In Conclusion...

Well, I think it might be about time I wrapped this baby up (in my usual long, rambling fashion of course). I have only actually been home for one full day, and I thought I might give myself a few more days to settle in, think, and reflect on my time before I wrote my final post. But due to a beautiful thing called jet lag, I woke up at 4am this morning. I dinked around on my computer, I read a bit, I heard my mom get up because she couldn't sleep, I heard my dad get up for work, I tried to sleep but I kept thinking... mostly about Toledo. So I relocated to the living room, where I can sit in the glow of our pretty christmas tree and reminisce.

My last few days in Italy were great: Wandering around Naples (and not getting pick-pocketed, mugged or killed), seeing the ruins of Pompeii (so cool), and eating the best pizza ever.

Then came the long journey home. Naples to Rome to Madrid in one day. I "slept" in the airport. At 7 am I flew to Munich. Then I got on a 9 hr 44 min flight to Chicago, and it was the best flight of my life. If I have gained one thing this semester, I have become a better flier... and that is saying a lot. (I was a mess on the flight to Spain... and all of my life before now.) Then my fam picked me up at the airport and we drove home!

I am so glad to be home. 

There, I said it. Three weeks ago, if I had come home straight from Toledo, I would have had to be dragged out of Spain, kicking and screaming. But being on the move for three weeks straight (even in Italy) is exhausting. I hated putting on the same dirty clothes every day, I hated lugging around my life in a little heavy backpack. Once my mom and the world of nice hotels left me, I hated worrying about where I was going to stay and how I was going to get from place to place. Don't get me wrong, Italy was wonderful, and I loved every minute of my time abroad, but it's so nice to come back to my old, comfortable world. And my bed.

Also there was pie waiting for me when I got home, so....

The Good
Toledo was absolutely the time of my life. Now if I'm ever asked what the most memorable/amazing/life-changing experience in my life was, I actually have a ready-to-go, honest answer. This was the first time I've been out of the USA. I traveled to so many amazing cities, places I've only ever read about. I made life-long friends. I fell in love with a beautiful little Spanish city. I got a crash course in classical art in about one week in Italy. I saw ancient cities, extravagant palaces and awe-inspiring cathedrals. I learned a lot about myself, and I think I have grown as a person... whatever that means. (If nothing else, the plane thing)

Don't worry, I didn't change that much. Example: I still hate coffee.

The Kinda-Bad
While this semester was remarkable overall...there were a few downs amid all of those ups. Well, one really big down. I didn't want to write about it before, because I think I didn't want to mar my perfect blog with the bad stuff. But the bad stuff happened too. And I'm including it now because in the end, it was part of my experience.

In Toledo I lived with a host family. This was supposed to be my gateway into Spanish culture, my chance to really get involved, make connections, etc. But about 3 weeks before the end of the semester I moved out of my house and into the dorms. It's a long, complicated story, but essentially my host mom and I were two very different people, we had some communication issues, things grew very awkward, and I felt I was not respected, but I tried to stick it out. I didn't want to give up. But one day I realized I had to snap out of it and do what was best for me. I was unhappy. I was uncomfortable in what was supposed to be my home. I wouldn't have my last weeks in Toledo ruined just because I had to "make it work." So I packed up, moved into the fundación, and moved on.

Part of me felt like a failure, but mostly I knew that was the best thing for me to do. That was the worst week of my semester, and perhaps one of the worst weeks of my life. But I pulled through (with the help of good friends, a few packages in the mail, lots of chocolate, and Barcelona), and I think I came out stronger.

Wrap it up
Despite that bad thing happening, I didn't let it ruin my experience. I still have so many good memories, and I wouldn't change a thing! I'm sad it's over, but I'm thankful for everything I did and all that I got out of it. And I'm so glad that I made many good friends who I will still get to see back in Minnesota!!!

I had a great time blogging too. I have always wanted to write a blog, but I never had anything important to say. Studying abroad was a great excuse! I kept it partly for me, to thoroughly document EVERYTHING, and also to inform and maybe entertain all of my five readers. It was kind of therapeutic, to keep track of everything and write down my little "story," whether or not it was a good story. It makes me want to keep blogging! Maybe I'll start a separate "real life" blogger blog, or a tumblr... or I'll just go back to tweeting short little Hannah-thoughts.

