Birthday Weekend in London

On March 2, I had to wake up at about 215 am in order to pack my bags and make it to the train station for 315 am for a bus to Pisa airport with my roommate.  When we got to the airport at around 445am we got out bags checked in and went to go through security.  The woman working at the security area told us we could no go through security yet because all of the flights were going to be delayed until about noon because of the fog outside.  We could not believe that we had just woken up so early to find out that we were going to just sit around at the airport for about 7 hours for our plane to take off.  Everything ended up working out once we took a nap and got to London.  We took a train from Stansted Airport and then took a tube to get to our hostel.  The first two nights we stayed in a room with 6 other people and on the third night we stayed in a room with 20 other people!!  By the time we had arrived at the hostel and checked in, it was about 530pm so we spent the whole day traveling.  We decided that because most of the museums would be closing we should just walk around and see what London had to offer us.  We ended up wandering over a bridge and were able to see the London Tower Bridge right next to us.  Then we found and visited St. Paul's Cathedral which is yet again another beautiful church in Europe.  We both were so hungry and thought we should find a place for dinner so we ended up eating at our hostel, St. Christopher's Village, where you get a discount on all food.  We ended up just hanging out that night and visiting my roommate's friend from home who actually works at the bar right next to where we were staying.  It was a weird coincidence.

The next morning we woke up and went on a free tour that our hostel provided.  It turned out to be the best tour I have ever been on.  The tour guide kept me engaged the entire time and told interesting stories about the history of London.  The tour guide brought us to all the royal places of London such as Buckingham Palace.  The best two stories that he told us were about a couple break-ins at Buckingham Palace.  I could not even believe what I was hearing.  We also got to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the court houses on the tour.  After the tour was over we were all invited to lunch at this pub where I got to try some genuine English food.  We went back to the hostel after and got ready for a pub crawl that was also set up through the hostel.  My roommate and I ended up meeting some of the Queen’s guards, which means that they are in the UK army.  They were asking us if we had gone to Buckingham Palace and if we saw the changing of the guards.  We said that we had earlier that day and they told us that they were in it.  The next day we woke up and did some more touring around by ourselves to see Abbey Road where the Beatles crossed the road.  We also went to the shopping center called Brick Lane and Camden where they had some mini markets also.  Then we went over the London Tower Bridge, which was amazing! I could not believe how big it was.  Then we ended up going to a mall where we shopped around a little bit and got to go to the movies.  It was wonderful to just be able to watch a movie!  We ended up seeing The Vow, which was awesome!  I had never been so excited to watch a movie in my life just because watching TV is so rare while I am abroad.  Later that night we ended up meeting up with the Queen’s guards to hang out for a little while then went back to our hostel for some sleep.

In the morning I was taking the plane back to Pisa by myself while my roommate stayed until later on that night because there was only one spot available for the flight Monday morning.  I had to wake up at 4am to take a bus to the train station which brought me to the airport.  Once I got to the airport and got my bag checked in I went to go through security.  I had everything back with me on the other side except my suitcase.  A woman came up to me that worked at the airport and was asking me what was in my suitcase, almost drilling me.  I had never been so scared in my life.  I thought that I was going to be arrested or something.  For some reason the security was much more intense in London than it was in Pisa, and their detector was saying that I had something in my bag.  So sure enough it got searched, but obviously there was nothing in my suitcase for me to worry about.  Good thing I got to the airport well in advance because it ended up taking an extra half an hour for my bag to be searched.  Everything ended up working out and I made it back to Florence safely.

21

This past week has been super busy with school and midterms coming up, I have not even had time to write about everything going on.  The night of my birthday I ended up going out to dinner with my cousin and a bunch of my friends to a restaurant called Tijuana's.  It was a perfect place to go because everyone was getting sick of Italian food and in need of some Mexican food.  I was recommended to get the fajitas, so that is exactly what I got and it was delicious.  It turned out to be a great day!

Coming up

Today is my 21st birthday and I am leaving for London tomorrow morning to celebrate! I am meeting my with one of my mom's coworker's daughters named Emily. I am really excited to see all of the wonderful places and blog about it when I return, it should be fun!!

