Hallo and Buon Giorno!
So the week with my best friend is over, and it’s time to tell you all about our crazy adventures. I’m not even sure where to start, there are so many. I’ve been friends with Paige since freshman year of high school, which would make us friends for 7 years, and she came to visit me last week for her spring break. I was so excited and had so many plans for us. Note: If you seriously don't have time for a novel, don't read this. It was 8 pages on Microsoft, and there are over 40 pictures.
So she came the day after we got back from Spain and I could not wait to pick her up from the airport. I greeted her with flowers and chocolate and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier to see a familiar face. It was just so nice to have someone so special here with me to share in my experiences. Since it was Saturday when she came, I told her that we were GOING OUT that night because Sunday night in Germany would probably be lame, and Saturday night would definitely not fail to be a good time. Never mind the need to “catch up on sleep” or “get used to the time difference,” we were ready to rage. She met my host family, who were very welcoming, and we had a nice dinner before getting ready to go to Cologne. I had contacted a few guys in our group who were not traveling that weekend, and they decided to go out with us. It felt better to be with a few guys because I felt pretty safe walking around Cologne that way. We met up in Alstadt, the old city, and got a bottle of wine before going to the train station. Our train kept getting delayed though, so we went to a nearby bar and had a few drinks before leaving. I had my first strawberry daiquiri in Europe and it was pretty damn good.
We finally made it on to the train to Cologne at 12:30, but decided it would be all right since the clubs don’t really get going til about 1 in the morning. We had a recommendation from a friend, so we found a busy street with a lot of clubs and went to one called Diamond Club. I’ll just say one word… RAGER. I kind of don’t even like that word, but that’s what it was. After chugging some cheap drugstore vodka on the street, we went inside the club where we ordered vodka red bull (what else??) and danced all night. Once, while we were waiting at the bar for (yet another) drink, “Get outta your mind” came on… and we told the bartender to hang on for a second, went to the dance floor and started dancing so hard our necks were sore the next day.
We danced for the whole night, made out with a few eighteen year olds (they sure didn’t look eighteen though) and Paige made out with everything that moved. Well, not everything, but close. We had two words… SPRING BREAK! So we left the club at around 5:30 or 6, not entirely sure, and made our way to the train station. The train didn’t leave until 7, so we waited for a while in the train station, freezing cold and cuddling on the ground. We made it back to Bonn safely and the next image is a good one. Limping in our heels, club clothes, worn off makeup and messed up hair to McDonald’s for breakfast at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Totally normal. I will say, that was the best damn Egg McMuffin I’ve ever had though.
So, since we got home at 8:30 in the morning, we decided to sleep for a while since we planned on not having very much sleep for the rest of the week. I woke up at about 3:30 p.m., while Paige woke up a bit later. We cuddled with the cat in bed and uploaded pictures for the rest of the day. We were ready for breakfast when my host mom told us we’d be having chicken in a few hours. Our body clock was definitely off, to say the least. That night, we had dinner with my host family again and decided to go out to Cologne. We had researched clubs that were open on Sunday, but were unsuccessful in finding any from the internet. So we planned to go to Cologne, get some drinks at a bar, and see where the night took us. We get to Cologne and the whole place is completely DEAD. Not a single soul on most streets, and only a few randoms in the bars. I felt like I was in a ghost town, and we’re talking about one of the biggest cities in Germany. We decided to get a few beers at a bar since Paige hadn’t tried any German beer yet, and call it a night after an hour. Lesson learned: never defy German culture again. Sunday is the day off.
On Monday, I went to class in the morning and then we rented a car for the day. If you didn’t know, everyone in Europe drives a manual and it’s kinda pathetic to drive an automatic. I know HOW to drive stick, but I knew it would be a bumpy ride and I wasn’t really in the mood for that, so we found an automatic car. It was a Mercedes A Class, which I’ve never seen before, but it was so comfortable and I think I would definitely look into purchasing a Mercedes in the future.
We planned to drive down the Rhine River and see the whole castle region I’d mentioned in one of my earlier posts. I just think it’s a really cool thing to see, and I wanted to show Paige.
