This is it and this is all.  Ok, ok, at least for a little while.  Because in about 20 minutes I am heading out for the great free travel adventure.  But I promise to update it all over time once I return sometime aruond the 25th. 

Thanks to all the loyal readership out there.  Or just my grandparents, whichever the case might be. 

Tara Skelley di Firenze...over and out

Sooooo, sure you've been wondering where yours truly has been hiding recently.  Well, after I got back from Cinque Terre, we had about 2 days to repack, regroup, reorganize, and then off to 2nd free travel...Spain!

Spain was fun.  Barcelona was cool as was Madrid.  Perfect weather, wonderful traveling companions.  So what was the problema?  I became a "sickie" (as we fondly refer to them over here at the villa). 

Dunno what the dealio was...some kind of funky water or food poisoning or something.  Wasn't cool.  In fact, I have never been more miserable in my life.  But, French rail strike, sleeping on concrete and 36 hours later, I made it back to the villa where I proceeded to sleep for a very long time. 

Sometime, ask me about my trip to Spain.  We really did have some good times.  I promise.  But don't really feel like recounting them all right now (I'm still in the recovery phase I think).

Arrivederci for now folks

The Cinque Terre trip went splendidly.  Absolutely perfect.  Awesomely wonderful.  Ya wanna know how I really felt about it?  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Cinque Terre is a section of the Mediterranean Italian Coast that is comprised of 5 little villiages, all connected by little hiking trails.  It was our last trip as a group together, but a much needed one: it was like a vacation from a vacation!  We didn’t have any kind of itinerary or pre-planned events, just rest and relaxation. 

We had to leave around 6 in the morning from the villa to get to the train station and we made it to our final destination close to noon.  After eating our sack lunches, we were turned loose to explore.  The little towns are so cute!  They are just like something you would see in a magazine, perched right next to the water, squeezed in close together, and all painted in different bright colors.  So we walked along the main streets and looked in all the little stores and made our way to the water.  Basically, we spent the rest of the day just walking around and soaking up the sun.  Later that afternoon, we went to the next town because we heard some people were cliff jumping over there, but we never found them.  So, instead we watched the sunset over the water and then went to dinner.  We found this small little restaurant where we stopped to eat (mmm, linguine and lobster!) and then headed back into town to try and find something to do until our train.  The problem with all these quaint little towns though is that they stop being cute around 6 o clock and then just start being closed.  And for a city girl who thinks she should be able to by groceries ay 10 o clock at night, this has taken some getting used to.  But, we managed to fin an open bar where we bought some gelato.  We ended up spending almost an hour and a half just waiting and killing time there until we could tell the owner was a little antsy so then we left.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too chilly outside, so we just walked though the town and then went back to the train station.  Back at the train station (which was really more of a train stop) our group kept busy by playing a game of charades which was hilarious.  Then, we found out our train was coming even later because the trains run less frequently in the off-season.  So, after about a 2 ½ hour wait later, we finally caught our train back to our hotel.  Lots of waiting around, but the company made it enjoyable. 

The next resulted in a over-sleeping mishap.  Our entire group was supposed to meet at nine to go on a hike, and me and Sara Kat definitely woke up at 9:03.  But we jumped up, threw on some clothes and actually made it down before the group left.  Our entire group hiked to the next city over.  It was pretty rough at some parts (kinda steep and had to take a little rest stop) but the scenery was incredible.  It led us up the mountains and around the coastline, through orange groves and at the end…to the beach!  The beach was made up of little smooth rocks, and the water was frigid, but it felt great on my toes.  Most of the boys (including Robbie) jumped into the water as did a few of the girls.  It was funny to watch though because as soon as their heads popped up, they started yelling because the water was so cold as swimming as fast as possible back to shore.  Didn’t prevent them from doing it again though.  Then, after our short beach break, the entire group took a boat the opposite way along the coast to the first city.  There, we walked to the next city on the “Via del Amore” aka the Walk of Love.  This route was a lot shorter and was paved.  But of course, we had to create an adventure.  We climbed down the rocky cliffs to the water and in a little crevice where the water was flowing, we found an octopus!  It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen: a live octopus in the wild.  It was pretty big (especially with its tentacles stretched out) and it was very agile.  At one point, it even stretched its tentacles up the rocks toward us.  We wanted to touch it, but no one could work up the courage.  We stayed a little longer on the rocks because David, Josh and Jonathon decided they wanted to jump off of the cliffs.  It was probably about 50-60 feet high and it scared me just to watch them do it, but they attracted quite a crowd of spectators.  Stupido Americanos.  After that, as we neared the end of the trail, I stepped in a teeny tiny little whole…an sprained my ankle, again.  Pretty ironic that I had hiked and climbed cliffs just fin, but as soon as I try to walk those paved roads in tennis shoes…killer.  But since it wasn’t the first time, it didn’t really phase me and I just kept it elevated when we stopped for lunch.  After some more gelato eating and sun soaking, we caught the train back to hotel city.  We made it just in time for our devotional all together on the rocky beaches at sunset.  It was a powerful experience.  Then, dinnertime at this small little restaurant that has always served all the HUF groups and has become good friends with Robbie and Mona.  It was a good meal, even the main course: calamari. 

