Berlin!

Hey everybody!

Sorry this is coming so late! I've been home for a little over a week now. Things have been so crazy with school starting up again and finals looming ahead that I haven't had a whole lot of free time!

So, here's my story of Berlin! On the morning of the 15th, I met my friends Megan and Carli in the train station in Warsaw to head to Berlin. Our train wasn't going to leave until 9:45, so we got there at 9, figuring that 45 minutes would be plenty of time to buy tickets and make our way down to the platform. Oh, how wrong we were. We got in line to buy tickets, waited for about 5 minutes, and were told that the desk we were at did not sell international tickets. So, we headed upstairs where the lady had pointed and saw a huge line of people at several ticket booths. Assuming this was where we needed to be, we joined the queue, waited for about 20 minutes, and were told (again) that we were in the wrong place. By this time, there were about 15 minutes left until our train departed. Starting to worry, the three of us found a desk and asked the lady behind it where we should go. She seemed annoyed as she gestured us to join the line at the other end of the counter. 7 or 8 minutes later, we were told by the clerk that we were, once again, in the wrong place, and that we needed to find the international ticket office. Frustrated, we looked around and spotted a TINY sign that pointed us in the right direction. By this point, we had about 5 minutes left until our train departed, we didn't have tickets, and to top it all off, there was construction going on around the office that we needed to get to. The three of us sprinted around the construction barricades with heavy luggage, until we finally found the international ticket office. 3 minutes until the train leaves. We took a number, and saw a woman sitting at a desk without a customer in front of it. We ran up to her, before getting yelled at by an old lady with an earlier number than we had. We let her go ahead, then spotted another empty desk. We told the girl behind the desk that we needed tickets to Berlin. I swear, I have never heard anyone take so long to answer a question before in my life. "Um... that... train... leaves... in... 2... minutes..." YOU THINK?!?!?! WE NEED TO GET ON THIS TRAIN, LADY!!!! "uh, yeah. we need tickets, like, now." "Well... you... could... buy... them... on... the... train..." Gee. Thanks. So, the three of us sprinted as fast as we could down 2 flights of stairs and an escalator, running over some old men on the escalator in the process. We got onto the platform just as the conductor was blowing the whistle. Megan and Carli, who had backpacks, jumped onto the train, pushing a blonde lady aside who was blocking the door. I was hurrying after them just as a rather large man got in front of me and walked towards the train. I couldn't exactly move around him, but luckily I managed to get on the train just as the door closed behind me.

So, we were all on the train. Out of breath, with massive amounts of adrenaline pumping through our veins, but on the train. It was then that we realized that the seats were assigned, and we didn't have tickets. We set off to find a compartment to sit in until we found someone who worked on the train to sell us tickets. We found a compartment with three empty seats, put our baggage up on the luggage racks, and sat down, drained. Just then, a guy walked in and told me that I was in his seat. Crap. So, we all got our stuff back down again (much to the disdain of the nun that was sitting next to me) and set off to find someone who worked on the train. We found a man  and asked him where to buy tickets. He told us to follow him, and put us in a compartment at the very back of the train, without giving us tickets. I'm assuming we didn't need reservations with our eurail passes, because we never actually bought tickets for that ride... The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. We found our way to our hostel without too much trouble, and even navigated the metro system with only a few minor mishaps. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we arrived to our hostel (around 5:45), and we spent the rest of the evening napping and watching a movie.

The next day, we decided to go see the Berlin wall, considering that it was the only really famous thing that we knew about in the city. We found the wall, or what is left of it. There are only three sections of the wall remaining, as the rest was torn down in 1989. We went to a free 15 minute movie about the wall, which told the history behind it. It was a good refresher course for us, considering how long it had been since any of us had taken a world history class. The wall itself isn't as big and menacing as I thought it would be. It is mostly covered in graffiti, and there is a memorial for all the people who died there. The stories are sad to hear. It's crazy how one wall can separate families and friends, and the risks that some people took to get back to their loved ones.

