Parents Weekend Rome Edition

It was great to have my parents come and visit the weekend after fall break. For months they had told me that my sister would not be coming because she could not miss school but as soon as I came to the apartment they surprised me with her. It was really cool to have her in Rome because I could show her everywhere that I had been going in person and not jus through pictures (she would take care of that plenty). The first say I was able to bring them around the area that my school is located. I brought them to an overlook point near a fountain where you can see the entire city. At that point it felt really cool to know the city well enough to know that this location existed outside of the the tourist center.

Overlooking Rome

From there we went to the area of Trestevere. My mom continuously mentioned how she thought the area looked like a movie set, I guess I have become accustomed to this style of architecture after seeing it for months. Of course, later that week we did all of the tourist attractions: Colosseum, Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Even though this sis more a tourist attraction than that of the overlook fountain, I took them to the the top of the Vittorio Emanuel monument in Piazza Venezia where you can see every site in Rome. That night I took them to my favorite pizza place, Dar Poeta, for amazing Italian pizza and good wine.

Another day we went to the Vatican City with a private tour. The Vatican was really cool and seeing the Sistine Chapel was also really cool. These are locations that you hear about for years at home and are constantly in movies but to see them in person was awesome. That Monday we went to Florence for a day trip. Florence was really cool, we saw the Ponte Vecchio and climbed the Duomo. The Duomo was interesting with it's extremely detailed exterior. The view from the top was spectacular and it was interesting to see how the city really did all have matching architecture. The best part of the trip though had to be the Florentine Steak dinner. It was the best steak I've had in a very long time and the pasta appetizers are spectacular.

Duomo in Florene

Even though my parents had already seen Rome it was a different experience seeing the area of Trestevere that I live in that more closely resembles a classic Italian residential area. It was also great having my sister meet some of my friends and being able to show her some of the Italian night life. 

Seeing the apartment

Bologna: The City of Letters

Many people do not know about Bologna. Bologna is a city in the center of Italy and has one of the largest Universities in Italy. Bologna may not have much significance but to my friends and I Bologna is where our Fraternity, Kappa Sigma, was founded in 1400's. We decided to take a one night trip by a three hour train ride. It was really cool to see all of the sights that are in our rituals. There isn't much that I can say in detail that isn't Ritual related but one of the coolest things that we did was climb to the top of Torre Degli Asinelli (part of the two towers piazza). It has an amazing view of the city. For dinner we tried Spaghetti Bolognese, another Bologna staple, and at night we found some english speaking bars because even with our limited Italian knowledge we are still totally lost in Italian bars.

view from the top

artsy picture of the towers

AEKDB(Kappa Sig thing) from the top of the tower

Overall I would say it was a great experience because I got to see places that I have learned about as a Brother of Kappa Sigma and got to see them with fellow Brothers.

London Weekend

For my final trip I decided to take a trip to London. This trip was different than any other trip that I took all year. First off I did this on by myself. I stayed with a friend who was studying in London and I was able to use a train to get to the airport in both Rome (Fiumicino) and London (Gatwick). While trying to get to the airport in Rome I was told that the trains had very large delays and it really got me worried. Luckily, after an hour wait (which should have been 15 minutes) a train came and brought me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. I'm happy that this delay happened though because it allowed me to meet a couple from London that was actually on my flight. I helped them with the trains, even though neither one of us could understand the announcements, (if you think English conductors are hard to understand try it in a foreign language) I was able to look at the departure board and it said that a train was coming soon.

Big Ben from the London Eye

After the train fiasco the trip was pretty easy from the Gatwick airport to Victoria Station using their railway system. London was amazing overall. I was expecting for it to be rainy and cold the entire weekend but it was actually about 40 degrees and barely ever rained. I arrived Thursday night around 1am so we just hung out at her school. My friend in London studies at a school in Regents Park, completely opposite from me in Rome she lives in dorms and does not need to leave campus to get to class and also had a dining hall. Honestly I prefer living in apartments in Rome, it has allowed me to completely adapt to Roman and Italian culture by having to deal with the sporadic buses and store closures just like all the local residents.

