Living My Italian Dream

Saying Goodbye

2009-12-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have never been a fan of goodbyes. Whether its a family member or friend leaving, people dying or me leaving a situation in which I finally got "comfortable" with, I just don't like goodbyes. I know some people don't put that much pressure on goodbyes, but I know I do. They mean so much to me. The first thing I think of is "What if I never see that person or place again?" Now I know you are probably thinking that it's a pretty negative way to think, but I don't see it that way. I think about it like this. I have had so many good times with that person or in that place that I want to keep those memories alive by being around that person or place just a little while longer. I also have to admit that for a girl who just picked up 6 months ago and moved to Italy I really don't like change. ;) Goodbyes are a very big change.

As I left Florence today (and for the last couple of days actually), I have been going over in my mind, if in fact, I will ever get back to Italy. The answer to my question is, I don't know. However, if the last 6 months of my life are any indication to me what my future might hold, I know that in my heart someday I will be back.

I know that also I can say honestly that Italy wasn't my favorite country in Europe. If I had to choose a country that I have been to that once leaving I said, "I have to come back here!", I would put a few on my list. Ireland of course, as well as Scotland and Switzerland. There was something about each of these countries that caught my attention the first moment I saw them and I just knew that they were places I wanted to share with someone else one day.

I enjoyed Italy though. I had so many experiences here, good and bad and it's because of those experiences that I will never forget my time here. I do believe that I achieved all of my goals that I had set for myself before I left 6 months ago. I also believe that I am coming back to Canada tomorrow with a better understanding of who I am and what I want to achieve in my life. It might sound a little hokey and I can't guarantee that I won't have moments where I loose my way, but I think I will leave Europe tomorrow proudly. I will miss so many things here, but I look forward to my future and see very good things in it.

With that, I guess I will say goodbye to Italy. I will keep blogging though, maybe not as ofter. 112 posts in 172 days... not bad eh? ;)

See you tomorrow Canada!

P.S. The temp today was a beautiful 12 degrees. I killed 2 mosquito's before I left the house this morning and I had a 3.50euro cup of gelato last night with 4 flavors in it. Mmmm

My Top 10's

2009-12-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

It is so hard for me to believe sometimes that this is my last night in Florence. Tomorrow I head for Rome and then Sunday morning I am Canada bound. So much has happened along the way and I have shared most (if not all) with you.

I want to tell you what reached my top 10 favorite and not so favorite moments here in Europe these past 6 months.

Top 10 Favorites
10-Riding on the London Eye
9-Enjoying the sunset in Sorrento
8-Swimming off the Island of Capri
7-Hanging my feet off of a cliff in Ireland
6-Vespa Riding through the Chianti
5-Wine and Scamorza cheese, among many other food items
4-Sitting up at the Piazzale Michelangelo
3-Standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower
2-Canyon Jumping in the Swiss Alps
and my #1 favorite moment
1-When the plane touched down in Rome 178 days ago. I knew I was embarking on something really special that was for me and me alone. If I hadn't of done that then the other 9 (and of course many other moments as well) would never had happened.

Top 10 Least Favorites
10-Weird showers
9-Not riding my bike more than 3 days.
8-Getting sick over and over again
7-Beds in Trains
6-Piano player above my room
5-bad hair do for most of the trip
4-Creep Wannabe Italians yelling "Ciao Belle!"
3-Squat toilets
2-Getting scammed out of $1200
and my #1 least favorite moment
1-Not learning the language as thoroughly as I had wanted to

The football (aka soccer) game

2009-12-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

Last week I had went to the FlorenceForFun office and I purchased a ticket for yesterdays football game. I was pretty excited for it. I am not the biggest sports fan at all, but I really thought that going to a football game here in Florence would be a perfect way to end my vacation.

Well I showed up at a restaurant (also owned by FFF) and went in to get my ticket. I'm not sure what went wrong or who dropped the ball, but no one had my ticket! I guess the guy that took my money forgot to tell the guy that was in charge of getting the tickets and well, no ticket for me.

Frederico, one of the FFF guys that I have gone on a few trips with already asked if I wanted to sit down and have some brunch. I said sure but then noticed that everything was very expensive. Sigh... I ordered anyway and enjoyed my 'Americanized' breakfast. I was ready to go but when I asked for my bill all Frederico said was no problem Abbott (that's what he calls me) and said he would see me tomorrow to give me my money back for the ticket.

So in the long run, I was still really upset that I couldn't go to the game but was happy that I got brunch on the house.

The BEST look out spot in Florence

2009-12-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I decided to make my way up to Piazzale Michelangiolo. I had been there once before on my Birthday for about 5min but was really looking forward to going back up again. Saturday was a beautiful day. Around 13degrees out. What could be better for December 5th, right? Well, I meant to just go up, take some pictures and then head back down but once I got up there I just couldn't get myself to leave.

I didn't realize how beautiful Florence really was until I sat on a step and overlooked the Arno (the river in Florence), the Duomo and many, many other buildings that I have been seeing on a daily basis. It was so peaceful.

I ended up sitting up there for over an hour just thinking about my time here in Florence and Europe in general. After that I headed back into the center to get me another one of those yummy crepes. Mmmm :)

The Grocery Store

2009-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

I have grown to love the Esselunga. At the beginning of my stay here I dreaded every time I needed to go the grocery store to buy food. I never knew what I was getting and where it was coming from. I would leave not knowing what I was going to eat and for the first couple of weeks counted on my bread and raspberry jam sandwiches for my meals some days.

However as time went on, I was able to develop a bit of a relationship with my grocery store. Now when I go in, I know exactly where the things are that I like to eat. I know when to buy and when to wait for my next shopping trip. I know the grumpy tellers, in which I avoid at all cost.

I am going to miss this little Esselunga. It is in no means a big store. It had a whopping 7 aisles, but it had everything I needed. I am also going to miss one teller in particular. There were some nice ones, but this one was the best. He knew who I was the moment I stepped in line. I never knew his name but he would always say hello and try to speak some English to me even though his English was as good as my Italian. :) When he was talking to other customers telling a joke, he would always look at me in line and try to translate it for me so that I could be part of the joke as well. I never got to say goodbye to him and I guess that makes me a little sad. I'm not sure why but he almost felt like a type of friend to me some days. Bye Esselunga

The Christmas season has finally begun!

2009-12-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful 12 degrees in Florence today with no rain, so I got up relatively early and headed out for some fresh air. I had heard a rumour that everything Christmas was supposed to start today including a Christmas market and all of the streets Christmas lights were supposed to be lite up. Well, the rumours were true!

I first went to the Christmas market which was really cool. It was unlike any of the regular markets around Florence. This was definitely Christmas. There were booths from all different countries in Europe. Food booths, toy booths, candy and other random trinket booths. I quite enjoyed looking around and will for sure go back before I leave next Friday. I also stopped at the crepe booth and had myself a "rolled pancake" as my family called them. Basically, its a crepe rolled up and then dipped in sugar. Mmmmm trust me, I grew up on these things, they're good!

After the market I just wandered around taking some pictures and doing a few errands. I made it the FlorenceForFun office to drop off my pictures that I had taken for them in Switzerland and I ended up buying a ticket for this weekends Football (soccer) match so I'm pretty excited about it. I hear they crowds around Florence get pretty crazy so I can't wait. I will wear my purple with pride and cheer them on as best I can. :)

I ended up being out until about 6pm and by the time I got home the temperature had drastically dropped to a quite chilling 5 degrees.

When one door shuts another one opens...

2009-12-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to me how some people deal with the coming and going of people in there lives. Some get very upset, share hugs, nights out before they leave and genuinely get very upset when the dreaded leaving/move out day comes. Others deal with it by saying a nice farewell goodbye, share a hug (or a hand shake), give them well wishes for the future and then send them on there way.

Marlene moved out yesterday. I wasn't sure how I was going to react to this. If we were talking about the me 6 months ago, I probably would have shed a tear (or ten), helped her get ready and probably try to just visit before she left. However, I have noticed in the last 5 months that the way I feel when people come in and out of my life has changed drastically. I want to make a side note here and say that this in no way changes the way I would/do react when around family and close friends.

Many people in the last 5+ months have come into and out of my life. Some for just one day, some for 3 days up to 3 weeks and a couple for the whole length of my stay here in Italy. It really depends on who they are and what type of connection we make in that time but really the result has (for the most part) always been the same.

Some of them I have added to facebook and we have and still will communicate that way. Others, I have spent a wonderful day or weekend with doing some life changing things and yet at the end of the day I leave without even the thought of getting an email address or other ways to stay in touch. At the beginning I was a little upset at this process as it seemed to be the "European way". Then, as time went on, I realized they were right. It really is, just the way it is. I might not have been able to do some of the things I have done without some of these people by my side.

This is what travelling solo does to you. It makes you open your eyes to your surroundings and the people around you. Everyone that I have shared a day or more with I will never forget. I am sure of that. For one reason or another they have helped me along this journey I am on and for that I am grateful.

So, Marlene left about 2pm yesterday. We hugged, said our goodbyes and wished each other well. Not three hours later, the new girl moved in. It should be an interesting last 10 days. ;)

The craziest thing I have EVER done in my life - Switzerland day 3

2009-11-30T09:54:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty wild, in a good way. I woke up at 8 and by 9am 5 of us girls were on way out the door. The plan for the day for me because I had about .40 cents left on me was to lay low and just wander around Interlaken until we had to meet the bus at 3:30 to head back to Florence. 4 of the girls though that I had been hanging out with really wanted to go canyon jumping so I said I would go along and take some pictures as well as take the videos of them jumping.

I should explain here a little what canyon jumping actually is. It is similar to bungee jumping but some people say way cooler. With bungee jumping you are jumping from the same point where your rope is and it is an elastic rope so you bounce up and down a few times once you have fallen head first. Well canyon jumping has the same idea but resembles a swing set. So the rope is actually held in the middle and it is an actual rope (not a bungee cord). You are on one side of it being held up like you are on top of the swing ready to drop. Then once you jump off the platform (feet first), you fall 150ft going 120km/hour into the canyon with the rocks on either side of you, only feet away. You keep falling straight down until the rope catches and then you swing crazy fast through the canyon. You swing a few times and then they send another rope out to you that you grab onto and then pull yourself to the side where you climb the few steps on the ladder and then you are done. Sound intense? ;)

It only took about 20min or so for us to reach the top of the canyon and then about 20min after that everyone was paying and getting harnessed up. By this point, I had still decided that I wasn't going to jump for a few reasons. To be honest, I did actually want to do it but I really didn't have the money and I was pretty sure that I would be over the jump weight limit. I really didn't want to chance killing myself this close to me coming home. lol

Well, all that changed all of 2min later when I learned the weight restriction was double me. My credit card was swiped and I was getting harnessed up. :{ I wasn't scared...yet, but as we got close to the edge I was starting to feel a little frightened. Their was 11 of us all together (5 from our group and then 6 others). When he asked who was going to go first, I jumped right in there! Yup, the person who wasn't even going to do it, went first. So instead of me taking pictures and videos for the other girls, they had to do it for me. lol :)

As he started hooking me up to the actual rope, fear started to go through me. When I say fear here, I mean it... REALLY mean it. I said a little goodbye message on my video (just in case) and then he moved me to the platform. By this point, even he had to give me a little pep talk and as I stood there with tears of fear in my eyes they counted me down. 5-4-3-2 and as they said 1 I was off! I just did it. I didn't think about. I just ran off the platform, screamed and started falling. The fall itself took less that 3 seconds and then I started swinging but as you can imagine it actually feels like you are free falling to your death until right then when you think you are going to fall onto the rocks the swing part catches you and then you just swing and enjoy the ride. :)

It was the most intense, crazy thing I have and ever will do in my life! Its still hard to believe I actually did it and I can't wait to show you all the video of it. So, obviously one day later as I write my blog about my canyon jumping experience, I survived it. I not only survived but realized now that I really can do anything that I put my mind to. The girl who can't climb a ladder because she is afraid of falling off, jumped off a cliff in the Swiss Alps!

The afternoon was much quieter and we just hung out and had a lazy lunch. After lunch I headed to the lake to get a few last minute photo's and then I headed back to the hostel to meet the group and head back to Florence.

Bern - Switzerland Day 2

2009-11-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

This morning, seven of us hopped on the bus and we got to have a free trip into Bern, the Capitol of Switzerland. Our free day trip was because there was no snow and we couldn't go night sledding. So instead, our bus driver took us to Bern for the day.

The city was so beautiful. Two different Christmas markets started up on Saturday while we were there. the day itself was pretty uneventful but the sights and just the atmosphere alone was enough to make me have a wonderful day.

I also shopped out the chocolate shops! Yup, I bought a crap load of chocolate that we can share once I am back home. I have to warn you though, if my suitcase weight is over, I will be forced to eat the chocolate. ;) I'll do my best though to refrain.

Me and another girl I was hanging out with for the day stopped and listen to a local play his guitar and sing some music all while he was making some marionettes dance. It was really good folk music, very upbeat. Once he was done one of his songs he commented on us smiling and asked me to come forward. I went up to him only to learn that he not only was a good singer but also an excellent balloon character maker. lol He whipped me up a white sheep, made a baaahhing noise and handed me my balloon. He made both of us balloon animals and we headed on our way. It was a nice change to see one of the street performers so friendly. I have to admit though that everyone I met and talked to in Switzerland was very friendly. It was very nice to see.

I headed out by myself for a little and took some pictures and then we all met at 5pm to head back to Interlaken. The trip back only took an hour, so once back at the hostel we had a drink and then decided what to do for supper. I was on a strict $10 budget for supper as that's all I had left in Swiss franc and I really didn't want to take anymore money out so 5 of us headed out to find fondue for some of the girls and something pretty cheap for me. :) In the end they wandered from restaurant to restaurant trying to find the cheapest fondue possible (and then never ended up getting it anyway). Shortly before them choosing a restaurant though, it was already after 8:30, I was tired from walking through Bern for 6 hours and really hungry. So, I made the decision (because no one else was and it was driving me crazy) to just go to McDonald's for supper. I headed towards McDonald's and one of the girls came with me. The other payed way more money for burgers at a different restaurant.

Once again, I found myself in bed by 11pm. I was finding that by the end of every day I was so exhausted from the days activities that I would fall right to sleep. The only thing I found really annoying though was that I had to wear my sweater and toque to bed each night because I was so cold. :{

Going to Switzerland!

2009-11-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

We left for Switzerland about 6:30pm on Thursday night. We arrived in Interlaken around 3am and after getting assigned a room with only 1 other girl and a cool room at that, I hopped into bed to get a couple of hours of sleep.

Friday morning we were up and had breakfast by 8:30am. My roommate (Grace) and I decided to go to the "Top of Europe", along with 2 other girls. It was a very busy day. We were on the train by 11am and then stopped at 3 towns in total along the way. Each town we stopped at we got off for 1 hour and toured around. It was so pretty and it was a great way to spend the day. Once we got to the top (Technically we only made it 3/4 of the way up because to the top cost an extra $130) we stopped for lunch. I ordered a traditionally cheesy lunch. Soooo yummy! It was a dumpling/cheese dish with broccoli. WOW

We got some wonderful pictures and the view was so beautiful. I could have stayed up there for ever. It was only around zero outside and it was a sunny day. At the highest point we were at, we were almost 7000ft above see level. The snow was fun to walk in and I even slipped once on the ice so I felt a little twinge of missing winter back home. I wasn't that worried though, I'll be home soon enough. :)

We didn't make it back to Interlaken until about 6:30pm. The whole group went out for dinner around 8:00pm. Unfortunately the food took forever and our meals didn't show up until about 10:15pm. I was super hungry. The food was really good though and then afterwards we all just went up to our rooms and went to bed. The fresh air and good hearty food made us all pretty tired.

There's a first time for everything

2009-11-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I had to say goodbye to Ivonne because she was heading home to Mexico. She invited a bunch of people out for a few drinks to say goodbye and wish her well and of course I was one of them. :) I arrived at the bar around 10:30 and there was a few people already there, including Mario (of course). I met a few of their friends I hadn't met before, had a drink and just chilled out.

I have realized though that they really don't have 'girly' drinks here. I went up to the bartender and asked for a really sweet drink. I was thinking that I was going to get something pink, purple, red...like our really sweet 'girly' drinks back home. Nope! He handed me a vodka and orange juice (with a garnish of an orange slice) and charged me 8e. Nice! Oh well, I guess soon enough I can drink paralyzers 'til I puke! :)

The one thing that I did want to mention though was that this was the first night that Mario, Marlene and myself were all out together. See, there is a first time for everything. ;)

Venice in a day!

2009-11-22T03:14:00.000-08:00

I went with the FlorenceForFun group yesterday and we did Venice in a day. I wasn't sure that Venice could be done in one day. However, after 6 hours on the train and 7 hours of straight walking the answer is yes, it can be done, and here is how it all went down.

Up at 6:30 and on the train by 8:30. We arrived in Venice around 11:30 and started walking. We first hopped on one of the water buses that took us to the far side of the city near the church where there was a festival going on. We just happened to be lucky enough to end up in Venice on the same day as this one day festival which was cool. The festival brought in WAY more tourists and brought every local out of their houses but all in all made the day a lot more fun.

We walked around the one part of the city for awhile and then stopped for "lunch". I say it in "" because I'm not sure you can actually call what we ate for lunch, lunch. lol There was one street that had been converted into what looked like a fair zone. No rides but food galore! It was awesome. I ended up getting (along with everyone else) an elephant ear. I think they called them just giant sugar donuts here but back home, we call them elephant ears and BOY was it yummy. I was pretty pumped that I was eating a donut for lunch but was still a little hungry so I went to see what else deep fried I could eat. I came across these big deep fried balls (a little bigger than the size of a tennis ball) that were filled with rice and a meat sauce. I bought one of those and after eating half of it, I was done! I had been sugar and greased out.

After our lunch we headed over to see a glass blowing demonstration. It was really cool to see. He made a glass water pitcher, which actually took only about 5min for him to make. Once it was done, we were all so impressed. Then not 10 seconds later, he smashed it into a bucket! They do not have a proper place to cool down the glass gradually so they must break everything they make for demonstrations so it doesn't shatter later on. Sad, but still it was great to see how it was made.

We had about an hour of free time after the glass blowing demonstration. I took that time to do some much needed shopping! ;) I bought a few small glass pieces and then I headed back to meet the group. It was already 4pm by this point and we had to start heading back to the train station.

We stopped around 5pm and had our gondola ride. I was actually quite nervous about it for some strange reason. I am a great swimmer but I think because I had my camera on me and there was about 20 people in the gondola combined to make me a bit nervous. Also, the water was not the nicest to look at and falling in did not appeal to me one bit! Once on the other side of the grand canal (it was only about a 1 minute ride across) we walked the rest of the way to the station.

It was well after 10pm by the time I made it back to my place. I was hoping to go out with my roommates for Marlene's birthday supper but I was literally exhausted! Oh well, another time I guess.

5 Months Down and my 100th Post!

2009-11-19T02:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a fun and exciting day all around. It put me at my 5 month mark here in Italy. Wow, Its still hard to imagine some days that I have been living in Italy now for 5 months. How times flies.

I had a pretty good day yesterday. My roommate Marlene and I decided to climb the Duomo tower. 414 steps and about 30min later we made it to the top! What a beautiful view. It was so nice to be able to stand in the very middle of the city on the highest point and look out and admire the city that I have been calling my own now for the past 5 months. I also realized while I was up there that I would love to go back up just before sunset one day. How pretty that would be. I'm not sure my knees can handle it again though... we'll see.

Once back down we ran a few more errands and then made our way back home. I stopped and grabbed a gelato on the way because it was so beautiful out that I couldn't resist. ;)

For supper last night, Mario was teaching me to make spaghetti carbonara. I realized how easy it was to make and BOY was it yummy! It was Ivonne's second last night here before she has to go back to Mexico so we all shared a couple bottles of wine (now you understand why I didn't blog last night) ;) and just had some good fun while eating our carbonara and drinking our wine.

Around 11pm though, Ivonne really wanted to get one last gelato run in (I think I have become her gelato partner ). I couldn't let her go alone and so there we were after 11pm last night, three not entirely sober girls heading out for gelato. I also have to say here that this was the only time since I arrived in Italy that I had gelato twice in one day. Mmmmm ;)

I guess this is were I also need to say my what I've done and what I have left to do paragraph. Well this past month has taken me to Paris and hiking in the Chianti. I have seen how Olive oil is made and even got to try some that was literally right off the vine. I climbed to the tallest point in Florence and have had some really good times with my roommates and friends here.

What do I have left to do in my last 24 days here in Europe? This Saturday I head to Venice for the day, which I am sooo excited about. Next Thursday will take me on a 3 day trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. Once back here in Florence I hope to take in a football (aka soccer) game and just enjoy my last few days here in this wonderful city.

This post also marks my 100th post! To be honest, I never really thought I would make it to 100 posts but I feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that I have. I have enjoyed writing it because not only do I get to share my stories and experiences with you but it also gives me something to look back on to remind me of my time here. Thanks for reading!

Temp: A beautiful 19degrees
Gelato: 1/2 Creme di Medici & 1/2 Chocolate Mousse. The second round was a smaller cup but all Chocolate Mousse. Mmmmmm

Chianti Hike and Wine Tasting

2009-11-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went with the FlorenceForFun group to a town in the Chianti for a hike and wine tasting. We ended up in the town of Panzano which is about 1/2 an hour outside of Florence. We started inside the small town and started our hike from there.

Our hike in total lasted almost 3 hours and was exactly what it was called... a hike! We hiked up and down the hills in Chianti. Beautiful, but wow, was it tough at times. We got our shoes full of mud walking on the trails between the grape and olive tree fields. It was so beautiful. The color of leaves on the trees was just great. I felt pure joy (when I didn't feel like dying from all the climbing) admiring the view.

I was also lucky enough to taste an olive right off the tree! Have any of you ever done this before? Well before you think, wow, she is so lucky.... try it! lol It was the most bitter, horrible tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth. I have to say the taste of this olive almost compared to me trying Vegemite (an Australian spread. Like Nutella or our Cheese Whiz but WAY worse tasting). Anyway, the olive taste stayed with me for about 3 more hours. We were eating lunch and I could still taste the bitterness in my mouth. YUCK!

I was also lucky enough to witness the harvesting and the production of the olive oil. As we walked past a farm yard, we seen a few family members out in there yard picking the olives off of the trees. Very cool. I was really hoping to try to help out picking this year with some farm, but I don't think I will have the opportunity to. So, instead I admired from afar and took a few pictures. ;)

Once we were done our hike we ended up at a olive plant were we were lucky enough to see them actually turning the olives into oil. SO COOL! It actually didn't take very long at all and then for lunch we got to try some oil, fresh from the press! It was really good.

By the time we finished lunch and made our way back to Florence we had been out in the Chianti for over 8 hours. It was overall a very good day. Exhausting... but good.

30 Days and the Christmas Chain

2009-11-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

Well today hits my 30 days left mark. I can't believe that I have almost been here 5 months already. I am so excited to be coming home soon. Don't get me wrong, I have loved and enjoyed (almost) every minute of my time here, however, I can't wait to get home to my family and my friends.

So, to mark this day and to start my 30 day count down, I decided to make a countdown chain. As kids, we made one of these chains every Christmas. It always gave us something to look forward to every night before bed so that we wouldn't go crazy waiting on Christmas to arrive. I thought it would be appropriate for me to make one and use it here.

Temp: 13 and misty

MJ & my Museum Mission

2009-11-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

I was up and getting ready by 7:45am this morning. Ugh, way to early for my liking but unfortunately the museums here in Florence tend to only be open until 1:30pm and I wanted to go to 3 today. I have assigned myself a little mission for the next 34 days which is to go to 16 museums. I thought if I was ever going to accomplish this, I needed to set a goal. So, my goal was 4 a week for the 4 weeks. Well last week I learned that most museums are only open until early afternoon so if I was ever going to make my goal it meant getting up earlier than should be allowed by someone on holidays, and just get it done.

So today was day 1. I was at the first museum by about 9:30am and was quite annoyed when I found the doors open (opening hours were Mon-Fri 8am-1:30pm) but the man at the door told me they were closed. There was a barricade around the door and all they could tell me was that they were closed, with no other explanation. So, unfortunately, I need to go back, a third time to this museum. I should interject here and say that I actually am not a fan of museums. I know, I know, we should all love museums because they show us our past and teach us all about history, but as harsh as this sounds, I just find them boring. I am a nature girl and a photography girl. Put me out by water and I could sit there content all day but put me in a museum where I see the same sculpture 3 times by different artists or 5 of the same paintings just painted with a different media and I could almost fall asleep. I have decided to do this little mission though and my main reason is that I bought this pass that gets me into all of these places and I don't want to see it go to waste. I have been to 4 already but feel in order to get my monies worth, I need to go to all. Ambitious? possibly... Doable? We'll see. ;)

So after failing for the second time at the San Marco museum, I left and headed to my second building. Well I was equally perturbed when I walked in and the lady told me that I can no longer use my pass at this museum and that it was going to cost me 6e to get in. So, what did I do? Yup, I turned and walked out.

I was really hoping that my luck was going to change because if not, I was going home. Well it did. I made it to my third building of the day and was able to use my pass and I toured through the museum. It was small but nice. The architecture in each building is always so grand. Everything was created on a very big scale 100's of years ago. They also had a tendency to make everything in marble or other precious stones so everything you look at is very colorful.

After leaving what ended up being the only museum that I could get into today, I decided to go to one that I have been wanting to go to for quite some time now. I made my way to the museum of Photography. I did have to pay to get in but this one was justified and I enjoyed my time looking through negatives, slides, camera's and of course pictures from as early as 1835 (when photography first came to be). They also had a display case that held many scrapbooks with family pictures in them. It was interesting to see because we think that scrapbooking is quite a new, fun thing to do to make our pictures tell a story. However, after seeing the photo albums today I realized that a hundred year ago, they also used their pictures to tell a story in their albums as they looked like works of art as opposed to just laying pictures in an album. All in all it was very enjoyable.

I decided to end my day today with a little Michael Jackson. They were playing the new MJ movie This is it, at the Odeon theater here and I had to go and see it. I was a little saddened when I was told that they didn't have popcorn or pop at this one though. What theater doesn't sell popcorn during movies? Just strange. What he did try to sell me though was a sandwich (which he had a whole bunch pre-made) and alcohol. Isn't it weird that you can go to a movie in the middle of the afternoon and instead of being offered popcorn and coke, you are offered a sandwich and a beer. I guess this yet again shows me the differences between Europe and Canada. :) So instead, I bought a bottle of water and went in to enjoy the show and I did indeed. It was a great movie/documentary and I was very glad I went. Ahhh, I miss MJ. He really is the King of Pop as far as I'm concerned. :-)

What happens when a Canadian and a Mexican make something American?

