AMSTERDAM PART II
My last day in Amsterdam my friend Cierra and I rented bikes. (She practically bit my head off when I didn't include this in my last blog) Riding bikes around Amsterdam is one of the coolest experiences I've had in Europe. Everyone rides bikes there. Even more so than Davis, Ca. We rode around the whole city and saw things we would have never had time to do if we hadn't been on bikes. I think it was 7 Euro for the three hours that we had the bikes.We saw the largest public library in Europe, a gigantic park on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and we rode past the Van Gogh museum, but didn't go inside. 16 Euro! We didn't really have time to do it. I wish we had.
Ok, Battle of the Oranges.
I actually went to Carnevale in Ivrea the week before Amsterdam. I don't know why I thought it was after, but somehow I got that mixed up in my last post.
This is what the town looked like before the battle started.
The history behind the festival is something that I am not an expert in. But I invite you to look up the truth on Wikipedia. That's the best and most reliable source of information known to man. It's just science.
The festival dates back to the 12th century, when the Romans were fighting George Washington and his revolutionary army. Caesar had the Yanks cornered in the tiny town of Ivrea with nothing but thousands of oranges to defend themselves with. The Romans crossed over the river into the city expecting the young American General to surrender. But George Washington was a clever man, he knew that if the Romans came in to the city they would be bottlenecked and they could be defeated with their orange ammunition. The Romans sent in wave after wave of soldiers and the city could not be taken. Finally, the Romans sent in all their forces and tried to take the city at full force. They broke through the ranks and George Washington and his last battalion were cornered in a little piazza in the heart of the city. Seemingly out of thin air, Doc brown came blazing down the street in his school bus Delorean. He screamed, "Quick George! Get in! You've got to save America!" So George Washington and his twenty remaining soldiers scrambled to pile into the school bus time machine. Doc Brown gunned it to 88 and the rest is history. George Washington came to America and won the Civil War. That's why we always have fireworks on the 4th of July.
They like to remember the story a little bit differently over here. On the days of the festival they have horse-drawn carriages with about ten people in them that go through the different neighborhoods of the city. Each neighborhood belongs to a different team. When a wagon pulls through your neighborhood, all hell breaks loose. People throw oranges as hard as they can at the wagon, and the people on the wagon throw oranges at all the people in the neighborhood.
The only exception is if you're wearing red. If you wear red, you're forbidden from throwing oranges. People aren't supposed to throw oranges at you either. But, it happens.
The festival was absolute chaos. One of the craziest things I've ever seen. So much fun though. The oranges are left in crates outside overnight. So, sometimes when it gets cold at night, the oranges will freeze. People get sent to the hospital daily.
Aside from the festival, Ivrea is also a beautiful little town on the edge of the Alps.
Barcelona.
Barcelona was such a fun weekend! I got to see Brett Gutierrez for the first time since December. We stayed with Bryan for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. I saw as much of the city as I could. It's a really cool town. My Barcelona trip was my first time in Spain. However, in Barcelona they don't consider themselves Spaniards. They are Catalan. The Catalan culture is very old and complex but when you get down to it they just hate being considered Spanish. Because they aren't. They have their own language, culure, and possibly most importantly, their own football team. FC Barça.
The Barcelona team right now is arguably the best team that they have ever had. Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Fabregas, Iniesta...come on. I don't want to give the vibe that I know everything about the sport, or the team for that matter, because I really don't. But the team is definitely one of the best teams in the world right now, if not the best. We'll see how they do next week when they play AC Milan at home in the Champions League Quarter-Final. After this week's draw, Barcelona must win in order to move on. They're a very exciting team to watch, and I've seen them play at home.(I have been to two professional soccer matches in my life. One for AC Milan, the other in Barcelona)
Camp Nou, the Barca stadium, is absolutely enormous. It seats 99,354 and is the largest stadium in Europe.
In Barcelona I also got to see some Gaudi buildings, which were amazing. I saw the Sagrada Famiglia and we went and had a picnic in Parc Guell. I also got to meet a lot of Bryan’s friends, which was really cool. They’re all really fun people. The Barcelona nightlife was fantastic. My first night there we went to a bar and a three story discoteca. My second night there we went to a beer hall and a four story discoteca called Razzmatazz. One thing that I noticed in Barcelona right away was how many American students there are there. English is practically non-existant in Torino. It's always a surprise if i hear it on the street. In Barcelona all the bars and discotecas are just flooded with young 20’s college students.
My Barcelona trip was a lot of fun. If you make it to the city I’d highly recommend scheduling your trip to see a Barca game. I planned my trip so I would be there when they were playing a subpar team so I would be able to get tickets. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me. The metro system is good there, it was redone for when the Olympics were in Barcelona in the 90’s. I’ve heard the pickpocketters in Barcelona are the worst in the world. I didn’t have an incident myself, but be careful if you go. Especially around the touristy areas.
I’m going to try to write my Spring Break blog tomorrow or the next day. I want to try to get it done before my brother gets here on Sunday. So excited for him to get here. We’re spending 8 days going to Munich and seeing four cities in Switzerland. It’s going to be an awesome brotherly bonding trip.
Well, got to go. I’m writing this on a train right now from Torino to Aosta. Going there for the weekend with my roommate Nate and we’re staying with my friend Silvia.
Oh and I need to change the name of the blog from "180 Days Beyond the Atlantic" to "188 Days Beyond the Atlantic". I had to change my return date because Linda Mancuso is coming out to travel with me at the end of the trip. Sorry, I'm not sorry. So excited to try to jam all of Europe through my hippocampus so I can remember it forever. I don't think 188 days quite has the same ring that 180 did, but it'll have to do. Ciao
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