Venice

We left Rome on Friday morning and headed north to Venice. This was the point that I realized that this trip was much too short. From Rome on, we were slowly making our way back up to London. I was super excited to see Venice but I wanted the bus to start going slower and slower. That wasn’t going to happen so we eventually got to Venice and went on yet again, another walking tour! This guide wasn’t nearly as interesting as some of the others but the city more than made up for it. No one is allowed to build new buildings so it’s much the same as it has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. And obviously, cars are not allowed so it was almost like walking into another time. Crazy cool. I was feeling pretty miserable earlier in the day but once I started exploring I could magically ignore my cold! Look at that, Someone finally found a cure for the common cold. Just go to Venice and walk around. It’s better than Nite-Quil! 

The canals!

After the tour guide left us in a Square, a smaller group of us decided to find a drink and then they wanted to head back. I wasn’t exactly agreeable to this but I ended up with them anyway. We started walking back towards the bus station and found a bar. We grabbed a glass of beer and brought it outside. We then spent two hours drinking this one beer, talking and taking ridiculous pictures. It was probably one of my favorite evenings. We sat there for hours talking, cracking jokes and basically being awesome! 

Well aren't we some cool people!

Finally we decided to continue to the bus station again. But it took us an hour to walk the equivalent of four blocks because we had to take a group picture on every bridge and at every square. There are A LOT of bridges! We were basically being the obnoxious tourist and asking every person we saw to take our pictures. If there wasn’t anyone around we would line up all five of our camera’s somewhere and set the timers. Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash. FLASH! Those were the ones that were the best/worst. The best because we would do the most ridiculous poses that we would be too embarrassed to do in front of other people but worst because most of them didn’t come out okay. 

I don't exactly know why we had to balance on one leg and press our shoes together,
but I am sure there was a reason

A woman with the head of a dog. What is this advertising for again?

We couldn't agree on what exactly this is,
but I am convinced it is a bigger monkey beating a smaller monkey with a sword.
What do you think? 

After a while we were laughing so hard we were crying and couldn’t breath. Then we decided we were hungry after all so we hunted up a restaurant. This was the one time I treated myself to a decent meal instead of street food. I don’t think there was a non Italian in there except for us. We tried to be quiet and respectful but it was almost impossible. Out of the 5 people, four knew enough spanish (it’s close to Italian) to decipher the menu. I ended up with some delicious shrimp ravioli, the two boys ordered pizza, and Lily accidentally ordered . . . something. We’re still not sure what it was. Sham ordered some sort of fish spaghetti which was our downfall in our goal of being respectful of the other guests. When it arrived, we found out that it was just spaghetti noodles covered in squid ink. So when she ate it, the ink dyed her lips and teeth black. Our battle was lost at that moment. We then had to all try it and take pictures of our new ‘lipstick’ and ‘missing’ teeth. This old Italian man egged us on though so I don’t think they minded too much. He didn’t speak English but he gestured to Sham that she shouldn’t put her food on our dishes, she should feed us! Then he came over and asked for kisses (on his cheek) from all the girls. It was great! 

Fish Spaghetti = black ink

Are we sexxy or what?

We finally left for the bus station again but somehow we ended up bartering with this guy for a river cruise. So we took a forty minute boat ride around Venice in the dark instead. Most of the buildings were all lit up and casting reflections on the water. Beautiful. After the boat tour, we finally made it to the bus station. We took the next to last bus at 12:15am. So yes, the group that wanted to go back early stayed out the longest. Works for me! 

Pisa, Florence and Rome

I’m getting farther and farther behind so I decided to combine Pisa, Florence, and Rome into one post. 

From Switzerland, we drove to Florence, Italy. It was kind of a grouchy day for me. I was sick of being around people 24-7 and wanted some space. Which is impossible when you’re sharing a bus with 45 other people and there is so much road construction, you’re hours behind schedule. It didn’t ruin my day but I definitely had to work harder to enjoy my first day in Italy. 

