Sunday, July 1st 2007: Florence

Today was our first day in Florence! Our wake up call to our hotel room was at six this morning and the hotel arranged breakfast early for us which was nice. Our train ride was around two hours which really wasn‘t bad at all. We’ve gotten so use to long train rides that a couple hours is nothing. Florence is really pretty. It has more of the country Tuscany style architecture here than in Venice. When we arrived to our hotel, we took an hour nap in our super air conditioned room! It’s just as hot here as it was in Venice which is a good change but I personally prefer the cooler 70 degree weather we had in London and Paris. The five of us girls went out to a delicious Italian restaurant and walked around some of the shops. Tomorrow ten of us are taking an early train out to Rome for the day! I am so excited to go; it’s the one place that I’ve really wanted to see on this trip so I can’t wait! I wish we had more time to spend there but a day is all we have. We found out we can get a ticket for a double decker bus that goes around to all the top spots so we should be able to see most of it. ROME here I come!

Saturday June 30th 2007

After today, I really don’t want to leave Venice. About seven girls decided to go to the beach for the day but I wanted to stick around Venice and take in as much as possible! I’m going to Cancun in December anyways, so I’ll wait to enjoy the beach then :) We spent the day wondering around and shopping. I came across this awesome music shop and ended up buying bongos! It’s going to be rough getting them home but it will be well worth it! I now have drums from Mexico, Africa and Italy! The best part of the day was our gondola ride! Who goes to Venice and doesn’t take a gondola ride? Our gondolier was so funny. He was very flirty and entertaining. We got home around 7 PM and ate at a restaurant next to our hotel. It was great food and very relaxing. We are leaving for Florence early tomorrow morning so we just hung out and swapped pictures before we headed to bed.

Friday, June 29th: Venice!

mmmm...gelato


St. Marks Basilica


` Lindsey and I just enjoying life in Italy
Our entire time in Venice we are free to do what we want. We have nothing planned as a group which is really nice. I love Venice! We spent the day walking around the city and slowly making our way to St. Marks Basilica. It's so hard to get around here! There are so many small alleyways and 400+ bridges! It’s like a maze! There are no cars either! The locals either ride in boats or walk. The city is full of history and is more beautiful than I imagined. It's sad that it's sinking :( Italy is known for their gelato and pizza so we found those right away. Our hotel is pretty nice and has great breakfast. I am sharing a room with Kaari and Jessie. We flipped on our t.v. a few hours ago and were shocked to see the terrorist threats going on in London and Scotland! It’s like they are following us! Its crazy to see Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square on the T.V. Same with the Glasgow Airport in Scotland! We were just at those places a week or two ago! It’s pretty scary but we are having the time of our lives and we won’t let it scare us!

Thursday June 28th: Last day in France

Us hanging out in the sleeper train
Venice, Italy

Train station in Venice
Me on one of the 400 + bridges in Venice

Today was our last day in Paris. We spent our last few hours walking around, getting our last crepes and shopping. There where so many people in the stores! I just don’t have the patients so I got a bit irritated after a few stops. I was ready to get to Italy for sure. We left our hotel around 5 pm and took a bus to the train station. Our sleeper train was really fun! Long…but fun. Each room held 6 people and luckily we only had five in ours which offered a little more room. Kysha, Lindsey, Rachel, Kaari, and myself ended up together so we were really happy. I played a guitar some Italian boys on the train let me borrow which was fun. We stayed up talking and playing games for a few hours, then folded the seats into bunks and when to bed. It really wasn’t too bad minus the bathroom. I tried to avoid it at all costs because it was so disgusting. All 60+ riders had to use it! Our train ride was from 8pm to 10am. We were all so excited to be in Italy when we woke up! It took awhile to get to our hotel though. After the sleeper train, we rode another train to our hotel station, then drug our luggage three miles to our hotel! It really sucked for those who had lots of heavy luggage! Luckily I didn’t have much. We settled into our hotel rooms and hit up Venice right away. Venice is Beautiful! I can‘t believe I‘m here!!

