5:00 AM on a Thursday in April found us loading a taxi with only the necessities (for the most part) for our 7 AM flight to Istanbul, Turkey! After a quick layover in Rome, we arrived in Istanbul and received our “sticker” VISA’s, went through an extremely long passport check and made our way to our wonderful, centrally located hostel in the old European center of the city, after a slightly scary bus ride there…Bleary-eyed, yet extremely excited to see such a unique and beautiful city, we set off on a walk around the winding streets of a city thriving in its rich history and culture, once Byzantium and Constantinople, yet today known as Istanbul, a twisting ensemble of old and new, modern and ancient, Muslim and Christian, Western and Eastern.

The Blue Mosque, otherwise known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where five times a day, loud and strong from the Minarets, you can hear the call to prayer.
A view from the boat ride on the Bosphorus, the Istanbul straight, the dividing line between the European side of the city and the Asian one.
Turkish Coffee! If you enjoy really really thick, mud-like coffee, this is your thing. ;)

The lounge area of our hostel!

Hagia Sofia, from the greek Ἁγία Σοφία' "Holy Wisdom", was once a Orthodox Patriarchal Basilica, transformed into a Mosque and now a beautiful museum where you can easily find traces of both worlds through its architecture and the many mosaics left behind.

A newly discovered, once-secret tunnel that led to the Sultan's Palace found under a restaurant that our waiter showed us. A day later, at a different restaurant (still nearby), after eating so much that we were literal zombies falling asleep at the table, our waiter dragged us down stairs to "show us a secret." Lo and behold, he brought us to the same "secret-tunnel" as the waiter from the other restaurant! The shock of being brought to the same place by different people on a different day woke us up from our post-dinner stupor quite quickly!



One of the best parts of the trip for me was our very long and thorough scouring of the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market! I tried my hand, successfully so, at bartering (dropping the price down to half, and sometimes more!) and bought countless amounts of spices such as Cinnamon, Cardamom, Hot Paprika, several types of meat spices that I can't pronouce in Turkish, Apple Tea and Cinnamon Tea, and more...

In all, Istanbul is an amazing city full of new experiences such as :
1) Going into a Mosque (many in fact)
2) Going to markets and bartering.
3) Buying delicious bagel like pastries and sweets from street-vendors
4) Going to a Turkish Bath
5) Eating amazing Turkish food and drinking copious amounts of Apple Tea
6) Riding a boat on the Bosphorus and seeing Asia (sadly we didn't get to that side of the city.)
There is so much more, but those are stories to be told in person-a short and impatient blog post won't give my time in Istanbul much justice! ;)

Of Hanzel and Gretel and Cuckoo Clocks

Bus, plane, bus, train, tram and 10 hours later I arrived in Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany. It was still dark, the birds still sleeping as I stepped onto the busling platform. Sleep was quite evasive on the ride south from Frankfurt to Freiburg, but the magnificent scenery with the fog sweeping through the trees of the black forest at four in the morning was worth it. Tired, and more than a little hungry, I was welcomed with open arms by Anne and her parents, who agreed with the idea of grabbing a quick pastry for the short tram ride to the beautiful apartment that they rented in the Lehen district of Freiburg. I couldn't have asked for anything more, truly, with my trip to Germany. The trip was rejuvenating, a much needed break from the heavy load of studying and exams that I went through and our very rigorous trip to Istanbul less than a week before. We wandered lazily through one of the greenest cities I've ever seen, passing bakery after bakery nestled within picturesque German architecture. We talked of anything and everything, played cards, watched The West Wing, went for long and relaxing walks in the woods, took a lift up a mountain overlooking the city, ate way too much, had Schnitzel and cooked French Onion Soup among other typical German dishes that Anne's mom wanted, and successfully so, to take a crack at it.
For those of you who know me well, you might be surprised that I went to Germany in the first place. Believe me, it was not on the top of my list of places to see due to my, lets say aversion, to the German Language...I'm truly glad that I did though. Germany is an extremely beautiful and charming country, full of history, and with very nice and welcoming people-well in the South at least.
To top off the vacation, although it was hard to beat wandering in the colorful meadows of the black forest (a bit counter-intuitive, I know) and lying in the sun at a lake near Anne's dorm, or the towering Gothic Cathedral in the city center, was our short yet wonderful trip to Strasbourg, France. A very, very expensive lunch across from the cathedral, a boat ride through the city and a coffee later (and of course a good dose of exploring) and we wrapped up my last full day of vacation with Anne and her family.
I'll let the pictures tell it all, although for pictures of Germany follow my link to facebook:

Strasbourg. Can't decide between seeing France of Germany? Go here!

