The Traveling Scholar

After our bout of sightseeing in Dublin and our relaxing day in Connemara, S. and I had plans to head back to Galway bright and early to rent a car in Eyre Square. We hadn’t really planned it in advance, but (rather naively) assumed that we’d be able to snag a car at the centre. We hopped on a 9:15A bus from Clifden to Galway and arrived in Galway’s city centre by 11A. We headed down to the nearby Budget rental centre and waited to grab an available car. Now, you may remember me mentioning that this past weekend marked the culmination of Galway’s busiest week of the year: the Galway races. Apparently the races are a pretty big to-do because nearly everyone we talked to asked if we were heading to check out the event. Of course, if we had known that this was going on we would probably have better planned our bookings, but we had no idea. As you can probably imagine, we were quickly dismissed after we strolled up to the rental desk and asked for a vehicle. Didn’t we know? It was the busiest weekend of the year and there wouldn’t be a car available until Monday. We sat outside and phoned every other rental car in Galway to no avail. Our plan was ruined! Eeek.

Now, this wouldn’t have been an issue had we not had our lives in tow: massive 60+ lb. suitcase, laptop cases, purses… ugggh. We had a momentary freakout and then sped off to the visitors centre where an all-too-kind Galwegian helped us sort out our lives. While our fantasy car rental exploration day was a bit ruined, we had a pretty decent alternate: we got a Cliffs of Moher tour for 20 euro (15 for me with a student discount!), that was going to take us to the Cliffs by way of a number of small cities with a number of photo stops. Bonus? They had room to store our luggage on the bus! Perfect!

The ride to the cliffs was about two hours and we passed through darling towns and gorgeous countryside on the way. After leaving County Galway, we passed through the Burren in County Clare. Apparently, “Burren” comes from Boireann (Irish for ’stony district’) in reference to the limestone hills and valleys that cover the area. No joke — limestone everywhere!

After passing through the Burren and stopping for some photo snapping opportunities, we made it to the cliffs!

Stellar. Seriously awesome. I was a bit sad that the clouds got in the way of picture-taking, but there wasn’t really much I could do about that! Being that it’s Ireland and the weather is incredibly temperamental, the rain and crazy wind came to a halt shortly after we arrived and made way for semi-sunny skies and white, pillowy clouds. I still don’t understand how the weather can change so drastically in 15 minutes but after living in London for the year, I’ve stopped questioning it.

The skies ended up clearing quite a bit and you could actually see the shadows of the Aran Islands in the distance. S. and I were both a bit sad that our Aran Islands-excursion didn’t pan out as planned, but maybe next time! I tried to snag some shots of them from a distance, but to no avail; they just look like light patches of water.

After hitting up the cliffs, we stopped for lunch at a cute little pub/restaurant in nearby Doolin and grabbed a bowl of seafood chowder (!!) before heading back up to Galway. From there, we had to grab tickets down to Cork to find a place near the airport for our early morning flight. Want to see how the night panned out and check out our five-star hotel? Click here to read about it!

All in all (I’ve said this already), I was impressed by Ireland. Weather and shit storm aside, I thought the country was beautiful and the culture was unique. I’m surprised to say this, but I would definitely go back in the future, with more time dedicated to each region. This trip to Ireland marked my last real ‘leisure trip’ of the year. Traveling this month officially depleted my bank account and it’s now time to refocus on life and dissertation-writing. I will, of course, be heading to Scotland next month with Mac, but that’s been planned for a bit! While traveling in Western Europe is far from cheap, it is definitely doable on a budget (as most twenty-something broke ass college kids can attest to)!

Check back soon as I recount my journeys and highlight my favorite destinations from this past year!

Love from happy (cloudy) London,

Well, S. and I are officially back in London (in my glorious new palace — updates to come!), but I have to take a moment to revisit our time in Ireland. While the trip didn’t turn out exactly as we had expected (there were more than a few obstacles), I have to admit that I am thoroughly impressed with Ireland on the whole. Everything was working against it: I had a mishap at the airport, the weather was super sh*t, emotions were all over the place, it was the busiest weekend in Galway (unbeknownst to us the Galway Races were on!) and thus prices were through the roof and availability for everything was low. Despite that, however, the place was gorgeous! I really, really liked it. It’s incredibly regionally diverse, which definitely adds to its charm and I would definitely recommend it to other visitors. I plan on going back in the future with more money in my pocket and more time on my hands to appopriately explore the the West Coast and the Southwest.

