Deniz’s Blog

check out new pictures from the past few days of academic travel– www.aop1980.com/images !! after friday i’ll be posting like crazy, don’t worry

i am writing to you tonight from the Hotel Boscolo in Nice, France. today seemed to be somewhat of a waste of my life– basically, we got up, left rainy and cold Genova at 8:30 and headed down the coast to France. the morning started out with like 50 oral presentations that i definitely slept through..We finally stopped in Imperia to visit the olive oil factory, which was kind of pointless because everything was in italian. the only good thing was i got to buy some olive oil we then headed to a college in Imperia that is a spinoff of the university in Genova. it has about 1800 students, and the campus is alright. we had lunch there: pasta w/spinach and some good sauce, bread, and chicken w/potatoes. it was cool cause fabby paid for it

after imperia, we headed to some small town and fabby decided he wanted to take “20 minutes” to “explore” the town. most of us didn’t get off the bus– i just continued with my nap   then we were finally off again for Nice. I just wanted to get here and be able to relax. Nice is an amazing city. it is HUGE and so full of life. i love hearing french being spoken because i can actually understand what is being said around me. i am still a bit timid speaking of course though! anyhoo, our hotel’s location is amazing– again, Hotel Boscolo Park or something like that. it’s awesome. right near the water, right near the lively streets w/ restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. tahnee, catherine, katie, hayley, and i decided to go explore because we wanted to figure out where we can go shopping later. there are some cute little stores as well as designer brand type of stores. again, i felt rushed to get out of stores and move on, so hopefully i can go shopping just w/1 or 2 people at some point.

we got back to the hotel and changed to go out and check out the nightlife. tahnee asked a guy at the front desk where the clubs were (in english) and he didn’t understand, so i busted out with my french and he totally understood! it was cool they told us about one new place, but tahnee isn’t 18 so we couldn’t go. yeah, i was kind of bummed, but a club is a club and i plan on coming back to Nice one day. we walked around in search of a “cafe” or something, but i guess i was just annoyed at that point at indecisiveness. we saw some breakdancers in the streets as well as people selling counterfeit DiOR purses and whatnot… gosh.

we got back to the hotel and i just got done talking to tahnee and catherine about life and school and whatnot. i guess this hasn’t been the best first night in Nice, but hopefully it will get better! oh and an important note::: getting online at the hotel is 10 euros for 2 hours (WAY overpriced)– i decided to get on this once so i can let you (a.k.a. my family) know that i probably won’t be blogging everyday like i did in Italy. i am definitely going to type up my blogs for everyday and put them on here when i get back to lugano, though… aaand i would go to an internet cafe, but we’ll see if i have time! take care and i’ll update you all at the end of this week! (maybe before…)

so today was another day in genova. got up, had another amazing breakfast and then headed to the Genova Aquarium, which is the biggest one in the Mediterranean Sea (or in Europe, i’m not so sure). on the bus, Eli gave another presentation and kaite n. gave hers… they both pretty much rambled on, so i don’t really know what they talked about, haha… on the way to the aquarium, we say a huge pirate-looking ship. we found out it is from a roman pulanski film with kurt douglas in it. pretty cool, eh ??
it was cool seeing the penguins, sharks, dolphins, and other fish– but i don’t really think the aquarium was a necessary visit. i mean, the one in baltimore is way more amazing. but we did see a funky fish that i’ve never seen before: it’s called a Sunfish and it really just looked like a huge swimming blob. it was cool   my only problem was the 30 million kids in the aquarium along with us… they were basically scaring the penguins thru the tank and i was getting really pissed off– and one kid set the alarm off because he opened one of the emergency doors when his nmother told him not to touch anything.. and she didn’t do anything to reprimand him! my goodness… anyhoo, we were supposed to meet outside of the museum around 1230, but fabby definitely was late. it sucked because it was cold and windy outside and we were all waiting there… for our friggin professor. anyway after that  museum we headed to the Museo Galata Del Mare– it just had a bunch of ships and stuff inside and wasn’t that interesting. again we were supposed to meet our prof outside but ended up waiting like 45 minutes for him. i was a smidgen irritated.