The Ancient Streets of Pompeii

Saturday brought us to another long day of trains, this time heading even further south of Napoli to Pompei, and later (and spontaneously) to Sorrento in the Campania region of Italy. The small metro line that connects Sorrento-Napoli brought us to the ancient city of Pompeii that was buried under 4-6 meters of ash and pumice after the two day eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The buried city was lost for over 1,500 years, being rediscover in 1599 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most visited tourist sites in all of Italy. (Thank you Wikipedia!)
Luckily we went in March, so it wasn't busy at all, and we were really able to appreciate the ancient city.
It was great to see, however it was disappointing that so much of it was blocked off from tourists. I realize it was most likely for safety reasons, but it would have been great to have free-reign of the ruins!
After a few hours in the warm sun, we decided that we needed to see the sea before we leave. So we got on the mini-metro to Sorrento, and it was well worth it. Sorrento is another 45 minutes or so south of Pompeii and is very small and welcoming town on the coast, with Capri visible in the distance. Small artisan shops, cute restaurants and cafes make the town a wonderfully relaxing stop after a long day.

The City of the Dead

Walking along the ancient pathways of Rome, the spring sun following you around every corner, was entrancing, addicting-there is nothing like it. This was my second time in the Eternal City, and each time I yearn to go back for more, to see more. I feel like I haven't even begun to understand what Rome truly has to show, and can't wait to go back. My last visit was in early October where Kylie and I wandered for hours in the Vatican museum, and promised ourselves that one day, we would come back and go down to the Necropolis, from the greek εκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead" under St. Peter's Basilica. I tend to say that I'll do a lot more than I actually can, or do, and I feared that this would be the same.

We were insistent, and determined, which led to us asking the Swiss Guard for directions to the Ufficio degli Scavi for our booked tour (which we booked more than a month in advance) to see the Necropolis and the tomb of St. Peter more than two stories under the basilica. The history is long and complicated, but extremely interesting and truthfully, I am so happy to have been able to experience such amazing history that only 50 people a day have the opportunity to do. The tour lasted an hour and a half, winding through very narrow and uneven pathways as we slowly made our way up towards the grottoes to finally exit near Pope John Paul II tomb.
The rest of the day we explored Rome, even taking the Hop On Hop Off bus, and simply enjoyed a stress-free moment in our lives, if only for a little while.

(For pictures of Rome, check out my link: Photos (next to Home) and you will see a link to my tumblr page which will have most of my photos for the rest of the year.)
Here's a quick link if you are too lazy! :)
meghanmcfadden.tumblr.com

Napoli

The early bird catches the worm; or a seat on the train heading to Rome. We worked our way through the station with practiced ease, looking up and checking the platform number, finding one of the many ugly, yellow boxes and validating your overly-large ticket, and to finally swerve through the crowd to finally stand impatiently on platform 10 and wait for your train to arrive...and be sure to not cross the yellow line! Kylie and I have actually memorized the voice of the announcer in the train station, and every few minutes, without fail, we are told to NOT cross the yellow line.
Four hours later and a very interesting conversation, topped with a bit of creepiness, from an older man in our car, we arrived in Rome to quickly drop off our bags and then catch the first regional train heading south to Napoli for the day. Another two hours, and we were officially in the South. Speeding cars, street vendors, busy travelers, lost and confused travelers, all blended together in the chaotic place known as Piazza Garibaldi, the piazza directly in front of the train station in Napoli. We followed our usual course of action. Get away from the crowd and find a map. Then comes coffee. Or really, which ever comes first.


This time we actually walked quite a bit, stopping to take pictures of everything and nothing, seeing the curious and capturing it for the future. We did have one major goal: find Pizza Napoletana! The pizza was amazing, even at a seemingly normal and not well known restaurant.
After digesting our heavy meal, we got back to wandering the streets of Napoli, passing museums,churches, piazza's, markets, street performers and more vendors. I should also mention that it was St. Patricks Day, but more importantly, it was the 150th anniversary of Italy (as a united country.) Flags of green, white and red (like a margherita pizza with basil, mozzarella and tomatoes) flew high all across the country.



After a long stop in Piazza San Domenico where we drank our much needed caffè and tried our first Neapolitan pastry, zeppola, while watching a pick-up soccer game from a small group of local kids, we made our way to the port of Napoli to finish our long, long day.

Unmasking Carnevale

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go."-Truman Capote
So much so, that you need a full day to recover from it! Especially during Carnevale!
Friday morning a few friends from the program and I caught the mid-day train from Bologna to Venezia with nothing but the necessities that would fit into one backpack and our pockets, to experience our first and possibly only Carnevale in Venice. We expected the streets to be crawling with extravagant and intricate masks, and 18th century gowns, as well as a suffocating amount of tourists...and we were pleased to only find the former! Leaving the train station, we were shocked to see absolutely no one wearing masks, just a bit of face paint here and there...that is until we arrived in Piazza San Marco.

We wandered through the narrow and twisting streets, followed confusing canal ways and surprisingly didn't get lost, ate extremely overpriced food, took pictures, and all together admired one of the most spectacular cities in Italy.

Sadly, things tend to close around 2 AM and we didn't book a hostel...so we ended up waiting outside of the train station, almost freezing, until the first train going to Bologna at 5:57 AM.
i.e.: We needed an entire day to recover.
But it was extremely worth it and truly an once-in-a-lifetime experience!