2009-11-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

Today I was up at the crack of dawn, well ok, 10:30am. ;) But come on... that is pretty early for me lately considering. So anyway, I up was up early today because Ivonne and I were going to make a cheesecake. Mmmm We have been talking about making a New York cheesecake for over a month now and today was the day. We went to the store and picked up the groceries and then headed back to the apartment.

Ivonne set to work crushing the cookies that we picked out for the crust (they don't have graham crackers here), and I started making the filling. I mixed the first two ingredients together and then needed to mix them with an electric mixer. Well we did have one, but it was one of those kinds that is hand held and only has one mixer on it. So I put it in the cream cheese/sugar mixture and turned it on. Cream cheese flew EVERYWHERE! lol It was so funny. We both stopped doing what we were doing and between the laughing started eating, I mean cleaning, up our mess. It was in our hair,on our clothes, on my computer screen (ya I know, I know) but on a happy note, tasted really yummy. :)

After we cleaned up the mess we decided to put the mixer aside and just do it the old fashioned way. We also didn't have a measuring cup so I improvised a bit by using one of the cream cheese containers. After it was all mixed together though we were pretty proud of ourselves. We poured it into the pan (not realizing that it was smaller than mine it back home) and the filling went to about 1cm below the surface of the pan. It all worked out the in the end though and after figuring out baking times in the gas oven and letting it cool for hours, we think we did ok. Our Cheesecake looks a little brown on the top but wow, was it yummy!

Mario made us supper tonight which was soooo yummy. It was a linguine with a shrimp sauce. OMG it was soooo good. Ivonne and I beheaded and peeled the shrimp which was kinda gross but good to learn how. After beheading the shrimp though, we just sat back, drank lots of wine and had a really good meal.

Between yesterday and today, the 3 of us polished off 3 bottles of wine. ;-} They have this wine out in stores for only one week every year. It is a special wine and is extremely yummy and really cheap so you can't go wrong. I have only 2 left though, so I think on Monday I should go back to the store and hope they still have some left. :)

What happens when a pizza and a laptop meet?

2009-11-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was pretty uneventful but eventful all at the same time. It started out by me sleeping in until almost noon. :) In the afternoon I went out shopping for a bit but came up empty handed. I then decided if I couldn't find clothes that were going to fit me, I would go and by groceries so I could eat. Good thinking right? lol

Once back at home I was thirsty and so I finally decided to open this little bottle of lemonade that I had gotten from the eurochocolate festive a few weeks back. They were giving them out for free and I was waiting for just the right moment to drink my lemonade as you can't actually find that here. So, I cracked it open and took a big gulp, only to realize that it wasn't lemonade after all. It was Lemon juice! Yup, I chugged a big mouth full of lemon juice! Yummy...

I then decided to make a pizza for supper. Now normally this wouldn't be note worthy, however today it is. I had my pizza, nice and steaming hot on a plate which I took into my room. I usually eat in my room so that I can watch movies or some tv on my computer as I eat. Anyway, yesterday was no different. I needed to my move my computer back though a bit in order to have room for my plate. So I grabbed the computer with my free hand and started to move it back. Little did I realize though that I was tipping my other hand and then it happened. The Pizza went face first on to my open laptop! I panicked! I put the pizza back on the plate and set it on my bed and frantically started cleaning my computer up. As you can see though I am still using my computer but I am still a little worried about it as I believe a lot of greasy, cheesy, pesto goo got in under the keys and in the sides of my mouse button. It was not my finest hour. Is it just me or I have been really clumsy since I came to Italy? I didn't think I was this clumsy back home, but maybe I was?

Shortly after the pizza incident Ivonne and I decided to go see a movie. Once a week there is a theatre in town that plays movies in the original language. We both had talked about wanting to see Julie & Julia and lucky for us, it was playing yesterday. There is only one room at the theatre and it was definitely not like watching a movie back home. The chairs were comfortable but not meant for a theatre. There was no spot to hold your drink and they all had separate arm rests. It actually looked like they bought 100 arm chairs and just lined them all up together. They also had an intermission half way through the movie which was a little weird. You just getting into the movie and then they stop it on you. The movie turned out to be really good though, we both really enjoyed it.

Paris... My Final Day

2009-11-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough this morning to leave my suitcase at the hostel because I didn't need to be at the airport until 7pm. I decided that I wanted to go the Museum of Natural History and the Aquarium for fun things of the day. I made it to the museum with no problems but had some issues once I got inside.

Now, to this point I haven't really talked about the people of Paris but I feel I must before continuing my story. When I first arrived at my hostel, like I mentioned a bit on day 1, the staff was not very friendly. I have heard in the past that France french people can be very rude but I didn't believe it at first because I have had such a great experience with strangers in other countries and getting help when needed. Well, this was not the case in Paris. All of the rumours are true. They hate anyone who doesn't speak french... their french. In restaurants I tried to order something and they looked at me as if I was speaking Japanese. COME ON PEOPLE! It's 2009 and English is the universal language, learn it!!! Or, if you don't want to learn it, at least don't look at me with disgust when I try to use the 5 french words that I kinda sorta know in hopes that you will think its good that I am least trying to speak your language. Everyone turned there noises up at me and definitely had that I am better than you look on their faces. I was very unimpressed.

Anyway, continuing on. So I went up and bought my ticket to the museum and headed in. Well as soon as I entered I realized that nothing was written in English. Again, I was a little upset. I am not asking for every bit of info to be in English as I am well aware that I am in a French country, but every museum I have been to in every other country has at least had a title written in English beneath their own language so that us tourists can at least know what we are looking at. You know what I mean? So I asked the lady at the entrance if anything was written in English further in as I was really interested in learning something that morning. Nothing she says. So, the stubbornness in me came out a little and I asked for my money back. ;) Well, they were not impressed with this idea and had to call managers to discuss the thought of actually giving me back my money. lol After about 5-10min of them, what I can only assume was them cursing me in French, I was able to get my money back and I quietly left.

I felt a little uneasy after that but I headed back to the metro and found my way to the Aquarium. This experience was much better as even though there wasn't as much detail, things were labeled with small descriptions in English. I was able to see some cool looking fish, jellyfish, whales and many other cool things. They were also showing Blue Planet movies in one of the theaters which had English subtitles.

Once out of the Aquarium, which happened to be right beside the Eiffel tower ;) I grabbed a crepe for lunch and sat on a bench and just admired the view. Not 10min later however, a young boy ran up behind my bench and yelled something to his mom. I looked behind me and realized that I wasn't eating lunch alone. :{ there was a dead rat lying right behind my bench. EWWWW

After lunch I decided I should start heading back to the hostel to get my bag because I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get to the airport bus pick-up point. I ended up making there with only a small hiccup along the way. The metro line that I needed to take was closed for 3 stops so they directed us above ground and we had to take a city bus to our next stop. I figured it out though and made it to the airport bus stop by 5pm. Well, little did I know that they don't let you get on any bus (for some stupid reason). Instead, they make you wait, out in the cold with your bags for your exact bus, meaning the bus that was assigned for the Pisa flight leaving the airport. So, I waited until about 6:15pm before I was finally allowed to board one of the buses.

The ride to the airport was about an hour and 10min so once there I was a little rushed. Security was ridiculous! I have never seen it that bad in any airport ever. We had to go through 3 different check points with our passports and they almost make you strip down to your underwear in order to go through the security checker. They make you take off your jacket and anything else bulky, your belt, your shoes and then if your lucky you are allowed to continue on without the full body search! It was stupid. So by this point, I had kind of a rough day, I'm starving (It was after 8pm) and I had just basically been robbed of any type of dignity going through security. I stopped at the only lunch counter available and bought a microwave pasta dish and a coke for the low price of 13e. I ate it though and didn't complain one bit... It was actually one of the better meals I had while in Paris. Sad huh?

Once back in Pisa I ran to try to catch my bus because although Ryanair (the airline that I have been flying with) prides themselves on being on time, I have yet to be on time for one of my flights through them. sigh... So anyway, I ran to catch the bus because I only had 4min until it was scheduled to leave. Once there, they informed me that they were not leaving for 15 more min because the planes were late. UGH Ain't that the way it goes.

I arrived back in Florence about 12:50am and asked a taxi driver how much it would cost to get to my house (about a 2min drive). He told me 10e. Well by that point I was more than a little tired and grumpy and told him to forget it and I went to the bus stop. The bus that I was going to catch pulled up right on time (it was the last one of the night) and I was off. Then, luck be to me, the bus went in the opposite direction of my place. Last week they changed all of the bus routes and unless your a mind reader when you hop on the bus, you have no clue where you are going. I thought though that this one hadn't changed as it was a slightly different route than the others. So I got off on a random street and started walking home. By this point it was after 1am and because it was Halloween, there were tonnes of creepers dressed up in costumes wandering the streets. I walked/ran basically all the home with my suitcase and was very glad once I got inside my building. Lesson here??? Take the 10e cab next time. :{

So, was my trip a dream come true or a disappointment? To be honest, I have very mixed reviews on it. The Eiffel Tower to me was worth all of the crap that I had happen in the 3 days. Paris is a beautiful city filled with plenty of rich snobby Parisians but none the less, an extremely beautiful city. However, at night and in particular areas, it is very dirty, creepy and smelled really bad at times. Would I go back? YES! Most definitely. Next time however, I would go with someone that I wanted to share the beauty with and laugh at all the creepiness with.

Paris continued...

2009-11-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

Day 2: Again this morning I was up and out of the hostel around 9am. I took the Metro to one of the buses pick-up points. I hopped on and headed on a new route to see a different part of Paris. I went past the Moulin Rouge and then decided to get off at a certain spot that was supposed to be very beautiful. So, to be truthful here, I never actually went up all the way to this beautiful spot. I got hungry and was getting really cold, so instead I stopped and had a bite to eat and a cappuccino to warm me up. I then decided to head back onto the bus and go back to the same route as yesterday because I had a few more places I wanted to go.

I got off at the Notre-Dame stop, took a couple of photo's of the cathedral and headed towards a flower market that is held every day near there. It was so pretty. I just wandered through the isles of flowers and trinkets and just enjoyed the view. I was at the last booth in this little market and I seen a kitty sleeping on a chair. I went up to her and she was Maggie! Well a Maggie look-a-like anyway. As corny as it sounds, it actually brought a tear to my ear.

After the flower market I hopped back on the bus and headed back to the Eiffel tower. I needed to see it again, just for fun. :) So, the bus was on its way back to the tower and we were stopped at a red light. Just then, I looked out of the bus window and I seen the most dreadful thing! I believe I seen a man die. I'm not even joking here either. I seen him fall to the ground and just lie their. It took someone almost 10seconds to go over to him and see if he was alright...which he obviously wasn't. Now, I can't guarantee that he died, but from what I saw, I think he is either in pretty rough shape right now, or he died. Either way, I was shocked and didn't really know what to say or think and then the light turned green and we headed on our way.

So, not even 20min later we were still making our way to the tower when we went through this round-about. They say its the biggest one in Europe (6 lanes). Anyway, so there we were, driving around it and I looked out my window again and there he was... my second dead guy of the day, and in less than 20min! He was totally covered in a sheet and was being put into the back of an ambulance. His Motorcycle was close by, which actually looked fine, but he did not. All I seen was feet and a bit of legs and that was it. Again, shock came over me and I didn't really know what to say. This time however, there was 2 teenage girls sitting behind me who both had a lot to say about the situation. :{

I finally made it to the tower without seeing anymore dead people (I thought 2 was enough in one day) and then just proceeded to enjoy the tower for awhile longer. After about an hour though, it was getting close to 6pm and I needed to head to the Louvre Museum. While at the museum I got to see the Mona Lisa and a few other famous paintings and sculptures. The Mona Lisa was very small and there was about 50 people crowding around it, but I managed to take a picture and take a fairly close look before I had to escape the crowds.

For supper that night I decided to just grab a pizza from the Pizza Hut that was around the corner from the hostel and take it back to my room to eat. All in all, a bit of a crazy day but neat at the same time.

Temp that day: a whopping 9 degrees...Brrrrr

Paris... A Dream or A Disappointment?

2009-11-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Paris around 7pm on Wednesday night. I then needed to hop on the Metro and find my way to my hostel where I would be staying for the next 3 nights. When I got off at my stop I realized that I was, what I believe, was the "hood". It was pretty creepy looking. Lots of garbage and very dark and murderous.

I did make it there without to much trouble at all, which was very good. I checked into my room (which was co-ed btw) and I was lucky enough to be the first one in my room. The first night I ended up sharing with only one other girl. The second night though, when I got back to the room, there were already 2 people (girls) sleeping. When I woke up the next morning however, the 2 girls were actually guys and there was 4 of them in my room (the room slept 5). So, I got used to the fact that I was sharing a room with boys pretty quickly. The third night, it was me and 3 of the same guys as the night before so that was ok. All in all, the hostel itself was pretty clean but in a bad neighbourhood. The staff was always grumpy and the breakfasts were very small (a third of a baguette, butter and jam).

Day 1: I was out of the hostel and on my way by 9am. I was following the lead of my Paris day by day book that I had brought with me and so my first stop with this really big square. It was almost the center to everything it seemed as everywhere I went I needed to go either above ground through it or on the Metro below on it. I then walked through this gigantic park. It was actually pretty quiet still as it was only 10am at this point. I was wondering what to do next and then I spotted the hop on, hop off bus. I really wanted to take it around as I think they are the perfect way to see a city. So I bought a 2 day pass and climbed on up to the top of the bus. The other nice thing about them is that you learn quite a bit from listening to the pre-recorded message that plays as you go past all of the sites. This is where I caught my first glimpse of the Eiffel tower. It was soooo beautiful. I started taking pictures like a crazy person. lol I decided not to get off the bus just yet though and finish my first loop. On my second loop around on the same circuit, I got off on one of the main shopping streets. Looked around a lot but didn't really find anything. I hopped back on the bus and then this time, I did get off at the tower. It was only about 3:30pm but I thought I would get into line anyway and head on up to the top. Well the line took about 1.5 hours to get through before I made it into the tower to head to the top. The only bad thing about waiting in line was the people that walked up to the first floor of the tower thought it would be funny to spit down. Well it was disgusting. I can't even tell you that I was missed in this assault as it looked like it was raining. Ewwwwwww! Fortunately the line was moving just fast enough that I only got hit once (yup!). Others, were not so lucky. :{

The ride to the top was really fast but cool as the walls are glass so you can see whats going on around you. Once at the top, I took some photos and then just stopped and had a "WOW" moment. It was cool to be up there because I never imagined I would be. I always wanted to go but never thought I would so this was a really cool moment for me. By the time I made it down, the lights on the tower had already come on so I was able to see it at night which again, really beautiful.

After the Eiffel Tower, I decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for supper. I ended up having to wait an hour to get a table and didn't get seated until about 9:15ish. By the time I made it back to my room it was already 11 and there was people already sleeping so I just went to bed also.

As for the answer to my dream or disappointment question...stay tuned. ;)

Temp in Paris: 13ish, foggy and windy

Eiffel Tower, Here I Come!

2009-10-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say I am off to Paris this morning. My bus leaves for the airport in less than an hour and I couldn't be more excited! Plans when I am there? Head to the top of the tower of course! Other than that, I have no plans. I want to just go, experience Paris for a few days and have a good time. I am coming back Saturday night so I will post on Sunday.

Time Change, Siena & Christmas Carols... What do they all have in common? ME!

2009-10-25T14:10:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning at 11:30, which was actually pretty late for me but I wasn't worried. It was Sunday and I had nothing going on. I found out around 12:30 however that our time change was last night. So, that means instead of sleeping until 11:30, I was actually up at 10:30am! I didn't feel so bad after that. :)

Ivonne (Mario's gf) asked me if I wanted to go with her and 2 of her friends to Siena for the day. This was the city that has the horse races every year that I went to this past August. My plans for the day consisted of pj's, movies and room cleaning so I was glad when the opportunity arose for me to get out of my jammies and get out of Florence for the day.

We made it to Siena around 3pm and walked through some of the streets. It was actually a very nice little city without a million people running through it. :) We stopped for gelato and then headed to the Duomo (the main church) to check out the museum as well as climb to the top for a panoramic view of the city. The climb up was a bit of a killer but the view was well worth it, as it always is.

Once down from the Duomo we headed back to the car. While on our way to the car we all ended up talking about Christmas. We were all saying how much we enjoyed Christmas music and I was saying that I couldn't wait to start playing it. Well, luck be to us, Lorenzo just happened to have Christmas carols on his Ipod and we were able to listen to them for the hour car ride back to Florence. It was very nice and I now I can't wait until Christmas!

Gelato: 1/2 Caramel & 1/2 Choc chip
Temp: a beautiful 19 degrees today

From one extreme to the next

2009-10-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

I decided to hit up the markets again this past week. I was on the lookout for a specific shirt and I have been looking for awhile now and haven't been able to find one. As of yesterday, I was at the same market 4 days in a row! lol I was also lucky enough to finally find the shirt that I so desperately wanted.... a black t-shirt with a big 1up green Mario mushroom on it! Score!!!

Now, I know your are laughing and thinking that I am a bit lame here, however let me explain. Although I was a child of the 70's my friends and I did like to partake in the occasional video game. Nintendo was our game system of choice. We didn't play them all of the time like the kids now a days, but we did play them. I bought myself my first GameBoy at age 13 and its been Mario Brother's ever since. When I came here and seen that they had these cheesy 1-up shirts available, I knew I had to have one.

I have also noticed how things change around the markets. The purses/bags for instance. Every few weeks the selection of bags changes. Once it does though the older ones get a bit lower priced and the new ones are promoted. Just like in a regular store really. The same goes for things like scarfs, trinkets, etc. Things are always changing.

I do enjoy my time though in the markets and realized that I had yet to take some pictures. So, I went out the other day and snapped a few. I needed to take my pictures from the eurochocolate event into the office so they could copy them and just happened to have my camera along. I actually was a little worried about my pictures from the festival but in the end realized there was nothing to worry about as she loved my pictures. Yeah!

I decided today to leave the city and check out a place called "The Mall". It is a big area filled with name brand stores (Gucci, Fendi, Diesel and more). I hadn't been and thought it might be worth a look and possibly a purchase or two. ;) Well I hopped on the bus at 11am and arrived at "The Mall" by 12pm. After my first stop in a very high end store (I totally forgot the name), I already realized how out of my league I was. I continued though to go in and out of over 50% of the stores. I am pretty sure I was getting some funny looks as I was just walking in, checking out the price tag on a purse that I was thought was cute, realized that it was approx. 300e above my budget and then walked out. Needless to say, I burned through the stores in record time. I think I had the quickest shopping trip ever as I realized that it was only 12:30pm. lol I had looked into approx 12 stores in 30min. I decided then to go and wait for the next bus that was scheduled for 12:45pm. I made it back to Florence before 2pm without a bag in my hand!

On my way back to the apartment I skimmed the suitcase vendors to see if there was any that caught my eye. I was just about to head home, suitcaseless when I seen it. My new hot purple large suitcase and for the low low price (after bartering) of 15e, it was my kind of deal. :)

Living in Europe definitely opens your eyes to the extremes of shopping, sometimes all in one day!

Gelato: Yogurt Bosco (sorry, I kept on forgetting to add this for awhile)
Temp: 15 today, raining and humidity 78% Brrr....

4 Months down

2009-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, today hit my 4 month mark here in Florence. It totally doesn't feel like 4 months here most days and then others it feels like I have been gone from home forever! I can say I have done a few more things that I wanted to, which is great, but I still have a few more to go. With that, here is my monthly what I have done and what I have left to do list. :)

The last 30 days has brought many fun things. For starters, I had my one and only visitor. Jeanette and I had so much fun together. We went to 3 museums, as well as did a wine tasting. We tried Florentine steak and visited Rome for 4 days. I also had the opportunity to go to the Netherlands to visit a friend, which was a lot of fun. I hit up two zoo's in two different countries in less than two weeks, along with an amusement park. I have eaten WAY to much deep fried food and chocolate the last 30 days, but did you notice that it still made it on my fun things I did list?!? I made 3 trips up to the town of Fiesole in hopes of hitting the market but that never once happened. I did however, end up with some nice pictures of Florence. All in all, the last 30days have been great and I look forward to the next 30.

Now for the bad or the what I haven't done yet list. I still haven't made it to a night club/bar. Now, if I don't actually make it to a club before I leave I'm not going to be heartbroken by any means. If I do make it though, it might be a fun time. I also had the misfortune of loosing a lot of money this past month. Its a bit of a long story and I did make the choice not to blog about it, but I ended up having a moment of weakness here, be it me being naive and to trusting or what, but I ended up trusting someone with a bunch of money who ended up being a scam artist (or so we believe). I was very upset about this for quiet a few days but realized that everything happens for a reason and I wasn't going to let it ruin the rest of my Italian experience. So, I picked myself up and moved on. The only other bad thing this past 30days has been the weather. It has been a very cold fall here, colder than it should be. It has been around 13-17 degrees for the last few weeks with lows being close to zero. Normally I am told it should be around the 20 degree mark so definitely colder than past years. Lets just say that I am really looking forward to the heat being turned on November 1st! :)

So, what am I looking forward to in the upcoming month? Well for starters I am going to Paris next Wednesday so that should be so much fun! I am really looking forward to it. I also will be going to Venice and possibly a few other day trips around Florence and Tuscany if I have the chance. The rest of the month will be spent just hanging out around here and enjoying my last 55 days in Europe as much as I can.

Eurochocolate... sounds yummy doesn't it?

2009-10-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

I headed out to a town called Perugia today where every year they have a 10 day festival called Eurochocolate. I seen it on the FlorenceForFun website and I decided to sign up. I was also taking pictures for them while I was there today which then gave me a huge discount on my day ticket...free! :)

The train ride was long (about 2.5hrs) and we arrived in Perugia around 10:30. I had 6 hours to take some pictures, try a bunch of chocolate and take in my chocolate experience. I definitely have some good and some bad things about today, which of course I will share.

Lets start with the bad (just to get it out of the way). It was so crazy crowded with people. Now I don't mean people standing in line waiting, I mean 100 people all pushing and shoving their way to the front of the Lindt chocolate line up just to get a free chocolate. It was Crazy!!! Now, I need to interject here to say that yes, I was also in the line up/chaos to get one of these free chocolates, but COME ON, do you blame me?!? This was the same scenario at every booth and it didn't get any better as the day went on. The other bad thing was that I was trying to find some chocolate bars here that have a soft creamy caramel center and that is IMPOSSIBLE! I was told by many vendor people today that that's just the way it is in Italy. They have hard caramel and chocolate that tastes like caramel but no soft caramel center bars. Sigh...

Ok, now on to the good! There was about 30 booths all with chocolate in them you could buy. It was crazy! You can buy pasta that tastes like chocolate (which I did), you can get liqueurs that taste like chocolate and you can buy pretty much every type of chocolate and thing mixed with chocolate you could think of (except caramel). ;-) When we first arrived, our tour leaders gave us a card that entitled us to discounts on chocolate as well as free items at various booths throughout. This part was pretty cool as about every second booth was giving out free samples of something. Mmmmm C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E!!!! The first booth I squished my way up to had hot chocolate but very soon I realized that everyone was eating it with a spoon. I then found out that this is how Italians have hot chocolate. They eat it with a spoon because it has the consistency of pudding. After eating my pudding/hot chocolate, I made my way to the next booth and just kept on snacking all the way down the line.

I did however, stop and have an actual lunch because I thought that chocolate for lunch and possibly supper would be a bit much for me for one day and I was right. By the time I got back on the train to go home, I think I had consumed about 3 chocolate bars (which doesn't sound like much but it really was) and hadn't even touched the chocolate that I bought for me to eat. oh well... more for me to eat another day I guess. ;)

Wax, Booze and Sex... Amsterdam Oct 12th

2009-10-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Amsterdam at 10am. The fist thing I had on my agenda was to take a canal cruise of the city. I actually didn't know this before, but Amsterdam is built on a bunch of canals, much like Venice. The cruise lasted a little over an hour and I was hitting the streets by 11:30.

Now most people when they go to new cities tend to go to the more historical sites, like the Van Gogh Museum. HAHAHA not I! I wanted my day in Amsterdam to be filled with fun so I did take in 3 museums while there, but not the types you are thinking. ;)

My first stop after grabbing a quick bite to eat was the Sex Museum. Yup, I thought, why not? It ended up being, well lets just say, very interesting. There were some things that made me laugh, some that made me a little shocked and some that I couldn't even believe would make it into a museum at all. There was some crazy stuff. After a few pictures and a few laughs I was on my way to the next museum of choice... the museum of Bols!

The museum of Bols is a museum where you get to smell, touch and taste how this particular brand of alcohol is made. It was pretty cool. Once inside the first room was the taste area. There were two samples to try which actually were just a samples of berries. the second area was the smell. There was 30 jars set up that you could smell. These weren't smells of alcohol but the ingredients in them. So fruit, herbs, extracts, etc. The third area was were we actually got to pick out the drink we wanted to try. The lady tending the bar made me my drink, which was actually pretty cool to see being done. She actually put 2 strawberries and 2 orange slices in my glass and then just smashed them up, added the sugar and the alcohol and my drink was made. Pretty cool. After I was done my drink (which took about 3min) I went back up to the bar where I got to taste test 2 other types of alcohol they had there. I picked the Blueberry and the Raspberry to try...both yummy! So after about 10min and 3 drinks later I was on my way to the next museum.

The third and final museum on my list for the day was the Madam Tussuad's Wax Museum. Inside you will find celebrities, presidents, etc and they are all made out of wax. Super cool! It took about an hour and a half to get through the whole museum but it was well worth it. As you can see here I ended up getting my picture taken with George after all! Can you tell that we are having a deep conversation?!? I also had my pic singing with Elvis, hugging MJ, standing with Princess Diana and as you can see, Spiderman is saving me from off of a wall.

Once I was back in Helvoirt, Brent and I decided to go find us some chicken as it was as close to turkey as we were getting. We cooked it up and had a great meal.

All in all my trip to the Netherlands this past weekend was very fun. I had fun every day and the country itself is very beautiful. The people also were very friendly and everyone was very helpful. I was glad to have gone and a little sad to have left. I'm not sure if I will ever make it back or not but either way I can now say I have been and had a great time overall. I would highly recommend to the Netherlands to everyone!

A Day at the Zoo! Oct 11th

2009-10-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out for the zoo. Now I know I just went to one when in Rome but COME ON, IT'S A ZOO! Whats not to love about going to see animals? We arrived there by 11:30 and off we were looking at all kinds of animals. This was the biggest zoo I have EVER seen and totally kicked the Rome's zoo ass!!! lol It was huge! It actually had 6 different area's that specialized in different types of animals. For example, there was an Ocean which of course had all types of fish along with a few sharks. There was also a Safari where I got to see more "Rafs" some rhinoceroses as well as some zebra's. I seen Aardvarks, snakes, monkeys, meerkats, warthogs, lions, cougars and more. It was really, really fun.