Friday I was a tourist. First stop? CHIPOTLE! Italian food is amazing but it can be very repetitive. The thing that struck me most about London Chipotle happened when they ran out of rice. For those that eat chipotle, chipotle without rice isn't at all worth it but all the locals behind me had not problem getting it with extra beans, my friends and I decided to wait it out like normal Americans. Later that day I saw the London Bridge, did the London Eye and saw Big Ben. It was really cool to see things that I've seen in movies for years. Later that night we went out in Camden area at a bar with 90's music and good beer. It felt like a higher end college bar which was really cool.

Tower Bridge

Saturday was my favorite day. We went to a soccer game: West ham United v Fulham. For those that have seen the move Green Street Hooligans West ham United is the team that the main characters are supporters of. This was my third soccer game in Europe (Barcelona and Rome being the others). It was really cool because even though these teams in particular aren't the top of the league, they are still in the Premier League in England which is a top league in the world. West ham United won 3-0 in a packed stadium. European soccer is really fun to attend, constant cheering and loyal fan support.






Overall London was a great experience and I would return in a second.

West Ham United v Fulham

This about sums up Italy perfectly

Fall Break Part 3: Amsterdam

Amsterdam was a really fun experience. We were there from Wednesday until we left to go back to Rome on Sunday. Amsterdam was a city unlike any other. Even though Amsterdam has a reputation of being a city that acts a certain way, I didn't feel that from just walking around. It was weird t me because as a city most of the people speak English and most of the restaurants are chain places, not local cuisine. In the words of a friend who is currently studying abroad in Amsterdam, "There really isn't a local cuisine here. It's known for it's French fries (with a lot of different sauces, they're amazing) but most of the places that I go to eat are chains of American type food."

Walking up the street to the fair

As I walked around the city the most noticeable thing are all of the bikes. This city is known for being bike friendly because it is so flat and has a bike lane on every street. I found myself having to avoid the bikes more than the cars themselves. They also have a great metro system of trams and buses that were very useful for getting around. We spent most of the day on Thursday and Friday roaming around the city without any plan. We did the Anne Frank House on Thursday morning which was very cool. It was interesting to finally see the house that I had heard so much about and it met all of my expectations.

On Saturday we met up with a friend of mine who is studying abroad in Amsterdam and he showed us to the "I am Amsterdam" sign. He made a good point that reinforced the idea that Amsterdam is lacking a certain local culture: The "I am Amsterdam" sign is in English, not Dutch. Later that day we went to the Heineken Factory. That was one of my favorite things because I love beer and am very interested in how it is made; so seeing a model factory was very cool.

"I am Amsterdam"

All in all it was an amazing 10 days. I spent a week in 3 cities, 3 countries with 3 different languages and 3 different currencies. Even missing the train added to the experience.

Next up Parents weekend. 

Fall Break Part 2: Praha

Prague is an amazing city. As you wander the city all you can see are castles everywhere. The cobble stone streets everywhere make the city feel like its one big movie set. We arrived from Budapest on a 5:30am train that took seven hours to get to Prague. If you have ever seen the Movie Eurotrip the train was exactly like that, six seater cars with individual doors on each six person section. Some of you may be asking why we would ever want to take a 5:30am train? Well we didn't; we missed our overnight train originally that was supposed to be a sleeper cabin with 6 beds. We ended up finding out that our tickets were still valid for the next day so we found empty seats and slept in the seats for 7 hours (or more like took 20minute naps for 7 hours).

Prague Castle

Ok now back to talking about Prague. We were only in Prague from Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon but that was plenty of time to explore the city. We walked around and just really roamed the city the first day we were there. We got some pork and potatoes for dinner and found some bars that were suggested from friends that have previously studied there at night.

Lennon Wall

On the second day we spent most of the day sightseeing. We walked over the the Charles Bridge which was really cool and took it over to the Prague castle. The castle was really cool because it is huge. It sits atop the hill across the river and it can be seen from almost everywhere in the city. We didn't pay to go inside of it but instead just walked around the grounds. I was taken back from all the detail work that is put into and how old it is. Its always amazing how in Europe everything is so much older than in the USA.

