i'm baaaack

Hi everyone! I'm back from Spring break and started class today. As I posted earlier, Evan flew out here for break and we traveled around and had a great time. We stayed in Florence for a couple days so he could get acclimated to the time change (it's 6 hours later here than in the U.S) and I could show him around Florence a little bit. In an (one of many) turn of events, my camera charger is MIA so I could, regrettably, only take a very limited pictures on the trip. Anyway, we

finally went to Museo Academia to see the David and the rest of the museum. Just as everyone has said, I was surprised at how huge it was (but we weren't allowed to take pictures). I have to say, thou

gh, that I was disappointed in most of the rest of the museum as compared t

o the Uffizi, which I

found amazing.

After Florence, we took a train to Rome where we stayed at a hostel but one that was actually pretty nice. Getting out of Florence also gave me the chance to have non-Italian food for once, even in Rome. The hostel had a restaurant/bar attached where I got to have french toast with banana and honey for breakfast. A great way to make me happy in the morning. Anyway, on our first night in Rome we wandered around the city for an hour and two and found a restaurant where we stayed and ate lamb, shared red wine, and talked for hours...it was very Italian, as we were there for about 3 ho

urs. Afterwards, we continued to wander and walked all the way down to the Colosseum, which was beautiful all lit up at night. We went on a tour through our hostel which was priced reasonably for a 4 hour tour (15 euro) and it was the most informative and entertaining tour I think I've ever been on, certainly better t

han the tour I took when I was in Rome a couple weeks ago. After Rome, we went to Amsterdam.

I think Amsterdam is my favorite place I've been so far, if not close to it. It's the most charming little city.

Dad said he loved it, and I'm glad I felt the same way. We stayed with a friend of Evan's mom named Rogier who was more than accommodating. He lent us keys to 2 bikes and keys to his apartment. He lived on Beethovenstraat, a street that was perfectly situated in town in terms of vicinity to everything we wanted to see and do. I've always been interested in anything having to do with WWII so we headed over the Anne Frank house which at first felt more industrial than expected until we got the hidden annex she lived in with her family, which was a high step up behind a fake book case. Pretty cool. We spent most of our time in

Amsterdam biking around (it's s

o common to bike there that bikes have separate traffic lights) and walking around town. The next day, we went to the Heineken brewery which I actually found really cool. I got a silly tourist souvenir that's a Heineken bottle with my name printed right on the bottle's label...kitschy, but I like it anyway. We spent our last day in Amsterdam wandering some more, trying all kinds of foods, and headed to the infamous red light district of Amsterdam at night. I found it pretty depressing, with girls in windows advertising the

mselves who looked about my age. We only walked around for about 10 minutes because I got too weirded out and wanted to keep walking.

We left Amsterdam for Brussels the next day, which ended up being a bust. The hotel I booked is apparently a big chain in Brussels and has about 5 in the city. The one I thought I booked was in the middle of town but turned out to be in the boonies by the Brussels airport. It was not near anything, and everything in the hotel had to be paid for (12 euro for the worst "buffet" breakfast I've ever seen), 5 euro for 15 minutes of internet so I could print out our boarding pass for the flight back here, etc. The hotel's restaurant was closed because they were only open on the weekdays (go figure), and since there was nothing in the area, we had to eat at the Holiday Inn next door. I was glad it would be inexpensive...until we walked in the hotel. I have never seen such a nice Holiday Inn, it was way upscale. We sat in the restaurant and I'm fairly sure both of our mouths dropped when we saw the menu. The cheapest thing on the menu was 20 euro, and things ranged up to mid-30s. Evan got a burger and I got fish, both of which were blatantly previously cooked and microwaved, and we didn't even get water because it was 6 euros for a liter bottle. (for some perspective, 20 euro=about 27 dollars). To add to our wonderful money situation in Brussels, we asked the concierge how much it would be to go to the Charleroi airport, thoroughly explaining since her English wasn't the best, that it wasn't the Brussels airport, but the one further away), and she said approximately 30 Euro. She called a taxi for us in the morning, for which we had to pay ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY euro. I was so beyond angry I didn't even know what to do. And once we got to the airport, the bag that I had previously brought on RyanAir flights that fit in the sample carry-on bag measurer, suddenly had to be checked because it was about 1 kilo overweight (about 2 pounds), and that was another 35 euro.