Our first stop was at the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We only stayed there long enough to take the required pictures of holding it up and kicking it down but it was fun. I thought it was hilarious to watch hundreds of people lined up with basically the same pose. Other than the picture taking, there really isn’t a ton of things to do or see in Pisa so we got back on the bus and headed south. 

See my Growl? I'm so tough. Grrrrrr

Once we got to Florence, we met our Italian tour guide and went on a three hour walking tour. Our trip guide Kevin couldn’t show us around as he had in other cities because Italy is really strict on who it allows to do tours. Another Expat guide that we had met in Paris had recently been arrested in Rome for giving an explanation of a building. Yikes! You would think that this would stop people from asking Kevin questions about what we were seeing but it didn’t. Every time he would answer somebody he would do a quick look around. I would have just refused to answer but he’s nicer than I am. :)

Florence was gorgeous! Probably the prettiest city I saw in Italy. I’m not really an architect junky but this trip might change that. In particular, there was this Cathedral that blew my mind. It had so much detail and history that I would have loved to stare at it for an hour. It took over two hundred years to build it. The entire city was fascinating to me, everything had a story behind it. Not to mention, everywhere we walked there were statues of naked men. We saw The David by Michelangelo which was cool.

The Cathedral - Incredible! 

The David

Florence! 

After the tour there was a bit of drama from some of the members of our group which was irritating but we eventually made it to dinner. We were staying in a hostel but since we were guaranteed no more than two people per room for all of our accommodations it really just meant that most of us had three or four beds in our rooms. However, for me, the only person traveling alone, I got a five person room with a kitchenette, fridge, microwave, a large kitchen table, a desk/office area, a huge bathroom and a thirty foot balcony. The one group of three that wanted to sleep together got a two person room and had to share a bed. They also had one of the smallest room’s I’ve seen. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know of this until after we left because I would have traded and I would have missed trying out all of the beds!

The hostel gave everyone a free shot after dinner and had a dance club but most of us were so tired that we just took the shot and went back to our rooms. We were a severe disappointment to Kevin but I loved the chance of spending some time alone. I drank a glass of wine and played on Facebook. It was wonderful to be alone! 

It must of helped because the next day I was in a much better mood. We drove down to Rome and went on another walking tour with another guide. I think I loved hearing the history the most. I mean, sure, I read about the Roman Empire in school but it is a totally different thing to hear the stories standing in front of the Colosseum. It was so cool to be walking around a modern city and then turn a corner and find a two thousand year old ruin right next to the bank. Surreal.

The Pantheon

Does this really need a caption?

(Hey Dad, if you are reading this, I should warn you that the next paragraph might make you want to hit your head on the nearest wall. Sorry. ) 

Back at the hotel, our group more than made up for our early night in Florence. Somehow at dinner, the entire group ended up raising a toast to my . . . chest. I still haven’t figured out how exactly that happened. I was sitting at the table eating when a friend came over to talk to me. She was standing behind me and at one point she looked down. Suddenly she yelled out “OMG Brittany, look at you. Your boobs are gorgeous. Can I feel them? I started laughing and told her sure why not. Well then she wanted to take a picture holding them. It snowballed from there. I have no idea what it is about my chest that makes women want to take pictures with them but this was not the first time. (Ask me sometime about last Halloween and the girl that spent an hour chasing me around and climbing up on my lap.) I can not explain it. My friend then ran around showing everyone the picture and somehow the group decided to chant my name until I stood up and then they all raised their glasses to me and my boobs. People are crazy okay. 