Since it was on the way to Frankfurt, we decided we’d go to Frankfurt and spend a night there in an inexpensive hostel. We get to Frankfurt and had a lot of trouble finding a place to eat. I don’t think we were in the right place in Frankfurt, but I couldn’t find where the center of the city was that I’d been to before, so we settled for an Italian place we came across. After our mediocre meal, we finally found our hostel. In the middle of the red light district. Oh yes, next to “World of Sex.” After we checked it out and realized there was no one but creepy older men there, we decided to cut our losses, lose the 19 Euros we had already paid, and go home. It just didn’t feel safe and it wasn’t worth it. We found out that one of my favorite clubs, N8schicht was open on Monday for disco night! Score! Even though we knew disco night might be kinda lame, it was one of the only things going on, so we went back and got ready for it (did I mentioned we changed and put on makeup in the McDonald’s bathroom? Oh yeah, we had made McDonald’s our one-stop-shop). So we make it to a bar next to the club, take a free shot from the bartender, head over for disco night, and the club is CLOSED. Fail. So one after the other, our plans didn’t work out very well, but it was one of the best worst nights I’ve ever had, because I was with my very best friend.
On Tuesday, I made up a wonderful story that my best friend visiting was really sick and I couldn’t leave her at home alone, therefore I couldn’t come to class, and played hookey for the day (again). Paige and I day-tripped to Maastrict in the Netherlands and found the hiding place of the world’s hottest guys. It’s a really cute city, so we parked and got some sandwiches and then noticed a plethora of attractive men all around us. I had to use the bathroom so I asked where the closest one was, and the lady told me that it was across the street at the university. Once we were at the university and had taken a walk-through, we decided we should consider transferring because no joke, every guy there was at least cute, if not smokin hot. We made many rounds through the halls and computer lab, and after the lunch break, when everyone had gone to class, we bode farewell to the world’s most amazing school. Every girl that goes there should be aware that they are very lucky. I’m just saying.
After that, we got some gelato from the city square and headed back to Bonn for the Germany vs. Australia soccer game we were going to with the school. It was a really good game, but I’m sorry to report that Germany lost. Yeah, to Australia.
It was pretty sad, but I was busy scoping out hot guys and watching the yummy soccer players so I really had nothing to complain about. This is where our phrase of the week came in:
“Where them cuties at!?!” Seriously, we were on the prowl the whole time.
Once the game was over, we decided to spend our last night in Germany in Cologne for what would inevitably be another rager. We went to a club called Nachtflug and had a repeat of Saturday night. The only difference was that the guys at this club were pretty standoffish and we felt like they were looking at us crazy for the way we were dancing. The truth is just that Germans don’t dance the way us Americans do, so when we start dropping it low and freaking, they don’t really know how to react. We found some fun people to dance with though and enjoyed vodka red bulls and tearing up the dance floor until they kicked as out at 5 in the morning. We made it to the train station shortly thereafter and once again got home around 7. Oh Cologne, you destroy us.
The next day was Wednesday and we were leaving for Italy at 5 p.m. We headed to the airport a few hours early, bags packed and SO excited! I had never seen Italy and I was so ready for the adventures I knew we were going to have. We got into Venice at around 7 p.m., and realized that the airport we flew into was about an hour away from where we were staying. We made a pit-stop for our first Italian pizza, which was greasy and amazing, and then found a bus that would take us to the heart of Venice.
Once we got there, we realized we had to take a boat through the Grand Canal that would take about an hour. The guy from our hostel (which was really more of a bed and breakfast) was not too pleased with us, because we didn’t get in until around 10 and he “was tired.”
Anyways, we get to the hostel and ask a few people where to go out, found out about a square where people hang out, and got ready for our first night in Italy. Disclosure: Venice is NOT the city to rage in. We get to the square, called Campo Santa Margarita, where a bunch of young people hang out. On our way we got a lot of forward attention from Italian guys, including animal noises. After one guy passed, I believe my exact words were, “Paige, did he just GROWL at me???” And once we came upon a big group of greasy Italians I said, “Get ready for the wolf pack growl.” And I was right; we got a variety of different animal noises from them. We finally make it to the square, get a drink at a bar and meet some very rude Italian boys. They wanted to buy our drinks and kept telling us that we were going to go home with them and when we politely refused their offer to buy us drinks, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Finally, I was tired of talking to them, so I asked the waitress if our drinks had been paid for so that we could go and she told me that they had. Once we got up and told the guys that we had no interest in going anywhere with them, they got very vile and started calling us names. So we learned that Italian men can be charming but once they don’t get what they want, they get mean.