after that basically pointless museum, we got lunch at like, 1 of the 2 cafe things near the museum. i had some pasta salad type thing– it was a cold dish with bowtie pasta, tuna, corn, tomatoes, etc. yum yum … fabby was sitting near us and we kind of interrogated him. now i feel kind of bad, but we were just asking him when we would have free time to shop and whatnot since today was our last day in Genova. of course fabby had no definite answers, and hayley was just plain mean to him. like yeah, he pissed me off today because he was late and he’s a bad planner and whatnot, but i guess he tries his best, ya know? after lunch i bought some gummy bears and was told by catherine that they make people have to poo. i don’t think that’s true…
we got on the bus and began our “bus tour” of Genova. honestly, i was just not up for a tour at that point in my day. it was about 3 or 4 p.m. and everyone was just tired by then. we went to the place in Genova you go if you want to take pictures with amazing views or whatever, but i didn’t even get off the bus because i wanted to nap. we then headed to a Doria family palace which was friggin beautiful. there was a tapestry of alexander the great that really interested me… we also headed to 3 museums that were actually part of palaces– we looked at some beautiful artwork, but this part of our tour was extremely rushed, so i didn’t enjoy it much. we saw a violin used by probably the greatest violinist of the 18th and 19th centuries, Nicolo Paganini. apparently every year there is a competition in Genova and the best violinist gets the honor of playing paganini’s violin. we saw some other art, heard the tour guide talk about the Doria family some more– then we were finally done.

at first, it was me, catherine, tahnee, and katie, but eric and robbie approached us asking if we wanted to eat dinner at some place near the hotel. tahnee, katie, and i didn’t really want to do that, so we split up with them and went in search of a cute restaurant. after almost an hour of searching, we decided to go to a place that translates as, “the 3 crows” in english. we got a free glass of champagne poured, free refills of bread/foccacia, and i got chestnut lasagna with potatoes and string beans. it was SO flippin good. we then got a delicious dessert. we kind of splurged on dinner tonight, but we figured it was our last night in Genova, so we might as well it was also nice sitting down for dinner cause katie, tahnee, and i got to talk a lot (and vent)

so i won’t tell you about the rest of the night, but we got back around 12:30 a.m… no, we didnt’ get drunk or anything, don’t worry we’ll be in Nice, France tomorrow.. YAY!! :D

oh and i saw christopher columbus’ house. he lived in genova. so while you losers were celebrating columbus day, i may have been at school… but where am i now?? at his house. HA.

waking up was quite difficult– tahnee, catherine, and i were so tired that our alarms went off around 6:30, but we didn’t get up until 8-something. it was actually pretty nice. breakfast today at the Hotel Astoria was so frickin’ good chocolate croissants, regular croissants, cappucino, nutella, orange juice, etc etc etc.

after our super unhealthy breakfasts,  we all got ready and headed to via Settembre with Ele to do some shopping because we had until 2 pm to do whatever. it was all kind of rushed because some people were bored or whatever… i hate trying to shop when people are rushing me. poooopy. anyhoo, we went in Zara and i bought a shirt for like 7 euros… i like decently priced things! yayyy! anyhoo, tahnee and i split up from catherine and ele because of disagreements about where to eat lunch, and we headed to a small cafe/restaurant. tahnee ate gnocchi with pesto and i had a salad. i was trying to make up for my lack of healthiness at breakfast…

we then had a walking tour of Genova, but by that time the weather was terrible. cold, windy, and rainy– the worst combo ever! anyway, we went to victory piazza where we saw many examples of facist style buildings.. i didn’t know there was a typical facist building. that was interesting. i didn’t understand much on the tour because i was so worried about my cold and wet self! i learned that genova was the second port city in the mediterranean and it used to be it’s own republic. it was known as the “manchester [UK] of italy” during the industrial revolution, and was a prosperous and important city in the 13th and 14th centuries. the Doria family was a rich Genovese family who had a lot of power in Genova (they also financed the monastery of San Fruttuoso), and kind of like in Romeo & Julliet, there were conflicts between families in Genova. we visited the main Piazza and we found out that the building we explored last night used to be a palace. the reason there is no furniture or paintings left in it though is because every inhabitant was required to furnish the palace themselves. so when they left, they took their stuff with them. we went into a beautiful cathedral that is at the center of a meeting of a bunch of narrow streets. the ashes of i wanna say… johnathan (?) are at this cathedral… the one that was beheaded… maaan i dont know.