There’s no way I can capture everything in a single post, so I’ll start with Dublin for today. After that crazy airport debacle and a four-hour delay, we arrived in Dublin at around 430P. A short bus ride (€7) took us to the city centre where we jumped off and took a quick stroll to our Temple Bar hotel, Farrington’s. We were thoroughly confused when we approached Farrington’s — it’s a pub and we were certain we booked a hotel to sleep at and not a pub (although I questioned whether they were one and the same for Irish folk). After entering, we met the oh-so-nice manager and got keys to our B&B which was right around the corner (not in the pub). The room was extraordinarily nice — big room, huge bathroom (with a jacuzzi tub!), internet that mostly worked and, above all, a perfect location. While we may have gotten it a bit cheaper if we booked in advance, we were pretty happy with the price for the location (€118 for two nights).

After getting settled, we headed out to The Purty Kitchen for dinner (a gastropub of sorts). I was super impressed with their menu (I was expecting typical greasy pub food) and their prices (€5 for deliciously wonderful crostini and salad) — definitely a bargain! We planned out our excursions for day two and headed back to our gloriously comfortable beds for the night.

Day two was our Dublin sightseeing day. We had a few things on our agenda and had everything mapped out. Stop number one: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A church was built on the site in 1191 and they recently (broadly speaking) celebrated 800 years of worship. 800. We didn’t to go in, but we were definitely impressed with the architecture… always makes me wonder how people built these amazing structures without technology and machinery!

The next stop was definitely on the top of my list: Christ Church Cathedral. One awesome thing about Dublin? It’s such a great walking city! Everything that tourists typically want to see in Dublin is within walking distance. The Guinness Storehouse is the furthest point and it’s maybe a mile from everything else. Christ Church, for example, was about five minutes walking from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Early manuscripts apparently date Christ Church back to around 1030 AD. Pretty astounding. There was no way I was going to visit and not go inside. For a mere €3, S. and I got in (thank you, student discount) and got to check out the inside:

Check out my photos for more.

Next stop? Dublin Castle! Oh, how I wish I could say I was impressed with the castle, but no. Perhaps hitting up Edinburgh Castle jaded me? Not sure, but it’s definitely not what I expected. On the bright side, you can explore the majority of the castle grounds for free, so it’s certainly not a waste of money!

The picture above is actually the only ‘castle-y’ part of the castle. The rest of the castle grounds look more Victorian and are definitely not what you envision when you think of fairy tale castles. The gardens, though, are quite nice. Definitely worth a stroll around, even if just for a few pictures.

After Dublin Castle, we grabbed lunch (seafood chowder was our food of choice for the entire trip!) and headed down to the Guinness Storehouse, S.’s number one must-see for the Dublin leg of our adventure! Every living human being knows Guinness and the factory is certainly a testament to its legacy. The place is massive and the marketing is absolutely amazing. It’s not cheap to get in (€11 for students, €13 or €15 for adults) but the ticket includes a free pint at the end of the tour plus pretty incredible views of the city from the Gravity Bar on the top floor.

All in all, we had an amazing day. We had only allocated that day and a half to exploring Dublin and though we could have easily enjoyed a few more days there, I think we had enough time to see the things we really wanted to check out. The city is great, the people are friendly and the Temple Bar area is so charming, albeit a bit touristy. As vegetarians it was a bit difficult to feast on real Irish fare (lots of meatiness), but we managed. On the bright side (?), it was a bit cold outside so seafood chowder and potato & leek soup definitely fit the bill!

Check back tomorrow to see our trip to Clifden, Connemara by way of Galway! Lots of traveling and lots of gorgeous Irish countryside.

Love from England,

PS. Dad, mom and professors who may (or may not) be reading this: I took a break from dissertation-writing to write this post. I’m being ever so diligent in getting to work on my dissertation now that I’m back. Cue motivation!

Our trip to Andorra wasn’t something we had initially planned. We had talked about doing a day trip from Barcelona but after looking at accommodation prices in Barcelona vs. Andorra, we decided that Andorra could perhaps be more of a destination in and of itself rather than a day trip (costs for hotels were significantly cheaper). Our day and a half (two nights) there ended up being a brilliant decision – Andorra is absolutely amazing. Truly, brilliantly amazing.

Getting to Andorra is a feat in and of itself; you can’t really go on a whim. Due to the fact that the Principality of Andorra (a little country of its own with 70,000 people or so) is tucked away in the Pyrenees, the rough terrain means that it doesn’t have a train station nor does it have an airport. Ultimately there are three options: rent a car and drive in, bus in from Barcelona or Toulouse (the nearest airports) or grab the helicopter you have sitting around and drop into their helipad.

S. and I didn’t know this beforehand (not really, at least) but Andorra is a baller country. There are two real reasons people go to Andorra: to enjoy the natural beauty (skiing in the winter, water sports and hiking in the summer) or to shop. The streets are filled with shops and the country is known for its shopping (and allegedly discounted prices). The ‘well-priced’ shopping I had read about was really hard for me to place: yes, there were discounts everywhere but when discounts are on D&G, Prada, Tod’s, Chloe, etc., it’s difficult. While €900 for a bag might be a good deal (for that particular bag), it’s definitely out of my price range regardless. Moral of the story: if you’re a baller in the same way that Andorra is, you’ll be in a shopper’s paradise!