If you read all of my blog, congratulations , I am very impressed. I went on and on a lot (kind of like right now... I'll be impressed if you've read this entire post, much less all 22 posts), but I tried to include as many pictures as possible. If you only read some of it, or just looked at the pictures, I hope you enjoyed that too!

Thanks for reading!


Signing off,

Hannah Conley - World Traveler and Blogger Extraordinaire

Path of the Gods (and frightening, fantastic fireworks)

Yesterday was truly a New Year’s Eve to remember. An amazing hike followed by the best fireworks I’ve ever seen.

Let me catch you up to speed:

Last week my mom and I finished up our Venice stay with more food and a free choir/orchestra concert in the beautiful church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Next we went to Milan, to catch our flights to Madrid (and then home for my Mom), and to Rome (for me). We briefly stopped downtown and saw the Duomo and La Scala (awesome opera house), and that was about it. We couldn’t find anywhere to eat, I started feeling really sick, we got to our hotel, and then I started getting homesick… just bad all around. But the next day I made it to Rome, met up with my friend Paige, and we took a few trains to the beautiful seaside town of Sorrento. We spent a day exploring Sorrento, and the next day rain canceled our hiking plans, which brings you up to the last blog post.

Path of the Gods

Yesterday morning (New Year's Eve) we took a bus from Sorrento to the small town of Praiano on the Amalfi coast. There we followed signs and helpful Italians to the beginning of the Sentiero degli Dei, or “Path of the Gods,” a hiking trail on Mount Sant'Angelo a Tre Pizzo. First task, walking straight up a bajillion steps. Killer. Then we reached the actual “Path of the Gods,” about 500m above sea level, a more rugged, but (relatively) level path, from this point above Praiano over to the town of Nocelle. We walked for about an hour or two on this path, and the entire time we had the most amazing views of the sea, the coast, and our destination, Positano. We even ran into a real live goatherd and his goats using the same path. And it was unbelievably warm for December!

Here's a little taste from the top (sorry for all the wind noise):

We left Praiano as women… but we arrived in Nocelle as goddesses. Unfortunately, Nocelle is still very high up the mountain. As a goddess I had expected something like a chariot pulled by flying horses to appear and carry me down to Positano. However, there were 1700 steps I had to walk down instead. My sore goddess legs were very angry at me, and I could barely hobble down those steps. But we made it to the road, walked the last leg to Positano, and reveled in our feat by chilling at the beach.

"Fireworks" 

A few hours later, we took the train to Naples for some of those famous New Year’s Eve fireworks. We got to our hostel and were told that it was too dangerous to go outside (crazy Italians and lots of fireworks)… hmm. We met some other people who were also afraid to go outside, but we decided we had to see these fireworks, so we braved the city! After dodging some street fireworks, we made it to a castle atop a hill overlooking the city. When we got there, quite a few fireworks were going on all over the city already. But at midnight, the city literally exploded.

I don’t think I can accurately convey how awesome (literally “inspiring awe”) this sight was, and of course this was the one time I forgot my camera. There wasn’t just one big fireworks display like we’re used to in the US. Instead, as far as the eye could see… the entire city was lit up with fireworks. You probably have a visual in your head, and that visual is probably not sufficient. There were fireworks everywhere. People shot fireworks off their roofs, in plazas, out of their windows, in the streets. Kids, grown-ups, old men… everyone. It was terrifying and amazing all at the same time. After 15 minutes a haze had set in across the city. After 30 minutes it was still going on with the same gusto. My eyes couldn’t keep up with the constant flicker of lights. I thought I might go deaf in my right ear from the cannon-like fireworks being set off right next to us. And then an old lady offered us some of his champagne! We must have looked pathetic sans-champagne on New Year’s Eve! It was great!

What a way to send out the old year and ring in the new… 

Rainy day ruin your plans? TREAT YO SELF!

What happened to Sunny Sorrento? I am on day 16, I believe, of my post-Toledo travels (now with my good friend Paige), and I have had exactly 2 not-beautiful days. Compared to the frigid winters of Wisconsin or Minnesota, this Italian "winter" is something I can get behind. Every day has been in the 40s or 50s (with some chilly 30-degree nights), and every day has been sunny and gorgeous.

Exception #1: Christmas Eve. It rained a little, but we didn't mind because every street in Bologna has a portico! Then it snowed a little, so that was neat!

