Birthday and Madrid Pictures

A Few Pictures from Barcelona

Made it to Madrid

The last but certainly not the least :)  We had an adventure getting here.  We went to the train station yesterday morning around 10AM to buy our train ticket to Madrid to find out that it cost 135 Euro each.  We looked into a bus and that was a much better option.  So we dragged our luggage all around town getting from our hostel to the train station and then to the bus station.  The bus ride was great though.  We were driving through the mountains, so it was beautiful scenery.  Eight hours later we finally arrived in Madrid.  Our hostel is great!!! It is definitely one of the best that we have stayed in.  We eventually went out to dinner last night after not eating all day and we had a few drinks to celebrate by birthday.  Tonight is the real celebration though.  More about Madrid later...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

I am in Love with Barcelona

Thus far, Barcelona is definitely my favorite city, which is sad because we only had one full day here- but it was packed. We woke up this morning around 7AM and were out by 8. We enjoyed a danish and coffee at a local shop. Then we were off to the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which was designed by Greco, but was never finished being built. However, it is being finished thanks to donations worldwide. The interior is expected to be completed by 2010 and the first actual service is to be held by 2030. Four of 18 expected pillars are completed. I have a lot of pictures of the church that I will post once I am in Madrid because the internet is not working here. After the church we headed to the Parc de Gual in which we hike to the very top of the mountain and looked out onto the entire city of Barcelona with the mountains and ocean in the landscape. Afterwards we headed back to the center of town where we mingled among the markets. We evenutally found the food market, which is a lot like the market in Cleveland, just ten times bigger, with every kind of fruit possible. Then we made our way to the beach shore where we just sat for about 15 minutes. Although I have been saying this the entire time I have been in Europe, but being here has maximized my desire, I really want to work hard at minoring in Spanish and becoming more fluent in it when I get home. We don´t have our train tickets yet, but tomorrow morning we are off to Madrid. Until then...

Paz y Amor,
Laura

Made it Safetly to Barcelona

After a three hour flight delay due to a bird strike, we made it safetly to Barcelona. Nothing to impressive to report yet. The mountains near Girona are beautiful. Tomorrow is our only full day here, so we are spending the entire time out and about. More reports later.

Paz y Amor,
Laura

Oh What a Night!

Today we slept in...until 1:00PM.  We took our time getting lunch and getting ready and eventually headed towards the Eiffel Tower.  Trying to delay our time until sunset, we window shopped on the main shopping street only to find a protest outside of Sephora.  The after party in the shop was awesome.  The manager started a dance party.  Eventually we made our way to the tower in hopes to go to the top.  It was still light out, so we sat in the park on a sheet from our beds that we brought and opened a bottle of wine and cheese to enjoy on our last night.  Around 9:45 we made our way to the lines only to discover that we were in the wrong one.  A storm had started brewing in the distance, but we were still allowed to go up.  After we changed lines the storm picked up a bit, along with the rain.  So we pulled out our sheet/blanket and then made it into an umbrella.  Not even thirty seconds later it started POURING rain and the strongest winds came with it.  People started jumping over the bars and we started running through them, eventually making it inside the west foot of the tower.  We were locked in there for about 20 minutes until the storm somewhat passed and then we had to leave.  As we started walking back 5 cops used us as a shield to hide behind as they attempted to catch the illegal street sellers, terrifying us because we did not know what was going on.  Needless to say, it was very eventful and very fun.  We are off to Barcelona at 5AM tomorrow.  

