Thanksgiving in Italia (The strangest Thanksgiving I've ever had)

About a week ago all Americans gathered with their families to eating amazing food and to give thanks for all the wonderful blessings in their lives..... 

well most Americans. 

Thanksgiving was a pretty weird/sad day here in Italy amongst the study abroad students. It really made me aware how much I missed my family and TURKEY & MASHED POTATOES ;)

Luckily I have some pretty amazing roommates which made it a little more bearable. On Wednesday night we made a "Thanksgiving Dinner" together. I put this in quotations because it was definitely not your traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, in that we ate CHICKEN haha... Turkey is just too expensive for us after a semester of traveling around Europe haha. The food we made turned out pretty well. Well at least we thought so.. Ashley has an Italian boyfriend who joined us... and we think he ate out of politeness.. not because he liked it haha.

Here are some pictures of our FEAST:

we had: Roast chicken, mashed potaotoes & gravy, corn & peppers, green bean cassarole, stuffing, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and bread.. and of course WINE.  and for dessert... Apple crumble :)

 Our high-end table setting

Wednesday night was a lot of fun. I loved cooking and getting the table "fancy" :)

Although Wednesday was fun... Thursday was just depressing. ISA had organized a Thanksgiving Dinner (which was VERY thoughtful of them) but it really was just depressing. My expectations were REALLY low... and they still weren't even met. haha. The food was really COLD and, the cranberry sauce was literally a scoop if jelly (like jelly you would put on a pb&j) and the "apple pie" was bread with apple chunks in it. 

Okay, enough complaining about Thanksgiving. My wonderful Mama is making me a delicious Thanksgiving dinner once I get home :) Which I cannot wait for.

 ((I CANNOT BELIEVE I GO HOME IN TWO WEEKS!!))

Ciao, Erica xo

I am from Austria ;)

Because I love Austria so much I want to be Austrian... in this video I think I do a good job pretending to be a native ;) My German is just SUPERB!! ;)

Ciao, Erica :)

Vienne, Austria Christmas Markets

Two weekends ago Teresa, Ashley & myself took the horrendous overnight train to Vienna, Austria to experience the famous Christmas Markets!! 

Unexpectidly the overnight trains weren't too bad and we actually made a friend on the way there! Here name is Lucy and she's English and studying Arezzo, not far from Florence. She was so sweet and fun and we are all now friends on Facebook.. so it will be cool to keep in contact with her!

Anyways.. the markets were really amazing (I knew I would be satisfied because I'm so obsessed with Christmas) We went to two different markets which were really different from each other. I was in love with the second one we stopped at because it seemed like real-authentic Austrian goodies, when the other one seemed much more commercialized. Mostly they had fun things to buy and amazing food. I got a lot of gifts. Some of which I have to be VERY careful bringing home with me because they are really breakable. (But they were so beautiful I couldn't not get them :) )

I was in love with everything & really LOVED the city. I wish that I could have spent more time there (preferably when it's warmer ;)) I also want to go to Salzburg at some point as well. Austria is a place I will definitely be back to.

Ciao, Erica xo

Berlin, Germany

The last part of Robbie's trip was spent in Berlin. Berlin is a city totally different than any I had seen yet in Europe. It definitely wasn't beautiful like Italy or Paris, but the history and stories behind everything was so intriguing. I really liked it.

We had two days and three nights there, one of which was Robbie's birthday!!

The first day we went to the Berlin Zoo. It's the biggest zoo in Europe and it was really cool, but later we regretted going here and not spending more time around the city and seeing more monuments. 

We did get some cool pictures of the animals (mostly of the elephants & monkeys because those are mine & Robbie's favorites). We also got a video of some of the elephants playing. Be fore-warned that Robbie is a little inappropriate in what he is saying in the background haha.. he was trying to be funny :)

The next day we spent most of the day taking a tour of the city. We had a tour guide and usually I get really bored with these types of things, but like I said, the history was so cool and interesting that I loved it.. we saw so much of the city & learned so much. 

We first went to Brandenburg Gate

 This picture is at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Although there are just a bunch of cement cubes, the concept of the design and how I felt while walking through really coincide with what you should be feeling and thinking about while in the memorial. Click here for the website & to learn more about the idea behind the design

 

Checkpoint Charlie. Which is really just all a fake tourist trap. Cool nonetheless. 

 This may just look like a crappy picture (it actually kinda is) BUT that wall is part of the BERLIN WALL that remains standing. So interesting, so much history.

 

A museum on Museum Island 

Later that night we went to the Foster the People Concert!! I was in a really run-down bar in a really weird area of town. When our taxi driver dropped us off and pointed us in the direction in which we needed to walk we were so confused (and I was scared) but we did what he told us (which may have been stupid on our part) BUT luckily it was the right place! The concert was so much fun! 