That night, a group of us went to a favorite HUF spot (its kinda hidden and outta the way to a normal tourist, so ya gotta get directions from a former HUFer).  The night was perfectly clear and the starts and the moon were so bright reflecting into the water as we sat on the rocks and talked. 

Back at the hotel, I was disappointed to find that for the second night running, no hot water.  In fact only frigid, icy water.  But I forced myself to jump in and out really quick!

The next morning, we had the option of leaving at 8 in the morning (which was originally planned for the group) or leaving on our own and coming back for dinner.  Well, for me, that was an easy decision, and about 10 of us stayed as long as we possible could on the beaches.  We packed up, went to the next town over, picked the perfect rock, and laid out on it for a few hours.  Even with the sun, to me, it was still a little chilly (and there was no way I was getting in that water either!) but it was just really laid back and lots of fun. 

Hopefully, I can put up some pics pretty soon so ya’ll can see for yourselves how beautiful this place is!  If you ever get a chance to go to Italy, you MUST go here!

Monday:

I was really confused this morning when I woke up because I heard the bell ring.  I thought I had really overslept and was about to rush to class and then realized that it was for the 8 o’ clock class, so I actually got to have my breakfast after all which made me a happy camper.  Also, I only had one class, Bible, and then chapel, then done for the day.  So far I have been making such wise use of my time and have been organizing my Germany pictures, catching up on journals, and if I really get ambitions here, I might even attempt to work on some biology.

I have pretty much spent the day just trying to get caught up with stuff and now, all of my pics are online too.  I succeeded in coming up with a sketchy outline of next free travel (to Spain!). 

Tomorrow, we leave for the Cinque Terre (the last group trip L) but it’s supposed to be a fun one!  It’s on the coast and is apparently beautiful, so hope the weather holds out for us.  Will be back Thursday.  Ciao 

Sunday:

Woke up really early on the train (which was fairly comfy I must admit) only to realize that we had no idea where we were!  We were supposed to arrive in Florence at about 6:15 in the morning, but we definitely weren’t on schedule.  Nicole and Sara Kat had looked at the train schedule only to determine that had gotten on the wrong train the night before and were headed to Milan, so we would just have to figure out what to do once we got to Milan.  I was so confused (and a little disoriented because I had just woken up) but I looked out the window and recognized where we were: Bologna.  There was no way I was about to travel 3 hours out of our way to Milan, so we grabbed all our stuff and got off at Bologna and went straight to the information office to sort things out.  It looked as if we were going to have to wait about ½ and hour to get to Florence.  But when we came back outside, our train was still there and on the side it said it was headed to Florence after all.  So we got right back on.  Apparently, for some unknown reason, our train had been delayed for several hours the night before which was why we were so late getting back to Florence.  Anyway, we ended up back in Florence “home sweet home.”  And after a week of constant snow, the temperature in Florence was awesome.  We were some of the first ones back at the villa that morning (the trek up the hill with backpacks was pretty tiring) so we had plenty of time to unpack, shower and get some breakfast.  Ms. Klien ever gave me a “how to make espresso” lesson.  After being on the run for a week, it sure was good to get back and settle back down, have clean clothes and showers with plenty of hot water!

