Roma, Italy: The Home of Harry Potter References

First of all, I apparently stopped taking notes on Rome when I was in the middle of the day so I may have forgotten most of the things that we did. I'll try to get everything though, but we shall see what happens.

We arrived in Rome and quickly took the metro to near our hostel, checking in at our hostel at 10:30. Once we were checked in we immediately headed out to get some dinner because we had only eaten empanadas that day for breakfast and lunch. The hostel worker was kind enough to point us to a nice pasta place just down the street that we had passed on our way to the hostel. We were so glad that it was open because we were scared that nothing was going to be open when we arrived. I don't remember what I ordered, but I remember it was way too cheesy. Don't get me wrong, it was amazing and wonderful, however after about half the plate I could not eat anymore. I was very full by that time too so it didn't really matter that I couldn't eat anymore by then. I did feel bad for wasting it though. While we were eating, the guys in the table next to us started up a conversation with us. Mostly we all kept jumping in on each other's conversations, or once Abigail and I were laughing about something and they thought we were laughing at them. We found out that one of their friends was moving to IA while we were chatting. Once we were done eating, we went back to the hostel and went into a food coma for the rest of the night.

The next morning, we began our day by getting on the metro and heading to the Vatican area of Rome. The metro on our way there was extremely crowded. Then once we got off at the Vatican metro stop, we found the streets were crawling with people wanting to sell us tickets to get into the Vatican. I'm sure Abigail would have enjoyed going into the Vatican, but we had decided that we were going to skip that part and just go see San Pietro Square instead of going in. Every street, people tried to talk to us, some telling me I would never be allowed into the Vatican or the church because my shoulders weren't covered. We politely ignored them and kept walking though since we weren't planning on going in. They kept telling us it would be a two hour wait though to get into the Vatican which seemed rather ridiculous. Once we saw San Pietro Square, which was very large, we headed out of the Vatican area and off to our next location.

San Pietro Square
Photo Cred: Mildred

We have now arrived at the portion of the note taking I failed at, however I did find our map of Rome so it might not be as terrible, but bear with me! Our next location was a fountain that Abigail really wanted to see and was supposedly amazing. The metro we took, took us to a place that had a fountain right at the square that we came above ground at and we thought that was the fountain. It was not nearly as cool as Abigail had made it seem and she didn't seem all that impressed by it either. However, we went and took pictures with it quickly and then decided to go find a place for lunch.

Fontana Tritone
Photo Cred: Mildred

At lunch, we were looking at the map our hostel had given us of Rome and realized that the fountain we had been looking at was the wrong fountain! We were really lucky that the map had pictures of the places we were going to. So heading back towards the Fontana Tritone, the fountain we had thought was a different one, we walked passed that and headed towards the correct fountain. Fontana di Trevi was absolutely goregous once we arrived. It has started to drizzle while we were walking there but we just ignored it and kept moving on because nothing was going to stop us from completing our mission, especially since we were only in Rome for a day.

Fontana di Trevi
Photo Cred: Abigail

Fontana di Trevi
Photo Cred: Mildred

After taking in the wonderful fountain, we just continued on down the road we had been on. We weren't really sure of what we were seeing a lot of the time, and we definitely tried to figure it out based off the pictures on the map, however we mostly didn't worry about it and took in the sights. It wasn't until we got to the Vittoriano Monument that things started to get really interesting.

Vittoriano Monument
Photo Cred: Abigail

At this monument, the first reference was made to Harry Potter that day. I believe the comment came from Abigail, but I'm not completely sure on that matter. However something related to Griffins and Gryffindor was stated though. Then a little while later, I asked a stupid question, "Has Rome held the Olympics before?". Abigail laughed and we continued on after I realized how stupid I was. On our way to our next destination, which was of course the Colosseum, we bought some gelato. At the Colosseum again, we were ambushed by people again trying to sell tickets to get into the Colosseum, telling us that it would take hours upon hours to get in. We decided to try out the line though and I started the timer on my Fitbit to find out how long it actually took us. The 2-3 hours that the salespeople had told us, was actually just 30 minutes and then we were in. I loved the Colosseum, it was absolutely beautiful and the overcast weather made it look even cooler in my opinion.

