The Start of Fall Break

(Oct 21)
Fall break started a little early. Originally my intention was to go to Italian (or at least part of it) and from there head to the airport. Well, that didn't happen. I left the apartment a little after 4 and got to Termini around 5 for my 5:30 bus. I was surprised by how many english speakers were sitting in that bus stop! Anyway... I sat by myself on the bus (thankfully) and got to Ciampino about 3 hours early. Ryanair doesn't let you check-in until 2 hours before your flight... so, I sat around in the airport. Thankfully two girls from IES were there also so I got to talk to them for a little bit.

Finally I checked in, went through security, and sat at my gate for 2 hours. Thankfully I had a good book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) to read. When people started lining up I joined them. There, I met a nice Italian man who was going to visit his family in Milan and was eager to practice his english. Apparently he is an engineer and needed to learn english for his job. He's been watching American TV shows like The Big Bang Theory (one of my  favorite shows) to help learn english. When he found out I play the  cello and enjoy listening to Classical music he told me I was exactly like Leonard and his friends tell him he's like Sheldon.

I also taught him about Dvorak. We actually traded ipods so he could listen to Dvorak and I could listen to some of his music. I didn't really like whatever he gave me to listen to but he seemed to enjoy Dvorak's American Quartet.

When I finally got to Milan i basically RAN to the airport shuttle. I couldn't wait to see Ken. After about an hour on thebus I got got Centrale where Ken was waiting for me. We took the metro back to his apartment where I met Giacomo (his RA) and Segundo (his roommate). They were pretty awkward and I don't think they knew what to make of me. Ken and I watched Ratatouille and ate pumpkin seeds. We discovered that pumpkin seeds make a wonderful  and CHEAP snack. It was nice to catch up with Ken but we had to get up and go to the airport the next day so we went to bed pretty early.

(Oct 22)
Ken and I have been together exactly a year and a half as of today. What a better way to celebrate than a weekend trip to Spain?!

We were up and out by 9:30 but as we were walking to the metro I remembered I left my plane ticket in his living room. After he ran to get it for me we got on the metro and then immediately on the bus. Out plan was to get breakfast before we got to the airport but... we didn't have time. We checked in for our flight and headed straight to the McCafe for a chocolate croissant and coffee. It was nothing like anything we could get in the US. The croissant was amazingly delicious and not too expensive. I was quite impressed.

The flight was uneventful and we checked into our incredibly nice hotel room which was attached to the train station. Lleida was trying so hard to increase tourism so the flight to the brand new airport was something like 8 euros and the brand new hotel was just as cheap as a hostel.

Our first order of business was to find some food for lunch. We found a grocery store around the corner from the hotel and got some meat, cheese, and bread to make sandwiches. After we ate our lunch we tried to go to an art museum but it was closing. Half an hour early. Instead we went back to the hotel to take a short nap before heading out to find a tapas bar to celebrate our "anniversary". We walked all over the city and couldn't find anything. The lady in the tourist office gave us a map and told us where in the city to go and when but we couldn't find anything. We thought it was just too early but we walked all around the entire city and could find nothing. Finally we just went into a bar that appeared to be deserted and ate some more bread, cheese, meat and tomatoes as well as some beer. I guess it was a pretty good celebration.

(Oct. 23)
We woke up and went on a mission to find a good little cafe for breakfast. It took us a while but we finally found a little place where we had some good coffee and chocolate croissants (as is usual for us).  Afterwards we decided we would try to go to some of the museums in the guidebook we got from the tourist office. The museum we tried to go to the night before was still closed so we wandered around. We tried to find the water museum but it was impossible to find. We decided to stop trying to use the guidebook and we just wandered down little streets looking at the buildings. We finally decided to cross the river and see if the Car Museum was open. IT WAS! I'm not very interested in cars but Ken thought it was interesting and I was just happy a museum was open!

In the evening we bought some crackers, cream cheese, a salad, pumpkin seeds, chocolate, and wine for our real celebratory dinner. We spread it all out and had a feast on the bed. As my parents know too well this is exactly my idea of a good dinner- a bed picnic. Since we were in a good mood from our dinner we decided to try once again to find a bar or somewhere to celebrate. Again we found very little but we lowered our expectations a bit. We decided that we would go into any bar that had at least two different groups inside and there had to be at least one woman. We eventually found ourselves in a bar that we had thought was dark and creepy the night before but it turns out it was amazing! We spent several hours just sitting and talking. It was really nice. It definitely made up for last night.

(Oct 24)
We woke up and decided we wanted cake for breakfast so we got dressed and went to the grocery store only to find it was closed. It was quite unfortunate but thankfully the bar across the street from our hotel was open so we ordered chocolate crepes and coffee. The crepes were not very good since they were cold and had clearly just been sitting around.

We checked out of our hotel and headed straight for the Lleida Wine Festival going on in the park. It was essentially a giant community party with a local marching band playing in the middle and wine vendors lined up. We bought a glass and four tickets meaning we got to try four wines- 2 red, 1 rose', and 1 white. They were all good. We agreed that it was a good way to spend a morning.

We got some felafel and headed for the bus back to the airport. When we got to the airport, the security people took my toothpaste because it was American and didn't have the mL listed. It was quite frustrating. The plane ride was fine but there was SO MUCH TURBULENCE! Thankfully I didn't get sick. That would have been embarrassing.

Back in Milan I had 5 hours between flights so Ken agreed to sit with me in the airport for a little while, which was nice. It's better to sit around with someone entertaining. Unfortunately, he had to get home so I saw him to the bus and I went to my gate.

My gate wasn't even open when I got there. I couldn't even get in the wing where my gate was! I had to sit outside the passport check (since they have the check passports again since it was a wing only for international flights). Finally they opened the gate and I got on my plane. I slept the entire way to Dublin.

When I woke up I found my bus and hopped on. It was very nice and they told me exactly where to get off. It was also very relaxing hearing everyone speak English! Finding my hostel was also easy but finding my bed inside the hostel was not. I decided to book an 18 bed room but since I got there at 1am all the lights were off and it was almost impossible to find my assigned bed in the dark. I'm sure people thought I was crazy when I shined my cell phone light on them while trying to find my bed. When I finally found my bed I realized I was on the top bunk, I was holding my sheets, and I had no idea what to do with my bag. I was too tired to try to make my bed discreetly so I wouldn't wake up the girl beneath me so I just threw the sheets on the bed, put on my coat, threw my backpack up on my bed and called it my nest. I didn't sleep very well but I made sure to make my bed first thing in the morning.

Here are some awkward pictures I took of my room in Dublin while no one was around.

Here are my pictures from the whole trip: Fall Break