katie, catherine, tahnee, and i decided to walk down the main road again and see if there was any shopping to be done since katie hadn’t gone to check things out yet. we walked into Zara and a few minutes later, tahnee and catherine come up to us all out of breath saying that Fabby (the prof) was in there! he asked them if the stuff was nice and decently priced. weirrrrd. i really think he likes catherine since they are on a first-name basis. hahaha

for dinner, the 4 of us headed into a little restaurant where i ate some pasta-type goodness with pesto. pesto is sooo friggin good. then we went in search of some warm beverages/dessert… the bakeries that smelled oh-so-good earlier were closed by then, so we walked around for a long long time in the cold rain looking for a place. we finally found what looked more like a bar but actually had cappucinos  and latte macchiatos. i got a latte macchiato and the bartender dude put chocolate in our drinks it was SO good and flippin CHEAP! 1 euro for some goooood cappucino and 1.50 for the latte macchiato. cheap + delicious = satisfying check out the pictures from today

so today was… interesting. now that i really think about it, we didn’t do much today. after another amazing breakfast, we headed to Portofino, which was about an hour or so away from Lerici. Portofino is another fishing/touristy town. we saw Gucci, Pucci, designer after designer. again the buildings were colorful and the water was beautiful. we were supposed to catch a boat to San Fruttuoso at 10:30, but since Fabrizio (the Prof.) decided to be late, we got to the dock in Portofino around 11:30 instead… the boat man guy dude didn’t want to take us on the next boat cause we screwed up his schedule and Fabby is ditsy. Fabby was pissed, the boat man was pissed… not a great start.

anyway, we got on the next boat and headed to San Fruttuoso. this was a TINY town– virtually nothing there except a monastery and a church. the story behind this place is: San Fruttuoso was the first bishop/saint from a town in Spain. when he died, some other dude brought his ashes and had the monastery built here in order to protect the ashes of San Fruttuoso. we had a guided tour of the monastery (didn’t understand much because of the tour guide’s thick italian accent.. she was really cute though!) we could hear monks singing/humming or whatever… but it is possible that what i was hearing was just a recording or something and not really monks… who knows. anyway after the tour we had like 2 hours to kill, so we sat on the little beach. katie saw a cat– there were a couple of them hanging around the restaurants and whatnot– she got its attention and it came and plopped down on her lap. then it decided to plop on mine and stay there for a long long while. it was a cute kitty, though.

around 4, we took the boat to Camogli , another fish town. this place was a lot bigger than San Fruttuoso, but still not that interesting. tahnee, catherine, katie, and i explored a little bit– we wanted to eat a local place rather than a touristy place… but we couldn’t find one, so we headed back towards the water and found a Foccaciaria. yummmmy. foccacia is almossst like pizza but without the sauce. it is SO good though. we ate by the water, then we were desperate to find a bathroom. conveniently, it started to rain, so we found shelter in a Gelateria where we also found a bathroom (thank god). i got a strachiatella milk shake it was SO good. afterward, we went into some open shops and i bought some super cool earrings for 4 euros… yay!

we finally made it to Genova and i love it here. i’m sitting in my hotel room right now, my roomies are sleeping, and i am a happy person. tahnee, catherine, katie, and i walked around the city earlier tonight and it is awesome. it is a pretty big city, and very alive. we discovered that via Settembre is the road with the stores, so we are going to check them out tomorrow morning after breakfast [i saw a Diesel store and i’m excited.. don’t worry anne, i won’t buy anything haha…] anyhoo, i should really go to sleep, but i’ll be sure to take pictures of Genova tomorrow!! bye!