In the Colosseum
Photo Cred: Some random strangers

In the Colosseum
Photo Cred: Abigail

Along with our ticket to get into the Colosseum, it also granted us access to the Palantine and the Roman Forum so we had fun walking through that area too. I definitely enjoyed walking through and seeing all the remains of Old Rome. The last photo that you see in this section has Harry Potter written into the caption. This photo was the place we had the second Harry Potter reference. In order to get into Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, the wall moves back to allow you in and we saw many walls with bricks that looked like they were moving in order to let us into Diagon Alley. So, Diagon Alley is actually located in Rome instead of England.

Roman Forum
Photo Cred: Abigail

I was super enjoying all the pillars and arches we saw
Photo Cred: Abigail

Inside the Colosseum, Harry Potter
Photo Cred: Mildred

However, our journey had to end early because Abigail hadn't worn the best outfit for walking around and it was beginning to get painful to walk around. So we ended the day and headed back to the hostel where we watched a few movies and relaxed the rest of the day, until we wanted to go get dinner. We ate at a Kebap place that night so she could experience the amazingness of Turkish food that I had come to love during my time in Spain. We spent another night in that hostel before heading to the train and going to Assisi, Italy, which was an hour train ride away.

Barcelona, Spain: Once More With Feeling

When we arrived at the airport, we found a nice place to lay down on the floor, charge up our phones and fitbits and then slept for as long as they would allow us. I'm pretty sure they only allow people to sleep until 4 or 5 in the morning when the airport opens back up. Then we just moved to a bench and sat there until the busses were running to get into Barcelona itself. I made sure to get a picture with Fernando Botero's horse statue in the airport cause I had been wanting one.

Fernando Botero's Horse
Photo Cred: Abigail

We took the bus in and arrived at a completely empty Cataluña Plaza, which was awesome to me since when I had been there at the beginning of the semester it had been packed. I really liked walking around the basically abandoned street and plaza before 7am. Then we basically stalked Starbucks waiting for them to open. Seeing as it was Spain, they didn´t open on time so we waited even longer. The reason we were stalking that place was my stomach was extremely upset and I needed a bathroom ASAP because of that. It was really pleasant waiting for Starbucks to open let me tell ya.

Then after things began opening up more, we headed to Park Guell. However, I was way too confident with taking the bus and we ended up on the correct bus but heading in the complete wrong direction. The bus driver chatted with me when it was his break time, the end of the bus line, and he told us we done goofed but had us get back on the bus and made sure we got off at the proper stop when we got to Park Guell. So once we got to Park Guell, we headed straight to the cross to see all of Barcelona.

View from Cross in Park Guell
Photo Cred: Random Stranger

Park Guell
Photo Cred: Abigail's Selfie Mode

We sat around in Park Guell for awhile before we headed to Sagrada Familia. We had lunch a little ways away from Sagrada Familia because it wasn't our time to go into Sagrada Familia yet. Then once it was, we went in and saw the amazing view. I was still in awe when I went even though I had seen it in January when my friends and I had gone. I wasn't up to walking through the museum though so while Abigail walked through that I just chilled. After that we headed back to the Cataluña Plaza and walked down the Rambla. We tried to find a hat for my dad here, since I still hadn't found one. However, we could only find flatbill hats and my dad would definitely not have worn that so we were out of luck. The Rambla took us to the ocean so we began our journey to find the place where our ferry would be. Also while we were walking down the Rambla, we stopped at a grocery store and bought some empanadas to eat for dinner and then so we would have lunch on the ferry as well. The ferry was a pain to find let me tell you. They aren't part of the bus line, but we were unaware of that. Someone who worked for another ferry company gave us a map of the port and told us where we needed to go, and told us that we could take the bus there. However, that was a lie. We took the bus and ended up back where we had started, we were just not having good luck with buses that day. Instead of using the bus, we had to walk across the port to get to Grimaldi Lines. Then we had a couple hours to wait before we could actually get on the ferry since we had arrived extremely early.

