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

PARIS!!!!

Bonjour!

I am home from my wonderful weekend in Paris! We had an absolutely AMAZING time! Paris is a beautiful city. I thought people were exaggerating, but it is probably the most romantic city I've ever been to. I can definitely see how people could fall in love there. Another misconception about Paris: the people aren't rude at all! Everyone I ran into was super helpful and willing to give me directions or attempt to speak English with me if I couldn't get my point across to them. So here's the rundown of what we did this weekend:

Friday: at 6:30 am, a bunch of groggy Americans got on a double decker bus at our school. We made a few stops along the way for food, etc. One stop was at a wine warehouse where we took the chance to buy ourselves some French wine! It was lovely. We took the Euro Tunnel (lovingly referred to as the Chunnel) under the English Channel to get to France. Basically, our bus drove onto the train and we were enclosed in a box for 35 minutes until the train got to the other side. So cool! It took us 9 hours to get to Paris, but at 4:30 Paris time (3:30 England time) we finally made it.

We checked into our hotel which was a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel tower! Interesting tidbit about European hotels: they have twin beds. Our room had two twin beds pushed next to each other. Weird. When we finished unpacking, the group walked over to the Eiffel Tower and took MILLIONS of pictures before walking further to the Seine River (another 2 minute walk or so) for a boat tour just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. The boat tour lasted about an hour or so, and when we were finished, a group of us set off to find some food. At this point, it was about 9:30, and most of us hadn't eaten since about 1, so we were starving! We wandered the streets of Paris looking for a good (yet inexpensive) meal, and finally settled on a little Italian restaurant where we all ordered €8 cheese pizzas. They were delicious! By the time we were finished, it was about 10:30 and we were all exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Saturday: I woke up at 7 Saturday morning to the lovely surprise that I had somehow lost my voice! I squeaked for the rest of the trip. We made it downstairs for our complimentary breakfast at 8. Fun fact about France: They eat SO MANY carbs! Breakfast consisted of: Croissants, quiche, crepes, bread, cheese, cereal, fruit, and coffee. I gladly tried my first French croissant, which was amazing, and stowed one in my purse for later, which proved to be a wise decision.

We left the hotel at 9am and headed back towards the Eiffel Tower, this time to CLIMB! We paid €3.50 to climb the 704 stairs that are open to the public. The first platform is about 1/4 of the way to the top, and the second platform is 1/2 way to the top. You can only climb to the second platform, but you can take an elevator (British: lift) to the top for an extra €5, so we did. The view was incredible, and I am so glad I did it. We walked down the 704 stairs to the bottom as well. My legs did pretty well! It really wasn't that bad, despite what I had heard from other people who had climbed it. At the bottom of the Eiffel Tower are a TON of vendors, all trying to sell you the exact same thing- little miniature Eiffel Towers. They all literally look the same, and I'm pretty sure they buy them from the same place. The men that sell them have some odd sales techniques. Apparently, they assume that if you're a woman and you're from America, you'll buy one of their Eiffel Towers if they call you Lady Gaga. So, 30 minutes, and many "Eiffel Tour for you, Lady Gaga's" later, we made our way to our bus, where we took a tour of the city.

We saw the Arc d' Triomphe, the Moulin Rouge (but sadly, not Ewen McGregor), and the Assemble Nationale, before we stopped at the Sacre Coeur ("Sacred Heart") Cathedral. We hiked up millions of more stairs to the top and got to go inside. It is beautiful. There were candles lit everywhere and stained glass windows. When we went outside, we were bombarded with more vendors, but this time they were trying to sell us friendship bracelets. The men would come up and grab your arm and start tying a bracelet on your wrist and then ask for money for it. Two of the American guys got suckered into it, and everyone made fun of them because one of them payed €10 while the other one only payed €1. So funny. We walked down a little street with tons of souvenir shops, and I found myself a sticker for my water bottle before getting back on the bus. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral which was PHENOMENAL! It is absolutely stunning. I can't even describe it. Luckily, we were allowed to take pictures inside, unlike the Sacre Coeur, so I snapped quite a few pictures of the stained glass windows, the statues of the saints, and the murals on the walls until... my camera battery died. Luckily, I had my iPod with me, and could take worse quality pictures the rest of the afternoon. When we left Notre Dame, we were dropped off at the Louvre and the bus headed back to the hotel. We didn't get to actually go into the museum part of the Louvre because it was only going to be open for another half hour by the time we got there, but we got to see the pyramids which were really cool! My friends and I took the metro back to the hotel, which was an experience in itself! Let's just say, I have never had less personal space in my life. The metro was PACKED with people. At one point, there were about 9 of us standing and holding onto one bar. My friend Becca had some lovely French lady actually put her arm around her shoulders and hold onto the bar. Needless to say, we were relieved to get off the metro 15 minutes later.