We got hungry, so we decided to get a bratwurst from a street vendor for lunch. Coolest thing ever. These guys wear a belt with a grill and an umbrella attached to it, and they grill bratwursts on the go! So crazy! We spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city. We found a little flea market that was fun to look around! I found a couple of my favourite children's books in German at one of the stands! We wandered more into the town centre and saw a group of breakdancing guys putting on a show. That was really fun to watch. A few minutes later, we saw a group bicycle thing, with a big square bar and beer taps on it! Basically, everyone sits at the bar and peddles and drinks at the same time. It looked like so much fun! We wandered a little further and saw a big tent looking thing. It turned out to be a dinner show venue, and we decided to go see that night's show by an Australian group called the Tom Tom Crew. They were amazing. They were basically a hip hop/ drumming/ acrobatics group. I don't even know how to describe them. Basically, there would be a dj playing music and doing his thing, a guy beatboxing (he was the best beatboxer I've ever heard in my life!), and some guys doing acrobatics, all at the same time! Then, a guy would come out and do some crazy drumming stuff! It was amazing.

The next day, we decided to go to the top of a space-needle-looking tower in the middle of Berlin. We waited in line and got our tickets, then had to wait about 45 minutes before we could go up to the top. In the mean time, the three of us walked around another little marketplace for a while. We went up to the top of the tower and saw the view,which was smoggy, but still beautiful. We were planning on eating in the restaurant at the top of the tower, but apparently you need to make reservations 4 weeks in advance, which didn't exactly suit our "fly by the seat of your pants" sort of attitude. We spent the rest of the day just walking around the city again. We found this church-looking statue in the middle of a park, where we sat and watched the sun set. Then we set off to go back home. It was then that we realized that we hadn't eaten anything substantial all day. Pair that with being tired, and the result: cranky Jenn. We ended up getting food at a random restaurant on the way back to the hostel, where none of us talked for a good 10 minutes while we were scarfing down our food.  We went to bed fairly early that night, from sheer exhaustion. After all, we had all been traveling for about 18 days by that point. It gets exhausting after a while.

The next day was the final day of our trip. We slept in, which felt amazing, before getting up and heading out for the day. We went to Checkpoint Charlie, the entrance to what used to be the American Sector of Berlin. There were American flags flying, and I felt at home for a second. We saw the Topography of Terror museum, which was basically a museum on the Nazi Regime in World War II. It was really interesting, but SO much reading. After sight-seeing for 19 days straight, my brain couldn't take much more. We walked a little further and saw the last section of the Berlin wall, which pretty much looked the same as the first two sections we had seen, but it was still cool. That afternoon, we went and saw a palace. It was gorgeous, especially the gardens, which were planted in swirly patterns that sort of reminded me of the Queen of Hearts' garden in Alice in Wonderland. We got back to our hostel fairly early that night, since I had to catch a plane back to England early the next morning. I woke up at 4:15am to leave for my flight. I caught the metro to the airport without any difficulty and got through security with no problems. My flight went just fine, and I got into London Gatwick airport at 8 in the morning.

It has been so nice to be back. Just the fact that I don't have to live out of a suitcase has been amazing. Since I got back, I've been doing a lot of schoolwork, although I took a break on Thursday (the 21st) to go to London and meet my friend Hannah who lives in Wales. We went and saw two plays: Frankenstein, which is apparently the hot ticket in London right now, and Cause Celebre, a play about a woman who is on trial for killing her husband. They were both PHENOMENAL! I'm so glad I went!

So, there you have it. My spring break is over. It was absolutely incredible. I'm so fortunate to have been able to do all of this! I feel like I know so much more and have experienced so many amazing things! I just hope that I will have another chance to come back and travel around Europe some more.

The bratwurst guy.

The bratwurst.

The beer bike!

The big tower

Sunset over the park

Checkpoint Charlie

Me in front of the palace

Hope everyone is doing alright! Tomorrow, I leave for Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace!!! I'll try and post soon!
Love you all!
Jenn

Poland!

Hello, All!

