Spring Break

     When the students taking part in BU Madrid Study Abroad Engineering program received our schedules for this semester, two things in particular stood out: the fact that we have 6 exams the last two weeks of school, and the 10 day spring break. Of course, I immediately blocked the 6 exams out of my mind until the latest possible moment so I could avoid a daily mental breakdown. But spring break stuck with me. 10 days in Europe, with the freedom to go anywhere? That's the stuff that dreams are made of. So the planning began.

     Before we knew that we were going to Spain, Alex told me that he had family in Italy, and wanted to visit them. So as soon as we knew we were going, he got in contact with them and set up a visit over Spring break. Alex's mother came over to the US from Italy when she was young, and about half of her family still lives in Gaeta, Italy today. Both of us were extremely excited to visit. Due to some planning complications that are too long to get into, I was to stay in Italy from April 11th (our first day of Spring Break) to April 16, then figure out something else to do for the rest of the trip. After what seemed like months of trying to decide on where to go, me and two other friends in engineering, Juha and Tommy, agreed to meet in Northern Italy on the 16th, rent a car, and drive to Croatia. We got many "oh good luck, don't get kidnapped and sold into slavery" comments from people who watched 'Taken' or 'Hostel' a few too many times and aren't as open minded about the Balkans. But we wanted to do something awesome and different, so we ignored them. 

     So that's a quick overview on how I decided to go to these places. Now off to Italy!

View from on top of the Vatican.

    Alex and I arrived in Italy on the Friday night, April 11th. Alex's cousin, Laura, picked us up from the airport. She is studying in Rome and lives there, so we stayed in her apartment the three nights we were in Rome. 

     Saturday was a very, very busy day of sightseeing. With Laura as our guide, we visited the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and some other tourist attractions in Rome.

Me, Laura, and Alex at Trevi Fountain. 

Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II

Enjoying some fine Italian cuisine. 

     On  Sunday, we decided to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We got a tour through both, and although our tour guide fell asleep in the Colosseum (seriously... mid-sentence) we had a fantastic time.

Colosseum from the side of the Palatine Hill. 

Temple in the Roman Forum.

Arch of Titus in the Forum.

     We originally planned to leave Rome Sunday afternoon for Gaeta, but because of a strike amongst the Italian train conductors no trains departed to Gaeta that day. So we spent one more night at Laura's apartment, and in the morning we caught the hour and a half train to Gaeta. 

     

     When we arrived in Gaeta, Alex's uncle Bruno picked us up and gave us a quick introduction to the town. Gaeta is a small fishing / beach town on the western coast of Italy, about two hours south of Rome and one hour north of Naples. Since Bruno's English was rusty at best, we spoke an interesting mix of English, Italian, and Spanish to communicate. Spanish and Italian are similar in many ways, so speaking Spanish with an Italian accent actually proved to be the best method of communication. Bruno showed us Alex's mother's house, the beaches of Gaeta, and his restaurant. 

View of Gaeta from a coastal hilltop. 

Nice view a couple minutes away from the restaurant. 

     Once we arrived at the restaurant, Bruno told us he had arranged for some of Alex's family to come to eat with us. We explored the beach next to the restaurant for awhile until they arrived. They were all extremely happy to see Alex, and once they saw me it was like I was a member of the family too!

My new Italian family!

     After eating and chatting for a while, we left the restaurant and check into the bed and breakfast Alex's family booked for us. We chilled on the beach for the rest of the day until Guido, Alex's cousin, came to eat with us. He is the same age as me and is studying music in Rome, so he wasn't able to make the earlier family lunch. But we had a nice dinner and night out in Gaeta with him and his friends.

     The next day, Guido and his friend Mateo took us to Pompeii and Naples. Pompeii was amazing and surreal to walk around. Basically the whole structure of the town is still intact, and it is much bigger than I imagined it would be. Naples is notorious for being the trashiest city in Italy, but thankfully Guido knew the best places to go and brought us there. I can now say I've eaten at the birthplace of pizza, which is Naples' claim to fame. It was absolutely fantastic, the best pizza I've eaten in my life. 

