Italy...such a small world!

So this past weekend I traveled to Italy with my friends...

Thursday: I got to sleep in because my class was canceled which was really nice, I then wandered to my afternoon class with my backpack ready for the plane on a nice sunny London day. Class only lasted an hour and 15 min which was real nice, and then Emily and I sat outside in Gorden Square and read our books while the locals played frisbee and people walked their dogs. We then ventured to the tube and met the girls at Bank Station, found our EasyBus and traveled an hour and 1/2 to Standsted. We went through security in about 5 minutes so we had some Chinese food for dinner at the airport and hung out. Our flight was delayed about a half hour and we were worried we weren't going to make our bus to Florence from Pisa airport and have to wait an extra hour for the next one. The flight took about two hours and we figured we missed our bus because it was due to leave at 12:20 and we got off the plane at 12:15...well...little did we know the Pisa airport is smaller than a soccer field. We got our luggage and made it through immigration and sprinted and made the bus right before it left. We then traveled about an hour to Florence and somehow found Regina (Tara's roommate who Tara and I were staying with) and went back to her apartment. She lives right down the road from the Duomo! She then took us to the secret bakery...which was a sketchy door in an alley way where they illegally sell fresh baked goods at all hours of the night for a euro (they are supposed to be business to business only) so I had a chocolate croissant which was wonderful. We then went back, met her roommates who were really nice and friendly, and passed out on her couches.

Friday: We woke up and met up with Emily and Nicolette (her roommate from SJU who is studying there) at the Duomo. We looked around, took pictures...

View from Regina's Street!

The Duomo

Inside!

We then climbed it, and took a million more pictures because it was SO nice out...

The Duomo from the Top!

Beautiful!

Me, Emily & Tara at the top!

Me at the top :)

After we ate really yummy blood oranges from the market and then went to the Ponte Vecchio and took more pictures...

The coolest bridge ever!

On the Ponte Vecchio

We then had probably the most wonderful pizza I've ever had in my life at this place called Gusta Pizza or something? After that we set out on our trek up to the Piazza Michelangelo which was just about the most breathtaking place ever! It has a panoramic view of Florence so clearly we took more pictures...

Such a cool view!

The girls!

We then got Gelato that was sooo yummy...

Dark chocolate :)

After we went back and relaxed at Regina's before going to dinner at this place where we all split really good different kinds of pasta and blueberry steak, which sounds weird but tasted wonderful. After this we went home and got ready, drank with Regina's roommates and friends at her apartment and then went to this bar where I saw Chanel, my friend Chrissy from home's roommate from Marist. Apparently she's studying there and lives above the bar I saw her at, it was so weird, what a small world!?!? After that we went to this other bar called The Red Garder which reminded me of our favorite place here O'Neils and it was a lot of fun. Tara, Regina, & I sang Dancing Queen for Karaoke...don't ask haha. We then went home and fell asleep on the couches.

Saturday: Woke up real early and made our way to the Duomo where we met up with Emily, Nicolette, Tori & Lauren (who were staying with Tori's friend from home) and we all walked to the bus station and took a Bus2Alps trip to Venice. Its about a 3 and 1/2 hour ride, I slept a little in the beginning but they played "I Love You Man" so I was a happy camper. We then decided we would walk into Venice instead of taking the water taxi to San Marco because it was so nice out! After finding which direction to walk in we walked along the Grand Canal. Because it was during Carnival there were SO many people there but it was beautiful. We took pictures along the way on our walk...

I love this city

We also stopped and bought masks for 5 euro and wore them around which was funny! Along the way we stopped for lunch which I got really yummy spicy pasta...it was weird tho because we watched our waiter get like slapped by his boss and then storm out right before we had to pay...awkward. Anyways, we then walked down to the Canal...took more pictures...

Friends in Masks!

The Grand Canal

Emily, Nicolette, & Lauren at Lunch

We stopped at Grom and got gelato, sooooo good! Tori got her blackberry stolen out of her bag :( I felt really bad, but she was really calm and cool about it (much more than I would be!). And we then walked down to San Marco where everyone and their mother was and took more pictures...

I have a picture of this same clock at night from when I went to Italy with my family when I was 14!

Side of St. Mark's...it was closed when we got there :(

The square was packed and there was a concert set up outside!

We walked over to the water and took pictures...

Andrea Palladio's Island

Me & Ta

Em & Lauren with some Carnival characters

Lauren, who never ceases to entertain us was having a blast throwing confetti and wearing her mask and was sooo funny, hence these pictures...