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Pictures from Paris

Site looking beyond the Louvre
Mona Lisa
Jackie and I outside of the Louvre
Back of Notre Dame Cathedral
Front of Notre Dame Cathedral

Bike Tour Take Two

So, we woke up early again today to take the three mile trek to the Eiffel Tower in attempts to partake in the Bike Tour.  However, when we arrived there were no bikes in sight.  We could only assume that there are also no bike tours the day after France's Independence Day.  Nevertheless, we headed back to the room and tried to figure out a way to print out our tickets for our flight to Barcelona on Friday.  It is now almost midnight, and we just got them printed.  However, we did have a fun filled day.  We eventually put our computers away and postponed printing our tickets and we set out to the city.  We tried some delicious crepes.  Then we headed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is absolutely magnificent.  If I am able to wake up to my alarm tomorrow morning, I am planning on attending mass there at 8:00AM.  We will see how that goes.  Afterwards most of the girls wanted to go back, but Jackie and I wanted to see the Louvre, so we journeyed that way.  We discovered that because of our timing and day of choice, it only cost 6 Euro to enter the museum.  Neither of us really knew much of the artwork in the Louvre besides the big ones.  So we first set out to see the Mona Lisa.  We were able to get up right to the front and have a picture that I am hoping to post.  Then we just got lost in the artwork.  We eventually wandered home around 9PM after two hours of touring the museum.  All in all it was a good day.  Tomorrow we do not have much planned.  We just want to wander the city, check out the shops and hit up the Eiffel Tower at night.  Pictures to come.  Until tomorrow...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Pictures from Bastille Day

We missed ours, so we celebrated theirs!

Okay, so the bike tour has not worked out.  We woke up on Tuesday to go and as we were on our three mile hike to the Eiffel Tower, we discovered streets were being closed off and we eventually ran into the biggest parade I have ever seen.  We knew it was Bastille Day (France's Independence Day), but it did not dawn on any of us that things would be closed and big parties would be going on- oops!  So, we made a collective decision that the bike tour would probably not be going on, so we enjoyed the parade and then headed to the Seine River for a river tour.  We were able to see the Louvre and the Cathedral of Notre Dame and many other historical sites.  Then we went back, showered, napped and got ready for our nice dinner out in Paris.  I had a delicious Salmon Steak.  Then we made our way back to the Eiffel Tower for fireworks.  They were absolutely spectacular.  I will post pictures soon.  I don't think I mentioned this before, but internet is tough here.  It cost 10 euro a day at our hotel.  So we keep trekking to McDonald's for free wifi.  Until later...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

First Few Pics from Paris

Just a cool building near the tower with flowers and plants growing up it.
Me with the tower in the background.
Our hotel room- it is really nice :)

Made it to Paris

Our day in Milan was somewhat uneventful.  We arrived in the hotel around 6PM Saturday night and got some dinner and just hung out in our hotel room.  Sunday morning we headed to the train station in hopes to find lockers there to store our stuff until our 11PM train, however, it cost almost $15 to store our stuff, so we just took turns exploring the city.  However, we ended up spending most of the day in the station, because a lot of things were closed.

The train ride was cool, but somewhat uneventful.  Myself and two others girls that  I am traveling with shared a cabin with three others girls- one from Paris, one from north of Paris and one that lives in Malaysia but works in Singapore.  We slept the entire ride.

We arrived in Paris around 9AM, but could not check into our hotel until about 2PM, so we left our luggage at the hotel and started exploring the streets.  We ate some lunch and checked out all of the shops.  When we got back to the hotel we showered and napped and then set out for the Eiffel Tower.  It was about a 3 mile walk, but it was really nice, because we were able to see the city.  We are waiting to go up the tower until Thursday, because we cannot go all the way to the top for the next two days due to a fireworks show that is taking place tomorrow.  Tomorrow we are going to wake up and catch a 4 hour Bike Tour of the city.  New posts and pictures to come!  

Oh, I just got a message from my friend Kayleigh Gallagher that she is in Paris right now as well, so I am hopefully going to have the chance to meet up with her.  Also, some of the other students that we were doing work with in Germany are in Paris right now as well, so we have plans to meet up with them too.