For lunch we stopped and had some baby pancakes that were smothered in icing sugar and butter. Mmmm.... Trust me when I tell you, the food in Holland was GREAT!!!

All in all we ended up spending over 5 hours at the zoo on Sunday.

Being a kid again... Sat Oct 10th

2009-10-14T02:46:00.000-07:00

Today we were up fairly early and headed to a town about an hour away. They have this really big amusement park and both of us thought it would be a very good way to spend our day. Who doesn't like fairs?!? Before actually heading to the amusement park though we stopped in at this bakery shop for a very popular type of pastry. It is called a Bosschebollen and was the best tasting pastry I have EVER had in my life! It basically looks like a giant (about the size of your fist) cream puff but totally round. Then, once cooled, it is dipped in chocolate and WOW was it yummy. We grabbed one each and made our way to Efteling where the amusement park was.

The first thing we did when we got to the park was eat our chocolate balls. usually people eat these with a fork and knife but we decided to eat them walking into the park so we were covered in cream and chocolate and everyone around us was laughing at us b/c they totally knew what we were eating and how messy they were.

Once inside we looked around for a bit and then went on our first ride. It was really funny because we didn't actually know what the rides were until we were about to get on them because they were all written in Dutch but that was part of the fun. So, the first ride we ended up on was called the Carnival ride and it was a kids ride but turned out to be fun and we laughed a lot. Secondly we went to the roller coaster. I have never been on a roller coaster before and I was pretty scared. This one was pretty big and you couldn't even see a chunk of it from where we stood so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It was one of the scariest rides I have ever been on. The only nice thing was that it was very short. we went around 2 loops and was sideways for a bit and then it was pretty much over (which was good).

We ended up going on about 4 more rides, which some of them were actually quite scary. We also had some pancakes for lunch which were awesome! They tasted soo good. I tried some with bacon and onion and then the dessert one had caramelized apples on it. YUMMY!!!! I also was able to find some cotton candy (which they call some weird 12 letter word) and then it was almost home time.

Once back in Den Bosch we decided to go for supper and have a few drinks. I again had a great tasting meal and the wine was also very tasty. We were back at the house by 11 and I was in bed fairly early as were getting up early the next day for another fun filled day!

Arriving in the Netherlands...Friday Oct9th

2009-10-14T02:22:00.000-07:00

The plane ride into the Netherlands (aka Holland) today was good. I ended up sleeping most of the way. :) I arrived into Eindhoven by 12 and had about 4 hours to kill before I needed to head out to meet Brent. Once downtown at the train station, I locked up my suitcase and headed into town for some shopping! ;) I was very surprised at the number of things I seen that I wanted but refrained pretty well I think. I only came out of my 3 hours of shopping with one sweater which was a steal of a deal at 12e and then I found myself a jacket for the upcoming winter here... yeah!

I then headed out on the train to Den Bosch and then caught the bus to Helvoirt where I would be spending my next 4 nights. It was very easy to find and Brent got off work just as I was arriving so it worked out perfectly.

We went to a little fast food joint for supper and I tried some local cuisine which consisted of fries with onions, some type of sweet and sour chili sauce and a type of mayonnaise on them. Different at first but I really liked them. I also tried a deep fried something (can't remember the name) but to be honest I didn't really like it. It had a really mushy texture and just really wasn't my cup of tea.

After supper we just took a walk around town, played some cards and I went to bed early as I was up at 5am.

Buscapedes...

2009-10-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I decided to head downtown and do a little running around. My first stop was the post office. The day before last I went out and bought a box (about the size of a shoe box and a half) and yesterday I filled it and went to send it home. I thought this was going to be a slightly cost effective way of getting some of my random stuff that I have been collecting back home safely. Well I should have shown better because I have noticed (and maybe you have also) that things aren't always how I think they should be here in Italy. :{

I got to the post office with my 5kg box and explained to the guy behind the desk that I needed to mail this as slowly as possible back home. He told me the quickest way was by air and it was going to cost me 39e. I said, no sir, I want to be really cheap and take as long as possible. He then retold me that if I send it by air it will only cost 39e and get there in 10days. ugh! I ended up having to go to a different post office across town and see what options they have for shipping because from what I understood each post office can only send so many parcels a certain way and the "slow" style was all finished he kept telling me. Does this make sense to any of you because it sure didn't to me. Anyway, I lugged the box (which by now was starting to feel like 10kg instead of just 5) on buses and managed to get to the other post office. Once inside the nice lady at the desk told me the quickest way was to go by air and cost only 39e. Can you believe it? It's only 39e by air! Wow that's great to know the next time I want to send something by air!!! After talking to her for a bit she told me that I could send it snail mail but it was still going to cost me 30e, so I would save 9. Well to be honest, I still wasn't willing to spend 30e and so I decided to bring the box home with me. I now have a yellow box filled with stuff holding up a shelf for me in my closet. ;) Solution here? I'm buying a second suitcase and bringing it home myself!

After dropping my box back off at home I decided to go to the local English book store that you can buy and trade in used books. I made it there in record time and got some store credit. I was looking for a particular author and book title. I had already read 2 out of the 4 in her series that she had wrote and I was trying to find the other two. Well, just my luck I found one pretty much right off the bat. I took it to the counter, used my credit and off I went with my new to me book.

So, I decided to head back up the hill today on the bus and go to Fiesole again where I went on Sunday but just rode the bus around instead of actually getting off and looking around. Well, I had a seat on the bus so I took out my new book and thought I would read a bit as I had about 1/2hour. As I read the first couple of sentences I realized that the book was sounding very familiar to me. Would you believe that it was the SAME book that I had just dropped off at the book store not 20min earlier? I exchanged my book for the exact same one! LOL I felt like a complete moron. Now, just to make myself feel a little better here, the books had different covers on them and were different sizes. Should I have looked more closely at the name? yes. But really, I was just so happy to have found one of them that I just grabbed it and went. ugh!

Anyway so I ended up instead listening to the make-out couple beside me. What is it with me, buses and people making out? I have never seen so many people suck face in all of my life as I do here. I'm all about the occasional PDA, but COME ON! And people aren't quiet about it either. They make out loud enough that anyone with ears and within 10ft from them can here them. Its rather disgusting.

Once up at the top I got off the bus and realized that there were no markets today. It must be just a weekend thing and I really wanted to see the markets so I turned around and got back on the bus. lol Yup, second time up on the hill and still haven't actually taken a picture or looked around at all. In the end I wish I would have stayed up for a little while longer because on the way back down I gave up my seat to a little kid and his mom so I had to stand. Not only that but 2 girls (about 16) decided to sing songs in English at the top of their lungs all the way down. Now I wish I could say they were good but really what it was, was that they thought they were good. It was so unpleasant I decided to put my Ipod on so I could hopefully drown them out. Well no luck there either as my Ipod was dead. So, there I was, standing beside the Beyonce want-to-be's and had no way of escaping them!

I arrived home with only little ear damage and decided that again it was a 2.5e gelato day! Mmmm

Poor Poor Puppy...

2009-10-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe I have been slacking on my blogging so much lately. Chalk it up to being busy and when I wasn't busy, nothing was happening worth blogging about. ;-)

On Sunday I decided to head down to the markets just to wander around. I needed to get out of the apartment and get some fresh air and the markets are always a fun place to go. Hundreds of tourists all wheeling and dealing to get a bargain on whatever item they are trying to purchase. Some of them get pretty grumpy when they can't get the price they think that item is worth and others just pay full price without even blinking an eye. Its perfect for someone like me because I'm a people watcher. I love to see the happy people with there new items and I chuckle at the grumpy ones who thought paying 5euro's for a t-shirt/hat/trinket/fill in the blank was way to much. I have witnessed tourists argue over .50cents and others walk away over it. I however have pretty much come up with a tried and true method of getting a little deal. Because I have had the time to wander through the markets day in and day out over the last few months, I know how much things are and which booths are a little cheaper than others. They all carry pretty much the same things. There are booths that have T-shirts, ones that have bags/purses, ones that have jewelry and the ones that have souvenirs. If on the off chance though I have found something at one booth that may be a euro or two more than a previous booth I first ask for a deal and if they say no, I say, "no worries, I can get it back there for Xeuros. Thank you" and I start walking away. They know that it is cheaper else wear and so they always end up giving it to me for the same deal that I would have gotten at the other booth. It's great! :)

After doing some people watching and zero spending on Sunday I hopped on a city bus and rode up to a town directly above Florence. I have heard it has very beautiful views from up there and it is very easy to get to, so I thought I should check it out. I didn't actually take my camera with me though, nor did I get off the bus. lol I just rode up, looked out the window and thought I need to come back up here with my camera and then rode back down. It took about 1.5 hours to make the whole journey but really, what was I planning on doing at home anyway? Facebook poker? FarmVille? So, I have decided that I think tomorrow or Thursday I will take the bus back up and get off the bus, check out the market up in that town and take some pics. Should be good fun.

Ok, so today I just took a quick ride to the station because I needed to pick up a box at the post office to mail home. I took the bus, as always and ended up seeing the funniest (well I think so anyway) thing. I was standing by the doors on the bus and as we were stopped at a red light a little old couple walked by with a small (I believe a Shih Tzus type) dog. I was just minding my own business and watching this cute little doggie and then all of sudden he got far enough up ahead of me so that I was looking at his back end. This poor doggie (definitely a boy) had the biggest boy parts dangling behind him I have EVER seen on a dog. This was not right! I'm sure they looked about the size of an adults hand made into a fist. Now ok, I know I shouldn't laugh because I'm sure the poor dog was in a lot of pain but COME ON! So there I was, on a public bus surrounded by a bunch of Italian strangers and I was laughing. Out right laughing. I couldn't stop. It was really very funny. Then I looked up and another man sitting close to me also noticed this poor dog in "distress" and he said something in Italian (which I can only imagine what it was) to his friend, made his hand into a fist and started laughing as well. So not only am I laughing about this poor doggie but now there are 2 other people on this bus laughing and joking in Italian. It really was quite the site. Anyway, we drove off and they continued on there walk. Thinking about it now still makes me chuckle a little. I sure hope his owners get him the help he needs. ;) lol

On my own again...

2009-10-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Jeanette has left and made it home ok. It's weird to think that my visitor is gone. It was so great having her here. We had a great time going to Pisa, checking out Museum's and parks around Florence and touring Rome together.

We ended up heading to Rome last Sunday. The trip itself wasn't so bad but it took about 2 hours to find our hotel and was very very exhausting. We checked in and both decided to take a nap. lol about 2 hours later we got up and thought we should head down for supper. After supper we were both really tired again and decided to just go to sleep early.

Monday we had tickets for going on a tour of the Necropolis (under the Basilica). We finally found our way there with only about 8min to spare and started our tour. The tour was really interesting as we were able to see some tombs and many other historical things. The pathways were very small and it was a little hard to breath but all in all, a very cool experience. After our tour we just walked around the Basilica and then headed into the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We were a little rushed as the museum closed only an hour after we got in so we did a very quick walk through but it was worth it. Once out of Vatican city, we hoped on the metro and made out way to the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. I have to be completely honest here and say that we were both a little disappointed with the Spanish steps. In all of the pictures you see the steps are so beautiful and free of debris and people but what we saw was not how it was portrayed in pictures. We seen about 500+ people crowded on the steps, sitting/eating/smoking and it was very over run with garbage and just not the best picture. We then walked over to the Trevi fountain which was a much better experience. It was a beautiful fountain and we made sure to take lots of pictures and also throw our spare change in. :)

Tuesday was a bit quieter as we decided to book a Colosseum tour instead of trying to do it on our own. We met up with the tour guide at 3 and for about 2-3hours she took us around to some ruins as well as the Colosseum. It was really a cool thing to see and we were both glad we did it with a tour guide. After the tour was finished we decided to buy tickets for the hop on hop off open top buses and tour the city by night on one of those. It was well worth it. The open top double decker bus was cool in itself but to see Rome by night from the bus was a real treat. We got off at a stop near our hotel pickup point and was back at the hotel by 9:45.

Wednesday was a very mellow day for us. We didn't want to do anything to stressful so we decided to go to the zoo. I was very excited about this as I love zoo's. We got a little lost finding our way there but once there it was well worth it! I took tonnes of pictures of the 'rafs' (my nephews nickname for the giraffes). We also seen zebra's, hippo's, elephants, camels and more. It was really fun and I was sure glad we went. After the zoo we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch (well supperish) and had a great meal. We then just decided to go back to the hotel so Jeanette could pack and we could just relax the night before she left.

Thursday morning we were up early, and at the airport by 10am. I hung out with her until she had to go through security and then I just came back to Florence. I was back here by 3pm. Found out later that night that she made it home ok with no problems (which is always great to hear).

I am definitely sad that Jeanette is no longer here but I have quite a few things to look forward to in the near future and I am really looking forward to them. On the 9th I am heading to see a friend in the Netherlands. We met on my Contiki trip and because he is living in the Netherlands right now (actually from Canada as well) we thought it would be fun for me to come and visit for a weekend. So it looks like my Thanksgiving will be spent with a fellow Canadian in the Netherlands. Weird huh? Then, around the 20th or so of Oct I am going to hop a train and head to Venice for a night. After that I am heading to Paris on the 28th for 3 nights and then my October will be done. Its only 10 weeks tomorrow until I come and its hard to believe.

Shopping, Shopping and more Shopping!

2009-09-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

Well I am first going to start by telling you all about yesterday as I'm sure you all read that we were not in the best shape to post yesterday. lol It was Jeanette's Birthday yesterday but I made her get up super early because we had a busy day ahead of us. Our first stop was the Boboli Gardens and Museum. It was so beautiful in the gardens. Not really any flowers, but loads of trees, grass, secret pathways and a fountain or two.

It was lunch time when we left the gardens so we stopped for lunch, then headed out to the Ponte Vecchio so Jeanette could see it and do a little shopping. After that we headed back home to drop off a few bags and we were back out on the street by 4pm. Boy did we shop! We actually both ran out of money by 5:30pm. It was super funny. I'm not even joking here. I went to purchase something I had in my hands and ended up counting my copper just to pay for it. We thought that was pretty funny but all of 20min later Jeanette was doing the same thing. She really didn't have enough though and had to put some stuff back. lol So with less than 1euro in each of our purses we headed back home to refuel up, on money that is. ;) lol

We then headed out for supper. It was 7 when we left and we had a reservation at 8 at a restaurant that Mario's friends own. He phoned a few days earlier and set it up for us. We ended up taking slightly a wrong turn on the bus and ended up in the middle of nowhere for about 20min while we waited for another bus to show up. After we got all of that sorted out we found our way to dinner with little problems. We were a little worried showing up 30min late for supper but they welcomed us in and it was an excellent meal. They gave us some free champagne and ended up knocking some money off the bill just because I was Mario's friend. The meal was so fabulous. We ordered a Florentine Steak (which you can see in our picture from yesterday's short post). It was so yummy. It was a rare steak, which is how it is cooked here and wow, was it good. We drank a little to much wine and had a great meal, what more can I say about it. All in all I think Jeanette had a great Birthday and I was very glad to be spending it with her.

Today we got up kinda early, both with a mild tumour, lol, and headed out to the Outlet mall. We hoped on a bus and was at the mall in about 40min. We only spent about 3 hours there but had a good time going from one designer store to the next trying to find some great deals. In the end, I came out with 20euros of chocolate and that's it. Jeanette fared a little better but not much. We headed back home to have a 2 hour break/nap and then headed out to the center for our last bits of shopping and our last supper in Florence. Overall, a very good day.

Bithdays and drunken dabauchery!

2009-09-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well today is Jeanette's Birthday.... Sorry, I have to finish this tomorrow... drank to much wine. ;)

Having a Blast!

2009-09-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

We've had a few busy days so far. We had a bit of a sleep in yesterday and caught the 10:30 train to Pisa. Arrived in Pisa around 12, had a quick bite to eat and then headed out to find the leaning tower. We only walked for about 20min or so and there she was leaning so proudly. It was really cool to see. Everyone I have talked to that has seen it is right, it really isn't as big as you would originally think. However even though it wasn't as big as we thought, it was still really cool to see. We took a bunch of pics, including the cheesy holding up the tower pics. :)

We then decided to just wander through the open market booths by the leaning tower. Around 4pm we headed back to the train station and ended up back in Florence by 6pm. Last night we just took it easy as we were both exhausted and ready for bed.

Today we slept in again and didn't leave the apartment until 11am. our first stop was the Uffizi museum. We were inside for about 2 hours. It was cool to see but both of us found that after about an hour the painting all kinda started looking the same. The only difference was that they were painted by different artists. We're both glad we went though. After that we made our way slowly to the Academia were the statue of David is. It was a much smaller museum and only took about 45min to go through.

After stopping at random shops along the way, we ended up at our stop, which was a wine tasting. I have been to this one before but I got to taste different wines than last time which was nice. There was only us and another couple there. There was great food and wine and great company. We all had a blast and Jeanette and I left a little more tipsy than we thought. ;)

And the fun begins...

2009-09-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

I had the worst sleep last night but I think I was kept up partly by the really annoying mosquito buzzing around my head all night and partly because I was thinking about Jeanette travelling over here. I finally fell asleep though around 5:30am and I figured out why once I looked in a mirror this morning. I had a squished mosquito on my forehead. lol I remember swatting around my head and even remember smacking myself a few times but I never actually thought I killed it. Good aim huh? ;)

Once I got up, around 9:30, I checked my email only to find out that Jeanette's plane had been delayed by an hour and half. This gave me lots of time though to finish cleaning my room and do a quick cleaning of the rest of the house. I was all ready for her arrival so I managed to squeeze in a few quick games of poker before I had to head down to the train station.

I only waited about 40min or so before I seen her walking toward me. YEAH! It was awesome. no tears people (just in case you were wondering). We hugged, and then we started on our way. She was exhausted, which I totally understand having just done that a few months ago. We were back at the apartment by 4:30. I showed her around the place (which took about 2min) and then we decided to head the store to pick up a couple of groceries.

After that we headed into the center for some supper. By the time supper was done we were both exhausted so we decided to come back to the house so Jeanette could get some sleep. I decided to start putting my new ipod together and then played around of poker before blogging tonight. Its now about 11:30pm and I am heading to bed.

We have a big day tomorrow. We are heading to Pisa in the morning and then Lucca in the afternoon. We should be back in Florence around supper time tomorrow night.

Company Tomorrow!

2009-09-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I can't believe it is here already! Less than 24hrs from now, Jeanette will be here and we'll either be out eating or she'll be sleeping and I will be on here blogging to you guys. Either way though, I am SOOOO excited! The last couple of days have kind of flew by with nothing really import to blog about so sorry for the couple of days without posts. I am definitely on the mend with my cold which I am so glad about.

I decided to leave the house on Sat and head to the supermarket to buy a few things. Once I got back though my key wouldn't work in the door to the apartment. I tried and tried and nothing was working. I should back up a bit and explain here that this happens sometimes. Mario told me from the beginning when we leave the apartment we have to make sure the door knob is in the proper position or it locks you out. He didn't tell me how to fix this problem though, just that I shouldn't do it. So there I was trying everything I could to try and get in. I'm sure to random people walking by I may have looked like I was trying to break in, which in actuality I guess I was in a way. UGH! I texted Mario asking him what to do and thought I should give it another shot. Just then, I must have jimmied it just the right way because it opened! YEAH! I couldn't have been happier. I texted Mario back right away so he wouldn't have to come home and let me in and then when inside and breathed a sigh of relief. :)

Yesterday I didn't leave the apartment all day. I did some cleaning up of my room, which I actually started on Friday and still tonight am not done. lol I also played alot of Texas holdem poker on Facebook. Is anyone else addicted to that game? I can't believe it. Crystal told me awhile ago I should play it and just never thought of it. Then on Saturday I thought I should give it a try and now I am hooked. I find I play it as soon as I get up in the morning and was playing on Saturday night still at 2:30am. LOL I can't stop!!!! I fully blame Crystal on it. jk :) On a happy note though, I am only winning and losing fake online money and not my own. ;)

I got to chat with most of my nieces and nephews on Skype yesterday which was really great. I miss them all so much and they are all getting so big. I can't wait for my new little nephew to show up in January. I'll then have 5 nephews and 3 nieces to keep me busy. I am very lucky.

Today I got up and hit the streets of Florence just doing some shopping. I found a lot of great stuff and was glad to get most of it done today so I can focus on just having fun once Jeanette is here. I am going to try to get the rest of my room cleaned up tonight and then veg out and watch Angels & Demons so when I go to Rome next week it will be even cooler.

3 Months Down, 3 to Go!

2009-09-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Whew, I am almost blogged out after all of those posts. I hope everyone enjoyed reading about my trip just about as much as I enjoyed living it. :) I couldn't have had a better first Contiki trip experience. I have a few days left to catch you up on from the 13th to today but I promise I won't write that much.

I woke up the morning of the 14th with the most killer headache, a kind I have never experienced before and realized that it was time to go back to the doctor. I got up early anyway though because I wanted to get to the Resident permit office to collect my card that I have been waiting 3 months to get. I packed my bag with my Ipod, a book, my 2 translation books, passport and a bottle of water. I made it to the office only to be told that I had to come back at 1pm and wait in line until 3pm. Ugh!

So, because it was only 8:10am I decided to go the doctor right then. I was just around the corner from the bus stop and all of sudden I felt that my leg was really wet. I reached into my bag only to find that my full water bottle was now empty. I quickly tried to grab everything out of my bag but everything was soaked in water. I hopped on the bus which was now there and was still grabbing things out of my bag and trying to get them into my pockets. As I stood on the bus, people started looking at me because there was a really really big wet spot on my leg and my bag was leaking water out of it at a pretty good rate. :{

At the bus terminal I had a chance to survey what had happened and it wasn't looking good. My passport is just about totalled off and all of my books have that now water logged, crinkled look to them. My most sad thing though is that my Ipod is toast. Being drowned in water is not really the best thing for any electronic device and the poor little guy didn't survive. UGH!

I tried not to think about it though as I was heading into the hospital but as soon as I talked to the nurse guy that was waiting there I burst into tears. I know I know, but seriously it had already been a bad day and I really was feeling horrible so there I was in the middle of the hospital bawling to the nurse about wanting to see a doctor. :( I did manage to pull myself together finally after the doctor was already in the room because she finally said to me, "what are you crying for?". All I could say was "I've had a bad day" and then realized I should grow up, wipe away my tears and deal with the situation at hand. She ended up taking blood and x-rays which thankfully led to nothing serious besides a regular bacterial infection. So the next couple of days I spent sick at home trying to get over it which I think I almost am. Yeah!

Yesterday I was finally feeling well enough to try again for my resident permit card so at about 12:30pm I headed out and was waiting in line a few minutes later. We all got herded in out of the street into a small room at about 2pm where one of the guards started calling out everyones names and handing them another slip of paper with a number on it. It was hot and smelly in there and was not pleasant at all. I finally had my name called around 2:30. She then proceeded to tell me that the numbers that she already handed us wouldn't be starting to get called until 3pm. So there everyone was, waiting again. I had lucky number 75 and I have to admit, they actually went through them faster than I though they would. It was around 4pm when I got called up to the desk, gave the guy my almost wrecked passport and he handed me my card. yeah! As I walked back to my apartment all I could think of now was, "what do I do with it?" lol It took me 3 months to get and I don't even know what the real purpose is to it.

So lets finally discuss today. Again, its hard to believe that another month has gone by. 3 months already, wow. So much has happened in the last month even though I haven't hardly been here. I won't go over my trip again because I just spent the last 5 days writing about it. I will tell you though that I think the month of September is/was one of my best months ever! I had so much fun on my trip and meeting so many new friends. I ended up missing out on this weekend in Munich for Oktoberfest because of me being ill, but that's ok. I only have 4 more days and then one of my BCFF's is coming up. I can't wait! Her and I will do up Florence and Rome the way I know we can!

It's weird to think that I am already over half done my trip. I fly home in approx 2.75 months. The weather is still great here. It has been raining since I returned from the UK but it is still supposed to reach high 20's for the next few weeks for sure. I look forward to the future and my next couple of months here in Italy. I have no clue what is in store for me in the future but I kind of like that.

Sept 12 & 13- London & London to Florence

2009-09-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

5 of us met this morning at 10 to head down to Buckingham palace and then over to the musical. We made it to the palace by about 11am. We were going to try to go in and look around but the changing of the guards was taking place at 11:30 and we didn't want to miss it. We had a prime standing spot so we just hung out there and watched as the police lady that was standing in front of us directed people back and forth. She was doing a pretty good job, other than the odd texting she was doing, but just then the head police guy came by on a horse and started yelling at her in front of all of us. I felt bad for her but kind of seen things from both sides.

Just then the changing of the guards started and we turned out attention away and started snapping pics like crazy. I felt a little like I was back in Sienna as I was holding my camera up trying to gets pictures of the guards as they came by but I did have a slightly better standing position for this one. The whole process took about 1/2 hour and during one of the calm parts we all of sudden seen the head police man come back order and bark to the police lady that she was getting written up and that she was taken off duty. About 3o people surrounding me (and me as well) heard this whole thing take place and then all of sudden she walked right up to me. I wasn't sure what to do. She then asked me for my address and phone number so the Police headquarters could get a hold of me for a statement at a later time. I ended up giving it to her cause she was freaking me out and I wasn't sure what to do. She then went to the other 4 that were with me and they all said, "uh, we really didn't see what happened", so she walked away. Seriously! Thanks guys! So I think I should maybe tell Crystal (or just let her find out this way, lol) that someone from the Queens police guard staff might be phoning the house soon. :{

Afterwards we decided to start heading over towards the street where our musical was playing. We walked by Big Ben and I really wanted to get another picture so I ended up playing frogger (does anyone remember playing frogger on the Atari when they were a kid?!?) across 6 lanes of traffic. It would have been ok but as I was across 2 of them, the lights turned green and cars started coming. I started laughing as I was dodging the traffic but all I could hear was screaming from everyone else who was still back on the other side of the street. I thought it was hilarious but I guess they did not. Who knew? ;)

We made it to the musical with plenty of time to spare after stopping for lunch. It was really good. I am very glad we were able to make it to a musical before heading home. It ran until about 5:30 and then I decided to head back to the hostel as I had to reorganize my suitcase for the flight tomorrow and wanted to get to bed early.

The next morning I was up by 6am. With my suitcase packed the night before all I had to do was get myself ready and I was off. Said goodbye to Anne-Maree, the last of my new friends to say goodbye to, and I headed out. I had no problems getting to the airport. I was feeling much worse though as the day and flight went on and by the time we landed and I made the 1.5hour train ride back home here to Florence I was ready for bed.