Back at the hotel, we got all dressed up and 4 of us went out to a nice French dinner around 8:30. Another Fun Fact: In France, a normal dinner time is around 8:30 or 9, and restaurants are always packed until about 10:30. I got chicken with these AMAZING mashed potatoes with cheese in them, and some strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. So good. We had a really nice time at dinner, and ended up sitting there for about 2 hours just talking. After that, we went back to the hotel, grabbed the wine we had bought the previous day, and headed out again. We walked near the Seine River and took pictures of all the boats and bridges, but couldn't find a decent place to sit, so we headed back towards the Eiffel Tower. We ended up sitting in the Peace Monument, which has a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower, drinking our wine, and talking. It was a fantastic night.

Sunday: Sunday morning came waaaaaaay too quickly, and we left the hotel around 9 to go to Versailles. We went to the Palace of Versailles, where some of my friends and I joined the throng of people going inside. The place is huge. Apparently it could house 20,000 people and its stables could hold 7,000 horses in its prime. All the ceilings are painted beautifully, and everything is extravagant and beautiful. Even the front gates are gold! We got to see the Queen's bedroom which was amazing, and the gardens outside which were beautiful!

After that, we still had some time left, so two of my friends and I headed for the town market. It's basically a huge farmer's market with all sorts of homemade/ homegrown produce, bread, honey, meat, pastries, etc. At a bread stand, the guy behind the counter started speaking Spanish to me, and asked if I was from Spain. Politely, I squeaked to him in Spanish that I was from America and asked if he spoke English. He immediately changed languages and told me I looked Spanish. He is the second person to do that since I've been here! The entire trip, I was amazed at how many people spoke English. It really makes me want to learn to be fluent in a second language. It just opens up your world to so many more people! A friend of mine ran into someone who didn't speak English, and she didn't speak French, but they both spoke some Spanish, and they communicated that way! It's incredible. When we left the market, we got back on the bus and took a 7 hour journey back to Brighton, arriving around 8 that night.

Paris was absolutely amazing. I loved the city, the culture, and the architecture there! I definitely want to make it back some day.

Standing outside the bus in the Euro Tunnel Train!

Found some good ol' California wine in France!

A street in Paris

My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower!

I just like this picture!

Eiffel Tower at night!

A bunch of us in front of the Eiffel Tower after our boat cruise!

The Peace Monument

Jumping picture!

Looking down from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower!

Me on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower

View from the Second floor

View from the top!

LA: 9,105 km away!

The Moulin Rouge!

My French store. I didn't get to go inside, but from what I saw it was a teenage clothes store.

Four of us in front of the Sacre Coeur

In front of the Notre Dame Cathedral!

The famous Notre Dame stained glass window!

Once every hour at night, the Eiffel tower sparkles!

The Eiffel Tower through the Peace Monument

In front of the Golden Gate at the Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles

The upside down Pyramid at the Louvre!

The big pyramid outside the Louvre

An example of what the ceilings looked like in the Palace of Versailles

The Queen's bedroom in Versailles

The Gardens at Versailles

Standing in front of Versailles!

Things I'm Loving: Getting to travel more, French cheese, Paris in general, getting to see a bunch of places that I'd only seen in pictures.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Skype being finicky, having a hoarse voice, only having 4 days between trips.

Things I'm Learning: How to survive in a country that speaks another language.

British to American Dictionary:

Pancakes: Crepes
Off License: Liquor store

French to English Dictionary:

mon petit chou: "my little cabbage" This is a term of endearment, like calling someone honey or sweetie, lol!


Next time I write, I'll be on my big 2 1/2 week adventure through Europe! I can't wait to share it all with you!!

Bon Voyage (again!)

~Jenn