¡Viva España!

I left Italy on May 30 and flew to Alicante, Spain! I landed in the afternoon and headed to the hotel. I was buzzing with excitement because I knew I was going to be surprising one of my oldest friends at her bachelorette night/despedida/hen night.

A little backstory before I get in too much further:

Elissa and I grew up together, our families were extremely close while we were growing up, her immediate family moved to Spain when I was 10 (she was 13) and we did our best to keep in touch through mail and basic email since this was way way before facebook and the like. Our families grew apart and as we got older, we lost touch, just because of life and school and whatnot. I'd missed her a ton, we were like cousins, if not sisters growing up and losing touch made it seem like something was missing. A few years ago, I was sitting in my dorm room and I thought about her and looked her up on facebook (now that we had it, and we were older, I figured why not). Well, low and behold there she was in the search results. After the friend request was sent I immediately got a message back and we were back on track and in touch again. No matter that we lived a continent apart, it seemed like nothing had changed and we chatted for quite a while making sure that siblings and parents reconnected again as well. Overall, it was a good day! As soon as I found out she was engaged, I started saving for this trip and a year and a half later, here I was, super excited. 

I caught the bus to the hotel from the airport and made my way to the hotel. The bus from the airport went along the beach and up toward the center of Alicante. I got to the drop off point and found my hotel, a less than 5 minute walk away from the beach and the other hotel where other people were staying. Checking in was super easy and upon doing so, the receptionist said "oh, you're going to have a great view!" I got up to my room, and WOW!!!!! 

No big deal, right? Just the view of the ayunimiento (city hall kinda thing) and Castillo Santa Barbara. Just a castle outside my window. SERIOUSLY!? This can't be real life. 

I skyped home with my mom while getting ready to go out. Here's where the crazy begins. I had to get to the train station, catch a train to Elche and follow all these steps to get where I was supposed to go in a country I had never been to. Long story short, I ran across downtown Alicante to the train station, missed the train and had a small melt down calling my mom and texting/calling the girls I was meeting up with. One of the girls (Lorena) called me back and asked if I could take a taxi because they really wanted me to be there. Well, I did and it was the best thing I could have done, even after the melt down. 

I got to the house where we were meeting and Melani (who I had been making plans and talking to over facebook messages the past month or so) greeted me with huge open arms and I heard Elissa trying to figure out what was going on. As we walked back into the apartment, Elissa and I made eye contact and her mouth dropped and I laughed when she said "what are you doing here!?" in complete surprise. Hugs and tears were aplenty and it was amazing to be part of such a great intercontinental surprise. From there, champagne and stories were shared while I got introduced to the other girls there. We had a great time that night, walking along the riverbed to dinner and then having an amazing dinner that was course after course of delicious food. 

The night was awesome. After dinner we walked through downtown Elche, heading toward a bar that they new would be a good time and not too crowded. The drinks were delicious, the company was even better. Those of us that didn't know each other prior to that night were already becoming fast friends and it was just exciting to be in Spain with brand new friends. I got back to my hotel around 4am, passed out for the night, excited to see Elissa's family and meet her fiancé the next night.  

I woke up the next morning and unpacked a little, got my bearings and then slept some more. Jetlag was finally starting to catch up with me and I had to nip it in the bud, I still had a week left of adventuring! I took a taxi out to Elche Friday night. Elissa and Simon's friends and families were getting together for a big dinner and I was invited, another thing I wasn't going to miss - I hadn't seen Alicia and David (Elissa's mom and brother) in years! I was so excited to see them and some other family members that were in town. The taxi driver was so nice and got me there as quickly as possible (about 30-45 minutes normally) and when we got to downtown Elche, we got turned around and he couldn't get to the restaurant because the maps and GPS were telling him one thing and the street directions were saying another. Eventually he found a local Elche taxi driver and asked him how to get there. This is also when he stopped charging me because we were going in circles and he didn't see it fair. We finally got to the city center and I got to the restaurant... Now, to figure out where we were sitting/ask people if they were with the wedding.

I walked around the restaurant and their patio and happened to over hear a conversation by some Brits and figured they were part of Simon's family or friends of the bride and groom.. I took a chance and low and behold, it was Simon's extended family and I was definitely in the right place! I set my stuff down, introduced myself and we started talking, laughing and waiting for everyone else to get there. We had a great dinner, I got to catch up with Elissa's aunts who live in Texas during dinner and on the taxi ride back to Alicante as well as her mom, brother and cousin who was there. It was a good time reconnecting with long lost "family." It was a good night, the weather PERFECT and warm, the food AMAZING and the company even better.

Fair Verona

VERONA!! i had doubted whether or not going to Verona was going to be worth it because I had seen a lot of places that Verona was a bit of a tourist trap because of the Romeo and Juliet things, but two things had me holding out hope. The first was when The Unknown Chef went to Vinitaly and was posting a million pictures while he was there and responded to me on Instagram telling me to make sure that I go.. and the second was Jen telling me that we were going because it was great and, while touristy, amazing because it has so so so much history.

Verona is second to Bassano del Grappa on my favorite places in Italy. The history of the city, the Roman, Austrian and Italian influences, the everything. We followed the ever pleasant Rick Steves' tour from his Italy book to see the main sites in the city and then wandered around in between.