After the bar scene, we found out that there was ONE club in all of Venice. Leave it up to us to find the only club. We went there at around 2 in the morning, paid a 10 euro cover charge only to find out that there were about 10 people inside and that shots of vodka were 7 euro. What a joke. We met some Americans there though and had a good time dancing until we left at 3. I think that’s the earliest I’ve ever left a club. Thinking we were going to get home at a decent hour, we tried to navigate our way back to our hostel. However, if you’ve never been to Venice, it’s a complete maze. There is no main street running through the city and it’s really a compilation of a bunch of tiny streets that lead to dead ends. There are two bridges crossing the main canal that we had to get over, and it took us about an hour and a half to find our way to one of them. I had to turn on my navigation on my iPhone to get us home, cause there was no other way. Finally at 5 in the morning we made it home and were relieved to get into bed. Another lesson learned: don’t try to go against the culture. People in Venice don’t rage. Enough said.
So the next day we woke up, tired as hell of course, but were ready to see Venice in daylight. Since we had done so much walking the night before, we kind of felt like we’d already seen most of it, but it’s always different seeing it during the day. We had a sandwich for breakfast (no one in Europe does American breakfast), got gelato and enjoyed it outside of Doge’s Palace in St. Mark’s Square, which is the major square in Venice. After, we took an elevator (thank God) to the top of the Campanile, which is the bell tower in the square. From there we got an amazing view of Venice. It really is a stunning city.
Once we were finished taking pictures, we lugged our luggage (oh yes, our hostel didn’t let us leave our things there) over to the Rialto Bridge, which is another important landmark in Venice. After seeing the bridge and feeling like we’d gotten our taste of Venice, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Florence.
We arrived in Florence at about 5 pm, lugged our lugged to a few different hostels because I had forgotten which once I’d actually booked, and finally found our way after about an hour. As we were coming up the street where our hostel was, Paige said, “I just need a drink” and some cute guys at a restaurant nearby said, “Well then hey, come get a drink.” After checking into our hostel, which was RIGHT by the Florence Cathedral, we freshened up and decided to go back to that restaurant for a well-deserved relaxing meal. We talked to a few cute guys, one of which had made the drink comment, and were so happy to be eating and sitting down. We shared a bottle of wine and had pasta and bruschetta. We also got a recommendation to go to a club called Space that night, we’d heard it was the “biggest in Florence.” We got ready, got some cheap liquor store vodka (what else?) and headed out for the night. Once we got to Space, we realized it wasn’t that busy so we went to a bar to get a drink before going again. There, I met a guy named Tibo and Paige met a guy named Titty. Only in Florence.
After our drinks, we went back to Space where we saw only a young crowd dancing to music that was not loud enough and we were just not into the scene. Then I slipped on a puddle of something, went downstairs and starting getting into a discussion with the bouncer about how that “was a liability.” They don’t care about that kind of stuff in Italy. Safe to say, it was time to leave the club. We then found one of the guys we had been talking to at the bar, and he offered to take us to a better club. We went to one called “Twice,” and I’ll just say that Paige had TWICE the amount of fun that any girl should have at a club. She was utterly swarmed by greasy Italian men. Sometimes she’d have four of them on her, no big deal. They would even turn her face and try to kiss her. I wasn’t getting bombarded like that because I had come with a guy so every time someone tried to dance with me, I’d just push them off and dance with my new friend instead. That usually gets the message across. After a while of dancing, Paige was hammered and needed to go home. My new friend Tibo and I helped carry her home, taking her shoes off along the way, and successfully put her into bed at around 4 in the morning.
The next morning was my favorite. I woke up at 7 after going to sleep at about 5, and I was in the bathroom when Paige comes in, still in her club clothes and says, “Liz, I just can’t sleep in these clothes. This skirt is too tight and this shirt is uncomfortable.” I said, “Well luckily for you, you don’t have to, because it’s 7 in the morning and we have to get up.” “That’s a joke,” she replied, and stammered off to bed. She even updated her Facebook, clearly still drunk, exclaiming HOW MUCH FUN WE HAD AT SPACE CLUB LAST NIGHT! I commented on it saying, that’s nice Paige, but we actually didn’t go to Space club. Ohhh Florence, you kept it real.
That morning was definitely a struggle to get up and out of the hostel, but we finally made it and were ready for another day in Italy. Our first stop was the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s famous David sculpture. It’s much bigger than I ever imagined and you really could stand there for a long time in admiration. Unfortunately, they don’t let you take pictures, so I have none to show you. Hence, a Google image will have to do.
After the museum, we went to climb the top of the Il Duomo, which is part of the Florence Cathedral. We were told it was 463 steps and that there was no elevator. No problem, we thought, we’re young and healthy. Let’s just say that was a joke. All we could think of while climbing up it was “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?” The stairs were steeper than Dutch stairs, and there was usually only one narrow hallway for all visitors going up and down. Can you say claustrophobia? The sight at the top was worth it though, we saw all of Florence.