About and hour before lunch, most people had returned.  Of course, we all had to talk about where we had been, tell all the stories, and show what we had bought.  Thankfully everyone had good free travel experiences minus a few missed trains, etc along the way.  Then, we had a study session for our test that evening, lunch (yay for all you can eat food) and then another study session.  After that, I studied for the humanities test (and talked some too) and then took it around 5.  After that, we had church in the basement along with a few visitors (the Mitchells, the Cones and some people from Florence).  Then, dinnertime (Sunday night pizza).  After dinner, I mainly just hung around and talked with everyone, listened to the guitar/singing concerts, and waited to use the phone.  Finally after the eternal phone line wait, I called Shohrae and talked to her for awhile and also got to chat with Ashley, Christie, and say hey to Cari.  I loved getting to hear all the news and talk to them since it was the first time I had a chance to do that!  Then, I called Ryan and had one of the shortest conversations ever because my phone card used up all my minutes and disconnected us L.  I was all out of Europa phone cards and couldn’t fugire our how to use the American ones, so I just ended up giving up and going to bed. 

A highlight of my day:  when I got back to the villa early in the morning, Nicole let me know I had a package sitting out.  I got really excited, but then though then were just kidding with me.  But I actually really did have a package!  FedEx-ed to me from Shohrae and Christie with a mini-package from Ryan too!  So now I have lots and lots of goodies: fun stuff and practical stuff, all of which was so perfect and made my day.  Thanks ya’ll!   

Saturday: Salzburg

I was determined to make the most of our real last day of free travel and squeeze as much Salzburg into one day as possible.  It was a little easier than usual to get up at 7 because the British girl sleeping under me had a cell phone alarm that went off really loudly and then she couldn’t find it to turn it off!  It woke all of us 8 girls up, but it was pretty funny because she just kept apologizing in a British accent.  So we got up, ate breakfast, and plotted out our day on the map as best as possible.  First stop, Mozart’s home.  Housed in the apartments he lived in later in his life, it was a pretty interesting museum with paintings, documents, even original musical instruments.  Then, off to our next Mozart destination, his house of birth.  Of course, we got sidetracked along the way with some souvenier shops and cappuccino.  The second Mozart museum looked more like a house and had some neat exhibits like opera sets and costumes.  We had planned to grab lunch on the run so that we would be able to squeeze in as much as we possible could but the Fortress on the hill was overpriced (in our humble student opinion) so we just looked at it from the outside, took a picture and bought giant pretzels instead!  Now that’s the kinda lunch I’m talking bout.  We spent the extra time walking around the famous Salzburg shopping streets, people-watching and going to the big domed cathedral, St. Peters. 

Random side story: I was laughed at in Salzburg because I only knew one language!  These guys asked us if we spoke English and when I said yes, they said, “and…” and I was like, “just English.”  They were from Algiers, and were really surprised that that was it.  Compared to most Europeans, we definitely can’t even match up to their language skills…several know 3 or more!

Then, time for the much anticipated Sound of Music tour!  We arrived just in time for our tour and loaded up on the red VW vans for 4 hours of Von Trapp style fun.  Since it was winter and snowy, all the sites looked a lot different than the movie, but it was fun to see all the places and hear all kinds of movie trivia and Salzburg trivia too.  We saw the abbey, the two palaces, several streets, the gazebo, the garden, the wedding church and many more sites.  We drove all over the countryside, made a few stops (for crisp apple strudel) and even saw the “most picturesque village” in Austria.  And most of the time, we listened to the movie soundtrack.  Definitely very cheesy and touristy, but still very fun.  After our tour, we made a quick stop at Mirabell Gardens, but the weather turned really icy and cold.  So we went to a small cathedral to look around, but they were having some kind of services.  As we tried to leave, outside on the street, there was a small group of protesters walking down the street followed by police.  It was some kind of demonstration, but we couldn’t figure out what for.  After getting recommendations from our tour guide, we found yet another authentic Austrian restaurant for dinner.  We had plenty of time before we had to hear for the train station, so we took our time and had awesome traditional food.  I even got a little crazy and actually ate the mushrooms that were in my food, believe it or not. 

Then, back to get all our stuff and head to the train station.  We were on a train for 3 hours and then made the connection in Villach for our overnight train.  After quiet study time and snack time, we all went to sleep.      

