Day 102: Amsterdam Recap

Wednesday November 23:

After I blogged last Wednesday my roommates and I went hog wild for American food at TBone Station. (which is so overpriced for what it is).

Thursday November 21:

Thursday I had no class so I went shopping, naturally. I picked up some tall socks and a new scarf for Amsterdam.

One thing I won't miss about being abroad is the fact that going shopping means at least an hour excursion because you have to walk to Via del Corso and walk home. This day it was pouring rain and then was sunny and hot which made it hard to dress for..

I did get the chance to stop by a stationary store near the Pantheon and snapped this pic:

Thursday night all my roommates had left for their respective trips and I was home alone. :( It is really rare that I am ever anywhere completely by myself. Living with 6 other people is all I have ever known how to do so it was weird to be in our big old apartment by myself. BUT, I was very productive in doing homework.

My flight to Amsterdam was at 6am, aka leave for the airport at 4... I pulled one of the only successful all-nighters of my life. A friend of mine was nice enough to come over and keep my company via the movie Skyfall and some beers. By the time 4am rolled around I looked a bit like this:

Friday November 22:

Friday morning I arrived in Amsterdam around 9:30am. From the airport I had to get a train ticket to central station and then figure out how to get to my hostel by myself in time for the 10:30am tour.
My first impression of Amsterdam was that there was a lot more water than I expected. I knew there were canals, but I had no idea how many. Also, it was cold... Reaaaally cold. I finally found my hostel through some Christmas market stands/streets and locked up my backpack and coat. Just after that I met my WSA tour group in the lobby/bar/lounge at the front of our hostel. The tour was a group of all girls; 12 of us actually.

Vini and Georgia had a later flight we got going without them. First stop was getting on the tram to go to one of the markets. My roommate had gone to Amsterdam earlier in the semester and brought back these delicious waffle cookies and I was determined to seek them out. They are called "stroopwafels" or syrup waffles and they are SO GOOD. In the fresh market there was a stand selling fresh ones for 1.50 Euros. Sold.

From the market we went to the Van Gogh Museum where vini and Georgia were headed to meet up with us. Our whole tour group had tickets and waited outside for them for a bit, but I told everyone to go ahead and that we'd meet them inside. Vini and George went too far on the tram there so I had to wait for them to get all turned around in the right direction aka me standing out front of the museum in the freezing wind. Once we got inside, we toured the 4 floors of Van Gogh masterpieces but were all too distracted telling eachother stories/catching up since they visited me in October. Did get a picture with one of my favorite (and very underrated) Van Gogh's:

Crows over a Wheat field

From the Van Gogh museum, our tour guide took us to the IAmsterdam sign which is deceptively smaller than it looks in pictures. I lucked out with the "m" though:

Everything was also all decked out for Christmas :)

The shopping district in Amsterdam is really nice actually. We had a really good lunch at B&B where I got to have real avocado(!!!!) and chicken sandwich:

and starbucks 

clogs on clogs on clogs

After that, we returned to our hostel to check in. Each of us ended up in different rooms, which blows but whatever. No one else had checked into Vinis room yet so we hung out aka Michelle nap time.
We all woke up and refreshed in time for dinner and went to a very sub-par Noodles and Company type place that tried to be Italian but failed in comparison to the food in Rome. Vin, George and I ordered a bottle of white wine for example that looked, tasted and smelled more like water with grape flavoring. Bleh.

After dinner was our tour of the Red Light District which is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Ever. In Amsterdam, prostitution is 100% legal and the women have complete control over who they do/don't let past their red lit up windows. Our tour guide took (all of us girls) to what he calls "the big momma section" which is exactly how it sounds. This area of the red light district is ironically right next to a Protestant church.

As we continued on, I was kinda surprised how many girls in windows there were. Each section has a certain type of girl, from Big Momma to girls that looked like Victorias Secret Models. It was pretty crazy. We also saw he-she's. which look way more like she's. They get the most traffic in Amsterdam. Simple supply-demand economics, I guess. Our red light tour also included a 2Euro Peep Show if you were so interested. Vini, Georgia and I decided stroopwafels were a better use of our 2Euro coins. PS if We really wanted to see naked women we could just go to a womens locker room in the states. No thanks. (or you live with Daniela Dunham. Hahah)

The funniest parts of the Red Light tour were:

1) watching guys get rejected by prostitutes outside the windows and trying to play it off that they had to tie their shoe.