Sept 11 - London

2009-09-18T01:59:00.000-07:00

I was up at 8am this morning as Anne-Maree and I had big plans to get to our hostel and then find me a doctor. The hostel to our luck was literally a 5min walk from our current hotel so that was very exciting. Once there and after putting our luggage in the storage room for the day we had some breakfast and then headed out.

We found the hospital without to much trouble and I headed straight for reception. Anne-Maree and I still aren't sure the reception guy wasn't just trying to have a good laugh at me or not, but as soon as I told him my symptoms and told him I had just come off of a tour, he knew right away that it was Contiki and they actually call it the contiki cough. The worst part was though was that he made me put on a face mask so I couldn't "infect" anyone else. I felt like a total dork and both Anne-Maree and I started laughing uncontrollably. I really was quite the sight as you can all see here. I did find it more funny then embarrassing so I figure why not share my pic with all of you. ;) In the end, the doctor said it was just viral and sent me on my way (allowing me to leave the mask there with her). I was grateful.

By this point Ross had met up with us at the hospital and also had a good laugh about my new attire I was sporting. We then headed down to our meeting point where we met 4 others and discussed what musical we should see the following day. In the end, cheapness won out and 4 of us purchased tickets to see Wicked the musical. We then broke up into smaller groups and did our own thing.

Kia, Liz and I ended up going and doing some touring around London and ended up at the Tate Museum, which is a museum that is full of modern art. Afterwards we went for a yummy supper of pizza and then headed for the London Eye. I was really looking forward to going on the eye and we ended up picking the perfect time. We got on about 7:15pm and was able to see London in dusk, as the sun was setting and the city at night. It was beautiful. The whole trip around in the eye lasted about 30min and then afterwards we just decided to walk back to the hotel.

On our way back to the hostel we decided to take the tube to cut some time out of our walk. As we were heading down the staircase we seen a sign that read "Due to person under train, X line will be closed". We all just stood there for a few minutes not sure what to think. We actually thought that it was someone (or maybe one of the engineers) playing some sort of trick, but as we kept going to get on the line that we needed we kept hearing over and over through the speakers, "Due to person under train....". It really creeped us all out.

Kia and Liz walked me back to the hostel so that I wouldn't have to walk back by myself. I finally got to check into my room and it was really cool. We had booked into the luxury girls suit which actually had 12 beds in it but looked really cool. It was all decorated in a bright pink and white. There was a make up vanity that sat 4 and a sitting area for 2 with comfy chairs and some magazines. Totally posh for hostel living I tell you. ;) Once I got settled in, Anne-Maree had come back so we just sat up and chatted with some of the other girls and was in bed by 11.

Sept 10 - Dublin to London

2009-09-18T01:31:00.001-07:00

Well it was our last day together as a group as we headed back to London and just our luck we had to leave at 7am. Our Ferry left at 8:20 so there was no chance of sleeping in for us. On the ferry though I wandered for awhile while pretty much everyone else slept. I used the on board internet which was crazy slow but it was better than nothing and killed an hour. :)

We got off the ferry around 12pm and then had to head straight for our meeting point at the longest named town in Whales again to pick up the people that were done their Great Britain portion and were heading back to London. We ended up picking up over 20 people which we weren't really thrilled about as it was nice to have the bus to ourselves for awhile. The new group turned out to be very noisy, which I thought was a good thing and thought that they would have been a fun group.

The drive back to London was very long (our longest day drive of the whole trip) and we didn't make it back to the hotel in London until 7pm that night. I lugged my now overflowing and already expanded suitcase up to my room and then headed back down to the pub as the original 16 of us were all meeting to have one last farewell drink (coke had been my drink of choice now for a few nights) and just hang out and have some laughs. I don't think I was the first to leave but I wasn't far off. We had some tearful goodbyes and it was actually pretty sad leaving everyone. On a happy note though, there was about 7 of us that were hanging out in London for the next couple of days so we had a few more days to spend together.

Sept 9 - Kilkenney to Dublin

2009-09-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning and arrived in Dublin by 10:30. Those that went on the Trinity College tour did and those that didn't (I opted out of that one) went and started our free day of shopping. Steve, and I ended up hanging out and just wandered around until we found a doctor Steve could go to. After that we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Ross found us there and joined us for some yummy food. I had the best caesar salad. It was hot there was so much garlic in it. Mmmm After lunch we just wandered in and out of stores for a couple of hours and then just sat for awhile and waited. We didn't feel like taking in any sites and Steve was feeling like crap and I was starting to get sick so we just headed back to our meeting point and hung out.

We took the Bus back to our hotel, where we all proceeded to get dressed up and then at 6:45 we were off to our last group dinner. We went to a place called The Merry Ploughboys Restaurant. The food was great and while we were eating, the Merry Ploughboys came out and started singing. They sang pretty much the whole night. They took about a 20min-1/2hour break and during that time we had some local Irish dancers come out and preform. I totally had rock star seating as I was at the table in the center and I was only 5 seat from the stage so I really did have one of the best views out of our whole group.

On our way back to hotel that night, because we didn't have any music in the rental coach, Kim thought that it would be fun to just randomly start singing. We did sing a few songs but a few days ago she had told us that she knows how to sing Jeremiah was a Bullfrog in Japanese. lol I think she had a few drinks in her by this point and so we convinced her to sing it for us. It was awesome! I made sure I got it all on camera so I can look back and giggle at it later.

Sept 8 - Cork to Kilkenny

2009-09-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

We got to sleep in this morning as our bus didn't leave until 9am! Woop Woop! We stopped in a town called Cobh (pronounced cove) where we all had the opportunity to walk through the museum. Cobh is famous because it was the last port of call for the Titanic. Unfortunately, other than that there really wasn't much to see there and we were all kind of bored. Luckily the stop wasn't very long.

Back on the bus, we had the privilege of hearing one of the girls sing coacheokee to I'm to Sexy. I throughout that suggestion because I thought it would be funny for her to sing because she seemed really shy, but man, she knew every word...had us fooled. lol

We stopped for lunch at another small town that had a castle, which this is going to sound bad, but I don't remember the name of. lol I didn't go up it though as my knee was still bugging me and it was 6euros (I was starting to feel broke) so instead, my two buddies (Steve and Ross) and I went for lunch and then just walked around town until it was time to head back to the bus.

We got to Kilkenny and had a walking tour of the town by a local guy. I'm sorry to say this, but he wasn't the best tour guide. It was only an hour though and then we headed off to find some supper. After supper we ended up just back at the hotel and hung out for a couple of hours. Bed that night was very early, 10:30. It was a nice relaxing day which was nice because yesterday was crazy busy and tomorrow also will be big as it is our last actual night of tour. :(

Sept 7 - Killarney to Cork

2009-09-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, ok so day 12 was a busy one so I will try to keep everything fairly brief. We left the hotel this morning at 8:30am and drove through the Ring of Kerry. It is this big forest area that is surrounded with water, hills, flowers, wildlife and trees. We were able to stop for 2min photo opt which was awesome and managed to pick the spot that was swarmed with thousands of little biting bugs. It was great. We really did just run out of the bus, took a couple of quick pics and then scramble back on. Only a couple hundred or so managed to make it on the bus so for the next 10min all you could hear was people slapping the windows and trying to kill them all. lol

Next stop, Blarney Castle where we had a couple of hours to have lunch, shop and go and kiss the Blarney stone. Now, I should say here that all of the rumours surrounding the Blarney stone are just that, rumours! Once you are actually there and see for yourself you understand why. We had to pay an entrance fee to get up into the castle (which is locked up every night). Once walking the 100steps up the very windy staircase to the top of the castle you can then see the people that are bent over kissing the stone. Their was 2 guys standing there, one which holds you so you don't feel like your falling, and other is there for the picture taking. They say that kissing the Blarney stone gives you the gift of gab (not the luck of the Irish), and I really didn't need the gift of gab but I thought why not. :) The topper for me was that the guy had a big bottle of sanitizer there that he says they use very often so that won me over and kissing I went. :)

I ended up having Irish stew for lunch. Everyone kept raving about how Irish stew was so great, but honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between great Irish stew and beef stew we get back home. oh well. I can't complain though.

After lunch we headed out to the Jameson Irish Whiskey Factory. We had a tour which was really good (better than the Scotch whiskey tour we had) and again got to try some whiskey. She was in need of some volunteers to be taste testers and well at that point no girls had volunteered so I figured I should take one for the team (ya right, huh?!?) and volunteer my services. ;) We ended up doing a tasting between Jameson whiskey, Scotch whiskey and Jack Daniels. You could 100% taste the difference and I can even tell you why (I was actually listening through out the whiskey tours, impressive huh?). The JD is made in the states and is distilled only once. The Scotch is obviously made in Scotland but distilled only twice. The Irish whiskey however is distilled 3 times and you can really tell because it was way smoother going down then the other 2. In the end she gave us all a little diploma and then we got yet another sample of the Jameson. I'm not a whiskey drinker but if I was, I would definitely be drinking that. It was smooth!

We arrived at our hotel and after supper went out for a night of bowling and pool. I didn't end up bowling because my knee had been hurting for a few days now and I thought bowling would really bugger it up more so I sat out. I did however end up playing some air hockey which was loads of fun but in the end, ended up with a pinkie finger air hockey injury. Don't worry though, I made it out alive and I can still type ok. ;) We then ended up playing some pool where one of the creepy guys in our group was taking pictures of a few of us as we were making our shots. Once I realized this though, I gave him a piece of my mind (not even kidding) and he left soon after. Seriously...he was just creepy! :{ Headed back to the hotel shortly after pool and in bed by 12:30. Good but busy day all around.

Sept 6 - Galway to Killarney

2009-09-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning. It was raining pretty hard and lucky for us didn't stop all day. ;{ Our first and only stop of the day before reaching Killarney was at the Cliffs of Moher. We had about a 45min stop here to go and take some pictures and then have a quick look around the gift shop. It was raining so hard out though that not many of us felt like walking up to the top to get some pictures. I did get a little ways up though and managed to take a couple of pics before turning and running back down to get in out of the rain. We all looked like drowned rats, it really was quite funny.

I took the next 1/2 hour to shop the gift shops and then ran back to the bus. We had our second coacheokee singer heading out of the Cliffs as a couple of the girls were late getting back on the bus. It really was quite funny as Anne-Maree belted out the words to It's Raining Men. lol I guess you had to be there though.

We pulled into Killarney around 1:30 and had some time to grab lunch before we were to go on the jaunting cars. At 3:00 it was still raining like crazy but we all managed to climb up into the carts of these poor horses that were going to carry us through the Killarney National Park. There was 6 of us in the back and 2 up front and we only managed to get about 20 steps before our horse had to stop. He was sick, and lugging us all around in the rain was making it worse so we had to get down and change carts and horse's. I should also say at this point though that there was no top on the carts that we were sitting in, so we were all soaking wet and getting grumpier by the minute. We tried to have fun and had a few laughs at each other as everyones (except mine) umbrella kept overturning on its self causing everybody to get more wet. We really were a site.

Supper was back at the hotel and yes, it was another good one. After supper we went to a cocktail bar (Kim has these places all scoped out for us) and then afterwards we went to a local pub were we got to listen to some good celtic music. I heard there was a dj playing in the back as well but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. I wanted to show you this drink I had from the cocktail bar because it was so green, I couldn't believe it. Tasted more like oranges though than anything else. It was called a Lucky Shamrock. :) I also can tell by now that you are thinking I was doing alot of drinking. In my defence, I really didn't drink that much. I only drank about half the time and only had a couple when I did. I thought I did quite well. There were others that actually ripped it up every night.... I am way to old for that! :)

Sept 5 - Galway

2009-09-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

Today was our free day in Galway but 95% of us decided to do the option excursion and go to Aran Island for the day. The bus took us to the ferry which was pretty small compared to others we had been on. the water was very very rough and it was crazy windy out so you can only imagine how well I did this morning on the boat. There was people throwing up everywhere, it was really kinda gross, but I have to be honest I was just about one of them. :{ I made it through though but had a very weak stomach all day.

Once on the Island, me and 4 others hired a driver to take us around the islands. We could have rented a bike for the same amount of money but there was no way I was pedalling up and around and island all day long. I was really glad though that we did hire a driver because it was raining and like I mentioned earlier, very windy. He took us first to see the seals that live on one part of the island. Then he drove us up to the drop off point where we then proceeded to walk about 25min up to the top of a cliff. It was the best views I have ever had of the ocean. We were even allowed to dangle our feet off the cliff which was cool because there are no guard rails or anything. I got some awesome pics! We stopped for a quick lunch at the bottom of the cliff and I once again had soup you guys! See, it is growing on me. ;) He drove us around to some other really neat sites and then back to the ferry were we met the others and headed back to Galway. I also need to mention here because it was kind of funny but kind of not. Once on the bus back to our hotel, Kim got on the microphone and told us that not eveyone that goes up the cliff comes back down. :o She said because it is so windy up their, sometimes the wind just blows people off. Seriously! I'm glad she told me that once I was off of the mountain or I would have never set foot up there. oh well, I lived to tell the tale. :)

We arrived in Galway just in time for supper. After supper some girls when out, most people stayed in and played cards and I was lame and went to my room, watched a bit of a movie and was fast asleep by 11pm. All in all it was a really good day but man that sea air and and upset tummy can make a person fall asleep fast. ;)

Sept 4 - Dublin to Galway

2009-09-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

We left Dublin at 8:30 this morning. Our first stop of the day was the Guinness Factory to learn how Guinness is made and have a pint. It was a self tour, which was nice because we could go at our own pace and then afterwards we all ended up at the top of the factory (7th floor) to have a pint in the 360 degree bar. It was really cool. I managed to get down half of my pint, which I thought was pretty good because it was only 10am. I had to pace myself you know. ;) I did some much needed souvenir shopping in the ridiculously huge gift shop and then back on the bus.

Our next stop was at Kilmainham jail. It was the first jail open in Ireland in the 1700's. The tour itself was a little boring but the jail was kind of neat to see as it was dark and creepy. After an hour we ran back to our bus in the pouring rain and headed to Galway.

The new group that joined us yesterday seems very quiet and reserved right now. Not sure what to think about that. Hopefully they will come out of there shells a little. Kim did start playing The Galway Girl which is a song by Steve Earl and most people know it from the movie P.S. I love you. What a great song. This was the first of many many times we heard this song over the next 6 days. The newbies livened up a bit once hearing the song. :)

We made it into Galway by 5pm. Liz and I ran around for a couple of hours doing more much needed souvenir shopping. Is anyone seeing a trend here?!? lol I also bought a claddagh ring. A claddagh ring is ring that is worn by men and women, single or taken. The meaning behind it is Love/Loyalty/Friendship. They are pretty famous throughout the UK but people all over the world know what they mean.

We had our own walk about supper again tonight and then everyone met a local pub for a few drinks. I ended up sitting with one of the girls and a bunch of random guys who I later found out were on a stag night. There was only about 6 of them though and they were all married but they kept buying us drinks so we stuck around. ;) About an hour later though the group was leaving and I decided to leave Erica behind with the guys and head on with the group. We stopped at another local pub that had a band starting up soon. I grabbed another drink and turned around to talk to the group. Luck be to me though a guy was standing there and we started chatting. The first thing he asked me was about my claddagh ring. Anyway, long story short (because there isn't really much to tell here), we talked the whole night. Then when it was time for everyone to leave (which was our usual time of 12pm, lol) he gave me a hug, said he really liked my name because it sounded Irish and gave me a kiss. So there I was, my second night in Ireland with my claddagh ring on and I had a kiss from an Irish boy. I was pretty happy with myself. ;)

Sept 3 - Liverpool to Dublin

2009-09-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we left Liverpool at 8am this morning. I had such a good night sleep. I felt refreshed and ready to head into Ireland! We stopped in a town called Chester were we had about and hour and half free time. Liz and I decided to go get some ice cream for some strange reason. It was freaking cold out and raining but we were determined to get some ice cream because neither of us wanted to go shopping. We ended up finding an ice cream parlor that said it specialized in Italian Ice cream. I was skeptical after the wonderful gelato I get here in Florence but we checked it out anyway. I was right, they called it ice cream because it was nothing close to gelato and the dude didn't even speak Italian. I was so disappointed.

We left Chester and headed for the town in Whales with the longest name in the whole UK (prob the world). It's name is LLANFAIRPWLLGW
YNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH and I was told it has 52 letters, though I didn't actually count. We stopped here for a quick lunch and to say farewell to the rest of the group that was leaving us and heading back to London. We were all really sad because we all became so close in the 8 days we were together.

There was only 15 of us that headed over on the ferry to Ireland. The ferry ride was over 3 hours long and was a little rough. It was very windy out that day and you could tell. We basically just sat inside most of the trip and played cards. I checked out the gift shop and just killed time. Once off the ferry it was only about 30min into the hotel where we met the new 24 people joining our group for the next 8 days.

We all had supper and then headed to the pub for a drink. I should take a moment here to say that I don't think I hate soup anymore. I know I know, shocking isn't it? Well, up to this point in the trip I had already eaten about 4 bowls of soup and all of them were actually pretty good. Tonight's was my favorite though which was asparagus and chicken. Mmmmm The hotel was a bit run down but honestly I can't complain about any of the hotel rooms along the way. They were all comfortable and warm and I was able to have my tea every morning. :)

Sept 2 - Glasgow to Liverpool

2009-09-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Bus left at 8:15 this morning which means that after my night of drinking I was up at 6:15...ugh :{ We ended up saying goodbye to the 9 people that joined us for the Scotland portion of the trip and headed on out to Gretna Green for our group photo and "marriage". I have to admit, Scotland was so beautiful I am really sad to be leaving it today. I never thought I would love Scotland as much as I did. Everything about it was great, from the people, the way of life, the hairy coo's to the scenery. I can't say a bad thing about it. I definitely want to go back someday.

Gretna Green is a famous town in Scotland because back in the day they performed marriages for anyone that wanted one. There was no legal age to get married whereas there was in the surrounding countries like England, Whales and Ireland. Couples of all ages who could not get permission from there parents for whatever reason would just jump over the border and have a quick 5min ceremony and then head back over and tell there parents they were married. In away, its kind of like Vegas. :) Gretna Green for this exact reason has turned into a pretty big tourist area and still to this day people come over to the small town to get married. So, we had our quick 5min mock wedding and then our group photo and off we were again to the next town.

We arrived in Liverpool at 2:30 and had a local lady hop on and give us a Beatles tour around the city. She showed us all of the places where the Beatles grew up, went to school and many other cool spots.

We checked into the hotel by 3:30 and had free time until 6:30. It rained really hard all day but a few us walked to the mall anyway which was about 10min away. Once there though I didn't find anything good and ended up heading back to the hotel. To be honest I was looking for a souvenir shop but there was nothing! I ran across a girl from the group that was also looking for a souvenir shop and so we decided to look together. We found one but just our luck it had closed 2min before we got there. Ugh! Oh well, it only means I didn't get any Liverpool souvenir's.

Supper was really good that night and afterwards we all went to a pub called The Cavern which was the pub where the Beatles first got discovered so that was pretty cool. I only stayed for one quick drink though and was in bed fast asleep by 10pm. :)

Sept 1 - Aviemore to Glasgow

2009-09-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

Bus left at 8am this morning. I managed to get a second row seat and I was feeling great! Our first stop this morning was at Loch Ness were we had some time to take some photos and do some much needed souvenir shopping. :) I had my picture taken with Nessie the Loch Ness which was fun and then we were off again. Stopped at Urquhart Castle for a quick 10min photo op and then again, back on the bus. Not even 30min later we stopped again to take photo's of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. We were on our way out of the Highlands today which was kinda sad because they were so nice. I could definitely go back someday.

We had our boat tour on the Loch Lomond today. It rained all day though and the boat was small so none of really had a good time. Oh well... Didn't even see Nessie in the water liked we hoped. Maybe next time... ;)

We made it into Glasgow about 5pm and then headed straight out for supper. We all ended up at the same restaurant even though it was our own night to buy supper. We all crowded into this pub and all had some really cheap pizza. I ended up ordering a cocktail for about 6pounds which ended up being more expensive then my whole pizza (which was 5pounds). We then broke up into girls and guys and headed out drinking. We actually did plan this in advance though as the next day we were heading to Gretna Green, a town where they performed many many marriages (I'll tell you more in the next post). So just for fun, Kim picked two people out of the group to "get married" tomorrow at Gretna Green and so tonight was our stags and hens night.

I'm still not sure exactly what the boys did for there hour and half away from us (and maybe we didn't really want to know) but us girls went for cocktails and drank a lot in our 1.5hours we had. lol I managed to down a whole pitcher in my time, along with most of the other girls as well. good times! We then met up with the boys at 10 and headed to a different bar. I have to admit though I only lasted about and hour and was fast asleep back at the hotel by 11:30. hahaha drinking really isn't what its cracked up to be. ;)

Aug 31 - Edinburgh to Aviemore

2009-09-15T11:27:00.001-07:00

We had a really early morning today with the bus departing at 7:45am. The drive was very long and windy today which put me in row 4. lol We stopped for a about an hour in a town called St. Andrews. Some of you may recognise the name as this town is most famous for its golf. Everyone that has ever played pro golf has played on this course we were told. It books up months in advance. I took a few pictures here of the golf course as well as the Abby ruins, the beach, and of really cute little Scottish highlander dog nicknamed "Westie".

I saw my first "Harry coo" today. "Harry coo"or Hairy cow in English is a Highlander Cow that is smaller than a regular cow and has really long hair. I loved them. They were so cute. In Scotland they use the Harry coo's for Angus beef and that's all. I guess they just taste better. I can't say I tried one and don't think I would have wanted to. They were to cute to eat. :)

We stopped at our first Whiskey distillery today were we had a tour of the distillery (but couldn't take pics) and got to sample some Scotch Whiskey. There were three to choose from but I tried the most mellow one which was the 12 year old. It was ok, but a little harsh. I'm not the biggest whiskey drinker and today proved that.

We then drove past Balmoral Castle (the 4th place of the queens castles that we seen so far). Her other homes we actually had a chance to go into, which I went into one of them, but this one we just drove by. Just our luck too, when we drove by we seen her flag flying which meant that she was there in Scotland just a few Km's from us. very cool!

We got to Aviemore in time for supper. We ate, played some cards and was in bed by 10:45 that night. It had rained all day so it was good that we spent it mostly in the coach.

Aug 30 - Edinburgh

2009-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well today was our free day in Edinburgh. Breakfast was at 9:15 and then we all met at 10 so that Kim could purchase us bus passes for the day. Brandi, Kelly, Steve and I headed up to Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is this pretty high mountain that looks out over all of Edinburgh and surrounding towns. It took us about one hour to climb up this hill which was (for the most part) straight up. I took many breaks and had just about given up when a couple in there 70's or so came down past me and said that I could do it. I felt like a weakling then because if they could do it, I should be able to do it. Once at the top, the whole walk was worth it! What a fabulous view. We only stayed at the top for about 10min and then headed back down. Not even 20min later we were back at the bottom.

Tonight was our big Scottish Night out. We went to a nice place for supper where I tried haggis (gross!) and had some really yummy salmon for supper. Then Andy the Scottish bagpiper came and played for us. He had a great sense of humour and played really well. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was pretty chilly out today but no rain, so we couldn't complain. Back at the hotel that night we just hung out and played cards. I was in bed before 11 that night. Climbing a hill/mountain is exhausting! ;)

Aug 29 - York to Edinburgh

2009-09-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Left the hotel this morning at 8:15am. I ended up sitting about half way down the bus as I was not feeling the best. The roads heading into Scotland were very curvy and hilly. Up until this point I had been sitting in the back of the bus.

We stopped for a break at a place called Hadrian's Wall. It was a wall that was being built way back when by the Romans to try and keep Scotland out of Britain. It was a long walk up to the wall but a cool view once up there. It was VERY windy though and we were all dressed up pretty warmly that day.

Once back on the bus we headed through the England/Scotland border where we stopped for a few pictures and then back on the bus. We ended up in Edinburgh by about 4pm. We had a coach tour of the city and then had supper at the hotel.

At 9pm that night we headed out to the Military Tattoo. To be honest I had never heard of it before but once there and once I heard all the hype surrounding it I couldn't wait. I wore about 6 layers that night as it was very very cold out and we were sitting on the top of the mountain at the castle. The walk getting there was crazy. Edinburgh is built to have different layers of streets. So one minute you could be on one level and then the next you could be walking up about 100 stairs to get to the next street level (which is exactly what we did). :{ The Tattoo was really good though and I really enjoyed it. There were groups from quite a few different countries playing. It was all marching bands, including bagpipers. It is held in Edinburgh every year for a few weeks at a time and is sold out every night. At the end, they held fireworks as well which ended up being right over our heads. It was the closest I have ever been to fireworks. It was such a great thing to see.

Aug 28 - Oxford to York

2009-09-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Bus left at 8:30 this morning. Kim played us our day song. It is a song that she plays every morning first thing to get our day started. There was only about 10 of us (the Canadians) that new the song. It is "Home for a Rest" by Spirit of the West. Everyone was looking at me funny as I was singing along but I didn't care, its a great song! We learned a few other things about the bus, like coacheokee. Basically the way it worked was that is someone was late getting on the bus then they had to sing a song at the front of the bus to whatever song we chose. Good Fun! Also while on the bus this morning (as it was about a 3hour drive) we played get to know your neighbour. Everyone changed seats every few minutes and got to know each other. It was fun but on day 2 of the trip, I lost my voice playing this fun game and to this day haven't received it totally back yet. ugh... :)

Got to York and Kim took us on a walking tour of the town. It was pretty small but there was lots to see. We then had a few hours of free time. I just hung out with a couple of the girls and we did some shopping.

We all met back up at the hotel at 6 where we then walked to the restaurant to have supper. Supper was really good (I actually can't complain about the food at all for the whole trip...weird huh?). I tried Yorkshire pudding, which isn't even a pudding. Its a cake that is drenched in gravy. Tasted pretty good though. I talked the lady at the bar into making me a paralyzer. She looked at me strange when I started drinking it but boy was it yummy! :)

After supper we had a ghost tour around the town. It creeped me out a little I have to admit, but it was cool anyway. York is said to be the town that has had the most ghost sitings in the whole world. It was raining on and off which made it pretty chilly at night but we survived. Out Ghost tour leader dropped us back off at the hotel were we had about 10min to get ready before we headed out to a bar called the "Reflex". It was 80's Disco night and a few of the people in our group dressed up. The bar was crazy busy and we had lots of fun. There was a really huge lazy susan that was in one part of the bar that turned constantly. It was really fun and a few of us (me included) danced on it.

Aug 27 - London to Oxford

2009-09-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Up at 4:45am this morning. I couldn't sleep. having 2 other people in my room and knowing that I couldn't sleep in made me have a very rough sleep. So I got up and got ready to go. I was downstairs and ready for check in at 6:45. Got my bag weighed (which ended up about 14.8kg btw) and was on the bus ready to go at 7:30. Kim, our tour manager introduced herself and away we went. She (along with our bus driver David) gave us a bus tour of London. It was pretty quick but still nice to see everything for the first time.

