Ciao bella!

I just got to Pisa, Italy a bit ago and wanted to say "ciao!" That is unfortunately about the only Italian that I know, but apparently everyone here speaks English more or less anyway.

First, a bit about my weekend in Barcelona. What fun! It was great to see Colleen and just get to hang out with her and relax a bit. I arrived really late Thursday after a 2 hour train delay so all we did was get kebabs for some quick dinner and hang out in her room watching tv from the internet. Shes got a great little apartment/dorm that she lives in that is really cute. On Friday we didn't do anything in the morning (I wrote a Spanish essay while she had class) but in the afternoon we went to go see some of Barcelonas awesome/strange architecture. We walked down to "La Manzana de Discordancia" to see some of the buildings that Gaudi designed. Barcelona is BIG, but generally very clean and everything goes a bit slower than it does in other big cities in the US. We went out Friday night for some of Barcelonas famous nightlife and had some fun. =)

On Saturday we got up early to go to see the Museo Dali which is about 2 hours outside of Barcelona in Figueres. He was born in/lived in this little city which is very quaint and cute. The museum was AWESOME! I really find Dali interesting so I am very glad we got there. There were hundreds of paintings and other displays all set up my Dali himself. After this we headed back to Barcelona and walked to the Magic Fountain and the Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful and breathtaking and from nowhere appears this old, amazing building amongst all these modern surroundings. In front of the Cathedral is the fountain. They put on a 15 minute show in which they coordinate the movement of the fountains with classical music and lights. It was really cool! Colleen and I think we know why there is no water in Southern Spain... Could it be the hundreds of fountains they have in every city? We returned to her apartment for a oven pizza dinner and then just went out for a little bit with some of her friends from her program. My definite conclusion is that Barcelona is a lot of fun and I cant wait to go back in November with my program to see more of the sites.

This morning I arrived in Pisa via air. I had quite the confusing morning because half-way to the airport in Barcelona they told us that the train was now out of service and we would have to take another means of transportation there. I was alone at this point, but I overhead some English being spoken by two people and asked to split a cab with them. Good choice since the total was close to $40! The guy was from Mexico but working in Barcelona and the girl was from Vienna. I was quite glad to have the warm company! In any case, being in the Barcelona airport was quite fun. There are SO MANY languages spoken there and I have such an interest in people who can speak more than two languages. Before talking to anyone you basically have to premise it with "Espanol, Ingles, Catalan, Frances? etc... etc... I love it. =)

After getting settled and making the 1 1/2 hour flight, I came into the little airport of Pisa and managed to figure out how to get to my hostel. I just went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but I am alone so I don't have anyone to take my picture pushing it over/holding it up. It is alright since I will be returning with Dan here for a night before we fly out of Italy. Pisa is really small, but cute. There are also two absolutely beautiful buildings right by the Tower, a Cathedral and a baptistery which could definitely be attractions in and of themselves. I have also discovered that there is also a large Senagelese population in Pisa so I was doing some browsing among their little make shop tourist stores and I bought a small wooden carved box. Now I just have to find myself some cheap dinner!

Im off to Florence in the morning, so Ill talk again when I can. Ciao!