Exception #2: Today. Okay, 2 rainy days out of 16. So what? That's not so bad... False. This morning we woke up early, got dressed, and packed our backpack, ready and excited for a day of hiking the (supposedly amazing) "Path of the Gods" on the Amalfi coast. We walked down the hall to brush our teeth and looked out the window... completely overcast. With all of our extensive research and planning yesterday, we forgot to check the weather. We found out it is supposed to rain all morning, so our hiking plans were canceled.

This kind of screws up all of our other plans for the next couple of days, but we decided not to worry about that at 7:30 in the morning... so we went back to bed and then had a lazy morning "treating ourselves" by chilling in our swanky hostel watching Paige's new favorite show Parks and Recreation (you're welcome, Paige). After all, after two exhausting weeks of intense museums and sight-seeing, I'm ready for a break! I'm considering this my vacation time.

In the words of Tom Haverford, "Treat Yo Self!":

P.S. I don't know if I've gotten this point across yet...Sorrento is beautiful. And they love lemons here.

Buon Natale!

Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! 

From Rome to Florence to Bologna...and now finally we have settled in Venice to relax for a few days for Christmas! In a way it almost doesn't feel like Christmas for me because I'm still in study abroad/travel mode. It's like I'm just on one big extended weekend trip (visiting ten cities in three weeks instead of one city in three days) and I keep hearing this phrase "Buon Natale" or "Merry Christmas" thrown around here and there! It is weird not being at home at this time of year, but it helps that my mom is traveling with me, and honestly I'm having such a great experience I can't really complain!

Florence was amazing. We got in later than expected on Thursday (because we spent the whole morning in Rome having chatting with our hosts Luca and Nicole before we finally decided we should get ourselves on a train!), but once we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we turned right around and went back downtown to explore Florence, and then go to the Galleria dell'Accademia.

NOT the real deal... just a copy in the original location

What's so special about this art Gallery... oh not much, except for this one statue called David, by some artist named Michelangelo. Maybe you've heard of him. Of course, I had heard of Michelangelo, and I had heard of his David... everyone in the universe has. But, let me tell you, I was not prepared for how impressive this statue was... I'm no art expert (although after this week I feel like I'm well on my way), but after walking through halls and halls of amazing statues, with just one glance David blew all of them away. I probably sat and soaked it in for at least 10 minutes. And one of the great benefits of our off-season traveling is that there are no tourists! I can only imagine David is teeming with admirers in the summer, but in the middle of December, at the end of the day, we practically had him to ourself! It was amazing!

 Then just after moving down the hall, I ran into my friend Paige! We are working our way separately across Italy in different directions, and we have plans to meet up in the Amalfi coast later this week, but at the time neither of us had a clue we would be in Florence together!

For our next day in Florence, we checked out the Uffizi Gallery, home to the greatest collection of Renaissance art, including one of my favorites, Botticelli's Birth of Venus (I don't think Joan Lynch knows how much her interior decorating has influenced my art education!). Then we popped around the corner to the Galileo science museum! Not a lot about Galileo himself, but they had a killer collection of old science-y gadgets and gizmos, with one room dedicated to Galileo. The Duomo, or Cathedral, was also very impressive, with its huge dome that was the biggest to be built since the Pantheon.

Galileo's telescopes!!!!

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we departed Florence for Venice, but not without a visit to Bologna. My aunt Robin studied abroad in Bologna (and she definitely sparked my love for all things Italian) so we had to visit the city that she fell in love with! Unfortunately, this was the one day that the weather decided to be icky, so we had to tour the city in the rain. But if there was one city you'd want to be stuck in while it's raining, it's Bologna with all of its porticos (basically cool "porches" of roofs over all the sidewalks)!! It was a beautiful city nonetheless, without tourist-y crowds, and we were able to find the street my aunt lived on, stroll through the streets, and find ourselves a nice restaurant in which to dine! Bologna is known for fab food (it's also known as "La Grassa" - the fat one), and for lunch I had some typical tagliatelle alla bolognese, aka the most amazing pasta dish I've eaten in my entire life. And that's saying a lot.

Tagliatelle alla bolognese = heaven

Last night we got into Venice just as the sun was going down, found our hotel and took a quick nap before heading out on the town. We wound our way through the narrow, poorly-lit streets, and over numerous canals until we ended up at St. Mark's Square, with just enough time to grab a quick drink and get in line for the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mark's Basilica. It was definitely an experience... hundreds of people crowding in, a beautiful choir, and the gorgeous gold-mosaic ceiling lit up (honestly, the impressive Basilica itself was my favorite part, I couldn't stop looking up and around at all the details!).