Later that day we went over to the Lennon Wall. I'm still not completely sure how this wall because famous and why it became a center for Graffiti but there is a large Lennon face on it. From what I learned it was a center from youth rebellion and they used Beatles lyrics to air their grievances and in turn it became known as the Lennon Wall.

Overall I really enjoyed Prague. It is relatively cheap because it is not on the EUR and it feels like a movie set that isn't part of Europe at all. It was certainly a great middle part for Fall break.

Astronomical Clock in Prague

I promise more posts to come soon including Part 3: Amsterdam and Parents Weekend rome edition. 

Fall Break Part 1: Budapest

Overview
Budapest was probably my favorite city out of all three. The best way for me to describe the city is that it is kind of a Hipster city. It's more industrialized than Rome (Everywhere is) but not as rugged and mechanic almost as Munich for example. It had amazing architecture and history everywhere. We used a tour company called WSA. WSA stands for Weekend Student Adventures and is run by the author of the famous Rick Steve's travel books' son Andy Steves. Unlike Bus2Alps WSA uses local tour guides which personally I think was much better. Our group was 13 total (11 being my Friends). It was very laid back and the culture and food was amazing.

Infront of a church in Budapest

The currency conversion certainly helped, 200HUF = 1USD, and the average dish at a restaurant is about 1,200HUF. We spent most days touring the city, seeing churches and eating really good food. Also really cool were the thermal baths. There is thermal water under the city and they are fed into natural baths in the great bath hall in the middle of the city. It was beautiful and is even used for physical therapy in Budapest. I had really good orange duck one night at the restaurant we went to saw amazing views of the Buda Hills.

Highlights

Ready for caving

My favorite thing was on Saturday we went caving. This is absolutely ridiculous. I crawled through really tight spaces in the Buda Hills. (Budapest is actually Buda and Pest separated by a river but act as one city, Buda is hills and Pest is a flatter city.) We went through this thing called the "Sandwich" because you literally squeeze your body through this REALLY SMALL HOLE and in the end I felt really accomplished. Another favorite part was the ruin pubs. These are pubs that all have unique character and are built into the side of rocks or underground. We went to a really big one that had really cool robot things everywhere and another that was all Mexican with tequila. It was definitely a new experience. Lastly, the Grand market was awesome. its a really huge building (pictures in twitter too) that's filled with different vendors selling fruit, meals and small jewelry. Oh and can't forget the Sparty (Spa Party in the thermal baths Saturday night).

Budapest Parliament

We left Sunday night to take a train to Prague. We actually missed our overnight train and took a 5:30am train to Prague, wasn't too bad in the end.

Next up Prague 

Just some of my friends before the thermal baths

Barcelona: Mes de un City

Overview

Barcelona was an extremely fun trip. We arrived Thursday night around midnight, or dinner time in Barca, after our flight was delayed 45 minutes. The flights there and back were pretty easy. We used a discount airline Vueling and the flight was only and hour and twenty minutes. This trip was different in the fact that it was only me and one other friend who went and we stayed with one of his friends from home studying abroad in Barcelona. it worked out well because we was able to take us around like a tour guide to all the main sites and it was a free place to stay. (Id like to think that I'm at the point where I could show people around Rome, after a while I've gotten used to how things work here and where things are). 

L to R: Sam(barca host), myself, Matt(Rome and UMD)

As the weekend approached I was constantly checking the weather report. Of course with our luck it said rain but just like Florida weather, an 80% chance of rain just means its going to rain at some point for about 2 minutes. That's really all it did. You'll see in some of the pictures that it looks muggy out. Friday was misty but Saturday had great weather as seen in the picture to the right. Honestly I don't remember the names of the places we went but one was a park designed by the architect that designed most of the Barcelona buildings. He's known for the mosaic tile work and having curved lines along all his buildings. We hiked to the top and took the picture to the right. Another place we went on Friday was Piazza Spangna which is where the waterfall picture is from. That was a really cool view from the top and kind of reminded me of the Spanish steps on Rome (ironic I know, but these had escalators on the side). We walked around the harbor and hung out on the beach Saturday morning and visited the Sagrada Familia castle in the afternoon. This castle is under construction still and has been since 1882.