We then headed out to Windsor where we stopped for 3 hours so we could tour Windsor castle and have some lunch. We were hoping to see the changing of the guards but it is every other day and we were the "off" day. Took lots of pics though and started to meet everyone on the tour.

Everyone seems really nice to far. There is one couple and about 3 groups of friends but everyone else is travelling by themselves just like me which makes it really easy to get to know everyone. The group was made up of mostly Australians, Canadians, a couple US, one German, one from New Zealand, and 2 from Taiwan. A very diverse group. 8 boys and 30 girls made up our group so the boys were sort of out numbered but I don't think they ever felt that way. ;)

A few of us stopped at "The Crooked House" for tea and lunch and then ran back to the bus so we could continue on. Yes, it really is a crooked house.

Back on the bus, Kim gave us the introduction speech which was long but needed and I like a few of her sayings. One was "It's not Wrong, its just Different" which pertained to the way of life in the Europe and the other was that she didn't like BMW's (Bitching, Moaning, Wining).

Arrived in Oxford and had a tour of the city from a local lady. She was so nice and very funny. In her mid 60's I would say and so full of life. She would tell us about one street or church or college and then turn to us and say, "Ok, now forget it...lets move on!" So enthusiastic, you can really tell she loves what she does.

Along the walk we walked past a stores called Bonnie. I had to take a picture of it. Really cool. We then had some free time and a few us of just walked around through the local market and then headed to the pub where we were meeting the others and had my first pint of English Beer.

Got to the hotel around 8:30 and headed down to the hotel lounge where we played cards (Kings and assholes) and just hung out getting to know each other for awhile. All in all, it was a great first day. My roommate is Emma, who I will be sharing a room with for the full 15 days. She seems very nice.

Aug 26 - Florence to London

2009-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Got up this morning at a reasonable time and was on the train heading to Pisa at 10:30am. Waited in line at the Pisa airport for about 2 hours before they opened up the check in gates (I have learned that this is normal for Ryanair) and then waited more to get through security. The planes are a decent size (a Boeing 737) and they squished many people in them. The planes are bare bones and you have to buy anything you want, including water. I guess this is why they can charge the cheap prices that they do. I was lucky though and had a seat where no one sat beside me...yeah!

Landed in London around 4:30 and headed out to find my coach. Found my bus no problem and hopped on. The ride was about an hour into the city. It was raining in London at the time, and the wind was strong which made it a little cool out (high teens) but all in all it was a pretty nice day. I even needed my jacket on which was kind of exciting as I haven't used a jacket in months! Hoped on the tube with the help from the tourist office guy. lol I went up to them to ask where I could get the correct line to take to my hotel and he offered to walk me there which I thought was great because he carried my suitcase down all the stairs as well. So far my opinion of England is holding true that people are friendly. lets hope it lasts. :)

Made it to my hotel about an hour after my Contiki meet and greet meeting so I missed out on that. I headed up to my room where I was sharing with an Australian and a Korean girl. Went back down to find some supper and was in bed by 10 because we had to meet at 6:45am the next morning.

Feels like Forever!

2009-09-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all, wow it feels like forever since I last posted. I have so much to tell you I just don't even know where to begin. I have come up with a way to post about my UK trip though. I am going to blog about every day separately and that way I won't forget anything. In total after sifting through all of my pics, I took a whopping 566 pictures which works out to be approx 30 a day. Pretty impressive huh? :) I will post a couple with each post. The rest will have to be shown to those that are interested once I am home. Anyway, I'll keep this short and start my 19 days of posts. Hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed living it! What an experience!

UK Here I come!

2009-08-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

I actually had a busy day today. I was up and out of the house by 8:30 this morning. I needed to mail a parcel back to Canada and it needed to be done before I left tomorrow so I went and did that first thing this morning. I then decided to stop for a cappuccino and pastry on my way home. Now this wouldn't normally be note worthy but what happened while I was in there is. It was about 8:45 by this point and I was sitting relaxing eating my breakfast and this guy, dressed in a suit came in and ordered a Vodka! lol at 8:45 in the morning. Now that is dedicated... either that or he really didn't like his job and needed a little pick me up. ;)

I was back at home starting to pack by 9am. I had my windows open still because it was still nice and cool out and a car drove by on the street. usually I can't hear cars driving by and usually don't pay attention but this one I had to listen to as he had his stereo cranked as loud as possibly and he was playing Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. I actually laughed out loud with that one. Its weird really, I have noticed how "fashion forward" Italians are with their clothing but when it comes to music they are really years behind us. So who cares if we are dorky in our clothes that were hip 3 years ago, at least we have cool tunes! "Rock On Dude!"

Yeah... the gelateria was open finally today. it couldn't have come on a better day. It was unbelievably hot again today.

I actually don't know if anyone responded to yesterdays post or not, but I decided to go ahead with the job even though I am not making a cent. I thought that taking pictures in exchange for cheap trips sounded cool and until I can get a real job then I will take advantage of this one. So I went down to the FlorenceforFun office and booked my first trip. I am going to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany and couldn't be more excited! How fun. 3 nights, 3 days in Germany. I never thought I would go to Germany on my Italian adventure and now look at me? Crazy!

So here is my UK plan for anyone that is interested. I have gotten a few emails asking where all I am going on my trip so I figured I would just jot it down on here. In England - London, Oxford, York, Liverpool. In Scotland - Edinburgh, Laggan, Glasgow. In Ireland - Dublin, Galway, Killarney, Cork, Kilkenny. It sounds fun huh?

Well I really need to get to bed and finish last minute packing. My suitcase is sitting at 14.2kg right now and the most it can be in 15kg. This should be a good thing but I really wanted it to be a max of 12 so I could bring stuff back with me. Wish me luck. Also I need to mention that I won't be blogging until I get back. I am not taking my laptop and when I do have internet access I will be checking emails and such. Please email away though if you want to. I will respond when I can. I can't wait to come home and blog all about my trip. See you in 19 days!

Temp high: 36
Gelato: Yogurt Bosco... oh how I missed you... ;)

What happend to August?

2009-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, this month has flown by! Its hard to believe that its already the end of the month. I have spent the last few days cleaning up around my apartment because I was alone and didn't have much else to do. Being alone was good and bad. I found myself talking to myself on more than one occasion (which is probably why I have cats at home) :) It was good because I had the whole place to myself and took advantage of it. I watched all of my movies in my living room (aka the couch in the kitchen) and didn't have to hang out in my bedroom the whole time which was awesome!

I think I am pretty much ready for my trip on Wednesday. I am so looking forward to it, can't wait! I am sooooo excited to be going to 3 new countries that I have never been to and before me coming to Italy never imagined I would ever to get to. I am also a little excited to escape the heat for 3 weeks. Not that I don't love it, don't get me wrong. We have just had weeks and weeks of over 30 degree weather with no rain and hardly ever a breeze to cool it down. From what I have been reading the weather right now in the UK is about the same as what all of you are experiencing back home so I will welcome the rain and 20 degree weather for 19 days. Do you remember my umbrella that I finally bought back in July? Well I finally got to use it the day I went to Siena for the races. I used it to shield my back and head from the sun. lol I'm taking it with me though, no worries.

I had an interesting email today which I am going to share with you. Back about mid July I was looking at different things to do here in Florence and came across a company called FlorenceforFun. My school actually used them occasionally for day/weekend trips. I checked them out online and saw that they were looking for photographers for all of the trips they go on. I decided to email them in hopes that they would be interested in me. Well today (just about a month and a half later) I received and email back from her. She actually sounded really interested. Woo Hoo! Ok, so I will tell you the downfall about the job first off. I don't think it is actually a paid job. lol yup, that's right. From what I understood from her email (and I have already emailed back to clarify) it looks like I would get free (or discounted) trips. All day excursions would be free of charge (most cost 30-50euros) and then for any trip that is longer than one day I would get a 50euro discount on that trip. What would I be doing? Well taking pictures of the locations and the people on all of the trips that I went on. They would then have copies of my pictures and use some for their website, posters and brochures.

So this is my take on this offer that has come up. It sucks if I actually wouldn't get paid, especially if they are using my pictures. However it would be really cool because I could go on a lot of day trips for free and maybe even a few smaller ones for fairly cheap. It would also be cool if I had my pictures published (even if it is just in Florence and really far from home). I think it would be a good opportunity to practice my photo skills in a semi working environment and might even look good on my resume.

So, just because I love posting questions to all of you. What is your take on this? Good or Bad and why?

Cleaning day 1

2009-08-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well I woke up this morning knowing full well that I have the apartment to myself for 3 whole days. I figured this would be a great opportunity to clean up a little. My apartment is a mess right now. Not just my room (even though I do need to clean it as well), the whole apartment has a nice odor going on right now. We can't open the windows during the day because it is just that hot here so that doesn't help the smell much either.

I have noticed that mostly its just the kitchen that smells but still I haven't actually seen the apartment being cleaned once since I moved in 2 months ago now so I figured I should. So I got up this morning and started by washing dishes. My plan was to wash every dish in this place as I haven't seen soap being used to clean any dishes other than the ones I wash and I have started to hoard my own clean dishes in my room (which I should never have to do). So I figured I would remedy it by washing all of them, plates, pots, glasses, cutlery, you name it, I washed it.

About 2 hours later, I had washed and dried every dish in this place that I thought I would ever come into contact with. :) I was then exhausted and figured I have 2 more days still so I relaxed, watched some tv and just vegged out. :)

I then put on a movie (Under the Tuscan Sun) and gave myself a mini pedicure with the wonderful foot spa salts and lotions that I purchased from Ikea. What don't they have?!? ;)

Tomorrow is floor washing and clean out the fridge day and then Sunday will be cleaning the bathroom day. Fun fun, that's for sure. Things I miss already? A vacuum, Mr. Clean and of course my dishwasher. :)

Temp high: 35ish
Gelato: still none :(

Getting Shit Done!

2009-08-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, you guys are going to be so proud of me. I was up before 9 and was finished breakfast and ready to leave the house by 10:30! I headed out with 2 things in mind. #1 lottery ticket-I'm really trying to win that 149million euros. I think it would really come in handy and if I won then every one of you that reads my blog I would fly you out to visit me for few days each. Wouldn't that be fun? So with that being said, everyone think lucky thoughts. ;) #2-To get my museum pass.

So, I headed out and my first mission was to find a lottery ticket place. I did, without to much trouble. When I got in there though I was about one of 12 other people in this store about the size of my bathroom. lol Some nice person beside filled me in on how to fill out the form. It is called the SuperEnalotto and you have to pick your own numbers (I don't think they have a quick pick). You have to pick 6 numbers and can play the SuperStar (the plus) if you want to. Each selection of 6 numbers was .50cents and the "plus" was an extra .50cents. So I ended up picking 3 sets of numbers and the plus for each. Cross your fingers!

After completely my first mission it wasn't even 12 yet and I new I had tonnes of time today so I figured I would walk down to the Uffizi today instead of trying to take the bus. On the way I passed an internet point. I needed to print out some documents for my UK trip next week so I stopped in and got that mostly done. I have to go back though and print out a couple more but again, I was getting stuff done so I was feeling good.

Made my way down to the Uffizi Gallery and got my card with absolutely no troubles. With this card I now get into pretty much all of the museums in the city as well as I get to avoid all of the lines. How cool is that?!? I decided not to actually go to the museum though and figured I would go another day. Baby steps you know.... I can't rush these things. lol

On my way back home I saw some really cool street vendors again and took a picture of this dude. He looked so real it was really neat.

Later in the day (because I really had to go and get out of the sun at this point) I decided to take a walk. I actually went out with the idea that I was going to walk to the park near my house and write some postcards but I ended up going in the opposite direction. I knew there was a Coop grocery store (yup, same principle as at home) near my house somewhere and I wanted to find it and check it out. Well I did and it was so cool. It was really big. Way bigger than my usual supermarket that I go to however the prices were a bit higher. Basically it is a Superstore vs Coop scenario. You want to go to the coop because you know it is better food and more choices, but Superstore drags you in because of the cheapness of it. So I will definitely go back sometime but probably stick to my Supermarket for the most part. On the way home, I stopped off at a bench and wrote up a postcard. So one lucky reader will be getting a postcard from me very soon. ;)

And the mail keeps coming... Since I have moved into my apartment I have already received 3 postcards (all from the same person) :) and one letter with a picture of a gorgeous little baby inside it. I am loving all the mail and can't wait for more. I am sending out postcards myself to everyone who gave me their address. If I don't have your address in my little book, send it to me and I'll see what I can do. :)

Temp High: 37
Gelato: I tried today, I really did. Only to find out the gelateria by my house that I love is renovating right now until the 25th. Oh well... it wasn't meant to be.

Ahhh the Bus sytem...

2009-08-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

Well today I had big plans to get up early and head out to get that Museum pass I keep mentioning. Well I did wake up by 10, had a shower, got dressed and was ready to go before 12. Then I sat here. Watched some tv, played online for awhile and really did absolutely nothing for 4 hours. lol At 4pm I finally thought I better get my butt in gear and get that pass.

I headed out and was at the bus station by 4:30. I caught the first bus I seen that was heading down to the Uffizi Gallery (the museum where they sell the passes). I got on this bus (which sat about 10, maybe 15 people) and we were on our way. Now when I first got on the bus I asked the driver if it went to the Uffizi and he said yes. Ok, great I thought. I had my map though, just in case something went wrong. I was only on the bus for about 10min and I seen the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Across from that was the Uffizi. I didn't think to get off though and just walk across the bridge because the driver specifically said yes to me when I asked if the bus went to the Uffizi. Anyway, needless to say, I rode the bus all over the opposite of Florence. It was nice to see but ended up taking about 1/2 hour. Then we pulled up to this Piazza and the driver stopped, turned off the bus and got off. I then looked behind me and realized that I was the only one on the bus. lol I literally laughed out loud at this point because I new I had screwed up and should have gotten off at the bridge.

Then the other driver who was standing out smoking with my bus driver came on the bus and started talking to me. He asked where I wanted to go. I told him and he told me that I should have gotten off at the bridge (yup, figured that one out already). Then he told me I had to get off of this bus and get on the one that parked right in front of my bus. So I climbed on and my original bus driver got on and we started going again. it was super weird. Why did we change buses? Seemed like no reason to me. Anyway, we headed out and we finally came to the bridge again. I then got off and walked to the Uffizi where I was promptly told that the museum closed at 5pm for ticket sales (it was about 5:45). LOL

So I proceeded to walk back to the station and hit up McD's for supper. They have a new burger in right now called Pollo, Bacon, Cipolla (chicken/bacon/onion). It was super good. I will totally have that one again sometime. So Yummy! someone should tell the McD's back home to cook up one of those bad boys....it would totally sell. :)

Anyway, so tomorrow I will get up at a decent time and actually leave the house before noon. I learned my lesson yet again today. ;) Also, dad was telling me that there is a huge lottery going on in Italy right now that is up to over 149million euros. I'm going to try to get in on that action as well. Isn't it kinda sad though that I learn Italian news from Canada? ;)

Temp high: 37
Gelato: n/a

Two months down, four to go!

2009-08-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that as of today I have been in Italy for 2 months! Its kind of crazy really. So I guess this is where I reflect again on what I have done and what I haven't. What I have coming up and what I have left to accomplish in the next 4 months. Before I go into that though I need to tell you a bit of a funny story about yesterday.

Yesterday morning I finally made it to the grocery store after being without food (I'm not even kidding you) for 4 days. I ate chips and chocolate and drank lots of water. :) I found the best tasting cheese in the entire world I think and I need someone to see if the Bulk Cheese Warehouse in Stoon carries it, or maybe if I am even luckier a local grocery store. Anyway the name is Scamorza. It is a white cheese (but all of them are here). It is shaped in a ball but then has a another smaller ball attached to the the top of it. It kind of resembles a snowman with only 2 balls. LMAO Anyway, if someone can search that out for me that would be so nice. Thanks!

In the afternoon I went to Ikea with the sole purpose of "borrowing" a couple of the paper measuring tapes they have that you take when you are measuring out the furniture before you buy it. Well I needed to measure my suitcase for my trip to the UK next week and I was feeling cheap so I figured I would just use a couple of those measuring tapes instead of buying my own. :D Anyway, while I was there I figured I would stop for a hotdog as I was getting a little hungry. It was called a Swedish hotdog and the picture that I have included shows exactly what it looked like. I don't get it really. The bun was soooo tiny and the dog itself was so long and skinny. Why not get the same size bun? Just something I thought about yesterday and figured I should make note of this tiny/long hotdog situation. lol It did taste pretty good though. :)

Ok, so what have I accomplished in the last month? Well, I finished both my Italian class as well as my photography class. I have travelled down to the South of Italy and the West coast. I learned a lot about the train system in Europe as well as I now know never to take sleeper trains again (unless absolutely necessary). I made many "friends for a day", which I look forward to keeping in contact with. I visited the fashion capital of the world and decided never to go back. I also took in the Palio di Siena which turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience, good and bad. lol

What I have yet to do in Italy that I haven't done in the last two months? Well, I am slightly ashamed to admit this but I have yet to go into a museum. I know I know, I'm going very soon. I just need to get my butt out of my apartment and go and by the museum pass. This week, I promise! I also haven't gone into a bar/club yet. I was a little surprised at this one myself but I guess I just think the thought of going into a bar by myself is kind of weird. Also, the fact that the bars/clubs don't even open until after midnight is just crazy. That's way past my bedtime! (did that just date me?!?) oh well... And the last thing I haven't done yet I wasn't sure if I should mention, even though I am sure those that talk to me on a regular basis already know. I have yet to make an actual friend. You know what I mean, someone who I can call up and go shopping with, or go for coffee or just hang out. I have met so many nice people in my travels but haven't met anyone in Florence that has become anything more than an acquaintance, a passer by. This makes me a little sad as I pride myself in being a people person, easy to make friends with anyone. It also makes for really long lonely nights sometimes. Now I should say here, that I don't want pity from anyone. I am loving my time here it is just in different ways than I originally thought it would be.

So, what do I have coming up for the future? Well first off, I am embarking on my UK journey in a weeks time. I am so excited and will end up being in the UK for 19 days (so the better part of my month 3). Only 9 days later my cousin (and one of my BCFF's) ;) Jeanette, will be coming to visit for 10 days. After that? who knows. I promise by my month 3 post I will have gone into a museum. I also hope to learn a bit more about cooking as I really haven't done anything on that front yet. I am still as bad as I was back home. :{ Oh well. I also hope to know a bit more Italian but with me in English speaking countries for 3 weeks I can't see me practicing any Italian. I also will be going to Rome and Venice in the next few months. And lastly... I would also really like to try to find George Clooney somehow. I have figured out where he lives and how to get there, now I just need to pick a time and hopefully he will be taking a swim or something. ;) Wish me luck!

Temp high: 36
Gelato: n/a

Palio di Siena

2009-08-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed out in the morning to what I thought was going to be a very eventful day. I had big plans to get to Siena for horse races by 11am and then I would look around the city and see the sights and then closer to supper I would go to the Piazza where the race is held. Sometimes though we don't always get what we want...

The Palio di Siena is one of the biggest events of the year in Italy. It is held twice during the year, once on July 2nd and the final race is held August 16th. This is a major event to Italians and tourists (such as myself). They take 10 horses and race them around a track built in the Piazza. They race around the track 3 times, which in the end takes about 1 minute. Each horse and rider wears clothing that is from the region that they represent for the race. This has been going on for hundreds of years now and more tradition than anything. From what I understand there is no prize won, just bragging rights I guess.

So I was at the train station at 9:15 thinking I was going to catch the 9:40 only to find that I had just missed the previous one and the next wasn't running until 11:15. you would think that even though it was a Sunday and they have fewer trains that they would make a few extra runs because of the race but I guess not. So I got to the train early enough that I was able to get a seat. Many people weren't as lucky and had to either stand or sit in the aisle ways for the 1 1/2 hour trip.

I arrived in Siena at 12:45ish, grabbed a map and a bus ticket and tried to find my way to the bus stop. Ended up getting a little lost, which actually turned out great because I forgot some things at home that I needed and I stumbled across a grocery store. Ok, so for a side note... Since my sunburn incident I have been loading up with sunscreen and have bought 2 bottles since the incident (which means I had 3 in total). Do you think I remembered to pack one for the day? Nope! so I had to buy a 4th bottle of sunscreen. On a happy note though, I now have a 30 and a 50 in a lotion and a 20 and a 25 in a spray so I am set for anything that can happen now. ;)

Found the bus stop by about 1:30 only to be told by some people waiting that they were going straight to the races as they close the entrance at 4 (even though the race didn't start until 7). So I just followed everyone straight to the Piazza. I was there by about 2pm and had a seat on a bench. I thought I was laughing because there were about 4-5thousand people already standing in the center of the race track and I couldn't figure out why my seat wasn't taken yet. Well about 20min later I got kicked out. They were reserved. I also figured out that those seats (just wooden benches) were going for 300euros a seat! lol can you imagine?!? Who would pay for that?

So I new I was going to be locked in the center along with everyone else so I figured I should run to the washroom before I get locked in (there was nothing available in the center). Found a bathroom and had to pay 1 euro to use it. This is the second time now that I have had to pay to pee. Gotta love Europe. They know how to make money. They charge 2-3euros for a bottle of water and then charge you to pee afterwards. :) On the way towards the center though I came across 5 bulls that were just standing in the walk way with guys holding on them like these guys were walking dogs. I actually was a little scared because I had to walk about 2 feet from them and they were huge! I think WAY bigger than our bulls back home. However, no one else was scared as little kids and adults were petting them, it was quite a sight.

Found a spot in the center and ended up next to a couple about my age. He was from Italy and she was living here now teaching English. It was so great to meet them. I stood next to them for about 2 hours and then they closed the gates and the parade started. It was a little after 4 by this point. It was very very hot out and the center had about 5-6 thousand people by this point. There was still lots of room and I still had a fairly decent view of a chunk of the track. Everyone kept saying that the area we were standing was actually a really good spot as you had a great view at race time. So there we stood.

Then all of a sudden the parade finished (a little after 5) and they opened up the gate again. However instead of opening up all of the gates (probably 20 around the whole center) they opened up just one... right in front of us. So for the next hour and half or so I had about 15 thousand people walk by me. Everyone was disgustingly sweaty and I could tell... trust me. When you get that many people in that small of spot there is nowhere for you to go but closer to the one beside you. As well, because I was on the edge of the walking path everyone was being very pushy and I actually got pushed around quite a bit. Luckily though everyone behind held me up as I couldn't move my feet so when I was pushed back the people behind had to push me back straight. It was a little ridiculous. I saw about 3 fights break out which I still wonder why. I mean really, there was nowhere for anywhere to go and everyone was pushing everyone, what good is fighting going to do.

So there I was, gates finally closed up at about 5 to 7, and at least 20,000 people crammed in like sardines. My feet, you can only image were throbbing in pain at this point. I occasionally tilted my head up to the sky to try and get just a smidgen of fresh air. It was so smelly and sweaty in there. Shudder..... They finally brought the horses out and had to line them up properly for the race to actually start. At about 7:30 they had the first false start. 7:50 came the second and by about 8:15 was the third. Just as the third false start was announced over 20,000 people started booing and screaming (what I can imagine was not good things) in Italian. Finally at 8:30 the race started which I think actually lasted less than a minute in the end. I held up my camera (because I hadn't been able to see the track for about 3 hours at that point) and tried to randomly take some pictures. You can actually see the picture below that I managed to get during the race. The one above is just one I took of the crown as we were waiting out the false starts.

So needless to say, I didn't actually see the race. I stood in what can only be called an Italian mosh pit with 20,000 sweaty, stinky, drunk people for over 6 hours and never actually seen any of the actual race. I had many many old men feel me up along the way and there was absolutely nothing I could about it because my feet were stuck in one spot and my arms were up by my face, so that was a extra added bonus. ;) As soon as the race was done, they opened the gate and grabbed onto Andy's (the girl I met) arm and we ran out of there as fast as we could. They offered to drive me to the train station so that I wouldn't miss my train as the last one back to Florence was at 9:15pm and it was about a 45min walk from the piazza to the station.

I managed to find one of the last available seats on the train and thought I was home free. Well again, I shouldn't be so lucky. Beside me sat a girl (I'm guessing about 16) and her boyfriend sat across from her. Well for the first 45min to an hour of the train ride, they groped each other across the seats so that was great. Then, for the last 30min or so I got to hear and see them making out. It was a real treat. :{ I kept my Ipod on and turned up the music as loud as I could and tried to have a cat nap or two just to avoid these two. Got home and the first thing I did before anything else was take a shower. It was well needed.

So all in all it was a very interesting day filled with many firsts again. I never actually seen anything of Siena and now feel I need to go back as I have been told it is a very nice city to see. Would I ever go and see this race again? Not if my life depended on it. lol Am I glad I went? Hell ya! lol Sounds strange I know but it was an experience I will never in my life forget.

Temp high: still high 30's
Gelato: n/a

Yesterday in Milan

2009-08-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well I used up my last day of my Eurorail pass yesterday going to Milan. I arrived in Milan at about 9:45am and was able to find my way (pretty easily I might add) to the Duomo. I went in and looked around. The art work and stained glass inside was so beautiful. I took some pics but they didn't turn out because of the lighting and I was using my little camera instead of my big one. I also decided to go to the top of the Duomo. It was a really cool view.

I then headed down to a few stores near the Duomo. I found Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and the list went on. I took some pictures of the stores but only went into Gucci as there is always someone at the door that I believe pics and chooses who they let in. Gotta love the rich eh? Anyway, I included this picture to the right as I wanted to show how Italian it can be sometimes. If you look closely, Louis Vuitton is on the left and McDonalds in on the right. lol gotta love europe! They know what matters... fashion and food. ;)

Afterwards I headed to a public Garden that I seen mentioned online as well as in my Italy travel guide. Well I have to be honest, when I got there it already looked like fall as the trees were dying and all of the leaves were falling off. The garden itself was very big and it ended up being very nice but I found myself really tired (as I was up at 5 to catch the train).

I decided to head back to Florence early and was able to catch the 3:30 train instead of hanging out in Milan for another 4 hours.

At the end of the day I would class Milan as big city feel with not much charm. Would I go back? Probably not. Am I glad I went? For sure!

Temp high: high 30's still
Gelato: n/a it was a holiday today and nothing was open.

So much to tell you!

