Pisa, London, & Everything Inbetween Cont...

Fish & Chips
Outside Princess Diana's palace
St. Paul's Cathedral
Harry Potter's Platform 9 & 3/4 at Kings Cross Station!
London Bridge
Joy & I at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben!
The road that was dyed red to imitate a red carpet. The Queen's royal car is the only car that is allowed to drive in this lane.
Buckingham Palace
Changing of the guards!!
The Beatles
My name on the Beatles Wall
Typical London
Piccadilly Circus
Me looking like an idiot doing the typical leaning tower pose!

Pisa!

The smallest church in Italy

Pisa, London and Everything Inbetween

Hello All!! I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while! I have LOTS to update you on though! Some of my roommates and I went to Pisa a couple weeks ago and it was incredible! Most people say the tower is really anticlimactic but I loved it! Surprisingly the city of Pisa was not well signed with directions to get to the tower from the train station so we ended up just kind of running into the Tower which took away from the Tower just being a tower! After taking countless ridiculous pictures that everyone and their brother takes at the Leaning Tower, we walked around and haggled with the locals for scarves and purses! We spent around 5 hours in Pisa and it was the perfect amount of time to see everything the city has to offer.

Last weekend my roommate Joy, Katie and I went to London! It was the perfect taste of America that I needed! We got into London late Thursday night and by the time we navigated the bus system and got to Katie's friend's place it was 2am. Katie had not seen her friend for nearly 4 years so we ended up staying up and talking until 6am (which was 7am Rome time). Needless to say the next day was a struggle! We didn’t get going until about 1130 and it took nearly 45 minutes to get into the city from this guy's house using the Tube and, of course, it was raining and freeeeeezing!! We stopped of the Tube at Piccadilly Circus and immediately saw a big sign for TGI Friday’s restaurant! Naturally we had to eat there! It was the best sandwich with ranch dressing id ever had. Then we hit up Starbucks and went up to find Abbey Road where the Beatles took their famous album cover picture. It took a lonnng time to get up there because we had to keeping switching to different Tube lines and then we wondered for a while until we found the crosswalk and the Beatles wall. After getting honked and literally barked at (by a grown man I might add) we finally got a decent picture mimicking the Beatles' picture and we forever branded our names on the Beatles wall!
It was dark by the time we got back down to the center of London so we grabbed another taste of home, Subway, and headed back to the house to get ready for the night. Later that night, on our way to the Pub we stopped at a shop that self proclaimed itself as having "the best Fish & Chips in London" and holy hell it most definitely DID! I don’t even like fish at all and this was the most incredible thing id ever eaten!! It was like deep fried greasy wonderfulness in my mouth. So good.
Saturday we got up early and headed to Hype Park for a free three hour walking tour. The tour was a royal family theme so we saw all the royal palaces, squares, parliament, and Westminster Abby. We got to Buckingham Palace right when the changing of the guard was starting so we got to see most of the ceremony! The guards walked literally RIGHT in front of me...it was so cool. The Royal Family wasn’t in London though at the time...but it’s okay because it was short notice for the Queen...knowing that I was coming to London that is. Next time, im sure she won’t want to miss out on meeting ME! :) After the walking tour we went over to the London Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum to see the Rosetta stone. And of course we stopped for some more Fish & Chips too for dinner! We didn’t get to go over to see the Tower of London because the two Tube lines that went over there were closed for the weekend...I was ticked about it but all the more reason to come back to Europe again in my life (hint hint Mom and Dad..Graduation present!! haha).
Our flight left early on Sunday morning at 6am and because the entire city of London pretty much shuts down at midnight we had to go to the airport at midnight. The bus ride was about 2 hours but we couldn’t get through security until 4am so we slept on the cement floor of the airport...it was absolute torture. But we finally got on the plane at 630am and after a bus ride, two metro trains, and another bus ride we were home at noon on Sunday! It was an incredible trip but im beginning to realize that while I visit all of these cities here I will only have time to just skim the surface of what each place has to offer because I only have a weekend or less to explore everything. But again...all the more reason to come back again.

This weekend was Valentine's Day and considering the circumstances of not having anyone familiar in this city or a Valentine that I could actually see without a computer and webcam in my lap, it was a good day! Friday night I got flowers delivered to me from my boyfriend, Sean...so cute and some girls and I had a Fiesta dinner. Saturday I went to mass at the Vatican and understood about nothing the priest said, and then I went to dinner with my roommate, Joy, and her mom and aunts who had just arrived early Saturday morning and had some of the best pasta I’ve had since I got here! AND Joy's mom brought a care package just for me in with the entire suitcase of food she brought for Joy!!! It had chocolates from Boston, a biggg jar of Peanutbutter, THREE jars of Tostitos Salsa Con Queso, and a Black Dog bag from a place near Martha's Vineyard!! I just about fainted with excitement...especially because of the three jars of Queso! I literally have been DYING for some Queso here! It was awesome!

This week I’m gearing up for Berlin, Germany! We leave on Friday and have our entire weekend planned already! Jewish Museum, tour of a concentration camp, Berlin wall, walking tour of the city and of course the Berlin pubs!! It will be an exciting but heart breaking weekend I am sure...but it can’t wait!