S. and I did some shopping, yes, but that’s not why we were there. Instead, we focused our sights on hiking in the Pyrenees. You may recall our amazing hike while we were at the Amalfi Coast? This was equally amazing although entirely different. The hike was steep and rugged but the air was much cooler and the path was a bit shorter. Check out some snapshots from our journey:

For anyone heading to Andorra/thinking about heading to Andorra, there are loads of hiking trails there. You can also book guided hikes through Naturlandia (kind of like the Disneyland of the Andorran outdoors) if you want something more organized. For anyone looking for a self-guided hike, the tourist offices in Andorra have a thousand guides with tons of different hikes depending on the amount of time you have to spare and your fitness level: some are mostly flatland while others are straight rock-climbing.

All in all, my personal experience in Andorra was amazing. The natural beauty of the country is mesmerizing and the feel of it is very familiar. It reminds me very much of Lake Tahoe with its stunning landscape and ski town feel, but it has a chic air about it that Tahoe sometimes lacks. In all honesty, while it was a random choice of place to visit, I felt an instant connection with the place that blurred my memories of Barcelona. Yes, Barcelona is amazing/interesting/fun, but it’s kind of overdone in my opinion.  Andorra is quite the opposite. It’s certainly not overdone and it has an appeal that has nothing to do with things that have to be purchased; it’s naturally awesome.

Some things we learned about Andorra/important take-aways:

1)      Andorra is a baller country. If you, too, are a baller you’re in for fun!

2)      By our standards, pizza and beer is typical Andorran fare. We feasted on veggie pizza and beer (gasp! – I never order beer!) both nights.

3)      The Andorran lingua franca is Catalan but you can get away with Spanish and French (and English at most places).

4)      Renting a car would be valuable. While it can be expensive to nab a vehicle, Andorra’s public transport is a bit more limited than many EU countries. A car will get you to tucked away areas with some stellar views.

Check out all of my pictures from Barcelona and Andorra!

Lots of love,

S. and I are in Barcelona right now sightseeing and soaking up sunshine (more on that soon), but I realized I never gave Carcassonne it’s fair due! We were only there for one full day and stayed for two nights to break up our otherwise ten-hour journey from Nice to Barcelona. With Carcassonne acting as a midpoint of sorts, we made a quick stopover to checkout the medieval town. Note to Eurail users, we paid €3 to head from Nice to Carcassonne (the required reservation fee) while at the train station. Out of curiosity (I’ve been dying to know how much I’m actually saving with my Eurail pass), I asked how much a ticket would cost without my pass in hand. The verdict? €65 for that leg! I’m not sure how much the other trips would have been, but I can positively say that my €210 Eurail pass was worth every euro cent!

You’ve never heard of Carcassonne? Yeah, either had I until I perused my Let’s Go! Europe book and read about it. It’s pretty close to Toulouse and not too far from Marseille with a population of 50,000 or so. Random, yes, but it’s also home to a medieval city with an old-school fairytale castle that we thought would be a perfect sight to check out for a day. As fate would have it, Carcassonne was actually infinitely cooler (temperature-wise) than any of the other places we had seen. We had grown accustomed to 95+ degree, sweltering weather and Carcassonne’s breeze and 70 degree weather were actually a nice break before returning to the heat in Barcelona!

Surprisingly, Carcassonne is actually a rather expensive city in which to stay. When we looked at hotels within the city, we were looking at paying around €120 per night on the lower end. We like to think we’re high rollers and that that’s okay, but in reality (we both were brought back to reality after looking at our twenty-something bank accounts) we wanted something cheaper. Far cheaper. Instead, we booked a room in the outskirts of the city at a place called Balladins. I think I speak for S. when I say that we were both pleasantly surprised! Comfortable rooms at literally half the cost (we paid around €60 a night… much better)!

We got up, had breakfast at our hotel and jumped on a bus to the city center. After a few wrong turns and a stop off at the Visitor’s Centre, we made it to the medieval part of Carcassonne. All I could think when I stepped in was that I wished my dad could be there! My dad loves all things medieval (I’m embarrassed to admit this, but we used to go to Renaissance Fairs when I was younger… eek!) and would have loved the charm of this medieval city despite its inherent tourist factor. S. and I were immediately content with our decision to visit the city — it was charming and completely different from the beachy cities to which we had become accustomed.