A Few Last Pictures from Venice

Our gondola ride
San Marco Square at night!!
Our nice dinner out during out night in Venice

Travels, travels

Our last day in Venice was a lot of fun.  We woke up and caught the earliest bus possible into the city.  When we arrived we finished up some shopping that everyone wanted to do and then we took our gondola ride, which we were sung to the entire time (pictures to come).  Around noon we met up with one of Tara's friends from high school, Tyler, who is in the Army and stationed just outside of Venice.  He brought along his friend too and they got a tent for the night at our camping site.  We all went out to a nice dinner and Jason bought us all two bottles of wine.  At night we hung out at the camp, and met a lot of new people.  There were two guys staying there that just finished their first year of med school at Texas A&M and there was a group of about ten guys from Spain.  We hung out all night and I got to speak a little bit of Spanish.  Yesterday (Saturday) morning we caught a train to Milan.  We had to cut our trip short in Venice by a day and stay a night in Milan because there is a 24 hour train strike going on. We had to get to Milan because our train to Paris leaves tonight.  So today we are just going to spend the day walking around and then catch our overnight train around 11:00PM.  So, until Paris...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Pictures from Venice

Abby and I after our inseparable day
A view from the water taxi on the way to the beach in Lito
The coast right next to San Marco Square
San Marco Square
Snapshot of Venice

Venice

We have been in Venice for almost three days now.  Our first full day we took the shuttle into town and just wandered and got lost on the side streets of Venice.  We did a lot of window shopping, because there are a ton of glass shops.  Venice is known for its glass.  There is actually an opportunity to see glass blowing in Murano, which we might do.  We did not go on a gondola ride that day because there was a nasty storm, so we will go on one on Friday when we head back into town.  We made it back to the camp by 6:30 with just enough time to jump into the pool before it closed.  Last night we hung around the camp and met some of the other travelers.  We met two guys from Australia, Daniel and Mark, who have been traveling the world for over a year.  They had some pretty interesting stories.  They are off to Florence tomorrow.  Today, Wednesday, we took a boat to Lito to spend the day at the beach.  Lito was beautiful; it looked like a city right out of a movie.  Tomorrow we will just be hanging around the camp during the day and then head to Venice to check it out at night.  I will post pictures in the next couple of days.

Paz y Amor,

Laura

A few picture from Florence

The first picture is from the roof of our hostel in Florence.  The second is looking up at the Cathedral of Saint Maria of Florence.  The third has the Ponte Vecchio in the background.  It was a bride used by the Medici Family to cross over into the city.  The fourth is a picture from the Ponte Vecchio looking out at Florence and the mountains.  

Pictures from Vatican City

In Venice for Week

Well we arrived in Venice safely today.  We are not actually staying in Venice, but actually outside of it (it was too expensive to actually stay in the city).  So, we are about a twenty minute bus ride out.  The place we are staying is actually a campsite.  It is quite different than what we have been staying in.  I am enjoying it- more like camping than hostels and hotels, but there is an absolutely awesome pool.  Like I said, we are in Venice for about a week, vacationing more so.  We have to pay for internet, so I am probably only going to be posting every couple of days.  That probably also means I won't be putting up any pictures (even from Rome) until Paris, unless they load really fast.  I am glad everyone enjoyed Alfred.  It sounds that like was a really nice time.  Until next time..

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Fun in Florence

Today was our only full day in Florence.  We woke up around nine and were out by about 10:30. Everything in Florence is fairly close in comparison to the other cities we have traveled.  There were a lot of street vendors and markets that we explored.  The major sites that we hit were the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Flore, the Duomo and the Ponte Vechio.  Our plan was to come back to our hostel, rest a little and then go to the Accademia Gallery to see the statue of David, however, we all fell asleep and didn't make up.  So I was not able to see that, which is a little upsetting, but no big deal.  I have a lot of great pictures; Florence is a beautiful city right beside the mountains.  I finally got my internet working, but the connection still is not good enough to load pictures on the blog.  So, hopefully soon.  Our train leaves at 11:37AM tomorrow for Venice.  We had 4 days that we weren't sure what we were doing, but we have decided to just stay in Venice and treat those days as more of vacation days than tourist days.  The hostel in Venice is actually affiliated with the one that we are at right now in Florence, which is awesome because this hostel is so geared towards young travelers.  More about the hostels later.  Until Venice...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Made it to Florence