That night, the hotel was throwing a Toga Party in the nightclub and we decided to go all out. We ran around collecting the sheets from our beds and pulling the leaves from trees. We tied ourselves into the sheets and off we went. We danced for hours. I was not the least bit surprised that almost every song was from the U.S. The first song I heard was the Call me Maybe song and then it went on to Rihanna and Beyonce and Niki Manaj. I am not going to be expanding my playlist on this trip. Though I did get super excited when they took a break from American music and played Don Omar’s Danzo Kuduro. I started bouncing around like I was on crack. The night was awesome. I think we took at least 300 pictures. After a couple hours we realized that we had to get up at 6am to go to the Vatican so we headed back to our bungalows but somehow we ended up pulling all these picnic benches together and breaking out the wine and cheese. I hadn’t really drank while we were dancing so I had a great time catching up with my group while watching them run around plastered. I almost wet my pants when I saw a sixty year old grandma invite a married guy half her age to her bed. He declined which was for the best since she didn’t remember anything the next day. That could have been awkward. We eventually stumbled to our beds only to wake up a few hours later to go to the head of the Catholic Church. We were a pretty sorry sight but the night was well worth it. 

We look pretty good for wearing bed sheets and stolen leaves!

We had yet another Italian guide for the Vatican and she was incredible. She didn’t just explain the when and how, she went into all of the scandals and drama too. I was amazed at how artistic every room was. Thousands and thousands of paintings, tapestries and frescos. It was overwhelmingly impressive. I would have loved to take pictures of the cistitine chapel but camera’s aren’t allowed. You aren’t even supposed to talk in there. Michelangelo may have hated painting but he was incredible at it. We then saw a few more important buildings and the Pope’s residence and then the tour was over. We were on our own to do what ever we wanted but everyone from the night before was so exhausted that we just wanted a nap. We found a pizza place and I got a veggie slice. Pizza here is weird. There wasn’t any cheese or sauce and there was every vegetable known to man. Peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach and a hundred others that I can’t remember now. It was good but not what I think of when I want Pizza. 

Art in the Vatican

The ceiling. 

The Pope's room is two or three from the right on the top floor.

On our way back to the hotel, I almost got killed by a crazy Italian driver. We were retracing our steps back to the bus station but that meant we were walking around the Vatican. People were shoving, yelling and trying to sell us junk so we decided to head across the street to get away from the crowd. Well I saw on the corner that the little man was green so I started walking. What I didn’t know was that Italian drivers don’t slow at corners and they don’t stop for pedestrians. So half way across the street this car comes speeding around the corner and I’m left trying to figure which way to run. Every time I picked a direction another car would come and block me. I finally got across the damn street and all I hear is Damn Tourist! Gah. The bus driver later told me that if you try to be nice and stop for a pedestrian, another car will swerve around you and end up running them over. So if you’re ever in Italy just be aware that a walk sign doesn’t mean jack shit. Once I got to the hotel, I crashed and took a 7 hour nap. Whoops! I woke up at 8:30pm and I thought that I would be up all night but I still managed to go to bed at a reasonable time. I thought I was crazy but finally I realized that I had caught the bug that was going around the bus. UGH! The next two days are kind of a blur because of this. 

Conclusion:

I want to visit Florence again. Maybe spend a week there someday. I can not emphasis enough just how beautiful this city is. And compared to some of the other cities we saw in Italy, clean! However, I don’t see any reason to come back to Rome. Although I had a blast there, it was mostly because of the people I was with. Our group decided that we shouldn’t say we didn’t like a city but it is acceptable to say we didn’t enjoy a city. I didn’t enjoy Rome. Other than taking a picture in front of the Colosseum and actually seeing part of the history that I’ve heard so much about, Rome wasn’t that interesting. Even wandering around and getting lost wasn’t as enjoyable as it was in Paris and later Venice. The feel of the city was different. I did throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain so I may make it back to Rome someday but it would probably be because someone I am with wanted to go. I should have tossed two coins! The myth goes that if you toss one coin into the fountain, you will come back to Rome someday. But if you throw two you will have a fling with a Roman and if you throw three, you will marry a Roman. Hey Jesse, any chance that your ancestors came from Italy?

Throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain

Skydiving in Switzerland

Driving from Paris to Switzerland was our longest drive day and we were on the bus forever!! We left Paris in the morning and didn’t get to our hotel in Switzerland until almost 7pm. I slept for a few hours, we watched 300, I read my last two books and we played this quiz. That I won. Well me and my partner did. He knew all the geography answers and I knew all the random facts ones. Just in case you were wondering the one fruit you could survive on if you had to is avocados. And the author of The Twits is Dahl. We both won a bottle of French wine and a bar of chocolate but we gave the chocolate to the kid on the bus because she won third place and she was pretty bummed that 1st and 2nd won prizes but she didn’t. We’re so nice. And it had nothing to do with the fact that I don’t like chocolate. Nothing at all. HeeHee!

Our hotel in Switzerland was unreal. I had the best room in the place and I had it all to myself. I could have stayed there for a month! My window opened to the Swiss Alps and I actually woke up to the ringing of cow bells as the goats ran down the mountain. I felt like I had fallen into a scene from Heidi. I spent two days expecting to hear Grandfather calling for her. :D The entire country is incredibly beautiful! Mountains, lakes, adorable towns. Not to mention, the food was the best I’ve had in Europe. I loved it. 

Monday morning the entire group went up the mountains to Jungfrau. Apparently it takes two hours to reach the top by train but the incredible view makes it worth it. However, I didn’t go up with them as I had a better view in mind. I went above the mountains and then jumped out of a plane at fourteen thousand feet. Trust me my view was much better than everybody else's. :D

I had decided to go skydiving in the Swiss Alps before I had even left the States. Google had told me that it was in the top three best places to do it and since I had wanted to do it for years I thought that I might as well go for it. Only I wasn’t sure I would actually go through with it once I got there. I think I spent more time worrying about it before I signed up than I did once I was in the plane getting ready to jump. 

I signed up and paid the night before and somehow I slept like a rock. I had a lazy morning, ate, played on the computer and finally the shuttle came to take me to the airplane. Apparently, the people in the bus had been making bets on what nationality I was but no one had guessed American. Even after I showed up, most people thought I was Australian. Well until I spoke at least. My damn accent gave me away pretty quickly.  

We got to the airfield, put our not-so-sexy jumpsuits on and got a grand total of two minutes of instructions. Seriously, they told us to grab our harness, put out head back onto our instructor’s shoulder and to keep our knees bent. That was about it. Oh, and that they’d tap us when it was time to put our hands out. They didn’t even teach us how to land until we were parachuting down. Then I had to wait and wait and wait. A daughter, dad, and daughter’s boyfriend team were going together so I got placed on the second flight. (Dad, get ideas! Lets do it!) The waiting was the worst. The only way I was able to go through with it was by not thinking about it. Which is really hard when you’re watching other people jump. Finally I was assigned an instructor and they did a short interview for the video and it was time to go. They have this silly speal where they try to freak you out by saying that the harness is frayed and how Mick has had a hard day and might be feeling a little suicidal. Funny enough, that’s when I stopped being scared and just got excited! Even on the plane they tried to scare me and I’d just laugh. It took about ten minutes to get high enough and WOW! The view was incredible! All these snow capped mountains and then dozens of perfectly blue lakes. Just amazing. I couldn’t stop looking out the window. They had to keep calling my name so I would look at the camera. Eventually it was time to start jumping. They hooked me up to Mick, and let me tell you, my butt has never been pressed so tightly against another person. I couldn’t even wiggle. All the professional jumpers went first and then I was the first one to jump from the group of first timers. That was freaky but it worked out fine. Mick and I scooted on our butts to the door, I stuck my feet out and wrapped them under the plane and then he tipped us out. 