We hit up the castle almost immediately. While we debated (momentarily) whether or not we wanted to pay the €8 entrance fee, we quickly discovered that we both got youth discounts (there are benefits to being under 25!) and snagged tickets for €5 each… for some reason that seemed infinitely better to me. The castle and the views were incredible — definitely a must-see for anyone who happens to be in Carcassonne. In hindsight, the thought of going to the city and not going to the castle? Kind of ridiculous!

The castle aside, however, the medieval city is charming on its own! The streets are rather narrow and cobblestoned and wind around little gift shops, restaurants and creperies that dot every free inch. The pint-sized visitors (there were loads of excited kiddos there) were all too excited to buy their own knights and princess costumes and the vendors were prepared with bows and arrows, swords, chain mail and the like! I musn’t lie — I secretly wanted to buy the bow & arrow kit but there was no way I could fit it in my luggage!

After exploring the entire city (a whopping five hours maybe), we headed back to our hotel to hang out and grab dinner before packing up to head to Barcelona. Although most people may not consider Carcassonne as a stop-off point between the south of France and Barcelona, it is definitely a cute place to stop if you have a day to break up your travels! Doesn’t everyone need a little more medieval in their life?

xoxo from Spain,

Though S. and I spent two and a half days soaking up the amazingness that is the French Riviera, I have but one posts’ worth of goodies to share. If I were to blog every day, it would look something like this:

July 19^th: S. and I went to the beach.
July 20^th: S. and I went to the beach.
July 21^st: S. and I went to the beach.

That’s right, two and a half awesome days enjoying sun in the south of France. I’m sure it would be more impressive/studious if I were to say we hit up some of the many museums that dot Cote d’Azur, but no. The sun was shining and the beach was a five-minute walk from our Avenue des Fleurs apartment. I swear the sun is stronger here – I felt it literally sizzling my legs, but seeing as how my poor Californian self hasn’t seen the sun (regularly, anyway) for a good 10 months, I soaked it up.

Our first day, S. and I stuck to the beaches of Nice. We got in late the night before and went out for a late-night jaunt to explore the area. With a full day ahead of us, we headed down to the promenade and found a perfect little area on the beach. Sadly, the beaches around us were rocky – sand is definitely a luxury with which Californians are incredibly spoiled. We wanted to rent beach chairs (the kind with the perfectly perched umbrellas), but the same chairs that we rented in Malta and in Greece for €5 were running €20 in Nice! Definitely a bit excessive for our taste, so we posted up on the rocky beach, purchased rafts and intertubes and floated around in the sea until we were sufficiently sunned.

Though we should have (theoretically) opted for French cuisine come dinner time, we instead headed to a cute little Turkish place down the way from our apartment (Le Bosphore). While the service was a bit questionable, we had a pretty awesome dinner and spent a couple of hours chatting before heading home for the night.

For our second day, we knew we wanted to hit up a nearby city to get a taste of towns outside of Nice. Our first choice was the oh-so-glamour St. Tropez, but it was entirely too far for a one day outing. Second choice (per S.’s request): Cannes. I was 50/50 between Cannes and nearby Antibes (having had been to neither), so we jumped on the #200 bus down the street from our apartment (for a mere €1!) and headed in the direction of Cannes by way of Antibes. It took us nearly at least 45 minutes to get to Antibes and considering the distance between Antibes and Cannes, we decided to avoid the latter and spend our time beachside.

We jumped off at the Antibes stop and strolled through the old town before settling into a perfect place on a (sandy) beach! We hung out for a few hours watching the yachts pass by, before taking the train back to Nice. With it being our last night in the south of France, we wanted to do something fun; to experience something new. Since I have been in the business of seeing as many countries as possible this year, we thought a jaunt to the Principality of Monaco should be in order for the evening.

After getting home and cooling off, we got dressed up and took the train down to Monte Carlo for the evening. We arrived at around 11:15P to grab dinner and check out the casinos and hotels and people watch. People-watching is infinitely more fun when the people roll up in Bentleys, Ferarris, Lamborghinis, etc.

We decided to check out the restaurants and hotel eateries to find a place for dinner. We wandered into a swanky eatery inside an oh-so-glamorous hotel just to see the first hors d’oeuvres listed on the menu for €247. We took that as a cue to leave and headed across the way to a casino’s (still fancy) restaurant to eat (Le Cafe de Paris). We noshed on light dinners and grabbed celebratory drinks to commemorate our night out in Monte Carlo.

We definitely didn’t do our homework, though. After having a late night dinner and drinks, we were ready to head back at around 1:15A. Sadly, the trains and buses stop running at around midnight, leaving visitors with three options: stay in Monte Carlo overnight; stay in Monte Carlo until 5A at which point the trains begin running again; take a taxi to your destination. We opted for the latter since staying in Monte Carlo overnight was never going to happen! Note to readers, though: taxis from Monaco to Nice are not cheap. As the taxi driver put it when we gasped in shock, “This is Monaco!” €70 later we arrived at the doorstep at Nice Fleurs, our apartment complex, where we got into our sweltering rooms and headed to bed.