FC Barca Game

My favorite part of the trip was the Barcelona soccer game at night. We sat all the way up top but it was really cool to see one of the best teams in the world play in one of the most famous and biggest stadiums in the world. Soccer fans are awesome, they constantly cheer the entire time and even though it was in Spanish I recognized a few of the melodies. We found a tapas (small snack like dishes) place right near the stadium and hung out there until the game.

At the game: that's my scarf too

Honestly I thought that being up that high at a soccer game wouldn't be that great but it was really cool to have almost a birds eye view of the field. The only problem with soccer games are that they are really short (real time wise) compared to other US sports. A soccer game is 90minutes running clock with a 15 minute half time. Football at home is only 60minutes of game clock but takes up to 3.5hours to complete real time. Luckily the rain held off until exactly after the game ended and FC Barca won 4-1 (at least it wasn't a 1-0 game.)

Observations

There are many differences between Barca and Rome and here are a few:

1. obviously its different languages, although Barca claims to be independent part of Catalonia (area of Spain) they speak Spanish not Catalan (which is used in airport signs though).
2. Barca has a very efficient metro system. I like that Rome is essentially free but Barca has constant schedules that are accurate unlike Rome. They also have a great subway system that doesn't really exist in Rome.
3. I really like Italian food better
4. Barca night life is a lot of clubs and they go out from 12-6, Rome is more like the US where we go out from 11-3ish.

Next up Fall break:

1. WSA Europe program for Budapest
2. Night train to Prague arrive Monday
3. Fly to Amsterdam Wed morning
4. Return to Rome Sunday morning
5. (#s 2-4 are us traveling on our own using Hostels we found: its about 5-10 of us together)

CIAO :)

Oktoberfest not Octoberfest

Overview
After a 24 hour round trip bus ride..yes 12 hr each way... I am finally home from Oktoberfest. The bus ride wasn't actually that bad because I was able to sleep on the way there, not the story coming home. So for those of you that do not know what Oktoberfest is: It is a two week long beer festival in Munich Germany. It celebrates the different Breweries in the Munich area and is set up like a huge camp ground with "tents" (aka buildings but their called tents) and each being completely different inside. Some are more geared toward German families while others, like the one we went to, are more geared toward students and are a lot louder and more active inside. Oktoberfest doesn't serve beer in a normal way..they only serve beer by the Liter aka Stein. A stein is a one liter size glass mug that costs 10 EUR and waitresses carry around up to 10 at a time serving drunk patrons (I have no idea how they carry so many...everyone congratulates them the first time they see it.) The other part that makes Oktoberfest Oktoberfest is the food. The food ranges from tent to tent but over the course of two days I had about four pretzels (the size of your torso), a half a rotisserie chicken, a weinersnitzel and a two foot long hot dog.

View from top of swing ride...tents along right

In addition to the beer and food tents there are also plenty of rides as seen in the picture to the right. For reasons unknown to me every ride involves spinning or flipping and how people aren't constantly getting sick on them amazes me considering everyone has to be at least 3 steins in to pay 5 EUR to go on the swings for 2 minutes but I digress. I went on the swings and it was awesome. I took this amazing picture just for this blog (your welcome) and had a blast walking around the camp grounds. Luckily I only lived 5 minutes off the grounds walking distance.

My daily activities
So personally my friends and I spent both days in the Hofbrau tent. But Corey what about the other tents? Good question, essentially once it passes around 9:30am its really hard, say impossible, it get into a tent. So once we got a table we stayed as long as possible (4:30pm). On Friday we arrived at 8am after our long bus ride and went immediately to the camp grounds. Friday was actually pretty easy to get in. We got in line around 9:15, got in at 9:45 and the tent was full by 11. We got a table in the standing room area in the center because the tables get reserved at certain times and they kick you out at those times (reservations are made about 10 months in advance and usually only to Germans). The band was playing random German songs, and people were standing on tables chugging their beer to the applause of the crowd (or failing and getting booed); it was awesome.

Hafbrau "tent", Band in center and tables all around the sides

My favorite part of the tents was the music. In the tent we were in they even played Sweet Caroline in English to everyones applause.

