Saying goodbye

From Day 17:

We spent some time apart today, which was good (and needed). He went to the Uffizi and i slept. i then went down to the Ponte Vecchio to take pictures, then to the statue garden, then back to the hostel for the free walking tour. It was really fun and educational, even though we went to a lot of the places i went yesterday, but i learned interesting things about them. at the end of the tour i got a huge surprise: Ally and Claire were in Florence too! They found Joe and then they found me at the end of the tour! we walked down the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace and Gardens, which were huge (but we didn't go in :P) and caught up on our trips and lives. we found the "best gelato in the city" and a small cafe for lunch, then split up for a while. Me and Joe went to the Chisa di Santa Croce, which was a good find! They had the tombs of Rossini, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Dante, Marconi, Fermi and Galileo! It was a smorgasbord of dead famous guys!! There were also some other awesome things as well, like some of the clothes of St. Francis of Assisi and some cool art. After that, I had my bad ass moment of Italy: walking to the top of the Duomo!! 463 steps! it was pretty amazing. And i got some good pictures too! we went back to the hostel after that for some relaxing time and dinner (did i mention we get HUGE free plates of pasta for dinner? cause we do :D) Then we met up with Claire and Ally again and went to the Piazza di Michelangelo, which had BEAUTIFUL views of the city! We walked around there for a while and a creepy church that's gates were open at night. we went to their hostel after that and had some wine and talked for a few hours. I think that may be what i miss most alcohol-wise when i come back to the US: being able to just sit down with some wine or a drink and just talking with people wherever. Not in dorm rooms, or at a party, just chilling some place and having a good relaxed time. Anyway, Joe was tired (so was I, but I'll blame him :P) so we went back to our hostel. We're eating breakfast at 9, then leaving for Lucca in the morning! It's gonna be really awesome. Wrapping up week 3 does seem kind of weird, though. I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

From Day 18:

We put our Oxbridge minds to the test today! We arrived in Lucca at around 2 and forgot to check for our reservations for our next trips, so we went back to the station and apparently the Lucca station is not big enough to do this at, the closest one was at Pisa. We were planning on going to Pisa tomorrow, but we decided it would be better to do go get our tickets and just spend the rest of the day there and do Lucca tomorrow. Smart, huh? Well i am super glad we did! When we got to the Pisa station, we went to make reservations and besides the people there being super unhelpful and running me in circles, it turns out the only trains that would get me to Barcelona leave tomorrow! so i would have been screwed if we had gone to Pisa then! Got my reservations (which were super expensive, btw!) and we went to the Leaning Tower. Joe went up in the tower but i felt as though i had spent enough money for one day (€74 on the reservation)! We spent time there till sunset, then got a train back to Lucca. We had gotten groceries earlier, so we went back and made dinner and got ready for bed. It has been a long day! We're getting up early tomorrow so i can see some of Lucca before I have to leave. I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

From Day 19:

Me and Joe went walking on the walls of Lucca and had deep, philosophical conversations which included whether QEII will have Charles assassinated before she dies, man boobs, a theory on old people and other pressing topics. we found the medieval tower i read about that has an oak tree growing out the top of it. the tree wasn't that great, but the views were good! I definitely want to come back one day to see the rest of the city. We went back to the hostel cause it started raining and are some food and talked until i had to leave. we said goodbye and i headed for the station for the 12:12 train to Pisa so i could get my train to Barcelona. We left at 1:10. ARGH! I don't even want to go into it. Long story short, it turned out alright. i was like 3 minutes early for the train thank God. The rest of the day was uneventful. Train to Milan, sat in the station for 1 1/2 hours, night train to Barcelona, one of the guys in our compartment got kicked off the train, then i settled in my train bed. weird. it's kind of like laying down in a car, but more bumpy. I got up at 7:30, so even though it's early in the night, I'm going to go to bed. But first, some...

BITZ O WIZDUM!!!!

Discoveries in Italy

1. Venice isn't that amazing if you don't like church after church (after church) and canals.

2. Gondola rides are expensive! €80 whether it's 1 person or 20, so make sure you have a large group (more than 3 people) if you want to go on one!

3. EAT AS MUCH GELATO AS YOU CAN!!!!!!!! Gelato shops are everywhere and it's so much better in Italy than anywhere else! My record is 17 flavours and 28 scoops total!!

4. Night trains are EXPENSIVE!! Try to get a day train if you can!

5. Meeting up with people is awesome! try to plan some short run-ins with friends if you can!

6. See the original David. It is worth it.

7. Book tickets for popular places ahead of time. you'll save hours upon hours of waiting in lines.

8. Don't trust the communists! They tell you lies! (i know that happened in Switzerland, bit i forgot to write it there and i felt it needed to be said)

9. Switzerland is full of hot people. Italy is full of people who think they're hot.

10. Italian pasta FTW!!! Have some!

I'm super tired, so I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

Spain coming soon!