Today we spent our Christmas day strolling around magical Venice, getting lost, having a fancy Christmas lunch, doing a little window shopping, and watching the sunset. We capped it off by skyping my dad and Bridget, and watching our favorite holiday movie, White Christmas!

Christmas Eve at Basilica di San Marco

 

And with that I shall bid you all adieu. I'm wishing all of my family and friends the merriest of Christmases, and sending my love from the other side of the world! Ciao for now!

Arrivederci Roma!

Actual real-life update: I am in Florence right now!! Yes, we made it to Italian stop number 2! But I am playing catch-up and I wrote this post while on the train, so...

Ciao! I am on the train from Roma a Firenze, racing past the beautiful Tuscan countryside, and I can’t believe stop #1 on my tour Italiano is already over! Two days is not really enough time to see Rome, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of cool stuff!! Originally we had 3 “official” days set aside for Rome, but when we added Bologna in between Florence and Venice, that took away time in Florence, so we had to cut into our Rome time as well.

My favorite shot from the Roman Forum.

Our first full day, Tuesday, was our “Ancient Day”: we strolled through the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, up to Capitol Hill, down to Piazza Venezia, up to the Pantheon, down a little side street for some excellent pizza, over to Piazza Navona, and all the way and back in the other direction to the Fontana di Trevi. Lots of walking. Very sore feet.

Wednesday was “Art Day”: First we got up early and went to the wonderful and pleasantly small Galleria Borghese. We spent our full two-hour limit enjoying all of the wonderful sculptures and paintings. I was almost just as impressed by all the artwork of the rooms themselves (the ceiling art was amazing!). Then we popped over to the Vatican, and spent the entire afternoon marveling at the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. By then end of the day we were a little overwhelmed, to say the least, by all that exquisite art and architecture!!

While all of the cool sites and art were amazing, the next best thing about Rome was our bnb, where we were hosted by the wonderful Luca and Nicole! We stayed at their little private bnb, and they were absolutely amazing. The first night they met us at the train station, helped with our bags, and even cooked us a lovely Italian pasta dish! Luca is Italian and Nicole is German. Luca doest not speak German, nor does Nicole speak Italian, so they speak to each other (and to us) only in English! Almost every night we sat up with them for a while eating dinner, or having a drink, and talked about everything from traffic lights in Germany, to the mafia, to the problem with lazy Italians (a lot of it ended up being Germany vs. Italy!). They were absolutely hilarious, and made our stay 110% better!

Rome according to Jolene: 

Well, Hannah has summed it up quite nicely, but I really was amazed by the Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon, the history they represent. I kept grabbing the camera* from Hannah but we managed to share it very well, and I think that between us we managed to capture the feeling of that day. Day two and more Art with a capital A, again the years of Art History classes have come to life in a most amazing way. I can’t wait to continue Art Fest at the Uffizi in Florence, but I’m grateful for a day off my feet, since I developed a massive blister on my all-important little toe; otherwise I have limped along quite bravely, and Hannah is mostly patient with me as I grab her arm and we stroll along.  I think the Vatican could single-handedly solve the world financial crisis if it held a garage sale of one fraction of its wealth…incredible!  The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was fabulous and we listened to Rick Steves’ guides that we downloaded for free on our ipods, and trundled along with a Brazilian tour group to use the faster exits. The Crazy Borghese Gallery was quite splendid and the Gardens lovely.  

* Side-note: I forgot! New camera! After an entire semester of hazy, grainy photos from my trusty old pinky, my dad bought a shiny new camera and my mom brought it along. So at least Italy will be beautifully photographed.

More photos from "Ancient Day":

Pantheon. So cool...I could easily have sat in there all day!

Fontana di Trevi

Last stop in Spain: Barcelona

Wait, wasn't I just in Barcelona? Yes, you are correct. Somehow, Barcelona got the honor of being visited twice on this trip! Before my mom and I jetted off to Italy, I wanted her to see a little more of Spain than just Toledo, and frankly, Madrid wasn't going to cut it (except for el Museo del Prado, that was great!). So we spent our first weekend of the tour in Barcelona, and I was able to show my mom some of the cool stuff I saw the first time, and I got to see a bunch of new things. My favorites: the inside of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia, a day-trip to Montserrat, and a tour of the beautiful Gran Teatro de Liceu (the opera house!).