On Saturday we did pretty much the same thing. We got in line at 7:30am though which was completely necessary because we weren't really even close to the front but luckily we got in and got a table next to these three Italian guys who looked American but only spoke italian; I broke out my Italian 100 level sayings and asked them their name and how are you, after that I got nothing besides numbers, pizza and panino. We didn't leave the tent until around 5pm and after that we went to sleep around 8, there is a reason the tents close at 9-10, no one is up past then.

Overall this trip was amazing, I highly recommend it so here are my Oktoberfest tips:

1. On saturday get there early, like 7-7:30 and once your in stay in
2. Keep an eye out for reserved tables, they'll kick you out if your in one at the reserved time
3. Stay close to the camp grounds, you don't want to deal with the mobs in the subway after 4 steins
4. Even though they moved Oktoberfest to September to make it a little warmer (yup its true) its still really cold 
5. If your not going to buy the traditional Leiderhuson or a Dirndl for girls wear flannel button down shirts, you'll fit in as a foreigner 
6. Don't go in with too much of a budget, drinks are 10EUR, food is about 10EUR and snacks are about 5EUR; you're only there once in a lifetime; just eat it. 

My next trip is Barcelona with a Barca FC (soccer) game Saturday night then an off week and FALL BREAK!

Haufbrau tent on Saturday

CIAO!

Ibiza, Ibitha, Irvisa

Recap
No matter how you pronounce it Ibiza is the summer party capitol of the world. Every big DJ and producer in the industry plays on this small tourist trap of an island off the coast of Spain. Every restaurant we went to had menus in at least 4 different languages. It is not a place to go to experience Spain; its a place to go to experience the constant repeating rhythms of House music.

Now I know my friends out there who are all into the EDC and Ultra and Dayglow (Freshman) and techno and blahblahblah are going to argue with me...but Im not one who cares about the differences between house and techno and producing and DJ and etc. I really do like the music, honestly its catchy and its the anthem of college these days, but I can't really stand the people who say that certain DJs aren't "real" or that certain music is "true" house music. I just like to sit back (jump around) and enjoy whatever repeating rhythm with pointless lyrics is playing and bask in the moment..which is what I did for 3 days in Ibiza.

Details
For the rest of this blog post im going to just post videos/pictures because honestly its the only way to explain where I was...and I didn't bring my phone around so I have very little or no pictures...enjoy.

Friday night: couldn't find a video I was comfortable posting with who's reading this blog.

ES Paradis pool party

Saturday night: (jump to 50 second mark)

Sunday day party: Ocean beach club..again couldn't find a video I was comfortable posting with who's reading this blog.

Sunday night airport for 6am Monday morning flight home.

This weekend Rome...Next Week OKTOBERFEST

CIAO

Amalfi Coast

Trip overview
This weekend I took a trip with a student tour company called Bus2Alps to Amalfi Caost in Italy. It was the most beautiful place I have ever been. I strongly suggest you cancel whatever trip you have planned next and fly to Naples then drive to Sorrento in the Amalfi coast.

Capri from the top

We took the 3 hour bus ride down to Sorrento Thursday night. We woke up really early, worth it in the end, to ferry of to the island of Capri. This Island  (in the picture to the right) is beyond beautiful. I don't think any picture I post will do it justice but I will try because I know how much everyone wants to see them. We spent all day walking around (climbing around because the whole island is one giant hill) and just stoping every 2 seconds to take in the view. 

I truly enjoyed everything about Capri, the best part was the private boat tour that we took when we first arrived that took us to the blue grotto. The Blue Grotto is one of Europes natural wonders. It is a cave that has amazing flourescent blue water from the reflection of the sun in the cave.

Blue grotto

It was the coolest thing because in order to enter you have to go in a really small 4 person boat and lay flat becasue the opening is so small (honestly I don't know who discovered it but he's one brave person). My favorite part of the boat ride was the fact that my group of about 15 friends, that are also my closest group in Rome including Maryland people, got our own private smaller boat. The entire trip had about 200 people on it but as we were the last off the ferry we were the last to get on a boat. We missed #1, #2 then with only our group left we got a small private one, so much cooler. 