2) the businesses that are trying to use up converted red light space naming their coffee shops "Quartiere Poutain" which in French is whore corner coffee shop. I guess you have to embrace that kind of association when you buy that real estate. :)

After the red light tour, we were on our own. My sorority sister suggested a Coffee Shop to us. So, yeah, we went. Hahaha

Saturday November 23:

Saturday was another early start, but was definitely one of the highlights of my trip: Diamond tour. We saw a 161,000Euro Princess Cut Diamond and a 330,000Euro Diamond ring.

We're engaged!!! Not haha

After the Diamond tour we had lunch/breakfast the the Pancake Bakery and I got an Apple and Cheese pancake that was INCREDIBLE. 

The other highlight of the trip was the Anne Frank House. I had kind of forgotten that the Frank family had lived in Amsterdam, but once I saw this on our itinerary, I was really excited to see living history in a way. The house that the family stayed in was actually Otto Frank's converted back room for his marmalade company. The home they lived in was so hidden; a bookcase hid a staircase up to the Annex that the family lived in for 2 years without ever going outside. 

It was incredible how tangible everything is when you see the museum. You go room by room through their attic home and can see on the wall paper where the children's' heights were recorded, where Anne had collaged magazine clippings on her bedroom window, and, the most intense part for me, the stairs that went to the crawl space at the very top which had a skylight that was the family's only source of natural light at all... for two whole years. All of their curtains had to be drawn all hours of the day so that they could remain in hiding. I can't imagine what it would be like. I loved how Anne Frank's words from her diaries carried you through the museum. Her physical journals were there also, which was pretty surreal. 

I really really enjoyed the atmosphere that Amsterdam had to offer. It is such a clean, fresh,(cold) city with really interesting canals and amazing food. 

After Anne Frank house, we walked around the North Market and got world famous Apple Pie and mint tea:

After pie, it was time to recover from food comas back in the hostel. Our whole tour group went out to thai food and I got really really good green curry. 

We also all went on a canal tour which was pretty awesome. By the time we got back to the hostel again, it was already 11pm. We were so exhausted and cold from being out all say that we just decided to go to bed instead of go out.

Sunday November 24:

Sunday morning we checked out of our hostels, stocked up on stroopwafels and headed to the train that took us to the airport. I went with Georgia and Vini early so I wouldn't have to go later by myself and ended sitting in my terminal for an extra 2 hours which sucked. I didn't get back to Rome until 10pm... from airport to train to bus... and by the time I was back I was way to exhausted to do anything...

Monday November 25:

Monday morning was my last New Testament class! So crazy that this semester is over already (well except for finals next week).

We also had both an italian and Food and Wine presentation to make... We literally ran to our market that we had to research for Food and Wine on the way to italian class:

Then we nailed our Italian presentation right after that...

We also had to cook our Secondo Piatto for Food and Wine class. We made Pan Seared Chicken with Rosemary which is a typical dish from the Emilia Romagna region.

Here's the final product:

We also bought a 6Euro mega bottle of Frascati from Conad to celebrate...and we finished it...

Tuesday November 26:

This morning we had a site visit at the Modern Art Museum in Rome, which I LOVED:

Degas

My class is an Art History 101 and we just barely brushed on Modern Art. My whole class was so frustrated with modern art, but I loved it. I love that you can look at a piece of modern art and have absolutely no idea what is going on. Unlike Renaissance or Baroque where your subject matter and objective is clear, modern art is completely different. 

Then went from art class to Food and Wine and got 100% on our presentation. WOO!

Came home and killed a bag of peanut m&ms, blogged, and booked my last flight to Prague!!!

Only 1 more day of class.

Only 1 week left of school.

Only 2 days until I go to Paris.

Only 9 days until Vienna and Salzburg.

Only 13 until Prague.

Then home? What? 

It will be weird to be missing Thanksgiving this Thursday. The colder it gets in Rome, the more I want to be home, or even in Tahoe where I can have all my favorite foods and be with my family. Trying to soak up the last of the time I have left abroad... especially by subsitiuting Turkey dinner with seeing the newest Hunger Games movie with my best friend in Paris! :)

Devotissimo Suo & Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends stateside!!!

-M

Day 96: Sucking at Blogging

So I am very, very, very behind on my blogging, for which I apologize profusely. It has been a whirlwind last two weeks of entertaining, traveling, hosting, homework, registering, balancing and trying to come to terms with the fact that I barely have a little over a month left in this wonderful city that I consider a second home. As I told my parents, I will definitely be sad to leave here even though I am sure I'll be ready to go home by the end of it all.

Now let's see if I can remember all that has happened these last two+ weeks.


Monday October 28th:

After getting our New Testament midterms back (95% woooo!) Danielle and I treated ourselves to a grown up lunch in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. Doesn't get much better:

We enjoyed our salads and respective glasses of mid-day alcohol (only in Italy) and took it all in. We live here. We love it here. We listened to street performers, people watched and appreciated the fact that we could sit and have a 2 hour lunch on a Monday. When can you ever do that at home? Loved this meal. 