I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain how it felt for the last couple days and I still can’t figure it out. The second my butt left the plane, all I felt was pure awesomeness. No fear. There were a couple of seconds where I could see the plane and I had just enough time to think, “Hey! I did it! and then we flipped over. It didn’t feel like I was falling because the wind was so strong that it almost felt like the wind was lifting us up instead. And the view. Oh my God. Just WOW! If you watch the video you will see me repeating “Oh my God” over and over again. Much too soon, Mick deployed the parachute and everything went completely silent. The craziest part was seeing how fast the camera man was falling. One second he was right in front of me and the next he was fifty feet below. All I could think was “Holy Shit, was I falling that fast?” It didn’t feel like it at the time. After we spent a few minutes checking out the scenery and just floating around, Mick taught me how to land and then it was over. 

I can’t wait to go skydiving again. It’s one of those things I think I could do a million times and still love it. Too bad it’s so expensive. I should probably pay off my credit card for this jump before I charge another. Damn. :(

One side effect of going skydiving is that it turned me into a superstar on the tour. As if having a camera man follow me around wasn’t enough! (Everyone who knows about my phobia of being filmed knows how much I enjoyed that one. :p ) Everyone started straggling in around five that night and every single person would run up to me and say “Brittany Did you do it?” “How was it?” “Were you scared?” “Did you like it?” The bus driver even took eight pictures of a random skydiver in case it was me. And then about a dozen of them waited up until I rode the bus into town to pick up my video and then walked back so they could watch it. Then they watched it again. Then they badgered me into letting the entire group see it on the bus the next day. For the last two days, I have not gone two hours without someone coming up and asking about it. At dinner in Florence, I met the manager of the hotel and she said, “Oh you’re Brittany! I’ve heard so much about you!” Even the tour guide had told her about my jump. 

A very crazy experience! 

In the sky!

Best view ever!

Paris

After a few hour drive through England we hopped on the Ferry over the English Channel. I have never felt so sea sick in my life. Of course, it was the first time I ever got sea sick. The ferry was rocking and rolling like crazy. To make it worse, it was the only opportunity we would have to grab some food until late that night. I ate the worst breakfast of burnt ham, gross eggs and baked beans with bread. And it only cost me 15 dollars to do so. Whoooo. 

When we got to Paris, we checked into our rooms and I found out that my roommate wanted to sleep on the floor of her friends room so I got the room to myself. Sweet! We then went on a bus tour of Paris and saw a bunch of building and learned a lot of history. I loved it. After the tour a few of us hopped off and set out on foot to explore. We took a ton of ridiculous pictures in front of the Pyramids at the Louvre Museum and then headed to the Latin Quarter to find some cheap food. Unfortunately we picked this greek restaurant that was pretty disgusting. It was ok though, we had fun making fun of how bad it was and I’m getting used to gross food. We watched a few street entertainers and headed to the Metro to get back to our hotel. I can not believe how quickly I got used to underground transportation. One tip, if you’re in London, watch your manners and let people get off first. In Paris, push and shove your way on or you will never board a train. At one point, I was scanning my ticket to get through the turnstile and this lady said something in French. She spoke quietly so I thought she was talking to herself but when I pushed my through she wrapped her arms around me and came with me. Once I was through I said something in English and she realized that I had not understood what she had said earlier so she explained that she had asked if she could share with me. We also saw a ton of people climbing over them. 

Super early the next morning we woke up to go on a river tour. Back on the Metro and on to the bottom of the Eiffel tower. I took so many pictures that my camera’s battery’s died only a few hours after I took it off the charger. So I switched to my waterproof camera for the river tour. Which is a shame because I saw some breathtaking buildings. After the tour our group all went our separate ways. A lady, who’s traveling friend wanted to go back to the hotel, and I explored together. She was nervous about getting lost but I decided that there are worst places to be lost in than Paris so I grabbed a map and figured out the route to the Arc De Tromphe Etoile. I didn’t make a wrong turn once. 

Arc De Tromphe Etoile

The Eternal Flame

The Eternal Flame has been continuously lit in memory of the unnamed solder except for when a drunk Mexican celebrating a soccer game pissed on it and put it out. Oops. 

