Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Two Words: Blueberry Steak
Tonight Austin, Eli, and I went to this restaurant that serves one of the greatest steaks I think I've ever had. This steak was a Filet and we got it medium rare. The sauce though is what made the steak. The sauce was a warm blueberry sauce that covered the steak and about half the plate. It helped keep the steak warm and allowed us something to dip every juicy bite into. Take the steak and add in a bottle of the house red wine for the three of us to split and bread with some kind of spread that was incredible and you have the equation for a great dinner. Oh then after dinner we each got our own desert that we bought for the sole purpose of us three splitting them. So I got the chocolate cake, Austin got tiramisu, and Eli got cheesecake. All of them were incredible. Tonight was quite possible the best meal that we have had or at least that I've had since being in Europe. And I love it cause we are going again in another week as kind of our last meal before we all go back home. Thats all. It was just so good that it deserved it's own post.
Long but productive day yesterday
So yesterday for part of our Sports Marketing class we took a field trip to the soccer museum here in Florence. It's the only one in the world and honestly it was pretty cool. The first person we met was a man named Mr. Fennie who was the doctor for the Italian National Soccer Team for something like 25 or 26 years. It was enough to where he was on the bench for 6 world cups. He even was a champion in the 80's. Oh did I mention that he was a person friend with Pele? There was a signed Pele jersey in the museum that was given to Mr. Fennie as a person gift that he then donated to the museum. Also we were able to see every single jersey worn by the Italian team that won the World Cup in 06 and we got to see the actually World Cup that they held up when they won. It was really cool to be separated only by a thin sheet of glass from those important artifacts. We also were able to go behind closed doors because of our teacher, an ex Italian premier league player, and see the facilities where the national team practices. It was a really cool morning.
After that Austin and I came home ate and took a quick break then we were on our way to Pisa for the afternoon. I had never been and so Austin was being a good sport and went with me. We got to see the leaning tower and we also got to see all the hooligans that were taking their ridiculous touristy photos. If you cant tell I didn't take one of those pictures although I did take a picture with me and the leaning tower. We also went into the baptistry which was really cool because the echo inside it was incredible. We also went inside the cathedral which had a lot of cool paintings on the walls and just a lot of other old pieces of art around that made it really interesting. As if this should be a surprise to anyone, but we even ran into an Aggie in Pisa. It was a family who had a son that was going to be a sophomore in the Corp and the dad was in the Air Force stationed in Germany. The only way we could tell was because the son had just taken a picture holding up an Aggie flag and as he was folding it up I could see "xas." That mixed with maroon could only mean one thing, Aggies. So we went up and talked to them for a little while and it was a good afternoon. When all was said and done it was about a 4 hour road trip that I'm glad we took.
It's weird that our time is running up here. As of today the 30th we only have around 9 days until we board our planes and head our respective directions, Austin and Eli to Dallas and Me to Qatar. It's sad but it's exciting at the same time.
Another post will be coming soon that has an update of the most amazing meal so far in Europe.
Trent
After that Austin and I came home ate and took a quick break then we were on our way to Pisa for the afternoon. I had never been and so Austin was being a good sport and went with me. We got to see the leaning tower and we also got to see all the hooligans that were taking their ridiculous touristy photos. If you cant tell I didn't take one of those pictures although I did take a picture with me and the leaning tower. We also went into the baptistry which was really cool because the echo inside it was incredible. We also went inside the cathedral which had a lot of cool paintings on the walls and just a lot of other old pieces of art around that made it really interesting. As if this should be a surprise to anyone, but we even ran into an Aggie in Pisa. It was a family who had a son that was going to be a sophomore in the Corp and the dad was in the Air Force stationed in Germany. The only way we could tell was because the son had just taken a picture holding up an Aggie flag and as he was folding it up I could see "xas." That mixed with maroon could only mean one thing, Aggies. So we went up and talked to them for a little while and it was a good afternoon. When all was said and done it was about a 4 hour road trip that I'm glad we took.
It's weird that our time is running up here. As of today the 30th we only have around 9 days until we board our planes and head our respective directions, Austin and Eli to Dallas and Me to Qatar. It's sad but it's exciting at the same time.
Another post will be coming soon that has an update of the most amazing meal so far in Europe.
