Spring Break...In a paragraph

Okay so here's the deal...
Spring Break was so long and so much happened!!! So I've pretty much given up on this whole blogging thing.  I'm blaming it on laziness because it would take me forever to remember everything that happened and write it all down in separate entries.  So here's a quick summary...I spent my first week in Italy.  I was in Milan for a day, Venice for two days, Florence for two days, and Rome for three days.  While I was there I saw Rialto Bridge, watched the sunset from Piazza Michelangelo, I saw Michelangelo's David, The Colosseum, The Palatine/Roman Forum, St. Peter's Basilica, The Sistine Chapel, and I ended the week with a candlelit ceremony of the stations of the Cross with thousands of people in front of the Colosseum...and I got to see the Pope.  I'd say week one was a huge success and I loved it!!! Week two consisted of a trip to Paris and Chateau Chantilly with Deanne and her family.  That was from Monday to Wednesday.  Then I met up with my dad on Thursday night and on Friday we went to Luxembourg/Germany.  We stayed in a little village called Nittel because that was where our friends live.  So I got to catch up with Lea and Nina Berndorfer over the weekend because we hadn't seen eachother since I lived in El Paso TX...and that was a long time ago.  I absolutely loved the rich German culture that I was exposed to, and have decided that  I have to go back there again sometime.  Week three started on Monday when I met up with the group of girls I was traveling with in Barcelona Spain.  We spent two days in Barcelona and the rest of the week in Valencia.  I walked down Las Ramblas, saw Sagrada Familia, one of the Gaudi houses, walked through Parc Guell, and swam in the Mediterranean...which was absolutely freezing!!!  But I loved it.  The end of Break was a bit stressful because of the volcano that erupted in Iceland grounding all air traffic in Europe.  So I spend a good thirty hours on the road trying to get back to the UK...which included a 20 hour bus ride, a 2 hour taxi ride, a ferry ride, and two more bus rides...that was an adventure in and of itself.  I was extremely relieved to get back to my room and just crash because I was exhausted. It had been a long three weeks but it was totally amazing and I loved just about every second of it. So if you want more details to my Spring Break just ask me about it and I'll gladly give you more details.  It's just too much to write out.

So I go home in sixteen days!  How crazy is that.  I still feel like I just got here and it should not be over yet!  I'm going to miss this place so incredibly much.  I've fallen in love with England and it's going to be so hard to go home.  Thank goodness I still have sixteen days to party it up in England!!! :)

27 March 2010: Saturday

Today was an early start to the day.  We all woke up at around seven and got ready to go.  We were heading off to Venice that morning.  We were out of our hostel by seven thirty and on our way to the train station.  Once we got our tickets for the train, we had about half an hour before we had to board, so we went to find some food.  We found a place that had pastries, so we all got croissants...mine was filled with chocolate.  Then we went back to the train station and got onto our train.  It took a few minutes to figure out which coach we were on and our seat numbers, but once we were settled, everything was fine.  The train ride was about two and a half hours.  We we were on the train, we got to travel through the Italian countryside and the Alps were in the background.  The Alps were gorgeous and I so wish I could have fit them into my Spring Break.  Anyways, we got to Venice just before noon.  Then we had to go through the process of finding out hotel again.  We had to walk a good bit, but it wasn't too bad.  We were staying in an actual hotel, so it was much nicer than the hostel in Milan, and it was in a nice part of town.  Once we checked into our room, we went up and freshened up a bit.  Then Jess, Bethany, and I went to a supermarket a few blocks away to get some food for lunch.  Deanne stayed at the hotel because she had a bit of a headache and wanted to try to get it to go away.  We got yogurts, baguettes, and some fruit for lunch.  We came back to the hotel and ate, and then it was time to go into Venice...you know, the part with the canals and such.  We caught a bus that took us into Venice, and when we got off...wow...Venice is so gorgeous!!!!!  Everything is so colorful.  The sun was out and the sky was blue and the buildings were different colors and the boats were in the water and there were gondolas and the water was turquoise and the canals weaved in between all the buildings...it was lovely.  Instead of following a set plan, we just wandered around Venice, without a map.  We found a little church with tons of paintings inside.  It also had a really pretty organ with carvings of angels and musical instruments.  I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take pictures, but there wasn't any sign telling us we couldn't, so I did.  But after a few minutes, someone came and yelled at us for taking pictures.  But it was okay because we were done there. We got some gelato...I had nutella flavored...and it was amazing!!!!!  Probably one of the best things I bought in Italy...nutella gellato.  There were so many shops.  We discovered that masks are huge in Venice.  We haven't figured out why just yet, but they are so cool and have tons of different kinds.  I'm definitely getting myself one before I leave here.  We walked around for quite a while...got a bit lost in the process...but we eventually made our way back to the bus station and were back at our hotel at around five thirty.  We dropped off our stuff in the room, then went to find a place to eat dinner.  We found a restaurant that was cheap, but there was a private party there until six thirty.  So we went back to the hotel room and napped for a while.  Then we went and had dinner.  The rest of the night has been pretty relaxed.  We've just been lounging around and watching Italian MTV. But it'll be time for bed soon because we have another day here in Venice tomorrow. 

