Cinque Maggio

Happy Cinco de Mayo (Cinque Maggio)! Too bad nobody over in Italy knows what that is. Its ok, I'll forgive them.

Anyway, so today we got up bright an early to get to studio by 9:30 for a work day, and to discuss in groups our mapping of the Roman Aqueducts. It was a fairly long day, I worked on my travel log for a bit, and our group came up with a mapping strategy we hope will work.

After studio, I went grocery shopping, as I do almost everyday, to get some more fruits/veges/bread. There are 2 grocery stores on our block, one we call "the green one" because the sign is green, and the other we call "the bum one" because about 20 bums and their dogs all sleep and live down by the store. The food in Italy is much healthier than the food in the US to this respect: they don't use hormones, or growth supplements in their produce, or fed to livestock, so things are just more, natural. The way they should be. Things are also a lot fresher here, and grated cheese is rare. I have grown accustomed to grating my own cheese onto my salads and pastas, and it is actually amazingly better. I do however miss cheddar cheese. They don't have "yellow" cheese here, only white. I'll live.

Then for dinner, Lewis, Joe, and Kevin (Lewis' friend who was in town), came over to our apartment for dinner. Afterwards we split up: some people went out, a few were watching movies, and I was working on stuff for school, and then passed out.

Sunday Number 3 in Rome

After Split, I just needed a rest day, so here it was. First, we went down to the market, and took a strange turn somewhere and found a part that we had never seen before. It seemed to go on forever. We also found some really cheap sunglasses, and since mine are pretty worn, I got some more.

This is the market in the midst of shutting down for the day.

Our petunia plant that Lindsey and I bought the first week we went to market.



Lindsey's friend Brittany was in Rome for the week, her study abroad in Luxembourg just ended, so we all went down to market together before they went off and did their thing.

The other Lyndsey jamming away to music while making panoramas of the city.

Mary bought a Croatia flag while we were in Split, so Lindsey helped her put it up on Mary's bedroom wall.

Ta-da!

Then, later, while Lindsey was out with Brittany, Lyndsey, Mary and I decided to watch a scary movie before going to bed. Bad idea. It was "The Descent" which I just wasn't prepared for. I'm OK with scary movies, but this was bloody/gory/scary, and I got pretty spooked. But, nothing attacked me during the night, so all is well.

Ancona to Roma (My Homa)

We decided to sleep in today, instead of waking up for the sunrise again. But, we woke up to the shore of Italy.

Our ferry was late getting into the harbor. What should have been 7am, turned to 7:30, and we had a 7:55 train to catch back to Rome.

So, we pushed our way to the front of the Polizia/customs line, got our stamps of approval, and ran off the ferry.

I tried to convince them that we'd never make it back to the train station on time, but they were optimists, so we tried. And failed. We missed our train so we waited around for 3 hours for the 11:10 train. I guess rubbing the golden toe in Split only gets you luck for a limited amount of time. But we made it back, safe and sound, with 4 new passport stamps and lots of new stories.

Croatia Vacatia

Hang tight, this is gonna be a long one!

First, we woke up around 5 to try and catch the sunrise. Alas, it wasn't up yet, and it was kinda cloudy anyway.

So, we went back to sleep for a little bit. We didn't buy a room or seats, just 'deck' tickets (what do you expect for 20 euro?), but luckily the ferry wasn't crowded, and we each grabbed 4 seats to lay across.

After waking up again, we went out onto the deck to see this view, ain't too shabby.

Before we got to the harbor, the pilot boat came by and dropped a man off onto the ferry before speeding away.

I can see Croatia!

A view of Split from the harbor

As soon as we got off, we started into town. First, the greens and produce market.

Then, we hit up an ATM to pull out some Kuna. Croatia is on the waiting list for the Euro, I believe. So, instead of getting a few small bills to get us through the day... we got these. The exchange rate is roughly 1USD = 5 Kuna. In reality, I'm only holding $40.

The streets of Croatia shine in the sun, and everything is white.

Pizza delivery on a Vespa, too cool.

The entrance side of Diocletian's palace. The main entrance is called the Golden Gate...and its not a red bridge.

A part of the palace

While shopping, we passed this egg stand (eggs are REALLY cheap over here by the way, about 40 US cents for a dozen), and the tent over them says 'HIPPOS', but we didn't see any hippos for sale, very disappointing.

The statue in front of the palace has a toe that is golden. We decided that over the centuries, people kept rubbing it for luck, so we did the same. We have no idea why the big toe is actually golden.

In the palace walls (now used for various businesses and shops), there was a singing quartet!

And since I figured out how to get the movie to correspond with the pictures, so they aren't always at the bottom of the page...

For your viewing pleasure, the Croatian quartet:

Oculus in the palace

Guess what? I still look the same, even in Croatia.

Then we walked along the Split shoreline until we found the beach! On the way, we saw this sun dial and cannonball set up. While we were looking at it, some guy who spoke English fairly well told us a little about the sun dial and how the words around it correspond to the crossing winds over the sea.

We did not find an open bathroom on the beach to change into our swimsuits, but we all happened to have blankets, for our overnights on the ferry, so this is how we changed.

The water here is incredibly clear

The beach we spent a few hours on. It is freezing, just like the Tyrrenian on the west shore of Italy.

I'm lovin' it?

The street running along the coast are made of a slick, pristine white stone. I loved this area. The public spaces in Europe are simply, amazing.

Croatian gelato: 6-12 Kuna. It wasn't nearly as good as it is in Italy, but it did the job.

O-H-I-O Croatian-style

No peeing.

Croatia is where the necktie originated! This was a very pricey tie shop, very sheek.

After 14 hours of Split fun, it was back on the ferry for another night.

A group of people on the boat all started dancing in circles, singing songs in a language we didn't know. It was fun to watch. We would have joined in if we knew the steps, or the words, but we didn't. So, we observed.

It was too early to find a place to sleep, so we sat in the caffe for a little bit. Mary and Lindsey both passed out in the booth. I gave them a few minutes of shut eye before waking them up to go find a spot to crash. This night, we weren't as lucky as we were on Thursday. There were 2 bus loads of tourists on our boat. We got a glimpse of the roster, and 500 people were on board. As crowded as it was, we managed to grab 2 seats each to sleep in. It was cramped and horrible, and Mary and I eventually both made in onto the floor to sleep. Not gonna lie, it wasn't the best night sleep I've had, but it part of the adventure.

Rome to Ancona to the Adriatic Sea

Today we packed up our things, for two nights of Vacation to Croatia.

First stop: Termini train station. I haven't had fast food in a LONG time, and I wasn't planning on getting any in Italy, but I was told that the curly fries at McDonalds were amazing over here, and I was hungry. And, yes, they are amazing.

The platform to catch our train to Ancona (yes, the same Ancona we visited in the first week of class back in March)

A nun on the train, she also happened to be on our ferry as well. We pass nuns on a daily basis. I suppose its the whole papal thing in Italy, huh? I just thought it was cool that this Sister was texting people.

Lindsey, Mary and I on the train, a roughly 3 hour ride.

Welcome to Ancona!

We had a few hours before the ferry took off, and we remembered this gelato place we went to before near the harbor, and decided to stop in again.

Excited about our first 10 hour ferry ride.

We got bored waiting in Ancona, so we decided to get on and play some cards out on the deck of the ferry, and watching the sun set in the harbor.

Ciao Ancona!

Our tug boat, seeing us off into the Adriatic.

The boat left at 9pm, and was due to arrive at 7am in Croatia. So, we slept.