After we took a few more million pictures, my friend called her friend who is living in Paris and he came to pick us up. We then went to the Louvre Museum and paid ten euros to see the Mona Lisa! My waterproof camera would not focus on the pictures at all so I have about fifty blurry pictures of her with two faces. It was awesome to see her though. From there we went back out to the Courtyard and tried to talk some souvenir sellers into selling us ten keychains of the Eiffel Tower for one euro. They were asking for one keychain for one euro but we got them down to four for one. Not bad. :) From there we walked to Notre Dame and took even more pictures. The cathedral is amazing. It is just so big and detailed. The U.S. is seriously slacking in this department. Eventually we ended up back at the Latin Quarter for dinner where we had amazing Turkish food. It was incredible. And they paid for mine! Even when I pulled out my card and everything. Seriously, I have been getting so much free food and snacks. It’s bizarre. I got the beer, sandwiches, and stir fry at the hostel in london, a nutella crepe in France, cheese and crackers, and a bunch of other stuff too. I don’t know what it is but people keep buying me food! Cookies, grapes, even an Indian lady on the bus told me to try some sort of Indian bread she had brought with her. 

The Louvre 

A really crappy picture of the Mona Lisa

Proof

Notre Dame!!

After dinner we went to the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre. We had to climb a million steps but from there we could see over most of Paris. I don’t have the pictures yet because eventually my backup camera died too so I’m waiting for my friend to email them to me. On our way up I saw a bunch of men walking around carrying strings. Luckily I had heard of this scam before, they tie a string around your wrist and then tell you that you owe 15 Euro for the “friendship bracelet”. So when they walked up I hid my hands in my shirt and said NO! over and over again. He followed me for a minute or so saying “Lovely, for me. Do it for me lovely. Lovely, do it for Africa.” It was funny but it kind of pissed me off too. My tour guide told me that some women will walk around with a bundle to their chest that looks like a baby. Suddenly they throw it, either at you or on the ground, and when you are distracted by it, someone come behinds you and cuts the straps to your bag. Luckily I missed seeing that one. 

Later, I went to a cabaret show with my group. It was pretty much a mix of a Vegas Showgirls Show, Thunder Down Under and Ballet. Topless women, men in thongs, and ballet. Crazy but fun. I loved it!

Cabaret Backdrop

Where am I again? I'm confused.

After four hours of sleep we were off to Switzerland! 


On our way out of Paris we saw the Statue of Liberty. We were all extremely tired so we almost thought we'd warped to New York but it turns out that the US gave a mini Statue of Liberty back to France. They're a little peeved that they gave us an icon and we gave them . . . a toy statue. hahahaha

London

I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to post this. Sorry it's a few days late. :(

My flight from San Francisco wasn’t too bad. Eleven hours straight on an airplane is a good way to test your sanity but I slept quite a bit and read a couple books so I was fine.  Anyone who knows me won’t be surprised to know that I brought a mini library with me on the plane! I found out beforehand that “a reasonable amount of reading materials” are not counted towards your carry on or personal item so I stocked up and stuffed them into a plastic bag. Well apparently the airline’s idea of reasonable is not the same as my idea of reasonable. According to the check in counter a magazine or a book was reasonable. WHAT??? I was traveling for 16 + hours. So I broke it down for them by explaining that since it takes me two hours to read a book then I should be able to bring 8. No one tried to take my books from me so it must have worked. :) 