26 March 2010: Friday

Today was day one of our Spring Break.  Bethany, Deanne, Jess, and I all left early this morning...at 2 am...and took a taxi to Eastmidlands airport.  The drive there was just over two hours, so I ended up sleeping for a little while.  We got to the airport and checked at around four in the morning.  After going through security, we all just sat in a little cafe because our flight wasn't boarding for another hour.  The boarding for our flight started at around six.  Once I sat down in the plane, I pretty much passed out.  I was super tired because I had only taken a two hour nap earlier that night.  But I did wake up at one point during our flight and we were flying over Zurich, Germany and it was really really pretty.  I had a nice view of the mountains.  We landed and got through customs...we had to answer random questions about America that the Italian security guards thought would be fun to ask us, the questions were based on the pictures in our passport books, like the picture of Mt. Rushmore for example.  From the airport we took a bus to the city center...oh we were in Milan, Italy.  After getting off the bus, we got onto the subway and took that to our hostel.  Then we had to climb 97 stairs...yes we counted...up to the floor that our hostel was on.  Once we got up there, we encountered some confusions and for a few minutes it seemed that we would have no where to stay for the night.  But thankfully, things worked out and we got a room.  So we left our stuff in the hostel and went back down the 97 stairs to find something to eat.  We found a little grocery store down the street, so we had baguettes and nutella for lunch.  Once we were done eating, we were bored because we didn't know what to do.  So I went back to the hostel to get my camera and to get the map and list of what to do, because it had been my job to look up things to see in Milan.  We got on the subway and went to the Piazza del Duomo.  Once we got off the subway, we started getting excited because there was a giant Cathedral in the piazza and the piazza itself was really cool.  It looked more along the lines of what we had expected to see while traveling in Italy.  So the first thing we did was go into the Cathedral, which is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe.  The outside of the cathedral was really cool and had lots of carvings on it.  And then we went inside. It was so huge in there.  The ceilings and arches were really high.  And all the stained glass was very bright and not faded at all which was great.  I was especially excited because everyone was taking pictures even though there had been a sign outside that had said not pictures.  So I got some nice pictures of the inside of the cathedral.  Oh and while we were inside it, the bells started chiming, so you could hear the reverberation of the bells in the cathedral, which was super cool.  We all wandered around the cathedral for a while and took pictures,  then we went back outside.  We walked around the Piazza...oh piazza means square in English.  We walked in the Gallaria Vittorio Emanuele II, which was basically an enclosed plaza...the roof was glass...that had lots of cafes and high end shops, like Prada.  After wandering around there for a while, we wandered up the street to the Castle Sforesco.  When we got there, there were a bunch of soldiers marching down the street.  We think there might have been something going on, but we didn't really stick around to find out because we were all kind of worn down by that point because none of us had really slept any the night before.  So we went back to the hostel and ended up taking a two to three hour nap.  After we woke up, it was time for dinner.  So we wandered around the neighborhood and ended up finding a cute Italian...obviously...restaurant to eat at.  I had a margarita pizza.  After dinner, it was back to the hostel.  We all just chilled for a while, and ended up going to bed kind of early.  We were pretty tired.  

My Spring Break

Yikes...I haven't written in about a month.  Well up until about ten days ago nothing really happened.  I wrote some papers and was actually a good student.  My Spring Break started on the 26th of March, which is where I'm going to start.  So here's how this is going to work.  I'm going to write one entry for each of the days I was traveling and I'll put the date and day of the week in the heading of my entry.  It's going to be rather long, just so you know.  But a lot happened and it was amazing.  Fasten your seatbelts and dive into my Spring Break.