and topped with Iberian ham. It was so, so good. For dessert we chose fresh Mango sorbet with actual mango chunks in it. This meal was probably one of the best I’ve had in Europe and I don’t know if it’s because I was in beautiful Madrid, because I was basking in the warm sun, because I was starving or because it was actually very delicious. Probably some cross in between. After our nearly two-hour lunch, we did a little grocery shopping for small things like eggs, salmon and salad to make in the hostel. A hot shower and bed completed the day perfectly.

March 19

This day we woke up slowly. The beds were pretty uncomfortable in this hostel and I was freezing the night before, but you can’t get much better than what we had for 8 Euro a night. Around 2 pm, Marissa and I went to find Plaza Mayor for a free walking tour of Madrid. We managed to get there without a problem and then the tour was broken into subgroups of Spanish and English. We went with English obviously and were the only Americans in our group. Europe has shows and events like “American Idol” but not American, and when I would ask what these things were specifically, the whole group would look at me funny. They understood my confusion once they realized I was American and were very friendly in explaining things. I never realized how isolated the United States is from basically everything else in the world until I moved here. The next thing he showed us was meat and candy shops throughout the city that had been in existence for over 100 years. Any shop with a plaque at the foot of the door means that it has been existence for more than that amount of time, which I found impressive and interesting! One of these candy shops was a Royal Bakery—the only Royal business still around. We got to see the oldest restaurant in the entire world where Spanish artist Goya used to do dishes and Hemmingway would “get smashed” as our tour guide explained. After, we saw a monastery where nuns bake you cookies! It’s kind of like the secret bakery in Florence in the sense that it’s totally underground, but those treats are the best kind. We tried to get cookies from the monastery, but it happened to be closed that day and couldn’t. I got a picture and know where it’s at for next time! We saw the geographical center of the city, Palace Real and the statue that Galileo helped engineer to make hollow and stand. It was a great tour, and even in the cold, pouring rain that we experienced most of the day, I was so happy to be there. Madrid is beautiful.

After the tour, Marissa and I went to La Mayor Cerveceria, a bar pointed out on the tour. It had over 80 kinds of craft beer, but we just got some tapas. I got three: a slice of bread with a cream cheese spread and thick pepperoni slices stuck in it; a slice of bread with a tuna salad topped on it; and a pickle sliced down the middle, stuffed with an anchovy and sweet pepper. The man who owned the place didn’t speak a lick of English, which was ditto with most of Madrid. Florence and Barcelona are very touristy, and thus, have a lot of English-speakers working the shops and restaurants. Madrid had almost none of that which forced me to practice my Spanish.

Post tapas round one, we headed home and got ready for more tapas with the hostel group! Friends I made that night include a couple from Mexico that spoke only Spanish, Nicole from Australia, Cyrus from Harlem, NY, and Bill from Boston (but born in Atlanta). We all enjoyed getting to know each other and hearing each other’s stories—most everyone was traveling alone. They were looking for adventure, new people, a break from school, whatever. We had bread, mushroom and garlic tapas, calamari, and potatoes smothered in hot sauce. Between the lot of us it was 7 euro each…not too bad! To finish the night and welcome the next morning, we went to a discoteca for dancing and got churros.

March 20

I woke up surviving off 4 hours of sleep because I figured I could sleep on the plane later that day. Nicole, Marissa and I went to a bakery and then to the big park in Madrid. It’s so fun hanging out with an Austrailian! It’s interesting to hear the differences just in speech itself. They call Mcdonald’s “Mackers”. I cut her off mid-sentence to ask what that was, and she started cracking up because “it sounded weird with my accent”. It’s funny how I think she has an accent, but she thinks I have one. The park was beautiful, but we couldn’t stay as long as I would have liked because the trains were supposedly on strike, which means it could have taken any amount of time to actually get back to the airport. We left at 2 pm for a 6 pm flight. Adios Espana!