The main street when you enter Verona is blocked off so that only the city maintenance vehicles can drive through it, as history states that the main walkway was meant for the strolling of the upper class folks and it was closed off after traffic in the area got too bad to enjoy the GIGANTIC sidewalk. In Verona, the only people allowed to drive are the locals, if you drive to the city, you have to park on the outskirts and walk into the city. It was kind of nice because there weren't people driving everywhere and made it way easier to walk.

This city is amazing. It dates back to the Roman empire and there are ruins all over the city. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the Roman city underneath the current city. Along with Roman history, it was also part of Austria, as was a lot of northern Italy, for a long time before the Venetians took back over. There is a lot of World War 2 history here as well. There is a coliseum left over from the Romans that is still mainly intact. It's two levels high currently and there are sections of the third level still standing. It's pretty cool.

We tagged along with a tour group for a little bit because the guide was amazing and new a ton about the city that Rick didn't add in his book. We found out about Dante, who was from Verona, that Shakespeare actually spent time in Verona because the details he wrote about are too accurate with Veronan history for them to be completely made up.

Apparently, there are a ton of people who don't know that Romeo and Juliet is a story and it's not real? Either way, Verona has done a great job in capitalizing on his play and how it wove into the city. The "Capulet" family was based on the "Cappello" family, the hatmakers and their house in the story is believed to be based on the houses on via Cappello. The city has a courtyard that is dedicated to "Juliet" and it has a balcony and a setting that could have easily been what Shakespeare based the famous balcony scene on.

We tagged along with a tour group for a little bit because the guide was amazing and new a ton about the city that Rick didn't add in his book. We found out about Dante, who was from Verona, that Shakespeare actually spent time in Verona because the details he wrote about are too accurate with Veronan history for them to be completely made up.

Apparently, there are a ton of people who don't know that Romeo and Juliet is a story and it's not real? Either way, Verona has done a great job in capitalizing on his play and how it wove into the city. The "Capulet" family was based on the "Cappello" family, the hatmakers and their house in the story is believed to be based on the houses on via Cappello. The city has a courtyard that is dedicated to "Juliet" and it has a balcony and a setting that could have easily been what Shakespeare based the famous balcony scene on.

We walked around the city, got pastries, saw different monuments and things, saw the huge tombs of the Scaligeri family who were so good at asserting their power that they changed the laws to make sure they could be buried inside the city and this super awesome bridge called Ponte Pietra. It was an original marble bridge built by the Romans that was bombed in WWII. The Veronans salvaged as much of the marble as they could to rebuild the bridge, filling in the empty spaces with brick. It is truly stunning.

We ended our tour of Verona at Castelvecchio. The castle was built in the 14th century and made me feel like I was in Redwall or had instantly gone back in history. I could go on forever about Verona because I loved it so much. I can't wait to go back.

venezia.

Venice is amazing. There is no shortage of things to see, streets to get lost on and bridges to cross.

For those of you that don't know, I have a huge fear of open water. Yes, I can swim and I know that the Lincoln Tunnel in New York went under water. No, I don't know why, I just don't like it one bit and I don't want to talk about the irrationality of it. Additionally, there are two parts of Venice. One that is part of the mainland of Italy, the other that is a serious of islands connected by bridges and water ways. The cooler, more known part of Venice is the islandy part. In order to get there, you either drive, boat or take the train across the water to the island. Luckily, I have awesome friends who completely distract me so that I don't freak out when I realize that I'm on a train that appears to be choo-choo-ing its way across the top of the water ready to sucked into the ocean at any time. See what I mean?! Instant worst case scenario in my head and I'm not even there anymore.

Now that my lovely fear and the islands of Venice have been described, here comes the beauty of the city. Monday night, Jen and I decided to go to Venice on Tuesday and Verona on Wednesday because we both agreed that the possibility of rain and open water wasn't going to be the best mix for me and it wasn't supposed to rain on Tuesday. Good idea us! We got up and got to the train station around 9ish and headed the hour or so to Venice. The train ride was nice and we got there quickly. When we got to Venice, it wasn't too crowded so we decided to head toward St. Mark's before all the other cruises and tourists got there and bombarded the island. This is when I noticed something really cool. Italy is full of inter-Italian tourism. There were bunches of Italians with maps and cameras visiting for the day. It's a decent sized country with a ton of things to see, so I can only imagine how many more times I will need to go back to see everything! (ha, see what i did there?!)

Walking through the streets, its so easy to get lost, but no matter what, you'll have to cross bridges and walkways and as long as you follow the signs that have been put up, you'll find your way to the major things among the islands. We reached St. Mark's and were greeted by less people than we anticipated and amazing sunshine allowing for great pictures. The line to see the inside of the church was already hundreds of people long, so we passed on seeing the inside and took a bajillion pictures of people, pigeons and architecture. The church and piazza were beautiful, the water and sky was so clear. Venice is everything that I ever wished it could be.

The bridges were beautiful and its amazing how these buildings and things were built atop tiny islands that are now sinking and have crazy things that are now under water. There are parts of buildings that are not underground. How freaking cool is that?! Honestly! There are so many things under the surface in Italy and I wish I could see them all! For me, the coolest part of Venice was the Ghetto and seeing the history of the city. I'm out of words for Venice. It was just beautiful, see?