Trent
Monday, June 28, 2010
Pictures
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain
The BMW Museum in Munich, Germany
On the Way up Mt. Pilateus
Me on top of Mt. Pilateus
Credit Suisse building in Lucern, Switzerland
(That was for you Alex)
The BMW Museum in Munich, Germany
On the Way up Mt. Pilateus
Me on top of Mt. Pilateus
Credit Suisse building in Lucern, Switzerland
(That was for you Alex)
Random Thought
It's weird to think that we only have around 12 more days left in Italy. It feels like just yesterday I was leaving on this journey. I cant believe that I've had the summer that I'm having thus far and yet it's still not even close to being over. I've already visited four different countries since I left the states and arrived in Italy on May 17th and I still have two more to go. I'm so blessed for everything that I've been allowed to do and this is for sure one of those blessings. It's also just crazy to believe that in 12 days I'm leaving to go work in Qatar and spend a month with my dad before eventually heading home. I guess as my time here is coming to a close it's beginning to make me reflect on everything that I've done and the things that I still have yet to do.
Cinque Terre
This weekend our group went to Cinque Terre on the coast of Italy. It was so beautiful. It was also a pretty hard hike. We started off just dandy too. When we got to our hostel there was a lock out that happens every day starting around 11 and ends at 2:30ish. So of course we get there around 1:30ish and we have to sit outside of our hostel for around an hour before we could check in. Another thing was we had made reservations for only 12 but we actually had around 14 or 15 people with us so we had to actually sneak some of them in. We got in our rooms and everyone quickly changed then we caught the bus and it was off to Cinque Terre.
The bus dropped us off at the first town called Riomaggiore and we were going to start hiking at the last town called Monterosso. We all bought our tickets for the ferry ride to Monterosso and away we went. Once we got there we started our hike. Not 5 seconds in we were already climbing stairs that would never pass in a US park because they were so steep. Also, in case no one knew I've messed my ankle up pretty good while being here and lets just say the hike didn't agree with it very much. After we finished the first hike I had to take a train and meet the rest of the group. Then I went with them the rest of the way because the rest of the hikes weren't that demanding. We managed to get back to Riomaggiore when about 15 minutes had elapsed in the US/Ghana game. Even though we lost which is never good I'm happy we were embarrassed like the English were. I'll take a 2-1 loss over a 4-1 loss any day.
On day two of Cinque Terre we pretty much just spent it at the beach in Monterosso. We also just spent a lot of time in the water. After we kind of dried off a little George, Alex, and I all went and found somewhere for lunch. George and I both had calzones that were stuffed with all kinds of deliciousness and Alex got a pizza of some kind. Needless to say Alex was very jealous of our calzones. By the time we got back it was basically time to leave because a few of the people with us had to catch a train to Paris that was leaving at 9:30 from Florence and it was a long way back home. Regardless Cinque Terre was an amazing place and I would for sure come back here if we had more time.
Trent
The bus dropped us off at the first town called Riomaggiore and we were going to start hiking at the last town called Monterosso. We all bought our tickets for the ferry ride to Monterosso and away we went. Once we got there we started our hike. Not 5 seconds in we were already climbing stairs that would never pass in a US park because they were so steep. Also, in case no one knew I've messed my ankle up pretty good while being here and lets just say the hike didn't agree with it very much. After we finished the first hike I had to take a train and meet the rest of the group. Then I went with them the rest of the way because the rest of the hikes weren't that demanding. We managed to get back to Riomaggiore when about 15 minutes had elapsed in the US/Ghana game. Even though we lost which is never good I'm happy we were embarrassed like the English were. I'll take a 2-1 loss over a 4-1 loss any day.
On day two of Cinque Terre we pretty much just spent it at the beach in Monterosso. We also just spent a lot of time in the water. After we kind of dried off a little George, Alex, and I all went and found somewhere for lunch. George and I both had calzones that were stuffed with all kinds of deliciousness and Alex got a pizza of some kind. Needless to say Alex was very jealous of our calzones. By the time we got back it was basically time to leave because a few of the people with us had to catch a train to Paris that was leaving at 9:30 from Florence and it was a long way back home. Regardless Cinque Terre was an amazing place and I would for sure come back here if we had more time.
Trent
Friday, June 25, 2010
Second Semester of Class in Florence
We are done with our first week of classes for our second three week term. Austin and I are taking a class called Sports Marketing. Also our teacher is an ex professional soccer player here in Italy. He was in Italy's premier league too so he was pretty good. He had to stop because he hurt his knee. Then he went to the US for a few years and learned English so he can communicate quite well with us in class. Although I loved my teacher last semester my teacher this semester has a leg up on him this time. So far we've talked about every summer olympics and soccer. We talk about soccer every day and it's quite nice. Also since we only have five people in our class we only go for two hours a day instead of two and half hours a day. It may seem small but they add up and it's wonderful.