Besides the unexpecting FREEZING cold weather, I really liked Berlin. It was so different than anywhere I had been before and the food was really good :)

Ciao, Erica xo

Showing Robbie around My City

Robbie & I spent three days in Florence, and during this time I showed him around to my favorites places & restaurants. We also made a day-trip to Pisa & Lucca.

I made sure to bring him to:

Gusts Pizza

Salami Verde

and Dante's

Some of my favorite food places :)

Here are some pictures of our time in Tuscany.. 

 We climbed to the top of the Duomo

 

The stairs we had to climb were pretty brutal, but the ceiling of the dome and the beautiful view made it so worth it. 

We headed to Pisa the next day. There is really NOTHING in the town of Pisa besides the Tower so we didn't spend much time there. We took some embarrassing pictures with the Tower and then went on our merry way :)

After Pisa we took the train for 30 minutes over to Lucca and walked around the city a bit. Although it was getting dark and the city was quiet, it still loved it. I had been to Lucca before (click here for my blog post on Lucca) and I loved it, I knew I wanted to show Robbie this really quaint, beautiful town. Although it was getting dark, he still loved it, AND we ate the most amazing meal there. We went to a restaurant that was recommended in one of the Tuscany books that I have and it was absolutely amazing. We both got different forms of veal, and it was so delicious. Maybe best meal I have had in Italy. We both loved it. I'll always remember showing Robbie around Tuscany and where I've been living for the past 4 months. It was a lot of fun :)

Ciao, Erica

Venice

I was lucky enough to have my friend Robbie come & visit me in Italy! It was so nice to see a familiar face after being abroad for two and a half months. He was here for ten days and we got a lot of traveling in during his visit. Our first stop was Venice, which was crazy & fun all at the same time. 

We arrived in Venice around 11 pm, and immediately after stepping out of the train station I was in awe of the water-filled streets. I was expecting to see this, obviously I knew the streets were all water, I had seen pictures... but it really is so amazing to see in person. I loved it from the very beginning. From there, our night went a bit south, with struggling to find the Bed & Breakfast we were staying in, to having to knock for thirty minutes on the door of the B&B, which made me so nervous I started crying, but ending in the manager hearing us and finally letting us into our room. Let's say that was definitely an adventure and something I will never forget. 

We had two days in Venice and the first day was amazing. It was supposed to rain, but lucky for us it was just cloudy all day, so we explored Venice and some of the surrounding islands, Murano & Burano. 

 

We went to Burano were all the blown glass is made. There were so many shops & so much glass, I bought a lot of gifts there :)

And Burano was really cool as well. It is the "fisherman's Island" and all of the buildings are painted a different color so the fishermen can tell from the sea which house is there's. Everything was so different, I loved it. 

Although I LOVE Venice.. there are 3 bad things about the flooded city:

1) The food is not good. Compared to the rest of Italy.. it's actually really terrible.

2) Because of all the tourists.. it's really expensive. 

3) It's cold & rainy all the time!! Sadly on our second day we ended up leaving the city a few hours early because it was raining so hard, and there was really nothing for us to do. It was so bad that most all of the piazas were flooded (clearly this happens often because they have walkways they bring in to move people around over the water)

I really liked Venice despite the rain. It was definitely a must-see for me in Italy & I'm glad i got to experience it with Robbie. 

Ciao, Erica

LONDON: Fall Break part 2

I absolutely loved the city of London. Despite the gloomy weather, I had such a fun time exploring & shopping. It was nice to hear some English and to be able to have an in-depth conversation with someone, unlike in Italy. It felt like I was back in a familiar country, which was nice after two months of confusion in Italy. It was also nice to have some food-favorites that I have been seriously missing from home (aka Starbucks & Chipotle). 

Here are some pictures of my fabulous 3 day stay in London!

 

First off: Some pictures of the London Eye. It was on my Bucket List to ride the Eye, which is Europe's tallest Ferris Wheel. The bottom picture is the view of the city from the top of the Eye.

 

Rainy London & Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey

 Some stereotypical-touristy pictures :)

 My friend Karyssa & I had some "Afternoon Tea" at a restaurant called Fortum & Mason. It was so yummy & the tableware was a really pretty Tiffany blue color :)

 

Heading to Hogwarts ;)

 

 We were able to see a show on West End!! Billy Elliot! Such good dancing!

 

 My long lost love... Chipotle tacos :)

London was amazing. It's definitely a city that's on my list of "Must-Come-Back-To"

 Ciao, Erica xo