A Glimpse at Verona

This is a very small glimpse at the beautiful city of Verona. Don't worry; there will be plenty of other pictures in the next few weeks, but I wanted to post a few shots of my new home.


This is the wall just outside of Juliet's house. People write letters about love and bring them to post on the wall. Although most of them are just the typical "I [heart] so and so," there are others that are really sweet. I'm sure at some point everyone in our group will add a note to the wall.


This marks the entrance to Juliet's house.


Here is a view from one of the squares in Verona. We all really like this one because there is great shopping all the way to the actual square, the architecture is to die for, the pizza is delicious and they have great orange wine spritzers. Pictures just can't capture how quaint and pretty the place is though. It looks like a postcard...except real.


Here is a view from the top of the Colosseum. The white tents are a part of a fresh food festival that is going on. We visit...a lot. Notice all of the colored buildings, though. This continues throughout the entire city - a trend we should pick up in the states? Yes, I think so.


This is the Colosseum in Verona. It is actually older than the one in Rome and apparently better preserved. These days though gladiators aren't prancing around inside the walls - instead it's people like Michael Buble (who sang there last night).

Italia, I Love You

Italia, Italia,

Well, everyone, we are finally in Italy. We have settled down in a little town between Milan and Venice called Verona, and seriously, I am already in love. It is interesting just how different the feeling of this town is from that in Istanbul. Don't get me wrong, I loved Istanbul, but Italy is just utterly relaxing and wonderful in seemingly every way.

The last few days we have all just been settling into life here in Verona. Karli, Sarah and I are living in a lovely little apartment - complete with a terrace and huge windows so that we can have the breeze come through the apartment all the time. Wonderful. The apartments are actually pretty nice, which is good since we will be here for a full month. We stocked up on a few basics in the kitchen today. Since we are here for a majority of the time, we will be cooking most of our own food....or at least that is the idea, haha. So, with the help of Martin (our Group Leader in Verona) we familiarized ourselves with the neighborhood supermarkets. If we stick to this plan (that of actually cooking for ourselves) staying on a budget is going to be easy. Everything is really inexpensive, some things moreso than others. For example, a bottle of wine...0.59 Euros at the least and only about 6 Euros for the pricier ones. Wine is cheaper than Coke, go figure, haha.

The funny thing is that I feel like I have been here so much longer than I really have. Everyone is so very nice. I love all of the people in my little group so far. There are so many funny stories - too many to tell. We spent a lot of today trying to nail down travel plans. This was much, much more time consuming and difficult than we thought it was going to be. But....after three and a half hours in the computer lab....Kristy and I emerged victorious with hostels booked and train routes in mind for Cinque Terre, Italy next weekend. In the process, of course, we totally forgot about planning Venice for this Sunday. Go figure.

Jumping back to Verona, the city is awesome. We have been wandering around the city taking in the architecture and lifestyle of the area. All of the buildings are lovely and it feels like every alley is hiding some kind of secret that is just waiting to be discovered. There is bound to be a cool bar or pizza place or more church spires around each turn. We've been looking at Frescas and sipping wine spritzers, trying to pick up Italian and loving the pizza. I can't wait to discover more about the city and have more funny and wonderful times with my new group of friends.

Italia - I think I'm in love with you, haha.

A Few Last Thoughts From Istanbul...

These are all shots from a huge shopping strip off of Tuksim Square. The last full day that we were in Istanbul was also Turkey's Independence Day. We had a wonderful day of celebrating, shopping, and continuing to buy touristy souvenirs from shops that sold the same thing every few blocks.

Pictures and Such from Istanbul

Last night was wonderfully fun. Pretty much the whole group went out. We got a little lost on the way to the first club, but with our practically non-existent Turkish and a lot of pointing some of the locals helped us find another one. Istanbul is so great at night. We met so many nice people. We ended up hanging out at a hookah bar afterward (and no mom, it's not bad for you :) haha), and let's just say we had a very friendly waiter.

Unfortunately , today was just sad. I ended up catching some kind of 24 hour virus or something - so while I attempted to go sight seeing with everyone else, I couldn't do it. Now I am back at the hotel, which makes me very unhappy. I do feel better though - so I will be up bright and early and ready to see things tomorrow. Luckily, our guide from UGA said that there are boat tours going on all the time (which I very hesitantly missed today) - so I will go on one of those tomorrow afternoon.

Here are a few pictures from Istanbul that I took yesterday (but couldn't get to load). Hope you all enjoy.

Merhaba Istanbul

For those of you that don’t know, I decided not to stick around over the summer. In fact, I’m off to Istanbul and Italy and all kinds of fun places for about 6 and a half weeks starting yesterday. This blog will mostly be little snippets and pictures for those of you that want to follow along. I am thrilled about my trip and hope you all enjoy a few of these glimpses at the other side of the world.

As for my trip in ... well, let’s just say it wasn’t smooth. After a two hour delay in Atlanta, I could no longer make my connection in Milan, Italy. Therefore, I was stuck in the Milan airport trying to find another way to Istanbul and apologizing for not speaking Italian for around 6 hours. In the end though, everything worked out despite the almost 24 straight hours spent in airports and on planes. I’m currently in Istanbul, in a beautiful hotel with a great group of people from UGA.

Today was our first full day out in the city. We toured a palace, a mosque, the hippodrome, and the Grand Bizarre. Everything is so interesting here and so different than back in the states. There is no doubt that this is a fascinating city and I can’t wait to discover more about it.

More to come later, but now I'm out for the night.