Well, I am almost done with my trip. I can't believe how quickly this has all gone by! On Saturday (the 9th), I left my hostel in Pisa to go to the airport and fly to Poland. Everything went pretty well! I found the train alright, got into the airport, and realized that I had allowed WAY too much time for myself in the airport. The counter for my flight wasn't even open yet when I got there! Well, I guess it's always better to be there too early than too late! The Pisa airport is really small, and there wasn't much to do outside the terminal, so I sat down with my book in a cafe and waited for my flight number to pop up on the board. Finally, I checked my bag and got in the security line. Security at small airports is definitely not as intense as at SFO. I didn't have to take my shoes off, and I got my hand sanitizer through, which was definitely NOT the case when my family traveled to Maui in 2007. In that instance, I had accidentally left my hand sanitizer in my purse, and (LORD FORBID!) it wasn't in a plastic bag. I was pulled aside and my whole bag was unpacked before they finally found the abominable object that was my 2 ounce bottle of hand sanitizer. Anyway, that didn't happen this time, and I got though security without trouble. However, I was there so early that I had to wait in the terminal for 2 hours before my plane finally boarded. At SFO, it wouldn't have been a big deal. I would have just walked around and looked at the shops, gotten something to eat, etc. In Pisa, there were a total of 4 stores, all of which I thoroughly looked through before getting bored and pulling my book out again.

Finally, my flight was called, and I joined the throng of people bustling to get in line for the Ryanair flight to Krakow, Poland. Ryanair flights are definitely different than, say, my flight with Virgin Atlantic, mostly because of the lack of in flight entertainment and assigned seating. When we got onto the plane, there was a mad rush to get the best seats possible. I lucked out and got a window seat, AND no one sat next to me, which meant that I had an entire row to stretch out on for two hours. I mostly read my book and played Angry Birds (a game on my iPod that I, along with about half of the world's population, am obsessed with). The flight went fairly smoothly, and we landed without too much trouble. Apparently, it is customary on a Ryanair flight to clap when the plane lands... Maybe celebration that the barely qualified pilot managed to land the plane this time? In any case, I quickly grabbed my bag off of the luggage claim and headed out the door. My instructions told me to go to the train station... There were no signs for a train station. I walked in the dark for about 5 minutes before turning around and heading back to the airport to ask for directions. Turns out that I had to take a shuttle, which my directions conveniently forgot to mention. Oh well. I took the shuttle and met two girls from New Hampshire, who were looking just as lost as I was. Thanking God to be talking to native English speakers, we found the train together and navigated our way to the right station.

I was supposed to meet up with my friends Carli and Megan when I got off the train. It was then that I realized that my phone didn't have enough money on it to make calls or text anyone. I could, however, receive texts and calls, which left me helpless, waiting for them to contact me. They finally did, and I met up with them. We were all starving, so we set off to find some food. We found this little vegetarian restaurant that reminded me of East West Cafe in Sebastopol. The food was delicious. After dinner, Carli and Megan helped me find my hostel, and I passed out on my bed pretty much immediately.

The next day, the three of us met up and explored the city on our own for the morning. We found a little shop that had free coloring pages of dragons, so we spent a little while coloring! That afternoon, we decided to go on a free walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto of Krakow, Kazimierz (pronounced Kaszh- miszh). We met up with the group in front of this beautiful church in the middle of the town centre. We walked around the ghetto and saw Oscar Schindler's factory, as well as a bunch of other places depicted in Schindler's List.  The guy that led the tour was really interesting, but 2 hours and a TON of Polish names later, we were getting tired. Finally, an hour later, the tour ended. We walked for 20 minutes to get back to the city centre. Poor Megan, who had had to pee for the ENTIRE tour, was on a mission to find a bathroom. We finally asked a nice lady in a Chinese restaurant if we could use her bathroom. We got strange looks from all of the people in the restaurant as we raced to the bathroom. We were absolutely starving after that, so we attempted to find a restaurant that Megan had a flyer for. Apparently, it doesn’t exist anymore… But we went into the restaurant at the same address and had dinner.