Today was our last day in Nice and with our train to Carcassonne not leaving until 430P, we decided to hit the beach one last time. We packed up, checked out, stored our luggage and headed down to the rocky beach we had visited on our first day. After a few hours of sizzling in the French sun, we grabbed lunch and grabbed a cab to the train station.

We’re currently en route to Carcassonne after having left Nice a few hours ago. We’re passing through Montpellier soon, tired and a bit sad to have to leave the French Riviera behind. Cote d’Azur definitely goes on my list of places to visit again in the future – ties with the Amalfi Coast for first place!

Want to see more pictures from our jaunt in the French Riviera? Click here.

xoxo from the French countryside,

With only a few days in Florence, S. and I wanted to make the most of our time in Tuscany. We found an amazing ‘Tuscany in One Day’ tour through Viator and booked it Friday night. While the package wasn’t cheap, we both found it to be a good deal (£60/€70) for what was included.

The tour was 12 hours and began at 8:30A. We got up bright and early and headed out of our hotel around 7:45A to grab morning goodies and get there a bit early. After departing, our first stop was Siena, a little town (p. 50,000) about an hour or so from Florence famous for its horse races and the color with its namesake (Burnt Siena). The city was much smaller than Florence but incredibly charming. We learned (during our tour) that banking as we know it today effectively began in Italy (in Tuscany, actually) and that Siena is currently home to the oldest working bank in the world (founded in the 14^th c. or so):

I’m not sure where I thought banking started, but I definitely didn’t think it was Italy. Fun tid bit, indeed. After seeing the bank, we explored the city center, saw seven of the seventeen districts in Siena and got to see where the famous horse races take place during July and August. Despite it’s small size, Siena is split up into 17 districts that are represented by their own flag and animal. Each district has its own fountain, its own church, etc. and there are rivalries (sometimes intense) between the districts. The horse races that happen each year take place between ten of the districts; the winning district gets to hang their flag for everyone to see/admire. The rhino district (it has a much better name than that in Sienese) won last time:

Our last stop was the church in Siena. While nearly all of my travels have included gazing at cathedrals (since churches tend to be some of the most amzing examples of architecture), I have yet to become tired of seeing the façades of these cathedrals – so incredible. Admittedly, I get a bit tired of exploring the insides, but it was nice to check it out and hear our Italian tour guide tell us about the church’s history:

After our tour and some free time in Siena, we boarded our coach once again to head to an organic farm where we had lunch. S. and I were the only vegetarians in the group so they had to make up a special lunch for us (sadly, we couldn’t have the ‘wild boar sauce’…). We got a tour of the farm, including the wine cellar (they produce 200’000 bottles of wine a year!), and got to check out some incredible views of San Gimignano. Pretty breathtaking:

Fittingly, the lunch included wine tasting. Everything that was served up was organic and produced on the farm (except for the pecorino cheese which was brought in) and was absolutely delish! You know S. and I were way too excited for some organic action in our lives! After lunch, a glass of white, two glasses of red and a (strong) dessert wine (note: I had but a taste of the reds since I’m not a big red wine-drinker… I have yet to learn how to drink red wine like grown-ups), we re-boarded our coach to head to nearby San Gimignano, a medieval town that has been left untouched.

Now, San Gimignano (San Jim-EE-jee-ohn-oh), while small, was completely darling. The views were great and the streets of the city are dotted with cute wine and cheese shops and little restaurants and cafes. San Gimignano is perhaps most famous for their gelato (aside from their white wine and saffron). A gelateria in town has won ‘Best Gelato in the World’ on two separate occasions, so you know that we had to test it out (despite being disgustingly full from lunch). After exploring the town, we headed down to the gelateria as our last stop before heading back to the coach. In true San Gimignano fashion, the gelateria even has white wine and saffron-flavored gelato! Although I could have been more adventurous, the line was out the door so I made my order quick: mint (at least I moved away from lemon)! S., staying true to her chocolate-loving roots, got a scoop of plain chocolate (her defense was that if this was supposd to be the best gelato in the world, the chocolate should be the best she had ever tasted… I understood her thinking on that one). The gelato was good, but the best in the world? Not so sure… You’ll have to try for yourself.

After San Gimgnano, we headed to our last stop of the day: Pisa! S. and I had wanted to go to Pisa, but I didn’t think it was worth a day trip on its own (much like I didn’t think Siena was worth a day trip unto itself). This tour ended up being pure perfection since it brought in all of the Tuscan cities we were interested in with just the right amount of time in each. We arrived in Pisa after a scenic one and a half hour drive (where we passed by a sunflower patch):

There was little to do in Pisa. We took quintessential tourist pictures (unashamedly) and laid out in the grass in front of the leaning tower. Bonus: the leaning tower of Pisa is one of the wonders of the world – got to check one off of my list!

