Días Españoles: Spring Break (Southern Coast of Italy, Rome, Barcelona)

O hey there fans of Ben's Blog. I didn't know people were still reading this,

Anyway, last week was my spring break (yea I know, It's about time I got a vacation). The week started on Thursday morning with a 9 AM flight to Rome. I was traveling with 9 of my closest friends so there was no shortage of entertainment. We had about 8 hours to kill in Rome before meeting up with a tour company that would take us down to the Almalfi Coast for the weekend. We spent the day wandering around the city, stuffing our faces with pizza and gelato, and stumbling upon beautiful buildings and churches. Around 10 o'clock we boarded our bus to southern coast and arrived at our hostel around 3AM. The next day, the tour company had us up at 7AM for our boat ride to the tiny romantic island of Capri. Along the way to Capri we stop by the "Blue Grado" which was a sight that we never be forgotten, nor will the hilarious method we took to get into the Grado. (see pics) Capri was beautiful. I always enjoy seeing the smaller towns when I visit a country and Italy was no different. We took a chair lift to the top to the island to get a 360 degree view. It was amazing you could seeing all the surrounding islands and ships; spectacular. That night we went to nice, authentic, Italian restaurant which was, you guessed it, amazing. It was refreshing having a nice meal because we tend to eat pretty cheap when we travel. I got muscles and red wine at dinner (fantastic). That may have been the highlight of the weekend for me. And that night we went out to local bars and had great time. Could help thinking about how insanely great is it to be enjoying a night on the Mediterranean with some of my closest friend. I also couldn't stop thinking of the hundreds of friends and family I wish were there with me.

The next was our day at the beach in Positono Bay. The hillside town was obviously beautiful and the weather was great. We even managed to sneak in a little cliff jumping as well. That night we just relaxed which was nice and ...well relaxing. The next day we packed up and headed to Pompeii, which was a great place to stop in for a visit. It was very interesting and informative. It's also especially nice when you don't pay for a tour guide, but choose to follow closely behind some else's tour. After that we took the bus back to Roma. We arrived in the center of Rome around 6 and then took a city bus to our place of residence for the next 2 days. We dropped the ball a little bit on finding a place to stay, so we actually ended up having to stay at this camp ground/bungalow site on the outskirts of the city. It was very fun though. We got to meet some fun people and rough it for a little bit.

On Monday morning, we took the bus back in to the city and spent the entire day at the Vatican. We got to see everything; St. Peter's Basilica, the Square, the Sistine Chapel, the Popemobile. Another great day and we only had to wait in line for about 5 hours (Vatican Holy Week crowds can be brutal). The next day was very productive. Since our flight to Barcelona was early Wednesday morning, we had to see all of the Rome sights in a day. But we did it-Coliseum, Roman Forum, Circus Maximus (lame) Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps, done and done. That night we slept at the airport and you can imagine how that went. I claimed about 2 hours of sleep.

We got into Barcelona at about 9 on Wednesday morning and checked into immediately checked into our hotel so we could relax and shower off anything the Rome-Champino Airport floor gave us. After a while, we got ourselves together and explored the amazing city of Barcelona. First we walked up and down Las Ramblas, which is the popular main street of Barcelona and had lunch. It was nice to get back to Spanish food. That night we watched the Real Madrid-Barcelona futbol, I'm sorry, "soccer" match at a packed bar with Barcelona fans. We were smart and didn't tell anyone that we were rooting for Real Madrid (final score: Madrid-1, Barca- 0) The next day we walked down to the National Art Museum and the Olympic stadium area. Barcelona is full of interesting and unique architecture, which we full took in. After that we headed to the beach to hang ouw and swim. Dad, We saw a bunch of wind surfers, wish you and me could have been out there with them. That afternoon we took a tour of Antonio Gaudi's Casa Batllo. It was incredible. Probably one of the most interesting things I've seen while studying abroad. This is a must for anyone visiting Barcelona. That night we went out to this cheap dive bar we heard about and drank some nice sangria. Great night. One Friday, we got up early and battled through the rain to see La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, both famous works by the architect Antonio Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia was amazing and interesting, especially after seeing Casa Batllo, definitely one of the many things I will never forget. Parc Guell was great as well, the rain made it hard to fully take it in, but we did the best we could. That night we took the over night back to Madrid. Great trips. Great week. Great life.