The next day, the three of us went on another free walking tour, this time of the city centre. We had mentally prepared ourselves for the three hour tour this time, and therefore enjoyed it much more than the previous day. We saw a castle that is right in the middle of the city, and right next to it is a statue of a dragon that REALLY BREATHES FIRE!!!! Our guide told us the legend of how the dragon  became the symbol of Krakow: Apparently, there was a dragon that lived in a cave underneath the castle. The king at the time didn’t want a dragon living there, so he ordered his soldiers to kill the dragon. When the dragon killed all the soldiers, the King made an announcement that whoever could kill the dragon could marry the princess. So, a man took a dead sheep and filled it with peppers and other really spicy things, and put it in front of the dragon’s cave. The dragon ate the sheep, and pretty soon, his mouth was on fire. He fled the cave to the river (which runs right next to the castle), and drank so much water that he exploded. Good story. When the tour ended, We decided to split up for a while and go take naps at our respective hostels before meeting for dinner that night. We slept for a while, and around 9:30 or so, we walked around the city centre and found a little restaurant that pretty much had any kind of food you could want. We sat down and ordered. Fun fact about Europe: If you ask for water, they won’t give you tap water. You have to pay for your water. And they don’t give you very much water in the little glass bottle. It gets really frustrating, especially when you order something spicy and want to wash it down with a decent amount of water. Anyway, we were at the restaurant until it closed at 11, then headed back to our hostels.

The next day, we got up early and headed for Auschwitz, the concentration camp about an hour and a half from Krakow. We first went to Auschwitz I, the smaller camp where they have set up a museum. There were windows where you could look into rooms that contained piles upon piles of confiscated eyeglasses, pots and pans, clothing, shoes, even crutches and prosthetic limbs. The worst one, though, was a window probably about 15 meters long that looked into a room full of human hair. That was hard to look at. We walked through the gas chambers and the barracks as well. As if that wasn't bad enough, then we went to Auschwitz II- Birkenau, which is about 3 minutes by bus from Auschwitz I. It was enormous. As I walked through there, I could picture the people living there. Birkenau was left pretty much as they found it, which made it hit home for me a lot more than Auschwitz I. We walked around the barracks and came across one that mothers and their children had lived in. There were still drawings on the walls that the children had made. I couldn't stand being in there for very long. It was crazy being in the place that I had read about in my history books, and standing in the midst of it all was even more terrible. We were in a somber mood by the time we left to take the train back to Krakow. While we were on the train, we looked out the window and saw the beautiful sunset. The three of us all felt a renewed appreciation for how lucky we are, and we celebrated by turning on some happy music and singing all the way back to Krakow.

The next morning, we checked out of our hostels and went to grab a quick breakfast before catching our train to Warsaw. We found a place called "The Piano Rouge" and decided to have breakfast there. We walked downstairs into what I can only describe as the sparkliest room I have ever seen. There was glitter in the paint, little lights all over the place, and rich fabrics draped everywhere. I probably would have thought it was just a cool place, if the lady seating us hadn't asked us how old we were before letting us sit down. We found that rather strange. After sitting at our table, the lady asked us if we would like the wine list (WITH BREAKFAST??). We said no. There was no one else in there, and as the meal wore on, I kept feeling more and more like a naked person was going to jump out at us and start dancing. Luckily, this didn't happen, but I have a feeling we unknowingly ate breakfast in the front room of a strip club or something.

So, with that interesting start to our morning, we set off for Warsaw. The train ride went pretty uneventfully, and we got to my hostel without too much confusion (although we did go the wrong way on the tram and had to go back the opposite direction...) We walked around the city that afternoon and had Indian food for dinner (YUM!), before heading to the university pub. We had some coupons for cheap drinks there, so we sat and had a beer. It was a really cool place. Every inch of the ceiling and walls was painted with some cool character or design, and they were playing good music. If I lived there, I would definitely hang out there.

The next day, we planned to walk more around Warsaw. This didn't really end up happening. Megan was sick, and we were all exhausted. We walked into a coffee shop to grab something to eat and ended up sitting there for 4 hours, just hanging out. There was a scary lady at the table next to us, who we nicknamed Cruella DeVille. Carli and I were spinning coins on the table, and one of my coins rolled under her chair. We were too afraid to go over and get it, so we decided to wait until she left. Pretty soon, we saw her bend over, and I'm pretty sure she picked up the coin and pocketed it, because it wasn't there when we went to look for it later. Rude. A while later, I went to sign up for my classes at Chico next semester, and then we met up with the lady that Carli and Megan were staying with. She was really nice, and showed us a couple of cool bars.

