Today was another very early day. I was up at 6:30, and out
in the street before 7. I needed to make up for lost time. I got to the Piazza
San Marco by asking “Escuzi, Piazza San Marco”. It worked pretty well. As I walked through the city, the sun
was rising, and it was beautiful. I stopped at a coffee shop for a cappuccino
(= café con leche) and a croissant with peach marmalade inside. When I got to
the Piazza, the sky was an amazing pink, and it looked beautiful set behind the
Doge’s Palace and the Campanile San Marco. Since it was so early, I didn’t get
to go inside anything, but seeing it was better than nothing. It made me feel
much better about wasting yesterday by not doing anything. In the Piazza, I met
a nice man from Florida who took a picture of me in front of the harbor. From
the Piazza, I asked my way to the Rialto Bridge. I even found a man who spoke
English who took me most of the way there, by a short cut he knows. It was
amazing. The Grand Canal is beautiful, and it was great to see the city just
waking up. I wandered my way back to the Piazza, and then back to my hostel
from there. I stopped and bought some apples on my way back. My roommates were
awake when I got back, so I chatted with them as I packed up and headed out.
The return journey to the train station went much better, since it was daylight
and I was able to follow my original directions. I got scammed when I got to
the Ponte dia Constituzione, because two “kind” Italian men carried my
suitcases over, and then charged me 20 euros. I obviously couldn’t refuse them
at that point, and truthfully it would’ve taken me much longer to do it myself.
I wish it hadn’t cost me so much though.
The train ride was very nice. I switched with another
passenger. because her companion had the seat next to mine. I still had a
window, and I got to see some of the Italian countryside. When I arrived in
Florence, I got lost very quickly, but was able to purchase a map and be
quickly on my way. I got to my hostel around 1:30, but could only leave my bags
because it was “cleaning time.” My hostel is on the 3rd floor of an
apartment/office building, and is not really the best on I’ve stayed in. I am
in a room with five other people, which isn’t that bad, but my room is also the
luggage room. The majority of the people staying at my hostel are guys who,
like the people who work here, speak a foreign language from the Middle East
that I am not familiar with. It doesn’t sound like Arabic, but it could be
anything.
After dropping off my bags, I headed out into the city. My
hostel is only a couple blocks away from Il Duomo, which was my first stop. I
grabbed a calzone for lunch, and then walked around to admire the architecture.
Once I had visited the cathedral, I headed up the 363 stairs to the top of the
dome. The views were incredible, I could see the entire city and the
surrounding hills and mountains. I stayed up there for a little while, and
enjoyed the experience. I also planned out where else I was going to go. After
climbing back down the 363 steps, I went to San Lorenzo, a famous chapel where
Donatelli and the patriarch of the Medici family are buried. It had a beautiful
courtyard, as well as a very interesting museum. The church itself wasn’t my
favorite, but it was done very well. After that I walked around, got some
gelato, and saw the house of Michelangelo and the house of Dante. I didn’t go
in either one, but it was cool just to be outside of them. Then I headed back
to my hostel, and on my walk back the Christmas lights came on. I cannot wait
to walk through them once the sun fully sets.
I did some restaurant research while I uploaded photos from
my trip last week, and chose two restaurants that were relatively close and
inexpensive. On my way to one of them, I passed by a place with pretty good
deals and some delicious pizza samplers. After realizing the place I had chosen
was still a good ways down the road, I decided to just stay at this restaurant.
I had Ravioli Rose with white wine. I thought I ordered at ¼ “portion” of wine,
but apparently I ordered at ½ “portion”. That resulted in me drinking a lot
more wine than I had planned a paying a wee bit more. I finished my meal with
tiramisu. I have to say, I don’t think the Ravioli Rosa at Mama Lucia’s will
ever seem that good to me again, nor will the tiramisu I eat anywhere in the
United States. It was an incredible meal, and worth the money I paid. I got to
see the Christmas lights on my way to dinner, but I was quite surprised to see
that as I walked back to my hostel after dinner, some of the lights were
already shut off. My friends and I thought Madrid was being cheap, cutting the
lights off at 10 on weeknights, but here, it’s Saturday night and the lights
were off before 9:50. I showered and am now going to bed. My hostel has a free
sangria party going on right now, so I don’t know how well I will sleep, but I
have to try.
Reflection::
Today, I am going to reflect about my housing situation this
semester. I had two roommates, Q and Rachel. We had an amazing apartment, in my
personal opinion. We had our share of troubles and disagreements, but Q and I
became close instantly, and she was a great roommate and friend.
The apartment was located in a neighborhood near the metro
stop La Elipa. It is near the end of the red metro line, and pretty residential
by Madrid’s standards. Anyone who came to our neighborhood said that it was
“filled with old people” and that’s a pretty true statement. We had the
standard mix of families young and old, but the majority of people you saw
walking the streets were older men and women. The apartment itself was on the
10th floor of an apartment building right off of the main road in
the neighborhood. We had a kind older gentleman who was the porter of the
building. He takes the trash out, handles the mail, and watches the door during
the day hours. In our apartment, we had a small kitchen, bathroom,
living/dining room, and three bedrooms. The kitchen was well equipped, with
fridge, microwave, stove, oven, dishwasher, and clothes washer. We didn’t use
the dishwasher as anything more than a drying rack, but it definitely came in
handy. The clothes washer provided its challenges, but was of crucial
importance. I had the largest room of the three, and I really enjoyed it. I had
space to move around, even when my room was filled with my belongings as well
as those of others.
On to roommates. Since I had five roommates last year, two
didn’t seem that bad. Especially since we would all be traveling and out busy
most of the time. However, that didn’t turn out to be the case entirely. Rachel
spent most of her time in the apartment, if she wasn’t at school or tutoring.
She was pretty much a constant presence, with her popcorn, dirty dishes, loud
daily phone calls to her mom, and loud television shows online. It made it
difficult to enjoy being in my own apartment sometimes. I was glad that I was
occupied and didn’t spend too much time there myself. I also have decided not
to dwell on anything that happened between me and her, because it doesn’t
matter anymore. Luckily, Q and I were on the same page. We became friends and
travel buddies instantly, and worked really well together as roommates. We had
fun with each other, and still had other friends who we hung out with. It was a
really good balance. Without a good roommate/friend like Q, I don’t know how my
housing situation would’ve ended. All I do know is, I got my housing deposit
back, and made a hopefully lifelong friend. So I’d say that housing was mostly
a success.
No comments:
Post a Comment