Suffice to say that we ended up spending WAY more money than either of us wanted to on the trip for so many unforeseen issues, which happened everywhere, not just Brussels. The Brussels part was just the most annoying. Anyway, all in all we had a great time and I'm SO glad that Evan got to come visit.

I know this one was long, but it was a lot of traveling! I gotta keep you guys updated, right? ;-)

evan's here!

Hiii everyone. I'm currently in Rome (yes, again) because Evan really wanted to visit, we've been here for two days. Yesterday, though, I realized I had forgotten my passport in my apartment in Florence (typical) so I had to travel back and pick it up...this dumb mistake on my part cost me about $130, which is insane. But tomorrow early in the morning we head out to the Netherlands where we're staying with a family friend of Evan's parents and stop in Belgium on the way back, where I may or may not eat all the chocolate, waffles, and mussels I can handle. I'll update when I'm back.

spring break

I just booked two trips today. One is in May to the French Riviera (Nice, Cannes, and Monaco) and the other is to Croatia for Easter weekend (the first weekend in April). I just had to share with everyone the picture of these lakes that I'm planning on visiting in Croatia called the Plitvice Lakes:

That's it for now. Midterms start tomorrow and I have to keep studying!

italians vs. other europeans

It's sunday. I'm sitting in my living room drinking a nice cup of tea. Even though I'm sick, it's been nice to wake up in my apartment in Florence this weekend. I didn't do much this weekend besides try to catch up on sleep Thursday and Friday night and hung out with my friends last night. However, I still feel the need to share this wonderful link with everyone...it's a video that allegedly shows the difference between Italians and all other Europeans. As far as I can tell, every single part of the video is true. So if anyone really wants to know what it's like to be living in Italy, click the link--it'll give you a pretty good idea.

http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.swf

a presto!

p.s. the picture is from the lenin/lennon wall in Prague, but this post looked decidedly empty without a picture.

roma!

So the first and second pictures are of the Pantheon--one the outside and one on the inside. If you can't tell, I went to Rome last weekend. Unfortunately my camera died so I don't have that many pictures but I'm going back in a couple weeks when Evan comes to

visit because he's always wanted to go. Anyway, Rome was great...a lot of it definitely had a familiar feel since I had visited years ago when I was pretty young.

On our first night in Rome, my friends and I decided that we wanted to have a first meal at a really nice restaurant since we haven't had one since we got here. The problem with getting really good food is that its really expensive everywhere. Since everyone is on a budget, we usually end up getting a pasta or pizza because it's usually about 10 euro cheaper than the other dishes. But instead we all got what we really wanted (I got bruschetta and some of the best lamb I've ever had) and we shared table wine. We sat and talked and ate for a couple hours...we ALMOST stayed as long as some of the Italians--they stay at dinner for 3-4 hours most of the time.

We did a full day tour the next day, for which my camera was dying so I couldn't take pictures. I took a bunch of pictures at the colosseum the next day and got a couple pictures of the Trevi fountain. For those who don't know,the Trevi fountain is where you're supposed to throw a coin (with your right and over your left

shoulder) and make a wish. Obviously I can't tell you what I wished for..since everyone knows since kindergarten that if you tell someone your wish it won't come true! On our last day, we did a bus tour to see things that weren't within walking distance of the center of Rome where our hotel was. Our last stop before heading home to Florence was the Colosseum.

One of my roommates has a friend studying in Rome so she brought us around the city our second night. Half of the group I was traveling with went and did their own thing and a couple of us went to an aperitivo--it's a meal where you go to a restaurant, pay for a drink/glass of wine (usually about 6-8 euro) and they set up a buffet-like table with different kinds of pastas, meats, salads, etc. The food rotates over time and it's a great way to try a lot of things for a way cheaper price than you would pay at a regular restaurant. The best aperitivos are usually at locals-only restaurants, and the one we went to definitely stuck to that rule. It was a great meal and a fun time.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed Rome. A lot of people were saying that they wish they could live there, but I'm completely happy with my choice to study in Florence. It just feels like home.