2009-08-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

Well this might officially be my biggest post ever! Some might be a bit repetitive of my last two posts so sorry if it is. I'm just going to start at the beginning and tell you all about my week. Maybe this would be a good time to grab a coffee or a muffin or something. ;)

Taormina, Sicily was so nice to see. I mentioned my lovely train ride and have pretty much vowed to never take an overnight train again after my 2 train experiences. After I relaxed for a bit in my hotel room I hit the town to see the sights. I came across the most gorgeous paintings. I headed up to see them and the painter himself was running his store. I actually found one that I wanted to buy. I went in and talked to him about them and he was so nice, spoke a bit of English and because he found out I was from Canada (and he has actually been) he was going to give me a really special price. (better than the American pricing he told me). So, for the low low price of 600 euros, I could take this painting home. Now, to give him some credit, from what I read around the store, I believe he is kinda famous and has had exhibitions showcasing his work all over the world for over 30 years now (I wasn’t kidding, it was the most gorgeous painting I have ever seen). However, we had a nice chat, I thanked him so much for talking with me and I headed on my way. Ah to be able to afford a 600euro painting. Boy though would that have looked great in my living room. I took a picture so I can remember it. :)

I found so many really cool stores along the way and only came out with some pistachios, some pistachio cream liquor (its famous around here I guess) and some earrings made from some lava stone. I also walked to the Greek Theatre. It was started to be built in the 3rd century BC by the Greeks and then the Romans later finished it. They still use it for theatres and shows today. I went back to the hotel then and sat at the pool and had a swim for an hour or so.

I then decided to go out for supper. I was told this one restaurant had swordfish (Sicily is famous for their swordfish) and I really wanted to try it. Well I got there, and had already ordered a drink and the chick tells me they don’t serve swordfish. Ugh! So, 40euros later (wine for 5 euros and pasta and a piece of what tasted like tuna fish for 35 euros), I had my supper and headed back to the hotel. I’ll make sure I double and triple check the menu next time before sitting down. Sigh...

The next day I headed out on my Mount Etna tour (which I think I mentioned briefly). It was a really cool experience. We stopped along the way and we actually went under the ground into a small cave that was formed by the lava. It was damp and little drops of water would fall down on us. Their was only the 3 of us on the tour (me and a couple from England in there 50's) which actually made the excursion much more fun. We stopped at two different winery's along the way and also a Honey place. I tried about 10 different wines, 10 different olive oils and about 20 different honeys in all. I bought 2 different wines, a garlic flavoured olive oil and a small jar of berry flavoured honey.

We could only go about 3/4 of the way up the mountain which was ok. The view was still so beautiful and we stopped a place were we got to get out and walk around, take some pictures, buy some souvenirs, and then we headed back down the mountain.

That evening I was pretty broke from my meal the evening before that I settled on chips and gelato as my supper choice for the evening. lol I was sitting in the main square overlooking the most beautiful view in Taormina and ended up striking a conversation with two girls from England (in their 20's). We talked for a couple of hours and just hung out. They recommended a really cute little pasta place for supper so I ate there the following night. Then I went home to get some sleep.

My last day in Taormina was very relaxing. I packed up my bags but asked for an 7pm checkout (because my train left at 10:30). I headed down to Isola Bella (a really beautiful beach pictured above). I rented a chair and umbrella for the day and just sat and read my book. To be honest I never actually went into the water there though because I had no shoes that could go in the water. Maybe this is a good time to discuss the beaches in Italy.... They have the most beautiful warm water you would ever swim in but the beaches are horrible. They are all rocks, no sand. I wish I was kidding but the rocks are anywhere from pebbles to the size of your fist and this is what you walk on, lay down on and what is in the water when you are trying to walk into it. You definitely need some sort of water shoes in order to go into the water.

That evening I headed out to the train station. I wanted to be almost an hour early just in case and luck be to me the train was delayed until after 12am so I ended up sitting on a bench for over 2.5 hours. I talked with 2 people that were sharing my bench though through broken English/Italian but we managed. :)

Arrived in Sorrento by a train connection in Naples and found my hotel (hostel) that I mentioned in the previous post. Weirdly enough though, I wasn't looking forward to staying there but now that I have done it, I would probably do it again if I was travelling on a very limited budget. There were 7 other girls in the room with me and I felt like I was 12 again at bible camp. :) We talked for a few hours while lying in our bunks and then went to sleep. It was not a bad experience at all. I met some really nice girls and one of them was actually heading to Pomeii on Sunday (which I was planning on doing also). We decided to go together.

Pomeii was interesting. Very cool to see. Some things disturbing about it though. We spent about 3 hours wandering around the ruins. I actually wished we would have done the guide thing as it was only a 2 hour tour and took you to all of the major spots in the town. We ended up back in Sorrento by 4. Had some gelato choc and vanilla and we sat in the piazza across from the gelateria. I tried to shake an orange tree because I really wanted to see if I could try an orange right off the vine. Couldn’t get the oranges to fall though. lol We sat down at the pier for ages. Came back, had shower and we met again for supper. Saw a really pretty sunset over the sea. Decided to hang out down at pier again because there was a concert playing that night. Sal DeVinci was the headliner. Really good actually. I think I might try to find his cd somewhere. They don’t sell them at the concert… weird. The kids were crazy and everywhere. People also makeout wherever they want which is kinda funny, slightly tiring as you are trying to dodge them all the time. lol I seen many cats wandering about. The day was actually filled with so many funny things. Saw a tourist booth in Pompeii that was selling randoms and they had a Canadian flag hanging on the front of there booth. We also seen a marching band back in Sorrento during supper that wasn't very good but it was still fun entertainment. It ended up being some festival of the Madonna that Sunday in Sorrento which is why the marching band was there as well as the concert that night. During supper though, we started to hear a priest talking and it turns out there was a church service going on right in the middle of the pier. Very strange. The choir was singing, everyone was praying and they even had communion. It was all very strange to see in the middle of a very crowded public place. During the concert that night there were also booths set up giving away these gigantic meatballs. lol Seriously. There was one huge meatball (the size of my fist) and they plopped it into a bun. Very comical.

Monday I went to Capri. Bit of gong show getting there. I needed to be at the pier at 9:40. Was rushed a bit but made it there ok. Went to what I thought was the gate only to be told to go back… I hand gone the wrong way. Asked other workers and no one knew where I should be going. Finally found the booth that I need to get ticket at and then had to run (literally) back to the ferry. It was pulling away as about 10 of us were running to jump on. Pretty crazy really. Decided to do a tour when I got to Capri. Tour guide Jerry took about 15 of us (mostly brits) on a really cool tour. There was a really crazy high mountain that you could actually go up to the top of. In order to get up though you needed to go up a one person chair lift. I was scared shitless but the view was so beautiful. It actually took 12 minutes to get up this mountain so you can only imagine how high it was. I just knew though if I didn't go I would have regretted it. I ended meeting 3 ladies (Di, Linda and Megan from England) that were traveling together. We all shared a lunch and they were nice enough to let me hang out with them for the day. They were all so lovely. We decided to go to the beach for a bit before heading back to Sorrento. Di went in but I sat on a big rock with just my feet in the water with the other 2 ladies because I didn’t have my swimsuit (which in England they are called costumes) with me. She finally talked me into coming in clothes and all. I did, jean shorts, tank top, bra and all. We stayed in for almost an hour I think. The water was so nice and just what I needed to cool off. I love the salty taste of it. When I got out, I came as close to being on a nude beach as possible and took off my top to put a different one on that I had brought. No one even blinked an eye at me. Again… weird. I swapped email address with the 3 ladies and hope to keep in touch.

That night I just went out for some supper and then wandered down the main drag. So many street performers out and some of them were really fun to watch. They really put on a show. I heard some music in a building so I checked it out. It turned out to be a fashion show. Models were not very good but it was still cool to see. I only sat for about 20min and then headed back to Hotel Linda (the new place I was staying in).

Tuesday I went on a boat tour of the Almafi coast. Again I ended up sitting next to a couple from England. Is anyone seeing a pattern here?!? lol They were super funny. He was always cracking jokes an she was just a very nice lady to visit with. Our first stop was on the other side of Capri where we got to get off the boat and swim for about 1/2 hour. The boat had a ladder that actually went right into the water which was really super cool and I walked right off it into crazy deep turquoise blue water. It was wonderful! The water was really rough though. Josee (the lady I was hanging with) and I only stayed in for about 15 min and then her husband went in for the rest of the time. I then headed for the showers on board, got cleaned up and then we were on our way around the coast again. the view was so beautiful. There was houses and churches all along the coast and up really high on the mountain. We were trying to figure out how people actually live that way, but it must work for them somehow. We stopped in Almafi for about 2 hours. I had some gelato (which I actually found a piece of broken glass in so that kinda sucked) and just hung out at the pier. We ended up back in Sorrento a little after 5pm. I went home for a shower because I can not stress enough how hot the sun is and how much a person sweats over here. Its kinda gross really. :{

Throughout my week long trip, I accumulated about 2 bags of random gifts and souvenirs. I had so much fun and definitely want to go back one day (maybe even before I leave Italy). I have decided that I think Sorrento is one of my most favorite spots I have ever been to in the whole world. I also met so many nice people from England on my trip. It was weird really. lol Every group that I met (other than the girls in Taormina) were in there 50's/60's and everyone took me under there wings and were very nice to me. The all had children my age and some had grandchildren. I also have noticed that because I was hanging out with English people every day during my holidays, I actually have found that I have already picked up a few english words as well as an accent sometimes. Its really quite funny. I don't even notice I'm doing it until its to late. LOL My favorite word so far is lovely. Everything is so lovely, this trip has been lovely, everyone I met has been lovely, you get the picture. lol

I ended back at home late last night (around 10pm) and talked with mom and dad for awhile on Skype. Today is laundry day and I'm trying to decided where to go tomorrow. :) I still have one more day to use up on my eurorail pass and I don't want it to go to waste, so I think I might make a day trip somewhere. Not sure where yet though.

Also, I put a few extra pictures up on my flicker account if anyone wants to see them. You can get to it by going into my profile and under Contact you will see a My Web Page. Click on that and it should take you directly to my flicker site. I can't wait to show you all of them, but flicker only lets you put on a few every month so I tried to chose some of my most favorite (out of the over a 100 that I took) :)

Temp high: to crazy hot this past week to remember
Gelato: Well I had some pretty much every day but my most memorable would have to be the pistachio gelato I had in Taormina. It was just lovely! ;)

2009-08-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again, back online. It's actually weird not being able to connect to the internet whenever I want. A person really takes this for granted. Anyway, I have so much to say and I know that I will forget (and have forgotten already) so much stuff. When I get home (back to Florence) I will compose a "things I missed telling you" list and hopefully catch everything then. So for now, I will tell you where I have been and what I am planning on doing.

I was supposed to get on the train last night in Toarmina at 10:30pm but the train was late (typical Italian style). Instead it showed up a little bit after 12am. I got into my room which I had specified to have a bottom bed this time, only to find an old lady in one and a girl on the other side who pretended not to understand me when I tried to talk to her. ugh. oh well. I ended up with about 2 hours sleep in total (I am really not liking the overnight trains). Got to Naples this morning at 8am and hd a heck of a time trying to get to Sorrento. Finally some nice lady helped me out and showed me the way. I made it to Sorrento by about 10am and finally found a hotel to stay in for the night. Well I have to be honest, its no hotel... its a hostel! yup, I am sharing a room with 7 other people. fun fun! I do however have a bottom bunk this time so yeah! I had about a 2 hour nap and then headed out on the town.

Sorrento is beautiful! I took a 30min tour of the town which was fun and super funny. This one italian woman also on the tour was singing really really loud the whole time so it was hard to hear the tour guide. Then, the giude figured that he needed to stop for gas, right in the middle of our tour. again... very comical. After that I just walked around for another 5 hours or so, had some really delicious super (grilled chicken and potatoes) and then came back to my room.

Plans for the next few days? Well, tomorrow I am on the move again with my suitcases. I was able to find a single room to rent for 3 nights at a place right across the street for only 30euros a night. :) After I move though, a girl that is in my room tonight and I are heading to Pompei 8sp?) for the day to check out the ruins. Then Monday I am going to Capri for the day and Tuesday I signed up for an all day boat tour of the Almafi Coast which includes 2 stops for a couple of hours each at 2 of the towns along the way. Should be a fun filled few days.

It's been a whirl wind few days

2009-08-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hi all, this is going to be a short post I think today. I am in Taormina Sicily. I brought me laptop with me but it is being a nice big paper weight in my hotel room as the hotel only has dsl and I have no cord to hook it up. So here I am at an internet point and only have so long. The train ride here was a little crazy. I did not prepare myself for it thats for sure. I was lucky enough to get the top bunk (can't you just here my sarcasm?) lol and could only reach it by a ladder. woke up every time the train slowed down for fear that I was going to roll out of bed. It was hot sometimes and crazy cold other times. i decided to get up around 6am and was glad I did. we were just starting to board the ferry. It was super cool how they did it. They devide up the train into all the cabins. Then they move them on piece by piece until they are all on. it ends up looking like a big jigsaw puzzle. Got a couple of good pics from the deck of the ferry as it was about a 30min ride to the island. ended up in Sicily at 8:30. Got lost finding my hotel and walked in the opposite direction for an hour. :( Finally found my way and was able to check into my hotel early. hit the town and saw some really awesome sights. Had the most expensive supper of my life so far(I'm pretty sure). Spent 40euros on it. :-0 Got eaten buy mosquitos last night and couldn't figure out how to turn the ac on in my room. oy...

Today I ended up sleeping through my alarm. Really, I have no idea how this happens to me, but what can I do? had to meet my mount Etna tour guide at 8:50am and woke around 8:10. rushe dto get ready and still even had 10min to eat breakfast. Had another cappacino(sp?) (my second on this trip so far) and then headed out to meet my guide. I was right no time. The Mount Etna tour was awesome. We saw tonnes of lava rock and had a couple of wine tastings. Bought a couple bottles of wine ( I'm really starting to love this stuff) and a really yummy tasting fruit flavored honey.

I am heading to naples tomorrow night on an overnight train again. Yup, gluten for punishment. however it was take an overnight train for 8 hours of sit in a regular seat for 6 during the day so I figured I would save the hotel cost for another night. i get into Naples at 6:15 on Sat morning and then who knows from there. I was going to go to Bari and Naples but it turns out there is no direct train and it was going to take me over 12 hours to get there during the day and I would have had to switch trains 5 times. So, instead I am skipping it (it wasn't ment to be) and I am heading to naples. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, my time is up. I will hopefully come back online in a few days. Wish me luck!

My Uneventful but Fun Filled Day

2009-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today ended up being a pretty good day. I ended up heading out to pick up a few things around my usual going out time (5pm). I wanted to pick up a magazine for my trip which was definitely a treat as the Cosmo I bought cost 10.10euros. LOL can you believe it? Wow can they jack the prices up on things when they want to.

I finally decided to go and make my purse purchase today. I just couldn't not get it. I thought about it for 5 days and decided that yes, I needed this purse/bag. I am calling it a bag because it is huge, but I so love it! I can't wait to use it. :) After my big purchase I was just in such a good mood and I am not even sure why. Maybe it was because it wasn't overly hot out today. It was overcast and the wind made for a nice breeze, maybe it was my upcoming trip or maybe it was just my new bag. I guess we will never know.

So I decided to keep walking around for a bit and I ended up walking a few streets that I had only been down a few times. I stopped and went into a church because I heard organ music playing. It was small but the art work inside was beautiful and then to hear the organ playing as well...well it was very uplifting.

I guess this is the part where I should tell you all that I have finally started walking with my head up looking ahead of me, instead of watching where I walk (mind you this is still a good idea sometimes). So as I was walking down one of the streets head held high, I was just about to take another step forward and all of a sudden a pigeon came flying out from under my foot. LOL I didn't even notice it there and was about 1 inch from stepping on it. It went crazy on me flapping its wings and yelling at me. I was stunned for a bit and then just started laughing. I'm sure the other people in the street thought I was crazy, laughing to myself but I didn't care, It was funny.

I decided to go into the lush store they have here just to look around and as I walked in one of the sales reps said ciao to me. I said ciao back and continued to wander. He then came up to me and rattled of something in Italian which I can only guess to be Can I help you with something, when I said Oh, I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian. He then gave me a great compliment and said that he was sorry but I looked Italian to him. YEAH! Does that mean I am fitting/blending in? He spoke english a bit though so we talked for a few minutes and then I headed on my way, but I thought that was totally cool.

So, it is already after 2am and I am still not in bed yet. I had every intentions of going to bed kinda early tonight but would you believe that I haven't packed yet for my trip tomorrow? I know...shocking! lol seriously, I don't think my procrastination habits are ever going to change. I always find a different excuse why I can put it off just a little while longer. Anyway, I really should at least clear off my bed (meaning my attempt to pack) and get some sleep. I am soooo excited about my trip tomorrow! I am not sure how much internet service I will have when I am gone but still, email me everyone. I'm taking my laptop with me, just in case. :)

Temp high: I actually have no idea
Gelato: n/a

The Underworld of the Train Station

2009-08-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning with the fullest of intentions to go out and buy a few things that I wanted and to get my train ticket to Sicily. I was up by 10 and was ready to go by 1pm (after watching some tv). However, I was super tired so I decided to kill some more time by watching a few more episodes of Friends. You know, I really don't know what I am going to do when I am done watching Friends. I am already on Season 10 (I know, kinda sad huh?) lol oh well.

I headed out about 5 and went straight to the train station to get my ticket. I stood in line for about 40min and was lucky enough to have a guy at the counter that spoke pretty good English. I booked my ticket and wasn't lucky enough to get a direct ticket all the way to Taormino but instead I connect with a different train in Naples. So, I am leaving at 7:30pm on August 4th (Tuesday) and get to Naples around 11:00pm. I then have only 30min to get off the train and get on the new sleeper train that will take me straight to Taormina. On the sleeper train I was able to get a bed so that is good. I leave Naples at 11:30pmish and get into Sicily around 7:30am so I am pretty happy that I have a bed. It is a 4 bed cabin, which means that I will be sharing a room with 3 other women (they are divided for men and woman) and I have about 7 hours to hopefully get some sleep. I did decide to book a hotel room for the 5th and 6th of Aug in Taormina. I am happy about that. I was also looking at booking the train to my other destinations but have decided against it. I think I am going to wing it this time, knowing full well that it is peak season and everything books up. I guess the reason why I don't want to book everything ahead is because I don't really know when I want to leave or go to the next spot. What if I am having a blast in Sicily and don't want to leave on the the 7th? And, if I go to leave and there is no train, well then, I wait and catch the next one... no big deal. :)

After getting my ticket I headed out shopping. I have been eyeing up this one style of purse at the Guess store now for a few days. every day I have walked by and thought, man I have to have this purse! But every day I walk out empty handed. Well today I woke up and decided that yes, I was going to buy the purse. Now I should mention that the purses are all of half price right now, so what was a 120euro purse was now a 60euro purse. How could I go wrong! I walked back into the store today though and again had some doubts. There were two there that I loved parts of each of and they are the same design just different shape. Well I couldn't decide between the two because the one that I was really in love with didn't have a big enough strap that is could even go over my shoulder which would mean that I would have to hang onto this purse all the time by the handles and that just didn't seem right because it was fairly big. Anyway, long story short, I walked out yet again, with no purse. I am still so sad about this though. I loved the look of that purse so much! The sales right now that are going on are so crazy that I can't not look around. I also stopped at this one store and found a really cute pair of red and jean material slip on shoes. Super cute and they were really comfortable and actually pretty cheap witch is always a bonus.

On my way home I decided to take a bit of a detour through the train station. For over 6 weeks now, I have been at the train station every day and every day I see stairs that lead down under the train station so that you don't have to dart through traffic to get to the other side. Well, today because I had all sorts of time, I decided to go down underground to see what was there. Well it was insane! It was like a whole underworld of shops, travel agencies, coffee bars, hair salons and countless other things. I walked around for quite awhile looking at everything. I have to admit though, being under the train station made it feel a bit more seedy but still it was kind of interesting. I am not sure if I will go back down as I have pretty much perfected the art of dodging the buses and traffic above. :) It was pretty cool though to see it.

I wonder what other hidden gems are waiting for me to find them here in Florence?

Temp High: 34
Gelato: n/a but I have to say that as I type this, I am drinking my first glass of Crema di Limoncetta (Lemoncello but in cream form). It's actually pretty good with some ice and a bit of milk to make it just a bit more creamier. Mmmmm

What a month it was!

2009-07-31T14:24:00.001-07:00

I had such a good month for many reasons, all which I am about to share with you. The first one is that today marked the last day of my classes. Now to be honest, this was a mixed blessing (as you all know) as I did not do very well with my Italian classes but loved my photo classes. A smart friend of mine once told me (Thanks Devin for these words of wisdom) ;) that once you get a little older you start to realize what your strengths and weaknesses are. Not all of us are good at the things we wish we could be. This month has taught me many things.

For one, I have learned that photography really is my passion. I may not have been very good at it in the past and still may not the best at it now, but taking this class brought back so many great memories of taking my b&w film class at the UofS. I learned so much during that class and was so sad when it ended. I felt the same way about this class. I have learned about photoshop (just a little but still). I learned more regarding how to use my camera to the best that I can. I also learned through different workshops that we did that when I have my camera on manual I do take some really good pictures. Setting it on Automatic is great for taking tonnes of shots hoping that one will be the best, but when you set your camera on Manual you just know that the shot you are taking you are taking for a reason. You have a goal, a purpose and when it turns out I feel very satisfied. So, with photography on my mind, I think I would really like to try to pursue something along these lines when I get home.

So because I am right brained I had a hell of a time with my language class. I didn't hate the class I just didn't enjoy being in the classroom learning and being criticized when I did it wrong. There has to be another way for me to learn Italian and I am trying to figure that out. Learning a new language... definitely a weakness. I took the recommendation of Mario's gf and I went and bought a book. She thought it was great and it helped her out a lot when she was learning. cross your fingers. :)

This month has also taught me that we as Canadians take for granted what a wonderful place we live in. Like I mentioned before, I am loving being here right now, but boy am I already looking forward to going home (except maybe for the insanely cold winters). lol We take for granted our homes, our food and all of the luxuries that we have everyday. Mario and I were talking the other day about my house and we looked it up on Google Earth so he could see it. BTW, google earth really is one of the coolest inventions... Anyway, I told him what my house looked like, that it was 900sq ft and he got to see the yard. It was funny because to us my house is actually pretty small. A 900sq ft house to us is a "starter home", only good if you only have one kid. lol He thought it was huge! LOL that's right, my little home was a compared to a mansion. I now understand why though. There is just no room here. Only the rich people have living rooms in there apartments/houses.

I have also noticed a HUGE difference with the food. Now, granted I noticed this on day one but in the last few weeks I have been really taking it all in. They don't have much for prepackaged food here. Last week I was trying to find some soup and I couldn't find any. They do not have cans of soup here. I then tried to find some jello (or something similar) and nothing. And really, the list goes on. I still haven't really had any real meats. I eat it on occasion but for the most part I stay clear. There is so much fat on it and everything just looks really weird. Like the fish... they actually just take a fish (skin, head and all) and just slice it up and stick it on a tray that way to sell it. So if I were to buy this fish I would have to skin it, (is that the right terminology? you know, for all the times I have seen it done in my life you think I would know the terminology by now....sorry dad) take out the bones, eyes and everything else before I could cook it. Not really my idea of a fun time. :-0

As for the luxuries, even little things like warm water is sometimes a struggle. Every morning, I hop in the shower and in total I get about 3min of warm water in my luke warm/cold shower. And, this is how it is everywhere here I guess. Mario was telling me that even now down south, when there is a water shortage the city turns off the water and only turns it on for an hour or so each day. So sometimes people have to get up in the middle of the night just to get their water for the day. Isn't that crazy? The water heater for our apartment is actually in our kitchen. You can actually see the bottom of it if you go back to my July 12th post. It is hanging above the tv. There isn't much water in there which is why we have cold showers and wash the dishes in cold water. We also try to wash clothes late at night as to not waste all the hot water.

So this afternoon I experienced another first here in Italy. I went for a hair cut. :-0 Now, although this month has made me a firm believer in the fact that I should never get a perm when I am trying to grow my hair out, it also made me a realize that I needed to get some of the frizz cut off. I had my appointment at 4:30 and I was right on time (the hairdresser's is literally 10steps from my apartment). One of the ladies washed my hair, which wasn't anything to different then home. The sinks were way higher up though so the water ran right down my back and it was huge mess. I went and sat in the chair and none of the ladies spoke any English so it was really hard to figure out what she was asking me. She finally just turned around and asked out loud to everyone in there if anyone spoke any english. This nice lady who was getting her hair colored spoke english very well and turned out to be a life savor as the hair dresser was planning on only cutting the bottom inch of my hair off! lol Could you imagine?!? Anyway, the trim took all of 5min. I understood when she told me my hair was a mess (seriously lady, tell me something I don't already know) and then I couldn't understand what she was asking me next. The nice english speaking lady came to our rescue though and we figured out that she was asking me what I did with my hair for styling. She decided to put some product in it and instead of using a frizz serum of some sort she coated my hair in mousse. The interesting thing though was that she never shook the can of mousse. She just sprayed it out onto her hands and then drenched my hair in it. I just stood up, said thanks, payed and walked out. I was going to go and do some running around but had to go back home just so that I could see what was happening with my hair. I looked at the clock when I got home and it read 4:53. lol My whole trim, trying to figure out what we were talking about and the "style" at the end took ony 23min. quickest haircut ever! Once home I tried to run my fingers through it but it was so sticky with wet mousse that I had no other option but to wet my hair down again. I wish I was kidding but there was so much mousse that it was actually lathered just like shampoo...really very funny.

July, all in all, was a great month to be here. I am looking forward to what August will bring. I have so much planned and it will be so fun to experience everything.

Temp high: 34
Gelato: n/a

Permesso di Soggiorno

2009-07-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

I finally had my appointment today for my Permesso di Soggiorno (Resident Permit). My appointment was for 12:01pm. I was told to make sure I go a bit early just to make sure that I get there and find my way around ok with time to spare. So I ended up at the Congress Office at 11:00am. I talked to the police guard that was guarding the door and he gave me a number and pointed to me to go into this huge waiting area. I should make a side note here that everywhere you go in Italy they make you take tickets. Post office, at the market, any appointment place... Its a little weird but it works. Instead of lines that we have, you just take a number and then you can go and have a seat wherever until they call you.

