In the words of Lizzie McGuire, "This is what dreams are made of"

This past weekend Hayley, Meredith, Cece, and I traveled to Rome, the eternal city. Friday, those who weren't Catholic had to pretend they were for the day as we explored Vatican City. After a few bumps in the morning (tickets wouldn't print and a small pickpocketing incident - don't worry the worst part was a coach wallet was gone) we arrived at Vatican City. We trudged through ancient artifacts, roman statues and decorative tapestries to finally arrive at the Sistine Chapel! I want to give a shout out to Rick Steves for informing us on the magic of Rome throughout the weekend! I appreciated the Sistine Chapel so much more after really understanding every piece of Michelangelo's work even if the guards kept yelling for everyone to be silent in this sacred place. Oops, sorry. After that we went inside the largest cathedral in the world, St. Peter's Basilica! It was incredible! Before we entered we waited in St. Peter's Square and saw the pope's bedroom! Actually, Pope Francis I is so cool that he does not stay in the fancy Vatican Apartments but in a much humbler apartment outside of St. Peter's Square. Inside St. Peter's Basilica I saw Michelangelo's La Pieta, Blessed John Paul II who will be canonized on April 28, the place where St. Peter was crucified upside down, and the tombs of many former popes. I was in chills more than half the time I was there.

Second on the right on the top floor is usually the Pope's bedroom

La Pieta

Pope John Paul II's tomb

Like many pilgrims, I passed through and touched the foot of St. Peter

Saturday was Hayley's birthday!!! Woo! Meredith woke her up with a cake? nah, pizza of course! After some celebration we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. While yesterday, everyone was a Catholic for the day, the last thing we wanted to be were Catholics today since many Christians were killed in the arena. It was cool to see where the gladiators fought. Hayley had taken Latin so she knew a lot about it all too. The Roman Forum was cool but unfortunately, my Rick Steves tour script would not download so we ended up just looking at a bunch of old ruins and not really knowing what we were looking at. I tried to remember back to 7th grade summer reading about the mystery book in the Roman times and when we read Julius Caesar around freshman year in high school. It's hard to remember all the way back to then.

Who wants cake when you can have pizza?!

Colosseum

Check out the columns: doric, ionic and corinthian

That is...uh?

Of course we had to have Hayley make a special wish on her birthday so we went to the Trevi Fountain to make a wish! It was beautiful at night!

Make a wish! Now where's Paolo?!

Sunday, I saw the pope! Yes, Pope Francis I! Every Sunday that he is in Rome he says a blessing in St. Peter's Square. One of the coolest experiences of my life. Friday, we learned that St. Peter's Square holds about 80,000 people. I am not kidding when I say there were at least 75,000 people there to see the pope. The only part of the square that was empty was the part where the view to the window was blocked by the columns in the square. Even though Pope Francis I does not live in the Vatican Apartments, he still speaks from the next window. It was all in Italian. I could understand a few phrases here and there. Hearing everyone pray the Hail Mary was unbelievable. After the pope said his final blessing, all those 80,000 people had to get back to the city, probably via the metro. I realized that I hadn't had gelato yet. And how could I leave Rome without eating gelato?! So I decided to let some people rush to the metro while I ate some delicious strawberry gelato and watch the masses of people head back on the metro.

There he is, Pope Francis I!

So many people!

Everything in Rome was bigger than I was expecting it to be, literally. I mean everything, St. Peter's, the Colosseum, and the crowds to see the pope. It was an experience in the Eternal City that I will never forget. Get ready for next weekend's adventures where I will be riding a camel on my 21st birthday!

Adventures around Spain: Madrid and Pamplona

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, the season of travel is in its height for me so I've been busy getting ready for all my travels.

Two weekends ago, I decided to hop on a bus and head to Madrid for the weekend to visit Jessie! We saw the royal palace and the royal cathedral. I was almost overwhelmed at the big city feel of Madrid - I guess I really have started to get used to Seville. We went out just the two of us for dinner. It was so nice to catch up, even though it had only been a few weeks since I had seen Jessie in Portugal. That night we went out to a cave bar. It was so cool! There were stalactites hanging all over the place!

The Royal Palace

Royal Cathedral

The next day we woke up and went to Retiro Park. It was a beautiful fall day with leaves changing and a nice breeze, a nice change from the warm weather and green leaves in Seville. It's just weird that it is the end of October and it is still 75 degrees in Seville. We saw the Crystal Palace in Retiro Park. Always so fun to see things in real life that you have pinned on pinterest so many times.

Crystal Palace on a fall day

Retiro Park

 That afternoon we were going to go to the top of city center and get a beautiful view of the city but there was a major cleaning strike going on. People were throwing trash everywhere and there were unattended fires in the street and in random trashcans! So instead I showed Jessie the vertical garden because she had not seen it yet! We took a little siesta then went to a bar to watch the Madrid vs. Barcelona futbol game! Barcelona won 2-1. Since we were at an Irish bar, there were fans for both sides, not just Madrid.

Cleaning strike

Woke up Sunday morning and went to a huge market - so many people and stands everywhere! I found some pretty scarfs though! Then we went to a famous churros place and ate some delicious churros. There were pictures of all the famous people that had been there. It kind of reminded me of the cheesesteak places in Philly.


Last weekend I went to Pamplona to visit Lucia!!!! I hadn't seen her in over 2 years! It was so nice to see her and meet her family and all her friends! I arrived Thursday morning and we met Claudia, who came to visit PA for a week, before she left for Paris for the weekend! We saw some old Roman walls in the city. We went back to her house for one of many typical Spanish meals--green beans, potatoes and fish. That evening we walked around a different part of the city. I saw the start of the running of the bulls. Then we met her friends out for drinks and pinchos (it's what they call tapas in the north of Spain). We were on the street that is the end of the running of the bulls. I got to practice my Spanish with her friends because some of them didn't really know English. It was freezing though! 5 degrees celcius - that's about 40! And when you are used to 75, it's freezing!

Lucia, Claudia and I outside the Roman walls of the city

Who knew Hemingway made the Running of the Bulls famous worldwide in "The Sun Also Rises"?

The next day we woke up and took a quick bus ride to San Sebastian. It was such a pretty city! We watched the waves crash onto the rocks and spray 6 feet into the air. It was so cool! We reminisced about high school over lunch. So funny to think all the way back to high school, junior year seems so far away now. Man, how time flies. I had a burger with pickles for lunch! My madre has made me burgers numerous times, but they are only ok and they never have pickles, the pickles today were a real treat!

And I thought this was the pretty part of the city...

Waves crashing against the wall

Beautiful beach in San Sebastian

I got to experience a typical Saturday in the Beloqui household. We woke up later and went for a walk. I walked part of the Camino de Santiago (even if only was a few meters)! and I walked part of the path of the running of the bulls! After touring the Cathedral in Pamplona we had an aperitivo with her mom. Basically you just get a few drinks and a few tapas before lunch and hang out. Lucia's mom knew everyone! It kind of reminded me of my own mom. We would walk through the streets and she was always saying hello and talking to people. That night Lucia had all of her friends over for pizza. That was a night completely of Spanish. When the first friend came who didn't speak English, Lucia looked at me and said, ok no more English, only Spanish. It was hard but I got to experience what she had gone through the first few months when she was in the states and barely understood what we were saying. I have a whole new perspective on that now.

Running of the Bulls statue

Path of the Running of the Bulls

Sign for the Camino de Santiago

It was a fantastic weekend visiting Lucia, and her family and her friends! I hope it is not another 2 years before I see her again.