Also our week as been full of the World Cup. We were able to watch the US win there game. We were watching in a PUB and there were US fans scattered every where and when we scored everyone came to where we were and just started going crazy. Soon after time had expired we began the usually USA chant and as the Algerian fans were leaving they started clapping for us and telling us good game. It was an awesome day.
We were going to go to Venice yesterday but our plans fell through. So instead we went to the Uffizi gallerie. It was so awesome to walk through there. Especially seeing the Birth of Venus just because I had seen it in pictures before and to actually see the real thing was cool. There were severally other things in there that I found interesting but I don't remember the names. All in all it was a great day and I'm glad that we were able to spend the amount of time that we did there. Sometime in the next two weeks we are going to go see the Statue of David and climb the Duomo.
Pictures to come.
Trent
Also our week as been full of the World Cup. We were able to watch the US win there game. We were watching in a PUB and there were US fans scattered every where and when we scored everyone came to where we were and just started going crazy. Soon after time had expired we began the usually USA chant and as the Algerian fans were leaving they started clapping for us and telling us good game. It was an awesome day.
We were going to go to Venice yesterday but our plans fell through. So instead we went to the Uffizi gallerie. It was so awesome to walk through there. Especially seeing the Birth of Venus just because I had seen it in pictures before and to actually see the real thing was cool. There were severally other things in there that I found interesting but I don't remember the names. All in all it was a great day and I'm glad that we were able to spend the amount of time that we did there. Sometime in the next two weeks we are going to go see the Statue of David and climb the Duomo.
Pictures to come.
Trent
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Spain
So we started off with a bang. Our flight from Munich to Rues, a town right outside Barcelona, was delayed by an hour. That hour then caused us to be late arriving at the airport so we missed the bus to the train station. And then the last train was going to make us get in there around 11:30 at night. So we ended up taking a cab ride from the airport to our hostel in Barcelona. It wasn't the cheapest thing in the world but between the five of us it wasn't too bad.
That next day was our one full day in Barcelona. For anyone that has been there before our hostel was located about two blocks away from the Gaudi House. We spent the day mainly just wondering around the city stumbling upon things as we found them. We did however see three of the big name things to do there (the Cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, and the Picasso Museum). The Picasso Museum was really rather interesting just because he didn't start out as the Picasso we know him as today and it was just really cool to see his progression and to just see how he changed in his paintings. The Sagrada Familia was something else too. It might be one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. Either way it was a successful day minus the outcome of the Switzerland/Spain game. It put a little bit of a damper on the afternoon that is for sure.
The next morning we got up a little early and we packed up and headed off to a small beach town called Tarragona. We all got to our hotel and literally within about an hour we were already on the way to the beach. It was beautiful weather so it was perfect to go to the beach. Plus it was very relaxing which was another major plus. The next day we woke up and again we were on the way to the beach. This time though we had a date planned at the Kabana (that is how it was spelled) for the US and Slovenia game. The Kabana also had very good kebabs. Either way though at the half way point we were all very depressed with the outcome of the game thus far. Then the second half happened and the whole beach could tell we were Americans. We weren't very happy though about that blown call that would have won us the game but we won't go into detail about that here.
The last day we got up and went to the airport to fly back home. Here though we had a 3 and half lay over for our flight. Oh thank you RyanAir. I'm not sure if I'll be able to use them again haha. All in all though we managed to get our way back to Flornece and it feels amazing.
Trent
That next day was our one full day in Barcelona. For anyone that has been there before our hostel was located about two blocks away from the Gaudi House. We spent the day mainly just wondering around the city stumbling upon things as we found them. We did however see three of the big name things to do there (the Cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, and the Picasso Museum). The Picasso Museum was really rather interesting just because he didn't start out as the Picasso we know him as today and it was just really cool to see his progression and to just see how he changed in his paintings. The Sagrada Familia was something else too. It might be one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. Either way it was a successful day minus the outcome of the Switzerland/Spain game. It put a little bit of a damper on the afternoon that is for sure.
The next morning we got up a little early and we packed up and headed off to a small beach town called Tarragona. We all got to our hotel and literally within about an hour we were already on the way to the beach. It was beautiful weather so it was perfect to go to the beach. Plus it was very relaxing which was another major plus. The next day we woke up and again we were on the way to the beach. This time though we had a date planned at the Kabana (that is how it was spelled) for the US and Slovenia game. The Kabana also had very good kebabs. Either way though at the half way point we were all very depressed with the outcome of the game thus far. Then the second half happened and the whole beach could tell we were Americans. We weren't very happy though about that blown call that would have won us the game but we won't go into detail about that here.
