A Glimpse of Hell

Hola!!! Okay so it is March 28th 2009, and I am in Barcelona, Spain. I arrived here on Thursday March 26th 2009. There is a group of us here: Brian and Jessica ( 19 and 21, a couple from Calif., Amanda (21 from NY). We arrived to our hostel at 12 at midnight. Now let me set up the scene:
Walking in the Hostel Star and Moon, we all saw a bunch of guys dressed in dresses and wearing make-up and bras stuffed, inside the lobby area. My first reaction was, "This is not a good sign". We talked to the two men working at the hostel, checking in ( one younger man who spoke some English, and one older man, about late early 5o´s who spoke no English). I was paying for my hostel, which came to a total of 50 euros for three nights, the bedroom was an 8 bedroom, and i noticed as I was paying, that the yonger Spanish guy had this loooong pinky nail. And I´m guessing you all know what that means.... We found out we had to pay for exrta sheets (if wanted) and blankets. We asked does this mean the sheets are not clean??? The guy just starting smiling and laughing. We said, so is this a no...the man stops laughing and said ¨"no, they are clean" with a smirk. As the rest are paying for the rooms, this Italian guy, that was with the group who were dressed in dresses and wearing make up...came up to me and started speaking Italian, I just said sorry dont understand, then he said something about inglese (english)...then looks at me with this straight blank face and says ¨Animal" I turned to Amanda, and said " what is going on"? then 5 mins later he comes back and by, stops, and looks at me and says " Smalllll Animal"....and hops off like a kangaroo. I begin to just laugh, and believe that Im in hell.
We all walk up to our room.... there are 8 bunk beds, and looks like camp. The sheets on the bed are all inside out ( hmmm so this is how they clean the sheets).
We then decide to go get something to eat before we went to bed... as we walked to the lobby area, the older Spanish man who works at the Hostel, was in the bathroom sniffing and rubbing his nose, sooooo pretty sure he was doing coke.....As we walked out into the streets, there were a bunch of drunks out, men trying to sell stuff on the streets...one man asked¨"oooo would you like some sexy beer" It really was like walking the streets of Hell!!!
We finally get back to our nasty room and go to bed around 3 am. I did not trust the sheets at all!!! So I slept in my jeans, jacket, and shoes. In the middle of the night, I hear the door open of our room... I thought maybe it was one of the girls. The next morning, I found out by my roommates, that it was the old spanish guy. He just walked into our room, went into the bathroom, walked around the room and left!!! At this point I said this is it for me!!! I can´t believe that the guy just walks into the room in the middle of the night! I mean that is just creepy!!!! So that was when I decided that staying in a hostel run by crack heads, sleeping in clothes, and crazy guest, that i was going to just get a hotel on my own.
So that day, the group of us explored the city. It was much different in the day than at night. The city was very beautiful! the sun was shinning and it was nice and warm. We walked everywhere that day. We walked through this beautiful park... as we walked through it, there were these group of older womean dressed in white doing this type of slow yoga movements....I´m not sure what they were doing, but I felt like I was on drugs, and was trippin. Then we came across a group of young kids running and playing in the park....they were like little demons....they were all hitting and punching each other, throwing sand at each other....and they were like only 5 years old. I was very amused.
Finally the crazy day came to an end... I found a hotel to stay at for 80 euros for Friday night, and found another one for 5o euros the other 2 nights I´m here. I dedcided not to go out with the group, becuase I really did not have the money too and the nights in Spain really scare me! I walked into my hotel and checked in, and the guy working at the desk was about my age and fairly good looking. He asked me if I was going to party and and told him no. He then said, " you go for drinks then, with me"? I just laughed....and he said why you laugh. I then went outside to buy me a bottle of wine and some candy...got back to the hotel and went to my room...and realized that i needed a bottle opener....went downstairs and asked the guy if he knew where i could get one, he turned around and reached in the drawer and had a opener in his hand. He then went up to my room and opened it for me,....sooo that was my night. It was very uhhh interesting 2 days in Barcelona.
I am now waiting for all of my hung over friends to get up and go sight seeing again today. So hope you guys enjoyed my crazy story. Becuase i sure know I laugh about it every time I think about it. Miss you all! Amore- ASh