So, my number was 806 and was stamped at 11:05am. I walked into this huge area that had 18 booths and hundreds of people waiting. I took a seat and noticed that they were only working on number 744 when I sat down. I only sat there for a few minutes though because I very soon noticed a not so nice odor. Some people sitting close to me starting laughing and I thought I better get out of there before it happened again. :( I went closer to the booths that were dealing with the resident permits and took a seat. I read some of my book that I had brought with me and just people watched. At about 1:15 I was starting to get a little antsy. I was surrounded by people from all backgrounds that were there for various reasons. Trust me when I say that the people and the smells didn't dissipate when I moved. There was no air conditioning and it wasn't very pleasant. It also seemed that everyone had brought along their whole families. I guess they probably had to (and as you all know I love kids) but it was so loud and the kids (many of them) wouldn't stop crying. It was about 1:30 when I finally decided to put my Ipod on and drown out the noise. I have to admit, that it did help. I cranked up my tunes and just settled in for the long wait that was still to come. At 2pm they hit number 788 and I was sooo excited. Less then 20 people to go. I was pretty sure I was going to be out of there by 3 and thought for sure I could make it to my photo class that was from 2-5. Well then just my luck the girls (there was only the 2 booths that were helping us) closed up for lunch. At this point, I wasn't sure what I should do. I thought about going home for a bit (as it was only 5min away from my apartment) but thought that what if I go home and end up missing my appointment. I had already sat there for 3 hours and the lunch break was only 30min so I just hung out. The girls showed up again at about 2:40 so I knew I wasn't making it to class anytime soon.

Finally at 3:50pm my number was called. YEAH! I couldn't have been happier. I went up to the booth and handed the lady all of the paperwork that I had. I should also add in here that I never actually ended up getting all of the paperwork that I needed. They (I still don't really know who "they" really is) were supposed to mail my documents back to me that I filled out and mailed away on June 26th so I wasn't sure if this appointment was going to be all for nothing or not. It turned out ok though. They have this cool machine that I had to get my fingerprints electronically printed on and I had to sign a few documents. Then she handed me a new piece of paper and told me to come back on that day to pick up my card! YEAH! I got it! Italy wants me! Not that they would have any reason not to want me, come on, I'm Canadian and such a good little citizen, what country wouldn't want me. ;)

So my appointment is August 30 to go and pick up my card. I won't be in Italy that day (I'll be in the UK) but the lady told me just to come back any day after that and pick it up. I know now though that appointment times really don't mean anything and to be at the office by 8am when it opens. I've learned my lesson on appointment times in Italy, that's for sure!

Needless to say that it was after 4pm when I finally walked out of the office. 5hours I waited there today. It was long, boring and smelly but I survived. I didn't however make it to my class which really annoyed me. My last class in photography is tomorrow. I'm sad but have learned so much and feel it was well worth it. Does anyone need pictures taken? I'm good now...really. :)

Temp high: 31
Gelato: Moro(dark choc)/Yogurt Bosco(yogurt with berries) I have to say though, that although I love both of these flavours, I really shouldn't have had them both at the same time. They don't really mix well.

Upcoming trips...

2009-07-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

My weekend was very uneventful but very fulfilling none the less. I was able to talk to 4 of the people I love on Skype this weekend for about an hour each. I spent the rest of the time watching movies, episodes of friends and just relaxing as I am trying to heal everything from my buggered up ankle to my sunburn. The cold is still hanging on, but really, I think I have talked that one to death already so I'll try not to mention it again. :)

Today after class I went out and explored another market that I hadn't been to before. I found the prettiest pashmina today. Its blue and brown and I couldn't resist. That and it was only 5euros! What a great find. I can't wait to wear it!

So, I finally was able to put my deposit down for my Great Britain/Southern Ireland trip today. I am soooooo excited. I leave Aug 27, which means that one month from today I will be in London already starting my trip. How crazy. I also am planning a trip for mid next week to the south of Italy. I have 4 days of travel on my eurorail pass to use up before the 18th of August and I want to make it worth my while, so I am heading south! I talked it over with Mario and he actually picked out the places that I should go. Because he is from the south of Italy and has been pretty much everywhere he pointed to the best 4 places and told me that I have to go there. I need to do a bit more research but my plan is to leave around Tuesday maybe and head straight for Sicily. A town called Taormina in Sicily is supposedly one the nicest places there so I think I am going there first. After that I am going to take the train to Lecce and I want to get to Bari as well as I heard from Lily (my Italian instructor back in Stoon) that it is very beautiful and definitely worth seeing. From there I want to take the train to Amalfi, Sorrento and then over to the island of Capri. I will then take the ferry to Naples and then back home. All in all I hope to be gone about a week or maybe a little more.

Can anyone suggest any other places that they have been to south of Florence that I should try to get to? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Temp High: 31
Gelato: n/a (its funny, I actually eat gelato on the days that I don't post so it looks like I am not eating any at all. Good trick huh?) :)

The Day of Mixed Emotions

2009-07-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Today actually started out a little rough. After only sleeping from 3:30am until 6am I had to get up to go on my photo class field trip. Our meeting time was 8:30 so I made sure I was there early enough I could grab a pastry from the McCafe. :) By 9am we were still waiting for one of the girls to show up even though we had a strict need to be on time rule today. I have to say that it made me a little grumpy (that and the major lack of sleep) but I tried to stay positive. Once inside the car I was the lucky one that got to sit in the front seat instead of crammed in the back of his pretty small Fiat with 3 people. He then put a cassette (yup totally still was playing cassettes, lol) and we were on our way. We stopped at a couple of places along the way to the beach, which in total was over a 2 hour car ride.

By 1:00 I was nicely settled on my beach blanket and ready to enjoy the water and soak up the sun. I even got up the nerve to put my bathing suit on. I went into the water a few times which was gorgeous. It was a little murky but all in all it was great! We did end up having a bit of situation though. We were all in the water hanging out and all of sudden I felt a tingle across my foot. It didn't hurt, it just tingled. I mentioned to everyone that I think a jellyfish may have come close to me. Right then, the jellyfish (which we actually couldn't see for the murky water) stung one of the guys in class. He had a red line down his arm and said it hurt really bad. He was fine in the end (just washed it off and he was good to go) but I think it was totally cool that I kinda, sorta, almost got stung by a jellyfish myself. ;)

Well we ended up staying on the beach until about 3pm and then decided to go have some lunch and then head home. Ok, so this is the part where I have to admit my sheer stupidity and ask for your guidance, if you have any. I put on sunscreen once at the beach, however I have to admit that it was about 45min after we got there and I only put it on my face and chest. (I know I know) Needless to say (I know you all know where this is going), I am a lobster. Not even joking. My legs (which by definition were a pale chicken white before) are now a tomato red. they are burning (really really bad) and its from my feet all the way up. My back is also really bad. My face and chest (because I actually thought to protect them) are only minorly red. They still hurt a little but nothing to the agony of my legs. As soon as I got home I ran a room temperature bath and sat in that which actually seemed to help while I was in there. I Also bought Aloe Vera gel while at the beach still because I could already feel my legs hurting. So my question to all of you is...is there anything else I can do? All suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)

We then headed for home and had a very quite yet painful ride. I did make Diego stop at a field of sunflowers though so that I could take some pictures.

So at the end of the day, this is how I am feeling. Totally happy that I was able to go on this trip today. I Still have no voice and now I have a crazy ass sunburn but I am still happy that I was able to see all that I saw today. I also realized how much Tuscany makes me feel like home. I new it would from all of the pictures I have seen but actually being able to go out again into Tuscany today and see the farmers hard at work and all of the swathed, cultivated and some still blooming fields (like the sunflowers), it really made me think of my home. The only real difference I seen today was the fact that there were WAY more hills than you would even see in Sask.

Temp high: Way to hot for my pasty white skin. :(
Gelato: None, can you believe it? At the beach and I didn't even get ice cream.

I think Florence has a curse on me...

2009-07-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that I went 2 whole days without blogging. I do have reasons though. First off, really nothing has gone on that was worth blogging about and 2, this cold has literally kicked my ass! I am still sick. You know how on Monday I made the comment that my voice was gone? Well yep, its Thursday night and I still don't have a voice. I also now have a nice chest cough so that is always awesome. The bright side though is that I actually don't feel horrible. I don't have a sort throat and my head doesn't hurt, its just this darn dry cough and the no voice thing. So needless to say I haven't really done much since the weekend.

So ya, classes, not going the greatest. I went on Tuesday skipped on Wednesday (because Tuesday she kept making me try to talk). Really? what part of literally no voice didn't she get? anyway, stayed home from both my classes on Wednesday hoping I cold just veg out and get over this thing and then today I went to half of my Italian class, which I was again made to talk. My photo class got cancelled for today which was nice. I love going but just wasn't up to it still today. Tomorrow though should be great. My photo class is meeting at 8:30 to take a day trip to a lake about an hour away to take pictures all day. I am super excited about that. Voice or no voice it will be great! Oh, forgot to mention that my super hot photo teacher has a gf... :( oh well. lol

As for this curse that I think Florence has on me right now. I'm not sure if I mentioned in previous posts or not, but I was able to get a new to me bike. The girl that was living in this room prior to me was here until a couple of days ago staying elsewhere in Florence. When she left though she said that I could have her bike for free because she no longer needed it. Yeah! Well I finally went today to pick up the bike and I went to get on and fell off! lol that's right, I looked like a totally dweeb! so I ended up walking it home. I need to fix it however because I noticed that the handle bars are not straight. They are at a 45degree angle to the tires and the seat is to tall for me to get on. Not sure why I didn't notice all of this before I got on and then fell off, but oh well. lol Anyway, Mario said he could help me fix it, so hopefully this weekend if he has time we will get it working. I am starting to think though that there is something here telling me not to ride a bike during my stay. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I don't think so... We'll see though.

I ended up throwing a couple more pics in here today to show you. One was from the Cinque terre trip and the other was a really hot Ferrari I saw on the street on Wednesday. :) now I have no idea who was driving this car but the funny thing was that as I was standing there taking the picture, 2 boys (about 10 or 11) ran up to the car and leaned in as if to look at it. They then decided that they would look way cooler if they hopped inside the car, which is exactly what they did. lol

Temp high: 37
Gelato: n/a

The Cinque Terre

2009-07-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I was up by 5:30am and was on the train to the Cinque Terre by 7:30. We arrived around 10am and what we thought was going to be some looking around and relaxing was anything but! We got off the train and immediately were told to follow the tour guide. There was 4 of them to make sure none of got left behind (there were about 60 of us). We started walking down a bunch of steps and saw the most beautiful view. We stopped for about 2min (not even kidding and then walked up the other side of the hill right back to wear we started so we could catch the train again to the next town.

I guess I should say before I go to far that the Cinque Terre is 5 small towns that are built into the side of the mountain along the East side of Italy that is up against the Mediterranean Sea. You can walk to each town along the side of the mountain but it is all carved walking steps and takes a whole day to do the whole walk.

So, we got back on the train and went to the second town. We got off the train and by this point I was exhausted, had to go to the bathroom and my knees and ankles were killing me already. We ended up walking around the whole town (at least 200 steps up and down). About half way around the town I was able to stop for about 5min so that I could go to the bathroom and just my luck I finally ran into the squat toilet. ;) Now seriously, why do people think that this is a good idea? As a guy, sure. The world is your urinal anyway... but as a woman, come on! So if you have never seen one before I'm sure you can just imagine. For those of you that have seen or experienced them before, you totally understand what I am talking about. So ya, I was so worried about trying not to pee on myself that the whole process made me get a bad case of stage fright and to make matters worse, some random dude was trying to pull my door open cause he needed in there! sigh... I made it out though and we headed back down to the train again.

We ended up at the third town on our visit which was actually town number 4. We didn't get to see town 3 as she told us that there was over 380 stairs just to get up to the town and then the same back. I was happy to skip it this time. :) So town number 4 was great because we had 3 hours to hang out and wander around by ourselves. I ended up having lunch with 3 other ladies and we splurged a bit. The view from our restaurant was so beautiful, you could pretty much see the whole town. At lunch I ended up having penne with Scampi (which I thought was shrimp but it was actually crab). It ended up tasting pretty good but I really don't get why they give you the whole crab when you can only eat chunks of its tail and legs. Oh well... I also tried some Squid that another girl had ordered. It was ok. We shared a bottle of the Cinque Terre white wine and 3 desserts. I ended up wandering around the town a bit looking at the shops and just took some pictures.

The last and final town was the biggest and by far the beach was the nicest. I did take the long walk into the town to look around but in the end didn't purchase anything. I took some gorgeous pictures and then just sat and relaxed for a bit. I didn't end up going into the water at all but I'm ok with that. It was so crowed anyway that it would have been hard to find a spot to sit on the beach and they make you rent the chairs.

I will definitely go back before my time in Italy is done. I will however, stay for more than one day and relax and enjoy the view a bit more.

Today was a good day, except for the fact that my cold has finally won! I have no voice...literally. Sat and yesterday at the Cinque Terre my voice was pretty "man" sounding but today when I woke up, it was gone. So frustrating. I made it to my photo class though because you don't need to talk to take pictures and that is exactly what we did today. We went in groups of 2 (my group was photographing Architecture) and so we chose to take some pictures of some sculptures. I have included one of my pics here to show you. I quite like it.

Temp High: 33
Gelato: n/a

One Month Already???

2009-07-18T14:19:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's crazy to think that I have been here one month already. However today is exactly that day. I have done so much and yet so little in this month. I have made some new friends, started some classes and learned the bus system a little bit better. I have not left the city yet, gone to any museums or went inside any of the really fancy stores. That will all happen in the days to come. In month two, I am going to go to Venice and Milan and am really excited about that. I also hope to get to Pisa as well as many other places around Tuscany.

Tomorrow is a big day for me as I am finally going to the Cinque Terre with the school. There are about 40-50 people going so it will be a fairly big crowd. I have to be up at about 5am so I am keeping my post short and sweet for tonight.

I just want to let everyone know that I miss you all and I think about you all regularly. 5 Months to go!

Temp High: 32
Gelato: Yogurt Bosco

Yeah it's Friday!

2009-07-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Class this morning wasn't to bad at all. yesterday was a bit of a shit show as she singled me out and I looked like a complete moron. Today though, I made a minor come back and only looked minorly stupid... so I will take it! lol After class I headed home and had about a 2 hour nap. Between the crazy hot weather and me not feeling well a nap was in order.

Headed out though at 6 for a wine tasting with about 8 others from my school. I didn't know anyone but still had a really good time. We tried 3 different wines (one white, two reds) as well as an oil and 2 balsamic vinegars. We also had some cheese, bread and a few meats to try with each wine. Very tasty and I learned quite a bit. 3 glasses of wine later, 3 hours and some food, I ended up buying a crazy expensive bottle of the 12 yr old bottle of balsamic vinegar that we tried (damn was it good) and then a few girls and I went out for a coffee. Ended up on my way about 10pm.

I passed by this place which used to be an old Military barracks which they now have converted in a place where they hold entertainment, events, markets and other randoms. Until August 1st they are having music and other entertainment there. I stopped in to take a look as it is on my way home. It actually reminded me of a mini folk fest. It was a huge area (about the size of Prarieland) and it had booths selling things, games to play, many restaurants and food booths set up and about 6 different stages with many types of music playing. The dance music stage was actually teaching people to dance which was cool to see. I also really enjoyed the reggae band that was playing. There was a main stage that had some heavy rock playing but you had to buy tickets to go in and I wasn't willing to do that. Anyway, I hung around for only about an hour and then came home.

Temp high: 37
Gelato: Cicco Kinder (I bet you can guess what this one tasted like) Mmmmm :)

And the shopping continues...

2009-07-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well I made the decision to sleep in this morning and not go to my Italian class. I am still fighting this cold and am trying to sleep as much as possible. Also, I think the NyQuil really kicked my butt as I didn't even hear the alarm go until I was already late. ;) Tomorrow is a new day though and I won't take the drugs tonight so I should have no problems making it to class on time. I did make it to my afternoon photo class though. We did still art and portraits today. It was pretty interesting. From now on I guess we are going out and taking pictures of how we see Italy so I am pretty excited about that.

I think I am getting the hang of this shopping thing. On my way home from school I stopped at Coin again (and yes, it is identical to a sears/bay). I ended up finding a top and it was on sale for 11euros! It's a fairly plain pink tank top but still, I was happy with my purchase. I then ended up going back to the Disney store and I bought myself something there that was also on sale. Look at me find the deals?!? lol

I will explain the 3 pics I have displayed today. 1st one, was our class project today. We were taking pictures of still life and figured we would use an eaten apple. lol Pic 2 is of this chic that was dancing on the street corner. She had guards and everything around her. She looked really cool and I just had to take her picture. The third one is of my Disney store purchase. I justified this one for 3 reasons. 1, it was half price. 2, it had Florence on it so it is a keep sake from my trip and 3, he was just super cuddly and I couldn't not get him. ;) hahaha

Temp High: 39
Gelato: n/a

Starting my italian card collection

2009-07-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well today was definitely a better day. I had about 10 hours of sleep, woke up and made it to class early. I was the first one there! :) I only had my one class today which was nice. After class I met Leana at our meeting spot and we headed off. Stopped for a quick sandwich and then we went to find the Paperback Exchange book store that I wanted to find. I searched online the other day to see if anywhere in Florence had a used book store. This was only one and is specially designed for English books which is great! We found it with no problem. I was able to give my two books to them and got credit for them for new books. I ended up getting 3 more and with my credit I only ended up paying about 12euros, which I thought was pretty good. They also gave me a frequent shopper card. This allows me to get free books (or credit towards books) once I fill it up.

We then ended up just walking around for a bit. I found a department store called Coin that I am going to go back to. It had everything and reminded me of a Sears or the Bay type of store. We went for some gelato and then parted ways. I walked around for a bit more and then figured my head was getting pretty fuzzy so I headed home. Yup, still sick. :( On the way home however I ended up going into a Bata shoe store (they have these everywhere I guess) and found a super comfy pair of sandals.

Once home I was going to go to the store, do some work on the computer and get some stuff done. Instead I napped for 2 hours and then went to the store around 8. :) Found some great deals and learned what conditioner is in Italian. Would you believe that shampoo is the same? huh. I also received my second frequent shopper card today. The supermarket lets you take this card that you can use to get points as well as stuff on sale at special prices (basically like a safeway card). Once I get enough points, I can get money off of my groceries. I thought it was a pretty good deal.

I got my first postcard yesterday! Thanks to Susan and the PTS crew, I recieved my first postcard. It is now hanging on my cork board with all my pics. Its nice to look at the picture of Stoon on the front and think of home. The coolest part was that it only took 1 week to get here. So please, keep the mail coming, I love it! I also will be starting to send out some postcards soon. I just havn't found the right ones yet. I have sent 2 out so far but don't think they have arrived at there destinations yet.

Temp high: 40 (its supposed to be crazy hot all week)
Gelato: chocolate

It's called Monday for a reason...

2009-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or did I just have one of those day???

I woke up this morning with a really sore throat. I could sort of feel it last night before I went to bed but hoped it was nothing. Well, it wasn't nothing. My throat has been getting worse as the day goes on. I popped multiple Advil this morning trying to get rid of my headache and drank a bunch of OJ and water. I then finished getting ready for school, hopped on my bike and away I went. I noticed as soon as I got on it though that the one break wasn't working but chalked it up to just another "quirk" of the bike. I made it a whopping 10blocks and my chain decided to fall off again. I was so pissed, you have no idea! So there I am, 10 blocks from home, about 20 blocks from school and it is 8:40 already. I locked up the bike (even though know one would have stole it anyway) and quickly walked to the bus station that was about 3 blocks away. Hopped on the dreaded bus that took me to the Duomo. Hopped off their because I was smart enough to know this time that it wasn't going to get me anywhere close to the school. I then walked the rest of the way to school. I was only about 5min late today so I thought I was doing pretty good. :D

Made it through my Italian class ok today, had a quick lunch and then went to my photo class where we were having a short test today to see if we remembered anything or not. Apparently my brain wasn't working the best (I'm blaming it on the 2 extra strength Advil) because I didn't seem to remember a darn thing. On a happy note though, the others remembered slightly less so I guess that's a good thing. ;) lol

After class I took the bus back to my bike and started walking it back to the place that I bought it from. By the time I got there I was so mad because I looked like a real winner walking my bike 20 blocks. I decided that I wasn't going to keep the bike. It has caused me nothing but grief in the 4 days that I have had it. I ended up having to argue with this old Italian man. He couldn't speak English, I couldn't speak Italian and we were getting nowhere. I tried to tell him about the bell, the brake and the chain but he wasn't going to give me any money back for this thing because he had to fix it. SERIOUSLY???? Obviously he didn't know who he was talking to. I don't normally back down from a challenge. So I argued for a bit and he finally gave me 20euros back (which was half of what a paid 4 days ago). Another girl during this time also was trying to get her bike fixed. She spoke English so we started talking. I guess I should also add that by this time, I was crying. lol yup! Those of you that know me know that when I am pissed off or am just defeated that's when I cry. At that moment I felt both defeated and pissed off. Anyway, it turns out that this girl (Leana[sp?] from Germany) has had the same problem with her bike that she bought 5 days ago. She has had it fixed from him twice. She ended up taking a different bike but he still was trying to charge her to fix her broken one. Something must be really wrong in this guys head. Where we come from, people wouldn't get away with stuff like that. I guess here you can. :( So we both hassled the guy for a bit and he ended up giving me another 5euros because I tried to explain that I only had it for 4 days and it has broken twice now. She took her new to her bike and we got out of there before he could yell at us in Italian anymore. The best part of my day would have to be meeting her. We are meeting tomorrow after school and going to hang out for a bit. I'm looking forward to it and glad that something good came out of this horrible bike experience.

Ok, I should say that I am planning on getting a different bike. I have been told by a few people now that there is a shop that sells new bikes (or gently used) and does the same sort of buy back program when I am done. They seem pretty good from what I have been told so one day this week I will check them out. They also speak English as that is great! Obviously in my case above, I got what I paid for so this time I will consider spending a bit more for slightly better bike.

It's only about 8:15pm here but I am going to read a little and then go to bed. I am wiped.

Temp High:38
Gelato: n/a (but I did treat myself to McD's if you can call that a treat.) I did also go to the gelateria but it was closed for some reason. sigh... oh well, there is always tomorrow. ;)

Dogs, shopping and wacky hair-dos

2009-07-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, my weekend was pretty uneventful. I really wanted to go to the Cinque Terre (google it.... it is supposed be one of the most beautiful spots in Italy) but it turns out that the trains decided to have a strike last night until today. Its weird, both the trains and the buses have one day strikes every month or so. Kinda makes it hard for people like to me go anywhere. Oh well, I have my bike now, so nothing is stopping me... right?

I did end up going to the centre yesterday and doing some shopping. Went out around 4. I knew that I needed two things for sure and then I was just going to look around after that. Well I ended up finding everything on my list! I went into this one store called laRinascente which I think carries a bit of everything. I went in for an umbrella and found one that I thought was super cute that is pink. They also have purses, makeup, underwear, and I think a few other randoms. I didn't see any actual clothing but oh well. I then headed out to look for a wallet. I ended up finding one in an outdoor market area. It is purple and leather (of course). I then ended up going back to the laRinascente store because when I was there the first time, there was a really pretty perfume that I liked. I ended up buying it. Its Gucci and its awesome! I then just kept wandering around. I found some really cool stores and I even went into some clothing stores, but unless I have shrunk to medium in the last 3 weeks (which did not happen) then there was no way I was fitting into any of the clothes. Oh well... I also came across a Disney store that I went into and wanted to by myself a stuffed Minnie or Mickey mouse but refrained. I figured a stuffed animal on my bed at age 30 wouldn't look so hot. I really thought about it though before I left the store having bought nothing. :(

Well the only real things I did today were clean my room so I could post a few pics for you guys to see and road my bike to the supermarket only to find out they are closed. ugh! Guess I got to go back tomorrow. Sharisse, is it possible for you to send me that gel seat for my bike that you suggested in my last post?!? lol Does anyone have any big tips for how to keep a bike seat from getting shoved up your ass? I am definitely not a bike person anymore. I much prefer the bus knowing full well that I could get somewhere quicker if I road my bike. Don't worry though, I am going to keep riding it. Maybe if I am lucky my butt will get used to it... ;)

Tried to blow dry my hair straight today. LOL It looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket and it came out fried, poofy and straight. It was horrible! Guess I am stuck with curly hair for a little while longer. Seriously, who let me get this perm anyway?!? ;) Just kidding, I still like it most days. It has just been getting pretty frizzy lately.

Dogs - So, there are dogs everywhere around here. Its crazy! About every 5th person I see has a dog with them. They also are never on leashes. I think out of about 100 dogs that I have seen being 'walked', only about 10 of them are on leashes. Also, they seem to think that the world is there urinal as they just pee and poop everywhere and no one cleans it up. There is dog crap everywhere! I have heard the locals even make comments about it. I guess it is a law that they should clean it up, but no one follows it and no one ever gets caught.

Temp today: 27ish
Gelato yesterday: Yogurt Bacca (yogurt with berries)

Photoshop anyone?

2009-07-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know how to use photoshop? I need help! I downloaded the free 30 day trial for my class but it won't recognize any of my .nef (raw) files. My teacher also couldn't figure it out. So, if anyone can help me that would be great, I would really appreciate it. Just shoot me an email.

Can anyone also tell me what happened here? lol is that right that it took literally one week to kill my sunflower? Poor poor sunny. Sometimes its hard to believe that I can keep cats alive. :)

Last night ended up being pretty uneventful. Ended up in the general location to where we were going and ended up meeting up with my friend. However we couldn't find the place where my teacher was playing. We ended up grabbing a beer (aren't you proud of me, I actually drank a beer) and just walked around. The cool thing is, you can take alcohol out wherever you want around here. there are no rules. Drinking age: 16 Now you know why every high school student and especially the americans want to come here on school trips away from there parents. Dangerous? I think so!

Went out for a walk tonight. Took a few pictures. Weather was gorgeous. There was a bit of a breeze thought that actually made it chilly at times. tomorrow on my agenda will be shopping and cleaning my room. Yup, some things never change. The nice thing here thought is that it isn't that big so it can't get to messy.

Temp high: 30
Gelato: Moro (dark chocolate) and Creme di Miechi (creme with cookie bits)

2009-07-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is my bike. Please note the dents in the fenders as well as the bits of rust all over. lol I know its not that clear but I will put one up on Flicker as well so you can take a look. Enjoy!

So, I got up this morning and decided that I was taking the bus! lol That's right people, my butt hurt and I didn't feel like riding the bike because I had 8 hours of classes today and I knew I was going to be tired. I did however bus a 10 token bus pass so if I do get stopped I can show them my card (even though I haven't activated it yet) :) I was at the main bus terminal by about 8:20 this morning and figured that would give me lots of time to catch the right bus. Well I got on the wrong bus..... again! now I know what you all are thinking..."How can I mess this up so many times right"? Well I will tell you. Like I mentioned before there are 3 bus 14's, an A,B & C. Well about every 6 stops of so they change the letter of the bus (just to piss me off I think). Anyway, I was on the bus and a lady asked me a question that I actually kinda halfass'd understood. We then were talking about the buses and she informed me that because they are doing some construction work around the Duomo, they have changed the bus routes. Seriously, why wouldn't they tell you these things? Anyway, so I ended up walking again for about 20 min and still was the second one in class so that was good. We had yet another new student today so that was annoying. However in a away, I don't mind the review. I am still not getting it yet as fast as the others, but I'm trying.