The reason we arrived extremely early was just because we were exhausted, we had walked a lot again after a long day of walking the day before. We had seen everything that I thought we really needed to see in Barcelona too since I had been there two other times after all and slept in the airport a good 4 times by that time what with the first visit to Barcelona, my trip to Ireland, my visit to Barcelona the week before, and then this trip all having involved sleeping in the airport. While we were waiting for the ferry to arrive, we found out that a ton of kids were taking the ferry to Italy and they were like any child who was traveling, being extremely loud.

FERRY RIDE
Eventually, we were allowed onto the ferry, went through security and were ushered into a room that had a bunch of comfy chairs. Abigail and I just laid down and went to sleep almost as soon as we got into that room. One of the workers gave us some water that tasted disgusting then we slept for 12 hours. Not because of the water mind you, just because we were tired. After those 12 hours we almost participated in a life boat drill because we thought it was required, but then they told us it was optional so we went back to the comfy chair room. We ate our empanadas and then headed up to the top deck to hang out there. We sat on the ground for awhile, then in some of the pool chairs by the pool. We just moved all over the top deck, making sure to stay super sunscreened so we wouldn´t get to burnt though. It was really warm.

Our Ferry from Grimaldi Lines
Photo Cred: Abigail's selfie abilities

The Ocean between Spain and Italy
Photo Cred: Mildred

When we were in the pool chairs, I would say we probably won the sun bathing with the most clothes on award, since we were fully clothed and everyone around us was in their swim suits, some with them untied in order to make sure they didn´t get any tan lines. After awhile we decided we had enough sun and headed onto a lower deck where we found a place to watch a basketball game that Abigail wanted to see. So she watched the game while I did Suduko. We arrived in Italy around 7pm. Finding the shuttled to get from the terminal that the ferry was at, out of the boat yard, and to the train was slightly challenging but we managed it. Then we took an hour train ride to Rome.

London, United Kingdom: I can show you the World

Wow, I'm about to start the last semester of my undergraduate program and in less than a week I'll be traveling to Haiti. I suppose it is probably time to tell you all about my 10 day journey with my older sister, Abigail, through Europe since I'm sure you all have been in suspense since June waiting to hear about it. Plus, you'll have Haiti to look forward to reading about come February! Don't worry, I took really good notes at the end of each day when I was traveling with Abigail so I remember lots of it, and some of my notes are just complete gibberish that I do not understand.

Onto London though!

So I arrived in London extremely early. Not like early in the morning early, but before Abigail early. I believe I thought we were going to get in around the same time but it would take us over an hour to meet up, however Abigail's flight was extremely delayed. The airport workers for Icelandair were on strike so they were only letting one plane out every so often instead of letting the airport run as per usual. While I waited around for her to arrived, I visited a nice park square near our hostel in London and then just walked aimlessly around. I spent almost a full hour in a bookstore, which I absolutely loved the book stores there. I kept trying to get wifi off the places I walked passed to get in contact with Abigail but it was almost impossible since I didn't want to stop walking so I kept walking out of the wifi zone. Once Abigail arrived though, we got all settled in at the hostel, okay I settled in before she actually arrived but same thing. That night we headed to watch Aladdin the musical. It was unbelievably amazing. Absolutely perfect and I'm so glad that we were able to see it.

After seeing Aladdin
Photo Cred: Abigail

After seeing Aladdin
Photo Cred: Mildred

The Genie was absolutely hilarious in the musical and definitely took the whole show. I'm pretty sure they painted his whole face in glitter too for the role. The magic carpet scene was extremely awesome too and very well done. I would love to go see Aladdin again because it was just that amazing. Once the show was over we went and got some ice cream before heading back to the hostel to prepare for the next day. Down in the kitchen, we poured over the map that the hostel had provided us to decide what locations we were going to go to. Some British boys gave us pointers, telling us we had to go see Parliment while we were there and that trying to see London in one day was just ridiculous and they didn't think we could do it. We had a plan though and we were not going to be held back!