Friday: Dachau

We got to sleep al little longer than usual and take our time at breakfast before we heade out to Dachau, known for it’s terrible concentration camp.  The route there was supposed to be really easy: just hop on a subway, ride it for 20 minutes, and then get off.  Somehow though, it manages to be way more complicated and after much confusion and running through train stations, we made in an hour and a half later.  Dachau has been preserved almost just like it was except the main center building has been turned into a museum.  We spent a little over 3 hours here reading everything about the camp.  It was definitely an eye-opening and thought provoking experience and we all learned a lot.  It defiantly wasn’t “fun,” in fact, it was more like sick chills from the sobering reality of man’s inhumanity to man, but it was definitely beneficial.  We toured the grounds, the prisoners barracks, and the crematorium/gas chamber areas along with a few different memorial sites.  Then, we headed back to Munich to make our way to Salzburg.  One minor miscalculation of military time caused us to miss yet another train, so we walked around the main square of Munich a little more and stopped in Hard Rock Café.  Finally, we left Munich en route to Salzburg.  Once we got there though, Salzburg looked a lot different than what we had expected…much smaller and pretty much closed down for the night.  Well, thanks to the help of an elderly German, we realized that we were not in Salzburg.  In fact, not only were we in the wrong city, we were in the wrong country!  We had just gotten off one stop to soon, so we hopped back on the train and eventually made it to our final free travel destination.  The hostel we stayed at was pretty nice (except for the fact that you had to pay for hot water in the showers).  Also, we met two other American girls who were teachers in Budapest.  They were with a Christian organization that taught English to high school students and they were from Pennsylvania and Washington.  It was nice to hear an American accent for a change! 

Thursday: Rothenburg

Once again, a late start in the morning caused us to miss our train.  And to top it all off, we didn’t even have the right train to begin with.  Thomas Cook, our railway guide book had lied to us about which trains to take and when making me an unhappy camper.  But, we did end up on the nicest train I have been on yet if that was any consolation.  Three trains later and after playing many train games, we made it to Rothenburg.  It is a really cute traditional medieval German town right out of a book.  It is famous for Christmas time especially.  We walked around a little bit and stood on the city gates.  We bought some “schneeballs” the typical pastry.  There were tons of little shops everywhere, but most of it was very touristy.  We went to the Medieval Crime Museum which had all kinds if cool things that they used as punishments in the middle ages.  Some of the things were really horrific like the torture instruments, but some of the things were kinda humorous, like the silly masks they used to make people wear as slight punishments.  Then, we went to a doll and toy museum.  Sara Kathryn and Nicole weren’t too thrilled with it, but I enjoyed looking around at all the old toys, mainly dolls and dollhouses.  They even had a full room devoted to Barbies.  I think I actually had some of those Barbies that were in the museum now.  We went to this huge Christmas store full of ornaments, but I didn’t really see anything that special that just jumped out at me except for a hand-painted egg (red and black too) that will prolly go on the Christmas tree.  We shopped around some more in the little shops, but after awhile, it seemes like they all had the same things: cuckoo clocks, knives, german mugs, etc.  I came to the conclusion that the whole town looked like something that could have been right in the middle of Disneyworld.  We had a yummy dinner at Gasthof Goldener Greifen, a place run by a little old lady.  Then, we took our series of 3 trains back to Munch.        

Wednesday: Fussen

We woke up to, of course, more snow as we headed out to our day-trip to Fussen.  We got a slow start in the morning, so our missed our train and took the one 30 minutes later.  Our trip only took probably a little over and hour, and when we arrived in Fussen, we took a bus to the upper part of the city where the famous castles were located.  While waiting for the bus, we saw this really cute old couple: they were decked out in traditional German hiking wear, complete with the little felt hats, knickers and all.  Once our bus dropped us off, we looked at all our options and decided to get to the castle Neuschwanstein on foot.  So after about a 30 minute walk up the snowy hill, we made it.  We had a guided tour inside the castle which was pretty short, but the inside of the castle itself was really neat.  The castle was built in the 1870s but the king, who was rumored to be mentally ill, built everything in his castle according to medieval legends.  After our tour, we took a horse and carriage down the hill to the town and looked around a few of the stores before we left for Munich. 

