That Time We Went to Italy (Part 1) ... Rome

I'm the worst at writing travel blogs. I was going through some of my older ones thinking, damn I wrote a lot. The daunting prospect of writing a post or two or three about our five days travelling around Italy is probably why I put it off for over a month. But here we go! If you have any questions, feel free to write a comment :)


Day 1 - April 18th 

We started our five day voyage across the Boot, in Roma. (Cue the Lizzie McGuire Movie references). I heard some interesting things about Rome beforehand but the city was not at all what I expected. Well, actually I'm not sure what I expected but it certainly wasn't that. The beginning part of the trip was filled with a bit of transportation woes, starting back in Madrid but following us to Rome. The buses from Rome's Ciampino Airport to the city centre are a complete travesty and a scam - despite only costing 4 euros. It's not even worth it. After about an hour of waiting for the bus we gave up and got a taxi.

After checking in to our hostel (which was actually a guesthouse) we had a fabulous first Italian meal of gnocci served by a fabulous Italian waitress. From there we walked to Palentine Hill, which "is the centremost of the Seven Hills of Rome and one of the most ancient parts of the city," Wikipedia says.  Amazing is the best word that is coming to mind right now. The bright sun and really warm weather just enhanced the beauty of this ancient site, filled with stairs and gardens and ruins of once great homes, palaces and temples. In Ancient Roman mythology, these grounds hold the cave where the infant boys Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive before they were later raised by a human couple. It is from the story of these two boys and the eventually victory of Romulus over Remus, that Rome gets its name.



Gnocci (yummmm)



Palentine Hill

From there we went to the Forums (you can just walk straight to them - they are on the same grounds) and looked in amazement at the Roman Forum, the plaza that was once the centre of the entire Roman Empire.



The Roman Forum

The last was the famous Flavian Amphitheatre, a.k.a. the Colosseum, which I always have such a difficult time spelling. When I was in grade 9, I went to France and Switzerland with my high school and one of the first towns in France we visited was Nîmes. There, there is an amphitheatre called the Arena de Nîmes. To me the Colosseum was just a bigger version of that. It was still amazing though being in the theatre where those infamous gladiator fights were held. When you're standing inside, you can see down into what would have been a basement hidden underneath the arena floor. From the ruins it is easy to imagine cages where animals and slaves were kept, the hecticness that must have gone on below ground while emperors and subjects cheered on the bloody battles playing out above.




Inside the Colosseum

Day 2 - April 19th

Day number due started off late because we had to move from our first hostel to another, due to some random booking we did. The issue was that we could not find this hostel for the longest time. It took about 2 hours longer than we had originally planned, but once we found it we headed out to a whole new country: The Vatican City.

CPGrey has a fantastic video explaining all about Vatican City and how it is possible for such a tiny country to exist within another country, let alone within a city. Just so you know, there are no customs or passport control or anything of the like to enter. You just walk past a wall and say "Hey! I'm in Vatican City!" Then you turn around and walk a few more steps and say, "Hey! I'm back in Rome/Italy!". Then you turn around and do it all over again.

We toured the inside of the absolutely stunning St Peter's Basilica and stood in awe of the marble and gold and pure artistry that surrounded us. The extravagance was astounding and a tad off putting but brilliant nonetheless. Naturally, like the tourists we are, we went to the world's smallest postal service and send off some (expensive!) postcards, just for the heck of it.




The Basilica - we think the chairs are for a mass

The ceiling in St. Peter's

After pretending to escape from the tiny country, we hopped on the metro and made our way to the

trying to escape

to the Piazza del Popolo where there is the church of Santa Maria del Popolo and a giant obelisk in the plaza. We fell prey to the tourist trap of buying roses from those sketch guys who persistently try to sell you things and ended up taking cheesy pictures with them (the roses, not the sketch guys). We then went too the fanciest McDonald's EVER and watched the sun set on the Spanish Steps. The rest of the evening/ night was spent walking from one monument to the next, enjoying the outdoor night life. We saw the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, ate some gelato and ended the night at the Trevi Fountain. I reminisced of days from my youth where I watched the Lizzie McGuire movie somewhat religiously and in tribute, I did a very inaccurate recreation of the film by singing (horribly) "What Dreams are Made Of" while Em filmed it. Some people nearby clapped and cheered me on. It was thoroughly embarrassing but had to be done. The only bad thing was that I never got mistaken for an Italian pop star, met a cute singer named Pablo or got handed a giant wheel of cheese. But what can you do?



Piazza del Popolo

The Fancy Schmancy McDo's

The Spanish Steps

Fountain of Neptune

The Pantheon

Em and Vi with gelato and crepes

The 3 coins I tossed into the fountain

The Trevi Fountain

Italy Part 2 soon!

The Call

Artwork: Julia Yellow (source)

I can hear it: in the night, at lunch, as I walk down the street. It is loud and is getting louder every day, shouting my name and urging me to come. It accompanies me where ever I go. Sometimes it's a ringing whisper in the back of my head; other times it's a horrible, jarring, screeching tone.

It wasn't always this loud. It used to be a dim voice that I would notice every now and then; an accompanying soundtrack when I heard a certain song or watched a certain show. But now it has got a hold of my heart strings and the constant vibrations cause pain and tears. It messes with my mind and plays with my feelings. But there's no way I can stop the call until I go back to the source and hang up the phone.

DIY Round-up: Threaded Belts + Bangles and Studded Shoes

I've wanted to write a post about some DIYs I've been working on for a while and I FINALLY have gotten around to it.