I am in Florence!!!  We left Rome around 11:00 this morning and arrived in Florence around 3. The train ride was the hottest ride I have ever taken in my life, but I had an old man across from me who kept drawing me. haha.  We have not done much in Florence yet. Our hostel is super nice though and it turns out that our hostel in Venice is an affiliate with this one, so it will hopefully be just as nice.  I think Tara, Abby and I are going out for the Fourth of July- Europe style.  My computer is not working here, but hopefully I can get it working by tomorrow.  Then I will be able to load pictures from the Vatican and the first full days ventures in Florence.  

Second Day in Rome

Friday was our second full day in Rome.  We went on a Pub Crawl the night before, so needless to say some of the girls didn't really feel like getting up super early.  We were out of our apartment by around noon and we headed straight to the Vatican.  When we were there I visited St. Peter's Basilica.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  Afterwards we walked near a castle but did not tour it because it cost a few too many euro.  Then we went and walked around the Piazza Navona and looked at local artists' work and some pretty fountains.  Eventually we ventured back home.  We all packed, showered, ate dinner together and then watched "Vicky, Christina Barcelona" in preparation for our finale in Spain.  

Pictures from Treve Fountain and the Pantheon

Picture from The Forum

Pictures at the Colosseum

First Real Day in Rome

Thursday was our first full day in Rome, and we did so much!  We all woke up around eight and got ready and out by nine.  Since we are so unbelievably close to the Colosseum, that is what we hit up first.  There weren't too many people in line when we got there, so we only had to wait about ten minutes.  After the Colosseum we went to the Forum and the Museum of Palatino.  Those are all located within five minutes walking of each other.  Then we hauled across the city and bought our train ticket to Florence for Saturday and we ate lunch.  Then we went on an adventure, travelling the streets of Rome.  We were wondering around side streets and such, going into little shops.  We finally made our way to the Treve Fountain, where we sat and relaxed for a little while and ate some gelato.  Afterwards, we made our way to the Pantheon. I didn't know this- the stones on the outside of the Pantheon were set in 125 B.C.  That is awesome!  I think the thing that I found most amazing is that all of these amazing, historical places are tucked in little areas between side streets of Rome.  They aren't just out in the open.  I think that makes them that much more special and amazing.  I am going to try to post some pictures, but sometimes it doesn't work on the wireless, so if not, I will get them up as soon as I can. Today we are going to go to the Vatican.  I do not know how long we are actually going to stay and what all we are going to see.  It seems like other people don't really want to go that much, because they have already been there.  But just stepping inside Vatican City will be a treat for me.  After that, we are off to Florence on Saturday!

When in Rome :)

Well we made it here safely.  Yesterday we got up early and headed to the train station to get a ticket to the airport, because it was a couple of towns away.  When we got there some taxi men offered us a ride for 50PLN each, that is around $18.  So we took the offer.  It was about a two hour ride and he took us through a National Park and a Stone City.  It was very scenic and beautiful.  We got to the airport around 3:00PM on Tuesday and didn't fly out until 6AM on Wednesday.  So we just hung out in the airport all day, talked, read, etc.  It was a good time.  All of us fell asleep on our two hour flight and we made our way to our apartment for 5 Euro.  We are staying at the B&B Colosseum and we have our own five person "apartment" with our own bathroom and mini kitchen.  We went out for a little while today to walk around.  The Colosseum is literally a minute walk away; it is amazing.  We ate some lunch and did some grocery shopping in hopes to save some money (the exchange rate is not very good).  We are all about to pass out soon though.  Until next time...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Off to Roma!

We check out of our Hostel tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon and we leave from the Krakow airport at 6AM Wednesday morning.  So, we will be putting our luggage in lockers at the train station and then hitting the town until around midnight or so and then heading to the airport for a early check in.  So, I won't be back online until Wednesday afternoon.  Until Rome...

Paz y Amor,

Laura

Pictures from Krakow, Poland