Italian Hair Salon

Okay..Allora...soooo my roots were getting pretty bad and decided to go to get some highlights. I walked around trying to find a hair salon, and one that spoke some english and not very expensive. I Finally came across this place called David Louis Jeans, which none spoke english (except a little). Walked in with no appointment (which was nice) and told them I needed highlights. He said okay... and took me to the chair. Let me just say they do highlights a lot different in Italy than in the U.S....He took a comb with the coloring on it, and barely streaked my hair with it. I was like WHAT IS GOING ON?! Then he did not even leave the coloring on for long... he washed it out and then wrapped plastic wrap around the top of my head. This italian woman came up to me and started saying "everything OK". Then started to spray "fiore" wash on my hair....flower wash, as she called it. I was like hmmmmm at this point. Then I started to hear the man say something that sounded like orange, this was not a good thing to hear.  Finally everything was done, and went upstairs to dry my hair. The Italian woman brought me coffee and gelato, which i found very nice of her!.... Then i got brave and decided to tell them to trim my bangs...the lady used a razor that you use to buzz guys hair... I found this to be a interesting approach. So end of story.... My hair looks pretty much the same, a little red in it, and still have my roots. All of this cost me 60 euros, which is the cheapest I have seen in Milan.

Living the luxury, but not so luxury life

 Ciao ciao! Today I woke up to LOUD hammering, LOUD drilling, and crying baby all next to my room, at 7 am! So had a nice headache ha. Then we have 3 extra people staying at my apartments right now, soooo we have madness. We have no hot water, I have not had a shower in three days... Hmmmm but I am in Italy! Can't have it all right :)

Today I did have someone be very kind... I was carrying three heavy bags of groceries and this older man said something to me in Italian, and i was like uhhh... and then he grabbed my bag... I was like "no no no, I have it" and he just started to talk a little in english and Italian and walked with my bag all the way to my apartment, then i said thanks, and he said your welcome and kept on walking. I was very thankful, and he wasn't creepy at all.

I have exams all this week, sooo thats what I'm doing now blaaaahhh. So got to get to studying! Ciaoooooo!

Amore *Ash*

oeuffff!

  Allora..... Io cosi cosi. Soooo... I'm doing so so. I've been resting all day. It's nice just to do nothing , niente, for once. I will post some pictures soon... I forgot my camera cord, so I have to use my roommates computer to do so.

OH i joined a gym today!!!! YAY! very excited about that!!! It was only 50 euros for 3 months. So now I can back to feeling like myself hah! 

The other night I went out to this little small Italian place for dinner, cena. It was all done by one single old woman. She cooked, served, and cleaned!!! She only allows 50 ppl, and I can see why! I had the best pasta though!!

Well talk to you soon! Ti voglio bene!! Ciaooooo

Ash

Amazing weekend!!!

Ciao ciao ciao!! So I have had a amazing weekend! On thursday Michele took me out to dinner for seafood, since I was craving something other than pasta. I had fish with artichokes. It was Yum-O!

On Friday I went to an Italian home dinner at Flowers house. A friend of Michele's. There was four other Italians and three South American girls. There was a mixture of Italian, Spanish, and English the whole night. I felt like I was at a movie. For some odd reason I did not feel left out or uncomfortable, with even 95% of the night was in conversation of Italian! Flower, the host from Naples, cooked a WONDERFUL meal! We first had noodles with clams, and then the second course we had salad with oil and stuffed salmon. There was vino, after vino, after vino (wine). It was like how you would always imagine a Italian dinner would be! Afterwards we all went to Shocking, a club. We got in for VIP and had a fun time dancing the calories away. This was by far my most amazing experience in Italy and life!!!! I smile everyday just looking back and thinking about the night!

Saturday weekend I went to Lake Como. Lake Como is only a hour and half away from Milan. It's where George Clooney has a house. It was such a lovely day, the sun was shinning and there was a light breeze. I went with a bunch of Americans, there was 6 of us. We spent the day hiking to the top of the bluff and overlooked the bella view of Lake Como!! We had lunch by the lake side, and for dinner had pizza off in a little street. 

On Sunday I went to Bergamo. A city outside of Milano in Lombardy, about a hour. I went with Michele, because it was his home town and he wanted to show me around. When we got there by train, Michele sister picked us up and we went to their parents home for lunch. I got to experience a real Italian family dinner! I had a nice pasta dish with cheese, then had RABBIT!!! Ahhhh, never had rabbit before...it was not bad. Had artichokes as well. Then for dessert we had some kind of pastry and gelato. And finished with prosseco (an sparkling white wine/ champaign) and a shot of lemmon chello. His parent spoke English pretty well, the father had a little hard time with certain words... there would be times that I would hear them speak Italian, but after all I am in ITALY!!! Afterwards before we left, Michele's father gave me some treats to take back with me! It was so sweet!!! After lunch, Michele showed me around Bergamo. It was so beautiful!!! There was cobble streets, amazing views, beautiful grande (huge) churches, and many stairs!!  I had absolutely a wonderful time and will never forget such a day!!!