After our time in Pisa, we headed back to Florence with our tour bus and our oh-so-amazing tour guide, Becky. It was a long, long day of exploring but it was so worth it. The £60 seemed more than worth it for all of the sightseeing we got to do, the information that we got and the amazing lunch that we had! If you’re a big wine drinker, you could definitely get your money’s worth; I saw a girl swoop on a half a bottle of red wine left at the end of lunch and enjoy the entire thing! After seeing the best of Tuscany, S. and I are on our way out. It’s been real, Toscana! Now, off to Cote d’Azur where we’ll be staying in Nice!

Love from the train,

S. and I woke up in Florence with the day ahead of us and a mission: see everything that Florence has to offer in 10 hours or less. I’m sure most Florentines would laugh off such an endeavor, but we knew what we wanted to see and made a beeline as soon as we were up and ready.

Florence is most definitely a walking city. We were provided with a city map upon arrival at Casa Billi (our B&B/hostel) and mapped out our plan: hit up Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michaelangelo’s David, check out Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Santa Croce and then head down across Ponte Vecchio to explore some goodies (the Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens) south of the river before heading back through the Uffizi Gallery. There were a few modifications on our route, but we managed to see the most important things on our list.

After grabbing coffee & breakfast at a nearby eatery in the San Lorenzo area, we headed to the Galleria dell’Accademia where David is housed. I had looked online for pricing for our ‘must-sees’ so we could figure out how much sightseeing was going to cost us. The articles I read mentioned that the entry fee was around €6.50 (€3.50 with a student discount). When we arrived at the Galleria, there was already a pretty intense line. After we got in line we found out that we needed a ticket to stand in line since tickets were equipped with an entry time. We headed out and got our ticket from a nearby museum only to find out that tickets were far from €3.50. They were €14 each and there was no student discount available. Needless to say, I was sad and slightly perturbed but as I’m sure many of you will agree: a trip to Florence is not complete without seeing Michaelangelo’s most famous work. We huffed, complained for a split second, paid the €14 and headed over to the gallery to get in line. We entered around 12:30P and made it our mission to explore everything the museum had to offer to get the most bang for our buck. We noticed pretty quickly that David was definitely the main draw for the gallery; there weren’t that many rooms and while the artwork was great, it was limited. David, however, was worth it. Truly amazing. I think S. and I were both a bit surprised at how big he is (how tall, I should say). He’s absolutely massive and perfect. Like most people, I have seen pictures of David a million times; I knew what it looked like and thought I knew exactly what to expect but I was truly awed by the awesomeness of seeing it in person. It is absolute perfection. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but even if we were, pictures can’t really do it justice. If you’re in Florence, it’s definitely worth seeing (although I’m still reeling a bit from the €14 entry fee).

After seeing David, we hit up the Duomo, an amazingly elaborate and massive church in the middle of Florence. I had heard about it, but S. and I were both a little awe-struck when we saw it! Not only massive but ridiculously elaborate and ornate. We headed inside where S. got a ‘shawl’ to cover her shoulders before we could explore (much like the head scarves you have to wear at mosques):

After, we headed past San Croce, where we got to see the church and the square. We passed through Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery next and checked out the replica of David (happy that we got to see the real thing only hours earlier).

We headed out shortly after and decided to head to Ponte Vecchio, the site that S. was most excited to see. The bridge is pretty amazing and, being the only bridge that survived WWII, is oldest bridge in Florence (at one point it was the only bridge that people could use to cross the river). It was built in the 1300s and is home to a billion jewelers. Other vendors used to have stalls on the bridge (a long, long time ago) before the Medici family ordered the bridge to be dotted with jewelers so commoners wouldn’t peruse the area. (Gotta love those Medicis – so thoughtful.) I zipped past the jewelers (since I am clearly not in a place to be buying myself glitzy jewelry) and Stace and I grabbed gelato after crossing the bridge. We asked for smalls but apparently our idea of small and their idea of small are totally different. We ended up with massive bowls of gelato (€6 each!) and cooled off inside the air conditioned gelateria before heading back out into the scorching sun.

After snapping a few pictures, we wandered down to the Pitti Palace but after finding out that everything in Florence (everything!!) requires an entry fee, we left after grabbing a few quintessential photos. Now, I must admit, I am spoiled. I have become exceptionally spoiled living in London where the best art galleries and museums are free! When I have to pay 5 – 20 euros entry for a museum, I tend to choke a bit. The majority of the time I pass it up because I get to see some of the world’s greats at the National Gallery, the British Museum, etc. If I were more of an art buff I may have paid the fees for Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace. Maybe next time!