All in all, Poland was really cool! It was so different from anything else I had ever seen.

The town centre of Krakow

St. Mary's Church in Krakow

These pretzel stands are pretty much on every street corner in Krakow!

We took a colouring break... Yep. We're in our 20's.

Here's my easter bunny picture for this year!

I just thought this was crazy.

We had Mexican food. It's better in California :)

Funny graffiti we found in Krakow

The fire-breathing dragon statue!

Random guy dressed up as a mug of beer. Carli had just poked him and was running away.

The sign over the entrance to Auschwitz. It means "Work brings Freedom"

Just a fraction of all of the confiscated shoes

A starvation chamber.

In between two electric barbed wire fences surrounding Auschwitz.

The bunks they slept on.

The bunk houses looked like this.

Things I'm Loving: Traveling, Meeting up with friends, how cheap everything is in Poland, how as soon as you hear someone else speaking English, you immediately strike up a conversation with them.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Living out of a suitcase, moving every few days, feeling constantly tired.

Things I'm Learning: To take cool pictures, that I rely on the internet WAY too much.

Sorry I'm so behind on my blogging. I've just been so busy with my travels, and internet is not a guarantee in hostels. I'll write about Germany soon!

Love,
Jenn

Rome and Pisa!

Hey everyone!

So, this is me attempting to catch up on my blogging! I'm currently in Krakow, Poland and having a blast, but I'll tell you about that in my next blog :) But for now, here are my Italian adventures!

Claire and I left Nice on Sunday evening and boarded a train headed for Italy! Our first stop was just across the border in Italy. This was confusing, considering that our tickets told us the Italian name of the city, while the train broadcasted the French name! We had a minor heart attack before realizing that they were just two different names for the same city. We took another train to Genova, Italy. We were really excited about this train, because it had compartments, just like the trains in Harry Potter! It even had a little snack trolley that came down the hallway! When we got to Genova, we waited around in the train station for 2 hours before getting on our night train to Rome. We got on the train around midnight, and found our compartment without too much difficulty. When we opened the door, we found 4 people asleep in our 6 person compartment. Two men were in the seats that we were supposed to be sitting in. One of the men got up and left the compartment, and the other one just switched seats. Soon, two more people came in and the other man had to get up and leave. I'm assuming that he didn't have a ticket, because he stood outside our compartment for the rest of the ride. Sleeping on this particular train was not an easy task. No one was sure where to put their feet, and my knees kept knocking against everyone else's. I woke up a lot, and didn't get a very good night's sleep before we arrived in Rome at 5:50 the next morning.

When we got off the train, Claire and I set off to find our hostel. Our directions were fairly straight forward, and despite our lack of sleep, we made it to the hostel without too much difficulty. It was still dark outside, so when we got inside, we asked if we could hang out in the hostel until it got light enough to do something productive. The guy behind the desk was grumpy and rolled his eyes at us before telling us that we had to bring two chairs into the lobby and sit there. He glared at us the rest of the time we were in there. Claire and I watched youtube videos until 7:30 when the hostel restaurant opened for breakfast. We quickly chowed down and stored our luggage before setting off for the day.

We walked back to the train station, where we looked for a tour bus that we could buy tickets for. We ran into a man who was part of one such company and he led us to the company office a few blocks away. We were a little worried about following him, so we cautiously followed at a distance until we reached the office. We met a nice English couple there, and immediately felt our worries about the legitimacy of the company melt away. We got on the tour bus, which took us around Rome. The company had multiple buses running at once, so we could hop off wherever we wanted and just hop back on the next bus when it came around. Claire and I saw the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and a ton of other landmarks. By the time we had finished our bus tour, we were exhausted and it was time to check into the hostel. We headed back and checked in before moving into our room. We stayed in a 12 person dorm room, which was separated into two- 6 person rooms.  In our room were Claire, myself, a girl from New Zeland named Jo, a guy from Australia named Dane, a girl from Mississippi named Tori, and some random guy who didn't talk to us. We got along really well with everyone! We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging around the hostel and talking to our new friends.