Columns in Pompeii still standing. 

Bad quality photo of Alex, Guido, me, and Mateo in Pompeii. 

Mini-Colosseum in Pompeii. 

Nice view of Naples from a castle on the coast. 

Some real Italian tomatoes and mozzarella
from the Capostoso restaurant. 

Church of San Francisco di Paola in Naples.

     After such a great time in Italy, I had to leave Wednesday to meet Tommy and Juha in Trieste. I took a train from Gaeta to Rome, plane from Rome to Venice, and another train from Venice to Trieste. A long day of travel, but I successfully met them in Trieste. So the trip is halfway over and I'm still alive, things are looking good. Now off to Croatia!

     We awoke early Thursday morning and picked up our beautiful Fiat Punto from the car rental agency. We all felt that driving was such a relief after flying and taking the train everywhere before, because we had the freedom to go wherever we wanted and stop whenever. For the first leg of the trip, we drove through Slovenia to Rijeka, Croatia, where we stopped shortly to grab some lunch and go for a quick walk.

Juha, Tommy and I on top of the Punto. 

      After leaving Rijeka, we started our drive to the first place we booked to stay in Novalja, Pag Island, Croatia. We decided to take the coastal road so we could see as much as possible, and that decision definitely payed off. It is definitely the most beautiful road I have ever driven on, and the sights we saw were absolutely amazing. (Some of these photos are much better quality because they are from Juha's camera, not my crappy phone camera.)

     So after driving for a while and taking a ferry onto Pag Island, we arrived in Novalja. It took us a while to find our house, because the guy we rented it from didn't give us the full address, just the town name and house number. But that didn't stop us, we drove around until we found some people, showed them a picture of the house and asked where it was. Unfortunately, Novalja is quite far removed from the rest of the world, so most people only spoke Croatian. Eventually, we wandered into a roadside restaurant and showed the waiters the phone number listed on our house information sheet. He called the number, chatted for a while in Croatian, and then told us "Drive 5 kilometers that way [points], man in white shirt will wait for you on side of road!" Ok, we all thought, this is a little creepy but at least we aren't wandering anymore! So we drove 5 kilometers and believe it or not, a man in a white shirt was waiting for us on the side of the road. Take that, haters. He was the owner of the apartment we rented, and fortunately he spoke a little English. So we check into our apartment (which was amazing) grabbed some awesome dinner in Novalja, and chilled for the night looking at a fantastic view of the Adriatic Sea.

View from our first apartment in Novalja.

Nice sunset by the harbor in Novalja. 

Croatian cuisine.

     After a nice relaxing afternoon and night in Novalja, we left Pag Island to head to our next destination, Split. Split is one of the largest cities in Croatia and a popular destination for many Adriatic Sea cruise ships. We arrived there in the afternoon after stopping in Zadar, Croatia for lunch. The apartment we checked into was even better than our first, only ten minutes from the center of town and
five minutes from the best beach in Split.

Our apartment in Split and part of the view off the cliff.

The rest of the view off the cliff. 

      After we checked in, we explored the city and the nightlife in Split. Surprisingly, there were a ton of Americans, so we didn't have any trouble meeting people. The next day, we bummed about on the beaches, walked around Split, and hiked to the top of a hill to watch the sunset.

Us on Split hilltop at sunset.

     That was our last night in Split, and we went to bed relatively early because we had to drive all the way to Venice the next day to catch our flight back to Madrid. The drive back was long and uneventful, but it gave us a chance to reflect on our trip and how much we didn't want to return to homework and studying in Madrid. Overall, this spring break was probably the most awesome and adventurous thing that I've ever done, and I don't regret any moment of it.

    As I have just over two weeks left in Spain, and they are filled with finals, this will probably be my last blog post. I want to thank everyone for reading and keeping up with my travels. I have had an amazing experience in Spain, I have met a ton of awesome people, and I have been places I will never forget. Thanks mom for encouraging me to write this blog so I can have something to look back on and remember this experience. I'll see everyone soon! VIVA ESPAÑA!!!!