Lauren did this to some guys dog, so cute haha

Lauren creeping on children hahaahah

She also has a way with talking people into things, which was awesome because she talked her way into getting us a 15 euro gondola ride which was epic. I figured I wouldn't be able to afford to go unless I came back to Italy for my honeymoon or something hahaha but nope, Lauren talked the guy down which awesome...

Lauren in her glory on the gondola!

Our gondola "driver" and Tori's head haha

Me, Nicolette, & Tori on the gondola! SO COOL

After that we had dinner, I had pizza again naturally. After that we went in blown glass shops and some of the girls got rings! After that we hung out in a cafe until we had to get our water bus back to where our normal bus left us. We then traveled home and they played "Forgetting Sarah Marshal" and I think Emily and I were the only ones awake intently watching it haha. We then got home around 2:30 am so we passed out.

Sunday: Tara and I woke up late and rushed around, we went to breakfast with all the girls at this place called The Diner which had the best breakfast food I've had since leaving the US. It was rainy so we just walked down to the leather market and explored some shops. We had yummy paninis and by then it was time to travel home. We did the whole bus from Florence to Pisa, had lunch at the Pisa airport (had pizza and gelato for good times sake haha), flew back to Standsted airport (Tori got stared at by Becky haha), ate some cookies and took an Easy Bus home, then the tube, then unpacked, showered, and went to bed!

Monday: Work from 9-1, art class at the National Gallery about Landscapes...kind of boring but whatever. Then traveled back home, had dinner, and then hung out until going to the movies at the Vue at Shepards Bush with Tara, Emily, Tori, Anne, & Jeff. We went to see "No Strings Attached" and like nooooo one was there so we sat in the VIP seats (even tho we paid for cheap student ones) so it was awesome and the movies was hilarious. We all really enjoyed it, almost got hit by cars on our way home (still not used to this having people driving on the wrong side of the road thing) and then took the tube home. After that just chatted with people online for a little while I uploaded some pictures from Italy to facebook and then called it a night.

Today (Tuesday): Woke up early, went to work from 9-5, then to the gym, had dinner, now I'm blogging and I have to run and shower before going out to the Sports Cafe with everyone because Kimberly's sister and friends from home are visiting.

Its weird to think I'm already half way done with my week! I'm also not used to having so little school work, yet I have no time because my internship. We're going to Wales this weekend in a program paid trip and doing outdoorsy stuff so that should be fun...and it's Tori's 21st birthday when we're there! Okay gotta go get ready...I'm home in a month and 1/2 from today...freaky!

Okay...now that I've officially put off blogging for two weeks it feels like a chore. Warning this will probably be long!

Last Thursday: I had a walking tour for my London class...in the rain. We walked all over the City district, we learned about how the Great Fire spread and at one point looked at an old rock that survived the fire...weird. I then went to my Modern British Society class and then to the gym. We went to a bar in Camdentown that was 20s themed.

Christopher Wren Fire of 1666 Monument

Friday: After getting some extra sleep, Emily & I met up with Tara and her parents at the Tower of London. Which I obviously loved! I got to see Henry VIII's armor, Anne Boylen's execution site, and the Crown Jewels...aka I was in history heaven. After we went to this really really nice Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge with Tara & her parents. After we tried to go to a new bar but it closed at midnight so we went to McDonald's and called it a night.

Me & The Tower Bridge

Execution Site Memorial

The White Tower

Tower Bridge

Saturday: Woke up really early and took an hour long bus trip to Hampton Court. It was so cool, there was all this historical stuff about Henry VIII and I got to see his apartments and kitchens. The building itself was also magical and the gardens and even the trees were like something out of Alice and Wonderland.

Hampton Court!

Being royal and stuff :)

Back end of Hampton Court

Alice and Wonderland Gardens

So pretty!

We then traveled from Hampton Court to Windsor Castle where we got lunch at a pub. I traditionally got fish & chips, it was wonderful. We then went into Windsor Castle and explored, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I of course had to sneak one of Henry VIII's toomb site haha. It was really cool going here because I went when I was 9 but didn't really appreciate the history of the building. It also made me miss the fam a little because we went here for Mom's 40th birthday! After exploring the castle we had to run to catch the bus and traveled back home. The rest of the night we just relaxed and hung out, it was nice.

Henry VIII & Jane Seymour are buried here!

Windsor Castle on a SUNNY day!

