La aventura italiana: Pisa

Italia! First stop: Pisa

Fui a Italia! On Sunday, I got back from our 5 day aventura in Italia. I went with 5 of my friends from API: Marcela, Colleen, Lorelyn, Kat, and Molly. We decided that we would spend 1 night in Pisa, 2 nights in Florencia, and our last day in Bologna. When we left, I couldn’t believe that we had booked the trip a mere 3 weeks prior and now we were actually going!

                And so here the journey begins! Our first destination was Pisa, Italia. We were flying out of Madrid and we’re clearly not living in Madrid so we had to get a bus from Granada to Madrid. The bus we took was SO. NICE. The best way to describe is was the favorite love child of an airplane and a coach bus. The seats on the bus not only had the reclining back part but it had a reclining foot rest too. YEAH, I know. The seats were so comfy which was convenient because we were all beat on account of not going to sleep before boarding this bus (again, we’re young, right?). The bus left at 2 am on Wednesday morning so we left our houses around 1 to get to the bus station which is about a 10 minute cab drive away. After 5 hours on the luxury bus, we arrived at Madrid Barajas airport in Terminal 4. This terminal is in a completely different portion/building of the airport so we hopped on a bus and took the 10 minute journey to Terminal 1-3. We went through security without any problems and then found a nice row of chairs for us to make into some beds. We were SUPER temprano for our flight (it left at 1:30 pm and we got to the airport around 7:30 am). We all curled up on the seats and took some siestas. Then, before we knew it, we were boarding our RyanAir flight to Pisa! The flight went very smoothly and we got there sin problemas. 

Our RyanAir flight to Pisa, Italia!

              

 Molly y yo en nuestra avión a Pisa

 

 First glimpse of Italy from the skies <3

  Once in Pisa, we had to catch a bus to the city centre to get to our hostel. First thing to learn about Italy? You have to buy any sort of bus ticket in advance, including if it’s just public transportation AND you have to validate it once you get on the bus in this little machine thing. We got on the bus, 1,10 euro in hand and then realized this soooo we ended up getting to our stop and just hopping off. I know, I felt terrible but at that point, we were too far deep into this little mistake that it was just best to bite the bullet and escape ( we found out later on account of this happening to some Bulgarian guys from our hostel in Florence, that you can get fined up to 50 € for not only for not buying a ticket but also for not validating it AKA we got mad lucky) Our illegal bus trip took us to right by the Leaning Tower of Pisa which was quite the site to see but more about that a little later. We found out way to our hostel, which was super close, without a problem. 

The hostel we stayed out was called Hostel Pisa Tower. It just opened in June of this year and it used to be an old villa. It was such a good first hostel experience; the owners were super nice and helpful and the hostel itself felt like you were in someone’s adorably decorated apartment. The 6 of us filled one of the 6 bedrooms at the hostel which was nice because it was just us in the room. There were 3 bunk beds and 6 lockers to keep our belongings in if we wanted (more useful though for when you’re staying with randos) When you looked out our window, you could see the top of the Leaning Tower and the top of the church there as well so we were only about a 1 minute walk from it. One of the hostel owners gave us a map and showed us how to get places and also places where he would recommend going. After a tour of the rest of the hostel, we were off to be the ultimate tourist and go take pictures holding up the Leaning Tower!

 The awesome view from the window of our hostel

 Appropriate flags to be hanging outside our window

 Our bedroom!

The view of downstairs/entrance from the stairs

The kitchen/dining room area

The living room

 The backyard and Starlight Terrace

 Me and Lorelyn walking past the tower

 Definitely almost got squished by the Tower

Standing in front of the Tower was very neat. It was so big and impressionable; it really did feel like I had just intruded onto the front of a postcard. The weather was cloudless, cool, and sunny and there were people hustling and bustling everywhere. It was entertaining to watch everyone gathering on the grass in front of the Tower taking their leaning pictures.

What up, tourists

So much for that!

About 10 minutes after we got here (and subsequently were on the grass) the police came with their whistles to make everyone vacate the grass. Good thing we got our pics holding up the Tower just in time!

After the Tower, we went walking to the river which was gorgeous. It was just about sunset so everything had a golden pink glow to it. Then we walked around the shopping areas a little bit and finally decided to get some good ol’ Italian grub. One of the owners of the hostel recommended a restaurant that was on the other side of the river. We tried to find the one he recommended but the map wasn’t so keen on showing the multiple alleyways so we ended up stumbling upon a different restaurant. We were a little weary at first because there was NO ONE in the restaurant but, then again, we were early in the Italian eating schedule. Well, what do you know; there I ate possibly the best gnocchi I’ve had, ever. I wish I was exaggerating but I’m not. It was pistachio and pancetta gnocchi. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, my mouth is salivating just thinking about it. Molly and I also got a pizza and split the both of them. Delish. 

My mouth is salivating at the thought of consuming this

The sunset in Pisa along the river that eventually will lead into Florencia

After dinner, we wandered the streets a little bit and then made our way back to the hostel and turned in for the night.