All in all, my review of Florence: it’s nice. Perhaps my friends hyped it up too much, perhaps the weather was just ungodly during our visit or perhaps there were too many tourists. Whatever the reason, I don’t have a much better review than just, simply nice. After Greece, though, nice will do just fine.

See all of our Tuscany pictures here.

xoxo,

S. and I woke up bright and early and headed downstairs to grab breakfast at our B&B. Armed with our water, backpacks and hiking gear, we were ready to head to Bomerano and start ‘Sentiero Degli Dei’, the walk of the gods. The 5 km hike is supposed to be one of the world’s most beautiful, heading from the area of Bomerano in Agerola to Positano with views of the Amalfi Coast along the route.

Salvatore drove us to Bomerano at around 930A and we began our hike shortly after. After experiencing the Amalfitan heat on Tuesday, we knew that we wanted to try to get our hike done before the mid-day heat struck in Italy. For me to try and describe the walk would do it little justice. Similarly, the pictures that I took, while beautiful, can’t really capture how amazing the hike really was. It was intense at parts (lots of rocky hills to climb and 1700 stairs to climb down at the end to reach the city of Positano), but the hike can definitely be drawn out and leisurely, to an extent. It was a bit rough when the heat struck but the views of Positano from our hike were absolutely incredible. For the majority of the hike, S. and I were alone in the massive natural park area.

While we came across ten or so other hikers during our journey, it really felt (for the most part) that it was just us and the world. No one else was there and no one else had experienced this before. Even the pathways, while marked for emergencies (signs with numbers are scattered throughout the hike in case you need to call 118 for help) seemed as though very few other human beings had stumbled upon this area.

That is clearly not the case since the hike is well-known and well traversed, yet it was something that made me feel like I had just experienced a piece of the world that most people were unaware of. Unlike the hikes of Yosemite (e.g. the popular Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls hikes) where teems of people descend upon the mountains in the summer, this was totally barren. For those of you that have hiked Yosemite (if you haven’t, I highly recommend it), I don’t know that the hikes can necessarily be compared. They’re both incredible – almost spiritual – and gorgeous but they’re different. If you enjoy Yosemite though, it would be hard to imagine not enjoying this hike.

While the morning mist that hung over the mountains was problematic for picture-taking, it actually made for a really cool setting for the hike. The hike is covered with green: flowers, trees, bushes; and with animals: lizards, butterflies, bees as big as your thumb and snakes (eek)! While we didn’t come across any snakes during our hike, a little black snake slithered across the road while we were driving to the hike’s starting point which effectively freaked us out for the next three hours. Every time animals rustled in the nearby bushes, we cringed and ran like five-year-old girls. I should have brought my mace. (Can you mace a snake?)

S. and I actually ended up having a blast as neophyte National Geographic wildlife photographers. Every time a pretty butterfly stood still, we tried to capture it. Each time a lizard sat perfectly perched on a sunny rock, we zoomed our lenses in to snap a shot. Although they’re not NG quality (I’m still learning), some were pretty rad:

After three hours of running, climbing, jumping, picture-taking, and descending down the nearly two thousand stairs, we reached the town of Positano. Beautiful, quaint Positano. After staying in Agerola, visiting Amalfi, and seeing Bomerano and Positano, I could definitely argue a case for Positano being the prettiest part of the coast. Beaches, scenery, cute restaurants and shops; it’s definitely the place that I would stay in the future when I return to the Costiera Amalfitana (a return that I have decided is inevitable).

After grabbing some much-deserved lunch and gelato, S. and I took a ferry back to Amalfi and jumped on the bus for a long ride back up the mountain to Agerola. Our night proved to be low-key and quiet with another late-night dinner at our go-to spot, Da Gigino’s, where we split a pizza and enjoyed some red wine (on the house).

With our last bit of time in Amalfi, we’re getting ready to say arrivederci to Naples and buon giornio to Firenze!

Want to see all of the pictures from the walk of the gods? Click here and get pumped!

Catch up with you from Tuscany,

S. and I just got back from a day of exploring Amalfi and I can firmly say that it was just as amazing as I had imagined. I set my alarm last night for 9:30A but woke up long before my alarm. We’re staying in Agerola, which is set an incredibly high elevation with a cool mist that encapsulates the town. The cloudy mist was visibly dissipating throughout the town as we journeyed toward the SITA bus stop to catch our 11A ride to the town of Amalfi.

Amalfi isn’t that far from Agerola, but the bus ride took nearly an hour for us to get in to town. The roads wind drastically down the hillside, weaving in and out. How the bus drivers do it, I’ll never know; the roads are big enough for a single car, yet buses meander their way around like pros, honk-honking their way down the hillside so oncoming traffic is prepped.