A Spring of New Beginnings

I have to constantly remind myself that it is only February, even if every morning for the last few weeks I've walked across Bologna with clear blue skies and the temperature averaging above 50 degrees. The weather seems to reflect my mood-beautiful, almost care-free and happy! January and the first week of February could easily have never existed, and so they won't here but with a quick snapshot of my troubles.
-I had two exams, one that didn't take place because I wasn't told to sign up for a certain part of the test, and another that went amazingly well on Italian Literature...that I also studied for an average of 100 hours (in 10 days.)
-I will be getting two new roommates soon until the end of the semester (July), a friend from the program and Giulia, who is returning after spending some time abroad in an internship.

Now that my stressful weeks are over, travel fever has hit! The amazing weather and my new-found freedom created the spark that set off my renewed desire to see Italy while I still have the chance!

So I went, with a few good friends, to Chioggia. Chioggia is a small little port town just south of Venice, cute...but there wasn't much to do. We had an amazing lunch and wandered its empty streets until we arrived at the port. That's when we saw the sign for ferry rides to Venice...and that is when we, completely out of the blue and unanimously decided, to take a quick trip to Venice.



Venice was busy, beautiful, and even more amazing than my last visit. It could have been the absolute spontaneity of it all, or the great people I was with, or most likely, a bit of both. We took a waterbus around the city and made Saint Mark's Cathedral our first, and really only, stop and decided to make our way to the train station after a quite long search, and fruitless search, for a public bathroom. If I had to pick the exact moment when our troubles/drama began, it would be the moment a friend left on his own to find the bathroom. It went downhill from there...
After trying to find our way to the Rialto bridge, and to our friend, we became turned around and decided to just take the waterbus back to the station and that we would meet him there. After a few mishaps, we made it to the train station and literally sprinted to our platform to make our 6:57 train back to Bologna. We made it, but unfortunately our friend who bought the tickets before-hand, forgot to validate them, so I jumped off the train on our next stop outside of Venice to run to those ugly yellow boxes to stamp our tickets, and luckily jumped back on the train before the doors closed (yes, I know it was risky). It was so risky in fact, that my friend didn't make it back on the train.
Long story short, we had a movie-moment, as he likes to say, where we stared desperately at each other through the dirty train door windows after desperately pulling at the door handles, helpless as the train pulled away from the station.
He was able to get on the next fast train to Bologna, and actually beat us there by 10 minutes, and we returned home safe and sound.

Moral of the story: Spontaneity with great friends in amazing cities is great and fun until you start gambling with the Italian transportation system...in which case you will lose.

The End.

Exam mode = Vanilla Tea

The practiced movements of making tea, the subtle sounds of the almost boiling water filling an overly large mug adorned with grinning cats, and the sweet, comforting smell of vanilla has become so regular, so routine, that its slowly losing its soothing effects.
I blame it on exams.



My methods of procrastination have become more and more elaborate as the weeks go by...and now only days away from my exam, the hours ticking away much faster than only a few days ago, I've realized that if I'm willing to do almost anything to distract myself, I might as well do something productive...and write for those still reading.
I've been back in Bologna for a little over two weeks now, and all I can say is that these have been the longest two weeks of my life...longer even then when I waited impatiently to fly to Florence for the first time in July. Again, this period of exams at the University of Bologna is to blame. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
There are only a few aspects of living in Italy that I would consider a culture shock, and their education system is definitely one of them. Each week you spend countless hours(or at least should) sitting in a large lecture hall full of students who scramble to take as detailed of notes possible while the professor rambles and sometimes has some kind of order to his thoughts. Then, at the end of the semester, so now, students line-up in the hallways waiting to take their exam with their professor and/or their assistants that could last anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes, from two to three questions to many more. To be completely honest, I have never had to prepare myself for such an intimidating task as sitting in front of my professor and try to explain in detail, and as eloquently as possible, difficult and complicated ideas, in my third language!
OK, I knew before coming to Italy that this is how the system works, but I realize that there was no way that I could prepare myself before hand for such a frightening and truly unpredictable experience. My grade, which will be the only grade that I will receive for the entire semester, is based solely on my "interview" of sorts with the professor...and a lot of it will be influenced by the professor's mood, and his opinion on foreign students. I have never had to/ or enjoyed the idea of playing the "I'm a foreigner" pity card...but I think this situation calls for it.
So, other than studying for my exams, which at this point you might have guessed I've been desperately avoiding, I have been busy getting to know and helping out the new semester students that have arrived in Bologna. While they are busy getting to know the city and most importantly finding apartments, the rest of us "Year" students are busy studying. I've managed to make time out of my oh-so-strict schedule to help them out anyway I can, and its been worth it. It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the semester goes. As of now, I need to focus on exams. I've procrastinated writing this blog for long enough. I'll let you all know how it goes but keep your fingers crossed for a happy and accepting professor on Wednesday!