Knut :(

I wanted to post this before I post about Budapest.  Knut, the famous polar bear from the Berlin Zoo, was found dead today in his compound.  I saw him only a month ago.  He was so cute and cuddly, and, as the first polar bear in history to be raised by humans, had a huge audience.  This is an awful loss for Berlin and Germany.

RIP Knut.

Three glorious days in Firenze!

Two weekends ago (March 4-6) I went to Florence, Italy to meet up with my Fordham roommate and best friend Miss Molly Drescher!  I was way too excited to see her; it had been too long since I could talk about Rock of Ages with someone who understood my love!  I also hadn’t seen her since December, so this reunion had been months in the making!  ALSO, in case you didn’t remember, I spent July of 2006 in Florence with Holy Child, and was so excited to go back to see the city again!

The Duomo!

I took an overnight train on Thursday night from Vienna to Florence with a group of friends, and got into Vienna 11 hours later at 6:30 AM!  It wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds... I guess.  We had more than enough room to spread out, and my friend Mairead and I found an empty cabin that allowed us to both lie down for an hour or so.  I think I was pretty positive about the whole experience because I felt like I was in Harry Potter.

When we got to Florence, I found out Molly’s train from Paris was delayed an hour, so my friends Jared and Eric and I walked around the train station, got some (shockingly, awful) pizza (it was microwaved) and  waited for Molly.  When Molly arrived, the two of us walked to our hostel while Eric and Jared ate breakfast.

We stayed at the Plus Hostel Florence, a really nice hostel in a great location.  We were about 10 minutes from the train station, 5 minutes from the San Lorenzo market, and 10 minutes from the Duomo.  Our check in time wasn’t until noon, so we left our bags at the hostel and walked around Florence for the next four hours.  We were both starving, after not eating at all on our train rides, so we found a place in the Piazza della Repubblica that served an American breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast.  Delicious!  Then we walked around pretty much all of the main area of Florence.

The Duomo again - we were so lucky we had such a beautiful weekend.

The doors to my old apartment!  A lot more graffiti now than when I lived here.

Molly rubbing the lucky hog.

The inside of my jewelry box... or just some jewels on the Ponte Vecchio.

The Ponte Vecchio!

This is a replica statue of David that replaced the original during the 19th century.

MY FIRST GELATO YUM YUM YUM!

Mango and green apple... it was my favorite in 2006 and is still my favorite.

After we checked in, we decided to go out again and walk around.  We had a DELICIOUS late lunch and drank a little too much wine, and walked back to our hostel to meet up with Eric and Jared.  Our night was a short one as a result of the lack of sleep from the train and the wine, and we were in bed by midnight.

Saturday Molly and I woke up early to get a head start on the day.  We walked down to Santa Croce to go to the leather school.  This was one of my favorite things we did when I was in Florence in high school, and I was so excited to go again.  Behind the church, there is a leather school (Scuolo del Cuoio) that is housed in a former Franciscan monastery that sells unbelievable leather goods.  We both bought some leather things as souvenirs and went on our way.

We then went to our first meal of the day.  Gusta Panino.  Michele suggested... no, more like demanded... that Molly and I go to Gusta Panino to get.. you guessed it, a panino - “panini” as we use it is actually the plural form of “panino”.  I got a mozzarella, tomato, and pesto panino that was unreal.  So. Delicious.  We sat on the steps of Santo Spirito and devoured our delicious panini.  We then decided we needed more food, so we slowly made our way over to the Duomo area to find a restaurant.  We found one in between the Duomo and San Lorenzo called Giannino in San Lorenzo.  If you are ever in Florence, GO to this restaurant.  Upon our arrival, our waiter asked us, “Where in Amereeka you come from?” I replied, “New York, The Bronx.”  I have found when you’re abroad it’s much easier to say where you go to school, and since Molly and I both go to Fordham it was doubly easy.  I never, ever, ever expected the reaction we got when I answered that simple question.  The restaurant nearly exploded, every waiter came running to our table screaming, “DA BRONX! YOU COME FROM DA BRONX! YOU KNOW MY COUSIN?? YOU KNOW MY FRIEND PAULO??” This was, obviously, very overwhelming.  But awesome nonetheless.

Sunday we did some more walking, and decided to go to the Fiorentina Football game!  It was a lot of fun.  Thank goodness my friend Jared plays goalie for Kenyon College or I never would have understood the game.

I love Italy.

We had GORGEOUS weather the entire weekend, and I came back to Vienna Monday morning feeling colder than ever.  It was an awesome weekend and I can’t wait to see Molly again in May when she and her family come to Vienna!

Here are some more photos from our amaaaazing trip to Italia!

My Italian classroom was right down this street!

In front of Santa Croce

Molly in front of Santa Croce

Another love lock bridge!

Here I am in front of the Ponte Vecchio!

This is for you, Michele!

Eating my delicious mozzarella, tomato, pesto panino!

Molly was in love.

Molly went a little crazy in the San Lorenzo market.

The view from our balcony!

This was Sunday morning’s breakfast. Who said you can’t eat pasta at 10 AM?

Here I am in front of the Duomo!

It was Carneval the weekend we came to Florence, and there were masks being sold everywhere!

Here we are waiting for the soccer game to start!

Eric was very excited to be allowed to drink at a professional sporting event.

Go Fiorentina!

Jared loved his pizza... clearly.

Very small photo, but here are me and Molly at the Duomo!

Ciao for now!

Meinen Lieblingsfreunden besuchen Wien!

Two weekends ago, my friends Julia and Bridget came to Vienna!  Julia is studying in Toledo and Bridget is studying in Rome this semester.  Julia brought a couple of girls from her program in Toledo too.  We had an awesome time and I loved being their tour guide!  I took them to all the Vienna must-sees and showed them my favorite parts of the city.  I think its safe to say they both loved Vienna... especially the street food!  I’ve never seen a group of people eat more Käsekrainers and bratwurst in one weekend!

Here are some photos from our weekend together!

Friday night we met up with Mairead, another Holy Child alum who is studying in Vienna at IES with me!
I’m pretty sure this has been sent to Glimpses, so look out for us in the next issue!

Me, Bridget, and Julia at the Cafe Palmenhaus... it was so sunny we could (finally) eat outside!!

Bridget and her long lost love... Käsekrainer.  A Käsekrainer is a bratwurst filled with cheese inside a roll..
it is SO DELICIOUS!

We went to the Prater, an amusement park in the 2nd district...
I hadn’t been there yet and was definitely excited to see it!

The Wiener Reisenrad (Vienna Ferris Wheel) is a huge tourist attraction and a symbol of Vienna. 

Bridget and I decided to skip the ride on the Reisenrad and walked around the Prater for a while.

Can you spot Bridget?

Bridget and her new friend.

A beautiful end to a wonderful weekend!

Almost caught up!! I’m two weeks behind and I’m trying my best to get to the present!!