The last day we got up and went to the airport to fly back home. Here though we had a 3 and half lay over for our flight. Oh thank you RyanAir. I'm not sure if I'll be able to use them again haha. All in all though we managed to get our way back to Flornece and it feels amazing.
Trent
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Sorry Sorry
Sorry it has been so long since I've updated this thing. I plan on doing it tomorrow to get everyone caught up on whats been going on. One main reason is because I've been wanting to get everything settled back in which I've finally done. Also just so you know my teacher for this term is an ex professional soccer player. Update to come tomorrow.
Trent
Trent
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Deutschland, Deutschland, Deutschland
The next leg of our trip was going to Munich, Germany after we got done with going to Lucern. We also decided to go to Munich when none of us what so ever knew anything about the city and what there was to do but needless to say it has been my favorite city so far on this trip. We got there the night of Germany's first World Cup game and so we were pretty excited to just go watch it at the pub or something with some other German fans. Well it was raining the whole time that we were there and so we were going to go back to our Hostel to get our rain jackets and such when we meet these five German's in the train station that were in the German Air Force. Well they were going to the Olympic stadium that they had there and so we felt that that would be a better choice then going to the pub so we decided to go with them. We only had one problem though. We had no German gear to wear to the game so we found a little stand on the walk and bought our gear. I bought just a general flag, Eli bought one of the biggest flags I've ever seen that could actually fit all of us underneath it as we were walking, and Austin bought a scarf to wear to the game.
Once we get to the stadium we knew there were going to be a lot of people there but there were probably close to about 10,000 people there all rooting for the Deutschland, so of course we did too. It was quite possibly the best and most fun night that any of us have had this whole entire time in Europe. Every time we score, and we scored four times, the crowd would irrupt with cheers and chants, as well as going crazy, and waving their German flags ever so proudly. At one point a guy two rows behind us came down and started celebrating with us and then he fell over with one of the Air Force guys that was with us. Sounds a little painful but it was hilarious.
The next day we decided to just walk around and figure out what we should do. So we pretty much just wondered around Munich exploring and ate our weight in Brats and just good German food. Lucern was hard to top but Munich did and it and lets just say they crushed it.
We're in Barcelona right now and I'll have a post for here and the beach in a few days when I get back to Florence on Saturday.
Trent
Once we get to the stadium we knew there were going to be a lot of people there but there were probably close to about 10,000 people there all rooting for the Deutschland, so of course we did too. It was quite possibly the best and most fun night that any of us have had this whole entire time in Europe. Every time we score, and we scored four times, the crowd would irrupt with cheers and chants, as well as going crazy, and waving their German flags ever so proudly. At one point a guy two rows behind us came down and started celebrating with us and then he fell over with one of the Air Force guys that was with us. Sounds a little painful but it was hilarious.
The next day we decided to just walk around and figure out what we should do. So we pretty much just wondered around Munich exploring and ate our weight in Brats and just good German food. Lucern was hard to top but Munich did and it and lets just say they crushed it.
We're in Barcelona right now and I'll have a post for here and the beach in a few days when I get back to Florence on Saturday.
Trent
Luzern, Switzerland
Hello All,
So we spent the beginning part of these leg of our study abroad in Luzern, Switzerland. None of us really knew much about it other than Eli and Austin since they had already been here once. Well we got there and didn't really know what to do the first night so we rode the public transportation into the city center and just started to walk around. To be honest we were walking around to find a place where we could post up and watch the USA/England World Cup game the next night. Well we found one that was right next to the river but little did we know that the next day they would be flying many English flags outside of the Pub so we decided to find something else. What we ended up stumbling upon was a giant square that was on the other side of the train station that had a projection screen set up and just had hundreds of chairs set up around it. So we decided that this would be a good place for us to watch the game. Once the game had started we looked around us and there were at least hundreds of people if not a thousand or two. It was a lot of fun but little did we know we were going to have a lot more fun once we got to Germany.
We also climbed, or rather rode the gondolas, up the Mount Pilatus. It was awesome. It was covered in clouds and was actually sitting right on the cloud line. We were able to climb up and through and around all of the top of the mountain. We also ran into many Americans while we were there including one who went to Plano West high school. Over all Luzern was a great place and I would for sure recommend that you go to Switzerland at some point in your life because you will meet some of the nicest people ever. I thought Texans could be nice but these guys put us to shame.
Pictures will be up once I get back to Florence.