My friends outside the castle in the town of Windsor

Sunday: We got some much needed rest and then Emily and I went to the library, gym, and then went grocery shopping. We then relaxed the rest of the night by watching the Tudors season 1...so basically it was a Tudor-filled weekend, and I loved it.

Monday: ...Valentines day. Okay, so I'm not a hater of Valentines day by any means. My issue, people here think that public displays of affection are okay. Old people, young people, it doesn't matter, they all love "snogging" everywhere. On the tube, on the escalators, even on the sidewalks...its weird. I thought the English were supposed to be all cold and stand offish and they make me feel so awkward. Anyways, I was really scared to go out on Valentines day because I didn't want people making out everywhere and Valentines day essentially "threw up all over London" according to my friend Tori. Either way, I had work and class. My class was at Hampstead Heath...aka in the middle of a forest. We went to Kenwood house, and it was a nice 45 minute walk through muddy paths but it ended up being pretty cool.

...wait this is London? And I thought this was art class?

Kenwood House in the middle of Hampstead Heath

I got home from class to an email from my roommate Emily trying to convince me to go out to the bars because Valentines day is the "day to go out" since everyone thats single goes to bars. So...I napped and we went out. I didn't feel like drinking so I instead used my money to get some KFC after haha.

Tuesday: I had work from 9-5...lame. And then went to the gym, had dinner and went to the Sports Cafe where all the American college kids go on Tuesday nights. Emily and I played in the beer pong tournament and we had a blast. Its really fun going out with all my housemates, we always have funny times back in the kitchen eating after and on the bus home.

Wednesday: I had work from 9-5 and then did laundry. I stopped by the Notting Hill Gate Arts Club for one of the girl in our house's 21st birthday.

Thursday: I had my London class and we learned about the Georgian Era, crime, and executions in London which was really interesting. I then had lunch with the girls and then went to Modern British Society where we learned about social classes and watched the last of the Andrew Marr BBC video series. After class I went to the gym and then we had dinner with our housemates at this Mexican place that we discovered the week before. I had quesadillas and an enchilada with this Blue Hawaiian drink, it was great haha and we then tried this bar around the corner from our house but it was a bust so we just went home early.

Friday: We slept in, because we could (getting up at 8 Monday-Thursday takes a toll on us haha). We went on an adventure to find the Parent Trap house, it was a success!

Where's LiLo?

After we went for a walk on Tour Bridge and I was determined to find this restaurant I went near the bridge with my family when I was nine that had really good pizza. After jogging my memory we stumbled upon it and made sure that was the place (with the help of Bob's memory to verify). It was really yummy and it had such a cool view and we had window seats!

At dinner, you can see the Tower Bridge behind me!

After we got ready and went to get Kelly Murphy who left Galway to grace us with her presence, at her parent's hotel in Knightsbridge. We then took her to our favorite bar O'Neil's. It was so fun and great to see Kelly, all the girls loved her and we had such a fun night.

Me & Kel at O'Neil's

Saturday: Clearly slept in again. Then went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. It was really cool they had some awesome exhibits from sculptures to theater stuff and jewels.

V & A Museum

The Courtyard of the Museum

Me, Tara, & Emily then went for our epic, most anticipated meal of the week: TGIFriday's in Piccadilly Circus. We missed American food so much we waited 45 minutes to get seated. I had buffalo wings, sizzling chicken and cheese, and we all split a brownie obsession aka I felt like a pig but it was so worth it.

Sunday: I went to the National Gallery in the morning with Emily who had to study a painting for her art class but I just wandered around and took in the paintings that I didn't see in class yet. After we went to the gym and then picked up some food at the grocery store.

Monday: I had work in the morning and then my art class was at the National Gallery. We focused on Van Dyke and Royal Portraits, it was really interesting but a lot of information. After class I went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen with some girls in my house because they had a friend from SJU who is studying in Madrid visiting...and we found out its 40% so my meal was great and cheap. After I wrote a paper outline for my internship credit...boring.

Tuesday: I had work from 9-5 and then went to the Sports Cafe with the housemates, typical Tuesday I guess haha.

Wednesday (Today): I had work from 9-5, sat in on a Strategy and Development team meeting which was cool and interesting. I then came home to pack and finalize all my travel plans for tomorrow to Italy! Woo! I'm going with Tara, Emily, Carolyn, Tori, and Lauren and we're staying with various friends in Florence and Saturday we're going to Venice on a day trip. I'll blog after my return! Ciao :)