On the way home, my whole class (well all seven of us) stopped off at Studio 13, the only American style Halloween costume store in Rome and took some of the most ridiculously horrendous photos with the best masks we could find. 

Tuesday October 29th:

Art History class met at the Galleria Borghese for the most incredible display of Bernini Baroque Sculpture I have ever seen. Unfortunately, they did not allow cameras in the museum. But here's the link!

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm

This was my favorite from that day. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne

Food and Wine class had had Sicilian food which was not my favorite. We first had a Tuna Cous Cous which I really did not care for and then an Eggplant dish. Compared to the other foods it definitely was not as good.

By the time I got back home my friends had returned! After a few days in Florence, Vini, Georgia and Porter were more than happy to come back to Roma. Tuesday evening we made our own Italian feast. Pesto Gnocchi and homemade Bruschetta and wine. Of course!

Wednesday October 30th:

Wednesday morning my New Testament theology class had a tour of the Catacombs of Priscilla. The Catacomb tour was definitely something I was looking forward to since I got to Rome. Totally underground, the Catacombs of Priscilla particularly snake on for almost 10 miles. These catacombs were graves for earliest Christian converts. Now under the control of Benedictine Nuns, the Catacombs are part of an educational tour. The tombs themselves were emptied, but being in the catacombs gives you such a tangible sense of the people who come before you. No photos, unfortunately, but I don't even think pictures would have done the catacombs justice.

One of my favorite moments form the tour was when we saw one of the ritual rooms. Depending on wealth, some families would pay to have their loved ones buried in their own tomb rooms so that future generations could come share ceremonial meals and holidays with all of their deceased. I peeked around inside and saw that one of the side walls had penciled in names and dates back to as old as 1887. My art history professor commented on what a shame it was that people would deface a tomb like that, but I actually enjoyed it. I loved seeing that tourists from 1925 or whatever made their mark down in the Catacombs and that I got a chance to see their 'vandalism' years and years later. Pretty cool,

Wednesday afternoon I skipped Italian to do some all too important Halloween costume shopping with my friends. We battled our way though Via del Corso and came out with some pretty good costumes by the end of it. :)

Later that night, we headed out for the "Andy Steve's deal" dinner at Miscellanea near the Pantheon with some other San Diego friends. For 15 euros, you get all you can eat AND drink, which is such a bargain for college students on a budget. The meal starts off with a huge antipasto plate and 2 liter bottles of wine. The trick, we figured out, is to drink fast, but eat slow to get your moneys worth of course. The second course comes with two types of pasta and, by this time, the second round of wine bottles. Then pizza, and more wine. After stuffing yourself to the brim, dessert and 'sexy wine' comes out. Dessert was a kind of layered strawberry angel food cake thingy and 'sexy wine' is a bottle of Fragolina strawberry flavored bubbly champagne-y wine. We knew we had reached our limit with the wine when a dessert plate was broken in the process.

Wasn't me. 

We stumbled out of Miscellanea and made our way to GBar. 1 Euro tequila shots. Game Over. 

Thursday October 31st: HALLOWEEN

MY FAMILY IS IN ROMA!

I was so so so so excited for my Mom, Dad and Grace to come check out the city I've come to call my second home! AND IT WAS HALLOWEEN!

Actually, the same night, my Great Aunt and Uncle were in Rome also. Porter came with me to meet them for dinner near the Opera House and then power walk back to Trastevere to meet up with my parents at their hotel.

Once we met up, I took them to two of my favorite spots: Hostaria Romanesca and GROM. Both in Campo di' Fiori which was less than a minute walk from their hotel.

After dinner and gelato, I made it back to my apartment for our own Italian Halloween. It was just recently that Halloween has caught on in Italy, thanks to the Italian students. Vini and I had the perfect costumes: Lizzie McGuire and Isabella from the Lizzie McGuire Movie. Which only makes sense because we are in Rome.

It was a major hit. :)

Halloween activities commenced at GBar and ended with a relatively early night. 

Friday November 1st:

Friday morning I started the fam off with a hike up to the Gianicolo Hill behind Trastevere. Known as "the lookout spot," you literally can see almost all of Rome. I was able to point out what all of the major landmarks were and how to get from one place to another. It was a beautifully sunny warm day which was awesome.