All the roofs are made of red tile and you can even see into the hills which just look like typical, rolling, Tuscan hills with trees and quaint little homes on top. It was amazing. The climb down the cathedral was easier, but we took it really slow. “Turtle wins the race,” according to Paige. I have to say, she is right. The inside of the cathedral is amazing as well. The top of the ceiling is painted around a window that shines light into the cathedral. It is supposed to represent the all seeing eye of God.
After our climb, we were feeling pretty hungry and decided to settle for a full-on Italian meal of lasagna, bruschetta, salad and wine for 9 euro. Best deal we found in Italy. The food was amazing and we ate right next to the cathedral. Then we got gelato which is still the best gelato I’ve ever, and headed off to see the Uffizi museum, which houses some of the most important Renaissance art in the world. Once we got there, we realized the line was too long and we weren’t going to have time to enjoy the museum, so I vowed to make it back to Florence one day and see it. We walked along the river in Florence, saw their famous bridge (it seems that every Italian city has one) and headed back to our hostel and on to the train station. Next stop: ROME!
It was a little difficult ensuring that we’d make our train to Rome because all the Italian train conductors were on strike that day, but we found out that the high-speed trains were still running and that our trip would not be in jeopardy. We got into Rome at around 7, made it to our hostel easily (FINALLY!) and had dinner across the street. It was another good Italian dinner served by more nice-looking Italian men. Then we went on a few errands and asked people where we should go out that night. We were talking to one guy who appeared to be a bouncer who said that he didn’t know what to suggest because he didn’t know what kind of music we liked or what we were looking for. After a very long day, and since it was our last night to go out in Italy, I replied: “I just wanna dance to some top 40 bullshit while drinking some cheap liquor store vodka and making out with some hot Italian guys! Too much to ask?” That comment seemed to work just fine, and he suggested we go to a club called Gilda. I’d already researched it, and it seemed like a hotspot in Rome. So with that, we got ready at our hostel and after a few technical difficulties (tights ripping, no iron for my top…) we were on our way out for our last night out in Europe together.
I don’t even know how to describe that night. Gilda was a blast, and there are too many stories to tell you here. We drank a lot, as usual, and our joke was: “SEE YOU AT THE VATICAN AT 8 AM, STILL DRUNK!” We met a lot of people and danced the whole night. Paige met a hot Italian that she danced with for a long time, and I met a guy from Rhode Island. Yep, leave it to me to meet the American that lives on the OTHER side of the country. So we took a break mid-dancing and went outside for a bit. Picture this: my shoes off on the sidewalk, me standing on this guy’s feet, smoking a cigarette (sorry Dad, it was Italy), obviously wasted, haven’t slept in days and haven’t run for weeks: “HEY ask me how my marathon training is going!” What a joke. Marathon in a week? Yeah, sure. See. Ya. There. That image was caught on camera but those photos will never see the light of Facebook or anything else. Then we went back inside and continued dancing, and Paige was really sad when her Italian lover boy finally had to leave. After looking for her for about 20 minutes in the club, I found her at the bar, head down, vodka red bull in hand. When I came up to her and said, “Paige I’m going to kick your ass! “ she replied, “I’M DEPRESSED!” Apparently she had not wanted her night with the Italian to end. Luckily, she didn’t stay too depressed for very long, and instead found another two Italian guys (neither which spoke English very well - one of them is the guy in the picture to the left. Did I capture the world's best kissing picture or WHAT?) and “talked” to both of them at the same time. You know what I mean. Justification? Two words: Spring Break. Two words: No shame. I continued to tear up the dance floor, shoes off, of course, until they kicked us out at 4:30 in the morning. That was a surprise. Even in Cologne, clubs stay open for longer. It was Friday night in Rome! But, nevertheless, we probably should not have stayed out longer anyways, and found a cab home. In the car ride back, Paige kept telling the cab driver about how she “FELL IN LOVE IN ONE NIGHT!” and somehow got the driver to ask her if she wanted to…. well, you know. No thanks!, she replied. Man, those Italian guys.
So we made it home safely, Paige once again went to sleep in club clothes, which at that point was totally normal. I got up again at 7, with a wonderful hour and a half of sleep, and was ready to explore Rome. We made it to the Vatican, sober, thankfully, at around 9:30 and the line was massive. We got approached by many travel agencies trying to sell us tours of the Vatican, but refused every time. Finally, a cute English guy working for an agency came up to us, and I caved. I don’t know if it’s cause he was cute or because I was tired of standing in line, but we decided to take a tour of the Vatican. I thought it would be nice to hear the history of it while we saw it, and to skip the massive lines.