My Photography was great today. It was just myself, Kat (my new photo friend) and Diego our teacher). We had class for 4 hours and it was great! Because it is just the two of us, it is really hands on and we can ask so many questions. I learned some cool things and stuff that I need to work on.

I think I am heading out tonight. Diego also drums in a reggae band so Kat and I are planning to check it out (at least thats the plan as of now). Ok, I am just going to put this out there.... I totally have a teacher crush. ;) He is a photographer, plays drums in a reggae band and is super cute. Whats there not to like? If anyone knows me they know that I love reggae, I want to learn the drums and love photography. ;p

Temp high: 33
Gelato: n/a

Gong show of day...

2009-07-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it all began to me sleeping through my alarm. lol boy somethings just never change do they?!? I woke up at about 10 to 8, jumped out of bed and had no time for a shower (which believe me, I should have just taken the time) :0 I got on the bus at 8:20 looking not the best (hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket) but I did manage to throw on some makeup. :) Got on the bus illegally again and headed downtown. I went to catch the good old 14C and what did I do??? Jump on the wrong friggin bus..... again! I did however figure it out before the bus had taken me really far away from the main stop. I hopped off and started walking. It was crazy hot out today and I was pissed off and tired but I walked for about 20min before I got to school. In the end I was only about 10min late for class but I was sweating like nobodies business and I was grumpy. We had a new person in class this morning also so we had to review for the first 2 hours. then after the break we had another new person so we reviewed....again! Everyone kept looking at there watches. Its funny though because my teacher also about every 20min or so would ask us the time. Obviously she didn't want to be there anymore than we did today.

Got through class and met up with a couple of girls from my photo class. We found a little cafe to have lunch at. We were going to sit outside but would you believe they charge you more to sit outside? 3euro more per item. Seriously! So we sat inside and just hung out. Photo class today was great. Although the actual info is a review right now, I learned some really neat stuff today and am really enjoying it. I cant wait for my next class! I just love taking pics so much. It may sound wierd but I find so much joy in it. I feel so relaxed and although the ideas don't always come natually to me, I still get so much enjoyment from practising. And just think, you all are my guinny pigs. :)

So, I did the unthinkable (and if McGettigan is reading this he will laugh I am sure), I bought a bike. It was time. I couldn't take the bus illegally anymore knowing that I could risk getting a 100euro fine, so I sucked it up and bought a bike. About 5:00 today I ended up at the bike shop near my school. He is a really old dude that repairs cars and bikes. Before the actual purchase of this said bike though, I needed to go by a lock. To make a long story short, I couldn't find the place to buy the lock and was sent on a wild goose chase for about 20min by the post office lady. I was about to give up (as I was standing at the bus stop to go home) and looked across the street. There it was! The lock store. It was there all along. I purchased my lock and headed back to pick up my bike. He sold me great bike for the low cost of 40euros. The cool part is though that when I am done with it, I can sell it back to him for 20euros! How cool! Well, don't get to excited.... my wonderful new to me bike is a huge P.O.S. LOL I picked the cheaper of the two (which may have been my problem) but I just assumed it would work ok. It is blue right now and can tell that it used to be about 1o other colors as well. :) It is old and rusty and I was freaking out about riding it. I walked it for the first block until I found a really quiet street. I got on and it didn't work. lol The chain was off of it! lol well I tried to fix it myself but couldn't so I had to walk the bike back to the bike shop and he fixed it for me. By this time it is well after 6, I am sweaty, tired and now have dirt/grease all over my feet/legs and hands. I am a real catch here today. ;) So once the bike was fixed I headed back to my quiet street, got on, and started going. I have to admit that it took me a little while to get home (about 1/2 hour). I was exhausted and my butt and legs hurt but I am determined to make this cheesy bike work. Once home I unloaded my school books and headed back out to go to the supermarket. I was about 50 feet from my place and all of a sudden the bell on my bike fell off. Yup, just flew off and rolled down the street. Some guy walking by grabbed it and brought it to me. I jammed it back on and I was on my way again. ;)

Temp high: 37
Gelato: n/a

Pictures, Flags & Salt... Can you make the connection?

2009-07-07T13:55:00.001-07:00

Class was good today. I learned a few more words, which is always good. I decided to go straight home after class because I was exhausted and figured I would take a short nap. :) Instead I watched a few episodes of Friends and just rested. Went out again around 4pm and my plan was to go to the school and sign up for a dinner they were doing tonight. Well my trip was a huge gong show. I thought I had taken the correct bus but there are 3 different bus 14's (a,b,c) and I took the b instead of the c which took me about a 30min walk from the school. So I walked and ended up at the school around 5:30. Once I got there though and heard all about the dinner I decided against it. To much money for just a supper I thought. I had brought my camera with me though and I wanted to take a couple of pictures for my class. We were asked to put our camera totally on manual settings. I managed to take a few that I really liked. I will post 3 here. They may not be of anything worth looking at, but I really liked the compostition of them.

Today I noticed that all of the flags are at half mass. The Duomo was also restricted so that know one could even go near it. Police were everywhere. It was a strange feeling to know that something tragic had happened and not know what it was. I asked tonight and was told that 2 major things were going down today in Italy. First off there was an explosion on one of the railway systems that killed 22 and seriously injured many more. This was why the flags were flying low today. Also, the king of China (I think he is the king and not a PM but not totally sure) was here today so we think that is why the Duomo was closed. Anyway, I have decided that I am going to start watching the news here. I know I won't be able to understand it yet but hopefully one day soon.

I think I am being a clutz over here. I broke a glass the other day and today I decided that I would spill a whole container of salt everywhere in the kitchen. :( It was a huge mess as salt isn't the easiest thing to clean up. After supper and my salt clean up, I just hung out with the roomies and chatted about italian, life, classes and boys. It was fun but I need to get to bed somewhat early tonight (before midnight is my goal).

I have added my flicker site to my blog. To find it though, you have to go into my profile and scroll down to my Contacts. There should be an option to click on the My Web Page and I believe it takes you right to the site. I can only add so many pics a month to it but right now there is about 25ish and a funny video of my riding the vespa. Check them out if you wish. I also think that at the end of every post starting tonight, I am going to post the high temperature of the day and the gelato flavours that I tried. :) This is mostly just for random info that I can look back on to see the weather and if/when and what kinds of gelato I tried. Thought it might be kinda fun. lol Ciao!

Temp High: 30
Gelato: Crema/Dark chocolate

First day of school craziness

2009-07-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well today was a crazy busy, exhausting day! I was at school by 9am (which is actually about 2 hours before my normal get up time nowadays lol) and was pushed into a really hot room filled with about 50 people. We were packed in like sardines. A few min later they starting calling everyone by name and took people to different classrooms. Mine ended up with 11 people in it which isn't so bad. Francesca, our teacher started talking in only Italian. Not a word of English. She would just repeat herself and use hand gestures to teach us what she was talking about. It was very exhausting. We had a 20min break in which one of the teachers (who is from Montreal and spends every summer in Italy) took me and a few of the newbies from Montreal on a quick tour of the neighbourhood and showed us the outdoor market. Super cool btw, I can't wait to go back there. Got back to class and had another almost 2 hours of learning. I now know that il libro e verde (the book is green) and that le matite e le penne sono gialle e il fiore rosso (the pencils and the pens are green and the flower is red). After class I had 2 hours to kill before my photography class started at 3 so a guy from my class and I went out for lunch.

I got back just before 3 and ended up waiting almost an hour for my class to start as the teacher was held up. Their is 8 people in the class but I think a couple are dropping out. One is a professional photographer from Brazil and just wanted to take the class for fun until she learned that we were all beginners (or almost beginners). The other one wanted her own private lessons because she to wanted professional training. This one chick though that I have to mention was really annoying. She was the typical old woman that was trying to learn a new thing and was annoying doing it. Every time the teacher said something she would say either "uh huh, Yes, or Mmmm" I think everyone was laughing at her by the end of class. I did meet a couple of girls though and we went for drink after class. I had a vodka, orange & 7 and after the exchange was only about $14. LOL I'll think twice before I do that again! I ended up changing my class from a 6 hours a week class to 10 hours so that I can learn more about the digital side of things. Should be good.

I should say that this was the first day that I have been in Italy that I have felt really old. I was in my language class and we were telling our age. I said I was 30 and everyone else was 18-23. My teacher said no worries and motioned that she was older. Then she wrote her age on the board. LOL she was only 31! seriously chick! Then when I was having the drink with the girls (who are 18 & 19) we mentioned our ages and they looked at me a bit funny, but not to bad. The one girl even made a nice comment... She said "Don't worry, there is that old lady in class that is a bit older then you I'm sure". OK, the lady they were refuring to was the one that wouldn't shut up in class and is for sure late 60's. lol oh well, I still think I look young for my age. They both seem really nice and I will hang out with them again I am sure.

I got home just before 8, talked to dad on Skype and made myself some mini wieners for supper. Actually tasted pretty good. I guess even in Europe, although small, wieners are still made of the same good stuff. ;)

Randoms for today

2009-07-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

Road construction. Yup, they have it here. However, unlike ours that is named a season, there's is only a few hours. When I was in my last apartment I woke up at 10 one morning and seen that my road was being repainted for the lines. They started at about 10:30 and by 12pm they were gone. It was crazy to see city workers working so fast. I didn't really know what to think. :)

When I thought about Italy back home, I imagined windows open, fresh air, birds chirping and people singing. Well, that is exactly what is going on as I write this. I have my window open as soon as it gets dark to allow the fresh night air into my room. Well all I can hear right now is a family singing. They are listening to what I would call reggae italian music. I really don't what type it would be classed as but it sounds great. I would love to get my hands on some. Anyway, I can hear singing, laughing and I seen some kids running out on the balcony. Everyone is having so much fun and just made me smile so I thought I would share. However I also must say though that I think my neighbors across from me think I am a peeping tom. I really don't mean to, but once it is dark and my light is on, people can obviously see me, as I can see them. Well the other night, I was standing in my room and I happened to look out the window. There was guy standing in the apartment across from me (about 50 feet away) that walked by his open balcony door just in time to see me staring in there. I didn't mean to stare, really! Anyway the same thing just happened again about 5min ago. I was just glancing out the window as I type this, and some other dude in a different apartment glanced out at the same time, looked at me, and shut his window. lol oh well, whats a girl to do, right?!?

Walked downtown this afternoon after talking to mom and dad. It was only a short 10min walk. Very nice indeed. I went out in search of some thumb tacs which I found, so all of my family pics are now up and I am loving it. Makes this place seem more like home. While walking downtown though, I seen the "preganant" chick again. Guess what? NO BABY! What a hag!!! She was just walking along, not trying to haggle for money either, and she was actually wearing decent clothes. arrrr I don't know why I have let this lady get under my skin, but she's there. I also took a pic on my way downtown that I wanted to share because it was super cute!

As I was talking to mom and dad earlier I made a comment that I haven't seen any spiders yet. Possibly because I am so far up, or maybe I am just lucky. I'm really not sure but am greatful none the less. I also told them that because I commented on it, I was sure to see one. Well I didn't see a spider but I just seen a centipede looking thing crawling in my window! EWWWWWWW So I slammed on it a couple of times with my runner and squished its brains out. I feel a bit better but a now a little creeped out that there may be more. I won't think about that though... :{

Looking forward to starting class tomorrow morning. Got my bag all packed and everything. :) I love the first day of school! I know I know, such a dork! hahaha

Good ole Ikea!

2009-07-03T13:12:00.001-07:00

Well I had an interesting day to say the least. I was downtown at the train station by 11:30 this morning hopeing to jump on the Ikea bus and I would be on my way. Well, I learned today that some things you have to work for...

I first asked at the train station info booth and she pointed me to the McDonalds corner. So there I stood for about 20min with no bus before I went into the bus info place where I was standing to ask this person. They didn't understand a word I said but said yes, stand here. Ok, so I stood for about 15min more before I went into the travel agency by the bus info place. The lady spoke a bit of English (just about as much English as I know Italian) and said yes, here, Ikea. So I waited yet again. By this point it was well after 12 and I was getting very hot. It was high 30's today and no wind. decided to go back into the train station and ask the woman again that I first asked. She said yet again, go back there the bus will come! so there I stood, starting to get a little annoyed. I decided to just start randomly asking people on the street. Ok, so maybe this wasn't my best idea, but seriously... how hard could it be to find a bus that was going to Ikea? I asked about 4 ladies that were also waiting for buses. Some of them pointed for me to go to different places (which I had already been to earlier) and others just looked at me funny. I was about ready to give up when I thought to myself, "I'm just going to ask this last lady and then I will go home....defeated." So I said my usual "Parle inglese?"(do you speak English?) and she said YES! it was so great! She lives in Florence every summer so knows English and Italian pretty well. She actually had time to spare so she went around with me asking 3 more offices of people where to go. We figured out that the main Ikea bus that used to take people to and from was discontinued a couple of months ago. So I needed to take a regular city bus that comes and go every 10min or so. ugh! I thanked her muchly and headed on my way. I punched my ticket when I got on the bus and it was 1:25pm. lol I was searching for the stupid bus for almost 2 hours!

Made it to Ikea with no problems and looked around for about 2 hours. I also sat on a couch exhausted for about 20min on top of it all. I was so tired from my two hour wait in the sun. I ate some Ikea lunch which was nothing like our Ikea lunches. they had hotdogs and panini's so I chose one of them and continued on my way. By the time I was done, I walked out of there with a pillow for my head, and one for just lounging. A extra sheet for my bed, a pack of tealights (I actually felt weird buying them but really wanted to smell something nice in my room) and a holder for the tealight. I also bought a cork board for my family pics and a sunflower plant for my room with a pot. All together I was well under my 50 euro goal. I ended up spending 38euro! good deals or what?

I made it back home with not to much trouble and I have a bag of goodies, a beautiful sunflower plant and a sunburn to show for it! ;)

I have a Plan!

2009-07-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Boy do I like plans. :) I have tried not to be a planner, but man, after two weeks of being here it is sure nice to now have one. lol I know I know...

I headed out around 1 just to walk around my new neighbourhood and check things out. I ended up coming across the most lovely park area. It was so nice. I sat there for over an hour just hanging out, watching the water feature and random people walking by. There were also a few sun tanners which was nice to see. I like it most because it has grass, benches, water and the weather was beautiful. What wasn't there to like? I will definitely go back (maybe with a book next time). I then headed over to this Gelato store that Mario told me about. He was right... delicious gelato! I had the dark chocolate.... OMG! anyway, then headed home and talked to mom on Skype for about 1/2 hour.

I then phoned the Michelangelo Institute and talked to Paolo, this super nice man that works at the main desk. I ended up taking the bus down there and was there for over an hour talking with 3 different people about the courses. I ended up signing up for an Italian class that starts on Monday July 6th. It is 4hours/day, 5 days a week. I also signed up for a digital photography class that starts the same day. It runs 3 days a week for 2 hours/day. I am also looking into a cooking class because you all know how well I can cook. ;) That one runs 2 days a week for 2 hours a day. All of this is only for 4 weeks. I could have taken it way longer but feel 4 weeks should be enough that I can get by and start to learn more as I go.

After talking with my roomies last night, I was told that the best time to go travel to England, Ireland and France is July/August. So, because I am taking this class from July 6th until the 31st, I think I am going to sign up for touring around in August. I am looking into Contiki tours, which I think will be good. All in all, it was a good day of plan making.

Tomorrow I have big plans to get to Ikea if I know which bus to take. lol I'm going to make a day of it and my goal is to only spend 50 euros or less. We'll see though.... ;) lol

Happy Canada/Move Day!

2009-07-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day everyone! If someone makes it to any festivities today, will you tell me about them? Not one person (that I saw) was celebrating Canada today. I also have to admit that my only ounce of Canada/red gear is my roots bunnyhug which would have totally worked today except that it was 35+ outside and the humidity was even worse. WOW you have no idea until you live it. The humidity and the heat make it hard to breath and when you do, it is smelly. :( oh well, they tell me it isn't always this way.

Well today was a very busy day for me. I was up by 9:30am (I know, crazy early huh?) and was packed and ready for my big move by 12pm. I couldn't believe that I had accumulated 3 more bags of stuff already since I arrived but I guess I did. I was at my new place by 1:30 and started unpacking. The two pictures are of my street. I am standing in the front entrance to my building. It is very nice to have a home that I can finally call my own for the next 6 months. At the same though, I think today was my first actual real day of being home sick. I knew it would happen sooner or later, and sure, I have had moments where I am really sad when I am talking to family and friends online but never have I had a day like today where I actually feel alone and home sick. Its weird because with my move brings on new challenges and new adventures, so how could I possibly be feeling homesick today right? I guess its just because this is my home now for awhile and it makes me think of my home. Anyway, enough sadness.....onto my new place.

I really like it here already. Everyone seems so nice. It is just me and two others and the apartment is small but cozy. My room (I'll post pics of my room once I take a few) is a decent size. There is a cabinet to hang/put my clothes and other shelves for all of my other goodies. I have a desk, a night stand and a window with a screen in it. I am excited about the screen because just tonight I was told that screens aren't allowed on windows that face the streets here in Florence because they look "ugly". Can you imagine any window in canada not having a screen on it. lol Anyway, luck be to me that my window faces a flower garden out the back and not the main street. So I have a decent view, no traffic and hopefully (cross your fimgers) no bugs!

I was eating supper around 9 (I have totally adopted the Italian eating times) and Mario came home from work. We all sat around the kitchen for the last few hours just talking which was really nice. My other roommate (I am sooo bad with names) is a total world traveler but comes from the states. She has an accent but not to bad. She is from Boston, but it sounds like she has a bit of a southern drawl when she speaks. She also speaks fluent German so I can see why her accent is not quite as Boston as it should be. She did make a comment though that she thinks that I have a very thick Canadian accent. What? Seriously? I don't have an accent. ;) lol

I think I am going to look into Italian classes. It is really important to me to be able to communicate with people and I can't right now, so something has to change! I will keep you posted though.

City tour by Bus???

2009-06-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was completely uneventful which is why I never posted. Sorry all. I talked to my parents via Skype as well as Crystal for about an hour each, which was totally awesome to talk to them both. I did decide to go for a walk yesterday but I think that the thunder knows when I am going outside because the moment I went out it started raining. I was determined though to walk around so I was out for about an hour in the poring rain then decided to go home. Was about 1/2 a block from my house and then rain stopped and the sun came out. lol go figure! Oh well.

Today I met my new friend Emma at the train station. She was my wine tour guide on my Birthday and we exchanged email addresses then. We went to a nice little place and each ordered pasta and a glass of wine. Still not used to drinking wine (especially at lunch time) as it hit me pretty hard and I was kinda wobbley for a bit. lol After lunch though we just walked around for about 5 hours. I bought a key chain and ended up buying a phone! YEAH It is a pay as you go one which should work out ok. I don't plan on putting the number on here but if you want it, please email and I will give it to you. I think with sasktel it costs about 45cents a min to call here but it depends on the plan you have. Other then that though, I am not sure on the rates. I think the texting works all over the world and I don't think there is a charge, but again, I'm new at this also, so I could totally be talking out of my ass here. ;) Still havn't figured out how to get the phone to work though, but my roomies say it probably just takes time to activate so proabably tomorrow it will work.

I dropped off Emma at the train station to catch her bus and then headed over to find mine. The bus 17 that I always take from my apartment to get downtown is what I got on again to get back home. Well, it does/did take me back home but I saw a nice view of the city as well. I caught the bus at 6:15 and I finally made it home about 7:40. lol On a happy note though, I can now say that I have travelled most of the city and I now which bus to take to get home (even though I am moving on Wednesday).

Beg, Borrow & Steal???

2009-06-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Had a very unproductive day. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the washing machine. Seriously, I should be able to figure it out, but its a front load tiny version of ours and has about 30 different settings on it (totally not kidding). I did a load yesterday and it took about 2 hours to wash. Isn't that strange? Then today again I did another load and after 2 hours I went to check on it and it still wasn't done. I finally just moved it to the spin cycle and took out my clothes. Very few people have dryers in Italy so everything has to get hung to dry. Because I have a balcony on my room, I decided to hang everything outside. I was finding it very strange though when I went to hang my underwear up. I tried to hide it in the back so that people on the street or people in the apartments across from me couldn't see them. I also want to thank Crystal for forcing me to buy new undies before coming here. If not, everyone would have seen my Sunday best ;) instead of new undies. lol

So, yesterday as I was down at the train station, I seen someone steal something. I didn't really know what was happening until it was to late and about 20 other people seen it also. There was a guy that put his bags down in the train station and then went outside to have a smoke and talk on his phone. As he was doing this though, this very creepy lady ran over to his stuff, reached behind it and grabbed a white bag and then off she ran. I realized afterwards that it was food in the bag. So, on one had, it sucks that this guy had his stuff stolen, but geesh, watch your stuff and at least it wasn't anything of value. So then I was thinking though, should I have said something because she ran right in front of me or shouldn't I have. I decided the later because I didn't want to get involved, which sounds horrible, but I still don't know how things work around here and figured that I better not cause any trouble.

Their is also this lady that I have seen now about 3 times. She is always at the center somewhere and is always begging for money. Now obviously I have seen people on the streets before, but this one caught my attention because she is an older women and she is pregnant and always wore no shoes. The first time, I felt sorry for her, and the second time I was just annoyed. The third time however was yesterday. She was sitting outside the McDonalds when I was there. When she got up, with no shoes, yet again, I saw her readjust her belly! She isn't pregnant! I then realized that this woman is horrible. If she is in need of money that is one thing, but to pretend that you are pregnant so that people give you extra money, COME ON! I was totally P.O. when I saw that. Especially because there is probably many people out on the streets that are actually pregnant and in need of shelter and a some money. I just couldn't believe how low some poeple are sometimes. I guess it was just me being nieve again.

Mcdonalds, Maps & Permits

2009-06-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

Slept in until 12 today. Boy was that nice! My two English speaking roommates helped with my residence permit forms. We finally finished about 3 hours later and I was on my way to the post office. I had big plans (because today was the deadline and the post office closed at 7pm) to get on the bus, get there, send my papers away and get home. Well there I was 5pm, It was thundering and pouring rain and the buses weren't running because they were on strike for one day. lol How does that happen?!? Anyway, so I was walking, yet again. It took about 25min in the pouring rain to walk to the train station were the post office was, and of course, just to tick me off, the sun came out just as I was entering the post office. ugh Waited in line only to be told I needed to have my passport photocopied....not just the passport picture page and the visa page but every single page, including the cover. So I found a place that photocopies and headed back. It took about 20min of me standing there while he muttered stuff to me in Italian, 80 euro's and a few signatures later and I was finally given a date in which I can hopefully go back to the place I was at yesterday where there was over 100 people. Its July 29th! Seriously. They make you go through this crazy process of filling out forms and photocopyig documents, hand over 80 euros and then they still may or may not give me a permit card. I don't get it. Why make the big fuss about the 8 day rule then? Oh well, now I wait unil the end of July, and see what happens. I am just glad that it is done for now and I have done all that I can.

Ate at McDonalds today. I don't really need to say more than that. ;) The food has the same goals as it does back in Canada. Its a filler. Something to get you to your next meal. Why so many people eat it and love it, I will never know. I had the chicken burger, which is actually chicken here as opposed to ours which is processed chicken. Very tasty though. They also have curly fries here so that was cool. Super yummy!

On my way home, I didn't have to use my map once! YEAH ME! and to top it all off, when I see people that speak English that need help, I have been trying to lend a hand (not that I can off much help yet), however, I helped an American couple at the post office as well as another couple that was on the side of the road wondering aloud where the river was. I stopped and showed them on my map and they headed off. It actually felt pretty good that I can offer some assistance already and without my map in hand, people actually think I know what I am talking about. ;)

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! What a great day! :)

2009-06-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am another year older but still having a great time. Today was a prime example of that. I woke up around 6:30 this morning and put on "Hey Mickey", this song that I dance to every year on my birthday. I got ready to go and was at the train station by 8:30. Found the office where I get my residence permit (yeah!) only to see about 100 or more people lined up there. ugh! I talked to the nice guy that was directing all of this traffic and he told me that I needed to get a kit from the post office, fill it out, return it the post office and then they make an appointment for me. So maybe the 8 day rule is just a suggestion like everything else in Italy. There is no way that a person could do all of that in 8 days. Sucky part is, the whole thing (about 20 pages of stuff to fill out) is in Italian. Yeah me! lol

Met Sam (my tour guide) at the train station at 9:30 only to see that I was going on this vespa tour with a family of 5 from Virginia. We headed out to the vespa's but on the way we stopped at Piazzale Michelangelo where Sam swore had the best view in Florence. Well he wasn't wrong. It was beautiful. From there we headed to Chianti were we were taught our first lesson on how to ride the Vespa. Ok, I should add that by this point I was minorly freaking out. lol We were all given a lesson which was about 10min and then we were off. Does anyone remember first learning to ride a bike and having your parent/grandparent/aunt, let go of you and you have no choice but to do it or fall in the bush? Well that's exactly how I felt today. By this point, I was officially scared shitless! Yup, that's right. Totally freaking out! We got going though and went through some of the most gorgeous area's. Well, I am sure they were gorgeous from what they were telling me. I was so focused on the road and the cars that were whizzing by me, that sceanery was the last thing on my mind. ;) We drove for quite awhile and ended up going through about 3 small towns. It was crazy. My Vespa only stalled on me twice (because I think I was going to slow....lol) before we made it to the vineyard for the wine tour and lunch. We had lunch, which was very good. I had a barley salad with a pesto sauce and it had tomatoes in it. Then for dessert, Sam ordered just me a cake. I totally forget the name but it was baked creme (that's right, I said creme!) Mmm and everyone sang happy birthday to me. We had some wine, told some stories and I was genuinely made to feel at home with the Henderson's. We then got back on our vespa's for the ride home. I was much more relaxed on the way home. Perhaps from the wine...but I doubt it. ;) We stopped along the way were Sam treated us to gelato. The owner of the place we stopped at was ranked 7th in the world for gelato makers....cool huh? It was so yummy. I think I am going to get addicted to gelato. I am sure glad that I waited until yesterday to start trying it. I might never stop now though. (eeek) In the picture above, I am the second from the back. I would have been last if Jim hadn't stayed behind me to make sure I didn't get lost or fall over. lol We made it back safe and sound though and Sam was nice enough to drop me fairly close to my apartment so that I didn't have to take the bus or find my own way home.

I threw in this last pic because I thought it was cool (minus the big head in really pink helmet) hahaha It is showing a vineyard right behind me with a view of Florence far in the background.

So I am still trying to find a place to put all of my pictures so far to date. I was hoping Flicker but I'm not sure I can figure it out. I also thought Facebook, but not everyone has facebook. I'll figure something out and let you all know when I do. Sound good?

Anyway, my last note is to say thanks for all of the Birthday wishes. I love reading everyone's emails and blog comments.