so today we had breakfast at the hotel (which is always “free”). it was quite satisfying because it was basically a buffet. there were croissants, cakes, bread, coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice.. actually they had a machine that squeezed the oranges in front of our faces! it was cool. there were also small packets of nutella, honey, butter, and cheese. it was SO good. they also had yogurt, cookies, crackers, and stuff like that. basically, breakfast was amazing. we stole some nutella and cookies for snacks later…

at 8:30 we headed to Portovenere, small town not far from Lerici. here, Fabrizio (our prof.) decided to ramble on about something i didn’t quite catch, but oh well. he talks too much. there was a castle in this town too, and it was pretty cool because there were amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea. i love the sea. there was a church at the top of this castle, and to our luck, some japanese couple was getting married! we heard the wedding bells/ song and watched the bride and groom walk out. we also ran into a young biker dude who was doing tricks and having his friends take pictures of him. basically he was showing off, but it was totally cool. on the way back down through the town, we got Focaccia con pesto, which is basically a piece of pizza with pesto on it. (focaccia is a type of bread… delisioso!) it was SO good.

we then headed to La Spezia, another city, from which we took a train to Monterossa– the first little village of the Cinque Terre. from Monterossa, we took trains down to each little village– Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. they are all quaint towns with some cool shopping and beautiful views of the sea. totally worth seeing, which is why i took pictures for those of you who can’t be here!

katie and i had an awesome time venting at the train station about our “friend” who thinks she’s something she’s not… “this is an A and B conversation, so C your way out of it!” hahaha we laughed so hard. i apologize, but i had to put that little inside joke in here so i don’t forget it
dinner at the hotel tonight was like a 5 course meal… wayyy too much. but everyone took advantage of the fact that dinner was free. haha. we’re starving college students… whatever! ok so it’s late and i’m tired. my contacts are basically stuck to my eyes at this point. buona notte… stay tuned and check out the TONS of pictures i took!!!

today we set off on our 2 week adventurrrrre in Liguria and Southern France! the bus ride was pretty short… maybe 4 hours ish? not too bad! we stopped in a little town called Pontremoli [i accidentally wrote “portofino” on the pictures..]– there was a castle, but it was closed for some reason… silly italians. the town was beautiful though. many little cobblestone streets, a beautiful creek-type stream thing and cool medieval looking buildings and such. of course i took pictures, so go indulge

we finally got to our hotel in Lerici — Hotel Europa [where i am writing this post from!!]  it’s at the top of a mountainy-hill type thing. we are now officially on the Mediterranean coast and it is AMAZING. [[anne bunu okuyorsan eger, i wish you were here cok begenirdin]]. we had dinner at the hotel, then some of us went down by the water again to do some exploring and to get some gelaaato of course! there is a small castle here that is apparently what they based Frankenstein on…we went up there– great view, but it was kinda dark so i think we might check it out tomorrow daytime– i’ll try to find out more about that for you guys…

tomorrow morning we are heading to Cinque Terre, which is a series of 5 villages/towns and is supposed to be amazing i am verrry exciiiited i’ll be sure to take tons of pictures. for now, check out these pictures of the beautiful sunset in Lerici

it’s saturday about 6:20 pm. i woke up about 2 hours ago. wonderful, isn’t it? the weather is pretty gross– kind of chilly and really dark and cloudy! i’m just happy to be done with midterms! i spent last night doing a LOT of laundry; it’s nice to have some clean stuff. i leave for academic travel in 2 days and i am SUPER excited. i’m not sure if i want to bring my laptop just because it’s kind of heavy… but i haven’t decided yet, so we’ll see! so far i know what i got on 2 of my midterms:

psych of art: B+

math: B+

…pretty much my 2 easiest classes. haha we’ll see how the others go after academic travel! ok so there’s my little update for now… ari’s making mac n cheese tonight and invited me over for some, so i’ll be heading over there in a few minutes. then i think i’ll borrow a movie from casey (since SOMEONE forgot mine at home) … i’m thinking it’s between moulin rouge, chicago, lord of the rings, or remember the titans… we’ll see!!!

played a team from Verzasca.

lost 80-something to 20-something.

my shot was hot, i miss like two shots and the coach takes me out. stupid eff-er.

i’m not happy and i want to punch something.