Our tour of the Vatican was great, the culmination of the tour at the Sistine Chapel was obviously the best part. Millions of people come to Rome every year just to see the famous ceiling that Michelangelo painted. We saw The Creation of Adam, which is probably one of the most famous paintings that has ever existed. Once again, photos were not allowed, so Google images will have to do. Also in the Sistine Chapel is The Last Judgment by Michelangelo, which shows how Jesus will judge everyone at the end of time. The chapel was larger than I had imagined it would be. I was amazed to learn that the entire ceiling took Michelangelo 4 years, and the Last Judgment took him 5 years. He must have been working non-stop the whole time.
After the Sistine Chapel, we saw St. Peter’s Basilica, which is another important sight at the Vatican. It houses a huge bronze altar, and it is probably one of the largest churches I’ve been in while in Europe. Inside is also the first sculpture that made Michelangelo famous. I was just amazed at how much history I was looking at and what a special opportunity it was.
After our tour of the Vatican, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. Yes, I know, doing all the touristy things, but it’s not like you can go to Rome and not see the Trevi Fountain. Yeah we felt a little stupid rushing from place to place, but you really can’t see much of Rome in one day, and we wanted to take advantage while we were there and see everything that we could. We took our pictures with it, but it was way too crowded so we quickly headed to the Colloseum.
The Colloseum is amazing. We wanted to go inside but we just didn’t have enough time. It was also entertaining to see how Italian guys act when they see a girl in a dress. I wore a white dress that was short, but not too short and not too tight or anything like that. Really, it was nothing special, but it was like the Italian guys had never seen legs before. I got hollers, whistles, more animal noises and even a few of these comments: “Hey, where are you from? Paradise?” I wonder if that’s what they teach them to say in school. Well anyways, after seeing the Colloseum, it was time to say good-bye to Rome and head to the train station. Last stop: Cinque Terre!
Cinque Terre means “five towns” in Italian. It’s a region along the coast of quaint little towns where a lot of tourists go to admire its beauty. Our plan was to enjoy our last day hiking there before saying good-bye to Italy. We got there late on Saturday night, got lost because once again, the streets are small and not labeled very well, but finally made it to our hostel. We got a relaxing dinner at around 11 (told you it was late) and decided we’d take it easy. We learned our lesson in Venice to not try to challenge a culture, and we already knew that the small town of Levanto was not going to be a rager. I was happy to get around 6 hours of sleep, since I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten that many hours.
We woke up the next morning ready for our hike, but we were kind of rushed since we had to catch a train back to Venice where we would fly out of later. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful hike. It was also kind of entertaining to hike a pretty difficult path (never mind the lady who called it a “walk” – that was NOT a walk) after 10 straight days of partying. Can you say struggles? We hiked from the town we were staying in to the next one close by where we planned to catch a train back to our town and then head out. We got to the train station a little early so we got some food, enjoyed the view of the ocean, and went back. After gelato and running to catch our train, we were on our way back to Venice. We had a good 12 hours of traveling ahead of us. We had to catch multiple trains, a bus from the Venice train station to the airport, a flight home, a bus to Bonn, and then a bus home. Happy to say we made ALL of our connections and it was a pretty smooth journey. We got back to Bonn at around 1 am and even though it felt good to be home, we were both very heartsick from leaving Italy. We both just fell in love with the place, and made our plans to go back next spring break. See you soon Rome!
This is what 10 days of raging looks like.
Now, I'd like to take a second to thank Italy for the wonderful 5 Italian pounds I have come back with (and proudly earned). I guess when your diet consists of pizza, pasta, bread & olive oil, gelato, wine and vodka, you can expect to have a little cushion at the end of it. Only vegetable I had all week? Tomato sauce. Totally fine.
The next morning I had to take Paige to the bus stop very early so she could get to the airport and catch her flight. It was really sad to say goodbye to her and to all of our memories together. I already miss her and the times we shared. We are both currently looking into moving to Germany for a while, even if it’s just for a year. She absolutely loved Europe and was so sad to leave, and I can’t ever picture myself leaving. I’m not ready now and I doubt I will be in a month. And during this last month, I don’t even have my raging partner, so I’m not sure what I will do. But, with that I will leave you with our best quote: “Where them cuties at?! I’m ready to rage!”
CIAO!