Wednesday June 27th: Versailles and the Eiffel Tower

The Hall of Mirrors
A beautiful Chateau on the grounds of Versailles
Versailles!
Top of the Eiffel Tower
The group posing for a picture on the Eiffel

Today we went to Versailles! I’ve been waiting to go there and It was just as amazing as I had hoped. Unfortunately, the place is so big we didn’t even see half of it and we were there all day long! We met our tour guide in our hotel lobby at 9:30 a.m. He was pretty rude to a few of the people in our group and seemed a little bitter towards us because we're Americans. He was very informative though so I just shrugged it off and enjoyed Versailles! The Hall of Mirrors was the one room I wanted to see the most and I heard it was closed for renovations! Luckily our tour guide told us we were just in time because it just opened yesterday! I was so happy! We have been so lucky on this trip so far. A little background on the Hall of Mirrors: The over 300 year old room was made for Louis XIV and is now the masterpiece of Versailles. The hall is the largest room in Palace and is filled with numerous chandeliers, impressive pillars, paintings, seventeen windows and seventeen mirrors. The room was made to be jaw dropping and that’s exactly what it is. Mirrors were expensive and rare in the 1600s and even having a hand held mirror showed that you had money and power so you can only imagine how impressive the room was to guest of the King. Versailles’ grounds are so incredible that it puts all the other grounds we have visited to shame! We all got very tired and a little ornery by the end of the day. When we got home it was starting to get dark so we hurried to head up the Eiffel Tower before sunset. We had such an amazing time and the view of Paris was awesome. Afterwards, we grabbed some crepes and headed home to bed.

Tuesday, June 26th 2007: Paris is Amazing!

At the Catacombes! We were some 80 feet underground with millions of bones! The quarries were converted into a mass tomb near the end of the 18th century. It was kinda creepy but really cool!
Some of us in front of the Church of the Sacred Heart
Jim Morrison's grave in Paris
Lindsey and I looking hot in front of the Moulin Rouge
Inside the Paris Opera House where Phantom of the Opera was filmed

Today was full of fun! We woke up early to go to the Musee d’Orsay, with the group. It was a pretty neat place. There were paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, including original works from Degas, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, etc. Afterwards we were free to do what we want so a few of us went to the Catacombs, The Paris Opera House, Moulin Rouge, The Church of the Sacred Heart and best of all, Cimetiere' du Pere-Lachaise, the cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried. Kaari and I were so happy since we are huge Doors fans and never thought we'd get the chance to go! We packed a ton of stuff into the day but it was well worth it. Paris is amazing!!

Monday, June 25th: St. Chappelle, Pompedou, Notre Dame, Louve

In front of the Notre Dame!
Inside The Notre Dame during Mass
The Pompedou. The escalator was outside of the building and had an amazing view of Paris
The view from the Pompedou
Gelato break! It was so good!
What a long day! We sure did pack a lot in today and I really wish we could have spent a little more time at some of the places and less at others. Our plans have fluctuated a lot since we have been here in Paris. Many of our planned visits had to be rearranged due to their random hours. Our first stop was Sainte-Chapelle. The church was built in six years (1242-1248) and was designed to house the relics of Christ's Passion, including the Crown of Thorns! Our next stop was Notre Dame. I was so happy to go there since it wasn't on our list of places to visit and I was worried I wouldn't see it. The cathedrals are by far my favorite places we visit. They give me goosebumps! They are so beautiful. The Pompedou was the next stop. It's a very modern museum which I didn't really care for. Some of the art was cool but I just don't see much talent in most of the modern art. Getting a huge piece of cardboard and painting it three different colors isn't art to me. I could do that. The cool part of the Pompedou was the outside escalator that took us to the top of the building. We had the most amazing view of Paris from there. Next we hit up the Louve. It was so awesome! It was just as impressive in real life as it was in Da Vinci Code. We saw the Mona Lisa and I even snapped a picture of it even though we weren't suppose to. I also saw a large collection of Egyptian pieces, the Samothrace, and the Venus de Milo. We were planning on going to the top of the Eiffel but we were really tired and it was raining really hard.