                The next morning we got up and were off to Florence! We had a 2.50 € breakfast from the hostel that, for 2.50, it was pretty good. After asking one of the hostel owners which mode of transportation to Florence was best, we decided upon a public bus to the train station and then a train to Florence. We had to ask a few people to make sure we didn’t miss our stop but we made it to the station! A train to Firenze was leaving in about 15 minutes so we quickly bought tickets and hopped on.

Ciao Pisa, Ciao Firenze!

Lagos, Portugal

Vale, I now realize that it has been an actual month since I've posted on here. Now that everything is winding down for a few days after lots of traveling, you're going to be ambushed with some awesome blog posts. Starting with........... LAGOS!

Fui a Portugal con muchas personas de API! A bunch of us went with an organization called DiscoverGranada. We left Granada at 6 am which meant that we all decided not to sleep (we’re young; we can do this stuff, right?) The bus ride was 7 hours long and my intention was to passsssss out on the bus ride after not sleeping… well, that didn’t quite pan out the way I had hoped so I was a bit tired once we got to Lagos—nothing a nap on the beach couldn’t fix though. 

We got to our hotel which was 4 stars and so awesome. Marcela, Colleen, and I had an apartment in the hotel (which was made of luxury apartments). We had a terrace, a living room, a small kitchenette, a breakfast table, a bathroom, and a bedroom. There was a paradise in the center of this hotel that had 2 pools, palm trees, grass, and lots of reclining pool chairs. 

After we got there, we went to the supermarket to buy water and some food for the beach. We walked to the beach, Don Meia Praia. Madre mía, que bonita! I felt as if I was living in a postcard. Funny story too: at one point, the background on my computer was a beautiful picture I found online of this beach in this city called Lagos, Portugal. Then I ended up visiting this city and seeing this computer background in real life. My life is falso, I know. We spent the day at this beach until around 5 when Molly, Allyson, and I decided to head back to the hotel to take showers and rest a little bit. 

 

The beach that was my computer background that I saw in real life!

Don Meia Praia

At Don Meia Praia

Around 8, our tour guides from DiscoverGranada walked us to the city center to a restaurant called NahNahBah that had one of the best burgers I’ve eaten in a LONG time. According to FoodNetwork, this place is in the top 10 best burgers in the world. But what was REALLY amazing, besides this delicious burger, were these potato things that we got with them. I can’t even call them fries because that would be insulting to them. They were sliced potatoes baked and fried in a way that was, mmmmm, and then had garlic on them. I know that just sounds like I’m describing garlic fries, but trust me… they were magical. Luego, fuimos a hotel para irnos de marcha a un bar con DiscoverGranada. (Later, we went back to the hotel and then out to a bar with DiscoverGranada!).

El día siguiente, we went to a place where we would have taken our Sangria boat cruise if the waves hadn’t been crashing against the rocks like it was their job. The original plan was to take the little sail boat all throughout the caves but since the waves were too rough, we just went to the same place via bus and then walked around where we would have sailed. It was still so cool (and to be honest, I’m glad we still went via bus since we got to see how rough the waters were and made me less bummed since I could see firsthand that we would have been a shipwreck in exactly 1.2 seconds) We got to climb down around the caves which was awesome. Después, fuimos a otra playa donde podíamos jugar futbol, voleibol, todo. Unfortunately, the wind was very very forceful and the sand was whipping around. A group of us ended up staying there for a little but then took one of the buses back to the hotel early. I rinsed all the sand off of me (enough to form a little beach) and then went to siesta by the pool. Later, a few of us went into the city center to grab some late lunch. 

 The caves area where we would have done our boat cruise

Out on the rocks of the caves! ( I SWEAR I didn't greenscreen this... this is actually real)

At 6:30pm, everyone met up in the hotel lobby to go watch the sunset at the End of the World (Cabo Sao Vicente). It was a little cloudy/foggy so we didn’t see the clearest of sunsets but the view was spectacular. It really did feel like the end of the world; it was a straight drop off into the ocean.

The sunset at the End of the World

*Tilt head* Me at the End of the World

We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then headed back onto the bus to get dropped off either in the city center or back at the hotel. Rachel, Carrie, and I decided to get off in town and find someplace to eat dinner there. We went to a restaurant where we all split a pizza, grilled salmon, and grilled swordfish. Can you guess how it tasted? Yup, delicious. We met up with some more API people once we got back to the hotel and went out to a bar called Joe’s Garage that was affiliated with DiscoverGranada. We spent the rest of the night dancing and singing out hearts out!

On Sunday, we went to the West Coast of Portugal to go surfing! I say ‘we’ but I did not go surfing, though I did go to the west coast. We could go surfing if we wanted to but if we just wanted to see the west coast, then we could do that too! So, we checked out of the hotel, left our luggage in one of their luggage storage rooms and took the bus over to the gorgeous west coast beach of Praia do Amado. The ones of us who weren’t taking surf lessons had a great time drawing in the sand and taking tons of pictures of everyone who was surfing. We had lunch at the only restaurant on the beach (it’s a good thing it was tasty!) and got some burgers and fries. Luego, we left for the hotel and then started our 7 hour journey back to Granada!

The West coast of Portugal

 GO PITT!

Even though the weather wasn’t always on our side with the wind, I still had an amazing first experience in Portugal. I was with great people and made some more great memories!

Next adventure: Italia!

Abrazos y besos a todos :)