That night, we all went to bed fairly early. I slept well enough until I was woken up around 3 by snoring that was coming from the nameless guy. I have never heard anyone snore that bad. Ever. After everyone yelling at him (it didn't help in the slightest), I turned my iPod on and listened to music in order to fall asleep again. The next morning, snoring boy had left the hostel, but he was the topic of conversation for  the rest of us!

Claire and I headed out for Vatican City, which was absolutely beautiful! We climbed to the top of the Cupola (The big domed roof) in St. Peter's Basilica. We decided to be adventurous (and save 3 euros) and take the stairs. Adventurous doesn't even begin to describe it. There were SO MANY STAIRS! Toward the top, the walls began to go sideways because of the shape of the dome, so we had to bend sideways in order to walk. But, all the hard work was totally worth it when we made it to the top and got to see the whole of Rome. The walk back down was almost as painful as the walk to the top. I didn't really realize how out of shape my shin muscles were until I had to walk down 550 stairs! With shaky legs, we finally got to the bottom and went inside the chapel. It was gorgeous. Paintings, tapestries, and statues were everywhere we looked, and they were all amazing! We stopped and ate lunch in the square in front of Vatican City (we had brought apples and crackers with us), then began the walk to the Vatican Museum. The main thing I wanted to see there was the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted the entire ceiling. After being pushed through the rest of the museum by the throng of people surrounding us, Claire and I finally made it to the Sistine Chapel! At the entrance, there were two security guards that were telling everyone that we weren't allowed to take pictures and to be quiet. Of course, no one was listening to them, but it was enough to make me be really cautious when I took out my camera to snap a picture of Adam and God almost touching hands, which was the painting I really wanted to see! After taking my illegal picture, I quickly put my camera away before anyone caught me, and continued to look around myself in awe. When we left the chapel, we looked around the other exhibits in the museum, then headed back out.

At this point in the afternoon, it was roasting hot, so we stopped at a little corner gelato shop. For 1.50, we got a cone with three different flavours of gelato with whipped cream on top. It was seriously the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. We took our ice cream to a little grassy area in the middle of the street, and ate our ice cream while watching everyone else pass by and soaking up the sun. We had a pretty relaxed afternoon and evening, which was just what the doctor ordered, considering the fact that we hadn't had a decent night's sleep in two nights. We went to a little Italian place next door to our hostel, which we soon started calling "our Italian restaurant," since for the rest of our stay in Rome, one of the waiters would always greet us every time we walked by.

Claire had picked up a pamphlet for Vespa (motor scooter) tours, so the next day, we thought we would check them out. Sadly, the man at the counter told us that it would cost us 150 euros each to take a tour, which was completely out of our price range, so we set out to find "the time elevator," an attraction that was advertised on the map that our hostel gave us. Basically, it was a movie with moving seats that told us about the history of Rome. Sounds lame, I know, but it was actually pretty cool, considering that we had been doing most of our touring on our own and hadn't gotten much history. After that, we went looking for the Monks' Crypt that my friend Megan had told me about. After many wrong turns and lots of sweating, we found the place only to realize that there was a dress code. Both of our shoulders and knees had to be covered, and as I was wearing a tank top and Claire was wearing shorts, we couldn't go inside. We headed back to the hostel for a nap, before heading back out with Jo, the girl from New Zeland.

The three of us went to watch the sunset in this little piazza. It was off the beaten path, but Jo's Lonely Planet book said that it was the best place to watch the sunset. Indeed it was. We hung around there for a while, just admiring the sunset, before going off to find food. We had dinner at this little Italian place and had AMAZING pizza and a liter of house wine between the three of us. We sat for an hour or two just talking, and then headed to see the Trevvi fountain at night. We took a ton of pictures, and just sat talking again after a while. Out of nowhere, a little Indian man came up to us and sat next to me. He asked where we were from and we told him, and then he asked our names. I told him my name and he said "I'm German." I immediately said "no you're not" because he was OBVIOUSLY not from Germany. He kept repeating it over and over while I denied it every time. Eventually I figured out that his NAME was German. Oops. He then proceeded to kiss my hand multiple times and offer to buy me a drink. When I said no, he just kept at it until Claire finally said "well, we have to go!" Thank God. We walked back to the hostel and ordered Champagne from the bar just in time to celebrate my 21st birthday at midnight!