Harry Potter Fix of the Day
Photo Cred: Abigail

Harry Potter Fix of the Day
Photo Cred: Mildred

At 7:30 the next morning, we left the hostel to go pop over to King's Cross in order to see Platform 9 3/4. We were the only ones there to take pictures, no one else was in the line even so we got to take our time and make sure we got real good ones. Then we found the Harry Potter store right behind the Platform sign and went to work on splurging on the money that we had taken out for our London trip. We had taken out way too much money so it only seemed right to splurge on Harry Potter goodies. I bought 3 different Harry Potter charms, the Slytherin coat of arms thingy, the snitch, and the deathly hallows sign. Once I got back to school for fall semester I made the charms into a necklace. After we had our Harry Potter fix, we headed back to the hostel and had a quick breakfast before going off on the next adventure.

After that, we headed over to Hyde and Kensington Park. It was two different parks, but I'm not really sure at what point it went from being Hyde Park to being Kensington Park. I don't remember if we walked all the way there or not upon entering the park we saw a memorial for animals that had died in wars. I would post a picture of this awesome memorial/monument thing, however Google Drive has now decided that I don't have permission to download my own pictures. I'm a wee bit frustrated now, luckily I can steal pictures from Facebook though.

Hyde Park: I don't wanna be near this birds
Photo Cred: Abigail

Hyde Park: Look at the babiess
Photo Cred: Mildred

Anyway, we saw a lot of naked statues wrestling about on the fountains and then one of the last things we saw in Hyde and Kensington Park was the Princess Diana monument. That was an awesome monument to see. These pictures of swans were on the way to seeing the Princess Diana monument and you can tell we both obviously have different views of birds. I'd prefer to not be super close to them, I was somewhat trying to keep them from swimming away and somewhat just not wanting to be near a mama swan and her babies. Whereas Abigail was all for getting close to the swans and they didn't seem to be super scared of us as I was expecting. Anyhoo, the Princess Diana monument was awesome because it was sort of all about for the people that came to see her. Since she was seen as being such an accessible princess when she was alive, they made the monument so you could wade in it and contemplate. I just thought it was awesome that they allowed people to wade in the monument. The monument also had two different streams of water basically that clashed together in order to show the happiness and turmoil during Princess Diana's life. They had signs all around explaining why the monument had been built the way it was, and I'm all about knowing why so that was awesome too.

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
Photo Cred: Abigail

Those are Abigail's shoes
Photo Cred: Abigail

By the time we were leaving the park, which we spent most of the morning in, we were already getting tired and ready to find a place to eat lunch. We couldn't find anywhere to eat though! Eventually we came across Buckingham Palace, which I wasn't all that impressed with. You couldn't even get a good picture of it in all honesty. We also stumbled upon the Palace during the changing of the guard which was pretty interesting and I didn't realize it was such an intense process that they did. Then we eventually were allowed to walk around again, they had everywhere basically blocked off because of the changing of the guard, and ended up by the mounted guard's changing of the guard as well. That was a lot more interesting to watch if I do say so myself. At some point, we finally managed to find food and we actually ate Spanish food, Tapas supposedly, for lunch instead of finding some food that was very England. Then we went off on more walking. We found an m&m store that had four floors of just m&ms. Then we came across a Nickelodeon store and a comic superhero store. They were all pretty cool places to just walk around in. I have a note written down called "forbidden planet" but I'm really not sure what it was supposed to mean. I googled what Forbidden Planet is and I'm thinking it was probably the comic superhero store that we went to.
So after we were completely exhausted from walking around, we headed back to king's cross station and hopped on a bus there to get to the airport. The traffic in London was terrible and the bus driver was actually telling us about how so many people get run over because they don't pay enough attention when crossing the streets. Since the traffic was terrible, one lady who hadn't given herself enough time was super concerned about missing her plane. We got to the airport and ate a huge meal because we still had a ton of pounds left. One guy near us was throwing a fit while we were there because he had eaten something he was allergic to, and had purposely done it. It was very entertaining. Our flight to Barcelona was super delayed and we arrived 2 hours later than planned.