my version of the real world: best sunday ever.

today was such a good day! before i get into what i did today, here are some pictures pertaining to my last posts and also some that i haven't really mentioned:

roman amphitheater in the center of the city - it was only found like 50 years ago?

picking blackberries on the way to slovenia (with carrie, another IST teacher)

roommates + me in front of piazza dell'unita in the center of the city

now! for what we did today.

since it rained all day we were dying to get outside today -- the weather was incredible! the sun was warm but the breeze was cool, pretty much my ideal forecast.

at about noon30, veronica and i left the apartment with the goal of just walking around and getting to know the city a little bit better. we headed straight for the castello di san giusto which is at the top of a hill right in the center of trieste. check out the wikipedia page here! we entered the castle (only 3euro) and there wasn't a whole lot going on inside except some incredible vistas from the top. (see pictures below). there were lots of sailboats out that got us excited about barcolana that is coming up in october! (barcolana is a huge regatta that happens annually in trieste and is apparently THE event to attend -- check out some pictures/info here)

after exploring the castle for almost 2 hours, we met up with another new IST teacher (kristin) and went down the other side of the hill (opposite from our neighborhood) to have some gelato and continue our exploring. we wandered around the city center (there are lots of area pedonale - pedestrian streets - that are amazing for wandering) and checked out some cafe's/restaurants that had been recommended to us by returning staff -- i'm getting a list ready for when i have visitors! most things were closed because it's sunday, but we picked out plenty of places to come back to!

eventually we made it to il penguino, which is a bar on the water (actually on a little pier that juts out into the water) where some of the staff came the other night for salsa dancing. they had loads of tables outside so we sat, had a coffee, and soaked up some rays.

we then wandered back to piazza unita (main piazza in the city) for a glass of vino and some intense people watching. we've been checking out la moda here so that when we get our first paychecks, we know what fashionable items of clothing to purchase -- there were some great examples in piazza today -- check out veronica's blog for pictures of some of the great (and sometimes humorous) outfits we saw today -- i think she's going to make it a regular feature.

after our people watching we went to a german/austrian-style pub "bire" for dinner and some delicious birra rossa. this pub is my new favorite place, it may become "our spot" they show all the soccer games so there were a ton of young-ish people inside watching games and they have booths outside so we were able to sit and eat/drink and watch the sunset over the hundreds of sailboats (see last two pictures)!!! after we finished eating we met some italians and joined them at their table for some private italian tutoring, haha. veronica is almost fluent - after only one week of learning.

so - very full sunday (not quite the italian style of relaxing) and a very good one at that!

teacher work week starts tomorrow with a day full of meetings and working in our classrooms. i also plan to continue to get to know the city before i get too swamped with work so stay tuned for updates on that!!