The next morning, we woke up and meandered around Rome a little more, making sure to stop off at our gelato place before Claire had to leave that afternoon. I took her to the train station, then headed back to the hostel where I spent the evening answering all the happy birthday posts on my facebook. I'm glad I had that night free, because there were a LOT of them! I got pretty homesick that night, considering that it was my 21st birthday, and I didn't get to see my family or friends, but I made it through.

The next morning, I set off for Pisa. After an uneventful 4 hour train ride, I arrived in Pisa. I wasn't so lucky with the directions to my hostel this time. I walked down the street they told me to walk down, and came to a roundabout. The directions told me to go straight, but there were two streets on the opposite side of the roundabout, neither of them straight ahead of me.  I walked back to the train station and asked for directions from a man that worked there. I ended up on a big shopping street with tons of people all around me. My hostel was upstairs above some stores, and the entrance was a HUGE medieval looking door. I was buzzed inside  and came to a big gate that I had to open, before hiking up about 5 flights of stairs. The hostel was alright. I shared my room with two French-Canadian girls, who seemed nice.

After getting settled in, I set out to find the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was nice to wander around the streets of Pisa by myself, and I got to the tower without too much trouble. After snapping a few pictures of the tower, I figured out how to use the auto timer setting on my camera to get some pictures of myself with the tower too! I spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting on a lawn next to the tower and people watching. When I got bored, I started walking towards my hostel and found a little pizza place where I stopped for dinner. No one spoke English there, so ordering my pizza involved a lot of pointing and gesturing, but eventually we did it. I sat outside and watched people pass by. By the time I was finished with dinner, it was getting dark, so I decided to head back towards my hostel. Unfortunately for me, I made a few wrong turns and ended up walking around in circles for about 30 minutes, before completely going the wrong direction. When I deemed myself lost beyond repair, I walked into a restaurant and asked for directions. Between the three people in the restaurant, they had enough English to tell me how to get back, and after that I didn't have a problem getting back to my hostel. I slept well that night, and the next morning, I checked out of my hostel and set out for the airport on my way to POLAND!

Standing in front of the Arch of Constantine

The Colosseum!

Claire, and our first Italian pizza!

In front of Vatican City!

Random art on the ground in Vatican City

View from the top of the Cupola of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Me and the view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City!

The Cupola of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City! We climbed 550 stairs to get to the top!

There are fountains like this all over the city! Filtered water, so you can drink it :)

My illegal picture of the roof of the Sistine Chapel ;)

Our Gelato Shop!

Our Gelato! SOOOOOO GOOD!!!

The sunset over Rome :)

Me in front of the Trevvi Fountain at night!

The Trevvi Fountain

Just turned 21!! First drink: Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine)!

Restaurant in Pisa

Leaning Tower!

Holding it up!

Top of the Tower

Keeping it up with my feet!

Sunset

Things I'm Loving: Genuine Italian food, GELATO, how easy the public transportation system is, Italy in general.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Not getting to see my family on my birthday, how exhausting traveling is, snoring roommates.

Things I'm Learning: I really have NO sense of direction, how fun it is to just people-watch, that I really do look Italian (!).

Well, I'm enjoying Poland right now, so when I leave Krakow I'll post another blog! I love and miss you all!
Love,
Jenn

Nice, Eze Village, and Monaco, OH MY!

Bonjour Family and Friends!
I am currently in Rome, but I figured I'd fill you in on what happened in Nice since I'm so behind on my blogging. I've been so busy that I haven't really had the time to sit down and write, so here goes:

My English friend Claire and I took a ferry from England to France on the night of March 31st. That was interesting. We walked onto the boat, which was decorated very nicely, and both immediately thought of the Titanic, but quickly knocked on wood so we wouldn't jinx ourselves. The ferry left at 11:00 pm and got into France at 8:00 am, so we took the opportunity to sleep... or at least attempt to sleep... We had to wedge ourselves onto two chairs and attempt to lay down comfortably, all while freezing under an air conditioning vent, and listening to a group of old people next to us talk quite loudly (I'm assuming none of them had their hearing aids in) until about 3 am. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep, and we got off the boat groggy and with a long day ahead of us.