Ok, now for the bad part of the trip:  as we were getting off the train at Munich, I left my camera on the train.  Didn’t realize it until about 30 minutes later and the train was gone by then.  I found the lost and found office and checked several times, but no luck.  Kinda put a damper on the rest of the trip for me, especially because I love taking pictures and I have no one to blame for that one except myself.  Guess I learned that lesson the hard way.  So, now all the pics are other peoples off the computer.  L

Back at the hostel, we met up with Jenni, and Danielle with Heath and Andrew (visiting form Searcy).  We all went to dinner together at the famous Hofbrau house.  It is a famous beer place, but has a really fun atmosphere, complete with a German brass band.  The place was filled with long tables and you are just supposed to sit down with random people.  We were all able to squeeze into the same table though.  The menu was all completely in German, and when we tried to order drinks, our waiter said all they had was beer and fizzy water!  Eventually though, he did tell us they had a Coke/lemonade mix which was interesting.  We all ended up doing an eeny meeny miny moe on the menu and just ordering random things, but for the most part, it was all pretty tasty.  The festive atmosphere made for a really fun night. 

Even though I was away from the villa, it seemed like everyone had come to Munich.  On this one day alone, I saw 4 different free travel groups, 2 randomly.  It was fun to get to see everyone though and talk about the different free travel experiences. 

Later that night, we went back to the hostel and I was able to call my family and talk to them for awhile and give Ryan a quick call.  I decided to go grungy the next day and adopt a “no showering on free travel” policy and then went to sleep.

Tuesday: Munich

Since our couchettes were a lot nicer this time, I got some good sleep which was fortunate because I had to wake up at 5:45 when the train guy came for our passports.  When I looked out the dark window though, I saw…SNOW!  It was all over the place and it was beautiful!  When we got to the train station, We told James, Kyla and Marcus bye and met up with Jay and Phil.  We stayed at the train station for awhile (which was really nice actually) and got some coffee and pastries.  We found our hostel and got all checked in and situated and got our maps and headed out to explore Munich. 

Munich was such and awesome city!  Germany, in general, is really a lot different than the other places I have been so far.  The whole city feels really clean (we saw so many window-washers that morning, it was almost funny) and sterile with uniform buildings.  Also, the people, in general, just looked a lot cleaner and well-dressed, but I think it is more of what we are used too.  We didn’t come across quite as many English speakers, and actually, I think most of the time, we were mistaken as Germans. 

We headed off to the Deutches Museum, the most visited museum which is a science museum.  We spent about 3 hours there and could have spend a lot more with the seemingly endless exhibits of everything from musical instruments to trains to physics.  Basically, anyone could have found something interesting, especially because a lot of the things were hands-on.  There was definitely some stuff that was just way over my non-science head.  We grabbed some food at McDonald’s (yeah, we gave in because we were in a hurry).  Then we visited the Alte Pinotethek, an art museum.  I had never heard of this museum, but they had a really good collection; most of the artists were very famous.  In one room, there was an artist with his easel and canvas set up and he was copying an old work.  Even though he had a slightly different style, it was very accurate, even in the smallest detail.  After the art museum, we headed off to Marienplatz, home of the famous Glockenspiel.  We arrived in time to hear the bells and see the little figures come out and twirl around.  Fun to see just for the experience, but that was about it.  We ate on the run again, grabbing some sausage, walking through the snow and listening to Jay make up songs on the way to the opera.  We got there an hour before the show started so that we could get cheap student tickets.  We had to wait awhile, but we ended up getting tickets in the back on the floor for 8 euro which were originally 80!  We had no idea what we opera it was and the subtitles were in German, but we eventually figure out, it was Cinderella.  It helped that it was a more familiar story because we could follow along a little better (and even understand some of the Italian).  The opera house was spectacular and had something like 6 different levels of balconies and was really ornate.  The opera was good, but kinda long, and we all got a little sleepy and I will admit, I think I took a little nap.  Then the curtain closed and after a quick curtain call, the opera was over.  I thought it ended a little awkwardly and abruptly, but every last person cleared out of the theatre, so we put on all our winter gear and were walking outside when we realized that it might just be intermission.  So we walked back inside just to wait and see, and sure enough, it was.  Felt pretty stupid after that one.        

We were originally planning on going on Mike’s Bike Tour of Munich which takes you to all the major sites, but with the snow and wind it was just way too cold.  But for ya’ll that might be coming over soon, everyone recommends it, so I would look into it. 

We stayed in our very first hostel that night: 18 people total.  We had our group of 5 and then other people like ourselves from places like Japan, Portugal, and Australia.  For the most part though, we didn’t really meet that many people just because people were coming and going at all different times.  It was definitely an interesting experience though, but well-worth it for all the money we saved.