Day 2 we spent in Positano. Positano is also amazingly georgous. We spent the day on the beach and walked around town (walked again equals climbed because the entire area is one big mountain.) We went cliff diving and cave swimming. I'm not good with heights but I had to do the cliff and honestly it wasn't too high but it was really fun. We ended our trip at Pompeii on Sunday and honestly it was too hot and was alright at best, not too much to say.

Inside the caves

Overall it was an amazing trip. I was able to spend time with some new friends and stayed with our Maryland group as well. I would highly suggest traveling there. We saw celebrity houses, mountains, caves and amazingly blue water. Im happy I was able to go.

Overall Rome update

One of the weirdest things about studying abroad and traveling is that coming "home" is coming to Rome. Im so used to coming back from a long weekend and relaxing in air conditioning and having home comforts. This time im back to Rome and still trying to figure out the best way to do things. Laundry with no dryers, cooking my own food and using buses for school are some of the things im learning about. I can't wait to continue this journey. For those worried (mom and dad), my classes are going well.

This weekend off to the party and club capitol Ibiza, Spain. 

Private boat in Capri

First thoughts of Rome

Hello Everybody

So on wednesday I Arrived in Rome after 8 hours of occasional 20 minute naps which in total may have added up to one hour or probably less. Luckily the plane had working TVs and individualized control over which shows to watch (How I met your mother men v suits episode a few times).
After arriving in Rome I was greeted by the schools employees and I was shuttled to my building. I live with 5 other people including one of my friends from Maryland and the other kids are also from the tri state area. Its hard to tell at this point how things will continue to go but I am excited for this semester and it seems like I have a great apartment. We also went to the beach 30minutes from Rome today (pictures to follow on the twitter feed).

Here are some things I have learned about Rome so far:
-Red lights are optional on mopeds
-driving rules don't exist at all
-Public transportation is "free" (nobody including locals pay b/c tickets are rarely checked)
-buses run on a schedule ranging from every 15 minutes to back-to-back
-everything is closed from 2-4 (14:00-16:00 every day) and on sundays
-pizza is ordered by weight
-its very easy to get lost when the streets don't run straight
-Street vendors think that Americans only buy shiny light up toys and flowers
-traveling with a large group of american students to the beach is harder than it seems on public transportation.
-Camp could only prepared me for no AC so well and
- its not easy to find non-pasta/pizza food in Italy

Future:
Amalfi Coast this weekend
Ibiza
Oktoberfest

Ciao for now

Welcome (in Italian)

Hello everybody,
Welcome to my study abroad blog. I will be using this to post about my time in Rome and to keep family and friends updated. I will post as much as I can but I have added some features to help fill the spaces in between.
Here is an overview of the best way to follow this blog:
1) Subscribe by e-mail
     - There is a space at the bottom right of the page that says "follow by email"
     - If you enter your email in that space under the twitter feed and click submit you will receive a confirmation email.
     - GO to your email and follow the prompts by clicking the link to confirm and you will receive an email every time I post on the blog :)

2) Follow by twitter
    - My twitter handle for Rome only posts is @Romandubs
    - This twitter handle will constantly be updated on the right of this blog with pictures and small information. It is an easy way for me to say where I am (in 140 characters or less) and where I am going without writing an entire blog post. Feel free to tweet at me using the space at the bottom of the feed or just click on "follow".
    - I have set up (on my phone) a way to post pictures easily. Whenever I add a picture on my phone to my abroad album it will post in the twitter feed, so feel free to scroll through that twitter feed and see candid and frequently updated pictures besides my blog.

3) Just check it out once in a while
   - Of course there is always just going to http://dubinromestheworld.blogspot.com once in a while and check up on things.
   - please feel free to comment on any blog post and I will be reading them.
   - Lastly please use the "share" button under the "follow by email" to share on facebook and twitter this blog. I'm happy to share my experience with all friends and family.
  - As I post a list of past posts will show up at the top right of the blog with date and time of post to track my travels!

Thanks and See you soon! (In Italian)

Corey