When I was in Barcelona a few weeks ago, we went to as many free things as possible… this meant just seeing the outside of all the Gaudí buildings. But this trip we decided to splurge and go inside of la Sagrada Familia. And it was absolutely stunning. How could someone possibly come up with that design?? Well, we also saw the small exhibit about how Gaudí was inspired by nature, and that made it pretty clear. And awesome.

"The great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of Nature.” -Antoní Gaudí

We also got to take a trip out to the Benedictine retreat of Montserrat, a trip that Paige and I missed out on the first time. It was a good 1 1/2 hours away by train, and it was very cool to see those crazy jagged peaks as we approached! Then we took the cable car up (good thing I’m a cable car pro now), and enjoyed that fresh mountain air for a few hours. We walked around, marveling at the view, and went inside the Basilica. Unfortunately we just missed out on the famous Montserrat boys choir by a few minutes.

View from Montserrat

While planning our trip we almost stayed in Barcelona one more day, so we could go see one of our favorite tenors, Juan Diego Florez, in an opera at the teatro de Liceu. But we didn’t want to lose too much time in Italy, so we decided to leave a day earlier (and go see JDF sometime at the Met in New York!). Instead, on our last day before we left for Rome, we went to the Liceu and took a tour of the beautiful opera house! We were the only people who showed up, so we got a private tour and our guide was hilarious and fantastic. We couldn’t take pictures in the auditorium itself, which is a shame because it was one of the most gorgeous theaters I have ever seen.

Gran Teatro de Liceu

And since I'm sharing these travels with my mom (and my dad has been pressuring her to keep her own blog!), here's a recap from my special guest blogger, Jolene Steinhorst on her experience so far: 

Ah, Espana…did I miss the Toledo section? That was perhaps the closest I’ll get to time travel. I was amazed at every turn in the twisting, narrow, cobblestoned streets, and spent a lot of time with my mouth agape at the beauty of the buildings. I was sad with Hannah as she said farewell to her city, street by street, this view, that little plaza…so lovely.  In Madrid the Prado was fantastic, thanks to the collecting savvy of generations of Spanish monarchs, so far Titian wins. Until we reach Michelangelo territory, then we’ll see…

Barcelona, I love this city. It has good transportation, happy people, and we stayed in a super-cool modern hotel with the best breakfast in all of Spain. It’s amazing to see years’ worth of art history lectures come to life, such as at the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s masterpiece. The Picasso Museum was also interesting, with many works from his early years. The Opera House was stunning, although we did not run into Juan Diego Flores in the hallway as I had hoped…

Saying goodbye to Toledo

Well, it feels like the end came suddenly and unexpectedly, even though I had almost an entire week after my finals and before the end of the program to enjoy Toledo and mentally prepare myself. I spent as much time as possible hanging out with friends (when they weren't still studying for finals), and enjoying beautiful Toledo. I hiked up to the "mountain" across the river 3 times in one week, the last time with a huge group of people to celebrate one of our last days and to watch a non-existent cloudy sunset. I finally got my own picture of Toledo, and while it's not quite as professional-looking as the one heading my blog, it's set as my background and now I can look at it and cry whenever I want.

Toledo from the mountain!

I thought saying goodbye to everyone would be the hardest part, but it turns out saying goodbye to Toledo was harder. It was tough saying goodbye to friends from Notre Dame and Puerto Rico, but it was easier to say goodbye to Minnesota friends, knowing that I will see them again back at school! It was also different for me, knowing that I wasn't going home right away but rather staying in Europe for a while. After everyone left, I had another day and a half in Toledo to show my mom around before we left for our travels.

Since I had already said my goodbyes, I figured the next day and a half would be a nice, relaxed, fun time, showing my mom around Toledo. False. I did not expect to tear up every time I saw something that sparked a memory from this semester... which was pretty much everywhere. Who knew that it would be harder to be in Toledo without everyone than actually saying goodbye to them!! My only hope is that I was still able to give my mom a decent tour of my dear little Toledo, while I was barely holding myself together! Sorry Mama!

On Friday we woke up in Toledo and went to bed in Barcelona, with a quick stop in Madrid in between! (And I finally got to go to the Prado museum!) Now that my time in Toledo is over, the epilogue begins: Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice and Milan with my mother, then Naples and a few more southern cities in Italy with Paige! USA: I'll see you on January 4th.

Adios Toledo!