Trent
So we spent the beginning part of these leg of our study abroad in Luzern, Switzerland. None of us really knew much about it other than Eli and Austin since they had already been here once. Well we got there and didn't really know what to do the first night so we rode the public transportation into the city center and just started to walk around. To be honest we were walking around to find a place where we could post up and watch the USA/England World Cup game the next night. Well we found one that was right next to the river but little did we know that the next day they would be flying many English flags outside of the Pub so we decided to find something else. What we ended up stumbling upon was a giant square that was on the other side of the train station that had a projection screen set up and just had hundreds of chairs set up around it. So we decided that this would be a good place for us to watch the game. Once the game had started we looked around us and there were at least hundreds of people if not a thousand or two. It was a lot of fun but little did we know we were going to have a lot more fun once we got to Germany.
We also climbed, or rather rode the gondolas, up the Mount Pilatus. It was awesome. It was covered in clouds and was actually sitting right on the cloud line. We were able to climb up and through and around all of the top of the mountain. We also ran into many Americans while we were there including one who went to Plano West high school. Over all Luzern was a great place and I would for sure recommend that you go to Switzerland at some point in your life because you will meet some of the nicest people ever. I thought Texans could be nice but these guys put us to shame.
Pictures will be up once I get back to Florence.
Trent
Friday, June 11, 2010
Travel
Howdy,
So we finished our first week today and now we are leaving to go to Lucern, Switzerland. Then Munich, Germany and then Barcelona, Spain then back to Florence. More posts will come cause we are rushing out the door. Have a good one.
Trent
So we finished our first week today and now we are leaving to go to Lucern, Switzerland. Then Munich, Germany and then Barcelona, Spain then back to Florence. More posts will come cause we are rushing out the door. Have a good one.
Trent
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Update
So sorry that it's been so long since I've given everyone an update on everything that we are doing here. Not much as happened since the last time that I've posted. We've finished up our second week of classes on Friday and we are about to start the last week of this semester. We had a day off on Wednesday this week because of National Holiday in Italy, so we were going to go to Viareggio which is a beach here. But I managed to roll my ankle on the cobble stones in Florence and it was a bad one. So I ended up staying home that day and it was actually for the best. Everyone that went that day didn't really get to experience the beach that much because it down poured both in Florence and Viareggio. Later on in the week though we were able to go back. It was quite the experience.
First off we missed our train by like five minutes so Austin, Eli, and I had to wait for the next one. When we couldn't figure out which one was the next one we asked the information people where we needed to go. The guy at information then proceeded to tell us to go to the wrong train, going in the wrong direction. So Eli feel asleep and Austin began listening to his iPod and I started to pay attention to the stations we were passing. I realized that we were going in the wrong direction and so we got off and didn't really know where to go from there. Then Eli stepped up and figured out that we could go towards Pisa and get there so we started heading that direction. When we got to Pisa we just assumed that we stayed on the train until Austin grabbed the ticket and figured out that we had to get off. So we got off the train and realized that we had like two minutes to get to the opposite side of the train station to get to our next train. It was going to take to long to go under the tracks in the little subway type system they had so Eli made the executive decision to run across the train tracks which we went over in just the right amount of time. We then ran all the way to our next train which we got on just in the right amount of time. All in all it was an interesting way to get to the beach but we finally got there and stayed for a solid five or six hours. And we got on the right train to come back where a lot of us just fell asleep.
It's been a good week and we are about to start our last week before our break. This time next week we'll either be in Switzerland or Germany. Sounds exciting if you ask me.
Ciao
First off we missed our train by like five minutes so Austin, Eli, and I had to wait for the next one. When we couldn't figure out which one was the next one we asked the information people where we needed to go. The guy at information then proceeded to tell us to go to the wrong train, going in the wrong direction. So Eli feel asleep and Austin began listening to his iPod and I started to pay attention to the stations we were passing. I realized that we were going in the wrong direction and so we got off and didn't really know where to go from there. Then Eli stepped up and figured out that we could go towards Pisa and get there so we started heading that direction. When we got to Pisa we just assumed that we stayed on the train until Austin grabbed the ticket and figured out that we had to get off. So we got off the train and realized that we had like two minutes to get to the opposite side of the train station to get to our next train. It was going to take to long to go under the tracks in the little subway type system they had so Eli made the executive decision to run across the train tracks which we went over in just the right amount of time. We then ran all the way to our next train which we got on just in the right amount of time. All in all it was an interesting way to get to the beach but we finally got there and stayed for a solid five or six hours. And we got on the right train to come back where a lot of us just fell asleep.
It's been a good week and we are about to start our last week before our break. This time next week we'll either be in Switzerland or Germany. Sounds exciting if you ask me.
Ciao
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