Prague: a fairy tale

I have been so busy this past week that I am finally getting a chance to blog again.  Last week I booked a last minute trip to Prague! I am so happy that I ended up going.  The buildings there are also so colorful, but the architecture on the buildings is completely different from the other places that I have visited so far.  The whole city is like a fairy tale.  To get there we took a bus overnight which was extremely uncomfortable just sitting there and trying to sleep for about 13 hours.  When we got there we checked into the hotel and went straight on a tour of the city to see what the city had to offer.  We stopped at the John Lennon wall, which was very cool.  There is also a very tiny bridge with a cement wall and bars.  On the bars there are locks around the bars that couples put there and then throw the key into the river below.  It is supposed to signify that their love is locked away.  Then we walked up to the castle! It was not what I was expecting at all.   at first I didn't even know we were at the castle because I was expecting more of an all stone and extremely tall building.  Turns out it was more of just a little town.  On the way back we got to cross the St. Charles Bridge.  The view from there was incredible.  Then we continued back towards the old town square where we got to see the famous clock tower.  That night we got to check out this placed called the 5 story club.  On every single floor they play different types of music.  They have the current music on one floor, music from the 70s and 80s on another floor with all the classics, another they play just techno and so on.  The next day we walked around again and tried to go to the Jewish ghetto for the Holocaust museum, but turns out they are closed on Saturdays so we were not able to go in.  So we explored the streets of Prague and found a beer tasting place.  You get to pick from thirty different types of beer whichever ones you would like.  They had flavors like raspberry, grapefruit, and chocolate.  Prague was a blast and I would love to go back someday if I get the chance to!

Venice Carnivale!

On Saturday I went to the Venice Carnivale through Bus 2 Alps.  They gave us transportation there by bus and a discounted rate on the water buses for the day.  When we got to Venice the first thing that we did was go to the bathroom, which was ridiculous because it cost 1.5 euro to use the bathroom.  Then we bought our masks to fit in more with the crowd and spend the remainder of the day just walking around and got to see all the awesome costumes that everyone was wearing. We even bought confetti to join in with throwing it on random people that we walk by.  Carnivale is very similar to Mardi-Gras or Halloween. It was even more fun at night with all the lights lit up and people dancing in the piazza to all the music.  I wish I was able to go on a gondola ride, but they were was too expensive at 80 euro per boat, which only lasts about half an hour.

Pisa!

Next on the list of destinations was Pisa!  The first thing that we did once we reached the leaning tower was take the typical touristy pictures.  Then we had some lunch at the closest restaurant outside where we could still see the leaning tower as we are, probably one of the best views I have had while eating a meal.  My favorite Italian food to get is a calzone, and the restaurant had one so I had to have it.  After lunch we decided that it was time to walk up to the top of the leaning tower.  It is a winding staircase all around the edge and as you walk around it almost feels as if you are drunk because your balance is completely off.  A fat person could not make it to the top because the walls close in on you really tightly to the point where they would not be able to get by.  The view was incredible, you could see everything! 

Rome

This past weekend I went to Rome with my roommate Makenzie. We took the train Friday morning and arrived there at around two in the afternoon.  It was sleeting when we arrived and had lunch.  Then we figured out our way to take the bus to the hostel that we would be spending the next couple nights at.  Knowinng bus 64 was the key to our weekend.  After we dropped our bags off at the hostel that was located right near the Vatican, we decided to check that spot out first.  It was snowing out and freezing on our walk over there, but we were dedicated tourists.  After looking at the inside and outside of the Vatican we tried to go to the museum to look at the Sistein Chapel, but by that time the museum was closing.  We thought that we would just go back to our hostel at this time because it was starting to get dark and that we would try taking a shortcut.  That was the worst decision ever! We ended up getting lost around Rome because we walked ourselves off the map and could not figure out how to get back on the map.  We walked around aimlessly for three hours until we decided to warm up at a cafe.  Meanwhile our toes, fingers, and entire bodies were freezing cold from walking around in the cold slush.  The best decision we made was to just call a taxi from the cafe and bring us back to the hostel.  The taxi driver ended up bringing us back the exact way we had just walked from the museum and then back around the Vatican, the way we thought would have taken longer.  Lesson learned:  shortcuts in life never work.

The next day was still really bad weather. We went to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Colosseum.  We spent about three hours walking around until we were too cold again and went back to the hostel.  Thank goodness on the last day it was nice outside! We were so happy to actually see the sun.  We went back to every sight that we had went to earlier that weekend.  While walking over to the Vatican we heard a voice on a loud speaker system.  When we finally got to St. Peter's Square, we looked up and saw Pope Benedict XVI making a speech! We could not believe our eyes, it was probably one of the coolest things that I have ever witnessed.  After revisiting the rest of the sights we started exploring more and found the sight where they Romans held the chariot races during the ancient times.  We ventured even further and were able to see more of the ancient ruins.  Then we headed back to the hostel to pack up and take the train back to Florence.  The only downside to the weekend was that with the terrible weather in Rome, we could not visit any of the museums.  This was the first time Rome has seen snow in about twenty-eight years, so all of the locals were freaking out about the few inches that they were getting and closed pretty much everything down.  I can not wait to go back later in the semester to go see the Sistein Chapel and the inside of the Colosseum.