I was actually excited for the long ride. While the views are pretty from Agerola and from Amalfi, the ride down provides for striking views of the cliff sides and the idyllic houses scattered about. I had seen pictures of the hillside, like I’m sure many of you have, but nothing really prepared me for the awesomeness of our surroundings. The morning mist that laid over the mountains made everything all the more surreal.

We arrived in Amalfi around noon and began to explore the town. We took a short walk near the pier to check out the mini beaches and the views from the ground before we snagged some mid-day gelato (as per usual, limoncello for me and chocolate for S.) Delish.

After our mid-day snack, we stumbled upon the actual town of Amalfi. The streets were strewn with jewelers, markets, all things lemon (the fruit for which Amalfi is famed), gelateries, restaurants, cafes; a tourist’s heaven. We grabbed a few postcards and a couple of gifts and hit up the local post office to mail things out. S. also nabbed some souvenirs for the fam to take back at the end of our adventures. One thing is for certain: Amalfi is famous for it’s lemons for a reason. As we walked down the streets, we noticed that all of the souvenirs displayed the bright yellow fruit ever so proudly. I had heard that Amalfi’s lemons were larger than our typical grocery store lemons, but I wasn’t sure how big they were. They’re big. Incredibly so. Some of the lemons we saw were bigger than the biggest grapefruits I have seen in local grocery stores!

After shopping and admiring the town, we headed back to the bus stop at around 430P and jumped on the 5P bus back to Agerola. The bus ride was seemingly longer this time with the mid-day heat and the masses of people (and annoying children), but we made it (and treated ourselves to a mid-day gelato upon our return).

Salvatore, the son of the owner of our B&B (Nido degli Dei) talked with us during our breakfast and invited us out to dinner in Bomerano for the evening. We headed to a little Italian place and enjoyed dinner with him and his friend, Roberto, and got to see how Italians really do dinner. A few things of mention on how Americans and Italians differ in their eating habits: a) they eat dinner late, much like the Spaniards. We didn’t head out until about 830P and didn’t start eating dinner until 10P; b) dinner is a production. It’s a multi-course meal with loads of vino that’s a slow-moving, enjoyable process vs. the fast food nation that we see in the US. We didn’t end up getting home until around midnight but it was an interesting/authentic adventure!

Up for tomorrow – Sentiero Degli Dei: ‘The walk of the gods’ that will take S. and us about 5km from Bomerano to Positano. Stay tuned!

Love from Agerola,

Sorry for the lack of internet access, kiddos. Finally got online & have been able to post my blogs from the last few days, starting with numero uno:

It’s nighttime now and the sun has gone down in Agerola, where S. and I are staying for our three days in the Amalfi area. While we’re not far from the town of Amalfi, the drive takes nearly an hour due to the twisty, windy roads that lead down to the waterfront. The roads are intense. We arrived in Napoli at around 2:45P and (somehow) managed to get down to Agerola after a number of bus changes and miserable attempts at speaking Italian.

I had heard that Naples was a questionable area and all of the tales rang very true during our hour waiting for the SITA bus. The roads were dirty, the people (that we interacted with) were borderline creepy and for one of the first times since my move to Europe, I felt uncomfortable being a girl in a city. Soon, however, we met K., another English-speaking traveler from Australia, and joined forces in to make our way to the town of Agerola (she was staying there, too, though in a different B&B).

After jumping on the SITA bus to Amalfi via Agerola, we arrived an hour later at San Lazarro in the quaint (‘tranquilo’ is how our new friend Sebastiano described it) town of our B&B, Nido degli Dei. The roads weaved in and out, higher and higher while the views of the Amalfi Coast grew below us. The drive is not for the faint-hearted; the roads are narrow and the bus drivers are quite skilled at horn-honking to ensure that cars coming the opposite direction are aware of their presence. The views were exactly as I had imagined them, though I’m not sure that there’s a word that sufficiently describes it. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Dramatic. Breathtaking. Perfection.

It’s places like this that reignite my desire to travel and reinvigorate my soul. I know that seems rather dramatic (I realize this even while typing it), but it’s the truth. We have yet to head into Amalfi and the neighboring towns of Positano and Ravello but even the area that we’re in now is glorious. The views are spectacular, the area is relaxing and the weather is perfect. S. and I had dinner at a tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town where the food was incredibly inexpensive but 100% delicious (€5 for an entire veg pizza)! It was a perfect place to re-energize after a long day off travel.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Amalfi to explore and check out the town and the next day we’re doing the walk of the gods. I’ve been here for about five hours and am already obsessed! This is definitely my kind of place – pure, unadulterated beauty in an otherwise chaotic world. I can’t wait to see what the next three days hold!

Love from Agerola,

See all of the pictures of the Amalfi Coast here.