From there, we went to Dar Poeta, one of my favorites, for Pizza:

In typical Wintersteen fashion, 2:00pm means nap time. My family went back to their hotel and I went back to my apartment for a quick rest then we ventured back out for the evening. Ideally, I wanted to show everyone (fam+friends) the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, etc. but had not factored in that Friday was All Saints Day. All Saints Day is a Roman (and Italian) tradition that is very similar to Mexico's Day of the Dead traditions. Thousands of Italians come into the cities to honor their dead or to make a vacation out of the kids not having school. Consequently, the city center was beyond packed. We decided our best bet was to hop on the Red Bus tour that shows you all around the city. Mistake.

The Red Bus tour really made me mad. I am so used to seeing Rome my way, (walking) where you don't have to wait in traffic or have to sit in the bottom of a bus because the top level is too full. Not to mention, this bus took us the most roundabout, uninteresting way to see parts of Rome that really was a rip off of our money. Grrrrrrrr. 

On the walk back to Trastevere, we made a pit stop at the Pantheon. Here's how crowded it was:

By the time we made it back to my neighborhood, we were hungry for a light snack of a dinner. We sat down at a restaurant in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere and ordered wine and snacks soon to be followed by gelato. 

Saturday November 2nd:

On Saturday, we had some better luck with the crowds. We started off with my version of a 'guided' (aka what I have learned from my classes and remember from high school level art history) tour of the Roman Forum and Colosseum.

One of my favorites :)

Then another walk down Via del Corso to Ciampini, another one of my favorite restaurants. I had the most delicious Canneloni there. Yum yum. 

Home. Nap. Rinse. Repeat. 

For Dinner we went to Alex's with some of the Rome roomies and friends from home. 

Sunday November 3rd:

Sunday morning my fam bam took off for the cruise and Porter headed back to Prague. Vini and Georgia and I had a lazy day until they went back early Monday morning. I think I did homework or something else boring.

Monday November 4th:

Another Monday nothing interesting to report, except that my roommates and I went scavenging for Chinese food in Trastevere and found a place that we were convinced was going to make us sick. Except it didn't which is good.

Tuesday November 5th:

Art History class met and Piazza Navona. Food and Wine, can't remember what we did.

Tuesday night I had a friend of mine over to make wine and cookies, which if you know me or this last summer at all, was a staple meal in mine, my mom's and sister Sarah's diet.

I was so desperate for some Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate chip cookie dough cookies that I tried the best that I could to make something that resembled cookies you would find stateside:

Peanut Butter drop cookies with Milka Bar

Wednesday November 6th:

Class. Boring. And packing for the Cruise!!

Thursday November 7th: Cagliari

After an almost empty flight in the wee hours of the morning from Rome to Cagliari, I was so so so excited to see my family! They came to get me at the airport and we headed to the Navigator of the Seas to get me all checked in.

In Cagliari, we went on the 'green' bus tour (way better than Rome's Red Bus Tour) and got to see what Cagliari is known for (oooh...salt mines...). However, we did order a very delicious lunch of Antipasto and Proscuitto e Melone.

The highlight of Thursday for me though, was the Dance on Ice show on the ship. The cruise ship actually has an ice rink on board and put on a show for the guests. My mom and I ordered glasses of wine and had wayyy too much fun making of the Real Housewives'-esque commentary for the entire show. We giggled like school children. I think I very easily get embarrassed for people and I could not hold back watching this one.

Friday November 8th: Palma de Mallorca

Mallorca was AWESOME! It was my (brilliant) idea :) to go on an excursion to the Drach Caves in Mallorca which contains the largest underground lake.

SO COOL!

We got to walk around the city and see the Cathedral also:

Saturday November 9th: Valencia 

Valencia was chilly. And none of us really knew what to do there. The thing with cruise ships is that the way that the port looks from the ship can totally affect your attitude. Mallorca was a BEAUTIFUL port, while Valencia looked like a shipping yard. Which it was. The one thing I wanted to do in Valencia was to go to the City of Arts and Sciences Building. So we did:

Highlight of the Day: Pedicures with Mommy :) My feet so desperately needed it..

Sunday November 10th: Barcelona

Sunday morning we had to get up super duper early to get off the cruise. Did snap this quick pic of the sunrise over the harbor:

You can see our cruise ship in the back. So blurry.

Came home. Did homework. Blah blah.

Monday November 11th: 

Can't say I did anything horribly interesting this day.

Tuesday November 12th:

We had SO MANY SITE VISITS this day. 3 churches and the Palazzo Barberini. And it rained. Yuck. The one that stood out to me the most was the Basilica Carlino di Quattro Fontane by Borromini because the interior was all white, which is so different than any other basilica here in Rome. Loved it.

AND we went on site to see how gelato was made at Gelateria Santa Maria Maggiore.