I got to London Thursday afternoon and managed to get through customs, bought an Oyster card and took the Tube to my Hostel. Managing my luggage on the tube was my biggest fear before coming here but I was able to carry everything when I needed to. I was feeling pretty miserable by the time I got to my Hostel though. I couldn’t find a seat on the tube so I had to stand with my fifty million pound backpack and suitcase and when I finally got to the station it was raining cats and dogs. I know London is known for being rainy but this was ridiculous. Even native Londoners were bitching about it. So I walked the 15 minutes to my Hostel through puddles that were high enough to pour over the tops of my shoes and soaked me to mid thigh. Wet socks do not lead to a cheery mood but once I got settled in and changed my clothes I was back to being excited. I immediately went back out and started exploring. I started by looking for food but found that I was a little too overwhelmed to look forward to joining a crowded pub so I found a grocery store and bought some pasta and drinks. I then headed to Hyde Park with the idea of having a London picnic. I sat down on a bench and before I could even unpack my dinner I was attacked by half a dozen squirrels and a couple pigeons. Obviously these squirrels are used to being fed because two of them ran up and started pawing the purse on my lap. I tried shooing them off and then even shouting at them but it just made them angry and look a little predatory so I changed my plans to a walking and eating dinner. At one point I looked back and realized I had a trail of eight squirrels following me in the hope that I would drop something. I felt like the Pied Piper of squirrels! After it became apparent that I wasn’t going to feed them, one of them ran up to me and grabbed my pant’s leg and chittered angrily at me. Had they weighed more than a bookend I might have gotten a little intimidated but as it was I thought it was hysterical. After I had finished my food, I went to see Princess Diana's castle and took a million pictures.

My hostel in London

One of the Squirrels that tried to get into my purse. No shame!

Chittered at me for refusing to feed him! 

In front of Princess Diana's Castle

Later that evening, my hostel roommate invited me to hang out in the common area with her in the hostel so I hung out for a while drinking a beer and getting an amazing amount of free food. I think I must have looked pretty rough because just about everyone offered me something. My roommate gave me beer, a trio of American guys badgered me into trying their stir fry and I also got a free sandwich and chips. Hopefully this will be a trend and I won’t have to watch my credit card commit suicide after all. 

Friday morning I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and try to sneak out of my hostel room with my suitcase without waking up my four roommates. Not only did I fail but I couldn’t turn on the light to figure out where the book I had been reading ended up. Does anyone understand how hard it was for me to abandon a book I hadn’t finished? It was torture! It’s driving me crazy! 

I checked out and headed back to the tube to meet up with my tour group. Walking through London at five in the morning was cool. It was just starting to get light and very few people were out and about. At times it felt like I was the only person in London.

I made it to the meeting spot without any trouble and met the people I'd be spending the next 12 days with and we were off to France! 

My home for the next 12 days

Kevin, our tour guide

Goodbye London, see you in two weeks. 

On My Way!

I just made it past security in Spokane and I am finally on my way! For some reason, it was so much harder to leave Jesse this year. I don’t know if it’s because I’m going to be gone longer or if I’m just tired of saying goodbye. I’m telling you Jesse, next time I leave the country you ARE coming with me! 

I’m waiting to board the plane to San Francisco and after an hour layover I fly to London. Eeeeek! 

Counting the hours

Only ten days, four final exams, one final project, packing and fourteen and a half hours of travel before I am in Europe!!!!

I need to CHILL the F*** Out

So it is 5:37 in the morning. I have not slept and I still have two papers, and an exam tomorrow. I have done very little on all of them. Usually, I would be freaking out and running around like a crazy person in deathly fear of ruining my awesome GPA. Today, not so much. All I want to do is read more blogs of women traveling solo in Europe. This is not good.

I have this very clear memory of sitting on my bed as a pre teenager after a fight with my mom, writing in my journal that I was going to go to Europe within ten years no matter what. I actually wrote an oath and signed it swearing that I would make it to London someday. I even tried to sign it in blood but I chickened out after I sterilized the needle. The thing that I remember most from this is that I didn't actually think I would ever be able to do it. None of my friends had ever left the United States, and neither had their parents. It was this huge dream that seemed so impossible. A lot of people grow up thinking that anything is possible but I think I was just too pessimistic for that. For the most part, no one thought I would ever go to College, myself included. And suddenly, not only am I going to a University (when most people told me it was a dream to go to a community college) but I have been to Costa Rica AND I am going to Europe in 38 days!!!!

How did my life get so freakin cool???