Jojo

Week...Whatever, i lose count now

From Day 13:

We have done a lot more today, even though we started late. I slept in for the first time on this vacation! how long did I sleep, you may ask? Till 9:40! Whew, late i know! :P

we started the day at the Bear Park (fun facct, Bern got its name from the bear, barn[ with the funny dotted thing over the a] in Swiss-German, and bear hunting). A bear pit, like a bull ring, but for bears, was a huge attraction for the city until the 1800s. Realizing the cruelty, they stopped the bear pits and gave the bears their own sanctuary in the city. we went to the bear preserve and watched for a while. the bears were boring and lazy. that's about it. we then ventured to the Canton's cathedral with a huge tower (which i refused to pay 8 francs to go into!) it also has a pretty famous door ornamentation of the Final Judgement. I took pictures (it was allowed). After the church, we went to the Museum of the Alps, where we learned about mountains and argued about the origin of man. I also kicked Joe's ass at a mountaineering dice game. fun stuff! We then found the Natural History Museum, which we made it literally 5 steps away from yesterday before giving up and turning around (OXBRIDGE!!!) and we had a good time there. There was a huge real-life anthill, interesting because we watched A Bug's Life 3 days ago, and then looked at animals and the environments of the world, interesting because we watched Fern Gully 2 days ago :P

They had some cool skeletons (the Swiss are obsessed with death, just as a sidenote) and a room of mirrors, which is always fun! We walked around the Swiss government buildings (we couldn't go inside) and found security is much more lax in other countries than it is in the US. No death threats from armed guards in Europe, no sir-re!

Ummm...i think that's it, but since it's the end of a country, here are some...

BITZ O WIZDUM!!

Things i learned in Switzerland

1. Switzerland is EXPENSIVE!!! I think that's all that needs to be said about that.

2. Switzerland is beautiful!!!! Come and take lots of pictures wherever you go! I think it sort of cancels out the cost! lol

3. The Swiss walk slower than Brits...come to think of it, really everyone walks slower than the Brits. It takes some getting used to.

4. SWISS CHOCOLATE IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

5. Canadians are just as loud as Americans...maybe louder.

6. Fondue is Swiss. I know right?

7. Given the option, i would rather travel alone. 'Nuff said.

We're headed to Italy tomorrow!! Venice here we come, but for now, I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

from Day 14:

GELATO IS AMAZING!! Thought i would start off with that. We arrived in Venice at around 2:30, only about 7 hours on the train. not bad considering the distance. Once we found our hostel, where Jenni was waiting for us, we all went out exploring around the city. Venice is beautiful, but kind of boring. There are tons of churches (yay) and lots of canals. that's about it. Thank God for gelato! So amazing! I've already had so many scoops! other than walking around, we didn't do much besides getting stuck behind slow walking people and talking pictures of an all-Asian Palm Sunday service. we are all dead tired and i'm sure Joe will want to start early tomorrow, so I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

From Day 15:

I was right. We left the hostel at 9. We all went to the Ghetto, the Jewish ghetto that is. It was interesting, but barren. Apparently, stuff doesn't really go on there unless it's a Jewish holiday. other than that, it's just the ghetto.

...We split up after that cause me and Jenni didn't want to spend money on stuff (except for gelato!), so we left Joe to do his expensive things and we went off our own way. It was a lot of fun! we walked along the Grand Canal for a bit and got serenaded by a really food old guy (he was a Tenor II if you care to know) singing while walking behind us for a while. We turned off the canal path into a park with statues and fun walking paths down in a random wandering motion until we reached water again. We were apparently near a small island with a church taking up most of it, so we made our way there, but it looked super sketch, so we didn't go in and we sat on the park benches outside and people-watched.

We stopped by Il Penguino (hehe! the penguin! I had to!) and got some gelato before starting the trek back to the hostel. she left later on, so after we walked to the station (and getting more gelato :P) I met up with Joe again and we went on a fail trip to one of the churches he had gone to earlier. It was closed of course when we got there, so we went souvenir shopping.

...We planned out Florence, which should have a lot more to see! Tuscanny and then Spain!!!!! I am SO EXCITED!! Not to excited for some rest though, so I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

From Day 16:

Florence is so much nicer than Venice (to me at least)!! On a less awesome note, I have discovered 5 days is the longest i can travel with someone else. After that, every little thing starts to annoy you. Sigh. i am destined to be a loner. Anyway, we got to Florence at around noon and (of course) couldn't check in yet. So Joe decides we should immediately go to the museum with the David in it. If he had waited another 10 minutes, I would have been able to read about the advance tickets you can get so we wouldn't have had to stand in line for an hour and a half! ANYWAY, we got in and saw all the stuff in the galleria della Accademia, Including the original David, which i took illegal pictures of! :P

...We also went to the Medici Basillica and we went to the crypt where Donatello is buried and there are a lot of saint's bodies/bones there as well. The Palazo Vecchio was our last stop for the day (rrrrrgh... I didn't want to do a lot on the first day cause i was tired and i didn't want to end up like we had [and probably will], being done at like 1:30 and just doing nothing for the rest of the day >:O sigh.) and we went through and took pictures, then got caught in an actual rain storm, which hasn't happened since i left the US!! When we got back to the hostel, we had our free dinner and then i got some cheap groceries and Joe went to do work and I am going to bed early cause (of course) Joe wants to start at 8:30 in the morning. I iz sleep sleep now! ~Bai!

the final days of Italy are coming soon!

Jojo