About 2 weeks ago one of my favourite DIY/Fashion YouTubers Evalina Barry posted a really easy DIY recreating embroidery threaded belts from J. Crew that normally cost about 40 dollars. Her DIY cost no more than 4 and looked just as good. You can watch her video here: DIY JCrew Threaded Belts.

Here is what I came up with, using an old belt from my closet.

I liked the look so much I revamped a few bangles I just bought as well. I loved the gold bangles originally, but I knew I would never wear them because the sound of metal banging on metal annoys the heck out of me, which is probably why I only own beaded bangles - because they are quieter.

I decided on red and white in a sudden burst of patriotism (or perhaps homesickness?).

Side note: I stored my embroidery thread using Studs and Pearls easy yet brilliant cardboard thread spool that I made out of a cereal box. You can find her tutorial and blog post here. Mine aren't as cute though. 

The last DIY is a bit strange, albeit, but in my opinion cool nonetheless. Awhile ago I bought some shoes online and I liked them a lot. Then they came in the mail and I noticed the platform was a lot higher than it looked online. I should have checked the platform height in the details but it was one of those "free shipping, on sale, impulse buy" sorta things. Either way, the shoes are confortable to walk in but the uniformity of the tan colour and the tall height have deterred me from wearing them. So I decided to give them a mini makeover that may or may not be complete.

they're sooo high!

I have been in love with studded shoes for a while and a few months back I saw some posts here and here for DIY versions of some Jeffery Campbell studded shoes. It's realllllly simple: find some wedges or platform, put some glue on it and stick a bunch of thumbtacks in. Easy-peasy.

I still haven't completely decided if I want to cover the whole platform or not but I like the basic division of colour so far. I would also prefer bronze thumbtacks but I couldn't find any. When I go back home, I might do the whole base in bronze.

So that's how I've been keeping myself busy when avoiding school stuff. I'm also working on turning a dress into a skirt and whatever other things I point my scissors at and cut.

What do you think: should I cover the whole heel?

Till next time! :)

The Week: Birthday Cake

It's MAY!!! I know, I know, I'm about 12 days late for this springtime celebration but still, it's generally one of my favourite months. Not just because it's my birthday month but because it's a fresh start: things are blooming, the weather is warmer, if I was in uni back in Canada, school would be over, and here only a month and a half-ish until I go back home :)

For my 21st birthday on Tuesday (true thoughts on that here), I spent the day in 8 glorious hours of class, with a nice nap in between. That evening my flatmates "surprised" me by putting candles on the cheesecake Vi made (18 to be precise - keeps me youthful) and presented me with the CUTEST strawberry purse, a bottle of nail polish and a gorgeous ring I had my eye on. It was a lovely evening.

People have been telling me I need to party it up while in Spain for my birthday, but honestly, birthday's are fairly trivial to me. Not other people's just my own. I have been trying for the past week to remember what I did last year but clearly it wasn't anything important because I can't remember for the life of me!

Wednesday, as we left our last class of the day (Portuguese), Vi and I were greeted with this scene:

We figure it was a warm up for the theatre production that was about to start down the street, but most people were just standing watching these homeless mimes (?) jump up and down in succession. Seems like it would have been an interesting play.

Friday I went for coffee with some girls from my geography class and we chatted and had a good time and they even paid for my (belated birthday) cake! ♥ That evening we had dinner at my place with one of our friends who unfortunately lost her voice and had to write on a notepad. One of Em's friends came by later as well and we spent the rest of the night watching really funny YouTube videos. It's what you do when you don't feel like going out. Fun times! (I ♥♥♥ YouTube).

The rest of this week shall be thoroughly unexciting as I struggle to do two major projects that completely suck and are due the same day. Ever try reading 200 pages of Jesuit recount of the conquest of Chile written in Spanish from the 1500s, where the pages are badly scanned copies of the 500 year old original? Don't ever try it. Sigh...

Happy Sunday :)

¿Porque?

Tengo una pregunta.
¿Porque?
¿Porque me quieres? ¿Porque me ames?
No sé porque.
Y es la pregunta de mi vida,
pero la respuesta que no quiero.





Copyright Sarrah Coward 2013. All rights reserved.

21

21. Wow. Twenty freaking one. Now I can drink legally drink in America. Yay!?! (But let's be honest, I only go to the States to shop.)

There isn't the much to turning this age, no real advantages to being 21. It is so much closer to 22, which let's face it, sounds for some reason a lot older. 21 means I am an adult (well, technically that was 20, but this is just another year of re-enforcing that idea). According to Yahoo Answers, it means that I should be able to make rational and mature decisions; childish thinking should be behind me and my life goals and plans ahead of me.

If this were Christmas and I were Scrooge, I would say "Bah Humbug!" to that. Rational and mature decisions? Last week I was seriously considering dropping out of uni for a bit because I'm fed up with it, while at the same time I was mourning of the sad dis-figuration of my beloved stuffed hedgehog, Hedgey. I can barely decide what I want for dinner most days, let alone what to do this summer, after graduation or for the rest of my life.

Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful that I have made it to another year and that I get to spend it in Spain with some awesome people and 8 hours of class. But sometimes I feel like that Rizzle Kicks song, When I Was A Youngster:

Back when I was younger,
I wanted to be everything on the planet,
Now that I am older,
It seems the ambition has vanished

Yup. Pretty much sums me up at the start of my 21st year on this planet. Confused, without ambition, lost, older.

Happy Birthday to me.