We took a bus to the train station and spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain (in broken French) what ticket we wanted to the guy behind the counter. I'm pretty sure he just refused to speak English with us because he wanted to watch us squirm, but we eventually made it, and got on the train without too much fuss. When we got on our second train, however, things got interesting.  Claire and I got on the train and sat down in some random seats, the way we had done on the previous train, and put our bags on the seats next to us. We were surprised when an old man came over and asked to sit in the seat next to me. I thought this was pretty rude, considering that there was an entire row of empty seats right across the aisle from us, but I moved my bag and he sat down. A couple of minutes later, another old man came up and asked if he could sit in my seat. I was thoroughly confused, and a little put off, before the man showed me his ticket. It was only then that we realized that there were assigned seats on the train! Oops. Embarrassed, we quickly grabbed all of our stuff and got off the train, looking for our real seats. A conductor pointed us in the right direction, and we found our real seats without too much difficulty. About halfway through the 6 hour train ride, we realized that the first seats were only about 2 rows behind where our real seats were! How embarrassing.

We got to Nice and took the local tram to a grocery store, where a shuttle from our hostel picked us up. Our hostel was fantastic! We had signed up for a 10 person dorm, but when we got there, we were informed that they had upgraded us to a private room for free! We had our own bathroom, and bunk beds! We were happy. That night, we went into the hostel bar for dinner and a drink and met two girls from Texas named Shimara and Leslie. We started talking about our plans for the next day, and they told us they were planning on going to Monaco, so we decided to tag along.

The next morning, we woke up, had some free breakfast (always a plus!) and headed out for Monaco. We took a bus up into the mountains and stopped in a little town called Eze Village, which had a beautiful castle that is now used as a hotel. We got to walk through the castle and took some amazing pictures. It was absolutely beautiful. The buses only come to Eze village once every two hours, so we made sure to be at the bus stop on time. Unfortunately, the bus decided not to extend us the same courtesy. It just didn't come at all. So, the four of us were stuck in Eze for an extra two hours, which seriously cut into our Monaco time. By the time we got to Monaco, it was about 2 pm.

Monaco is home to the Monte Carlo Casino, and is also the smallest country in the world. It's right on the beach, perfect temperature, and really beautiful. The four of us walked around the city for the afternoon, stopping at the beach to dip our toes in the Mediterranean Sea! It was such a nice day, and although nothing too exciting happened, it was a perfect way to spend our first non-travel day in France!

The next day, Claire and I walked around Nice. We found a bunch of little markets, which were really fun to look around! My favourite part of the day, though, was when we went to a lookout point where we could see the whole city! We had to take an elevator up an old well shaft to get to the top of a castle-looking structure that overlooked the city. At the top were a park, a cafe, and an amazing view!

Our time in Nice was really nice and relaxing, and before we knew it, it was time to say Au Revoir to France, and Ciao to Italy!

Two different passports, ONE FERRY TICKET!

The inside of our ferry. We slept on two of those blue chairs all night.

The path outside our room at the hostel

Claire and I in Eze Village

Leslie, Claire, and Shimara in Eze Village

Inside the castle

The bus stop we sat at for 2 hours!

Fountains in Monaco

The beach in Monaco

Downtown Nice

The lookout point in Nice

The view from the lookout point

Me at the lookout point

Things I’m Loving: The SUN, the beach, Hostels, meeting new friends, unexpected upgrades.

Things I’m Not Loving So Much: How unhelpful the French can be, pangs of homesickness, sunburns.

Things I’m Learning: Random phrases in French, how to navigate the train system, how much I love Mexican food, that I do fairly well under pressure, that traveling this much makes me appreciate home more.

I’ll hopefully be posting about Rome very soon, so keep an eye out! I love and miss you all!

Au Revoir,

Jenn