Wednesday November 13th:

High: Lunch with Laura (and friend) and Sostenga.

Low: 7 person fail of a Pub Crawl...

Thursday November 14th:

Thursday morning I left for Florence! (Again). My school had a free trip that Friday, and I don't have Thursday class so I left a day early to stay with Daniela. We went to Florence's token 'Mexican' restaurant and got Fajitas and giant Mango Margaritas which were more like 7/11 slurpees than actual margaritas.

With this day also came the sad sad sad realization that I only have a month left of study abroad. I ony had a mini quarter life crisis about leaving.. Which I am still not okay with...

Friday November 15th:

Friday morning we met up with my Rome roomies at Gatto e Volpe (one of my favorites in Florence). Mooched off the free lunch then took my friends to Massimo's leather shop, where I got my baby of a leather jacket that I love and adore so so much.

Friday I came back to Rome on the train with Daniela, Caroline and Sarah. Our other friend had been touring the city all day with her class so we met up to go out. Started at GBar, ended at Black Apple, yadda yadda.

Saturday November 16th:

Saturday we decided to tackle the Vatican. I was absolutely convinced that there would be a marathon of a line and it would be a world wide waste of time because they would all only be there for a day or two.. I was wrong. For some reason, we waltzed right in, no wait, no line. Half of us took advantage of this opportunity and stayed around to check out all of the art, and of course the Sistine Chapel... One of my favorites in the Vatican Museum is Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes, though.

Its a tad bit morbid, but I love it:

Then we went to Dar Poeta for lunch. (again I know) and then later did our own nighttime walking tour of Piazza Navona, Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain. Later that night, we all went to Scholars to have a chill night and play some drinking games with friends. 

Sunday November 17th:

Swalls and Daniela stayed for Sunday and wanted to do some more sight seeing. Luckily the weather was awesome. We paid a little extra to skip the line at the Colosseum.

After the Colosseum we had a 'big girl lunch' at a restaurant near the Spanish Steps. I had gnocchi and red wine which fueled me up for the rest of the day. The goal was to make it up to Villa Borghese to rent bikes and ride around the park at dusk. We made it up there, but were far too distracted by the roller blading gang that was practicing on the bridge. We, no joke, watched them for at least an hour.

Monday November 18th:

New Testament class had a tour at Scavi San Pietro which are the ruins under St. Peter's Basilica. In the 1940s, when the Grotto was under construction to be expanded, they discovered that for miles under St. Peter's there had been Mausoleums, tombs and Catacombs dating back to Nero's circus. Pretty remarkable. Unfortunately our tour guide was horrible and the air quality was suffocatingly muggy and warm. Not my favorite tour although the special access was pretty awesome.

For lunch I met one of my favorite friends who is acutally not a student, but works for Bus2Alps. She goes home in 2 days back to New York and is my first official 'Goodbye' here in Rome which is horribly depressing to me. It will be so weird to be back in San Diego and not see all of the people I have gotten so close to here on a regular basis. Wahhhh :(

Tuesday November 19th:

Got our 25%-of-our-grade Research Papers back!! 97% WOOO!! And I actually got to teach my professor some things. I related, if you remember from my previous posts, I compared Borromini's Perspective to Bruce Nauman's Video Corridor and Sam Taylor-Johnson's Still Life. 

Borromini's Perspective:

Nauman's Video Corridor:

Here's Taylor-Johnson's 2001 piece Still Life.  Fun fact: she's the director for 50 Shades of Grey...

Class was at the Palazzo Doria Pamphili which is very sadly falling to pieces due to lack of funds. Regardless, there are some great pieces by Caravaggio, Bernini and Velasquez there. This one was my favorite.

Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist

It rained all day in Rome and this particular Palazzo (aka Palace) had a great eerie feel. I love the rain when I don't have to go outside. :)

Our Food and Wine class had, you guessed it, more food and wine. This time around we had modern cuisine which included the idea on convenience foods and the whole Slow Food discussion. We got to eat a Penne pasta dish and a Scallopine with Pesto and Mozzarella. 

For our presentations for this class, we have to make our own regional dishes. We set out for the grocery store and had to step by step make Tagiatelle alla Bolognese and (a second dish that we actually didn't make) and Creme Caramel... We present next week. 

Finished Product

Wednesday November 20th:

My NT class had a site visit at the Capitoline Museum, the oldest museum in the world. Here were my favorite pieces:

Marcus Aurelius

Bernini's Medusa

Don't have Italian class today so I am going to take the day to get ready to leave for AMSTERDAM (with Vini and Georgia) THIS WEEKEND!!!!

Can't wait!

Devotissimo Suo!

-M