Through My Eyes: Bliss!

So I must start off by apologizing to my loyal readers for not having written for quite some time. Life sure has been busy lately! Although I must admit that being busy over here is a bit different than life in the States. I often find myself filling my time outside of school taking walks, enjoying coffee with a friend (which does not come in "grande" size here but rather in a smaller and amazingly delicious European size), taking pictures, and just hanging out with my roommates. Things just seem to move at a slower pace here. Dinners are hours long and multiple courses, a coffee date means you'll be there for a few hours, and a quick walk is usually at least an hour long. It wasn't until I went to Rome last week that I realized that this is just the way of life that I've become accustomed to now.

I started my fall break promptly after school ended on Friday October 29th. After stopping home briefly to eat some leftovers for dinner I took the metro to the Midi Metro stop where I got on the bus and went 45 minutes to the Brussels South Chaleroi Airport. It's from here that my adventure to Italy began. If you've never flown Ryanair (an awesomely cheap European airline) you'll know that there are no seat assignments when you book your ticket. Considering this was a small airport I was through security in a matter of 10 minutes and then had about an hour to waste before my flight took off. Knowing that I wanted to get a decent seat on the plane I knew I would have to be in the line pretty soon. So off I trotted to the terminal, book under my arm and all. It was there that I sat for a while in line reading and minding my own business until they came around and checked everyone's ticket and passport. And before I knew it, voila! I was in Italy in just an hour and a half. From the Pisa airport I grabbed a taxi for the short 5 minute ride to the hotel where I found my dear friend from Elementary School, Kate Leary, waiting with a smile and open arms. Having not seen each other for about 15 (yes, you read that right, 15) years made this definitely one of the greatest reunions of all time. I mean last I could remember we were having sleepovers and watching Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies and now we were both living abroad and reuniting in Italy of all places! One word: AMAZING!

Considering there is not much to do in Pisa we took the leisure of sleeping in a bit, enjoying a nice complementary breakfast at the hotel, and just reminiscing about times past. Before leaving Pisa to go to Kate's apartment in Arezzo we stopped and took some classic pictures at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and looked at the literally 2 other beautiful structures that were right next to the tower before we hopped on the two hour train ride to Arezzo (in the Tuscany region). The rest of the weekend was spent eating amazing authentic Italian food in Arezzo, seeing the town, and going to a really fun Halloween/Birthday party of one of Kate's friends. It was so fun to meet everyone that she's become close with there. They'll all such nice people with warm hearts, just like Kate.

Monday morning I got up early and caught the one hour fast train from Arezzo to Rome. Since Kate had to work during the week I went on my own and met up in Rome with my friend Kat who I met at ISB. She's another new hire and teaches Math in the Middle School. Rome was incredibly fascinating. Everywhere you look there is history. Having lived in Europe for a little while now I didn't find that I was ever overwhelmed in Rome. The metro was easy to use and understand and Kat and I could usually figure out how to get everywhere we wanted to go. Plus, it's not quite as touristy in November so that was nice too. In the 3 days that we were there we saw the Trevi Fountain (usually about once a day actually), the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Roman Forum, and all around the Vatican. Even though it was pouring rain for a few hours the first day, I loved every minute of it. Plus the 70 or so degree weather the next few days were pretty wonderful! On Wednesday night Kat came with me back to Arezzo where we had a lovely dinner out with Kate and some others.

Using Arezzo as our base Kat and I used Thursday and Friday to take some day trips in the Tuscany region. On Thursday we took about a one hour bus ride to the town of Siena where we saw an incredible Cathedral and climbed to the top of an arch that overlooked the whole town and some beautiful Tuscan Hills. Friday was dedicated to the small town of Cortona that was located on the top of one of the rolling Tuscan Hills I was amongst. It may look familiar in my pictures to some of you if you've ever seen the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. I guess a lot of it was filmed there! When we first got to the top of the Hill a good portion of the towns below us were covered in fog. I honestly never thought fog could be so beautiful until that day. It was just a stunning sight--I could have sat at that overlook for hours! Throughout the rest of the day the fog began to dissipate and we spent our time wandering about the cute town in the warm warm sunlight. Friday night Kat left to go back to Belgium and I took the 20 minute train ride back to Kate's house. That night Kate, her incredibly fun French roommate Elo, and I went and had dinner at this place where Kate once took cooking classes. The man that taught her was so cute and so excited that we were coming for dinner. You could just tell that it was his passion and that he loved sharing that with us.

Saturday was a day dedicated to Florence. Since Kate studied abroad there when she was in school she knew all of the great places to see and where to go. When we got there we spent some time walking through the market where I bought some beautiful leather things. For lunch we went to the indoor market and I had the most delicious-melt-in-your-mouth pesto lasagna. I can't even describe how good it was, yum! Later we climbed up to the top of this park and saw the whole view of Florence, what a beautiful city!! At about 4:00 Elo met up with us and we strolled around and shopped before heading back to Arezzo. Unfortunately on Sunday I had to wake up early to catch the train back to the Pisa airport and begin my journey back home to Brussels. It was definitely an amazing week and I feel incredibly thankful for all that I was able to do and see.

Tonight I have 3 friends from home (who are currently living in London) coming to visit for the weekend so that should be really fun! I'm excited to do some of the touristy things in Brussels with them that I haven't even had the chance to do yet! Here are a few pictures from my trip and the links to my facebook albums if you want to see more (there are a lot!)

Links to my facebook albums (click on the four links below):
15 Years and No Longer Counting!