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!