PRAHA!

First and

foremost, aside from weekend news, I just have

to profess my love for the sandwich (panino) shop around the corner. I'vetried a lot of panini from different places around Florence, but my favorite so

far (lucky me) happens to be around the

corner from me right by the mercato central.

It's like an Italian deli-style place. It's a tiny space with 2 high-top tables inside and there isn't even a

sign that says what the place is

called. The woman inside recognizes us every time we go and greets us with a friendly buon giorno. Anyway,today I just went with a prosciutto cotto

sandwich (it's ham, but I think it's the equivalent of parma cotta ham in the States) panino. Since it's deli-style,you pick what you want and she makes it right there. So with my delicious ham I added a black olive pate, fresh tomato, rucola, and fontina, all melted together on awesome stracciata bread. Bellisima...simple but delicious. I love how everything here is always made to order and freshly cut.

Anyway, on to my weekend. As I had posted before, I had been planning on heading to the French Riviera for the weekend. In a crazy last minute cha

nge of plans, I went to Prague in the Czech Republic with a bunch of friends through a company called EuroAdventures. To say it in a few words, I totally fell in love with Prague. Like Florence, it's easy to just feel at home there. Only problem: they speak Czech--not exactly the most convenient and widely spoken language in the world. Back to my point...I went through EuroAdventures...a company that is designed specially for college kids trying to travel and see Europe with minimal money spent. It was a very long drive (11 hours!) but totally worth the experience of Prague. The website and general market for EuroAdventures is a little sketchy I'll admit but the program was fantastic. The guys that own the company are the ones that come on the trip with you...2 of them are in their mid to late 20s and the other is probably about 30. They were great. We left Florence at 8pm on Thursday and arrived in Prague at 8am, when we took a 5 hour tour of the city. It sounds long, but it was perfect...we saw all the major sites in Prague in a day and I've

nd wasn't sure what to expect.

I've gotten so accustomed to walking everywhere the full day of walking didn't even tire me out.

This post is about to have a lot of pictures (I took about 150 while I was there) so bear with me and

try to enjoy.

PROBLEM. I just tried to add pictures to this post for you guys and about half of the writing got messed up so I just had to delete it. However, there are now more pictures...but fewer words. So I guess...make your own story from them?

I know I had posted (I think in my first post?) about the locks in Florence on the Pontevecchio bridge where couples come, write their names on the locks, and lock it around a statue in hopes of good

luck for their relationship. Anyway, aside from the amazing Lenin/Lennon

wall (pictures below...I took a picture right in front of the "imagine" part of the wall because I know Dad had taken a picture in front of the same wall not too long ago.

venezia

So this past weekend we went to Venice and I was surprisingly disappointed. It was a cold and windy day, but there were random spots of sun around the city (which we didn't see often because almost all of Venice is old back alleys)...so maybe that had something to do with it. My bus left bright and early at 6 am, we

had a 4 hour bus ride there, and immediately had a 2 hour walking tour. This tour was the strangest tour I've ever been on--my tour guide took us to

things like the Jewish quarter and outside a high school and things like that. The company that I'm traveling with (API) is pretty big so the tour groups were split up into much smaller groups and we got a weird tour gu

ide. However, the only interesting fact I learned about Venice is that only about 40% of the buildings are occupied there. The other thing was that since it's February and everyone in Europe is celebrating Carnevale, this was one of the biggest ones. After having such a long morning, all I wanted to do was get in bed after being in such a huge crowd. I added a picture so you guys could see how ridiculously packe

d it

was...and the picture isn't even just a crowded area, the entire city was this crowded and the

picture doesn't

even do it justice.

The other thing was that the main square where car

nevale takes place there, Piazza di San Marco, was flooded and they didn't put the boards over the water

that they u

sually put up for people to walk on. I tried to get a picture of myself in fr

ont of the giant cathedral there but it didn't work out because it

was way too

crowded to get a picture without someone walki

ng in

front of

the camera, so I got one of it without myself in front of it. Anyway, that's about all I have to say about Venice really. I'll attach a few more pictures of the city. In 2 days I'll be going on a trip to Nice, Cannes, and Monte Carlo. It should be a good trip.